#no i'm clearly not watching jack the giant slayer for the first time and thinking about how gorgeous he is

[enigmaticsal]

Nicholas Hoult. What a man WHEW 🥵🥰🙄

[m-to-the-6th-power]

The more things change

Okay so I’ve had this idea for years but I’ve never been able to do it 

“Ram the Blade Ship,” Were the last words Jake Berenson ever expected to say, at least after the war had ended. It had always been an option there, in the part of him that he couldn’t ever admit was there until that day all those years ago, the part that would win by any means necessary. He swallowed thickly as he felt the acceleration under his feet and he saw the Blade Ship jump closer in less than a second. He slammed his hands forward onto the console as his heart leapt into his throat, preparing his tiger morph in the back of his mind on the off chance this didn’t kill all of them.

As the ships began their collision he heard it, that voice that wasn’t Ax’s but still felt like hearing his voice but with all of Visser 3 and Crayaks malice, “Time is cyclical Yeerk-Slayer, everything repeats!”

As the Drode watched the Rachel begin collision, he looked over at his newest recruit, pausing time before moving his head to indicate the ship . “They’re really commited to this, I do wonder what dear Jake is planning, I can’t imagine what would make him this reckless.”

The being next to him snarled, shaggy brown fur bunching tighter around her shoulders as her hands came up to plunge into the threads that only her and the Drode could interact with, letting time resume. “Fuck you Barney,” She snarled, tossing her molten gold hair over her shoulder as she pulled to the side with her entire weight, just barely able to move the necessary threads even with all her strength. “Not today cousin, I'm the only one allowed to be that recklessly stupid.”

OoOoOoO

Jake felt the impact, he saw rather than felt the first bloom of fire as something between the two ships ignited from the sparks. He began his tiger morph without really thinking about it, as he saw everything working in slow motion until he heard a voice in the back of his head. He couldn’t place it before the world seemed to lurch suddenly to the right. The explosion still rocking the ship as it flew past the Blade Ship and then, darkness. Darkness and the faintest sound 'Not today cousin.’

When Jake awoke, he saw the rest of his rag-tag crew laying on the deck, bruised and bleeding but, hopefully, stable. When he sat up he saw the outside wasn’t the empty void of space but a sparsely populated forest. He started making the rounds, feeling every day of his only 21 years as he started moving around, rousing his team and trying to make sure everyone was okay. Still trying to shake the feeling of that sound, his gut churning.

He went to Tobias first, heart in his throat as he saw the human form laying on the bridge, chest rising and falling easily even with the nasty gash on his forehead. As he glanced down at his watch he sobered immediately. The time had clearly clicked over the two hour limit from just the time since they’d approached the One. Jake knew that Tobias was trapped now, trapped again.

“Hey Tobias,” Jake started, pushing down his guilt and the rage at himself, putting his best In-Control face on, shaking Tobias. “Come on Tobias, wake up,” Jake said as he saw the young mans eyes begin to flutter open. “We lived, but we gotta get up and rolling soon.”

Tobias groaned as he sat up, staring at Jake through slitted eyes, “This reminds me of that time we all decided to get that giant bottle of Jack Daniels,” Tobias says as his body changes, his hawk form becoming apparent even as Jake gaped, the transformation finishing quickly. {I was still hungover as a hawk the next day somehow, I didn’t know that was even possible.}

Jake squashed his surprise at seeing Tobias still able to morph and, after checking that the morph had healed any residual damage, went to wake the rest of the crew. Everyone else was able to heal any issues with a quick morph, except Menderash who had luckily escaped unharmed.

Menderash moved to the controls as soon as he was up and moving, and opened the door to the outside, nodding towards the door as the scent of rich jungle life hits everyone. “Think we should go exploring?”

Jake nodded, mutely headed to the door before time seemed to freeze as Rachel stood in front of them, blonde hair and splendor still as integral to her as she stood in the door way casually grinning at him. He stopped as his heart seemed to freeze inside his chest, finally understanding the meaning of what he heard before everything changed. “R-Rachel?” He asked breathlessly, feeling every eye on him, knowing without looking that Tobias is expecting an imposter just as much as Jake himself is.

{No,} The person in the door says, the voice seeming to make everyone in the ship jump in surprise. {I am not your kin Yeerk-Slayer. I hoped that this form would be the most comfortable to all of you, everyone on our planet knows of Rachel Berenson, the Elegant Berserker. She was something of a legend here during your fight against the Yeerks.}

Jake snarled, rage overflowing, beginning to lunge forward before Marco wraps both his arms around Jakes middle, pulling him back. “How dare you?” Jake snarls, reaching forward to the visage of his dead cousin, his mouth formed into a rictus of hate, “How dare you defile the dead by stealing her image? Let her stay dead damn you.”

{Peace Jacob,} The imposter says as she changes in the blink of an eye from the form of Rachel to a teenage girl with dirty blonde hair and swarthy skin. {I only came to warn you that we found your prodigal team member in the middle of the city, Aximili, and to lead you to him. He landed at around the same time you did, with a nasty gash and more than a few wounds that we don’t want to try to treat until we had others who knew the technology. My name is Lauren.}

Jake nodded dumbly, the adrenaline still pumping in his veins making him nearly mute as relief washed over him as the realization that Ax must have been freed somehow finally clicks. “Do… do you know what happened? With Ax I mean, he was possessed, do you know what happened to get him out of it?”

Lauren shook her head, {We have no real solid evidences to what happened. He shows many signs of having been possessed by the One, but those possessions have yet to end with anything short of death.} Lauren jumped out of the ship, starting to lead the way as she kept ‘calling’ behind her, {He also shows signs of tampering by both Crayak and Toomin, the one I believe you know as Ellimist. It would truly take both of them exerting pressure to save even a single being from the One.}

Jake nods, jumping out of the ship and starting to jog after her. As soon as everyone was out of the ship, time seemed to ripple like a heatwave around the humans present. Jake felt his back stiffen, knowing that morphing was pointless against any creature coming to speak to them. “Speak of the devil,” Jake says, sneering as he turns to face the new enemy standing in front of all of them. Standing tall and regal, hair like molten gold falling to her shoulders covered in a shaggy pelt of fur that covered her like a cloak, Jake absorbed all this in a moment before the face registered. “Damn all of you, won’t any of you just let her stay dead?” Jake asks, anguish clear in his tone.

“Nice to see you too cousin,” The figure drawls slowly, a grin forming that Jake recognized as completely unique to his cousin. “Although you keep using that word, I don’t think it means what you think it means.”