#so they scurry onto ships fleeing the planet

[antixabound]

anyway I don’t know why but I’ve been on a genestealer craze with models lately and honestly I can’t really explain why. 

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Pray I do not mix Genestealers with homestuck.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Mimicry.”

Trying to get back into more stories about how weird humans are in general. It is very difficult though, since I am short on ideas lol. Also, prepare for some world building! :) The rundi home planet was fun to design.

I hope you like it anyway. 

The engines of the GA transport ship kicked up a storm of blue dust as it descended towards the sandy desert plateau. Little creatures fled in earnest from the buffeting gusts of wind and the loud rumbling of the engines fleeing out into the dessert on many legs and stumpy wings. Twisted, yellow-barked bulb trees cracked and bent under the powerful gusts of wind swaying gently back and forth as the billowing blue dust cloud came to overtake them.

The GA shuttle landed lightly on the surface of the planet, three-pronged body burying it’s struts deep into the desert planet’s sandy skin. Dirt continued to swirl up and around the shuttle, until the engines were cut, and the power was stalled.

With a low whirring grumble, the ship whined into dormancy allowing the dust to settle and leaving nothing but the low mournful whistle of wind in the desert.

The shuttle door opened, and the Rundi scientists jogged out onto their home planet’s dusty surface, their feet padding softly against the sand. The dark greens and brown of their skin, while not exactly camouflage against the blue sand did help them to blend into some of the lower lying rock-shrubs on the horizon.

The air in the desert was bone dry and dusty blue. The horizon was a haze of wind blown sand against a green/yellow sky. 

The slow expansion of the rundi sun had turned their once, yellow star, red. It had been like that for many years now, and not even their most ancient texts remembered the days when the sky was blue.

Boots clattered on the ramp down onto the sand, and the human placed his hands on his hips wide eyes staring out at the strange alien planet’s surface.

“Everything alright, Jim.”

The human turned coming face to face with the GA ship’s pilot. He grinned, “Couldn’t be better.” Together the two of them walked down the ramp and onto a light dusting of blue sand. The human reached down scooping up a cup of the strange and beautiful sand, letting it trickle through his fingers.

“Thank you, commander, for offering to help.” he turned to look at the Rundi, “And thank you immeasurably for giving me this opportunity to help you. I never would have thought…. I mean I am a wildlife expert, but alien wildlife…. That's an entirely different story.”

The rundi bowed their heads as was their manor, though they weren’t entirely sure what the human had said. He had a strange accent that threw off cheaper translation models. While many of the older models COULD understand the multitude of human languages, deviations in accents was still nuanced and difficult to pick up for even the most expensive piece of equipment.

He turned to look at the commander, “Do you know what makes the sand blue. It is the most fascinating thing I think I have ever seen.” 

The commander picked up a handful of dirt and let it trail through his fingers, “I think it has to do with the extreme presence of copper in the soil, oxidized copper likes to turn blue, and with bacteria in the soil producing ammonia, i think you can get even darker shades than this.”

The human lifted his head smelling at the air, “it’s very dry, obviously this is a desert planet, or at least a dessert on a planet.” 

“A dessert planet.” The commander said, motioning to the group of rundi who stood out in the sand examining the plants for signs of wildlife, “Rundi are actually allergic to water, which is why they were making us wear gloves and masks.”

“Allergic to water? How do they survive then?”

“They can get moisture in other forms, I guess. Water being as scarce as it is on this planet, at least on the surface. There are vast underworld reservoirs and rivers, which feed the plants you see here. Their roots are extremely deep, deeper than any earth plant. Eating those plants provides the Rundi with everything they need.” He motioned onward, “The thoraxes act as a sort of fat deposit so they can go for months at a time without eating.”

“That’s quite amazing, Commander. You know about as much about other sentient species as I do about our more animal friends.”

The commander smiled the skin wrinkling up around his one remaining eye, “I have had plenty of time spent with them.”

“Ill bet.” All in one moment, he clapped his hands together, forcing the attention of the Rundi who turned to look at the strange human, in his boots, shorts, and shirt, probably the most under-dressed human they had ever seen.

“First things is first.” he turned around to look at another group of similarly dressed humans emerging from the inside of the shuttle, “We are here to catch, sedate, and transport the Strangit. We want to make sure that it stays as relaxed and as stress free as possible, which is why we will bate it, and then dart it from a distance.”

“How do we know our sedation will work?” one of the humans asked, raising a hand.

“We have done some non-invasive testing with the DNA sequences of these creatures and found that their structure is similar enough to accept the drug in the same way a Rino or a hippo might, so hopefully we won’t be proven wrong Also, if you find any other creatures during our tour, just use the little boxes on your hips to catch them, and secure them. We want to relocate as many of these critters as possible, but we want to do it in the nicest way we can.”

He turned to look at the Commander who stood to the side of the group, “Do you think you can help us out.”

The commander nodded, “Always willing to help. Just tell me what I need to do.”

He clapped his hands together. “Excellent, lets get to work.”

-

The following Rundi scientists were a little more than fascinated by the pack of humans, and especially their leader as they began a slow movement up through the sand sweeping back and forth for signs of the Strangit, last spotted in this area. They had heard that some humans were capable of tracking their prey over long distances by using nothing more than small changes left in the land by their prey, footprints, or clumps of hair, sometimes the very formation of the land itself.

Their feet were almost silent on the sand, and when they communicated, they did it in a low rumble. Sometimes, they didn’t even speak at all, simple motioning at each other, communicating silently over long distances. The lead human kept his eyes to the ground crouched low legs always moving zig-zagging from rock to rock until at one moment he stopped, and called the others in with a sharp piercing blast.

He had no equipment with which to make that sound, though humans were known for their ability.

“See these, right here. Looks like tracks. I’ll wager to say it passed by here not too long ago.” He motioned upwards at the blowing sand. And with the rate at which this sand is blowing, I would reduce the time even more than before. We should move silently from here.” The rundi held back, watching as the humans condensed down their group slowly moving around each other their eyes forward, their bodies focused on their hunting. The main human spent most of his time in a low crouch, sometimes dropping down to all fours so he could better see the dirt and the ground underneath.

None of the rundi could see what he was looking for, but he seemed sure they were close.

It was just then that a strange warbling chatter echoed up form the other side of a short sand dune.

The humans went very still, and the forward human held his finger to his lips motioning the other into position.

The human with the dart gun quietly padded up the side of the hill concealing himself against the bowl of a rock, cozied inside a divot created by the sand and the wind.

With a wave of his hand, the human motioned the others closer, including the Commander, who knelt in the soft sandy circle about him.

The rundi tried to stay quiet as they approached, ready to hear the plan.

“That first call.” he whispered, “Was the male, its a mating call, and the second one was a more distant female. Now the females tend to travel in herds, while the males are generally loners, so if we mimic, the sound of the female, and make it think that there is a larger group of us, we might be able to drawn him over and into our line of sight, without risking it getting startled or agitated.

The chattering sound started up again, receiving a response not a moment later.

He motioned the other humans away, who scurried off to hide themselves, creating a spot for ambush. 

Watching from a distance, it was rather unnerving, the way the humans seemed to know inherently how to behave, how to spread out, and how to hide themselves, creating an open break in their circular line for the creature to come.

It was even worse when the sounds came.

The lead human, in line of sight to the Rundi, cupped his hands around his mouth and began the warbling call of a female strangit. Off in the distance a male call answered, following that the other humans began to mimic the sound of the first. A human to their right added in soe of the related huffing noises, their chest raising and falling in shorts bursts.

They did whatever they could to create the noise they were hearing, using their hands, adjusting their tongues and tilting their heads back.

It was terrifying.

A few of the Rundi felt shivers run up their backs as they imagined their ancestors traveling in large groups and hearing a cry for help, running to hear that cry and being pounced upon by a group of humans mimicking their own voices.

Sand shuffled off on the other side of the hill.

Footsteps thudded against stone , and the Strangit crested the horizon, its massive back spikes jutting almost three feet up into the air. Its body was stocky with muscle, its feet were large, round and flat, and from a distance it was at least the same height as a tall Drev, though with much more mass.

A single giant tusk jutted out from the bottom of it’s chin nearly scraping the ground as it walked. 

As a male of the species, instead of being blue to match the sand, Like a female, they were a sort of ruddy yellow color with spots of green dappling it’s back.

When it moved, the sun reflected off those spots of green.

The creature lifted it’s head looking around for the female’s it was sure it had heard.

One of the humans made one last call, and the great beast turned to face the sound, seeming almost confused when it saw nothing.

The Rundi watched as the armed human gently slid into place on his side, using the sandy hill to steady his weapon.

There was a low pop, and the beast jumped bellowing at the sky before turning around and running in the opposite direction.

“We got him!” Someone yelled, and together the humans broke from their line of cover and went racing after the creature.

Like a pack of wolves they followed the creature at a distance as it galloped through the open sand leaving a  trail of dust behind it. The human’s feet kicked up dust, and they pulled to a slow stop as the creature slowed, wobbled and then tipped onto its side resting heavily in the sand. The rundi caught up as the humans were speaking with each other.

“Just give it a few minutes.”

While they waited the Rundi looked to the humans with concern, “Is it common…. For humans to mimic their prey.”

The humans laughed, “Not really, we record things instead. Most animals on our planet can tell the difference. However, we are generally pretty good at somewhat reproducing most noises.”

“Go on.” They asked 

Intrigued.

While the other humans walked off to inspect their prey, a few remained behind and seemed to be having fun demonstrating the different calls animals on their planet make.

One of the sounds a long, drawn out howl sent shivers up the Rundi’s backs. 

“You know, wolves are fun to mimic, but the one sound I think it might be impossible to make is a roar.” 

“I mean yes, but have you ever tried to make an Elk sound.”

“Oh, I can do an elk.”

“No way, lets see it.” 

What followed was a competition based on who could make the strangest animal noise. The elk was pretty terrifying and screeching repeating call that rose in octave until it was no more than a piercing note on the air repeated multiple times.

“Ok, ok, that is pretty.”

“Is it acceptable to use props.”

“Why.”

“Because if it is, I can accurately mimic a two strike dirt bike.” 

There was laughing from the other humans, “Ah yes, I forgot about that breed.”

“I have an uncle who owns a dirk bike farm.”

It took a moment for the rundi to realize that the humans were simply joking. As it would soon come to light, humans could also mimic the sound of non-organic objects.

Looking back and fourth at each other, they collectively decided it would be best if this was never mentioned to the humans.

IT seemed as if they had not evolved to hunt like this.

But if they knew.

If they knew the power of their own voices, the rest of the galaxy might be in serious danger.

Looking over at the Strangit, the Rundi shivered at the thought of hearing a familiar call in the distance just to show up, and be met with the sharp glistening teeth of a hungry, smiling human.

Poor creature. 

[redschillzone]

Hello There Pt. 1: Crashing

(Gif found here!)

Pairing: Poe Dameron x Kenobi!Reader

Word Count: 3.6k words

Warnings: None

Summary: Poe’s escape from the First Order didn’t go as planned and as you stumble upon his crash sight, you can’t help but take the pilot home to help him recover.

A/N: This chapter is honestly just a lot of backstory- I promise the next chapter will be a lot better! I hope you enjoy because I’m excited about this series!

Series Masterlist

“BB-8 come on- Help me out here!” Poe shouted to the white and orange astromech behind him as he spun the X-wing around, attempting to avoid one of the three TIE’s that followed closely behind his ship. He just narrowly avoided the bright green blaster bolts of the TIE as he did so. He could hear the astromech beeping at him, saying that he was doing the best he could with what he had and Poe couldn’t help the shaky breath that escaped his lips as he continued to fly about the vast space around him. He should have known better then to try and take them on but it was just who he was, his stubborn and headstrong attitude getting the better of him and alas, it led him to this moment; This moment between life and death where even he couldn’t figure a way out and as he avoided yet another barrage of green blaster bolts, he couldn’t help but grit his teeth.

“Shit- Come on, Poe. Think.” The pilot cursed at himself as he continued to flip and spin his ship, attempting to shake the TIE’s but they were locked onto him, not daring to let the best pilot in the Resistance flee so easily; He could attempt the jump to lightspeed but he would have to remain still for several seconds before he could officially take off and he knew that every second counted when in a dogfight such as this, so that was taken out of the equation rather quickly. Even now as he allowed his mind to be distracted for a few moments he was nearly taken out by a stray blaster bolt, the action causing another string of curse words to leave his lips. 

He was running out of time. He knew that within the next several moments the pilots of those TIE’s would figure out his flight pattern and cut him off before delivering the final blow and it was beginning to make Poe’s blood boil; Was this really how he was going to go down? Trapped by three simple TIE fighters?

‘The best pilot in the Resistance taken out by a small squadron of TIEs, how pathetic...’ He thought to himself before BB-8 began to beep at him, attempting to alert him to something.

“Wait what? There’s a planet nearby?” Poe questioned as he spun the X-wing around, attempting a few shots at the incoming TIE’s as they flew past him, the roaring of their engines rattling the cockpit hatch before he listened to the beeping of his astromech once more.

“Kossuscir? What kind of planet-” He began but was quickly cut off as his X-wing was hit, the explosion coming from his right side; He was hit and as the beeping and flashing lights began to go off on the panel in front of him, he knew it wasn’t good. Another string of curses left Poe’s lips as he picked his head up and it was then he saw the planet just a few miles ahead of him; A large planet covered in various hues of blue and shades of green. That planet was his best bet of survival and as he gripped the control stick of the X-wing, he barked the order to BB-8.

“BB-8 punch it!” He shouted, listening as the droid beeped in confirmation before putting all power in the thrusters of Black One. The ship took off at higher speeds without warning, the smoke billowing from the broken set of wings on Poe’s right but he didn’t care; So long as they held out for him to get to this planet and survive that was all that mattered. He couldn’t help himself as he glanced back, watching as the TIE’s began to grow smaller and smaller in his vision before they eventually broke off. They wouldn’t catch up even if they had tried too; Sure TIE’s were fast but once all power was put into the Black One’s thrusters, nobody could keep up with it. 

Poe allowed a breath to escape him as he turned his attention forward; One obstacle avoided, many more to go. It didn’t take Poe long to enter the planet’s atmosphere and as he did, he could see the red and orange flares beginning to light up the nose of his X-wing. He was coming in too fast and he needed to slow down; He pulled the control stick back as far as he could, his grip tight on the stick as the ship began to slow down but he knew it wasn’t enough, he could still see the flareup off the nose of his ship the closer and closer he got towards the ground.

“BB-8, I’d hold onto something if I were you!” The pilot shouted as he began to see the vast green field below him come into view faster and faster and before he knew it, he heard the crashing of his ship colliding with the ground before his vision went black.

━━━━━━━━━

You couldn’t help the low groan that escaped your throat as you felt the collision of cool metal against your forearm, a vast contrast to the warmth of your bed and various blankets. As you slowly opened your eyes, you shifted your gaze downwards and couldn’t help but shake your head slowly. It was there that you saw the familiar white and red paint of your BD droid, aggressively bonking it’s head against your arm and beeping at you as though it was your alarm clock which in a way it was; You had overslept and you knew it, last nights little adventure was a bit of a long one and you were trying to make up for it with a bit of extra sleep.

“BD.. I’m up, I promise I’m up…” You groaned to the droid, moving your hands up to rub at your eyes, attempting to remove any sleep that remained there to prove your point that you were in fact awake. Once BD heard your voice it’s head shot up, it’s small antenna’s perking at your words before it climbed onto your form, beginning to tap on your stomach as it beeped at you once more.

“Yes, yes I know I overslept.” You commented as you allowed your hands to move from your face to rest on your chest, your eyes watching the droid before you raised an eyebrow as it continued to beep at you.

“Yes, we can go out again today.. I need to get some more wood for the fireplace, plus we need more food.” You told the droid, beginning to list off the day's activities before you shook your head gently.

“Correction, I need more food.” You spoke before you carefully sat up, watching as the BD droid jumped from your stomach into your lap before finally jumping off and scurrying out of your small bedroom. You couldn’t help but shake your head at the small droid, listening to the tip taps it made as it scurried about your small home. Your home wasn’t much in terms of fanciness; It was a simple A framed house with a few small windows scattered about the front of the house. It had just about everything you needed; Your bedroom, a small kitchen and dining area, a bathroom and of course your living room. Plus it had a small patio out front that was lit but by various fairy lights that you had hung about the area; It wasn’t much as you told yourself but it was your home nonetheless and as you carefully got out of bed, you couldn’t help but stretch your body. You heard a few cracks and pops as you did so, letting go of the breath you were once holding before you made your way over to your closet to get yourself changed.

You went ahead and grabbed your outfit; A pair of baggy grey pants, a long sleeved shirt that consisted of three layers of various hues such as grey and light blue sewn together into one shirt that also covered your hands and your dark grey cowl that you wore to protect against the elements that may occur throughout the day. You also grabbed hold of your black boots and your belt that held onto your blaster, a few other small compartments for things like basic first-aid, occasional small snacks but most importantly your dual lightsabers. Yes, you were a Jedi. Well, if that was even the correct title for yourself; You never did finish your training but that was a story for another time. 

Humming lowly to yourself you finished getting dressed before you made your way out of your room, grabbing a piece of bread off your dining room table before you made your way outside, observing the area around you but just like every day after you arrived, everything was still the same. Your X-wing remained covered by the large tarp you had thrown over it once you landed some ways away from your current home. It just so happened to also be hidden away by the various trees that surrounded it and as you watched, you took note of the ends of the tarp that began to move every so slightly as the occasional breeze blew past and as you watched the ends pick up, you took note that the ship was still in fact underneath. You could hear the sounds of crickets and birds chirping filling the air around you and as you took a deep breath, you could tell something about today was going to be different but you couldn’t quite put your finger on it. 

After a few moments you allowed the breath you were holding to leave your body and it wasn’t long until you felt the familiar climbing of your BD unit on your back. You turned your head to glance at the droid, giving a small smile as you spoke up.

“Ready to go?” You questioned to which the droid beeped in return, it’s antennae once again perking to your words in confirmation as you chuckled and began to walk ahead; You knew the layout of your little territory pretty well. You knew that there was a small village to the north, a large pond to the west and if you went towards the east, well, you were about to run into a pride of Nexu that lived deep within the cool shade of the forests. Those damned beasts nearly killed you the first day you arrived and you were lucky enough to have such a strong set of weapons to defend yourself but you surely didn’t leave without a scar or two. 

Moving your hand to your right side, you couldn’t help the breath that escaped your lips at the memory; The beast's claws all but racking against your side and digging in deep. A shudder ran through your body next as you recalled the amount of pain you were in, how you swore to never return to that forest again so long as you stayed here and you kept your word on that. You were so deep in your thoughts that you didn’t even hear your BD unit as it beeped aggressively at you and once it realized you weren’t paying attention, allowed itself the pleasure of bonking it’s head against yours in a rather harsh bonk.

“Ow! BD what the hell?!” You spoke, moving your hand up to rub at the spot that would surely bruise later and as you listened to the droid beep at you, you couldn’t help but blink.

“A ship? BD you’re going insa-” You began but as you looked towards the sky, your eyes couldn’t help but widen as you spotted the familiar model that was an X-wing all but diving straight towards the ground; You watched as it collided with the ground below, pieces of dirt and grass all but flying about before the X-wing came to a halt and stilled. You stared at the crash sight, your mouth going dry at what you had just witnessed; There was no way whoever was piloting that ship survived, right? You didn’t even realize it but your feet began to take you towards the crashed ship, something in the Force beginning to pull you towards it and you couldn’t tell what it was; All you knew was that you needed to help whoever was inside that ship. You could sense them and somehow, they were still alive. 

Coming to a stop at the crash sight you couldn’t help but let out a breath as your eyes quickly scanned over the situation; The back end of the X-wing was smoking and the front end was all but dug into the dirt, it was tilted ever so slightly on its side but you knew from the angle that the wings on the right side were busted.

“BD, run ahead and do a quick scan for me. Do I stand a chance going in there?” You questioned and watched as the white and red droid gave a nod before it jumped down and all but scurried to the wreckage where it suddenly perked it’s head, standing at attention as it began to scan over everything it could reach; You couldn’t help but bite your lip hard as you began to tap your foot against the ground, a sudden burst of adrenaline running over you. You wanted to just rush in there, save whoever it was but what good would it do if you both ended up dead? It didn’t take the BD unit long to conclude it’s scan before it ran over, beeping at you its findings.

“One person, one missing droid and it’s safe. Got it.” You spoke before you began to spring into action, moving your cowl up from around your neck to wrap around your face as to try and protect you as best it could from the smoke that continued to billow out of the rear end of the ship before you made your way over to the ship. Using the force you carefully had the hatch to the cockpit open and once it was open, you couldn’t help but freeze as you saw the pilot inside; He was unconscious but you could see by the slight rise and fall of his chest that he was still breathing.

“Good.. Just.. Keep breathing, I’m going to get you out.” You spoke to the unconscious man, being careful as you leaned into the ship and began to unclip him from his seat; You were going to need to use the force again, there was no way you alone could lift him from his spot and as you unbuckled the last piece, you moved away and allowed your eyes to shut as you extend your hand in front of you. You allowed the Force to flow through you and out through your hand, having it wrap around the man inside before you began to lift him, being careful not to collide him with any of the debris and before you long, you had placed him on the grass just a few feet away from his ship.

Just as the man had touched the ground, a yelp had escaped you as you felt a sudden shock of pain run up your left leg and as you quickly whipped around to look at what had caused the pain, you couldn’t help but stare at the white and orange astromech beside you.

“I- What the-” You began but yelped once more as it had shocked you with its outstretched arm. Quickly you moved away, a low growl escaping your throat before you spoke up.

“Whoa whoa! I’m nice! No need to attack me! I’m only trying to help.” You began to plead with the droid that suddenly stopped its advancements on you, tilting its head before it began to beep a series of questions at you, most pertaining to what you were doing with its pilot.

“I just want to take him home to get him patched up.. I promise if I do anything funny you can return to shocking me, alright?” You asked, gently kneeling down to the droid's height as it watched you with its singular ocular eye; You had to admit, it was a rather adorable droid and if you didn’t have BD, you would have gladly taken a droid similar to this one. You carefully listened as the droid beeped it’s concerns to you but eventually agreed to your terms and it brought a smile to your face as you gave a nod.

“Alright.. Let’s get him back home then.” You spoke, shifting your gaze over to BD who had already begun to scan the pilot for injuries that you couldn’t see. You stood up carefully and made your way over to the pilot, kneeling down as you carefully moved your hands up to the black and red helmet, a bit hesitant before you carefully pulled it off and as you did so, you could have sworn you felt your heart stop. 

The man below you was handsome and Maker if he was awake you were positive you would have died; He had dark, curly hair that was all over the place from the helmet but his tanned skin and perfect complexion was what also caught you off guard. There didn’t seem to be a single flaw to this man, even as he was laying on the ground unconscious and covered in soot, blood, and a few cuts here and there.

“Any severe injuries, BD?” You questioned as your eyes left the man below you to look at your droid who looked at you and gently shook its head, beeping at you that he may have had a sprained wrist, a few bruises, and possible whiplash but nothing severe in terms of broken bones. You couldn’t help but let out a breath as you gave a small nod.

“Good.. Let’s get him home then.” You spoke, carefully grabbing the pilot's helmet before you used the force once more to lift his body, looking towards the orange and white astromech as you nodded.

“You as well, you’ll be safe with us. Trust me.” You told the droid as it beeped at you, beginning to roll behind you as you began to make your way home. As you walked, you listened to the astromech tell you whatever it was you wanted to know. The droid's name was BB-8 and the man you were helping was named Poe; The droid told you anything else you wanted to know about him you would have to ask him yourself whenever he awoke and as you listened, it made time all but fly by because before you knew it, you were home once more.

Humming lightly at the familiar A shaped home, you listened to BB-8 beep at you before you chuckled lightly.

“Yeah, this is my home. It’s where you two will be staying.” You told the droid, carefully using the force to guide Poe’s body inside and eventually slowly lowering his body until it collided with the bed. BB-8 followed closely behind as you placed the pilots helmet on your dresser, moving away to grab at a few medical supplies you had.

“Let’s get his wrist patched up and clean up those cuts.. Then we’ll need to head into the village to get some more supplies.” You commented not only to yourself, but to the two droids as well. BB-8 couldn’t help but beep a few concerns as you moved away from your box of supplies and back over to Poe, being careful as you began to clean and patch up the cuts.

“We’ll be quick, won’t we BD?” You spoke, looking down towards the white and red droid as it beeped its confirmation at you, looking down to BB-8 before the two droids began to converse; It allowed you the time you needed to take care of Poe. You were focused solely on his face at the moment, going ahead and cleaning away the dried blood, soot, and dirt before you took the time to clean and patch the remaining cuts and as you cleaned more and more of his face, you couldn’t help but note just how handsome he was.

As much as you would have loved to continue to stare, there were more pressing matters to attend too and it didn’t take you long to patch up his wrist as well before you backed away, giving a small nod before you looked towards BB-8.

“Alright, you’re on guard duty. Don’t let him leave that bed, got it?” You spoke to the droid as you kneeled down to it’s height, watching as BB-8 gave a firm nod and a beep to agree, one which you returned before you looked to BD.

“Let’s go buddy. We’ll be back before he wakes up.” You spoke, allowing BD to quickly climb your arm before you began to make your way out of the bedroom; You allowed yourself a few seconds to glance back at the man laying in your bed before you bit your lip, watching as BB-8 rolled to the side you were once standing on and watched Poe carefully. You hoped you would be back by the time he awoke, but who knew. The village was always bustling with life and you were more times than not pulled aside to do things for the village elders but as you shook your head and began to leave your house for the second time that day, you knew that Poe was your main priority now and nothing was going to distract you from the current task at hand. 

That task? Get Poe back to health and off the planet.

[moonlightsolo]

bête noire

summary: The Resistance sent out spies to track First Order trade but they were ambushed. General Leia has decided it’s time to find a new base. It has almost been a month since you’ve given birth. Your relationship with Poe has grown even stronger than before. Your mind can’t stop overthinking about where Kylo is, you haven’t felt him in a while. It’s been too long.

pairing: kylo ren x female reader

warnings: nsfw!!! (ur welcome)

wc: 5.5k

note: this chapter is a lot to handle. ok go read it, bye.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

It seems like over the next couple of weeks the war escalates drastically.

Two Resistance spies took a ship to go on a mission aimed to secretly observe First Order trade.

A barely audible transmission from their ship was sent to the Resistance on Hoth. Poe brings you to the command center since you have intel on the First Order, maybe they think you could know more than them. 

As you both walk into the large meeting room, you notice that mostly everyone from the base is here.

Leia is sitting down in a chair, talking to someone important. The lady cuts Leia off to speak, “Now that we are all here. Some of you may know we received a transmission from the two searching for First Order trades. Prepare yourself as this is hard for some to hear.”

She steps forward and presses on a button. At first, it was static but then the recording was normal as a lady’s voice erupted on the speaker. They were simply updating Leia on how they are going about the operation but she was interrupted by First Order troopers suddenly invading their ship. Blaster shots and screams are heard as they try to fight back.

A groan was heard from the man who was also on the mission, obviously, he got injured. The woman screams at the troopers to stop shooting, letting them take her as a hostage for the sake of his wellbeing. The sound gets muffled as she screams for them to stop then a single blaster shot echoes. What just happened?

Her cries were heard as they dragged her away. They must’ve captured her. Then the other troopers' footsteps could be heard as they raided the ship then the sound cuts out. “They noticed the transmission being recorded, so they shut it off and it was sent to us.”

Leia assumes that the male who is on the mission was too injured then the woman gave up for them to be taken, hostage. Instead, the troopers killed the man and only took her.

Mostly everyone in the room is teary-eyed from hearing such a gruesome scene that happened to their friends.

“The First Order may track the sent transmission back to us. I don’t want to do this, but to be safe we need to find another planet to take refuge on.” Leia’s voice spoke softly to the group. “I don’t want anyone to freak out but we need to leave urgently. Calmly pack up your things into transport ships so we can leave in the middle of the night.” Leia nods then everyone scurries out of the room to pack.

Poe catches your eye, he knows you are panicking. Your babies are almost a month old, how are they going to survive in a ship wanted by the First Order?

He grabs your hand and begins to pull you through the stampede of people to catch Leia before she leaves. “General!” He calls out and she turns around. She seems off, almost weakened for some reason.

“Do you have any idea about where we are going?” Poe asks Leia’s eyes dart around and there are too many people around so she motions for you both to follow her.

She leads you both to the corner of the room, most of the people have flooded out by now but she wants to stay quiet. “We’re looking at Ajan Kloss. It’s a moon that orbits around Ajara. It’s a jungle moon so it’s going to have a much different climate from here. Hopefully, we can easily acclimate there.” She sighs but gives you a reassuring nod.

“The babies will be okay. We will have our cloaking devices on so we’ll be invisible to their trackers.” She holds on your hand tightly before pulling away.

You look at Poe who pulls you in for a quick peck on the cheek, “Go pack everything up. I’ll be there soon to help.” He then follows her to ask more questions.

Your relationship with Poe has grown so much stronger. Kaydel and Poe called things off, and that made you guys even closer. Only really good friends, but you can’t help but notice how he has come to lay in your bed more and talk. Just talking though, no funny business.

Last time you saw Kylo was when he laid in bed with you the night after you gave birth. You’re hoping he’s okay and that he’s just too focused on his work to think about anything else. A part of your brain thinks that he may have given up on you and his children but you try to ignore those negative thoughts.

You take a deep breath as you walk out of the command room and make it back to your quarters. Thankfully, your shoulder has healed mostly and you’ve gotten rid of the sling. You grab large duffel bags and fold your clothes and put your belongings into one and the droid worked on putting the babies stuff in two different backpacks.

Ani and Ellie are much more active now but still so tiny. It worries you to bring them into a jungle. You just need to keep telling yourself it’ll be okay.

It feels like your senses are wiped from you and you lose your breath. You turn to the side slowly, your eyes look over the dark figure. “You’re fleeing. The Resistance knows The First Order is close to finding you.” His voice is deep and stern, “Tell me where you are.” His hand goes out to try and use the Force on you.

You look over him, taking notice of his darker under eyes and messy hair. His armor is in perfect condition like somebody irons it every day for him.

“Kylo. I’m sorry but that’s not going to work on me.” You almost laugh, his hand slowly drops to his side as he realizes. He takes a gulp, his adam’s apple bobbing. You grow concerned for him, your eyebrows furrowing. “Are you okay?” You take a hesitant step towards him, reaching out for his hand.

He seems closed off, “You’re pulling away. I can feel our connection fading because of the light. You need to stop holding on to them!” He grows frustrated, his voice rising slightly. Your facial expression turns into a frown as you slowly move closer, your hand touches his bicep. “I’m not holding onto them. I’m safe right now. We’re safe.” You look back at the children.

“No. You’re not. Once you get into those shuttles, I can’t save you.” He shakes his head and pulls away from your touch.

You felt tears prick at your eyes, a lump growing in your throat. “Just tell me where you are!” His veins pop out on his forehead. You wince as you back up from him, not wanting to be close to his temper.

“No, Kylo. The First Order will kill them all. You know it. Your mother is here, you can’t kill her. I know you can’t.” You sniffle and swallow your emotions. “You’d regret killing your mother just like you do with your father.” Those words caused something to switch in his brain.

“No. Killing my father was the best thing I could have ever done. I grew stronger. I am the leader of the First Order. The largest military faction in the galaxy.” He begins to pace, “If you were here with me, our family could rule the galaxy and take over.” His voice softens as he looks at you, a gleam of evil shows in his eyes.

His words are causing a knife to dig deeper into your heart, “No.. Kylo... We don’t want the same things. I want peace for our children, to play in the grass and in the sun. Not to be stuck on a gigantic weaponized ship in space.” You snapped at him.

You turn around to sling the duffel bag over your shoulder, wiping your tears so he couldn’t see them.

“Kylo, I know you’re torn. You should come back to your family here. Become who you really are...” You hesitate before continuing, “Ben Solo.” You turn around and notice that he’s gone. You felt another pang in your chest, tears now running freely down your cheeks and snot too. You wipe it off with your long sleeve and continue packing.

Poe walks into the room as you sit on the bed, your head in your heads as your mind runs with thoughts. He instantly takes notice to your inflamed face, “Hey, are you okay?” He comes up next to you to sit down and wrap a comforting arm around your shoulders.

You nod, knowing it’s a lie but you lean into his touch. “It’s okay. You don’t need to say anything, I’m here for you.” He tucks your head under his chin as he holds you.

“I’m going to take our stuff to a ship later, I’ll come to see you when I’m done so we can get onto a shuttle together.” He says the plan confidently. The droid interrupts, “Don’t forget about me.” She beeps out. You and Poe laugh, “Of course not.” He says to her.

Poe takes the heavy bag off of your shoulders to move it to the floor. “Come with me.” He grabs your hand, “You got them?” You ask the droid who nods and opens its arms mockingly.

Poe takes your hand and brings you into his bedroom, nothing is off of the walls nor is anything put away. “I need your help packing.” He laughs and you just shake your head with a playful smile.

It takes about thirty minutes for Poe and you to pack up his whole room. Of course, you chit chat throughout the time about what certain knick-knacks meant and why he is holding onto clothes he can’t fit into anymore.

Now both of you are laying on his bed horizontally, legs dangling off the bed as you stare at the ceiling. “Poe. I have a question.” You state softly, still staring at the concrete ceiling.

“Go ahead.” He looks over at you, turning on his side so he could play with your hair. “Why was I left on Crait?” You turn your head to look at him.

His facial expressions freeze, like he’s in shock. “What? Is the answer that bad?” You ask with a nervous laugh.

He lets out a breath before he starts to talk, “You were dead. Well, at least we thought you were... You had no heartbeat, we couldn’t stop the bleeding and you weren’t breathing either. As much as we wanted to take you with us, we couldn’t. The First Order was already beginning to move forward to enter the base. We didn’t even know if we actually had an exit.” He mumbles softly, avoiding eye contact. “But then Rey saved us. She used the Force and the rest of us got into the Falcon. She asked about you and when we told her the news she was heartbroken. She felt like you were the sister she never had.”

You couldn’t help but get emotional, everyone mourned over you and thought about you as if you were actually dead. “Then we traveled around the galaxy and found Hoth.” He let out a sharp breath through his nose. “For months we thought you were dead. I moved on with Kaydel, I started to finally come to terms with your death. Then all of a sudden, Leia tells us that she felt you through the Force. She felt you. It gave me hope you were still alive. Then she told us you joined the First Order, and that you were working alongside Ren.” He scoffed annoyingly which made you roll your eyes and sit up.

You pulled on your long sleeves to cover your hands, bringing the fabric up to your eyes to wipe your tears. “Poe... I didn’t know you thought I died. Honestly, I thought you guys left me because you knew I was dying and wouldn’t make it. I felt like the Resistance gave up on me.” You sniffle as you try to swallow the lump in your throat. Your brain works as you recall the hazy memories from Crait, you remember being alive and waking up. The pain you felt was indescribable.

Poe sits up too, moving closer to your body to pull you into his side. “Look, you’re one of the strongest people I know. You’ve been through some tough shit. You literally beat death so many times.” He gives you a squeeze. You look up at him with a teary smile.

You notice how his eyes travel from your lips then up to your eyes. Is he going to kiss you? Oh no, he definitely is.

Poe begins to lean forward, his dark eyelashes rest on his olive skin. Your eyes stay open as everything moves in slow motion, you admire his facial features as he nears you. One kiss wouldn’t hurt.

You let your own eyes close as you accept his kiss, one of his hands rest in the dip of your waist as the other is on your knee. Your hand comes up to his jawline to cup it and pull him closer.

The stubble on his face scratches you in the most attractive way. Stop, this is bad, you shouldn’t be kissing him. His lips are so addicting though.

He begins to deepen the kiss, his tongue gently rolls against your bottom lip as he tilts his head. A little squeak escapes your throat as his tongue hits yours, he smirks against your lips.

His hand travels up your knee, his other hand is gripping your hip now as he moves forward so you fall back against the bed again. He hovers over you, pulling away from the kiss so he can take a deep breath. You do the same too.

He dives right back in, his tongue dances with yours as his hands grip your hips to move you farther up the bed. Both of your breathing has picked up as you pant into each other’s mouths. His warm hand makes its way under your shirt to grip your pillowy flesh on your side. He hesitatingly pushes his knee between your legs to open them so he could fit between them.

This is going way too far but it feels too good to stop now.

“I know this is so wrong.” He almost moans into your mouth, “But it feels so right.” He begins to kiss down your neck, leaving little marks that will be gone soon.

You let out a whimper, biting your bottom lip as you try your hardest not to rip your clothes off right now. You haven’t been touched in forever and right now you’re throbbing for some relief.

“Poe, I can’t.” You’re crying on the inside, asking yourself why you couldn’t let yourself have some pleasure. You can’t stop thinking about Kylo. Poe instantly pulls his lips off of you when he hears you say no, “Okay, yeah that’s fine. I’ll do whatever you want.” He is breathing heavy above you.

He gently rolls to the side, his back against his bed now. “Sorry, I didn’t expect it to get that intense.” You mumble shyly, “Don’t be sorry. It’s your choice.” He says quietly. “I’m gonna go now. Thanks for... that.” You say awkwardly as you get off the bed. You look back at him once and smile, he returns it, of course.

You need to go take a cold shower to calm your libido, which is what you do as soon as you get into your room. You notice that the droid has taken Ani and Ellie for a walk around the base.

The cold water trickles down your hot skin as you wash away your thoughts. Everything moves in slow motion as your ears start to ring then your surroundings go silent. It’s Ren. You turn the stream of water off, grabbing your towel to wrap around your body then you open the shower curtain. He’s standing there in front of the door.

“The pilot. He kissed you.” Kylo says under his breath. Your ears barely pick it up since his voice is so deep. You stop in your tracks when you realize what he said. Water continues to drip from your hair and roll down your damp skin.

“How do you know?” You ask, your eyebrows furrow in confusion.

“I felt it. I had a vision and I felt you.” His voice is low.

“The kiss meant nothing.” You practically lie through your teeth, knowing it was much more. The kiss was passionate, like a bomb of built-up tension blew up and everything was let loose but it will never be as good as Kylo.

The raven-haired man shakes his head, looking to the side with his head angled down. He almost seems sad.

“No, I am not sad.” He scoffs at your thoughts, “I cannot blame you for your actions. I haven’t made an effort to connect with you.” His head lifts up and he stands up tall with his shoulders back. Before you could respond he changes the subject, “You called me Ben. That’s why I left. You know that’s not my name. The Resistance is changing you. I’m trying to keep you from going to the light but you’re pulling away from me.” He’s stern.

“I’m not pulling away.” You take a step out of the shower, his eyes follow you as you move closer to him. “I know you. I can feel your emotions. You want to be with me and our children but the path you’ve chosen makes the situation much harder for you to just stroll back to your family. People will be scared, they won’t trust you.” You breathe out, your hand coming up hesitatingly to rest your hand on his chest, feeling the ridges of the black fabric underneath your fingertips.

“I love you. I want to be with you but I’m going to have to choose this path for our children. For their well-being.” You look into his eyes and notice how he grows frustrated with your last sentence.

“For their well-being? You’re packing them onto ships targeted by the First Order. They could be blown up easily. If you would join me, you’d be protected! The Resistance does not have enough ships nor the people to try and go against us again.” He proves a point, “The Resistance left you to die. What makes you think they wouldn’t do it again?”

Goosebumps ran across your skin when those words left his mouth, “They thought I was dead. They didn’t leave me to die.” You took a deep breath then you back up from him, “Let me by.” You look up at him and he doesn’t budge as he keeps eye contact with you, “Please.” Your face scrunches up in annoyance. His large frame moves to the side, his hand coming up to mockingly lead the way for you.

You scoff and open the bathroom door to walk out into the cold bedroom with Kylo in tow. You don’t hesitate as you drop your towel in front of him to get dressed, you can feel his eyes on your body. You’re comfortable with him but your body has changed since you’ve given birth.

You were on a strict training plan when you were with the First Order, but with the Resistance you were definitely a bit more lenient with your food intake and the lack of physical activity.

You’ve gained a bit of weight around your hips and thighs, you have new dainty stripes painted across your stomach and hips from being pregnant too. You took a deep breath as you shimmied into your clothing, some joggers and a long sleeve top to keep you warm. You take your towel to wrap your hair up to dry it faster, “You’re different.” Kylo states softly, as his eyes look over your body once more.

You look at him with annoyance written across your features evidently, “What does that even mean?” You laugh as you move around the room to make sure everything is packed away. “You’re leaving soon aren’t you.” He takes a step forward when he notices that you’re occupied with other things. He can’t see your surroundings but he has an inkling to what you’re doing.

You ignore his question, “What do you mean when you said I’m different?” You put the rest of the supplies into the packs before you turn towards him.

“You’ve changed. I’ve said this to you before. It’s good and bad. You’re... beautiful. Although the light in you...” He takes a few steps closer to you, now arms length away. “It pains me to see you turn away from the dark. You have so much power inside of you. I attempted to help you let this power out... Rey is only trying to tame it.” His gloved hand comes up to brush your cheek with his fingers, his thumb rubbing your cheekbone. “I love you.” He breathes out, closing his eyes as he rests his forehead against yours.

You feel tears in your eyes as you close them, “I love you.” Your arms wrap around his waist to pull your bodies closer.

A knock on the door makes both your heads turn, “It’s the pilot.” Kylo hisses out. You can tell he wants to move and become face to face with him but you hold onto him tightly.

“Yeah?” You call out, “I-I just wanted to see if you were okay... After ya know, everything that happened.” Poe’s voice is muffled from behind the door. “Yeah, I’m good. Just got outta the shower. I’ll be out soon.” You try to get him to leave, “Okay. I’m gonna meet Finn and Rey to get some food. I hope to see ya there.” He begins to walk away, you hear the front door open and close.

As you move your head to look up at Kylo, he grabs your face to press his lips against yours roughly. The towel on your head begins to loosen as he backs you up into the wall, the towel falls to your feet and your damp hair falls to your shoulders. “I want you.” He growls into the kiss, it makes you whimper. The way his other hand grips your hip at the waistband of your pants and his other hand on your jaw makes you melt.

“Nobody can please you as I do. You’re connected to me.” He breathes against your lips then he trails kisses down your neck to your collarbone. His hand slips underneath the waistband of your pants, the warm leather tickles your skin as he moves closer to your core.

That’s when you realize there’s still pressure against your hip like he’s holding it. He doesn’t have an extra arm, does he?

He smirks against your skin when he hears your thoughts, “This is gonna feel so good.” He begins to back up from your body, but something is holding you against the wall and there’s still something in your pants. The Force.

You let out a whimper as the invisible hand tickles over your core, you watch how two of his fingers come up and make a come hither motion. Your head slams against the wall as the Force buzzes inside of you, your thighs squeeze shut in reaction. “Oh.. my...” Your voice is shaky as your knees buckle, you brace yourself to fall but he holds you up.

The pleasure that’s buzzing inside of you is euphoric, almost too much for your body to handle. Something vibrates against your clit which makes you cry out and squirm under his restraints. You bite your bottom lip as you pant, you already feel like you’re going to climax.

“Let go. You’re tense, you need to relax.” The force pumps in and out of you, the pace quickening as he feels you. His eyes closed as he focuses, you see white spots as you let go. You gasp for air as your thighs quiver, your toes curling against the floor.

The restraints leave your body, making you fall forward but he catches you before you could hit the ground. “Good.” He praises you as he easily lifts your limp body up to bring you over to the bed.

“Thank you.” He says to you, giving your forehead a kiss. He stands up next to your bed looking down at you, “For what?” You ask out of breath. He just stares at you, “I found out where you are. I’m coming to get you and our children.” His presence leaves your side as he walks away, disappearing before your eyes. You let your guard down and you didn’t even realize he was reading your mind.

You sit straight up in the bed, moving as quickly as you could. You try your best to walk straight so you could slip on some shoes. You leave your quarters as you start to jog down the hallways then you end up in a full sprint, “Poe! Poe!” You scream as you see him walking down the hallway with Rey and Finn.

“He knows. They know where we are. You guys need to leave. Now.” You say out of breath, your hands going onto your knees as you bend over.

Poe’s eyes go wide as he registers what you just said, he doesn’t say anything he just runs away towards the command room with Finn.

Rey stares at you with fear in her eyes, “How? What happened?” She pulls you up to look you in the eyes, “I let my guard down. He went through my head. I didn’t know, I’m so sorry.” You breathe out. Her brown eyes are wide with fear as she turns around to go follow Poe and Finn.

Then you realize the droid is still with your babies, you need to find them. You push past her as you start to run down the halls frantically, Rey calls your name but you just ignore her.

A siren in the base sounds, red lights lighting up in the hallways. Everyone begins to panic as they’re all moving towards the hangar to get onto the ships. You spot the droid with the babies cradled in her arms, you run up to her and take Ellie. “We need to go. Get the bags.” You and the droid begin to run towards your quarters, laying Ellie on the bed as you exchanged your slippers for boots.

You put the duffel bag over your shoulder while the droid grabs the bags for the babies and puts them on her mechanical arms. You scoop Ellie up and begin to join the stampede in the hallway, making your way to the hangar.

Your brain is working so quickly, you don’t know what to do. Adrenaline is pumping through your veins, your heartbeat is so fast.

As you near the transport ship, you see Poe, Leia and Rey are already inside. Kylo reaches out to you through your mind, “If you get onto that ship, I can’t save you.”

You stop in your tracks as the last bit of people board the ships, “Don’t get on the ship. I’ll order to not attack the Resistance.”

His voice sounds promising, tears are now running down your cheeks. You can’t take the chance of having your children die if you get on that ship. Poe walks out to you, “What’s wrong? What are you doing?” He asks, obviously concerned.

“I can’t go.” You shake your head, “What? Why? Stop it, come on.” Poe asks as he tries to lead you to the ship but your feet are anchored into the ground.

“If I go, we will all die. You need to go without us.” Your hand reaches for the blaster in Poe’s sling, grabbing ahold of it to point it at him. You click the safety off, your finger resting on the trigger. His hands go up in surrender, “I’m sorry. You need to go.” You look at the droid who’s standing still with Ani then back at Poe.

You look back at the ship, noticing Rey isn’t by Leia’s side anymore. “Shit.” You curse as she comes up behind you to disable your actions with her staff. The blaster falls from your hands and so does Ellie, Poes quick reflexes make him fall to his knees to catch her before she could hit the ground.

She instantly begins to cry and so does Ani. They’re frightened. Poe rushes onto the ship with the droid in tow. Your face is pressed against the cold concrete of the hangar, wrists behinds your back with her knee against them. “Rey, please. They’ll kill us all if I go with you.” She pulls you up by your wrists, pushing you forward so you stumble onto the ship. She leads you over to the corner of the ship, sitting you down by pushing on your shoulders.

“She is a traitor!” Rey yells at Leia, pointing at you. The droid situates the babies as the ramp closes to the ship, the hangar opens as the ships begin to fly out one by one. They all have the cloaking device on, hoping to stay under the First Orders radar. Not like it didn’t work the first time on the way to Crait.

Rey and Leia bicker back and forth about you and you listen to their words. Leia is trying to justify your actions but Rey says you’re too far gone to be saved. It might be true. Even though Kylo says you’ve turned to the light too much.

Poe walks up to you, looking at you from above. “He’s in your head. He’s corrupting you. Don’t let him do this to you.” Poe bends down to get to your eye level, “I knew that you wouldn’t hurt me.” He breathes out as he brushes back a piece of your almost dry hair.

“We’re all going to be okay.” He says as the ship leaves the hangar, the white snowy landscape shows itself. You hear the thumps of the other ships entering light speed, then the ship you’re on jolts and you’re surrounded by the swirling blue of hyperspace.

You lean back against the cold metal interior of the ship, your eyes glance over to see your babies being taken care of. You’re so thankful for that droid.

“We’ll be off this ship soon and then we will be safe and sound. I promise.” Poe sits down next to you so you could lean your head on his shoulder. “I believe you.” You mumble as you close your eyes and take a deep breath.

-

The shuttles land in the hangar, troops instantly begin to pile out of them to search the premises.

He stands up swiftly from his seat to leave the ship along with the General who is not far behind.

“Supreme Leader. We’re too late, they’ve escaped.” The smaller man sighs.

Kylo Ren’s dark gaze scans over the hangar. He notices that one of the troopers picks up something from the ground. Another armored man walks up to him as they discuss what it is.

Ren takes huge strides towards them, towering over the two as he snatches the cloth from their hands. It’s a baby hat.

He rubs the cloth between his thumb and pointer finger, the leather of his gloves move against it smoothly. The troopers look up at Kylo, “Continue searching.” Kylo orders them and they scurry away.

General Hux walks up next to Ren, instantly noticing the hat in his hand. “A baby... Who would conceive children during a war?” He scoffs, rolling his eyes as he begins to follow his troops towards the entrance of the base. Kylo lifts his head, blinking back tears as he stuffs the hat in the pocket inside of his cloak.

He takes a deep shaky breath, his jaw clenches as he gulps. His tough facade returns, leaving him as the Supreme Leader of the First Order once again.

The troops continue to move around him to explore the base to see if there are any clues to where they have gone.

Kylo begins to walk forward, moving from the hangar and into the hallways. The base now seems like a First Order has captured this base as their own. There is so troops marching around.

The memory he saw in your head replays as he follows the same hallways you walked to make it to where you were living.

His hand grabs the doorknob to the front door to open it, walking inside the home you lived in for months. His eyes glanced over the area, you definitely left in a hurry. He walked forward, pushing open the ajar door to the room you stayed in.

He notices the two cribs in the corner that you didn’t take. He looks over the unmade bed, his hand runs over where you laid. He walks over the cribs, seeing how they’re stripped to nothing. Only the mattress is left. His hands lay over the mattresses, his head hangs as his emotions get the best of him.

He has to get his family back. He needs to protect them, no matter what the cost.

tag list: @officiallpeterparker @funnysadshit @ymariejp @attorneyl @fangirl570 @trinityrud20 @kylos-sassy-cousin @delicatelyherdreams @fizzywoohoo @savvy7392 @angelias134 @that-girl-named-alex @cas-backwards-tie @glimmering-darling-dolly @glitterypinkkitty @blxkstar @his-snow-white-queen @elsasshole @smiithys @nanocoool @deathbyarabbit @alex-skr @theholycakehole  @averillian  @crazynocturnalkiki @arcanebabe @tinydancer40 @superduckypower  @thomasscresswell @butterfly-writes​ @thatintrovertedbisexual​ @fangirlanotherjust​ @somekindofroger​ @nicci442​ @little-girl-who-dream-too-much​ @wildest-dream-​ @silverlambcaptain​ @cliffordmess​ @xkylorxn​ @lowkeyofsassguard

[capricornus-rex]

Stronger Than Blood (3)

Not a witcher fic, the gif just fits the mood

Chapter 3: Impulses | Cal Kestis x Reader

Requested by Anon

Summary: Meeting another Force-sensitive was one thing, but having them related to one of the most formidable known duelers was a whole other story to tell. While being stranded in another planet after barely escaping the Haxion Brood, Cal crosses paths with someone who’s at a crossroads with their own identity and lineage.

Tagging @ayamenimthiriel​ since they asked in Chapter 2′s comments section ;)

Also posted in AO3

Tags: Force-User! Reader, Force-Sensitive! Reader, Sith-Related! Reader

Chapters: Part 1 | Previous: Part 2 | Next: Part 4 | Masterlist

3 of ?

Cal went back into the city, preparing for his stroll into the inner district with you. He entered Tundu’s shop again, he was half-expecting you to be already waiting by the counter but to no avail. Footsteps were followed when the hinges of the door stopped squeaking.

You were clad in a poncho, you smiled upon seeing Cal wearing the same article of clothing. The only difference is that yours was long enough to reach your knees.

“Awesome, we have the same cover,” you quipped.

When Cal saw you pull up the hood upon exiting the store, he followed suit.

“Stay close,” you warned within his earshot.

“Don’t worry, I plan to,”

Staying under the broad daylight and going together with the crowd was a good tactic, but Cal felt the growing tremors in your body the farther you got away from Tundu’s store. He’d catch glimpses of you—cautious yet calm in demeanor but deep inside you’re sweating bullets, hanging your head low as you pass by the loiterers who may know your face. Cal was under the impression that you’ve been to this part of town more than once. It doesn’t take a genius, after all, he had survived a similar environment for roughly five years.

As soon as the shadows have towered over the streets, your shallow breathing rasped through your lips, avoiding the eyes of the many bystanders grouped together at storefronts; you felt Cal’s arm brush against yours, causing you to flinch and shoot a glance at him.

“What? You said stay close,”

You wonder where does this boy find his smug confidence within himself and use it so casually. Whatever the answer was, it was a question for another time.

This part of town has always been a catalyst to your anxiety growing tenfold. It’s become an unconscious habit of yours to keep your fists clenched, as if repressing something that you can muster but cannot control. The chances of you getting jumped lingered with every step, so you find a way to distract yourself.

“Tundu says that you need a mechanic?” you began.

“Yeah, well, it’s just me and the captain who’s gonna be working on it. It’d be nice to have an extra set of hands,”

“That bad, huh?”

“It’s a bit of a big project, and we have places to go,”

“Well, that was the job I originally signed up for when I walked into Tundu’s sweatshop anyway. I only ended up being an assistant store keeper because not many come by the place to actually get the service,”

“You seem like a pretty good mechanic,”

You scoffed another chuckle again, “Don’t flatter me too much, Cal. I just might get used to it.”

The two of you traded glances: he had that coy smirk flashing back, while you smiled and giggled away the wholesome awkwardness dangling between you.

Farther and farther into the inner district, all the twists and turns, this is the part of the town the locals call “the Boroughs.” The ambience has gotten sketchier, the crowd sparse, and flashing neon lights took the place of natural sunlight. Cal’s hand searched for the saber at his hip—still there. Good.

Around the curb, you’ve led Cal into a store a little bigger than Tundu’s, and you were greeted by a Balosar storekeeper at the counter upon entering. You had warned Cal beforehand to keep his hood on even when they’re inside. The Balosar’s jaw clenched and his eyes squinted, when he realized who it was under the hood, he eased only for a bit—he was suspicious of your companion.

“Come now, Finteb, you don’t have to be so hostile all the time,”

“I’m being precautious—there’s a difference,”

“Sure,” you moaned indifferently. “Where’s your boss?”

Speak of the devil, the boss stepped into the scene: a Quarren. The creature’s tendrils dangled left and right with every step of the stairs.

“Ah, if it isn’t Tundu’s little protégé, [y/n],”

“Hello to you, too, Melgu,” your deadpan greeting hummed through the room.

“It’s been a while, eh, girl?”

“Look, I don’t plan on staying here. I just came here for what I need,”

The Quarren spots the boy behind your shoulder. Even with the complicated structure of his mouth, you spot a smile curling between the fleshy tendrils dangling on both sides of his face.

“Ah yes, but who needs it—is the question. Is it you or your boyfriend here?”

You felt the color burn in your cheekbones, you angled your cowl lower to hide it from everyone in the room—including Cal, whose cheeks were also flushing red.

“He’s… someone I’m working with,” you dismissed. “And he’s the one who needs it.”

BD-1 promptly flashed the holograph of the Mantis’s cross-section to the Quarren—and the Balosar onlooker—Cal described the part to the store owner in full detail.

Just when Melgu thought he was being slick, your instincts were already telling you what he’s trying to pull—just by judging his body language and the tone of his voice. Cal picked up the hint seconds after you did, but neither of you were ready to call him out just yet. It was between you and the Quarren to negotiate about the ship part.

“I have such a part,” he raised his digit in front of you. “But it is no ordinary, generic-line compressor. It’s one of my best merchandise to date!”

“I don’t doubt it,” you reassured with a deadpan tone, obviously unimpressed with his bragging. “So, may we see it?”

Melgu turned to his Balosar assistant, Finteb, to go fetch the part from the stockroom. The young male scurried out of the scene and disappeared into the narrow hall of the store; minutes later, he comes back out with the compressor in his hand and set it down in the counter right in front of everybody.

“This is the all-around model,” you uttered, leaning slightly forward to see the finer details. “Corellian make, of course. You’re right, this isn’t some generic unit.”

“Ahh, see? What’d I tell you?”

“How much is this gonna cost me?”

Melgu didn’t answer with words but with a sinister chuckle. Something is definitely up, no denying that. With your collective suspicion with Cal aroused, the two of you became more cautious of what to say or do next to the Quarren.

“Actually, there is something holding me back,”

Your stomach sank, you weren’t able to control the furrowing of your brows. Cal could feel his ribs constricting around his lungs, pleading to the wind that he won’t have the need to use his saber against this Quarren and his Balosar helper. He felt for his saber with his arm subtly, when he felt the edge of the solid cylinder hit his skin, he was assured—at least on that part only.

Meanwhile, you were also dealing you own problem—both mentally and the one right in front of you, repressing the gradual anger welling up in your being while conversing with this wretched scumbag of a black market vendor was a tedious challenge in and of itself. You’ve dug your nails into your palms that you could feel it cutting through the flesh as you try to suppress yourself. Cal can feel it—and you perfectly well know that he does.

“What is?”

“Your boss, Tundu, he and I have some unfinished business—I’m presuming he’s told you that,”

“He hasn’t told me anything,”

“Aww,” he groaned with pity for you in a mocking manner. “I suppose that walking sack of wrinkles didn’t want to bring his little protégé into his mess—or he just didn’t trust you well enough.”

“What are you getting at, squid?”

“Your boss is in neck-deep debt. Obviously, his business is dying and he had nowhere else to run to but me—almost all of his customers come fleeing to me. They’d even risk the Imperial patrols for my merchandise!” he guffawed insultingly.

Melgu continued to gloat about how his business is booming and, consequentially, killing Tundu’s in the process.

“Look, squid, I didn’t come here to watch you goad at me,” you hissed through the tight grit of your teeth. “Unless, of course, you want me to arrange that on the spot.”

The store owner relished the last moments of his bragging rights, he had taken notice of your hand hovering over where your weapon ought to be; but you’re praying that he doesn’t cross that threshold, but knowing Melgu—who was a sentient combination of fragile ego and a red-hot temper—he does not see any boundary.

“Well, aren’t you just valiant? Tell me, are you really willing to go through all of this trouble…” he picked up the part and flaunted it in front of you under the shine of the building’s skylight. “All for this? Or are you also trying to preserve your boss’s honor?”

“That wasn’t really part of my plan until you decided to bring Tundu into the equation, you seaside degenerate!”

Obviously, the Quarren didn’t like the choice of word you used to call him. The inch-thick flesh over his eyes—where one’s eyebrows should be—wrinkled and the long cartilages that frame the flaps of his triangular head tightened.

With the snap of Melgu’s fingers, his goons appeared from all sides of his store—even from the front door—you and Cal were practically back-to-back with one another, but neither of you have drawn out your weapons.

“What’s the matter, a little outnumbered, aren’t we?”

“I like these odds,”

“Be careful, [y/n], in this part of town—being cocky could only lead you to two roads. If so much as a thread of your shirt flies onto me, my men will reach you and Tundu’s precious little outhouse of a shop,” Melgu chuckled in a sinister tone, images worked in his mind of how his henchmen will handle the situation. “Well, frankly, accidents happen all the time, darling.”

“You son of a bitch!” you snarled. “I could kill you right here and now—I’d even include your boy Antennas here for good measure, just so there won’t be any witnesses.”

An involuntary whimper escaped the Balosar’s mouth, looking to his boss for some kind of reassurance that you won’t lay a finger on him, but no such confirmation came—only a low growl objecting your threat. He motioned for his brutes to hold both of you down—they were Devaronians and their arms could snap your spine with a single squeeze.

“You’re not getting close to our shop!” you growled as you’re nearing your boiling point.

“Ohhhh,” he mockingly sighed. “I’m not going anywhere, but I think my men are getting close the second you stay within my men’s grasp.”

Melgu broke out chortling, it irritated you to the point that you felt your insides burning and seething with rage, sharp inhales entered through the paper-thin gaps between your teeth, and Cal never took his eyes off of you the moment the Devaronians grabbed both of you.

“No…” you snarled.

“What was that?” Melgu leaned in, cupping his right ear flap.

“I said… NOOO!!”

Nobody—not even Cal Kestis, a Jedi—saw it coming. An energy wave sent the whole store flying—both living and inanimate, no one escaped the torrent of Force that emitted from your very being. You quickly helped up Cal to his feet.

“Come on, Cal!”

“You little Serennian bitch!” Melgu groaned as he struggled to prop himself back up.

You gently pushed Cal ahead of you, made a split-second’s worth of a glance and spotted the compressor on the floor. You reached for it, and for the first time, used the Force after some odd years of stagnating your connection with it.

A speeder bike parked by Melgu’s storefront made itself open for the taking. You and Cal hopped on with you on the helm, the two of you sped away before the Devaronian lugs could catch up and dare to hold the speeder bike by its back bumper.

[infinitetesimally]

Colossal Carrot Catastrophe

It’s been forever since I actually wrote about macromicro One Piece stuff, and I’m not caught up at all. But, here we are. A commissioned piece by a friend about Carrot causing havoc for a bunch of tiny cities.

An alabaster horizon rumbled contemptuously, an echoing sigh that blasted over the atmosphere accompanied by cataclysmic quakes that rocked the very foundation of the world below. Those countless below who stared up at their devastator were helpless before such monolithic might, and how unfortunate too that she seemed awfully annoyed and bored; a terrible combination of a predicament to find one’s self in.

The Thousand Sunny had traveled far across the ocean blue, accruing many an occupant and seeing sights so wondrous many would hardly believe such fanciful anomalies. One such group of travelers would be the unseen passengers that dwelled throughout the ship’s hold, imperceptible to the naked eye, yet many in number. Enough so one might say they have their own localized civilization that could be perched upon a fingertip’s edge.

By either chance or fate they had gone living their lives in undisturbed peace, unaffected by the titans that dwelled above. Save for today however. Carrot, the Strawhat Pirates most recent fuzzy recruit, had taken to wandering about the ship in a fit of boredom. It was docked on a supply run, and the remainder of the crew was out and about on the island, leaving her to her lonesome. She would join them, but nothing on the island either caught her attention, so she figured staying onboard would be the best way to wait things out.

Fortunately for her the ship itself had plenty of accommodating features, but however quite unfortunate for the microscopic lives that would soon be bereft by her simplest actions. The furry skyline that was the white of her toes rose high into the air with a sonic rumble that deafened all within its vicinity, generating windstorms that could part the clouds and upturn solid structures from their foundations.  It cast a shadow for an unendingly vast distance, stretching over dozens if not hundreds of homesteads, regions, townships and villas. All gawked skyward, right before the footpaw dropped with cataclysmic might that smote everything to fall underneath it into soft, squishy oblivion.

Carrot began strolling about the Thousand Sunny, humming mildly to herself while she stayed unaware of the havoc wreaked just below her soles. Perhaps she simply mistook it for grains of dirt or miniscule debris getting caught underneath, but whatever was caught would go unnoticed or uncared for. Stamp. Stamp. Stomp. A twist of the heel as she turned a corner, a drumming of her toes, a tapping of the foot as she paused to debate what to do.

A loud grumble from her stomach was a key indicator as to what she should do next, another explosive blast for any survivors in her wake, or even trapped upon her, to witness such an explosive ripple that roared through the air. “I know! Some carrots oughta fix that riiiight up.” She mused aloud to herself, heading for her new destination.

The kitchen was not too far from where she was, entering it with a keen eye on the lookout for her favorite food: that wondrous veggie in which she shared her namesake, the brightly chromatic orange root, the sweet, crunchily satisfying carrot. Just thinking about it made her mouth water and her stomach growl all the louder, so she hastened her search for it. She remembered there being a whole crate of them in the pantry, and made her way to where she last saw it posthaste.

‘Miles upon miles’ below, a desperately clinging speck gasped in attempts to hold onto a single fur strand that could house their entire home and more upon the surface of its tip, feeling the rocking and swaying of her body like a living continent on the move in a rhythmic pattern. They gawked upwards, higher and higher still she rose beyond the heavens into a distant blur beyond all vision, colossal curves rising into an atmospheric distortion while any sign of her visage above was blockaded by a behemoth bust that jolted and swayed in sync with her movements. It was an equally beautiful and yet terrifying sight to behold.

Her nose could easily sniff out her targeted quarry, honing in on it within seconds of approach. Making a beeline to the crate, she shoved aside all other distractions around it, in the back of her mind she’d bother to clean up the mess of spilled ingredients later, but for now she dug into the sealed container, ripping off the top. Her ears and tail twitched in delight at the sight before her, a hoard of carrots perfectly preserved, ripe for her to munch into.

The puny passengers the Strawhats had accrued over their journey were a resilient bunch when left to their own devices, having endured the journey of countless miles as well as populate a multitude of environments. They could never be prepared for the streaming light that poured in blindingly from above, only to be eclipsed by the looming moon of a cutely rounded face with a twitching nose and large, excited eyes peering down upon them all. Across the orange landscape, hundreds of thousands gawked at the sight, only to feel a sense of disconcerting dread when she licked her lips.

Excitedly grabbing a bundle in her arms, a rather ridiculous and comically large amount that obscured her entire upper body, she scurried over to a nearby table (surprisingly not dropping a single precious one) so that she may sit and snack to her heart’s content. Letting them drop onto the table in a pile that nearly stacked to the ceiling, Carrot bounded to the adjacent seat, almost shaking from the meal she was about to enjoy. “I hope they’re fresh-ah who am I kidding I’d eat them anyway.” She giggled aloud to herself.

Her tail twitched and wiggled in tune with her own hips as she prepared to sit down, a grand spectacle for the residents of the seat she was about to claim. Life thrived anew in every crevice and grain of the woodwork; foolish were they who built upon the furniture’s surface for they were about to suffer the Armageddon of cataclysmic bunny booty about to drop like a descending meteor upon a planet’s surface. Each cheek a rounded living landmass, parting the atmosphere and reclaiming the sky as their own with such mammoth visage no one could look anywhere else and not witness the all-encompassing view. With a seismic slam that roared over the landscape in seconds after impact, entire civilizations crumbled in mere moments; and all Carrot had to do was wiggle and adjust her seating.

Grabbing at one carrot, the long-eared gal took a moment to appreciate it, gazing admirably upon its form, even letting it trail underneath her nose and enjoying the absolutely luscious scent it purveyed. Oblivious to the chaos around her fingertips, as well as the hurricane-level gale she caused just by sniffing (she’d no doubt feel a tingle later that could cause a sneeze from several hundred city blocks lining her nostril), Carrot opened her mouth wide and savored the first bite. Furry maw parting, revealing rather cute buckteeth within, it was anything but to those upon the soon to be devoured veggie.

A hot gale roared over everything first, replacing the air with a warm miasma that stifled and made those weak of constitution faint. Just her breath alone blasting entire city-specks and their populations off the map to those too close at first, the first witnesses to her all-consuming hunger. Into the abyss it went, only to be chomped off with a great echoing gnash that thundered as a tolling bell. Miles by miles, bit by bit, it was ravished until nothing but the stem remained. Even then, she briefly considered eating that as well, but it was tossed aside for another carrot soon after.

With an appetite only matched by a few upon the seas, she ripped into the pile of carrots, hoping their chef didn’t need too many of them, but helping herself to as many as she could stomach, making a noticeable dent. Once she had her fill, Carrot sighed contently and leaned back in her chair, letting the comfort of a full meal settle. Several flecks of crumbs remained upon her lips, and she figured she might as well take care of those.

A nanoian tried to flee through the forest they had found themselves upon, spires of white fur stretching to the heavens, seeing in the distance just a mass of sheer pink bulldozing over the horizon, its approach signaled by shaking ground and the environment becoming noticeably moister than usual. Outpacing it was a fool’s errand, as them, as well as every other little crumb, was licked right up without a care, happily smacked and enjoyed.

She didn’t even notice the remaining few that had tumbled onto her chest during her feast, entire cityscapes trapped in the unending void of her cleavage. Smushed and crushed on all sides, while those on the surface of her breasts had to deal with the never-ending heaving of such unstable continents, constantly moving and shaking, whether from her breathing or even the most minor of movements. All they could do was cling in hopes of survival, while her face above blurred as a mocking monument.

With renewed vigor, Carrot stood up and stretched, those scant survivors having to bear witness to the rising of a gigantic goddess above, stretching higher and higher beyond all lines of sight. While she paused to think on what to do next, her ears perked, hearing a distant sound, a voice that seemed far away yet close. “Hello? Who’s there?” spoken to one of the specks that had made it to her ear in an attempt to get her to cease her devastation. If she just focused on it . . .

The sounds of footsteps and much closer voices interrupted such signs of hope. “Oh! They’re back!” Carrot grinned, quickly hopping back to the main deck, thinking an afterthought of she had simply heard them, leaving the nano fleck to be tumbled about in the darkest reaches of her cavernous ear canal, desperately attempting to communicate with her while even surviving mountains of the smallest bits of ear wax tumbling about.

Greeting approaching pirates, Carrot came to a stop before the crew’s archaeologist and navigator, both of them toting supplies on their run. “How was the trip? Is everyone ready to go?”

“Not just yet,” Nami replied with a shrug and a grin. “Robin found a book on this island’s local history, and is pretty interested in it. We’ll be docked for at least another day or two.”

“The others don’t mind,” replied Nico Robin, smiling slyly herself as she flipped through pages slowly, holding a rather worn tome that had seen better days. “Apparently this little island has a legend about even littler residents; people the comparable to the size of motes of dust, unaffected by the passage of time, able to build entire cities in a manner of hours or days.”

“This book recollects interactions with such smallfolk, and even claims some of the passages are memoirs from them. The author took a keen interest in them, and had managed to gather some of their culture in writings. Apparently we’re seen as incomprehensible gods, enormous titans to them, bringers of either ruin or great bounty.”

“I wouldn’t mind that now,” the orange-haired navigator swooned, wiggling her toes in delight, unaware of the cityscapes below loomed over by all three of them, trapped on all sides by the walls of Nami’s sandal, Robin’s boot, and Carrot’s paw. “Worshipped by millions, tending to my every whim. Sounds like the life. I wonder if their riches would be worth anything to us.”

Both present could only chuckle at her ego. “I’d like to investigate them. Do we have any magnifying glasses on deck?” Robin closed the book, the pursuit of knowledge ever her drive.

“I’ll help you look for some!” Carrot bounced, creating reverberating shockwaves across the deck’s floor, tumbling and tossing entire swathes of cities as if they were nothing. “I have good eyes and hearing, if I focus I can easily find them I think!”

As she said this, she began to tune in on her senses, keeping what Robin spoke of in mind. The smallest of the small, things so tiny you needed to be hyper-focused to even witness them. Carrot paused; peering around them, mouth a little agape.

“What is it?” Both inquired, looking at her queerly.

“Wow . . . they’re everywhere! You weren’t kidding when you said that! Here,” Carrot motioned to the floor just underneath them. “There’s tons right here at our feet.”

“I better go find that magnifying glass then,” Robin nodded, heading off, though, walking carefully, knowing she might step on some now. Nami let out a little squeak of annoyance, closing her legs and looking down with a blush.

“If I had known that, I wouldn’t have worn a skirt.”

“I’m sure they don’t mind.” Carrot giggled at the silly embarrassed human, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. Crouching low and using the very tips of her claws, she pinched up . . . something nigh indiscernible between them, the digits raising up what appeared to be nothing but a grain of dirt.

The dark haired beauty quickly returned, magnifying glass in hand. Noticing Carrot had something, she nodded and quickly held the lens over the fleck caught betwixt her fingers. She pinched it so they it was between all three of them, the edges of the tool pronouncing their already buxom busts surrounding the fleck; Nami’s, Robin’s bronze-dark, the white of Carrot’s fur, but most importantly, it magnified and highlighted their prize.

Buildings, streets, a countryside and more, all isolated upon this single dot they observed. If they peered closely, even people could be made out. Robin grinned, excited for this discovery, while Carrot watched with keen wonder, and Nami grinned quite devilishly. At least Carrot now had something to entertain herself with.

[spookyspaghettisundae]

Visitors to the Blue Jewel

The vessel drifted into Earth’s orbit in silence. Its fluid surface moved less like something manufacture and more like something organic. Against the radiant sun, its silhouette stood out as squid-like. Every other minute, a mess of tentacles splayed out behind it and discharged a blue trail of energy before clustering together once more and propelling itself forward with an almost serene and hypnotic calm about it.

The vessel’s sheer size dwarved a satellite that it flew by, like a giant whale crossing paths with a tiny trout. Light refracted from its rubbery surface in a weird sheen.

The unmanned satellite continued to float by, uncaring of this alien visitation occurring. Was it creature—or ship? Knowing such was impossible for people that inhabited the planet Earth in the middle of the twenty-first century.

Had there been enough eyes to witness the arrival, it surely would have been a spectacle. Watching this titan descend through the atmosphere, clouds shifting like walls around it with a mesmerizing slowness, only parting after long minutes passed and the monolithic, living spaceship emerged on a blue horizon.

This tentacled thing—the size of a small town—continued to drift towards Earth’s surface. The earth quaked gently, at first. The tremors grew in intensity as it neared the ground. A rumbling—like thunder—filled the air.

Somewhere, a deformed lizard sat on a rock sunbathing. It twitched and reared its head and watched the arriving alien ship from afar. When the quaking grew so strong that anybody would have sought refuge from the damage that might ensue, the mutated iguana scurried off the stone and escaped what would become a huge radius around the landing site.

Even with the menacing sensations of the vessel’s descent, it maintained a sense of majesty. Defying gravity and air, it seemed like space itself seemed to bend around it, and despite its colossal mass, it continued to glide down with an almost painful, deliberate slowness. Like a giant taking care not to step on a tiny world beneath its feet. It drifted down, towards a rocky desert amidst skeletal husks of burned out buildings.

It began to turn upside down during the descent. The winds blowing around it dispersed accordingly, causing clouds of dust to swirl and dance in magnificent spiraling patterns, celebrating Earth’s new guests.

The ship’s tentacles splayed outwards and pierced through sand and rock alike, burrowing deep into the ground. The tremors grew into earthquakes. The vessel’s descent slowed to a complete halt, the tentacles acting like flexible struts that lowered it almost completely to the ground.

Whatever deformed monstrosities still prowled this area as their chosen hunting grounds, the ship’s arrival had driven them to mass migration, fleeing the landing site several minutes before the alien vessel even touched down.

The ship emitted a burst of air, like a gigantic creature exhaling. More swirling clouds of sand arose, spiraling away and getting carried off by the winds this vessel’s arrival had caused to stir. At the same time, the earth itself ceased to quake.

A deep, baritone groan came from the living ship, so loud that it could stop the hearts of tiny creatures for miles around it. It echoed for miles, like a gigantic horn. Interstellar travel was quite the ordeal, after all.

The ship’s mouth opened, unfurling like a mesh of tongues symmetrically untangling. Their surfaces glistened in the harsh bright desert sunlight, more so than the rest of this living spaceship. The tongues—or ramps—drove into the ground in harmonious unison, much like the tentacles that suspended the ship.

From the darkness within the hole that had opened up, plumes of thick fog came out in rhythmic pulses. Amidst those emissions, a figure emerged from the bowels of the ship. Not even remotely human, the creature standing at the top of the now ramp-like tongues surveyed the wasteland and building ruins around its exit. It waited there.

Like a herald, as if expecting a greeting. But nothing else happened.

The figure defied definition, moving along on a hundred pointy insectoid legs. Its fluid motions gave it the appearance of gliding down the tongue-ramp as it descended farther onto Earth and finally touched this planet’s soil for the very first time.

A historic moment, witnessed by almost no living creatures whatsoever. The winds howled over this wasteland that once used to be a bustling city.

Derelict, decaying skyscrapers towered all around the alien ship’s landing site. The alien creature skittered past a burnt-out car wreck, revealing the insectoid thing to be equal in size to the destroyed SUV. Its mandibles clicked open and shut while it explored this apocalyptic world.

When it heard a rustling that came from wilted vine leaves, it recoiled and paused in its stride. Climbing out of a hidden pit, a man in ragged tatters crawled towards the alien. He wore a broken assault rifle on a strap, dangling from his shoulders, and in his hands he carried a fire axe patched up with a lot of duct tape around both handle and axe head.

Rage and hunger filled the eyes of this man, something the visitor could not yet read. The man stared at the alien and his brow furrowed and his dirty forehead creased a thousandfold, contorting his face into a primitive expression of confusion. The alien had little knowledge of human expressions so far.

It did however perceive a threat when the feral man roared and ran at it with his axe raised in the air, ready to hack into the strange visitor with his crude weapon. Violence was a universal language that the visitor understood.

The two dozen holes in its center—its eyes—glowed with an eerie warm orange light. Only for a brief second. When the glow faded, the attacking man went from being in a solid organic state straight into having been evaporated into a cloud of blue smoke. A gust of wind dispersed that final reminder of his existence.

The alien arrival continued to wander the desolate wasteland’s city grounds. Its head jerked around as it swept its gaze back and forth, now wary of encountering another such violent barbarian, and in a state of confusion—struggling to understand the state of this blue jewel it had sought to visit so long ago. Something must have drastically changed in a short period of time, for it had observed a thriving civilization of bipedal humanoids on its way through this star system.

Minutes passed, with only wind blowing through the alleys of crumbling buildings overgrown with dying vegetation. The quiet was so oppressive that the alien’s clicking mandibles echoed throughout the ruins.

Something truly monstrous must have befallen this planet to cause such devastation, but the source of the planet’s sudden demise remained elusive and mysterious.

Finally, the visitor paused again upon spotting another human. This bipedal just stood on a mound of rubble, watching the alien visitor. Its intent was indiscernible. This human, too, was garbed in tattered rags, though a set of goggles and a veiled hood concealed the figure’s facial features.

A silent observer in this wasteland.

The visitor hesitated to continue and began clicking and chirping in its native form of communication. Its hope was that the civilizations of earth had developed technology sophisticated enough to translate, but judging by the current state of this wasteland, the likelihood of such engineering having survived was close to zero. The lack of a response to the alien’s attempt at communicating said enough.

The human showed no apparent signs of aggression or action, continuing to stand there and silently observe the visitor. At the very least, the alien would not have to waste any more mental energy on evaporating this primate.

The human rose a hand and waved it. The alien immediately recoiled and clicked with its mandibles, fearing this to be the initiation of some hostile action. But nothing else happened for several seconds. The human lowered that hand again and began walking towards the alien.

Unlike the first encounter, this human did not leave an impression of hostility. The human limped, which the alien identified as the result of some poorly healed injury.

These earthlings truly were primitive.

Once the human had arrived within a distance of several steps away from the visitor, she stopped again and pulled back her hood and raised her goggles, revealing a dirt-caked face framed by greasy strands of hair.

“Hello,” she said. Her word sounded more like a question.

The alien happened to understand this word. It clicked its mandibles and chirped and watched closely to see if the human was evolved enough to instinctively parse anything it was saying. However, the visitor decided not to advance or retreat—for fear of triggering any adverse or hostile response and the necessity of disintegrating another native.

The human also stood still and tilted her head. The alien wondered if that was a nonverbal cue.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand you,” the human said after an awkward silence between the two.

The alien’s gene therapy and prior research had increased its interpreting capabilities to a point where it already started picking up a sense from unknown words. It refrained from raising its appendages, in case anything might be misinterpreted as gestures with meaning. It returned another response in its language, remaining incomprehensible to the human, but intending to trigger the earthling to speak more so it had more input to work with.

“Uh, welcome to Earth, I guess? Or what is left of it.”

It helped. The alien made an effort of responding intermittently, taking initiative whenever the human paused and provoking as many words to flow as possible. The alien began to wonder if other species had visited the blue jewel before, seeing how this bipedal creature appeared unafraid of its presence. After several sentences exchanged and the human woman asking questions that went unanswered, the visitor had finally processed enough sentences to understand her next words.

“What took you so long?”

A strange secretion emerged from the native’s eyes—its significance yet unknown to the alien. A tear rolled down the cheek of the human.

The visitor tried to respond in the native’s language for the first time, straining to produce sounds that sounded comprehensible enough to pass as mimicry of this human’s tongue.

It asked back, “What do you mean?”

The human wiped away the tear and it smudged the thin layer of filth caked onto her skin, leaving a muddy streak. The human smiled with sadness, the smile disappearing soon after.

“You are late,” she said. Her shoulders heaved once, twice, suppressing sobs. Another human concept the alien was only now learning of. Hearing it had been late but without specifying was something that puzzled the visitor, for it did not know for what it was supposed to be late.

The alien mimicked the human’s speech once more, its words distorted by the range of sounds that it could create within the limits of its biological make-up. “What happened to—Earth?”

The tears streamed down the human’s face and she buried her eyes behind the hollow of her elbow for just a brief moment. She gasped for air and then collected herself. The alien interpreted this as another convention of her species, that they communicated not only by speech but also by secreting fluids.

“Stargazers saw the arrival of your vessel many years ago,” she began. Her voice trembled, rasped slightly. She cleared her throat and continued. “At first, it brought wonder and amazement. Some people—I being one of them—we rejoiced at seeing a future in which we finally knew for certain that there was other intelligent life out there. But things went wrong, and I became a storyteller, and my audience disappeared.”

She stopped talking and swallowed, looking to the deep blue sky overhead.

“Please tell me more, storyteller,” the visitor said faster than before, a mixture of its growing comprehension, thirsting for more vocabulary to parse, and a growing curiosity to hear this native’s tale.

“Yes, well. There were others. Those who feared your arrival. And those who expected you to—bring death upon us. But mostly, the fear took over. Leaders who saw advantage in harnessing that fear drove people to extremes. Different leaders led them into conflict with each other. Things—unraveled from there.”

The alien’s eyes glowed in a warm orange light for only a second, a moment of pleasure—for it identified a recognition in her eyes. A knowledge that she was beginning to understand how not to use too many complex words or too difficult syntax, as the visitor still learned her tongue while she spoke. But it learned quickly.

She continued, “Scientists said that it would take time for your vessel arrive—years. Military, acting on people’s fears, wanted to use that time to prepare. To put together armies and weapons to pit against the threat they saw in your arrival.”

A mutated iguana scampered by, distracting the visitor. It clicked and chirped in apprehension, and the storyteller paused until the small creature had disappeared, allowing the alien visitor to calm down and continue listening.

“But we humans are impatient—we are bad at waiting. Poor at being one with our thoughts and no facts to go on. Cults and fanatics banked on the fear, and before long, everybody turned against one another. Those weapons we built—we started using them against each other.”

She stared at the ground. The alien did not understand the shame she expressed that way. So it spoke to learn.

“You of this Earth do not think as one mind, yet you say we. You speak as if your people are all one. Why?”

The storyteller shook her head. She looked back up at the visitor and her mouth opened to say something. She closed it again before any words escaped her lips.

“We all act as individuals, as single entities. We have brought forth great thinkers, spiritual leaders, strong athletes and brave warriors. And we take pride in their accomplishments, making them our own. But there are many of us, who think and act alone. We act out of fear, or ignorance, or pride, or any one thing that might make us act selfishly. And those of us with conscience? We carry the shame for those too arrogant for self-reflection. For if we failed to change their minds and hearts, their failures to do the right thing become ours.”

The visitor understood little of what she said, though it got a sense of the meaning. Its evolved thinking absorbed plenty of foreign words, but it struggled to grasp some of the concepts this storyteller spoke of, so alien they were to the nature of its own species.

She smiled at it, another expression new to the visitor.

“I’m sorry, those were a lot of—I’m—rambling. I’m sure it’s difficult to understand me as it is. The way you speak English—it’s incredible. Did you receive the messages we sent out into space?”

“Yes. We did,” it replied. It had studied the cryptic information sent out into space by these Earthlings.

The alien’s pincers opened and closed while observing. The storyteller looked it up and down. It interpreted her sweeping gaze as fascination. This human was not as primitive as the last one. They appeared to have a range of diversity.

“Finally, you’re here. I hoped—wanted to believe—that you’re peaceful visitors. I never would have dreamt that I would be the first to speak with one—I am the first, yes?”

The alien’s mandibles clicked and it shivered. The woman’s eyes secreted more fluid—tears of joy—another concept the visitor would find difficult to learn.

“Yes. First we speak with.”

It turned and looked around. None of the primitive sentient creatures were nearby, no other humans approached.

“I have so many questions,” the storyteller said, weeping softly. “I hope to become a storyteller of your lore, as well.”

The visitor did not parse all words properly. “Are you alone?”

She nodded and responded in the affirmative.

“There’s nobody for miles around. Just some crazy cannibal who attacks everybody and only leaves me alone because I killed his friend. I’d barely call him a person, though. And judging by his roar, I think you met him.” She gazed to the blue horizon between the ruined structures, cupping a hand over her eyes to shield them from the burning sunlight. “There aren’t many of us left anymore. The Final World War doomed our civilization. Other nations may be in a better state, but when the planes stopping flying overhead, and the months passed with news from other countries being as grim as they were, and, well. Yes. I am alone. A storyteller without an audience.”

Her thoughts trailed off and she redirected her gaze to the alien. Once more she smiled with an inherent sadness in her eyes that it could not fathom. Nor did it care about such things.

The visitor now regretted having vaporized the barbaric attacker earlier. Incapacitating and collecting him would have been more prudent. The dominant native species was turning out to be much more of a scarce resource than the hive had expected to harvest from this planet.

The alien hive had sent this individual out as their emissary. The emissary now judged the use of this “storyteller” to be marginal. These primates did not offer a lot of biological material for harvest. Normally, a hive ship’s arrival prompted a warm welcome—showering the sophisticated alien race with gifts and affectionate attention, offering up an entire planet ripe for the picking.

“Come,” the visitor said. “I will show you my people.”

The storyteller wiped the tears away and nodded.

“Yes. I cannot wait. There is so much for us to learn about each other.”

The emissary turned around, its hundred legs skittering and clattering on the ground as it led the way back to the hive ship it had emerged from.

The hive on this vessel might starve before they could expand into a colony on this forsaken planet. They had wasted far too many resources to get here, only to find that this idiot species had wiped itself out and turned the vibrant jewel of a planet into scarred plains of scorched wastelands. The hive’s living ship was likely to wither and die for lack of nourishment.

As they walked, the storyteller asked, “What do you call yourself?”

“I do not understand,” the emissary replied.

“What is your name?”

The emissary moved on without pause and considered the question.

“We have no names, we are one.”

“Then—what do you call yourselves? Your people as a whole?”

The emissary took more time to consider a response. It realized that the sense of identity and individuality among these Earthlings not only doomed themselves, but had also doomed the hive in humanity’s self-destructive stupidity.

“We need no name, for we are one. One people.”

“Where are you from?”

The storyteller continued to pose questions and only receive closed answers, for the emissary had little to say about these things. The human wanted to know names and places for everything, but the hive only knew unity and progress.

Eventually, they reached the vessel, where it still hovered, suspended by its tentacle-like appendages driven into the ground like slick, shiny pillars. The ground still trembled, something the human woman could sense once she stood still. The whole craft was no machine. Any attentive intelligent being could see a subtle rhythmic pulse, dilations and contractions of the vessel’s entire mass.

The storyteller’s mouth went agape at the sight of the ship up close.

The emissary clicked its mandibles and chirped, calling out the harvesters. A cluster of much smaller insectoid creatures swarmed out of the darkness that was the ship’s opening, skittering and scurrying towards the emissary and the storyteller. The visitor clicked and chirped and directed the swarm to bring her on board for the feeding. The speed of the hivelings increased and they tumbled and stumbled over each other, like a tide of living beings closing in on the human. Not slowing down one bit, eager to fulfill their role and carry out their duties, displaying a damning certainty that sent shivers down the human’s spine.

Only now did the woman scream and turn to run. But limping away would not be fast enough and it was too late, anyway.

She was the first. The harvesting of this devastated Earth had begun.

—Submitted by Wratts

[selfish-swine]

Part I: Imprisoned

“Well Pigma, looks like your luck has finally run out.”

The thought raced through the swine’s mind as he sat in his cell within one of Corneria’s military outposts on the planet Katina. Guards patrolled nearby, and the aged criminal could only reflect on how he’d gotten to this point. Pigma Dengar, the infamous traitor of the Star Fox team. Pigma Dengar, the ace mastermind behind Star Wolf. Pigma Dengar, Lylat’s number one wanted man, was finally captured and being held for trial by Corneria. The long arm of the law had caught up to him at last. 

“This is it, this is where the legacy ends. A legacy of climbing to the top, scheming for more than you’ll ever need, it all ends here in a dumpy damn military prison. How ignoble...”

The thought is interrupted though, by a sudden loud shaking. The lights in the facility flicker, and an alarm is raised. An attack? Here? By whom? Who cares! What a lucky break! The guards standing near his cell all rush out to meet the call to arms, leaving Pigma alone. He crept into the back corner of his cell as the sounds of battle grew louder and louder outside. The base shook violently more and more, and then a sudden silence overcame the entire facility. The sounds of battle stopped, and Pigma was left alone in quiet darkness.

“... the hell just happened? Who could attack a Cornerian base so suddenly like that? Did they win? Something’s uneasy here...”

With the power out, Pigma’s cell was opened. He slowly pushed the door open, stepping lightly as he could through the halls. He couldn’t SMELL anything. Where were the bodies? Is he just imagining all of this? It had to be a dream, right? Any minute now he was going to wake up back inside his cell awaiting trial. Or maybe even THAT is a dream to him, too. He’ll wake up back inside his ship.... or back with Star Wolf. Wouldn’t that be nice? Perhaps too nice. He makes his way outside, and the signs of battle become slightly more apparent. Smoke rises into the sky, but the fighter planes and tanks are all gone. The whole field is just EMPTY.

“Goddammit, what is GOING ON here?! There were shootin’ and fightin’ not even an hour ago! Where is my ship impounded at? I need to get out of here while I can...”

Pigma ran across the vacant airfield within the perimeter walls, searching frantically for the impound hangar. He was within moments of reaching it, when SOMETHING jumped down in front of him. It was beyond description, a jagged hodgepodge of machine and... flesh? Vaguely insect like, it towered over the pig as it reared up its mantid like claws at him. Pigma’s eyes went wide, and with surprising speed he bolted alongside the monster, and made himself into the impound hangar. Scurrying for the door control, he slammed his fat fist onto the door bay console - fortunately, the impound hangar was running on local power separate from the main facility. The thick metal doors closed before the mechanical insect creature could turn around and reach him, though it did bang furiously on the walls in vain to break in.

“WHAT WAS THAT?! IS THAT WHAT ATTACKED THE BASE?! It looked both alive and mechanical.... were that Cornerian weapons protruding out of it? Oh, god, did it EAT everyone else?? I need to get out of here... but I’m trapped...”

The old pig scrambled to his personal spacecraft inside the impound hangar. It was not hard to find, it was the only ship in there. He climbed inside and activated its systems, and considered his options. If he tries to flee outright, those things will attack him. He has no weapons, he can’t fight back. Not with this ship, anyway. He could call for help.... but then the Cornerian army would just re-imprison him... but maybe he could flee in the chaos of battle. Yes, this seemed like the best idea... call for help, and when help arrives, just bolt it. Let the dogs handle whatever this problem is. Yes... that’s what he’ll do. He reached for his console, and began transmitting a Lylatian standard SOS signal. It originating from a Katina outpost, surely Corneria would be swift to investigate...

“I ain’t dead yet. Still got tricks up my sleeve...”