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helbramstrauma · 4 years ago

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Unkillable Chapter 4

Hello! as always this you can read on AO3, or if you need to catch up here is Chapters One Two Three

Now for a quick synopsis: You are a former knife thrower that now lives undercover with other escapee’s trying to make ends meet. This leads to some morally questioning jobs, you aren’t assassins but everything has a price. Just like any other job you were prepared, although your intel failed to mention something incredibly important. There seem to be other people trying to steal from the infamous underground auction as well

Word Count: 2260

Tw: Blood and Gore

Every ounce of confidence you once had is fleeting, realizing how dire your situation is, they always said curiosity is what killed the cat, but what other choice did you have? Noticing your position in the sky you are not far from your hideout, and you cannot sense the circus people anymore. Could that clown defeat all of them? All of that aside, you need to think, do you jump or do you wait? If you go to whatever location they are taking you to, your chances of survival are going to be low at best. Would it have been better to get killed by the circus, because Feitan has been staring at me the whole time oozing bloodlust? You begin to shift your weight towards the opening in the helicopter preparing to jump, however, Feitan quickly realizes and grabs my hand drawing blood. That is a mistake, you flip the small man over you and out of the helicopter forming a metal bar connection between us. Soon after you are plummeting towards the ground, though Feitan softens the landing. You change the previous bond back to blood as you stand up, giving your previous target your hand, there is no way you could kill him, and even if you did you cannot have the Phantom Troupe tagging you. “What this” Feitan stands up, pushing me against a wall holding his hand against my throat, but he is not crushing my windpipe, “start talking bitch”. He is extremely confident but you can sense a little hesitation in his eyes, but it is disappearing as he grows impatient for my answer. You attempt to pry his hand off of your throat but that only causes his grip to tighten, with a shortness of breath you are able to say, “Sorry”. This causes the man to look at you with confusion loosening the grip momentarily before it tightens again, but it is still looser than before.“ Wrong answer, try again”. “You never asked a question,” You say, realizing he never asked anything. Although you know nothing about the chain user, he could ask about the circus or why you were at the auction. He doesn’t say anything for a moment or two, and it remains silent after that. Until you finally hear his voice, “Name?” his grip also moves from your throat instead opting to pin your hands above your head. You remain silent, dumbfounded by his question: why would he want to know something so trivial? However he grows impatient and knees me in the gut, “You stupid? Don’t know your own name?” you can see his mouth peeking out behind his mask, in a notorious smirk. “You can call me y/n” You manage to get out. “Why people chase you?” he questions, this time not waiting for me to answer, he scratches your cheek drawing more blood. Has he not noticed how you get your knives to materialize? Either way, you were not going to harm him, you are too afraid of the consequences with the troupe. However, the hesitation in his eyes remains, despite his actions to hurt you. It is barely noticeable but when he hurts you, there is a slight flinch. Knowing you have some sort of footing you say, “You are going to have to hurt me more than that for me to answer that”. This does flip a switch and suddenly your head is bashed against the concrete, Feitan still holds your hands above your head but he leans down to your ear whispering in it, barely audible, “You no want that sweetheart, but I gladly do so”. After saying this it sends a shiver up your whole body, either out of fear or arousal, but you don’t have time to unpack all of that. Suddenly the warmth and wetness of his tongue press against the side of your face, slowly making its way to the cut on your cheek taking in some of your blood. Does this man not know anything about hepatitis, not that you have it, but if you did he would be dead. His breath is hitting my lips as we lock eye contact, “Change of heart?” he asks, waiting for my answer. This time not hurting me for an answer so I decided to test my luck again, “at least take me to dinner first”. You laugh at your own joke, noticing he isn’t laughing. He backs away from my face and simply says, “That all it take for information. You boring”. Did he not get it? More importantly, is he going to take me on a date? “I rather torture, but” he trails off lost in thought. He clearly isn’t opposed to date, am I opposed to a date? This is not what should be happening. You turn your head to look at your reflection in the window hoping for answers, but instead, you are greeted with the clown from earlier, throwing a card at what seems to be my neck. Of course, this was a setup, from the wrist wound you materialize a knife and throw it at the card cutting it in half. Getting the attention of both Feitan and the clown. A chuckle comes from the clown before he climbs down from his spot on the fire escape. “I underestimated you, girl”. Girl? You’re 24, do you look that young? “Hisoka, what you want?” Feitan asks the clown, clearly annoyed. “Doing something you clearly don’t have the guts to do” the clown says, getting ready to slit my throat with the card, drawing a little bit of blood at the end of my neck. Clown man just made a mistake, with Feitan’s loosened grip you are able to get one hand free, you then grab the end of your neck you pull away this time with a new knife. The clown is taken aback and at that moment you are able to stab the knife into his hand. “I decide to torture anyway” You hear Feitan say from behind you, but before you can turn around you see your surroundings turn black. However, before you lose consciousness you can hear the man in black say something, “You pay for my hesitation. I no like this feeling, so you pay”. Your vision is hazy and it takes you some time to get a recollection of the previous events, which adds to the surprise when you wake up in your own bed. After this realization, you sit up too quickly and your vision blurs for a second before refocusing also causing a creek in the bed frame signaling to your friends that you have awoken. A sharp and demanding voice of Adam pieces through the room, “Hey, idiot you shouldn’t leave without your earpiece,” he is stern but you know he is right, “What would've happened if Aim didn’t see what was happening and sent a dummy in your place”. Not only can Aim manipulate their own image they are also able to create a mirror image of someone else, although they haven’t mastered that yet and it can only create a lifeless doll. Soon, they’ll realize that they took a fake if they haven’t already figured it out already. “What kind of fun, I mean trouble, did you get us into y/n?” Lue asks. That's right they don’t know that you have a vendetta against the Phantom Troupe and they probably have some price on your head by now. How do you convey how much trouble you are in? “Is there danger you wouldn’t find fun?” you ask Lue. “Not that I can think of, now spill!” Lue is growing impatient and when she does this she acts like a child. With a deep breath, you let them know about the Phantom Troupe and the damage you have seen them done, with the circus. Adam is silent, but he is picking underneath his nails so you can tell he is nervous, however, Lue is the complete opposite. She is ecstatic to have some real fun and is babbling about training some more. Aim seems to be deep in thought, they are the only one who knows what risks to take, Adam is too careful and Lue not careful enough: you just don’t think things through. “Do you have anything on you?” Aim immediately starts using guo and sees the worst thing imaginable, a small silver string. There is no doubt that they have figured out that the other you was a fake, and they have to be on their way now. You have two options: prepare, or meet them here. “Calm down Adam! We can go somewhere we know well enough and lure them into a trap,” Aim suggests. “But you would be putting others' lives in danger, we can’t do that '' Adam rebuttals. “We should just charge at em, there is no fun in calculations” Lue complains. That's how you know it is a good plan when both Adam and Lue don’t like the plan. That way it is perfectly balanced and is often perfectly executed because despite Lue’s impulsive attitude she performs way better with some kind of plan and Adam performs best under pressure. The only question is where to set the trap, it needs to be far from Adam so he doesn’t have to worry about himself so he can just focus on the battlefield. “Where is it happening,” Adam asks as he moves over to his monitors already accessing the cameras around the building. “Y/n, this is going to happen quickly, get out of here and run as far away and prepare for a fight, they’ll be here in about a minute- get going” he tosses the earpieces to Aim, Lue, and you. They must have realized sooner than you and it is only spelling trouble. You are the last to leave the building and you give Adam a nod before you leave, however you don’t wait long enough for him to nod back. When you are on the roof, you can see Feitan and a different girl, she has pink hair. “The girl is the one who tracked you, let's not waste any time,” Aim says before sprinting after Lue and quickly catching up, you catch up as well. Your eyes lock onto some new construction a few buildings up, the others are also staring at it. “Adam we are going to the new construction” Lue informs. Within your earpiece, you can hear Adam complain about the lack of cameras in that area. However you are too focused on the maze in front of you, a maze you already know the way through but you cannot manage any mistakes. However, your nerves still catch up, when you are jumping to a higher building you underestimate it and you have to grab onto the ledge and keep moving. As if Aim can hear me cursing myself for that mistake they say, “Shake it off, you don’t have time to worry about it”. In about thirty seconds you are in the scaffolding surrounding the building with Aim barley behind you, and it takes Lue about another 10 seconds to meet us. “Lue go down the stairs into the building and wait to make your appearance,” Adam instructs over the earpiece, “Aim disguise yourself as a worker, and head up and to the left on the scaffolding, they are climbing a fire escape now so hurry before they see you getting into position”. Before Adam is done talking Lue has entered the building and Aim, is already on the upper-level morphing. The only way they will catch on is if they can see Aim’s real persona with guo. Wait, if they are using guo to find me, they’ll see right through the mirage, they need to hide too! “Aim gets inside” you hear Lue yell coming to the same realization as you. However, all you can do is hope Aim heard her as you can now see the man in black approaching and the woman he was with and if you call out now they’ll hear it. Unfortunately, you see the woman get up higher meaning she has already seen Aim. This is bad. Although you don’t have time to worry about that right now, you have your own problem at arm's length, Feitan. He unsheathes a sword from an umbrella before jumping onto the platform I am standing on. We exchanged a few blows, only getting a few scratches, but it was enough to draw blood which means you can get your own blade. There is a shallow cut running up your forearm, and you create a blade coming out of it, however when you lift that arm to strike, you look into his grey eyes, and in that moment of hesitation, you are pinned down to the scaffolding. He positions the blade just above the center of your neck, not yet connecting, and it isn’t moving either. When you look up into his eyes you see the same hesitation you saw earlier and the same hesitation you just showed. The sword is then removed by a whip, Lue is here, but you know that Feitan let her take it, he could have easily countered that. “Come Y/n, you could have had him,” Lue says approaching the two of us, “Guess it is more fun for me” I am pinned underneath him but his grip is loose enough for you to escape but what holds you back is the strange warmth it provides you. However, you see Luebella about to pounce Feitan that would knock him off the scaffolding. Before she can make contact you quickly switch positions with him, causing Lue to knock you off the scaffolding. It is about ten stories up, there is no way you can survive that fall. They say your life flashes before your eyes but all you can see is your time at the circus. Your former boss is holding your tent mate dangling them holding them by their throat, at that moment you were not able to turn your head although you know that he is about to break her neck, poor Julia. However it never comes instead he looks down and whispers something you were not able to hear at the time, but now it is clear as day, “Damn it, no use can’t kill who the universe tells you you're meant to love”. In your final thoughts you think, what does that even mean? But the memory continues throwing her across the room at you, you were barely able to keep steady. The next thing he says is something you would never forget, “Kill her, or else it's you”. Then you did because you knew nothing but to obey orders.

#Feitan #Feitan hxh #Feitan x Reader #Hunter x Hunter #Fanfiction #Hxh Fanfiction #fanfic #Slowburn #Enemies to lovers #Unkillable

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someonestole15 · 4 years ago

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Morning away from home

Hit the spot.

Faint rain pattering against the window, howl of the wind making it hard to sleep any longer, I sat myself up on the edge of the bed and cleared the sand out of my eyes. Another morning, the weather seems to be quite gray and the rooms feels far colder than yesterday.

The room was small enough to fit basic things, a desk and two beds spread apart. Both Vulre and Rhelf seemed to have already gone somewhere, my tunic was hanging from the door of the wardrobe with a note attached to it.

“Meet us in the dining hall when you wake up.” Signed by Rhelf, shake myself awake and stand up. Tunic on, I tightened the belt and washed my face before heading into the corridor. Follow the scent of fresh bread and tea, down to the first floor and to the western wing, I heard talking in one of the rooms and pushed the door open.

Correct address, the room was full of adventurers and as soon as I got in, Vulre stood up and waved to me. Have a seat, a small crowd of butlers served up a plate and a cup of tea in front of me as I sat there. A sandwich with a bit of ham and salad, the breakfast went by calmly as the rain started to calm down.

“So, Quinn, what kind of weapon do you prefer?”

“Well… I have used a sword in my training.” I took a sip of the tea, not a common treat in my town, so Obeus must know where to get his for a good price. The flavor resembled bitter berries but aftertaste was sweet and left me feeling warmer.

“A common weapon, but effective in the right hands.” Vulre stated as she took a sip of her tea.

“True, but seeing as we are using zweihanders and daggers, he could bridge the middle ground.”

A while later, we finished up the breakfast and headed through the building into the backyard of the building. Not sure what Rhelf had stated with the middle ground but if I was stuck here, I’d rather be armed and useful.

The yard was full of training equipment and a forge near the back wall with smoke rising to the grey skies. A few trees by the edge, targets handing by rope from the branches above, Rhelf ushered me to the forge to meet the man keeping it.

“Andrei, how are ya?”

“As good as one can be on a day like this my friend.” The man stood up, covered in dust and wearing a leather apron over his normal clothes. “You are the new guy, yes?” He asked as he turned to me, his accent was something I had never heard before, a lot of rolling R’s and mix of foreign words as he spoke to his workforce.

“Yeah, name’s Quinn.”

“Now I would shake your hand Quinn, but you know, coal dust is a pain on laundry. Welcome aboard.”

“Thanks.”

“Have you got any swords in stock Andrei? Something basic but sharp.”

“Give me moment.” Andrei said he stood up and headed to the back of the forge and looked through several racks of swords, running his fingers along the racks before finally stopping at one.

Blade covered in a dark leather sheathe, Andrei seemed to be in thought when he placed the weapon in front of me.

Forged of steel, the blade ran along two edges and had a faint indent carved along the middle.

“Cheap, but effective. Cuts through monster like hot knife with butter, as long as you have the strength to swing it. Go on, feel free to give it a try.”

Quite certain I can, I hung the sheath on my belt and stepped into the training area next to the forge. Feeling the pressure on me with the spectators, I drew the sword and braced myself with my left hand in front of me.

Breathe, remember the training of guard master Lillian told me.

Cut across from the right, twist the blade around and bring it back, two cuts on target. Raise the weapon and bring it down from the right, slashing back to the left and spinning the sword around to a reverse grip. Held the defensive and lower the sword, can’t test blocks and parries on a dummy but otherwise, the sword feels well balanced and fits my hand quite well.

No blood on my hands yet, wonder when that will change…

#stories #writing #fantasy #sci fi & fantasy #fiction #medival

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haledamage · 5 years ago

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7 from the hug prompts for whichever character you like!

(7. tired hug. featuring Marii&Arcann, between chapters 6 and 7 of KotET. In which Marii gives a speech, they beat each other up for a while, and then become BFFs. cut for length because this got, uh, really really long)

Bonding

“Need a sparring partner?”

Arcann didn’t look up from the poor, defenseless training dummy he was slowly disassembling with his lightsaber. “No. Thank you.”

Marii could tell he was trying to get her to leave without actually telling her to go away, but she wasn’t easily intimidated. If she hadn’t feared him when he was her enemy, why would she fear him now that they were allies? She leaned against the remains of an adjacent dummy that he’d already destroyed, watching him. “Vesiya tells me you refuse to join her in battle.”

She could feel a flash of annoyance from him, only there for a second before it was swallowed by the fathomless ocean of his aura. “That is correct. I suppose she sent you to convince me. Here to philosophize at me, Jedi?”

“She doesn’t know I’m here. And I’m not a Jedi. Not any more than you are.” She stood and started pacing behind him slowly. He didn’t turn to keep her in his line of sight, but he reached out with the Force carefully, almost timidly. She relaxed her shields a little to let him in, let him know she meant no harm. “Jedi believe that emotion is a weakness. That feeling anything too strongly will open you up to darkness. Jedi are allowed to do anything as long as they don’t feel anything."

A little bitterness crept into her voice as she spoke of the Order. Old wounds, poorly healed. She didn’t push those feelings away, but she didn’t give them the attention they wanted either, keeping her focus on the man in front of her. "Meanwhile the Sith use their emotions as a weapon. Fear, pain, anger, they wrap themselves in them until it’s all they know how to feel anymore. There’s no room for joy or love when all your power comes from rage.”

Arcann lowered his saber with a single, quiet ‘ha’, barely more than just a sharp exhale. It was the closest thing to a laugh she’d ever heard from him. “Somehow you manage to make them both sound like my father.”

“I wish that surprised me.” Valkorian had hurt so many people through his long life, but looking at Arcann, who’d been broken and pieced himself back together, wrapped in serenity but balanced on a knife’s edge, all Marii could feel was sorrow. She wondered what kind of man Arcann would have been if not for his father’s evil; she hoped he stuck around long enough to find out.

“Neither philosophy has ever worked well for me,” she continued, shaking herself from her thoughts. “My power comes from connection. From the love I have for this family we’ve built here. I’m stronger with them than I ever was without. And I think you’re the same way. That’s why Valkorian worked so hard to turn you and your siblings against each other. To isolate you. And you’re still trying to isolate yourself. I’m not going to let you, Arcann.” She put a hand on his shoulder. He didn’t tense like she expected him to. “You need us. And we need you. Let us help you.”

He deactivated his lightsaber, hooking it back onto his belt, but still didn’t turn to look her way. “Nice speech. Tell me again how that wasn’t philosophizing at me?”

Marii grinned at his attempted joke. “You got me. I was a Jedi almost thirty years before I left. They do love to give speeches.“

"You know, before, when I was…” he paused, unable or unwilling to say the words, though they both knew what he meant, “part of me was always disappointed I never got to fight you. I had heard tales of your victories against my father and wanted to test my strength against yours. By defeating you, I could prove that I was stronger, better than he was. I thought it was another one of his games, that I kept being denied the opportunity. I took it as a personal slight.”

“No offence, Arcann, but you took most things as a personal slight then.”

He laughed, actually laughed. A little rough and raspy for lack of use, but still a beautiful sound. "You’re not wrong.” He walked over to the rack of practice swords on the wall, pulling two down, then turned suddenly and threw one her way. She caught it easily. “Is your offer to spar still open?”

“Always.” She reached out with the Force, pulling another saber off the wall into her waiting hand. She spun both of her blades around in an unnecessarily showy flourish, testing the weight. “Don’t hold back.”

He rushed her without another word, faster than she expected, but not too fast for her to counter. Despite the initial advance, though, he was still clearly holding back. She purposely let him past her guard a couple times, but he didn’t actually hit her, stopping just short of contact. She pressed the advantage, landing a solid strike on his right elbow; even with practice blades, that would still sting.

He shook it out, and when he attacked next, he hit hard enough to send a shockwave up her arm from the blow. Now they were getting somewhere. “I know what it’s like,” she said as she parried another attack, locking his saber between both of hers. “To be controlled by him. To have his voice in your head.”

A spike of anger rose from Arcann, only an echo of the fury he’d carried not long ago. It wasn’t directed at her, or even at Valkorion. It was directed inward, at himself.

He struck at her again, lightning fast, and she ducked low and rolled behind him. He hit a target dummy instead, knocking it to the floor. “You know nothing about me.”

“The rage, and the pain, and the helplessness, and the innocent blood on your hands.” Marii punctuated each statement with a slash from her swords, pushing him back one step, then two. “I understand.”

He broke through her saber flurry with one single, well-placed blow. She stumbled back a step and he swung his sword down toward her head; she had to bring up both sabers in order to block him. He leaned heavier on the blade, using his weight and superior strength to force her back another step. She could feel the hum of electricity from the practice saber on her face. “Does it ever go away?”

“No. Not really.” It wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but she wasn’t going to lie to him. There were still nights when she woke up paralyzed with fear, Vitiate’s voice echoing in her mind. She let the memory of it bleed past her guard, let him feel the truth of it in the Force. “But it can get better. With help.”

She dropped her block abruptly and Arcann lost his balance when he was no longer faced by any resistance. She side-stepped as he fell forward and moved out of his range. There was a burning pain in her cheek that told her she hadn’t been quite fast enough. A wave of emotion, a strange mix of guilt and pride, rose from Arcann when he saw it. It made him hesitate for the smallest moment before he pressed the attack again.

She didn’t know how long it went on like that. They were pretty evenly matched, moreso the longer they fought as they learned each others’ strengths and weaknesses. Whenever one would gain the advantage, the other would close it again.

He was strong, amazingly so, both physically and in the Force, but his attacks were precise and calculated instead of just brute strength. Having fought both his father and sister in the past, she found herself reminded more of Senya than either of them. There was a deliberation in every step he took that he had clearly gotten from his mother.

Marii could see how Ves had lost so many fights to him; she wasn’t sure, if she’d faced him when he was out for blood, if she would have been a match.

They were starting to gather a crowd, but Arcann showed no sign of noticing. Marii’s bare arms were covered in angry red welts from his saber and under his robes he probably wasn’t faring much better, but neither of them gave any ground.

She landed a lucky hit to his chest, knocking the air out of him, and with a low growl and a push from the Force, he threw her across the room. She slowed her descent, dropping one of her sabers to catch herself in a three-point landing, then leapt back into the fight, bringing her single blade down in an arc that he only barely blocked in time.

“You are more than the weapon he tried to make you,” she said quietly, so it wouldn’t carry to their audience. “Stop holding yourself back.”

“I don’t know how to fight without the rage. I don’t know who I am without it,” he replied, voice so low she could barely hear it. “I won’t risk the Commander getting hurt if I lose control again.”

“You’re fighting without the rage right now. It was a crutch. You don’t need it. Trust yourself, Arcann.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Then trust me.”

With another growl, he shoved her away, though it took noticeably more effort than it had before. They were both slowing with every swing, panting and drenched in sweat, but they still refused to quit, to be the one to back down.

Eventually, it was Marii that slipped up. Arcann landed a solid strike to her left wrist, knocking the blade from her grip. She tried to switch to the other hand, but she was slower with her right side. With a parry and a sweep that would have made her trainers at the academy weep with pride, he knocked her sword aside and threw her to the ground in a single motion. His blade was at her throat. The room was dead silent except for their harsh breathing and the crackle of electricity from the vibroblade.

Marii lifted her hands in surrender.

Arcann’s practice saber immediately joined hers on the floor and he reached out a hand to help her up. She took it and he lifted her effortlessly back onto her feet.

There was a scattering of applause and cheers from their audience. It looked like most of the base had shown up to watch them. Arcann ducked his head in embarrassment, but Marii was close enough to see the hint of a smile on his face. On a whim, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him, leaning against him exhaustedly.

He froze, alarmed, hands hovering by her sides but not touching for a long moment before he gave in, clinging to her. He pressed his face into her shoulder and she put a comforting hand on the back of his head. How long had it been since anyone had hugged him, had offered him anything but violence? No wonder he felt so adrift without it.

She held him as long as he needed her to, only letting go when he did. “Feel better?”

“Yes. Do you?”

“You know what? I do.” Maybe he hadn’t been the only one that had some things he needed to work through. “Been a while since I’ve had a good fight.”

“Let me know when you feel like getting beaten again,” he said, his soft voice warm with amusement. “I’m happy to offer you a rematch.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, I like you. I’m glad you’re here, Arcann.”

“Yes. So am I.” For the first time, it sounded like he meant it. She could feel the moment he realized it as well, a new undercurrent of resolve in the stillness of his aura. “Thank you, Marii.”

“Anytime.” She clapped a hand on his shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze, then stepped away from him to start picking up the scattered practice swords. “If you ever need to talk, come find me. No judgements.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He bowed, stiff and formal, an old habit he hadn’t broken yet. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I need to have a word with the Commander.”

#aramarii wrinn #aka the story of how marii and arcann accidentally Force Bonded #because I love Force Bonds #and the Force is a meddling bitch who wants these two to have some healthy familial relationships #marii and arcann have the same good sibling energy as ves and theron or kai and eder #plus! sword fights! I've never written sword fights it was fun #thank you for the prompt darling <3 #serenbach86

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foxyninjabear · 5 years ago

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A Hacker’s Tale - Chapter 2

[CHAPTER ONE]

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!: This fic is rated as PG-14+, so read at your own risk! There’s swearsies, suggestive references, and LOTS of blood and gore! Be aware!

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Lucky

Guns popping. Swords clashing. Machinery whirring. People chatting.

Lucky hated all of the noise.

The blonde was up against the wall of the block, fidgeting with a stray bullet casing he found on the floor and trying to distance his mind away from his surroundings. Almost everyone else around him was sparring or preparing for the world hijack mission. After Lucky had shared all of the information he found with the team, Nightingale had dismissed everyone and ordered them to continue preparing until it was time to leave.

That was almost half an hour ago, and Lucky had absolutely nothing. No weapons, no armor, nothing but the clothes on his back, the googles perched on his head, and the boots on his feet.

Maybe trying to drown out the sound wasn't a good idea after all.

Lucky peeled his gaze from the bullet casing in between his fingers and leaned away from the wall. His eyes shifted around the room from person to person; Coda and Jazz testing their guns on the firing range, Nightingale picking out some armor from the racks, Sakura trying to work out the kinks of her mech. All he needed was to get a weapon and a set of armor in the next ten or so minutes.

Simple.

The blonde started to make his way to the rack of blades and guns, returning to the safety of his wandering mind as he walked. Maybe if he just pretended he was somewhere else, he wouldn't be so on edge. The thought of his bunker in the Cyber Division’s segment of the Hive sounded heavenly. Nobody to bother him, peace and quiet; nothing but him and his holographic monitors-

He was snapped out of his thoughts once he suddenly smacked himself against the rack of weaponry, causing many of the blades and guns to rattle on their perches. “Gah!!” A bright red blush of embarrassment flushed across his freckled cheeks, and he wildly glanced around at everyone else in the room, desperately hoping that nobody saw. But as far as he could tell, every person he could see at that moment was still focused on their own activities.

Lucky let out a shaky sigh of relief before turning back to the artillery he came to examine in the first place. Swords, axes, guns and explosives. How dangerous was the mission supposed to be? Soon his gaze landed on a small serrated knife, and he figured that at least something sharp would come in handy.

The blonde carefully grasped the dagger’s handle and took it off its perch, looking back at his reflection in the shiny blade. The idea of using a weapon was still a very foreign concept to him. He only went through the standard amount of combat training, unlike most soldiers, who started off in either Infantry or Medical to further their experience in the field. Instead, he was immediately put into the Cyber division. His knack for interfering with a World’s code and gathering information on the fly is what landed him a spot, despite his age and lack of physical skills and strengths.

And even after eight years of experience, he mostly remained the same. He was still quite scrawny, and he wasn’t that strong either. But it wasn’t too bad. He never had to operate or use any sort of larger artillery anyway.

“You picking out a weapon?”

Lucky jumped at the voice, his grip on his knife tightening. Once he looked to see who it was, he saw the Infantry soldier with long red hair standing a few feet away. What was his name again? Seth? Seth. That sounded about right.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Seth assured, holding his hands up. “Jumpy much, aren’t we?”

The Cyber soldier’s face reddened. “U-uhh… s-sorry…” He cleared his throat. “Y-yeah, I’m just… g-getting a dagger.”

The redhead raised a brow. “That’s it?”

Lucky shrugged, holding his blade closer to him. “Y-yeah… wh-why do you ask…?”

Seth glanced over at the weapon rack. “You should at least have a gun on hand. Can’t have our techie be unarmed now, can we?” He then reached his hands up to a large assault rifle and picked it up off its shelf.

"U-uhh…" The blonde timidly raised a finger, eyes filled with worry at the sight of the gun. "I-I don't think I have permission to use those…?"

"Then let’s make sure you don’t get caught.” Seth replied, a charming grin on his lips. He grabbed the younger soldier’s dagger and set the rifle in his hands, who then stumbled a bit at how heavy it was.

“U-umm…!” Lucky tried to get a better grasp on the large gun, but every time he tried to adjust his hands, he felt like he would drop the weapon on the floor and possibly damage it. “I-I don’t know if this is a good idea…!”

The taller redhead tightened his ponytail and chuckled. “Alright, alright,” He grabbed a hold of the rifle and removed it from the Cyber soldier’s grip, trading him his knife back. “Just playing with you.” He said, before strapping the gun to a holster on his back. “Now, don’t die out there.” Seth winked, and before the younger male could respond, he suddenly disappeared in a flash of red pixels, leaving the blonde all alone.

Lucky wiped some sweat from his forehead, still shaken by the ordeal. “O...okay…” He squeaked out to the empty air, and glanced back down at the dagger in his hand. Maybe he should get a gun…

“Don’t let him get under your skin.”

Another sudden voice made the blonde jump and shriek where he stood. He snapped his head around and readied his knife, but glanced up to see Nightingale’s tall figure standing before him, now donning a set of sleek black plated armor, a dark combat helmet tucked under her arm. Her face was expressionless, as it had been for most of the hour or so he had seen her.

“M-ma’am...!” He stuttered to his superior, taken off guard by her abrupt appearance. He quickly drew back his blade and looked at the floor in shame. “I-I…uhh-”

“No need to apologize,” The ebony woman cut him off, her gaze empty and void of almost any emotion. “It was a justified move.”

Lucky shakily lifted his gaze back to Nightingale. “A...are you sure, ma’am…?” He asked, . “I-I could have hurt you…”

“Lucky, as far as I can tell, weapons aren’t something you’re used to handling.”

The blonde’s face turned scarlet at the statement. “I-I...umm…” He struggled to come up with a response, but soon caved and gave the sniper a nod. “Y...yes, ma’am…”

Nightingale continued, simultaneously slipping the helmet under her arm over her head. “And there’s nothing to be ashamed about that.” She shifted her gaze to a sleek set of black and red armor perched on a nearby mannequin, and was silent for a brief moment. "Here, take this." She held out her hand and made a fist, before pulling her arm back in. As if drawn to her movements, the dummy zoomed across the tiled floor towards the pair, wobbling slightly when it came to a stop.

Lucky blinked in confusion, before realization set in and he understood what the woman wanted him to do. "O-oh!" He then stepped up to the figure and began to slip the pieces of high tech gear on, one by one.

“Now, a word of advice,” Nightingale said as she pulled a large black and red quarterstaff off the rack and began to examine it. “Know that combat is much more than using a sword or a gun,” She stated, twirling the long weapon in her hands. “You play to your strengths. Use them to your advantage.”

The blonde’s movements stopped as he was about to put on the helmet of his armor set. "I...I'm sorry, ma'am?" What strengths? He could barely lift a sword without having it shake in his hands.

The sniper pressed a button on the side of her helmet, and the visor hiding her face retracted. “I don’t just mean physical capabilities, Lucky.” She replied, and suddenly threw her spinning staff up above her head. Lucky was filled with immediate worry of getting hit by the rod as it began to fall back down, but just before it could, Nightingale flicked her hand in its direction, causing it to hover in midair. “Your hacks play a key role in how well you perform out on the battlefield. Don’t be afraid to get creative with them.” She said, before grabbing the staff and holstering it on her back.

Lucky thought for a moment, but just as he opened his mouth to reply, he heard a loud beep come from Nightingale’s communicator. Aware of the noise, she lifted her wrist up closer to her face to have a look, before she raised her voice to get everyone’s attention. “Nine thirty, people! Whether you’re ready or not, it’s time to move!”

The blonde flinched at her loud statement, but quickly slipped his visored helmet onto his head. He glanced around at everyone in the room, and they were all decked out with powerful armor and weapons. Even the two medics had equipped some artillery that put Lucky’s light armor and dagger to shame. Still, the thought of a gun was all too scary…

But he turned around and snatched a pistol from the weapon rack anyway, quickly tucking it in his boot before following his colleagues out the doors.

~~~~~

Lucky was left alone to his thoughts while he and the rest of the byte made their way down the bustling foyer. He could feel the barrel of the pistol he grabbed rub against the side of his foot with each step he took, and he silently hoped he wouldn't get a blister.

The blonde shifted his gaze around at the soldiers walking in front of him. Nightingale in the lead, Coda and Grey on her left and right, and Seth, Sakura, and Nix behind her…

But where was Jazz?

"Hey dude."

Even though that was the third time in the span of thirty minutes that somebody spoke up from behind him, Lucky still reacted the same exact way; he shrieked, jumped, and spun around to see who it was. But instead of fearing the person he saw, the nervous feeling in his chest disappeared at the sight of the Special Ops soldier with bright blue hair and eyes. Jazz.

“J-Jazz!” The blonde exclaimed. He then crossed his arms, pouting a bit. “You scared me!”

Lucky could practically feel the smirk radiating off of Jazz’s face. “Aw, c’mon,” He chuckled. “I can’t have some fun with my baby brother?”

Lucky puffed out his cheeks in embarrassment at what his older brother called him. “J-Jazz… I’m twenty six.”

“And I’m thirty.” The blue-haired man patted the top of his brother’s helmet, chuckling. “You’re always going to be my little bro.” He then pressed two buttons on the side his own helmet to retract his visor and reveal the top half of his face. “And even if you try and deny it, you can’t. We look way too similar for you to hide it."

The shorter brother sighed a bit. “I know…” He often wondered how he and Jazz could have been related in the first place. Sure, they were both naturally blue-eyed blondes, and they had strikingly similar facial features, but all similarities stopped there. Jazz was much taller and appeared much stronger than him, not to mention his colorfully dyed hair. His personality was also the complete opposite of his younger brother’s; Lucky was timid and constantly anxious, while Jazz was laid back and much more extroverted, even courageous.

Maybe that’s why Lucky was put into the Cyber Division. He couldn’t do anything else but type away at a keyboard and be an information hotline for people in the field to call. And yet his brother was all the way at Special Ops, carrying out classified missions and taking on the most dangerous and sickening tasks the Shadowbyte Army ever had to do. From stopping a corrupted World from spreading their infected code to another, to taking down the leaders of child trafficking rings, Special Ops soldiers did it all. They were the heroes, the ones put on a pedestal and praised, the ones given stacks upon stacks of medals and awards by Ecryptos himself.

As much as he hated to admit it, he was deeply jealous of Jazz. Jealous of the fact that people actually appreciated what he did. Jealous of how people didn’t push him around like a ragdoll. Jealous of how the leader of the entire Army even acknowledged his existence.

But Lucky could never get angry at his brother. As envious as he was, he looked up to him and cared for him immensely; he was the only family he ever knew, after all. Both of their parents had died when Lucky was just a few months old, leaving him and Jazz with nowhere to go. But a small recruitment unit was stationed in their home World, and once they found them, they took the two boys and brought them back to Fort Oblivion without a second thought. They were saved from an otherwise cruel fate and given a brand new home. Just like the countless amounts of other children taken under Ecryptos’ wing over the many years since his founding of the Army.

And Lucky was more than grateful for that.

“Lucky?” Jazz’s voice made his train of thought screech to a halt. “Lucky, you in there?”

“Hmm?” The blonde blinked and glanced up at his brother. “O-oh, yeah, I’m here.”

“Spaced out again?”

Lucky fell silent, and gave a shy laugh. “U-uhh… maybe…?”

Jazz let out a small chuckle in return. "It's alright, you didn't miss much." He then gestured up ahead of him and the rest of the group, where a large mechanical door could be seen. The entrance to a proxy teleportation hub. "If anything, you skipped on some of the waiting."

The blonde blinked. "O-oh!" His freckled cheeks turned slightly red. “W-well… I guess that’s good…?”

Jazz let out another laugh. “Never change, dude,” His older brother patted his shoulder. “Never change.” Now outside the metal doors, he walked through as they opened, revealing a large, circular platform in the center of an otherwise empty chamber, save for a window which appeared to have a control room on the other side, harboring only a single soldier. “Now, come on.”

Lucky followed his brother and the rest of the byte into the room, the doors shutting behind him. He took a breath of assurance as he stepped onto the raised part of the floor, and his eyes wandered around everyone in the group, eventually landing in Nightingale.

And not a moment later, the ebony woman lifted her head and gave a nod to the soldier in the control booth, who gave a thumbs up back before pressing a few buttons on their console. Loud sirens blared and flashed on the walls as the platform beneath everybody’s feet gradually lit up. The blonde soon felt the nervous thumping of his heart in his ears; the sirens always put him on edge.

“Beginning proxy teleportation sequence.” A calm, robotic voice echoed over the alarms as the red glow grew brighter and brighter. “Please remain on the platform so you safely arrive at your destination.”

Lucky soon squeezed his eyes shut when the light filling the chamber became too intense to bear. A weightless feeling bubbled up in his chest as he felt his feet slowly lift off the ground, before all of the air suddenly left his lungs and the blaring sirens in his ears ceased. He hesitantly cracked his eyes open, and was met with an inky darkness peppered with tiny puffs of dust floating through the air.

The Void.

“Hey, bro!” Jazz’s voice crackled in Lucky’s ear, making him flinch at the sudden noise. “Down here!”

“Huh?” The blonde glanced below him, and he saw the rest of the byte about ten meters below him. All of them had their focus straight on his hovering figure, with Jazz waving his arms. “O-oh! Sorry...!” He slowly adjusted the flight hack given to him by the proxy, allowing himself to lower towards his seven colleagues.

Nightingale kept her helmeted gaze on him as he descended. "As long as you don't get lost, you'll be fine," She said through the intercom, before gesturing behind Lucky. "Which I doubt will happen, given that our target World is right behind you."

Lucky blinked and turned to look over his shoulder. In the distance, a massive blue sphere stood out against the darkness surrounding it, giving off a bright light. The faint outline of a darker blue orb could be seen inside the bubble, at the exact center. HermitCraft.

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Coda asked, before her flight hack disabled. "C'mon, this World isn't gonna hijack itself!" However, instead of plummeting into the endless darkness, her feet landed on the air beneath her as if it were completely solid. Air walking hacks.

“Hold your horses, kid,” Grey stated as his own flight hack faded away and made him fall for a moment, only to enable another one to remain hovering in the air. Many others followed suit, save for Nix, who used an air walking hack, and Sakura, who had activated her mech and climbed inside, activating the jets to keep herself from taking a nosedive into the Void.

The creeper turned to face the medic. “Who ya callin’ kid?” She placed her hands on her hips. “I-”

“Do you want to get muted again, Coda?” Seth nudged his friend with his elbow, in an attempt to try and prevent a repeat of what had happened before.

Coda fell silent, before letting out a huff. “Fine.” She crossed her arms, appearing to make an attempt at standing in place and not running off. “But I swear, if we don’t-”

Nightingale then cut her off, her tone stern and harsh. “Watch your tongue, Coda.” She looked down at the creeper, and even though she didn’t have her focus on him, Lucky felt the hairs on his neck stand up at her words. “It will get you into trouble, and you might not be able to get yourself out of it. Am I clear?”

To Lucky’s surprise, the soldier’s confident body language faltered for a moment. “Y...yes ma’am,” She answered, her shoulders slightly drooping.

“Wise decision,” The sniper then took her gaze from Coda to the rest of the byte. “Now, you all know the drill. Once we get to the border, the rest of us will stay on guard while Lucky disables the firewalls.” She made a small gesture to the short blonde. “We then get inside, split up, regroup when one of us find the main area of operation, and round up each and every member. Secure who you can… bag the rest.” Her floating figure then rose higher. “Now, move in.”

Lucky saluted along with everyone else. As people began to fly or teleport or airwalk towards the World, however, the Cyber soldier continued to hover in place, closing his eyes; he had to focus to get it to work. He felt a buzzing sensation in his chest grow and grow, before it all burst in what felt like a static shock, and he activated a teleportation hack that zipped him all the way to the World’s firewalls in one shot. His stomach churned for a brief moment, only to quickly settle right as the rest of his colleagues arrived.

The blonde, feeling more secure that the rest of the team was there, floated up to the firewall and tapped on it twice, and a large holographic panel pixelated before him. Countless lines of seemingly indecipherable code ran past his vision, but he knew what every single one meant and did. He lifted his hands up to the screen and began to type, sifting through the code to try and disarm the massive force fields.

Several moments of silence ensued, surrounded by the faint echoes of the Void, the pulsing of the firewalls, and Lucky’s typing. “...so when you gonna be done?” Coda asked over the intercom after about a minute, an impatient tone to her voice.

Before Lucky could respond, Jazz spoke up in defense of his brother. “Give him time, Coda,” He gave a stern reply to the creeper, giving her an answer to her question. “There’s five firewalls to take down, and it isn’t as easy as you think it might be-”

The soldier suddenly fell silent, before he spoke again, this time in a panic. “Shit, we’ve got trouble!” He stated. “Malware, six o’ clock!”

The blonde almost stopped his typing at what he had heard his brother announce. “M-malware? Already?!” He stuttered. “What is it…?” He instinctively looked behind him, and he saw what Jazz was talking about. A massive rope-like figure made of blue and black pixels slithered and twisted in the Void, flying closer towards the team. A single red eye glowed on its large head, and it unhinged its jaw to show off several rows of razor sharp teeth and let out a terrifying, static-filled roar.

“Is that what I think it is?!” Seth asked, slowly pulling out his assault rifle.

Lucky gulped and nodded. “Th-that’s a worm…”

His mind nearly went into a panic just at the sight of the malware barreling towards him and the other seven soldiers. How could a worm get that large? He knew that all worms did was eat anything they could find to get bigger, but they would reach only about five meters in length before they were found and destroyed. This one surpassed that mark by a landslide. Eighty meters? Ninety? A hundred?! The worm was moving too swiftly to tell. And how did it manage to only appear then?! Somebody should have heard something!

It was the sound of gunshots that snapped Lucky out of his thoughts. Coda had snatched Seth’s rifle out of his hands and fired several times at the rapidly approaching malware in the distance.

“Wait, stop!!” Lucky panicked, reaching his hand out. “Bullets aren’t going to do anything! It’s too big!”

“Well, what the fuck are we supposed to do?!” Coda screamed and turned to look over at the blonde. “We’re sitting ducks if we don’t kill that thing!”

“J-Just… Just buy me some time!” Lucky felt his breathing quicken as he typed faster. He had to find the core of the firewall’s security and shut it down, and quick.

“He’s right!” Nightingale added. “Everyone, fan out! Keep that worm occupied!”

The Cyber soldier turned away from the group, flinching as he heard more roars from the worm. He had to resist the urge to look back at his team, back at the imminent danger. What was going on? The malware was screeching and letting out ear splitting cries, so much so that he couldn’t hear anybody else. All he could do was type and tap and push buttons as fast as he could…

And then he made it to the arming system on his panel of code. With one final smash of a button, every single firewall disappeared in a shower of blue pixels before his eyes, leaving the World inside completely exposed.

“They’re down!” Lucky shouted into his earpiece. “They’ll come back up in ten seconds, so we’ve gotta get in there NOW!”

Ten… nine... The byte began racing towards the World as fast as they could, Lucky in the lead. Nightingale, Grey, and Jazz activated flight hacks, Seth and Lucky started teleporting, Coda and Nix used speed hacks as they activated airwalks, and Sakura activated the propulsion jets on her R.O.S.A. and flew alongside the group. All were determined to get inside the World before they were locked out and had to face a grim demise.

Eight… seven...

The worm let out another fearsome cry, and Lucky instinctively glanced over his shoulder as he teleported from place to place. He wished he didn’t; the terrifying piece of malware was getting closer, sharp teeth on display and hungry for a fresh kill. The blonde felt his heart pound against his ribcage at the sight, and he immediately cried out over the intercom. “It’s gaining on us!”

Six...

“Ya think we can’t hear that damn thing?!” Coda shouted back.

Five…

“Let’s try to focus on not getting eaten, hmm?!” Nightingale ordered.

Four...

Another roar echoed behind the group of eight. Lucky could feel the sound vibrate through his chest. He knew this time he couldn’t look back. He just had to keep teleporting as fast as his hacks could take him.

Three...

Lucky felt himself becoming wearier with every time he teleported. His heart pounded, his vision blurred, his stomach churned. A side effect of using so many hacks in such a short amount of time.

Two...

But all he hoped was that they would be quick enough to get him out of this alive.

One...

Blue light flashed around the group, and the firewalls flickered back to life behind them. Before it could react, the worm slammed against the barrier with a loud THUNK, and let out static roar. It retracted itself back and shook its head several times, its massive red eye blinking. Not a moment later, it huffed, mandibles shifting, and flew off back into the darkness of the Void from where it came.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. The constant feeling of death breathing down their necks was finally over, a giant weight lifted off their shoulders. Lucky felt his heart start to slow down as he gradually caught his breath, and he wiped a layer of dust off his visor. “Thank goodness…” He muttered to himself, clutching his stomach as he tried to let it settle.

“That was close…” Sakura said, breaking the constant huffs and exhausted coughing. “Is everybody okay…?”

“I’ve seen better days,” Grey groaned and rubbed his shoulder. A large gash could be seen on the shoulder pad of his chestpiece, a few black and blue pixels dotted along the surface.

Coda let out a chuckle as she breathed heavily. “You mean younger days, old man?”

“I’ve been at this longer than you’ve been alive.” The medic replied. “I’m not the man I was thirty years ago.”

“You’ve been enlisted for over thirty years?” Sakura asked, sounding genuinely interested. “Shouldn’t you be close to retirement by now?”

“Two more months,” Grey replied, chuckling a bit. “Then I’m going to be relaxing on a beach somewhere in some deserted World-”

“As much as I would love to talk about retirement plans,” Nightingale’s stern voice cut Grey’s sentence off short. “We need to move before we get noticed by anything. Or anyone.”

Lucky gave a rapid nod and saluted along with several of the other soldiers, his nausea now fading away. “Y-yes ma’am!” He said, following everyone else’s lead. He looked over his shoulder at the rippling bluish-white wall of the World border, and took a deep breath to reassure himself that it would be alright. Closing his eyes, he then hurled himself forward, passing through the border and feeling gravity take hold of him once again as he landed on what he presumed to be the ground. To his surprise, he didn't stumble or fall. Not that he was complaining, of course.

The blonde cracked open his eyes, and the inky darkness of the Void was now replaced with bright colors and light. He stood in a massive field of grass up to his knees, a painted blue sky dotted with clouds up above. There was a soft breeze, making the expansive meadow around him ripple in waves of green. Everything was cast in a warm, gentle glow from the sun above the clouds.

However, as lovely Lucky thought his surroundings were, he also thought that the view wasn’t enough compensation for him nearly being torn to shreds. Nothing probably would. But it wasn’t like he could exactly leave; the Army gave him a lot of debt to pay, after all.

It was the sound of feet planting on the ground behind him that made him turn around. Not too surprisingly, it was the rest of the byte, sticking out against the gentle landscape with their bold colored armor and artillery.

Coda pushed a button on the side of her helmet, and the glass visor retracted itself to reveal her face. She took a deep breath in, and sighed in relief. "Finally, fresh air…"

Many others followed suit, including Lucky, either taking off their helmets completely or retracting the glass visors to allow them to take in the warm summer air. Even Nightingale had taken off her helmet, letting her midnight curls spring outward.

A minute of silence passed upon the group of soldiers as they all took the scenery in. Nothing but the summer wind and the distant chirping of birds could be heard. If only every day could be this calm, this serene...

But of course, the moment had to come to an end at some point. In this case, it ended with Nightingale breaking the silence. “Alright, get with your partners!” She barked out an order, slipping her helmet back onto her head. “Then head off towards your quadrinths!”

As soon as the sniper made her command, everyone broke away and paired with each other. Sakura with Coda, Seth with Nix, Nightingale with Grey. Which left Lucky with Jazz, and he was more than happy. The thought of being paired with almost anyone else (spare for Sakura and possibly Nix) made him feel uneasy.

At least he was going to have his brother by his side.

~~~~~

“How long have we been moving…?” Lucky asked Jazz, letting out a small groan in pain. His feet were killing him, hurting more with every step he made.

Jazz looked down at his brother as they walked through the dense woods. “About an hour.” He raised an eyebrow after a moment. “You tired of moving already?”

The blonde groaned again. “W-we nearly got eaten by a worm four times the size of an Ender Dragon…” He said. “And I’m not used to going in the field. Of course I’m tired.”

His brother let out a chuckle. “Fair enough.” He replied. A moment of silence ensued, before he spoke again. “You did good back there, by the way. With taking down the firewalls.”

Lucky felt his cheeks flush red at the compliment. No matter how many times his brother gave him any sort of praise, his face would practically turn into a cherry. “Y-you think so, Jazz…?” He asked.

Jazz smiled. “I know so, dude.” He assured, setting a hand on his shoulder. “And so do you. And the people that don’t think that are idiots, cuz you saved our asses today.”

A shy smile began to gradually form on the blonde’s face at his brother’s words. “Th...thanks.”

“Anytime, Lucky.” There was another moment of quiet between the two brothers until Jazz spoke again. “...I’m proud of you, you know that right?”

Lucky blinked and stopped in his tracks. “Wait, what…?” His eyes widened as he looked up at his brother. “You’re...you’re proud of-”

"This is Bloom looking for Nightingale. Over." Sakura's voice crackled through the com, rudely interrupting the heartfelt conversation between the two brothers.

A moment later, Nightingale's voice sounded as a reply. "Hear you loud and clear, Bloom." She said. "State your message. Over."

"Tiny Dancer and I have found signs of player activity in the south eastern quadrant," Sakura answered back. "And it appears to be recent. Should I send you all the coordinates? Over."

The sniper’s reply was almost instantaneous. “Yes, Bloom. Send them right away.” She ordered. “Everyone else, once you get their location, head there immediately. No stops. Nightingale, over and out.”

As the message ended and the coordinates sent through, Jazz glanced over at Lucky. “Well… time to go, I guess.” The corners of his mouth turned down into a slight frown for a moment, only to disappear as quickly as it came. “You got the coords?”

The younger of the two brothers glanced down at his communicator. “Y-yeah, I got them.” He said. “S-see you there.” He gave his brother a quick smile, before he closed his eyes and felt his stomach churned as he teleported. Once he opened his eyes, he saw everybody else there with him, including Jazz. He then shifted his eyes from them to his surroundings, and saw that he was in some sort of small town.

Well, more like a compound, the more he looked at it. But what it lacked in size it made up for in both security and class. Massive walls of wood and stone bricks stretched high above the group of eight and the buildings inside, making it very apparent that the stronghold was very defensible against most outsiders.

Emphasis on most, of course.

Lucky soon heard Grey speak up. "So should we try and lock this place down? Secure the perimeter?" He asked Nightingale, catching her attention.

The taller woman nodded. "Yes, we are," She answered. "And it can be safe to assume that if we find anyone, we'll be able to handle them." She shifted her one-eyed gaze around, before it landed on a stone building secured with a set of iron doors. "Now, follow me."

Being led by the famous sniper, everyone had their weapons equipped, save for Sakura, who had by this point exited her R.O.S.A. and compressed it back into its cubic form. Even Lucky had his grip on his knife for a moment, but soon put it away.

Nightingale then stepped up to the doors, but as she grasped the handle and tried to turn it, it refused to move. "Hmm?" She shook the lock a bit more, only to soon turn to Sakura. "It's locked… you have a lockpick?"

The mechanic bit her lip. "No ma'am…" She started, but she stepped up to the iron barrier anyway. "I can try to unlock it though." Pulling out a screwdriver from her tool belt and a small bobby pin from her hair, she knelt down to the lock and began to work.

But after several moments of jiggling the lock, breaking several pins, and nearly breaking the handle off the door, the brunette sighed in defeat. "It's not budging…" She said, standing up. "We're going to need a key."

Coda then spoke up and stepped towards the door, cracking her neck. “Don’t worry, I got one already.” As Sakura blinked in confusion and opened her mouth to ask what she meant, the creeper swiftly slammed her boot against the iron barrier with a massive BANG. The instant her foot collided with the metal, the door flew right off its hinges and skidded along the floor in a trail of sparks.

Lucky nearly shrieked at the loud noise, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment and clapping his hands over his ears. He hated that his ears were so sensitive to sound. Maybe it was all of that time spent in his control room at the Hive…

But no matter what it was, he knew he had to brush it off and keep going.

And that’s exactly what he did. He followed behind the group as everyone walked in single file, before making their way down a flight of stairs, and being greeted with a series of winding hallways. What was that place? A bunker of some sort? Lucky couldn’t tell. But with every footstep that sounded through the air, he became more and more certain that-

“Hello?”

Immediately, Lucky felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise. The echoing voice wasn’t one that he recognized. It had to be one of the World’s W.E.S. residents. But how had they found the byte already? Was it just blind chance? No matter what it was, he panicked out of instinct, and dashed into a nearby room, everybody else soon following.

The blonde darted his eyes around the dark room as he pressed himself against one of the walls. Countless boxes and crates were stacked among each other, some of their contents spilling out onto the tile floor. Books, picture frames, clothes. He even thought he saw something that looked like a drone sticking out of one of the containers. Perhaps the bunker was some sort of storage area. The W.E.S. employees could have possibly brought some of their own personal belongings to the World.

But he was shifted back to the present once he heard the voice again. "Doc? Is that you?" Footsteps then sounded, getting closer by the second. Lucky flattened himself further against the wall, eyes on the door to the hallway. He hesitantly reached for the knife on his belt, and held it close to his chest. He could do this...

Hopefully.

He glanced over at Nightingale, who had her rifle grasped in both hands. Her one-eyed gaze was fixed on the door, just like his was, but hers was much more calm, collected. And once that iron door opened and someone entered the room, she immediately knocked them to the ground and pointed the gun at their chest.

“GAAHH!!” The person who entered had let out a shriek as he hit the floor, before his eyes filled with fear as he saw all eight hackers before him. “Wh-what…? Wh-who are you?!” The brunette scrambled further back against the tiles beneath him, desperate to get away from the group of eight as they stalked closer. "P-please, I don't have anything…!" He begged.

“We don’t want money, kid,” Grey stated, pulling his pistol from his holster. “Just stay calm and-”

“Get away from me!” The green-eyed man attempted to fumble to his feet. “I-” Just as he was about to try and dash off, Nightingale suddenly teleported before him and jammed the barrel of her sniper rifle against his forehead. “GAAH!!”

The woman pressed her rifle’s barrel further against the man’s temple as he shrieked. "I would advise against trying to run." She stated, her voice cold like ice. “Understand?”

The brunette’s figure shook violently, his green eyes filled with fear as they were focused on the gun against his head. “Y-yes…!” He squeaked, trying to press himself further against the wall.

“Good.” She removed her rifle from his forehead, making him sigh in relief. “You’re going to tell us what we need, and you just might make it out alive.”

The man blinked, but he quickly nodded. “Y-yes, of course!” He agreed. “Wh-what do you want to know?”

The ebony woman kept her gaze locked with his. “First off… what’s your name?”

The hostage immediately answered. “Scar…! G-GoodTimesWithScar!”

“Scar, you say?” She removed her focus off of him and shifted it over to Lucky. “Lucky, check it against the list you made.”

Lucky nodded and pulled up his keyboard and holographic monitor with the photographs he compiled earlier. “Yes ma’am.” He plugged in the name into a search bar above the collage, pressed one final button, and then one of the images expanded to show who it was in greater detail. And sure enough, it was the same man cowering against the wall. “Yup, he’s telling the truth, ma’am. GoodTimesWithScar, famous builder turned full time W.E.S. employee.”

Scar's eyes widened in confusion as his personal information was read off. "H...how did you…?" His sentence trailed off as a small ding sounded in the air, followed by a repeated buzzing.

Most members of the byte instinctively lifted their wrists to check their communicators, including Lucky, but nothing was showing up on any of the screens. The only one who didn’t move was Nix, and he had his dark brown gaze set on Scar.

"...wait, what's the quiet kid staring at?" Coda asked after a moment of confusion. Lucky shifted his focus back to the hostage, and then noticed what the silent medic was looking at. On Scar's wrist, a communicator was lit up and buzzing, signifying that someone was calling him.

Immediately, Lucky felt a sickening sense of dread in his chest. If Scar had a communicator, it meant that everyone in that World likely did. And more often than not, they had tracking systems built into their hardware, including an emergency feature that sent out an alarm to all other connected devices, notifying that somebody needed assistance ASAP. Plus, with somebody calling him, he could alert the others by answering and begging for help.

Apparently, Sakura had the same idea; get the communicator away from the hostage. Right before Lucky could say something, the brunette sprung into action and reached her cybernetic arm out and flicked her hand upwards. The device on Scar’s wrist then snapped off and flew straight into the mechanic’s palm.

"H-hey…!" Scar tried to lunge for his wrist com, but soon had the barrel of Jazz's combat shotgun lazily pointed at his head.

"Just make this easy so I don't have to scrub your brains off the wall," The soldier stated, yawning a bit. Lucky’s stomach churned a bit at his brother’s words. "Blood stains are tough to clean up…"

The brunette’s green eyes widened, and he shrunk back his arm to hug himself. He tried to make a response, but could only let out a terrified squeak.

“Jazz!” Sakura stated, crossing her arms. “You’re scaring him!”

“That’s the point,” Jazz replied. “We can’t have this guy blow our cover.”

“I get that, but we don’t have to threaten him with his life-”

“Hey,” Nightingale interrupted the two and grasped their attention. “Another time, you two.”

Sakura looked at the ground in shame. “Yes ma’am…” She said.

Lucky’s brother soon followed. “Yes ma’am. It won’t happen again.”

“It better not,” Nightingale’s response made Lucky uneasy, and even more so when she shifted her raven gaze to him. “Now Lucky, you can create anti-teleportation restraints, I presume?”

The blonde gulped and nodded. “Y-yes ma’am…” He answered, feeling himself start to shake from anxiousness.

“Excellent.” The ebony woman gestured to Scar, who was still shivering in fear against the wall. “Put a pair of handcuffs on him. Make sure he can’t get out.”

Lucky nodded another time. “O-of course, ma’am!” He then held out his hand, and before his eyes, a glowing blue pair of translucent handcuffs pixelated in a matter of moments. With his new restraints in hand, he then knelt down, grasped the brunette’s arms and tightly snapped the cuffs around his wrists.

“O-ow!!” Scar gasped out in pain. “Th-they’re too tight!”

Seth then stepped closer to the hostage. “That’s sort of the point.” He stated, before locking his gaze to Scar’s. “Now, hold still for me.”

The brunette blinked, confused. “Hold still-”

Scar's face paled in horror as he saw Seth's figure and features suddenly begin to shift and change before him. His fair skin tanned and freckled, his long red hair became brown and short, his eyes went from a striking grey to a soft green. Even his armor shifted into a brown jacket, pants and hat, and his tall figure shrunk down into one of the same size and stature as Scar's.

In fact, he looked exactly like Scar. A perfect carbon copy. Not a single feature or mark or scar was out of place, except for Seth's signature sly grin, making the innocent appearance much more sinister and malicious.

"There we are," Seth said, and showing to the group that his voice had changed as well. It was now slightly higher pitched, and much less formal than it was just moments before. Scar's voice. “Now, let’s call that friend back, shall we?” He turned to look down at Lucky. “You able to access it?”

The blonde nodded. “Y-Yeah. Just one moment,” He shifted his blue gaze to Scar’s communicator, and tapped the screen a couple times. To his surprise, there was no password required to gain entry into the device; he only needed to swipe left on the screen to open the main menu, its background of an adorable gray and white cat with a red collar wrapped around its neck.

But as much as Lucky wanted to obsess over how cute the feline looked, he had a job to do. He darted his eyes around the screen, before landing on an icon of a phone. A single red dot blinking on one of its corners, signifying a missed call. Once he clicked on the image, a long list of previous calls made or received on the communicator appeared, with the latest being from a contact listed as ‘Doc’.

Doc. That name immediately rang a bell in Lucky’s mind. Doc was the name of the military scientist turned cyborg after getting blown up by one of his experiments. And from what he remembered from his profile picture, the creeper appeared extremely intimidating. All that he hoped as he pressed the button to return the call and handed the device over to Seth was that Doc didn’t suspect any foul play.

“Hello? Scar?” A deep, accented voice sounded from the communicator. “You there? I’ve called you twice…”

“Yeah, I’m here,” Seth spoke back, impersonating the handcuffed hostage perfectly. “Just got caught up with something.”

Doc chuckled, making Lucky feel more at ease at how it was all going smoothly. “Jellie again?” He asked. “What did she do this time?”

The soldier gave a chuckle in return. “She stole my hat and ran off.”

“Again?” The creeper asked, laughing. “It’s like she tries to hoard things, I swear…” After a moment, he then cleared his throat. “Anyway, I wanted to call to ask if you were still up for helping me, Impulse, and Stress out with the boxes down in the storage bunker. There’s still a bunch of equipment that needs to be sorted out.”

Lucky blinked at two things; one, the last two people mentioned, and two, the location of where they planned to meet up. Stress and Impulse? They had to be some of the other W.E.S. members stationed in the World. In terms of the meeting place… where they were seemed like the place. And he didn’t know if having all three people come at once was the safest option.

But before he could say anything, Seth replied to Doc with a wide grin. “Yes, of course.”

“Alright!” Doc said to his ‘friend’. “I’m on my way right now, so I should be there soon. Stress and Impulse are right behind me.”

The imposter grinned even wider at his success. “I look forward to it. See you in a bit.”

“See you, man.”

The communicator then let out a beep, signifying that the call was over. Seth handed the device back to Lucky and turned to grin at Scar. “Well then…” He tipped his new hat in the hostage’s direction. “I suppose I have a friend or two to meet up with, hmm?”

All Scar could manage to do was let out shocked squeaks and sounds as he tried to come up with a response. “P-please don’t do this…” He begged, his eyes becoming more fearful as his double turned around and started walking out of the room. “Please, don’t…!”

Sakura stepped closer to the brunette and knelt down a bit, a soft smile on her face. “Don’t worry,” She started, resting a hand on his shoulder. “As long as you and your friends cooperate, you’re all going to be okay!”

Lucky gazed back at the disguised Seth making his exit. Although he knew it was probably just him being anxious, he had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. A feeling that something wasn’t going to turn out so well…

~~~~~

“...geez, when’ll he be back?” Coda let out an agitated huff, throwing her arms up in the air.

“Coda,” Grey started, pinching the bridge of his nose. “It hasn’t even been twenty minutes...”

“It shouldn’t take this long to just bring a scientist down here!” She retorted, gritting her teeth at her former mentor.

Lucky looked past his holographic screens as he was sitting in a corner of the box-littered room. As terrified as he was of the creeper, she had a decent point. Twenty minutes was a bit long… maybe too long.

However, not a moment later, the blonde could hear voices echo throughout the halls of the bunker. And it wasn’t anybody else there. “W-wait…!” He whisper-yelled, in an attempt to get everyone to fall silent. “I think he’s back!”

He tried to listen closer to the voices bouncing off the stone walls as he edged closer to the door to the room. Sure enough, he could hear Doc’s voice and Scar’s (or technically in this case, Seth), and he sighed in relief. Everything was going to plan!

Lucky shifted his gaze around the room at every other group member. Jazz, Nightingale, and Coda had their weapons drawn, poised and ready to pounce. Nix, Sakura, and Grey, however, got behind some of the stray boxes, ready to duck behind them just in case they needed cover. He soon realized that he was the only one besides the real Scar that was out in the open. Not wanting to be caught in any potential crossfire, he then scrambled behind a crate, only poking his head out from behind the container.

“So this is where the rest of the supplies should be?” Doc’s voice could be heard clearly now, his footsteps approaching.

“Yes, I’m pretty certain.” Seth replied, before his disguised figure could be seen through the small windows in the iron door. “Just in here…” The metal door then creaked open, and the imposter walked inside, followed by the cyborg, who was a lot taller than Lucky expected. Doc appeared to be almost a head taller than him! But the blonde soon shook the thought away as he realized that the creeper could see every single soldier eyeing him down.

Doc’s functional eye widened in confusion as he saw the seven hackers in the room, a terrified Scar handcuffed among them. “Wait, Scar? What the hell-”

But before Doc could finish, he was slammed up against the wall by Seth, who's disguise had disappeared. The hacker grasped his natural arm and roughly twisted it behind his back, a sickening crack sounding as a result.

Lucky flinched at the massive scream of pain that then came from the scientist and the cry of concern that sounded from Scar. He could never get used to that part. No matter how many missions he was sent out on, no matter how much he tried to accept that it wouldn’t change, he always cowered in fear as saw soldiers hack and slash and pulverize the enemy without mercy. All he was proud of was the fact that it wasn’t him at the end of their gun barrels and steel blades.

Coda groaned in annoyance, despite the anguished cries that came from Doc. “Synth, we’re supposed to take care of the merchandise. Bruisin’ ain’t good.”

The redhead shoved the cyborg onto the ground next to Scar, where he continued to writhe in agony from his broken limb. “He’ll live.” He assured.

Lucky blinked at what Coda had called Seth. Synth? Was that his name? The blonde’s face began to glow red, embarrassed at himself.

“Doc!” Scar cried out as the creeper collapsed to the floor. “Doc, are you okay?!”

Doc huffed in pain, clutching his natural arm with his cybernetic one. “He broke my damn arm…” He said through gritted teeth, before shifting a hateful gaze up to who he thought was the real Scar he knew. “Who are you?! What do you people want?!”

Synth looked back down at the creeper, his grey eyes unwavering. “What do we want?” He repeated the question, and knelt a bit closer to the floor. “What we want is for you and your colleagues to cooperate. If you all do… you live. And if you don’t… well, we wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise, now would we?” A wide, almost malicious grin crept onto the man’s lips.

The cyborg’s natural eye widened, before his expression turned to one of anger and fury, and he tried to prop himself up despite his injury. “If you hurt any of them, I swear I will-”

“D-Doc?!”

The voice of an unknown woman sounded out in the room. Lucky whipped his head around, and he saw two terrified people standing in the doorway. One was a short woman with big brown eyes and brown hair, donning a pink cardigan. It could easily be assumed she was the one who cried out. The other person was a man with dark brown hair and eyes, wearing a black t-shirt and cargo shorts. His face was so pale with horror that Lucky was surprised he was even standing.

Out of the corner of his eye, the short blonde saw Coda whip out a pistol and point it at the pair of brunettes. “If you so much as twitch, I’ll put a bullet between your eyes.” She stated, before stalking towards them and yanking both of them by their shirts through the doorway. “Now, c’mere!”

The woman’s eyes widened in fright at the sight of the gun, and she let out a fearful shriek as she was dragged across the floor. “W-wait, pleas-” Her sentence was cut off as she and the man were thrown to the cold tile floor next to Doc and Scar. “GAH!”

“Stress, Impulse!!” Doc cried out for the two people now beside him. He tried to reach out for the man, but gasped in pain as he moved his broken arm.

“Doc, Scar, what’s going on?!” The man asked, sounding terrified and desperate for an answer. His eyes darted around to every hacker in the room. “Who are they?!”

“We don’t know, Impulse!!” Scar struggled against his handcuffs.

Lucky’s eyes were wide as he watched all of their panic unfold, and they widened even more as he saw everyone else’s expressions. Almost everyone’s face was completely blank, nearly void of any reaction to what they were witnessing. Was seeing horror and fear something to be expected while out in the field?

“Lucky,” Nightingale’s cold voice made Lucky snap out of his thoughts. “Cuff them, would you?”

The blonde gave a nervous nod and saluted. “Y-yes, ma’am!” He formed another three pairs of the translucent shackles in his hands, before going up to the three new hostages to restrain them. The woman (presumably Stress) and Impulse were easy enough to cuff; they were so scared of setting anyone off that they let even the weakest one move them around however ne needed them to.

Doc, however, was a bit more difficult. Even with his broken arm, he still tried to fight back, struggling against Lucky’s grip. “We have people that will be looking for us!” He said as the blonde finally managed to restrain him. “They’ll find you all and have you arrested!”

Coda let out an amused snort at Doc’s statement. “Arrested?” She asked through her laughter. “How? You guys don’t even have respawn yet! Let alone having contact with the authorities; that’ll be months away!” She sat on the floor next to him as he struggled against his cuffs. “Which leaves us all alone with you guys…” Her eyes then landed on Stress, who was curled up into a ball, too scared to make a move.

“Oh hello…” The creeper grinned slyly and leaned closer to Stress' face. "You're a cute one, arentcha?~" She purred, slowly twirling the barrel of her gun through the woman's short brown locks. The hostage froze at Coda's touch, and she let out shaky, terrified breaths.

“Leave her alone!” Doc growled, struggling against his handcuffs.

Coda turned to the scientist and stuck out her bottom lip, tilting her head to the side. "Aww, but I don’t want to!" She whined, before giving him a grin and laughing. “Besides…” She then leaned forward towards him and traced the barrel of her pistol along his cheek. “If you try, I can just rip off your other arm. Matching set sounds nice, dunnit?"

Lucky felt his stomach twist at her words. He wondered how Nightingale (or anyone, for that matter) wasn’t disturbed at the creeper’s intimidating behavior. But as far as he knew, she was pretty good at what she did… maybe she got a bit of a free pass.

“Alright, that’s enough,” The blonde was proven wrong as Nightingale had grabbed Coda’s shoulder and ripped her off the ground to face her. “Taunting them isn’t going to do anything good.”

Coda crossed her arms in defiance. “Fine… whatever you say…” She leaned in close to her superior’s face. “Boss.” Her final word dripped with venom, before she wiggled out of the woman’s grip and walked calmly to the other side of the room.

The sniper gave the creeper a hard glare, before pinching the bridge of her nose and sighing. It was obvious to Lucky that her patience was wearing thin. “Jazz, Sakura, Lucky,” She stated after a moment of apparent frustration. “Head outside and stay on guard. Keep an eye out for any others that might wander into the bunker. Understood?”

Lucky gave a nod and saluted. “Y-yes ma’am…!” He stood up and scurried out the door to the room, following his brother and Sakura down the winding hallways.

After a minute of their footsteps being the only sound, Lucky wasn’t surprised when Jazz pulled out his game from his back pocket and began to play. Though he didn’t exactly mind, Sakura spoke up. “Maybe you shouldn’t have that out while we’re on duty…” She said, a worried tone to her voice.

Jazz kept his gaze on the device in his hands as he walked. “Sakura, I’ll be fine. And besides, nobody’s here.”

Sakura frowned, obviously becoming more concerned. “Jazz…!” She stated, borderline begged. “Please, just put it away!”

The soldier didn't listen. "I told you, we’ll be alright," He assured. "It's not like we're going to get caught-"

Jazz's sentence was suddenly cut short by a large crossbow bolt zooming right past his younger brother, before ripping through the device in his hands and shattering it to pieces.

#hermitcraft #hermitcraft fanfic #hermitcraft au #fanfic #aht #a hacker's tale #docm77 #impulsesv #stressmonster101 #goodtimeswithscar #alternate universe #ocs #original characters

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wonderlandmind4 · 7 years ago

Text

Delicate Stages Chp 33

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x OFC Ana Rios

Warnings: Language, Anxiety/Panic attacks, mentions of anxiety/panic attacks, mild PTSD, an over use of coffee consumption. Slow burn. Eventual smut. Explicit. NSFW. Past violence. Mild violence. Past mention of suicide. Trigger words. Nightmares/terrors. Flashbacks.

Summary: Bucky Barnes agrees to participate in Deprogramming Sessions. What he gets is not anything like he expected.

Words: 2.4+ @justreadingfics @nerdyandproud9 @buffy-morgendorffer-01

Every electronic in the room is going haywire; some light bulbs pop, some flicker wildly. The air is thick and tainted with energy, heavy as if it hangs there like droplets of humidity. It's strange feeling the effects of the energy- the emotions-, that prickles at Bucky's skin as he watches Ana pace back and forth. She is livid. Her hands are shaking, she can't keep still, her jaw is clenched. She steps up to the throwing station, grabbing one of her knives before thrusting arm her forward quickly. The sharp weapon lands perfectly in the middle of the target.

She doesn't stop there though, doesn't even give herself time to reset. She just grabs a set of throwing stars, flicking her wrist. One after the other, landing on various planned targets. She grabs another set of knives after that, but the lightbulb hanging above them pops, casting the station they're standing in into shadows. Ana doesn't hesitate, or seem to notice.

Bucky huffs audibly, quickly stepping up and grabs the blade of the knife with his left hand as she brings her arm back. He grasps her wrist with his right hand then yanks the weapon out of her hold. Ana whirls around, a fiery glint in her eyes still visible despite the darkness. Bucky is suddenly glad she doesn't have the ability to melt people with her glares.

"What the f-"

"Come with me." Bucky interrupts her, replacing the knife before dragging her out of the target station.

"Bucky, what are you doing?" There’s an annoyed edge to Ana’s voice.

"Preventing yourself from injury." He tells her, pushing he doors open. He doesn't let go of her wrist. "You popped the lights."

Her hand goes limp in his, which he takes as her just giving up and allowing him to lead her away from the practice range.

"I didn't mean too," She mumbles behind him.

"I know," He replies gently.

He scans the hallway as they walk, a habit that Bucky just can't break. He's only making sure there aren't unnecessary people hovering around, especially with Ana in tow. Especially since she's been showing signs of her enhanced ability growing stronger. It happens now, the lights dimming for a few moments, before growing brighter. The air thickens.

Bucky spots a set of doors that lead outside onto a small lanai. He abruptly turns, tugging Ana along until he pushes the doors open. He drops her hand only to turn and place both of his on her shoulders. Ana is biting her lip, but it doesn’t stop the small tremor of her chin.

"Ana." He starts, attempting to keep his voice calm. "Take a breath."

She takes a step back, breaking physical contact. "I can't! I'm still so angry, Bucky! I feel guilty too, because what if something happened? What if that dickhead ended up-"

"He didn't, Ana. He didn't. I'm okay, see?" He smiles at her. She rolls her eyes. "I'm fine. They fired him right?"

"Bout damn time." Ana mutters darkly.

Bucky takes hold of her hands, squeezing her knuckles. "You need to take a breath. Just breathe. All this negative energy isn't good for you, darling."

Ana steps into him, pressing her forehead to his chest. He hopes she can't hear his heartbeat spike up from her sudden action. He wraps his arms around her, keeping her close, safe within his hold. And just in case, if it becomes too much for her and she passes out, Bucky will be right there to catch her.

She came back fuming from a previous meeting. Bucky had watched her storm in, yanking her arm away from Steve's hand, ignoring his word and marching straight to her room. The entire living compound's power shut off for two solid minutes before it came back on. Bucky was being briefed on what happened when Ana came back out and left, slamming the door so hard behind her, it shook the dishes in the cabinets. It took all of a split second for Bucky to follow her.

Right now, as Bucky holds Ana who is trying to calm herself, all he wants to do is kiss her anger away. Have her melt against him like she did on the roof, as if all their problems in the world had disappeared and nothing matter but them. He's not going to though, since it probably won't help any.

Instead, Bucky will continue to hold her close, and sacrifice want he wants. Because what he wants, is not what he deserves. Not when his brain remains to be fixed completely. Not when he could trigger at any moment and when he wakes from that darkened state, Ana will no longer be in his arms.

"You should box." Bucky suggests, breaking the silence after a while. "That helps doesn't it?"

Ana nods against his chest, her fingers gently playing with the end of his hair.

"Come on then."

***

At least when Ana walks into the gym she can breathe easier. The smell of the vinyl mat and punching bags instantly calming her more. She no longer wants to hunt Simon Mills down and throttle him, mostly due to Bucky reeling in the majority of her anger. She changes in the women's locker room after stopping by their home to grab clothes. Ana spots Bucky as she stands in the entry way of the locker room.

"Spar with me." Ana demands, putting her hair up in a ponytail and adjusting her tank top.

"What?" Bucky deadpans. He's giving Ana the flattest look she has ever gotten.

"I figured it out," She says, walking up to him. "I have too much energy pent up. Plus, I've been rather pissed off the whole day and I need to let it out. Please, Bucky?"

Ana widens her eyes, and blinks twice, poking her bottom lip. She doesn't use this look a lot, but he looks like he might refuse. Bucky's eye twitches and his jaw clenches. Then he sighs in defeat, rolling his eyes up to the ceiling.

"I feel like I might regret this."

"Don't worry, Winter Wonderland," She smirks, patting his arm as she passes him. "I don't expect this to be...hard."

Ana is abruptly jerked backward, a hand gripped around her bicep and her back colliding with something solid. Bucky's lips graze her ear, his breath hot against her skin.

"We'll just have to see about that." He whispers hotly.

The low tone of his voice sends shivers down her spine. The same waves of fire Ana felt from that night come rolling back, licking up her insides and making her heart rate speed up. Bucky then grabs her free arm, keeping them both tight in his grip behind her back. Ana jerks, testing his hold. It's strong.

"You seem to have a thing for restraints there, Barnes." She teases.

"Only where it counts, sweetheart."

Ana inhales slowly, trying to will her heart to beat normally.

"Tell me, how would you get out of a hold like this? Dead weight is one thing," Bucky says, then nudges her right foot with his own, locking his shin around hers. "But one little move from me and I can take your bad knee out. What do you do?"

Ana tries to focus, instead of thinking how she can feel his every breath, feel his chest against her shoulder blades. "I-" She has to clear the rasp from her throat. "I would headbutt you, but seeing as how I'm not going to do that."

"That's one way." Bucky states, tightening his hold. "Anything else?"

"Yeah."

Ana lifts her left leg high enough until her foot reaches his knee, bent ever so slightly. It's enough of boost for her to use the muscles in her leg to step up, unlocking her right leg from his, and swing it around, twisting in the air. The surprise slackens Bucky's grip for a moment and that's all she needs to pull her arms free. She kicks off his shoulder with her free foot and separates them. Ana lands lightly on her feet. Bucky has to put his hand on the mat and twist to stand back up.

"Alright." He smirks at her, an impressed expression coloring his face. "That was good. You reply on the element of surprise. You did that on the mission too."

"I have too. Seems to help me a lot."

Bucky pushes his long hair back with his hand, making his way further onto the mat. "What happens if you injure your knee."

"Fight through it?" She shrugs.

He hums, turning to face her. "Lets hope that doesn't happen. How is your hand to hand?"

"I've only used the bags and Fred over there. So, a bit rusty." Ana informs him truthfully.

"Lets work on that then. Remember to use very advantage you have. Just keep your stance locked, Ana.

Ana huffs. "You know I do."

Bucky just smirks at her.

An orange knife flips through the air, Ana shoots her hand out to catch it by the handle. She turns, then jabs rapidly at Bucky's side. He blocks the attack, getting in his own metal jab at her ribs, his first one since they incorporated the dummy knife.

"Kept your side open." Bucky tells her.

He had taken his shirt off, leaving him just in a black tank top. Ana had done the same with hers, fighting in just her sports bra and workout pants. Sweat dampening her skin, and Bucky standing there without so much as a glisten.

"Stole your knife." Ana counters, panting. She glares at Bucky. They've been going at it for nearly an hour and he has only taken a deep breath once.

He nods, a proud smile on his face. "I think, and please rub this in Sam's face, your knife skills surpass mine."

Ana's mouth drops open. "What? Seriously?" She is shocked, and happy. "That's like the highest compliment coming from the Winter Bunny!"

His smile drops off his face. Bucky advances on her again and Ana cackles as he tackles her.

Bucky comes at her with a right hook. Ana dodges it the best she can, catching his left fist in the process. He pulls her forward for a moment, the metal plates shifting to accommodate her weight, then thrusts her back. Ana nearly trips over her feet as she regains her steps, dropping down as Bucky pushes at her again. She swipes her legs out, but he just flips out of the way.

They've been sparring with hand to hand for nearly an hour and a half, and neither of them have given up. The practicing has taken her mind off what Simon had done, and Bucky seems to be doing alright with it. Ana knows he's just relieved he wasn't triggered because she wasn't there. Bucky has his back turned to her after he dodged her last attack, and she forms an idea.

Ana takes a running start. She grabs onto his shoulders, uses her momentum to pull her body up, hooking her left leg over his shoulder, swinging her body upside down and moving her right leg onto his opposite shoulder, trapping him in a vice like grip between her thighs. His hands distractedly come up to grip her hips, but Ana throws her weight forward, knocking him off balance. He falls backwards, hands slipping over her thighs as Ana lands on her feet, twisting around.

Bucky blinks up at the ceiling. Ana has to stifle a laugh with how bewildered he looks. He shakes his head , continuing to just lay there. Ana walks over to him, peering down.

"That was new." Bucky states is a daze.

"Told you, Nat trained me, but I added my own moves here and there."

"And as I have told you, I trained her." He reminds her.

Suddenly, he swipes his arm out at her feet. Ana jumps, because that's the oldest trick in the book. That is, until Bucky catches her mid jump as he pops up, hooking his arm behind her knees. Ana grunts as her back hits the floor, wrists pinned, and thighs locked down by his, so she can't move them very far. It's the first time Bucky doesn't hold back.

"Got you. Looks like I won." He gloats, that little infuriating smirk back on his mouth. His eyes flicker down for a second.

"Really? Because it looks like you want to kiss me again, Winter Bunny. What's stopping you?" Ana whispers, leaning her head up just a fraction.

Bucky glares down at her, his eyes flickering between her own and her lips. His grip tightens on her wrists, his thighs clenching around her hips harder. She grinds her hips up just slightly, a swirl of arousal kicks up in her stomach and Ana has to bite her cheek. Then, Bucky releases her and rolls off to the side. They're both panting as Ana sits up.

"I win." She declares triumphantly. "You said use every advantage."

"You're a dirty fight, sweetheart." Bucky says, his voice rough and a touch deeper. He sits up as well.

"I've got an injured knee that's one good hit away from falling out. I have to fight dirty."

"Good. Good strategy."

"Hmm." Comes a loud thoughtful hum from the side. When they both look, Clint is causally lounging on one of the benches, munching on twizzlers. He points with one of the red candies. "You were pulling your punches, Barnes."

"Ugh!" Ana throws her hands up. "I knew it! How is that fair, Bucky!?

"I didn't want to hurt you!” He claims. “Besides, you pinning me to the mat three times was all you."

"Unless that was your plan." Clint inputs.

Both Ana and Bucky hold up their middle fingers. Ana kicks his boot. "Fine. I understand, you didn't want me to kick your Frosty the Snowman ass."

"Frosty the Snowman." Bucky mumbles, rolling his eyes up. "I swear, you and the endless nicknames."

"I've got plenty. Just haven't used them all."

He sighs. "I wasn't throwing punches hard because if I accidentally clip you, guess who will have my ass."

"Okay, good point."

"Question." Clint speaks up, leaning back against the bench and crossing his feet, twizzler sticking out of his mouth. "Have you both kissed again? Because this sexual tension is becoming too much, even for my taste."

Ana can feel her eyes widen and her cheeks heat up. "What the fuck." She mutters.

Bucky shifts uncomfortably next to her, suddenly interested in the laces of his boots.

"No!" Ana answers loudly. "I mean. How the hell do you know?"

"So, Nat was right." He smirks like he just caught them both.

"Go home, Legolas." She deadpans.

"Natasha knows?" Bucky asks, shocked.

"So does Cap." Clint provides.

"Oh my god, Steve knows!?" Ana turns to face Bucky. "You told him?"

"I panicked!"

"Jesus! I'm going to take a very long, hot shower. So if you boys don't mind."

Ana begins to gather her shirt and water bottle and walks away. As she's nearing the door, she can almost feel Clint open his mouth. So she shouts,

"Shut it, Link!"

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