#like he should isolate himself and focus on his revenge has him messed up

[t-u-i-t-c]

"You're looking for a place to die, aren't you?" "A place to die...?"

[uzumaki-rebellion]

“Wet Sugar” [Part 1 of 30]

Summary: Erik Stevens has fully embraced his new identity as Killmonger and infiltrated a mercenary group with ties to Ulysses Klaue. Invited to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands to meet for the first time, Klaue is impressed with Erik, unaware that the man before him is the son of Prince N'Jobu Udaku, a man he betrayed on a failed mission in Wakanda years ago.

Erik ingratiates himself to Klaue and is found to be a useful member of the new mercenary team the black market arms dealer and smuggler is putting together.

As a reward for hard and profitable work for him, Ulysses allows Erik to stay a summer at his stash/safe house to keep a close eye on some stolen artifacts hidden there. Erik uses that time to hatch the long term plan of using Klaue to gain access to Wakanda, however, he becomes distracted by  Klaue's housekeeper who allows Erik glimpses into a possible different life he could have if he ever let go of his plans for revenge...

For mature audiences only. NSFW. 

C.W.: Some violence in the beginning.

Please let me know what you think, share/reblog/etc. Off to get the next update up and ready!

"Bad man, nuh talk, West London me walk No bad vibes in mi yard, or yuh hear di ting back (boom) Gyally dem ah call, see the money and the car Celly ah ring off, rum-rum, haffi start, ya hear me? Mi buss ah Champ' and then they watch we, ya hear me? Mi have di liquor and di big tree, ya hear me? No commotion in my circle Potent herb and a sweet, sweet girl Take you 'round the world No-no-no bad vibes in my yard, hmm Inna my yard, inna my yard, inna my yard…"

Goldlink – "Yard"

What's past is prologue…

Ulysses Klaue had heard rumors of a large hoard of ancient gold coins worth €4 million hidden inside Assyrian-era giant winged bulls. The entire cache of five-foot statues themselves could not be transported nor disguised because of their weight and size, but some of the heads were removed and sold on the black market. Dating back 3,000 years, they were a hot commodity after the destruction of the Mosul Museum in Iraq. Klaue knew this because he had buyers salivating for a chance to procure the heads. And some of those heads had coins hidden in them. It was why he found himself standing now in front of a tall young Black man, American, with gold slugs on his two bottom canines, and a mop of neatly braided locs.

Klaue stared at the intel he had on his field computer.

"You're saying the statues we're looking for are gone already?" Klaue asked.

"ISIL already transported all that shit."

Wide-legged stance, protective ballistic body armor draped over an impressive build, his hands holding an AR-15 pointed right at Klaue's head, this man was in control of the situation. He had five other men from his team standing behind him backing him up with their weapons drawn too. Serious beefy looking men who would shoot if their leader even blinked. The red dot on Klaue's chest was a polite way of letting him know there were snipers on his ass too.

"Stand down," Klaue ordered his men behind him. A rough motley crew of six international soldiers of fortune.

"Alhusul ealaa al'ashya' alkhasat bihim," the Black man said.

Men that Klaue and his team didn't even know were behind them materialized like ghosts, snatching up their weapons and frisking them for more.

"Is this necessary?" Klaue asked as a thick-set mercenary felt on his balls and behind his back squeezing his ass.

"Gotta be thorough in this bitch."

Klaue smirked.

"May I ask who I have the pleasure of getting my nuts tweaked by?" Klaue said.

The man rolled his tongue along his bottom teeth, the gold slugs shining in the sunset. He nodded his head to his team to round Klaue's men up. Once the men were secured and a non-threat, the man lowered his weapon. His dark brown eyes were razor sharp and they regarded Klaue with calculated verve.

"Killmonger."

###

The oldest profession in the world was prostitution.

The second…killers for hire.

Of course, there were kinder more veiled names for mercenaries nowadays:

Soldiers of Fortune.

Private Military Contractors.

Professional Hired Fighters.

Dogs of War.

But Erik "Killmonger" Stevens knew what it was. Murder Incorporated—monetized madness.

The business of war was to keep a perpetual cycle of conflict all over the world so fat cats could make their coins under the guise of professional conflict management. If his mother were still alive, she would say what she always said around her women friends and his very own father…men were trash.

And she was right.

Unfortunately, she gave birth to a son who had to maneuver among the garbage so that he could fulfill his destiny. A destiny of revenge. A making right of what had been wrong for so long.

On the days that he did have downtime and could sit and do nothing at all, Erik would catch a news report or some ticker tape lede on the bottom of C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC, or the BBC—just about any global news outlet—and catch glimpses of his final endgame. T'Chaka Udaku.

A king.

An elder statesmen.

A blood relative.

A lifelong enemy.

Erik's body would coil tight and hot when he let his mind imagine the day he would be in the presence of his Uncle. He foresaw the moment he would pull back the thick flesh of his bottom lip, the glowing blue vibram tattoo his father gave him as a child embedded deep in the skin of his inner mouth.

He ached to show the ring his father had left for him dangling around his neck, ached to taste and feed on the moment he would reveal all to King T'Chaka, unveil his birthright, and then snap the old man's neck with his bare hands, appreciating the feel of vertebrae cracking and twisting beneath his powerful calloused fingers. Or maybe he would fashion panther claws for himself and rip the man's heart out through his chest. Erik relished the thought. He would bring down—no…eradicate—he would eradicate the old House of Udaku, destroy T'Chaka's bloodline branch and take the throne of Wakanda for himself. A new sun would set on the golden city of Birnin Zana, the place of his father's birth.

Erik was his father's son, but he was also his mother's child, and Califia Stevens didn't raise no simpering punk. He was taught to be a soldier the moment he fell out of his mother's womb. The war he was going to rage was groomed by all of the things that happened in his life and all the things he was learning while biding his time in the ranks of private armies. Sitting back in the cut, gathering new skills and Intel, moving closer to finding the man he needed to get him into Wakanda: Ulysses Klaue. A man who sat at the top of his kill list for right now.

Erik sat crossed-legged overlooking a sand berm keeping watch for a particular caravan of armored S.U.V.s to traverse their path. The sun was making its way to a sluggish sunset, and his military-issue sunglasses protected his tired eyes. He hadn't slept in forty-eight hours and the job he was meant to complete was only halfway finished.

Earlier in the day, his crack team of fifteen men pulled off a bold daytime robbery of highly-sought after Assyrian gold coins. Disguised as U.N. peace-keepers dedicated to preserving artifacts, Erik was the only American on the removal team. He was tasked with masquerading as an art historian since the Canadians with them couldn't sound like authentic Londoners. The non-prescription glasses he wore and the crisp British accent he perfected allowed him to dupe a few Iraqi guards, especially with his fluency with Arabic and his thoughtful acknowledgment of Jumu'ah, the Friday prayers.

While Erik pretended to sit aside respectfully on an offered prayer rug in the midst of an isolated bunker holding the goods they sought, his phony U.N. gear a bit too tight, the guards thanked him for respecting their time in contemplation of Allah. The beneficent. The merciful. Moments later they were tied up and blind-folded left shackled together in the interior of the ravaged bunker that hid the last of the priceless winged bull statues that were hidden for their protection. Erik did let them finish their prayers though.

Time wasn't wasted, what needed to be found was found and bagged up, the heavy weight of the gold bending the backs of five men carting it out onto phony U.N. Jeeps. On the wings of hummingbirds as his great-grandmother used to say when it came to speed and efficiency. An expert strategist and obsessive pre-planner, Erik facilitated the logistics and implementation of the entire operation. They had to be gone before dusk as the heavy hitters from various political factions began to roam. The dry heat was fucking exhausting, made breathing laborious, and the lack of sleep was messing with Erik's focus. His men were ready to dip, but he had to wait, had to take the chance that the man he was scouting for would show.

"Killmonger."

Tahir, the one man Erik considered as close of a so-called friend with the work that he did, stood next to him, his AK-47 resting on his hip, his tan and black shemagh covering his neck and head. Erik glanced up, his own shemagh twisting around his neck tight. He loosened it.

"We should probably leave while it is still quiet."

"Nah. We got time." Gruff and brusque. That's how Erik kept it with the men.

Tahir placed his left hand on his hip and glanced behind him. He was always the one sent to question Erik. The rest were afraid of him, afraid of his quick temper. Afraid of the self-inflicted keloid scars that covered most of his upper body.

Erik looked past Tahir, could see the only other two Iraqis, Amit, and Wassef eyeing him from their sniper positions. He could feel the eyes of the others on him, the Greek, the Egyptian, the two Jordanians, the Russian and the three Canadians. The rest were hidden with their two Mi-17's a quarter of a mile away among the bullet-ridden wreckage of left behind helicopters from failed wars inflicted by the U.S. military.

"We have the gold. Let's go get paid and have some drinks. We can be in Lebanon in a few hours, I know some pretty girls, some nice clubs…"

"We'll wait. I need to see if this dude shows," Erik said, softening his tone with Tahir.

"You should eat something."

"Later," Erik whispered as he saw the approach of the caravan he was looking for.

###

A smart mercenary always checked out their target before any engagement. Someone on Klaue's team didn't do their homework and Erik had the man in his crosshairs. Klaue was shorter and ruddier than he thought the man would be. His reputation seemed larger than life, but the reality was a bit of a disappointment. Little dick energy all the way around. He was also slipping because Erik knew for a fact that some of his men tipped Erik's team off to the coins in the abandoned bunker. Getting past I.E.D's, insurgents, and American PMC checkpoints, Klaue's people looked pretty sorry in front of their main man being plucked by Erik.

"Listen, Killmonger. We'll just be on our way. No harm, no foul," Klaue said as he sat on the ground looking up at Erik.

No harm no foul. Yeah, right. Klaue would take any opening to put a bullet in Erik's head, and in the dome of whoever allowed this clusterfuck on his side.

"We just came for statues," Klaue said.

"With what? Three S.U.V.s? You can't even fit the head of one statue in those. Come again."

Klaue's eyes grew suspicious. Just as Erik expected.

"We have the coins," Erik said.

Klaue let his head drop down and he chuckled, his gold-rimmed teeth glinting. The snake had to come up with a plan fast.

The rat-a-tat-tat-tat sound of machine gun fire in the distance caught Erik's attention. Time was up. It was time to set the trap for this man. Erik knelt down.

Takka takka!

The gunfire was ticking closer.

"Just take the fucking coins and let us go."

An AR-15 near him and Klaue wasn't even flinching. The sweat on his forehead was just from the heat. Erik flipped his weapon behind him.

"I don't give a fuck about those coins. My boss does. But I'm here for something more valuable and it's not here." Erik kept his voice low enough so that only Klaue could hear him.

Klaue's eyes observed him with keen curiosity.

Erik dipped closer to Klaue's ear lobe, making his own men nervous. Erik's sour breath warmed Klaue's ear.

"I'm looking for vibranium," Erik said. He sat back on his haunches and tapped the man's prosthetic left arm that was bound tight. Erik wasn't taking any chances. He was well aware that the arm was a dangerous weapon. Klaue could easily wipe them out, but he was a pursuer of information, and more than illicit goods, useful intel was golden. This bitch was squirming on the hook. None of these motherfuckers around them knew what vibranium was.

"Who are you?" Klaue said, his voice sounding like it was in awe.

"The stash that was supposed to be here isn't. I don't know who got to it first, but it wasn't you or me—"

SSssss-BLAM!

The RPG came in fast and destroyed the first S.U.V. in Klaue's entourage.

Erik's men returned fire for cover as Tahir radioed for their choppers to extract them and the gold. Erik grabbed Klaue by his collar and hoisted him up to his feet. Tahir threw a yellow smoke grenade and stood in front of Erik and Klaue.

The hard whop-whop sounds of their Mi-17s surrounded them as Wassef and Amit slung their RPGs on their shoulders and returned rocket grenades to buy them time. The first chopper landed and their surly Canadian side gunner Wally G rolled the chopper door open and waved for them frantically.

"We got incoming from the north," Wally G yelled.

Erik's men quickly loaded their bounty of gold and split up to enter both choppers for the extraction.

"Move your asses!" Wally G screamed.

Erik yanked on the handcuffed and rope-bound Klaue and dragged him over to the first Mi-17 and threw him in.

"Let's go!" Erik yelled propping his AR-15 in position to help protect his side gunners on the chopper. His return fire bought Tahir more time to move.

Amit fired one last RPG to protect Klaue's men. Erik sent most over to the second chopper, and once Amit jumped aboard the first Mi-17, Erik waved his arm and their pilot Elias took off.

A sizeable enemy force swept into where they once stood. The chopper Erik was on was picking up fire from everywhere. Erik shot back from the open door and he could hear Elias bitching from the cockpit.

"Why the fuck did you have us wait?" Elias screeched.

"Just fly the fucking bird!" Erik shouted while still returning fire.

A stream of fuel ran down the inside of the chopper’s windscreen.

"Fuck!" Elias yelled, "One of my feed tanks is out!"

"Jesus Christ!" a man screamed.

Erik looked back into the rear of the chopper, two of Klaue's men had been hit, the screams of the wounded mixing in with the rapid-fire babble of Erik's men trying to figure out their next move. They were outnumbered by the men on the ground and the number of vehicles chasing after the limping Mi-17.

They were spilling volumes of fuel.

"Stop fucking shooting!" Erik cried out. All he needed was for one of their bullets to ricochet and spark the fuel vapors filling up the chopper. They could explode in mid-air.

"I gotta put her down, Killmonger!"

Erik moved to the cockpit and grabbed the radio.

"Banks! Banks! We gotta find a clear LZ. We've been hit!"

"Dammit, Killmonger!" Banks fired back with crackled intensity through the radio speaker.

Erik and the others felt the sudden drop and swoop of the chopper as Elias did his best to make a soft landing.

Night had fallen and Erik's men disembarked with Klaue's men. Through it all, Klaue was cool as a cucumber, watching Erik's every move. Tahir, eased over to Erik, his eyes watching the horizon as vehicle lights traced them in the distance.

"Too many of us, we all won't fit," Tahir grumbled.

"I'll make it work," Erik hissed, his eyes thwarted by the flash and hiss of an enemy RPG.

"Incoming!" Tahir screamed, and the grenade blew up a mere two hundred feet from them tossing dark sand into the air.

The second chopper pilot, Banks, landed and they loaded up. They were more than the number of bodies allowed based on the flight manual. Erik pulled Klaue up by his arms.

"Crunching numbers time. Who do you fuck with and who did you dirty?" Erik asked.

"Killmonger!" Banks yelled.

The enemy was getting closer.

Klaue glared at his men, his eyes going to the three that Erik already knew played him. Erik gave a cruel sneer and cut Klaue loose from the rope that bound his arms.

"See ya!" Erik said giving Tahir a head nod. The men were pushed out of the chopper.

"Klaue!" one of them screamed.

"Let's go!" Erik shouted to Banks.

The Mi-17 lifted up and Klaue's traitorous men flailed their arms begging to be taken.

Erik heard the sharp hiss and loud explosion of an RPG down below.

He already knew those men were in bloody pieces now. His eyes glanced over at Klaue who was stuffed between two of his henchmen. Erik's boys watched them like hawks, but Erik wasn't worried about them trying anything. Their lives had been saved. If Erik and his crew weren't there, they would've been killed by turncoats. Gold coins were probably the last things on their minds as the Mi-17 dipped and swooped amid rocket grenades.

The chopper headed toward a remote airstrip.

Erik stared at Tahir and grabbed at his stomach.

"Yo, I'm hungry as fuck."

###

The mid-morning American Airlines flight touched down at the Cyril E. King Airport with a soft bounce. Walking down the ramp and onto the tarmac, the wet heat engulfed Erik's face. He wore a light cream-collared linen long-sleeve shirt and loose jeans. He always kept his arms covered when he traveled, his keloid markings too much of a distraction in public. His two large bags were waiting for him at guest services. His flight from Miami had been delayed because of tropical storm weather, but for some strange reason, his luggage went out on an earlier flight.

He saw one of Klaue's men holding a handwritten sign with his name on it. Killmonger. Erik waved and carried his things to the tall Black man with the clean-shaven face and dark mocha skin.

"I'm Polk," the man said. Polk was dressed in comfortable basketball shorts, a plain white t-shirt and slip on sandals. Vacation gear.

They shared a handshake and Erik followed him out to a nice burgundy Mazda S.U.V. idling with another burly man in the driver's seat.

"That's Huntsman," Polk said helping Erik put his suitcases in the trunk.

Huntsman regarded Erik cooly, his pale white skin sunburned and overly pink in spots as Erik stepped into the back of the Mazda.

"Welcome to the team," Huntsman said and Erik picked up the Afrikaans accent in his voice.

"Thanks," Erik said.

"You hungry? We can grab something on the way to the house," Polk said as he stared back at Erik from the passenger seat.

"Nah, I'm good," Erik said.

Erik had to orient himself to the driving once he realized St. Thomas residents drove on the left side like the English.

"We have our own cook, so if you do get hungry later, she can whip something up for you," Polk said. Erik nodded, his eyes watching the crowd of cars jammed on the two-lane road leading away from the airport.

The scenery eventually swept past as they drove into Charlotte Amalie. Erik saw the port dock that housed the large cruise ships, floating cities on the way up into the hills.

"You ever been to the islands before?" Polk asked.

"Nah. Never found the time," Erik said still staring out of the window.

St. Thomas was not very big, only thirty-two square miles. In about twenty minutes the car was already crawling into an area of hills that elevated them. Erik noticed quite a few green and multi-colored iguanas lounging in the street and meandering on the sides of the road.

"Harmless," Polk said when he noticed Erik staring at them, "they are everywhere. Think of them as the squirrels of the island."

Erik nodded.

"We're here," Huntsman said.

The Mazda entered a guarded gate. Once it was opened and they drove through, Erik realized they were actually on a compound that had a grouping of houses. They parked in front of the main house. Polk helped Erik with his things.

"I'll walk him down to our area," Polk said.

Erik rolled his heaviest suitcase and trailed Polk as they made their way down a path blooming with colorful foliage and crawling with more iguanas. One large iguana blocked their path and Erik looked at the regal creature. It was blue and pink in the face with a mottled pink and brown body that had what looked like green plant-like growths on it. It hissed and Polk had them walk around it with a wide berth.

"Harmless, but a bit of an attitude sometimes," Polk said.

Erik chuckled and soon found himself entering a tastefully furnished house.

"You can have the room on the right. When we get full, we usually have to bunk with people, but this first week there are only eight of us here, so plenty of room and privacy.

Erik nodded.

"I'll let you get settled. Meet us at the front house around 1 p.m.? Klaue will want to see you for lunch."

Erik nodded and Polk left him alone.

The room assigned to Erik was nice and airy. He opened the window across from his bed to bring in the fresh island air. Unpacking slowly and methodically, he organized his space and was happy that he had his own bathroom.

He took a quick shower to wash away the flight and travel sweat from his body. He touched the two new keloid scars under the waterproof bandage that his cousin Marisol helped place on his lower back the month before. They were healing, slowly, the itch and scarring pain still present. Lately, he had been flying to Sao Paulo Brazil more often, and Marisol was not happy to perform the scarring ritual for him anymore, especially when his visits brought her pain because they were short-lived, often only for two or three days and then he was gone to the next assignment. She knew what the marks were for. She had one on her own side hip that he helped put there for her.

He allowed the water to run over his locs and then tilted his head back, letting the cool liquid drench his beard. He was tired and antsy at the same time. He had to be very careful in the lion's den.

"What are you doing down here?"

The melodious voice startled him, it was so close to the small frosted window he cracked open in the bathroom, and he turned to try and see who was speaking.

Erik was about to answer, but then he realized the person wasn't talking to him at all but to someone else outside.

"What I tell you 'bout coming down here? Don't look at me like that. You stay up above. Hear me now?"

The woman's island voice was sweet, lyrical almost, and had the fussy quality that reminded him of his great-grandmother when she was fussing with his mother. Whoever she was addressing didn't answer.

"Jerome! You hear me. Get yourself back up top. Now!"

Erik heard the stomping of feet.

"What are you doin' making all this noise?"

Another woman's voice joined the first.

"Jerome. His wife and alla his pickney up at the front house waiting on him. And he's down here being nosey. Get!"

"Gyal! Leave that thing alone. Him no listen to all that shrillness comin' from your mouth. Like he'll understand you—"

"They understand me. When I told him to move his ass from the driveway before that devil man ran him over, you seen how fast he move. Him know what I say. Right, Jerome?"

Erik dried off and tried to get dressed in fresh clothes fast when he heard a knock on the front door.

"Inside," the voice of the second woman greeted him kindly.

Erik pulled on a pair of black sweats and opened the front door.

An older woman with graying neat plaits stared at his chest. The scars startled her.

"Sorry," she said averting her eyes. Her hands carried clean beach towels and sunblock.

"It's cool," Erik said. His eyes swept past her looking for the person he heard moments before.

"I'm Miss Leona. I do the cooking and help take care of the property. I came down to ask if you had any food allergies."

"No, I can eat anything."

"Good," she said, her eyes focusing on his face. The graying hair didn't seem to match her youthful face and big bright white teeth.

"Just so you know, bathroom etiquette is simple. If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down. Use the bottled water for drinking, and all laundry can be done at the front house in the laundry room down below. There's a little apartment down there. Just drop the things you need to be cleaned in the laundry bag—"

"I can do my own laundry," Erik said.

Leona nodded and handed him the towels and sunblock.

"We have a pool at the middle house, and if you prefer sea water, there's a path by the pool that leads down to the private beach area. The water is very warm this season, and stays warm into the night."

Leona allowed her eyes to flit across his chest as she regarded his scars again.

"Is that…is that a condition? Do you need any creams or ointments? I can bring some—"

"I'm good. Thank you for asking."

"I don't mean to stare Mr. Killmonger. I have a nephew that has some tissue damage on his back, and it looks like that."

"No worries."

"I will leave you be then—"

"Who was the person you were talking to a minute ago? I heard someone else and she was talking to someone…Jerome?"

Leona laughed and pointed behind her.

"That was just Yani, my niece. She helps me out around here. She was just chatting with him."

Leona pointed and Erik saw the rainbow-colored iguana perched on a small tree in front of the house.

Erik smiled.

"I thought she was really talking to someone."

"Oh, she was. She and Jerome have a history together. She's known him since he was a baby. He doesn't listen to anyone but her."

"He's a big dude."

"Yes. But he won't bother you if you don't bother him. Get Yani if he does give you trouble."

"Will do. Thanks. How many houses are on the property?"

"Three. Mr. Klaue stays in the house down below. The two other houses are for his…men."

"Okay. Thanks Miss Leona."

"You're welcome. I will see you at lunch then? Mr. Klaue likes a late lunch, so I usually have things prepared by 1:30. Today will be a light sesame salad with salmon."

"Any local fish?"

"Sometimes. Mr. Klaue has me ship in things when he wants them. See you at lunch!"

Leona left him, and he was left standing in front of Jerome who watched him with wary eyes from his place in the tree.

"Don't make me call Yani on your ass," he said glaring at the iguana.

Erik finished dressing in a short-sleeved soccer shirt. He laced up a pair of New Balance sneakers and took a walk around the property.

He walked around the small pool that was only six feet deep and found the trail that led down to the beach. If Leona hadn't told him there was a path near the pool, he would never have found it. As it was, he felt secretive slipping down the hill and working his way to the sounds of open water.

"Whoa," he sighed when he finally found the entrance to a breathtaking sight. Clear water with soft sugary white sand and a beautiful view of an isolated smaller island further out in the sea. The sun beat down on him and he looked around to see if there was anyone else around. No one. It was quiet and hidden by part of a cove that had rock structures that curved away from where Erik stood. There were no other footprints or signs of any other human presence.

The water called to him.

Erik looked around again, then slipped off his shoes, pants, underwear and shirt. What a way to start his first day in paradise. He splashed into the water and it felt like he was crawling into the womb of life, the warmth cradling his tired limbs.

Paradise.

The place where he would plot against Klaue. Right in his own home.

###

Yani Galiber was always fussing with Jerome.

Ever since she rescued him from his first car accident as a baby when one of Klaue's drivers ran over his tail seven years previous. She had been fourteen and devastated, thinking her little friend would die. But then his tail grew back and she had been fussing with him ever since.

She was sent by her Aunt Leona to check the water cistern on Klaue's main house where he stayed. Sometimes an iguana would fall in and clog the waterway, and the man had been asking about water pressure. She made a point to check the roof gutters that helped collect water in case there was plant refuse or some other detritus stuck up there. When she ran into Jerome on the way back up, she noticed cuts on his skin. He must've been fighting the other male iguana that had moved into his territory. Unlike most of the iguanas around the property, Jerome was a drama queen and started trouble with other iguanas that weren't his children or mates, and sometimes he went after humans he didn't like.

After leaving her Aunt with Jerome, she headed back to the front house to grab a soda before her Aunt had her helping with lunch. She thought she may have time use her breast pump in private to fix her baby daughter Sydette's bottles for the evening when she had to go to work at her night job as a hostess at Havana Blue, a beach-front restaurant in the main part of Charlotte Amalie. Her cousin Monice would pick her up by 2:30 and drop her off at her Aunt Leona's apartment where she would spend time with Sydette before handing her over to her other cousin Twyla who would watch Sydette until Yani made it home to sleep. And depending on how busy Klaue kept her Aunt, Yani would travel back and forth to help work at the compound.

Yani cobbled together a life and set her sights on saving enough money to attend nursing school since her university plans of becoming a doctor had been derailed with the birth of her daughter. It was still a touchy subject with her parents who had allowed her to take a year off after she graduated high school to follow the crazy dream she had with her then-boyfriend Chez who was going to be the biggest rapper from St. Thomas after he was signed to a small record company in Miami.

Yani had sung background vocals for him around island clubs there and when they island hopped to Puerto Rico or Jamaica and as far as Trinidad. Chez was supposed to make it big and pay for Yani's education, but a year after graduating, Yani fell pregnant, she broke up with Chez, he lost the record contract due to a failed single not charting anywhere, and she was stuck living with her cousin and Aunt because she couldn't afford anywhere on her own and her parents didn't want the stigma in their home among her younger sisters. She was the tainted oldest child who had thrown her life away by having a baby with a SoundCloud level struggle rapper. For shame.

Her baby girl Sydette was a joy, but Yani found it difficult to nurse a baby and still try and nurse a medical career of some kind. A nurse was about as high as she could go now, and she set her sights on getting into the nursing college of her choice the following year. She just needed to get her money right to help take care of Sydette and tuition.

Klaue's compound was a way to make good money, especially when he had a lot of people there. Her Aunt Leona always made sure to pull her in to work for the under the table cash. Klaue paid well. The more men there, the more they made.

Yani and her Aunt were fully aware that Klaue was into some nefarious dealings. Even though he owned two jewelry stores, one in Charlotte Amalie, and one on St. John island, they were just legal fronts for some bad guy stuff. Leona didn't think they were drug dealers, but they did sell something illegal. Did something that required a private compound and sometimes armed guards when Klaue was gone. But as long as the money was good and they stayed out of the way when not needed, Yani had no problem working there. Her Aunt had been doing it for twelve years.

Yani took some time to slip into a bedroom in the front house with her breast pump. She filled three bottles and put them in a plastic bag inside the kitchen freezer to take home later for Sydette. Bottles made, she helped prepare lunch with her Aunt. All the houses were clean and prepped for Klaue's people, so Yani enjoyed the respite.

"What time are they eating, Auntie?"

"Mr. Klaue said around 1:30."

Yani washed her hands in the kitchen sink. She sneaked a nectarine from a bowl on the dining table.

"That's for the guests."

"They won't miss one piece of fruit."

"Where you goin'?"

"The beach—"

"Don't stay down there all day, Yani—"

"Just a quick dip. I promise."

"I'll need your help putting things out—"

"I'll be back. Quick, quick…" she said flouncing out of sight.

###

The path was a tiny sanctuary.

It felt like she was traveling into a secret garden.

Even though she grew up around water all her life, was nicknamed The Mermaid because of her love for it and knew practically every bay and cove on the island, there was something special about this small patch of land that led to this particular little private beach. Private only because the topography made it difficult for small boats to get to and tourists to walk without having to climb some terrain.

Klaue wasn't a swimmer, not all that much anyway, and his men never came down this way, so it was hers. Yaniland.

She ate the nectarine and began pulling her top off when she halted, fruit dangling between her teeth.

Someone was in her private paradise.

A man was swimming in her water.

She felt vexed until she walked closer.

He was floating naked on his back oblivious to her gawking at him full of irritation. He was spoiling her space. She pulled the fruit from her mouth.

"Hey! You out there! What are you doin' here?"

The man dunked under the crystal waters and when he came back up, he shook loose locs around the crown of his head.

Yani shielded her eyes.

"You talking to me?" he asked.

"You see anyone else here?"

"Why you so salty? You don't even know me, Ma!"

"Ma? You call me your mother? Do I look like your mother to you?"

"Relax Steve Irwin—"

"What you call me?"

"You the one talking to the iguana?"

"What iguana?"

"Earlier, up at the middle house…Jerome."

Yani scrunched up her face.

"How you know I talked to Jerome?"

"I was in the house. I'm the new guy."

"Killmonger?"

"Yeah."

"Who told you to come down here?"

"Your Aunt."

Yani sucked her teeth. It was loud enough for him to hear and he laughed at her.

"Is this your private beach?"

"No," she said folding her arms across her chest.

"Then I can swim here."

He moved in closer until the water was at his waist.

There were bumps all over his chest and waist, but none below…

Lookie.

His privates were distorted a bit from the sun's angle hitting the water, but she could see it closer. She felt her eyes fuse in her skull. She was staring at a naked man she didn't know.

"Were you planning on getting in? I can leave if you want some privacy."

"I was, but you can stay in…"

He looked down at himself then back at her.

"I'll leave—"

"Wait!"

Yani stepped back and her nectarine fell out of her hand.

"I don't want to make this weird for you. I'll leave first so you can swim or put your clothes on."

"Close your eyes. You walked all the way down here to enjoy yourself. I'll put on my stuff and let you have at it."

Yani closed her eyes and she heard the splash of water as the man left the sea.

"All good now," he said.

When she opened her eyes, he had his sweatpants on and held his shirt and shoes in his hands.

"Yani?" he asked.

"Yeah…"

She felt her voice die in her throat when she saw his bottom canines between his lips. She wasn't shy about staring at his scars. He was much taller than her.

Killmonger.

This was the man Klaue was bragging on the last two days. The man that Polk and Huntsman grumbled about at the dinner the previous night. It seemed Killmonger had favor with Klaue and those two brutes didn't like it so much. Yani had heard Huntsman call the man an ursurper. She expected to see some piggish white man with swine-like features and dragon fire spewing from his mouth. The only unsettling thing about him was the keloid scars. And only because they didn't look random at all nor accidental.

"You not hot wearing that on your head?" he asked.

Yani touched the top of her head. She still had her beanie on from earlier in the day. It had been cold that morning when she arrived. She wore a dark Naruto t-shirt and baggy orange sweats and just because he mentioned her head cover, she suddenly felt overheated wearing so much clothing on the beach. The heat was beating her down. She needed to be in the water. But she needed him to leave because she too liked to swim nude. But now that he knew about this place, she would probably have to change the times she came down. And she most definitely couldn't swim naked again while he was here. He was ruining everything.

She pulled her beanie off. Her scalp was grateful, her short buzz cut allowing the heat to toast the dyed blonde hair on her head.

"I'll go check on Jerome," he said.

Up close his voice had a playful raspy quality to it. His gold slugs peeked at her again when he smiled. He had dimples like her Sydette.

"Oh!" she said.

She wanted to grab her breasts when she felt her nipples leaking suddenly.

"What?" he asked, his face looking curious.

"I forgot something!"

She took off running back up to the front house clutching at her chest.

Leona was clearing space on the dining table for the lunch meal when Yani ran in.

"What's going on?"

"My titties are leaking."

"You're not wearing that special padded bra I bought for you? I got you four of those to help with that.

"I forgot," Yani called from the bathroom. She wiped down her nipples and stuffed tissue inside her bra to soak up anything else that decided to express itself from her tits. She couldn't wait for Sydette to be done with breastfeeding so her titty milk could dry up.

She walked out of the bathroom to find her Aunt talking to Killmonger and she felt her nipples acting up again. The tissue would have to work miracles.

Watching Killmonger converse she noticed how giddy her Aunt was acting with him. He was sweet with her, asking questions about the island, about her, what she did when she didn't work at the house. Before she knew it, lunch was ready and Killmonger was helping Leona bring the food to the table. Now he was taking over her job.

The other men arrived and Yani joined her Aunt in the kitchen to stay out of their way. Klaue sat at the head of the table with Killmonger by his side, and when she heard the new man speak again, she realized that her tits were reacting to his voice, her milk was leaking again. Only her baby could do that to her sometimes when she cried or needed something.

What the hell was this man doing to her?

She pressed her fingers against her nipples to push the tissue paper closer to her tips.

Who was he?

###

Smooth sun-kissed brown skin. Lips plump. Eyes big and bright. Eyebrows dark and thick.

Yani favored her Aunt and Erik found himself staring at her while he ate lunch with the men and Klaue.

One minute she was making him feel like he didn't belong in her space and the next he was watching her run away from him, her thick ass cheeks bouncing and making him think thoughts he had put aside. He hadn't been with a woman for about three months and quite frankly, hadn't missed the company because of all the work he had been doing. Once he hooked Klaue into his orbit, all Erik could think about was Wakanda and waiting for the perfect time to move on the East African nation.

She was young. This girl, Yani. Probably in her twenties. Mouthy. He liked that. Saw him naked and didn't give a fuck. Until he came closer to her. Then she became modest, probably for his sake and hers. A young woman like her around some treacherous men, she had to be careful.

He wasn't the only one peeping her in the kitchen at lunch. Huntsman was clocking her also. This bothered Erik. So openly wanton.

She was covered up looking like some skater punk he could see on any street corner back home, but she had some curves that strained against the sweatpants. Waist tight probably from swimming a lot. Full breasts. It was the blonde hair that made her dark eyebrows pop. Right now, those eyebrows were furrowed and she was looking right at him. Like she was still mad he had trespassed on her world. The girl who spoke affectionately to iguanas like they were human and yelled at him like he was a big lizard. Erik gave her a grin and she cut her eyes to look at her Aunt who was washing dishes.

By the time lunch was over, Yani was reaching into a refrigerator and grabbing a plastic bag and leaving the house for the day.

The rest of the day was a period of rest and acclimation.

Klaue didn't want to talk shop until the next day, and Erik was happy he could just wander the secure compound. He spotted security cameras everywhere. He learned that each house could be locked down from the inside and secured easily. Klaue called the estate "Our Lady's Manor", naming it after Leona who Klaue affectionately referred to as "My Lady" every chance he got. Leona didn't seem to mind, and she got on well with Klaue in that practiced way that Black people had when in the employ of white people. Klaue may have thought they were close, like family even by the way he fawned over her, but Leona was about her job and getting her work done as expeditiously as possible without getting in anyone's way. Friendly but distant. Smart woman. Klaue was not to be trusted. The presence of guns and ammo didn't faze her or Yani. Money was money.

Erik looked for Yani at dinner and she wasn't around for it. Gone for the rest of the night he assumed. He didn't want to ask Leona about her, afraid of making the older woman suspicious of him for asking about her young niece. He just wanted to let her know that he would be going to the beach early in the morning so that she could have her own personal beach time.

Erik slept well in his new room after smoking some decent herb that Polk gave him to tune out. When his alarm went off at five in the morning, he slipped into some light blue swim trunks and walked barefoot at dawn to the beach.

Body rested, mind clear and sharp, he felt like the wind had been punched out of him when he saw Yani in the water already.

Naked.

Water pearled down her cinnamon brown skin as if she wore diamonds in the early morning waves. Her hips flared out showcasing the beauty of her round posterior that flexed as she poured water over her head.

Once, when he was a child, Erik's mother had taken him to carnival in Sao Paulo and while standing next to his play cousin Marisol and holding his father's hand, Erik saw Yemanjá dancing on a float, the drums of Candomblé pounding in his ears, his little hips moving in time to the rhythm. He thought the woman on the float dressed in gauzy blue scarves was a real Goddess and his mother gently corrected him and explained that she was a representation. That first sensation, the tangible feeling of his heart bursting wide open to make room for the orixá of the sea had stayed with him for a long time. That woman long ago may have been a false divinity, and he could be forgiven for making the mistake with the eyes of a child. But he was a man now, and the being before him splashing in the warm sea was real and divine. Black deities were real. She was in front of him. Yemanjá. He had to be near her.

He shucked his trunks and took his time approaching her.

She dived under the water and he felt that his heart would break if she didn't come back up, wouldn't be surprised at all if she didn't return to the surface, but he needed to see her eyes, needed to make sure she was real.

He stopped short when a small wave crashed into his chest and he allowed himself to be swept with it.

Yani popped back to the surface wiping her hand over her face. She didn't jump or cry out when she saw him wading in the water, didn't try to shield her breasts or the neatly clipped bikini area of her sex, her vulva pouty and rounded, the split between her legs making his dick jump. She was a true ethereal vision and the reverence in his eyes must've stalled any thoughts she may have had of him being a weirdo coming for her.

"Killmonger," she said with no trepidation in her voice, "I see this is going to be a problem, no?"

"Erik," he whispered, trying to find his own voice, "my name is Erik."

[Part 1]

[Part 2]  [Part 3]  [Part 4]  [Part 5]  [Part 6]

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[lilacmoon83]

Finding You Always

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 209: Battle Cry, Pt 2

Bobby looked around in wonder at all the opening portals and was surprised to see a beam of light strike the ground beside them. The light faded, revealing Rose and Fandral's return, via the bi-frost.

"So...you're alive…" Seth growled.

"A God much more powerful than you saved us and I assure you that you will pay for what you've done," Fandral promised. Bobby turned and saw a final portal open behind him. Granny and Red, in her wolf form stepped through, along with Xander, armed with a flamethrower, followed by all seven dwarves, and finally his parents, hand in hand, dressed in their warrior clothing.

Seth looked around, trying to hide his nervousness, at what he was now facing.

"If your plan really hinged on the fact that you thought we wouldn't reunite with our darker halves to save our son from you...then you are more of a fool than we thought," Snow declared boldly.

"Just for that...I think I'll kill you first Snow White and make your husband watch!" Seth growled, as he tried his mind meld, but was shocked when it didn't work. The Chalice glowed between them, but he was confused. Even at full power, the Chalice shouldn't have protected them from his mind meld.

"How...how are you doing this?!" he demanded to know.

"True love," David replied in a simple manner. Snow smiled at him.

"Truest love," she agreed.

"Oh and a little bonding to our elements," Leo added, as his eyes glowed dark blue. Eva's glowed pink, Summer's glowed lavender, and Emma's glowed white.

"All the magic and power in all the realms failed to defeat you...but true love won't," Snow declared, as the chalice separated into their respective weapons, his sword and her arrow shooting gauntlets.

"Nothing can defeat me...and certainly not something like your pathetic true love," Seth seethed, as he signaled his demonic army. David raised his sword to signal their allies.

"This is the United Realms and it's our home!" he shouted.

"And we will purge you and your demons from it!" Snow added, as both sides charged into a battle that would decide the fate of the United Realms...and the world.

~*~

The armies of various Kingdoms immediately charged the massive amounts of demonic minions, taking down the bulk of the dark army to allow the heavy hitters to focus on the more powerful, lethal enemies. Still, the minions proved they were formidable and casualties on both sides began to build. The military from the Land Without Magic, however, was finding themselves to be out of their element a bit though and they were clearly frustrated.

David swiped his way through a hoard of ghouls, using the chalice sword's flails of energy to decimate the minions that were taking a toll on the soldiers.

"Your men, both on the ground and in the air, would be more effective creating a perimeter around this area. We don't want any of these demons spilling into the other realms where they can feed on innocent people," David directed to the commanders.

"Why should we take orders from you? A guy that goes by Prince Charming?" one of them asked, while the others chortled at his joke. Several of Mephisto's creations encroached on them at that point. David turned and swiped through one, obliterating it with the chalice sword. He kicked another away, while thrusting his sword through two more that would have certainly killed the onlooking officers. He threw his sword and it spun like a sidewinder, obliterating a dozen incoming demons, before he caught the sword again and the minions fell to the ground in pieces. They were stunned and their question as to why they should take orders from him was answered. There was a screeching behind him, as one surviving demon tried to attack him, but an arrow hit it and the creature exploded, as Snow sided up to him.

"You always have my back," he said fondly, as he slipped his hand in hers.

"You should listen to my husband, boys. You're looking at a man that helped me take back two Kingdoms," she said, looking at him fondly.

"And get someone on your sixes, because not everyone has someone as amazing as her watching their back," he mentioned, as he lifted her chin with his fingers so he could kiss her briefly, before they joined hands and rushed back into the fight, leaving the soldiers unsure of exactly what they had just seen.

"You heard him...get that perimeter going!" Major Donovan called.

"His orders are as good as mine," she added, as the military switched gears to do as they asked and get that perimeter up.

~*~

Leo wove his way through the mess of airborne furies, slashing at them as he went. But he yelped, as he was hit with a stray blast. He fell off Pegasus, even as the animal nosedived to catch him. But he saw an icy slide appear beneath him, allowing him to slide safely to the ground. He got to his feet and Elsa hugged him.

"Are you okay?" she asked, as she looked at the wound on his shoulder.

"It's fine...it's just a flesh wound," he replied, as Pegasus landed next to them and neighed with worry. He pet the animal's mane, assuring him that he was okay. Leo looked to the sky again and Elsa gasped, as they saw the furies overwhelm one of the military planes, causing it to crash in a fiery explosion.

"Time to clear the air…" Leo said, as his eyes glowed bright blue. His lightning was summoned in the sky and there was a boom of thunder, as the sky flashed bright blue, striking most of the furies. He fried them and turned them into charred, falling objects.

"Nice...but you do know that you've now turned the dangerous flying objects into dangerous falling objects, right?" Eva teased.

"Hey...there's no book on how to defeat demonic hell furies with wings," he pointed out.

"There is now, because this family invented it," Henry commented, as he and Jacinda slashed their way through more ground enemies.

"You had better hurry, before those charred objects are pelting us," Rumple warned.

"I got this," Summer said, as her eyes glowed lavender and JJ watched her in amazement, as she released dozens of bubbles, encasing the falling objects harmlessly within her bubbles. Eva stepped forward and her eyes glowed pink, as she swept all the bubbles into one stream.

"Hey kid...help us out!" Emma called to her baby brother. Bobby's eyes were multicolored, as he slammed one foot into the ground, opening a crevice. Emma's eyes glowed white, as she helped Eva guide the destroyed demons into the lava that was in the earth beneath them. Bobby knelt down once they were done and used his magic-enhanced strength to close the gap up again and seal it.

"Nice…" Emma complimented, but then the five of them were struck by a reptilian tale, as Seth descended upon them, in a horrifying half man, half serpent-like form.

"Time to meet your end, Charmings…" he seethed, as he slithered toward them and they noticed something on the ground that was left behind in his wake.

"What are those white things?" JJ asked.

"I don't know...but I have a bad feeling about this," Summer replied.

"Crap…" Leo uttered, as he drew his sword.

"What?" Emma asked.

"They're eggs," Rumple interjected for him.

"You can't be serious…" Regina protested.

"He is a snake…" Leo reminded her, as Snow and David caught up to them, arriving hand in hand.

"Something tells me this is about to get really gross," Snow commented, as the eggs hatched and slimy, snake-like demons emerged. Their hissing and rattle was almost deafening, as they readied their weapons and magic. The minions scattered, attacking and biting with a ravaging vengeance, while the Charmings surrounded Seth. The seven of them charged the God, while the rest of their close family and friends scattered to help defend against the new onslaught of minions.

~*~

Fandral and Rose dueled with the dangerous frost giant, Fafnir, in his dragon form. The dragon was raging and had already caused some casualties from their army. It was clear that Fandral was the only one with the strength to kill the frost giant and they had managed to isolate him to a corner of the battlefield with a rocky outcropping. It was precarious and he did not like Rose being so close to it, for one slip or loss of footing and they could be skewered by the jagged rocks. But that too was part of their plan.

"For the record, I do not like this plan," he mentioned. She smiled and fired another arrow and then kissed his cheek.

"You'll catch me, my love...you always do," Rose replied, as she climbed up and around the outcroppings, finding her way to the top of the tallest, most jagged one. She threaded another arrow and there was a loud thwack, as she landed it in his chest. The dragon roared angrily and saw her in a prime position. The dragon salivated and spoke in its gravely voice.

"At last...I shall have the ultimate revenge upon you, Fandral of Asgard," he said.

"I shall feast on the pure, sweet blood of your beloved Rose Red and destroy you once and for all by taking her!" he roared, as he left himself open, unknowingly, as he prepared to snap her up in his jaws. But before he could devour her, his breath stopped short and he screamed in pain, as Fandral's sword pierced his belly. Fandral extracted his sword and backed away, as Rose jumped down into his arms. The frost giant then fell forward, gruesomely impaling itself on the rocky outcroppings. Rose turned away from the sight and he held her protectively in his arms.

"See...I knew you'd catch me," she said and he caressed her beautiful face gently.

"Always, my angel," he promised, as they shared a kiss.

~*~

James and Aphrodite dueled the massive and mysterious Horned King. The hulking creature that they could only assume was some sort of man behind the mask, shoved James away. Aphrodite's sword clashed with his and she heard him finally speak.

"Aphrodite...you are not what you seem…" he said. His voice was deep and sent a chill down her spine.

"I am the Goddess Aphrodite of Olympus. I am exactly this. A wife, a mother, and a woman that will eradicate yours and your master's evil," she refuted, as they dueled and James jumped back in.

"You are so certain of your origin...Aphrodite, the goddess that rose from the sea foam. But you are a fraud!" he announced, earning him a vicious kick from James. The Prince swept his large legs out from under him and put his blade to creature's throat.

"Calling my wife names will be hazardous for your health," he quipped.

"The Goddess of love cannot have love…" he warned and that struck her.

"You are cursed…" he continued and then he roared in anguish, as James cut off one of his horns.

"Stay with her, Prince James...and you'll die again," he warned.

"She's the love of my life and the only one dying today...is you," James promised. The Horned King roared angrily and charged her. His words had stunned her and she was caught off guard by him, as he managed to get his massive hand around her neck. James growled and jumped up, passing his sword through his neck. The Horned King's body fell to the ground with a thud and he caught his stunned wife in his arm, before she could fall to the ground.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She smiled up at him and kissed him passionately.

"Thanks to you," she replied, as he hugged her tightly. But the expression on her face was clear. The Horned King's words and their possible meaning were not going to fade from her mind any time soon.

~*~

Nora was beyond pissed. Not only had the Major censured her and had her information technicians monitoring her social media posts, she was stuck in some diner called Granny's to watch the fight. Of course, that was another thing that she was pissed about. It seemed that she wasn't going to be the one to get the first scoop. The whole thing was being broadcast to the entire world somehow. It was being streamed on every screen in existence and she wasn't even sure how that was possible. There were no reporters or cameras on the scene that she was aware of. She noticed the diner owners at the counter, with a little girl and a baby. The little girl looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Hey, hey...no tears. Everything's going to be fine," Frankie assured.

"He's right...your great grandparents are two of the most extraordinary people we've ever met. They'll defeat that snake," Joe assured.

"Great grandparents?" Nora interjected. Lucy nodded.

"My great grandparents are Snow White and Prince Charming," she announced. Nora snorted.

"There is no way those two freaks are that old," she refuted. Frankie snorted.

"We got ourselves a normie," he commented.

"Listen up, girl...if you want a real story about two people who have more love than your tiny mind can comprehend, then pay attention," Joe retorted. Nora shot him a glare and then turned back to the battle. She couldn't believe this. When she had begun studying this years ago, just after the fiasco in Seattle, she had been on a mission to expose the evil of these strange people. After all, they were at the center of several calamities, including this one, that had plagued their world. They didn't belong in this world; of that she knew for certain now. And she wasn't alone in her opinion. They were fighting this evil, but this evil wouldn't have existed if not for them. And now her own cousin was embroiled in their chaos. But this wasn't over. She'd find a way around the censuring and lead the protest against their presence in this world.

~*~

Henry and Ella slashed at the serpent minions and the former looked on, seeing his grandparents, mother, aunts, and uncles fighting Seth furiously in the near distance.

"They'll be all right, lad…" Hook assured, though he sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"Bloody hell...these things are disgusting," he complained, as he wiped blue blood from his hook and lifted his boot from one of the crushed creatures.

"We need to keep these things off them so they can focus on Seth," Rumple said, as he whacked another with his cane, while Belle sliced through another.

"Well...then I'd say it's fireball time," Regina said, as she looked at JJ.

"Use that thing we gave you to mow down as many as you can," Regina said. He nodded, as she poofed a few more fireball rifles for the others, including Robin, as she and Rumple started volleying fireballs at the oncoming minions. The others began firing and decimating their enemies.

~*~

The armies of every Kingdom fought relentlessly, with Arendelle leading them and Elsa's powers made quick work of most of Mephisto's creations. Mulan, Phillip, and Aurora faced Shan Yu and his army of undead Huns.

"In my day...I nearly crushed the truest loves and they had to banish me to save themselves from my wrath. Lord Seth will kill this pair and I will finish what I started by annihilating your people!" Shan Yu claimed, as their blades clashed in a deadlock.

"I don't think so…" Mulan hissed, as she made several impressive moves and the Hun leader was stunned when she disarmed him.

"I will not be defeated by the likes of you, girl!" he roared, as he got to his feet.

"Woman...and you already have been. But I'm not going to be the one to take the final blow," Mulan stated.

"I knew it...you do not have the gumption to finish the job," he said smugly, but those were his last words, as he was snapped up in Red's mighty jaws and his remnants were all that remained, as she tore him apart.

"Ooooh...he's dead now," Leroy commented, as one of the ghouls screeched, as he hacked at it with his pick axe. Mulan smirked.

"Time to drive these zombie Huns back into the depths of Tartarus," she said.

"This should help!" Bobby called, as he slammed a foot into the ground and opened up a crevice with lava beneath it.

"Thanks kid," Happy called, as he kicked one of the defeated minions into the lava pit. Red nudged the boy, as he returned to fighting his way through more minions, with his eventual destination being Seth.

~*~

Snow and David dueled Arthur and Gawain furiously, as the fire demons attempted to burn them both.

"I've been waiting a very long time to get my revenge on the pair of you," Arthur growled.

"Don't tell me you're still pissed about the whole Excalibur thing," David goaded, as he dueled the disgraced King.

"Excalibur was my birthright! You and your wife had no right to wield it!" he shouted.

"Excalibur disagreed since we were able to, but we never wanted your sword or Kingdom. You lost both through your own actions!" Snow refuted.

"When she's right...she's right," David agreed, as they fought them both at a breakneck pace.

"It's time we end them, my King...or perhaps force them to be like us," Gawain suggested. Arthur smirked.

"Wouldn't that be poetic. The pillar of love and justice becoming what they hate most. I like it," the former King said, as a wall of fire shot up around them, cutting them off from everyone else.

"Mom! Dad!" they heard their children calling.

"Summer...we have to get through that fire!" Bobby called, as she summoned her bubbles and his eyes glowed, as he motioned his hands, summoning water from the various bodies of water that surrounded the United Realms.

"Careful kid...you don't want to drown us all," Emma warned.

"He won't if we concentrate the water to this spot," Leo said, as they helped contain the water and directed its flow toward the pillar of fire that was trapping their parents.

Gawain cackled, as they held each other close and the flames inched closer and closer to them.

"So much for the truest loves...but perhaps this is fitting. They shall be killed by the great King Arthur," Gawain boasted.

"In the Land Without Magic...I'm already a legend and I'm about the live up to that," Arthur agreed

"Still chasing glory, but there is no glory in power. Only love," David said.

"Save your speeches about true love, Prince Charming and prepare to die as a failure. Your true love is about to fail your entire family, your friends, and the world…" Arthur said.

"Okay...I think I'm ready to be done with him and his ego," Snow said. David smirked and they willed the chalice to join together. There was a bright flash and the flames were extinguished, as their children joined around them. The water they were directing at the wall of fire doused the two demons.

"You think a little water is going to defeat us, brats?" Arthur hissed.

"Nah, but true love will," Bobby said, as the two demons unleashed a blast of fire directly at them. But Snow and Charming held the chalice and it released a pulse of pure power. The fire evaporated in the air, stunning them both, as they stared at the pair in disbelief. Arthur looked at his hands and saw them slowly flaking away to ash. He watched in horror, as Gawain turned to dust and the ash floated away. Arthur looked back at them in horror and dissolved into dust as well.

"We can end this…" Snow realized. He looked at her and kissed her forehead.

"And we will," he said," as he motioned in the near distance, where they saw Mephisto attacking Leo and Elsa and they hurried off to help.

~*~

Elsa and Leo fought off the last of Mephisto's creations, while his parents faced Arthur and Gawain. He blasted them with lightning and she iced the rest, as they pushed them into the abyss.

"That's most of them," she said.

"Yeah...now it's just the big guns that remain," he said, as he cried out suddenly, as one of Mephisto's fiery chains wrapped around his forearm. He cried out in agony and fell to his knees, as the demon King pulled him toward him.

"Once I enslave you, young Leo...you'll do my bidding and destroy your whole family for me," Mephisto hissed.

"No!" Elsa cried in fear, as he cackled evilly, but he was hit with an exploding arrow.

"Get your hands off our son!" Snow growled, as she and David closed in. Mephisto chuckled evilly.

"He's mine now, fair one and there's not a thing you can do about it. And once he's enslaved to me, I'll make him peel the skin from your bones and torture your husband for the mockery he made of me!" Mephisto warned, but his cackle was cut short, as David swiped the chalice sword through his arm, releasing their son from his bonds.

"Elsa...now!" Snow called, as the Queen of Arendelle blasted him and froze him solid. With that, Fandral shoved him into the abyss.

"Good riddance," Rose said, as he fell into the pit of magma.

A hush fell over them, as Seth slithered around them in his giant serpent form. Fandral pulled Rose away, while Snow and David joined the chalice together again. Seth morphed into his humanoid form again, though his skin still had a scaly appearance and his eyes bled a sickly yellow.

"Time to die...Charmings…" he hissed, as his coils wrapped around Snow and David. The chalice fell from their grasp, as he squeezed the life out of them.

"Oh hell…" Emma cried, as her magic collided with him, but wasn't making much of a dent. Leo summoned his lightning and Eva summoned the wind, striking him violently. Regina tossed a fireball at his coils and he screeched, loosening his grip slightly on Snow and David. But it was enough and Summer encased her parents in a bubble, as they floated back to her.

"Thanks sweetie," Snow said, as they hugged her and then picked up the chalice again.

"Hitting him with all the magic on your own isn't going to work," Rumple said.

"Then what do you suggest?" Regina asked.

"The boy knows what he needs to do," Rumple replied, as he looked at Bobby. He nodded and stepped forward.

"Oh no...you are not doing this alone," Snow said, as they walked with him. He smiled.

"I know...we're going to do this together,: Bobby said.

"Hey kid...you got an idea?" Emma asked.

"Eye of the storm," he told her. She smiled and looked at her siblings, as they caught on.

"Eye of the storm," they agreed.

"Enough with your cryptic speech...no matter what you do, I shall kill you all. You are no match for my power!" Seth claimed. Summer started to take her place when JJ took her hand.

"Be careful," he said and she blushed, before smiling at him.

"Thanks," she said, as she and her older siblings surrounded the God, while Bobby and her parents approached him.

"Now Summer…" Bobby called, as she put them all in a large bubble encasing all seven of them inside of it with the monster that threatened their very existence.

"What is this?" Seth growled, as he flew up and tried to break through the bubble, but found he was unable to do so. He set his sights on Summer.

"If I cannot break the bubble...then perhaps I'll just break you instead, young one," he threatened.

"Like hell you will," Leo said, as he unleashed his powers, adding an electric layer to the bubble. A pink cyclone swirled up from Eva's glowing hands and added a layer of wind to the bubble. Emma was next, as she added a layer of white fire. Seth growled and moved to attack, but the rumbling beneath his feet stopped him cold and he watched the storm bubble shrink around him, until he was the only one inside it. He growled and his coils broke through briefly, but he screamed in agony, as Snow and David zapped each coil with the power of the chalice, permanently disfiguring him. Bobby used his powers and channeled all the elements, until he condensed the bubble so small that there was finally a huge explosion. The seven of them waited with bated breath for the smoke to clear. When it did, they saw Seth, writhing on the ground, bleeding blue blood from several wounds, and stuck in a hybrid form with his head and torso intact, by his legs in serpent form.

"How...how can this be? I am Seth...I am chaos!" he cried.

"No one can defeat me!" he claimed.

"You know, just because you keep saying that isn't going to make it true," Leo quipped.

"I'm still alive...I've survived all your power!" Seth hissed, as he tried to slither away, but then screeched, as Emma stomped on his tail.

"Oh, I think you're about to be a scorch mark. You guys gonna finally end this or not?" Emma asked her parents. They smiled at her.

"I guess we should have known this would be the key to ending it," he said, as they gripped the chalice between them.

"A curse to end all curses...one last curse broken," she said, as they realized exactly how to end it all and destroy the dark curse forever.

"True love...useless and pathetic. It will not defeat me!" Seth insisted, as he made his final mistake and morphed fully into his giant serpent form. Snow and Charming's lips met and a blinding pulse of rainbow light emitted from them and the chalice glowed in response, releasing a pulse of blinding, pure light magic. The waves of magic swept over the entire land, bringing light to the darkness once more.

The fighting on the battlefield ceased, as all of Seth's minions and Mephisto's creations were paralyzed by the light magic. One by one, each creature or demon alike crumbled to ash. Seth looked around in horror, as the remainder of his army dissolved to dust in the blink of an eye. He screeched one final cry of horror, as he crumbled to dust and was wiped from existence. It was over at last.

"It's over…" Snow uttered. He grinned at her and hugged her tightly, before spinning her around.

"It's over…" he repeated, as their lips met again. Their children gathered around them with hugs and they looked around the barren landscape.

"This place is such a barren eyesore," Snow said. He smiled at her and then at Leo.

"But it doesn't have to stay that way," David replied, as they raised the chalice, obliterating the shield around Nephilim.

"Of course...Nephilim is right next to the reserve," Leo said.

"Yes, and you've needed an expansion for years," Snow replied, as used the chalice to seed the ground, allowing for the barren landscape to give way to green grass. Aphrodite assisted by using her magic to demolish Seth's dreary castle and replaced it with rolling hills. Bobby stomped his foot and created a very large depression in the ground, while Rumple used his magic to dig far enough to allow the depression fill with water, creating a sparkling lake.

"No more ugly, dreary land of the fallen," Eva said, as the animals began to explore their expanded home.

"That was impressive, though most of the world has no idea what they just saw," the Major interjected, as she and her subordinates approached.

"Yeah...suppose it's too late to just put a barrier up and let everyone keep thinking we're stories," David said.

"I held up my end of the deal," she reminded him.

"Don't worry...we'll hold up ours," he assured.

"Good...then can I count on seeing you in Boston tomorrow," she said.

"Whoa...tomorrow? That's a little soon for us," Snow said, as she clutched his arm.

"Yeah...we kind of just saved the world from an evil God tyrant. Don't you think a few days down time is warranted?" Emma questioned. Patricia smirked.

"You're right and I do need time to figure out a way to explain this to my superiors, though they are going to want a meeting with you. I'll see you in three days," she said, as they moved out.

"You can still seal us away," Rumple reminded them.

"She has control of the remnants of Clayton's operation, so she can get back in. She has mermaid scales and his submarine," David said.

"Well, that's perfect. How the hell did that happen?" Regina asked. Snow shook her head.

"We don't know how she did it, but no one has seen Cecily in a very long time, so she's probably in prison or dead," Snow deduced.

"Now that they know what we can do...they'll never leave us alone," Regina warned.

"No...but I can warn them against overstepping. They can't touch the chalice and you two can make it clear that without the chalice, there's no magic out there. We still have control and I think she knows that. I'm interested as to why," Aphrodite interjected.

"Yeah...the Internet is literally blowing up, so we're screwed about staying secret. Not even magic can stop this now," Leo said.

"We have a lot of things to figure out...overwhelmingly so, but I think we also deserve to celebrate our victory," David suggested, as Snow slid her arms around his waist.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," she agreed. The battlefield was no more and all trace of Seth was gone. The armies of the United Realms retreated, but the Charmings and those close to them, made their way to Granny's.

~*~

Deep beneath the Earth's crust, the magma flowed like a river and bubbled violently. There was a disturbance in the flow, as a charred being surfaced, screaming in agony. There was barely anything left of this creature and the only evidence that this being had once been humanoid in appearance was the skeletal hand that grabbed onto a rocky outcropping. The remnants of the being managed to pull what was left of itself from the magma and it slithered painstakingly through the layers of earth, until it finally found its way to the sewers. The skeletal creature couldn't be sure how far he had traveled, but knew that this body he had once occupied was done and he needed a new host. As he pulled his essence through a street drain and to the street level, he looked around, and recognized the city to be none other than New York.

Mephisto smirked. Perfect. He needed a new host, but he always looked for someone with evil in their hearts and there would be plenty to choose from in a city such as this. Then, once he was anew again, he would get his revenge on the Charmings, as well as Fandral and his precious Rose. And they would never see him coming...

~*~

"So...is this what your vision showed you?" Belle asked curiously. They had all invaded Granny's and we were welcomes excitedly by Joe and Frankie, with mounds of food and drink awaiting them.

"It is...though I did not see how it would end. It makes sense that it was true love again though. It truly has given us everything," he said, looking at her fondly. She smiled.

"You have no idea how happy it makes me when I hear you champion love over power," she replied. He smirked.

"It may have taken me three hundred some years, but I have learned," he joked. She smiled and kissed him tenderly, as they enjoyed watching their son eating ice cream with Bobby. He was very excited to have his best friend back.

~*~

"Hey...you're a million miles away," James mentioned, as their children colored across from them and he returned with some hot cocoas.

"Yeah...just thinking," she replied.

"Not about what that psycho said?" he asked and she looked at him pensively.

"How can I not?" she asked.

"I was not created exactly the icky way mythology suggests I was from a certain body part, but I did rise from the sea foam. That's what my name means. I had no childhood or traditional birth," she replied, as he listened to her.

"What if my story is not what I think?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"This is Storybrooke, a place where memories have been taken more times than anyone can count. What if...what if my memories were taken? I mean...why did I never question it before? No one is born a full grown person," she replied.

"Well, if it means anything, I don't care how you came to be. I only care that I got a second chance and found the love of my life in you," he said, making her melt.

"What if he's right though? Eros' biological father was killed…" she lamented. He shook his head.

"No...you are not cursed," he refuted.

"I am the Goddess of love...and I had nothing but heartbreak in love before I found you. What if...what if I am always cursed to lose love?" she asked. He took her hands in his own.

"You are not cursed, my love and I'm not going anywhere," he promised, as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. She hugged him tightly and he held her.

"Will Athena help you with these questions? About your past?" he asked.

"She will tell me what I've already heard," she replied.

"Why would she keep the truth from you if there is more to your story?" he asked.

"She wouldn't...unless she was forbidden to tell me," she replied.

"Well...there may be one way we can find out," he suggested and she realized where he was going with that thought.

"Rose Red's library...that would be a very old book," she said.

"True...but it's possible, if you really want the answers," he suggested.

"But know that I don't really care how you came to be. Only that you're here and you're my wife," he added. She smiled and kissed him passionately.

~*~

"What the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed!" Nora complained, as he ate hungrily.

"But I wasn't and it felt good helping in something like that. I mean, helping people is why I became a paramedic and that was literally a battle that probably just saved the world. Since all this is real, I want to do my part," JJ said.

"Yeah right, that's a load of crap and you know it. There's only one reason you did any of this," she complained, as she pointed to the girl at the counter. She had gotten up to get them refills and was currently hugging an older young man that she had identified as her older brother.

"So what if she is? Why do you care?" he asked.

"Uh...hello? Bubble girl is a freak! Her whole family is!" she cried.

"Stop it Nora! They just saved the world and now we know they did the same in Seattle. This is what you wanted all along. You wanted the truth and now that you have it, you're flipping out. What gives?" he asked.

"I wanted the truth out so I could expose them for what they are," she replied.

"And what are they?" he asked.

"JJ...they did all of this to the world. Have you thought for a second that, while they may have saved the world, these people...this place might be the reason for all the evil in the first place?" she asked. But he shook his head.

"They didn't cause any of this, Nora," he refuted.

"Yes...they did. They're not from our world and their presence might be the reason for everything bad," she suggested, as Summer returned and JJ went back to ignoring her.

"Hey…" he said, as she put a tray down.

"I brought some hot cocoas," she said, as she slid a cup toward him.

"Thanks, sounds great," he said, as he watched her sprinkle cinnamon on her whipped cream.

"Cinnamon?" he asked.

"Oh yeah...it's kind of how we drink it in our family," she replied.

"I'll try some," he said, as she slid the cinnamon shaker to him.

"Cocoa?" Summer asked, sliding one to Nora. But she just gave her a look.

"It's September and seventy degrees. I don't want cocoa," she refuted, as she got up and went to the Inn side to her room.

"She really does not like me," Summer said.

"Ignore her...Nora doesn't really like anyone, not even herself sometimes," JJ replied.

"That's sad…" Summer mentioned.

"Yeah...that's Nora. Besides...I like you," he mentioned. She smiled and flushed a little.

"I figured," she murmured.

"Am I that easy to read?" he asked.

"No...well, you probably are for my sister Eva, but it's more that you'd probably have to like me to get involved in something like this. I mean...we just met and you agreed to fight in a crazy battle that just decided the fate of the world," she replied. He smirked and nodded.

"Yeah...you have a point," he agreed.

"No one would have blamed you if you didn't want to get involved," she said.

"I know and I wanted to help, but I have to admit, I did have an ulterior motive," he admitted.

"What was it?" she asked.

"I guess I was afraid if I didn't get involved that I'd probably never see you again," he replied, making her flush again.

"Besides...you kept telling me everything was a long story so I kind of had to stick around to hear the long story," he added, as he sipped at his cocoa. She beamed at him and then pulled a large brown book out of her bag.

"Well then...long story time," she said, as she opened it up and began to tell him that story.

~*~

"We thought you were gone," Ari said, as she and Ben cuddled with their parents and Carina.

"I know, my angels and we are so sorry you all went through that," Rose said, as she stroked Carina's hair.

"We know, mom," their eldest assured her.

"Did Thor save you?" Ben asked. Fandral smiled at his enthusiasm.

"He did and he and his friends helped us get back to you," he confirmed.

"And the bad man is gone too now, right?" Ari asked. They smiled softly.

"Yes...he is gone too, little ones and we are all going home tonight together," Fandral promised, as he and Rose shared a kiss.

~*~

Snow cuddled Hope in her lap, as David sat cuddled with them and doted on the baby with her.

"We have their memories...with her and of the last two years. I'm so grateful for that...they took care of our family for us and I will never forget that," Snow said, as Emma smiled at them.

"They did...and they spoiled Hope rotten, so I'm sure you guys will too," she said.

"Of course...grandpa is going to talk to Uncle Leo and have him see if we can breed a baby Pegasus just for you, my tiny princess," David said.

"Dad...she's not even two. I don't think we need a Pegasus yet," Emma replied.

"Of course she does, don't you tiny angel?" he cooed to her. Emma rolled her eyes playfully and looked to Xander for help.

"Don't look at me. I mean, can you imagine those baby pictures? Hope and a baby Pegasus? I'm going to need some wallets," Xander teased.

"You're a lot of help," she said sarcastically.

"Your father and grandfather are right...we have lost time to make up for and that reminds me, you two never had a real wedding. That was the curse," Snow said to her Leo and Elsa.

"Yeah...I guess it was," Leo said, as he watched the grin spread across his mother's face.

"Please tell me you still want a wedding," Snow pleaded. They smiled back.

"Of course we do...and we can get back to planning it right away," Elsa agreed.

"So...Boston in three days. This should be interesting," Regina mentioned.

"It should be...we hope you two will come with us," David said. Robin smirked.

"I have a feeling it's going to be nothing short of crazy, but we're in," he agreed.

"I think at this point crazy is way understating anything this family is involved with," Leo quipped.

"Definitely," Xander said, as he got a pensive look on his face.

"What is it, Dad?" David asked.

"I guess it's just...this is kind of what Clayton always wanted. He wanted to expose our world and stories to the Land Without Magic. It was his endgame in a way, with the proviso that he had control over it all. And...now it's happened," he lamented.

"Yeah...but it's going to be okay. We're not going to be pushed around by them or allow them to just come in here and take over. They know they couldn't if they wanted to," David said. Xander nodded, hoping his son was right. He still had his fears, but now was not the time to voice them.

Snow smiled and nuzzled her nose against David's and he smiled warmly at her.

"It's a lot to figure out, but we'll be doing it together, as always," he said. Snow smiled.

"Together," she agreed.

"But for now...we have three days to just be," he added, as they shared another tender, passionate kiss. Henry, Ella, and Lucy smiled on, as did the rest of their close family and friends. They had closed one chapter with Seth's defeat, but a whole new one was opening up before them. In many ways, it was a new era that might breed uncertainty, but, as always, they had true love at their defense...

[bae-leth]

I didn’t wanna bombard your inbox with multiple asks so I thought making one submission would be simpler. I wanna so a little analysis on those videos showing uncut content that has Felix and Annette betraying the Blue Lions on the Blue Lions path.

First off, motivation. Annette’s motivation seems to be protecting her mother and uncle, but specifically her mother. Felix’s motivation appears to be related to his father’s death. So we can say their betrayal happens between the end of chapter 17 and beginning of chapter 18 (makes me wonder if there’s uncut story content that would give further info on the betrayal or if this plot point was dropped and any potential story content related to it was removed or not even coded in at that point other than the battle stuff). We can assume from this that after Rodrigue’s death, there was probably going to be some falling out with Felix over the matter. Perhaps he would have stormed off or otherwise isolated himself and perhaps Annette would’ve gone to try and talk to him, I suppose. And at some point here Cornelia would’ve gotten to them and convinced them over to her side, probably poking at Felix’s grief to make him get revenge on Dimitri since it was Dimitri’s actions that contributed to Rodrigue’s death and also threatening Annette’s mother. At which point Felix and Annette probably disappear from the monastery (or their departure is made public with Dimitri and the others begging them not to leave before the vanish). At which point they’re faced at the monastery and either killed or they’re taken down and after the map there’s a conversation to re-recruit them (although I will admit those defeat quotes sound pretty “yup we’re dead now”). That’s my guess as to how this story line may have been planned to go.

Now let’s get into why this little story line was cut from the game. And boy are there a few good reasons as to why they would have cut this!

Let’s focus on story first. The aftermath of chapter 17 is supposed to be Dimitri hitting rock bottom. His mental health has been shot over the past five years, his obsession with his revenge on the empire is at its peak, only for his actions to end up resulting in the death of the man who was a second father to him and for him to be figuratively smacked across the face with the realization of what the cycle of revenge does and realize he’s doing nothing for himself and others if he continues down this path. This is supposed to be Dimitri’s waking up from a nightmare that’s plagued him for nearly a decade. It’s supposed to be the start of his redemption, his atonement for what he’s done and his promise to be better. Basically, things are supposed to be going better for Dimitri following chapter 17.

So having Felix and Annette betray the Blue Lions at this point doesn’t help. Especially to have them betray the Blue Lions and fight against them in the map that’s supposed to be freeing Fhirdiad and Dimitri becoming king again. If these two betrayed the Blue Lions at this point, it just takes away from Dimitri’s path to atonement and from what’s supposed to be an incredible victory and morale boost in retaking the capital. Like “congrats Dimitri you’ve finally realized what you did wrong and are determined to do better and congrats you’ve freed the capital of your kingdom from corrupt rule and can now finally take your place as king! Oh but sorry you had to kill off two of your friends, one of whom is one of your childhood friends. And related to said childhood friend, that means the entire Fraldarius family is dead now and you got to witness the death of three members of said family…Yay…” Like, if they pulled this off in the story, it would’ve done nothing for Dimitri’s mental health and would’ve made retaking Fhirdiad and Dimitri being king a bittersweet victory, which isn’t what the story needed. Retaking Fhirdiad and Dimitri getting the throne should be a big celebration and victory, a proper homecoming after all those years of suffering, which it is in canon. Dampening it with something as major as the betrayal of his friends, especially a friend who Dimitri’s known since he was a baby, does nothing for the story or the characters.

Furthermore, I can’t see such a betrayal working well with Felix and Annette. I may be misremembering but Annette’s concern for her mother and uncle was already addressed in a paralogue, I believe. Her uncle swore to look after her mother, and Annette accepted that. With Felix I feel like doing this for revenge goes against his character, specifically since one of his issues with Dimitri is the fact that Dimitri is focused on avenging the dead and in turn not focusing on the living left behind. I mean maybe Felix’s judgement could be clouded by grief following his dad’s death. But having him turn on the Blue Lions as revenge for his dead father when he spends a good part of the game and his supports with Dimitri focus on how much he hates that doesn’t work well.

That’s my big points regarding story. Now let’s get into why following this plot point would have been terrible in terms of gameplay.

First off, how would this have worked? Like, would Felix and Annette’s betrayal be fixed in the plot with no way to prevent it? Or would it have been that if you did certain paralogues or got a certain level of support it could be avoided? Neither options don’t really work too well because messing up would have hit the player HARD in this case. Let’s talk about Dedue. If you don’t do a pre-timeskip paralogue related to Dedue, then he is dead in the timekskip. If you do the paralogue, then he’s temporarily gone but comes back soon enough. The game gives you Gilbert too, who acts as a decent enough replacement whether you did the paralogue or not. Basically, the odds are decent that your gameplay won’t suffer much regardless of Dedue’s fate. This doesn’t work as well if this betrayal plot had gone down with Felix and Annette. First off, Annette’s a really good mage and Felix is an infamously broken unit. These are two incredibly good units and, if you’re on Blue Lions path, probably two of your main players. So making the players risk losing both of them at the same time without warning and really late into the game is a really shitty thing for the game to do. Especially since losing those two could bring a player’s playthrough of the path to a grinding halt. What if the player was someone who didn’t recruit other students, wanting to focus on Blue Lions students for their playthrough? What if the player is playing on classic mode and doesn’t wanna use the Divine Pulse to bring back characters? What if the player doesn’t have any suitable units to replace the loss of Felix and Annette or otherwise has potential replacements that are nowhere near high enough in terms of levels? Felix and Annette’s loss, assuming it’s permanent, could be devastating to that player’s save file of the game. Especially since, unlike with Dedue, the game doesn’t provide you two decent free replacements to make up for the potential loss.

Related, I don’t really like the idea of spending a lot of time on a character only for the game to potentially take them away from me without me being able to stop it. With Dedue it’s kinda iffy but I can deal with it since we do get a replacement character to use just in case and it is easily avoidable so long as you do the paralogue pre-timeskip. With Felix and Annette, there’s no idea if their betrayal is unavoidable or not. If it is avoidable, it’s still pretty hard to make the player risk losing three units (Dedue, Felix, and Annette). If it is unavoidable, then it’s incredibly shitty to make the player potentially waste around 17 chapters worth of time raising Felix and Annette only to forcibly take them away. And like I said before, taking two units away could be a terrible blow to a player, especially if the player didn’t recruit others that could take their place.

The thing is, I can see Felix and Annette betraying the Blue Lions working if it didn’t happen on the Blue Lions path. For example, if you’re playing on another route and didn’t recruit Felix and Annette, and maybe there’s a map where Felix and Annette don’t want to follow Dimitri’s path anymore and thus become potential ally units on a map against Dimitri?

I may have forgotten something, but those are my main thoughts on why the Felix and Annette betrayal plot wouldn’t have worked and why it was cut. It’s definitely understandable why it was cut and I’m glad it was cut too, even if there’s some nice angst potential.

------

notes from bae: these are all valid points & I completely agree. As interesting as it would've been (read: heartbreaking lmao) I think it would jumbled up the emotional aspect of the plot at chapter 17-18, potentially seeming as if it came out of nowhere. Thanks for submitting this, it's a really good analysis!

[preyedwolf-a-blog]

cant sleeb lemme ramble abt dimitri

[[MORE]]

dimitri's character arc is great but it has bad pacing i think... part 1 is great, getting hints that he's piecing together the mysteries about their enemy on his own (him secretly looking up info at the library, the dagger, etc.) sets up his breakdown later perfectly. his connection to edelgard is a well guarded secret, and so he doesn't have anyone to turn to about it when he starts making these discoveries so he can't handle it at the big reveal, it's great

fast forward five years, our protagonist meets him again and we see he's. not well, now. and he kinda demands you help him kill some thieves even though byleth shows some sympathy for them - he views them as subhuman and is kinda like 'ill do it with or without you' which is sorta suicidal.

his 'redemption' from this state is a foregone conclusion, we're just waiting to see how it's going to happen and if things will get worse before they get better. and they do, when rodrigue dies, but before then... things are just kinda stagnant. dimitri's become like this and he abandons his kingdom and refuses attempts to prioritize the kingdom over his bloodlust and he doesn't really suffer consequences for it until rodrigue dies which is quite a few chapters after the timeskip begins.

there's a choice which isn't really a choice to continue the goal of fighting the empire at enbarr vs taking back the kingdom at fhirdiad. later in the story, the choice to focus less on the empire and more on the kingdom is presented as the good choice, but at the time the question is posed to the player, opinions are divided amongst the characters present - dimitri seeks revenge, of course, but others make fair points about rhea more likely being at enbarr, etc. it feels to me that this might have originally been an actual choice that had the blue lions route split similar to the black eagles route splitting and it was cut? if the player's choice was the deciding factor, there, the chapters after might have involved drama with characters who are against the choice and stuff, idk.

what we get is dimitri wanting to stick with his quest for revenge and while a lot of characters are vocal about disagreeing with him, ultimately they're still very much loyal to him and like i said it's like there's not much consequences for dimitri's actions at this point.

it would have been so much more interesting is dimitri's drama had created this atmosphere of dissent amongst the team and possibly the kingdom as a whole. maybe nothing happens yet, but you get the feeling the straw that breaks the camel's back is coming soon. it only further fuels dimitri's want for isolation, to ignore the living around him for the dead in his mind which makes his relationships even more tense. then, rodrigue sacrifices himself for dimitri. dimitri and the player have been waiting all this time for felix or annette to turn on him or something similar, so to realize rodrigue's devotion was genuine is touching and heartbreaking.

anyway while dimitri's angsting without it affecting much goes on for a while, when it finally does come time for him to be redeemed it happens immediately. everyone's eager to have him on board again (partly bc it didnt seem like how he was before was a dealbreaker at all) and the survivors guilt he's been struggling with this whole time isn't a hindrance anymore and you can have tea parties with him again. the gang kinda does need him to hasten his getting it together bc they need their king but geez. a 'yea im still messed up but ill face it later' kinda thing at least would have helped...

i feel like it's maybe implied that dimitri ruthlessly killing bandits and dehumanising them and his other enemies isn't what he really wants/feels he just has to because. clinging to feelings toward edelgard made her betrayal sting so badly. he's going for an 'it gets easier' approach to killing, ykno, but what he really wants from edelgard isnt her head it's an explanation & that's what he does try to get in the end. but after years of training his mind to view murder as ok he should maybe struggle a bit more to revert... he even tells felix in his a support that he's both a 'beast' and a man which suggests to me that he's dealing with this duality more than the main story does 😔

[scratchface]

A guide to making Yusaku not avoid you

aka Part 3 of the Yusaku character analysis

So, breakdawn-avenue asked, triggering this whole massive series: “have you ever received an ask about Yusaku’s character development? like the one you got for Revolver / Ryoken’s development? because I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that Yusaku, who was kind of pushing people away in season 1 (looking at Blue Angel and Go Onizuka, finds Naoki seemingly annoying as frigg), to not get in his way (of revenge), now accepts Takeru (all of a sudden, seemingly) allying with him to go after Haru’s group (and retrieve Jin’s conscious)”

We’ve covered Yusaku’s isolation and how he’s pretty much holding out for his special person, and we’ve covered who Yusaku is and why he’s like this. Now we’re finally ready to answer the question: why does Yusaku accept Takeru, when he’s never wanted to deal with the others? 

Well, Takeru did everything right, where the others goofed up. In actuality, for Yusaku, it was probably a no-brainer, and here’s why!

We already established Yusaku’s evolving approval and disapproval to involving others in his business, starting with his need to do things on his own to the accepting that others want to fight, to watching others fail, and the ultimate discarding of his hesitation and the no doubt uncomfortable knowledge that when if he’s asked to chose between his mission and a person’s life, he should chose the mission every time. All the more reason to push others away.

But enter Takeru, who gets accepted as a partner relatively easily. 

There are three keys to Yusaku’s favor. I call these the impression, the interview, and the resume.

1. The first impression a person makes on Yusaku.

The show establishes from the get-go how important first impressions are to Yusaku; within 5 minutes of meeting Naoki, Yusaku has analyzed him completely. The final conclusion is important: Yusaku deems that Naoki is not a bad guy. Considering Yusaku’s history and the dangerous life he leads, it’s highly likely Yusaku does this to everyone he meets in order to judge if they are a threat.

Aoi, Go, Ema, and Akira make some very poor first impressions:

Aoi, running away from Hanoi, establishing herself as someone that needs rescue. Then, both desperate for the spotlight, Aoi and Go challenge Yusaku and makes asses of themselves.

Imagine you’re a cyber-vigilante, just had a major victory over a dangerous enemy threatening the entire game, and at the end of the battle wrestler and an idol jump in you face screaming “Fight me!!!”. Unsurprisingly, Yusaku is not amused. Aoi then fails the IRL first impression as well, establishing that she’s not going to be useful as a source of info on SOL. And useful is absolutely what Yusaku is looking for.

Then Go and Aoi try to set themselves up as rivals for Playmaker. To Yusaku, Aoi and Go = antagonistic right from the start. Then Yusaku first meets Ema when she sets up a trap for him and gives him over to Akira to be tortured, which establishes her as untrustworthy and Akira as unreasonable. Ema and Akira = antagonistic.

There’s a pattern here. All the minor characters of season 1 established themselves as antagonistic to Yusaku from the get go, and while Yusaku easily forgives anyone not associated with the Hanoi, that doesn’t mean he forgets. From the start, these characters are already too unreliable and aggressive towards him to be considered trustworthy. Let’s say it takes a shit ton of rapport to be Yusaku’s friend, like maybe encouraging him for six months and saving his life and giving him the strength to survive. These guys all start with, like, negative rapport.

And these first impressions set their roles for season 2, as well. If you look where everyone stood early in season 1 and compare them to season 2, you find their allegiances are all nearly identical: Yusaku is on his own side, and the other’s are on SOL’s, either by hire or through their loyalty to Akira.

Now, contrast Takeru’s introduction scene to the other’s.

The first impression? Takeru nailed it. At a time when Yusaku really needed a hand, Takeru popped up and offered to take the heat off his back and allowed him to refocus on the mission at hand with zero catch. Not only was what Takeru did helpful, it was helpful in a way that is personally significant to Yusaku. Yusaku has shown in the past that the way to earn his gratitude is to not try and complete his mission for him (like Akira tried to), but to support him in a way that allows him to complete the mission easier (like Go, when he fought Revolver and revealed Mirror Force). That’s exactly what Takeru’s first impression comes down to, and leads us to the second key.

2. Don’t get in-between Yusaku and the mission, aka the interview

Once again, all the other characters failed this, really bad. They have continually interfered with, hampered, and questioned Yusaku’s mission. This is absolutely a guaranteed way to piss Yusaku off, and makes them unappealing as allies.

They also continue to be antagonistic, even on the occasions they are trying to help. After their less than stellar introduction, Go and Aoi start messing with the mission by challenging Yusaku and working with SOL and (unwillingly) Hanoi. Aoi is particularly insistent that she will “be the one to beat Playmaker!”; for Aoi, that’s just a matter of her pride and getting attention, but dueling is very different for Yusaku. For Yusaku, a loss would probably be completely debilitating and endanger his ability to complete his mission, his last resort in a lifetime of misery. This mindset doesn’t exactly endear Aoi to Yusaku. 

In fact, Yusaku has little to no reason to even like these people (except, maybe Go), let alone trust them. 

But the only one’s Yusaku hates are Hanoi. Yusaku wants to keep a “friendly” relationship with them all (which means they stay out of his way), but they all make that very difficult. Remember when the Tower of Hanoi becomes a thing, and how everyone thought, finally, they’re a team? But that team-up was a disaster: I have a whole post about how Aoi and Go hindered Yusaku. Not only were they unhelpful, but they got killed, and in doing so, justified Yusaku’s choice to work alone.

Yusaku blatantly pointed out that he didn’t want to involved others in their quest lest they get themselves killed. And that’s exactly what happened. That’s part of the reason why Aoi’s offense at being rejected is so ridiculous: if anything, their previous interactions have given Yusaku less reason to work with Aoi and Akira, not more.

Now, again consider Takeru.

Takeru’s IRL first impression is just as strong, compared to say, Aoi’s. He presents himself openly and almost professionally, focusing on the matter of the Ignis, the Incident, and the destruction of the Cyberse. Right from the start, he establishes that he’s an ally and then backs it up. Then, he and Flame give Yusaku plenty of information about himself and his motivations, leading to eventually asking for help. This is, like, the textbook technique for building rapport with someone you just met and want to work with you. 

And they respect that Yusaku has different priorities. After establishing that their goals coincide, Takeru’s focus on the mission no doubt appealed to Yusaku.

He shows he can prioritize and is invested in the task, which is something Yusaku clearly shows he admires about Kusanagi and therefore looks for in his partnerships.

Takeru’s not a burden, he never gets in the way, and he’s been on board from the moment they met. All of Yusaku’s current goals seemingly coincide with his. Takeru introduced himself as someone who wants to help, and can help. 

3. The history, aka the resume

To connect with Yusaku, you have to get over than goddamn abyss. That means you have to understand and know his pain, have felt the pain yourself.You have to be the one reaching out to Yusaku too, because Yusaku does not initiate connection. After all, we know it was not Yusaku that initiated his partnership with Kusanagi. If someone wants in, they have to both make the offer and back it up with real skills, such as Kusanagi. 

To be fair, Takeru might cheat the abyss, considering he’s also a victim. But when Yusaku and Takeru first make eye contact, we can hear a connection. Then Takeru mentions “confronting his life” which is something Yusaku understands. For Yusaku, the whole series has been about confronting his past and his destiny. 

These two can relate to each other in ways other’s don’t. Takeru clearly sees a lot of himself in Yusaku, saying “Like Playmaker, dueling was my life” and stuff like that. And when speaking with Blue Girl and Ghost Girl, Takeru feels comfortable speaking on behalf of Yusaku as well, without needing to confirm how he feels about SOL and the offer of help. These two feel like they can understand each other due to their shared trauma and suffering. 

And knowing Takeru’s pain, Yusaku can’t turn him away like the others. Takeru has just as much right to be involved as he does.

So Takeru was the one that suggested they work together, directly. He made the right impression, he brought the right resume, he aced the interview. Takeru got the “job” in a very logical way, just by building rapport with Yusaku and proving his dedication  and his value to the mission. For Yusaku, it really was an easy decision to make. But does he trust Takeru? I would argue that he doesn’t yet. 

Now, we’ve done Yusaku’s character and lack of friends in three parts. There’s just a few more questions.

Why did some of us think Yusaku would ever work with Go and Aoi and the others anyway, and why was that wrong?

Because, often in YuGiOh, dueling makes friends, and Vrains uses this expectation to mislead. It’s been a theme from as early as the first season, and has been pretty consistent since: Duel Monsters in a fun game, people enjoy dueling each other, they end up being friends. But Yusaku doesn’t like dueling, and he only wants to do it to fight Hanoi. And this is where Vrains plays with the audience’s expectations, starting with Go’s duel with Playmaker. Go forces Yusaku to duel him, something Yusaku is clearly not pleased about. But then Go goes out of his way to make the duel interesting for both the audience and his opponent, and earns a little of Yusaku’s respect, enough that Yusaku decides to see the duel through after all. From here we think the show will follow the same pattern as the others, because this seems like the start of Yusaku making friends and allies through dueling.

Outside of Vrains, the set up of the Duel Club further convinces the audience of this. We think, through his mission to investigate SOL through Akira and Aoi and how it takes him to the Duel Club, that this will be how Yusaku makes friends IRL. Aoi even comes to talk to him. 

And then Vrains reminds us that Yusaku doesn’t give a shit about any of that, and that friends is absolutely not the goal here: Yusaku is only focused on the mission. 

Is Yusaku lonely? Yes and no. It’s complicated. Yusaku doesn’t want friends, he wants a specific friend.

Ever since Ryoken crossed the abyss ten years ago, he’s been number 1 in Yusaku’s life. Yusaku has been dreaming of his voice for ten years, searching for a person he never even saw, and relies of his memory to get through his life. The special person is Yusaku’s answer to his problems of needing help, of being lonely, of having a friend. 

Nobody else in the series even competes. Considering the messy, nasty interactions Yusaku has had with them all, it’s no surprise not even the Tower of Hanoi could forge a friendship between them. And even if the other characters hadn’t failed the key steps, they probably still wouldn’t get far with Yusaku, because Yusaku has been reserving all that for one person.

Will Takeru be able to change that? 

[frederickabberline]

Hi! I loved your recap post about your thoughts on the current arc. :) I rambled in the tags about the few things I personally interpreted differently but I had a few questions about some parts of the arc you didn't address if that's okay? What do you make about Tanaka's apparent lack of surprise about the twin in ch130 and what do you consider Lizzie's role to be exactly regarding the blue sect? Lastly if we consider that the guy who killed Agni was Polaris, why do you think he was so strong?

Thank you so much!!! Yes, I saw, and I was going to reblog with your tags to respond because I need discussion on my points so I can refine them, but since you’ve sent me an ask I’ll do it here -

I absolutely agree on the twins looking like Cloudia and that being what Othello is referring to, but I don’t think I mentioned it (because it didn’t feel relevant to the post and it wasn’t something I could back up). As for the lockets, I’m not sure about Gilbert either but I go with that date because it’s so close to Albert’s death. In the case that it was during the 80s, then there’s a couple of other dates that it could line up with, but… We’ll see. As for Emile, I don’t mean to imply that he was definitely a citizen of France. After all, Druitt is French, and by extension, Redmond has French ties, but I wouldn’t consider Redmond himself French, right? I should have been clearer about that.

I’ve also been assuming that Grelle would theoretically recognise UT based on a multitude of factors such as his scythe, height, weight, hair colour and length, extraordinarily pretty face, possibly even his voice after he dropped the act during Campania, and the fact that if she knew somebody matching this general description and skill level who had deserted, it wouldn’t take much to put the pieces together, provided Dispatch isn’t bleeding out like fifty new deserters every year or something. Lastly, they only started this method of blood collection this summer, if you recall that they’re attached to the Phoenix society who had that hospital and all those slaves and ex-patients who were experimented on by Rian and UT, they had access to a lot of people before this point. It was only this summer that they had to drop the hospital, too, since I’ll bet that operation has collapsed following Campania.

Moving on!

To be honest, I’m not sure if I’m really worth asking about these things, because I have a very limited focus and my method of analysis is a) does it relate to something that happened or was mentioned in the anime b) does it relate to a real life event c) can I see a pattern otherwise d) is it to do with William or the other reapers. I’m in the dark as to what’s going to happen with Lizzie, she’s not “my division”, so to speak, and neither is Polaris;;; I know you don’t really jive with the anime as a source material, I checked your blog, but I still reeaaallly want to point you to [my very long post] about the parallels, because it’s where I come from as a theorist even if it’s a weird way to go about it. I respect that others don’t view it the same way, but it’s my grounding, you know?

But I’ll start with Polaris, just to also say I have literally no clue who the other lords are, none whatsoever, not the foggiest. No clue where they came from or why Blavat has them (or rather, they have Blavat,). I’m not sold on them being characters we already know, but that’s only because I really have no idea who they could be. I do think Polaris is the one who killed Agni. Now, if John Brown is supernatural (which, he is, let’s be real) then Polaris can’t be John Brown, as Polaris is receiving blood and is therefore most likely human, unless one of the Vega twins actually has the blood type Polaris is supposed to have, and so the blood collected for him is going to one of them, but that’s just too convoluted at this point.

Polaris…. could be the being who collected RC’s body, which I think is that cloaked figure, but… Well, the supernatural thing comes up again. Because Sebastian killed every human. (…and there’s a part of me without concrete evidence that suspects the figure to be John Brown anyway…)

If he isn’t supernatural, then we have a collection of very strong humans so far as well, and if he’s been brought back to life then he could have been physically enhanced as well. Like Agni is so strong because he was so dedicated to Soma, and perhaps Polaris has a similar thing going on, maybe that’s his whole deal too? I’ve not really thought about it.

I also haven’t really thought about Lizzie, but she’s definitely being used as a pawn by whoever is running the Blue Sect. Probably it’s worth noting that this is the same arc we see Othello, so named because of that game of pieces switching sides. It’s an isolation tactic against OC, and my personal belief is this arc has a good chance of leading to him becoming isolated, confused about his revenge, and stripped of his title as he was near the end of the anime. I don’t know if that will definitely happen at the end of this arc, but I think this arc has a good chance of being at least one of the factors that would lead to this. Lizzie survived the anime, but then again so did Agni, so her becoming mortally wounded isn’t out of the question. Either way, isolation tactic, and her being a good guard is probably a side benefit for the Blue Sect.

Tanaka, however, I can get into! He knows so much! This is where I get anime on you again and point out that he knew the entire time who killed Vincent and didn’t say anything to Ciel because it was against Vincent’s wishes. Further, Tanaka and Ash were on friendly terms, even if it was just a one-off gag. Tea with the enemy. Same thing revealing itself here, Tanaka is very aware of the truth at all times but he keeps it all to himself because he’s got a strict non-interference policy. I think he wants the twins to live truthfully, at that, based on his being so active in wanting OC to slowly and gently heal in the Green Witch arc. He knew OC wasn’t RC, he knew this was the facade falling down, and he wanted it to stay on course. Based on that same non-interference vibe, though, I don’t think he’ll explicitly take RC’s side against OC except in the matter of RC technically being master of the house (and therefore commanding his service). I can’t see him attacking OC, is what I mean. 

Tanaka has seen the deaths of Vincent, Cloudia, and RC, even if RC is technically back, that makes it three generations he’s watched fall. The Phantomhive butler cannot die before their master indeed. This is the point where I point out that Alex B.’s locket puts his death date (1854 April 20) as not only just a couple of years before the Second Opium War, but the same year Japan was forcibly opened to trade with America (that part of the expedition was 13 February 1854 ~ 11 July 1854, with the treaty that opened trade happening on March 31). Tanaka is so related to all of this, he’s inextricably woven into this whole political mess that the twins are inheriting, but he’s so secretive that we only have a sliver of the full story regarding him. In short, it would be more surprising for him to be (openly) surprised, because there’s no way he hasn’t known to some degree what’s been going on, and he’s maybe hoping that what’s happening now will be a solution.

[andryuska]

What's andrei's guiding philsophy? How well does he adhere to it?

what is andrei’s guiding philosophy?

andrei’s main philosophy ( up until he is wounded in 1812 ) is that the value and good of people / actions / things are found in their capacity to produce effective and favorable results. the consequences of an action determine whether it is good or bad, rather than the action itself ---- the worth of a person is determined by their ability to have an effective impact on something important. nothing inherently has its own value, and is essentially useless unless it is able to create an effect of some sort. this of course means that his own value is also found in his usefulness as a person, which is partially responsible for those constant notions he has that he’s failing and he can’t find a purpose in life ---- most of his pursuits end up producing no effective results, and so he labels himself a failure and finds himself contemptuous and unhappy.

this gets mixed in with a very large desire for privacy and isolation. he likes to be alone, and he is very apathetic towards others in society, as they really don’t produce anything of value to him, so he takes on the opinion that the best way for him to live is to live for himself ---- he doesn’t concern himself with matters outside his household ( as he considers his family as a part of ‘ himself ’ ) but rather focuses on his own life and his own usefulness. combined, his focus on consequences and his desire to live for himself create a sort of philosophy that is almost amoral in the conventional sense. he doesn’t adhere to the notion that there is an overarching ‘ good ’ and ‘ evil ’ but instead sees the value of these things in how they effect him individually.

the best chapter for his dominant philosophy is in book v, when he speaks to pierre after having returned from his capture at austerlitz, and the two get into somewhat of a debate on the ethics of his lifestyle.

“ i only know two very real evils in life: remorse and illness. the only good is the absence of those evils. ” ( tolstoy, 410 )

andrei’s two evils are effectively the two things that he believes can make one useless beyond their control ( i’ll leave out the fact that he thinks some people are simply incompetent ), and in being absent these evils, he’s capable of doing things. note that, while when he’s injured, he falls into a depression and pretty much takes a big leap into intense disillusionment, which cuts him off from a lot of his passion. and later one, in his remorse for the loss of natasha’s hand, he stops most of his efforts to enact real change in the russian system through his rewriting of the military codes, and instead devotes himself to seeking revenge on anatole. the two evils drive a sense of failure in him, which make him very unhappy.

as to living for himself, he simply sees that as a means to being most effective in ridding his life of illness and remorse, as not to again fall into uselessness. note as well that illness and remorse as used with very lose meanings ; illness can incorporate both injury and mental illness ( i headcanon that andrei has social anxiety and ptsd, both of which make him feel inadequate ), and remorse can be for any kind of loss ---- death, disconnection, loss of an interest, and so on.

some other examples; when pierre talks about freeing the serfs and educating them, andrei says immediately that doing so would lead to unfavorable results. putting aside the somewhat aristotelian argument for the innateness of social positions, andrei basically says that educating the serfs would lead to their mental torment, and would produce no good ---- they would be like him, kept up at all hours, unable to sleep as they are too caught up in their thoughts, and they’d become useless. he says likewise that if he himself were a serf, he’d be useless as he’d collapse under the difficulty of the labor. basically, this is an argument for people’s use being found in their ability to effectively perform their jobs ---- serfs doing labor, and nobility like himself writing legal codes at that time.

similarly, andrei makes an argument for the killing of prisoners of war, and states that he really had no trouble with being merciless to captures soldiers. this is because they’re essentially of no use, and only deplete the military’s supply, so they ought to be returned or killed, because doing either of these would produce the most effective results. killing prisoners of war, of course, in itself is not generally regarded as good, but because of his philosophy, andrei would have no problem doing it, because it’s about results, not actions in themselves.

another really good quote to strengthen that notion of andrei’s lack of care for good and bad in itself;

“ it is not given to man to know what is right and what is wrong. men always did and always will err and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong. ” ( tolstoy, 410 )

this shows the opposite side of the coin, in a way, in showing what andrei does not believe in ---- the absolutely of things being right or being wrong. to him, the very notion that a person or action in itself can be good or bad is kind of ridiculous, because the qualities that make something’s goodness are their ability to produce that favorable result. saying something is good in itself is like saying a glass, for example is just good as it is ---- andrei would counter with the argument that a glass is good in its capacity to hold liquid. it has not inherent value, and people shouldn’t assume that anything does, because they’ll probably mess up.

how well does he adhere to it?

by this account, we can assume that in terms of actions, andrei should be guided by the principal that actions should be done only if they produce effective results, and avoided otherwise. anything that is useless or creates unfavorable consequences ( remorse or illness ) should not be done, because doing it has no inherent value, and its results are just as bad. and when there might be mixed results, one should act in accordance to which results will be more prominent. the example we’re going to use: going to war.

based on andrei’s philosophy, people should not go to war, and he himself certainly should try to avoid active service. this is because war produces an incredible amount of both illness and remorse, and the political results, even if russia wins, are probably not worth the suffering undertaken in the process ---- he even says to pierre that he wouldn’t go back into active service, even if the french marched on bald hills ( except eventually ---- he does just that. but we’ll get back to that in a minute ).

the only time it would be permissible to go to war, then, is when the benefit of the victory or the reason for the cause are important enough that they outweigh the evils they cause. they would have to be what i would call “ absolute causes ” ---- you would die fighting them, because the favorable results far outweigh the unfavorable ones. so, the political wars the russia and france fight are both wars that andrei does not believe in, and does not think they should be fighting, because he’s certain that very few would actually willing die for the war ---- and those who do die do so in vain, as their deaths do not produce good results, generally.

so why does andrei go to war when france invades? for the same reason that he’s generally very bad at adhering to his philosophy: because there are social and familial obligations that demand him to do things even if they do no produce favorable results, and invite illness and remorse into his life. his father has expectations for his actions that don’t necessarily go along with what he thinks is good. there’s a certain level of pride and patriotism that drive him to defend his country, despite what he thinks of it. and andrei is actually pretty impulsive, and though would like the adhere to this very logically driven philosophy, he’d pretty prone to emotional decision making ---- which is something of himself that he really does not like, but nonetheless, doesn’t know how to change.

so, even though his philosophy should prevent him from doing things like going to war, falling in love with people he probably shouldn’t fall in love with, and seeking revenge on those who have wronged him, he does it anyway, and he kind of hates himself for it. andrei proclaims early on that he’s a failure, and i think that belief he has of himself is consistent through the entirety of his life. it’s not just a failure to be effective and useful ---- it’s a failure to adhere to his convictions and beliefs as well. he speaks very strongly of things, and consistently fails to follow through on them in a successful way.

tl;dr, andrei 1) cares about the consequences of actions and not the actions themselves, 2) thinks actions should only be taken if they do not produce remorse or illness, and 3) is not very good at adhering to this belief.

a note on quotes: i am using the oxford university press publication, tranlsated by louise and aylmer maude.

[andryuska]

🔥 + the fandom's interpretation of andrei

send  🔥 + a topic for an unpopular opinion ( accepting )

where do i even fucking begin? okay, there are a lot of not so good interpretations of andrei through the great comet fandom ( which is what i’m gonna focus on, the war and peace book fandom is pretty good ) and so i think my unpopular opinion on them is that they just… exist at all, tbh. like, the source material ( literally just one song ) is not exactly great at portraying the depths of andrei, i get that, but there are some ways that it’s taken that are totally off the mark and it really bothers me. i’m gonna put the general things here and you can read more if you want to, because i have a lot to say about a few particular things: first, andrei is not a villain, second, andrei had every right to refuse to forgive natasha and this should not be seen as a malicious action on his part ( because it fucking isn’t ), and third, ( in a bit of a different direction ) andrei and natasha would not have had a good marriage. explanations under the cut.

andrei is not a villain. he’s not. it’s just not a thing, he’s not a villainous character and when he’s malicious it’s because he’s trying to contain a very deep grief through repression, and because he grew up in a household where expressing emotions was not okay ( especially for andrei, who was being molded by his father into a very traditional and unhealthy image of masculinity ), he ‘s trying to suppress those emotions. the way he knows how to do that? by being cold and very standoffish, and then by just completely refusing to talk about it.

when pierre comes to see andrei, andrei refused to see him at first, and is engaged in a debate about politics. while he and pierre talk, andrei is reserved and pretty much just pushes away every emotional question. he says he can’t forgive her, and that’s it, that’s the end of the story, he doesn’t want to talk about it, and the way he expresses it is almost forceful because that’s the person he’s been told to be by traditional russian society ( via his father ). when he tells pierre to go and to never speak to him of the matter again, it’s about avoiding questions. and after that, you’ll note, he and pierre relationship as friends is essentially over, because andrei has just buried himself so deep in repression and this desire for revenge against anatole ( to defend honor and because he’s understandably upset ) that friendship won’t do anything. andrei self isolates, but it is NOT out of a desire to be malicious or evil. it’s just a thing that he does, that is unhealthy and comes off kind of badly when you don’t have the whole context of the rest of his reaction.

further, and there’s a post out there somewhere about this but i’m not going to dig it up, when he “ smiles coldly [and] maliciously ” it’s not because he’s happy about hearing natasha’s in bad shape - he most certainly is not. rather, he’s trying to push thing away, and again it comes off as kind of horrible, even if that is in no way his intention. you gotta remember, andrei is not very adequate socially, he’s not good at these emotional cues, and so sometimes the right expression just won’t translate. expressing grief with a sort of pained smile is one such miscalculation, in my opinion, and it shouldn’t be taken as an expression of actual and intentional malice toward natasha.

andrei had every right to refuse to forgive natasha and this should not be seen as a malicious action on his part. my mom kind of put this in perspective for me when i told her about great comet, and it basically goes like this: andrei doesn’t have to forgive natasha, because even though it’s sad, and even though we sympathize with natasha and know she made a mistake and was definitely manipulated in some degree by anatole, she still fucking cheated on him. as far as andrei knows, she had every intention of going through with her elopement and she refused him very much on her own volition. the complexities of those actions are known to us, but they are not known to andrei, and again. she cheated on him, no matter the motivation behind it, and so he has every right not to forgive her because of that.

also important is that in refusing her, andrei is not acting maliciously ( imagine me, having to clarify this again and again ) against natasha, but acting in accordance with his own grief, and with the sense of betrayal that’s come with her refusing him. no matter the circumstances of their relation from his perspective, which i will get in to in the next section, what she did hurt him a lot, and he has every right to respond to that pain with not wanting to forgive her immediately and reconcile their relationship. take what happened and put it in another story, and we’d all be agreeing with andrei, not having this discussion about the ethics of refusing to reconcile your betrothal with someone who very much intended to refuse you for another man despite having already promised marriage. 

( all of you who made it this far: thanks for putting up with me, and be warned that this next one is the unpopular opinion that is probably the most controversial. )

andrei and natasha would not have had a good marriage. listen, i know it’s nice to think about them living in a happy marriage with each other and all of their problems being solved, but it wouldn’t work out. whether you count in the anatole drama or not, they just wouldn’t have been able to sustain happiness together. there are reasons on both sides for this, but this unpopular opinion is about andrei, so i’m going to focus on why he wouldn’t have been happy marrying natasha. that’s not to say they did not love each other: andrei loves natasha lot, even after she refuses him, and he is indeed very invested in her happiness and would do a lot of things for her. he loves her unquestionably, but that does not necessarily make up the basis of a happy marriage when there are other factors at play. so here we go;

exhibit a: before he leaves, when he asks for her hand and when she says yes, he already suddenly loses a lot of the hope that he has. like, she says yes, and he suddenly clues into her faults and starts to forget that very temporary bout of happiness he has after otradnoe. it’s not natasha’s fault, it’s just who andrei is: he has a disillusionment deeply ingrained in him, and the moment he gets too close, the moment he can lift the veil of ignorance, he’s going to find faults and its going to make him unhappy, and it’s a pervasive problem: much earlier on, he says to pierre that he can’t sleep because he has all these intellectual burdens, and that applies just as much to marriage.

this is because andrei is not so cool with the idea of marriage itself. there are some sexist reasons ( which i do not condone and completely downplay here, because tolstoy was a dick and i’m not making that a part of my portrayal ) and more importantly here, there are some objections to the “ consequences ” of marriage that andrei has. namely, a life that is heavily focused on inaction and society, one wherein people talk about political affairs and military operations as though they’re games, when it fact they’re something he sees as an enormous tragedy and failing of mankind, that should not be taken likely. he feels useless when he’s married ( see: his very bad marriage to lise ) and marrying natasha, regardless of love, wouldn’t change that.

exhibit b: andrei and natasha are fundamentally different people that, though in the early stages of their relationship, might be okay, would not have led to a long term happiness between them. andrei has a very cynical view of the world and of other people, he does not enjoy things in society, and he is intensely intellectual and judgmental and harsh to those who cannot necessarily keep up with that intellect. natasha is wonderful, and i love her, but she and andrei couldn’t have kept their happiness up for long because andrei would inevitable become disillusioned with her, and then likely get bored and end up miserable again. not because he would fall out of love, but just because they’re not exactly that compatible. andrei needs someone in the long term who can not only offset his cynicism, but can also fight against it, and who also has at least enough similar interests that they’ll never lack for intellectual conversation. because, after all, andrei does not do talk about emotions and other people very well, he needs that political and intellectual side as well, and for all the things she does have, natasha doesn’t really have that.

there’s also the thing about natasha being very young and still quite inexperienced whereas andrei has had a lot of very terrible experiences and some difficult trauma from them, and the fact that they cannot seem to keep up their relationship with separation, which is something that would have happened a lot in their marriage - whether he wanted it or not, andrei would have been going away frequently. so, while there’s a lot of points for their relationship, like that love and affection, it doesn’t exactly lend itself to something long term and sustainable.

tl:dr: their marriage would have been a bit of a mess, and probably would have caused them both unhappiness even if they continued to love each other.

anyway, i guess i should conclude that long, completely unedited rant with a saying that if you have a different opinion, that’s fine, this is just the interpretation that i take from having read the book. if you want to hear more anger ranting about andrei, i actually do have more opinions, so send me that ask with the same topic and i will continue, i promise. otherwise, um, thanks for putting up with me and my bitterness.