#sure i get leaving him alive is worse but... i dunno his second in command was in the convoy too

[pocketramblr]

What do you think of Giran x Magne?

I like it! I think they sorta had flings between meeting and the lov, since Giran doesn't mix work and pleasure, but Magne is probably my favorite lov member to ship Giran with

[jgvfhl]

Number Lads!!

GUYS I hit 700 followers today?? Amazing. So, I worked extra hard to get this part up and finished for ya!

Part 2/??? Read Part 1 here :) Words: about 4k, no warnings

So I remembered the Battle of Kamino is a thing. And I had just put Sevenset in Rancor battalion. Whoops! But, if you know anything about me, you know nothing really bad happens.

CT-2222 = Do-si-do = Double Trouble

CT-3333 = Trees = Green Bean

CC-6666 = Sixes = DEATH

ARC-7777 = Sevenset = ARCBoiiiii

CT-8888 = Loops = Loopy

Reading the inventory lists from the datapad in his hands was increasingly difficult. Loops rubbed his eyes and shook his head roughly, trying to refocus, to put the overwhelming feeling of helplessness behind him. The whole Wolfpack felt similarly. Every announcement over the PA system made them jump. General Koon was using his limited free time to gather with groups of troopers to help ease their minds, and it was helping, but the general had chosen an uphill battle.

Kamino was under attack. The closest thing any clone had to a home, and the Separatists were trying to destroy it. The Wolfpack hadn’t been called to the front, as was their normal position. When the battle cleared, and the dust settled, they would be there to help pick up the pieces, until another assignment called them away.

So they waited.

Worse for Loops, he knew Sevenset was in the thick of things, following the ARC commanders at the helm of the defensive actions. He knew the ARCs were the best soldiers on Kamino, and he knew the 501st and 212th had boots on the ground as well, and Generals Ti, Skywalker, and Kenobi would be there with them. He knew this. But it barely helped ease his worries.

Technically, the next Numbers meeting wouldn’t be for another three weeks, but Do-si-do had commed everyone to ask if they wanted to move up the date because of the battle. Obviously, they hadn’t heard much from Sevenset. Or from Commander Sixes, but that wasn’t as much of a worry. He was a commander, he had a whole Star Fighter wing to lead into battle. Still, the radio silence only made Loops more uneasy. But Trees and Loops had agreed to meet with Do-si-do, at least, and that would start in about ten minutes.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Loops tried to put aside the gnawing worry in his mind to finish this inventory before the meeting. It wouldn’t be fair to hand over a half-finished inventory to the next guy on shift. So he slogged through it, walking around the denoted section of the Lightbolt’s cargo hold, reading the crates, scrolling through his datapad, until he was finally done. As he left the hold, he handed off the device to Tanner, one of the officers overseeing inventory at the moment.

“All set, sir.”

“Thanks, Loops. Get some rest.”

“Will do.”

He didn’t rest, not really. When he got to his bunk, he propped himself up against his pillow at the head of his bunk, waiting the last few minutes until Do-si-do sent the transmission to start the meeting.

“Hey, Loops.”

He looked up at the face looking upside down at him from the top bunk. “Hey, Racket.” Loops was always grateful his bunkmate never complained about some of the late-night Numbers Meetings.

“How you holding up?”

“Okay, I guess.”

“I know you’ve got a buddy in Rancor, just wanted to check in.”

The knot of worry in his gut tightened. “Yeah.” His voice felt hollow. “Thanks, Racket.”

“Haven’t heard anything yet, huh?”

Loops shook his head. “Two and Three and I are having a call soon to talk it out.”

“Ah,” Racket said, “I’ll give you some space.”

“Thanks,” Loops said, although his brother’s head had already retreated to his own bunk. Right on cue, his comm blinked its light. He hadn’t had the chance to get a holoprojector today. But he would be able to hear the others.

“Hey, Trees,” Do-di-do’s voice had a smile in it. “Loops?”

“Couldn’t get a projector today, sorry,” Loops said. “I can still hear you.”

“Oh, good.”

“Hi, Loops,” Trees said.

“Hey, Trees.”

“How’s the Pack?” Do-si-do asked.

Loops shrugged, before remembering they couldn’t see him. “It’s… well, you know. Everyone’s on edge. The general’s been helping though.”

Trees agreed. “Yeah, General Unduli and Commander Offee have been holding group mediations for the ones who want it.”

“I’ve heard General Windu’s working on that too, but…. He’s busy as all hell.”

“Yeah, High Generals usually are,” Loops said.

“Anyone else… find it kinda weird, though?” Do-si-do furthered.

“What do you mean?”

“Like… I dunno. I didn’t expect the Jedi to care this much.”

“Oh,” Trees said flatly.

“I mean--obviously, they care if Kamino is attacked,” he went on. “Because it’s producing the whole damn army, but I never thought they’d… do all this.”

It was a fair reaction. Most clones, upon encountering their generals, were a little unsettled at how… human they were. Loops had certainly had a learning curve when he’d joined the 104th. General Koon was… amazing. So, honestly, Loops hadn’t been surprised when he had offered to help his troopers through the stress of the Kamino attack. But, Do-si-do had always been a bit skeptical of the Jedi, even though, from what Loops had heard of General Windu, he would regularly go out of his way to defend his men.

“I’m not complaining,” Loops said.

There was a longer than normal pause afterwards. He eyed the blinking light on his wrist comm, wondering. It wasn’t uncommon for the signal to get interrupted by space travel.

“What are you boys gossiping about now?” Ah. Not space travel. Just Commander Sixes. His brain did a mental double take as that thought formed. Just Commander Sixes.

“Oh, uh…” Do-si-do searched for words. Trees was probably frozen again. “Just… thought some of us could use the conversation. With Kamino under attack. And all.”

There was a gruff, nonverbal reply from the commander.

“Don’t suppose you got any updates we laymen didn’t, sir?” Do-si-do asked cautiously. Loops couldn’t help leaning towards his comm. Even a little news would help…

“None any of you have clearance for.”

Loops rolled his eyes, falling back against his pillow. He should have expected it. But that didn’t make it any less disappointing.

“Sir, you know the point of this call was to ease stress, not make it worse?” Do-si-do replied.

“Armor up, shiny, we’re at war.”

_____

ARCBoiiiii: Guess who’s not dead!!!!

Loopy: kriff is it over???

ARCBoiiiii: Yep! Sent the clankers running and the Hairless Harpy and Evil Spider Legs too

Green Bean: did you just nickname… Grievous and Ventress?

ARCBoiiiii: what’s it to ya?

Loopy: are you okay sevens?

ARCBoiiii: aw loopy were you worried?

Loopy: get karked

Loopy: ...but yeah

ARCBoiiiii: where’s do-si-do?

Green Bean: dunno. might be on the wing.

Loopy: sevenset. are. you. okay.

ARCBoiiiii: ah okay. and yes! i am okay, loops. little sore, but i’m not hurt. Rancor’s casualties weren’t bad.

Double Trouble: SEVENSET YOU SONAUVA HUTT HOW ARE YOU

ARCBoiiiii: Do-si-do!!!!!! im okay :D

ARCBoiiiii: Cmdrs havoc + colt in medical tho… colt had a run-in with ventress i guess

Loopy: oh kriff--

DEATH: he’s alive after that?

DEATH: … really, boys? the name?

Double Trouble: Sevenset’s idea sir

ARCBoiiiii: Do-si-dos idea

ARCBoiiiii: kark dammit

Double Trouble: beat u haha

Loopy: lol

Green Bean: How ironic. He survives Kamino only to be reaped by Death later

DEATH: ha

Double Trouble: 0.0

ARCBoiiiii: i feel unsafe

Loopy: trees where has that biting wit been hiding my friend

ARCBoiiiii: WAIT I ALMOST FORGOT SOMETHING IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!

Double Trouble: ??????

ARCBoiiiii: I FOUND NUMBER FIVE

Loopy: Yay!! He was the one in 501st right?

ARCBoiiiii: yeah! pretty damn good sniper too from what i heard. AND GUESS WHAT ELSE

Green Bean: There’s more?

ARCBoiiiii: He and his batcher got promoted to ARCs so THEY’RE STUCK WITH MEEEEE

DEATH: I almost pity them.

Green Bean: ha

Loopy: wait what’s his name??

ARCBoiiiii: fives

Double Trouble: oof unoriginal

DEATH: Oh really, Do-si-do?

Double Trouble: wait no

Loopy: do-si-do it’s been nice knowing you

Double Trouble: nO WAIT it’s hardly fair, you’ve got Death as a name too

DEATH: Sure thing. Anyway, Fives and his batcher are Rex’s freaks, and he always takes his ARCs with him. They’ll be gone after graduation.

ARCBoiiiii: aw shucks :(

Double Trouble: that’s still like… almost three months tho

ARCBoiiiii: yessssss i’ll drag em into the next couple holos

Green Bean: But… it’s just Fives that has the repeating number, right?

ARCBoiiiii: well yeah but they’re practically inseparable, i’d feel bad

DEATH: that’s pathetic

ARCBoiiiii: one of these days we’ll find a recruit you actually like

DEATH: No

Double Trouble: speaking of, did you find number nine? Isn’t he in the 212th?

ARCBoiiiii: no… I’ll ask around, the orangios are still planetside for a bit. and i’m still on the lookout for a cadet 1111!

Loopy: glad you’re alive

ARCBoiiiii: *mwah*

Loopy: aaaaand now I’m not

-----

For the second time in about two minutes, Fives once again lagged a step so he could reach back and tug Echo along by the sleeve. “Keep up, will you?”

“Fives--”

“I don’t want to hear it, Echo, I told you already.”

His batchmate wasn’t going quiet without debate. “But we’re supposed--”

“--to be doing something very boring, now quit complaining.”

“It’s ARC training, Fives,” Echo hissed, yanking his sleeve away, but keeping pace with him behind Sevenset. “It’s all important, even if it’s boring.”

Their leader turned around, walking backwards as he said, “Well… I mean, I’ll be honest, I’ve never used the desert field training once, so…” He shrugged.

“Yeah, because you live on an ocean planet,” Echo pointed out.

“Pays off,” the ARC trooper grinned.

“Doesn’t it get kinda boring, though?” Fives asked. “The same planet over and over?”

“Boring?” Sevenset turned briefly to avoid a squad of junior cadets being led by medic. “Nah, not boring. Maybe the scenery leaves something to be desired, but hey--so did Coruscant. But helping to train brothers like you two? Never boring.”

“I think Fives would have to try to be boring.”

“I’m boring when I sleep.”

Echo turned a skeptical look on him.

“What?”

“What do you mean ‘what?’ you snore like a rancor--”

Remembering who was walking with them, they both looked at Sevenset to add, “No offense.”

And then Fives cut right back in with a rebuttal. “Well maybe I wouldn’t snore if I didn’t have your entire weight on top of me?”

Echo waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, no no no, don’t you pull that argument--”

Fives scoffed. “I am absolutely pulling that argument--”

“You snored on Rishi, and we all used our own bunks.”

That was true. They hadn’t had a reason to share until after…. “Okay, but how do you know that wasn’t Cutup?”

“Cutup--!” Echo’s incredulous tone was somewhat marred by the smile creeping onto his face. Their arguments could never keep a serious face for too long. “You don’t snore in a kriffing accent, Fives!”

Fives could no longer keep the smile off his face either, and he gave Echo a gentle shove with his shoulder. “Okay, you got me.” The gesture was returned a little more violently. Then they noticed Sevenset had come to a stop by a door, and they pulled themselves together to face him.

“You guys were on Rishi Moon?” Sevenset asked, passing his vambrace in front of the control panel to open the door. He gestured them in.

It was a small meeting room--very small, from the others Fives had seen. The holotable jutting out from the far wall probably left room for about seven people. He and Echo stood to one side of the door, hands behind their backs. Fives decided against asking why Sevenset had access to to this place.

“Yessir, we were the last men stationed there.” Echo’s answer was curt, almost blunt, but kept carefully under the veneer of professionalism he managed so much better than Fives did. It had become their standard answer for Rishi questions.

Sevenset glanced over at them from where he was typing at the holotable. “Echo, buddy, I just commandeered you from under your CO’s nose. You can drop the ‘sir.’” He looked back to the blue holograms in front of him. “So were you the ones who blew up the all-clear signal? Saved us a hell of a lot of trouble around here, I’ll tell you that. Should be thanking you.”

“There’s… no need for that.” Echo’s voice shrank slightly, his eyes dropping towards the floor. Fives sighed as quietly as he could, silently bracing for the unpleasant exchange that was sure to follow that deflection.

“Really? I hope you got medals or something, though,” Sevenset replied. He finished typing and stepped back from the table, facing them. “How’d you do it, anyway? Not easy to blow a base like that.”

“No…” Fives agreed hollowly, hoping the ARC would eventually get the karking hint and change the subject. There were already a half dozen scenes of memory playing through the back of his mind as he did his best to pointedly ignore them.

“Liquid tibana.”

He turned to look at Echo, who caught the unasked question in his eyes.

“He asked,” his batchmate shrugged helplessly, now looking anywhere except at their faces.

Sevenset’s eyebrows rose, crinkling the tattoos on his scalp, and he nodded. “Yeah, I guess LT would do the trick, wouldn’t it?”

Nope. Not getting the hint. And Echo--Maker bless him--would keep answering his questions even if it gave him a panic attack. Maybe ARC training could help him kick that habit.

“Did they really send commando droids--”

Fives didn’t let him finish. “Look, Sevenset, we don’t really like talking about Rishi.” Next to him, he noticed some of the tension leave Echo’s shoulders. “Our whole batch was stationed there, and, aside from Commander Cody and Captain Rex, we’re the only ones who survived that attack.”

Sevenset blinked, realization hitting like a splash of cold water. “Oh. Yeah, of course,” he looked down, scuffing one of his boots on the floor without much enthusiasm. “Sorry about  that. Should’ve realized.”

Fives dipped his head, acknowledging the apology. He knew Sevenset hadn’t meant any harm by asking, but at least he’d apologized. The holotable made a noise, and Sevenset practically flew to answer the incoming transmission. Fives couldn’t blame him for wanting to dissipate the uncomfortable silence that had followed his apology. He nudged Echo with his elbow, and they moved closer, still shoulder-to-shoulder, as the first two holograms appeared.

The first clone they saw sat in what looked like a cockpit, although “sitting” was a generous term. More like lounging. His head was shaved on the right side, and the long curls left were bleached and dyed a cold white. His face lit up upon recognizing Sevenset.

“You are alive!”

“Of course I’m alive, Do-si-do,” the ARC replied, once again all smiles. “I am almost offended you thought my first fight with Rancor would finish me.”

The second clone--in recognizably 104th gear--gave a tiny smile. “Here I am surprised Do-si-do hasn’t gotten a surprise visit from Death after his remarks about originality in the chat.”

The pilot, Do-si-do, made a show of looking under and behind his seat. “Nope, all clear. Sorry to disappoint, Loopy.”

“My name’s not Loopy.” He turned to look at Fives and Echo. “My name’s not Loopy, it’s just Loops.” Kind of a fun name, really. Fives wondered what his number was. Eight, probably?

“And for once you beat Trees here,” Sevenset remarked. Another hologram appeared. “Ooh, but not by much.”

Trees, by the looks of his armor, was in the 41st. But, unlike the others, he looked downright regulation, like Echo. “Sorry, I got stuck behind a gonk droid in the hall.” Catching sight of Fives and Echo, he added, “Oh, are these the new guys?”

“Yep!” Sevenset looked to them.

Without warning, Echo’s hand appeared, grabbing Fives by the jaw and turning his head to the left. “And you’ll never guess which one of us is named Fives.”

Fives swatted his hand away, Echo ducking the half-hearted attempt to put him in a headlock. “I am going to kill you,” he growled at his batchmate’s stupidly smug expression. So he liked the number; he had a good reason to like the number!

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with it, come on,” Sevenset smiled. “You and Loops can match.”

Loops turned his face so the tattoo on his right cheek was visible. An infinity symbol? Stylized number eight? “First thing I did when I got the chance.”

“How’s ARC training treating you two, then?” Do-si-do asked with a smile.

Fives glanced at Echo. “Not too bad,” he answered with a shrug.

“Yet,” Echo added.

Sevenset smirked and nodded knowingly. “Emphasis on ‘yet,’” he agreed. “Right about the three- or four-week mark, you’ll really start regretting some life choices.”

“You survived, though,” Trees pointed out. “Can’t be that bad if they managed to drag you over the finish line.”

“I do have more than one personality trait, you know.”

“Whaaat?” Do-si-do shook his head. “Can’t believe you’re more than your carefree facade. Actually upset now.”

Sevenset raised an eyebrow at him, but Do-si-do ignored the silent challenge and just blew him a kiss through the screen. Sevenset had mentioned he and “number two” had started this group, and now Fives could indeed understand they knew each other pretty well.

“Wait,” Loops spoke up. “What’s your name?” He gestured a little vaguely towards the two batchmates.

“Oh.” Echo straightened up a bit. “I’m Echo.”

Loops waved at him.

“Is this everyone?” Fives asked, looking to Sevenset. He had mentioned the group wasn’t “complete” yet, but he hadn’t expected it to be this small.

The other four shook their heads. Sevenset answered. “No, there’s still the commander, but we don’t pretend to know when or if he’s gonna show. The others--number one, number nine, number four, and zero--we haven’t found yet.”

“And Commander Fox wants nothing to do with us, thanks to Sevenset,” Do-si-do added.

“Also true.”

Echo’s confused expression matched the questions Fives had in mind. He didn’t know Commander Fox’s number off the top of his head. Echo probably did. He’d known the captain’s and Commander Cody’s like that. But… there was another commander? They turned to look at Sevenset together, although two different questions came out of their mouths.

“What commander?” Fives asked.

“You asked Commander Fox?” Echo said at the same time.

They didn’t get answers. Well. Not explicitly. A fourth hologram appeared beside Loops, Trees, and Do-si-do. The single pauldron denoted rank. The full kit of black armor, helmet included, didn’t give many other details. So. That commander. Whoever that commander was…

Next to him, Echo tensed, just barely, but Fives could read him too well to miss it. He looked over. Fives recalled his batchmate’s reaction to meeting the captain and Commander Cody for the first time. They had reputations, they had stories, and Fives had been right with him in that sense of awe--aside from the whole… being invaded by commando droids… thing that had been happening at the same time. And right now Echo kind of looked like that. But his expression had none of the subtle reverence Fives remembered. More… fear? Not quite. He’d seen Echo scared. Who was this guy? And why couldn’t Fives place him?

“Hey, Commander,” Do-si-do greeted, like there was nothing strange about a commander in all-black armor appearing on their holotable. None of them had even gone to attention. That was a little odd.

The commander folded his arms across his chest and grunting a nonverbal reply. His visor landed on Fives and Echo. Again, Fives saw Echo’s whole body stiffen in his periphery. “New guys?” the commander eventually asked, his voice sounding an awful lot like Alpha-17’s gruff speech.

“Yep,” Sevenset nodded, not even addressing him as sir. “This is Fives, that’s his batcher Echo, and you have magically chosen to appear right when they started asking questions about you.”

“These the inseparable ones?” This man had absolutely no variation in tone, and it was going to get creepy.

“Looks like it,” Loops replied.

The commander stared at them for a few more seconds, before giving another wordless huff and looking away. “No one’s inseparable.”

Fives did not like the chill that sent down his spine, despite the words having, as before, no discernible emotional tone. Behind his back, his hand tightened around the opposite wrist, the dull pain momentarily distracting his mind from the commander’s implication. Glancing to Echo, he saw his brother’s jaw clench, his mouth pressed into a line as he stared down the holograms. Fives shuffled closer until their shoulders and arms touched, feeling his brother lean into him.

Sevenset looked between them and the holotable before taking half a step sideways towards them. “Okay, Commander Dark and Angsty, maybe don’t scare away the new guys? Thanks.”

The commander’s helmet tilted up ever so slightly--probably rolling his eyes--but he stayed quiet.

“And that,” Sevenset went on, turning to Fives and Echo, “is Commander Sixes, AKA Commander Death, and yes, he is always like that.”

Finally, it clicked in Fives’ mind. He knew about Commander Death, he just hadn’t seen any images of him. Sithspit, no wonder Echo had reacted like that. The Death Wings were downright terrifying by word-of-mouth, and that--that was their commander.

And these guys were just… chatting with him. They chatted with him… regularly. Sevenset didn’t even call him sir. What in the nine hells…?

The commander’s visor went to Sevenset. “How are Colt and Havoc? Haven’t had a chance to comm them.”

“Mm? Oh. Commander Colt’s just got out of medical. Commander Havoc got out a couple rotations ago.” Sevenset shrugged. “That’s all I’ve got.”

Fives had seen Commander Havoc during training yesterday. He’d walked a little stiffly, but from what he’d heard about his injuries, walking at all was pretty damn good.

“Did you ever find number nine?” Loops asked. “In the two-twelfth?”

“Eh…” Sevenset held up a hand palm-down and tilted it back and forth. “Sort of. I got confirmation he is in with Commander Cody’s boys, and that his name is Nines, but that’s all. Never got eyes on him or a frequency, or I would’ve patched him in.”

Echo opened his mouth, then closed it. Fives nudged him to speak. He’d already drawn attention from Loops, Trees, and Do-si-do anyway. “Well, just--Torrent works with Commander Cody’s men more often than most. We could keep an eye out for him.”

“Once we’re back with the company,” Fives added.

“Oh yeah,” Sevenset nodded. “Totally. Thanks.”

“Any word on the others we’re looking for?” Trees asked.

Sevenset shook his head. “No luck with number one over here. Still haven’t found any cadet with that number.”

Do-si-do added, “The ninety-first has leave in three weeks. My company will be on Coruscant for about a ten-day. Anyone else?”

“I’ll check,” the commander said, reaching out of frame for something.

While he was silent, Loops put in, “Well, the Wolfpack won’t be off for another month and a bit.”

Trees nodded. “The forty-first is still on for another two months.”

“And obviously the three of us aren’t going anywhere,” Sevenset said, tilting his head towards Fives and Echo. “Gotta say, that is one thing I miss about being in the Guard. Can’t see everyone when they’re on leave.”

“The one-eighteenth has leave in about a month,” the commander finally reported. “Should overlap with the ninety-first for a few days. Maybe you can find zero in there. My fighters have a mission with the Nova Corps coming up, too. I’ll see if I can find number four.”

A smug smile appeared on Sevenset’s face. “I thought you once said you weren’t our recruiter, Commander.”

The commander stared at him for half a moment, then answered, “The Marines won’t have leave for another six months. You want to find number four? This is how you do it.”

The ARC nodded, his smile never changing. “Okay, alright, I get it. We won’t tell anyone you like us.”

The commander huffed quietly, then muttered, “I’m still surprised Alpha-17 didn’t beat that attitude out of you over there.”

Echo smirked. “Well, at least that means there’s hope for Fives.”

Fives shouldered him. “Hey, I haven’t done anything.”

“Yet.”

Sevenset grinned at Fives, who found himself returning a small smile. Trees pinched the bridge of his nose. “Maker help us, there’s two of them.”

“Something wrong with that, Trees?” the ARC replied with mock severity. Fives would admit, he did like Sevenset. He liked seeing a higher ranking soldier maintain a lighter sense of humor. Most of the Teth survivors in Torrent had a dark streak--Coric might have it the worst, actually, and it was rubbing off on Kix.

“Nothing wrong, just means I’ll have to explain to my medics why my blood pressure’s so high.”

Do-si-do and Sevenset laughed, and Loops smiled. The commander just shook his head. Yeah, Fives could get used to this.

-----

Edit: I FORGOT TAGS @nl13 @darth-void @glubtheflyingfish (sorry i missed you in part 1) @blsmjoon @23-bears @theultimatesandwich @peacefulwizardfox @alamogirl80

[firefly464]

The Real World - Chapter 11

Ok so this ones a bit more of a slightly slower chapter and kinda does a bit more world building sooooo yeah. BUT ALSO THERES SOME WHOLESOME FRIENDSHIP MOMENTS SO THATS GOOD

Made in collaboration with @i-have-this-now​ Thank you to @rivys​ for beta reading and editing!

Master Post

First - Previous - Next

~~~

Silence. Complete and total silence fell over the call as both Tubbo and Wilbur tried to process what Tommy was saying. The moment was tense, and loaded with unanswered questions. 

“Fuck…” Wilbur muttered. He didn’t know what else to say. He was in a state of shock. What was he supposed to do? He had just learned that two of his friends were trapped in another dimension, and that said dimension was going to be destroyed because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. 

“Yeah. I feel like that sums it up pretty well.” Tommy had no idea what he was supposed to be doing, or even feeling. There were so many emotions raging through his mind. Anger at Wilbur for talking to Dream. Relief that Tubbo and Wilbur weren’t screaming at him. Fear that his home was going to be destroyed.

God, he was sick of being afraid. He had felt nothing but fear and terror for a week straight, and thought that he had grown numb to it. He had thought wrong. The raw terror that coursed through his veins in that moment was nothing like he had ever felt before. It was cold and numbing. It made him want to just crawl into his bed and lay there. He felt completely and unbelievably hopeless. At least during the war there had been a small sliver of hope. A tiny beacon of light in all the darkness. It had been what kept him going. Now, there was nothing. He had no way of fighting back. No way of even contacting his friends and seeing if they were safe. He hated it.

“So. What’s the plan?” Tubbo’s voice shook Tommy from his intrusive thoughts. He couldn’t help but feel grateful for Tubbo’s optimism, despite the fact that he knew it was hopeless. “How are we gonna stop him?” 

“What do you mean?” he asked, his voice quiet. 

“We’re not just going to let him kill all those people, right? There's gotta be something we can do. Some way that we can stop him.”

“Tubbo, I-” “No, he’s right.” Will interjected. “We aren’t just going to sit around and do nothing. Besides, if what you said is true, then our Tommy and Dream are stuck there as well. We’re not just going to let them die.” 

“You guys don’t get it, do you…?” Tommy muttered. He knew his friends were trying their best, but the hopelessness of the situation was suffocating. It was like he was standing in a pool of quicksand, slowly being dragged down. Each time he struggled and tried to resist, he was only dragged down farther. He was tired of fighting it. “You can’t stop him. We don’t even know where he is.” Tubbo was silent for a moment. “What if we switched you guys back? We could figure out the command that swapped you in the first place and just run it again.”

“I mean, you can try. But wouldn’t you need Dream’s computer?” 

A sly grin spread across Tubbo’s face. “Who says I need access to his computer to access the server? Just give me a few minutes.” The sound of typing echoed through Tommy’s headphones.

He frowned, confused as to what was going on. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to access the server.” He didn’t offer any more information.

“While he’s doing that, maybe you could tell us more about what happened to you. How did you even end up involved with Dream? From the sounds of it, he's fucking terrifying,” Wilbur asked. He figured that the more they knew about what was going on, the easier it would be to try and solve their issue. 

“I… He used to disappear for really long periods of time. Eventually I got curious. I saw him leaving and tried to follow. He caught me pretty quickly. He… he said that he would kill everyone in L’Manberg if I didn’t go with him and do what he said.”

Wilbur’s eyes narrowed. That didn’t make any sense. Why on earth would Dream force Tommy to go with him if he hadn’t gone far? Something wasn’t adding up. “What-”

“I’M IN!” Tubbo yelled out, cutting off Will’s question. 

“You’re in?” Tommy asked.

“I have access to the server.” Tubbo explained. “Maybe I can try and contact them.”

“Wait, what do you mean you have access to the server?” Wilbur said.

“I have the console open, wait- here.” Tubbo started sharing his screen on Discord. 

A black background filled with white text that neither Wilbur nor Tommy could understand appeared on the screen. It was filled with coordinates and commands that were constantly being updated every couple of seconds. A waterfall of white text was filling Tubbo’s screen. He could see a grayed out command that read ‘/msg TommyInnit hello?’.

“Hey, wait a second,” Wilbur said. “Tubbo’s commands aren’t working.”

“Do you think it could be some sort of activation key?” Tommy asked, but it sounded more like a statement.

“...Exactly. How did you know?” Tubbo asked.

“I think I may know where that is.”

~~~

“What the fuck?” Tommy held the wooden bow in his hands, staring at the blinking light. “Have either of you ever seen this kinda thing before?”

“Why the hell would I know anything? I’ve been here as long as you have,” Dream remarked as he took another drink from the glass bottle. 

“I dunno, maybe because you’re the server owner?”

“Just because I’m the server owner doesn’t mean I know what's happening.” 

“Well, maybe you should.”

Dream only rolled his eyes. Tubbo squirmed a bit. Seeing Dream acting so casual was… unnerving. The lack of a mask only made it ten times worse. Until an hour ago, he had never even seen the man’s face. It was always just the blank mask, cold and emotionless. Seeing the raw emotions on his face was somehow scarier than not seeing them at all. A shudder ran down his spine. 

“Tubbo? Any ideas?” 

Tubbo jumped slightly, caught off guard by the sudden question. “Huh? O-oh! No, I don’t know. Sorry man, I’ve never seen anything like this before.” 

A sigh escaped him as he ran a hand over the leather wrapped grip. The blinking light stared up at him, almost taunting him in a way. That was when he felt it. A small raised section of the grip, right where his finger would sit if he were holding it normally. He frowned. “what the fuck?” 

“What? What is it?” Dream asked quickly. 

“I dunno. It’s just a weird bump…”

“Oh. That's it? It's probably just from the other Tommy making his bow wrong or something.” 

Tubbo shook his head, quick to defend his best friend. “No… Tommy was really good at making weapons. He wouldn’t have done something like that. It’s not like him.” 

Tommy’s brow furrowed as he ran his finger over the strange button. On a whim, he pressed down. 

A scream was torn from his throat as a robotic voice played in his ears. “Hello?” it said. 

“What the fuck?!” 

“Tommy?! Tommy are you ok?! What happened?!” Tubbo was instantly on his feet, trying to check on his friend. His instincts kicked in. Everything that had kept him and his friends alive during the war came rushing back to him as he frantically checked Tommy for any wounds or injuries. Nothing. No visible cuts or bruises. Maybe it was mental? Or a type of potion. Or maybe even- 

“Tubbo, Tubbo! I’m fine! I promise. Just a bit startled.” Tommy’s voice brought his train of thought to an abrupt halt. Tubbo sat back down, his face burning with shame. 

Dream stared at them in concern. “What happened?”

“Did you not hear it?” he furrowed his brow, trying to put the pieces together.

“Hear what?” 

“That weird voice thingy. I pressed the little button and the robot lady started talking.”

“You’re hearing voices now? Are you alright?” 

“Yes, Dream! I’m fine!” he cried out in exasperation. The blinking light on the grip of the bow had gone dark, leaving nothing but a regular wooden bow.

~~~

“How do you even know that they’re in your world?” Wilbur asked. Tubbo had already set the command in the server, and now the three of them were just waiting for some sort of results. Now, they were all just sitting around, trying to get more answers out of Tommy. “I mean, for all we know they could be floating out in the empty void of nothing.”

“No, I’m sure that your Tommy and Dream are in my world. Dream seemed really confident about it. He said something about it already being tested or whatever. 

“Tested? Tested on what?”

“I don’t know. He never told me. All he said was that the test had worked.”

“Alright, I’m just gonna be the one to say it, thats sketchy as fuck.” Tommy couldn’t help but jump. Tubbo had been so quiet while they were talking, he had forgotten that he was even there. “I mean, I get that he’s a sketchy guy, but that's just weird.”

Tommy took a deep breath to try and calm his racing heart. “Yeah… It really is. I learned pretty quickly not to question him though. He was fucking terifying whenever he got asked too many questions.” A shudder ran down his spine as he remembered the blank, emotionless mask. God, he hated that fucking mask. Every night, he was plagued with nightmares about it. 

“Tubbo, I think your command went through” Wilbur said, his voice cutting through the fog that was starting to build in Tommy’s mind. He looked at the screen. Sure enough, the grayed out text was now gone, replaced with a blank text box. 

“Someone must have found the trigger. Hopefully it was your Tommy and Dream. I’m not sure what would happen if someone else managed to get their hands on it.” 

“Either way, it should have only sent the message to Tommy, right?” Tubbo asked.

“I don’t fucking know. I wasn’t allowed anywhere near the console.”

“Probably because you’re a little gremlin child.” Will couldn’t help but make the snide comment. Maybe he just wanted to pretend, if only for a moment that nothing had changed. Maybe he was searching for a way to lighten the mood. He wasn’t sure. 

Either way, the comment earned him a cry of protest. “The fuck is that supposed to mean?!” 

“It means that you are a little gremlin boy. What else would it mean?” Despite his best attempts, he couldn’t quite keep the smile out of his voice.

“Alright, you son of a bitch, you listen here. I could beat your fucking ass in a fight, no questions asked.” Despite the harsh words, Tommy couldn’t help but grin. The friendly banter was familiar to him, and he couldn’t help but be thankful for it. In a world where everything was strange and foreign, it felt nice to have something that stayed consistent. 

“Oh yeah? Prove it”

“Alright. Next time I see you, how about we 1v1? Me versus you.” “Uh, I don’t think that's a really good idea,” Tubbo interjected.

“What? Why not? I’ve beaten him before, I’ll do it again.” Tommy’s voice was dripping with confidence. He may not have been nearly as strong here as he was back in his home world, but he still knew how to fight. Not to mention, he had spent most of the past week trying to get his strength back. 

“I don’t doubt it, it’s just that fighting someone is generally considered not good here”

“Are you serious? That's so lame! Back at home we used to spar all the time!” 

“Yeah, not here. Unless you’re in a fighting style sport, sparring just isn’t something that you do here” 

“Ughhhh, that’s so dumb.” he grumbled.

“So, uh, what’s the plan now?” Tubbo asked. On the screen, another /msg command was pulled up, ready to be sent. The message section itself was blank, but it was clear that Tubbo was itching to try and communicate with his best friend. 

“We just input the command, right? We swap you back, you guys could go home, and we get our Tommy and Dream back. Boom, problem solved.” Wilbur couldn’t help but feel slightly confused. Hadn’t that been the plan from the start? 

“I uh… I don’t know the command that he used,” Tommy admitted. 

“Fuck.”  The three sat in silence, trying to figure out what to do. Tommy couldn’t help but feel like hopelessness starting to drag him down again, pulling him down into the pit of quicksand. 

“What if we brought them to the console? That way they could actually respond and we might be able to come up with some sort of plan?” Tubbo suggested. 

He weighed his options. On one hand, it was the best bet they had. Hell, he was about 99 percent sure that Dream would have left some sort of clue as to what the command was, if only because he enjoyed the thrill of the danger. On the other, who knew what kind of trap Dream had set up. Knowing him, he would have expected them to do exactly this. No. No he couldn’t think like that. This was their one chance. It was his only chance at saving his home, at saving his friends. 

Swallowing his fear, he nodded. “Yeah. Alright, that sounds good.” 

~~~

“What the fuck?! Why is it blinking again?!” The small red light was back, blinking up at the blonde teenager annoyingly. 

“Press the button again?” Dream offered helpfully. 

“What? No! I’m not pressing that fucking button again! You press it if you’re so curious!” he tossed the bow onto the table carelessly, the loud noise making Tubbo flinch. 

Dream grabbed the weapon and looked over it. “Alright, maybe I will. Where did you say it was?” 

“On the grip, right next to the little light. It's really small though, you have to feel it.” 

“Got it!” with a soft click, Dream pressed down on the button. 

Instantly, the robotic voice echoed through Tommy’s mind once more. The voice was cold and metallic, with no emotion whatsoever. It reminded Tommy of pretty much every computer generated voice he had ever heard, only this time, it echoed through his skull. He could feel his teeth vibrating from the sheer volume of it. His eyes shook, causing the world to vibrate and jitter. It reminded him of when the bell had been rung, only this time he was the only one could hear it. 

“Hey Tommy, it's Tubbo. This other Tommy just told me and Wilbur everything that’s been going on. Don’t worry, we’re gonna get you out of there, alright? Apparently the other Dream is going to really fuck everything up if we don’t stop him. And by that I mean he’s going to delete the server and most likely kill all of you and I really don’t want that to happen. So we’re gonna stop it!”

The voice continued for a bit, explaining what the plan was and where he and Dream needed to go, and Tommy did his best to keep track of Tubbo’s directions. “... Anyways, we really miss you man. I swear, we’re gonna figure something out and get you guys home. Yours truly, big T.” The voice stopped, and Tommy blinked. Tears pricked at his eyes.

He didn’t really understand what was going on, but he did understand one thing: there was hope. He might be able to go home. Tubbo and Wilbur were going to bring them home. 

~~~

Master Post

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[sicparvismorrigan]

Crisis of Faith

The will of God brings a young and impressionable Trinity soldier to the attention of Commander Konstantin.

Tomb Raider/Rise of the Tomb Raider/Konstantin

Viewpoint: 3rd person female Trinity soldier OC

Warnings: blood, descriptions of violence, PTSD, religious fanaticism, stigmata

Word count: ~2.5k [complete]

A short fic I wrote because I wanted to play with Konstantin’s heavily religious side.

Read on Ao3

Death.

Ailish sat up on her cot, freezing cold. She was drenched in sweat and panting heavily. It was pitch black in the gulag and she tried to slow her breathing so she wouldn’t wake her comrades. She listened carefully, there was snoring coming from all directions. Nobody had heard her, not yet.

She was safe. She was surrounded by big men with weapons, nothing could hurt her here. All the prisoners were securely locked up. Ailish reached down and felt the comforting cool steel of her own pistol in its holster.

She breathed in deep and counted 1...2...3... before breathing out again. Her pulse was still racing and she could feel her heart trying to leap out of her ribcage.

Safe. I’m safe.

It had been nearly two years since Yamatai and Ailish still had nightmares. She knew exactly what it was: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She had heard the guys talk, knew some of them struggled too. She had seen a few get discharged because of it. She’d spent a long time trying to convince herself she was fine. But in fact, she really wasn’t.

She needed air. Ailish quietly got out of her cot and shrugged on a few more layers before making sure her pistol was strapped to her body, just in case. She tiptoed past the guys by the light from her torch, and made her way out to the old guardhouse that was their temporary mess area. She just wanted some space to calm down.

Empty, thank God. The embers of the fire were enough to keep the warmth going. She pulled up a chair and settled in to watch the glow.

She kept replaying the last moments of her nightmare over and over in her head, despite trying her best to push it away. They were in that god-awful pit again, suffocating from the fumes. She checked ahead and yelled Clear! back to her second, Charlie. As he moved past her she heard something big land on the rock of the cavern floor behind them. Charlie swung back around and screamed at her to get down as a God-awful roar filled the cave, rattling her bones. He raised his gun to fire and Ailish shrieked at him stopitsgonnablow-

bang bang

 

BOOM

A flash of white light, then darkness. Waking up in terror once again from the memories that haunted her every night. At least she was alive, she had made it out. Charlie hadn’t, she couldn’t save him. She still blamed herself. The guys had tried to convince her again and again it was an accident, but she should have been there. In her dreams, she’d seen Charlie die a hundred times over, each more horrible than the last.

She had never been so close to quitting as she had after Yamatai. She had composed her resignation letter in her head on the helicopter ride back to civilization, but had never written it. Something told her it wasn’t time yet. She’d spent just over three years working with Trinity at that point and never questioned her beliefs before the clean-up mission to that hellhole. By all accounts it was even worse during the Nishimura expedition. She shuddered, it didn’t bear thinking about, how anyone could survive there for any length of time she’d never know. So many bodies. And in some places, the smell, it was unholy.

It didn’t help her sleep at night, but at least she had got a promotion out of it. The salary was great, which was a major reason for her staying put. Ailish was trying to help her parents put her younger sister through Yale, and every cent counted. Her mom and dad had just been grateful, and thankfully hadn’t yet asked where the money had come from. She didn’t want to have to lie. They’d hit the roof if they ever found out. As far as they were concerned, she was still working as a paralegal in Chicago. God, she missed her sister. She hadn’t seen her in months, and now Ailish was off-grid in Siberia. Freezing cold, snowy, desolate Siberia.

She was startled out of her thoughts by a voice outside. A deep voice, American accent. It sounded a lot like the Commander. She really hoped he wouldn’t come into the guardhouse. He was intimidating, and she’d never been in a room alone with him before. He sounded like he was talking on the phone.

“...and what did the doctor say?”

...

“Okay...Ana, are you smoking?”

...

“Yeah, I know, but-“

...

“Listen, she’s on the move. She may even already be in Siberia. I need you back here.”

...

“Got it, see you soon.”

 

Who was Ana? Was it his wife, girlfriend, daughter? Who was the other ‘she’ he was talking about?

Ailish heard footsteps coming up to the door and the latch lifting. Oh boy, here we go. I wasn’t eavesdropping, Commander, I swear.

He stopped dead when she saw her at the table. Obviously not expecting anyone else to be awake at this hour. He slid the cellphone he was carrying into a pocket and nodded at her before closing the door behind him. “Sergeant.”

“Evening-“ Ailish checked her watch. “Ah, morning, Commander. Sorry, sir. I’ll get out of your way.” She slid her chair back to leave.

“Stay. You were here first.” Ailish sat back down immediately, wide-eyed. “What are you doing up so late?”

“I couldn’t sleep, sir.” Not strictly true but she didn’t want to feel like a little schoolkid telling her superior she had a bad dream.

“Likewise.” He pulled up the chair opposite her and sat down with a sigh.

Something was bothering him, he seemed fidgety. Ailish didn’t really know what to do so she started twiddling her thumbs and rambling to fill the silence. “Gee, the weather’s really turned these past few days, huh? Ha ha...kind of makes me wish we were back in Syria. Although it was almost too hot-“

He cut her off. “Moscovitch, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“We’re not on duty, you don’t have to call me sir.”

“Uh- yes. Okay, si- eh...Command- uhmm...”

“Konstantin is fine.”

“Okay.” It felt weird. Ailish wasn’t even sure if that was his first or last name. “You can call me Ailish. It’s slightly less of a mouthful than Moscovitch.”

“Don’t hear that name very often.”

“Yeah, it’s a weird one...my parents have always had this fascination with Ireland. It means ‘noble and kind’ or something like that...I dunno...”

He looked at her for a long moment. Ailish opened her mouth to speak again when a wolf howled up in the mountains. She grabbed for her pistol and her other hand tightened on the edge of the table until her knuckles turned white.

Konstantin saw her reaction and frowned. “Relax, it’s just a wolf, they don’t come down here-“

“Yeah, I know.” She started hyperventilating and bit her lip hard to fight back the tears. For God’s sake, don’t cry in front of the Commander. She hated hearing the wolves at night. Rationally, she knew they were miles away, but the sound still caused her pain.

For a moment she was back on Yamatai, wedged in a rocky crevice listening to the snarling as they hunted for her. The smell of rain, tree sap and decay all around. Her hands shaking as she pointed her rifle at the opening, just waiting for jaws and teeth to emerge around the corner and grab at her.

“Oh, shit.” This was going to be a bad episode. She’d had panic attacks increasingly often and could spot the signs of one approaching. Fortunately they usually hit when she was alone or could sneak away, but now she had no such luxury. Ailish knew this one had her beat.

Konstantin’s mouth tightened. “Language.”

She had time to blurt out “Terribly sorry sir!” before she slid off the chair onto the floor and crawled under the table.

The tears were now pouring out and rolling down her cheeks. What an embarrassment. She’d fought so hard to prove she was equal to the guys, and now she was being a silly little girl.

She felt the Commander’s boot gently tapping her back. “Mos- Ailish? Are you okay?”

“I will be, in a minute.” She panted.

Through the panic she heard the other chair scraping backwards. To her surprise Konstantin crouched and got down to her level under the table, facing her. Was he supposed to do that?

“You’ve normally got it together, Moscovitch.” Oh no, back on a last name basis. She’d definitely messed up. “Want to tell me what’s going on?”

Ailish shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut. “Just need a sec.”

The only sounds in the room were her panting and the low crackle of logs in the burner. She felt his gloved hand on her shoulder.

He quietly spoke. “Listen, I read the Yamatai report.” It was strange, how calming his voice was.

Ailish looked up, misty-eyed. “Yeah?”

He nodded. “I didn’t know they’d be sending a woman.”

“I’m just as capable-“

“Quiet. I’m saying it’s impressive you completed the mission, and even led part of the way, that place sounded like a nightmare.”

“It was.” Charlie, I should have saved you.

“And I am sorry you lost Corporal Collins. I know you were close.”

“Yeah...” she sniffed loudly. Her heart still hurt, so much. “He was like a brother. Charlie would have done anything for me. And I would have done the same for him.”

His eyes softened. “I know what that’s like.”

It meant a lot to Ailish, getting commiserations from a Trinity leader. Normally, you could forget about that sort of thing. Rourke had co-ordinated the Yamatai mission and hadn’t said a word to her when he had met them back on the mainland for debriefing. Dominguez had been silent too, though he had been one of those who had approved her promotion. They could be a heartless, insensitive bunch sometimes.

But she hadn’t expected the Commander to have a soft side. He actually reminded her of Charlie. Konstantin had a scarred-up face but there were similarities for sure. Blonde hair, blue eyes, they walked with the same purpose. He wasn’t bad-looking actually, as long as the light was dim.

Ailish eventually rallied and crawled back into her chair, still breathing quickly. Konstantin sat down too, regarding her with something akin to concern.

“Tell me the real reason you’re here by yourself in the middle of the night.”

She swallowed hard. “I...I have nightmares still.”

He shook his head. “I think you should talk to someone about this. If you’re serious about staying with Trinity. It would be a shame to bail out now that you’re a Sergeant.”

“I’m fine.” Ailish mumbled.

“You’re really not. I know someone who might be able to help, a doctor.”

“No, honestly...” Please no doctors, they might kick her out. She needed the money for Ellen’s tuition, she had to stay.

“I trust her, she’s with Trinity. Her name’s Wilkens. If I order you to see her you can’t say no.”

“Then I suppose it’s settled.” Great, just great.

“Indeed.”

He suddenly pulled his gloves off and took her hand in his. Ailish fought not to pull back out of his grasp. Was this really appropriate? Her free hand was reaching for her pistol when she realised he was just checking her pulse.

“Much better. Almost back to normal.”

She managed a small smile. “Thank you Commander.”

Ailish realised her hand felt strange under his, like a bug was crawling on her. She glanced down and started. “Your...uh, your hand is bleeding.”

Fresh blood was running down between her fingers onto the table. It was creepy as hell, she tried not to shiver. She’d been a bit squeamish about blood since she’d seen a literal underground river of it in Japan.

He didn’t react, just looked straight into her eyes. Ailish didn’t know what he expected her to do. She could still feel it trickling down her skin. Was he not alarmed that his hand had just started pouring blood? She was becoming visibly uncomfortable when he finally answered her.

“They’re old wounds. It happens sometimes.” He held up his other hand, palm facing towards her. “See?” That one was also dripping crimson.

Ailish almost gagged. Ugh, now she knew why he wore gloves all the time, even in the heat of Syria. What was the name for those wounds? Stigmata, or something like that. A sign of divine favour, apparently.

The urge to ask how he got them was overwhelming. Actually, she better not, it was maybe a touchy subject. The Commander could be...violent. She’d seen what he could do when he was pissed off. She had the fleeting thought that maybe he would hurt her, or worse, if the mood took him. Everyone else was asleep, who would know?

He spoke, jolting her back to reality. “Did you pray on Yamatai, Ailish?”

She nodded, not breaking the eye contact. “Yes sir, for my life, almost constantly.”

“And you truly believe in what we are trying to accomplish?”

“Yes sir.”

“Hmmm...”

There was a long pause, he seemed to be having an internal conversation she wasn’t privy to. Finally he nodded. “Keep your faith, Ailish. You have already been tested, and you’re still here. I believe you are destined for something greater, like myself.”

“Sir?”

He smiled at her, but it was cold and calculating, he reminded her of a shark. His eyes were suddenly dark and empty. 

“The name Ailish is Celtic, yes. But did you know it has a different meaning in Hebrew?”

“You know Hebrew?” She asked in surprise. He ignored her.

“Your name means consecrated to God.”

She wasn’t sure she liked his train of thought. Ailish knew he was one of the more devout members of Trinity, but she didn’t know how deep it ran.

“I’m sorry, Commander, I’m not sure what you’re getting at...”

“I want to keep a closer eye on you, Sergeant. You report directly to me now, do you understand?”

“Yes sir.” She nodded, albeit reluctantly.

“And let me talk to Wilkens. We’ll help you, don’t skip out on Trinity yet.” He finally let go of her bloodstained hand. Ailish could smell it, metallic.

Konstantin stood up, pulling his gloves on. “I have a feeling we’re going to need you for something important.”

Ailish was dumbfounded, what had she agreed to? She didn’t like not knowing, but the Commander wasn’t a man you just said no to.

As he opened the door with a blast of cold air Konstantin turned back, giving her that empty smile again. “Get some sleep, Sergeant. That’s an order.”

“O...kay.” The door clicked shut, and he was gone.

Ailish glanced down at the mess on her hand. She felt like she’d been marked in some way.

Stigmata.

What did he mean?

Consecrated to God. What was it that Konstantin, or some other higher power had planned for her?

What was her purpose?

***

Thank you for reading!

~ Anyone who has read Behind Trinity Lines will recognise the character of Dr. Joanna Wilkens, I couldn’t not include her somehow! She is awesome and I love her. All credit to @BrittanyTheScrivener on Ao3 for Jo’s character. Her work is brilliant, if you haven’t read it I highly suggest you do

~ Sergeant Ailish Moscovitch, her family and Corporal Charlie Collins are my characters, all other characters mentioned are property of the Tomb Raider creative team and I take no ownership of them

~ I feel I should mention that nothing in this work is intended to cause offence or be blasphemous in any way. I myself am not religious at all but I am respectful of those who choose to be and anything I’ve written is only exploring character traits already displayed in the Tomb Raider video games

~ I have no current plans to update this with more chapters, it was intended to be a one-shot. I just really wanted to play with Konstantin’s heavily religious side. But if there is interest I might continue the story...what exactly does Konstantin have planned for Ailish? Where does she fit in with the events in Rise of the Tomb Raider? What will Ana think of her? What would happen if Ailish and Lara ever crossed paths? This could get interesting...

[summahsunlight]

Perhaps It’s Fate, Part 18

Rating: T, to be safe

Word Count: 2031

Summary: After joining the Resistance as a mechanic, you were happy to keep to yourself, until a little orange and white bb unit and his master wander into your workshop one day.

Pairings: Poe Dameron x Mechanic!Reader

Taglist: @ms-dont-care​, @starless-eyes-remain​, @elmoakepoke​, @marvelobsessiononastick​, @kiaralein​, @softly-sad​, @totalpoedameron, @ordinarymom1​, @sevvysaurus​, @spider-starry​, @liadamerondjarin​, @jingyuhearteu​, @dream-alittlebiggerdarling​

It’s here! The next part! Hope you enjoy it. I didn’t get to proof read this too much before posting, I’m too excited for you to be able to read it!🥰 Remember if you want to be added to the taglist, just let me know!

Finn left you in the med bay with the medics and promised to go find Poe. You were concerned that he hadn’t showed up to hover over you and make sure that the medics were taking good care of you. Finn figured that Poe was busy, after all the Raddus was now attempting to outrun the First Order fleet--he was surprised to find Poe tucked away in an abandoned part of the ship. 

Poe’s head was cast downward, his shoulders slumped, with his face buried his hands. BB-8 was sitting by his side, every once and while beeping sounds of what Finn interpreted as comfort. “Poe?”

When the commander looked up at him, Finn was taken aback by his appearance. There was a dull looking in his brown eyes, he’d obviously been crying and he just looked--defeated. “Hey, you’re awake. How... how are you feeling?”

“It’s sore... but I supposed it could have been worse,” Finn replied.

“I dunno, buddy; you’re trapped on a ship being pursued by the First Order,” Poe said, tightly. “Seems like it is worse; we’d probably all be better off dead anyways. at this point.”

BB-8 moaned, sadly, his photoreceptor looking over at Finn. 

Finn stood there, dumbstruck. It was like the fire and passion had been sucked right out of Poe. “Are you okay, Poe?”

Poe chuckled, angrily. “No. I took that dreadnaught out to protect us, to save the people on this ship--and it didn’t matter. The First Order managed to track us, they killed my friends.” He sucked in a large breath, trying to stifle a sob, “they killed her. I just wanted to keep her safe... keep her away from anymore pain they could inflict upon her. I failed her.”

It took Finn a few seconds to realize that Poe was talking about you. No wonder he hadn’t come by the med bay to find you--he thought you had been in the hanger--he thought you were dead. “Poe-”

“Don’t tell me it’s not my fault. I’ve heard that enough already.”

“But Poe...”

“Finn, I know you think you’re helping...” “Dameron! Shut up for a second! She’s fine.”

BB-8 rolled back and forth in excitement, wildly twilling and beeping at Poe--who sat there looking at Finn with wide, shocked eyes. “But she was working in the hanger--the First Order blew the hanger up.”

Finn shook his head. “She wasn’t in the hanger. They couldn’t find you when I woke up, so they called her. She came to see me. We were going back to the hanger when the ship was hit. Poe--she’s in the med bay wondering where the hell you are.”

Poe scrambled to his feet, wiping at the tears in his eyes. “I didn’t... I didn’t know--I thought she was dead, Finn. I thought I had lost her.”

“She’s a little banged up, but she’ll live.”

“Banged up?”

“Yeah, she hit her head--but like I said--she’s fine, Poe.”

BB-8 nudged Poe in the legs. He couldn’t figure out why the pilot was still standing there--the little droid wanted to go see you. He had been sad just like Poe when he thought you had died. 

Poe suddenly snapped back to life, pushing passed Finn and heading towards the med bay with both BB-8 and Finn trailing behind him. You were alive; you were alive and suddenly the galaxy was aligned again--suddenly Poe realized the dire situation they were in.  If they didn’t figure out a plan soon, they were all going to be dead in just a few hours. 

Heart racing, he burst into the med bay, startling the medics and calling for you. Poe could worry about the Resistance in a minute--he just needed to see you first, needed to see you with his own eyes. When he came around a corner and saw you, sitting on a cot, asleep, his heart leapt into his throat. 

Gently he went to cup your neck and ease you into a comfortable sleeping position. The movement stirred you and you looked at him, sleepily with a smile. “There you are. I thought you forgot about me,” you teased him. 

“Never,” Poe sighed, tears springing to his eyes. “I could never forget.”

“Poe?” you questioned, seeing the tears. “What’s wrong?”

His arms were around you, drawing you towards him and holding onto you tightly. “I thought I lost you,” Poe cried, “I thought you were in the hanger when it was blown up and...my world crumbled, Y/N. There was nothing left for me to fight for, to care about--I love you.”

You pressed your face into his neck and let him hold you, your heart breaking at the grief he must have endured for the last couple of hours. If only you had known... you would have sent Finn to find Poe much sooner. 

BB-8 rolled into your room then, happy to see you. Looking down at him over Poe’s shoulder, you smiled. 

Poe pulled back, taking your face between his hands. He inspected the cut on your head, that the medics had done a nice job stitching up, and then he kissed you, tenderly. “Don’t scare me like that again, sweetheart.” 

“I’ll try not too.”

“Guess I know how it feels to be you now--whenever I leave.”

“Sucks, doesn’t it?”

He stroked his thumbs over your cheeks. “Yeah... a lot.”

You smiled, lovingly. “I’ll try not to scare you again.”

Poe pulled you into his arms once again, burying his face into your hair and taking a deep breath. He knew he loved you, he just never knew how much until he thought he’d lost you. The cool metal of his mother’s ring pressed against his chest while he pressed you against him. He was going to give it to you, when this whole thing was over--when they had found away to get to the new base safely. 

Finn cleared his throat; BB-8 beeped, reminding you that you were not alone. Softly pressing a kiss to your forehead, Poe pulled away from you. 

“General Organa is looking for you,” Finn announced. 

“Are you going to be okay, sweetheart?” Poe asked you.

“I’ll be fine,” you insisted. “It’s just a bump on the head.”

“Hey, Bee, stay with her okay?”

“Poe...”

“I’ll check in on you later.”

Finn smiled at you, awkwardly, and then leaving BB-8 behind to watch over you, he followed after Poe. Once they were out of the med bay and on their way to the bridge, he spoke. “You said that the First Order tracked us?”

Poe nodded. “Yeah... some kind of light speed tracker. When...when I left the bridge before you found me... one of our top mechanics was working on finding a way to disable it. But first, we need to get access codes and a shuttle to get on to the Supremacy.” 

His eyes went wide. “Supreme Leader Snoke’s ship?” Finn sputtered. This was very, very serious if Snoke had shown up. 

The pilot grimly nodded. “Yep. We learned that the tracker is generating from that ship, it’s only tracking the Raddus, which means the rest of the fleet made it to the next base safely. But we can’t jump to light speed and join them without the First Order following us.”

“Can you warn them?”

“Leia’s nervous that a transmission to them might be traced as well--I don’t blame her.”

“So... what’s the plan?”

“Once we know how to disable the tracker, we’re sneaking onboard that ship.”

Finn stopped walking. “You’re insane!”

Poe turned on his heel. “My dad jokes that’s my middle name.”

Shaking his head, Finn sighed, “Do you know what will happen to any of you if you sneak onboard that ship? Poe, you’d be executed. It would probably be broadcast for public display to scare the reset of the galaxy into submission.”

Placing his hands on his hips, Poe set his jaw. “I know that, Finn. It’s a risk I’m willing to take--it’s a risk a lot of us are willing to take. We might be the galaxy’s last hope at freedom, at restoring the Republic. There are a lot of lives depending on us.” He saw the fear flash in Finn’s eyes and dropped his hands. “Listen, I understand why you’re nervous. They took your identify from you--your life from you--but you’re here with us now, where you belong.”

-----

You wanted to get up; BB-8 ratted you out every time and the medics made you stay in bed. You were seriously cursing Poe for having his droid stay by your side while he went to speak to Leia. “BeeBee, I’m fine. Please, I need to get out of here. I’m bored.”

BB-8 firmly blurted no. You wondered if the little droid had ever said no to Poe a day in his life. You hated to just sit idly around--BB-8 probably knew that better than anyone. Of course, there wasn’t like there was much for you to do around the ship. The hanger was gone--all those people were gone. You feel the panic begin to bubble up inside of you as that familiar feeling of survivor’s guilt washed over you. 

Slamming your eyes shut you did the breathing exercises that Poe had taught you for when he was away on missions. Deep breath in, count to ten, deep breath out. Repeat. You did this several times before you finally felt some what calm. When you opened your eyes, you saw that BB-8 was still standing loyally by you, watching you closely. “Okay, since you’re insisting on staying here--why not tell me a story, Bee?”

“No time for stories, Bee,” Poe said, sweeping into your room. 

“What’s going on?” you asked, noticing that Finn wasn’t with him.

“We figured out how to disable that tracker.”

“Tracker?”

Poe recalled that you had not been present when he told Finn about the First Order tracking the ship at light speed. “Somehow, General Hux is tracking us even through light speed.”

You nodded. “Yeah, they can easily install one through a spy I’m sure--disabling them is the hard part--usually they’re heavily encrypted and can only be disabled from the Supreme Leader’s ship. The codes are incredibly difficult to decipher--when the First Order took over my planet I was forced to work on creating those codes.”

He smiled at you, his eyes filling with affection. “I told Leia you were the one.”

Confused, you looked at BB-8. “The one for what?”

“Our codebreaker.”

“Me? You want me to be the codebreaker?”

“Yes. Leia’s contacting Maz Kanata now--to see if she knows someone that can get us on the Supreme Leader’s ship.”

BB-8 whistled, lowly. You swallowed--you’d never left the safety of the base before getting on the Raddus, now Poe was asking you to go on a mission.

Poe saw the anxiety that ran through your eyes. He sat down on the cot with you and took your chin in his hand, forcing you to look at him. “Y/N, I trust you with my life--you can do this. And I’ll be right there. I won’t let them hurt you. I promise.”

Leaning into his touch, you closed your eyes. You had no doubt that Poe would protect you--with his life if he had too--but that didn’t make you any less terrified of the potential of sneaking on board the Supreme Leader’s ship to disable that tracker. And if you couldn’t disable it? The people on the Raddus were doomed. 

You felt Poe’s lips brush against your temple. “Darling, you can do this. I know you can. You’re braver than you give yourself credit for, you know that?”

“Do you really think so?”

“I do; you fled the First Order with nothing but the clothes on your back to join the Resistance. That takes guts, sweetheart.”

“This is our only chance, right?”

“We have a back-up plan, but yes, this could be our only chance.”

Opening your eyes, you set your jaw. “Then I’ll do it, Poe. I’ll crack that code to save the Raddus.”

[kitanoko]

tdmm mafia AU

Note: hello everyone!! im back with more tdmm ...written fast and for the hell of it I thought wow since i’m playing a mafia game...im getting tdmm vibes...so here it is. I dunno if there’ll be a part 2, probably? Enjoy!

Momo is a preschool teacher that had just started working at the school in her neighbourhood. Her longtime friend and roommate, Jirou, works in the same school as a music instructor. To Momo’s dismay, Jirou had tried many times before to match Momo up with someone. “You’re beautiful and smart…I really don’t see why anyone would reject you!” Jirou had always said. Momo laughed every time and told her friend how she wasn’t looking to date.

“Now you and that guy…Kaminari –“

Jirou cuts her off immediately and the round of teasing stops with Jirou blushing from ear to ear.

Truth be told, Momo hasn’t met anyone with whom she felt particularly attracted to just yet. It’s also a known fact that after 8 p.m. no one would dare go out, in case they got caught in the crossfire between the different families of the mafia that ruled the city. Every single night she’d hear bangs and booms outside her window. Curiosity got the better of her and she’d peek through the curtains to see blood splatters and sometimes even bodies being dragged towards the alley. Momo shuddered, flashbacks of her parents being captured, never to be found, once again flooding through her memory. She still hasn’t discovered their whereabouts but surely she will, even if it cost her her life.

Aizawa is a close family friend of Momo’s, once a disciple of her father’s and now a great private eye. He occasionally contacts Momo and makes sure she knows some of the discoveries that he encovered about Momo’s parents. One day, he tells her that he’s been getting some leads but was unwilling to share more than that.

“It’s to protect you,” Aizawa would say every time. Momo was frustrated and decided to follow him that very night. It wasn’t easy that’s for sure, with Aizawa being such an experienced investigator.

After twisting and turning and driving through back alleys, she ends up at the pier in front of what looked like a drug trade!

Momo is standing quite close to the dock, and she was freezing. Should’ve brought a scarf or something, she thinks. She watches closely….Aizawa was across, glaring at someone who she recognized straight away. It was the leader of the Shigaraki family…Shigaraki Tomura.

But wait a minute. Momo looks to the left and sees 3 younger men, around her age, standing there in expensive tailored suits. The green haired one whispered something to the peculiar white and red haired man. They were the other party involved in this trade? They look way too young to be mafia!

In the corner of her eye, someone else caught her attention. A familiar face hovered somewhere on one of the boats and she gasped. Was that…her father? Her eyes teared up. No way. This must be a joke or something. She could see Aizawa having the same reaction and it was then she knew it was real. Her father looked solemn, aged so much that she hardly recognize the gentle eyes he once had. Was he working for Shigaraki now? What was going on? The fear crept up her spine and she held onto a nearby crate to steady herself, except of course the worst situation happens…the crate tips over and crashes 3 ft below where she was.

“WHO’S THERE?” Momo sees Shigaraki usher his men over as the noise startles the crew. All of them were holding guns and running. They had seen her!

Oh no. This was NOT good. Momo rushes down the platform. Even if she could stay alive after this ordeal, Aizawa would murder her!

Momo bit her lip, trembling as she ran across to where she had parked her car, bullets were wheezing past her now. Good thing their aim is worse than stormtroopers, which is saying something.

Her legs weren’t moving fast enough and her ears were ringing from anxiety. Before she could reach the pavement, a car zooms past her. The window is down and the same green-haired man that she saw earlier commands her to go in the car.

“BUT..BUT…I don’t ---“ She doesn’t finish. A bullet scrapes past her cheek and bounces off the car door.

A blond man wheels down the passenger window. “HURRY THE EFF UP WOMAN. YOU GOT A DEATH WISH OR SOMETHIN’?” Momo had no choice, she wasn’t about to get gunned down before she could meet her father again. Mustering all her courage, she hops into the car. These 3 strangers could kidnap her or worse but she tries not to think too much.

She hears herself sigh in relief when the car speeds out across the bridge. A full five minutes pass without anyone saying a word, she knew the three younger men had saved her from certain death but somehow she didn’t know if she should be thankful. They ARE mafia after all…who knows how many people they had murdered?! Are they going to hurt me, she thought, and she finally looks up.

The first thing that greets her were heterochromatic eyes, very steel cold, as if she was staring into a mirror.

“You okay?” The man asks, “Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you. But you better stay with us for awhile.”

Momo scrunches her brow in confusion. “Stay with you?” She repeats.

The blond one scoffs. “Do ya hafta ask, Todoroki? Just drop her off somewhere and let her find her way home.”

So, he was the infamous Todoroki?!

The girl immediately eyes the man in front of her. He was so close she could smell his perfectly gelled hair.

“You’re the boss of one of the biggest mafia families here,” Momo says, “I…I…”

She couldn’t finish. Her mouth was dry and staring at his face….okay he was handsome, she had to admit. Momo was slapping herself inside. He could’ve killed thousands of people in the past year and she wouldn’t know! She had morals. Right?

“You mean, THE biggest mafia families around? Yes.” The green-haired one answers while driving, “I’m Midoriya by the way, nice to meet you. The yapping one is Kacchan.”

What a cute nickname, Momo notes.

“He means Bakugou, the murdering KING of EXPLOSIONS,” The blond refutes and made idiotic hand gestures as if things were being blown up.

Momo couldn’t read the atmostphere at all. It was almost like they weren’t part of the mafia.

Todoroki finally clears his throat and speaks. “You should take my offer. If you want to live, the only way for you to stay safe is within our estate. Shigaraki saw your face. He’ll have men hunting you down in every part of town. He has people in the government, the police force….you name it.”

Momo thinks for a bit. Jirou would be worried if she doesn’t come home…and living with these strangers, how would she ever feel ‘safe’?

“We’re here,” Midoriya says. Momo looks around and sees their estate, bodyguards lining the yard, fences all around. Reminded her of her childhood.

Midoriya opens Momo’s door and she follows the men inside.

The house is decorated with modern art, very contemporary which was something Momo had not expect. Todoroki leads them to one of the rooms and offers Momo some tea.

“Thanks,” Momo takes the cup and says but all should do was shakily place it down on the endtable beside her. She wasn’t feeling like drinking anything. Who knows if it was poisoned.

Todoroki reads her mind and pours some for himself. He takes a sip.

“It’s not laced with anything, miss.”

“It’s Momo.”

“Ah…Momo,” Todoroki sits down beside her while Katsuki snickers, “Can you tell us why you were at the port.”

Momo hesitates and bites her lower lip. She felt herself tremble again.

“I was there because…I was looking for someone. For something. I wasn’t sure what, but trust me. If you’d let me go, I won’t say a word about tonight. Nothing at all!”

Todoroki puts a hand on her shoulder and she backs away. She wasn’t going to let anyone touch her.

“Sorry,” The white and red haired man notices her anomosity, “We can’t let you go. You know too much and now that Shigaraki’s seen you, he’ll have you dead in a matter of minutes. Let us at least help you. What were you looking for?”

Momo breathes hard. No, this was not happening, she had to get home!

“My friend…Jirou, please at least, let me call her?”

Todoroki eyes Midoriya and the green haired man nodded.

“I’ll make you a deal, Momo. You can call her tomorrow, but for now, let Midoriya show you to your room and you can rest up.”

~~

Midoriya takes her to a suite, and as if reading her mind, he takes her phone and leaves her with some toiletries and water.

“Let me know if you need anything else,” he had said before closing the door. Momo sits silently and curls up in the unfamiliar bed. Hoping this was all a bad dream.

~~

The next day proves to her that the dream continues. She had phoned Jirou right away when Todoroki hands her back her phone after breakfast with the 3 of them. She barely had appetite but watching Bakugou and Midoriya’s bicker was entertaining and she had learnt that they were both childhood friends of Todoroki’s who ended up being taken in by Todoroki’s dad due to their parents passing away when they were young. After Todoroki took his father’s spot and lead the group, Bakugou and Midoriya became his right-hand men and advised him whenever he needed. It was almost endearing, Momo had thought, their friendship.

Was she crazy? Clearly she was supposed to be sickened by them. They were criminals for Pete’s sake!

Fast forward. Right now she stands shaking, hugging Jirou in the middle of their apartment. Jirou’s cry becomes a whimper as the bloody dead body lays flat beside their couch. Todoroki had shot that man dead when Momo found out her friend had been held hostage in their apartment when Shigaraki’s man, and not Jirou, had answered the phone. Stumbling inside just 5 minutes earlier, Momo saw Jirou tied up to a chair with eyes widening in alarm. Momo called out to her friend and Shigaraki’s man attacks her before Todoroki came and stood in front of Momo just the right second. Next thing she knew, he had shot him dead.

“Everything’s okay now Jirou, I’m so sorry, this is all my fault!” Momo says and she could see her friend’s confusion through her wet eyes.

“They’re mafia, I have to stay with them to keep us both safe,” Momo notes and pats Jirou on the head.

“How would they keep you safe Momo?!”

Todoroki sighs. “With this man dead, it acts as a warning to Shigaraki. Don’t worry, I’ll have bodyguards watch over this place.” He makes a signal to Midoriya and Bakugou and the two rolls the man in a carpet and drags him out. “They’ll take care of the body. I’ll get you a new carpet if you’d like.”

Jirou could only slump against Momo while the latter attempts to explain what she could to her.

She wasn’t even sure if Jirou was paying attention.

“Relay the message to Aizawa please. Let me him I’m safe and I’ll call him when the time is right.”

~~

The next few weeks go by with new events, one more absurd than the other. For one thing, Todoroki proposed a plan with her so she could still go out in public (with guards of course) but with additional safety measures.

“You’re now my fiancee.”

Momo blinks.

“What?”

Todoroki sighs and repeats again. Bakugou was curling up laughing at her reaction.

“Oh I FEEL BAD FOR YA. HAVE TO BE ‘IN LOVE’ WITH THIS FCKING LOSER.” Bakugou keeps laughing and Momo keeps silent.

“Being my fiancee gets you immunity. It’s a rule. Mafias don’t mess with each other’s family members. It’s unspoken but stands true.”

Momo could only nod.

And so the next several nights, she goes out with Todoroki on dates and parties. Galas become a pasttime and in some ways, she starts feeling….something for him.

No, nononono, Momo you cannot fall in love with him. No matter how nice he is to you. No matter how …charming he is!

Sometimes they’d even do the fake ‘kiss on the lips’ for people to see and oh God, Momo’s mind swirls every time. There’s girls she could see eyeing her like she was a target. There’s no doubt, they want to be the one in her ‘pretend’ shoes.

One night at a dinner party, Momo sees Todoroki standing really close with a woman about their age. She was gorgeous, blonde, tall, overall very model-esque. She feels her face heat up and locks eyes with him as their dialogue continues. Momo gasps and quickly runs back to her seat at dinner.

When Todoroki comes back, she feels herself distancing away.

This is all for show, Momo. He doesn’t actually love you and you’re not his actual fiancee!

He watches her eat and tries to make conversation and she shys away.

“Is something wrong?”

Momo ignores him.

Todoroki scrunches his brow and grabs her hand as she stands up.

“I need to use the powder room if that’s okay.”

“Momo, you can tell me if I made you upset in anyway.”

The girl still doesn’t look at him. “Why don’t you find company with the pretty lady over there. She seems overly pleased to have you around.”

Todoroki gives her hand a squeeze. “You’re jealous? Of her?”

“Of course not! That’d be…that’d be silly!”

He stands up and wraps an arm around her. Todoroki’s eyes were so captivating that in so many ways, Momo couldn’t help but to listen to what he had to say.

He leans in to whisper. “There are a lot of people here. Lets talk out in the garden.”

~~

[all-things-fic]

Masterlist

Finally got my shit together and created a masterlist! Not to be that bitch but please don’t repost my writing anywhere without my permission! Any requests or feedback are always welcomed, just hit up my ask box!

Any fics that feature an asterisk (*) denote smut. Click on each bolded title to read said fic.  Fics start from oldest to newest (the newest piece of writing will always be at the bottom, including under blurbs)

One Shots

Practicing (*)

This is Dad!Harry in Cabo being super soft - albeit slightly tipsy - with Y/N discussing trying for a baby and celebrating James’ birthday.

***

The two of you glowed while looking at each other, Harry trying to do away with his large smile as he bit into his bottom lip. You raised your eyebrows at him, goading him in a playful manner to give into his softness.

The next words he spoke caused a shiver to run through you. His hand clammy on your back as he subconsciously showed his nerves. “Can’t wait to have a couple of little ones runnin’ around.”

“How many do you want?”

You were surprised at how you were playing into the conversation. The question so easily rolling off your tongue.

“I’d have loads, love,” he chuckled, eyes crinkling at the corners. “But it’s not me whose gonna give birth is it? S’on you that one.”

***

Make Amends (*)

This is Husband!Harry (with a slight (and by slight I mean minute) feat. of Dad!Harry) not knowing where he has gone wrong with the missus and then doing his very best to sort his shit out.

***

“What are you doing here, H?” You asked, eyes still down on the paper.

“I’m fighting for you.”

His words made you snap your neck up at him. How easily he’d said them matched his stance, two hands resting on the counter of the island opposite you, arms spread making his shoulders hunched but broad nonetheless.

As he held your gaze firmly with his, you felt yourself break. Those words caused your chest to heave, your bottom lip trembling lightly before you pressed you lips together hard.

“Tha’ okay?” He asked, looking at you with an intense but soft stare. You lightly nodded, not knowing if he caught it, not knowing why it was always so easy. The tilt in his lips however, let you know he did. Let you know that it was easy just because it should be, because it was him. His green eyes looked alive again for the first time in forever as his intense stare became softer.

***

All Settled In (*)

This is Husband!Harry eating chips off the floor of his newly bought house with Y/N, discussing renovations and just simply enjoying his new wife.

***

He looked over at you, his face falling slightly as he saw the emotion behind your eyes. “Wha’? Wha is it?”

You stayed silent, swallowing thickly. Trying to contain your emotion. After all you felt as if you were being silly.

“Please don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind on the colour of the walls again?” He pleaded.

You shook your head over at him.

“Then wha’ is it?” He asked with more concern this time.

Swallowing again, you spoke with a croaky tone, “This is really it? This is our forever home.

From your words you watched a lopsided smile tilt up onto his lips, his hand brushing his now slightly damp hair away from his face. He walked towards you with this warm and glow-y expression, causing you to blush and slowly smile back at him.

“It bloody better be, it’s cost me an arm and a leg,” he joked, reaching out to pull you towards him, before he hooked his arms behind your back and attacked your neck with kisses which were accompanied by obnoxious growls, trying to lighten the mood.

***

Underneath The Tree (*)

This is boyfriend!Harry decorating his house with his girlfriend and trying so very hard to get her to move in with him. 

***

Halfway through, you felt something being placed onto your head causing you to sharply turn around and be met with the sparkling green eyes of your boyfriend.  You fought the smile from your lips as you took him in. A black Santa hat covered his longer hair and sat firmly on his head. It read ‘bah humbug’.

“Suits you,” you commented, watching him scrunch his face up at your flippant comment. “Dare I ask what you’ve just added to my head.”

“Have a feel-“

“Do I want to?”

“Dunno, do you?” His dimple dented his left cheek, eyes shiny as he raised his eyebrows. Just the once, but more than enough to emphasise his questioning.

“H-“ you slapped the top of his arm with the back of your hand.

“Hey, hey, less of tha’,” he started. “Bloody minds in the gutter again.”

“Who said it was ever out?”

***

Need Your Love So Bad (*)

This is husband!Harry not able to keep his hands to himself while he watches you be far too domestic for your own good. 

***

“Y’want me to shag you?” he pressed forward with a gentle rock, his kisses moving down your jaw as you closed your eyes. “’Aven’t shagged your properly since I got ‘ome, wha’ kinda husband does that make me, ‘ey?” he breathed against the shell of your ear, lips brushing the skin.

“The shit kind,” you joke, Harry playfully jostling your hips with his hands before you squealed, laughing lightly as he manoeuvred you so your body was bent forward, cheek pressed against the black granite of your utility room, stomach pressed awkwardly against the front of  your washing machine.

***

Cavalcami (*)

This is newly wed Harry in Italy turning his hand to learning Italian, unable to keep his hands to himself and you loving every second of being Mrs Styles. 

***

“Got a quite tan line here,” you joked, with a soft smile after you let your eyes linger on his fingers. You felt proud of the way his wedding ring had already made itself known onto his skin subconsciously.

“So have you,” he relayed, toying with the strap of your maxi dress. You looked at him, knocking your eyes back to his, enjoying the way his hand slid so slowly from your shoulder to cup the back of your neck and his eyes followed his fingers.

He guided his lips to yours and passionately enveloped his lips over your top lip, softly pulling away after he left the sponging kiss knowing he could get heated as his warm breath mixed with yours. “Gonna show me your other white bits,” he breathed, taking on his lower register as you rocked yourself closer to him. “Or ‘ave I gotta find ‘em all by m’self.”

***

Head Over Heels (*)

This is Met Gala Harry prancing around naked in his heels that rival your own, and you willingly getting on your knees due to the sight before you.

***

“Awfully confident for a man whose wearing a blouse and heels that match the length of his girlfriends.” You saw the way his eyes lit up as he rolled his head further back on his neck to look at you. Ring clad hands pushed deep inside the pockets of his trousers as he pressed his groin forwards into nothing but thin air.

Standing dick first, he smirked, slowly. “You and I both know that my length matches nothing you’ve ever come across before in your life.”

You held his gaze. “S’why I’m still around.”

His head dropped back as he barked a laugh at your retort, eyes crinkling as they looked up to the ceiling for your hotel suite. Christ, I love you,” he sighed as his laughter died down.

***

With This Ring (*)

This is Wedding Harry basking in marriage under the heat of the Italian sun and managing to get you to take a dirty picture for him.

***

“Your wife is waiting,” you teased with a slight command, watching the way he slowly turned his head to look at you. He eyed you for a while, enjoying the demanding expression you had chosen to wear.

“Alright,” he stressed, voice high pitched, tilting his head as he kept eye contact. Knowing that it would kill the illusion, you bit your bottom lip, trying to hide away the smile that you hadn’t been able to take off your lips since the minute you had become Mrs Styles.

“I’m bloody comin’, didn’t realise you were this impatient, wouldn’t have married yer ‘f I had!” he joked, walking around the back of the car, your friends and family laughing resoundingly at him.

***

Mistletoe Jam (*)

This is Husband Harry at Christmas revealling a kink you didn’t know before now.

***

“Probably got a thing for one of the elves. Husband’s let himself go a bit-“

“Santa or me?” He chuckled.

You smiled against the lip of your champagne flute, eyes moving upwards to see the profile of your husband’s face as he stopped all washing up to look at you. “All I’m saying is maybe only leave one mince pie out for Santa this year when you’re helping the kids set up the plate.”

“Look, Santa is a strapping lad,” he spoke with conviction. “He can’t help it, if Mrs Claus is a feeder.”

“I am not a feeder, Harry,” you laughed, throwing the tea towel back at him.

“Darling, I don’t know what kind of role play you’re into but maybe this is something we should pick up after we’ve put the kids to bed.”

***

***

Forbidden Fruit (*)

Sickenly sweet flirty morning conversation over breakfast under the Malibu sun with your fiance, what more could you ask for?

***

Swallowing, you lifted your eyes and caught Harry watching you. He sat, lounged back in his seat, eyes devouring you over the heart shaped tinted lenses that he had chosen to wear.

“Look at you sitting over there all heart eyes for me.”

His lips, pressed tightly together, spluttered out a laugh. “Christ almighty,” he whispered in exasperation, closing his eyes and letting his head drop back so he could look up to the cloudless, blue sky. “‘S worse than one of mine tha’ is-“

“Pretty sure that is one of yours,” you chortled in response, watching him raise his eyebrows, as he leaned forward again. This time he took a swipe at two of the chopped strawberries. The closest fruit to him.

***

Spoilin’ for a Fight (*)

Sometimes Harry just likes to push your buttons, today wasn’t any exception.

***

“You’re not going out in that, are you?”

“‘S there a problem ‘f I am?”

A charged pause.

Harry’s remark was shot out instantly, on yours as fast as a predator was on their prey.

Inhaling deeply through your nose, you looked back at him through the mirror. A slant to his lips as he waited once more.

Gentle raise of his eyebrows. Faint but definitely there. Goading. Knowing you would be so aware of every moment, every twitch with your eye for detail. His eyes shone in a way that he was daring you.

Oh, he was spoiling for a fight. Most definitely.

***

Series

Divorce Harry

Divorce Harry - When it all becomes too much and you get something off your chest. Divorce Harry II - When you’re in denial and realise it’s harder to run than it is to fight. Divorce Harry III - When your car goes against your and decides you need to come face to face with the man you’re divorcing (this is a scene that is mentioned in part two, but it set during the time of part two)

Quarantine Harry 

Quarntine Begins At Home - When you and your new husband are forced to come to a stop and bunker down Stay Still - When you realise you’ve never wanted anything more but the timing couldn’t be any worse

Blurbs

On Your Doorstep - Harry returns home to surprise you  In Front of the Fire - Reminscing over white wine during a difficult time Skye in Scotland - An indulgant blurb of Harry in Scotland that will turn into a one shot once I get my act together.  First Kisses - Soft first date with even softer kisses.  Gimme a Taste - When Harry’s starving for you Shit Talking - Even Harry loves a good bitch every now an again Comforting Kisses - When Harry receives some news and seeks the arms of someone he knows After Sex Kisses - Basking in each when you’re reunited and its boiling hot Easter Sunday - Family days with the Styles’

[wftc141]

Voltron: Global Military Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Unit-Chapter 12: Martyr

2000 Hours

Goiânia, Brazil

The streets of St Central were quiet and empty with nothing but street lights illuminating the road. The Voltron team used this quiet time to race their way past the street shops to the presidents' secret meeting area. Armed and loaded, they brought along some breaching equipment just in case. The SUV they were in reached a short overpass above a freeway in mere seconds before crossing over.

"Lions, this is Zero. The meeting has been hit and security personnel are taking small-arms fire. Local police and military have been notified, over."

"Wait, wasn't they supposed to start tomorrow?" Hunk said as he drove the SUV.

"Seems like the presidents have started their meeting early." Pidge deduced.

"Any casualties?" Keith asked.

"Possible security. Not sure about the presidents but you have to get there fast before it's too late." Allura said.

"Any news on Shiro?"

"Black Lion is alright. He's making his way to the meeting too as we speak."

"Copy, we're five mikes from the destination. Out."

The call ended and everybody fell back in silence as the team drove down the streets.

"We're probably too late." Hunk uneasily said.

"Let's not think about it, yeah?" Lance replied. "We can get there in time and smoke these cabróns. This is where it ends for them."

"Lance's right." Said Keith. "This is the end of the line for the Galra."

Arriving at the street where the safe house is located, the team drove down the dark, narrow road with parked vehicles before noticing some dark vehicles parked near a building. Once they reached the area, they noticed a brightly lit building with the security gate blown open and a breached entrance.

"They're here." Hunk muttered.

"That's bad news but we still gotta complete the mission." Keith said as the SUV came to a stop.

The team got out and geared up with their weaponry and equipment from the SUV.

"Red Lion to Zero. We're on foot and proceeding to the safe house, out." Keith reported as the team approached the gate.

"Should we wait for Shiro?" Pidge asked.

"No time. Presidents would be dead by the time he arrives. Let's move."

With Keith taking point, the team went past the gate and into the entrance leading to the front door which was broken down. There was no sign of Galra soldiers but they could hear gunshots from inside.

"Red Lion to Zero, we're going internal." Keith muttered.

They made their way past the reception and security checkpoint which was already scattered with bodies of security guards. Blood footprints and stains were everywhere throughout. The sight of the bodies were no different from their previous encounters, in fact they saw worse.

Making their way up the emergency staircase, they reached the upper floor with the door left open. Entering the next floor, the team found themselves in a hallway with several offices inside some of the rooms. More blood and bodies filled up the count. Reaching the corner of one of the hallways, Keith noticed two Galra foot soldiers down at the hallway, the same ones from the attack on their hideout with their distinctive all-black uniforms and its purple and red highlights and masks. Keith aimed his rifle and opened fire, taking out the one at the right. The other soldier noticed his partner fall and turned around but Keith put him down before he could react.

The group reached another corner leading to an open area with a staircase leading to the second floor where the main meeting room was. Then, they saw two gunmen on the floor above them who turned around to notice them just in time. One of them was carrying a PK machine gun.

"Take cover!" Pidge yelled, pulling Keith away from the gunfire.

The bullets barraged against them, holding them back as the Galra's firepower suppressed them. The team heard more footsteps as the gunfire ceased. There was more gunmen approaching their position.

"MG gunner on the top floor! How many others are there?" Pidge called out through the gunfire.

"Dunno! Around eight of 'em!" Lance called.

Keith was quick to think of an idea on how to handle the Galra soldiers holding them off. He reached for his comms.

"Green, Yellow, keep that fucker distracted. Blue and I will flank around and take them out."

"Copy." Pidge replied.

Keith got up and headed over to the other side with Lance in tow. The two found a door leading to an emergency stairwell. As they made their way up to the designated floor, Keith heard a door open above and saw a Galra soldier who just noticed him. Keith aimed fast and took him out first. Suddenly, another Galra soldier entered and was about to open fire before getting shot first. Keith glanced at Lance who just took him out for him.

"Thank me later." Lance said as he headed for the door.

The two managed to arrive at the floor where the MG gunner would be. Keith turned a corner and found the MG gunner and his partner on the railing, firing at Pidge and Hunk's position. They were both completely distracted, leaving them open from behind. Keith shot at the MG gunner while Lance aimed for the other soldier.

With them taken out, Keith and Lance used the floor to their advantage with the Galra soldiers below just noticing the ceased gunfire. Keith used the PK and fired upon the remaining Galra soldiers, wiping most of them out instantly with Lance taking care of the rest. Once the gunfire ceased and the soldiers were confirmed dead, Keith reached for his comms.

"Area is clear. Regroup on me."

Pidgin and Hunk came out of cover and made their way up to where Keith and Lance were before heading towards the main meeting room. As they stacked up beside the door, the team heard muffled noises from inside. There's clearly hostages inside and it is likely the presidents are among them, as well as the remaining Galra forces. They were about to consider breaching until Hunk stopped them.

"Wait," Hunk whispered, grabbing the team's attention. "I got an idea."

The last of the Galra were barricaded inside the meeting room with their hostages, including the presidents, as their shield. There was no chance of them leaving alive and it would be a sin to surrender. They waited for the Voltron team to breach so they would eliminate the hostages. The Galra soldiers were already prepared to fight back with their very last breath. However, there was no activity from the front door.

Some time has passed and nothing has happened. One of the soldiers ordered his comrade to check the door. As the Galra soldier approached the door, a sudden blast erupted from the side, catching everybody off-guard. Dust clouded in as the Galra fell over from the explosion. Before they could react, the Voltron team entered through the hole and finished off the rest of the Galra soldiers. One of them tried to aim for the Brazilian President, only to be cut off by Keith with several shots to the body. The sounds of muffled cries followed as the dust settled.

"¡Calmarse! ¡Calmarse! ¡Nosotros estamos con el gobierno!" Lance shouted.

The team began to secure the hostages with Hunk checking for any bombs fitted in their vests. After checking, Hunk turned around.

"No vests!" He called.

"All clear!" Pidge said.

With the crisis settled, the team exchanged approving glances and nodded. The job was a success. They stopped a potential catastrophe. The team finished freeing the hostages and gathered them out to a safer place. Keith reached for his comms.

"Red Lion to Zero, area is secure. All hostiles are KIA. Three-Rulers are alive and intact. Multiple friendlies are wounded and KIA, over."

"Copy, Red Lion." Allura replied on comms. "Friendly forces are enroute to the safe house. Any news on Kingfish?"

Keith hesitated at first but he hadn't seen Sendak anywhere in the safehouse so it was safe to bet he didn't take part.

"Negative, Zero. Kingfish is nowhere in sight."

Sendak watched through his binoculars as local police forces and the military arrived at the scene, now that the gunfire has ceased. He knew this was Voltron's doing and they succeeded. He let out a deep sigh in the midst of the cold breeze. Sendak anticipated the failure. He knew what Voltron was capable of and he let it happen. He'll deal with the punishment later. Then he heard slight footsteps from behind and the sounds of a weapon raising.

"Step away from the gun."

Sendak glanced at the pistol that was on the surface on the balcony which was already in his reach. He chuckled in amusement, recognising the voice.

"I had a feeling you would escape, Shirogane. You really are an untamed animal. I guess I've finally failed."

"You're damn right about that."

Sendak put the binoculars on the surface near the gun and stepped away before turning around to face Shiro who was aiming his pistol at him with his rifle slung in front of him. He slowly raised his hands.

"You might as well kill me now, Commander." Sendak said.

Shiro said nothing as he trained his gun on his head.

"Go on," Sendak demanded, approaching him. "Pull the trigger. I've failed the Galra Empire and I deserve to die. There's no reason for me to live and I know you want to do it. It's the only way you can avenge your fallen."

Shiro then saw flashes of his team fighting for their survival including Sven. His index finger was already slowly pushing the trigger and his grip shook as Shiro's rage began to emerge.

"We're lions, Shirogane. Lions who will do absolutely anything for our country, even if we have to shed some innocent blood."

Sendak was already up at his face by the time he was done. He grabbed the barrel and pressed it against his crown tightly. His annoying smirk still plastered across his mug.

"Go ahead. Do it right now. Avenge your brothers. That's what you wanted, right? Do it!"

Shiro still hesitated to make a decision. He thought of all the terrible things that Sendak has done. It would be best for him to just kill him right now. Sven died in Shiro's arms as he watched him suffer. He could end this right now and it'll be all over. However, nothing good can be gained from killing someone. Shiro took a deep breath.

"I do want to kill you. I wanna kill you so bad for what you've done. I wanna kill you for my team...and my brother. I wanna kill you so fucking bad right here, right now. But I know better."

Shiro holstered his gun away and held Sendak tightly, rounding him up and tying his hands with zip ties.

"I won't give you the chance to be the Galra's martyr." Shiro said before turning to glare at Sendak. "And you're right. I am a lion but a lion doesn't eat his own pack."

Sendak simply smirked before facing forward as Shiro escorted him out of the rooftop.

2450 Hours

Some time has passed after returning to base. The hostages and the presidents have been allocated to the military for special treatment. Allura has been on the phone for a while, talking to her superiors. The Voltron team waited anxiously, concerned about their fate since they just broke the rules. Although they wouldn't be surprised if the superiors were just as corrupt as Sanda.

Shortly, Allura finished her call and turned to her team where they stood up and approached her.

"Well? What happens now?" Keith asked.

"I'm ordered to headquarters for a full debrief along with Commander Shirogane and Lieutenant Smythe. The rest of you have done well for stopping the Galra. After we hand over Sendak to the CIA and bury the fallen, you'll all be allowed three months off-duty. You guys earned it for the hard work."

The team took the news well. They were expecting worse but they can accept this, especially after their grueling battle with Sendak and the Galra. Hunk took the chance to walk away from the team to a private spot. He got out his phone and dialed a number. Shortly, the beeps stopped.

"Shay Bainivalu, Vice News."

"Hi, um, this is Momoa from NATO," Hunk said. "Is this a bad time?"

"Hunk? N-No, not really, I was just finishing my shower. What's up?"

"Yeah, I want you to hear this from me first. We actually got them. We managed to stop the Galra before they could accomplish their goal."

"Really? Oh that's fantastic! I would say it was an impossible task but I always had a feeling you guys would pull it off. Congrats!"

"Thanks. We couldn't have done this without your help. Credit goes to you too. Oh, and there's something else I wanna ask you."

"Shoot."

"Well…"

Elsewhere, Lance caught up with Keith who was walking off and elbowed his arm, grabbing his attention.

"Not bad for a Ranger grunt." Lance said.

Keith chuckled before bumping Lance's arm. "You're not so bad yourself for a jarhead."

"How long do you think you'll last sticking around with me?"

"More than you would."

This time, Lance laughed it off. As the two continued their banter, Pidge watched from a distance. It took them a whole month for them to become comfortable with each other. A smile grew from her face, proud of the progress from them.

"They're actually friends now." Shiro said.

Pidge glanced at the team leader, who appeared beside her, watching Keith and Lance as well.

"Seems like it. Hopefully this will keep up for the next few months." Pidge replied.

The two stared at the boys in silence for a brief period.

"If you don't mind me asking," Shiro said. Pidge looked at him. "How's Matt?"

Shiro knew Matthew Holt back in the military. They used to be on good terms. Shiro hasn't seen him during his service in the SEALs.

"Actually, I haven't seen him since I joined the army," Pidge replied, looking down. "I lost every contact from my parents because they didn't like the idea of me joining the military. They wanted me to be a horticulturist instead of studying in college."

Shiro chuckled before collecting himself.

"Your brother did tell me he wanted you to be a horticulturist. But I get what you mean. My father wanted me and my brother to work for NASA rather than fight proxy wars. Then again, we are what we are because we want to fight for our country and help our allies abroad from terror. That's why we chose being soldiers over a career that won't do much to help others."

Pidge said nothing but she understood Shiro's point.

02/15/2018

0010 Hours

Even though it was midnight, Jem wasn't asleep. He still had the light on. Just then, he heard footsteps from outside and a knock on the door.

"Come in." Jem called.

The door opened and Coran and Stacy entered the room, both seemingly haven't gotten some sleep yet.

"Oh, hey guys. What's going on?" He said.

"Sorry for dropping by this late, Jem but we wanted to bring you the good news." Coran said.

"Oh, that-it's no big deal. Wasn't feeling tired yet. What's up?"

"Voltron has captured Sendak four hours ago after rescuing the presidents from Galra forces during their meeting. He's currently in custody right now." Stacy said.

"Really? Okay, that's good to hear."

Coran nodded. "So how're you doing, right now?"

"Oh I'm recovering pretty damn well. The meds worked wonders and the doctors said I'll be discharged in the morning once they finish up on the paperwork."

"Great. We'll pick you up then. Get some rest for now. You'll need it."

"Same thing could be said to you guys. I feel like you're treating me like a dad, sir."

Coran and Stacy chuckled as they left the room.

"That's nice to hear," Coran said. "We'll be leaving now. Goodnight."

Stacy was the last to say goodnight before leaving with Coran. At some point in time, Jem fell asleep afterwards.

0800 Hours

The team arrived at a private airfield far from the city with a cuffed Sendak, who is set to be handed in to the CIA and transferred to a blacksite. Once they arrived, there was already a plane ready for the CIA. Shiro got out and took Sendak with him, approaching the paramilitary officers of the SAD division.

"We will meet again, Shirogane," Sendak said. "Mark my words. This rivalry will not end until one of us is dead."

"I look forward to it, Sendak," Shiro replied as one of the officers grabbed the terrorist. "I'll be waiting for you."

"I know you will. It will only be between us...neither your allies nor the Galra will stop our battle."

Sendak returned one last smirk before being placed into the watched the plane ride off with nothing left to offer for Sendak. One part of him wished he could just shoot him on the spot and avenge his fallen team. The other, however, felt tired to continue. He just wants to stop. No more killing, no more fighting wars and no more pulling off the same mistakes that got his team killed.

Shiro had been fighting since he was 18, switching from the Marines to the SEALs and Voltron. He fought so long he forgot the last time he found peace. Hawaii was his only escape from the horrors of war. Maybe it's time for Shiro to take a break from the mindless killings and find the peace he lost.

02/28/2018

1200 Hours

Hawaii

Shiro took another swig of his beer as he basked in the sun under the shade. The view from the beach was beautiful. He could see the ocean lushly flow as people play on the shoreline. The beach was mostly filled with a crowd with the umbrellas, towels and such making up most of the beach. Shiro placed himself close to the water and away from the big crowd so he could enjoy the view in peace without interruptions. Letting out a sigh, Shiro finished his beer before reaching for the cooler. As his hands clasped onto a new bottle, Shiro noticed a shadow emerging on the sands.

"I can see why you enjoy Hawaii so much."

Shiro looked up. Standing near him was Allura, sporting a straw hat and wearing a navy blue one piece with a beach skirt. Shiro noticed the middle of her swimsuit was divided, exposing her cleavage. Allura's hand was on her hip as she approached Shiro. He wasn't sure how she found him but he didn't mind her presence.

"The view is beautiful." Allura said as she sat beside Shiro under the shade.

"Sure is," He replied. "Always wanted to have my final moments here. I would like my funeral held here and my ashes spread across the ocean."

Allura hummed. Shiro popped his beer open and took a swig before reminding Allura about the beer, though she wasn't thirsty. The two stared out at the ocean for a brief moment.

"So how'd you find me?" Shiro asked.

"Coran was a bit concerned for your wellbeing so he sent me here to make sure you didn't do anything stupid."

'Flattered to hear."

"I'm also going to be staying with you."

Shiro glanced at Allura, surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah. Already got my things packed at that shack of yours. Coran wanted me to keep watch over you for some time until we finish our vacation. Don't want anything bad happening while you're in Hawaii."

"Is that just your way of saying you guys miss me?"

Allura chuckled. "I actually said the same thing to him. He won't admit it."

Shiro let out a laugh. It was nice to hear his teammates care. The two eventually calmed down and went back in silence.

"How long has it been?" Allura asked.

"Hm?" Shiro looked at her.

"How long have you been in touch with home?"

Shiro's smile faded, remembering his call with his parents a few weeks back.

"I've never been home since I told my parents what happened to Sven. My dad doesn't consider me family anymore. Can't say I blame them."

Allura didn't say anything. Shiro let out a sigh and took another swig of his beer while sulking at the sea. He still carried the guilt, yet people remind him he's not in the wrong. Shiro wasn't sure how to comprehend both sides.

"It'll take some time but I know they won't keep blaming you forever." Allura said.

"Yeah…" Shiro muttered.

At some point, Shiro didn't feel like continuing his beer.

"Are you sure you want to stay in Voltron?" Allura asked.

Shiro took some consideration into it. He already joined Voltron for a few weeks and he always had an opportunity to leave. But deep down, as much as it hurts to stay in Voltron and deal with the losses, it was a risk Shiro would rather take than bury himself in guilt. Taking a deep breath, Shiro turned to Allura and smirked.

"I'm positive."

[my-whumpy-little-heart]

Persistence -2

Hey all! This is a continuation of the OC pirate story I’ll try to think of a name for at some point (ayy there’s a name now look at that). If you didn’t catch the first part, the link to that is on that first paragraph.

Series Masterlist

Content warnings: creepy/intimate whumper, kidnapping, noncon (nonsexual) touching, brief head trauma, lady whumpee (not associated with creepy whumper)

————————————

He didn’t even see the fist fly through the air before it crashed into his jaw, knocking him to the ground as his vision faded to black. The other man may have said something, then, but he could only hear the ringing in his ears before that left him too.

Floyd came to at some point, vision fading in dim patches of light and shape. He was thankful just to be conscious right up until his body left the ground without warning, a sickening sensation rushing through him. It only worsened when he was thrown over a shoulder and he swayed in what must have been Percival’s hold. Any doubts he had were dismissed when the body he was pressed against rumbled with that same deep, soft voice that sent a shiver of dread down his spine.

“I have what I came for. Wrap it up and get everyone back on board before anyone catches on, or they’re getting left behind.” 

Shouting from someone else followed the command, but it faded into the distance as Percival ran the opposite way, jostling Floyd roughly and making breathing a chore with the bones of his shoulder pressing ever harder into his torso. It was then, in the hands of the enemy, being taken to what he could only assume was a secondary location, the threats from earlier still hanging over his head, that Floyd realized compliance wasn’t likely to keep him alive. 

Fighting against every instinct that told him to just go with it, he pushed weakly against the arms that held his body in place, wriggling in hopes of loosening the grip. But no matter how much he struggled, the arms around him only grew tighter. Like a python weakening its prey. Or a serpent, he thought wryly.

When darkness enveloped him again, it took Floyd a second to realize he hadn’t passed out, but instead been taken inside. A maze of dim cabin hallways passed by as he craned his neck for a view of where they were headed, but it was all so strangely unfamiliar. Where were they? Floyd had explored every inch of his own ship. He should’ve known where they were.

The thought that he might be aboard the Golden Felucca hit him like a slap in the face. It didn’t make sense, but if Percival wasn’t going to kill him after all... Floyd sobbed aloud at the memory of his mindless begging, the offering of himself in exchange for his life. He hadn’t expected it to work. He hadn’t thought any further ahead than that isolated moment of desperation and he felt a dizzying, fearful regret bubble up to his head.

There was no more time to dwell on it before Percival strode into a room and Floyd’s body hit the ground, rolling a few feet with the momentum. There was no struggle left in him, even as he opened his eyes to the horrific sight of a small room outfitted with chains, metal loops, and more he didn’t even care to identify in his exhausted state. Adrenaline nagged him, pulled him on to his side, but the full force of his exhaustion, hunger, thirst, and fright hit all at once.

Percival gathered Floyd’s wrists above his head in a firm grip, dragging him backward, sitting him up against a wall, and locking him there with heavy metal shackles. Floyd couldn’t breathe steadily enough to speak, raising his tearful eyes instead in a last ditch effort to plead with his captor. 

This couldn’t be happening. There was no way Percival had run away with him unseen. In a few seconds, his crew would burst through the door to save him. They had to.

Tall legs bent before him and a lopsided smile spread over Percival’s face. He reached a hand up to stroke Floyd’s hair, which he shied away from with a shudder.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Percival chided, running fingers through short waves even as his captive pressed the side of his face to the wall, refusing to look back at him. “This setup is only temporary, alright? I’ll make sure you’re much less comfortable tomorrow.”

With a final ruffle of Floyd’s hair that pulled his head back and knocked it off the wall, as well as a flourish of his own long coat, Percival stood up and strolled back to the door.

“See you soon, dear!”

Then he was gone.

——————————————————

(The Thief’s Halyard, just minutes prior)   

Ray thrust his sword fiercely at the opposing pirate, driving them toward the edge of the ship. They parried his strikes well but backed up too far, leaving them vulnerable against the railing. Ray was prepared to force them into submission, perhaps threaten to push them over into the churning waters, when a shrill voice cut through the action, calling all of the opposing pirates to retreat. 

It caught him off guard and Ray hesitated just long enough for his foe to use their position on the rail to deliver a high kick across his face before scrambling to their feet and jumping the gap between ships. 

Ray cried out at the nasty hit, cradling his cheek, and by the time he looked back the person had scaled a rope ladder and disappeared. All around him, people were retreating and doing the same, leaving the crew of The Thief’s Halyard alone and dazed. 

A quick glance around found nearly everyone standing up at the very least, traces of blood at a surprising minimum. His eye was quickly drawn to Mabel, running over to him with her hands pressed over a deep red stain on her side.

“Mabel! Mae, hey, are you alright, is it bad?” Ray tried to pry her hands away and see the wound, but she wouldn’t let him. She only pressed harder, breathing heavily through clenched teeth, only causing more pain in an attempt to stanch the bleeding. 

“It’s fine, ‘m fine. Just a stab, may-hhh-! Maybe a few centimeters, but that’s not, ‘s not important-”

“Yes it is!” Ray butted in, placing a careful hand on her shoulder, “Here, hold on, let me get a look at that and we can get it stitched up and taken care of.”

“No, no! Floyd, it’s Floyd.” Ray froze, eyes suddenly wide, darting around the ship. He’d seen Floyd just a few minutes ago, hadn’t he? “Hhhh-he’s, gone, I dunno… Thought I saw Percival for a second and he was gone then Floyd was gone…” Mabel stumbled on unsteady feet, and Ray caught her before she could fall to the ground, eyes wild. 

“Gone? What do you mean? Where? People don’t just disappear, Mae.” 

“Just, over there, look!” She pointed to a wall away from the main battle congregation and the traces of blood around it. 

“I... Where is he now? Where’d he go?”

“I didn’ see... it leads off the side, though, and- Gods, Ray, if he- hhhe…” she trailed off, the words catching in the back of her throat, her breath hitching. Her eyes were glazed over with tears and pain, but Ray’s were dark, focused, and intense. 

“It was him? You’re sure it was him?” He shook her a little as he asked. Mabel swayed listlessly to the side and nodded. “Look at you, you can hardly even stand. You might’ve just seen it wrong. Can’t trust your body, can’t trust your mind, right?” She squinted and shook her head as if to clear it but he kept going. “We’re going to organize this ship and we’re going to find him, and I’ll only relent when we do.”

Mabel looked up, trying to put her thoughts into words, but her head spun and she couldn’t think before Ray helped her sit on the ground, made sure she was still putting pressure on the wound, and called everyone else over to him. Beside them, the Golden Felucca was pulling away, no worse for wear but no richer, either. It was strange, to say the least.

When people circled around, Ray did a quick headcount and frowned.

“We’re missing Charlie and Floyd. Has anyone seen either of them?”

“Charlie just went in, said he couldn’t take the heat and needed to lay down before he passed out entirely,” one woman explained.

“Okay, thank you Edith. And Floyd?” Ray was clearly desperate as he looked over everyone, each slight shake of the head and avoidance of eye contact sending a shiver down his spine. “Okay... okay.” He wiped his eyes and swallowed the emotions that wanted to bubble up. It wasn’t too late. Surely it wasn’t too late. 

“Listen up, then,” he said, voice harsh, “I need one person who can handle a needle and thread... Clara, yes, you’ll do. Take Mabel with you, fix her up, and get back to me when you’re done. The rest of you are going to scour every single place on this ship to find Floyd.” 

Clara hurried to Mabel’s side as Ray launched into more specific directions, offering two hands to pull her to her feet. She nearly collapsed the moment she stood but Clara caught her around the waist and guided both of them toward the cabin door. Mabel was so dizzy and distracted by the unusually harsh, commanding tone of Ray’s voice that she didn’t even hear Clara for a few seconds.

“Mabel!” A shout finally brought her back. “The stairs. Can you make it down or should I try lifting you?”

They were inside. She hadn’t even noticed they’d walked so far, but considering how Clara was already shaking with the effort of holding her upright, Mabel couldn’t imagine asking to be carried. She shook her head loosely, stumbling forward and shakily making her way down. Even here, she could still hear Ray in the distance.

“I will not give up on finding him until I exhaust each and every method at my disposal,” he shouted, “and I will not be hearing a single complaint from the lot of you that entire time. I do not care how parched your throat is or how tired your legs are. Do whatever you need to survive, and get the fuck to work.”

Mabel felt faint. She wanted so badly to get back out there and redirect the situation, but she couldn’t think straight as she was. She could only hope and pray despite herself that Floyd was still aboard, that what she’d seen really had been wrong, but she knew that was just too good to be true.

————————————

Next part

[fortunatelyhauntedblackcherry]

Moonshine - A Beetlejuice Fanfiction 12

Warning: swearing, several mentions of murder, scaring people out of their pants, Beej being a creep, shotgun use, abusive ex.

The ground was shaking, the house was somehow glitching and green smoke filled the living room. The girls heard a loud, croaky, devilish laugh right before the room turned completely dark. Even the lightning stopped. Sofía held Rei close in fear, while Ari was looking around with lustruous eyes. All of a sudden, a gravelly voice filled the air.

- Welcome, welcome, welcome, lovely ladies! - a weirdly handsome, husky man with fluffy hair, which went from black roots to glowing, bright green tops and stubble colored the same way stood on the dining table. He wore a dirty striped suit with a stripey shirt; a green tie, which had several spots of moss on it; black suspenders; and dirty black leather shoes with stacked heels. He was grinning, showing his sharp double canines; his golden, kind of catlike eyes were shining in excitement. Some random spots of dirt and maybe rotting patterned his face. He put a spotlight on himself, and as he threw his hands above his head, a couple of red neon lights lighted up around him. Some of them were arrows, pointing at him, some of them were captions saying "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice". - Can all of you see me now?

- SHIT HE'S REAL. - screamed Rei.

- Wow. - gasped Ari right before the man jumped down from the table. He landed right in front of her. He locked his gaze in hers and offered her a hand. - You look WAY better than I imagined, based on the voice. - she put her palm in his. - Not so dead... - Beetlejuice lifted Ari up from the ground and as he did, he locked her in his arms, swooped her off her feet and planted a kiss on her lips. Which was followed by a bitchslap from the wide-eyed breather girl. Beetlejuice let Ari go, still smiling like an idiot.

- Sorry, sorry, I got overjoyed, I just had to, I couldn't help myself. Am I overstepping my bounds? - Ari nodded and smiled while she wiped her lips. This man can't be real. Crazy motherfucker is worse than I imagined. - It's just that this whole thing is so beautiful! - his voice got emotional and he put his hands on his chest, where Ari imagined his heart would've been. - You called me! You didn't have to, but you called me!

- The fuck you mean she didn't had to? - asked Rei who let go of Sofía to inspect the demon more closely. Beetlejuice raised an eyebrow, pulled a grimace, snapped his fingers and a couple pieces of furniture appeared before the winter garden's door, making a barricade.

- Solves all ya problems. - he turned back to Ari. - NOW! I'm gonna go, kill those suckers, have some fun, earn some screams, and leave chaos in my wake!

- Yes, good, get on it! - stated Ari, held Beetlejuice's wide shoulders, and turned him around to face the backdoor. - Get'em, tiger. - Sofía jumped in front of them, making Beetlejuice almost fall over.

- Wait, you really want him to do that?!? - Ari gestured with her hand and raised her eyebrows.

- Duuuh, I didn't summon him to play fucking yahtzee! - BJ chuckled and put his elbow on Ari's shoulder.

- I like your jokes but I like hu-mor. - he cooed with a tilted head and a cheesy smile. Ari flashed a kind of annoyed look at him and blinked fast.

- Later, Beetlejuice, later, please, we have so much shit to do and haunt and kill now.

- You can't do that! - said Sofía, still standing before Ari and BJ. - It's not just morally wrong, but don't ya think, Ariadné dearest, that if a bunch of guys get brutally murdered here, we'll have to bury them and having a shitton of mounds in our backyard would raise suspicion? AND since we have such a bad luck, I'm pretty sure the police would find the bodies somehow. - Beetlejuice layed back to the wall, inspecting his dirty black nails, sighing. There's so much trouble with living folks, they always find somethin' to ruin the fun. It's easier with dead guys, you have some problems with them, you just throw 'em to a sandworm and your problems are solved! WAIT...

- Hey, guys, sorry to barge in, but I just wanna state that if you push someone, that’s bullying, if you kill someone, that’s murder, sure, but if there is no evidence and nobody sees it... - he shrugged. - ...it’s a simple accident. - he showed a toothy grin, lightning flashing on his sharp double canines. - And those goddamn sandworms could swallow anyone alive.

- What's a sandworm? - asked Ari excitedly. BJ shrugged.

- Oh ya know, nothing much, just 10-meters-tall two-headed snakes with a killer appetite. If they eat someone, they automatically get deported to the Netherworld, or I dunno how ya folks call it, Purgatory. No problem with the body, or the ghost. - Ari smiled widely and launched herself at Beetlejuice. She hugged his neck tightly.

- YOU ARE A GENIUS! - Beetlejuice just stood still, not knowing what to do with the sudden hug.

- Well, being dead has its perks. - he said with a small, weird laugh. Ari made a disgusted face and quickly let go.

- Ew, you smell like rotten meat. Gross.

- Aww thanks babe! - ha cooed and put his weight from one leg to another like a little kid.

Rei cleared her throat.

- Isn't that swallowing thing still murder though? - Beetlejuice appeared right behind her out of thin air.

- Jesus Christ, Rei, you sexy son of a bitch, grow up! - he said and pinched her booty, then quickly reappeared on the dining table. - Please, sweethearts, shut up already! - he said in a nagging manner. - I'm ready for some people to die! Let me have my fun, you guys are like a snorefest! - the knocking started again, since the bad guys on the other side of the door realized they can't break it.

- Who's there with ya honey? - asked Matt, after hearing BJ talk. - Did... DID YOU HOOK UP WITH SOMEONE?! I AM ALL THAT YOU NEED! ARIADNÉ, DON'T MAKE ME COME IN THERE!!! - BJ pointed at the door.

- See, the stupid motherfucker's even asking for it!

The girls looked at each other. Rei was the first to talk.

- Well, I have a very little patience for stupidity. I say let's get rid of these jerks. - Sofía rolled her eyes and tried to say something but Beetlejuice quickly pointed at her and a metal plate appeared on her lips, making her unable to talk. She flashed an angry look at the demon. But he just shrugged with a wicked smile.

- Silence gives consent.

- There's only one more thing! - stated Rei, which made Beetlejuice do a huge eyeroll.

- WHATTTT.

- Kill only Matt. His henchmen don't deserve death, I mean at least I think so. - she said while looking at Ari. She nodded with pouted lips. - Only scare them. If you can do that. - Beetlejuice held his chest and dramatically made the expression of fainting.

- If I can do that?! What do ya think, what am I, a newbie? - he jumped off the table, booping Rei's nose. - Babes, I've been scaring for like a millennia. I'm the bio-exorcist of the Netherworld, giving houses enemas and shit. - he turned away. - Don't underestimate my power cause I'll be offended! - Ari laughed, jumped next to Beetlejuice who hold his arm out, so she locked arms with him. He stared deeply into her widely opened, emerald green eyes. - So tell me, little wolf, do you want to punish those who have wronged you? - he said in an arousing tone. His gravelly voice made Ari slightly shiver and gulp.

- Y-yes...

- Alright ladies, then let's turn up the juice and see what shakes loose!

With a snap of the fingers, all 4 of them teleported to the kitchen. The metal plate from Sofía's mouth disappeared, which made her kind of relieved, but still left her grouching.

- You snake-ass bitches don't respect the Sister Code... - she grumbled.

- Hey, d'ya want me to put the plate back on your slutty mouth, woman?! - asked Beetlejuice in a sharp tone. Sofía crossed her arms before her chest.

- ...I hate you. - Beetlejuice nodded then turned back to Ari with a devilish smile. His eyes were literally glowing at this point, and maybe he had sharper and a bit more teeth than an average human would have.

- Okay, so first thing first, I'm invoking the "No Judgement” clause of our friendship.

- What? Why? - asked Ari. Beetlejuice layed back to the middle kitchen counter and fixed his jacket. He flashed his glowing, hungry eyes at Ari and winked.

- Cause Imma get a little nasty... - Beetlejuice was interrupted by an angry scream. Matthias was banging on the door so loud at this point that Rei was sure he already broke some of his fingers.

- OPEN UP OR I'LL SHOOT THIS FUCKIN DOOR OPEN! - Ari's lower lip juddered at the sudden shouting. She cupped Beetlejuice's chubby face in her palms, took a deep breath and with heated determination in her eyes she said:

- Make him piss his pants.

- Your wish is my command, babes.

- I'M GONNA COUNT TO THREE! - Beetlejuice looked at the door and snapped his fingers. - ONE! - the furniture floated back to their original places. - TWO! - BJ let out a voiceless laugh as he wiggled his fingers and made the whole house pitch black. - FUCK IT! - and with that, right after the sound of barrel-loading a shotgun, the door of the winter garden opened with a creek.

One of the most sobering things in the world must be to experience a classical horror cliché in a house that is rumored to be haunted. There were 5 men standing behind Matt; he met them all earlier that night at a shitty pub, and they were all horny and drunk enough for Matthias to convince them easily to follow him and break into the house of his ex-girlfriend. Stupid boys thought that they'll get some easy pussy that night. Then they saw the house and all of them started to get second thoughts... But they quickly brushed them off, those rumors were just to scare the little townsfolk.

As soon as the door opened, Matt's henchmen looked at each other. Matthias hastily stepped into the house and looked back at the guys. They were stalling and shared concerned looks. Beetlejuice snapped his fingers and appeared with the girls hidden behind one of the huge cupboards of the winter garden. He leaned closer to Ari and whispered:

- Watch. This. - he pointed at one of Ari's big oleanders and started to wiggle his fingers. The plant started to grow, and as it got bigger and bigger, it became an anthropomorphic cross between a Venus flytrap and an avocado. It had a huge, nasty-looking pod which had shark-like teeth. Ari gasped and smiled widely. She always wanted to see this plant in real life. The men didn't notice the plant first, but then one of them started to sniff the air, which was filled with the smell of blood now, and turned around. As soon as he spotted the plant, he screamed like a girl. Beetlejuice opened his mouth in awe and circled his nipples.

- Oh how I missed that sound... - he purred. Ari laughed.

- Do the Voice, do the Voice, do the Voice! - she said excitedly and jokingly smacked BJ's upper arm a couple times. The demon showed his teeth, held out his hand like a sock puppet and immitated talking with it. As he did, the plant started to talk.

- FEED ME SEYMOOUUR! - the plant growled at the men before it. All 5 of them screamed and launched themselves into the pitch black room. They shoved Matt before themselves, who fell on his stomach, dropped his weapon and headbanged the hardwood floor. Beetlejuice snapped his fingers again, which made him and the girls reappear behind the sofa. He peeked out, threw his hand up and made a pulling movement. The burglars all got dragged deeper into the room. It felt like something grabbed their ankles and pulled them...

In the blink of a moment, the door slammed shut behind them, and maniacal laughter filled the air, like it came from every direction. Beetlejuice winked at the girls and got back to his normal, gravelly tone.

- Learn to throw your voice, fool your friends, fun at parties!

- Now THAT is cool! I wanna do that too! - said Rei in an excited tone. Sofía rolled her eyes; she was still very pissed at her sisters so she decided to not give a damn, doesn't matter what awesome things Ari's demon buddy could do. Ari peeked over the edge of the sofa and giggled at the expressions of the men. They looked so afraid. Beetlejuice quickly pulled her back and shushed her with a small laugh. He gestured towards the fireplace which instantly lit up. One of the guys let out a tiny scream, which made BJ rub his palms in ecstasy. He bit his lower lip.

- Mi mamá was right. - said one of the burglars, a shorter latino guy with wobbly voice. - This place... is cursed.

- No it's not. - stated the one next to him. He sounded clearly afraid as well, he just tried to cover it with confidence. - Anyway, what is it with you and curses? You're never happy without a good curse. Superstitious idiot. - he changed into a more sarcastical tone. - "This is cursed, that is cursed!"

- Give it a rest, will ya!!! - shouted Matt, who was looking for the shotgun. - Don't be pussies! It's just the wind, and my baby always had weird plants. You know what we came for. Let's head upstairs, 2 people per girl, and have some fun! - he flashed an evil smile at his "friends". And that made Beetlejuice's blood boil.

- Not on my watch, Mattyboy! - he hissed. He closed his eyes for a moment. Welp, hope I'm not rusty. - Let's see, what are you jerks the most afraid of?

He disappeared from behind the sofa. The girls peeked out, and clearly saw a shadow figure circling the men. It was audible that something was moving behind them. The burglars turned around but didn't see a thing. Beetlejuice's shadow form took a quick look into every men's eyes. Several scriptures from the Middle Ages tell us that if a demon looks into your eyes, they can see your biggest fears. Who would've thought that it's true?

- Got it. - said Beej as he reappeared behind the sofa with a snap. He took a quick look on Ari's excited faced, and flashed a toothy grin. - This is gonna be so. Much. Fun. Let's give those guys the fright of their lives! - Beetlejuice disappeared again, just to reappear next to the windows. His figure was vaguely illuminated by the random thunderbolts. He tilted his head sideways and dropped his left hand next to himself. His painted black nails grew into huge claws, his catlike eyes were glowing, just like his dark burgundy hair. It always looked like this when he was in a destructive, devilish mood. He flashed a wicked, Cheshire-like smile and started to scratch the windows. It made the girls' get goosebumps but the burglars' look was a good enough compensation for the unpleasantness. Ari was pretty sure that the guys saw BJ for a moment before he disappeared with a laugh again. He sounded so evil. Beetlejuice appeared next to Ari again, digging into his fluffy hair, eyes closed, wide smile on his face. Shit, that's hot, thought Ari. - I'm still the Ghost with the Most.

- What if they go upstairs? - asked Sof with a raised eyebrow, pointing at the burglars approaching the stairs. - Hmm? Did ya plan out something for that as well, Mr. Ghosty-ghost?

- Well I have ideas... - said Ari and leaned close to Beej. She whispered something into his ear which made him bite his lower lip. At this point his teeth were more shark-like than human-like.

- Shit babes, you're a natural... - he moaned and flung his hand towards the stairs. Matthias just stepped on the first step, but was stopped by the sight of 2 little girls standing on the top of the stairs, holding hands. Their eyes were all black.

- Come play with us, Matty. Forever... and ever... and ever... - they said in the same rhythm, with the creepiest child-voice you can ever imagine. The burglars stepped back. Ari couldn't hold back any longer and shouted:

- NOW!

The children started screaming histerically and in the same moment, blood started to wave down the stairs, soaring on the walls, splashing at the men. They all screamed bloody murder and tried to ran away, scattering in every possible direction. Beetlejuice's eyes were glowing with pleasure.

- Do you hear that sound, Ari? That BEAUTIFUL sound? - he said with a moan and bit his fist. - That is the sound, of clean, white, shorts turning brown.. - he looked at Ari. - Ain't it the sweetest noise around? - he laughed maniacally which made Ari and Rei giggle as well. - You guys stay here so you won't stay in the way, but you... - he grabbed Ari's hand and pulled her up to her feet. - ...you deserve to enjoy the show from first row, babes.

With a snap, they appeared in the corner, next to good old Long John Silver's skeleton. Beetlejuice wiggled his fingers and the pirate slowly came to life. One of the burglars, with terror in his eyes, tried to run away as far as possible from the reanimated corpse, but clumsily, he lost his foothold because of the dripping blood from his clothes and fell on his back. It made a huge thud. Ari burst out laughing, like the child she was in heart, but tried to cover her mouth with her hand. Beetlejuice was laughing too, but decided to top his performance and wiggled his fingers again. The pirate started rattling as he lifted his sword up, let out a warcry, and started to run in the lying man's direction. He let out an agonizingly high-pitched scream as he got up. BJ and Ari laughed more histerically.

- Did you hear that?! - wheezed the girl and slapped BJ's shoulder. - Oh my god let's make some more people scream!

BJ held Ari's hand, and pulled her over to the TV. The demon tapped the screen which instantly lit up in blue. Weird streaks appeared on it, then a hand from the inside, tapping the glass. Then another one. Then one more. Two guys, who now held each other, screamed out. BJ put his arm around Ari's shoulders.

- Panic and stress, oh ain't it the best? - he said an laughed with his head thrown backwards.

- You are such a weirdo! - she laughed and elbowed him in the side. He let her go, tilted his head sideways, hunched down and bit his lips in a weird, kinda creepy manner. Ari wheezed and scruffed his fluffy hair. Beetlejuice hunched down more.

- Now behind my ear... - he said with a moan. Ari pulled her hand back with a laugh. She looked around, admiring the sight of bloody men running around, but then her eyes found a specific person standing before the steps, staring at her with a shotgun in his hand. The smile from her face disappeared. She took a step back, and Beetlejuice instantly stepped before her, covering her with his body. He formed a little cup with one of his hands, held out the other dramatically and blew into his palm. A huge blob of fire appeared right before them, blowing up in Matthias's face. He screamed and BJ laughed. - No worries babes, I got ya. NOW WHERE WERE WE. - he turned around and after some looking, he pointed at a guy. He was trying to open up the front door, but it was shut. Beetlejuice made huge gestures and summoned a crazy eyed, killer looking dog. Ari awwed and crouched down. The dog acted all surprised when the girl scruffed his head, but in half a second he got really happy and wagged his tail. Beetlejuice raised an eyebrow and made an unimpressed face. - You are a hellhound, you are SO not supposed to do that. - Ari laughed, hugged the dog one more time, then pointed at the guy Beetlejuice was eyeing.

- Go, catch! - she said in an angelic voice. The hellhound started barking and running towards his target. Poor guy jumped up on the hall cabinet.

Beetlejuice snapped again. They now appeared in the downstairs bathroom. A burglar was leaning against the bathroom door, huffing, and as they appeared, he pointed at BJ in fear.

- YOU! - he shouted. - My dad told me about you! The stripey demon with the stupid hair who haunts the creepy house at the edge of the town! Nobody believed a young weedhead pizza guy but you ARE real! - Beetlejuice shrugged and flashed an evil smile.

- Well, why didn't you listen to him? I bet he told ya to stay away from this... - he rubbed his palms together. - ...creepy house... - he opened his palms, water pouring out of them. Ari climbed up on the washing machine, which was a good idea, noticing that something huge started to move in the water. A crab-like figure. The guy screamed bloody murder. BJ laughed and snapped. Him and Ari reappeared in the living room, right behind the sofa. Rei was clapping like an idiot. Shit, even Sofía looked a bit more enthusiastic now. What can I say, the guy IS good.

- Are you lovely ladies having fun? - Ari and Rei nodded exaggeratedly, Sofía huffed and rolled her eyes. - Well the real show is just about to begin! Take your seats! - Beetlejuice teleported the girls onto the sofa while himself appeared on the coffee-table. He started tapping a rhythm with his feet and out of nowhere, the sound of a guitar could be heard. Then came drums. BJ was kinda dancing around on the table, feeling himself. One of the burglars ran towards him with a glass thing he found on one of the shelves. BJ fixed his jacket and with a movement of a hand, he summoned fire towards him. Then laughed at the guy falling over. Now full on music was blasting. Theatrical weirdo, thought Ari. Rei clapped, BJ bowed. Then he raised his hands slowly, making big spiders emerge from the ground. Sof whined a little and closed her eyes.

- EWEWEWEWEW.

One of the burglars, who was sitting in the corner, legs pulled up to his chest, cried out.

- THIS IS JUST A LUCID DREAM! I'M DREAMING! - BJ turned his head backwards, then floated before him with a normal facing, tilted head, and grabbed the guy's chin.

- Really? - the girls didn't see what's happening really, but what they saw, was that BJ's head was getting bigger and that he opened his lower jaw like a snake. - Then tell me, buddyboy, why do I hear you screaming? - the burglar screamed out and turned white as a wall. Beetlejuice appeared next to Ari on the sofa. He wiped his teary eyes and laughed again. Ari grabbed his thigh with an excited smile.

- You are fantastic! Unbelievable! That was a sound that says I will never sleep well again! - she breathed in. BJ's eyes were glowing at her. Literally glowing. - I can't believe you are such a talented scarer. Hollywood should learn from you. - the demon looked down at his shoes and crumpled his jacket. A slight streak of pink appeared in his hair. Ari jumped back. - OH MY GOD YOUR HAIR CHANGES COLOR! - he pulled the differently colored streak and sighed.

- Yeah, it's like a moodring... Stupid thing always tells on me...

- THAT IS THE COOLEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN! - said Ari with excitement in her voice. - What does light pink mean?

- NOTHING. - stated Beej. With a little bit too much voice. He cleared his throat. - Imma tell ya later, but as you said, we still have so much shit to do, to haunt, to kill... - he winked at Ari who rolled her eyes and crossed her arms before her chest. Beetlejuice booped her nose, than pulled her up onto the table. He whirled her around in ecstasy, both laughing, BJ howling sometimes. - Nice moves, little hellion! - he laughed. The music in the background got louder and louder with each moment. BJ let Ari go for a moment. The guys were losing it at this point, most of them crying and running around. Beetlejuice looked at his pal. - Hey Ari, check this out! - he raised his hands, pointing at one guy after another, twitching with each move. All 6 of them stood up straight. BJ looked at Ari with a wicked smile. - Dance break!

To the rhythm of the music, the burglars all started to dance. They did the same moves BJ did, with a weird green fog in their eyes. Beetlejuice occasionally looked at the girls, who were laughing their asses off. BJ did The Thing™, which made them all snort. Beetlejuice didn't notice that it also made Ari check out his pelvic moves.

The music ended, Rei and Sof was holding each other, both of them teared up by laughter. Ari slapped her thighs. Beetlejuice bowed several times.

- Thank you, thank you, thank you! That was an old Scandinavian folk song. - the girls teared up again. Beetlejuice smiled like an idiot. Now his hair was more green then burgundy. He was having a great time. - I mean, yeah, I put my own spin on it, but... Hey, ya liked it!

And that's when their laughter was stopped by the sound of barrel-loading a shotgun.

[ren-c-leyn]

To Duel a God...

 It’s been a while since I’ve done a short story for this blog, thought I might give it a try since I’m still under the weather but want to try to stick to the habit of writing. This is a fusion story that I’ve been squirreling away prompts for for a while. I’m excited to finally have enough pieces in place to write it.

 The prompts in question are these 1,2,3,4,5,6 by the always amazing @thependragonwritersguild, this one by @thewholekitandkabobble, these 1,2,3,4 by the lovely @givethispromptatry, and these 1,2 by @humdrummoloch. Thank you all for your hard work to make so many amazing prompts ^-^

Story warnings: This is a fight story, so there is fictional violence. It also mentions death in passing, but nothing in any great detail. There is a little swearing, as well.

~

 It started with an old memory; a tiny cry from the void of hollow emptiness that had been eating me alive since that living nightmare.

 Don’t be ridiculous, you don’t have to be any of those things to become a great hero. After all, heroes of legend are not the strongest or the wisest of us. They are those who had the selflessness and courage to do what was right.

 But I know I am not one of those people. I had never been one of those people. If I had been, I would have been able to save him. If I am now, I would be able to avenge them now.

 Perhaps my first warning that I still wasn’t one of those people should have been the way her face blanched at my statement and argued with me for an hour over it. Or, perhaps it should have been in my statement itself.

 I’m going to challenge a god to a duel at sunrise on the anniversary.

 Maybe they’d even add a line to the adventurer’s hand guide dedicated solely to warn against my insanity at the end of this: ‘Protip: Don’t challenge gods to duels.’

 “You must understand! It was a hard fought victory; a truce that you are threatening to tear apart!”

 “I don’t care. I promised nothing and was privy to no truce. I walk my own path and care little for the gods and their business.”

 My best friend, my former comrade, the woman I had shed sweat and blood and tears with just searched my face with a lost sort of expression, similar to the one we had both worn that day, the anniversary, as we stared at the piles of corpses stacked up to impossible heights.

 Eventually she sighed, shoulders sagging as her eyes closed.

 “Why do you always do this?” she asked, voice tired and raspy.

 “Why do you always ask me that when you know the answer you’ll get?”

 And those dull, rust-colored eyes opened partly again.

 “What’s going to happen to everything after you are gone?”

 “I dunno. I’ll be dead, my friend. Figure it out for yourself.”

 She snorted.

 “So you admit this will be what finally kills you?”

 “It’s more that I admit that I cannot guarantee it won’t, even with my so called talents. Still... can we really just sit back and say we’re fine with how things turned out in the end?”

 “Obviously you cannot, and I cannot stop you. Go then, Payback. Do what it is you do best. I won’t join in your foolishness, but I will stand witness to your duel. I trust it will take place in the usual ring?”

 A grim smile crept onto my face as I turned away from her desk and began to stride to the door.

 “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

 With my friend and queen’s permission, or at least reluctant surrender, on the matter, I set about issuing my challenge. This proved to be the hard part. No priest or priestess in their right minds were willing to send my message to the war god, not even those of questionable sanity wanted to get involved, and several temples threw me out on my ear, quite literally. The last of which was the war god’s high temple itself. 

 Well, fine then. If I couldn’t get my challenge to the bastard through a third party, I’d just have to do it myself.

 I climbed up the pillars, ignoring the indignant shouts of priests and temple guardians as I scaled up the front of the so called holy site, clawed my way through the ornate carvings depicting great battles and heroes, and then finally drug my armored arse over the lip of the roofing to get on top of the building itself.

 Standing as straight as I could, I cupped my hands to my mouth and inhaled. Then, all at once, I roared up to the sky.

 “WAR GOD!!! I CHALLENGE YOU IN SINGLE COMBAT FOR THE HONOR OF MY FALLEN FRIENDS! COME TO THE HILL OF ROSES ON THE SUNRISE OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE DAY YOU BUTCHERED THEM LIKE THE COWARD YOU ARE AND I SHALL HONOR THEIR MEMORIES WITH YOUR HEAD!”

 Then, there was silence. A dead silence that was quite out of place for any part of the capital city. I wasn’t even sure if the people who heard me issue my challenge were breathing, but I couldn’t care less. They could hide in fear all they wanted, but I had faced god beasts and their other minions in the fields of battle during our war against the gods. I had looked servants of death in the eye, and even played cards with one during my queen’s negotiations for peace. There was nothing for me to fear from the other side.

 Still, I found the silence a bit uneasy. Was I being ignored? Usually, my opponents responded to my challenged rather quickly. For example, you know the wizard accepts your challenge when a crimson bolt strikes. You know a thieves’ guild leader accepts your challenge when you have a knife and a dead snake pinned to the inside of your inn door the next morning.But how does one know when a god decides to accept a challenge?

 Blood red lightening shot down from a cloudless sky and shattered an ancient oak that had been on the grounds for centuries.

 I guessed that answered my question. The bastard had heard me alright, and it looked like he accepted my challenge. A broad grin split my face. Good, this would be fun.

 Two weeks passed with nonstop training and uneasy anticipation. The nightmares of the past came and went in tides, mixing in with the present. Instead of falling victim to them, I used them to motivate myself, remind myself why I had to do this.

 Then, the fateful morning came, or rather, the pre-dawn darkness before a fateful morning came. The queen and I stood on my usual dueling grounds, a flat-topped hill crowned with blood-red roses. It was a fitting place to die... for my enemies. Neither of us said a word to each other as we watched the eastern sky, waiting for our old enemy to appear. 

 Just as the deep blues of night began to turn yellow, and rays of sunlight began to caress the rosebuds, we felt it. That familiar stomach-twisting sickness from raw power. Both of us tensed.

 Red lightening struck again, dancing in the center of the ring before us. It balled up, glowing brighter, and then went out entirely, revealing a tall man in strange armor made of heavenly metals and fangs and claws and hides of god beasts. A giant sword rested in his left hand, and a battle ax as broad as the queen’s shoulders rested in his right. Behind him was a cloaked figure I recognized as the commander of the war god’s army. She gave a nod to the queen and I, and we gave a nod back.

 “Well, mortal, I believe we have a score to settle. Yes?” the war god’s deep voice growled out slowly, mockingly. “It shouldn’t take us more than a minute.”

 I grinned up at him.

 “I would think not. I should have your ugly head ready for my wall in thirty seconds.”

 He howled out a laugh.

 “You think you can kill me?”

 “I think I can try and if I can’t then at least I can be an obstacle. I might even be able to make you bleed, or worse. Whose to know if we don’t fight?”

 He chuckled darkly with a smirk to match.

 “You will be lost in the land of the dead long before you make me bleed, mortal.”

 A dark smile of my own surfaced.

 “ I’m already as dead as my mercy. Come to think of it, you’re the one that killed me, on the inside anyways. You see, after you lose everything good in your life, all you can do is laugh. Laugh because you somehow managed to die along the way, but can’t remember where. But don’t worry, I have just enough mercy left in me to just make my vengeance killing you, instead of killing everyone you care about and turning you into a living ghost too.”

 He sneered at me.

 “Bold words for the empty shell of a pitiful creature. Don’t worry, I’ll put you out of your misery today. Witnesses! Begin the proceedings.”

 “Yes,” the queen and the general answered instantly.

 They both stepped back into the roses on opposite ends of the massive ring. Part of me wondered if they’d be okay, but it was a little late to take that into account now. They ran us through the dueling formalities, asking us to bow to each other, step back the appropriate number of steps, get into our stances, and then they began the count.

 “Three, two, one, you may begin.”

 They hadn’t even finished saying begin when the war god was bearing down on me, bringing both of his massive weapons down on each of my shoulders. I heard the queen scream, but I could only grin.

 Invincibility is a real good time. Whenever someone tries to maim you, they always end up taking the damage. I just wish I had clothes to support that fighting style. Well, the cost of this armor was nothing in comparison to the priceless look of shock on the dumbass’s face when his own divine weapons bounced off my bones and sunk into his shoulders.

 “H-how? What sorcerery is this?!” he hissed as he stumbled back.

 “Oh, I guess no one told you. What a pity, for you. I’m the last person you want to fight. Every time you hurt me, it just reverberates back to you. My friends call me Payback.”

 He laughed.

 “I see, I guess I’ll have to stop fighting you like a mortal, and fight you as an equal!”

 Lightening struck me and I felt it burn down to my bones. His weapons glowed red and he swung at me. Instinct kicked in and my body jerked out of the way, but the sword still caught my hand, leaving the first wound I had received on a battlefield in years.I retaliated with my own blade, going after joints and thinner spots of the armor. He blocked, dodged, countered, I ducked, rolled, and stabbed.

 The longer the deadly dance of steel and lightening strikes went, the more of my blood dripped onto the trampled grass and hardened earth.

 Ah. The one person I can’t defeat. Lovely.

 And despite myself, I started laughing at the thought. Laughing as I rolled under his ax’s head and came up right in front of him, only to be kicked in the gut by the boot. I went down, and red lightening made sure I stayed down. As I laid there, jerking uncontrollably, I heard the heavily armored boots advancing on me.

 Then, there was a bright white light.

 “Enough,” a woman’s voice echoed.

 “Out of my way, Life, the punk challenged me, not you.”

 “The battle has been decided, War, lay down your arms.”

 “It has not ended, it was a duel to the death.”

 I heard her laugh, laugh right in his face. Had to hand it to her, she had nerve. I respected that. As much as a person spasming in the dirt can respect anything, of course.

 “What’s so funny?” War demanded.

 “In accordance to the treaty we made with the humans, duels to the death are prohibited.”

 “Then why did you allow him to issue the challenge?!”

 “I assumed to accepted knowing that you weren’t allowed to kill.”

 “And if that mortal were to have defeated me, would you be hovering here in my defense as well?” he demanded.

 “Of course, of course, it is my duty to uphold the treaty. Now take your bow, do your boasting, and let us return.”

 I blacked out about half way through his big victory speech. Whether it was from boredom or the lightening still working its way through my body, I couldn’t say.

 When I woke up, I was laying on the floor in the queen’s office while she scribbled something down with her quill.

 “Still breathing?” she asked after a moment.

 “Yeah....”

 “Good.”

 There was a long stretch of silence between the tense good and the end of whatever it was she was writing. When she put the quill down, though, I knew I was in trouble. She slowly turned in her chair, rust eyes narrowing at me.

 “You know what? I’m gonna say it: you deserved that. You deserved all of that, including the awful speech he gave at the end of your duel. What kind of idiot challenges the war god to single combat? He’s the god of combat you twit!”

 And it was half way through her speech that I realized Life had even less mercy than I did.

[besidemethewholedamntime]

and i will always love you ~ chapter seven

Fic Summary:

“He feels sorry for her. It’s hard not to. Except it doesn’t change the fact that she’s still the child of an eminent politician, using her wealth and status to arm herself in ways that others in her situation couldn’t. Fitz has protected all kinds of people who’ve done the same thing, and every last one has been a complete and utter wanker.”

When an accidental discovery causes nationwide outrage at Dr. Jemma Simmons, Protection Officer Leopold Fitz is the one called upon to be her bodyguard. It starts off as one thing and ends quite another. A bodyguard au.

Chapter Summary:

a chapter which contains: - some Disney magic -proud Huntingbird parents -an unexpected truth

{Read chapter 7 on Ao3}

{Read from the beginning here}

or read chapter 7 below!

The only way to describe it is like it’s a Disney film.

The birds seem to sing to him as he wakes up in the morning, the sun parts the clouds for his benefit only, and the whole world seems to sparkle with hope and magic and love.

Both him and Jemma have to be careful in her office, where prying eyes with a love for drama could give them away. They’re professionals, so of course it should be no problem, except right now they’re more lovesick teenager than anything else and, unfortunately for them, subtlety is not their strong suit.

Apart from that, though, it’s amazing how little has changed. They still bicker like they always have and laugh like they always have. The only difference is that at the end of the day when they leave work and go back to the hotel there’s no more confusing feelings scrambling his brain and making him grumpy. They go back together, in all kinds of ways, and he feels the best he has in years.

Bobbi and Hunter are, of course, elated.

His day off is two days after the beach trip and, when he drags himself back to his flat, both of them are waiting on the couch like they’re his parents.

“So, Fitz,” Hunter begins. “Where you been, mate?”

Fitz frowns, dropping his bag to the floor. “Working,” he says slowly. “Why?”

Hunter jerks his thumb to his right. “Bobbi here has been speaking to a certain Alphonso Mackenzie, who spoke to a certain Daisy Johnson, who spoke to-”

“Alright, alright!” Fitz holds up his hand. “I get the picture. What do you want to know?”

“Did you tell her?” Bobbi asks.

“I did,” Fitz nods, keeping a straight face to make them suffer.

“And?” Hunter’s practically bursting out of his seat. “Come on! You can’t leave us in the dark like this!”

The smile that Fitz has barely been able to keep back suddenly makes an appearance and both Bobbi and Hunter jump up, coming over to hug him in congratulations. He suffers through it good-naturedly, knowing that it very well might not have happened if not for their not-so-gentle shoving.

“Aww, Fitz! I’m so proud of you!” Hunter ruffles his hair. “Truly, mate.”

“I only told Jemma how I felt,” he tries to laugh it off. “Nothing that big.”

“But big for you,” Hunter tells him, looking him straight in the eye. “And I’m proud.”

They’ve been through a lot, Fitz and Hunter. They live together, briefly worked together, and for a long time Fitz has relied on him because the world was too big and too daunting to face on his own. They know how much they mean to each other, and it never needs to be said, so this unexpected display of sincerity makes tears prick at the corner of his eyes.

Things are changing, he can feel it in the air, but no matter what, Hunter will always be the person who was there in the beginning, and will be there to the end.

“Thanks, mate,” Fits says, slapping Hunter on the back. “Thanks a lot.”

-x-

When Fitz is summoned to HQ, his first thought it oh shite.

Pretending in front of Jemma’s colleagues everyday that he’s not walking on air is challenging enough, but pretending in a building that houses trained officers, and frequent visitors from MI5, takes every ounce of strength he has. He’s reasonably sure that his boss can’t have found out anything, and while it’s not technically illegal, it’s certainly against the rules, and so his heart thumps painfully as he takes the lift up to the floor where he’s sure he’s about to get fired.

Fitz gets directed to a meeting room with five or six others and he decides to let himself breathe. Unless everyone here has found themselves in love with Jemma, he’s sure that this isn’t the sacking he was so terrified of. When his superior designs to join them all ten minutes later, the man walks in with something close to a smile on his face.

“We arrested our penpal,” he announces, looking proud of himself even though Fitz doubts he played a physical part. ��The one who loved some cut and paste. He’s confessed to it all, and even gave us some of his friends.”

There’s sighs of relief throughout the room, and Fitz feels the knot in his own chest loosen significantly. Protection Command was receiving intense pressure from Jemma’s father in particular for not having found the culprit yet and the man being found means the burden has been lifted from their shoulders. Fitz finds his relief comes from a rather more personal direction.

“With that in mind,” the boss continues, “we feel that security can be lifted. Dr. Simmons may move back to her own home. I’d still like an officer there, of course, and to accompany her on journeys, but the stricter side of things can be relaxed. If everything continues as it has done, I should say she will no longer require our services within the next few weeks.”

It’s welcome news, and uses up the remaining grains of Fitz’s self-control. There are a few arbitrary points to go over, and then eventually the short meeting comes to an end.

“I trust I can tell you to pass the news along to Dr. Simmons, Officer Fitz?”

“Yes, sir,” he says, trying to remain calm while every cell is alive with energy.

“This will be very welcome news for you, I imagine,” the man says, a small smile on his lips. “Very welcome news, indeed.”

-x-

Fitz returns to tell Jemma the wonderful news with a spring in his step.

She reacts enthusiastically, kissing him in excitement. They spend the rest of the evening packing up the hordes of random items they’ve amassed during their hotel stay and when they finally make it back to Jemma’s flat both of them wear the same looks of relief.

It’s easy to get addicted to the feeling. They sit on Jemma’s couch, a Chinese takeaway on the coffee table in front of them and they discuss how wonderful it is to be back, how uncomfortable the hotel beds were, how nice it will be to be able to cook again. Inevitably they turn to the future. The news from today confirms that the circumstances are about to change soon and it makes him nervous but also terribly excited.

“Boss man said it’ll be a few weeks until you don’t need me anymore,” Fitz says.

“I know, Fitz. You’ve told me three times this evening,” Jemma teases gently. “And as I’ve told you, of course I’ll still need you. Just not quite in the same way.”

He’s giddy with happiness and it’s clearly affecting his short-term memory. The way she says of course makes him dimple. He wants more.

“I think if we can just figure out who leaked your research then we’d be able to speed things along. Don’t you think so?”

Jemma’s eyes slide away from his, and she picks up a spring roll. “Perhaps, but it doesn’t really matter who did it now, does it? The news is already out there. Finding out who put it out there won’t change anything.”

“Nah, I suppose not,” Fitz concedes, deflating against the cushions. “Would just be good to catch who did this to you, so they couldn’t do it to anyone else, at least.”

“It’ll blow over soon, I’m sure. These things always do.”

“Yeah, I know, I know,” he sighs. “It’s just… I dunno, these people shouldn’t get to get away with it. They could really ruin lives. What if someone didn’t have your dad’s influence and got faced with an angry mob because they couldn’t get a bodyguard? It’s not fair.”

“Fitz-”

“I’m serious, Jemma. It’s not right. There was no reason to release this. It’s not like it was an accident.”

“Fitz, please-”

“They knew exactly what they were doing, which makes it worse! They deserve to face time for it. It’s utterly ridiculous that in this day and age-”

“It was me.”

He doesn’t finish his sentence, doesn’t breathe for a second. He decides to give her a chance. “What was you?”

Jemma fidgets with her fingers but looks him straight in the eye. “It was me who leaked the research. I sent it to the news.”

He blinks. It’s all he can do. The news has hit him with the force of a freight train; so many feelings flitter though all at once. Betrayal, hurt, love, confusion, anger… he settles for the last one. It’s hot and fiery and it hurts so much less than anything else.

“What the hell?”

“Please,” Jemma says urgently as Fitz springs up off the couch, unable to sit at the place where minutes ago they were laughing. He starts to pace, thoughts rushing at a million miles a minute. She stands, too, and they both end up standing behind the couch. Jemma has tears in her eyes and he feels only a little bit sad. “Please, Fitz, just let me explain.”

“Oh, yeah,” he laughs, a harsh, ugly sound. “Go on then. I really want to hear this one.”

“I was just trying to do the right thing,” she says.

“And how the hell could this be the right thing?”

“It wasn’t my goal to create that kind of method, you see. It came as the result of another experiment, a complete accident.”

He just wants the truth, doesn’t care about all of this backstory. “It doesn’t matter how it came about.”

“Actually, it does.” Jemma takes a deep breath. “I told my supervisor about what I’d discovered. I thought she’d tell me to publish it, like I was going to if the experiment had revealed what I thought it was going to. Only she didn’t. She told me to keep it quiet, and that she would handle it.”

“How is that a bad thing?”

“Because I knew exactly what would happen. It would go higher and higher and when it got to the top it wouldn’t be shoved into a drawer. Think about it, Fitz! They could have sold it. It’s only theoretical just now but with more time, a few years perhaps, it could become a reality. Imagine how many countries would like to have that. Imagine if this one did. It would be biological warfare, only with no way to stop it.”

“So you leaked it,” he says, flatly.

“Yes.” Jemma’s chin remains high, and while her eyes remain tearful, they do not divert from his own. “I did. Because if it’s out there then it means nobody can use it without being held accountable for it. They’ll know exactly where it came from.”

There are very few ways in which Fitz is like his father, but his quick temper and inability to listen when angry are two of them. He doesn’t allow her explanation to sink in, doesn’t really care for it all that much even though he asked for it.

“That doesn’t make it okay, Jemma,” he tells her, anger seething into his tone. “It doesn’t make it right. You can’t take it upon yourself to make decisions like that.”

“And what else was I supposed to do? You can’t trust people with this type of thing.”

He scoffs. “Clearly.”

“Please try to understand! I was only doing what I thought was right.”

“It doesn’t matter!” He yells. “You’re supposed to be smart. Surely you knew how this was going to play out, how many people you would drag into your bloody circus.”

“I didn’t,” she protests, and he tries to ignore the tears clinging to her eyelashes. “I truly didn’t think it would get like this. People don’t seem to care about anything these days, certainly nothing scientific. I expected he Twitter comments and maybe a few distasteful articles but nothing on this scale. You have to believe me.”

“No,” he says, betrayal making him hard. “I don’t.”

“Fitz,” she breathes, pouring everything into the one syllable.

He pinches the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes so he doesn’t need to see her face for a second. He’s been working with her for weeks and all this time she’s been keeping this secret from him, stringing him along. What other secrets has she kept, he wonders. What other truths has she left out?

“No.” He opens his eyes, sight momentarily blurred by tears. “Just don’t. Don’t you see? You aren’t different at all. You’re exactly like your parents, like all those people you pretend you’re better than.”

Jemma narrows her eyes. “That’s not fair.”

“Yes it is. You thought you were immune; that you could do whatever the hell you liked without any consequences.”

“It’s not as simple as that.”

“No, maybe not, but that’s what it all boils down to, isn’t it? Your lot think they rule the world, think it’s your place to decide what happens. That’s not right.”

They stand before each other and what they had tentatively built crumbles between them. In the morning, Fitz might care. Right now, he’s too mad to even try.

“That’s not why I did it,” Jemma tries to explain. “You know me, Fitz. You know I don’t think like that.”

“Clearly you do!”

“And so, what? You never changed your mind about me at all?” Jemma finally shouts back. Yes, Fitz thinks. Yes. Get angry. If they’re both angry, shouting and screaming at each other then he can handle it. It’s fine. What he can’t bear is the trembling of her bottom lip, the tears clinging to her cheeks until the last possible second. He doesn’t want to feel sorry for her right now.

She continues. “All this time you’ve just been there silently stewing? Saying one thing but meaning quite another.”

“Of course, I haven’t,” he scoffs. “But even if I had, I wouldn’t be the only one. You have no right to judge me when you’ve been keeping the biggest secret of all. God, don’t you understand? This is against the law, Jemma!”

She looks briefly down to the ground, “I know.”

“Do you? Do you know that all your work is covered by the Official Secrets Act? Do you know that you can actually serve jail time for breaching that?”

“Of course I do,” she says. “You don’t need to explain it to me.”

“Are you sure? Because it seems like if you knew that you maybe would have thought about it more before leaking the bloody documents to the press!”

And now he has come to another problem, one that should have occurred to him from the beginning but that his heartache made him forget.

“I could go to jail for this,” he says quietly. “If I know what you did, and I don’t tell them, then I’ll be an accessory.”

Jemma only blinks.

“I’ll lose my job, my flat. My mum will be in bits.” He heaves a shaky sigh. “Did you even think about that.”

She swallows audibly. “I did.”

Her short answer stokes the flames. He scoffs. “And?”

“I’m not telling you to do anything, Fitz.”

She has shifted the choice to him and God, how he hates her for it. “What am I supposed to do?”

“I told you because you should know,” she says carefully. “If you want to tell your superiors then that is your choice. I’m not going to plead otherwise.”

He scoffs again, waving away the option he never really had. “Please, like I could do that to you. I care about you too much to hurt you.” His admission slides out without meaning to, and he looks at his feet before mumbling, “A feeling you clearly don’t have about me.”

Jemma gasps, a sharp intake of breath. It sounds like it hurt. He hopes it did. “Oh, Fitz…”

“No. Just, just don’t, okay?” The anger has vanished, replaced by an unbearable weariness. There’s nothing within him to fight anymore. “Just… was it real? What you told me… did you mean it?”

“All of it,” she assures him. She goes to take a step forward only to think better of it. “I meant it.”

He should never have asked. There’s an acute pain in his chest that intensifies with every second that passes. He starts to fumble around for his bag, his jacket. Pulls out his phone.

“What are you doing? Where are you going?”

“I can’t say here.” With his back to her he swipes the tears from his eyes. “I can’t pretend. I'll phone someone, say I’ve got to go home sick or something.”

“Fitz, come on. We can have a discussion like adults do.”

“There’s nothing to discuss, Jemma,” he says flatly. With all of his things together he stands before her. They’ve become strangers to each other. Perfect strangers. There’s nothing of the people they were to each other standing here now.

“Davis will be here in half an hour. I’m sure you’ll be fine until then.” He grabs the door handle. “See you around.” He turns away.

“Fitz, please,” she’s all but begging, He’s too worn out, can’t stay here any longer. “It was real. All of it. I promise you that.”

He half turns around. “Your promises don’t mean anything anymore.”

He doesn’t stay to find out the impact of his words, instead leaving without another word, and without once looking back.

[beinfriends-a]

word count: 2,911 characters: Eoforwine, Claus extra notes: follow-up to this thread with @antcmbra (<3).  I don’t think you need to read that thread to understand the plot here, but you could (and should bcs it’s a good thread)

He hasn’t been back to civilization in four years.  That’s kind of crazy to think about, now that he really thinks about it.  It’s not really mattered up to that point-- not in a way he particularly cared about, anyhow.  Somehow, he manages to make himself more than decent with surviving on a whole lot of nothing, and hey, it’s certainly tolerable.  It could be worse.  He could be living in Tazmily, after all.

Speaking of, Tazmily is his destination today.  Honestly, it actually didn’t take him too much time to make up his mind on what to do about the whole Commander thing.  For has never really been the indecisive type, but there was something holding him back for a day or two before he finally settled on going.  The curiosity was just too much for him to put up with-- he had to know what had become of his Commander since the end of the world.

Compass and Toffee had indicated he’d gone sort of off his rocker, didn’t they?  Or-- well, they used a more formal word than that; “unhinged,” though Toffee seemed more forgiving of whatever faults this kid had.  It wasn’t even really the kid’s fault if he ended up a basket case.  He went through so much more shit than the average Pigmask did, and as a little kid, too... it’s sort of a vile life to be given, but he was relieved that Claus was, at the very least, still kicking.  He deserved that and a whole lot more.

The only thing really holding him back from going is merely the fact that he has no idea how Claus is going to react to seeing him again.  It sounds awfully like he’s super hostile to Pigmasks now, and Eoforwine wouldn’t blame him for being hostile to old members, including himself.  They may have gotten along all right before, but that could have totally changed since.  He wouldn’t know until he tried, so....

Well, he may as well give it a shot, right?  It wouldn’t hurt to try.  Tazmily is a hour or two’s walk from his home in Unknown Valley, so hopefully it’d be worth something good, but For wasn’t holding his breath.  He was prepared for the worst, but he hoping for the best.  It’ll be nice to confirm that the Commander-- no, Claus-- is doing well.  That would be closure enough for him, he supposes.

It’s so, so strange how slowly, the world starts to civilize itself again amidst the cracks and upturned trees.  They build around the signs of their god’s emergence, though seem to leave all the old Pigmask hangouts alone... funny.  Guess they really can’t acknowledge that part of the world anymore.  He’s surprised they haven’t bothered cleaning up the rubble, but some of them would definitely be impossible to clean up fully, like the Thunder Tower.  Maybe it’s just best that they forget it entirely-- still, it’s interesting.

For’s only been to Tazmily once or twice in his life before now.  It was just a little blip on his radar, really, and was mainly Fassad’s turf.  That was their job, and For’s was mainly in New Pork and at the Thunder Tower.  He didn’t bother all too much with those backwater hicks, aside from checking in on the progress of the new grunts at that little boot camp in town.  Other than that, not really.  And maybe that’s for the best.  He’d heard some things about the village back in his Pigmask days.  They were pretty easy to control-- and they weren’t the brainwashed ones.

Funny how things like that happen.  Hopefully they’d learned their lesson since then, but For seriously doubted it.  Really. it’s his intention to avoid them as much as he can until it occurs to him that he’s not exactly sure where Claus lives.  Yeah, that’s kind of an important detail, isn’t it?  He definitely gets a weird look for asking, but For tries not seem too suspicious in asking.  That seems kind of inevitable, though, given how big he is and how unusual it could potentially be to ask for the ex-Commander.

It could just be his nerves, though.  It’s fucking bizarre to be back among living, breathing human beings again.  Maybe it would have been even more jarring if he hadn’t talked to those Pigmasks the other day, but that’s not really enough to truly prepare a hermit like him for reintroduction to civilization.  He really can’t help but continually get this feeling that they’re all... watching him.  Like they already know that he doesn’t belong here.  And he know he doesn’t belong, but he won’t be here too long-- nor will he make it a habit.

It’s just one attempt to see what the fuck has happened to that kid since the reset.  It still really surprises him he’s still alive, but that’s good.  Very good.  Alive up on the little hill just outside of town.  Not too bad a view, far as For can see as he’s heading that way.  Climbing up the hill, there he is-- that kid, tending to sheep with his dog-- a very familiar dog, too-- laying out in his doghouse.

With an awkward clearing of his throat, For simply says, “Uh, hey,” just loud enough for Claus to hear.  he sees the ginger jolt slightly, perhaps surprised by the sound, before he turns to meet the sight of For and just freezes.  It’s not exactly fear that For sees, just pure and utter shock, frozen in time, though Claus definitely seems to shrink away the longer this moment goes on.  The familiar dog takes notice and clambers out of his doghouse, pacing forward to stand in front of Claus with a soft growl in For’s direction.

Softly comes his voice, somewhat unconfident, but still strong enough for Claus to establish that he’s serious when he speaks.  “What do you want?”

“I just want to talk,” For replies quickly.  “No funny business, all right?  I have no bone to pick with you or anybody in this town.  Promise.”

Claus averts his gaze, looking away towards nothing for a moment to consider it.  The dog’s growling ceases, but he remains defensively postured.  Then Claus responds, “Why?”

For blinks.  “Why I--?  Uhh, ‘cause.  I haven’t seen you ‘n’ I just heard the first confirmation you were alive from anyone and I wanted to know you were... all right.”

“Who told you that?”

Pause.  He knows Toffee and Compass told him how hostile he was to the both of them, so it may not be wise to namedrop them, but it isn’t wise to be dishonest, either-- that’s unwise far more than any anger Claus may feel in knowing the Pigmasks told For about him.  “You know those, uh, Pigmasks?  Real tall guy--” For makes the motion to indicate Toffee being taller than him-- “and a kinda short Commander--”

And that’s when Claus gets all the more defensive.  “The fuck were you doin’ with them?”  His voice is soft but harsh and hateful.  “They put you up ta this, huh?  I should’a fuckin’ known--”

“No, no!  They found me by total fucking accident.  Or I’m guessing it was.  They just showed up on my property and I talked to ‘em a bit is all.  I have no idea what kinda beef you dudes have with each other, but this has nothin’ to do with them.  They were just the ones who told me about you, and that was the end of that.”  Claus looks clearly skeptical, but For continues on.  “Look, I know it’s been a long-ass time, but you can imagine-- I mean-- people ain’t too friendly to Pigmasks around here, are they?”

“‘Course not,” Claus snaps back.  “All they do is cause a bunch a’ fuckin’ trouble.”

“But they... kept you?  I mean, you were kind of the biggest troublemaker of all, technically.”  He gives Claus a gentle smile.

The ginger narrows his eye, crosses his arms.  “Don’t try to git all funny with me, For.  It really ain’t the fuckin’ time or th’ place for that shit.  I-- I dunno why they let me stick around, but someone must feel real fuckin’ sorry for me, I guess, but they just feel sorry enough to not tell me ta fuck off outta town.  I’m sure a lotta them would sure like it, though.”

For puts his hands up to show he’s not trying to upset the other.  Boy, they weren’t wrong about this kid being tough to deal with. “Hey, I’m sorry.  I’m not trying to piss you off or anything.  I’m just... trying to get on the same page with you, kid.”

“Same page, huh?  Well, here’s what you missed, For: everyone fuckin’ sucks, no one likes Pigmasks ‘n’ especially not me, everyone tries ta pretend like the whole Porky thing didn’t happen.  End a’ story.  That good enough for ya?”  In spite of the situation, a chuckle escapes For, though he regrets it immediately.  Claus flushes slightly and raises his voice when he snaps, “What?  What the fuck did I say that was so goddamn funny?”

Even still, a dumb smile is stuck to For’s face, though he tries to be serious.  He’s not trying to mock Claus, honest, but this just seemed so... very him.  The Commander had a temper on him from time to time-- apparently that didn��t change any from then to now.  Claus is definitely more abrasive and defensive than the Commander ever was by a long shot, but this just seems like he’s finally expressing the full range of his emotions.  Certainly no holding back with this one.

In a weird way, it makes For nostalgic to see this angry teen, even if he’s hurting himself by not taking this as seriously as he needs to.  This one is certainly more vulgar and loose than the Commander, but there’s still those beats of personality there.  With another soft, unmistakable laugh, he covers his mouth as if to hide that shame, before For finally replies with, “Ahh, you haven’t changed a fuckin’ bit, kid.”

That was... really not the right thing to say, and For realizes that the second he see Claus tear up at those words.  Then that smile is gone and For sobers up his expression.  The dog whines and looks towards his master, pressing up gently against Claus’ legs.  Okay, yeah, that was kind of a terrible thing to say to someone in Claus’ position for sure.  For wouldn’t have taken offense if someone called him the same as before, but it made sense why it would bother Claus so much specifically.

“No, I’m not,” Claus snaps back, voice shakier than before.

“You’re not,” For agrees with a gentleness.  “Sorry-- I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean it like-- in a bad way.  There’s just... parts of you... that remind me of the old days.  But that’s not a bad thing!  It’s--”

“Stop,” Claus hisses.  “Just stop, For.”

For throws his hands up.  Yeah, maybe Claus is right.  So he stays quiet and waits for Claus to say more instead.  After a pause and Claus clearing the tears from his visible eye, he continues.  “I dunno what the fuck you thought you was gon’ get from this, but I don’t think you’re gittin’ it.”  The ginger studies the man with great scrutiny.  “Now, why the fuck you here?  Not all that ‘oh, I wanted know you were all right’ bullshit.  What do you want?”

The man frowns.  He takes his time with this answer, though Claus clearly expects a prompt response.  He needs to think through these answers more before he opens his mouth.  It’s not just that For is saying stupid shit, it’s that Claus will take it personally regardless of what he says.  Tough crowd.  Really tough.

“I’m being honest when I say I wanted to know if you were all right.  I understand if this doesn’t mean anything to you now, but I like to think we were pretty good friends back in the Pigmask days, and whether you choose to believe it or not, you meant a lot to me.  I had no idea if you were dead or alive this whole time till those dudes told me, and it was going to drive me up the fuckin’ wall if I didn’t check up on you after that.”

“Well, you know now, but somehow I think that ain’t gon’ satisfy you.”

A soft exhale of a laugh-- hardly one, really.  “Yeah.  I mean, it’d be nice to catch up and see what--”

“No.”

“Yeah, figured you’d say that.”  Sigh.  “That’s okay-- I get it.  I know this wasn’t a welcome visit or whatever.  Uh.  I’ll leave you be.”

“Thanks.”

Claus is no longer even really looking at For.  It’s clear he’s checked out of this conversation and just wants it over with.  For predicted this outcome, but it still bruises his feelings a touch.  He really wanted it to go well for the both of them so they could actually really talk.  There was a lot to catch up on-- at least on Claus’ side of things.  For’s side would be short-- built a house.  Live on a farm now.  The end.  But Claus would be fascinating to talk to more, if For could just sincerely connect to the ginger somehow.

At least he wasn’t yelling at For anymore.  That was something.  For sweeps a foot behind the other in preparation to back off and head home, but not before he pipes up again.  “Hey.  If you ever want to come see me...”  He expects Claus to interrupt, but he doesn’t.  “I live in Unknown Valley.  Maybe ten, fifteen minutes east of where the old club used to be.  Little farm.  Can’t miss it, ‘cause it’s the only thing out there.  Drop in and say hi if you feel up to it sometime.  Or don’t.  That’s up to you, kid.”

No response, just Claus keeping his eyes trained at the ground.

For nods to himself conclusively.  “All right.  Well, be good, kid.  See you later.”

And there he goes, back down the hill and through town and out into the northern outskirts of town.  He’s heading by the way he came-- through the forest-- till he hears that familiar voice ring out again.

“For, wait.”

For turns to meet Claus, jogging up towards the older man.  Claus takes a moment to collect his thoughts and breath.  “I realized I didn’t git ta say most a’ the things I wanted ta say, so I’m gon’ say them now.”  This time, For resists the urge to smile, keeping a curious, but neutral look on his face instead.  He gestures for the ginger to continue.  “First off, you ever see those fuckin’ assholes again, don’t fuckin’ talk to them about me, got it?  I ain’t none a’ their fuckin’ business, or yer business either.  Okay, secondly, we ain’t friends just ‘cause you say we are.  We ain’t friends, and we ain’t never been friends.  You feelin’ sorry for me don’t count as friendship.  And third,--” Claus jabs a finger in For’s direction.  “Quit actin’ like you know a single thing about me, ‘cause you don’t.  That kid you knew?  He’s gone, For!  I’m nothin’ like him, ‘n’ don’t you ever say I am again.  Got it?”

For shakes his head slowly in disbelief.  “Did you really just chase me down to insult me more?”

“I’m not insultin’ you, I’m just tellin’ you like it is.  What, is that a crime or somethin’?”

For’s face just slowly grows a deeper and deeper frown, until he finally nods.  “Yeah, okay, Claus.  I get it.”  Shrugs.  “Well, the offer is still open on that visit thing.  Maybe we could actually get to know each other then and become real friends, huh?”

Claus scoffs and rolls his eye.  “I fuckin’ doubt it.”

“Hey, you never know what’s in store, kid.  Maybe we’ll become friends.  Maybe you could learn to stop bein’ such a fucking asshole.  Who knows?” Claus opens his mouth to argue, but For silences him with a raised hand and continues on.  “Whatever you think this is, I promise I wasn’t tryin’ to cause trouble.  I really care about you, and that’s not going to change, whether you like it or not.  What you decide to do with that is up to you, but you gotta let that bitter shit go, man.  Like, I get it!  But I didn’t ask to be a Pigmask either.  We’re in the same boat, man.  So please.  Just think about it, all right?  I’ll be waitin’ if you change your mind on anything.”

For turns away for a final time and begins to wander off into the forest.  He’s surprised that Claus isn’t arguing, but maybe he’s got too much to think about to actively do it.  With a blind wave to the ginger behind him, he disappears into the forest, and back in the civilization-less part of Nowhere again.  As shitty as that went, For sincerely hoped that Claus would take him up on the offer and come visit sometimes-- and he would know what Claus had chosen soon enough based on if he ever bothered to show up.  He wanted this to be good, really good, for the both of them.  As stubborn as Claus was, For wanted to be a part of his life again.

[firebirdsdaughter]

Random Writing Tidbit I’d Like To Make a Formal Apology to MosaRex…

… But also how’s that for a long title?

So… MosaRex really came out as kinda a jerk in this… And I feel really bad, but also I managed to get this out… So… Sorry, dude?

Also Cannoli might be a little shaky on the characterisation in this, and I apologise for that, too. DX Only my second time trying to write him, and the first trying to write from his point of view, so…

The timeline on this is a little hazy, too… It’s gotta be when Cannoli’s still being standoffish, but when Banba has defrosted some more, so… I dunno.

Another mandatory moment of silence for the horizontal line.

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There was a brief moment of shock when he hit the water, but he recovered quickly. Kanaro was of the Sea Tribe, drowning wasn’t something he did. Soon he had his bearings again, and he kicked a few times to steady himself in the water; then a flash of dark in the corner of his eye reminded him he wasn’t alone—and that the other person didn’t have his experience with the deep ocean. Then he got a good look at them, and realised the situation was even worse.

Through the blur of the water, he could see a thick smudge of dark red issuing from the wound in Banba’s abdomen, thinner trails drifting from his lips, spreading swirling tendrils. He was hanging still in the water, his only motions the effects of the currents created by their fall. It was also a safe bet that Black’s ghostly paleness was more than water in Kanaro’s eyes or a trick of the refracting light. He had no doubt that, under normal circumstances, Black could swim just fine—but even the best swimmer would be at risk while badly wounded and unconscious. And bleeding.

Kanaro’s heart shot into his throat as it suddenly clicked. There was blood in the water. Lots of it, too, a thick smear off blackish crimson, pooling out from the other Ryusoulger’s wound like a massive, deadly flower, spreading through the water around them. As if this situation needed to get any worse. On instinct, he kicked again, propelling himself away—then stopped, treading in the water

Kanaro. MosaRex’s voice echoed in his head. Something is coming. If there is a frenzy, not even I can help you.

He saved my life.

That was his choice. You are not responsible for his decisions.

Black was drifting further away from him, more blood pouring into the water. Even he began to feel the vibrations of something approaching them. If he tried to take Banba with him, there would be a trail for whatever predators that were coming could follow—but if he didn’t… He’ll die.

Not necessarily. MosaRex’s words weren’t so much cold as factual; and it was technically true, but…

But why had Banba taken the hit for him? Black didn’t like him, had made no secret of that—but he hadn’t hesitated at all to throw himself between Gold and danger. Kanaro wracked his brain for the last time he’d seen Black react so quickly—and all that came to mind was…

… For them? He remembered Kou and Asuna’s eager expressions when asking him to join, and Melto’s slightly calmer one at their elbow; Touwa had been more curious, but friendly enough. Most of all… They had been kids—innocent, earnest. And Black had hung back, watching all four of them like a mother hawk might watch its chicks, and watching him like he was a potential threat.

Most likely. Agreed MosaRex. Their gentleness would likely make them distraught if you were to die.

If him dying, someone they hardly knew, who had mostly just been standoffish to them, could upset them so much the one who watched over them so fiercely would risk himself for someone he disliked to prevent it… How would they react to losing the one who acted so much like their guardian?

Kanaro! MosaRex interrupted his thoughts again. Hurry!

More vibrations rippled through the water. Whatever was approaching was coming fast, and Banba had drifted even further away from him; he had to make a decision. Fortunately, there was no longer a choice—if he left Black here, he would never be able to look his own younger sister in the face again.

Twisting around, he kicked harder, propelling himself towards the other Ryusoulger, and was quickly within arm’s reach. Seizing Banba’s arm, he pulled Black over to him through the water, tucking an arm around the other Ryusoulger’s waist. With as much strength as he could, he turned back and sped away.

He didn’t stop until he found land, and had dragged both himself and Banba all the way out of the shallows, arms hooked under Black’s shoulders to pull him along. The other Ryusoulger’s wound was still bleeding profusely, leaving a trail of deep red across the sand. Once he had them far enough away from the sea that there was not even a remote possibility of anything crawling out after them—foolish, perhaps, but he wasn’t going to take chances, they had been lucky to make it to land at all—he freed his arms and dropped to his knees in the sand beside Banba, clumsily cupping Black’s  face in his hands.

“Hey… Hey!” But Banba’s eyes remained closed, and not even the slightest flicker of even unconscious reaction showed on his face. Kanaro’s breath caught, and he fumbled for a pulse with shivering fingers, even ducking his head to press an ear to Black’s chest to see if he could hear a heartbeat that way. “Come on… You can’t die… You can’t leave them like this…”

He is perfectly capable of dying like this.

Shut up! He felt the Kishiryu mentally recoil from the sharpness, but didn’t care—especially not when, somewhere deep within Banba’s ribs, he heard the weak beating of Black’s heart. He snapped back up, clamping one hand over the stab wound in the other Ryusoulger’s abdomen, the other fumbling for his Changer. “He’s alive!” Without thinking, he found himself grinning despite their circumstances as he bumped the Changer against his leg to hit the call button. “Kou!”

“Kanaro!” Red’s voice sounded bright and enthusiastic—it hurt more than it should have to know he was about to ruin that. “You called! We were-”

“Later!” He surprised himself again by sounding almost as commanding as Banba did when he shouted for the other four to break up whatever bickering they had devolved into—but he couldn’t dwell on it. “There’s no time right now.” He took a deep breath, forcing his voice to stay level. “Banba is wounded. I can bring him back with MosaRex, but it’s bad. Be ready.” He hung up before Kou could reply. We need to go.

Very well. Was the reply. For a moment, there was silence—then, with a tremendous roar, MosaRex burst from the water, shaking off a few times before sliding forward into the shallows, head down. But I take no responsibility if he dies en route. I warned you taking him was a risk.

Whatever. Kanaro snapped back, bending down to leverage one of Banba’s arms over his shoulders, and heaving Black up while keeping one hand pressed to the wound, and set about dragging him over to the Kishiryu. We can discuss it later. With some scrambling, he managed to claw his way up to MosaRex’s back, dragging the other Ryusoulger up with him, rearranging so that he could keep pressure on Banba’s wound. For now… Let’s just take him home. He felt MosaRex’s discontent in his mind, but the Kishiryu said nothing more on the subject. Pausing just a moment to make sure both the Ryusoulgers were secured, the mosasaurus turned and sped away with another thunderous roar.

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What is coming in the water? I dunno. I’m pretty sure there’s carnivorous sea life at least somewhere in the waters around Japan. Not sharks, maybe, but if you got enough tuna… I digress. The point isn’t complete marine biological accuracy. Esp since Cannoli is aquaman and would probably not actually have been in any danger.

Shhhh. Stop finding plot holes in your own writing, Fire! DX

[whumpmakesmesquiggly]

Hi!! I'm not v active in the community I LOVE your ocs and I saw you were looking for prompts? Okay so: A knows B can't be doing too hot--not according to that excruciating voicemail B left. A heard C's voice, knows what C is capable of. A finds B, fearing the worst, when B makes some sort of tiny noise or movement to let A know they're alive. It's open ended from there! And if you ever want a writing partner please hmu, I have SO many ocs that I love to use and I def want to learn about yours!!

Ah, I love writing with people and I’m so glad you like my ocs! I was a little hesitant to add them, I mostly share fanfics online so it’s fun to think about doing original works too. 

As for your prompt, your wish is my command. (Feat. an oc belonging to my friend elphaba-fang, because our ocs are all interconnected)

Character A: Ammy (elphaba-fang’s creation)

Character B: Connor

Character C: Unspecified baddie

Ammy slammed a file onto the front desk and glared at the sergeant on the other side. “Paperwork done, sir.”

The old man grinned crookedly at the beat cop. “Thank you, officer. Now get your scrawny ass out of here.”

Finally. The people around her gave her a wide berth as she stormed out of the station, eye twitching and teeth set in a grimace. Ammy was tired, she could still feel the mud and slush in her hair and all she wanted was to go home. Never mind that they’d accidentally stumbled into a drug bust, that her partner had pissed off the narcotics detectives and gotten sent home, the highlight of the day was definitely when that purse snatcher had tackled her into a snow drift while trying to escape. She felt like there was snow in her damn underwear.

Pulling on glasses to negate the way that the sun made the white ground nearly blinding, Ammy began to head down the street and turned on her phone. It was nice to see it working again after the beating it’d taken in her spill. There were two messages, the first from her bank wanting to talk to her about something or other, and then the second one…

///Hey, Ammy, pick up please…/// She stilled to a stop, the foot traffic around her continuing on its way as she listened to her partner’s voice. Connor was whispering and there was an edge to it… ///So, I did something stupid. I went to confront Mathews,/// The lead detective, her mind supplied. ///and obviously that didn’t go well and I think I’m suspended now, but on my way home I thought I saw the guy with the beanie from the warehouse and I’m not totally sure but I think he’s following me.///

The man with… Oh, shit, the man who’d run from the bust. She could hear the sound of a door being unlocked over the tinny voice message. ///I dunno if I’m actually as paranoid as Johnny says I am but I’d really feel better if you’d pick up–/// Then there was another voice on the phone and Ammy began to run. That was him, that was definitely the man from the warehouse. She’d approached him about a busted tail light, how was she supposed to know that there was a deal going on and one of the other men was an undercover. She heard Connor react in surprise, then a sound of movement, sounds of flesh impacting on flesh, an unfamiliar grunt of pain, crashes and then a thud before the message cut.

Connor only lived a few blocks away. He wasn’t far. He wasn’t far but the message was from forty minutes ago. One block to go. He fought back, Connor’s self defense skills were a lot better than when they met. Ammy barreled into the apartment complex, almost running over an older woman in her haste. Dammit, why’d he live so far up and why was the elevator never working?

As she pounded up the stairs to the third floor, it didn’t occur to her to call for backup, she just wanted to get to her partner as soon as possible. Door 305…door 305…

The door was open and she stumbled into the room, pulling her personal piece as an afterthought even as her eyes were desperate for signs of the younger man. The couch was moved out of place and a chair had been upended while the coffee table was shattered into kindling. The porcelain vase that Anne had gotten him for his birthday was also in pieces, the aloe plant lying limp on the carpeted floor. Ammy gritted her teeth as she stepped over the tipped over lamp and around a pile of books that had fallen from the bookcase by his TV. Miraculously, the electronic devices were all intact. It had been one hell of a struggle. She scanned the room to make sure it was clear and stalled at the sight of Connor.

The younger man was curled up behind his couch, his back to the door and completely still. There was another lamp on the floor next to him, incriminating crimson stains on the heavy base. For a second Ammy couldn’t breath; it was as though her body was trying to mimic the stillness in front of her, to prove it didn’t have to mean he wasn’t breathing himself. Connor wasn’t dead, he couldn’t be dead, she couldn’t have to tell his brother, she couldn’t go to their co-workers and–

Then his foot twitched.

Scrambling to his side, she hesitated before trying to pull him onto his back. Connor let out a muffled sob and curled further in on himself and she jerked her hand back as though burned. She couldn’t tell what kind of injuries he had and the likelihood of some of them being internal was too high to move him. So she scrambled for her phone and punched in 911, rattling off their address and that there was an officer down while trying to think over the pounding white noise in her ears. The blood matted in his hair was scaring her the most, she knew head wounds bled a lot but… He twitched again with another little moan and she shuffled over again.

Ammy grabbed his arm as he began to shiver, he flinched away and whimpered again so Ammy made a soothing noise as she rubbed his shoulder. “Easy, easy. It’s okay, help is coming…” She tried to help prop him on his side, worrying about his unsteady breathing. He groaned and she braced herself against the guilt that swirled through her. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry Con. I’m just trying to help.”

Most likely recognizing her voice, Connor’s head moved slightly as he tried to look up at her and she smiled at him. “Hey, it’s okey. Help’s on the way.” There was movement at the door and two EMTs entered, quickly taking control of the situation but Ammy continued to hold on to his shoulder as long as she could. “It’s going to be okay, Con. I promise.”

The ride to the hospital was a blur, Ammy unable to look away from Connor’s pale face. The mask that was helping his thin chest move up and down covered much of it but couldn’t cover the blood and bruising. The noises of the car and the bright colors marring her partner’s face all started to blend together, creating a static that covered her eyes and filled her ears until–

“Ma’am?”

For a second Ammy couldn’t think of where she was, the dull walls and gentle noises throwing her off. Then she realized she was seated in the waiting room, had been there for a while based on the clock, and a doctor was watching her carefully. He smiled once he knew she was aware of her surroundings again. “Your partner’s been brought out of surgery and his brother has been contacted. He’s listed you as one of his next of kin so would you like to go over his condition?”

“Yes. Please. I-Roy’ll be a while. He was away on-Yes, please tell me.”

“Alright. He’s got quite the concussion but the bleeding is under control and we’ll keep him under observation. He’s broken several ribs and fractured one of his wrists.  Lots of bruising, little worried about his kidney but overall this could have been a lot worse.”

Ammy slumped forward, head on her knees. He smiled kindly and patted her on the shoulder. “He’ll be in a lot of pain for a while and need help and care. We’d like to keep him here at least for one more day to make sure everything’s where it should be. Would you like to see him? He won’t wake up for a while but it might be good for you to be there when he does.”

She agreed quickly and soon found herself seated next to the hospital bed with one hand grasping the limp one resting on the white sheet. Trying to ignore the various tubes and wires attached to her partner she let out a long breath. Connor was cleaned up but the bruising on his face still stood out against his pale skin, the white of bandages peeking out from under his gown. Impulsively Ammy reached out and ran a knuckle over his brow, noticing the lack of tension that normally characterized her partner. “They must have you on some damn good drugs.” Unsurprisingly Connor didn’t react but she continued anyway. “I shouldn’t have let you leave like that. I mean, I know you had to go home but I should have driven you there and made you stay there because of course you would have this happen. You just…attract crazy, you know that?”

“…would…explain why you…’re still here…”

She grinned, squeezing back as he held her hand. “Hey.”

“Hey, did they get the make and number of the semi that ran me over?”

“Funny. He’s a damn comedian. No!” He had slipped his hand out of hers to try to take off his mask and she quickly stopped him. “Keep that on, idiot. You broke some ribs, you need the help.”

“Knew I felt like crap.” Connor looked up at her blearily. “What happened?”

“What happened was that I got a very disturbing voicemail and found you half beaten to death in your apartment.”

“Oh.” Connor nodded slowly. “Yeah, no, I think I’m starting to remember. They catch the guy?”

“I dunno, I’ve been a little busy!” Ammy huffed and rubbed a hand over her face. “Con, new rule, if you think you’re being stalked you go to the police office, not a secluded spot where they can corner you. Got it?”

“How often do you see this happening? Don’t answer that…” Connor shifted slightly and his eyes widened. “Please don’t tell me…”

“They’re worried about your kidney.” Ammy grinned.

Connor groaned, flopping back. “Shut up.” He tested his other hand, wincing at the pull on his fractured wrist. “I bet this is going to start feeling a lot worse before it gets better, huh?”

“Just imagine how it’ll feel when the bosses find out what happened.”

“Oh man…” Connor sighed. “I forgot about Mathews. Dammit.”

“Brought that one on yourself, partner.” She stood up. “I’m going to get the nurse okay?”

Before she could step away, Connor put his free hand on her arm. “Hey, thanks. For finding me.”

She moved her fingers through his hair for a moment, indulging in his rare openness to being touched. He leaned into the contact slightly, letting out a little sigh as she grinned. “Every time Connor, every time.”

[janetbrown711]

“It’s crying!” Lena and Dewey on babysitting duty

"It's crying!" Dewey pointed at Selena in her crib. "Well no duh. Pick her up," Lena rolled her eyes and continued reading her book. "Pick her up-??? What if I drop her or something? Why cant you do it?" Dewey asked. Lena sighed and set down the book. "You know, when you took this gig you sounded really confident in your abilities. It'd be a shame if Webby and Louie found out you did absolutely nothing all night," Lena crossed her arms. "I-I uh... Well... Cant you do something to make her be quiet with that magic of yours before she drives us insane?" Dewey asked. "Absolutely not. Magic is not used on a child. Ever," Lena snapped, making Dewey step back. "Woah... Touched a nerve there," Dewey raised his hands in defense. Lena groaned. "Step aside," she passed him away from the crib and picked up the sobbing duckling and placed her on her shoulder. "Hey there little Lena number two, its okay. Auntie is here for you," Lena sat herself in the rocking chair and patted the child's back in a fluid motion. Dewey sat on the ground and picked at the carpet. "Its okay, its okay," Lena kept repeating and started rocking in the chair. "Does repeating the same stupid phrase actually do anything?" Dewey asked. Lena glared. "Auntie is here, even if your uncle is a stupid oaf," Lena smiled smugly as Selena stopped crying."I am not an oaf," Dewey huffed. "Sure," Lena moved the child onto her lap and Selena looked up at her in wonder. "Hi," Lena smiled crookedly at her. Selena laughed. "That is the most precious sound I have ever heard," Dewey scrambled over to the chair, "how'd you get her to do that?""Dunno, get out of her face," Lena said. Dewey huffed and moved aside. "You know, I have babysat before," Dewey stated. "With your older brother's help," Lena pointed out. "Yes... But I'm sure I could've handled it on my own," Dewey said. "Doubtful. Dewey, were you even aware of what just happened? You were just freaking out over her crying," Lena raised an eyebrow as Selena made a small noise and leaned forward in Lena's lap. "Yeah, so? If I were alone I'd be able to eventually make her stop," Dewey crossed his arms. "Uh huh. That would totally happen," Lena said with heavy sarcasm, "you totally would not have called Huey within the first ten seconds of her crying.""Hey! Huey has his own kid to deal with now, I know boundaries and stuff," Dewey said. "Okay fine. You'd call that uncle of yours in ten seconds," Lena smirked. Dewey glared silently as Selena made another noise and put a hand on Lena's chest. "Oh my word, her hands are so tiny," Lena touched it, which made the duckling wrap her hand around her finger. "Awwwww," Dewey admired. "Okay, that's it. I love this child now," Lena nodded defiantly. Dewey laughed. Lena picked her up and raised her in the air, which also made her laugh. "Dude, you might drop her," Dewey said. Lena ignored him and kept raising her up and down, and Selena kept laughing. "Someone's jealous," Lena commented inbetween lifts. "Har har," Dewey rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll stop," Lena stopped and raised Selena enough so they were eye to eye. Suddenly, it was like a staring contest had begun and Lena locked eyes with her and didn't blink. Selena giggled and lightly slapped her in the face, which made Lena laugh as well."I want to hold her," Dewey complained. "Oh hush, you get enough attention," Lena hugged the small child when suddenly Selena placed her hand on her choker's amulet and suddenly start glowlying. Lena quickly pushed her away, nearly dropping her. "Take her," Lena commanded. Dewey nodded and took Selena out of Lena's arms. Selena started crying again. "What was that?" Dewey put her on his shoulder, as Lena had before. "She touched my amulet and well uh... Glowed. I dunno," Lena stood up, "all I know is I can't hold her with it on.""Can't you take it off?" Dewey asked. "No. I have to keep it on at all times. Its like your uncle Moneybags number one dime. It isn't to leave me so long as I'm alive," Lena stated bluntly. Dewey sighed. "This kid isn't going to shut up is she" Dewey groaned as Selena wailed on. "Not with that attitude. I'll be back," Lena slipped out of the room. Waves of childhood memories she had tried to forget came crashing down on her. Images of her aunt int he shadows and her own parents tormenting her with magic made her shudder. A thought occured in her mind that made her shake. What if she turned out just like them?No, she shook her head. She couldn't think like that right now. She had to tell Webby something happened. Quickly, Lena fumbled into the kitchen and got out her phone from her bag. She turned it on and texted Webby. "Hey, no need to stress, nothing is wrong. Selena accidentally touched my amulet though, and it looks like she'd be good at magic haha" Hopefully the tone sounded lighthearted enough and not like Lena was on the brink of panicking. Webby would probably actually see it as a good or cool thing come to think of it. Bah, Lena would make her understand. Magic was dangerous and it hurts more than anything. Nothing feels worse than doing something wrong and suddenly you feel a thousand needles on your skin. Lena shuddered as the same thought rang through her head, but Lena shook her head. No she would not be like her parents or her aunt. She'd be better. She would be more caring, graceful, and more loving than they'd ever be. Lena nodded to herself and started heading back to the nursery. Lena reentered the nursery and found Selena was still crying, despite Dewey's best efforts. "I swear she hates me," Dewey complained. Lena sighed. "I don't know what to do. A child should not be playing with magic like this and I can't take it off," Lena sighed. "Twist it around so she can't touch it. I don't caaareeee she needs to sleeeeeep," Dewey groaned. "Oh," Lena hadn't thought of that. She twisted around the choker so the gem faced the other way and took Selena out of her uncle's arms. "There you go little Lena," she made Dewey get up from the rocker and sat down, "its okay. You're safe. I'm not gonna let you feel scared or tired anymore. Its okay. I'm here. Get some rest. You're tired. Its okay," Lena cradled her and spoke soothingly. Dewey rubbed his eyes and tried his best to mentally take notes of every little thing she did. Selena stopped her wails and closed her eyes. "You are truly magical," Dewey said. "Of course I am," Lena stated like she hadn't just almost had a mental breakdown of panic and nervousness of her becoming like her own family. What does Dewey know anyway? "Louie and Webby should be back soon. Should we set her down in her crib and pretend like we put her to sleep and she's been sleeping for hours because we're just that great?" Dewey schemed. "No," Lena internally face palmed and continued to rock. "Ugh, fine," he huffed when suddenly they could hear the distant creaking of the garage door. "Back already?" Dewey raised an eyebrow. "Could be possible," Lena now wondered the possibility if she had made Webby freak out over the text. Either way, she'd find out. There was a soft knock on the door."Hellooooo?" someone whispered through the door. "She's sleeping," Dewey whispered back. The door creaked open to reveal both Louie and Webby. "Wow, she's in one piece. I almost didn't think that'd happen," Louie joked. "Ha ha," Lena rolled her eyes. "Awwww, look how cute you two are," Webby adored. Lena chuckled. "Yeah, she liked me and hates him," Lena gestured at Dewey, who grunted. "Ooh, that's rough," Louie patted his brother's back with a chuckle. Dewey grunted again. "Anyway I should uh..." Lena got up and carefully set Selena down in her crib and pulled a blanket over her. "Why is your amulet on backward?" Louie asked. Lena froze. "Lets talk outside," Webby said. The three other adults nodded and they all walked out quietly. "So..." Webby shut the door. "Look, it was an accident," Lena said. "What was?" Louie stepped forward, looking concerned and aggravated. Clearly, it had not been a relaxed date night for the couple. Greaaaat. "Look, I was holding Selena and she just grabbed my amulet and started glowing. I'm sorry I-" "What? How?" Louie glared."Dude, get off her case. It was an accident," Dewey, oddly enough, defended Lena."I was hugging her and she grabbed diet cause it's shiny. Sorry, your highness," Lena rolled her eyes and looked at the floor. "Look, everything is fine. We're fine. She's fine. We are all... Fine," Webby stepped inebetween the two so they wouldn't fight. "Fine," Louie grunted and took his eyes off of Lena. "Good... Now, it looks like we could all use some rest, so how about that? Call it a night?" Webby asked, trying to sound cheerful."Yeah, I'm out," Louie turned away and disappeared into the master bedroom. "Yeah, me too. I got something with Scrooge tomorrow," Dewey pointed at the door. "See ya," Webby finger gunned."See ya," Dewey chuckled and left out the front door. "So... Was she powerful?" Webby asked. "What?" Lena raised an eyebrow. "Was she strong?" she asked again. "Ooh, you mean- Webby, Look," Lena put a hand on her own forehead, "I just... Yes, but that's not exactly a good thing. Young kids and magic don't mix. I really shouldn't be around her until she's able to be taught right from wrong," Lena said. "Oh..." Webby sighed, "I... Guess... But... Weren't you fine just then?" "Maybe... I dunno... I'm not- I-its not safe around her with the amulet," Lena quickly corrected herself. "Maybe... I dunno... How about we try again in a few weeks, and see what happens?" Webby suggested. Lena hesitantly nodded. "I... Guess," Lena shrugged. "C'mon, you know you can't stay away from that cutie for too long," Webby joked. "Ha ha ha," Lena chuckled. "I am serious though. You two have a good connection. Its nice to see. Its similar to her and Lou. Its real, and you know it," Webby lightly poked her shoulder. "Alright alright. I get it," Lena rolled her eyes, "I'll be back.""Good," Webby yawned. "Looks like you should get some rest," Lena smirked. "Yeah I'm tired," she admitted. "Alright then, goodnight to you," Lena pushed her toward her room. "You too Lena," Webby smiled tiredly, "and thanks," she saluted before disappearing behind the door. "Right..." Lena said and let herself out through the garage.