#only when the passengers leave the plane will they notice how destroyed the outside is

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

What’s with everyone thinking of Zhongli looking tired so frequently someone give him another hug pls

Very VERY heavy foreshadowing??? Is the crash-but-not-exactly going to happen soon????? Also Qiqi is still so adorable istg (Picking up my pen again as we speak)

heheh

[smokahuntis]

Tempestas

Tempestas

Word count: I don’t know, medium length?

Warnings: Angst, Mentions is blood, Reader injury, violence. Little fluff, if you really look for it. Mentions of death

Summery: (Y/N)/ Tempestas, is an ex Mandolorian who crashes while doing a delivery, everyone thought she was dead. Until 6 years later they get a mysterious message.

Key words

Alibine- Readers ship

Wraith- readers race

Tempestas- Latin word for storm and code name for the reader

Authors note: I made us a species for this world, also I wrote this at 4 am, and it’s my first story in here. I hope you like It!

Chapter 2: Tonitrua

Chapter 3: Fulgur



Delicate fingers started flipping on the switches to the Alibine, as (Y/N) entered the vicinity of Nevvaro city. Her communications lit up as the helmet of the Mandolorian Armorer showed in blue on her dash.

“I’m near Nevvaro, I should touch down soon,” the cold blooded girl said as she kept flipping a yellow switch that wouldn’t turn off.

“How many did you get?” The Armorer asked watching the girl from the small projection.

“36,” the ex-Mandalorian said, still playing with the switch as she referenced the Beskar she got for the creed.

“Is something wrong?” The horned helmeted woman asked.

“This Damn passenger light won’t turn off, and I don’t have any passengers!” (Y/N) said looking back at the projection, but before her uncovered eyes reached it she saw the reflection of the man behind her in her windshield. “Shit!” She said pressing auto pilot mode as she grabbed her gun.

The small girl turned around in her seat and kicked the man in the chest before he could react, sending him back and against the cold metal of the cockpit. He grabbed his gun and shot grazing the girls arm and hitting the control panel, causing the ship to shake.

The Mandolorian stepped into the dimly lit room the Armorer kept, his eyes scanned the room threw his shining beskar helmet before he caught her in the corner making Whistling Birds. “I got your message. “ he said ima monotone voice, the modulator of the Helmet not helping.

“Do you know what today is Din?” The Armorer said not turning away from her work.

“Taungsday?” He said, the slight sarcasm in his voice toned out by his helmet. The Armorer glanced at him.

“Exactly 6 years ago yesterday, don’t you remember.” the Armorer said finally turning to him.

(Y/N) gripped the mans head, her knee meeting his skull as he tumbled to the cold silver floor of her white ship. The ship only continued to shake, as she made her way over to the control panel, believing she had enough time before the man stood. She flipped switches and turned knobs, just as the ship began to stabilize, the tall man used her large gun to strangle her. She grasped at the weapon to get it away from her throat. Her eyes quickly scanned the room in-front of her before her eyes landed on her old helmet, grabbing it she hit the man on the head with it making him drop the rifle and stumble back. She quickly turned kicking him in the head busting it on the wall, knocking him out into the floor, his blood painting the wall in a smear.

“She wasn’t a Mandolorian when it happened, why do you care?” The Mandolorian said as he sat at on the small bench, the armorer setting across from him.

“She May have not be a Mandolorian when it happened, but she still helped us.” the Golden helmeted lady said looking at him.

“Helped us?” He turned his head slightly in confusion. “ how?”

“There is a lot you do not know, din.”

“Then tell me, why was she not a Mandolorian if she helped us.”

(Y/N) moves to stabilize the ship, giving a quick glance to her old helmet, her mind flooding with memories of how she lost it. She had gotten captured by a group of Twi’leks who had a bounty on her. The purple one removed her helmet while she was knocked out, but it didn’t change that (Y/N), the cold blooded woman known as ‘Tempestas’ was Mandolorian at heart. She honored the way and never put it back on, but she would deliver them Beskar when she could. For the former foundling never forgot the people who saved her life.

Just as the ship began to fly fine, she went flying across the cockpit from an impact on the outside. As everything faded she pressed the call on the Nevvaro Base.

The armorers contact link lit up again ‘[Tempestas]’ she answered instantly. Masking the worry that cascaded her voice. “Tempestas , is everything alright?”

“I’m off course, something is attacking the ship I-!” The small girl was cut off by the ship being blasted from the sky.

“She honored the code, but she did not change her actions, she took jobs regularly, used her real name, and gave us any Beskar she collected on the journey.” The armorer said laying Whistling Birds in-front of him.

“What did she get in return?”

“The only thing she ever asked for.”

The fire was bright, and the ash planes coated the scraps of the ship that layer around. Her vision was blurred and all she could see was the bright fire that contrasted to the ash. Turning her head she could see the man from earlier, near him was the large glass box of Beskar.

She lifted her hand to send a message with her wrist communicator. Tapping in the code for the Mandolorians was all she cared about at the time, she didn’t notice the three men walking her way until after.

“Shit...” she looked up at them, trying to move she found she couldn’t. Her legs trapped under parts of the white metal of the Alibine. So she did what she could, cocking back her wrist she let the Whistling birds go.

Zipping threw the air taking out the three men, or so it seemed. One lasted, and that one grabbed her, dragging her to a darker ship. She only blacked out in response.

“When they arrived, she was no where to be seen, the only parts of her we could find was blue, and ice cold.” The armorer said, neatly laying out Whistling bird by whistling bird.

“Her blood.” Mando commented, looking down. He had heard the story before, he was away on Hoth at the time or he could have saved her, he blamed himself over and over again for what happened. “She was destroyed in the crash, you’ve told me...”

“Thats what you don’t know, mando.” She looked up at him once again. “She was your foundling sister, so we didn’t want to tell you about what we really found. Or what we thought we found.”

Six, six Mandolorians arrived at the scene. Instantly taking in chaos that was now the Alibine. A beautiful ship, and it’s beautiful captain ripped to shreds in a crash.

“Find her, and the Beskar. We don’t leave here with out them!” A larger Mandolorian yelled causing the others to nod. Even though (Y/N) was no longer a Mandolorian, she was family. One of the best Bounty hunters the Mandolorians ever saw, not only did she hunt but she also did stealth missions for people, had a whole suit for it.

The Mandolorians kept looking until one smaller, much younger Mandolorian came across a deep blue luster of liquid. “ I got something.” He said causing the oldest to come over.

“ I think we’re gonna have to call it.” He said looking down at the liquid that seeped into the ash as it dropped from the debris of the ship.

“ what is it?” The younger one asked.

“It’s her blood.”

“ why is it blue?” He asked looking back down at the beautiful royal liquid.

“ she’s part Wraith.”

 “So what is it you’re not telling me?” Din said watching the woman. The armorer stood walking across the small room.

“ she never found any pieces of her body, not one... we bared her necklace...” the woman said grabbing a small round object.

“ Why are you telling me all this now?” He said standing up looking at her, there was a small peak of anger in his voice.

Din grew up with the warrior in question, they knew each other before becoming Mandalorians, they knew each other while becoming Mandolorians. And because of this she was the only person aloud to see his face and vise versa. Every three months they would meet on Sorgan, just to bask in the attention of another human. To be able to joke, and smile with another human, without the helmet.

For him, it was the contact he wanted, the friendship he missed. The soft touches and teasing pushing, it’s what he’s craved for 6 years now, without her he was starved.

For her, with was being comfortable in her own skin with someone, being able to pretend everything’s ok. Because she knew even if she did take her helmet off, she could never take her armor, in fear of the looks she would get. She had scars, and markings. What stuck out the most was her veins, black, pitch black, spreading from her heart down her arms, slowly up her neck. She couldn’t help it, the more she used her powers the more it spread. But with Din, she felt comfortable to be herself.

“Two days ago I received a message from a ‘ OV-813’, and I think you should hear it.” She said playing the audio.

The soft voice of (Y/N) now scratchy, more mature, was brought to life from the small box.

“I-If anyone can hear this, I-it’s “ the audio began to cut out, but not before they caught the code name. “Tempestas.” The audio became scratchy but in the back grown he could hear a guard, someone yelling. Before the final words spoken were

“ send help.”

[ptw30]

Happy Birth-week! Maybe the prompt motorcycles/hovercycles like a race or a getaway scene? I’ll leave the pairing up to you and the setting. :) (Lol at first I thought you were asking for short stories for your birthday and I was like “sure!” XD)

Title: The Family Business

Pairing: Gen 

Summary: The Voltron Paladins - a team of thieves, smugglers, and outlaws - are hunted by cartels, the FBI, and Shiro's father. Yeah, life isn't easy, but the team has each other. And that's all that matters.

---

Shiro stepped on the clutch and shifted, sending his Dodge Charger—which he affectionally called the Black Lion—soaring through the almost empty streets of Daibazaal.

“You know this is your fault,” he said. A quick glance in the rearview mirror showed two black sedans chasing them. “You said we should take all the triggers.”

In the passenger seat, Allura typed furiously on her tablet. Dressed in a tight white and pink cold-shoulder top that cut just below her tighter-than-tight jeans, she looked more like a pop star than a high-profile thief. Her curly ponytail hit Shiro in the face when she shifted in her seat to look behind them.

“So then I am to assume you would have left the nuclear warhead triggers in the hands of not-quite-professional businessmen.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“No, you’re saying that you would have left them in the hands of nefarious criminals.”

“As opposed to non-nefarious criminals?”

Allura laughed. “Well, we aren’t exactly law-bidding citizens.”

The car wheels squealed when Shiro eased up on the accelerator, cut the wheel, and then tore down the nearest alleyway. The shadows of night wouldn’t conceal their taillights, and when the Black Lion rocketed onto the street, the sedans still clung to his bumper.

“I’m just saying that stealing a trunk-load of military grade explosives by having Lance and Keith start a fight in the middle of black-market weapons depot might not have been the best course of action.”

“Then what would have been the best course of action? Trying to steal the triggers after Zarkon used them to start World War III?”

“Of course not. I’m just saying—”

“And you know Keith and Lance weren’t acting. Lance actually did take Red for a ride the other day and put a scratch in her chassis.”

Shiro let out a heavy sigh. “Can’t you just let me live in ignorance?”

Allura laughed and leaned over to press a kiss to Shiro’s cheek. “At least they worked it out of their—Quiznak.” Allura’s tablet let out a warning beep. “Red Paladin, Blue Paladin, we’re going to need your special brand of street cleaning.”

As the Black Lion passed a main thoroughfare, two motorcycles roared to life—a red Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R and a blue Yamaha YZF R1. The two racers wore protective jackets and helmets that matched their bikes, though the red racer’s jacket had black and yellow accents, while the blue racer’s uniform boasted red and yellow stripes. The motorcycles tore down the straightaway toward two more sedans that suddenly screeched to a halt in the middle of the street, blocking their path.

Shiro narrowed his eyes. “Does the Blue Lion have a red chassis now?”

“Yes! Keith defiled my baby!” Lance bemoaned across the team’s channel.

Keith huffed, and the Red Lion swerved to evade gunfire. “Stop whining and help me take these assholes out.”

“‘Stop whining.’” The Blue Lion hopped the sidewalk and used the streetlights as cover. “Well, if you hadn’t hurt my precious girl—”

“Your precious girl just got a new coat, something you hadn’t even bothered to—”

“Guys!” Shiro yelled, but Lance was already shifting gears. “Chill, Shiro. We’ve got this.”

Sure enough, Keith and Lance came to the middle of the street and wove between the car blockade. Two subsequent explosions sent the cars rocketing into the sky. The Black Lion poured it on then and zipped underneath the elevated cars, which eventually landed upon the chaser sedans.

“Good job, you two!” Shiro praised. “Now get to the rendezvous point ASAP and lock it down.”

“Yes, sir!” Keith’s crisp voice sounded over the connection, followed by Lance’s mocking tone once more. The twin motorcycles zoomed ahead and disappeared in the labyrinth of city streets.

Shiro could practically feel Allura’s penetrative stare give way to a self-assured smirk. “They make a good team.”

“As long as they don’t kill each other.”

“Oh, give them a bit more credit, Allura.” He waited a beat. “Keith would make it quick.”

“If Lance didn’t talk him to death first—and if that cartel doesn’t catch us.” Allura tapped on her tablet. “Green Lion, Yellow Lion, status report.”

Instead of a voice confirmation, a loud explosion echoed through the connection. Allura shot up in her seat. “Pidge! Hunk!”

A few loud hacks, followed by fits of coughing, and Pidge sucked in a deep breath. “I said not to denotate until we were a safe distance away!”

Shiro heaved a relieved sigh and heard Allura do the same.

“Oooh. I thought you said, ‘Let’s go for crème brulee,’” Hunk said between coughs.

Shiro could imagine Pidge throwing up her arms. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Hunk, Pidge, report,” Allura repeated, shaking her head. Shiro stepped on the gas for one final burst of speed, and the Black Lion entered the private airport.

“The facilities have been destroyed, Allura,” Hunk replied. “The rest is up to you and Shiro.”

So it was. Once Shiro spotted the Red and Blue Lions outside of a private hanger, he directed the Black Lion inside the massive area—devoid of any planes—and threw the car into park. Allura tossed him a nervous grin, which he returned, and they exited the car.

Only Keith and Lance occupied the hanger. No shelves, no airplane, no grease. Off to the side, a simple garage door lifted with eerie screeches that echoed through the empty space. Once it stopped, a rather tall man with slicked back hair, sunken eyes, and a thick chin entered the hanger between Lance and Keith. In a black suit with a purple tie, he looked like a wayward stockbroker, strides long, haughty, and loud. His eyes narrowed as he stopped before Shiro and Allura, arms spreading in a regal greeting.

“Ms. Altea. As always, a pleasure.”

“I assure you it most certainly is not,” Allura replied, manicured fingers clicking on her tablet.

Zarkon turned to Shiro without missing a beat. “Shiro, I appreciate you joining us.”

“We do agree there,” Allura snapped. “It is the only way you will survive, Zarkon.”

“Ironic, is it not? To think I am standing here with my former partner’s daughter who has taken my son as her own partner, despite knowing the history between our families.”

“Shiro isn’t a two-timing, egotistical psychopath like you,” Lance spat.

“But somehow he’s still entered the family business,” Zarkon retorted with an all-too-delighted grin.

Rather than replying, Shiro hit the car remote and popped the trunk. He lifted the back to reveal the triggers. “Here’s what you wanted from the Olkari Cartel, right?”

An amused, almost proud grin crossed his features. “I will need to inspect the merchandise.”

“Yeah, about that.” He slammed shut the trunk. “You’re not getting anywhere near these devices.”

Zarkon’s gaze was anything but tolerant. “We already agreed upon terms.”

“Yes, we did, but now I’m changing them. Ms. Altea, would you like to do the honors?”

“Thank you, Mr. Shirogane.” Allura stepped forward and handed her tablet to a suspicious-looking Zarkon. “That is a live feed from Langley, the ‘Other Matters’ subdivision, which you run.” She paused. “Ran. Our operatives Yellow Paladin and Green Paladin took care of your stronghold. Call it a retirement gift.”

“I thought we were calling it a ‘going away’ present,” Keith asked, arms crossed across his chest.

Lance giggled.

Keith rolled his eyes. “What?”

“You cannot get rid of me that easy,’” Zarkon growled. “No judge or jury in the world will convict me, not with my record. And no one will believe you—my son who became an international smuggler and his partner, the daughter of my former partner who died under investigation.”

“Yellow and Green transferred all your dark files to the Federal Bureau of Investigation before making the big kaboom,” Lance laughed. “Seriously, man? We have everything and we know everything.”

Zarkon’s thick fingers curled about the tablet. “You have to know this is futile. You can sell those triggers you stole to another foreign power. You can leave the country, hide in some remote island, and look over your shoulder for the rest of your life, but I will still find you. And I will end you.” He stared directly at Allura with demonic glee. “Just like I did your father.”

Allura didn’t even flinch. “Good luck doing that from a prison cell at Leavenworth.”

“FBI!” a booming voice echoed through the hanger. “On the ground now!”

A SWAT team stormed the front opening while a tall blond man came in from the back. He wore in a tight suit with a purple tie, dark slacks and a FBI jacket. Four female agents, all wearing similar garb to the lead agent, covered him from the entryway.

“I said on the floor, now!” the agent yelled at Zarkon.

Keith went down first, having gone through a similar situation before. Lance followed and muttered about this not being the greatest plan after all. Zarkon tried to rebuke the orders, but the familiar FBI agent—Lotor, Shiro noticed—wouldn’t have it.

Eventually, Zarkon met Shiro’s gaze once they were both handcuffed and lying face flat against the cold concrete.

“This isn’t over,” he threatened.

“Yes, it is,” Shiro insisted. “It was over the moment you decided your greed was more important than family.”

---

Shiro didn’t know how long he’d been waiting in the interrogation room, though he figured he would be the last one the FBI questioned. Pidge would be the first as the youngest, followed the soft-hearted Hunk, the smooth-talking Lance, the sharp-edged Keith, and then the regal Allura, if Lotor wasn’t intimidated. Then, and only then, would Lotor pay a visit to Shiro.

When he finally did, he wore a tired but true grin. “Special Agent Shirogane. I told you to get a team you could trust to have your back when I couldn’t be there. This was not what I had in mind.”

Shiro’s handcuffs jingled as he sat back in his seat. “You don’t like my choice of team members, Special Agent Sincline?”

Lotor sighed dramatically and dropped his tablet to the table, tapping the edge and bringing up five pictures. “An X Games Motor X gold medalist who was raised by smugglers and the silver medalist with whom he does not get along. At all. A red hat hacker who isn’t even old enough to graduate high school. A chef turned motocross mechanic. Oh, and the daughter of my father’s former CIA partner, whom he killed. That’s who you decided you could trust?”

Shiro tossed Lotor a teasing smile. “Jealous?”

“Of course,” Lotor replied, crossing his arms. “We’ve had each other’s backs since forever.”

“Since we were twelve.”

“Just because we weren’t together since diapers doesn’t change the fact that we grew up together. We went to Quantico together. And now I only get to see you for clandestine meetings and the occasional coffee.”

“But it’s good coffee.”

“You’re my brother, Shiro. I’m supposed to protect you.”

Shiro knocked his shoulder against Lotor’s knee. “And you do. You handle the bureau. I handle the criminals. If I didn’t trust you with everything, this couldn’t work.”

“Do you trust them with everything?” Lotor motioned toward the blackened two-way mirror. “Not one of them said anything. Just asked for water—or in one case, iced tea. Sweetened with lemon.”

“Lance…is high maintenance,” Shiro laughed, “but in the best way.”

Lotor huffed. “He asked for it to be sent to Pidge.”

“Of course, he did.”

“And Hunk asked me to make sure Lance was given appropriate bathroom breaks, and Keith asked if Lance was gagged and then asked if he could be.”

“Sounds about right.”

“Allura, however, asked me for pictures from our teenage years.”

Shiro blinked. “…I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

“But they all asked about you.” Lotor clasped Shiro on the shoulder, firm and supportive. Lotor truly was his foundation, unwavering and firm. “I’m glad for you, Shiro. You deserve to have a family again.”

Shiro undid his handcuffs with a trick Keith taught him and reached up to cover Lotor’s hand. “I miss you, too, brother.”

“Hm.” Lotor held him a second longer than necessary, almost as if refusing to let Shiro go, but he eventually relented. A serious countenance overtook his face, and Shiro sat up straighter in response. Back to business.

“I’ve spoken with the higher-ups,” Lotor explained. “I’ll be in contact when Father goes to trial. You and your team might need to come in to testify, but right now, I suggest you find some place to lie low. Maybe a Caribbean island. A nice seaside Mexican resort. Disneyland. Stay off the radar and away from anyone Father might have worked with. Be safe.”

Shiro blinked. “That’s it?”

“That’s it. Unless you’re ready to come in from the cold.” Before Shiro could debate that question, let alone respond, Lotor flipped a switch. The two-way mirror went from black to transparent, revealing Shiro’s team on the other side. While four of his team members sat around a small table—Hunk was teaching Keith to pay some card game while Allura braided the longer strands of Pidge’s hair—Lance held a hand-drawn sign, scribbled on a yellow notepad, against the mirror.

Can we please have our Special Agent Shirogane back now?

Shiro thumbed toward the mirror. “Does he know I’m on the other side of this wall?”

Lotor’s eyes were narrowed; a look of confusion overtook his face. “How…did he get a marker and paper? That’s a monitored room. No one’s gone in there.”

Shiro simply shrugged. If his team was anything, it was resourceful.

Lotor crossed his arms and stared into the room, eyes resting upon the one person sitting on the right side of the table, talking to Hunk and Keith.

“Allura Altea. She’s…good to you?”

Shiro eyed Lotor. “Yeah. She’s my best friend. I trust her with my life.”

“But do you trust her with a picture of your teenage years?”

“I certainly can’t trust you.”

“That hurts, Brother.”

“You should have thought that before you showed Allura my awkward teenage years.”

Lotor rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. It’s not like I showed her the pictures from comic con.”

---

“So…that’s it?” Hunk asked, watching as the black, non-descript FBI vans drove away. “We help to take down a dirty counterintelligence agent—”

“And blow up part of the CIA’s own headquarters,” Keith added.

“Only the bad part,” Pidge pointed out. “We left the rest still standing.”

“Yes, but that means we must lie low for a bit.” Allura walked toward a private jet on the tarmac. “Coran has been scouting new jobs for us and believes he’s found an interesting one. Shiro, how would you feel about visiting your childhood home, if you catch my drift?”

Shiro smiled. “Tokyo’s nice this time of year.”

“Smashing!” Coran greeted, lowering the stairs to the private plane. “Come along, Paladins! I’ve stocked the plane with all your favorite snacks along with the latest episodes of Riverdale and Legends of Tomorrow.”

Lance raced up the stairs. “Score! Dibs on the couch!”

“No!” Hunk whined. “You can’t call dibs until you’re on the stairs! Everyone knows that.”

Pidge raced after them while Keith turned to Shiro. “I’ll save you a seat and a pack of gummi bears.”

“Thanks, Keith.” Shiro stopped Allura at the end of the stairs, taking her hand in his. “Hey. If you ever need to talk about anything, I’m here. You know that.”

Allura’s eyes trembled as they stared into Shiro’s. Tightening her grip, she looked away. “Thank you, Shiro. I know this mission was not easy for you, either. It must have been difficult arresting your father.”

“Yeah, well. Lotor technically arrested him, and we’ve been preparing for this day for a long time.”

“As have I, but…we’re never really ready for it, are we?”

Shiro’s heart ached, especially when he remembered the look of disdain Zarkon sent him as Lotor led him to the FBI van. However, it was nothing compared to what Allura must have felt when she received the call about her father.

“No, I guess we aren’t.”

Allura hummed. “It won’t get better. I’m not sure there is a better, but Zarkon will finally stand trial for his crimes. For that, I am grateful.”

“Me, too.” Shiro held up his phone with a picture of Allura with braces and short hair. “I’m also grateful for my new wallpaper.”

“Takashi Shirogane!” Allura’s hand shot out toward his phone, but Shiro managed to duck and head up the stairs. “Get back here! You’re going to tell me who got you that picture.”

“I’ll never give up my source.”

She caught up with him just inside the plane and playfully knocked him against the wall. “Hunk, Pidge, or your brother? It was your brother, wasn’t it?”

“It was actually Coran. He showed it to me the first time we met, along with every other baby picture he has of you.”

“Of course, he did. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an uncle to kill – I mean, fill in with our latest job.”

Shiro smiled, knocking her on the shoulder, and then headed to take inventory. Pidge and Lance took up the long couch, already halfway through the snacks, while Hunk sat in a reclining chair just to right next to them, his lap full of delicious treats. Keith lounged upon a loveseat and left a spot open for Shiro, while the seat next to it remained empty for Allura. She’d join them in a few.

As they took the skies, Shiro wondered not for the first time why Zarkon and Honerva took him in and taught him right from wrong, just to pervert those morals themselves. But he dismissed the thought quickly as he threw an arm about Keith and pulled him close. While he would forever regret the cycle of events that brought him to the world of drag racing and smuggling, he would forever cherish the family he found there –

Shiro’s phone vibrated with a message from Lotor.

Forgive me.

The cockpit’s door swung open to reveal Allura, a bright smile upon her face, her cellphone in her hand. “You cosplayed at comic con!”

– most days.

The End

---

Thanks for the prompt and birthday wishes! 

[ma-sulevin]

Me? Publishing the first chapter of that time loop au I keep posting about writing? Before Thanksgiving like I said? Can you believe?

Pairing: Sharky Boshaw/Female Deputy, but it’s a slow burn Rating: E, but mostly for swearing Warnings: Canon-typical violence, but nothing particularly explicit I don’t think Word Count: 5505, chapter one of twelve

Read it on AO3 instead and say nice things.

---

Mattie’s shaking almost too hard to hold the rifle Burke thrust into her hands. She didn’t join the sheriff’s department looking for this much excitement, just a way to get out of Idaho and do some good in the world. So what if most of the “good” she’s done so far has been writing traffic tickets and, once, actually getting a cat out of a tree? It’s still better than this, praying wildly that the ammo the cultists are using won’t make it through the flimsy wall of the trailer and into her flesh, trying to cover Burke as he makes a mad dash for a nearby pickup.

She’s shot more people in the last five minutes than she thought she’d ever hurt in her entire life. She hasn’t even had to use her service pistol since joining the department. 

Burke’s triumphant yell when he gets the truck moving is enough to spur her straight through the window, running around the corner while her feet slip in the churned up mud around the trailer. Bullets still spray around her, hitting the trailer and the trees but missing her like her prayers were actually answered for once, and she’s safe from them.

She can’t hear what Burke is saying, but she knows he’s talking. She leans out of the window and shoots at their pursuers, crying out in pain as Burke swerves to the side and flies down a dirt road fast enough to bruise her ribs where she repeatedly slams against the truck door. 

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

She’s so focused on the trucks behind her that she doesn’t notice the one pulling in front of them from another dirt road on Burke’s side. He screams and fires with his pistol, and she turns around just in time to see the truck as it slams into theirs. Her head hits the truck door and she drops her rife. Something small and metal hits her in the leg, and she only has time to stare at it before the grenade explodes.

White. Black. Red. White.

Pain, burning, stinging.

White. Black. Red.

Do it again.

White.

She’s leaning out of the window and shooting at their pursuers, crying out in pain as Burke swerves to the side and flies down a dirt road fast enough to bruise her ribs where she repeatedly slams against the truck door.

“Fuck!” 

She’s so focused on the trucks behind her that she doesn’t notice -- she doesn’t notice -- 

She turns around. There’s a truck pulling in front of them from another dirt road on Burke’s side. It slams into them, and she jerks back, narrowly avoiding slamming her head into the door. Something small and metal hits her leg, and she scoops it up and tosses it out her window toward the truck behind them.

Burke cheers as the other truck explodes.

They continue.

The bridge collapses and the truck falls and she can’t get her seatbelt undone fast enough. Her vision is turning red around the edges as she watches Burke swim away, leaving her behind. Finally, finally, the catch releases and she kicks herself free, heading for the light, not enough breath in her lungs to care about being caught by a peggie when the other option is drowning.

She doesn’t even fight when one lifts her and slings her over his shoulder. She just sleeps.

---

The man who pulled her from the icy lake isn’t a peggie, just a doomsday prepper unaffiliated with the cult. This may not be the doomsday he was anticipating, but his supplies are helping him nonetheless. They help her too, as she dresses in some other woman’s clothes, straps his 1911 to her hip, his knife to her thigh. A waterproof backpack holds other supplies like extra ammo and bottles of water, and then she’s out on her own again.

She doesn’t think about the weird Final Destination moment from the truck ride. She just wants to get to Missoula, to call the National Guard like they obviously should’ve in the first place, US Marshals be damned. 

Fuck. The peggies have Burke. They have Whitehorse and Pratt and Hudson.

Fucking Nancy.

She doesn’t think about how she saw the grenade explode inside their truck, killing them both. She doesn’t think about how she saw the grenade, again, a second time, fly through their open window and then back out the other one to explode somewhere else.

She doesn’t.

She doesn’t.

She snaps a man’s neck with her bare hands. She doesn’t even hesitate, instinct and adrenaline flowing through her as he starts to spot her hiding in the brush outside the ranger station. He falls at her feet with a thud, and she stares into his glassy eyes for endless seconds before she has to turn and vomit into the dirt, losing the water and jerky Dutch shared with her.

Is this self defense? She doesn’t think so.

She retches again, a dry heave that makes her eyes water, then she’s moving. She doesn’t kill with her bare hands again, but three more men hit the dirt before she’s done. 

She releases a hostage, slicing the ropes that held his wrists together, and he gives her more water in thanks. It’s all he can spare.

When Dutch is satisfied and his radio is working again, she swims across the river and emerges, shivering, onto the opposite bank. She frees another prisoner and they take out two more cultists. Their blood splashes across her shirt, and she ignores it. 

There’s a dock near the Silver Lake trailer park, and sometimes there’s a seaplane there. She tells the man she rescued to go somewhere safe and heads in that direction, creeping through the underbrush in a way that would have made her father proud if he’d spoken to her sometime in the last five years.

The plane is waiting for her next to a dead body bleeding on the dock. The key is near the man’s lifeless fingers, and she doesn’t look him in the face as she scoops it up. She doesn’t want to know if she recognizes him.

She tries to remember what Staci told her about flying, tries to remember the flight simulator he’d made her try, the excited ramblings he’d been prone to once he realized she wouldn’t tell him to shut up once he started on the subject like Joey always did.

The engine stalls twice, but then the motor is running and the propellers are spinning and she’s in the air with the river getting smaller and smaller behind her.

She hates heights.

She doesn’t actually know how to fly.

The plane’s radio remains damningly silent as she banks and heads towards the mountains northeast of the county, aiming for MIssoula. She doesn’t know how she’ll land, but as soon as she sees a lake in any other county, she can at least try to get help without crashing.

Maybe she’ll go to prison too, but that’s better than being dead.

Isn’t it?

The mountains steadily grow closer. The radio stays silent. She begins to shake, hands unsteady against the throttle. She’s so close.

She’s so close.

She’s… facing southwest, toward Fall's End. She can see a few vague columns of smoke in front of her as the plane starts to sputter and the engine dies.

White. Black. No red this time, no stinging pain, just a sickly green and the sharp spinning of vertigo. White. Black. 

Do it again. Do it better. Focus.

There’s no escape.

White.

She’s standing on the dock, the airplane key clutched in her hand. She’s holding it so tightly it’s leaving deep indents in her skin -- any sharper and it would draw blood. The plane is still parked just a few feet from her, and when she forces herself to touch it, the metal is the same temperature as the summer air. No heat from a running engine or chill from the mountains.

What the fuck.

“What is happening to me?”

---

She can’t decide if she wants to keep track of how many peggies she kills, maybe collect their drivers licenses or something so, when all this is over, they can identify the bodies. Let their families know what exactly happened.

She doesn’t collect licenses, and she loses track of how many people surprise her and earn bullets or punches for their trouble.

She finds Boomer, a sweet blue heeler she’s met once or twice before, and he seems to decide that she’s his new person who can’t be left alone at any cost. It’s nice, in a way, having someone around her. He’s definitely watching her back, and his good ears let her know when there are cult members nearby. It keeps her from being snuck up on more than once. 

They find a car on the side of the road, doors open, battery dinging. It’s not running, but the keys are in the ignition, and a smear of blood on the driver’s seat and on the pavement nearby let her know what happened here.

She doesn’t take the time to mourn the lost life or look for the missing person. Boomer doesn’t act like he can hear anyone, and that’s good enough for her, now, after everything. She coaxes the dog into the car, rolls the windows down for him, and heads to Fall's End.

The car rolls to a stop without her deciding to let it. She just… forgets to keep putting pressure on the gas pedal. Boomer sits at alert in the passenger seat, leaning his head out the window to smell what’s going on around him.

She can smell it, too. It looks like the world is ending. Whole buildings have been destroyed, burned down and still smoking. Fires are raging deeper in the town, and she feels acid churning in her gut.

The first time she came to Fall's End, it had been beautiful. It was late spring, the trees were all green and flowers were everywhere. The house that’s currently a burning pit to her left had been freshly painted a beautiful blue. She knew she wanted to stay and make it her home even before her interview at the jail because of how it felt, even though she had to stop and get Claritin on the way home from all the pollen.

Farther down the street she can see the tree she’d climbed to save a cat her third week on the job, Staci snickering and recording the whole thing on his phone to show Joey later. It has a car wrapped around its trunk.

She’s going to kill every fucking peggie in the county.

She shuts the car off and leaves it in the street, Boomer chasing after her as she stalks down the double yellow lines toward the Spread Eagle. She draws her pistol as she moves, holding it carefully in front of her. 

She can’t hear anyone.

That, in of itself, should have been a warning. It’s not like a lot of people live in Fall's End proper, but it’s the area of the county with the most stores and hangouts close together now that the 8-Bit’s closed. She advances slowly, head cocked to the side like that’ll help her hear better, and Boomer takes off running to the east. She glances after him, and it’s in that half-second of distraction that she finally hears something to her other side.

She turns just in time to see the peggie pull the trigger, just in time to hear the sharp pop of a weapon with a silencer, and then she falls.

White. Black. Red. Pain. She’s never been shot before, but this must be what it feels like. The peggie got her right in the chest, a clean shot that probably tore right through her heart, ruining her shirt and…

Well… does it matter if her shirt’s ruined if she’s not alive to wear it?

God, this hurts. Is it real this time?

Is it real?

WhIte.

The car rolls to a stop without her deciding to let it. She just… forgets to keep putting pressure on the gas pedal. Boomer sits at alert in the passenger seat, leaning his head out the window to smell what’s going on around him.

She blinks once, and two fat tears roll down her cheeks. She inhales sharply and turns off the engine, clutching the keys in her hand. There’s a little alien on the keyring, and she hisses as she tries to catch her breath. 

Boomer looks over at her, then shifts to lick at her tears. His breath is atrocious, and she laughs, high-pitched and hysterical. He wines, and she scratches his neck under the weird rope collar he’s still wearing. 

This is okay.

This is okay.

This time, she keeps her head low as she walks, cutting across the street to sneak behind some of the still-standing houses where the last peggie came from. She spots him walking a slow patrol, and when Boomer growls at her side she notices a few more peggies up the street, just standing by some parked cars.

Illegally parked cars, she realizes, but she doesn’t care. What are parking tickets at the end of the world?

She’s still shaking when the peggie she’s tracking wanders close enough to her hiding place, but she still pops up out of the tall grass and wraps him in a chokehold, ignoring the elbow she takes to her ribs and the scratches he leaves on her forearms. 

He’s strong, but she’s furious, running on adrenaline and little else.

When he falls unconscious, she drops them to their knees and keeps the pressure up for a few more seconds before dumping his body in the dirt. She doesn’t check his pulse, just leaves him there and sneaks behind the buildings.

There’s a man on top of the general store that she can’t do anything about with her pistol, and the little group of peggies has too many people in it for her to take down on her own, even with Boomer willing to act as a distraction by trying to tear out a throat or two. She doesn’t want him to get shot.

He doesn’t deserve to be hurt by the decisions of the humans around him. He’s a good boy.

She tells him as much, and his tongue lolls out of his mouth in a little dog smile. She scratches behind his ear, and then he runs off, and she hopes he’ll be okay.

She’s too busy trying to see where he’s going to realize one of the peggies has gotten close to the body she left in the grass. He yells out a warning, something about a sinner, and she hits the ground to army crawl out of his line of sight.

After that, it’s chaos. The peggies are on high alert, shooting at (hopefully) nothing, though she can hear the high-pitched, furious screams of a woman nearby. The sound makes the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and she starts heading that way while still staying as hidden as she can. 

She peeks around a corner to see Mary May on her knees, hands bound with zip ties behind her back, lips still parted on a scream.

Christ. Mary May’s younger than Mattie, even younger than Staci, and even though the distance isn’t all that big, it still fills Mattie with a protective rage that has less to do with being a deputy and more to do with seeing a younger woman in that kind of trouble.

She manages to shoot one of the peggies standing by Mary May, getting him right in the eye, and he falls with a heavy thud. Mary May stops screaming, holds her breath, and carefully doesn’t look over her shoulder where the shot probably came from. 

She always was smart.

The other peggie turns, rifle raised, and Mattie shoots him too. This time she just gets him in the arm, and he has time to shoot back before she can dodge out of the way.

White. Black. Red. Pain.

Not again. I can’t do this again.

Please.

White.

The car rolls to a stop without her deciding to let it. She just… forgets to keep putting pressure on the gas pedal. Boomer sits at alert in the passenger seat, leaning his head out the window to smell what’s going on around him.

She blinks once, and two fat tears roll down her cheeks. Then she punches the steering wheel again and again and again and her knuckles bleed and she wants to scream but she doesn’t want to give away her position and get Mary May killed.

Boomer whines next to her. He could jump out of the window, but he’s not scared enough for that. He’s just worried. As soon as she stops flailing, he’s pressing his wet nose against her cheek and licking up her tears.

“Is this happening to you, too?” He licks her face again and doesn’t answer. 

She allows herself a few more seconds to wallow, then another few to steel her resolve, then she’s out of the car and heading to the opposite side of the street, the side with the general store. She sneaks, Boomer sneaks, and then she’s able to climb a ladder up the back and sneak up on the peggie on the roof.

She snaps his neck and he doesn’t make a sound.

She doesn’t throw up, just calmly picks up his sniper rifle and gets herself into position. It takes her a few seconds to get used to looking through the scope, another few seconds to figure out the best way to take down the peggies she can see, then she starts picking them off one by one.

Mary May screams until the bodies start falling, then just holds herself still and quiet, head down. Mattie gets to her as fast as she can, slinging the sniper rifle over her shoulder so she can take it with her. It came in handy once, and something awful inside her says it’s going to come in handy again.

She cuts Mary May free with the knife Dutch gave her, then helps her stand up. Mary May thanks her with a hug, then runs off toward the church.

There are more peggies there, trapping Father Jerome inside. Mattie’s spoken to him on a few occasions, but she’s never attended any services. She hasn’t been to church since she moved away from home, and she’s not intending to start again now.

Mattie just manages to forget the bigger picture here, that a cult has taken complete control of the county, that the roads have been closed and something’s wrong with everything else so that she can’t fly away and can’t even fucking die, until someone yells that air support has been called in and there’s a goddamn airplane shooting at her from the sky.

She’s going to die. She’s going to die and she’s going to have to do this again and she can’t keep killing the same peggies over and over she can’t she can’t she can’t

Jerome manages to shoot out one of the plane’s engines, and it crashes right next to the Spread Eagle. 

He finds Mattie where she’s shaking and half-hiding behind the church sign, and he looks way more concerned about her than he should be. She came to rescue him, but he’s just coaxing her out into the open with a soft smile. He’s wearing a bulletproof vest over his shirt and collar, and Mattie doesn’t even care why he already had it. She just wants to know if she can get one too.

With Fall's End free of the peggies, people start crawling out from their hiding places and heading to the miraculously still-standing Spread Eagle. Even Jerome comes, helping Mary May set things back up and lightly teasing her about having liquor hidden after Eden’s Gate tried to get rid of all of it. 

Mattie sits at the bar in silence, and Mary May gives her a beer on the house. Boomer is still somewhere outside, hopefully not getting into trouble, but he’s definitely not allowed indoors when he’s covered in mud and human gore.

“You doin’ okay, Deputy?” Mary May is leaning on the other side of the bar, and it looks like she’s comfortable, so as far as Mattie knows she’s been standing there for several seconds waiting to be acknowledged and Mattie just… hasn’t noticed, too wrapped up in her own thoughts.

“Oh,” she says, then clears her throat and tries again. “I’m okay, Mary May, thank you. Are you okay?”

“I’ve been better,” she says, and she smiles a little sadly. Mattie grimaces and nods. “I knew those peggie sons of bitches were up to no good. I warned you.”

And, yeah, she had. She warned them a lot. She warned them so much that Whitehorse had gotten tired of her, the other deputies making jokes about it. Mattie carefully doesn’t think about it.

“You were right,” Mattie says instead. “We should’ve listened.”

“Yeah, you should’ve.” She’s angry, and that’s fine. Mattie just waits as she collects herself before speaking again. “But you’re going to make things right, aren’t you?”

Mattie can’t do anything but nod at the younger woman, pinned into place on the bar stool with the weight of her gaze. 

Yeah. Yeah, she’s going to make it right.

She takes her beer with her when she finally leaves, walking down the sidewalk toward Jerome’s church. Someone’s already moved the bodies out of the way, and she’s happy she doesn’t have to look at them any more. 

Jerome is sitting in the center of the sanctuary when she hesitates at the open door, now not sure she should have brought her drink with her. Is that even allowed here? The Baptist church she’d been raised in hadn’t believed in drinking, but Catholics are okay with it, right? But inside their own church?

Jerome waves her in regardless. She sits on the front pew and listens as he reads a bit from his notebook, feeling like she’s in some sort of small group Bible study that lost some of its members. She holds her beer in her hands but doesn’t drink from it. Jerome doesn’t say anything about it, doesn’t even look at it, but it still feels wrong somehow.

She doesn’t miss the concern in his eyes when he asks, “How are you holding up?”

She hesitates. Should she tell him? Should she tell him she’s died four times already and she’s still sitting in front of him? That she’s felt the pain of being shot and ripped limb from limb? That she’s not sure she’s actually alive right now and not dreaming all this?

She breaks her own unspoken rule and finishes her beer before she answers. He doesn’t look more annoyed or less concerned when she meets his gaze again, so she figures she didn’t fuck up too badly.

“I’m hanging on,” she says. He lifts one eyebrow and waits. She knows he wants more information from her, and she doesn’t feel up to fighting it. “It’s just… I was an EMT before, you know? I never signed up to kill people.”

He nods. “You never really get used to it, but it does get easier.”

“They have my friends,” she says. “I have to stop them.”

He nods again, a small smile playing on his face. It feels comforting, somehow, despite everything going on around them, the bullet holes from some peggie’s AR-15 in the wall behind him. “We’ll help you,” he says. “As much as we can.”

And that… that’ll just have to be good enough.

He lets her sleep in the little parsonage behind the church, on the couch in his living room. She doesn’t dream, doesn’t cry.

She just sleeps.

---

Not being able to die is making Mattie reckless. She’s died no fewer than 27 times; she’s taken to making little tick marks on the inside of her forearm with a stolen sharpie every time she’s shocked back into place a few minutes before her last mistake.

She still doesn’t know why. 

No one else has mentioned it, not even the peggie she had to kill three times in a row because something else kept fucking her up on her way into one of the cult’s outposts in the valley. The restarts help her plan better (usually) but the peggies don’t seem to be getting the same advantage.

Whatever’s happening here only seems to work for her.

She’s rigging little homemade bombs to take out John’s silos, ugly red things with the Eden’s Gate cross painted in white, eyesores she’s hated for months; she’s gunning down cultists who aren’t even pretending not to be tying up civilians on the side of the road; she ran three over with her little car before she had to give up on it running again.

Apparently dead peggie is bad for engines. Who knew?

She’s just about to finish clearing out a peggie outpost for the resistance when she hears John’s voice click on over her radio. She’s been ignoring him, ignoring his occasional attempts to contact her, mostly because everything he says is a barely disguised manic sermon, but this time…

His people are coming to get her?

She takes out the last two peggies with her sniper rifle, the same one she lifted from the peggie in Fall's End now improved with a suppressor, and she radios Jerome to let him know Kellett’s place is ready for his people to move in -- John will be able to hear it, but he won’t be able to do anything about it fast enough to stop her -- and then she’s jogging off to the nearest copse of trees.

There’s no point in staying behind, especially if John’s people are going to start looking at their lost outpost for her.

Her (borrowed) ATV is parked there, Boomer sleeping beside it with his legs all up in the air. He perks up when he hears her footsteps, rolling over and jumping up to greet her with his front paws on her chest.

“Who’s my good boy?” she greets, accepting his kiss with only a small grimace, wiping away the slobber when he thinks she’s been properly groomed. He’s fully accepted his role as her right-hand dog, and he takes it seriously.

She doesn’t hear anything, and Boomer doesn’t act like anyone’s nearby. She doesn’t linger before climbing on the ATV and only slightly grimacing at the sound of the engine roaring to life. Boomer takes off ahead of her, ready to scout.

She wouldn’t have heard John’s men approaching her if they hadn’t announced their presence over the wrong radio channel, coming through her speaker tinny and quiet: “Use the bliss bullets!”

She has exactly enough time to ask the open air, “What the fuck are bliss bullets?” before she gets her answer in the form of a sharp pain to her right arm.

The world goes shiny and distorted, and she crashes her ATV into a tree.

---

She doesn’t realize she’s under water at first. Everything’s blurry and distorted, bright spots of light still floating around, the hands on her shoulders barely registering. It’s not until she’s brought to the surface that she realizes she couldn’t breathe before, that a peggie is staring at her with an unreadable expression.

Is he angry with her, and that’s why he’s drowning her? Is he happy that he pulled her out of the water in time to save her?

Why is the world spinning like she’s seven drinks in and about to be sick?

The peggie tries to draw her forward, but he’s stopped by another man, a man who looks familiar with his white book and unbuttoned shirt and combed-back hair.

John Seed.

“Not this one,” he says, and if she had any energy left to care about what happens to her, she’d be afraid. But she doesn’t. He passes his book off to her peggie and adds, “This one’s not clean.”

She’s under water again before she realizes it, and since she knows she’s under water, it’s worse. It’s so much worse. It burns, panic lacing through her despite the calm of just moments ago, and she scratches at his arms before she remembers. She remembers.

She’s laughing when he draws her back up, her hands on his wrists. She’s freezing, water dripping into her eyes, lights dancing around John’s face. She laughs and she laughs and she laughs, head tipped back, nails scraping gouges into his skin.

“Ahh, tsk,” he says, eyebrows drawing together at her laughter.

“You can’t kill me,” she says, still laughing, and his fingers tighten on her arms. There’s a dull spike of pain in one arm where she was shot, but she’s still too blissed-out to care. “I’m a fucking god. ”

He doesn’t like that. His face contorts into a snarl and he drops her into the river, and she’s still laughing when she hits the water. His hands find her throat and hold her down, hold her under the water until she doesn’t know if she’ll drown or strangle.

He pulls her back up at the last minute. She’s still laughing at him, sputtering water back in his face. He clucks his tongue again, shushes her laughter, and starts to lower her again when he freezes, expression changing from anger to fear and then… nothing in an instant.

Joseph is here.

Now, he’s holding her at arms length, hands on her shoulders, that spike of pain back under everything else. The lights seem to spin faster now. “Despite all that you have done, you are not beyond salvation. You’re not here by accident, by chance. You are here by the grace of God. You’ve been given a gift. Now it remains to be seen whether you choose to embrace it… or to cast it aside.”

Is the gift the forced baptism? She was baptised already when she was eight, in the lake by her daddy’s house. She hadn’t almost drowned then. She hadn’t been shot or drugged. She’d just been desperate to be good, to feel the love of her father the same way her older brothers seemed to.

It’s not until Joseph releases her to turn to his brother that she realizes the gift might be her inability to fucking stay dead .

“This one shall reach Atonement. Or the Gates of Eden shall be shut to you, John.”

Their foreheads touch. It looks to her like John’s a sad puppy, the littlest brother desperate for love. “Yes, Joseph.” The sadness is replaced with simmering rage when he looks back at her, and the drug-addled sympathy drains away when he grabs her again. “You will confess. Every sin you’ve ever committed, no matter how petty, no matter how small, I will pull from you. Then we’ll see if you’re worthy of Atonement.”

She bares her teeth in a snarl wonders how much pressure she’d need to exert to tear out his throat, but he scoffs and pushes her away. The other peggie catches her and leads her to a waiting van, exactly the kind she’s sprung prisoners from before.

Super.

Super duper.

She briefly considers adding more blasphemy to her promised confession, but the world goes black before she can.

--

Jerome is still radioing her assignments when she finally makes it back to the Silver Lake trailer park. There are a few peggies holding up a few normal people -- but that’s not unusual. She ignores Jerome and takes down the peggies with the weapons she took from their dead brothers and sisters across the county. 

She listens to the pleas of the people she saved, nods like she’s going to do something to help them immediately, and then starts ransacking the nearby trailers for something dry to wear.

Saving the county is all fun and games until she’s trying to decide if she wants to put on a stranger’s clean pair of panties while eating baked beans straight out of the can.

(She ends up taking the panties and several more pairs tucked into the bottom of a bag she finds, followed by an extra set of clothes. She’s pretty sure Jacob won’t try to drown her if he catches her, but better safe than sorry, right?)

(She tries not to think about the person who used to own these clothes.)

“Jerome, I’m laying low for a bit. I’ll let you know when I’m back in the Valley, promise. Over and out.”

The radio crackles once after she signs off, like Jerome wants to argue. He doesn’t say anything, and the line goes quiet. For just a few blissful minutes, she’s alone, the only sounds around her the cicadas in the trees and the quiet sigh of Boomer settling on the couch.

After another moment of hesitation, she flops onto the couch next to the dog, tucks her feet up under her, and falls asleep.

[morethanaprincess-a]

This unknown place I called home.

Six Word Stories

“Your Majesty, we’ll be landing in ten minutes. All passengers please fasten your seat belts.”

She barely heard the pilot’s announcement over the deafening scream that ran through her mind. Even though she was accompanied only by Hajime, a secretary, and a bodyguard, Sonia had never felt quite so alone. She hadn’t moved in her seat the final hour of the twelve hour flight, pale face pressed to the window of the plane. It was far less grand than she’d remembered, the privacy of the aircraft more for the sake of necessity than luxury now. It used to be a comfort, but in a time of post-despair it only served as the thin metal shield between the calm, peaceful world of Jabberwock Island and her new reality, what remained of Novoselic.

“It’ll look different than you remember, but it’s not as if you haven’t seen the papers,” the woman idly chattered, sitting directly across from her and shuffling through a variety of official documents. Plenty of them, Sonia had noticed four hours ago while her secretary was sound asleep, detailing emergency protocols for a variety of different situations: assassination attempts, bombings, kidnappings, and more, despite the fact they were to be met at the airport by a team of twenty. There was a time when she could have chalked it up to rules and regulations that never would have seen the light of day, considering how much the citizens of Novoselic revered their Royal Family, aristocrats and commoners working together for the sake of a better world. It had only taken one corrupted princess transformed into a bloody queen to dismantle all sense of peace and comfort throughout the nation. “Yes, I’ve seen them. Thanks to Byakuya Togami and the Future Foundation,” Sonia finally sighed, eyes squinting as the sun streamed through the windows, high above the blanket of clouds that covered the world below. The sun was the only thing that reminded her of her past life, the one spent first in a simulated paradise-turned-horror story and then the next, an island without the glossy veneer the digital version had provided but instead contained real people, real friends, each with their own regrets and demons they had to face as the former Remnants of Despair. And just as they’d all seemed to learn how to smile again, how to love and cherish one another and the second chance they now had, it had been decreed that those who could make a significant improvement in the world elsewhere needed to depart as soon as possible. Sonia had been first: while she, like the others, had no family, she did have a home. One she hadn’t seen in years and, to her great relief, she wouldn’t be returning to alone: Hajime’s hand had been enclosed over hers for the past hour, when she’d gone silent after reminiscing of happier times.

The plane began to dip and she felt her stomach turn cartwheels as they descended through the clouds, leaving the sunshine behind to a world below that was far more melancholy. The papers, at least, had shown the slow rebuilding of Novoselic Castle by royalists, those loyal to the crown and who believed in the fact that Junko Enoshima and her form of manipulative, despairing poison had infiltrated the heart of their rightful queen. Most of the articles placed before her during her rehabilitation with the rest of Class 77-B had shown the strength of the human heart and spirit, Novoselic slowly returning to slightly resemble its former self. It had given Sonia the courage to finally accept their proposal to return, to be reinstated as the proper monarch, and regain the faith and trust of her people as she contributed her resources, both tangible and her vision for the future. But first she needed to at least step foot on Novoselic soil.

A reality that now seemed far too harrowing to imagine. As the blurry shapes below began to make out something akin to buildings, to roads, to houses and forests, Sonia drew a sharp intake of breath and squeezed Hajime’s hand harder. And for good reason: the secretary and bodyguard could only look away, not daring to look at it head-on: historic structures reduced to full rubble or only half standing, crumbling and devoid of the comfort of tradition they once brought to citizens and tourists alike. Apartment buildings barely standing, every window blown out with tenants, those who were still left, hanging signs begging to trade for food, water, and warm clothes. The skyline Sonia had remembered so well, where the National Hospital was located, the opera house, the largest library in the capital, all had succumbed to despair from explosives she’d commissioned to destroy them. Anything that brought a sliver of hope and happiness to her people had to be obliterated, if Novoselic was to truly embrace the despair Junko Enoshima so desired.

“Hajime...this unknown place I called home...if I didn’t see the the castle from here, I don’t think I could have recognized it anymore,” Sonia gasped, choking back a sob as she caught sight of the even rows of recently-piled dirt just outside the edge of the capital. Once upon a time, she’d visited them, in her gown of pink and red and ivory and praised the horrid work her armies had accomplished. At that time, the massive plots had been uncovered: a sin, of course, to hide the corpses on display, each one a glorious sacrifice to their mad queen.

[shookethbrooketh]

schrödinger’s cat

phil tried to take a deep breath, but he couldn’t manage. he tried to calm down, but the truth of the matter was that anything could have happened. there could have been a bombing, and the world around him could already be descending into war. It was schrödinger's cat; he had no memory of what had happened, and therefore everything, including the possible worst case scenario, had happened until he knew otherwise.

summary: it’s july of 2019, and dan and phil are headed to vidcon. everything has been absolutely amazing for the two of them since they ended their hiatus, and they’re ready to jump into the next stage of their lives...until a reckless driver destroys everything they had in store. suddenly phil is left completely alone to cope with the loss of his soulmate, and all he has left is the dark void of his own mind. dan’s the only thing that can help him, and he’ll find him, even if he has to get some wings first. 

genre: realism gone wrong, angst

warnings: major character death, suicide, car accident, hospital/doctors, funeral

word count: 4.6k

written for the @phandomreversebang ! inspired by the lovely art by @penisdinosaur ! beta’d by @i-havent-slept-in-days !

a/n: this fic is, by no means, meant to glorify suicide. however, it is quite dark especially near the ending, and the outlined way of thinking is EXTREMELY dangerous and unhealthy, so if you think that by any means this story may trigger you, PLEASE don’t read it!! i don’t want anyone to get hurt by my writing <3 please please please use discretion !! 

read it on ao3!

“Hurry up, Phil! We’re gonna miss ANOTHER flight!” Dan called from down the stairs. They were on their way to VidCon, and they didn’t want a repeat of the last time they flew out to Cali in 2017.

“Just our luck with Cali, I suppose,” Phil said, finally running from his room, suitcase dragging behind him, and planting his feet beside Dan’s. 

“You’re ready now? Haven’t forgotten your passport?” Dan asked.

“I think I should be asking you that one,” Phil said. Each of them pulled their passports from their pockets, clinked them like wine glasses, and headed for the stairs. The rush for the airport gate had already begun; Phil didn’t doubt that this would be another incident in which they barely caught the plane. He’d lost track of the times he and Dan had run up to a gate while it was closing, like in the movies. It was certainly anxiety-inducing, but the two of them were fairly calm. They’d had a great break from working hard on YouTube, but there were certainly some things about it that they’d missed, so they were excited to get back to public life. Meeting fans was one of the things they’d missed the most, so VidCon was a great start. 

When they finally reached the pavement outside their flat, Phil took one look at the taxi waiting for them and realized he’d forgotten his phone charger. “Shit!” he shouted, dropping his suitcase, turning on his heel, and making his way back to the flat.

 Behind him, Dan did a double take before groaning and following him. “What now?” 

“I forgot my charger! Why’d you follow me anyway? You could have stayed downstairs,” he said as he reached the door. He felt frantically around his pockets before turning to Dan, who was daintily holding the keys to the flat on one finger. 

“If I thought you’d have remembered your keys, I’d be kidding myself.” By now the taxi driver downstairs was viciously honking at them to hurry up, and both of them knew they were nearing the point of abandonment.

“This is NOT the time!” Phil replied, disappearing into the flat. He came out a moment later holding both Dan’s keys and his own, and, of course, his charger. 

They barrelled down the stairs, each of them nearly falling multiple times, and finally reached the bottom, out of breath after their third trip. Without pausing to talk, they grabbed their luggage and dashed outside. They hadn’t noticed until then that the honking had ceased, but it was clear why; another couple had gotten into their taxi, and it was driving back into traffic. 

“Oh, you have got to be shitting me!” Dan shouted, throwing his keys on the ground. 

Phil calmly bent down and picked them up, handing them back to him before pulling out his own phone. “I’ll call for an Uber,” Phil said dejectedly. Missing the cab was new territory, even for them. 

Luckily, the Uber arrived only a few minutes later, and they were optimistic about catching their plane. Their first event was a little earlier this year, so they certainly didn’t have time to catch another. They threw their things into the trunk and clambered into the Uber, panting a bit as they settled in. “Heathrow,” Phil spat out, and the driver took off. They leaned back against the seats and each took a deep breath. 

“Hey,” Dan said, “we’re gonna make it. Now’s our time to just rest.” They brushed their hands against one another and glanced up at the driver; they knew there was a certain amount of caution to be taken when out in public, even if with only one other person. 

When they looked up, they saw the driver applying lipstick in her mirror. They exchanged concerned looks, and Phil’s entire soul filled with anxiety as he sunk back so far into his seat that he felt as if he was going to disappear. 

“Uh, ma’am?” Dan spoke up shakily, leaning from the passenger side over to her seat. “Are you sure you’re able to drive safely while you’re doing that?” 

“Don’t worry about it,” she said carelessly while nearly running a red light. The light luckily turned green the moment she reached it, but it was clear that she wasn’t intending to stop. 

“I’m not completely su-” 

“Listen, bub,” she said, turning back to look at him, “I know how to drive a damn car.” 

She continued on as the two of their mouths fell wide open. “Oh my God, keep your eyes on the road!” Phil shouted. His breathing began to speed up, and it was evident that he would have a breakdown if something wasn’t done. 

Dan immediately took notice. “Phil, are you okay?” he said quietly enough that she couldn’t hear.

“I’m a professional!” she yelled back, drawing both their attention, and it seemed there was nothing they could to do prevent the screaming match that had commenced. 

Phil turned his head back to face Dan, sporting a face of helplessness. Quickly, though, his eyes caught the movement behind him. They had entered another intersection, and a car was headed right for them. “Dan!” 

~~~

Phil’s eyes blinked open to a sterile, dark, and empty room. He looked around for a moment, confused, and suddenly bolted upright. “Shit!” His hands immediately flew to his head. “Ah!” His head felt as if so much blood was rushing to it that it was going to explode. He slowly laid back into his bed and fumbled around for the bed’s remote; he finally found it, head throbbing, and pushed the call button. 

Within a few seconds, a nurse was in his room. “Oh, good, you’re awake,” he whispered. 

“Why-Ow!” Phil winced as he tried to speak before giving up. “What the hell kind of hangover is this?” he whispered. 

“It’s not a hangover; you have a concussion.” He looked at Phil’s face and sighed. “You don’t remember, do you?” 

Phil tried to think, but it only worsened his headache. “We were going to VidCon. What happened? We’re supposed to be in America. We… Where’s Dan?”

The nurse pursed his lips. “Your family should be here soon.” 

“What-” he whisper-screamed, but the nurse was leaving. “Hey!” he used a normal voice, and his head was throbbing, but he didn’t care. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he shouted, but to no avail. The nurse was gone, and his heart was pounding just as hard as his head. What had happened to them? 

He closed his eyes and tried to think back to whatever accident must have happened to land him in that bed. They were taking a cab to VidCon. No, they were taking an Uber. They missed the cab. In any other circumstance, Phil would have laughed at their mistake. Now, it felt like a clue in a murder case. 

They were in the Uber, and that was where the story ended. It was as if he just passed out and somehow ended up in the hospital. His memory flat lined in the middle of the London streets, and everything was completely normal. That, though, couldn’t possibly be true; if it was, Dan would be standing beside him and holding his hand. 

One of the most troubling parts, at that point, was that his memory was failing him. Phil knew there was more to the story, but he couldn’t remember it. Tragedy had struck, and he didn’t even know how. He couldn’t even manage to remember something that he could tell deep down had changed his life forever. 

Phil tried to take a deep breath, but he couldn’t manage. He tried to calm down, but the truth of the matter was that anything could have happened. There could have been a bombing, and the world around him could already be descending into war. It was Schrödinger's Cat; he had no memory of what had happened, and therefore everything, including the possible worst case scenario, had happened until he knew otherwise. Tears he didn’t take notice of rolled down his cheeks, and the heart monitor beside him sped up with each breath. 

At that moment, Phil’s parents rushed in, with his brother Martyn in tow. They saw him panicking and Martyn shouted, “Phil, are you okay?” 

Suddenly everything around him slowed to a stop. His brother’s words reverberated in his head until the voice changed to Dan’s. He closed his eyes, and he saw the inside of a car. He saw a driver, one who chose to look back at them rather than driving. He heard screaming, and every bit of it shot pain through his head, but he couldn’t even think of pulling himself out of what he could only describe as his nightmare. He turned to Dan, and the two made eye contact. They were both hopeless, stuck in a dangerous situation they had no way out of; yet, when Dan saw Phil, his face seemed to soften just a little. Super best friends and soulmates, until the end. 

Phil’s eye caught a car speeding towards them; they were running a red light, and the other driver was paying no more attention than theirs. Before he had time to react, the car was smashing into Dan’s side of the car. He screamed, and he remembered the scream, but he couldn’t hear it; by now he couldn’t hear anything at all. He could simply see Dan’s body collapse towards his as he was thrown back against his window. All went black, and he opened his eyes to his concerned family standing around his hospital bed. 

“He’s gone, isn’t he?” 

They nodded, and he closed his eyes once again. 

~~~

“Get plenty of rest, and don’t look at any screens for the next week unless you absolutely have to, and after that, only use them in moderation. Nothing too strenuous, alright?” 

“Mhm,” Phil nodded. It had been a couple days since the accident, and since he only had a concussion, they were releasing him. Really, he felt as if they probably should have just transferred him to the mental ward, but he didn’t say anything. He hadn’t said much at all since he found out about Dan. 

The Lester family was collectively worried about Phil seeming to have gone mute, but they also clearly wanted him to have time to grieve. They were just as shocked as he was. 

When they made it back to the flat, the family made it clear that they wouldn’t be leaving any time soon. Phil wanted to complain, but he didn’t feel like opening his mouth. Normally, it would have made him feel at least a little bit of comfort, but comfort didn’t seem feasible without Dan. 

Phil’s family set him up in his old room set (they assumed it would be too painful for him to lie in the room where he usually slept with Dan) with a stockpile of books and went to watch tv, promising to check in on him periodically. Phil was about as satisfied as he could have been, and he tried to read, but his brain was too scattered, and he found himself forgetting what he’d read by the time he finished the chapter. “Stupid concussion,” he muttered to himself, his voice a bit raspy from not speaking. Instead he chose to rest his eyes; the doctor did say to rest, and he was pretty sure he’d read that sleep is good for concussions. 

Before he could doze off, though, he heard what sounded like traffic. Sure, he was in London, but he was confident he’d never heard traffic that loud; it sounded as if he was right on the street. He opened his eyes to search for a source, and suddenly he saw himself in a car. Confused, he looked around and saw Dan sitting beside him. In front of them was their Uber driver from a few days before. 

“Oh, no,” Phil breathed, “no, no, no. Dan, we need to get out of here,” he said, turning to Dan, but he couldn’t hear. “Dan!” he shouted, reaching out to shake his arm, but his hand went straight through Dan’s skin. All the life breathed out of him as he realized there was nothing he could do. He tried to hurl himself from this horrible vision, but nothing worked. Even closing his eyes just sent him a level deeper into this hell. As the car approached them, Dan turned to Phil, and he knew the line. “Phil, are you okay?” He could already hear it in his head, but when Dan’s mouth opened, he said something completely different. 

“If only you’d have remembered your charger.” 

“Phil?” He lurched forward out of what he suddenly realized was a dream, but the feeling it left in him lingered. Martyn was standing over his bed, visibly worried. What a surprise. “Are you alright?” 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Phil said, monotone. 

“Are you sure? You looked like you were in pain.” 

“Nope, head’s fine.” 

Martyn stood still for a moment, seeming to contemplate this, before sitting at the foot of Phil’s bed. It was like his older brother was pretending to be his father, and he didn’t care for it. “Well, I guess this is a good time to have a talk, then.” 

“About what?” Phil spurted out, a bit of a harsh undertone hiding in his words. 

“I know you can’t have your phone for a while, so I just wanted to ask you if you wanted me to say anything to the press. Obviously nobody’s said anything yet, and your entire fanbase is currently worried sick, given that you’re supposed to be doing panels at VidCon right now.” 

Phil just sort of stared at him for a moment. Why would he ever want Martyn to tell the media what happened to Dan? Schrödinger had come back to haunt him again; he knew that these people had no idea what had happened. Only Phil, their families, and the people involved knew. The entire world was left in the dark, and, to them, Dan was still alive. Even that simple of a thought was the only thing that gave him comfort. “No. I’ll announce it myself when I’m better.” 

“Are you sure? People are really w-” 

“I’ll do it myself,” he barked, cutting off his brother. 

Martyn jumped back a bit. “O-okay, Phil. I hope you feel better soon.” 

“Thank you,” he said sternly as Martyn left the room. Phil smiled for the first time since he’d found out that Dan was gone. It was difficult, but Phil managed to crack that smirk solely because he knew that even though he was really gone, to the world, Dan was lying right beside him. 

~~~

Phil couldn’t sleep that night, or the next night, or the night after that. Every time he dozed off, he dreamt of Dan’s violent death. Some dreams reenacted the real event, but others reimagined a whole different maiming; the only thing that stayed consistent between them all was that Phil was somehow to blame. 

That mindset carried into his waking hours as well; the only thing that remained constant in his head was the knowledge that he was at fault. If he had just remembered his damn charger, or just given it up and shared Dan’s, they would have caught their cab, and they never would have been in the Uber with that irresponsible driver. If it weren’t for Phil’s own stupidity, Dan would still be there. 

Phil stayed closed off from his family as well. They stayed in his living room, they brought him food, and they tried to interact with him as much as possible, but he’d never say a word in response. They tried to console him, but he felt nothing. They tried to joke with him, but Dan had taken Phil’s sense of humor with him when he left. Nothing was working. 

Really, Phil felt nothing at all. He hadn’t particularly realized it, but Dan had truly been his person. Dan had been the one person who filled him with all the feelings there were to feel, and in departing he sucked them right back out. He wasn’t sure he ever would feel again--not without Dan. 

But, in his mind, he deserved it. It was his fault. 

And that was never going to change.

Time continued to pass, and Phil’s concussion healed. He was able to use screens again, and he was allowed to aid in planning Dan’s funeral. He chose not to, but he knew the date was set for a few days ahead, and he did everything he could to ignore it. He tried to watch funny videos, but nothing made him laugh. He tried to watch something sad, but he couldn’t even cry. He just wanted to feel something, anything, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t feel anything while he was apart from Dan. 

The screens were his last hope. He thought that maybe he’d feel something when he had access to the Internet, to the world he’d built with Dan, but not even seeing the two of them together gave him back any feeling. He still couldn’t bear to tell the world what had happened, and he internally decided he never would. His body felt completely empty, and he’d resolved himself to the fact that it would until he met Dan again. 

 He even began to hallucinate, seeing himself in black and white whenever he looked in a mirror. He was a disaster as well, but all he really noticed was the lack of color. He fantasized that when he saw Dan again, they’d touch, and color would drain back into him. Everything would be okay again, but not without Dan. 

He needed Dan. 

~~~

The day of Dan’s funeral finally came, and Phil’s family helped him get ready. Phil was a bit brighter by then, or at least he appeared to be. The inside of his head was as dark as ever, and as he looked in the mirror, he still saw a black and white body putting on the all black suit, but everyone else saw color, and that was all that mattered. 

By the time they were done with him, he looked socially acceptable, and he was ready to leave. The empty shell that used to be Phil Lester droned along to the funeral home, and the visitation began. He stood there, barely paying any attention as people came and went. Few were allowed; the public would find out if too many were there. Phil didn’t care about any of them anyway; they were mostly relatives of Dan’s who Dan himself could barely stand. Phil knew Dan deserved more people at his damn funeral, but he didn’t care anyway. He was dead, and Phil was practically dead as well. 

Phil hadn’t a clue how long he’d been sitting in the front pew beside the casket when someone approached and put his hand on his shoulder. “We’re going to leave you two alone,” said Dan’s mother, giving him a grim smile before turning to leave. Phil gave no response, but he soon found that he was alone with the casket.

Schrödinger was back for a third time. As he stood overtop of the wooden box, to him, it was empty. He couldn’t see inside, and therefore he chose to believe it was empty. He knew that if he opened it his theory may change, but he had no way of knowing until he did, and so he wouldn’t. He hadn’t seen Dan since they were in the car, and he didn’t plan to. Not until he could truly be with him. 

Dan would be livid to know that his funeral was in a church. He’d be livid to know that they were burying him instead of cremating him as well, but Phil didn’t have the heart to step into the process and vocalize those concerns. He was surprised, at this point, to find that he had a beating heart at all. 

It was at that point that he felt the first feeling he’d felt since he learned about the accident: longing. He felt an overwhelming urge for the only closure he’d ever have, for the ability to be with Dan, even if for a moment, and even if he wasn’t really there. So it was then that he reached in and opened the casket. Within was Dan’s body, his face covered in makeup to look him look less pale and grey. In reality, Phil looked the same while he was alive, so there wasn’t much of a point in that. 

Suddenly, Phil felt like a human juice box. He didn’t know there was anything left inside him, but the image of Dan, lifeless in a casket, sucked out the very last of his feelings, and he knew he didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t wait any longer; he needed to be with Dan. 

~~~

Food piled up on the counter as Phil cheerily wished family goodbye. Had he any feeling left, he would have hugged them extra tight to say a long goodbye, but he couldn’t even bring himself to do that. As they all left, he looked at all the meals they’d prepared for him. They’d left at least a week’s worth of food for him to eat while he grieved; it was a shame, really. He knew he would have chuckled at the irony had he cared. 

“Don’t do this, Phil.” He turned on his heel and saw Dan standing in front of him, bright, white angel wings protruding from his back. 

“Dan,” he breathed out desperately, and broke out in a run towards him. He threw his arms around him, but quickly found that there was nothing to throw his arms around at all. 

“I’m sorry I can’t be there, but you can’t do this. So many people depend on you.” 

“Bullshit. I’m not strong enough for them,” Phil said, turning back down the hall and heading for their kitchen. “Not without you.” 

“Yes, you are,” Dan said, materializing again in his way. Phil simply walked right through him. “Think of the example you’re setting.” 

“What fucking example?” he exclaimed, throwing his arms up and bringing them back down to unsheathe a sharp knife from their block. “You were the example. What kind of example would I be if I just fucking sit here and let people down because I can’t even feel emotion without you?” 

“A better example than you would be if you do this! Everything we’ve done together has been to help other people stay alive. Don’t you remember? I’m so glad I failed. I was able to do so much. You know this story, and you were one of its greatest supporters; you can’t be turning against that and becoming selfish enough now to do this. This isn’t you, Phil.” 

“No, it’s not,” Phil replied, storming angrily down the hallway towards their bedroom. Their real bedroom. “I took that away from myself when I took you away from me.” 

“That wasn’t your fault.” 

“Yes, it was. I need to be with you, Dan; I need to finish what I fucking started.” 

“How do you even know this is me?” Dan pleaded as Phil settled himself on their bed. It was the first time he’d been in the room since they’d left for VidCon, and somewhere in him, it made him feel pain. “You don’t believe in the afterlife, and you know I sure as hell don’t. Why do you think this will get you to me in the first place?” 

“Oh, Dan,” Phil said almost whimsically, tracing the knife with his pointer finger, “I can tell it’s you. Nobody else loves me this much, not even my own psyche.” 

“What about Schrödinger? Until you’re here, I’m both here and not here. What if you made the wrong guess? Either is equally possible, even if you think you know what the truth is. Are you really willing to take that risk?” 

To add to the list of firsts, for the first time since the accident, Phil laughed, cupping his hands around the handle of the knife. “Not even Schrödinger can save me now.” 

He plunged the knife into his stomach, and a sigh of relief escaped as the physical pain rushed through his body. It was the only true feeling he’d felt since he’d found out Dan was dead, and something about it was almost comforting--no, it was comforting. He felt warmth rush through his body, and he finally, genuinely smiled as he saw Dan materialize in front of him again. He knew Dan was still just ouch of reach, but as life drained from him, he reached out nonetheless. 

“I love you.” 

All went dark, and he felt himself being pulled from his body. He felt as if he was floating, and images began to take shape in a cylinder around him. He sees Dan, but much younger and through a computer screen. It’s their first Skype call. To the right, he sees the first time they met. He watches as they run up to each other and embrace, and feeling begins to seep back into him. Every image he sees brings a little bit more feeling back to him as he floats higher and higher away from the misery of a world without his soulmate. He watches as he and Dan move in with each other, as they move to London, as they become radio hosts, and as they navigate success. He watches as they create a whole world of their own within the shitty world they were placed into, and he watches as they mold that world into a happy place not only for them but for others. He watches them write two books and travel the world twice, he watches them film Dan’s coming out video, and, finally, one last time, he watches the accident that took Dan away from him. 

But that didn’t matter anymore. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, quite literally, and Phil was approaching it. As he reached the top, he felt tears pouring from the turquoise eyes he wasn’t even sure he had anymore. Suddenly, he was engulfed in bright, white light, and he was sitting on a cordial stone wall. None of that mattered, either, because he saw Dan right in front of him. Speechless, he let Dan start.

“I’m so mad at you.” 

Before he could even respond, Dan knelt down in front of Phil and wrapped his arms around his neck. It was like a transfer of energy; as soon as Dan touched him, and he could finally really, truly touch him, Phil ironically felt completely alive again. Still without words, Phil shakily reached forward and cupped Dan’s cheeks before falling into a kiss. He was completely helpless, left to collapse into Dan’s arms, but he was okay with that. The two of them were together again, and that was all that mattered. 

Dan slid his hands down to Phil’s back and pulled away, leaving Phil’s hands sitting idly on his face. When Phil looked down at him, he saw that he was crying as well. Phil laughed, expelling more tears of joy from his postearthly ducts. “You lied. You look amazing in white.” 

Dan laughed back at him, a sound he knew all too well how much he’d missed. The two of them simply remained there for a moment, smiling in each other’s presence, before Dan stood back up. “Hey, Phil?” he said, holding his hand out to Phil. 

“Let’s go home.” 

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Remarks: And the day is saved thanks to Oscar Pine.

miggy97 asked “ Just had a scary thought: what if when they find the plane, Oscar is mortally wounded, and when Jaune tries to use his semblance to heal him, he realizes his aura is still completely depleted after taking the full brunt of the mech??? Queue Oscar temporarily dying and then meeting the God of Light. Probably not gonna happen but I can dream, can’t I? 😂 ”

miraculouscorazone asked “ So, you think Oscar flew out of the airship, unconscious, before Maria possibly crash landed it? Honestly, a few RoseGardeners, including myself, really wanna see Ruby use her semblance to save Oscar; whether it’d be saving him or for a new team attack (though, now, more likely the former, rather than the ladder)” 

Squiggles Answers:

Righto. Whelp I think it’s official to say that V6 C11 has dispelled my theories of the Fire and Ice-cream duo showing up in Argus to challenge our titular Rosebuds for a rematch. At least for this volume. There is still hope for the Atlas Arc. I’m not letting go of these theories just yet.

I’m actually happy with this development because if I’m correct in Oscar dying while trying to protect Ruby and achieving immortality through an unexpected encounter with the God of Light then imagine how much more powerful that moment would be if it’s done in a future season when Ruby and Oscar’s relationship has blossomed further to the point where mutual romantic interest starts to form. So for now, I’m going to stick a pin in this theory of mine for the time being.

Building off of what you guys presented here, I’m going to present to you two new possibilities for how the next episode---V6 C12 can go:

Possibility 1

Looking back on C11, I noticed that the airship doors were actually opened on both sides of the ship. How convenient. I say so in support of Cora’s hunch about Oscar falling out of the ship and Ruby using her semblance to save him. What if…as the missile went off and Maria is doing her best to pilot it from completely crashing, Oscar ends up stumbling background and right out the conveniently opened left-side compartment door to the airship.

As Oscar is falling from ship, Ruby who is also conveniently positioned hanging from the cliff side, spots Oscar’s descent and thinking quickly, Ruby uses Crescent Rose to one-shot propel herself into the air with enough momentum to spiral herself into her semblance catching Oscar before he can hit the water.

While Ruby saves Oscar, Weiss sees to it that Maria safely lands the ship by using her gravity glyphs on the airship to slow down its descent and soften the crash. We actually saw Weiss make use of this technique twice before. 

Last volume when she used her gravity glyphs to soften the crash with the Atlesian pilot and in this volume’s first episode with the Argus Limited crash. So I can definitely see Weiss aiding Maria in landing the Atlesian ship before her and JNR go to make sure that Maria and the ship are in one piece after landing in the forests not too far from the cliffs.

The reason why I wouldn’t mind if Ruby used her semblance to save Oscar in this instance is a) obvious Rosegardening Rosebuds moment and b) Oscar’s mention of figuring out something regarding Cordo’s mechazord. I feel like Oscar needs to be conscious for the next episode otherwise how else is he going to be helpful in helping everyone stop Cordo?

A part of me actually would love it if Oscar’s plan involves actually going inside of the Atlesian Mechazord; that way Ruby and Oscar can aid everyone from within while the others help from the outside. I don’t know what it is that Oscar figured out about Cordo but I’d actually love it if somehow, someway; the Rosebuds end up inside the Mechazord and work towards finding a way to stop it from the inside while keeping in close communication with the others on the outside.

A part of me really just wants an entire episode dedicated to Ruby and Oscar just working together to help thwart Cordo who is practically maniacal at this point. If Ruby catches Oscar from falling then she’d need a good place to land where the two can be safe. It’d be interesting if of all the places Ruby could land it’s right on top one of the ice platforms Weiss conjured which in the end Oscar says is perfect since he will need Ruby’s help to get him inside Cordo’s mechazord.

Since attacking it from the inside failed then their next best bet is to go inside, right? Again, I just want an entire episode dedicated to the Rosebuds working together to thwart Cordo while the others hold down the fort and work to repair the airship from the outside before they can fly back in to help them.

Weiss and Jaune will both need time to cool down and recharge their auras because they both seemed the most battered by this battle.

One thing I don’t understand about this fight is why they didn’t just have Jaune amplify Weiss’ aura levels so that she can summon her Armor Gigas? I mean, as indicated in V5, the Armor Gigas can change its size so… why not have Weiss just summon her Gigas and make it grow to the size worthy of taking down the Mechazord?

If she needs more aura to achieve such a feat then there is Jaune to give that extra firepower. It’s just an obvious strategy option I wondered about during this episode y’know. Who knows? We might still see it. But for now, I’m just gonna hang on to the point of Oscar surviving the crash through Ruby’s help and the two working together on their own to stop Cordo from the belly of the beast.

Will this happen? I really dunno but I’m leaving it open as a possibility.

Possibility 2

Whelp, this is one I’ve been singing since C11 ended. What if…the plane crashes but not too badly since Weiss was able to assist with her gravity glyphs. But although Maria makes it out alive and well, Oscar on the other hand isn’t so hot. During the crash Oscar either gets knocked unconscious or seriously injured, putting him at death’s doorstep in the Realm between Realms while in the real world, the others do their best to resuscitate him.

From there, Oscar has his full episode of focus with reuniting with Ozpin. Maybe even Pyrhha will be there for Oscar to have his encounter with her and for Oscar to help Pyrhha to move onto the afterlife by informing her of what happened to her friends and former JNR teammates or something like that.

If this happens, a part of me would actually love a nod to Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood when Ed found Al’s body in purgatory and promised him he’d bring him back some day. I think it could be interesting if Oscar and Ozpin’s reunion ends on a sour note where Ozpin is trapped in the Realm between Realms and try as he might, Oscar can’t get him back because he doesn’t want to come back or whatever. So Oscar makes a promise to Ozpin, like Edward did to Al that he’ll bring him back someday. Just…wait for him.

From there, Oscar wakes back up in the real world and returns to helping the others---awakening the Oz-cane. I don’t expect an Oscar semblance reveal but I do wanna see an Oz-cane magic trick along with a badass Oscar battle theme.

I know some fans want to see Ozpin and maybe see him come back by the end of this season but…personally I don’t. I feel like Ozpin’s isolation holds more meaning to it. I actually want the Merge to be prolonged until the Atlas Arc just so that we can have more time with the story developing Oscar as his own character outside of Ozpin.

I’m not sure if I wish to hope for this to be the case in the event that my expectations might be crushed. It’s just something I would’ve liked to see done. Since Oscar mentioned himself having limited time then I honestly feel like that time should be spent developing him as his own person; seeing him build his own bonds with the other characters all the while giving us audience members more time to get to know more about Oscar.

After 5 seasons and his backstory in this volume, I feel like I already know what I need to know about Ozpin---Ozma. I’m still learning things about Oscar so I’d like more seasons to get to know him as him before the inevitable; y’know what I mean?

Now that I think about it. I actually don’t want Oscar to be out for the duration of C11. I actually wouldn’t mind if he gets knocked out by the end of C12, having his Ozpin reunion for the final episode of the season.

I think it would make a really terrific cliff-hanger for C12 if we actually do get to see Oscar get hurt and put in the Realm between Realms while trying to protect Ruby. Going off of my first possibility, perhaps we’ll get to see Ruby and Oscar fight a crazed Cordo inside her mechazord.

 Imagine if…Cordo at some point loses control of her Mechazord and the machinery starts pillaging through Argus heading straight for the Wall which would be destroyed if the group don’t do something to stop it. I actually dig the idea of Ruby and Oscar facing off against Cordo inside the mechazord.

If Ruby and Oscar somehow end up inside the mechazord making their way up to Cordo; imagine if they arrive at the passenger’s cockpit only to find the seat empty and the zord moving on its own on some kind of autopilot. And as Oscar and Ruby check for Cordo, they are suddenly blindsided by the special operative who comes charging at them out of nowhere with a giant weapon.

Perhaps Cordo has a battle axe/magnum gun weapon that she suddenly whips out to make mincemeat out of our Rosebuds, going straight for their heads only for something to happen during the fight. Like perhaps Cordo swings her axe straight into the controls for the Mechazord which short-circuits the machine causing it to go berserk and start moving on its own.

So Ruby, Oscar and Cordo are all trapped inside the Mechazord while the titan-sized bucket of bolts rampages the forests of Argus, reaping nothing but destruction in its walk heading straight for the Wall of Argus. Because if the Wall is destroyed then that will certainly bring forth panic and distress to the People of Argus and a whole population widespread of panic will definitely bring forth the Grimm lurking near the area.

The fact that the Wall of Argus was highlighted in C7 still bothers me along with the fact that Oscar was the one seen in the shot with the Wall. If I had to make an assumption going off that then I’d like to think that if anything were to happen to the Wall, it’d be Oscar who ends up saving the day through the magic of the Oz-cane; somehow

If the Mechazord does go berserk then it’d be interesting if the group actually wind up saving both Argus and Cordo. That and a part of me would also love to see a parallel to this scene between Ozma and Salem with Ruby and Oscar. I don’t care how it’s done I just would love to see it done where at the end of it all, Ruby and Oscar survive the mechazord fight together and just take a moment to catch their breaths before looking at each other and smiling.

Maybe Ruby smiles at Oscar and he looks away kind of blushing. Ruby then asks Oscar “What do we do now?” mimicking Salem in the Lost Fable only for Oscar to outstretch his hand to her; mimicking Ozma saying “Whatever we like.”

Not sure if we’ll get any of what I just theorized but once more, a squiggle meister can dream. I hope this answers you guys @miggy97 and @miraculouscorazone. Let me know your thoughts on my thoughts if possible. In the meantime, that’s my full $2.50.

 More Squiggles’ RWBY  Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[hungergames-fanfic]

Half Human, Half Squirrel pt.2

“Littleburg used to have another name before the games. Ms. Gullard told us last year. She says it used to be the Capitol of Texas, one of the previous states formin’ the United States of America, which we now call Panem”, I say. Ari stares at me with her mouth open.

“You ever been to actual Littleburg?”, I ask. She shakes her head. I’m not surprised, this is where all the rich folk live and everything is too expensive. “Our school is right outside of Littleburg. This is the only elementary in all of District 10”, I add. Daddy says that’s how the government keeps track of us but I don’t tell Ari this, I aint tryna explain 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵.

“that’s why it’s so big?”, Ari jumps off her seat with her hands in the air. Daddy asks her to sit down. That’s cause peacekeepers are really mean here and will stop anybody. Momma Bilmin calls it abuse of power and to never ask them for help.

Cause the peacekeepers usually pick on people who look poor, to go to Littleburg we have to dress nice. Momma Bilmin combed our hair really tight into a braid and put a cowboy hat on Ari. I think it’s to hide how skinny she really looks with her hair tamed. Momma Bilmin then turned one of my yellow dresses inside out, sew it in a couple of places and made it fit Ari. She looks so pretty and hasn’t stopped smiling since. She says I look pretty in my dress too.

Driving past our school, daddy keeps going until we reach local stores. These are old, small and a lot cheaper than those deeper in Littleburg. Passing these we start to see forests and pretty green trees down the long road. He makes a lot of sharp turns I don’t pay attention to the way Ari does. She sits on her knees, looking out the window in awe. I don’t blame her. Bloques is nothing like this, aunt Lucia calls it “one big shantytown” cause the houses are so close together there aren’t that many trees.

“Look Dora”, daddy points at some ruins.

Behind a chain link fence is a completely destroyed building scattered all over a long road. The engines and wings remind me of a plane I once saw in a book about traveling. There were so many versions of planes that I spent a whole week reading just about them. “Airport?”, I gasp excitedly. I jump off my seat and join Ari at the window. “That one!”, I point at a blue and yellow plane underneath a run down hangar. “That’s a Boeing 757, that was the first largest single isle passenger plane for a very long time. Oh!”, I point at a lost wing with a jet engine holding it off the ground, “that must of been an Airbus, those were made in a country named France” I continue.

“Dora”, daddy interrupts. He says I’m not to talk about what I’ve learned beyond Panem. “Won’t do you any good to get smart, these fields are yours, this’s what you need to focus on”, he said once.

Soon, there’s not that many trees surrounding the road, it’s stores all over the area. “Pocco’s Footwear”, “Family Donuts”, “Brie’s Electronics”, and “DDDD Insurance” are some of the names on them. Behind these are neighborhoods of houses like mine. These are made of red brick with backyards. “They’re connected to the poles, they carry electricity throughout the neighborhood”, I point at the power lines.

In no time, the roads get bigger and everyone is driving faster. “These are highways and they take us to different sections of Littleburg”, I continue. Up on one of the ramps we’re able to see a big pretty building out in the distance. “That’s Spring Hills, middle and high school but you gotta be accepted to it. Momma wants me to go there next year”, I whisper to Ari. She doesn’t say anything back but looks sad. I wish I could read her mind. Maybe I could. Maybe there’s a book on reading minds.

“Daddy will there be a book store where we’re goin’?”, I ask.

“No more books, you got enough at home”, he says.

“Momma Bilmin says there can never be enough books”, I say but nothing more when I catch his eyes on me in the rear view mirror.

Off the highway he drives into a big parking lot, surrounding it are stores scattered all around. A gas station at the entrance corner, an ice cream shop in the middle of the lot, stores connected together but with signs that say what they sell. “PBS Pharmacy”, “Make U Smile Dental”, “Petstore”, a huge one named “Bullseye” and more that are too far away to read.

“Wow, can we go there”, Ari asks pointing at the pet store. We look at daddy, he says “no”, and heads for the pharmacy. He looks tired.

“Why does he sleep on the sofa?”, Ari whispers in my ear so he won’t hear. I look at her confused. Daddy doesn’t sleep on the sofa, he sleeps with momma. If he did, was it cause of what happened last night?

I don’t notice how hot it is outside until we walk into the pharmacy. A blast of cold air hits us when the door opens making Ari scream and laugh. Even though her scream scared me a little, it’s still funny and I laugh with her. Daddy looks back at us with a smile on his face. I don’t have to read his mind to know he found it funny too.

Not wanting to lose daddy I take Ari’s hand and pull her along with me. She holds on tighter. He walks a lot faster than us so we practically jog to him. We pass a couple of isles before Ari stops running and pulls on my arm. Not wanting to lose daddy, “go, I’m gonna see where he goes and come back”, I inform.

Daddy stands in the middle of an isle, on the shelves are a lot of plain gray boxes. “Earwax Remover”, “Eye Drops”, “Antiseptic Cream”.

“Lice Remover?”, I ask scratching my head.

Daddy looks down at me with a weird look on his face. He looks mad, confused, I can’t tell and I really wish I could. In his hand are two rectangular boxes that say just that. Without a word, he pushes me and we walk out the isle in search for Ari. We find her on the floor playing with a rubber chicken, making it scream when she presses on it. She giggles every time.

“Stay here, I’m gonna go talk to the pharmacist”, daddy says just before he walks off like he remembered something he’d forgot.

The chicken continues to squeal and Ari screams in giggles. Can’t forget how loud she is when she’s having fun. To keep her company I look around the toy isle until one catches my eye. It’s not really a toy but a board game, to play you need about three people, that could be Efrain, Ari and me. The instructions say that you are given a word and then you have to act it out. Who ever guesses it wins a point. Or something along those lines. I want it and I’m too excited to wait for daddy to come back to tell him. I tell Ari to wait and run around the store looking for daddy, whom I find at the back talking to an old man.

“Good news, the vaccines you ordered will be here in a couple of days”, says the old man looking at his computer screen.

“That ain’t what I’m here for”, daddy chuckles like he’s nervous. Momma says it’s rude to interrupt people when they’re talking so I run back to Ari to see if there’s a toy she’d want too. I’m sure if we beg him just enough he’d get it for us.

When I return to the isle she’s no longer there. I run to the opposite end and spot her jumping in and out the store, playing with the automatic doors. “I leave for one second”, that’s what I wanna say when I catch her and run after her who takes it like a challenge. She spots me and screams, then proceeds to giggle away. If daddy finds out we left the store he’s not gonna let me see tonight.

Outside she runs giggling her heart out past the store fronts until she suddenly stops. I know what she’s looking at, it’s the pet store. That’s where she wanted to go when we got here. She walks inside with a look of awe in her face. I follow her in and take her hand pulling her closer to me. That’s the last time I let her out of my sight.

“Ari, you can’t do that”, I say out of breath.

“Ari? Ari-elle. It’s like you wanna say my name but some stop you”, she swings our hands. I never noticed how short she is. With the hat she looks a little taller but is still obviously short. I put my hand close to her forehead and measure her. She reaches my chin in height. She giggles to this but says nothing.

“You don’t like it? Been callin’ you that in my head for a minute. Not sure when I started”, I admit.

She giggles and gives me a hug, “no one’s ever given me a nickname before. Well momma calls me chipmunk”, “I knew it!”, I scream in her face. She jumps and opens her eyes wide. I ain’t tryna admit I thought of her as a squirrel, “I knew they called you some cute, it suits you cause you’re... cute too” my lie suddenly feels like it turns true and I freeze hoping she doesn’t say anything.

“You think I’m cute?”, Ari asks. She bats her eyes and smiles but it looks made up, like she’s happy and sad at the same time. She’s turning pink. Still holding on to my hand, she barely pulls on me but I still follow.

The isle she walks to is like a bookshelf for fish tanks. Colorful fish swim around in groups with pretty rocks and castles in their tanks. In one there are about a hundred swimming the same direction until Ari knocks the tank making them swim away. The fun is back on her face. In no time we’ve roamed around the entire pet store. From looking at individual colorful fish swim around in a small container to puppies play fighting with each other in a big glass case. We even get to pet a bunny when Ari opens up a cage that hasn’t been locked. The bunny falls asleep while I pet it. I want it, I want all of the animals in here. Daddy would say we’ve got enough animals at home though. Daddy? I gasp catching Ari’s attention.

“Ari, we gotta go”, I say pulling on her hand. By now I’m sure daddy’s stopped talking to the old man and is waiting for us with an unpleased look on his face. To be in trouble scares me and I’m almost too scared to go back.

Hiding my feelings we return to the pharmacy and walk to the back but daddy ain’t there. Quickly I call out for him and run around the entire place. Ari’s close behind still holding on to my hand really tight. I go back to the toy isle, he’s not here. I go back to the isle he got the lice remover from, he’s not here. I walk up to the counter and ask the cashier, she doesn’t look older than Eduardo, she pops her pink bubble gum and leans closer to us, looking at us back and forth.

“Y’all lookin’ for the tall cowboy with the pretty braids?”, she asks twirling her hair with her finger.

“That’s my daddy, you seen him?”, I ask practically screaming at her. She sneers.

“Yeah, I seen him”, she says. I open my eyes wide and extend my arms in confusion. Is she gonna tell me where he went or not?

“He left lookin’ for y’all, almost walked out of here without payin’”, she smiles smacking her gum. “Too fine to pass the opportunity though, called him back“, she giggles still playing with her hair, “went headed to Bullseye”, she says pointing to said direction with her pinky finger.

“We need to make sure he hasn’t left”, I say to Ari running back to momma’s car. Here it looks like he came back and put his bags on the front seat before going out to find us. This makes me nervous. If daddy is actively searching then that means he’s gonna kill me when he finds us. I ain’t tryna look like a wuss though, so I keep my worries to myself.

“Look”, Ari says pointing at the ice cream shop in the middle of the parking lot. Next to it is a white peacekeeper vehicle. “Wanna ask’em?”, she pulls on my arm.

“No”, I say thinking about what momma Bilmin would do. “We should ask inside”, I add.

We actively ignore the peacekeepers, like they aren’t there but a big boring rock in their place. They notice us though and maybe there’s a look of worry in my face, that would explain why Ari hasn’t acted up in a minute. That or she’s just as scared of daddy.

“Aye kid, what’s up?”, one says. They’re both old but not too old, maybe younger than daddy. They wear their peacekeeper uniforms but have taken their helmets off to enjoy their ice cream.

“Y’all seen Mr. Wyetka? Got a cowboy hat on, really tall, really 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 tall, like this”, Ari says on her tip toes tryna draw a line way above her head. The peacekeepers laugh.

“Even the children?”, one says. “Y’all seen Mr. Doodah”, the other one mocks in a silly version of our accent. “Hey kid, look around, everyone’s got a damn cowboy hat on”, this makes the other one laugh and point at Ari and then his head, “It’s like everyone here is born with one”, he says making themselves laugh even harder. I hope they drop their ice cream.

“C’mon”, Ari says pulling me into the ice cream shop. “Hey mister, you seen-“, she’s interrupted by the man behind the counter.

“Hey kid ya daddy was just in here lookin’ for y’all”, he says.

“You seen where he went?”, Ari asks with excitement. The man shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head. This scares me more. What if daddy gives up and goes home without us? What if he finds us and is super angry? How mad is he gonna be at me?

Back outside I can’t hold it anymore and start to cry so much my body moves like I got hiccups every time I gasp. Ari holds my hand the entire time. She hugs, says she’s sorry and begs me to stop crying. I want to but I can’t stop. I’ve lost daddy and he’s out here looking for me too. He’s gonna be so mad when he finds us. “If he ever does”, I think making myself feel worse.

“Maybe we should try Bullseye”, Ari says.

“That’s a really big store, we’d have better luck waitin’ for him outside”, I say through the sobs. Ari agrees and hugs me again, tells me that we’ll find him and when we do she’ll take the blame. I don’t want her to, even if it was her fault I wouldn’t want daddy to be mad at her.

Holding hands, we walk past store fronts asking for daddy but so far no one’s seen him. Back in the petstore the man behind the counter points to the Bullseye store direction. We automatically head there and plan to wait for him outside. Ari calls the plan a smart one.

“Excuse me mister”, Ari approaches a man sitting outside the store. He’s short, bald, and greasy. He sits in front of a table and looks to be selling watches. He doesn’t look too happy to be talked to.

“Go away!”, he snaps, “If you aint buyin’ get the fuck outta here, scarin’ away my customers”, he waves us off like flies.

Ari looks around, inside the store where people are walking in and out ignoring us and him. She turns to the parking lot where cars drive past not noticing us either. She looks at me and then at him, “what customers?”.

“I said get the fuck outta here you freaky little shit before I drop kick you to the moo-, hey-llo there, you tryna buy a nice watch? One for the wife? Present for momma? Friend?”, he goes from screaming his head off to suddenly being really nice.

Ari and me look at each other wide eyed. Slowly we turn around to see the tall man staring at the short bald man selling watches. Daddy stands outside the doors giving him a cold look. His arms folded. There’s no emotion on his face and he doesn’t say anything. Not to him, not to me. My heart beats fast and for a second I think he’s gonna hit me. He puts his hand on my back and pushes Ari and me towards the direction of the car. None of us says anything on our way and I’m trying my best not to cry anymore.

I look at Ari who looks very sad too. She stares at the floor and barely holds my hand. I know why she’s upset. That man back there called her a freak, she says everyone at school calls her that and she doesn’t like it. I tighten my grip on hers and it catches her attention. “You’re not a freak, Ari you’re just different”, I say leaving myself thoughtful, “in a way.. I’m different too”, I say. She gives me a thin lipped smile that look sadder than before. She wants to cry but doesn’t, instead she hugs me while we walk.

“Hey, y’all want some ice cream?”, daddy asks.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”, Ari screams jumping up and down. She smiles wide and dances in place. This makes me laugh and I look at daddy. He looks worn out but he’s not mad. He gives me a smile and pulls me close giving me a tight hug. I hope this means I’m not in trouble.

[ainstgirl]

Captain America: The winter soldier (2/2)

Summary: This fic is inspired by my fic LOCKED IN THE ELEVATOR WITH A STRANGER (ONE-SHOT)  I thought about what would happen if the reader had been in the elevator scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and then i decided to make the whole movie again from the reader point of view! I hope you like this! English is my third language so im sorry if there’s any misspellings.

Pairing(s): Steve Rogers x Reader

Warnings: none.

Gifs aren’t mine

Part 1

When you wake up you find yourself in an unknown bed, you look around but you don't recognize where you are, what happened?... Steve is on the side of your bed, he’s looking down at the floor, he seems worried. "what... how did we..." you start to say before Steve interrumpts you. "how you feel?" He asks. "As if a missile had been thrown at me..." you joke "Your sense of humor is back, that means you're fine" Steve says smiling. "where are we?" you ask. "At a friend's house, are you really okay?" He asks worried. "All this time I thought I was helping people, and it turns out that I've been working for Hydra..." "listen to me, we're not going to let them get away with it"  Steve takes your hand and squeezes it "You have clean clothes on the chair, I'll be outside when you finish" He leaves the room leaving you alone.

When you finish you find Steve talking to who you suppose is his friend. "Sleeping Beauty, you're awake" the friend says when he sees you. "hi? i'm Y/N" you introduce yourself. "Hello Beautiful, I'm Sam" You can't help but smile, you like him. "We are trying to find out how are they going to use these machines" Steve explains. "they are going to use the planes...." you say thinking aloud. "what planes?" Steve asks you confused. "they've been working for years on some planes that were going to change everything, now I know why" How haven’t you noticed  it before? " I've seen the maps of those planes and there was nothing special, not without this" you say pointing to the usb "if they put those machines on the planes ... they can kill millions of people at once with a simple button..." "We have to avoid it" Steve says. "I can help you" Sam finally says. "No i can't let..." Steve starts to say but Sam interrupts him. "get me this and I will be of great help" Sam gives Steve a file. "I thought you were a pilot"  Steve says. "I never said i was one" Sam says with a smile.

Stealing a bird costume as you like to call it,  Sam hates that you call his suit that, has turned out to be easier than you thought, although most of the work was done by Steve, you just hacked into the security system.

"What is the plan for when we arrive?" You ask in the passenger seat. "We enter through the roof, Sam and I will distract them and you'll infiltrate and prevent the jets to take off" Steve responds. "You make it look easy" you joke. "After fighting against aliens, this seems easy" he says smiling. "You are in a very good mood to have died for nothing" you say. "I guess I like to know who I'm fighting against"

When you arrive at the meeting point, Sam is already waiting with his suit. "Why did you take so long?" Sam asks when you get out of the car. "Traffic" you joke and he laughs. "Well, who is going to be first?" Sam looks at you both. "ladies first" Steve says taking a step back. "What a gentleman ... this is safe right?" You say approaching Sam. "Of course, as long as I don't let you go" Sam jokes "I'm kidding, Captain would kill me" he says seeing Steve's serious look. "Let's do this before I change my mind" you stand in front of Sam and he surrounds you with his arms. "Hold on tight, beautiful" Sam winks at Steve before you close your eyes and he takes you flying to the roof. You're still shaking a little when Sam does the same with Steve.

"You weigh more than you look" Sam says when he arrives with Steve. "I've eaten a little heavy today" Steve jokes. "What if we focus on the mission?" you say with a hand on the hip. "let's save the world" Sam says “be careful Y/N if you have problems let us know”

“everything will be fine Capitan, This is nothing compared to fighting aliens remember?” you say before runing to the roof door with a smile on your face.

You haven't yet reached the roof door when there’s a big explosion. You hear Steve yell your name, and then you see it, a soldier with his face covered and a metal arm. 

You take out your gun and start shooting at him but he stops them with his arm. The soldier is about to shoot you when Steve protects you with his shield. Sam throws himself against him knocking him to the ground, causing his mask to fall. Steve lowers the shield and you can see the shock on his face, but why?. "Bucky?" he says almost in a whisper. "who the hell is Bucky?" you and the soldier say at the same time. Steve is still in shock when you see how the soldier (bucky?) lifts the gun to shoot him, you  push Steve before the bullets hit him.

"it's bucky..." he says still in shock. "Steve, Who is bucky?" you ask while Sam fights with the soldier. "my best friend" he says without being able to believe that his best friend is alive. "wait... James Buchanan Barnes? he's dead..." you had read it on the files. "I thought so... but it's him, I have to talk to him" Steve gets up ready to go to Bucky. "Are you crazy? he just shot you" you say putting yourself in front of him. "He is my best friend" "We don't have much time until those planes are in the air, we have to avoid it" You try to make Steve focus on the mission. "you’re right, you have to infiltrate and prevent those planes from taking off, Sam and I will protect you" Steve takes your hand. "I know he's your best friend, but he's not the same anymore, be careful...." you say squeezing his hand. "you too Y/N..." It seems that Steve wanted to say something else, but then he changes his mind. You look back before going through the roof door, this could be the last time you see Steve .... "Steve!" you yell running towards him. Steve looks at you confused before you jump into his arms and kiss him. Steve presses you against his body, kissing you before Sam is thrown against a wall. "Why am I the only one who is fighting? and also... where's my kiss beautiful?" Sam says buy Steve ignores him, he only looks at you intensely. "don't die... again" you say before going in to the building.

Entering has been easier than you thought, everyone must be busy with the rooftop fight. When you get to the control room there are only four agents inside. You take a deep breath before taking your weapon and enter the room. You shoot them in the back, they haven't even seen you coming. You don't know who works for Hydra and who as you think that they work for Shield, that's why you decided to use tranquilizer darts, you don't want to kill innocent people.

"Steve, I'm inside" you say by the intercom. "let me know when you disarm the planes, be careful" "i'm always careful remember?" you hear his laughter before cutting off the transmission and getting to work on the computer. You had almost finished disable the weapons when the door of the room opens.

"they haven't told you? You don't work here anymore, beautiful" Rumlow says approaching you. "the last time I saw you, you were unconscious on the floor, how's your head?" You say smiling, you know it's stupid to make him angry, he's stronger than you and he has more experience in combat, but you can not help it. He throws himself at you throwing you to the ground. "When I'm done with you, I'll take care of your new friend the Captain" He hits you in the face again and again, You couldn't take him off, so you decide to do something not very typical of an agent, you hit him between his legs. He releases you immediately giving you time to take the gun and leave him unconscious. "they don't teach that in the academy" you say cleaning the blood from your lip. When you return to the computer it's too late. The planes are already in the air. "shit..." you hit the table " Steve, they are in the air" "I know, Bucky is in one of the planes" "the only way to disable the weapons it's from the inside, if you remove the motherboard of the main plane you will disable them, it's the only option" you say. "Do you remember when I said that the mission was easy? I take it back" he says and by the voice it seems that Steve is running. "Steve, if Bucky is there, be careful" you say. "i'm always careful remember?" he says imitating you "Hey Sam, i need a ride" you hear him say before cutting the transmission.

You wait in that room for what it seems an eternity to hear from Steve. when you finally hear his voice. You can finally breath again. "mission complete" he says as if it was hard for him to breathe. "Steve? Are you okay?"  you ask. "you have to activate the self-destruction mode of the planes" he says. "no, you have to get out of there"  you say without being able to believe what he’s saying. "I won't leave without him, i cant... but this planes need to be destroyed, do it" "no, i cant..." he's begging you to kill him, you can't do it. "Do IT now, it's an order" Steve says in his best Captain America voice. "Steve..." you say pleading with your voice. "please Y/N... do it" This time it's not the voice of Captain America that you hear, it's the voice of Steve, the Steve that you have come to know very well in a few days, your Steve. "Steve... I love you" you say pressing the self-destruction button. The last thing you hear is an explosion and then, only silence. You had killed Steve Rogers. You remain silent waiting to hear his voice but there is only silence, then the door to the room opens, letting Sam in. "What are you doing here? You weren't on the plane with Steve?" you ask surprised. "That damn soldier broke my wings, we have to go" He says taking your hand and making you follow him. "wait, Steve he’s..." You say holding the tears. "i know, He made me promise that i would take care of you, we need to leave now" he says getting you out of the building just in time to see how the plane crashes in to the lake. You hear Sam shout your name when you run to where the plane has fallen. When you arrive there is a large cloud of smoke around the remains of the ship, but there are no signs of life. "Steve! Steve! " you yell, but you stop when you see him, not who you wanted to see, if not Bucky. Instead of anger you see confusion in his eyes. When he sees you, he simply makes a movement with his head pointing to a tree, After that, he's gone. You and Sam run to the tree where Steve is. "Steve..." You run to his side, he is unconscious and full of blood, he has several bullet wounds in his body "can you hear me? Steve!" "He has a pulse, we have to take him to a hospital"  Sam says. "your are going to be okay Steve..." You help Sam to carry Steve.

5 hours later Steve is still unconscious. All that time you've been sitting next to his bed, waiting... two days ago you didn't know the man on the bed, and now, it breaks your heart to think that he may not wake up. You don't know exactly when these feelings appeared but, you can't deny it, Steve has become a very important person in your life. "why are you crying? who died?" You hear Steve say. "Steve... you're awake" you say crying. "I told you I'm always careful" he says half smiling. "five bullet wounds, stabbed in the chest and several broken bones....that's not being careful" you say caressing his face. "But I'm alive, right? i'm glad you're okay Y/N" he says looking at you. Your heart beats fast when he looks at you whith those beautiful blue eyes. "never ask me again to do something like that Steve, ever" you say holding the tears. "It was the only option" Steve takes a deep breath before continuing "it's Buck okay? is he here?" "you don't know? You wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Bucky" you say. "what?" he says confused. "He took you out of the water, he saved you" you explain. "the Bucky I know is there, I have to find him" he says beginning to sit up. "you have to recover and I'll help you to find him" You say making him lie down. "I'll help to" Sam says "sorry I didn't want to break your moment, I'm glad you're okay" Sam says leaning on the door. "I owe you one" Steve says and you know what he is refering to , he ask Sam to protect you. "no, you owe me a  new suit, your friend broke it" "i'll talk to Stark" he says smiling "What are you going to do now that Shield is gone?" Sam ask to both of you. "the same as we did before" you say "protect people, save the world..." Steve finished. "It seems that you are going to need help" Sam says. "you and your bird costume would be very helpful" you say smiling. "if you call my suit that again next time I'll let you fall" Sam says and your not sure if he's joking. "I'm going to leave you guys alone, There's a nurse on the second floor who has to change the bandage on my arm" "You don't have any bandages on your arm Sam" to which Sam responds by winking at you. "poor nurse..." you say with a smile, you were expecting to see a smile on Steve's face but he was looking at you with a serius face. "we need to talk about what happend..." "About how you almost die or about what happened on the roof?" "the kiss" he says. "okay... i ... we... i mean i didn't know if you were going to die or if i was going to die...and i thought...why not?" you try to explain. "and what about when you said that you love me when i was on the plane?" now he was smiling. "I...I mean..." you start saying but you don't know what to say. "I love you" he says. "i know what i said.." "no, i'm saying that i love you" "but we barely know each other" Who were you trying to convince? him or yourself? "When you fight and run away with someone, you get to know that person very well, why dont we go out on a date?" He says holding your hand. "The first time I met you, I jump out of an elevator, how are you going to beat that?" you say smiling. "I'll plan something" "but we’ll split the bill, this is the 21st century" you say. "well ... we'll talk about that later" He says making you laugh.

And to think that only a few days ago your life was just working in the office and now you saved the world with Captain America. You couldn't imagine everything that was about to happen.

This series continues with  Captain America Civil War Part 1 

MASTERLIST

[croatian-magician]

Come join me

Pairing : Baleric

Summary: We’re in 2013, Gareth is moving to Spain and Luka is waiting for him at the airport

Wordcount: 1645

Notes: I know I have so many other things I need to write, but this idea just wouldn’t leave my mind this morning (Gabi you know whose fault it is)

Luka was biting his nails, his heart racing in his chest. The young midfielder was trapped in his own bubble, barely hearing the noise of the airport around him. His eyes were glued on the screen announcing the arrivals and departures. The small, white letters written over a blue background looked like salvation to him, and every second he had to wait was pure torture.

Then, finally, the numbers on his watch matched the ones on the board. He forced himself to stay still though, knowing that his wait wasn’t over just yet. The passengers still needed to get off the plane and take their luggage. It wasn’t much, just a few more minutes, but Luka couldn’t take it, couldn’t tolerate the longing gripping at his heart.

He had been strong, though. During a whole year, he had managed to survive despite the distance. But now… Now he didn’t know how he would make it through those last minutes of yearning. He couldn’t stay in place and the travelers around him gave him weird looks for that, but he didn’t care, all that mattered was…

And then, finally, Luka saw him, walking towards him, looking even more perfect than in the midfielders memories. Luka didn’t hesitate. He ran, then jumped into his arms, and is lover acted just the same, his luggage forbidden behind him. They hugged each other, so tightly that Luka almost lost his breath but he didn’t care because he was here, he was here…

“Gareth…”

Luka murmured his name in a content sigh as he buried his face into his neck, inhaling the unique scent of his boyfriend. As always, Gareth smelled of hope, of home, of their future together. A future that looked so promising, now that they were reunited again.

“You’re here. You’re finally here.” Luka almost sobbed as Gareth slightly loosened his arms around him so he wouldn’t strangle him. The Welsh player rubbed his back in a gentle, comforting gesture to help him calm down. When Luka looked up, he noticed that his eyes were shining with tears and happiness too.

“Yes, I’m here, Luka. And I’ll stay with you.”

This time, the smaller man couldn’t help himself. His stood on tiptoes so he could leave a quick, passionate kiss on Gareth’s lips. He knew it was dangerous, knew that people could see them but in this moment it wasn’t enough to refrain him. He had spent so many nights alone, longing for Gareth’s arms around him, for his lips on his neck, for his hand in his, and now he was here, he was real, and Luka could touch him, taste his lips, hear his joyful laugh…

“You really were that impatient to see me, uh?” Gareth chuckled, ruffling his boyfriend’s hair, his hand lingering a little too long on the soft golden locks. Luka already knew Gareth would be kissing it all over the moment they would be alone.

“Of course I was. I needed you.”

“Oh, I know, Luka, I know. I thought this trip would never end. But now we’re together again, and that’s all that matters.”

“Yeah, it is.” Luka agreed, resting his head on Gareth’s strong chest.

Despite everything, it was hard to believe that this was his life now, that he would be able to see Gareth everyday. The pain of being apart, of living in Madrid while Gareth stayed in London was still vivid in his mind. He would wait eagerly for each game where Croatia faced Wales, no matter how scarce they were. On the pitch, the tension between them would already be palpable, and then it would turn into frantic hands, desperate kisses and muffled moans the very minute they were away from the cameras.

They would always have the six same words on their lips. I miss you. I love you. Nothing but words, and yet it meant the world to them. They would kiss each other’s tears away, convincing themselves that they had to be strong, that they would make it.

After his transfer, Luka feared Gareth would blame him for it, that it would destroy them. But it never happened, not once. His boyfriend would only talk about how proud he was of Luka, how happy he was to see him fit well into Madrid’s team, how he wished they were still together, sure, but knew this was better for Luka’s future and career. Every time the subject came back, Gareth praised him for making the right choice.

Taking the decision to go to Real had been hard on Luka. He had been so afraid that the distance would kill their relationship. Nothing scared him more than the idea of seeing Gareth again only for his lover to tell him that this was over, that his feelings faded away, that they couldn’t keep this thing they had.

It never happened, though. On the contrary, no matter how painful it was at times, their love only grew stronger, to the point where this burning fire threatened to devour Luka whole. And so, on the day they saw each other again during international break, it became all too much for him. That day, he begged Gareth to join him, to come live here with him in Madrid. A part of him knew that it was a folly, that he was being delusional, that despite all the love they shared, Gareth wouldn’t just drop everything to go live with him. But he had to try.

Luka could still picture himself, his hands clenched tight on a Real’s jersey he was offering to Gareth as he implored his lover to come play with him, his cheeks wet with tears. Just like he remembered how the taller man had pulled him close to kiss his sadness away, right before whispering a few words in his ear.

“Shh, it’s okay, Luka. I feel the same, I can’t stand being apart from you anymore. I’ll join you in Real. Now give me that shirt, will you?”

Gareth’s big hand closed on his and Luka let go of the jersey, new tears in his eyes, but those ones were of joy. Back then, he didn’t know if Gareth would follow through with his promise or if he would change his mind, but it was enough to lighten a small spark of hope in his heart. And it never stopped growing, and now he was at Madrid’s airport and Gareth was here too and his heart felt like exploding.

“You can’t imagine how happy I am to be with you.” Luka let out, his fingers clenching on Gareth’s shirt.

“Oh, I think I have an idea, because I could spend hours just holding you like that without getting tired of it. We should get moving though, I wouldn’t want to be late for signing my contract.”

Gareth tried winking at him, but he didn’t manage to do it quite right and ended up being a bit awkward. Luka couldn’t help but giggle fondly at his effort, getting out of Gareth’s embrace only to take his hand in his to guide him. His lover grabbed his luggage back then followed him.

Luka knew the mention of that contract wasn’t all innocent. It was Gareth’s way of telling him that this was real, that he was here to stay, that he wouldn’t take the next plane for London.

Tonight, he would sleep in Luka’s bed, with their legs entangled and his lover enjoying being the small spoon. Gareth would cross his arms around his stomach to keep him close and Luka would hum happily before falling asleep against him. They would fall back into their lovely routine, as though they never lived apart.

“Oh yes, you’re right about that! Don’t worry, I’ll show you the way. Oh, I can’t wait to show you Madrid! We’ll visit together, I’ll take you to all the nice places! It will be great, I promise. I’ll teach you some Spanish too! I mean, I guess I won’t be the best teacher since it’s not my native language and I’m still struggling a bit myself, but at least it’ll be a beginning. What do you think?”

He walked towards the exit of the airport, but Gareth made him stop the moment they were out in the open. It was warm outside, a bit too much for Gareth since he was still dressed for London’s weather. However, he didn’t complain nor mention it, all his attention focused on Luka.

“For now, the only thing I need to know is how to say I love you.”

Luka cheeks turned red and to Gareth, that blush looked like the most endearing thing on earth. The smaller man got closer to him and lowered his voice so that other people around them couldn’t hear what he was about to say.

“Te quiero, Gareth.”

“Y te quiero también, Luka.”

Gareth’s accent was all wrong, and Luka could tell he had learned that by heart rather than getting the meaning of each word, but it didn’t keep his heart from jumping in his chest.

“You prepared for that, you bastard! Just so you could get me all flustered!”

“Maybe I did.” Gareth shrugged, his eyes shining with smugness.

“I’ll get back at you later for that, just you know it! But for now, let’s hurry so we won’t be late!”

“Oh, I just can’t wait to see what you have in store for me.” Gareth smiled, and the intonation of his voice was all it took for goosebumps to appear on Luka’s skin.

Deep down, Luka couldn’t wait for that either, just like he couldn’t wait to share the same team with Gareth again. Just to know that they would soon step on a field together, he felt like the luckiest man on earth.

Now that they were together again, the future looked brighter than ever.

Taglist:  @esparafuso @smolmandzo @puolendollarinonni @arduango @sejan-is-love @ante-ray-bitch @winters-chiid @pachua @crazy-for-lovren @ppumpkines

[lucaniisdellamorte]

Title: Bad Moon Rising

WC: 2300

Pairing: n/a

Summary: Joseph hears the Voice, Wren gets spoilers from her car radio

“Your actions have consequences, Deputy. I’ve gathered all your friends here in Fall’s End to atone for your sins. You’re welcome to join us. After all, if it weren’t for you they wouldn’t be in this predicament… This is your last chance to say Yes, Deputy. Don’t be late.”

The radio crackles and then beeps as it goes silent. Despite knowing that after delivering that little speech, John has definitely turned off his radio to keep her from responding, Wren can’t help but jam her thumb into the talk button as hard as she can.

“JOHN!” She yells and of course the only sound she hears is a few a song birds in the trees around her. “FUCK!” She throws the radio through the open window of her car, hearing it slam into the passenger door as she turns on her heel. As she paces up and down the dirt road alongside her car, gravel crunching underneath her feet, rage and fear rise in her chest.

He said he has her friends and that they were waiting in town, so while he can have anyone he probably has Pastor Jerome and Mary May for sure since they were both almost always in town and the leaders of the resistance there. Outside of that? It could be anyone else or it could even be just those two. The idea of him having Nick floats across her mind. Not that long ago the pair of them had sneaked onto John’s ranch and vandalized his precious plane. In her mind he had more than deserved it when she remembered that it had been John that had blown her and the Marshall off the bridge that night they had foolishly tried to arrest Joseph. There was no way that John wasn’t holding a grudge against the two of them for that little stunt.

That thought is immediately followed by Kim, who is very pregnant and would definitely provide John with a great means of revenge against Nick.

Shitshitshitshit, is her only train of thought as she jumps into her car and slams the gas pedal to the floor. The tires spin and the back end slides until they manage to gain traction and then she’s flying down the dirt road and further into the valley towards Fall's End. It's not safe or smart to be going so fast, she knows, but she can feel every second that ticks by like there's a countdown on her friends lives.

Don't be late.

Shitshitshitshit what the hell did he mean by that? Is there a time limit? Did he just say that to have her rushing over there which is a very John Seed thing to do? It's not like he could know exactly where she is, exactly how long it would take for her to get to town, and plan on doing something horrible if she takes even a second too long, right?

Right he definitely wouldn't do something like that after she had definitely made a big show out of destroying his giant Yes sign. Which she doesn't regret in the slightest actually.

At least not yet.

The car fishtails wildly for a moment before Wren can again control of it once she hits the blacktop, not bothering to slow down for the corner or the change of road make up. She only takes her foot off the gas for the second it takes to straighten the car out before she floors it again, tires squealing against the pavement.

The streets are unusually empty Wren notices as she flies down the road at speeds she would definitely get arrested for  and it's incredibly unnerving considering not a few hours ago she passed both peggies and resistance members regularly. Perhaps the peggies were told to stay off the roads, keep clear so she could get to Fall's End, but that doesn’t explain the lack of resistance patrols. Maybe they heard John's little broadcast too and decided to get the hell out of the way.

She shoves those thoughts to the back of her mind as she down shifts to take the turn to Fall's End. It's a straight shot now right into town and she pulls her pistol from it's holster and sets it in her lap ready for a fight. John hadn't mentioned where they would be in town so she has to be ready for anything. That’s when she hears Bad Moon Rising come on over the radio, playing just loud enough to be heard over the roar of the racing engine. Part of her wants to laugh because it's just so damn perfect right now, this is a bad situation and she knows it. In fact it seems like it's so bad even the person who runs the radio station knows.

“I see bad times today.”

The other part of her is having a moment of startling clarity that this isn’t just but a dire situation and John has played her right into a corner. Her only two options are to not go and possibly let more of her friends end up locked away in John's bunker; or to go and probably get locked up with them all while looking for a way to escape.

No one is coming to save you, Joseph's words in the wreck of the helicopter repeat in her mind. Which right now at least is true because usually she is the one doing the rescuing. One of the two times she needed saving from John, Pastor Jerome had saved her and he was almost definitely already caught.

“Guess I'll have to figure out a way to save us all,” she mutters, slowing down as she enters the town proper. There is a distinct lack of peggies and town citizens as she drives in but given that there's only two roads through Fall's End, it's not hard for her to figure out where John is having this little get together.

Even from back in front of the Spread Eagle she can see the black cult flag hanging in stark contrast to the white siding of the church's bell tower. There's also two peggie vans and a truck sitting out front, John seems to have brought enough of his own people to vastly outnumber the few citizens that had remained in Fall's End. Which means he’s not underestimating her anymore and while she is glad that he finally recognizes her as a serious threat, it's going to make getting out a whole hell of a lot harder.

“I know the end is coming soon,” Creedence Clearwater Revival comes through the radio louder now that the engine isn't racing. In fact besides the current musical prophecy playing through her speakers, the town is silent. When she was here yesterday the town was alive with sounds of people talking, a truck being repaired in the garage, and even cows mooing as they were herded through town back to their pasture.

Today though it's just her and Bad Moon Rising. Wren doesn't want to think about it too much but the words ghost town flash across her mind before she can stop them.

She rolls to a stop behind the peggie vans outside of the church and sighs deeply. Apparently John and the cult have seen fit to redecorate in the gory way the cult does but with John's typical flair. There's a red carpet rolling from the second van to the steps that is so John Seed that it's almost painful in it's predictability, they even built a little archway that they covered in flowers and lace. Actually that wouldn't be so bad -hell even pretty- if they weren't Bliss flowers which are definitely going to mess with her as she walks past. The dead crows nailed around the door and even impaled on stakes on the bell tower kind of detract from the whole presentation a bit though, all dark and dead and at such odds with the rest of the church.

“Hope you, are quite prepared to die,” plays through the speakers and Wren slaps the radio off. Now it's starting to feel too much like the song or fate or hell maybe even Joseph’s Voice is speaking directly to her for her liking. However if the prophetic radio station would like to give her a hint as to how she’s going to get out of this one alive, before she has to atone because John is definitely not going to let her live through that, she’d be a little more willing to listen.

She pulls the keys from the ignition and pockets them before turning to her rifle in the back seat. It's not practical to take it, not in such a tight space, and absolutely not when she knows perfectly well she’s walking into a trap. The first thing they’re going to do is take all of her weapons and she’ll be damned if she’s going to let the peggies just take her favorite gun from her.

Again.

So she leaves it and grabs a second pistol from the glove box before she exits the car, slamming the door for extra emphasis. Of course she has no doubts that the peggies and even John having been watching her since she rolled up and she has the sudden urge to keep them waiting. Self preservation be damned, she’s going to fight John every step of the way or at the very least annoy the ever loving shit out of him. That would show him.

With that decided she ejects the clip out of the pistol in her hand, making a show of counting the rounds before slamming it back in and tucking the weapon into the back of her jeans. Then she pulls her dark hair out of it's typical bun, shaking it out before she starts the process of trying it back up again. That's when Wren notices the other little decorations the cult has added to the church. There are large baskets on the stone pedestals with more bliss flowers growing from them, white cloth runners hung almost expertly along the stone fence, and a few bouquets of wild flowers attached to the sides of the arch.

How long had all of this taken? How long had John and the cult been holding her friends hostage in the church while they decorated the outside? An hour? Two? Twelve? The thought of it makes her stomach turn as her arms fall back to her side, task completed. If she didn't know better -and if the crows weren't nailed to the church- she would think that it was decorated for someone's wedding. It's all kind of nice and done with a meticulous attention to detail, not to mention that besides the red carpet and the wild flowers, everything is white.

That thought brings up entirely too many conversations she's had with Sharky and Addy. Hell if either one of them were here that probably would have been the first thing they would have pointed out. Which would have lead into even more awkward conversations where they try to convince her John Seed is only acting like this cause he wants her  while she tries to find a place to hide because absolutely not no fucking way.

Good thing they aren't here though and all she has to do is pretend like she didn't have that particular thought cross her mind.

As Wren starts to walk to the church -since she can't think of anything else to do to procrastinate- she remembers she's wearing her favorite sunglasses and goes back to her car. Sure they're a cheap pair but considering she had to tear apart a garage and four cars to find them, she's not going to let the peggies take those from her either. Or worse break them in the impending struggle. As she tosses them on the dash she realizes that she may not even need the glasses once today is over. That leads down a very dark road though so she stops that train of thought before it even leaves the station, focusing on how she's going to get herself and her friends out of this instead as she walks up to the front of the church.

They're definitely going to take the weapons they can find but maybe she'll get lucky and they won't find the knife she keeps in her boot. Of course for that to work she would need her hands bound in front of her and for the peggies to not pay her any attention for a few minutes which is definitely not going to happen. Plus there's nowhere to hide in the church and John won't leave her to sit by herself a second time. Maybe she can get the knife to someone else Wren thinks as her boots hit the weirdly -but not surprisingly- plush carpet.

She holds her breath as she passes under the arch and the Bliss flowers, but her vision still goes kind of sparkly and hazy around the edges. Thankfully it doesn't last long and by the time she hits the steps, her sight is clear and she can breathe again. Almost instantly she wishes she hadn't though. Judging by the awful stench the crows have been rotting in the hot summer sun for a quite some time. Wren doesn't let herself gag or cough though, instead she takes a step back to get a few breaths of mostly fresh air before holding her breath again as she approaches the door.

Of course it's a trap, so of course there is a peggy waiting for her on the other side of the door. That still doesn't prepare her to be hit hard in the face by the butt of the peggy's automatic. Wren topples backwards from the force of the impact, stars exploding behind her eyes and her face throbs as she goes down. When she lands she’s halfway out the open door, staring up at the blue sky with her vision swimming.

The last thing she hears before she completely blacks out is what sounds like Mary May yelling from further inside the church don't you dare fucking touch her!

[kissmekissme-calum]

Frozen Love - Steve Rogers x Reader

my first time writing marvel! I hope i did well. I probably will do another part to this if you want! Also send in other marvel requests, i’m in a real Marvel mood lately.

-

Word Count : 1377

Summary: Steve wasn’t the only super soldier frozen, his fiance, you, was also frozen. What happens when she wakes up in this new crazy world.

-

When Steve crashed the plane into the water, his world froze. Literally. He may have saved more lives than he knew, but he was no longer going to be able to see you. You were his life, and now, he was gone and so were you.

What Steve didn’t know was that he wasn’t the only passenger on the plane. Following behind him, you’d been caught up with some of Hydra’s top people who knocked you unconscious and threw you into the back of the plane. They’d smirked when the loading door closed, sealing your body to the same fate as Captain America’s. They were just forgetting one thing.

Captain America wasn’t the only super soldier on the plane.

~now~

Steve had been freed of the ice for seven years now. He was finally coming to terms with the world around him, grasping the difference between how things worked then versus how they worked now. It amazed him how things had changed.

For the most part he focused on the now, the avengers, not letting his brain get to focused on the past. Focused on what he couldn’t bring back, what he couldn’t change, on who he missed. There were nights spent alone in his room, he’d look outside and remember you. You’d just gotten engaged, you’d finally tried on the lace dress that’d been your mother’s and grandmother’s before you. You couldn’t wait for Steve to see you in it, you told him so. He grinned at the memory, then his eyes grew sad at the same memory. He was never going to see you in that dress, you’d probably moved on and let another man see you in that dress.

Steve grew angry at that thought, but he also knew that you deserved love and when he sacrificed himself to save everyone else, he knew you’d find someone else. You deserved the love that he could no longer give to you.

He was so caught up in memory lane, he didn’t hear the persistent knocking at his door. He only noticed when the door came crashing in front of him, crashing against the wall in pieces. His eyes traveled over to the now open door and saw Tony in full out Iron Man, his hand smoking from the blast that destroyed the door.

“Rogers.” Tony’s eyes held a look that Steve saw many times. He had news, exciting news.

“Tony.” Steve slowly stood up. “What is it? Do we have a mission.”

“No.” Tony pushed a button and Iron Man went away and normal Tony stood, waltzing into the room and stood in front of the super soldier. “When you went down with that plane.” Steve closed his eyes, he was a little tired of hearing of the past that took him away from you for good. “Were you alone?”

That made Steve’s eyes widen. “Was I alone? Of course I was alone, I wasn’t going to sacrifice any other lives besides my own. What is this about, Stark?”

Tony let out a breath. “Rogers, we went back to where we found you and the Tesseract. We found someone. A woman. Frozen like you.” A small smile grew on Tony’s face as he took in the Captain’s face, the shock that filled it, a little bit of guilt mixed in. Many emotions were now swimming around in the Captain’s body. “Another thing.” Tony mumbled and reached into his pocket before producing a small photo and placing it in Steve’s hands. “She had a picture. Of you and her. Do you know her?”

A tear slipped down Steve’s face as he held the picture, traced over the discolored picture. A smile on your face as you looked up at him, his hand on your shoulder, a matching smile on his face as he looked down on you. It was your engagement photo. Steve looked up at Tony, no words able to leave his mouth. Stark never ceased to surprise him.

“She’s here, Rogers. She’s alive like you. We got her thawed and now she’s awake.”

“She’s here? My, (YN)?”

Tony motioned for Steve to walk past him. “She’s waiting.”

He didn’t need to be told twice as he burst down the hall, going at a speed he’d never gone before, he never knew he could run this fast. He had purposes to run fast before, but not like this, this was a part of his life coming back to him, a part he thought was gone forever. You. You were here. You weren’t gone like he thought.

He came to a stop outside a window, he looked in and saw you laying on a bed.

Tears filled your eyes as you looked around the room, trying to take everything in. Everything was so different, the women weren’t wearing dresses, not all of the men were wearing suits. This wasn’t right, and you were alone. Your Steve was gone, he sacrificed everything, and yet here you were, in this strange new world, without him. He didn’t deserve that, he deserved to be the one to live and see this strange place, not you.

Steve sank to his knees outside the room, you looked just as beautiful as the last day he saw you, minutes before he went into that plane, he couldn’t tell you where he was going or what he was going to do, he couldn’t do that to you. With a kiss, you went one way and he went another. You promised you’d see him again. And you never broke your promises.

“Are you going to go in?” Tony had finally caught up to him. Wanda was close behind him. “She deserves to see a familiar face, Rogers, especially yours. From that photo, I assume that you two meant a lot to the other.”

Steve nodded and with Tony’s help stood back up. “She’s my fiancé.” With slow steps, Steve walked into your room, his feet didn’t make a noise. He took you in again and felt that familiar feeling in his chest, the one he felt when he knew you were the one he wanted to marry, have a life with, protect with his last breath.

You turned your head slightly and froze at the man standing at the foot of your bed. He looked so familiar, that gorgeous blonde hair, those striking blue eyes, the smile that graced his lips as he took you in, it was slightly sad but you could see relief and joy in it as well. “Steve?” you cried out, his name escaping your lips along with a fit of sobbing. He was really here, here in this crazy world with you. “Steve? I thought I lost you?”

When you spoke his name, Steve snapped out of his stupor and knelt at your side, taking your hand in his. “I’m here. I thought I lost you too.” His hands quickly found your hair, letting it fall in between his fingers. “How are you here?”

You shook your head and squeezed his hand. “They told me they found me where they found you, only you were found years ago and I was just found. They said I had some injuries probably from the Hydra people, but the way the plane submerged in the water and froze and my super soldier stuff, that saved me. Steve, what is this place? I was asleep so long, I don’t know what anything is anymore. Why are people dressed the way they are? Speaking the way they are, it’s inappropriate.”

Steve grinned. “Times have changed since we were last together, (YN). But don’t worry, I’ll help you out along with my friends.”

“Friends?”

“The Avengers, that guy over there?” He turned and pointed at Tony who’d entered the room but stood at the door, acting like a guard making sure you two had the privacy without the hassle of everyone coming to see the other thawed out super soldier. “That’s Tony Stark.”

Your eyes widened. “He’s here too?”

A small laugh. “No, this is his son. We have so much to catch up on, doll. I’ll help you in every way that I can.”

“You won’t leave again will you?”

He leaned in and kissed your knuckles, earning a blush from you. “Never again.”

[blindspot-repata]

Dark Chapter 3

#blindspot #repata #rapata #tashazapata #edgarreade

The day came when Madeline tried to take down the plane.

It was dawn and Reade was asleep. It had been two weeks since Tasha had come to his apartment to get information about the flight Madeline wanted to bring down. Reade had handed over everything to Patterson that she had verified and really were true. He had no way of getting in touch with Tasha, so he was always waiting for her to give him some news. He got scared with his cell phone ringing.

"Hello." Reade answered the sleepy cell phone.

“It’s me. I don't have much time.” It was Tasha on the other end. He can hear her affliction.

“Yeah. Is everything okay?” Reade was relieved to hear her voice.

"I'm going to give the place number so the objects are left today. Can you write it down?” She passed the numbers and he wrote down quickly.

“We left there today without fail. He assured her.

“It’s ok. I need to hang up.”

“Wait!” He wanted her to know, because he couldn't stand the distance between them. Every day was a torture away from him, Reade could not wait to meet her again. He wanted to apologize and tell her how important she was, how much he wanted to be by her side. “I miss you.” He missed hearing her laugh, her complaints, her unsteady mood, feeling her presence fill the environment wherever she was.

Tasha on the other end of the line felt her heart pound at the words. Reade was one of the reasons she continued this work. She wanted it to end, but she wanted to return with dignity, with the sense of accomplishment, did not want to return without being able to solve anything.

“I miss you to.” She spoke with emotion in her voice. “I need to hang up.”

Reade couldn't sleep any more, five days before the flight Madeline intended to overthrow, he spent the rest of the night going over the whole plan in his head, he needed to make sure everything would work out.

The day had come. Reade arrived at SIOC and went straight up his room. Patterson noticed his affliction and went there.

- Hey, what's going on?

"It's today, Patterso! What if something goes wrong?” Reade, who was sitting, stood up.

"I know you're all over Tasha. We have everything under control. Let's do everything we can to make sure nothing's wrong. Weller and Jane will be there with you and will have reinforcements, if need be.”

"What if Madeline suspects. I can not even imagine what she would do with Tasha! I shouldn't have sent her back.”

"Look, I know how you must be feeling, but you have to trust Tasha!" She knows what she's doing, she knows what she's up to, and today more than ever she needs us with her head in place to do whatever it takes to make it work.” Patterson was trying to comfort Reade, but she was also in distress, she knew her friend was in trouble and the danger she was running.

“Has the device already been activated?”

"Not yet, so far we had received no signal. Rich is watching and as soon as we identify, we'll let you know.”

"Get the team together and we'll be ready to leave as soon as we get the signal."

Reade had left the device for Tasha in a Mailbox in Brooklyn according to the coordinates she'd been through. Patterson had sent her an encrypted message about the device. It was hard to be sure she'd gotten it so they were more distressed, for Tasha could not leave Madeline if the device was not deployed, that would be the key to overthrowing the whole company.

Tasha hadn't even slept that night, she'd practically rolled up on the bed the night before and barely closed her eyes. She did not even feel so tired, so anxious for it to end soon. She needed an opportunity to enter the company's control room and place the device sent by the FBI. This device would allow all information exchanged between computers and mobile devices from HCI Global, including tablets and cell phones from Madeline.

She managed to get into the room and put the device in and was running out of time, because she needed to go to the airport soon. Along with the device they also sent her a point so they could communicate that they would only be activated when they arrived at the airport.

"Reade, it's time! Tasha activated the device!” Patterson came into Reade's room almost screaming.

The team was assembled and a helicopter with two officers would be stationed in a strategic location if they needed to leave in a hurry. The intention was to stop the plane from falling and bring Tasha back. Reade had promised himself he would not leave her on this mission even a minute after that. He shouldn't have

let her go back, it was getting too risky. He did not know how she was getting between these people.

Patterson and Rich accompanied everything through a van parked outside the airport equipped with trackers and wiretaps. Reade, Kurt and Jane were disguised as passengers on the plane. The passengers were already on board and the commander gave the last instructions to the crew.

Everything that happened next passed very fast, like a blur. At Patterson's signal, Kurt and Jane entered the control center of the plane to find a bomb that would have been dropped by Madeline's staff. Reade headed toward the cabin to warn the commander not to take off.

The bomb was disarmed at the last minute as instructed by Patterson. Rich warned that he had lost touch with Tasha. Reade had already intercepted the commander who had stopped the plane in the middle of the runway. There was no sign of Tasha's listening.

Tasha had managed to pass some information on the location of the bomb to the team and by the time scheduled she realized that it had been disarmed. She was in a compartment of the airport control room and was already leaving to find the staff when she felt a hand cover her mouth. It was immobilized and taken from there by force. Dominic withdrew the weapon that was with her and placed his weapon on her back and ordered her to silence or shoot. He found the listening and destroyed it. She had no choice but to obey.

The hearing had been discovered by Madeline's people who had instructed Dominic to take Tasha and take her to her, since she wanted to take her life personally. Tasha's salvation would be to hope that the team would miss her and try to find her, but perhaps they thought that she had really betrayed them and would return to Madeline.

Reade had called Weller and Jane to find Tasha, for they didn't want to believe she had brought them. They followed Patterson and Rich's instructions from where it was the last place they could contact her. They followed the trail and managed to see a man with Tasha at his side. Reade moved slowly so he would not notice.

Reade wanted to shoot the man, but they had to use their heads to make anything happen to Tasha.

-“Tasha!,” Reade called.

They both stopped and Dominic turned and made her turn as well.

"If you do not follow my orders I'll kill you and then I'll kill him." Dominic told her to listen.

“Tell him who you're going to!” Doninic ordered.

"I'm going with him, Reade, I'm going to continue my work with Madeline. It is not enough for both of us and you know it. With Madeline I found my place.” She tried to pass judgment on what she was talking about.

“You heard. Go away! She is going where her place is, where she is welcomed.” Reade couldn't see the gun, for Dominic had hidden it.

Everyone was startled when a shot echoed in the air and Dominic fell to the ground pulling Tasha with him. Reade rushed over to them and saw that the shot hit Dominic in the head. The shot had come from Jane who was hiding waiting for an opportunity to shoot. Weller and Jane rushed to meet them.

Tasha was very frightened by the shot and Dominic ended up knocking him down, when he realized he had been hit she got up quickly and saw Reade in front of her. She couldn’t not to do nothing but run to and hug him. She was grateful that they did not give up on her, for a moment she thought they would have left and thought she had brought them.

Reade hugged Tasha who began to tremble in his arms, he squeezed her tightly and spoke comforting words to calm her down. When Reade thought that he could lose her, he had a movie in his head about the two of them so far, he didn’t want to waste any more time in his life, because they had already run too far from each other.

Tasha felt his arms wrap around her, she was panicking, for the possibility of having to go back to Madeline terrified her. With Reade hugging her everything would be all right. She knew she would never have to go back to her disguise, she could live like a normal person without pretense and without the terror that plagued her every day for fear of being discovered.

#blindspot #repata #rapata #tashazapata #edgarreade

Thank you to read

[jax-writes]

Just A Dream

songfic? Just A Dream by Carrie Underwood. (I don't even like her??) 40s Bucky x reader. Word Count: 1350 Warnings: sad but that’s about it.  I lied. Because I keep looking at my other stuff and cringing. I’m just gonna post a few things to show the characters I can write for. (But I WILL continue with series). But if you wanna creep, everything is on my AO3.

“It was two weeks after the day she turned eighteen All dressed in white Going to the church that night She had his box of letters in the passenger seat Sixpence in a shoe, something borrowed, something blue And when the church doors opened up wide She put her veil down Trying to hide the tears Oh she just couldn't believe it She heard the trumpets from the military band And the flowers fell out of her hand.”

For Y/N it was love at first sight. For Bucky, well. It took him a few years. But when he finally got his head out of his ass, he really noticed her. He’d been a senior when she was a freshman in high school, so it was no surprise to her that he didn’t notice her. She contented herself with admiring from afar. It was halfway through her senior year when he finally noticed her. He was having lunch with Steve at the diner she worked at. After silently squealing to her best friend whom she worked with about the blue eyed brunet sitting at the counter, she walked over to take the boys’ orders. “Hey there, Steve,” she smiled at her regular. The skinny smiled smiled brightly at her before replying. “Afternoon, Y/N. How are you doing?” The girl’s smile brightened as she glanced at Bucky. “I’m great! Senior year is almost over and I’ll be starting my nurse training next week!” “Y/N Y/L/N,” Bucky finally spoke up, drawing out her name like it was a prayer. “I haven’t seen you in a while.” A blush rose to the girl’s cheeks but she ignored it for a sassier stance. With her hip cocked out and fist resting on it as she raised a brow at the man (who somehow looked even more handsome even now covered in grease from work). “You come in here often enough, Barnes. You must have been blind for a while, huh?” Bucky’s look of awe turned into a smirk. “Must have, doll.” She rolled her eyes and flipped a page on her notepad for orders. “What can I get you boys?” After they ordered, Bucky tried everything he could to keep her attention. He ordered more food, got more refills on his Coka-Cola. Threw napkins at her when she passed by. Everything. Finally, her shift was done, and as she was taking her apron off, Steve nudged his friend with his elbow. Bucky looked up and his features brightened when he saw Y/N approaching their spot at the counter. “Boys, I’m off. Claudia there with take care of you if you need anything else. I’ll see you later, Steve,” she smiled softly at the blond. “See you around, Y/N,” Steve grinned, already pulling out his wallet. “Y/N, what are you doing tonight?” Bucky leaned forward. Y/N smirked and leaned forward as well and tapped his nose once before pulling away and slinging her purse over her shoulder. “Not you, hot stuff.” At that, she skipped away and out the door, causing Steve to laugh loudly and leaving a gaping Bucky behind. She sure played hard to get for a while there, but he wore her down. They’d been dating for three months when Bucky proposed. He knew that first day at the diner he’d marry her, he just had to convince her. She of course, accepted before he could even get the words out. She graduated two months after they got engaged, and two weeks after her eighteenth birthday, they were married. Six months of being married was all they had before the United States entered the war. Steve, Bucky, and Y/N had all lived together in the tiny apartment. They were a little family. And then Bucky enlisted. As much as she hated it, she knew he had to do it; he’d never forgive himself if he didn’t. She was happy she had Steve. But then, somehow, he got in too. And she was alone. She was the supportive wife for so long. She wrote letters to her friend and her husband. She found out about Steve taking part in an experiment, and how he was now tall, muscular and...Captain America? Bucky wrote to her as often as he could. Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. Her Bucky. They missed each other and he promised to come back to her as soon as he could. But then she got the word that Bucky’s unit had been captured. There was no word of survival. All were presumed dead; including Captain America, who had charged in to save the men.

“Baby why'd you leave me Why'd you have to go? I was counting on forever, now I'll never know I can't even breathe It's like I'm looking from a distance Standing in the background Everybody's saying, ‘He's not coming home now.’ This can't be happening to me This is just a dream.”

When she finally got letters from Steve and Bucky once more, she finally felt hope and happiness again. She had light in her eyes again. She went to work at the hospital with joy in her heart. Her boys were coming home. She knew they weren’t finished, but she had them back. Bucky had written about his capture, leaving some things out she was sure, and how Steve swooped in and saved the day! Now they were going throughout Europe to destroy everything HYDRA had and ruin their plans and make sure whatever happened to Bucky and the others didn’t get to happen to anyone else.

It was months later when her heart broke again.

“Mrs. Barnes,” the uniformed men stood outside her door and she fell to the ground, body wrenching in sobs. One of them helped her to her sofa. She heard their voices but couldn’t really make out the words. All she understood was that Bucky was gone. Her husband was gone. The only member of Captain America’s unit to give his life. She couldn’t blame Steve; of course not. Bucky enlisted and knew the risks. She was proud of her husband and friend. But why did fate have to take him?

“The preacher man said, ‘Let us bow our heads and pray Lord please lift his soul, and heal this hurt.’ Then the congregation all stood up and sang the saddest song that she ever heard Then they handed her a folded up flag And she held on to all she had left of him Oh, and what could have been And then the guns rang one last shot And it felt like a bullet in her heart.”

The funeral for him was beautiful, of course. She was glad to have her family there with her for support though. She knew she’d never have gotten through without them. Especially it was also a memorial service not only for her husband, but also his best friend, who crashed a plane and sacrificed himself to save the world. Of course he did. She wasn’t surprised by that, if she was honest with herself. She went on with her life after that. It took a few years, and even then she never stopped loving Bucky, but she did meet someone new. She married again, had a family. In her heart she would always remain Y/N Barnes. And that was what he read on the grave. The tears ran down his face as he looked at the headstone Y/N Barnes Anderson, Loving wife, mother, grandmother, friend. I’ll be seeing you. He smiled slightly at the words. That had been their song. “I hope you had a good life, Y/N,” he sighed into the wind. “I’ll be seeing you,” he whispered before bending over and placing a rose on her grave. He sadly smiled once more and walked away, cursing the fates for separating them.

“Baby, why'd you leave me Why'd you have to go? I was counting on forever, now I'll never know Oh, I'll never know It's like I'm looking from a distance Standing in the background. This is just a dream....”

[randomnotesofmyown]

Urasawa’s Monster (55-56)

Episode 55 - (Or, can I trust you?) 

Temma went into a bar where Eva frequented and asked for her address, then left taking away someone else's coat.

He called the hotel she stayed at, the receptionist put him through Eva's room. No answer. Temma then asked for Eva's room number and got to that in person.

Reichwein and Vardaman in a conversation, during which the counselor asked if the lawyer believed in Temma.

Vardaman's decision to continue representing Temma made his firm a hot target for interviews by reporters. And Lunge even entered his office waiting for him.

Temma went to Eva's room and found that she was no longer there.

Vardaman and Lunge in a conversation. After telling the inspector he had no information on Temma's escape, the lawyer said he had no time to socialize and asked Lunge to leave. Lunge, ignoring Vardaman’s request that he leave, took out that nameless monster picture book and talked about its author, who used many pen names, one of those, Klaus Poppe, was a German name. And Lunge's investigation of that name led him to a discovery that Vardaman's father was an acquaintance of Poppe.

Lunge went on to tell Vardaman his discovery: Poppe would hold meetings with Vardaman's father at the Red Rose Mansion instead of his other usual meeting places, and Poppe used that mansion under the name Franz Bonaparte, a big boss in the secret police force of Czechoslovakia.

Taking Lunge's words as an implication that his father was a spy, Vardaman became agitated. Lunge reiterated that he only wanted to know about Franz Bonaparte, and left.

Vardaman got a call from his wife and was going to pick her up. As the lawyer started his car, Temma entered, pointing a gun at Vardaman and demanded to know where he took Eva and what they had done to her.

Clueless, Vardaman asked Temma what he meant by "you guys". Temma said he knew their plan to kill Eva, he and Baul worked together, and Baul was the person he shot in Munich.

Vardaman stopped the car, and asked if he could trust Temma, he then talked about his father, who was imprisoned for spy charges, got vindicated after he passed away, and turned out to really have been a spy. He found out about that while studying in college. In his father's notebook was all the details that proved his father was a spy, and he was a son of a spy. The details included coded text, records of communication with the Czechoslovakia secret police, and information of people like Franz Bonaparte...

"Did he mention the Red Rose Mansion?" Temma asked.

Temma then guessed Roberto must have wanted the notebook.

Vardaman was ransacked. There was a letter addressed to Temma, asking him to go to the Red Rose Mansion. And Vardaman found the notebook safe inside the sound disc cover and passed it to Temma, saying he no longer needed it.

Outside his home, Vardaman asked if he could trust Temma. The doctor replied, "You shouldn't trust people..."

And he walked away with heavy steps. Vardaman said to himself that he wanted to believe Temma.

Vardaman arrived at the hospital, cuddled his baby and left the hospital with his wife.

End of episode 55

Episode 56 - the never ending journey (Or, blending dark fairy tales with real life)

Temma started reading the notebook. He hitch-hiked a truck and said he wanted to go to Czech border, and the driver agreed to take him. Then he handed Temma a hamburger, saying if he didn't eat it, he wouldn't make it through the long journey. Temma thought to himself, "I need to end this journey already..."

Vardaman told Reichwein he would go to the Red Rose Mansion, and the two decided to get there together.

Nina remained in Prague, still trying to recover the suppressed memories. She walked around, saw a weather vane. Wind blew. 

And she found her way to the Red Rose Mansion.

Together with Dieter, who tagged along, Nina went inside the mansion.

They walked to the room behind that dismantled wall, she pushed the door open. The memory of people died in that room returned.

Vividly.

Nina fainted.

A puppet show on the street. A protagonist killed a demon. No viewer was interested in that show. The man got home, and asked how Nina felt today.

After some casual talks, the man, Mr. Lipsky, said it was time he went to work. Nina said there was something she meant to ask him. Three months ago after she collapsed in the mansion, he found her and took her to a hospital. Why was he there?

Lipsky muttered something along the line he went there to get ideas for his puppet shows and then left.

After work, Lipsky was in his room making a new puppet. Nina knocked and walked in. She asked Lipsky what his puppet show was about.

"It's the story of a devil. A devil who leaves to find the dragon that threatens to destroy this world but almost dies in the middle of his journey. A young man passing by saves his life, though. When the young man learns the true identity of the one he saved, he goes after the devil. And at the end of his journey, the young man finds the devil, and with a knife in his hand, slays the devil."

Nina voiced her thoughts about what she would do and that she wouldn't let him do that. As a human, one would save the devil, she said.

Lipsky said he thought the story would be deemed interesting by him. The author of the picture books on his shelf.

Lipsky mentioned the name Franz Bonaparte and Nina had a flashback:

Lipsky continued talking. He mentioned the book readings at the mansion. Bonaparte would read a book to children, like, "'A deal! Let's make a deal!' said the devil. 'No! Absolutely not!' said the man with big eyes. 'Yes! Let's make a deal!' said the man with a big mouth. The man with a big mouth's yard became a flower garden. The man with big eyes became destitute and starved. The man with a big mouth was cheerful every day. He was full from all his ripened fruit. That is why he did not notice his flower garden was wilting away. In the garden where no flower would ever bloom again, the man with a big mouth cried and muttered, 'I should never have made a deal with the devil.' The man with big eyes was so hungry that he thought he would die. Shedding tears, he muttered, 'I should have made a deal with the devil.' 'A deal! Let's make a deal!' said the devil. --The man with big eyes, the man with a big mouth, by Jakub Farobek."

The book readings took place every Friday, Lipsky went on. And after finished reading a book to the children gathered there, Bonaparte would ask them if they understood the meaning of the story.

After the children got it, Bonaparte would take out another book, a book titled The God of Peace by Klaus Poppe, and said "Let's read this next".

Johan got inside the mansion and went into that room, saying to himself that all the memories came together and there he disposed of his disguise as Anna.

Lipsky continued reading The God of Peace. "The God of Peace is always busy. He is too busy to look in a mirror, and blows his horn every day. The God of Peace's horn makes everyone happy. The God of Peace is always busy. He is too busy to look in a mirror and scatter magical water. The magical water creates green mountains, ripens crops, and makes flower gardens grow. The God of Peace is always busy. He is too busy to look in a mirror, and gives everyone a name. 'Your name is Otto.' 'Your name is Hans.' 'Your name is Thomas' 'Your name is Johan.' Johan gave his hat to the god as a gift in return. The god was very happy. Because he wanted to see himself wearing the hat, he stood in front of a mirror for the first time. However, what he saw in the mirror was a devil. The devil spoke to him. 'I am you, and you are me.' 'Oh no! No one can live in peace with a devil like this! What should I do? What should I do?' So the troubled God..."

"I figured that out."

In a turtleneck (he wore one when he killed Junkers and again when Richard Braun died), Johan stood in front of the oil painting of his mother and said, "We finally meet. I'm home. Welcome back. It's me, mother. I don't think even you could have told us apart, mother. I am her, and she is me. I am you, and you are me. I understand everything now. Where we came from, and where we are heading. The weather outside is wonderful, mother."

He poured gasoline onto the floor, and lit a match. 

Fire started. He left the mansion.

Nina replied to Lipsky's question. "I understood. The god...pointed the gun at his forehead!"

Flashback of Johan pointing at his forehead.

"Shoot me."

End of episode 56.

Comment. Can't really think of anything to comment on episode 55, some rough thoughts for episode 56 though.

Johan deemed himself not worthy of living, and became so fixated with this thought that he would burn down the places he once was, and kill the people who knew him, except Anna and Dr. Temma.

And it seemed that his way of thinking was heavily influenced by the picture books Bonaparte read to him. Questions for this 56th episode, what was the relationship between Johan's mother and Bonaparte? What made her decide to flee? Did she find those dark fairy tales too creepy and she wanted her children free from that world view?

For some reasons, this character of Johan increasingly reminds me of the Andreas Lubitz, the pilot who committed suicide by crashing a plane into a mountain, taking with him the lives of 144 passengers and 6 crew members. 

[saltynemo]

Break-Up

WHATADO Everybody its your boi Nemo back at it again with another fanfic. Noq today I'm gonna disappoint you and leave you with a cliff hanger. I made a Brendon Urie fluff awhile ago but life has been busy lately. Btw, small angst at the end (I'm Jena from the future: excuse writing errors and shit cause this is one of my first stories)

Summery: Y/n decides to fly out to Brendon to comfort him about the Break-Up he has recently went through. This gives him and Y/n quality time together and things start to spark, but not in the way you think

Type: Fluff/Angst

Warnings: Cussing, Small angst at end, Fluff, I think that's about it

Requested?: Kind of, Yea

Word Count: 3.4k (3,478 words)

PT.2

Now without further ado, P-P-P-P-PLAY IT

I have been friends with Brendon since 2nd grade. We do everything together! His family adores me and its like im Brendons sister. I was there with Brendon when he had his first Flirting experiance. I was there with him when he had his first Break-Up. I am almost always there for him and there is nothing separating us. Mostly, the only time were apart is when hes on tour or I have things to do. But this time, he is touring and playing his usual gigs and I decided not to tag along with him. I didnt decide to go this time because of his girlfriend, Audrey. She has always been such a snob to me and I just never liked her. The number one reason I didnt like her is because she abuses Brendon. Its just that Brendon loves her too much to even notice! I try to tell him, but he just keeps telling me the same thing over and over again, "Shes just annoying me with her love and affection" And I keep replying with the same answer over and over again, "Shes abusing you and your money!" After a while, I gave up...Brendon loved her and Audrey didnt so much love him.

I woke up to the sound of a vibration next to my head. I lazily turn over and answer my phone in a groggy voice, "Hello..?" I heard sobbing on the other line, and I could tell it was Brendons. "Brendon, are you ok? What happened? Its..3 am" "S-he bro-ke up wi-th me.." Brendon stuttered. He was histerical. I tried to calm him down by telling him im here for him and such, but most of it didnt work. "Damn, i wish I could be there to give you a hug! You sound horrible" I say, on the verge of tears myself. "Y-yeah i wish too. Why d-o i d-do this to myself?! Am i t-too nice?" Brendon sobs. I tell him that hes too caring for some of these woman and to take a break. We talk back and forth about what happened and how we can resolve it. "Its 3 am Y/n..ill let you go. Ill just cry myself to sleep.." Brendon sniffled. We both say goodnight and I dial Josh's number. "Hey Josh?" "Yea, Y/n?" "Did you hear from Brendon yet..? Im kind of worried for him" I ask, pacing around my room. "Yea, i heard him talking on the phone with someone about his ex. Was that you?" Josh replies. "Yea, that was me. Also, how do you know he broke up with Audrey?" "Oh yea! I went on tour with him, just to tag along. Since im still on my haitus I thought i would give him some company" He says. "How long have they been broken up? Did it just happen?" I say, raising my voice a little. Josh starts to tell me the long story of how Brendon and Audrey broke up. It was pretty violent from my perspective. I hear sobbing in the backround as Josh went on with his story. "Wait, im gonna go outside..i feel like im destroying Brendon by telling you the story" Josh says, moving away from Brendons hysterical voice. "Brendons pretty..heart broken. Like is there any way you can calm him down? Your the only person I know who is that close to Brendon" "I tried! But i dont think I can do it over the phone, you know what I mean" I reply, leaning my head on my hand. "Is there any way you can like..come down here?" Josh asks. I can hear him pacing around outside. "I dont have the money ya know..im living in an apartment" I say, laughing a little bit. Josh chuckles but cuts out his laugh mid way. "I can PayPal your flight! Like-please come over here? Brendons destroyed..do it for him" "Ugh! Fine..Ill have to order the Tickets right now then. Send me your PayPal info and ill get packed" I sigh. "Sweet, Y/n!! I knew you would do it" "But ill need a ride..Can you do it?" "I dont think so..ill ask Tyler or Patrick. Both of them love you so it wont be a problem" He replies. I lay back on my bed, phone still next to my ear, "Welp, ok! Cya then. And dont tell Brendon about this..I want it to be a suprise" I say, smiling uncontrollably. "You gotcha. Cya then" Josh says. I could tell him winked by his tone. We said our goodbyes and I put my phone down. I sighed very loudly, almost thinking my neighbors could hear me. I sit back up and limp over to my Computer

Josh sent me his PayPal info and I bought the plane tickets. The plane was scheduled to leave at 3:00 pm tommorow. I closed my laptop and jogged over to my closet, packing up so I wont have to do it later. I didnt think much on what I should bring, but I threw in a couple outfits, toothbrush, hairbrush, and some headphones all into one SuitCase. I zip it up and put it to the side. Its now 4:00 am. I should get some rest..since I got lots of planning to do. I crawl back into bed, trying to put my worries about Brendon and my schedule aside.

*TIME SKIP Brought to you by Brendon's High notes*

Its 1:30 pm..I called a Taxi so I can get driven to the Airport. Josh texted me telling me that Petes going to pick me up. Im always excited to see Pete and..pretty much all of my Friends, so i was excited. Once we got to the airport, I payed the Taxi driver and headed for the long journey of ID Checking and security. Once I hit my first checkpoint, I put my bag on a conveirbelt and show them my Passport and ID. They aprove it and I grabbed my stuff. I found a very comfy bench near the Exit to where my plane is. I sit and wait forever, untill they finally call my plane. "Plane 3A!! All abourd 3A!" The flight attendant shouts. I pick my stuff up and head twords the door. I show her my plane ticket and I head to the back of the plane

The plane ride was quiet and peacefull to my suprise. No crying children, no kids kicking the back of your seat, and no rude or distracting people! I put my headphones on and put my music on shuffle. The very first song to come on was 'Dont Threaten Me With a Good Time'. I smiled brightly and tapped my foot to the beat as the plane flew through piles of clouds. I knew this was going to be a fun trip.

The seatbelt light flashed aboved my misty eyes. I packed up my things and secured my seat belt. I have always hated the landing of a plane, it just uneased me. The plane decended to the ground and skirted to a hualt. All of the passengers, including me, exited the plane through the door and a tunnel. Once I reached the end of the long corrador, I saw Pete! "Hey Petie!" I cheered, giving him a quick hug. "So nice to see you, Y/n!" "Hows Brendon?" I asked, pulling away from the hug. "Oh, about him, Hes...still depressed. I took a picture of him about 30 minutes ago" Pete exclaimed, showing me a photo of Brendon's head down, his arms hiding his face. He was in a position as if he were playing 'Heads Up Seven Up'. "Aw man...sucks" I say, itching the back of my neck. "How about we go suprise him now?" Pete said adding a cute smile. I smiled with him and we walked out of the airport.

Once we reached petes car, I threw my bag into the back seat and hopped into the passanger chair. "How about we play some music so we dont have an akward car ride" Pete said as he sat down in his drivers seat. "Sounds great, give me the aux chord" I demanded as i smiled a little bit. "Just dont play trash! You got it?" "Yea yea, I wont" I said, trying not to laugh. I typed into Youtube: "Josh says Penis Sized Nipples for 10 Minutes". I tried my best not to laugh hystericly, but i let out a small giggle. I plugg in the aux chord and I turn the 'music' all the way up. "Penis sized nipples, penis sized nipples, penis sized nipples" blasted in the car. I couldnt hold it in any longer and I bursted out laughing. Pete joined with me and was hystericly crying while trying to drive. I was about to change it when Pete stopped me: "Keep it on, and roll the window down!" He yelled through the 'penis sized nipples', echoing in the car. I rolled down the window and pretended to dance to it. We both laughed and drove to our destination, laughing all the way.

Once we reached the building where Brendon and our friends were, I turned off Joshs voice and put my phone in my pocket. "Here ya go" Pete said, swinging my bag over my shoulder. I wasnt expecting that so i crippled a little bit. "Sorry" Pete laughed. I smiled a bit and began walking to the front door. I reached my hand out to open it when Pete held my wrist, stopping me. "Before you go in there...just know Brendons sensitive right now..do your best to help him, he is seriously depressed." Pete said lowly. "I understand, now let me talk to him" I whisper back. Pete let go of my wrist and opened the door for me. I stepped inside to see all of my friends..especially Brendon. Josh, Tyler, Patrick, Joe, Andy, and all of the important folks were here. I waved to all of them and pressed my finger againts my lips. They all nodded and smiled, watching me creep up to Brendon. He was still in the same exact position from an Hour ago. I saw an empty glass of whisky by his side with a mountain of tissues. I dropped my bag besides a wall and leaned my mouth to his exposed ear. "Im always here for you Buddy" I whisper in his ear, putting my hands on his shoulders. He quickly lifts his head up, exposing his red & stuffy nose. His eyes were puffy and red from all of his crying. "Y/n" He asked in a suprised tone. He quickly rapped his arms around me, pulling me into a hug. I hugged him tightly, softly rubbing his back in the process. "Im so glad your here with me Y/n..ive missed you so much" He whispered, holding me tighter. His chest was warm and I never wanted to leave this position. "Ive missed you too, Brendon" I reply, lightly pushing him away. Brendon let go of me and gave me a bright smile through his depressed state. I smiled with him, knowing ill make him feel better.

We stared at eachother for a little while, enjoying our facial features and what not. Finally, Brendon snapped out of it. "Im gonna go clean the-uh-tissues up" He said, walking away to the mountain of tissues. "I knew you could do it" Josh whispered in my ear. I glanced at him, "I didnt expect him to feel better that fast, wow" "What would he do without you" Josh added, smiling and walking away. I found a chair to sit on as I watched Brendon joke and play with his friends. I leaned my head on my hand, day dreaming. "Hey, Y/n/n" Said a blissful voice. I turn my head to see Patrick. "Oh, hey Pat" I said, making room for him. "You really did wonders for this guy, ya know?" Patrick said, adjusting his sitting position. "Yea..I guess I did" I paused thinking of a question. "Speaking of Brendon...when did Audrey and Brendon break up?" I asked, turning my head to face him. I saw Patricks jaw clench at my question. "You know how Brendon called you?" I nodded in response. "He called you right after they broke up. Audrey stormed out of here and i dont know where she is. I hope she doesnt come back" Patrick added, folding his hands and looking down. "I really do hope so too" "But look at the bright side, Brendons bank account wont be empty" Patrick said, laughing a little. I laughed too, relizing he was right. I looked at my watch: 7:10. "Shouldnt Brendon be getting ready for his Meet&Greet with fans?" I asked Pat. "Oh, shit. Your right. Hey Brendon: Meet and Greets at 7:30!" Patrick shouted, getting up from his chair. He shot me a quick wink before walking over to Brendon. I smiled and got up, grabbing Brendons phone from a bench. "Here Bren, I think you might need this" I say, jogging over to him. He smiles and takes it, "Thanks, honey" He winks as he walks back to a table. The nickname he gave me cought me off guard, making me stand still. Tyler patted my back, making me come back to relization. He laughes as he follows Brendon.

I grab the Millions of pens lying on the floor and follow them. I set them on the Meet&Greet table and Sat in a Chair. I grabbed a hard, wooden surface, incase I had to sign things too. Brendon's fanbase loved me, even though I really wasnt that popular. "Y/n, you can sit at the table, I dont bite" Brendon calls, offering me a seat. I smile and sit next to Brendon. I thank him for the offer and we wait for the millions of fans to enter. I glance around the room, looking at Tyler, Josh, Patrick, and the security guards. I saw Andy and Joe, leaning againts the wall on their phones. "Here they come" Brendon whispers into my ear. I grin as I see fan girls come around the corner, with million doller smiles on their faces. The security guards step up, making sure the girls dont attack us. Suprisingly, the fan girls behaved very well. No cluttering or fighting or anything.

After about 30 minutes of watching Brendon sign papers, a girl comes up to me. She has brown, curly hair with freckles. She looked very sweet. "Arnt you Brendons close friend?" She asks, holding a binder closley to her chest. "Yea, I am. How did you know?" "Oh, I mean he posts about you all the time! Im suprised no one reconized you yet" She adds, placing the binder on the table. "Do you mind if you can sign my binder?" "Of course not! And whats your name" I reply, grinning as i sign my name onto the front cover of her binder. "Its Scarlett" She replies, smiling uncontrolably. "Thats a pretty name. Here ya go!" I complimented her. Scarlett smiles from ear to ear and takes her binder back. "Thank you so much!" She says, skipping away back to her friends. I smiled at her as I continued to watch Brendon. "I guess you got a fan" He whispers in my ear. For some reason, that sent chills down my back, making me jump a little. "Your jumpy today" He whispers again, handing a girl back her paper. I bite my lip and grin at him. He smiles and we both put our attentions back to the fangirls.

*TIME SKIP brought to you by Brendons body*

"Ok! Meet&Greet is over! Exit the room please!" The security guard yells. The room is filled with fangirls groaning and leaving the room. "Y/n..my hand hurts like crazy" Brendon groans, holding his hand. "I only signed a couple, so i guess im just lucky" I chuckle, placing my hand over Brendons, massaging it. He groans, smiling a little bit. I rub his hand as I hear snickering in the room. I ignore it and I continue to rub his hand. "Thanks Y/n. I dont know what I would do without you." Brendon says, smiling at me. I take my hand away from his and grin back. "Come on love birds, lets go watch Netflix!" Josh yells to us as he jogs to the cough. I laugh at his comment and get up, following Josh. Tyler, Andy, Pete and Joe were all sitting on the cough together, while Patrick is making popcorn. "Move, Im gay" I say, sitting on the couch. They laugh as they all scootch down. "Nice Brandon Rodgers referance" Andy comments. I laugh in response and Patrick sits on the carpet infront of us. "Get some popcorn before my fat ass eats it all" He says, holding up the popcorn bag for everyone to get. I took a hand full and stuffed it in my mouth. I feel a kernal of popcorn fall from my mouth and down onto my lap. I went to pick it up when suddenly, I see Brendons hand snatch it. "Hey! I was gonna eat that" I say, lightly pushing him. He laughs as he stuffs it in his mouth. He sits directly infront of me on the floor, along with Pat. "What are we watching?" Josh asks, scrolling through movies. "Fight Club" We all yell in harmony. Josh laughs as he hits the 'Select' button for Fight Club. We all seddle down and watch the movie.

After about an hour into the movie, I hear a knock at the door. "Ill go get it.." Pete groans, getting up from the couch and slowly jogging to the door. I put my attention back to the screen, when all of the sudden I hear Pete raise his voice. "Audrey?! What are you doing here?" Pete asks. I quickly turn my head to the door. I really didnt wanna go see her or even move. I cover Brendons ears, knowing the name will hurt him. "Im fine Y/n" He laughs, holding my hand. I smile and I take my hand away. "Brendon doesnt want to see you! You hurt him pretty bad" Pete yells once more. "Ill go see whats going on" Patrick says as he puts the popcorn bag down and walks twords the front door. I keep staring at the conversation, wondering what Audrey wanted. "Move, Emo boy! Let me see Brendon" Audrey shouts, trying to shove Pete out of the way. "Darling, Im not budging. Its best if you leave" Pete scoffs, closing the door. Before the door can fully shut, I hear a thud. I quickly get up and walk twords the door. I see Pete holding his crotch as he backed away from the door. "Audrey! What the Fuck! Leave right now, before I make you!" Patrick yells, pointing to the door. "What the hell is going on!" Brendon yells, stomping twords the door. "Oh..Hi Brendon!" She cheers. I stay in my standing position while i watch the battle set sail.

"What are you doing here?" Brendon asks. "I came here to see if I left my bra here" She said with a smirk. "Do you really think I still have your slutty bra?" Brendon says, walking infront of me. "Well, you must know what it looks like. We have had amazing sex before" Audrey comments sarcasticly. I feel my face burn with anger and embarissment. He stays quiet. "Cant you just leave? Were trying to watch fight club!" Josh, Tyler, Andy, and Joe all say from the couch. I snicker at the remark, but turn back to Audrey. "Well, if you dont know what it looks like, it looks like this" Audrey says, unbuttoning her shirt quickly and exposing her lingera bra. Patrick and Pete turn away from her and face the wall. Brendon is too angry at her to even look away. "Its best if you leave right now!" Brendon says, rasing his voice. "Oh cmon baby..I know you still want me..dont fight it" Audrey says, stepping twords Brendon. I push Audrey and get between her and Brendon. "Move away, slut" She scoffs, pushing me away with all of her might. I was strong, with no doubt, but I wasnt expecting this force. I was pushed back into the wall, my head hitting the wood hard. "Audrey! This need to stop, you should le-" Brendon begins to say, before being interuppted by Audreys lips. He tried to back away but she kept moving into the kiss. I felt my face burn with anger. Everything was happening in slow motion. I ball up my fists, trying to contain my anger. "What would I do without you" echoded through my brain. My face begins to scrutnch up and my eyes are blurred with tears.

(I put the cliffhanger so that you will beg me for more...unless I wrote a terrible fanfic. But whatever. I hope you enjoyed it and cya next time or somethin. Like for more!)