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starilicious · 3 years ago

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der lagi lekin (hunter x force-user!gn! reader + ep. 8 fix-it)

》 summary: tbb episode 8 fix-it featuring a force-user reader who used to be a jedi. reader is a part of tbb and in a relationship with hunter, but the squad–nor hunter–knows that reader is a force-user. (disclaimer: all of this was written before episode 9 was released! see a/n for an explanation ^_^) (another disclaimer: if you want just the hunter x reader comfort, please let me know and i'll finish it up and post it!)

》 word count: ~8k (yeah, it's a lot LOL)

click here to read on AO3

》 warnings: in-universe swearing, mental breakdown, some slight sensory overloads, pretty mild panic attack, light canon-typical violence, angst + some comfort, survivor's guilt from surviving order 66, no use of y/n, slightly plot heavy because i got way too carried away in writing (whoops?) [if i should add more warnings, please let me know!]

》 spoilers: major ones for tbb episode 8 "reunion"

》 a/n: okay look, i gotta confess: this wasn’t supposed to be an episode 8 fix-it. really. i’m actually glad cad bane won because we get to see that the clones don’t always win every fight... i think it makes for a better and more complex story. anyway, i started out writing just reader and hunter comfort after episode 8 ended. but i’m weak for omega because she reminds me so much of my younger siblings and i ended up writing a wholeass fix-it to save her (even tho cad bane is a downright badass). i kind of liked what i did with building up the plot so much that i might continue this story of force-user!reader with tbb. but that’s a tangent we can deal with later. if you would like a part two with the hunter x reader comfort this was originally intended to be, let me know!

as i said in the summary, i wrote all of this before episode 9 came out–just be aware of that. because it’s so long, it took me a while to edit, which is why i’m posting after ep. 9 was released. but without further ado, i hope you like it! <33

》 misc. notes:

• title of the fic is from the hindi song "der lagi lekin" from the film zindagi na milegi dobara. i linked the song in blue and linked the english translations in green in case you're curious! it's not necessary to listen or understand the song, but i thought it went well with the fic :)

“Everybody get down!” Wrecker yells. You and the squad immediately do as he instructs, diving towards the ground and covering your head. Stars, I hope this works.

The charges the six of you placed around the gigantic cone that surrounds the core cylinder explodes in a deafening blast. You curl into the tightest ball you can manage, breathing so hard that the HUD inside your helmet temporarily fogs up. Metal shards of the explosion rain down on you hard.

For a moment, it seems like nothing happened. But then you hear the telltale, ear-grinding creak of the durasteel and the squad is roughly catapulted forward from the force of the cone beginning to fall down.

You struggle to stand up as you lurch this way and that, trying to regain your balance and stabilize as Tech calls out, “Hold on!”

You quickly glance at the rest of the Bad Batch, trying to see if any of them were hurt. Other than the absolutely terrified look on Omega’s face, all is well considering the circumstances. The metal groans and begins its descent, taking your feeling of being grounded with it. The weightlessness is uncomfortably familiar to say the least, but you ignore it as the six of you scramble to hold on to the side of the cone. You certainly did your fair share of acrobatics back in the war, but feeling it hum around you...it’s too much. It’s too much. You elect to push it back into the depths of your brain. But it doesn’t leave.

It never really does.

Omega’s anxious whimpers come in faintly through your thick helmet and you whip around, frantically trying to find where she is. But before you can find her, the cone lands vertically on its head and the force is so violent that your stable hold on the durasteel is broken. Panicked, you quickly fire a grappling hook towards the ledge where you were previously hanging on. The hook catches and you stop abruptly, the jerky movement almost wrenching your arm out of its socket.

You look down to see Omega falling from someone’s grip and into Hunter’s arms. You can barely tell where anyone is thanks to the lack of light and the incessant motion.

The cone begins to topple onto its side and suddenly, your wire snaps from the tension. You let out a scream of surprise as you plummet downwards, wind rushing past your helmet. ForceIdon’twanttodieohmyMakerohno–

But you never hit the ground, instead being flung sideways as the cone tears into two. On trained instinct, you tuck yourself into a ball to try and roll in order to break your fall instead of using it. That time is long gone.

You land with a sickening thud and hiss in pain as your back hits the metal hard. You hear something crack, but whether it is your armor or something internal, you have absolutely no idea, and don’t have time to check before you black out.

✧✦✧

You jolt awake, a sound making its way into your consciousness. Finally, the damn place stopped moving. You take a few minutes to try and relieve the painful pressure in your chest, reaching up to rip your helmet off because you can’t breathe, you can’t breathe.

You tilt your head back as you struggle to take in air and let the adrenaline subside. You hear voices in the distance and you strain your ears to pick up on the sound as you quickly check yourself over. As far as you can tell, nothing major is broken, and at this point, that is all that matters. Though, your head is pounding, and for more reasons than one

“–nter.. port side... what… status?”

You can’t tell who is speaking, the message too far away for you to hear. But the bits and pieces are enough for you to know that it’s someone from the Bad Batch and that you weren’t unconscious for long. You stand up and dust yourself off before slowly walking to where you believe the origin of the sound is.

“–engine… got company.” A blaster sound and then an explosion rings through the quiet.

Your eyes widen and you quickly pick up the pace, getting your blaster ready as you pick your way through the sharp metal that is jutting out from the ground.

You click on your wrist comm. “Echo, you there?” A faint crackle before his voice comes through, but the signal is scratchy. You frown in frustration.

“–are you? Hunter is... port side,” Echo says and you smack your commlink to try and get the electronics to work, but it’s no use. The device is broken, most likely from the fall, you deduce.

“Meet… Marauder.”

You don’t bother to answer, knowing Echo would probably not even be able to hear what you had to say anyway. Without a signal booster or repeater, there’s no way you can get your transmission across the channel frequency.

It takes a few minutes, but you eventually find the night sky of Bracca blinking down at you at the end of the ripped off cone. You run out to find that you’re in the middle of where the cone broke in half. Okay, new plan. I need to find Hunter. Hunter will know what to do.

You scan your surroundings. The HUD isn’t picking up on any lifeforms near you, and you realize with sinking dread that you have no more options. Whichever piece you climbed through to get to your squadmates, it would take too long for you to search for them since you don’t know their coordinates and your comm isn’t working. Frankly, the Empire–Crosshair–would find you first. You have to use it.

You have to use the Force.

A wave of nausea overcomes you at the mere thought of it and you sway. In an attempt to ground yourself, you tear off your helmet to breathe some fresh air and end up keeling over as the bile rises in your throat. Nothing comes out. You can’t tell if that’s a positive or not.

You could have saved them. Someone. Anyone.

It itches at you in the back of your head, wishing to be let out of its cage. But you can’t. You can’t do it. What’s the use anyway? All you would be doing is saving yourself. The choice of surviving it all has haunted you ever since. Your head pounds in agony.

You saw it happen. You could have helped them. And you ran like a coward. Only ever concerned about yourself.

You inhale sharply as the scene flashes before your eyes, clones shooting at you and the other Jedi. The blaster fire. The confusion. The screams.

How pathetic.

The last statement, an echo of Crosshair’s words, bounces around in your brain. You clutch your head as you let out a heartbroken sob, knee deep in the dirt and metal and grief. Tears create clean tracks down your face as you finally break down, the flood of emotions bursting the dam open. At this point, you don’t know if the emotions are yours or the ones you previously felt through the Force, all of them swirling and blending into one. The bottled up anguish merged together when you attempted to cut yourself off from the Force after the clones–your friends–attacked.

The pain of their death is perhaps the worst of all. Horror courses through you as you finally process your friends and mentors dying around the galaxy, their deaths, their distress, their fear reverberating heavily throughout the Force. Each one cripples you further as you once again struggle to breathe.

It feels like light years pass when you finally calm down to a practically numb state of being. The scenes stop replaying behind your closed eyelids and the echoing shrieks die down to a faint, hollow whisper. You’re suddenly exhausted, limbs heavy and energy sapped. It was almost relieving to finally let the Force once again flow through your body, your nerves lightly tingling with potential despite how tired you feel. You collapse onto the ground and try to recenter yourself.

But despite finally acknowledging the loss, it doesn’t feel right. You didn’t get to say goodbye. You hadn’t been able to even think about them, much less honor them, too focused on going on the run to concentrate on anything beyond the next day’s survival. Even once you joined the Bad Batch, you were paranoid about their chips, about your friends turning on you at any moment. You were always extremely reluctant to engage in the Force, even at the worst of times.

With a start, you realize that you don’t need to worry about your squadmates. Their inhibitor chips are now gone. You… you are safe.

You let out a shocked laugh as it sinks in. A glimmer of hope, of peace. I’m safe.

You sit up then, criss-crossing your legs as you survey the broken landscape of Bracca. Despite the planet being a graveyard, you feel lucidly alive. Perhaps something died in you, that wretched day. But something else, slowly but surely, began growing in its place. It’s meek, but it’s there.

You let out a breath and close your eyes, reaching for the Force like it’s an old friend. It accepts your invitation with hesitation, joining hands with you as if you did not try beating it to death for days on end. You sink into the gentle lapping waves of the Force, extending into it and widening your scope.

There’s something that lurks beneath the surface, in the deep. Dark and sinister and so utterly painful. It calls to you, quiet and low. Enticing. Tempting. And something in you knows that it’s the reason for your previous life’s demise.

But you can feel Hunter’s–and Omega’s, you realize–presence near you in the Force. Even with your relatively damaged connection to the Force after Order 66, the Bad Batch’s Force auras were something you could always hone in on. You let yourself direct your focus to the duo, letting their emotions be your beacon to the acceptance of the Light side of the Force.

In a split second, you decide to not dive deeper into the Force. This isn’t the place nor the time to discover what is prowling in the endless yawning of the Force, to discover why everything happened. So you direct your concentration to the beings on the planet, feeling and breathing your way through the Life Force.

You freeze. There’s something here. No… someone. Your eyebrows furrow as you divert your attention away from your friends and other organisms to the peculiar source. Something about this person strikes you as familiar.

Your eyes snap open and you gasp. I’m not alone. A Force-sensitive. Someone survived. Giddy beyond belief, you snatch up your helmet and begin trekking your way across the wreckage in the opposite direction of Hunter and Omega before pausing. Whoever this person is doesn’t know about your presence on the planet.

And despite the fear you felt emanating off of them in the Force, you somehow knew they were safe, at least for now. And they would remain so if you have anything to say about it. Maker forbid anything that jeopardizes this person’s fragile safety. After all, you know best what it’s like to constantly flee scene after scene.

Staying away is the best thing to do. I’ll come back for you, whoever you are.

You double back and make quick work of getting across the debris as you focus your concentration on Hunter’s and Omega’s Force signatures. As you get closer to the port side, you hear Omega’s high voice. Through your HUD, you can see her small form. You grin. She disappears then, and on closer inspection, you figure she jumped through some broken cargo doors.

The entrance she and Hunter took is too high for you to jump up to, even with the aid of the Force. Combined with your wariness of probe droids, you decide to take a different route from the right side, climbing up the broken ship. The slick oil mixed with the water still present on the metal makes for a difficult trek, and you slip more times than you would like to admit.

Hunter’s gruff voice floats up towards you and you scramble the last few meters to the edge of a hole in the ceiling before pausing. The Force is itching at the back of your head. Something’s wrong.

You peek over the edge of the giant slab of durasteel that created the hole to see bodies in white armor littered everywhere–clones, you realize. Your heart pangs in sadness at the sight.

Slightly to your right, a blue figure and a techno-service droid stand in front of a ship and a frightened Omega stands behind a defensive Hunter. Your mouth drops open. Kriff.

Cad Bane.

A memory from near the beginning of the war hits you in full force. You and Anakin had taken some time on Coruscant to catch up with each other after you passed your trials and were promoted to Jedi Knight. He told you about a mission where he had to stop a bounty hunter who successfully stole a Jedi holocron. You remember how surprised you were when you heard the bitter disgust in Anakin’s voice. The ruthlessly cunning bounty hunter not only threatened to kill Ahsoka, but he murdered Master Ropal.

Judging by the looks of it, Hunter doesn’t know who he is. If the Anakin Skywalker had a difficult time with Cad Bane, there is no way in sithhell Hunter can take him on, even with his enhanced senses. Frankly, you seriously doubt you can either, especially with how rusty your Force skills are now. And that means this isn’t going to end well.

You watch carefully as you tune into the conversation.

“Ain’t you smart?” Bane smirks. “The kid’s got it all figured it out.”

“You’re in trouble now!” the droid exclaims, pointing at Hunter and Omega. You grit your teeth in annoyance.

“Who hired you?” Hunter asks. Stalling. Not a bad move, Hunter.

“Son,” Bane sighs, already done with the brief conversation. “That’s confidential information. Now hand her over.”

Omega stays behind Hunter, taking a knee as Hunter walks forward protectively. You bristle. How am I supposed to help from up here?

“She’s not going anywhere.”

Your eyes drift over the scene in a panic and you take in the fallen clones again. An idea pops into your head. It is desperate, but at this point, you don’t have much of a choice.

Bane mimics Hunter’s movement, walking forward and putting a hand near his belt. The tension is as thick as duracrete.

“That’s unfortunate… for you.”

You grab the long barrel piece from your belt, fitting it over your blaster hurriedly as the showdown begins. Out of the corner of your eye, you see them staring each other down and you can’t help but roll your eyes. Men.

During the war, Crosshair helped you re-engineer your weapon so you could put together various pieces in the field to make a blaster gun that loosely resembled his own sniper. Seeing the clones reminded you of him. A wave of sadness washes over you, but you shake your head. Now is not the time.

You screw on the telescopic sight and set up your makeshift sniper. You peer through the viewfinder and find Bane’s chest. Your finger tenses over the trigger.

You let yourself sink deep into the Force, let it guide your actions. Inhale. Exhale. I can do this. As you relax, the mellow warmth you missed so dearly washes over you, gently eroding the torment in your mind and heart, guiding your focus to the here and now. Trust in the Force.

Wait.

Now.

You fire two bolts straight into your target the same exact moment Bane and Hunter shoot each other. Hunter’s shot hits the droid, breaking off its leg. Bane’s shot hits directly in Hunter’s chest, as yours did Bane. Both men immediately fall backwards and slam into the ground.

“My booster!” Oh. So not a leg. Got it.

“Hunter!”

Kriff kriff kriff. You jump down nimbly from your hiding spot in the ceiling and immediately sprint towards the duo. Is he dead? You would unapologetically release sithhell on Bane if he killed the man you love.

Omega panics as she tries to wake Hunter up, continuously calling his name before taking a glimpse of her surroundings. Before you can react, she grabs her bow and pulls it taut, aiming at you. She looks petrified.

“Whoa! Omega, it’s me!” you exclaim, holding your hands up in surrender. She takes a moment to actually look at you before sagging in relief. Suddenly, the droid comes speeding out of nowhere and Omega shoots, the energy bolt whizzing past your waist and straight into the droid before it can attack you from behind.

The shot rings true and the grumpy robot falls. You turn around to grab at its exposed parts under its head and yank them out to make sure it can’t power on again.

“Thanks, Omega. I owe you one,” you say and Omega gives you a proud smile.

You place a comforting hand on her shoulder before kneeling down to shake Hunter awake, but it doesn’t work. You take a moment to analyse Hunter’s Life Force. It’s a bit dimmer, but it’s constant, meaning he’s out cold and doesn’t have the life draining out of him. You let out a sigh of relief. He’s alive. You glance back to see Bane still not moving. Good.

“What’re we gonna do?” Omega whispers as you both peer down at Hunter. His armor is smoking from Bane’s blaster shot and you exhale through your teeth, trying to come up with a plan. You slip off a glove to check Hunter’s pulse–it’s strong. You don’t want to leave Omega alone, even if Bane is unconscious, but you aren’t sure you have a choice.

“Well we can’t carry him to safety, neither of us are strong enough for that,” you think aloud, gears churning in your head. You would have to wait for help, even if you were sitting ducks.

Briefly, you entertain the thought of taking Bane’s ship. The only problem is you don’t know what trackers or other gadgets are in there–it’s too costly of a risk and a price you weren’t willing to pay. You sigh, resigned.

“Omega, you try to comm the others and see if you can wake Hunter up. I’m going to go inside this guy’s ship and see if I can find something that can help us. We have to get out of here before the bounty hunter wakes up,” you instruct and Omega nods, youthful determination flooding back into her eyes.

You leave her to it, walking cautiously towards Bane’s ship. You look down at him. His armor is smoking in two places from the shots you fired. Based on what you see, he’s still unconscious, and his Life Force reflects the same conclusion. How long that would remain, you don’t know. Which means you need to work fast.

You board the ship while you remove the sniper attachments from your blaster and clip them back onto your belt. You keep your guard up as you look around. No droids. Guess that techno-service droid is his one and only.

In an effort to slowly re-familiarize yourself with the Force, you send out a quick pulse through it to see if there are any lifeforms aboard the ship, relaxing when you find none. You rummage through all the cabinets that you discover, looking high and low as you try to locate something of use. The secret compartment in the cockpit proves to be the fruitful reward to your search. With a wave of your hand, you unlock it with ease. Bingo.

Credits. Bags of them. And they’re unmarked creds, which make your score even better. Hopefully, it would be enough to pay off your debt to Cid and give the Havoc Marauder some much-needed upgrades.

Usually, you would feel bad about stealing from someone, but considering this was a bounty hunter – Cad Bane, no less – you figure you can risk treading the grey area of your moral code.

You grab as many bags as you’re able, stuffing them inside your backpack and clipping the rest onto your belt. At this moment, you’re incredibly grateful to Tech and Echo for designing a sturdy utility belt that fits you well. The standard ones were for clones and you definitely were not a clone.

You exit the cockpit and head to the second level of the ship to see if there’s anything else you can find. A stack of crates sits in the corner across from what you assume to be a prison. You scrunch your nose in disgust as you open one to find medical supplies. Bacta patches and gel, vitapaste, rations, water, gloves, sanitary napkins–it was all there. Delighted, you close the crate and click the repulsor to make it levitate. Oh how you love technology.

You turn around and walk back up the stairs to leave the ship. You freeze at the exit ramp. You have got to be karking kidding me.

“Sorry lil’ lady.”

Cad Bane stuns Omega in front of your eyes before rounding on you and immediately fires. In a desperate attempt to save yourself, you throw your hands up and the honeyed power of the Force rushes through every fibre of your being. The blaster bolts slow down to a snail-like crawl and your eyes widen. How did I…?

Never mind how you argue with yourself. Time to get out of here!

You tiptoe around each bolt, the effort of keeping them in stasis becoming more difficult with each passing moment. You grit your teeth as your arms shake, but you keep going until you are finally off the ramp. You lower your arms and the energy hits the inside of the ship, spazzing out the blinking controls inside.

Bane turns to you in surprise, astonished at how you’re suddenly in front of him. You don’t give him the luxury of processing the event and immediately punch him in the face with as much strength as you can muster. Bane pitches backwards and collapses onto the ground, just as he did the first time. You grab your stun blaster and shoot him as extra assurance. You really did not want this to repeat again. Hopefully he never wakes up with a memory of what I just did...

“Now stay down,” you mutter to a knocked out Bane, cradling your now injured hand. You have no idea how Wrecker ever does this because wow your hand is killing you.

You have to say, you’re pretty proud of yourself for being able to render him unconscious not once, but two times. You wish you could tell Anakin–the thought saddens you. He’s probably dead too.

With that vividly cheery thought, you stagger back from the ramp in exhaustion, weary from the sudden surge of the Force still ebbing and coursing through your body.

None of the Bad Batch knew you used to be a Jedi–not even Hunter. It was something only a few of your closest Jedi friends and the Jedi Council knew about.

But after what happened today, with Rex helping your squadmates get their inhibitor chips out, with you finally letting the Force in… maybe it is time to tell them. The secrecy wouldn’t be needed anymore now that you were sure you were safe around your friends. But clearly, the universe wanted to throw a nasty vibroblade in your plans by knocking Hunter and Omega unconscious and having the best kriffing bounty hunter in the galaxy be hot on your heels.

You take a few seconds to get your breath back and regain your mental energy. You aren’t out of the woods yet. You run inside Bane’s ship to grab the crate of medical supplies before sprinting back out towards Hunter and Omega.

You lean down and pat Omega’s cheek gently, trying to wake her up, but she’s out cold. Why is everyone around me unconscious? Frankly, you’re equally amused and terrified by the situation laid out in front of you.

You sigh, looking around to see if you can find some cover. There’s a giant sheet of durasteel to your left, big enough to act as a barrier in case trouble comes knocking. You bend down and pick Omega up before placing her down cautiously, leaning her small body against the metal. You repeat the action with the crate you found.

The third time proves to be much more difficult. Hunter certainly isn’t as muscular as Wrecker, but he sure as sithhell isn’t as light as Omega. You tap your foot nervously, trying to figure out a way for you to lift him. Yes, you could use the Force, but you don’t want to alert the other Force-sensitive on the planet. If they knew about your existence, it could put them in danger, and that was the last thing you wanted.

Giving up, you place your hands underneath Hunter’s armpits and effectively drag him all the way over, propping him up as you did Omega. You cringe at the sound of his armor grating the floor. There are sure to be dirty scuff marks on it now. Sorry Hunter.

Just as you’re about to sit down next to him, heaving deep breaths from the exertion, you pause. A warning is practically blaring in the Force and you tense, urgently trying to figure out the cause.

“Not again,” you mumble under your breath. You can’t handle any more action today. With Hunter and Omega both down, and your extreme fatigue from engaging in the Force, you don’t know how much of a fight you can put up. Not to mention you never trained as a soldier. There was a reason why you left the military planning strategies to the Bad Batch.

You hold your blaster close to your chest as you scan the environment. Bane is immobile and so is the dismantled techno-service droid. So what’s wrong?

Ten nerve-wracking seconds pass before you get your answer. Clone voices waft up to your hiding spot and you bite your cheek in frustration as your head continues to pound. Your headache still hasn’t stopped.

There is no way you can fight them all off, especially if Crosshair is with them. They are too far away for you to get a read on how many there are, and frankly, you’re much too scared to even peek around the durasteel to count.

One of Tech’s previous statements floats through your mind. About three attack shuttles worth.

You can feel your heart thumping wildly in your chest, blood rushing through your ears as anxiety ties your stomach into knots. I can’t do this, I can’t do this, Ican’tdothis.

You take deep breaths, doing your best to clear your mind and focus. You had to do this. There is no other option other than surrendering or dying. No, damnit, you would go down fighting until the Life Force left you.

You peer just past the edge of the metal to see at least twenty clones heading your way. Certainly not ideal, but you bide your time. If you started shooting now, you couldn’t use the element of surprise to your advantage and they would easily overwhelm you. But once they’re close enough, you hope you can at least take a couple out before having to resort to using the Force. It isn’t ideal, but it’s all you have.

Honestly, you don’t know if you could get out of this one alive, much less protect Hunter and Omega too. Maker help me.

It throws you off when they finally come into sight–you see how plain the clones’ armor looked without paint. You never really noticed it before since you were always running for your life in those circumstances. But now that you think about it, you are so used to seeing bright blue or green or yellow that the alabaster white just seems so… odd.

“Looks like a big fight happened here.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. All these men are dead.”

Now.

You whip your body around the metal and immediately begin shooting as fast as you can pull the trigger, trying to make every shot count. The troopers hesitate for just a moment, most likely due to their surprise of you being there. But that second is all you need.

You take out the three men closest to you before jumping back behind the metal as their barrage of fire rains down on you. You do your best to shoot back and manage to take out one more clone, but they’re beginning to gain too much ground too fast. I can do this. I have to do this.

As far as you can tell, Crosshair isn’t with the clones attacking you, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t set up shop somewhere nearby, waiting to shoot you.

You shudder. It’s a chilling thought.

You grab one of your last detonators from your belt and hurl it as far as you can. The rapid beeping rises quickly in pitch before the charge explodes. Anguished cries reverberate throughout the area, and you briefly feel sorry for having to take such drastic measures as you feel their Force signatures dim swiftly. But you don’t have a choice.

Peeking around the corner, you count around eight to ten clones down. Not bad considering the circumstances.

You continue shooting as much as you can but now the troopers are much too close for comfort and you’re feeling overwhelmed. The durasteel you are using for cover isn’t meant to take this kind of damage, and the integrity of your shield is quickly waning as told by the constant creaks and groans. You don’t know what to do. Will we make it?

In your haste of shooting first and panicking later, you don’t notice Hunter groaning, finally waking up. And before you have time to even glance at him, the familiar hum of the Havoc Marauder and its lights shine down on you. Your sag in relief. Looks like Omega was able to comm them after all. Never before have you been so glad to see the beat-up hunk of junk. (You would never say that to Tech though–the Marauder is his baby, his pride and joy.)

Echo, Wrecker, and Tech all race off the ship, guns ablazing. Wrecker and Tech stand guard, serving as cover fire while Echo bends down to help you out.

“Hunter, wake up!” Echo hisses and smacks his helmet lightly. Hunter mumbles in pain as he starts to move, trying to look around as his HUD boots back up. Seriously? Now you wake up? you think sarcastically. But you’re much more relieved at the fact that he has actually woken up.

“What happened? Where’s Omega?” Wrecker bellows, worried.

“She’s right here, I’ve got her!” you shout back at the same time Echo says, “He was shot in the chest plate.”

You pocket your blaster and gather the young girl in your arms with every last bit of strength you have left. You aren’t strong enough to hold her in one arm and shoot with the other. That is much more up Wrecker’s alley.

“We have to get him on board!” Tech exclaims as he helps Echo support Hunter. You pick Omega up in both arms and bolt for the ship as fast as you can while yelling at Tech to grab the crate of supplies.

“Incoming!” Wrecker calls out as a fresh wave of troopers advance towards the six of you. You grunt as you deposit Omega in a chair near the controls before pulling out your blaster and helping Wrecker shoot down the men racing towards you.

“Got him. Tech, fly us out of here!” Echo commands while Wrecker makes a gesture for them to get on the ship faster. Hunter stumbles as he does his best to upright himself.

“Go go go!” Wrecker exclaims. Tech shoves the crate next to Omega’s seat and makes a beeline for the cockpit as you continue shooting, moving to the side to make space for Echo and Hunter to come on board. Wrecker quickly climbs in right after them and the ramp closes shut.

Tech immediately pilots the Havoc Marauder up and away from the scene. You vaguely hear the sound of blaster fire hitting the bottom of the ship while you drop your blaster on the ground and wrench Hunter’s helmet off in a panic. You take his face in your hands as you scan him quickly, trying to figure out if he’s hurt or not.

Hunter bats your hands away. “He... he took Omega,” he says and you shake your head. Wrecker pipes up from behind you to respond.

“Who? Crosshair?”

“The bounty hunter,” Hunter mutters as he rubs a hand over his face. Before Wrecker can answer again, you step in.

“No, he didn’t. I took him down. And no, he’s not dead,” you tack on quickly when you see Echo open his mouth. Echo shakes his head fondly and you just grin at him.

“She’s right here,” Echo says instead, pointing to Omega’s sleeping figure. Hunter turns in surprise to see that his brother is indeed telling the truth.

“How...?” Hunter’s voice trails off. Echo and Wrecker look at you expectantly, and Hunter follows suit. You sigh and take off your helmet, setting it down on the ledge next to the controls. You don’t look at them.

“It’s a long story.”

You don’t have a chance to elaborate any further because Tech walks in, interrupting the conversation.

“I’ve made the jump to hyperspace. There was a cruiser in the atmosphere, but I was able to quietly go past them by disguising our ship as a bounty hunter’s. They didn’t interfere. I put in the coordinates for Ord Mantell. I estimate our time of arrival to be five hours and thirty two minutes,” Tech reports and Hunter nods while you voice your thanks.

“Looks like we got time!” Wrecker says cheerily, pulling out an extra chair. Tech looks to you in confusion.

“Did I miss something significant?” Tech asks, concerned about the information he did not receive as he adjusts his goggles. You shake your head but now, all eyes are back on you.

“She was just about to tell us how she saved Omega,” Hunter supplies helpfully and Tech nods in understanding. He grabs a chair as well and sits down, interested in hearing what you have to say.

You look around the room, realizing you can’t get out of it. You are exhausted and just want to sleep but based on the looks you are getting from the boys, there is no way you can leave without giving a sufficient answer.

You sit down on a chair in between Omega and Echo and begin explaining.

“When the cone fell, it separated. I got knocked out when I hit the ground, but I don’t think I broke anything,” you quickly reassure as Tech grabs a datapad to scan your vitals.

“After I came to, I tried comming Echo, but my commlink was broken – I could only hear bits and pieces of what he said. There were some voices near me so I just followed them and–” you pause, not sure if you should tell them what happened. What you experienced, what you found out. “–I saw Hunter and Omega. The ledge I found was way too high for me to jump to, so I climbed up the side of the wreckage to see them and the bounty hunter facing off,” you say, choosing to leave the detail out. It was too personal. You still needed time.

All of them are listening intently, hanging on to every word you’re saying. Hunter’s gaze on you is heavy and loaded with questions. Tech is still tapping away on the datapad, but you know you have his full attention. Multitasking may not be possible for regular humans, but it definitely was for Tech.

“When I saw the bounty hunter, I knew Hunter wasn’t going to win,” you mumble sheepishly, rubbing the back of your neck. Hunter winces at your statement and you rush to explain why.

“Hunter, you have to trust that I genuinely don’t doubt your abilities. You are much more of a soldier than I will ever be. But this bounty hunter is one of the best, if not the best in the entire galaxy. He’s gone against the Jedi, and won. Based on what Anakin told me at the beginning of the war, Cad Bane is ruthless. He tortured Master Ropal and killed him. Believe it or not, I think he tried to abduct Chancellor Palpatine. Even Anakin had a difficult time fighting him.”

A tense quiet settles over you all as you mentally revisit your conversation with Anakin, and later with Ahsoka. She told you how it was one of the first times she was genuinely afraid that she was going to die, or at least get hurt very severely.

Echo’s rough voice shakes you out of your reverie. “How do–did you know General Skywalker?” he asks, clearly confused at how you referred to him on a first-name basis. You mentally facepalm yourself. How did I forget he served as part of the 501st? You feel incredibly stupid.

You could make up a lie, of course, but it wouldn’t be worth it. Hunter’s enhanced senses and Tech’s vitals scan could probably pick up on your biological signs, not to mention you would feel terribly guilty about not being honest. I promised myself I would tell them…

You blow out a nervous breath, deciding to at least give them something. They deserved that much.

“I’m–well, I was a Jedi,” you admit, staring down at your feet. You can’t bring yourself to look at them, feeling almost… ashamed.

The boys are shocked into silence and you cringe. There was probably a much better way for you to say that, but now it was out there. Yet the pressure that had been weighing down on you since you let the Force back in didn’t lessen.

“What?” Wrecker questions, thrown completely for a loop. “You’re a Jedi?”

Before you can answer, Tech pipes up. “When I reviewed your medical data, there was no note about an elevated midi-chlorian count or any sort of connection to the Force. Additionally, there is no documentation of you serving as a General or a Commander during the war in the Republic military records. How were you a Jedi? And why aren’t you one now? You used past tense in your sentence,” Tech adjusts his goggles as he attempts to register this new information that conflicted with his previous knowledge.

You sigh, drumming your fingers on your thigh. “I left the Jedi Order before the war ended. I promise I’ll explain everything in detail later, but for now, you have to understand that I’m just a Force-user. I trained as a Jedi, but I’m not a Jedi, not anymore,” you clarify, lifting your head up to make eye contact with each of them.

“Aw man, that’s so cool. You have to show us your cool mind tricks sometime!” Wrecker smiles and you agree to his request. It warms your heart to see him so excited.

“It makes sense. You must have seen the regs turn on the Jedi but didn’t know why. When you started traveling with us, you didn’t know if we would turn on you too, even though we’re not regs,” Hunter realizes, and you nod in affirmation. You’re secretly relieved by the fact that he doesn’t seem angry, just… just thoughtful.

“And then when I saw what happened to Crosshair, I knew I couldn’t risk ever telling any of you. But when Rex told us about the chips…” you trail off.

Echo picks up your sentence quickly. “You figured out you would be safe with us if we got our chips removed. No wonder you were so insistent on following what Rex said.”

You smile at the last part, a bit embarrassed. He wasn’t wrong. You were probably even more insistent than Rex was on telling them to get their inhibitor chips out. Better to be safe than sorry you told them. Though at the time, you hadn’t even thought about how removing their chips would impact you and your abilities. You were too focused on keeping the Force out of your body to entertain that thought.

Wrecker suddenly gets up and gathers you in a bone-crushing hug. “Well you don’t have to worry now! We got those stupid chips out of our heads, which means I promise we won’t kill you!” he says cheerfully and you can’t help but laugh as you hug him back, the knot in your chest beginning to unravel. You could always count on Wrecker’s wonderfully big heart to raise your spirits.

“You’re right, big guy. It’s honestly a relief. One less thing I have to worry about.”

Wrecker lets go of you and you pick up where you left off. “As I was saying, Cad Bane isn’t a bounty hunter we can take lightly. Crosshair helped me re-engineer my blaster to turn it into a pseudo sniper with attachable parts during the war. Because I was so high up, I could get a clear shot of Bane. From that vantage point, I shot him at the same time Hunter and Bane shot each other.”

Echo’s mouth drops open. “Damn.”

“What I didn’t expect was for Hunter to be rendered completely unconscious. So I told Omega to try to comm you guys while I went on Bane’s ship to see if I could find anything. And I did.” You pull off your backpack and dump out the contents. Bags of credits come tumbling out. You unhook the few bags on your belt and toss them into the pile.

“Bane had a secret compartment with a lot of credits. So I took them and that crate I yelled at Tech to get,” you explain as you reach into the bag to show off the Imperial credits.

Tech’s eyes widen as he lifts up a bag to inspect it. “I will have to calculate how much you took and mark it in the inventory, but based on my initial deduction, this may be enough for us to upgrade the Marauder and provide sustenance for at least a few months.”

“Nice one!” Wrecker compliments and you grin in response. “What’s in the crate?” he asks, walking over to lift up the top.

“Medical supplies. We barely had any left so I figured I might as well take that too,” you shrug as Hunter gets up to join Wrecker to peer at the contents.

“What happened after that? You said you told Omega to comm the others, which means she was awake. Did she get hurt while I was out? Is that why you look so exhausted?” Hunter inquires, astute as ever.

You bite your lower lip. “When I was getting off his ship with the goods, he had woken up again. Before I could do anything, he stunned Omega and then immediately shot at me,” you pause, wondering if you should elaborate on how you got out of the situation. You decide to come clean on this part.

“I… I don’t know how, but I was able to stop the blaster bolts and keep them – and Bane – in stasis with the Force. The problem was that it took a lot out of me. After not really using the Force for so long, my energy reserves were pretty much gone,” you sigh, absentmindedly rubbing your arms. Your muscles are still sore from the event.

“After that, I punched him and knocked him out again. I dragged you and Omega away from the ship so that I could protect you, and I ended up using that giant piece of durasteel as cover to fight off those clones. Then you guys came and rescued us and that’s that,” you finish, suddenly fatigued from the conversation. You slump back into your chair, perfect posture be damned.

“Wow,” is all Echo says, surprised by your strength. It took some serious stamina to be able to withstand so much for so long. Echo remembered seeing Commander Tano and General Skywalker be exhausted after some especially intense missions where they constantly had to use the Force.

“Yeah,” you mutter, massaging your dominant hand. It is still throbbing from the mean hook you threw at Bane. You don’t have any regrets. You glance at Omega’s sleeping figure and soften. The things I would do for this girl.

“Looks like I taught you well!” Wrecker laughs and you smile. When you first met the Bad Batch, Wrecker took it upon himself to teach you basic self-defense and how to overtake an opponent intelligently. Even though you already learned how to fight as part of your Jedi and military training, you couldn’t say no to him when he looked so excited. But it paid off because he’s right. Wrecker did teach you well.

“You did. You basically saved my ass out there with your amazing teaching skills,” you chuckle, glancing down at your hand. You think you’ll probably have to cover it in bacta gel to speed up the healing process before having yet another realization. (You seem to be having a lot of those today.)

I can just Force-heal. Before, you couldn’t Force-heal because it would look suspicious if something healed too fast. But now that they know, you don’t have to solely depend on medical supplies anymore.

Tech, as always, is right on cue. “Is your hand alright? For you to render Bane unconscious must have been no easy feat. Not to mention that according to the medscan I just took, you have a mild concussion, most likely due to your fall. I can run a medical diagnostic test to start and then run more specific tests to combat your pain...” Tech mutters the last part to himself, brain running light years faster than his mouth as his fingers fly over the datapad.

You debate it for a moment before nodding. “That would be great, Tech–thanks. But right now, I’m exhausted, so I’m going to go and crash in my bunk. Wake me up if I need to punch someone again,” you joke before shuffling away from your squadmates. You ruffle Omega’s hair affectionately as you pass by her and pick up your blaster from the ground before climbing down the ladder. You don’t notice Hunter’s troubled gaze or how his Force signature sours a bit as you leave.

You quickly clean up and throw on some bacta patches on a few nasty bruises. You sit down on your bed and pull the privacy curtain before deciding to open up your secret compartment next to your mattress. You stare down at the objects, the only things you have left as a reminder of the past. You reach down for one of them, about to touch it when you stop.

You shake your head and shut the drawer. Deciding to finally, finally hit the hay, you’re out like a light as soon as your head hits the pillow. Dealing with the Force and healing yourself could be done later. Not even your constant pain and crippling worry about your family friends could keep you up any longer.

please consider reblogging! it really helps me and is super encouraging ^_^

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funnuraba · 4 years ago

Text

Quick guide to SAVING LIVEJOURNAL/OTHER FAN CONTENT with THE WAYBACK MACHINE:

(quick note: Tumblr content is honestly much more at risk, so if you have the stomach to try finding things on Tumblr, you can also use this method on that and do some good work)

Uhhh this got long, so look for the bolded parts if you’re not here for a long read lol.

Okay so, at some point, LJ is going under. Or at least all the gay stuff they can find on there. More to the point, PHOTOBUCKET, TINYPIC, IMAGESHACK.... all of those have left huge scars in the records of LJ fandom. So I’ve been using the fact that the Wayback Machine lets you save outlinks if you sign up with the Internet Archive! (Free!)

There’s a Save Page Now function! Good places to use it on include:

Rec lists

People’s masterlists of their own fics/art/meta

Somebody’s well-organized LJ Memories (the page you save needs to contain direct links to the posts you want to save, so if there are sublevels in the Memories you need to go as deep as possible)

community profiles

Every page of a community, if you really feel like it--I’ve been doing this with some small comms, but it’s.... less than feasible with big communities.

Check the “Save Outlinks” button, and the WB will also save links from the page you enter! You can get a lot of stuff at once. Unfortunately there’s a limit on the number of links it’ll grab, but it’s better than nothing. You’ll also see a lot of ERROR!s and it’s annoying. When it’s a Job Failed you can try the page again later.

I don’t know yet how it picks the outlinks to save, so maybe it’s random and you could eventually get all of them by Saving repeatedly??? I’m pretty sure it tries to start at the top, though, because communities with a huge list of tags in their layout are probably not worth your time: I’ve been trying to get stuff from the KKM Fanfic Challenge comm, but.... well, look at it. Trying to save any page with outlinks just picks up a whooooole bunch of those tags on the sidebar, and barely any actual posts. No matter what kind of URL you put in, that sidebar’s always there. You’d have to save each post individually to get every fic. Hope LJ’s not going anywhere fast!

Community profiles are among the most important, because that gives us a lot of info like how many members are left (after years of bleeding users) and how many comments and posts there were in the community! Unfortunately this method is REALLY BAD for art and icons--lots of them are just gone with tinypic and people’s personal LJ albums. Also the WB isn’t good with images in general and there’s no real alternative. But the profiles of icon communities, plus fanfics, meta, stuff like that: a lot of it left to be grabbed! Big main community profiles are best, because they often listed other smaller communities for the same fandom. Saving the big profile with Outlinks will pick up the profile links of all those smaller communities!

Sometimes the big community profiles will just make you sad. Try to soldier on. (If you’re really committing to this, don’t forget that smaller comms will also have even smaller comms listed as affiliates that never made it into the Big Fandom Community’s profile. You can come back later and Save their profiles directly. Sometimes they also have links to fanlistings and other rare things that are also useful to have saved!)

If you can think of a small community, you can also use the method of saving every page, which takes some work and time: you have to save the skip=10 URL, and after that skip=30, skip=50, etc. Then come back later and do skip=20, skip=40, skip=60, etc. The reason for this is that the Wayback Machine will only save one single URL every 30 minutes. So if you’re saving outlinks from skip=30, you’ll also get an incomplete snapshot of skip=20 and skip=40, minus all the important links on skip=20 and skip=40. Obviously, this isn’t much fun and works only with small comms. But it does save a lot of text.

Here’s the type of stuff you’ll get:

a saved PROFILE url: This is good! It saves info about how active a user or community was. In this case it was a user, but the profile is info they chose to put front and center, and the WB isn’t gonna crawl any deeper and grab personal posts from 2004 or anything. (You’ll get a lot of user profiles that aren’t really necessary when using this method.)

a modified POST url: Also good, but you’re gonna get a ton of duplicates on these due to how many different ways LJ would link to a single post. The style=mine doesn’t alter the content. You’ll also see lots of “#cutid1″, which of course is the link left by an LJ-cut. That’s fine, it gets the post. The content of posts 82379 is safe! (but NOT all the nested comments!)

a comment link (in this case dreamwidth which isn’t in danger, but the same format): This saved both the post itself (79392) and a comment thread (131360). You probably can’t get every comment thread just because the WB is bad at unfolding LJ threads, but this does contain the post itself. If you don’t see the plain post URL itself in the list of saved URLS once WB is done saving outlinks, but you do see a comment link: that comment link also has the original post! You don’t need to keep trying!

a journal’s tag link: This is less useful. It saves a snapshot of the tag page itself, but nothing deeper. Any content under an LJ cut or in the comments is not saved. There’s no way to keep these from saving, though. Just keep in mind, that tag in the picture doesn’t mean that the fics this person linked to have been saved. You’ll have to enter the tag link URL itself into the Wayback Machine’s SAVE page for that.

ERROR! JOB FAILED.: These are annoying! Most likely nothing was saved. Unless a comment link was successfully saved, you’ll have to copy-paste the URL that failed and put it into the SAVE page.

LIVE PAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE: There’s nothing you can do unless this URL was already saved somewhere.

BUT WHAT ABOUT IMAGES????

The passage of time means it’s probably too late. Imageshack and Tinypic took out a huge chunk of images on LJ, and PhotoBucket tried to make people pay them by putting big ol’ watermarks on all pictures except those hosted by premium users. It didn’t work and they said sorry, but the watermarks are still there. Lol. If you right-click +Open image in new tab, the watermark goes away, but who wants to do that with every single image? Also, the Wayback Machine sucks with big images and there’s no alternative at the moment.

If you’re lucky enough to find some holy grail like a big post of 1000 icons hosted on someone’s premium Photobucket, you could save a snapshot of the page. Wayback Machine lets you check that as an option, but IF YOU SAVE A SNAPSHOT WITH A TOOL LIKE “GoFullPage”: I find that GoFullPage, at least, will save you a big long image with no Photobucket watermarks! But you’ll have to save that image yourself, or store it somewhere, so keep that in mind.

Also, the snapshot means no animated gifs--although if you want to save those, they’ll be tiny little LJ icon gifs, so pretty easy to store on your own computer.

#fanlore #fandom preservation #is that a tag #livejournal #wayback machine #just gonna add as a tag that i'm trying to avoid doing this with comms where everyone was clearly about 13 #let's let them have the privacy of vanishing into the ether someday

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the-lone-witch-and-secret-room · 3 years ago

Note

Hi! I've heard you're really into Jerbric, and I love Jerbric too, so... Jerbric for that ship ask game?

I am really into that ship! I’m not sure when I got so attached to them but god I love them so much, they’re one of my biggest comfort ships right now? I just… they’re so cute. Look at them.

(One of these days that comm art is probably gonna get its own post but for now have it here)

Ship it

What made you ship it?

Kinda similar to the thing I wrote about Emira and Viney actually. I’ve liked the concept for a bit, but what got me really into it was actually writing them. There was this moment I wrote out where they just clicked and honestly? I can’t stress enough how beautiful it is to watch two characters fall in love so naturally as you write. It just flows, and they just… work, and honestly at this point I’m dying to talk about them more because this somehow became one of the ships I’m most attached to?

I’m huge on opposites attract. I also find Jerbo’s anxiousness very very relatable and I honestly think that would mix with Edric’s personality super well? Like, Ed has this confidence that he mostly uses to mask his real feelings because he’s scared to be vulnerable, and Jerbo’s whole thing is that he’s, yes, not very confident and nervous pretty easily but also very open about how he really feels. He, Viney and Barcus are obviously super close and always help each other out, while Ed and Em have this thing going where despite being generally supportive of each other they mostly just… ignore their issues by masking them with jokes. Behind closed doors, Ed breaks down a lot more than Em does, but publicly he always forces his emotions back in and honestly he’s miserable as hell with it.

I feel like since being made aware of it Edric like, constantly wonders if he’s a burden to Em and he really struggles with that, too. (Em wanting space is perfectly valid for the record, but I still feel like Ed struggles with that concept.)

I feel like Jerbo would help Edric a lot when it comes to opening up more, and also reassure him a lot that he isn’t a burden and in fact lovely to be around. He finds the more silly part that Em is always kinda annoyed with super endearing and cute and I just… love that thought. I also feel like Ed could help Jerbo learn to mask his feelings better in situations when it’s necessary (e.g. not seeming super nervous when he’s forced to do a presentation in front of the class), and he’d also help Jerbo be more confident in general. Ed jokes around a lot but he also seems like the kind of person that will not have Jerbo be self-deprecating. He picks up the difference between someone joking around and like, actually being anxious and hurting. Jerbo has moments when he’s like “what is there to like about me?” And he’s certain when Edric asks if he wants a list Edric is kidding, but he is in fact very much not kidding and comes back with a heartfelt, well thought out list five minutes later.

Ed is always, always encouraging Jerbo to talk more about himself because he likes listening to Jerbo. And he’s constantly cheering Jerbo on when it comes to… basically everything.

Also since Edric canonically writes poems, he leaves those everywhere for Jerbo to find. Jerbo keeps all of them, and has at least one with him at all times.

…this isn’t even about the question anymore, I realize that, but I also don’t really care that much, lol

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Jerbo just… melting over how good Edric looks in a dress gets me every time. How supportive they are of each other. Edric somehow being the more anxious one when they’re together. Flustered Edric. Flustered both of them honestly. They’re out shopping and Jerbo glances at something once and Ed immediately buys it just bc he can. They’re so soft and good for each other and I love it so much. Also I feel like Ed is a very cuddly person so just like, them hanging out and making each other laugh and eventually napping off cuddling…

Honestly I really like to imagine they get tired of Em and Viney being stubborn and eventually sic them on each other so they can hang back and just… nap, the thought is so funny to me

Edric taking Jerbo’s last name is so good, too… 🥺

Also Edric would so steal abomination books from his dad to help Jerbo study.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I got… so so attached to Edric wanting to go into plants when he was a kid. Jerbo is super patient but at the beginning also kinda confused? He can’t really imagine Ed wants to go into plants and kinda thinks he’s kidding, but Jerbo does agree to give him lessons Ed is so so excited and Jerbo thinks it’s really cute. They also kinda help each other study that way which I think would be very cute.

Don’t know if this is unpopular, I’ve just never seen this covered, but Jerbo’s family absolutely adores Ed. His little siblings absolutely adore Edric, and Edric is just like… totally amazed about them liking him so much. I don’t know why, but I feel like Ed would be really good with kids.

Jerbo’s moms love him too. Donna is an absolute tease (she never lets the poem Ed accidentally sent her go), but she also teaches Ed to cook and they joke around a lot. Ilana is a bit more strict but still very nice to him, sometimes they watch sports together and she lets him help around the farm and Edric really enjoys that.

Speaking of clothes, Edric keeps borrowing random clothing items from Jerbo and forgetting to return them, and Jerbo is too flustered to ask for them back because Edric looks so cute in them. (Edric just wants to wear oversized hoodies, really, so he’s very delighted that he finally gets to)

I also do like the concept of Jerbo eventually getting a bit more flirty? I don’t think he’d ever be like, Edric-levels, but in a long term relationship I can definitely see him getting better at that. Edric thinks it’s very cute.

Also they so have nicknames for each other. Edric calls Jerbo Jerbs one time and it unfortunately sticks 😂

And related to the plants track thing and also as a pun with his hair, Jerbo calls Edric sprout.

Can you tell I’m like totally obsessed with them at this point XD

I love them so much they make me so soft…

#the owl house #toh #Jerbric #owl house #edric x jerbo #Jerbo x edric #Jerbo toh #Jerbo the owl house #edric blight #toh edric #asks #anon #ship ask game #Jerbic #edric the owl house #toh Jerbo #mlm #toh fanart

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stealingpotatoes · 4 years ago

Text

Trying to Explain the Desmond (sorta) Lives AU: Part 2

(part one)

(hi I’m back and I was bothered to write more explanation. bla bla sorry for the mess also this bit was acccidentally lengthy and 2.5k words, whoops)

> > > >

Shaun and Rebecca more-or-less knew they were going to find Desmond. They more-or-less knew they were going to see him. They more-or-less knew that he was going to be all glowing like he was in the footage. This being said, they weren’t really prepared for um… any of that to actually happen.

Desmond is standing here, he is talking. He is moving. Alive. Shaun and Becs are across from him, silent and dumbfounded at the sight of their long-dead friend.

(I need you, my darling reader, to think of the most confused and shocked you’ve ever been in your life, and then bap, you’ve more or less got what’s going on in this room tbh.)

“Desmond?” Shaun finally asks in shock.

“...yeah?” Desmond answers, obviously very confused at Shaun’s tone.

“Holy shit,” whispers Rebecca.

“What happened? We were in the Temple and- and then suddenly I’m here and I’ve got… these?” He gestures vaguely to himself-- the Isu markings.

What he said is enough to sort-of snap the duo out of their shock enough. “What?”

“Yeah, what?” Des agrees.

“No, no. The temple-- 2012… that was six years ago. And you...” Rebecca says (still looking at Des with an expression that can only be described as ‘what in the genuine fuck’).

Shaun and Rebecca wouldn’t have even noticed Galina coming up behind them if it hadn’t been for Desmond’s slight shift into near ready-to-fight, tho he relaxes after a second (his eagle vision’s still there and says she’s an ally).

Shaun and Becs manage to take their eyes off Desmond for long enough to glance back at Galina, who’s come to find them.

“You were not replying on your comms--” Galina stops and takes a proper look at the man behind them. “Oh. He does not look dead.” Then back at Shaun & Becs; “We all need to go.”

Desmond is somehow even more confused than he was earlier. “Why would I look dead? And-- who are you?”

Shaun has manners, even in very confusing situations; “This is Galina. She’s an Assassin. And Galina, meet… Desmond Miles.” (audible question marks)

Shaun and Rebecca share an awkward glance. “We’ll explain everything when we get to safety?” Becs says, though she’s really not sure how they are going to explain, or what they’re even going to explain.

The two random assassins who don’t have names also came out of the fight fairly unhurt and meet up with the rest of them. They’re pretty weirded out to see a person with glowy lines on his face, and have heard of Desmond Miles’ death. However they’re obviously not as weirded out to see him alive because they just didn’t know him. They’re probably doing the best here lol.

Galina’s pretty confused but she’s become very good at compartmentalising over the years, so isn’t dwelling on things right now.

Shaun and Rebecca are-- okay, to say Shaun and Becs are “dealing” with this is definitely the wrong word. They’re moving forward like Assassins should, while trying to comprehend that Desmond is right there… and also trying not to look at him too wide-eyed and shocked. To them, everything feels like it’s going way too fast and way too slow all at once.

The trio and Galina all get into a van and head out of there, not planning on waiting for more Abstergos.

They reach an old Assassin safehouse outside of the city after a very Odd drive. The two unnamed Assassins stayed in the city to keep investigating and keep up their work before, so now it’s just Shaun, Becs & Desmond in the safehouse with Galina on watch outside.

They get in, make sure they’re safe -- protocol stuff. But Des really needs some answers. Like right now.

“What happened?” Desmond asks. This time it’s very serious, and you can almost feel the hundreds of years of killers’ lives he’s lived behind his voice.

Shaun and Becs share yet another look. The disbelief hasn’t worn off at all, but they’re, as I said, moving forward. “What’s the last thing you remember?” Shaun asks.

It quickly comes to light that Desmond has no memory of what happened after touching the Eye-orb-thing in the Temple. It’s just “a helluva lot of pain” in December 2012 and then boom, waking up in the middle of a city (shut, i know i still haven’t thought where), in October 2018. He also can’t recall bursting out of that Abstergo facility either -- his memory seems to start from where the weird glowing-eyes-and-apple-light thing he had going on stopped.

“But the Temple was six years ago?” Desmond quietly half-asks, half-states.

“Yeah...” says Rebecca.

“Then where have I been for that time.”

“You died.”

“What?!”

Shaun takes over; “Or at least, we thought you died. In 2012, we got clear from the Temple as you told us to. But then Abstergo, they--” (how on earth do you say this) “They got there before we could. They took your body and...”

“But obviously you didn’t die because you’re here.” Becs gestures at Des.

“Right,” Shaun agrees unsurely.

Des nods slowly, trying to take this all in. “But that doesn’t explain… all this.” he gestures to the Isu markings on his face. “Or what I can do.”

“Do you know what you can do?” Becs asks. She and Shaun don’t really know what was happening w Des’ whole abilities thing at ALL because they only saw a small bit recorded.

Des shrugs, but then unzips the definitely-stolen-hoodie a bit and pulls the opening to the side so his bare collarbone is on show. “I got shot when I… when I woke up.” Rebecca makes yet another confused expression. “There’s nothing there?” She’s right; there’s no wound, no blood there. Not even a scar.

“Exactly.”

“Oh.”

“I heal faster, I know that. And--”

“What’s that?” Shaun numbly gestures to his own chest where a scar starts on Desmond’s. It’s not like either of them have seen Des shirtless much at all before, but that wasn’t there in 2012, they’re pretty sure.

Des looks down then unzips the hoodie a bit more and oh.

Shaun and Becs didn’t notice that on the security footage. Tbh Desmond barely noticed it, too busy looking at the glowiness. But that’s an autopsy scar. Des has an autopsy scar. That’s...

Desmond zips his hoodie back up, but everyone in the room is Very Confused.

This is even more question-mark-inducing and raises about a billion questions; Did they do an autopsy on an alive person (for the sake of taunting the assassins)? Shaun and Becs wouldn’t put it past Abstergo; the Templars are messed up like that.

Or… did Desmond genuinely die? And did Abstergo… bring him back somehow?

Either way, Shaun’s mentally decided the “weird Isu clone of Desmond” idea is probably wrong because why would they autopsy a clone of a dead man?? makes no sense.

There’s more long pauses of bewilderment before Rebecca makes the very good suggestion that they all have something to eat. So yeah, they eat, they’re chatting. It’s mostly basic stuff. They should definitely have all had medical checkups first, but they’re all very much too confused and in shock to do like… anything.

It’s a bit awkward at one point (more awkward than the ENTIRE ordeal of seeing your dead friend again has been) because Shaun catches himself before telling Des a part of a story that involves secret Assassin crap and stops awkwardly.

Desmond seems to catch on, and he’s like “I get it. Abstergo might have done something to me.” Made him a mole or a sleeper agent like Daniel Cross.

Shaun and Becs feel really bad, but Desmond’s got this weird air of resignation about him. He understands. He knows he might be all messed up and controlled by Abstergo. That being said, the general resignation might just be pure shock at everything. A Lot Has Happened to him in a Very Short Span of Time (to him).

They continue on chatting, mostly inane shit. Desmond asks if his parents are… still around. Shaun and Becs assure them they’re fine, though still fighting. Say a little about how William took Des’ death really hard, (no duh), and dropped out of the fight for a year. Only came back after finding out what Abstergo did to Des’ corpse (or… alive body???) -- tho the duo try to avoid saying what Abstergo did for now.

However there’s another pause when Rebecca is, in very vague terms, explaining what happened in London in 2015. Rebecca starts telling Des what the Shroud is when she pauses and looks like she’s just solved some complicated code.

“I thought you were skipping the secret details?” Des asks.

“This isn’t that-- the Shroud heals people. Like, really fast,” Rebecca says.

Shaun gets where she’s going. “Ah... so say if someone got shot, it would heal almost immediately. And there would be no scar or visible wound afterwards.”

Desmond takes a moment, and then he’s like “...you think I have the Shroud’s powers?”

Now this doesn’t really solve any questions, and if anything creates more… but it adds something? Heck, this is all so confusing for everyone involved.

Anyways at some point they decide to actually all go to sleep. Galina’s still here btw, she also goes to sleep lol. Though before they do go to their own beds, Shaun and Becs have a quick chat about how weird this all is. Very Weird.

Uh yeah so shrugging noises, Galina at some point the next day is assured the trio will be fine on their own and heads back to the city to investigate with unnamed Assassins.

At some point they do actually do medical checkups lol, and comes up as, overall, Good. Desmond is pretty spritely for a dead guy.

However they run into an issue: the DNA thingie just Isn’t Cooperating. It won’t sequence it. Probably definitely because they don’t have any tech that can get his wacked-up now-a-lot-more-isu DNA. But it also means they can’t check to see if he’s got the same DNA as he did. So yeah.

For Rebecca and Shaun, it’s weird how quickly everything starts to feel like old times. As if they might be back in Monteriggioni, or the Temple, hiding out from the Abstergo and the Templars, as if the six year gap never happened. I mean- it’s not quite the same, obviously. Desmond glows now, and there’s always Something to remind them that they thought he was dead, that he was gone -- that something might be Wrong with him.

Desmond’s, on the other hand, in this very awkward place. Aside from the fact he now has superpowers (which he doesn’t yet know the extent of), he’s also dealing with the fact he was supposedly dead for 6 years. That the world moved on without him and his friends haven’t seen him for six years. 2012 feels like days ago to him, not years. Shaun and Becs are very happy to have him back -- but Desmond didn’t know he was ever gone . So where they’re nostalgic for old times, he can’t help but only notice the differences?

They need to find out what the heck happened in the 6 years they thought Des was dead. Seeing as the Abstergo facility that Desmond escaped from is -- funnily enough -- crawling with Abstergo agents that would very much like to get the three of them, (and that the trio has been told to lay low and try to go as dark as they can for now, while they all try to figure out what’s happening w Desmond) going back there to find crap out isn’t an option right now. So what Rebecca and Shaun are doing -- with a bit of help from Desmond, though he isn’t a tech guy or necessarily allowed to go into the Assassin database stuff yet -- is trying to scrounge up anything they can on Des and the missing six years.

They’re also slightly trying to work out some of Des’ powers, but they’re wary of him using them too much as Abstergo might pick up on whatever power traces he’s giving off. Shaun thinks Desmond definitely has a second PoE-based ability, and thinks it may be the Apple.

One of the first nights, Desmond asks Shaun and Rebecca what they are going to do if Des turns out to be a sleeper or something. They can’t actually come up with an answer.

Tbh, the search for info isn’t going brilliantly, even with two of the Assassin’s best searchers on the case. There are other assassins and PLENTY of Initiates looking for info across the world too -- Desmond just… coming back is a very big thing, and moreso is how he came back (ie all Isu-y). They haven’t heard any word from their mentor, Mr Miles senior, though.

But then Rebecca has an idea! If Desmond’s conscious memory doesn’t know what happened, maybe his genetic memory does? Small issue: they don’t have an animus with them. So they ask for one ig lol.

Anyways, they’re all chilling, researching, and trying to get to grips with the INSANE idea of EVERYTHING, ya know? Friendship hours. Catching up -- tho Des doesn’t have much to tell. There’s also emotional times!!! Shaun and Becs getting to say what they never had the chance to say while Des was alive, hugs, talking a little bit about the fact that his death (or “death”, perhaps) hit them Hard (though it’s difficult to talk about for all three).

The first piece of the puzzle that they get isn’t from somewhere they expect.

About a week after Desmond showed up (so after about 4-5 days of them being at the safehouse), Layla Hassan gets out of Atlantis. She’s just done the Trials via Kassandra and got the staff of Hermes Trismegistus (...in doing so, losing one teammate and gaining some anger issues. oops). Layla’s not that important yet. What is important right now is when she opened Atlantis.

Layla doesn’t have an exact time as to her opening the gates, but guess what happened very soon after the rough time she opened it? One Desmond Miles burst out of an Abstergo facility, glowing like your overly-dramatic neighbour’s Christmas lights display.

So then this all just adds more mystery to the uh... Mystery™. Did opening Atlantis resurrect him? Did it give him these powers for some reason? If so, why?? The gang also find out/ the Assassins overall realise that opening Atlantis caused some weird powersurge in every PoE -- but if that caused some kind of surge in Desmond too, does that mean he’s a Piece of Eden now? He has the powers of at least one, PoE now, they know, so…? There are too many questions and nowhere near enough answers.

The trio is itching to get out there and start investigating themselves -- but they’re told that there’s another assassin coming to join the three of them soon (it’s protocol to not say Who), before they start doing anything, and that they should wait for them. Also said Assassin is bringing one of them mini-animuses (animi? whatever; the one Layla has in ACOd) so they can do the genetic memory thing like Becs suggested.

So I guess it’s time for more waiting, for whomever the assassin may be...

#desmond (sorta) lives au #desmond miles #shaun hastings #rebecca crane #galina voronina #idk what im doing words are just coming out #ONCE AGAIN AM JUST EXPLAINING NOT FICWRITING #THIS IS A MESS #asscreed #assassin’s creed #potes wrotes #at this rate we’re gonna get to like part 4 or 5 before I explain how he actually got rezzed #the night that the sun came up

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professorspork · 4 years ago

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ANOTHER BUSY DAY IN THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY

I started the day running errands on Havarl, culminating with finishing off Jaal’s loyalty mission! I took Vetra with us thinking ‘hey, if anyone knows sibling dynamics...’ but then she factored into all of that absolutely 0%, lol @ me. but no matter! Jaal was super flirty as we made our way to the Forge, and it was adorable when he was like “HERE MEET MY FRIEND SO YOU CAN SEE AKKSUL IS WRONG” and bodily dragged me toward his siblings. their fight was absorbing and intense; I LEGIT GASPED WHEN HIS SISTER SHOT HIS BROTHER. LIKE!! the whole confrontation with Akksul felt super weighty and I really enjoyed it-- keeping my trigger discipline to not shoot that dude was really hard! there was a split second there where his bolt was headed toward Jaal’s face and I was like “if I kill off Jaal in his loyalty mission I’ll be so upset” but nope it all worked out, he has a bitchin cheek scar now, and the respect of his people, and I got a forehead touch so y’know. i melted. GOSH. then I died laughing at Akksul’s not-apology email.

now Jaal wants me to meet his mom(s) but Helen said that’ll lock in the romance, so I’ll probably wait just a little longer so I can uh keep having FWB sex with Peebee and ?maybe??? flirt with Vetra at some point? altho I teasingly called her MOM last time we were in Kadara Port so maybe not. (Jaal still hates it there, he’s so grumpy and it’s cute, but I digress)

this one got even longer than usual so doing a cut

one thing that I really like, that the game navigates in interesting ways, is that to the angara, we’re all just “Milky Way people.” like. so much of the original trilogy is about navigating the differences between all these aliens, and like, some of that is here too, esp with the krogan, but it’s actually really neat the way we’ve flattened out. and even with the krogan it’s still night and day-- like. comparing what Tuchanka is like in ME2 when Wrex is still solidifying his status as warlord is miles away from what it’s like for me to wander around New Tuchanka or, especially, just run into random krogan out and about (like the nice water scouts. WHY COULDN’T I JUST GIVE THEM THE WATER? but I’m getting ahead of myself). I know some of it has the Watsonian explanation of, like, only forward-thinking, open-minded krogan would be interested in the Initiative in the first place, and some of it is the Doylist explanation of ‘well people really liked that Charr/Ereba romance so let’s have more sweetie pie krogan’ but like. overall. it’s interesting, and I’m sure there’s more angles I haven’t considered.

I traced more of those comm buoys for Addison and learned that the doctor she’s obsessed with ran away to get pregnant! I definitely read that whole situation as Addison being in love with this lady and tbh it still doesn’t refute it? but I won’t get any more progress until I make a new outpost. the whole idea of ‘the first human baby born in Heleus’ thing is really cool, though, and I’m invested.

then I went to Elaaden! I feel some kind of way about Lexi diagnosing all of these scavengers with Brain Disease, but I can’t put my finger on it exactly-- other than, I guess, my general discomfort with pathologizing criminality. I was glad she said we couldn’t vaccinate people without their consent, but the whole thing smacks as very... self-conscious on the part of the game creators? like they thought people would say “hey it’s a huge plot hole that the Initiative screened every person before putting them on the arks and yet so many of them do crimes, explain that to me” and they were like “oh yeah shit that makes no sense, it’s not like people faced with the existential crisis of being in a brand new place 600 years away from everything they’ve ever known with no way back and not enough resources and multiple things wanting to kill them might just make desperate, risky choices, that’s not good enough, obviously we need to explain it with BRAIN DISEASE.” come on.

I made it to New Tuchanka, where the postings on the terminals are literally my favorite part of this whole game. THE ONE KROGAN WHO WANTS GINGERBREAD. THE ONE WHO DOESN’T WANT TO FOCUS ON CONS AND SUGGESTS A “PRO-VERSATION.” THE ONE ABOUT THE “PROBLETUNITY” OF MATING SUGGESTING WATCHING KRANTT HARDLY WAIT. THE ONE WHO INVENTED BLOOD RAGE FOR GUN TURRETS. but also, the best one, my favorite one of all: KRANTT THE RAGENING LARP. there is nothing I would not give to play Krantt: The Ragening.

I sort of tripped and fell and decided to finish Drack’s loyalty mission even though I intended to do more Elaaden things first, and that was a blast. Vorn is so presh! and also Drack is my dad so there’s that. I loved that Vorn helped save the day with a poison vegetable, and I love that Kesh pretended not to like the flower he got her. it was like-- okay. real talk, I just spent like 20 minutes trying to find proof that there is, in fact, a scene in parks and rec where someone gives April a friendship bracelet and she pretended to hate it until they threatened to take it back and could not find it ANYWHERE and felt so gaslit until I realized that that scene was not about April at all but Louise Belcher so. GOOD JOB ME. anyway. it was like that. kesh pretending her comm was broken when Tann tried to talk to her is the oldest joke in the book but I laughed anyway.

and then I TOOK SPENDER DOWN FOR GOOD. I’m a little miffed that neither Kesh nor Tann got to be in on that discussion; like, I recognize he was Addison’s underling but given all the bullshit he pulled with the krogan I especially felt Kesh deserved to be there? at one point there was a dialogue tree where I could either say it was Addison’s fault or Spender’s fault, and I picked the latter because I think they both such but Spender sucks worse, but in hindsight I wish I’d stuck it to Addison more because my dialogue was way too nice. when faced with the choice of jailing or exiling Spender, I picked jail despite my desire to defund Nexus Militia because I was scared if I exiled him he’d just come back as a worse enemy because of all his off-station contacts. when reviewing the choice in the codex, though, it narrativized my choice by saying I imprisoned him knowing he “would never survive life on the run from his former associates.” that wasn’t my assumption at all! quite the opposite! I jailed him thinking he’d start a coup from without if I didn’t, and it’s really interesting to me that the game isn’t framing that as a concern Ryder would have reasonably had. anyway, now Brecka has his job, which is good because Brecka is the best.

before leaving I unlocked my last memory, and SURPRISE MY MOM IS ALIVE. WELL. FOR A GIVEN DEFINITION OF ALIVE. i don’t know why I’m surprised; of course my dad sucked that much. but also, the fact that all of that got nestled in with the reaper ‘reveal’ (if you can call it that) felt... very strange? like. this is such a personal, emotional thing for Ryder. obviously for the player harkening back to the trilogy is supposed to be a gut wrench, and objectively, yes, I can see how the knowledge that they might have narrowly escaped certain death is a big deal, but like. the reapers aren’t HERE. they aren’t relevant. my MOM, on the other hand, is and is, apparently! it’s occurring to me I didn’t even try to find her mis-labeled pod, I was so turned around by all the benefactor stuff after the fact. anyway.

swung by Kadara to get drinks with Drack and had an epic bar fight, and then Lexi p much lectured us both abt it because Drack is like 90% spit and duct tape at this point. him talking about raising Kesh giving him a new lease on life was VERY sweet, tho, and his line about how parents aren’t the finish line, they’re the starting line was very good.

went back to Elaaden, which Jaal called “a big planet” while discussing hunting someone down and AU CONTRAIRE, JAAL, IT IS A MOON. wish I’d had Drack with me when I found Annea’s water because I bet he would have had better dialogue than Cora, but alas. felt very weird giving control of the reservoir to the Nexus, but like. Annea being like “you can’t, this is my emotional support monopoly on a vital natural resource” just wasn’t gonna fly with how I’m playing Ryder. I was gratified to hear the Nexus guy at Paradise say we were giving the water to everyone, including krogan and scavengers, because I 100% did not trust Tann not to overrule him with some shitty call.

then I went to the Remnant ship to stop Morda from making a bomb out of the drive core, and it was all going swimmingly until I traced the signal to that cave inside the flophouse and suddenly my triangle button stopped working, making me unable to activate the console. YIKES. a quick google of the issue tells me that this mission is buggy for a lot of people and reloading from an earlier save tends to help, but I tried that and the issue persisted so I gave up for the evening. hopefully a fresh start tomorrow and time for the ps4 to cool off is all that is required.

#leah plays mass effect andromeda

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rynhaswritersblock · 4 years ago

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how about a kiss, saumensch? - part one | p.p.

a/n: every time that there's a + + + means another scenario. it's all in chronological order, it's just kinda mini imagines all in one giant imagine, i guess lol

summary: when peter sees you reading The Book Thief and talking about it afterwards, your love for it makes him want to read it. so, he does, and he decides to follow in the steps of Rudy Steiner, asking for a kiss at every chance he gets

warnings: lots of german cussing lmaoooo, The Book Thief spoilers, probably won't mean as much to you if you haven't read the book :/ and if you haven't read it YOU SHOULD!

+ + +

"How about a kiss, Saumensch?"

You gasp, whipping your head around to see Peter standing behind you with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"You read The Book Thief?!" you ask, eyes shining brightly.

Peter awkwardly shrugs. "Well, yeah, I- uh, you kept talking about how much you loved it, so I thought I might as well read it."

"Wasn't it so good?" you ask, closing your book and standing from the couch in the Avengers common room, walking over to your best friend.

You were the daughter of Tony Stark. You had known the Avengers for several years, and even were one yourself. When your dad recruited Peter, the two of you quickly became best friends, easily understanding each other due to your similar age. The two of you were quick to fall into the best-friends-to-crushes cliche, finding each other more and more magnetic every time you saw each other.

"It was really good." the boy nods.

You smile, overcome by emotions through Peter's actions and pull him into a hug, softly wrapping your arms around the boy.

You had always had a love for books, even when you were really young. You taught yourself how to read and kept with it, always searching for more books to read. So, knowing that, Peter reading a book just because you loved it made your heart warm, and your crush for him grow only stronger.

You deeply inhale, taking in the scent of the boy's cologne. The thought of Peter's actions, and the meaning behind those five words he spoke to you truly made you melt, a small tear running down your cheek at the overflowing emotions you felt.

"'The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy who loves you.'" you mutter, words muffled by the soft fabric of Peter's blue sweater. That was one of your favorite quotes from the book.

"What?" Peter asks.

He wasn't entirely sure why he asked. He had heard what you said. The words flew straight from your mouth and into his chest, entering his heart and pulling at the strings. The words conflicted Peter. He knew he loved you, he had known ever since you ranted to him about how beautifully crafted a sentence was from one of your favorite books. The boy was purely infatuated with you. He related to Rudy Steiner from The Book Thief and felt almost hopeless about his feelings, but something about the way Liesel had always felt for Rudy gave him a twinge of hope.

And so he decided that he would follow in the steps of Rudy Steiner and pray that he wouldn't have to face the same fate as the boy with hair the color of lemons.

+ + +

You whip around the wall, panting as you look over at Peter.

"If I go and combat fight a few of them while you web the rest of them up, I think we'll be able to get through." you whisper, carefully peeking around the wall to look at the HYDRA agents.

"Okay, got it." Peter nods. You give him a look of agreement before turning and beginning to take a step. "Wait!"

You jump back, putting a hand to your chest. "Peter! We're on a mission, you can't scare me like that."

"Sorry." Peter whispers, pursing his lips.

"What is it?" you ask, looking at the boy expectantly.

"How about a kiss, Saumensch?"

Your cheeks heat up and eyes widen for a moment before you relax, pushing away your flusteredness and groaning quietly.

"Shut up, Saukerl."

+ + +

You bit the inside of your cheek as Peter wades out of the pool, clothes soaked and sticking to him, showing off his muscles underneath. Not that you noticed.

The boy gives a light smile as he hands your necklace back to you.

"Thanks, Pete." you say, returning the grin before beginning to put your necklace back on, not caring that it was still wet from you accidentally dropping it into your pool.

Peter quickly springs behind you, taking the ends of the jewelry from your hands and clipping it for you, delicately laying it on your neck and sweeping your hair back from your shoulder. A shiver runs through you at the boy's fingertips, the whisper of their touch on your scalp. You watch, heart racing as Peter steps back in front of you, the same crooked smile tugging at his lips.

"How about a kiss, Saumensch?"

+ + +

"Nice moves, Parker." you comment, circling around the pen.

While Peter was definitely a good asset to the team, he was lacking in advanced combat skills and normally relied on his powers. You, on the other hand, didn't have powers, so it was vital that you knew advanced combat.

"Thanks," Peter pants, hands up and prepped.

You wait a second before he springs forward. You grab his arm, twisting it and flipping him over with a grunt, quickly sitting on his stomach as he thuds on the ground to hold him in place. The boy lets out a small groan underneath you, breathing heavily. You purse your lips for a second.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," the boy mutters, "I'm fine."

At that, Peter grabs you by the waist, flipping the two of you over and pinning your arms above your head. Your breath catches in your throat as Peter hovers over you.

You clear your throat. "You're... really close to me right now."

"Is that bad?" Peter asks. The both of you clearly lost the training tension, becoming flustered.

"No." You gulp. "You're really red right now."

"I know."

The two of you are quiet, both panting and both flustered at your position. You become especially flustered when you notice Peter staring at your lips. You clear your throat.

"How about a kiss, Saumensch?" the boy whispers.

In a spur of the moment, you decide to catch him off guard, flipping the two of you back over and pinning him to the ground once again.

"Nice try, Saukerl."

+ + +

You sat on your bed, scrolling through your assignments on your laptop; you did homeschool since your father, Tony, didn't want you going to public or even private school.

A groan fell from your lips as you began to write your notes, the ink catching in your pen and refusing to fall onto the paper. You pull your hand back, beginning to shake the utensil before there's a loud knock at your window, causing you to jump and drop the pen. The pen then works, leaving a large scribble on your blank paper.

"Of course," you mutter before swinging your legs your bed, looking up to see Spider-Man hanging upside down from a web, reading a book. You pull up the large window. "Hey, Peter...?"

The boy pulls the book towards his chest.

"What are you doing? It's almost midnight."

"Reading." he replies bluntly. You could hear his cheeky smile through the mask.

You refused to acknowledge the sparky feeling that went through you when you saw Peter with a book, this time another one of your favorites- Beneath a Scarlet Sky.

"Then why did you knock?" you ask, tilting your head.

"Cause I'm right here."

A sigh falls from your lips.

"I hope you know how weird this whole situation is, Pete." you say.

Peter pulls a bookmark from the pocket of his suit (another thing for you to appreciate: the fact that he didn't dog-ear his pages) and stuffs it into the book, setting it down on your windowsill, still hanging upside-down.

"I just came to ask a question," he shrugs, pulling his mask off to reveal his face, only slightly red.

At this point, you knew what he was going to ask, and it sent butterflies through your stomach.

"And what is that?"

"How about a kiss, Saumensch?"

You looked at him for a moment, his eyes bright as he looked at you with a goofy grin. Swiftly, you leaned forward, pecking him on the lips. A spark of electricity went through you, but you pulled away after only a second, dizzy.

Peter hung there, bewildered by the ghost of your lips as you stood there. He did not expect you to actually kiss him.

Finally, he caught his words. "You just kissed m-"

"Goodnight, Peter." you blurted, stepping back and sliding the window shut.

"Y/N!" the boy yells/whines, hopping off his web and standing in front of your window, barely visible through the darkness of the night.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., activate Window Blinds."

+ + +

"Peter?" you ask through the comms, looking around for the boy.

The Avengers were currently on a mission and you and Peter had been paired to go together, and the mission was successful, but you couldn't find Peter.

"Has anyone seen Peter?"

"I think his earpiece is dead." Clint says.

"What?" you ask, your eyes wide.

You begin racing around the building, jumping over unconscious bodies in a hurried search for the boy. You turned the corner, eyes immediately coming in contact with Peter, mask pulled up halfway and leaning against the wall, groaning.

"Pete!" you yell, running towards him and sliding onto the floor in front of him. "Guys, I found him. F.R.I.D.A.Y., share my location."

You reach out, pulling the mask off of Peter's head. He looked rough. Although, with a cut on his lip, a black eye, and cut on his cheekbone, he still looked godly, as always.

"Peter, what happened?" you whisper, running a finger over his the cut on his cheekbone.

"There were too many." he winces. "They knocked me out, and when I woke up, they were gone."

"I'm so sorry," you mutter, eyebrows furrowed.

You let your eyes scan the rest of his body. Except for a small hole in his suit near his stomach, the boy looked fine, although you knew he would probably be fairly bruised up for the next few days. You relaxed slightly, regaining eye contact with him.

Though you did tense when his signature crooked smile began tugging at his lips.

He opened his mouth to speak. "How about a kiss, Saume-"

You placed your lips on his, making sure to be delicate because of his cut. Peter was quick to reciprocate, and didn't care about the cut. He put his hands on your waist, pulling you closer to him, moving his lips against yours. The kiss was euphoric, something the boy had craved for so long. Little did he know you had craved it for just as long, too.

"Found them." Rhodey says from behind you, making you jump away with a yelp.

You turn around to see everyone standing there, shit-eating grins planted on their faces as they stared at the two of you. Peter anxiously cleared his throat and sat up straighter, still slightly dizzy from the kiss.

"Steve, I believe you owe me twenty bucks," Tony says.

You gape. "Dad!"

+ + +

the book thief is so amazing i HAD to write a peter fic about it lol

#peter parker #tom holland #peter parker imagines #marvel #mcu #spiderman #peter parker x reader #spiderman x reader #fanfic #fluff #writing #peter #parker #thomas holland

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captaincoffeegirl515 · 5 years ago

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6 Underground Thoughts!

I'm literally gonna talk about pretty much the entire movie so lots and lots of spoilers under the read more.

If you've already seen the movie, I would love to talk and debate and scream excitedly about the movie with you!

P.S. This got way longer than I expected.

I gotta say I really enjoyed the movie. Of course, there's some problems and continuity errors, etc. but I'll get to them after.

First of all, I love all the interactions between them. Found-family trope is my jam.

One and Four

Four looks up to One and seems like he tries to impress him.

He also calls One a likeable asshole.

"See that? That's called skill." Show off.

One was the one Four called to for help even though they all knew his way of leaving you behind if you can't keep up. And he stepped up and saved Four! That whole scene was so good!

I will admit though that how they first met is messed up. One basically kidnapped him, tied him down, and made Four think he was gonna shoot and kill him. Seven got it down when he called them a "family more screwed up than mine"

Two and Three

Badass lady and himbo (does Three count as a himbo?). Enough said.

I love every interaction they had together. I enjoyed their bickering and how they showed how they cared in their own way.

Tiny touches! The part near the end when Three lightly touches Two’s arm and she takes her hand out of her pocket so they could hold hands?! Nice.

When Two said "I would love to meet your mother." awwww! The way Three just brightens up!

Four and Seven

OTP! I never expected to come out with one, but here we are.

Look, I just love the concept of the free-spirited parkour expert being with the disciplined military operator.

Seven just immediately seemed to take Four under his wing and genuinely care about his well-being.

The others also expressed how they didn't want to leave Four behind but only Seven fought for them to stop.

Saved Four's life not once, but twice! It was almost instinctual and he didn't hesitate to do it.

"You're calling me Mister Seven from now on" Seven's inner dom coming out lol.

The names scene! "I'm Blaine. I just saved your life. What's your name?" and instead of listening to One’s order, he answers.

"Yeah, you look like a Billy."

Seven and One

One always kept his distance from everyone, used numbers instead of names so he wouldn't get attached, and had that horrid "can't keep up, get left behind" rule. So glad that Seven pushed back, from making the shot to save Four from both drowning and from falling to his death, questioning his rules about leaving people behind, and getting them all (except One, sadly) to say their real names.

Seven brought out One's heart and finally made him start to actually care for his team aka family. Like I'm certain that if it wasn't for him, One would have definitely left Four to die in Hong Kong and on the boat during the coup.

"You've got a soul, man. You should let it out."

Movie highlights and thoughts:

I called it! Like based on the screen time and focus on them from the trailers, I already knew Six was the most likely one to die and Four would probably be injured at worst.

The fucking dialogue in the opening! I can't even. Like “I’m gonna put this inside you, really deep.” and "ahhh! She's squirting!"

"So many fucking Vias in Italy." I love how it's canon that Four isn't that good with maps and would definitely get lost in Italy. Actually he's bad with directions period. "Where are you?" "Here." "Specifics!" "Right here." Four pls

Three trying to learn the language of each new place they go to. The best!

Did I already say Two is badass? Because she is. She really is. And they're all right when they said she'd be the most likely to survive.

Four and Six worked so well together in the car chase scenes and Four looked so sad when he saw Six's body in that car. Honestly if Six hadn't died so early in the movie and they got more interactions together, him and Four probably would've been my OTP.

I did enjoy how One had like momentary vulnerability like when Six died or when Four told them to leave him followed by the gunshots, etc. Those little moments where you can see that he did have feelings before he shoves them deep down and focuses back on the mission.

Best outfit is Four in that big white sweater with the red stripes. He looked so good.

I found the scene where Four asks One if he was a pig then spits at him weirdly hilarious. The spitting just felt so random and came out of nowhere.

Four sleeping is! So! Cute! And when Three starts loudly complaining, he just slowly opens one eye like he's going "are you fucking kidding me right now?!"

Another funny scene was when Four easy runs across the top of the crane and then it pans to the guards chasing him and they have both arms and legs on the crane and just slowly inching their way across.

Guy jokes about Noor. "Noor is dead. Say he's dead." "No, he's dead. He died." "Wait no. Wrong guy. He's alive!" jfc that was funny!

The coup song is so fire! I love it! Nice choice, Four.

Four's scream when that guy broke his arm just kills me. I kinda wish One made that guy's death a bit more painful and drawn out but I get that they were under some serious time constraints.

Actually any part where Four gets hurt... noooo bb

Now that I think about it, the fact that they have comms throughout the mission, like they can hear everything the others say, they can hear each other when they're fighting, when they get hit, everything. They heard when Three got shot in the face and Seven panicked, thinking that he just killed him. They heard Four screaming in pain when his arm broke and they couldn't do anything since they weren't there.

Seriously though, Ben's acting is so good! He's easily the best part of the movie. And his eyes! So green and so expressive!

“Fuck you!” “Fuck you!” “No you, fuck you!” jfc One and Three are hilarious together.

It was such a great scene when One told them he wouldn't go after Rovach bc he's going to save Four. Just. My heart. And "You’re breaking your own rules. I thought you didn't have a family". And Five's soft smile.

Four and Five are rock climbing buddies! Both their smiles can outshine the sun. They're so cute! (even though in the close-ups you can tell the rock is very obviously fake)

Ben and Adria are both so hot my little bi heart is ready to burst!

Also, how is Micheal Bay saying this movie isn't political? They had the US gov’t staging coups in third world countries and putting dictators into power, Russia arming Rovach and his military, chemical warfare, Rovach's whole speech to his generals about hitting where he is weakest like hospitals and schools, the "our president doesn't know how to spell Turgistan" line, revolution, overthrowing dictators, throwing Rovach down to the people for them to deal their own brand of justice, etc. There were so many things that just screamed politics!

Issues:

Holy hell the kill count of this movie is just insane. It becomes over the top so fast. Same with all the gratuitous gore.

Shaky af camera work.

Literally every explosion looked like those sparky fireworks. What.

Lots of continuity errors. Six having a disappearing and reappearing hat throughout the chase scene. Basically any scene involving water. Like Four and Two get completely soaked at one point, but in the next scene, they're completely dry. Or the part where Four is hanging upside down on the net and big dude is trying to untangle him so he’d fall but when it cuts back to them when Seven makes the shot, it's back to the part where the guy was choking Four.

Did anyone else notice all the skid marks on the roads even though they haven't officially driven on it yet? Didn't have enough budget left to remove or edit out the marks from all the rehearsals they did?

And why is One hanging the eyeball right over the phone screen? That's not where the camera is dude!

Did Two and Three seriously have sex with all those dead people around?! Shouldn't they be running since they killed the 4 generals and guards would likely be on their way??

Also, Ben's stunt double was obvious in almost every parkour stunt. Wow.

Why no Five backstory! I wanna know how she ended up joining the team!

They did Five dirty! She barely has lines or scenes, they took out her backstory, and gave her little to no character growth.

I know they're hinting at Four and Five getting together, but I just don't see it. They have barely any romantic chemistry together. Eye contact and smiling is not chemistry. It just isn’t.

#6 underground #6 underground spoilers #ryan reynolds #melanie laurent #manuel garcia rulfo #ben hardy #adria arjona #dave franco #corey hawkins

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thefinalexperiment · 5 years ago

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The Final Experiment Chapter 26: The Winter Soldier’s Child

Peter Parker x OC

A/N: Hello! It's me! After almost a year, here's a new bit to this series lol. Enjoy! (Also if you are fluent in Russian, I apologize for anything incorrect, Google Translate is my only resource)

I will no longer be linking things on new part posts due to dumblr and the link censoring, and just to be safe from any potential image post censoring, I will also not be including covers on my stories. All previous parts can be found in my masterlist, in my bio!

---

On the jet, I sat as far away from Bucky as possible. I was still mad at him, even though the logical side of me knew I just needed time. He kept looking at me, and it was starting to get irritating, but I tried not to lash out. I couldn't wait for the jet to land. We hadn't yet been debriefed so I'd have to wait for that too, but I was itching to get out into the field. Peter gave me an adorable grin and I smiled back, trying to shake the impending sense of doom. It’s not like I had a sixth sense or anything, but sometimes, I would figure things out subconsciously, and it would take my brain a while to catch up with a realization or to put it into words. Other times it was just a normal dose of anxiety, like any other agent might get when going on a mission so soon in a distracted mindset like this. I probably shouldn’t be going for that matter, but oh well.

Peter caught my eye again, and smiled encouragingly. I nodded in return. He was easy to read right now. His body language was clear: slightly nervous, wanting to impress me, wanting to impress Nat and Bucky, and wanting to impress Tony. He obviously hadn’t done many missions with the team yet, and he wanted to make sure he did well in their eyes. With me, I could sense that it was less about showing off, and more about him making sure I understood what he was capable of. After all, I had never seen the full extent of his powers.

The jet shakily began to lower. It must have been an issue with the cold, Northern Russian wind. From what I could see out the window, the sky was dark with large clouds. It seemed we might have an issue with weather… The jet touched down, and everyone gathered close for the debrief. There hadn’t been time for one before we left, so Steve and Tony were going to quickly give us the rundown before we went to investigate.

“So what is the deal with this place?” I finally asked, breaking the odd, silent tension that had lingered since we left. It was like everyone was worried about Bucky and I being in the same, small space for so long.

Nat reached over and pulled up the files on the holo-table for everyone to see.

“This was a base for a Russian chapter of HYDRA,” Steve explained. “We aren’t sure if it’s still active, or when it was abandoned if not, but Tony’s sensors picked up some concerning data.”

He nodded to Tony, who pulled up more data and some schematics and took over in explaining.

“These guys have got some naughty stuff in the basement. Whether they wanted it to or not, something they’ve got going on down there is waking up. We’re here to find out what it is.”

“Okay,” I said, mulling it over, “But why send us? SHIELD’s teams could’ve done a simple sweep. What’s different here?”

“Slow down, smarty pants,” Tony chided good naturedly. “I’m getting to that… The sensors indicate the potential for an Avengers-level threat. These anomalies appear to be experiments of some kind, could be people, other life forms… or just some reawakening science projects. Whatever it is, it’s awake, alive, and raring to go.”

“Has everybody without screen access gotten a good look at the schematics?” Steve asked.

Those of us nodded.

“Alright then. Nat, you and Kaitlynn head for the security headquarters, try to hack their system and give us eyes on their compound surveillance. Wanda, I want you, Pietro, and Peter with Tony, Thor, and I down on the detention level. If any of these experiments happen to get out of control, we’ll need your abilities to keep them in check. Bruce, hang back with Clint, Sam, and Bucky while they sweep for strays. Once the anomalies are under control, I want Tony and you for scientific assessment. If worst comes to worst, keep the Hulk on standby. Everybody clear?”

At our affirmations, Steve nodded, then he and Tony led the way out.

The base looked pretty typical, from my experience with HYDRA facilities: a large, gray, metal-and-cement compound, built into the surrounding landscape to disguise it. The doors were mechanical slabs of stone. Some quick work from Tony set gears in motion, and the doors slowly ground open.

Natasha and I slipped inside, like a pair of shadows, splitting off from the main muscle group. In this moment, it was easy to see that we shared DNA. Some behaviors are learned, some are ingrained in your very nature. The way the both of us moved in our stealth modes was eerily similar.

I led the way to the surveillance room, Nat covering my six. We both were silent, like invisible spectres, but the rest of the compound remained noiseless too. It was almost unsettling. I got the feeling this place was abandoned, and had been for some time now. So what had triggered Tony’s sensors?

The door to the room was already open when we arrived, just a crack. With a small motion of my head, I pointed this out to Natasha. She nodded and took up a place on one side of the door. I took the other.

Silently, she counted off.

One… Two… Three.

I kicked the door open, keeping my pistol up. Natasha was close behind. The two of us swept the room, relaxing when nothing turned up. Nat closed the door, holstering her gun. I followed suit.

“We’re into the surveillance room,” she said. “Starting to scan for intel now.”

I booted up the computers. They were old, but that didn’t make them any easier to crack. Nat and I sat side by side on the old, creaky chairs, going through lines of code until the old, black-and-white camera footage appeared on the monitors. We now had eyes on the team. Natasha let them all know, and upon their confirmation, I began to dig through the encrypted files stored away in the computer’s archives. Nat tossed a flashdrive to me, which I plugged in and began to transfer the files onto.

“There’s a lot of video archives,” I muttered to her. “And more than a few of them are marked Zimniy Soldat i Rebenok.”

Winter Soldier… and child.

That bad feeling I’d had earlier was beginning to make sense now. I was dreading this mission because I’d been here before.

Natasha and I looked at each other for a moment, then she sighed.

“Well, I’ve never been here before… and Bucky didn’t mention it, so he must not remember.”

“Or he does and he’s just hiding it again,” I muttered.

Nat gave me a sharp, almost motherly look, and I relented.

“Okay, okay… comm him and let him know what we found.”

“Or you could,” she said.

I clenched my jaw, really not in the mood for this, but I turned my earpiece on. Instead of only addressing Bucky, however, I spoke to the whole team.

“Guys, we’ve got archive footage of the Winter Soldier…”

Natasha watched me with an expectant look, but I said nothing else, so she rolled her eyes and spoke, “Winter Soldier and child,” she clarified.

The others were silent for a moment, before Tony finally spoke up.

“Alright, download everything, and we’ll debrief it together back at the base. How’s the detention level looking from up there? We’re nearing the location.”

“We’ve got three cameras dark,” Nat said, typing commands into the computer.

“But,” I interjected, flowing right along with her train of thought, “The ones that are operative are showing a few science kit type looking things… I’m not seeing any signs of life. Tony, you might want to go first, let FRIDAY scan for signs of radiation and whatnot.”

“You got it, kid,” he said. “Steve, Thor, you hang back with the rest of the kiddos.”

The sound of silence settled over the comms, the whole team waiting.

At long last, Tony’s voice sounded out once more.

“We’re clean on harmful radiation. Negative on major life signs.”

“Does that mean minor life signs aren’t off the table?” I heard Pietro sass.

“Yes, Speedy, that’s what it means,” Tony replied, in that infuriating yet endearing sarcastic tone of his. “Sam, bring Banner down here. Clint, contact SHIELD to have a cleanup crew sent here.”

“Copy that,” Clint said.

I sighed and sat back in the chair, glancing at Nat.

“Well, so much for an Avengers-level threat,” I joked.

“But not for nothing,” she replied, motioning to the flash drive.

I looked down at the little stick, turning it over in my hands.

“There’s probably a good reason he doesn’t want you remembering this, you know,” she said softly. “You know I won’t try to stop you. I actually think you have a right to know what happened… But you need to be prepared for what you might see.”

Considering her words, I slowly nodded.

“Okay.”

I felt like I should say more, but for once, I had no words. Luckily, I didn’t need to fill the silence, because Natasha stood and powered down the computers, no doubt leaving them for the SHIELD team to comb through.

“Come on, kid,” she said. “Let’s meet up with the others.”

---

A/N: So... dun dun dun! What do you think is on the flashdrive? Be sure to let me know in the comments!

Series Tags: @shamvictoria11 @mla02 @fanficcrapforme @goodbyefornow123 @thebookisbtr @what-inspirational-name

Everything Tags: @coconutknees @hollymac79

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arthurs-wife · 6 years ago

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Cleopatra - 1/?

tigerlilywine said to arthurs-wife:Hey, been reading your drabbles. I think you capture Arthur real well. M!reader and all. You've ever thought of a... future au? They are still cowboys but they jump to worlds instead of areas. Bounty hunters in space. Reader is royalty of one alien species (close to humans) and gets kiddnapped. King hires the gang to save em? (Fluff is a must but smut is optional, though I'm sure you can work it!) It is an idea tho lol keep doing what you're doing!

A/N: because i’m extra as hell, i wrote a ton of lore for this and wanted to throw this up to see if theres interest because I can go on and on with this future shit.

Pairing: Arthur Morgan x M!Reader Words: 1.7k Summary: Working for the agency of Lemoyne Department of Defense Services in the year 2149, Arthur Morgan and his gang struggle to complete as many jobs as they can before the Terran Bureaucracy can dissolve it completely. With the promise of one final, multi-million dollar job, Arthur Morgan is sent on a mission to rescue the kidnapped hybrid child of Tavantis’ human King and angel Ruler, going head to head with the Bureaucracy itself.

If Arthur could change one thing about this bureaucratic hellscape it would be the Jump Queues.

Ten minutes to get to the damn thing, twenty minutes in the queue, another ten while the nice pre-Mars lady checked your license and asked about you and how’s that nice boy doing? What was his name?

“Lenny, ma’am,” Arthur said, hand over his eyes.

“When is he going to come back up here and visit me?” she tittered. The sounds of a mechanic keyboard could be heard in the background, painfully slow.

“Whenever I can rip him from his computer,” Arthur shrugged, staring blankly out of the cockpit’s windshield.

“And where are you heading today, Mister Morgan?” she asked.

“Chantakor,” he read from his console, “the Tavantis continent.”

Another five minutes to punch that unfortunate name in.

“Three jumps,” she declared, “the credits will be taken from your account.”

Arthur grumbled.

“You’re good to go Mister Morgan, jump safe!”

“I will, ma’am,” Arthur promised and sat up straighter as the portal ahead of him turned bright hot-purple and his engines were taken out of lock.

He cut the comms channel and another message came through immediately, buzzing in his ear like it couldn’t wait another five god damn minutes.

“Arthur?” Hosea blared through, “are you there yet?”

“Yep,” he said, pushing up on the throttle and sending his LASO into the portal. The comms cut out, but that was to be expected when you jumped through space beyond light speed.

First jump through and Hosea was back, Arthur turned his ship to face the next portal.

“You said you were there,” Hosea deadpanned.

“And I lied,” Arthur shrugged, speeding up, “you better get to your point before the next one.”

“I just wanted to s-”

Second jump and Arthur blasts through.

“You know Arthur, you’re a real piece of sh-”

Third jump and thank goodness, any more and Arthur’s head would be spinning.

“I’m at Chantakor now, Hosea,” Arthur said, powering down his drives and folding out the secondary wings.

He had never been to Chantakor before, partially due to its royal status in the Galactic System and damn was it a fine sight to behold.

Arthur leaned forward to peer out of his windshield at the whirlwind of activity near the main gate, thousands of LASOs, Chantakorian ships that dwarfed even the largest transport LASO. Humans were good at many things but apparently not at making decent ships. The Chantakorian transports gleamed in the light of the binary suns, making them shimmer like waves.

He almost missed his stop, the heavily guarded gate above the Tavantis continent that would lead him directly to the King’s quarters.

“Are you done being an asshole?” Hosea clips in. Arthur can just hear his arms crossing.

“Yes I’m done,” he said, fiddling with knobs and allowing the Chantakor fields to pull him in carefully.

“Alright listen,” Hosea started, “the King is expecting you any minute now. All you have to do is get in there, get his information on where his child is, and get the hell out of there.”

“His-” Arthur did a double take at nothing, his LASO stopping at the zero-G gate, “his what now?”

“I probably should have mentioned this is a kidnapping bounty,” Hosea said apologetically.

“Who’s the asshole now, Hosea?” Arthur blurted, tapping on his console. Apparently long queues were universal.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, son,” he said, “but it’s a lot of money and you’re our best.”

Arthur grumbled again.

“I will be getting the largest cut of this,” Arthur pointed threateningly at the comms, “and I will be taking the longest vacation afterwards.”

“Whatever you need to do, Arthur,” Hosea said, “but we need this. This job could get most of our systems back online.”

Yes, yes, the fabled systems Lenny and Karen had been working on since… forever it seemed. Arthur was ushered into the planet’s atmosphere and he banked down, heading to the private landing zone of the King himself. He couldn’t muster up any amazement.

He hit a button and the LASO unfolded its wheels as it touched the ground lightly and rolled along the tarmac towards the stupidly ornate building he assumed belonged to the King.

The angels were never a race that Arthur had been acquainted with either. The angels had a proper race name, but they had been dubbed so by the god-fearing human race due to their strikingly similar features to biblical angels. They were tall, gender neutral, majestic pillars that humanity had no business dealing with but dealt with anyway.

The LASO came to a stop in a hangar and Arthur powered it down, clambering out of the seat with some difficulty and opening the hatch. Chantakor was temperate and mild, almost a boring sort of weather if Arthur wasn’t used to the dramatic patterns of Earth.

He was met by two seven foot tall angels who ushered him to the main gate and the halls within the King’s palace. At this distance he could make out more features of the angels, they were all some variance of blue or green or grey, they had feathers all over them, and great big feathery wings that folded up neatly behind them. Their legs were like bird’s legs without all the scales and they were covered in feathers too.

They mumbled something in their native tongue, which sounded like trills and whistles, occasionally glancing back at Arthur. They reached a set of silver doors and turned to face him.

“You’ll see our Ruler now,” the taller one said, their great blackish-purple wings bustling behind them. Arthur held up a thumb to show he was ready to go, in true human fashion.

Also in true human fashion, the angel rolled their eyes and opened the set of doors, letting him in the room. All of the ceilings were cathedral style, towering up over them at almost 20 feet tall. It looked like the angels were just as fond of showmanship as humans were, as the entire room was festooned with colorful curtains and lights. In the far center was who Arthur assumed was the Ruler.

They stood a whopping eight feet tall, taller than any being had ever stood in front of Arthur, and they were bright. Their wings were massive and unfurled to their full extent, shining gold and green like old bronze in the sun. Eyes set wide in a dark face, they blinked several times and scrutinized the dirty man in their throne room.

“Howdy,” Arthur said unceremoniously.

“Are you Arthur Morgan?” they said in the same clipped accent, settling back in on their nest.

“Yes, uh, your Grace.”

“Thalia will do.”

“What’s this about a kidnapping I hear?” Arthur said, supremely indifferent to the angels and their customs.

“My kin has been taken,” Thalia mused with a face so indifferent that Arthur wondered if they actually cared or not, “and my world has shattered.” Of course they cared, Arthur, what’s wrong with you?

“When did this happen?”

“Twenty cycles ago,” they answered.

Arthur counted on his fingers for a moment to add it up.

“Alright so a couple nights ago,” he said, bringing out his comms pad and typing something in, “any ideas at all about who may have taken them?”

“I think my partner may have more information than I,” Thalia turned back and whistled something in their native tongue. The door behind them opened and a tired looking human man strode through and noticed Arthur. As he got closer he extended his hand and Arthur took it.

“I assume you’re the man here about my son?” he asked and Arthur nodded. It was the first time he had heard someone refer to an angel with a pronoun. Then a whole other set of questions popped up in his head. As if he read his mind, the King nodded and waved a hand, gesturing for Arthur to come sit with him.

“Are you familiar with the Llinovan?” he asked and Arthur sat down with him, thinking on it for a moment before realizing the Llinovan were the angels’ proper species name. He shook his head. “When humans first met the Llinovan many years ago there was an initial power struggle. Since then we have lived in harmony, myself and my wife included.”

“Does that mean…?”

“Yes,” the King nodded, “it means my son is part angel and part human.”

Arthur thought about the implications of this.

“You mean to tell me,” he started, “that humans and angels can have kids?”

“Yes,” the man replied, “and it’s not just us. There are thousands of hybrids now, all in hiding. Since they’ve grown in numbers, the human ambassadors on Chantakor have noticed, and they don’t approve.”

“I can imagine.”

“That’s who has taken my son,” the King sighed, looking straight at Arthur.

“I’m not,” Arthur stuttered, holding up a hand, “I can’t go toe to toe with the Terran Bureaucracy, that’s suicide.”

“Even with such a handsome reward?”

“Hosea never told me how much.”

“60 million credits.”

“God damn!” Arthur blurted out before hushing himself quickly. Several of the angels and the Ruler had turned to look at him. The King finally let out a little smile.

“It is my understanding that your community needs the credits,” he went on, “I intend on rewarding anyone who challenges the strong arm of the Terran Bureaucracy for what they’ve done to the human race.

Arthur thought a moment, mulling over the state of Earth, the constant rebuilding of the communities, the lush paradise of Amazonia that only the richest could afford to step foot onto.

“Alright,” Arthur nodded finally, “alright, where can I find these people?”

“The higher ups won’t have gotten their hands dirty with this,” the King said, standing up, “they’ll have sent their versions of bounty hunters to claim him and take him to another world. My guess is Niston, just a jump away.”

“I’ll get right to it then,” Arthur nodded and stood up with him, moving towards the door.

“And Mister Morgan,” the King called after him, “I’m very sorry to hear about LDDS, they have done very good work for us in the past and I’m angry to see them go.”

“Yeah, me too,” Arthur grumbled and tried not to think about it.

#arthur morgan #arthur morgan x reader #arthur morgan x male reader #my fics

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trade-baby-blues · 6 years ago

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Feint

Pairing: Bones x Reader

Word Count: 1934

Warnings: minor swearing

A/N: Based on a request by an anon! The title is a pun bc the reader faints but also because reader and Bones have kind of rude attitudes to each other so it’s a little like feinting (and also I’m super tired so maybe it’s only funny to me lol). Hope you enjoy!!

Nervous was the best way to describe how you felt around Leonard McCoy. The strong jaw, piercing gaze, terrifying medical equipment -it was a mental recipe for disaster, sending you into a panic every time you were near him. Unfortunately, your fight or flight response was biased to fighting (too many years with Jim, Bones always said) and you came off rude every time you spoke with him.

Bones, for the life of him, couldn’t figure out what he’d done wrong. He’d been smitten from the moment you first got wheeled into Medbay. You and Jim had gone on an away mission and decided to race to the bottom of a hill. In a spark of what you called genius, you grabbed an emergency inflatable raft from the transport ship. Needless to say, neither of you realized the hill ended abruptly in a shallow cliff, and you tumbled out of the raft onto the quarry floor below. Luckily for Jim, you broke his fall. The whole ordeal was so stupid it actually endeared you to Bones as you explained it.

The scoldings, on the other hand, were much less endearing. They became more frequent and more intense as Bones fell harder for you. While he was glad to see you so often, he hated seeing you injured in whatever idiotic shenanigan you and Jim had gotten yourselves into this time. It was a waste of his time and yours.

“Can you believe it,” you shouted to Jim, who was in the shower, while you hung upside down from the side of his bed. “He said I was ‘wasting his time.’”

The water shut off. “Yelling is just how Bones shows he cares,” Jim called from the bathroom.

You scoffed. “Then I’m surprised he hasn’t proposed by now. He yells at me for everything. God, did I tell you that he yelled at me for taking a nap in the conference room chair yesterday? Said it was ‘ruining my posture’ and he wouldn’t help me when I started having back problems.”

Jim poked his head out from the bathroom, wet hair sticking up at odd angles. “You took a nap in the conference room yesterday? Weren’t you on shift?”

“Yes, but that’s not the point Jim. The point is Bones has a stick up his ass the size of Georgia and -.”

“And I think that’s enough,” Jim said ducking back into the bathroom before emerging with a towel draped around his waist. “I love a good shit-talk, but Bones is my friend, too. I don’t wanna get in the middle of whatever this is. It’s weird.”

“So is seeing you walking around in a towel, but that hasn’t stopped you.”

Jim turned around on his way to his closet. “Because it’s my room. Trust me, I would prefer to be naked.”

“Aw, thanks for saving me the nightmares.”

“Get out,” Jim laughed. You acquiesced, bouncing up from the bed so fast you felt a little dizzy. You brushed it off and made your way back to work.

Bones slammed his breakfast tray down on the table. Stabbed his food. Chomped as if his teeth were grinding down rocks instead of pancakes. Jim watched, bagel halfway in his mouth, before dropping it back to his plate with a sigh. “What’s got your eyebrow twitching today, Bones?”

“Nothing.” He stabbed his food again. Stab. Chomp. Stab. Chomp.

“You sure about-”

“I just don't understand what I did wrong,” Bones cut in. “I've gone out of my way to ensure Y/N gets the best treatment and knows how to take care of herself after whatever stupid shenanigans the two of you have gotten into and she acts like I’m some dictator trying to control her life when all I’m doing is trying to show her I care, you know?” Jim nodded along, trying to respond but being cut off again before he could say anything. “I’ll be damned. That’s the problem, isn’t it? I care about her so much I’ve been smothering her. I’ve got to find her.” Bones shoveled the last few mouthfuls of food into his mouth before practically sprinting out of the mess hall.

Jim stared at the empty space in front of him and sighed. “Thanks for the talk, Jim,” he muttered to himself. “You’re a great listener and a great captain. You’re the best, Jim.”

You threw your wrench to the ground, sending it clattering across the engine room floor. Sweat felt like a permanent accessory on your skin, and you weren’t sure which was louder: the roaring of machines or the roaring of your own heartbeat. When had you gotten so out of shape?

“Maybe it really is time for a physical,” you told yourself as you clambered back down to collect your tools for the day. The floor seemed to shift as you bent forward, barely managing to catch yourself before your face hit the metal floor beneath you. “Hm. Weird and not at all terrifying,” you whispered, keeping your hands and knees firmly planted as you waited for the dizziness to fade. “Probably dehydrated, which would also explain why I’m talking to a wrench.” You pressed your forehead against the floor, hoping the coolness of the metal would help abate the heat and lightheadedness plaguing your body.

The noise around you grew quieter as you focused on your breathing, on the solid ground beneath you, on anything but the overwhelming pounding in your chest. You came to realize your body wasn’t hot - your chest was. It felt like your heart was ready to burst out of it, pumping as if you’d run a marathon rather than climbed a ladder. You fought past the ever encroaching whiteness at the edge of your vision to fish through your toolkit for your Comm, hoping to reach Scotty or Jim or anyone and tell them where you were, but you could feel your arms get heavier with each move you made. Your fingers wrapped around the Comm like a life raft as you slipped past the edge of consciousness.

Bones tried to pretend like it didn’t upset him that you were avoiding his calls, but he’d always been one to wear his emotions on his sleeve, and right now his sleeves were pushed to his elbows, crushed and wrinkled, as he buried himself in paperwork to forget about the messages he’d sent you hours ago. Of course, he’d wanted to confess his feelings in person, but, when he couldn’t find you, Bones had to settle for a Comm call. When you didn’t respond, he was forced to settle for a bottle of whiskey and the realization that maybe you simply hated him after all. It was all the same. He’d gotten used to being alone.

That didn’t stop him from jumping from his seat the second his Communicator started ringing. He tried to remind himself that he was an adult, but the mix of alcohol and nerves made Bones damn near drop the Comm half a dozen times before he finally answered.

“Hello.” Bones made a note to not sound so breathless. There was no answer. “Anyone there?” There was a buzzing of machinery in the background but no voice, no sounds of movement. Bones pondered his next move before hanging up and dialing your Comm. It rang and rang but you didn’t pick up. Bones shifted gears and called Jim, asking him to call you before Jim could get a word in. Then, he paced impatiently around his office waiting for Jim to call him back.

“Did she pick up,” Bones started as soon as he answered the call.

“You know,” Jim said, “I am the captain of this ship. I have a job to do. Responsibilities. Plus, I’m technically your boss, so you shouldn’t be so rude to me.”

“Damn it, Jim, I think something might be seriously wrong with Y/N. Did she answer or not?”

“No, she -”

“Meet me down in Engineering.” Bones ended the call as quickly as it started, leaving Jim on the other end, staring into deep space wondering if his being captian meant anything to anyone besides himself.

Everything was bright. Everything was loud. The cotton sheets scratched at your skin, but you were unable to move. Your limbs were lead. Your eyelids like cathedral doors you had to pry open. You tried to focus on the face hovering above you.

“Is that you God? Odin? That cute delivery guy who brought us pizza on our last shore leave?” Your voice came out muddled, but Jim’s laughter hit your ears crystal clear.

“Yeah, I’d say she’s gonna be just fine, Bones.” Jim clapped him on the shoulder.

Bones scoffed. “Just fine? She’s got a heart condition, Jim. There’s nothing fine about that.”

“Someone’s in a bad mood,” you mumbled as you pushed yourself up on the bed. “You’d think you’re the one who got diagnosed with a heart condition.” “As often as the two of you wind up in here, I’m surprised I don’t already have one. God, do you have any idea how dangerous it is to work under the conditions down in Engineering with an arrhythmia?”

You furrowed your brow. “Arrhythmia?”

“An irregular heartbeat.”

“That explains so much…” you whispered in response. Silence fell as Bones glared at you.

“How long have you been having symptoms?”

You avoided his gaze, staring at the hem of the sheet you were lying under. “I don’t know. Not super long. Maybe a couple weeks.”

“A couple weeks,” Bones yelled louder than he intended. He reigned himself in again. “You didn’t think it was something you should mention? I mean, the dizziness, the heart palpitations - they’re all pretty noticeable symptoms.”

“I’m not a doctor,” you said defensively. “I didn’t know what it was! I thought it was just because I have a stupid crush on you and I was nervous or something.” You clapped your hand over your mouth, eyes wide, heart racing again.

“This ain’t a romance novel, sugar,” Bones laughed, which made your cheeks redder than they already were. “Your heart’s not supposed to flutter.”

“Yeah, well I realize it’s not a romance novel or I wouldn’t be lying in a paper gown covered in dust and engine grease in front of a smoking hot doctor.” You crossed your arms over your chest, sinking back into the pillow and wishing, more than anything, that you could sink through the bed and drift off through space to a planet a few systems away from here.

“I like a girl who’s not afraid to get dirty,” Bones teased.

“Aaaaand that’s my cue to leave,” Jim interrupted. “You crazy kids have fun.”

You watched Jim go, hoping he could feel your eyes on his back begging him to stay or at the very least smother you with your own pillow. Either would do. Sadly, he kept walking, leaving you with Bones and a heavy silence as you were both reduced to grade schoolers tugging nervously at your shirt sleeves.

“So,” you started. “Are you gonna...take care of my heart?” You cringed at how cheesy that sounded. “No, that’s. I’m sorry. Can you fix it?”

Bones couldn’t help but laugh. He’d never seen you nervous before. It was a cute look on you. “I’ll take good care of you, doll.” Bones pressed his hand over yours and everything clicked into place. The tornado of thoughts whirring around your brain finally calmed as you focused on the pressure, the warmth of Bones’ hand over yours. It was a feeling you wanted to hold onto forever.

Tags:

@outside-the-government @martinawalker @thevalesofanduin @goingknowherewastaken @thefanficfaerie @feelmyroarrrr @brooke-taylor0323 @slither-in-a-half @cuddlememerrick @8bit-arc-reactor @jimtkirkisabitch @sjlovestory @kristaparadowski

#star trek imagine #bones x reader #leonard mccoy x reader #bones imagine #leonard mccoy imagine #i feel like my tag list has gotten so small #so many of you have changed urls and I can't tag you anymore :(

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astra-storm · 5 years ago

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Astra Lost in Space Review - Ep 01: Welp, there Goes My Feels

As you can probably tell from my username, I am a huge fan of this series. I can’t count the number of times I’ve reread this manga. Not too hard to do since it’s relatively short, but still. I was looking forward to watching the anime adaptation and it did not disappoint! That said, this will be kept spoiler-free from future parts of the manga, of course.

The Good Stuff

I really like how they started off with Aries floating in space, because it just adds to a lot of the tension, thinking ‘oh hey how did she get up to space’. Then when you finally get to the strange sphere you think ‘oh. shoot. so that’s how’.

Voice acting - excellent! I loved everyone’s voices! Whenever I read Astra previously I always had Kanata’s voice as the guy who voices Bossun from Sket Dance, purely because of having the same mangaka and they look kinda similar. Am definitely down with Kanata’s voice though, as well as everyone else’s.

Music/sound direction - oooooooof I love the opening. The soundtrack seems excellent too so far, and I like how they played around with the sound effects for the space scenes. Especially, when Aries’ comms malfunction.

Visuals - Am a fan of the look. I remember being slightly worried because Kenta Shinohara’s art has so much quirkiness to it when it comes to the characters’ expressions, that it wouldn’t translate well to anime visuals, but I think that so far they’re doing an okay job.

Characters/plot - uhhhhhhhhhh I’m too big of a fan to have anything but good words about this because of my hindsight. I just want to thank Shinohara-sensei for gifting us with Astra. I suppose I think the anime makes Aries and Kanata very likeable from the get-go (though I felt that from the manga too). What the anime did do was give the other characters a bit more spotlight so you do get attached to them too. FUNI IS SO CUTE.

Worldbuilding - the background detail, especially in the airport, was really nice. I saw some things that made me go ‘oho, I see, I see’. I see what you did there.

Humour: so uhh I have that sket dance sense of humour so I found it funny anyway but I thought that they executed the jokes well too. I credit the voice actors a lot for that.

The New Stuff

Ohohoho, so they put in the info from the volumes about the suits, which made me smile, I do love having those and maybe they’ll have more of that in the future.

Having Kanata’s anti-grav shoes break when they arrive on McPa...a nice small additional detail that works

Expansion on the backstory Kanata has with his teacher was another excellent addition - it gives the watchers such a clear understanding of the motivations behind Kanata’s actions oof. I love the visuals for those flashback scenes and how strongly it works for tying into the rescue.

Kanata getting back Ulgar’s bag...a nice little additional interaction which is appreciated from me. I love all of them.

The hand holding scene for when Kanata and Aries come back, ooh, that was a scene. Teamwork makes the dreamwork. And I only realised that it was a nod towards the volume covers later (despite owning them lol). This works for me emotionally.

Oh and Funi grabbing hold of Quitterie’s hand beforehand AHHHHH. I loved seeing more of the crew’s reaction a lot, it’s just....they deserve that screentime, they really do.

The other hand-holding scene....uhh, again, I love all of them and seeing them all hold hands was great. Especially that part where Ulgar was going to go emo by himself and Funi was being her cute self and the other kids were like ‘you can’t say no to this 10 year old’ and Ulgar’s like fineeee okay.

The Slightly Less Good Stuff (though mostly ignorable)

The black bars/panelling is...a bit weird. I think I’ll get used to it but it did seem unfitting at some points. It does make some scenes more dramatic and cinematic though.

UHHHHH. THE HAND HOLDING SCENE FOR RESCUING ARIES MEANS SHE LEFT ALL HER STUFF FLOATING IN SPACE. So what clothes are she going to wear then? Is she just going to borrow stuff from the other two girls (aka Quitterie cause Yun-Hua’s too tall)?

ISo the holding hand scene works emotionally but not so much logically...because if the cable floated too far away, someone could have reeled it back it and gone out to grab the two as they approached closer, which would be safer than the human-chain. lmao okay fine leaving her stuff just bothers me, I’ll admit it.

This is also a slight manga issue, but uh...Zack could’ve...maybe...piloted the ship closer to Aries. Though we can also argue maybe Aries had a limited air supply so there would not be enough time to get it running and all that and they didn’t know if they could fly it at the time. Just a tiny thing I thought about, but it’s fine since they’re in a panicked situation.

Maybe we’ll get a small line saying how Zack did pilot it closer to retrieve Aries’ stuff (though we saw Kanata’s.tablet left floating so uh...maybe we won’t).

Again while the 2nd hand holding scene works emotionally (I did gif it and all, and I do like it...enough to have tears lol), I don’t like how it kinda takes away how going to the planets was Aries’ idea. That part of the manga emphasises a bit more that though Aries is a bit ditzy, she’s also good with coming up with ideas. though looking at the opening, I think we’ll get something for Aries in that aspect later

They also missed that bit where they had to expand the parameters for planets they could go to...which made it seem a bit easy...though I suppose Zack could again just have another line later saying he allowed for harsher parameters to complete the route.

Okay last nit-pick but that scene where Ulgar was like ‘huh why is Kanata so strong’ could have been nice to keep but fine fine.

Overall

Huh. Well my negative section was slightly longer than I thought, even though I actually loved this first episode a whole lot. Guess this is what happens when you’ve read these panels a bunch of times. The different things are very easy for me to notice, I suppose and I think this probably goes the same for fellow manga-readers. Though I do think if I watched this anime-only the changes would pull me in a bit more, as the pacing would fit the medium easier, whereas when you’re reading, you’ll blast through the chapters and get the development quicker. I’ve already rewatched the first episodes a few times so when I say I did love it, I do mean it, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the anime develops. Thanks for reading!

#astra lost in space #kanata no astra #alis anime #alis review #my post #my text #my review #ep01 #I'm sure I have more things to say but that's me off the top of my head #though feel free to send me asks/dms if you want to discuss anything hehe #long post #shinohara sensei had a tweet saying 'wow I'm surprised did I write this'?#in a joking way but I guess obviously he knows the differences too #but he does enjoy it so far too so that's good to know

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lacklusterswirl · 6 years ago

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The choices you make Ch.5

Ayyy, look who finally finished writing something new! lol. Here’s chapter 5, which you can find on AO3, or here, under the cut. As always, comment over on AO3, or send me a msg here! Otherwise, hope you enjoy, and maybe (i’m hoping) the next chapter will come out faster :P

“Wait for his signal.”

Maverick’s eyes narrowed, but Buck had to turn his attention to the house.

One minute passed. Then two. Then Maverick started shaking his head. “This is wrong. The windows are open. We should be able to hear something – anything.”

Buck frowned. He was right, but the order was given, so if they couldn’t…

A car screeched down the street, and the crack of gunfire sounded down the quiet street. Buck and Maverick dived behind the leftover vehicle, but neither could return fire.

“Fuck,” Buck muttered, signalling for Ramer and Jordan to enter the house. He and Maverick busted open the van door to uncover… nothing… There was nothing. No papers, no radios, no phones, not even a stupid footprint.

“Buck!” Ramer was on comms now. “House is clear. There’s nothing here anymore. Jordan has set up a flank watch, you can come in and help search now.”

There had to be something. Something to let him know that he made the right call – that he put his trust in the right people…

That he didn’t send someone to die.

“Control, we need you to run a plate.” Buck looked at Maverick.

“Copy, ready.”

“X-ray, foxtrot, zulu, juliet, whiskey.”

“No numbers,” Maverick added, after bringing forward a USB key. “This was on the kitchen table.”

“Extract is coming by. We can give it then,” Buck murmured. “Let’s get packed.”

“Frost, we have an update.”

“Copy. Standing-by”

With a quick signal, Rook rotated so he was supervising Ryan and the entrance.

“Buck is extracting to base with a USB. It’s being checked now, but from what I understand, it might take an hour or so, more since they need to travel here.” Frost nodded along. That would be a great break-through… But… “But we have a situation. Avoledo is now missing and undercover. We don’t know what his situation is, or if he’s even in danger, but keep an eye open. Try talking to the other undercover agent. See if you can get any clues.”

“Copy.” Frost walked back in and watched as Rook hurriedly stand up as if he wasn’t just talking to the man on the bench.

“Sorry, I was uh…” Maybe he was finally learning how to tell if someone was actually angry or not. “I’ll go back to my post. I’ll tell people you’re busy.”

Frost smiled as Rook took up his position outside the emptied shop, and check-up on Clash. That smile didn’t last when she turned back to look at Ryan. “I need answers. If you were an undercover cop, why can’t we find your record?”

“Probably protected – look – that was never my issue to worry about. I just… What do you want to know? I can tell you?”

Frost sniffed, immediately regretting it as dust flew up her nose. “How can you tell me anything you haven’t already told Sauer?”

“She wasn’t asking the right questions, and when I tried to speak, she told me to shut up, I don’t know what else you want me to say.”

Mhmm… Sure… “Look, let’s start now. How long were you undercover for?”

“I was a low-level drug dealer for six-months, and then I went through a bunch of promotions, worked my way up to be the personal detail for one of the gang bosses after a year. Then, when they teamed up with the terrorists, it was too late. My extraction couldn’t happen in time, and the police force just didn’t have the man power to do anything. Something about another conflicting mission from the JTF 2.”

“What do you know about today other than that assassination attempt?”

“They’re training bombers. That’s what today’s for. They’re gonna have a couple run into the crowds, but that’s all I know. I wasn’t given a time or location, they just told me to be ready.”

“You know,” Frost dragged an empty box to the spot right in front of his bench, “For someone who was apparently on the personal detail, I would’ve thought that you would know more.”

“I get that, I do. But these protests were a sudden thing. In such a short time, it seemed like everyone got angry at the same time. It’s not like they planned the protests.”

Frost shook her head. That’s a fair point, yes, but it does shit to help them out now. “Do you know anything that will help us here? Anything about their plans or patterns, or even a rough time?”

“They were waiting on a new contact. A guy I never heard about before. They said that he’s been here before – a hero. They wouldn’t even let me know the name!”

“So say they’ve already collected the guy. What would be next?”

“Make and smuggle Molotovs. Something about a training course. Mostly low-leveled grunts. They have a hideout near here, you know? There’s a sewer here that leads straight to a secret pre-world war cavern under the park. The police keep track of it because it’s a popular drug bust place. It’s why I was sent there.”

Frost paused, taking a deep breath. That was about a five-minute walk away, not the worst, but if Clash was still getting over whatever knocked her out, they’d be low on manpower here, should they need it. She craned her neck to look outside the shop. The manhole was on the ground yes, and while it would take some effort to open, it would be time wasted, and too many resources were required.

“Intruder!” Frost looked up to see Jameson get tackled to the ground. Rook, the one who shouted, immediately fired a few rounds into the stranger’s chest.

Frost ran out to help Jameson up while Sauer momentarily left Clash to check in on them. “What? Happened?”

“Secure the perimeter,” Frost barked at both Rook and Sauer. “Sauer to Laurier, and Rook to Slater.”

The two walked off, exchanging a few last whispers, but Frost couldn’t afford to pay attention. “Jameson?”

“I…” he gave his head a shake. “I’m good. Just caught me off guard. Serves me right for not checking my back when I was going to relieve Rook at the shop. Give me a minute, and I’ll be ready again.”

Frost, with Jameson looking from where he sat, patted down the body. As her hands dipped into his pocket, she brushed against cool metal. With a triumphant gaze, she pulled out a fancy looking key. In the other pocket, she found another crumpled note. She quickly snapped a photo and sent it off to control.

“It’s a different cipher this time…” Control was sounding frustrated. Frost could relate.

1: ITNOOIHRO

2: REAAHDENS

3: DCAYFWTTS

4: STYURLEYU

5: AMYNEOSI

6: THWCSLRAR

Time to use our “Rook.” Remember, life for cause. Caesar

“Control? Jameson just got jumped. No serious injuries, but the guy had a key on him and another note. Did you crack the last one?”

“Yes, and it’s being sent to your phone now.”

“That’s…” Frost raised her eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

“Unknown.”

“Ok, keep this one between us, and I need you to…” Rook. There should be now way… he was part of Rainbow, not some liability. “Decode it as soon as possible, I need to know who I can trust. And if Buck’s done with his mission already, can you send reinforcements?”

“Copy, I’ll send them over now.”

“Control, Frost, the streets are secure, and I’m heading back now,” Sauer spoke, breaking Frost from the glare directed at her phone. “Rook should be about done too.”

“Yep, coming back now.”

“Ok,” Frost sighed, as she watched the sun climb higher from her right. Sauer’s figure was getting closer and closer until they were facing each other. “Control—”

There was a squealing of tires as a van sped past the street. Frost nodded at Rook to check up on their prisoner, and jogged to the street to see the checkered van turn a corner.

“Frost!” the panicked voice shouted over coms. “Ryan’s gone!”

This was getting to be too much. She had never been lead on a mission and have it go this… wrong. “Well what do you want me to do?” she snapped, marching back to Rook. “Check the surroundings. Didn’t I send you to secure Slater? That van must be the one we’re looking for then.”

“Frost,” the warning voice came to her ear, and her ear alone. “Deep breaths. That was Slater, so North of you. We saw it go East, probably near Confeder— yep, it’s pulling up to the park now, caught on traffic cams.”

“I’m going to pursue them,” she muttered. “When Buck gets here, put him in temporary command until I get back. In the meantime, have everything go through Jameson. It’ll have him out for a bit. So he can rest.”

“Where are you going?”

“Into the sewers,” her fist tensed, and she was reminded of the key in her hand. She quickly stuffed it into her pocket. “There might be a secret cavern under the park. Our man Ryan is there, and that might be a good place for where Avoledo could be held.”

“You sure you wanna test your source? If you do, you should bring one of them as backup. It’ll leave enough people back here to defend if necessary, and you won’t be completely alone in case something happens. As for the note, I’ll get a team on the code again.”

Frost paused. It would be safer to stay here. Plus, it was just Ryan. If he was truly the traitor, this could be a trap. Sauer was talking with Jameson. With her shotgun and professional, business-like attitude, plus their shared history, it would be easy to take her. Rook would also be possible, and since he was also Rainbow, they’ve trained together multiple times together in more recent memory. “Well, who would you suggest?”

Here we go, Frost is going out on a solo recon mission… maybe! You can either order her to stay put at her station, or recommend either Rook or Sauer go with her!

#r6s #rainbow six siege #fanfic #fanfiction #writing #the choices you make #action #reader interactive #choose your own path

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whitewolfbumble · 6 years ago

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The Fallout - Part Twenty-One (Bucky x Reader)

Summary: You had been a ghost for years, taking down the bad guys from the shadows that had once enslaved you. That is until the Avengers finally caught up with you and yet again your life changed. But your past won’t stay dead and everything starts to shift when a familiar face joins the ranks: Bucky Barnes. He may not remember you, but you certainly remember him.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warnings: Slow burn, language, fighting, blood, heartbreak, call back to rape threat, pain, just all the things!

Word Count: About 4k

A/N: Couple things to know! We are throwing back to Part Fifteen and have a call back to Part Four because I’ve been playing the long game here people! Secondly, this is The Scene for me. This was the first scene I thought of six months ago that started this whole story. The story evolved over time (while in my mind this scene didn’t) so there’s this huge conflict in me between what this story is vs. how I had imagined this part to play out. I thought I would be able to write and post this chapter immediately because I’ve lived with it so long. Not at all the case. I ended up drastically changing this (after multiple rewrites) from the original idea and I would appreciate all the validation you can give lol!

MY MASTERLIST // THE FALLOUT MASTERLIST // PART TWENTY

There had been a protocol in place, long since established, aptly named the “Rogue Protocol”. It was an order implemented by the Team’s A.I. on command for protection, and today it would be the protocol that ended them.

Let’s say someone turned to the dark side. Let’s imagine they went full evil in the darkest timeline, hell bent on causing damage to the Avengers. It certainly was possible by say Loki’s sceptre, or perhaps Hydra’s triggering, or any number of evils that lurked and thrived in this world. But Jacosta was there just in case of this.

With a word from the Avengers the A.I. would completely erase all access a user had. They would not be allowed near the home base or any safe houses. They would be shut off from any and all Avenger intel or information. Security access would be stripped. Comm lines scrambled and changed. Even their face and name and details sent out to every government and secret security organization around the world in warning. A total and complete shut out.

Simple and efficient.

And clearly, as you had shown, necessary.

But on the eve of one Hydra-baiting party, there had been a change to this protocol. And it had gone rather unnoticed:

“Well not exactly.” Tony typed something into his tablet before tapping it on seemingly nothing in the air.

Immediately a hologram pulled up in the centre of the room in front of you. It looked like a ball of light and squiggles, all in a luminous purple glow. They moved and flowed in the space with an intricate pattern you saw but couldn’t predict. Again, this tech was too advanced for you, so you waited for him to continue.

“This is Jacosta, who’s been parading around as F.R.I.D.A.Y. since the whole Vier Gliedmaßen thing. There was a line in Fri’s programming that was altered. Corrupted. They got their hands on my tech somehow and got in. But’s that my mission to solve, not yours.”

He looked at you with a tight smile at that. You knew he had been wracked with guilt since the day The Black showed up. And then when he berated you for killing them, using his cutting remarks as some sick test. Then when the comms went down at Vier Gliedmaßen, causing you to dive in headlong after Bucky. So yeah, he had a little bit of a tough go lately.

You just hoped this party wasn’t going to add to that growing list…

“I don’t blame you for The Black or Hydra getting in.” you said, your heart too over-run with emotions to keep a grudge in there too anymore. “Tech or no, we relied on each other and we got out alive. Now we know more about what we’re dealing with.”

“Yeah, a suped-up Hydra. Gone are the days of rudimentary one-man subs and goofy lasers huh.”

“You’ll figure it out Tony,” you reassured, seeing through his muted free-falling self-esteem. He put on a good show but he wasn’t as haughty as others might think. Not always.

“Though I might just take a closer look at Jacosta sometime. Just in case.”

“Permission granted,” he said with a small smile. After those previous debacles, you doubted he would deny that request.

So later that day you waited, anxiety and vulnerablity setting into your bones. It drilled deeper into you with every minute, not having felt this way in half a century. Because yes, despite your glossing over it at the time, Tony’s tech and procedures had failed you. And yes, your mind had been wiped by your worst and most intimate enemy, ripping away your ability to fight and defend yourself. So now it felt like you were staring down a barrel of a gun.

The threat of Hydra, of torture, and worst of all becoming the Siren again had you more than rattled. It had you sick to your stomach you were so terrified. Not even the quarter drunk bottle of whiskey you had been working on quelled that feeling yet, though you had no intention of stopping until that bottle was completely empty.

That night you were being forced out into a situation you thought you couldn’t reasonably win, if it really came down to it.

And it wasn’t because you didn’t have the support and protection of your Team. You did, certainly, and knew they would go to any lengths to protect you. But without your fighting ability at full strength (you were basically as useful as a puppy in a fight) you just felt helpless, the feeling foreign and infuriating.

Last time Hydra came to the Tower they had done so by way of siccing The Black on you. You had been caught on the wrong side of a locked door, forced to pretend you weren’t fucking dying inside as they pinned you to the ground, outnumbered thirteen to one. You could only wait for your team members to show after a purposely devised pointless mission, desperately needing to know they hadn’t fallen into a trap themselves before making your move.

In those hours you had to shut off every emotion, kneeling there on the floor as Steve and Bucky came into view, faces dropping in horror as the situation sunk in. You watched their anger and hidden panic as a glass wall and locked door kept you apart, listening to the threats of the leader and snake, Frenz. And worst of all you had to see the look of disgust in Bucky’s eyes as you killed every single one of the thirteen men that were there to rape and kill you. And you had to watch your revolted friends stand there numbly as you cleaned up after it.

And that night, of all decisions to make, Tony and the Team had practically invited Hydra back into your home. They had proved they had the means to enter and infiltrate before, why wouldn’t they do it now, when that you were weakened? Unable to put up much of a fight?

But with two simple words, Tony had given you permission to check into Jacosta’s programming. To alter it. Or override it if need be. You had complete and full admin access, rivalled only by Tony.

If the situation came down to it again, and they locked you away from your friends and protection- from your now only means of survival- you had to find another way to win.

So, you gave yourself permission to unlock any door.

Simple. Basic. Mostly used to calm the rattling inside you and give you enough courage to face that night.

In doing so, you had to completely removed any protocol restrictions or barriers blocking you, so no matter were you found yourself, you had a means of escape. It over-rid everything, permanently, unless specifically altered after the fact. Right down to the Rogue Protocol.

Now, Jacosta was new and learning, which was an advantage to you, the Siren. You bet your freedom that Tony wouldn’t go digging into the Rogue Protocal too deeply, trusting the system he had created without checking the alterations done at its base programming before starting it up once Hydra took you. It was buried and rooted behind walls of security, and only one soul had access it.

Well, two at one point. But that was enough.

There was always a massive probability that the system would right itself or Tony would find it before you even got here. You knew this plan was a fucking longshot from the get go. A lot of oversight was needed for this to work.

But if it hadn’t, you would still found another way. You would’ve waited until a team member got to close to your little prison and snapped their neck. Or you would have slit your throat and held a doctor hostage. Maybe started a fire with sparks from your metal hand somehow. Or perhaps you would have slowly faked returning back to your original self, building trust and using that against them. Regardless, you would have found a way to cause pain and eventually figure another way to freedom.

But this was much better.

You had used this simple alteration for your own protection at one time. But now you were using it for escape.

And by some dark miracle, it fucking worked.

“Jacosta,” you said calmly. “Open the cell doors.”

No one outside your cell moved or made a sound, not actually believing that the A.I. would listen to your calmly stated command. Even as the door swung open on its hinges, everyone was still, not immediately believing what they were seeing.

The air seemed fresher, lights brighter, and vision clearer as you placed one foot in front of the other beyond the threshhold and into freedom.

“Now,” you said, arms out and eyes as black and cold as space, voice not much warmer. “Let’s play.”

Your immediate craving was Bucky, looking to him with hunger in your gaze, but the man was motionless, having stumbled back in confusion as you opened up your little prison. Even as horror turned to rage he stood there shocked still. You were loose in the world again- in his world- and you were going to burn it to the fucking ground. You could almost see flashes of the horrors you had committed in the past months in the blue of this eyes, of what burning fire you could reign down now that you were free again. On the world. On the Team. On him. And it would be his fault all over again.

So it wasn’t Bucky- who never had a love of fighting- that got this party started, but actually Sam.

He had come in at Bucky’s call just before your escape, hanging back as you commanded their precious A.I. to betray them. But now he bolted down the hall, emotions kicked aside and military training kicking into high gear. You were an enemy and you needed to go down, and, like the friend he was, wasn’t going to make your ex-love try it first.

You sized up your competition as the ex-vet sprinted towards you, muscles tense, thoughts of his own safety or odds abandoned, dark green shirt unstained with sweat or blood.

You would have to change that.

He knew he would have to come at you with some serious power and force, and the man did.

Always having favoured his fists, he ran right up to you trying to use his momentum to try and force you back into your cell, throwing punches with force and precision. You blocked one hit with your forearm, then the next in quick succession with your elbow, then the next with your arm again. All the while you watched him half-amused, easily tracking his movements. He was a military man with practiced movements and you had taken down thousands of those in your time.

A knee came up hard to your ribs to try and pushed you back, but your fist swung down hard on his knee before the other one swung up at his jaw. Throwing your metal fist with some serious might, you heard an audible crack as you made contact with the quick one-two punch. It sent him up in the air before smacking down on the ground, face in shock as his breath wouldn’t come but the pain certainly did.

Before he had even hit the ground you were running to him, foot raised to stomp down on his neck and the life out of him, when Bucky finally broke through his shock and made his decision to take you down.

He launched at you mid-stomp, his momentum crashing into yours, grabbing around your waist and sending you both flying to the side. Both his and your metal hands scrapped along the floor, shrieking and spraying sparks as you went careening into the wall with bone crushing speed.

The white lights above you cut out and turned to blue flashing lights lining the hall, signalling your breakout.

You ignored them easily as immediately after crashing against the wall you brought up your knees to the groin and stomach of the hulking wall of muscle pinning you, twisting your body to get loose of Bucky’s grip around your middle. You managed to end up with his hips between your thighs as he lay on briefly on his stomach, your hand grasping his neck and wrist. But his elbow cracked up and connected with your face with such force you were thrown clean off him, sent skidding back to the floor with a shower of blood exploding off your face.

You flipped back into a roll instantly to stand, ignoring your bloodied face as he came at you again.

Bucky, furious and far more unhinged than the Soldier had ever fought, did not pull his punches as he swung, forcing power behind his swinging arms and fists. It was wild and abandoned and full of pain, but you were prepared for this.

He was a tank, that much you knew from long years together. But you had power too. And speed. And ingenuity. Plus a drug-adrenalin combination that made you all but oblivious to the pain. He just had brute strength and a broken heart.

Swinging in broadly he tried to push you back, but you weren’t willing to lose ground. Dodging and blocking you grabbed his metal fist sharply with yours, and jumped straight up, twisting your leg around to kick him square in the chest.

It was his turn to go flying back, sparks flying again in the blue flashing room. You immediately dove on him to keep your upper hand in the fight, punching over and over, drawing blood and causing his body to thrash around under the force of your fists.

But he got hold of you, clutching your wrists hard threw his head into your face before flipping you over so you were on the ground and he was looming over you, you lungs sputtering with the blood you swallowed.

He pinned you, wrists held tightly in his hands: your metal hand to his metal hand, your flesh hand to his. His hair hung down, brushing your face, and it was unable to hide his burning eyes or anger curled lip. He hated this situation, hated fighting you, hated hurting you.

His body was hovering directly above you, and you would take any advantage where you could get it.

He expected you to keep fighting or to struggle as he held you fast underneath his body pinned to the floor, feet hooking yours in place to keep you from kicking free. But you didn’t even try.

Lifting off several inches from the floor, your hips ground into his hips, then followed the rest of your body in a smooth slow roll, pressing your abdomen, chest, shoulders, and face right against him.

You purred into his corner of his mouth, lips vibrating against the edges of his with the sound.

“I just knew you wanted to pin me down.” you teased seductively. “Knew you wanted to feel what it was like to have me pressed against you again.”

At that Bucky threw himself off of you, releasing you as he tried to step back, face contorted. But before he could fully move off of you, your hands briefly freed, you twisted to the side so you could get your arm up around to the back of his neck. You slammed him down to the ground, his face hitting the floor with a crack.

For the first time in minutes, everything stilled as silence hung in the hall.

Pushing him off, you got up and briefly looked down the man at your feet. You could have killed him, and if you were any other one of Hydra’s agent, you probably would have. But you weren’t a creature whose priority was merely efficiency like the Soldier had been. You had only barely begun torturing Bucky, and to kill him now would have been much too quick. Much better than he deserved.

This Bucky had been far too emotional. The Solider wouldn’t have made such a mistake. The man in front of you was far too human.

Quite unlike you at the moment.

Now, with no bodies between you and the door, you rolled your shoulders with a smile as a jolt of euphoria snaked through you, leaving the two poor things to bleed behind you.

Under the blue flashing light, you knew that someone else must have set them off as you set off down to the end of the hall. There was a small chance it was the A.I. but you doubted it. You could feel it in your bones, another presense lurking somewhere in this vast compound.

You sauntered up to the security panel on the wall by the door, absently wiping the blood still flowing from your face. It misted off your metal fist as it slammed into that panel, breaking it open. You ripped out the wires and sparks flew, igniting the little box into small flickers then full flames. You ripped off your hoodie and shoved it in there, fabric catching and beginning to smoke then be licked at by orange flames.

After a moment a loud siren rang out, repeating every few seconds and the lights dropped, the blue being replaced by a bright red flashing. You looked blood covered and it sent a thrill down your spine. Another buzz sounded nearby and immediately the door unlocked and spread open.

If there was someone still in the security room monitoring all this, they would have deleted your “open door policy” access by now most likely. Or at the very least Tony would have been notified of what was happening, and trying to man it from wherever he was in your little goose-chase.

So fire was your option. Starting one would unlock all hallway door checkpoints where any Avengers were to the safe zones: either exits or security rooms to monitor the situation. That had been the procedure in the Tower, and was clearly the same here too. Now all you had to do was follow the unlocked doors to your next destination. And you weren’t ready to leave just yet.

Turning down several silently deserted corridors, there was an eeriness in the air you brought with you, nothing but red flashing light as your company. As you walked closer into the compound (presumably), you began to slow down.

Your steps became leisurely, pace not as determinedly set. A smile cracked through the blood your face, black eyes wide and searching the long and wide corridor you found yourself in.

“Natasha...” you whispered tauntingly, cool and creepy voice drifting lightly down the hall as you walked. “Natasha... where are you…”

You could feel her, your senses keyed up and adrenalin absolutely flooding you. It reacted with the drugs still in your system and dialled everything inside of you beyond ten. Your eyes were wide and shimmering black, your hearing was picking up everything around you, and you could smell her telltale scent of mahogany, cinnamon, and something bitter lightly reaching your broken nose.

Quicker than most could move, a door to your left was thrown open and Natasha came running out, throwing her knee up to slam against your body, snapping up a wire at her wrist in preparation.

She would have slammed her knee against you, knocking you off balance and making you hunch down as you faltered. She would have taken her opportunity then to jump up and wrap her legs around your neck, perched on your shoulders. She would have tied that piano wire around your neck until you passed out.

Because unlike Bucky, she was stealth and speed and maneuvering. She had complete control over her body, able to fight and win along side superhumans, gods, and armoured suited geniuses. But she came into fights with just her skills, a small wire, and sometimes a gun or two. And time after time she would win it, because Natasha was just that fucking good.

But you would show her what real power looked like.

Your metal hand snapped out as Nat did from the shadows, forcing through the wire she was a second from trying to wrap around your neck. Instead, your grip clutched her throat as you planted your feet, stopping her short and sending her lower half jerking back at your immovability.

You could have crushed her windpipe and ended her right there. But she needed to feel the power you had over her. Reaching down you grabbed under her knee and hoisted her up, flipping her right over and slammed her onto the ground.

Your grip didn’t let up as her eyes went wide, face red as you cut off the circulation to her head while you smiled widely down at her. She couldn’t even sputter. She tried to reach her legs up and wrap them around you, tried to hurt you with her fists and feet and body, expertly done, even if she was fast suffocating.

But you felt none of it. Instead you punched down over and over, seeing and feeling blood spout from her face. Her blood was hard earn and the spray that hit you felt like refreshing mist on your skin.

The feeling was short-lived though.

You didn’t hear it, the sound almost too loud for your brain to process, bursting through your ear drums. What felt like a concrete wall hit you, sending you flying back off Nat, airborne for a second before hitting and cracking against the wall.

You recovered as fast as you could- unnaturally so for a normal person- head knocked way too hard against the unyielding wall to snap back instantly though. You took uneasy but quick steps forward, turning to face the source of the explosion, but distrated briefly by someone else.

The first thing your mind seeing beside subtly flaming debris scattered around you was the beaten sight of Bucky running in, face bruised and covered in as much blood as your own.

The next was when you turned to where the source of the explosion was, and standing there on top of the pile of rumble was Iron Man.

You shocked yourself for a moment, feeling simultaneously relieved and furious at the sight before you. It added an undercurrent of confusion to your feelings, you not realizing why relief was in the mix at all. You certainly did not want him there. A couple normal humans and one ex-Hydra agent were easily handled. But it was harder to punch through an Iron Man suit. Though not impossible.

“Bucky,” came his voice, hands raised and threatening as he stood like a coward covered by his gleaming suit on top of a caved in ceiling, unlike your exposed and bleeding skin. “Back off. Just turn around, I will handle this.”

You looked to the man, calculations on your next moved briefly halted as you watched Bucky’s face flinch. Maybe from pain. Maybe from the anger and sadness there in him now. Something was off. Something information was missing.

“Don’t leave me to him,” you said, exasperated, trying to cause division. “You know how angry he was before when you caught me; he’s more likely to kill me than lock me up again!”

But looking at Iron Man you took in his cold metal exterior. You couldn’t sense his emotions, or discern his body language through it. But you could taste it in the air. You knew that taste.

He knew you would kill everyone. You almost had killed three of his team members in a matter of minutes today. And once securing this compound and letting Hydra have free reign of the system, you would have tortured them. And you wouldn’t stop. Ever.

You smelt the need for blood on him.

You knew he would try and put you down before you put his entire Team down. Maybe Bucky or Steve wouldnt be able to ever stomach or consider that option, but Tony was not cut from the same cloth.

You waited in the silence, only Bucky inching towards you, ignoring Tony completely. But your eyes were on the suited Iron Man in front of you, narrowed and waiting, because in that moment, you just knew.

Oh god, he really was going to try and kill you.

As that little speck of relief turned to sad understanding, your overwhelming anger turned to bitter rage.

“You’re going to try and kill me?!” you barked, harsh and spitting blood. “I’m your fucking friend you bastard! And you think you’re the one who gets to kill me?!”

“No,” Bucky said, confident and firm, eyes only on you as Tony watched him. “No one is going to kill you, Y/N. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

It was like an electrical baton was shoved in the base of your head, connecting with your spine and sending the feel in a shockwave through your body and brain.

I’m safe. He’s got me.

The piece of you which had turned to understanding, shifted again back to relief.

The words blanked out your vision for a moment, blocking you from seeing Bucky relax at your sudden drop of tense muscles. You didn’t notice Tony turn away from you back to Bucky. You didn’t see him wordlessly raise his hand and blast Bucky in the stomach, sending him back down the hall in a flash of white. You didn’t catch any of it, numb and fuzzy to the world for a moment.

But you did see Tony flying at you, only a second from colliding with you when the fuzziness took a back seat in your mind. Your only course of action was using your hand, grabbing Tony’s as he reached for you in a blinding shine of red and gold. Using his momentum, you swung him around your body, crushing his hand in his suit with yours.

The momentum knocked you down too, scrambling up to get away, mind still moving too slow to do what you needed it too. But a flash of black passed you from behind, you eyes clicking into place that it was Bucky running up protectively to meet Tony, who was launching at you.

Again Bucky was full of reckless abandon, arms swingly with wild power as he pushed Tony back, the man no match for Bucky’s hand-to-hand combat skills. Furious groans and the unbearably loud sound of metal crushing metal rang out as the two clashed.

You always had back-ups and quick mind to calculate the next best possible move, but as more chaos entered into the mix here, your plan began to splinter at its seams.

You didn’t think, just started moving, the familiar face of Steve in your sightlines running down the hallway. You pushed out all thoughts of how the hell he was here and how the fuck both Cap and Iron Man got back so fast and not at your bomb sites half a world away.

Steve didn’t even seem to be running for you but looked like he was heading straight for Bucky, probably thinking he had gone Winter Soldier on him. You scrambled up to a half crouch before diving at his knees just before he reached his friend who was pummelling Tony.

The pair of you had barely landed when hands grabbed both your arms from behind and threw you off of Steve. You barrelled down the hall, rolling uncontrollably with your body smacking the floor as you went. Blood in your eyes and head spinning you looked out to see Iron Man come huddling towards you too, the force of a punch square to his chest from Bucky sending him flying back, before Steve and Nat- who you presumed threw you off of Cap- could catch him.

Tony whizzed passed you, hand catching and searing across your calves as he careened down one side of you. Bucky was immediately running your way, seeing you lying there with nothing between you and Tony now. Steve and Nat were running after him, but they weren’t the real threat here now.

With the space Tony had away from Bucky, he was able to stabilize himself mid air before crashing against a wall. A hand went up but it wasn’t his blaster that was aimed at Bucky, but a little launcher sprung out from his wrist.

Without thinking, you jumped up in front of Bucky as Tony fired, pushing Bucky down with all the strength you had and standing in his place.

Right after that moment, the chaos died down.

Everything went oddly quiet as you stood there, teetering ever so slightly. The sounds around you were instantly gone. Your mind stilled. Even your heartbeat and racing blood in your veins had disappeared for a moment.

Looking down slowly you saw your abdomen, once clothed in a smooth black fabric, was now torn and anything but smooth, chunks of your flesh spread across it, hanging limply and bloody.

It had only been one bullet, but it exploded like a buck shot of sorts. It had just done so inside of your body, spreading out organs and muscles and red liquid everywhere.

In a blink of an eye you were on your knees, catching yourself on Bucky’s open arms. You didn’t have the space inside you to feel shocked at suddenly being on the floor and him suddenly being there to catch you.

A hiss of air tried to escape your lungs as you turned to him, eyes wide and furious angry melting into something quite different.

Your spine seemed to quit as you collapsed back, Bucky catching you again and hovering above you on the ground, hands holding yours over your gaping wound. Blood poured like a waterfall, Hydra chemicals and drugs running out with it.

“Y/N,” Bucky said, voice sounding higher than usual though calm, but eyes beginning to brim with tears and panic and agony. “It’s okay, I have you. You’re okay. You’re safe, I’ve got you.”

I’m safe. He’s got me.

Your body settled, embracing the pain you began to feel, not fighting it. Your jaw unclenched. Your fist released their grip. Your whole body relaxed. The anger and walls that had been put up fading away and emptied out of you like the blood pooling on the floor.

I’m safe. He’s got me.

He’s safe. I’ve got him.

Slowly you reached a hand to his face, the slightest bit of colour returning to your irises.

You whispered one thing to him, voice small and cracked before you were ripped from him, Bucky instantly screaming out after you, eyes wide and body thrashing wildly to get you back.

“...Bucky?”

PART TWENTY-TWO

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