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sir-gwaine-my-man · 4 years ago

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A rewrite of the ending for The Letter for the King

If we're being honest, did the ending live up to anyone's expectations? Certainly not to mine. My babies deserved better and I hope my attempt at writing can help to rectify that for anyone else looking for a happier - and hopefully better - ending. At some point, I'll probably write a fic for the entire series, possibly with an OC (maybe a younger sibling of one of the knights because I want more interactions with Piak). Feedback would be greatly appreciated! I'm always looking to improve. I struggle with accurate characterisation in fanfics when writing non-canon dialogue/scenes so if anyone has any tips then please send them my way.

I know there's maybe 12 people in the fandom (this had better become a running joke, so help me) but hopefully I will please those 12 of you. This will take place from when they exit the sewers. Without further ado, let us proceed.

5000+ words

~~~~~~~~~~

The thick, rancid scent of the sewers still lingered in the air as the novices clung to the ladder several metres up. Damp metal frigid to the touch, covered in something that they wouldn't dare to ask the origin of. Even Tiuri - who had made his way to the top of the ladder - could still smell the murky water (or, at least, what they thought to be water) below.

He swung the grate at the top open, gritting his teeth as he hoisted himself up and out of the entrance to the sewer. The fresher air was a welcome comfort in the dimly lit room, candles flickering gently in the little draughts that filtered in, and he was thankful to take in a deep breath of fresher air.

Pushing himself over the edge with a grunt of effort, he turned around to help Piak climb out, safely pulling him up. It was certainly far more graceful than Tiuri's attempt to get himself out.

"You're pushing me again," Jussipo snapped, looking down and glaring before pulling himself out as well, a look of clear disgust etched upon his face.

"Because you're going even slower than you were before," Arman retorted, evidently still frustrated at having to go through the sewers.

"It's-it's in my hair! It's in my hair." Jussipo's face contorted as he tried to hide the extent of his revulsion as he essentially jumped out of the exit.

Arman came out soon after Jussipo, quickly pushing himself out, glad to be away from the dreadful place, and was quickly followed by Foldo. "It's definitely not water," Foldo choked out through the stench, his face paling as he resisted the nauseating temptation to throw up any food still left in his stomach.

"See?" Tiuri started, trying to reintroduce some positivity into their quest that seemed to lack a favourable outcome for the foreseeable future. "I told you. Easy."

The others stared at him as though he were insane, many still looking disgusted from their time in the sewer. Foldo looked greener by the second. No one particularly wanted to know what was in the sewer now that they knew it wasn't water from his expression. They also didn't want to know how Foldo found out.

The group rushed out of the room, breaking out into a run as they hurried to get to the throne room. They had hardly made it down a single corridor before turning into a hall and running straight into a line of servants.

Attempts at acting natural were made. Bowed heads, feigned interest in the exquisitely crafted banners and candleholders - although, they had to admit, they were beautiful. But, of course, despite the dirt on their clothes, they still reeked of nobility and they neither looked nor acted like the staff of the castle, not to mention the swords hanging from their belts. Still, the servants had far more important matters to attend to other than herding some wandering nobleman's children back to the feast.

As soon as they were alone, they all raced through the open doorway, speeding down more passageways, thankful not to encounter anyone else.

"That was close!" Piak exclaimed with a smile, jogging next to Jussipo, clearly enjoying the excitement.

"Be quiet," hissed Arman sharply, turning back to the boy. "You don't know who could be lurking in the shadows, listening to our every word."

"Don't talk to him like that," Jussipo replied, moving threateningly closer, attempting to turn any anxiety brewing within him to confidence.

"I'd appreciate it if you directed your aggressive energy towards the task at hand, please," Tiuri sighed. "Besides, I think we're safe for now."

"Perhaps we should be a bit quieter, it couldn't hurt," Foldo suggested gently.

They continued their way through the castle, footsteps echoing far louder than they would've liked through the stone hallways. Cautious glances were frequently casted towards the windows, the steadily rising blood moon harsh and bold against the dark sky, glaringly bright as it outshone the gentle twinkling of the stars.

"Do you even know where we're going?" Arman asked as Tiuri led them down yet another tortuous corridor. "We're running out of time. You could be getting us lost for all we know."

"Of course I know where we're going," Tiuri insisted, vaguely remembering visiting the castle once as a child. If he was being honest, he was mostly guessing the path to the feast. "It's around this corner."

The door creaked as he pulled it open, but they paid it little mind as they hurried down a set of steps and into yet another corridor. It would be a miracle if anyone knew their way around the entire castle.

"Come on," he whispered as they ducked around a wall, praying that the area would be empty.

It was, in fact, not. "Where do you think you're going?" a heavily armoured guard asked as the five of them came to a shuddering halt in front of him.

Jussipo was just about to come forward - casting worried glances towards Foldo and Piak - with a story about how they were the sons of some visiting nobles and had gotten lost when the guard keeled over following a sharp blow to the head from the pommel of a dagger. The knights-to-be watched in confused shock as he fell over to reveal Iona behind him.

"Surprise," she said, tears evidently brimming in her eyes as she looked at the people she could almost call friends before she turned them in.

Arman rushed towards her in a fit of rage, his fist raised as he prepared to strike. He was followed by the rest of the novices, ready to jump to his defence if needed, but Arman was brought to a quick halt by the blade millimetres from his throat, glinting menacingly in the candlelight. Iona urged him back in what seemed to be reluctance.

"You have every right to hate me," she began, the dagger still held out in front of her.

"Well, we do hate you," Arman claimed, jumping forward again as Tiuri held out an arm to stop him from doing anything stupid.

"I hate me too. What I did... what I've done." She finally held the dagger back by her waist, a choked laugh escaping her as she blinked back tears that threatened to spill. "I'm sorry," Iona admitted, the tears that she had attempted to withhold streaking down her cheeks despite the wary glances the group gave each other, "for all of it. I'm sorrier than you'll ever know. But I just... I wanted you to know that."

With a determined look, she furiously wiped away the tears, seemingly angry at herself for showing such emotion. Iona turned away, ready to never see any of them again.

"Iona?" Tiuri called out.

Iona stopped, turning around as hope glittered in her eyes. Tiuri approached her, wrapping his arms around her in a comforting embrace as if to say that he forgave her, it was alright now, she was forgiven. She returned the hug with one arm, seeming to relax for a single moment.

And then the moment broke, shattering into hundreds of pieces of betrayal and hurt as she snatched the letter with her free hand.

"Every time you think you've got her pegged," Jaro chuckled as he entered the hall with two knights following, a sinister edge to his laugh, "she turns around and she surprises you all over again." Tiuri backed up to the safety of the group, fear and pain smothering his features as Iona hesitantly handed over the letter, a frown upon her face. Was this really the right thing to do? Yes, of course, Tiuri had dashed her hopes of becoming a knight, this was her only way forward. Jaro took the letter with a sickening smile, pocketing it. The group's hands reached for the hilts of their swords, prepared for a final display of courage. "Looks like the letter's not going to the king after all. Now, do you want to walk away and live or make a futile gesture of defiance and die?" Each of the boys drew their swords with little hesitation, willing to put their lives on the line to save the world they knew. "A futile gesture it is." The three Red Riders and Iona drew their swords as well, a determined grimace etched upon everyone's faces.

Jussipo turned to Piak, the brother that he had sworn to himself that he would protect at all costs. He couldn't risk Piak’s safety, not for anything, not for the world. "Stay there," he whispered, gently pushing him back.

With a fierce cry, Jaro charged towards them, the novices racing into the fight. This included Piak who had decided to ignore his brother's instructions and fight anyway with little regard for his own life and lack of training, using his lack of size to dodge any incoming attacks.

Sword clashed against sword, metal ringing out in the brutal melodies of battle. Deafening clangs that brought the children's hearts to their throats for, after all, despite all that they had been through, they were still children. Adrenaline surged through each person, the fight blurring time and reality as they solely focused on the simple motion of swinging their swords. Back and forth. Blows and parries. Attacks and counters.

Piak stayed close to Jussipo, ready to jump to his aid at a moment's notice. That was until Jaro had forced Tirui to the floor. The tip of his sword inched closer to Tiuri's throat, slowly threatening to slice through skin. Piak took the distraction as an excuse to nick the letter from Jaro's belt, instantly jumping to action.

"I've got it!" Piak called out at the same time Jussipo yelled out his name more out of fear than anger. Piak passed the letter to him as Jussipo looked towards him in a mix of frustration and admiration.

"What did I tell you?" he asked in breathless exasperation as he deflected another attack. "Tiuri!" he yelled as he flung the letter through the air, Tiuri deftly catching it. "What are you waiting for?"

"Go!" Arman and Piak insisted in sync as Tiuri rushed out of sight, quickly chased by Iona and Jaro.

In that brief moment of distraction, in those few seconds in which the group thought they could recover, one of the Red Riders lunged towards Piak, the most defenceless of them all. In that split second before the sword hit him, Jussipo saw what was happening. Not Piak, anyone but him. He wasn't even supposed to be here, he was too adventurous for his own good.

In that split second, Jussipo remembered everything he could about Piak. The way he would leap around as he practiced fighting with a wooden sword. The way he could talk about anything and everything for hours. How he would sneak him extra food from the kitchens after a particularly tough training session. How he was so carefree despite all the troubles in the world.

In that split second, Jussipo made a decision. Whatever it takes, he thought, whatever it takes to save my brother.

With a breathless but purpose filled shout of, “No!” he leapt in front of Piak. Jussipo tried to deflect the incoming sword but he knew there was little point in even attempting to raise his weapon before the sword plunged into his chest.

Everything seemed to slow down at that point. He felt as though he should cry out in pain, the agony coursing through him immeasurable. He could hear his heart beating inside his skull, strong and steady and pounding and loud, far too loud. Why was it so loud? It was becoming difficult to breathe, ragged gasps attempting to escape his lungs. Why couldn’t he breathe? Why was it so hard? The panic mixed with the agony in a violent surge, every ounce of his being fighting against the sickeningly cool metal inside him. And everything was becoming blurry and hazy and he wanted to just let go, to not be tethered to this world in which he felt so much pain. Why wouldn’t it stop hurting?

Was he dying?

And all he could do was blankly stare forward, hoping that the pain would simply vanish.

As he crumpled to the floor in a dazed heap, the faintest flicker of a smile swept across his face in the knowledge that Piak was safe, he had saved him. He hoped that Foldo would be alright. Sure, they had been friends for years, but it felt wrong to leave him after the two had just confessed their love for each other, but he would be fine, he had to be.

Piak stood behind his injured brother as the only emotion he could feel was pure shock. This was the person he had looked up to his entire life - Jussipo couldn’t die, the very thought was inconceivable. But he had to believe it, that sword should be inside him, but Jussipo had willingly sacrificed himself to save Piak. He crouched down next to his brother, attempting to support his limp body with shaking hands.

Foldo was the first to snap out of the trance. “JUSSIPO!” he screamed, his voice cracking, his world crumbling as the boy he loved threatened to slip through his fingers.

With a cry of despairing, rage fueled pain that no one his age should ever have to experience, Foldo swung his sword in a wide arc, forcing the knights backwards. Within seconds he was behind Jussipo, gently pulling him to his feet as he pushed Piak to safety behind him. Foldo helped Jussipo up the stairs, Arman close behind, knocking the Red Riders down the steps with a powerful blow.

The only thought running through Foldo’s head as he half dragged, half carried the stumbling Jussipo was how to save him. He was still alive, still fighting, there was still time. He would not let Jussipo die, he couldn’t, he wouldn’t forgive himself.

They rounded a corner into another deserted corridor, certain that they had lost the knights. Foldo laid Jussipo against a wall as carefully as he could, his heart clenching as Jussipo groaned in pain. Piak looked on in shock, unable to comprehend what was happening.

The world seemed to twist and turn and spin and blur as Jussipo tried to remain as still as possible, dizzying waves of nausea washing over him as darkness encroached his vision. Blood had already soaked through his tunic, slowly dripping onto the floor; a dark, thick substance that stained the ground and the novices’ moods. Foldo tried to press his hands against the wound, attempting to stop the flow of blood, but his hands shook and trembled, hot tears threatening to spill down his cheeks.

“It’s alright,” Arman murmured, “I’ll do it.” Foldo gave him a nod of appreciation, withdrawing his blood soaked hands.

“I should get help,” Foldo said, beginning to stand despite his very soul shattering before Jussipo loosely grabbed his hand, pulling him back down. Jussipo could hold on until Tiuri came back, he had to hold on.

“No, stay, please,” begged Jussipo.

“It’s alright, I’m not going anywhere. I’m right here.” Gently, he brushed dark locks of hair from Jussipo’s face, terrified to hurt him any further.

Jussipo looked to him in dazed confusion, attempting to ignore the searing pain that shot through him with each movement. “Am I going to die, Foldo?” he asked, sounding so innocent and quiet that Foldo had to resist the urge to let out a choked sob.

“No, no. You’re going to be fine, I won’t let you die,” he said with as much confidence as he could muster.

“That’s nice, I believe you. There’s a lot of blood, though.”

“Don’t look at it, just look at me.” Foldo grabbed his hand, not daring to glance away from his eyes for a moment as he offered a weak smile. “Just try to stay awake. Everything’s going to be alright, I promise.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, completely unaware of the tragedy that had befallen his friends, Tiuri ran despite the burning in his legs, despite feeling as though his lungs would tear. He was close, so close, the dining hall was only metres away. The pounding footsteps of Iona and Jaro thundered behind him but he didn’t dare to look back, he couldn’t risk slowing down.

The room fell into a stunned silence as he sprinted in, nobility providing him with questioning looks. It wasn’t every day that an Eviellan boy charged in dressed in fine clothing. Jaro and Iona came to a hasty standstill, quickly realising that they had failed. With an awkward glance at each other, they subtly backed away, hoping that they could still escape with their lives.

Slowly, Tiuri took several careful steps forward, panting slightly as his eyes darted around the room, flicking to Viridian who simply stared at him, apparently not worried about the implications the delivery of the letter could bring. One look sent chills down Tiuri’s spine as haunting eyes met his own. The guests studied him, looking down at him, judging him for his clearly Eviellan descent despite his obvious nobility. As Tiuri approached King Favian, two guards blocked his path.

“I have a letter,” he started, his voice wavering as he stood before the most powerful man in the three kingdoms, “for the king.”

“What?” the king queried.

“What letter?” Prince Iridian asked, oozing power.

“Who cares ‘what letter’?” Fantumar demanded as he stood up, trying to play his part in stopping the letter from reaching its destination. “Does the royal court now allow mere children to enter the presence of the king?”

“My father died for this!” Tiuri cried before turning to the king. “The Black Knight with the White Shield died too.”

“The Black Knight?” the king asked, his interest piqued at the mention of such a well respected knight.

“I have his ring as proof.” He removed it from his pocket, the precious silver almost glowing in the light of the room. Favian continued to listen in concern. “He was slaughtered by Prince Viridian’s Red Riders.” Gasps echoed around the room whilst Viridian remained stoic. “I saw it with my own eyes.”

“Who is this boy?”

“He is nobody,” Fantumar insisted, sounding remarkably suspicious considering Tiuri’s claim.

“I am Tiuri, son of Sir Tiuri the Valiant. Born of Eviellan, raised in Dagonaut. And we are all in danger if you do not read this letter.”

The king looked to Prince Iridian. With a nod, he said, “Let him through.”

Hesitantly, Tiuri approached the king, flicking a fearful glance towards Viridian. He bowed, holding the letter out in front of him as King Favian stood up to take it. And there, written out in an elegant script, sat the words that confirmed Viridian’s betrayal. Twenty families he had chosen to die, a member of one of those families slowly dying in the arms of a boy of another of those families within the very castle that Viridian resided.

The king studied it, hardly daring to believe what was in front of him. His own son desired to betray him? To kill his allies? No, it seemed impossible. Reluctantly, he turned to his youngest son. “What is this?” he questioned, not even sure if he wanted to know the answer. Viridian returned a blank stare in response. “Treachery? You take my crown? Kill my friends and allies?” He paused, still reeling from the news. “Answer me!” he yelled, fury lacing every word.

“You dare ignore your king?” Iridian asked, almost as furious as his father - despite sensing the betrayal all along - but twice as vicious. “Bow your head to your father!” Short, sharp paces clicked across the stone as he advanced towards his brother. “I will not tell you again. Bow your head. Beg for your king’s mercy.”

“If the world is to be healed,” Viridian began ominously, looking through the window to see the blood moon reaching its peak, a fierce glow shining into the hall, “then the power he has, the power you want to be yours, has to be mine. The decisions you take-” He stood up, walking up to his brother. “-the decisions the people on that list take will now be taken by me.”

“What is this?”

“Lives you’ve all led, lives of comfort and luxury, lives built on the bodies of soldiers like me and my enemies, are now over.” If it wasn’t for the cruelty dripping off of Viridian’s words, he would seem to be the most reasonable one in the room. “And yes, freedom is over too. And the world will have peace at last. A peace that will last forever.”

“He’s mad,” was all the king could offer to Iridian.

Iridian looked to a knight standing close by, handing him the letter. “Sir Tristan, gather your knights and send them to these families, they may need protection.” Sir Tristant gave a sharp nod, quickly leaving the hall.

“It has been foretold,” Viridian stated with an almost giddy smile. “And there’s nothing any of us can do to stop it.” He looked to Tiuri with a sneer. “Even you.”

“Brother,” Iridian hissed, drawing his sword, “I beg to differ.”

Viridian drew his own sword with a snarl. Brother pitted against brother, familial love forgotten as the two faced each other as enemies. The swords clashed together in a blur of experience and anger. Viridian was the first to give in, lowering his weapon slightly and subjecting himself to his brother’s will. Iridian took the opportunity to sink the sword into his own brother’s chest, killing him almost instantly. Horrified gasps escaped the gathered crowd as the prince that had attempted to betray them was murdered before their eyes, Favian the most mortified of them all.

With one last look at the fully risen moon, Viridian keeled over. Dead.

But then came the darkness. From where Viridian’s body lay came a dread filled rumbling, shaking the entire room. Dark droplets of blood rose from his body, hovering in the air as they shimmered with magic and evil. They popped and fizzled in grey wisps of smoke, gathering and collecting as Viridian’s corpse was pulled from the ground by some sort of invisible force.

A rolling cloud of grey smog seemed to engulf Viridian, coalescing around him in a violent storm of malevolent darkness. Everyone in the room rushed away as the blackening cloud stretched out, absorbing every speck of light.

But Tiuri stood his ground. He may not have the magic he thought he did coursing through his veins but the idea of backing away, of faltering, never crossed his mind. He had faith.

From the dark emerged Viridian’s face surrounded by swirling wisps of the smoke, glaring out at the world he had sought to right. “NO!” he screamed. “I was to be the light that corrected this world! And you, boy, were to be the darkness! It was foretold, this cannot be!”

As his rage seemed to grow with every second, so did the size of the smoke. Churning and surging together in violent clashes.

“But that’s where you’re wrong, I wasn’t supposed to be anything,” Tiuri replied simply, looking back into the crowd.

With shaky steps, Lavinia pushed her way through the throng of onlooking nobles. Her heart thundered in her chest, threatening to jump out at any moment. Any sense of logic had deserted her. Surely she couldn’t defeat whatever this was. The magic inside her, however, strongly disagreed. Its warmth spread throughout her body, tingling and gentle as it guided her to where she was supposed to be.

Her eyes were wide as she approached, fearing that she couldn’t do what was expected of her, couldn’t save everyone. “I’m scared,” she whispered, her breath escaping her as everything went cold the closer she got to the cloud of darkness.

“I know.” And he took her hand, guiding her into the darkness she was destined to defeat until it swallowed her whole as Viridian seethed, the smoke boiling in anticipation.

With gritted teeth, Lavinia allowed the magic inside her to spread out in a fierce glow so bright Tiuri had to look away. Viridian squinted at it, the light seemed to burn him away into wisps of dust.

“Foolish girl,” Viridian uttered with a maniacal smirk. He turned to Tiuri, the black smoke curling around him until he was obscured from view, ostensibly whisked away from the light. “You cannot defeat me, I am too powerful for you alone.” Lavinia’s eyes darted around in a panic as the cloud began to engulf her, the light shining out of her dimming.

“But that’s where you’re wrong,” Tiuri claimed, coming back into view with a dull glow, “she’s not alone.”

Tiuri and Lavinia’s intertwined hands shone with the brightest light the world had ever seen. An intense flash of white that had saved Tiuri, passing the tiniest amounts of Lavinia’s magic into him and igniting the beginnings of a power within him so great that it would be decades before it was fully understood. For now, they pushed every ounce of energy they had into sending the flow of magic into Viridian. Grunting cries of strain escaped them as all of their strength was forced into defeating Viridian.

“Stop!” Viridian yelled as parts of his magic induced body disintegrated.

“Never,” Lavinia hissed.

With a great cacophony of sound and an explosion of light that illuminated the night for miles, Viridian was blown out of existence. The darkness had been vanquished.

The two children breathed heavy sighs of relief, panting from the exertion. “You did it.” Tiuri beamed.

“We did it,” corrected Lavinia with a weak smile. “Guess you had some magic in you after all.”

“I’m not sure what it was, to be honest.” He studied his hands in confusion before looking up at Lavinia. “Are you okay?”

“Never been better.” And then she collapsed to the floor, Tiuri rushing to catch her, proving that she was, in fact, not okay.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

She gave a weak laugh. “Would now be a good time to get that reward?”

~~~~~~~~~~

The corridor that the novices had taken cover in glowed with a fierce light as Lavinia’s magic spread throughout the castle. “They did it, they must’ve done,” Arman said hopefully. “Lavinia must’ve come back.”

“They’ll be here soon, just hold on a little longer, please,” Foldo told Jussipo who, even now, was still clinging to life, refusing to let death take him.

Arman’s hands had done very little to stop the insistent flow of blood, the red liquid staining his fingers. Despite his efforts, Jussipo had lost far too much blood for their likings. All colour had been drained from his face, ghostly white in the flickering candlelight. Shallow breaths occasionally made their way past his lips but they were often ragged and forced. His eyes were strained from the pain and it was evident that it was a struggle just to keep them open.

“Y’know, they had better knight me after all this,” Jussipo said with a weak smile, coughing slightly.

“It’ll be a grand celebration,” Piak stated, speaking up for the first time since the fight. “There’ll be a feast and tournaments and everyone can sing songs about you.”

“That would be nice. Their songs can’t beat mine, though, can they, Fol?”

“No, you’ve always had the best songs,” Foldo replied, a soft laugh escaping him.

It was only moments later when Tiuri and Lavinia stumbled into the corridor. Whilst she had regained some of her strength, she was still using Tiuri as support, his arm securely wrapped around her waist as she leaned on him.

The pair stopped short when they saw what had happened, the novices crowded around Jussipo’s weak, dying body. Tiuri and Lavinia hurried over as quickly as they could despite Lavinia’s fragile state, kneeling beside him. Jussipo tried to sit up upon seeing them, gritting his teeth and wincing in pain.

“Easy, easy,” Foldo repeated as he gently pushed him back down with Piak’s help, pushing back Jussipo’s hair again, “easy.”

“Did we do it? Did we stop him?” Jussipo asked, terrified that everything they had done would be in vain.

Tiuri smiled. “How could we not stop him?”

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Jussipo smiled. Even if he died he could go knowing that he had helped save the world. But the feeling of relief and celebration was brief as they focused once again on the tragedy.

“Has he messed up my hair with all his… all his fussing?” Jussipo joked, the faintest flicker of a smile upon his face despite the stabbing pain throughout his abdomen.

“Your hair looks good.”

“Better than good,” Arman added. “It looks great.”

“I’ve always had great hair,” Jussipo claimed, looking to the boy that had quickly become his entire world, “Ain’t that right, Fol?”

Foldo chuckled softly despite the tears brimming in his eyes and the clenching of his heart, placing a hand on Jussipo’s shoulder. He couldn’t let him go, there had to be something he could do.

With a peaceful release of breath, Jussipo closed his eyes, finally free of pain.

“He will be alright, won’t he?” Piak asked, his voice threatening to break as his confidence faltered, tears glimmering in his own eyes.

Shakily, Foldo placed two fingers against Jussipo’s neck, desperate for any sign of life. He was met with a weak but persistent pulse. “He’s still with us, just,” he sighed gratefully.

Lavinia’s hand hovered over Jussipo’s wound as she snapped out of her fatigued daze, a shimmering aura glowing around it, but it was fractured, flickering, faltering. “No,” Tiuri hissed, grabbing her arm. No one commented on how the magic looked stronger the closer Tiuri was to it. “You’re too weak, you’ve just defeated Viridian.”

“If I healed you then maybe I can save Jussipo,” Lavinia countered, attempting not to sound as exhausted as she felt.

“This injury is far worse. You could die, Lavinia.”

“If I don’t then he will die.” Lavinia turned back to Jussipo with a fierce determination, Tiuri’s hand falling back to her shoulder.

The last remnants of magic and energy still residing in her soul were dragged out. Forced through her veins, scraping and burning as it clawed its way out. The magic seemed gentle and warm in comparison as it floated above the wound, an incandescent glow that seemed to twist and swirl. Blood stopped leaking out, vanishing altogether as the skin stitched itself back together. Lavinia collapsed back into Tiuri’s waiting arms, welcoming the comfort of sleep.

And then it was over, a scar being the only reminder. Jussipo blinked rapidly as he awoke, confused and mystified as the agonising tear in his chest dulled to a mild ache. Hesitantly, he placed a hand where he was sure the wound had been, amazed to find no blood. And everyone was smiling, they were all alright, they had won.

“You’re alright, you’re alive,” Foldo cried, tears freely falling down his cheeks as he grinned.

“I should hope so, you’d be lost without me,” Jussipo chuckled, looking up at him, the world brightening as the darkness of death left him. “You couldn’t have found a nicer corridor for me to die in?” He looked around the dusty, deserted hall.

“We didn’t have much time, the Red Riders were-”

“Shut up.” And Jussipo pushed himself to meet Foldo’s lips in a kiss of relief and passion and ecstasy, gently cupping his face in his hands. They felt invulnerable, immune to the dangers life threw at them.

“Eww,” Piak groaned despite his smile.

The pair broke apart with breathless smiles, their hearts pounding with love. There was no way they weren’t alive. Jussipo looked to his brother who threw his arms around Jussipo in a tight embrace, almost scared to let go. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, I’m not going anywhere.”

And they were happy.

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agentsoftie · 4 years ago

Text

Sleepless Nights ( S.R ) p.2

summary: Y/N and Reid aren’t the most fond of each other. So what happens when sleep, have to share a bed, and get married?

pairing: Y/N x Spencer Reid

a/n: a/n: AHH okay so here it is! It’s my first au so it’s probably not the best. But big thanks to @anepiphany! Ani baby none of this would be happening without you! Thank you for you tips and making me not go insane! Also pls tell me if I slept something wrong cuz like, your girl not the best when it comes to it. Also there will def be a loophole somewhere in my case and if you find one, just let it slide because life is filled with loopholes ❤️ also this is gonna be a two parter! ( this is the second part )

warnings: mentions of a case, angst and blood (the smallest amount), fluff really though

also if you want to be in my permanent taglist, just tell me and I’ll add you!

Remember to like and reblog

“So today happened,” you say while you got into bed.

Yeah, today happened. So, I guess we're gonna do this thing huh,”

Wait, is he asking me out? you think to yourself. No dumbass of course he isn't. He's talking about the event thing. you say to yourself mentally. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“So, sleep huh.” He asked awkwardly.

“What?”

“You know, sleep. Like us, together. No, wait t-that came out wrong. I meant like we’re gonna sleep, but ike together on the same bed. But if you're not tired then we-” He got cut off by you when you grabbed his arm. Immediately he looked down at your hand and then up. He looked like he had just seen a ghost and gotten an A in a class you were failing at, at the same time.

“Breathe, just breathe. How ‘bout you take a shower huh.” You say in an airy voice while still holding onto his arm.

“Uh, okay. Yeah, a shower. That sounds good.” He said, forcing you to let go of his hand.

-------

It takes him 10 minutes to finish taking his shower. Tonight he comes out wearing another pair of basketball shorts and another tee. It really makes you wonder if all he goes to sleep in is a pair of shorts and a tee. Like really Reid come on. You have money, use it on some proper pj’s. Although you're one to argue wearing another pair of shorts and a loose crop top.

“You said last night that there was no hot water so it took you ten minutes, well this time there still was and it again still (italicize) took you ten minutes. Like what the fuck!”

“I'm not really one for hot water. But my statement last night still remains true, you took up the hot water.”

“ Reid, this is a hotel. They almost always have hot water running.”

“Okay well, I don’t care!”

“I thought you were supposed to be the smart one.”

“Ha, so you admit it!”

“Admit what?”

“That I’m smarter than you!”

“Well in certain areas, yes,” you said in an annoyed tone. He was smirking at your struggle for answering. “Ugh, can we just go to sleep.” You say not wanting to continue this conversation.

--------

You woke up to the sound of rain pouring outside. The skies were as gray as a child on a monday. You felt something on your stomach and to your surprise that feeling was a man known as Dr. Spencer freaking Reid. He was laying on you with his head right under your chin. You were holding his hand and your legs were intertwined with his again. You can't remember what happened last night to lead up to this, but what's done is done. The person you've been pining over for the last 3 years was here laying on you and looking like a fucking god.

Your phone started to ring causing him to wake up.

“Emily? Oh, okay yeah, I'll be there in 20.” She told you to go to the address that she had sent you. Saying to bring Reid with you to get your outfits for tonight. “Reid, come on we gotta go.” You say looking down at the art that was placed in front of you.

“No, I don't wanna leave. I just wanna sleep.” You had never seen this side to him before. So soft and sweet. Was the universe trying to make you fall for him? If so, then it was working.

“No come on, we have to get our outfits for tonight. We have to get ready and eat something. So come on, get up.” you say trying to get up but failing because he holds you back.

“No. sleep.” He mumbles half awake.

“Spencer, how ‘bout this. How about you sleep for a little until I take a shower and stuff. Then you can get up.”

“Okay, fine.” And with that he was out, leaving you go gaze over the literal form of perfection.

------

“Y/L/N how long does it take to get changed?” Reid yelled.

“Oh will you shush!”

“Geez, no need to get so mean.”

“Iswear I will backhand you so hard if you don't shut up!” You say while walking out. And at the sight of seeing you he was speechless. Staring at you like you had something stuck in your teeth. “What?” You say looking down at your black floor length gown.

“No n-nothing. It's just-”

“Just what?”

“You look good in that dress.”

You looked down immediately after he said that fearing he would see the blush. He did. “Yeah well, you look good too.” you say while moving your hands after the redness was gone.

“I know.” He said, smirking causing you to make a sarcastic face.

“Okay, well we have to go now or Hotch will literally kill us.”

“You. He’ll kill you.” He says while walking out of the door.

“And you would just love that, wouldn't you.” You say following him out.

————

“Reid, you have your gun?”Hotch askes.

“Yes.” He said.

“Wait, where should I put mine?” You ask while holding your gun.

“Oh, you see, you're not going to have one.” JJ says while taking your gun away slowly.

“Then what the hell am i going to use as self defence?”

“You're a badass, you'll figure it out.” Emily says suggestively.

“Damn straight.” You say smiling causing her and JJ to laugh. Reid was not impressed.

“Okay, these glasses have a secret video camera in them sending footage to Garcia once you turn it on. So whatever you do, don't take these off.” Hotch says while handing Reid a pair of glasses that match his suit. “And Y/L/N this is your “wedding ring.” It has a video camera in the diamond so try to keep your hand up and try to make it as visible to people as possible.” He says while handing you the ring.

“Okay you're married, so act like it!” Rossi says before you two leave.

“Yeah, you both better be so in love it makes someone sick.” Emily adds.

“Yes mom. Yes dad.” You say jokingly.

“Okay and before you go, here are your earpieces. And we’ll be near the building if anything happens.” JJ says.

-------

“Y/N, put your left hand on Spencer’s arm.” Garcia says through the earpiece. And you did exactly that. “Okay, now be affectionate.”

“Pen how should we do that.” You say while looking at Reid so it looked like you were talking to someone.

“I don't know? Spencer, kiss her.”

And then bam! Before you knew it, his lips were on yours. You didn't know how to react. He wrapped his arms around your waist pulling you in making the kiss even stronger. You then put your hands in his hair and pulled at it a little. And at that moment it was as if the world stopped. As if time froze and fireworks went off. And then all of a sudden he pulled away and you looked down.

“Cherry or Strawberry?” He asks as if nothing just happened.

“I uh- strawberry.”

“Pardon me, but I couldn't help but notice that beautiful ring.” Says a guy approaching you.

“Oh thank you! It's very gorgeous isn't it!”You say while looking down at the ring then bringing your hand up.

“But not as gorgeous as you honey.” Reid says while looking at you. Oh god the things he did to your heart.

“Oh, uh how rude of me not to introduce myself. Im Ryan. Ryan Carson.” He says while holding out his hand for both of you to shake.

“Im Y/N Reid and this is my husband Spencer Reid.” You say while shaking his hand after Reid, as always, refused to. Y/N Reid had a nice ring to it, although you would never change your last name. But it sure had a nice ring to it which both you and Reid noticed.

“How long?” Ryan asked.

“3 months.”I said.

“When did you know?”

“The first time she read me The Fault In Our Stars. It was 2 something in the morning and I couldn't sleep so she read it to me. And I just couldn't stop thinking that this is the girl I’m gonna marry.” Reid said. Although that of course never happened, your heart wanted to explode. Right after he said that you kissed him on the cheek. He immediately turned red, but you didn't say anything.

“Wow. That’s just, wow.” Ryan said.

“Guys I think this guy is our friend Thomas. Well not think, know. He looks exactly the same. So make sure to play into his tactics or whatever. Therapy must cost a lot for you sweet children.” Garcia says.

“You know, I’m gonna propose to my girlfriend soon. Would you two help me pick out a ring?”

“What do you think Spenny?” You ask in a joking tone. Spenny, that was one you never used. You liked it, did so did he.

“Well, I think that it’s an amazing idea baby.”

You could see the anger in his eyes. The anger you get before taking a life. You could see that all he wanted to do was end your lives right then and there. Honestly you two could go into acting if all this death gets too heavy for you.

“Great! Then follow me right this way.” He says while leading you to the elevator. The ride was fairly quick but the entire time Reid had his and around your waist pulling you close to him. Oh god the things you would do to have him.

“Here’s my room.” he says while gesturing to you two to go in first. You saw two chairs and then heard the door slam behind you. You jumped at the sound and turned around to see him standing there with a gun pointing that both of you. “You don't want your wife to die a painful death, go sit down on the chair.” And he did exactly that. “Now you too bitch.” he says while pointing the gun at you. And you did exactly what he said.

“What do you want!” You yell at him while he ties you up.

“I want your happiness to end. If I can't have it, then how can you?”

“The world doesn't revolve around you!” And then before you knew it there was blood coming from your arm and a door kicked open.

“Y/N!” Spencer yells.

-------

“I’m okay, really I’m fine.” You say to the paramedic wrapping your arm.

“No you’re not! You got shot!” Spencer says.

“Okay well how about I leave you two along for a bit huh.” And with that the paramedic was gone.

“Oh look, you scared the paramedic.” You say while throwing your hands in the air.

“Okay and you scared me.”

“Spencer, I got shot. It happens.”

“Yes Y/N I know but it could have hit an artery and make you bleed out. I could have lost you. Why dont see that. If you die who am I gonna mentaly torture, who am I gonna talk to my mom about, who am I gonna love? I've already lost so much, I can't lose you too. I love you.”

“You love me?”

And just like that he grabbed you and put his lips on yours. You immediately put your hands in his hair and pulled hard, he didn't care though. He pulled you closer to him, making you come back with 10 times more force than before. You pulled apart due to lack of oxygen and he put his head against yours after catching his breath.

“Does that answer your question?” He says softly.

This time you kiss him. Not as aggressive as last time though. This was a small, yet equally as meaningful kiss. “I love you too.”

“I fell in love the way you fall asleep; slowly then all at once” – John Green

————

taglist: @ghostly-angelic, @marshmallowtraver, @heartbroken-writer, @yllwtaxi, @yeah-just-ignore-me-thanks, @theamuz, @guessthatswhyiliveinhell, @alli1902, and @kaybeeboop

#criminal minds #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x y/n #reader x spencer reid #spencer reid #thanks to ani though #none of this would be happening without her #so thank you ani baby 🥺💕#mira writes

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itsthemoofacewriting · 4 years ago

Text

Drowning in the night

Among us is quite popular at the moment (rightly so) and it’s Halloween, so I was really feeling this. It pushed aside all of my current WIPs in demand to be written.

There’s a lot of similarities with the game, but I did take some artistic liberties, so don’t come at me. If you’ve never played Among us, it might be worth looking up the rules/gameplay before reading- otherwise a lot of things are going to fly straight over your head. The ship is based on the Skeld map to give you a rough layout, but there are some differences.

Title is from ‘Burning Lights’ by The Weeknd, I listened to this a lot when I was writing.

Summary: The ship’s suddenly breaking down and crew members are starting to behave suspiciously. Bonds are about to be tested as suspicion rises of an imposter amongst them. ZoNami. Among us AU. Rating: M- Horror, Blood, Gore

Can also be found on AO3 and FFN.

Enjoy!

Nami’s looking at the charts on the screen in front of her and frowned. The ship’s slightly off course. She’d plotted that just this morning and the weather nodes hadn’t detected anything for concern, there was no reason for the shift. She shrugged it off. Sure this was the first time it’d happened, but this wasn’t the newest ship anymore. She’d check the weather nodes shortly and keep an eye on things.

For now though, she made the adjustments and as she did, she caught Zoro dozing off at the far wall near the door. He’d been hiding away in here for most of the morning and if she hadn’t already known about him dealing with stray asteroids this morning on his watch, she’d be moaning at him about being lazy. Give it another 10 minutes and she still might.

But then she stopped and gave him an assessing look as an idea came to mind. He hadn’t moved for the last 10 minutes, he was probably in a deep sleep by now, and that thought made her hand twitch for the permanent marker that she knew was in her desk drawer. She’s done it before, and it’d been hilarious. He’d walked around the whole day with a moustache and pirate patch without knowing. Some would say it’s mean but she believed it was fair play.

“No,” he said, one eye cracked open to glare at her.

How the hell did he do that?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She smiled at him far too innocently, hands behind her back, and his other eye opened to properly glare at her.

When it was clear he wasn’t buying what she was selling, she huffed and turned around to get back to her task and Zoro readjusted to get comfortable again as he let his eyes slip shut.

Nami and Zoro had been travelling together for years, along with Luffy, Usopp and Sanji. Only recently had they been joined by Chopper, Robin, Franky and Brook. In all honesty, Nami wasn’t sure how they coped without them. Running a ship was difficult at the best of times and before, they’d been doing with only five people and no mechanic- Usopp could only do so much. Franky had blanched when he’d seen the state of the ship.

She’d just finished her adjustments when the communicator in her ear suddenly started to screech and it’s so deafeningly loud there’s a moment where she can’t do anything other than clutch at her helmet. From the corner of her eye she can see Zoro having the same reaction, no longer snoozing against the wall.

In the next moment she’s trying to tear off her helmet, except she can’t get the final clip to undo at the back and the more desperate she was becoming, the harder it was to do. Her eardrums felt like they were about to burst any second and there’s tears collecting in her eyes from the pain.

But then it’s over. There’s another pair of hands pushing hers away and smoothly unclipping the helmet. Not a moment later and she’s clawing out the earpieces to throw them across the room. There’s still ringing in her ears but it’s fading quickly now there’s silence.

“You alright?” Zoro’s voice is rough, no doubt from his abrupt wake up call. He’s looking down at her with concern, like it hadn’t just happened to him too and his thumb is wiping the stray tear that fell.

It’s a soft gesture, especially for him, and it’s like it suddenly dawned on him what he’s done. He coughed, face flushing and took a step back, avoiding eye contact. Nami smiled to herself, he was doing more and more things like this lately and it was becoming more apparent why with each passing day.

In the early days of the crew, Zoro and Nami had spent their days viciously arguing with each other and if it hadn’t been for Luffy gluing them together back then, she wondered if they’d still be travelling together now. Their arguing had ceased as time had passed and they’d got to know one another. Now they bickered instead and it’s harmless, even if they do anger the other occasionally give it half an hour and they’re back to normal. It was easy for Nami to call Zoro one of her best friends. Because he is. He understood her and although it worked against her sometimes, she’d have it no other way.

But lately. Lately things had shifted. She couldn’t put her finger on it. More time spent together and soft looks that he thinks she doesn’t see. Yet, it’s hard to tell with Zoro. He doesn’t do anything overly romantic and as for flirting, she doesn’t think she’s ever seen him do it. He doesn’t seem like the type and that’s fine, but it made it hard to be sure. Maybe he just viewed her as a friend, or worse, as a sister. She knew that Luffy did.

When Nami nodded in response to his question, it should be awkward, Zoro still refusing to look directly as her and her cheeks were warm from his gentle touch, but the communicators were still screeching, and it could be heard from across the room. Frowning, Nami walked over to pick them up. It’s the first time it’s ever happened in all her time on board and paired with the drifting ship, she can’t help the suspicion that’s brewing.

Maybe their ship had seen it’s best already- a thought that Nami didn’t want to entertain too much. There were so many memories on this ship.

There’s a commotion outside that halted her thoughts, feet thumping through the long corridors and voices calling out to Franky. Zoro’s nodding to her then, gesturing towards the door that they should also go.

Unfortunately, Zoro took the lead.

“How many times do I have to tell you? It’s right out of navigation to get to the cafeteria!”

Zoro turned on his heel and stomped past Nami, face flushed in embarrassment. “I’ve gone that way before,” is his only defence.

Nami rolled her eyes. “You can go that way, but it takes twice as long and, knowing you, you’ll end up taking another wrong turn and do a whole lap around the ship.”

Based on his silence, that is what he’s done before.

She truly wondered about her sanity sometimes, falling for a guy that has no sense of direction. An idiot.

They’re the last ones to arrive when Franky’s explaining the issue. Something about a system that’s probably fried, although he doesn’t understand why it’s happened yet. Just that he’ll investigate and get back to them and that sounded reasonable enough to everyone as they nodded along. Franky collected their earpieces.

“Back to shouting then,” Nami sighed, imagining the chaos and noise this’ll bring. Luffy on the other hand is thrilled, and everyone knows he’ll spend the rest of the day running around the ship.

They’re breaking apart after that, back to their previous activities, and Sanji’s shouting after them about lunch being soon, which immediately stopped Luffy from leaving to tail Sanji back to the kitchen instead.

“I need to check the weather nodes, our course altered for some reason and I need to make sure they’re performing. If they’re not, I can’t anticipate any weather patterns that’d affect the ship’s course,” Nami explained as they walked back to navigation. Although as soon as she did, she realised she’s discussing this with Zoro, of all people. He’s never understood any of this and she’s sure it just goes in one ear and out the other.

Nevertheless, he nodded and wisely kept his mouth shut. At least he understood she’d need someone with her to do that. It wasn’t wise to step outside alone; there were old wives’ tales of people going missing when they went outside the ship alone.

“After lunch. The cook’s bitching at me about cleaning the garbage shoot.” Despite his words, he still settled back down into his previous spot by the door and she knew there’d be an argument kicking off soon if he didn’t move himself.

Before she could tell him as much, the lights above them flickered and there were voices throughout the ship shouting “Usopp” and “electrical”. Usopp could be heard loudly groaning in response and his feet dragging through the ship.

Zoro grunted his goodbye shortly afterwards and Nami shouted “turn right”, but it was too late. He was gone and she knew him well enough to know he’d turned left instead. Idiot.

Nami was typing away at the screen, downloading this morning’s data and making a note to head over to admin to do it there as well. If she didn’t, it was unlikely anyone else would. Although Robin might, she had been known to do it occasionally. That woman was a blessing. Nami honestly didn’t know how she’d survived all this time with those idiots, even if they were her idiots, they drove her insane at times with their laid-back attitudes.

She’s still downloaded data when she suddenly heard a rumbling sound behind her, far too close for comfort, and she jumped, turning as she did but nothing was there. It was quiet for a moment and she could feel a cold sweat breaking down her back. It was ridiculous, she’d always felt safe in this ship but there was something about this morning that was getting to her and she’d never heard that sound before. It happened again and one of the vents rattled.

Not a second later, she was running out of the room, feeling like a spooked child, and swiping her key card to lock the door behind her.

A shiver ran down her spine but before she could do anything else, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the ship. Her head whipped towards the direction and she was running before she could even think it through, she knew that scream anywhere, but she’d never heard him like that before.

“Usopp!”

She was passing through storage when a voice shouted after her. “Nami! What the hell happened?” Zoro asked, catching up to run alongside her.

“No idea. I’m hoping he just electrocuted himself.”

But for all her wishful thinking, Usopp wouldn’t scream like that over something so menial and Zoro must have thought the same as it was written all over his face.

Along the way, they’d picked up Brook and Robin and as they narrowed in on the room, from the opposite direction was Chopper, Sanji, Luffy and Franky.

The door flew open and Sanji was the first to ask, “What the fuck was that?!”

The room looked trashed, wires haphazardly dangling from units or snapped with electricity sparking from them. Usopp was in the middle of the chaos.

“Something grabbed me! It tried to drag me across the room,” Usopp said, his voice shaking and on the verge of hysterical as he sat on the floor hunched over and clutching at his ankle. His face was as white as a sheet.

Despite the state of him, and the room, the crew were aware of Usopp’s rather… theatrical storytelling.

“Sure it wasn’t just a rat? Maybe its tail touched you or something,” Zoro suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

Nami grimaced at that thought but she nodded. “As much as the thought pains me, it probably was a rat. You guys hardly clean very much.” Something she would make a point of nagging them about from now on.

“What’s wrong with your ankle?” Chopper inquired; he’d been quiet thus far but as the ships doctor, he’d noticed Usopp’s odd position.

Usopp cringed as he removed his hands from his ankle and the crew blanched. The yellow of his suit was ripped open and his hands were covered in blood. The skin around his ankle had a deep handprint that cut through the skin. The most disturbing part was the claw marks surrounding the handprint, the skin raw and red around the scratches. Clearly there’d been a struggle.

“Oh shit,” Sanji muttered under his breath, eyes going round.

Because not only was Usopp hurt, but that was a handprint on Usopp’s bloodied ankle.

One that looked very human.

The room suddenly felt far too heavy.

It was then that Luffy spoke. So far he’d been quiet but his frown had only grown. “Cafeteria,” he ordered, his voice firm and a stark contrast from the happy-go-lucky captain they were used to.

“This hardly seems like the time to eat,” Franky trailed off, rubbing the back of his head as his eyes trailed from Usopp to Luffy.

“There’s multiple exit points,” Robin supplied, catching on to what Luffy meant.

That set the mood. Suddenly everyone seemed on edge as the reality of the situation settled. Luffy was being serious. This was serious.

Sanji and Zoro wrapped one of Usopp’s arms around their shoulders and they were hauling him up to follow after Luffy towards the cafeteria. Chopper scuttled after them, saying he’d stop by the medical bay for supplies before meeting them there.

Nami stood there, trying to comprehend just what was going on as everyone filed out.

Robin walking over to touch her lightly on the arm. “If whatever this is was dangerous, it would have killed Usopp on sight without leaving a trace of him,” she reassured.

That at least got Nami out of her stupor and she gaped at her friend in horror. “That’s so dark Robin!”

The atmosphere in the cafeteria was tense, no one had spoken, not even when Chopper had trotted in to start working on Usopp’s ankle.

Sanji broke the silence. “Did you see anything?”

“No.” Usopp shook his head. “One minute I’m elbow deep in wires and the next I’m on the floor being dragged.”

“Full story, go from the start and tell us exactly what happened.”

“Okay, so I’m in the corner because for some reason the wires looked frayed and I thought I heard something but when I turned there was nothing. I turned back to continue but then there’s something grabbing my ankle and pulling me across the floor.” He paused then, his body shaking slightly. “It came from behind and that’s when I screamed. I started kicking and thrashing around, grabbing onto whatever I could and then it just disappeared. It was like nothing was even there in the first place.”

“Where was it dragging you?” Nami asked. She had a hunch.

“It didn’t get very far but I think it was towards the opposite corner.”

“Where the vent is?” She could feel dread filling her… surely not?

“Yeah!”

The crews gaze swivelled on Nami then, waiting for her to explain why she would guess something like that.

“There were weird sounds in navigation and the vents were rattling just a few minutes before you screamed but I ran as soon as I heard it.” She shivered at the thought, that could have been her.

“You think it came through the vents!?” Chopper squeaked, there was vents in the med bay too. There were vents in almost every room and that knowledge didn’t settle anyone.

“What the hell is small enough to fit in there and move around so quickly?!”

“Also, the ship’s behaving strangely. It was off course this morning just after I’d plotted it out, then the communicators breaking and then the lights?!” Nami said and with each passing issue she listed, the feeling of dread grew.

“What are you suggesting?” Robin calmly asked.

There was a moment of silence, because this moment was inevitable, and they’d all been trying to delay it. Where someone would have to voice what everyone was starting to think.

That someone in this crew did it.

“Where’s everyone been this morning?” Zoro asked, solemnly.

Everyone’s rattling off their locations and, so far, they’d all been with each other, apart from Usopp. But it’s then that Nami realised, Zoro had left just before it’d happened. He’d left to go and clean the garbage shoot and by the sounds of it, never made it there as Sanji didn’t say anything about seeing him.

“Me and Zoro were in navigation.” Zoro shot her a look and she’s not technically lying but if she gets found out that he had left briefly, it’d looked suspicious as hell. But there’s no way Zoro did this, one of the foundations of this crew along with her and Luffy, their longest standing member, their second in command, and she’s not about to have people pointing fingers at him.

Zoro’s shooting her looks that she decided to ignore but he doesn’t challenge her. If he did now, not only would he put himself under suspicion, but it’d also take her down with him. It’s the last thing either of them needed.

“Then something else must be on the ship,” Sanji offered, unwilling to point any fingers.

“How? We’ve been travelling for weeks and it picks now? Sounds too sophisticated for something that’s not human and how’s it not been spotted? It’s gone around undetected all this time?” Zoro questioned.

“So what? You’re suggesting it’s one of us? The vents are too small!”

“Unless someone in this room isn’t who they say they are,” Zoro continued and although he was off to the side, he had the attention of the whole crew. “The ship suddenly breaking when it’s been fine all this time and getting around undetected. This needs knowledge, something that can be learned by being around us all.”

“There’s rumours about this. They’ve never been confirmed though because ships and their crew disappear without a trace, never to be seen again,” Robin chimed in and it had Nami, Usopp and Chopper looking at her in terror. Franky shook his head next to her.

“That’s old wives’ tales!” Usopp said, but there’s a wobble in his voice that doesn’t make it believable. “Right?”

“Had to come from somewhere and we did just pick up new recruits,” Zoro said and his scrutinising gaze is aimed at Robin, Franky and Brook.

“You better not be suggesting what I think you’re suggesting,” Sanji growled, no doubt sticking up for Robin.

“Coincidental, no?” Zoro’s eyebrow quirked.

“I think everyone needs to calm down,” Brook said, his hands held up to avoid confrontation.

“So you’re accusing Chopper, too right? Because he’s just as new as the rest of them,” Sanji argued, ignoring Brook, to call Zoro out his favouritism. It was no secret that Zoro had taken the young medic under his wing.

They both started arguing and soon enough, the rest of the crew’s chiming in to either argue for one side or try to calm everyone down.

Nami agreed with Brook. They weren’t going to get anywhere sitting around pointing fingers at each other with no proof. “Luffy, say something!”

Her plea to the silent captain cuts through the argument and everyone’s turning towards Luffy for his verdict. He had yet to weigh in on the argument, but now wasn’t a time for silence. They needed their captain to take charge.

“No turning on each other,” is all he instructed, face serious and arms crossed from his position on the table.

“Luffy-” Zoro started, no doubt about to try and talk some sense into him as second in command.

“What if you’re wrong?” Luffy fired back, not letting up and he made a good point. Not even Zoro would forgive himself if he was wrong.

“And if I’m right?”

“Lot of ifs flying about,” Usopp jumped in.

“We’ll deal with that if the time comes.” There’s a finality in Luffy’s voice that said this part of the discussion was over.

“Franky, what are the routes for the vents?” Nami enquired, eager to move away from that topic. They needed to move forward anyway, not in circles. “Maybe we can avoid them until we find… whatever this is.”

Franky sighed, his shoulders slumping, “I connected them all together a few weeks ago… It made more sense for ventilation.”

Nami cringed in response, it’s a bad answer and one that put him on the receiving end of a few sharp looks. Robin rubbed his shoulder consolingly, but it didn’t do much to alleviate the tension in the room. It was like everyone in the room just put him straight into the number one position for most suspicious and he knew it.

Zoro was about to open his mouth but instead of words it was replaced by an angry shrieking of the alarm and red lights suddenly started flashing above their heads.

“What the fuck is that?”

“It’s the reactor!”

“So it can’t be any of us, we’re all here!” Sanji exclaimed, shooting Zoro a sour look as he spoke and Zoro returned the look tenfold.

“Not the time for that!” Nami barked, in no mood to break up a fight right now.

And then the lights cut out and they were in pitch black for a few seconds before the dim of the emergency lights flickered to life. They were far weaker than the main lights and the result was poor visibility- everything would be so much harder to do like this. The intermittent flash of red didn’t do much to help either.

It was just one thing after another.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Nami presumed that was Sanji based on the language and the chair that was just kicked across the room.

“What do we do?”

“I’m going to deal with the reactor.” Franky shouted, already making his way to the door with Robin on his heels. “The lights shouldn’t go off like this unless there’s multiple breaks in the wires, you need to find where the broken wires are, it’s most likely in multiple places.”

He’s almost gone but he stopped at the door when Nami shouted after him, “Franky, did you fix the communicators?”

“Not well but they’ve stopped screeching, it’ll have to do for now.” He quickly grabbed the small devices from his suit pocket, chucking them towards the crew.

And then he was gone.

“Everyone in pairs, do not leave anyone alone and we’ll meet back here after!” Luffy ordered.

Zoro was instantly by Nami’s side and Sanji looked like he was about to argue until Usopp clung to his side, telling him he needed the most protection out of anyone else. Although Sanji bitched at him to get off, Sanji’s face softened as he looked at the younger man.

“Keep Nami safe, Marimo!” He shouted as he ran with Usopp towards electrical.

“Idiot, he needs to worry about himself,” Zoro grumbled, folding his arms.

“Let’s go, we need to find any wires that are frazzled, we’ll start with the right wing.” She explained, taking off towards the exit of the cafeteria with Zoro hot on her heels. “Well… just follow me, you probably don’t even know where that is.”

“Oi! I know my left from right.”

Nami grabbed Zoro’s hand just as they entered the corridors and as much as she told herself it was so that he didn’t get lost, it wasn’t convincing enough to stop the flush from working its way up her face. Especially when Zoro squeezed her hand in response.

“So we don’t get lost,” she supplied.

Zoro snorted in response but for once, didn’t say anything back.

The peace from this morning was long gone and was replaced with thumping footsteps and shouting as the crew descended into chaos, scattered across the huge ship trying to stay alive. At one-point Brook, Chopper and Luffy ran past them and Nami was left shouting after them because it looked like they were running around with no real ambition.

It didn’t take long after that for Nami to find one of the breakages and she was left gaping at it. It looked like it’d been chewed apart, the metal was torn open with sparking wires hanging limply.

“Focus,” Zoro said, nudging her arm. “I’ll cover you, don’t worry.”

In that moment Nami was happy to have him with her. He kept a cool head in dire situations, and she needed that right now. She needed to not think about someone… something, on their crew trying to destroy their ship and kill them all. She took a deep breath in and a deep breath out to centre herself. Fix the wires first and everything else would come second, she told herself.

She clicked the light on the shoulder of her orange suit to illuminate the wires in front of her as her helmet was still clipped around the belt of her suit. No one had put theirs back on since the communicators this morning.

She was making good progress and she only had two wires left to reconnect when both her and Zoro’s attention was stolen by the communication doors closing just a few feet away. What the hell? No one was down this part of the ship.

The hallway suddenly came alive as doors started closing and opening randomly.

“What the fuck is that?”

“Someone’s tampering with the wiring or the controls.” Dread was building in her stomach; it was one thing after another. They were being sent on wild goose-chase after wild goose-chase- a distraction to keep them busy.

A crackling was heard through her communicator and she was struggling to keep up at everyone’s broken words.

“Someone- admin-”

“Not right- still- someone else-”

“I’m- route,” Brook crackled through and by the sounds of it, he’d be dealing with it.

They could hear feet running down the hall close to where they were and that reassured Nami that Brook was close and that the issue would be resolved soon.

Except that reassurance soon disappeared as Nami heard a familiar sound and it made her stomach drop. As quickly as she could, she was reattaching the last wire and stumbling over her words to tell Zoro what was about to happen. “Zoro, it’s the rumbling of the vents, that thing is on the move. Think of a room for us to hide in without a vent so we can go as soon as I’m done.”

Zoro was quiet for a moment and Nami knew how absurd it was to ask that of Zoro, he barely knew the layout… well, he thought he did, but that was an entirely different issue and Nami couldn’t think of everything herself right now. But then his hand was on her arm, ready to pull her as soon as she was ready.

As soon as the last wire was in place, she was almost pulled off her feet as she stumbled to keep up, running past communications as the door was still closed and into the woman’s room next to it.

Zoro pulled out his key card to close the door after them and she felt her patience thinning when he failed on the third attempt. Third!

“How the hell can you still not work your key card after all this time?!” She whispered huffily, pushing him aside to swipe her own key card and watched the door slide shut.

“Shut up, it’s tricky and you know it!”

“Maybe at first! How long have you been here?” Sarcasm dripping from her voice.

A scream ran through the ship afterwards and it sounded like Brook. It didn’t take long for Nami to piece together. He was in admin. There was a vent in there.

Nami choked on her sob.

Suddenly there were hands on her shoulders, and she was looking Zoro in the face as he peered down at her with a stern expression.

“Pull yourself together. Brook’s tough, he won’t go down easily and even if he does, you reacting like this isn’t going to help anyone,” his voice was firm and he squeezed the top of her arms, she presumed in an effort to comfort her. “Besides, you’re with me, don’t insult me.”

He was trying to reassure her and in doing it in his own weird way, it worked. She felt herself relaxing, well, relaxing as much as she could in a situation like this, and Zoro was rewarded with a wobbly smile. She couldn’t help herself as she pulled him in for tight hug, clinging to him as he gave her silent reassurance, and he hugged her back just as tightly. He was so warm, and, in that moment, it made everything feel better.

After a second, she pulled away to look up at him. “Okay, let’s go! There’s more wires to reattach,” she told him, fire back in her eyes and Zoro smiled at the change.

The doors slid back open and Zoro tentatively poked his head out, Nami followed suit, looking down the other end of the hallway. She frowned when she saw a purple suit at the end of the corridor, what the hell was Robin doing by herself?

Nami nudged Zoro to get his attention but just as she was about to call out to her, the middle of her suit split apart into a mangled mouth and a long, black tongue oozed out to lick the wall.

Nami felt the blood drain from her body. What was that thing?!

And was it trying to find them through taste?!

Nami squeaked before Zoro could clamp his and the thing was whipping around to peer down the hallway. Zoro just managed to pull her back in before they could be spotted as the doors slid closed behind them.

“You alright?” Zoro whispered, his hand still covering her mouth and she realised he was making sure she wouldn’t scream. Nami nodded and his hand fell away.

“I fucking knew it. She was fishy from the moment she stepped on board,” Zoro hissed, his expression furious.

“I shared a room with her,” Nami said, except there was no heat behind her words, only sadness. It was silly, Nami didn’t know her, clearly, but Robin had been her friend and she felt like she was mourning the loss of that.

They descended back into silence as footsteps could be heard thumping closer and Zoro’s hand was over Nami’s mouth again when they stopped outside the door- not that it was needed, she’d already stopped breathing. She wondered if it was trying to taste them again and a shiver ran down her spine. It was a long moment before they could hear the footsteps retreat from outside the door, but they still waited until it was gone to sigh in relief.

“I’m calling it in,” Zoro informed quietly and Nami nodded back at him as he clicked the side of his communicator.

“Everyone, it’s Robin! Keep your distance, she’s the imposter! She’s not human.”

Although Nami could hear Zoro saying it, she was in too close a distance to Zoro to be able to hear what the rest of the crew were able to through the communicator. She presumed from what she heard earlier from the others they would have received a jumbled message.

All they got in response was a variation of, “What-,” “-Robin-,” and “-Here-,” and that confirmed her suspicions.

Nami put her hand on Zoro’s arm to get his attention. “It’s no use,” Nami sighed. “We’ll need to find someone else and spread the word. We need to meet back at the cafeteria. We need a plan.”

This situation was looking grimmer by the second.

Nami stood then, determined to put an end to this as she started to make her way to the door but then Zoro stood and caught her elbow.

“Wait a second.”

And she did.

She waited but he still stood there saying nothing as he peered down at her. He looked intense and for once she couldn’t read the look on his face, it was oddly unnerving. She hadn’t had that problem with him for ages. She raised an eyebrow, challenging him to speak but his eyebrows only furrowed further. What the hell was he thinking about? Since when did he think through what he said?

But Zoro was not a man of words, he’s a man of action, so instead he leaned down to press a brief kiss to her cheek, as if that explained everything.

Nami gaped up at him but all he offered in explanation was, “Should’ve told you a while go.”

She’s still trying to get her brain to work, wrap around what he’s just done and said. She managed to string together words after a brief pause. “That you like me?” She asked tentatively.

He’s stubbornly looking at the wall, his ears bright red and he spat a “Yes!” at her.

“But you didn’t?” She had no idea why she asked that, but honestly, she’s not really thinking right now. At this point, the words are tumbling out her of mouth without any real filter. She’s still trying to wrap her head around what’s happening. This is the last thing she expected.

“Did you hear me say any of this sappy shit before?” He’s still looking at the wall but now he’s crossed his arms defensively.

“Well, you’ve barely said anything now, so it’s hard to say.” If he wanted to be a brat about it, she was more than happy to tease him.

He rolled his eyes at her and finally made eye contact, “Fine. I like you. In a romantic way.”

Very romantic when he basically gritted his teeth through the whole thing. Yet she could still feel a blush working across her cheeks. How is this working on her?

“Why now?” She asked, trying to distract from her reaction.

“Better late than never.”

Something about that didn’t still well with her. Why was never even an option right now?

“So you’re backing down on your word?”

He doesn’t say anything but looked down at her in confusion.

“That we’re getting out of this alive,” she explained and waited for him to catch on to what she’s referring to. She can almost see the moment the bulb goes on over his head.

“No. You’re coming out of this alive.”

Her stomach knotted at his words; he didn’t mean…?

“…But you’re not?” She hesitantly asked, did she really want to know the answer to that?

“Don’t know yet,” he muttered.

This should be a happy moment. The infuriatingly annoying guy she’s liked for a while has confessed, but the reality is they’re currently being hunted and there’s no guarantee any of them will come out of this alive.

But she’d be damned if he went down without her, so in her mind it’s either both of them or neither.

And then it hits her, they may not have another moment together like this.

So for once in her life, she stopped thinking and without hesitation grabbed his face to crush his lips against hers. He yelped at the abruptness, but it was soon muffled. She couldn’t stop the amused smile spreading across her lips at his reaction.

It was by no means the most romantic kiss, neither of them had much experience before this and the mood is hardly set by the looming possibility of death, but Nami regretted nothing as they exchanged clumsy kisses. Zoro tentatively settled his hands on her waist, like he was waiting for her to tell him off, but she didn’t, instead she’s slipping her arms around his shoulders to draw herself in closer. They’re only closed-mouth pecks that occasionally linger for longer but that’s okay for right now, they can hardly start a make out session and honestly, Nami’s not prepared for anything more right now, her stomach already feels like it’s going to burst open.

They broke apart shortly afterwards but didn’t move away from each other.

“Idiot, how long?”

“Hah?” He asked stupidly against her lips.

Christ, what an idiot.

“How long have you liked me?” She clarified.

“Probably from the fifth argument, but I didn’t realise until much later. You pissed me off a lot, but I realised I didn’t want anything else.”

That still told her nothing, they squabbled constantly, but yeah, she could relate. It’d just hit her one day too.

“You wasted a lot of time,” she accused.

“You were hardly forthcoming yourself!”

“Forthcoming? That’s a big word for you, trying to woo me?”

“Clearly don’t need to, do I?” His voice was impossibly smug as his arms tightened around her to make his point, and it grated her slightly. “Besides, you’re the navigator, aren’t you the one that’s supposed to be guiding?”

“Arse. I can’t do everything, you know. Navigate, repair wires, open doors for you; you have to pull your weight too,” she countered, her smile broadening as he glowered at her.

He didn’t grace her with a response, but she didn’t mind when he pulled her back into another kiss. It wasn’t as clumsy this time, and that was probably because she wasn’t trying to crush Zoro into her face. It was still just as insistent, but they found their rhythm quickly and mouths were tentatively opening for tongues to brush against each other’s. Distantly, Nami wondered if she’d ever be prepared for something like this. Her hands buried themselves into his hair and she stood on tip toes to get closer.

All of that came to a grinding halt as another siren started going off, alongside the reactor alarm and they pulled apart. Nami flushed when she realised just what they were doing, in the middle of a crisis no less. They were making out in the girl’s room whilst their ship was falling apart and being hunted by Robin. She was mortified and when she looked up at Zoro he looked nothing but smug.

She didn’t feel bad about elbowing him in the ribs.

Their communicators crackled to life and they could hear Franky rushing through his words, “Shit- O2- down- someone- fix-”

“-helmets-”

That was only a few rooms away from them and although she hadn’t said anything, Zoro was nodding his head at her. They were both taking their helmets from the belts to put them on but Nami stopped Zoro before he could put if over his head.

“To be continued,” Nami whispered, pressing one last kiss against his lips to make her point, “because there will be a next time.” She delivered that line firmly because neither of them was dying before she could do this again.

He didn’t look convinced but that’s fine, Nami was adamant about it enough for the both of them. They finished clipping their helmets on and it’d be enough to supply them with oxygen for the next half an hour until the machine was working again.

“Roger, roger,” Nami spoke clearly into the communicator, hoping someone caught that.

For the second time, they were peering out into the corridor and they were eerily silent. Nami pushed through any of those thoughts, she’d think about that later, and took Zoro’s hand as they cautiously made their way through the hallways.

The doors behind them suddenly started snapping closed one by one.

And now the doors were being tampered with. It was trying to split them up.

“Run! We’re going to get locked in!”

As they took the last corner, just making it before they were sitting ducks in a part of the hallway with a vent, Nami could see the O2 room in the distance. She watched in horror as the door started to slide close. If she didn’t make that there was no telling if she’d be able to open it anytime soon and before she could think it through, she was dropping Zoro’s hand to sprint towards the door and slide through just as it closed behind her.

Heavy footsteps thumped from the other. “Oi! Are you okay!? Open the door,” Zoro shouted, banging on the door and as she swiped her key card to let him in, her hunch had been correct. It beeped angrily back at her; the door wouldn’t open. She would be stuck in here for the foreseeable future.

“I’m fine! The door won’t open, go find the others. Tell them about what’s going on and fix the door system, I’ll deal with O2.” He stayed silent and she knew he was about to argue with her, so she continued. “There’s no vents in here, I’ll be okay. Go!”

“Shit. Okay.” She couldn’t see him, but she knew he’s be running his hands over his helmet, wishing it was his hair. “I’ll be back as soon as the doors open again.”

And then she heard footsteps running away and she breathed out slowly. She could feel her eyes welling up as desperation set in but then she remembered Zoro’s words from before. It wasn’t over yet and he’d been right, if she got inside her head now, she wouldn’t be able to do this, and they’d all suffocate.

She had a job to do.

Cracking her fingers, she got to work on restoring the O2 and hoping everyone was piecing everything else together whilst she was busy.

Her fingers were furiously gliding over keyboards, bashing in key codes and watching bars slowly fill back up on the screen. Another few minutes and she’d be done- crisis averted. In the background, she could hear her communicator crackling with a few words scattered in but none of it made sense and she couldn’t waste time trying to piece it together.

The doors still hadn’t opened by the time she’d fixed the O2, she wasn’t sure how long she’d been in here, but it’d been a while and it was hard to tell what was going on outside.

This had been the longest day she’d ever experienced so far; it’d all started before lunch and as her stomach growled, it’s just dawning on her that she never got to eat. Oh god, she sounded like Luffy.

From the corner of her eye she could see some empty canisters, she figured she might as well pass some time filling them just in case and it beat sitting around grumbling about eating and unopened doors.

Just as she finished with the last canister the doors were slowly sliding open… except, Zoro’s not back yet and she’s caught between wanting to find everyone and waiting here for him. But then she’s just a sitting duck and the crew might need her.

She steeled herself to go out, but the lights still hadn’t been restored yet, and all alone it somehow felt even darker. Just as she’s about to leave, a spare steel rod caught her eye by the door and she’s picking it up. She had no idea whether it’d work against a thing like that (she refused to call it Robin), but it’s better than nothing.

Her communicator came alive then and there’s a frenzy of voices, she can’t quite pick out everyone but there’s enough voices to at least reassure her that the crew are okay.

“Nami- cafeteria-”

“Idiot-”

“No- engine- Nami.”

… What?

All the voices were talking over one another and with how poor the quality was she’s struggling to understand what she’s being told. From what she’s gleaned from the limited information it’s: go to the cafeteria, avoid the engine room. It’s slightly concerning that there’s still squabbling going on- but in truth, when is there not?

Before she had to make any hard decisions, a green suit comes into view down the hallway and she let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Zoro. He’d come back for her, just like he said, and maybe he’d have some idea about what’s going on.

“Zoro!” She whispered as loudly as she could, running towards him and he turned, his head nodding to acknowledge her. “Is everyone in the cafeteria?”

He grunted as she grabbed his hand and took off towards the cafeteria with him following closely behind. Although he’s normally quiet, he’s a bit too quiet considering the circumstances. She was expecting some scolding over her reckless move earlier.

“You okay?” She looked back at him, eyes quickly scanning along his body and didn’t see anything of immediate worry. Green suit intact, helmet firmly in place.

He nodded back at her and she figured the day must be taking a toll on him. She could certainly relate to that.

Shortly afterward she’s bashing in her key card for the closed cafeteria door but stopped short when it was empty. Where is everyone?

Before she could ask him, she could hear footsteps thumping from behind the opposite closed cafeteria door and she smiled to herself. So they were just early, for once.

As the doors opened, she started to walk forward and went to speak but her jaw abruptly snapped closed. Her eyes rounded and it felt like the floor was falling from beneath her.

She watched in horror as a green suit appeared through the opposite door.

Another green suit.

As in, there’s currently one next to her that she’s holding the hand of and one in front of her, that has also stopped dead in their tracks. They all had their own coloured suits for a reason, so they were easily recognisable with their helmets on.

Oh god. One of these suits is that thing.

And with that knowledge, she’s ripping her hand away from the green suit next to her and walking back slowly into the centre of the room, never turning her back so she can put equal distance between the two green suits and see them without having to turn her head.

From the corner of her eye, one of them moved, trying to slowly walk towards her like you would a spooked deer and instantly she felt adrenaline coursing through her as her body tensed. She’s reaching into her pocket then, pulling out the steel bar to clutch it in front of her.

“Back off,” she tersely told one of the suits

The advancing green suit halted immediately and took a step back, hands raised.

Her mind’s in pieces and she doesn’t know what to do. She’s in control of the room right now, both suits watching her from their positions but she knew that could change any moment and she doesn’t know what to do.

Suddenly the events of the day come rushing back to her.

Zoro had left navigation and then Usopp had got hurt.

Zoro sleeps a lot during the day and does basic tasks, like cleaning the garbage chute and heavy lifting tasks. Something anyone could do.

Zoro can’t open the goddamn doors!

She’d just kissed him- it!

Everything had been a lie.

Who the hell could she trust after this? Zoro was supposed to be it. It!

That thing can clearly shapeshift, going from a purple suit to a green one, but then, who said there’s only one of them?

Then she remembered earlier Luffy and Chopper had been running around aimlessly and Brook had screamed, and he was with them.

Luffy told them not to turn on each other.

Franky connected the vents together.

What ifs are flying around in her mind, as all of these thoughts come together. Seriously, who was she going to trust after this? Everyone looked suspicious.

Her breathing’s erratic and her heart felt like it’s going to jump out of her chest and her stomach’s rolling. Oh god, is she about to have an anxiety attack? Seriously, now of all places?! She’s about to lose her cool and control of the room. She needed to think.

One of the green suits that had appeared from the opposite door is ripping it’s helmet off, throwing it onto the floor, and she’s looking at Zoro’s face again.

“Nami, take a breath, I need you to calm down. A lot has happened since we last saw each other, but I need you to trust me right now and come over here.” His hand’s outstretched towards her but he’s not looking at her, his gaze is locked onto the other green suit that she had just been holding the hand of. Like he’s trying to size it up, to anticipate its next move.

Nami’s eyes flickered between them, sizing both of them up and god, did she want to trust the talking green suit, but how could she?! The other green suit is looking at her blanky, head tilted, and she just needed to confirm something before she made her move.

“Take off your helmet,” she shouted, jutting her steel bar at its helmet.

There’s a second where no one spoke or moved, and it felt like Nami was stuck in one of those crappy western standoffs. The one with the helmet still on tilted its head again and it’s looking between her and the other green suit without its helmet on.

Its hands come up to its helmet and for a moment Nami thought she’d be screwed if it actually took it’s helmet off because then she’s back to square one and the tension in the room can’t possibly get any higher without anything actually happening.

But Nami doesn’t have to go back to square one because it pulled its hands away without taking off the helmet and Nami watched in horror as the mask split apart to reveal a gaping mouth with razor sharp teeth and a tongue that came curling out with saliva dripping from it. It’s similar to what she saw before in the hallway but not even that could have prepared her for seeing it up close.

She’s frozen on the spot and it started to run towards her with what she can only describe as a screech of joy erupting from its mouth as it does. Except there’s another pair of feet running towards her too and she’s suddenly pushed down by Zoro as he covered her body with his. Zoro lifted his hand and the next second the thing is screeching in agony as he set off the blow torch in his hand.

Since when did he have that?

The thing reeled back, hands coming up to cup it’s scorched mouth and tentacles erupted from its back to lash out in its moment of vulnerability. One of them whipped towards them and Zoro’s falling back on her heavily. One look at him has her gasping and trying to sit up to get a better look.

“Zoro you’re eye!” Nami cried out. She didn’t see it happen, but she can see the blood that’s dripping from his eye and her stomach rolled. That’s because of her.

“No time, we have to move.”

And he’s right, the thing was still stooped low, sludge dripping from where it’d been burned but it’d only be a matter of time until it was on its feet again and they needed to regroup.

Nodding, she grabbed his hand and he was hauling her up onto her feet. She pushed him aside as they got to the closed cafeteria door, but her hands were shaking too much and the keypad denied her. She’d swiped too fast. She didn’t dare turn around when she heard a much less pained screech and, thankfully, Zoro didn’t rush her.

Second swipe and they were through the doors, but it wasn’t the homestretch yet. Nami could hear metal being torn apart and better judgement be damned, she turned around.

That thing couldn’t pass as human anymore. At this point it was more mouth than body, claws erupted from the suit and tentacles furiously swiped the air around it.

The next moment is disorientating as she’s suddenly swept from her feet and manhandled to sit at Zoro’s hip on one side. She clung to him in fear of falling off and it’s not exactly the most comfortable or stable position, but it freed her up a bit.

“I can’t drag you about as you stare, you’re too slow,” he explained as he ran.

“Just don’t drop me,” she told him, eyes narrowing in determination. He can run and she can keep it at bay. To his credit, he doesn’t even break a sweat at the extra weight, but she’d give that some more thought later.

The thing started to gain on them, screeching at them and when one of the tentacles came rushing towards them, Nami’s raising her steel bar to smack it away.

What she didn’t expect, was for the tentacle to absorb the bar.

“It took my bar!” She said, outraged.

Below her, Zoro grunted and his free hand is reaching into his trouser pocket. “That doesn’t work on it, use the blow torch.”

When the thing tried again, Nami aimed the torch and watched as the flame licked away at the tentacle, black sludge falling onto the floor below it. It stopped in its tracks then and Nami watched it slowly disappear from view as Zoro kept running and rounded the corner.

“It’s stopped chasing us,” Nami informed him, slightly confused why it’d give up so easily. Then she’s looking at the blowtorch, it either didn’t like fire or the light. Maybe it was both.

Then another thought came to mind. “When the hell did you figure this out?” She couldn’t keep the wonder out of her voice when she asked, she was impressed.

“I told you, a lot happened whilst you were locked in O2.” He took another left.

“Ah, so you spoke to Robin then.” She nodded to herself, the woman was sharp minded and no doubt, with the rest of them chiming in, they’d have worked something out quickly.

“Oi! I worked out that fire might work,” he grouched at her, offended that she was so quick to dismiss him.

“You came to save me on might!?” Of course he’d do something so ballsy and reckless.

“Some gratitude would be nice! What happened with your bar again?”

He had a point. Not that she was going to tell him that.

“I’ll give you that later,” she said lowly. It’s not fitting for the mood at all, but she couldn’t resist and maybe she needed some normality right now when they’re being hunted. Especially when she’s rewarded with an embarrassed flush working angrily up his neck.

“Okay, we can’t keep running around in circles. Where are the others?” He took another left and she frowned. If he wasn’t careful, they were going to end up back at the cafeteria and right now, they had no idea where that thing was.

“In the upper engine. They stayed behind, couldn’t have everyone running around with a shapeshifter on the lose.”

“Yeah, I get that, but why send you?” Yeah okay, it wasn’t helpful in this situation, but she had to ask.

He huffed but stayed silent, only adjusting his grip on her thighs.

“You ran off before they could stop you, didn’t you?”

“That’s not the point,” he replied indignantly, huffing. “Found you in the end, right?” It’s said with too much pride for someone who got lost constantly but she still found fondness building in her chest. Maybe they’re both idiots.

“Not hard when you told me to go to the cafeteria.”

“Don’t remind me, what idiots.” He came to a stop just down the hallway from upper engine and let her down. “We’d trapped it there and Franky had managed to block the vent but with how sketchy the communicators are I don’t even know why anyone bothered mentioning the cafeteria.”

“That vent isn’t blocked anymore, by the way, it got out,” Nami frowned, a thought coming to her, “It found me, I thought it was you, but the weird thing is, it didn’t kill me. It followed me.”

Zoro didn’t say anything in response, but he looked as perplexed as she felt. It’d attacked Usopp on sight but followed her willingly.

Those thoughts came to an abrupt halt though as she properly looked at Zoro for the first time since she’d met back up with him. He looked awful. His left eye was closed, and she didn’t know whether it was to keep the blood out of it or whether the eye just wasn’t there anymore. She couldn’t see the damage with so much blood oozing from the cut.

“Zoro, your eye,” Nami lamented, her hand coming up to cup his jaw and thumb soothing across the patch of cheekbone absent of any blood. She could only imagine how much that hurt right now. And he’d done it for her. The knot in her stomach tightened at the thought.

“It’s fine, stop fretting.” He tried to play it off and his hand grasped her wrist to gently pry it away from his face, but she wasn’t ready to let go of his face just yet.

“We’re not being chased right now; I can fret as much as I like.”

“I’d do it again,” he said gruffly, and it sounded like he was trying to reassure her about the wound so she wouldn’t feel guilty about it, but that didn’t detract from how sweet he sounded.

“Zoro,” she cooed, and he flushed a brilliant red when Nami’s other hand mirrored the action of cupping his jaw.

With her helmet on, she couldn’t lean in to kiss him like she wanted; for his sweet words, for her relief that he wasn’t a monster and that, so far, they were both alive. Instead, she’s leaning into him until she’s bumping her helmet against his forehead. It’s not nearly enough, but for now it’d have to do. He didn’t have any complaints when he leaned into her and his hands slid down her arms to cup her elbows to hold her close.

And that’s how they’re found. Standing around in the hallway, Nami cupping Zoro’s face and leaning into each other, a private moment that was suddenly very public.

“See! I told you I heard their voices,” Usopp stage whispered, eyes wide at the affectionate display.

Both of them paused, a hairsbreadth away from kissing, before whipping around to see Usopp and Sanji peeking out of the upper engine. Sanji looked outraged until his eyes locked onto Zoro’s bleeding face.

“What the hell happened?!”

Zoro groaned next to her. It was truly a testament to how bad it looked for Sanji to show such outward concern. They normally hid their affection for each other behind heated arguments and physical fights.

“Let’s all freak out over Zoro when we’re with everyone else,” Nami ordered. They were still standing in the hallway like nothing was currently happening. Zoro shot her a glare at that suggestion, something that didn’t hold much heat when he looked like that.

When they entered the upper engine room, it was empty. Just as she was about to voice her confusion, Zoro was pushing her towards the little broom cupboard in the corner.

As the door closed behind them, the small bulb in the room illuminated the rest of the crew, who were all looking worse for wear themselves. What the hell had been going on whilst she was trapped in O2?

It was a tight fit, as everyone huddled together, but it wasn’t important as her eyes jumped around familiar faces, taking in each one by one and doing a small role call in her head.

… 7, 8 and “Brook!”

“Brook! I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see you before in my life!” She’d definitely trod on someone’s foot to reach him, but she didn’t care as she flung her arms around his neck.

“Yohoho, this sounds like a backhanded insult, but I’ll take it!”

She allowed the hug for a moment longer but then she’s pushing is head out of the way, as he whispered a “so harsh”.

There’s a sudden commotion at the door then and it’s because Chopper’s just seen the state of Zoro. A pink suit is rushing towards Zoro, disregarding the rest of the crew as they start murmuring their own concerns, and he’s slinging his medical bag from his back to the floor to start pulling out things he’ll be needing.

“It’s fine Chopper! Just stick a plaster on it!” Zoro interrupted, swatting his hand to stop Chopper’s panicking as he started to examine the eye.

Chopper squawked at the suggestion and started laying into him, lecturing him about the danger of infections. Seeing as Chopper was no longer panicking and had started to clear away at the wound, Nami tuned it out in favour of getting some information on what the hell was going on.

“Right, someone needs to get me up to speed,” she stated and as an afterthought added, “And why are we huddled in the upper engine broom closet?”

“No vents in here,” Franky answered.

“Also, I don’t think the thing knows this room exists,” Usopp added as an afterthought.

“Not surprising, this is where all the cleaning supplies are and since when does anyone do that?” Nami sighed, but she couldn’t focus on their filthy ship just yet. Well, that wasn’t entirely fair. Sanji and Chopper kept their respective rooms clean, but that was it. The kitchen, med bay and the women’s room were the only clean places on board.

Nami’s comment was ignored as Sanji started to explain, “We don’t know how long its been on board, but Robin thinks it’s-”

“Morph,” Luffy cut off Sanji, looking far too proud of himself. When all she gave him was a baffled look, he explained further, “The thing. Its name is morph.”

As much as Nami was happy to see Luffy back to his normal self, so much so he was naming a blood thirsty monster, it was so incredibly unhelpful in the grand scheme of things. Before she could scold him, Usopp intervened.

“We didn’t name it Morph; you did!” Usopp accused and Nami was glad that he hadn’t become sucked into Luffy’s actions. “I still want Nightcrawler”

Urgh. Forget it. Of course Usopp wouldn’t be of any help.

“What happened to Rampage?” Zoro chimed in.

“No, we ditched that as soon as you left.”

“It was a stupid name,” Sanji sneered.

Nami could only stand there in disbelief and watched as the rest of the crew in front of her started to squabble about what to officially name that thing that was trying to kill them all.

“I quite like Selkie; they used to trick humans by transforming into them before mercilessly killing them. Quite like our situation, no?”

Nami barked a short laugh. Even Robin, her most trusted ally, the woman she could rely on when the boys descended into new levels of idiocy, had been sucked into naming this thing. She even noted that their lives were in danger and was still taking part. Was she going insane?

“Is this what you’ve been doing all this time? Naming this thing instead of figuring out how we’re going to survive?”

All of them looked at her, her voice cutting through their playful bickering and they all had the audacity to look at her like she was the one suggesting names in a dire, bleak situation. Maybe she was insane. She was in their books, based on the looks she was receiving.

“Don’t be stupid,” Luffy said, like he was the voice of reason here. “We did it after, when we were waiting for you.”

Ah yes, of course. She was the issue here.

She should be angry; she should throttle him but the day’s taking its toll on her and all she does is throw her head back and laugh. It’s a hearty laugh, right from her gut and it felt good. This situation is just so laughably hilarious.

“I think she’s lost her mind,” Usopp muttered and Chopper nodded next to him, looking at her cautiously.

Everyone’s looking at her as she started to calm down, wiping tears from her eyes. All she offered as explanation was, “I like the name Morph.”

Zoro caught her eye then and he smirked at her.

Luffy’s cheering then, arms thrown up in the air at his victory as the others mumble and moan about their loss. Apparently, everyone had their own name offered and with Nami voting for Luffy’s it was the clear winner.

“Right, so as I was saying, we don’t know how long Morph- I can’t do it! It’s a ridiculous name for such a serious situation.”

“Maybe that’s what we need right now,” Robin said and Nami couldn’t agree with her more. It’s why she liked it, it’s easier to deal with a shapeshifting monster with razor sharp teeth and tentacles when it’s named something so cute.

Luffy’s frowning, not budging as Sanji looked at him. “I won. Its name is Morph.”

“Nami liked it,” Usopp added and that’s enough to get Sanji talking again, seemingly accepting the name with no further complaints.

“Robin was thinking Morph’s been on board for a while because it seems to know where to go and what to tamper with to break the ship.” Sanji looked towards Robin, prompting her to take over from him.

“My theory is that it’s sophisticated enough to learn basic tasks and work out what we’re doing but Morph can’t learn complex things like language,” Robin speculated and Nami nodded in agreement, remembering Morph’s silence in the hallway. “I don’t think it likes light and that’s the reason why tampered with the lights before appearing fully. Space is very dark after all… and cold.” She’s looking towards Zoro then. “Did your theory work, Zoro?”

Zoro nodded back as Chopper was putting the finishing touches on his bandaged eye. “It seemed to hurt it and it backed off when it started chasing us.”

Robin and Zoro’s conversation held no tension like it did earlier from the cafeteria and Nami’s glad to see it. A lot seemed to have happened since then. No doubt she’d get the details from Usopp later.

“So what are we going to do now?” She’d got enough information about that thing- Morph, she corrected mentally, but now she wanted their plan of attack.

Except her question brought a hush over the crew and she’s looking at each of them to try and figure out what she’s said wrong. Usopp looked pained and Franky’s resting a big hand on his shoulder.

Luffy looked solemn and Nami hated it already, as much as his happy go lucky behaviour might irritate her sometimes, she wanted it back desperately in this situation.

“We’re leaving the ship,” Luffy said.

What? This was their home, where everything had started. “What? How can we-” She started.

“The decision’s been made,” he stated firmly and when Nami looked at Usopp, someone who would definitely agree with her, he looked downhearted but on board. This conversation had already been talked through at length it seemed. “Franky.” And Luffy’s nodding towards their mechanic to continue.

“The ships on its last legs. I’ve just barely managed to hold together the reactor, but we don’t have long, electrics are fried and on top of that there’s a monster out there making it worse,” Franky explained and as much as it pained her, she’d been out there, she’d seen the state of the ship.

“We’d have to find it and kill it, that’s even if it hadn’t tampered with the ship before we do.”

“Even then, something still might trip.”

“It’s too risky.”

Nami sighed and ran her hands through her hair. She understood but it was a lot of take on board. Ultimately, they were right. Their lives would be at risk and she remembered back to earlier when she was uncertain about how many of them were still alive.

She wanted them all to come out of this alive.

“What’s the plan?”

They’re huddled tightly into a circle going through the last few details. Franky and Usopp have prepared the emergency ship, it’ll be tight for all of them, nothing compared to their current spacious ship, but it’s good enough for now. It’s only there until they can land and find something else.

“I’m heading to the kitchen to get supplies,” Sanji informed them and Brook next to him is offering to go with.

“I need to go to the medbay,” Chopper added and Robin’s volunteering to accompany him.

“You need a helmet,” Nami said, pointing at Zoro. His was sat in the cafeteria and its current state was unknown. Everyone else’s were clipped to their belts safely. “If O2 goes out again, you’re screwed.”

“If you’re going that way, pick up extra helmets and suits,” Robin suggested and it’s a good idea.

“Someone needs to go to O2 to get backup oxygen,” Franky told the group, the emergency ship only had so much stocked into it and seeing at they’re abandoning the ship, they might as well take all they have with them.

“They’re already filled, I did it whilst I was waiting for the doors to open. Someone else needs to grab them, I’m going with Zoro.”

No one argued that and they’re all nodding. It was in their best interest to have the navigator with the permanently lost. Zoro didn’t argue it, even though he knew the reason behind it but now wasn’t a time for bickering.

“I’m going to the reactor to grab my tools,” Franky said and seeing and Luffy and Usopp are the last ones left, they’re going with Franky.

With everyone allocated to a task and paired off, they all agreed they’d meet back in the cafeteria in 10 minutes. It was a get in and get out job, no side tracking and if a pair didn’t come back- there would be a search party. No one was being left behind. Franky didn’t have many, but he had enough blow torches for one per group, should they come across Morph on their short trip.

It was then that Nami realised they’d been in the small cupboard a while with no disruptions but before she could voice her concern, the reactor alarm was blaring again. She hung her head, it felt like she’d jinxed them.

“That’s our countdown,” Franky informed them. “I stabilised the reactor as best as I could, but we only have twenty minutes before it’s done for. We need to be gone before that.”

With that last warning, the groups are filtering out of the tiny cupboard and spreading throughout the ship. There’s a shout of helmets off until they leave and Nami had no problem with that, it’d take away the element of surprise, because as far as she’s aware, Morph can’t imitate their faces.

Nami and Zoro run next to each other through the corridors with no hesitancy. There’s no time for it and at least they’re armed now. The cafeteria’s empty and neither of them bother to check if Zoro’s helmet is intact- no side tracking. They pass by Sanji and Brook as they make their way into the kitchen. They’re running past admin and they only have to make it through storage to reach the women’s and men’s rooms next to communications.

As they made it into the men’s room, Nami gets a bad feeling. All of this is far too easy. There’re no crackling voices in her earpiece, there’s no yelling or frantic feet and despite the reactor siren going off, it was almost peaceful. It didn’t sit right with her.

“Zoro, I have a bad feeling,” Nami told him as she grabbed a bag to start shoving spare space suits into.

“It’s too easy,” he agreed with her, taking another bag to put spare helmets into and then clipping another helmet onto his belt. “But I won’t complain. Maybe it backed off because we found it’s weak spot.”

For now, she could only agree with him and hope it was just good luck as they moved into the women’s room the other side of communications to repeat the process.

Nami doesn’t have a watch, but as they finish packing, she’s sure they must be getting close to 10 minutes.

There’s a loud commotion towards O2 and Nami and Zoro are shooting each other a look. They don’t need to verbalise anything before they’re running towards the sound- if any of their crew was in trouble, of course they’d rush to help.

Except when they arrive, there’s nothing there. It’s silent. There’s nobody in sight, they can’t hear feet running nearby and there’s no sign of a struggle.

“False alarm, let’s go,” Zoro said and he’s walking towards the door.

Nami nodded and went to follow him out, except out of the corner of her eye she can see a spare O2 bottle. She frowned, she’d definitely filled all of them and she’s not sure how someone had missed that one. Despite the voice in the back of her head that told her ‘no detours’, this technically isn’t one. They might end up needing that and she’d kick herself for leaving it behind.

As she picked it up, it’s far too light compared to the others she filled earlier and when she turned the canister around, the bar’s empty.

It’s then that it all clicked into place; no sign of Morph, the sound of a struggle only to find no one’s here and a strategically place O2 bottle to distract a passer-by.

A trap.

Zoro’s already left the room and she’s running after him, shouting for him to stop, not caring how loud her voice was right now. He’s almost into the weapons room when he whipped around, alert and ready for whatever she’s about to say but it’s too late. The doors between them are closing.

They’re both running but Nami knows it’s useless, there’s no way she’s going to make it through. With the last crack left, she’s throwing through her bag to Zoro and watching the doors shut on his panicked face. She imagined hers didn’t look much better.

Shit. He had the blow torch.

The keypad angrily denied her when she swiped her key card and her stomach’s sinking at the knowledge that she’s truly vulnerable right now.

There’s a loud thump followed by a silent curse from the other side of the door but it barely budged. Zoro’s trying to break down the door. It was no use; they’re made to withstand extreme conditions in the case of an emergency. Nami laughed at the humour, this is an emergency and now she’s in danger because of it.

“Zoro, go back to the cafeteria, drop the bags and get someone. Someone must be back by now. I’ll try the other door to the cafeteria.”

He had no choice but to agree and he left her with a, “Be careful. No reckless moves.”

Too late for that advice, she thought bitterly.

Nami turned to face the dimly lit corridor in front of her. Without Zoro here, it looked ominous, the shadows looked dangerous all of a sudden and every sound had her jumping out of her skin. But the longer she stood here, the longer she’d be alone. She clutched the O2 cannister in her hands for some form a reassurance and, as a last-minute decision, she clipped on her helmet for an extra layer of defence.

She started a tentative jog down the hallway, a stark difference from the quick and confident one she had with Zoro. She stopped at corners to peer around them, to make sure the coast was clear and yes, it did slow her down, but she needed caution right now.

It’s the home stretch when she reached storage and she wondered if her brain was playing tricks on her. Maybe it wasn’t a trap and the ship really was just on its last legs, like Franky had explained.

Just as she’s passing admin, she can hear heavy footsteps from behind her. She’s wanted to continue forward, but it also crossed her mind that it could be Zoro. He wasn’t far from the cafeteria before and if Franky or Usopp was there, they’d have the door opened swiftly.

Tentatively, she backtracked and as she peered around the corner, the relief is almost crippling.

Zoro.

He’s standing in the doorway of storage, looking around for her and then she’s jogging towards him, a cheerful, “Zoro”, coming from her mouth.

The joy’s over when he turned to face her and she’s looking back at two steel eyes. Not a cut or bandage in sight.

That was not Zoro.

She faltered slightly but remembered earlier when Morph had followed her after approaching it like nothing was wrong. She fought down the urge to flee and plastered a wobbly smile back onto her face to continue her walk towards it.

Except this time, Morph’s not curious, Morph’s hungry. It doesn’t keep up the pretence of a human and the moment Nami sees a mouth, she’s flinging the O2 cannister at it and darting away.

“Help, help, help,” she’s pleading into her communicator but its only static that responded back.

She was well and truly on her own.

She doesn’t dare look over her shoulder to see if Morph is chasing her, but her arms are stretching out for anything within reach she can knock over and hopefully buy herself time. As she smacked something behind her, she peeked over her shoulder and terror is almost choking her. Morph’s not close, but it is chasing her as it used its tentacles to propel it forward.

The thumping of her own footsteps is deafening, and her legs are burning as she ran down the empty corridor between electrical and lower engine, but she can’t let up her pace for even a second if she wanted to get out of this alive.

She skidded as she took a sharp turn and it definitely lost her some distance. It’s confirmed when there’s footsteps behind her, heavy and loud, and she can practically feel its breath on her neck. She didn’t dare to look over her shoulder again because she knew she’d be greeted by the sight of Morph practically on her back.

One second she’s looking at the familiar sight of upper engine just in front of her and she’s so close to the cafeteria, then the next she’s eating the floor. The impact has her face crashing into the shield of her helmet and so much for extra protection, she thought, as her nose smarted and started trickling blood.

Her feet are pulled from beneath her and she’s being dragged back. She doesn’t have time to register the pain in her face as she flipped over to watch as the tentacles around her foot pulled her slowly towards the towering monster. Morph’s grown and there’s multiple mouths erupting from the green of the suit

She kicked her free foot out, trying to stamp on the tentacle wrapped around her ankle but it’s quickly caught by another tentacle and then she’s being dragged closer even quicker.

Morph settled over her when she’s pulled underneath it and the weight of it had the air rushing out of her lungs. If it doesn’t kill her quickly, it’s going to crush her instead.

That doesn’t stop her from throwing a fist out to punch its face- she may be about to die, but she’s not dying easily. The image of Zoro’s face distorted from the impact before reforming, but it doesn’t stay that way for long as its face split apart to form a long stretching mouth. A tongue slithered out and licked across all its teeth as saliva dripped down onto the front of Nami’s helmet. It’s enough to get Nami moving as she squirmed underneath it, hands pushing and feet kicking desperately so she can shimmy out.

She cried out in pain when a tentacle from behind it’s back stabbed through her shoulder to pin her down to the floor beneath and there’s a clawed hand digging into the side of her waist. It’s enough to stop her squirming, as tears rolled down her face and her hands are at the tentacle in her shoulder to try and relieve the pain.

But the pain is nothing compared to watching its tongue slink out of its mouth down to her helmet and lick a long stipe across the glass. She’s helpless as the tongue started to undo the latches on her helmet and its claw dug even further into her side, as if expecting her to struggle.

She can’t believe she’s about to die at the hands (or mouth) of something that looked like Zoro. There’s probably something poetic in there but now’s not the time to be thinking about that.

As the last latch clicked loose, her helmet’s thrown to the side and she’s face to face with the monster on top of her (It turned out, Morph wasn’t a suitable name. She wished she’d gone with Robin’s option). Its tongue snapped back to its mouth, but her eyes are screwing shut as it stretched to lick a long path across her neck and face. There’s so much saliva that it dribbled down the rest of her face and she can’t believe this is it, this is her last few moments.

It growled in her ear, but she can’t bring herself to open her eyes, even when she heard its teeth snap just above her. She doesn’t want her last moment alive to be looking at an imposter of Zoro. She’d much rather remember the real Zoro’s dazed face after their first kiss.

But then it’s all gone, the weight’s gone and she’s gasping in pain when the claws in her side and tentacle are ripped out.

There’s a battle cry above her head and she opened her eyes just in time to watch Luffy jump over her body and a massive flame erupt from his blowtorch. She can’t be sure, her viewpoint from the floor isn’t the best, but she’s pretty sure there’s a massive grin etched onto his face as he launched his attack.

She felt like she was hallucinating as she watched the monster reel back and try to avoid the flames as it screeched in pain. She’s sitting up to watch but it’s blocked as Zoro knelt in front of her. His mouth’s moving and distantly she heard him saying that he shouldn’t have left her but she’s too busy looking at his face, soaking in the downward turn of his mouth, his remaining steel coloured eye searching her face and the green of his hair.

She wondered idly if she’s died and this was hell and she’s being forced to watch what her rescue could have looked like if it hadn’t gone all wrong. Zoro did always tell her she was going to hell when she died. She can’t wait for him to join her so she can rub it in his face that he ended up there too.

She’s pulled out of her scattered thoughts when Zoro’s softly wiping at her face with his hands, wiping the saliva on his suit and it’s the most worried she’s ever seen him; his face is pale and drawn. “I thought you were dead,” he breathed out and she came to the conclusion that she doesn’t like that look on his face. “With that thing over you and you were so still,” he continued and he’s still looking at her like she might die any second.

“Get a grip,” is all she told him and it’s worth it because he barked a laugh and it felt like they were back in her navigation room bantering with each other.

“You’re a mess,” he said bluntly and they’re falling back into their normal routine, so she decided not to take offense. His gaze does a circuit around her face, shoulder and side.

“You too,” she joked and although it wasn’t funny, she laughed lightly. Whether it was because she was alive, or he was or that this wasn’t hell after all. Maybe it was all of it.

He didn’t laugh back; the mood dropping suddenly, and she knew it was because he was feeling guilty. That this should’ve been him, not her.

Her hand cupped his jaw and her thumb’s running along the seam of the plaster over his eye. “You’ve done enough, have to do my part too, right?”

His expression instantly told her he doesn’t agree with that sentiment but before he can respond, Luffy’s next to them again.

“We gotta go,” Luffy said, breaking them apart and he’s throwing his empty blow torch down as the black puddle down the hall started to slowly reform. “You can make kissy faces when we’re in the ship.”

Nami spluttered angrily, embarrassed but Zoro just nodded and his hands are under her armpits then to help her stand. She cringed as she jarred her shoulder and pain lanced through her body. Its yet to stop bleeding and if she’s not careful, her orange suit is going to start rivalling Luffy’s red one.

“Put pressure on your shoulder,” Zoro said and she’s being scooped up to sit at his hip again, the wound at her waist facing outward so it’s not angered.

She’s giving him a funny look before cringing as she tried to clamp her hand over the wound on the shoulder that felt like it suddenly had a pulse. Zoro understood what she meant and answered, “Chopper’s lectured me enough, some of it had to sink in.” His free hand smothered over hers to press down on the wound and she’s borrowing her face into his neck at the pain. She almost doesn’t know what to do with herself. He muttered a “sorry” lowly but didn’t let up.

“Luffy, I’m changing my vote, Morph is a stupid name. I’m siding with Robin,” she murmured, exhausted as the adrenaline started to wear off and in need of a distraction herself from her wounds and the monster that was after them.

Luffy laughed brightly as he ran next to Zoro, no doubt happy to see her alive and arguing again. He tried to dispute her change of confidence, but she refused to hear any of it.

Behind them there’s an angry screech, it’s far off into the distance and when Nami looked behind them, there’s nothing there. It’s odd but she couldn’t give a damn right now.

Instead she’s asking, “Where is everyone?”

“On the ship, waiting for us. Franky’s getting everything ready so as soon as we’re there we can go,” Luffy answered.

“Curly cook said we’re not allowed on if we don’t come back with you alive.” Zoro’s doing his best to stop his jog from jostling her too much. It’s thoughtful but honestly doesn’t do very much.

She snorted. “I’m super tough, doesn’t he know?” It’s meant to be a joke because honestly, look at the state of her, but Zoro and Luffy only look at her with pride.

“You did really well,” Zoro murmured and his hand under her supporting her squeezed in reassurance.

The rest of the run to the cafeteria was uneventful and they should probably be questioning that but Nami’s too exhausted to bring it up. She’s hungry, in pain and bleeding. All she wanted to do was lay down and sleep.

As soon as they enter the cafeteria, the crew’s there waiting for them just before the small hallway that’d take them to the emergency ship and their faces shift from anxious to relieved.

It’s a short-lived celebration when the vent at the bottom of the cafeteria exploded open and black sludge poured out.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, doesn’t it know when to give up?” Zoro griped and his grip on her tightened.

They’re being ushered then down the small hallway and onto the emergency ship. Franky and Robin are at the front getting ready to leave and Chopper’s flitting around Nami, working quickly to staunch the bleeding. She wondered just how bad she must look when he didn’t immediately panic at first.

They’re watching as from the outside the black sludge was slowly growing bigger as it reformed, and she wondered if Luffy’s previous bombardment of fire had worn it down.

There’s an explosion in the distance that rocked the ship. Not only has that thing found them, but the reactor it sabotaged earlier has finally packed in.

They’re out of time.

“Uhh, Franky, we gotta go. Now,” Sanji warned as he stood at the back door with Luffy beside him and Zoro left her side then to stand with them just in case.

“I’m moving as quickly as I can!” And it’s true, Franky’s hands are furiously flicking switches and pushing buttons as quickly as he could with Robin co-piloting next to him.

Usopp’s down by her feet tinkering with something and Nami almost wanted to scold him that this wasn’t the time for that, but then her eye caught the ripped up top and fluid-filled bottle.

“Are you making a gasoline bomb?” Nami tiredly asked, her head lolled to the side to watch to distract away from the pain as Chopper worked on her shoulder.

“Yeah!” Usopp said proudly. “I started working on it when we were waiting for you three, y’know, in case.” His hands are quickly working as he soaked the top in alcohol (Zoro wouldn’t be happy about that later) and plugged it into the bottle.

“Franky,” Zoro barked.

“I need another minute! Stall!” Franky barked back.

When Nami looked outside she could see why Zoro and Sanji were panicking, Selkie’s almost fully reformed (Nope, not even Selkie’s the right fit). There’s still hints of different suit colours on its body, around the mouths (Nami shuddered to herself), but it doesn’t bother standing on its feet now, instead using the tentacles and long black nails slide out of its hands. She had no idea how something without a face looked enraged and furious, but it did as it screeched.

There’s a commotion at the door as Zoro stepped out, he’d pushed Luffy and Sanji out of the way and was trying to close the door behind him. Nami tried to get up too, but Chopper’s there to push her back down and it doesn’t take much to keep her down.

“Just go,” Zoro shouted, taking a step out of the ships door and facing the monster that’s only advancing by the second in front of him.

“If anyone’s going to be the knight in shining armour, it’s me!” Sanji exclaimed, puffing out his chest to stalk towards the door. Brook just managed to snag his suit to pull him back in.

Luffy’s frowning and Nami knows it’s because he’s not going to let anyone be left behind. Usopp’s calling towards Luffy as he was making his way to the door with instructions to get him inside and duck on his command. Sanji instantly stopped struggling as he pieced it together.

Not a moment later, Luffy’s wrestling Zoro into the ship as he’s shouting at him and honestly, it’s an amusing sight. Zoro who’s almost twice Luffy’s size being overpowered so easily.

As soon as they’re inside, Usopp’s shouting, “Duck!” and they’re both hitting the floor as Usopp’s lighting the gasoline bomb.

Usopp threw it just as that thing made it to the top of the small hallway and the glass shattered on impact, gasoline spreading over its skin and it’s reeling back as it caught alight, its screeching was almost deafening.

“Close the door!”

Sanji snapped the door shut and then the little ship was blasting off. If the monster hadn’t been hurt enough by Usopp’s gasoline bomb, then it certainly was by the flames that erupted from the back of the ship.

Everybody paused what they were doing, even Chopper had stilled, and watched in silence as they slowly drifted away from their ship. The left side of the ship was slowly melting away as the reactor exploded in on itself and it wouldn’t be long until nothing was left of it.

Nami wasn’t sure how to feel. They’d all escaped with their lives, so this should be classed as a win, but it somehow felt like a loss as she watched her home slowly destroy itself. A few tears were threatening to bubble over at the sight, but she didn’t dare look over at Usopp or Franky.

The feeling was chased away when Zoro sat down next to her, taking her hand and squeezed it.

…

“I still like the name Morph.”

Usopp slapped Luffy.

------------------------------------------

Huge respect for Oda, I hated juggling just 9 characters and he does it with an even bigger cast.

Also, sorry if anyone’s disappointed that there’s no deaths or a ‘real’ imposter. I’m weak. I want happy endings always and I can’t do that if I kill off parts of the straw-fam.

As always, please excuse any errors- especially as I rushed to get this done in time.

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!

#ZoNami #ZoNa #zoroxnami #swordgust #opfanfic #opwriting #one piece #zoro #nami

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supernaturaldesires · 4 years ago

Text

A Descent Into Insanity - Chapter One

Based on request by @sweetpotato-97

Could ask for a fic of Yandere Dean with a reader who sees him as a best friend and a form of brother for them, of course in the beginning Dean was not a yandere but he changed with the passage of time?

Note: the reader in a way is innocent and does not know that Dean is in love with them.

Pairing: None (yet)

Characters: Dean & Sam

Warnings: none, other than a slightly protective Dean

Word Count: 1,802

One Year Ago

As you pulled up to the old abandoned shack, you checked against the photo in the newspaper on your passenger seat. This was the place, without a doubt. You had stopped about 150 yards away to avoid drawing any attention or raising any alarms within the shack. If the stories you’d heard from the townsfolk were true, you were expecting just a couple of vamps, max three. It appeared to be a relatively new nest since the attacks only started a couple of weeks ago, out of the blue. You reached into the backseat, grabbing your machete and hip-flask. You took a swig of whisky from the flask for good measure before shoving it in the glove compartment and heaving yourself out.

There was a gravel path leading up to the shack, but you opted to walk along the grassy verge in an attempt to keep as quiet as possible. When you were about 50 yards from the shack though, you noticed a ‘67 Chevy Impala tucked behind some large shrubs, just off the path. Strange. It wasn’t a large town and all of the attacks happened within a couple mile radius of the shack, so you couldn’t imagine much need for the vamps to have a set of wheels. Nevertheless, you pushed on.

As you approached the front porch, you noticed that the door to the shack was already open, creaking back-and-forth with the breeze. It was at that moment you heard a blood-curdling scream, followed by shouting. Armed with your machete, you launched through the front door towards the noise.

Two beheaded bodies already lay on the floor, and ahead of you there were two figures wrestling on the ground. “Sammy!” Shouted the man who was pinned to the ground, trying to fend off the snarling vamp with his bare hands. His machete lay on the ground nearby, but just out of reach. Without a second thought, you flew forward, thrust your machete down on the vamp, slicing clean through its neck. The head bounced off the man’s shoulder, to which he jumped up, shuddering and wiping himself down. “Hey, thanks man-” He looked up at you for the first time and blinked. “Oh, my bad. Sorry, didn’t mean to assume.” You lowered your machete, wiping the blade on the clothes of the dead vamp. “No biggie,” you shrugged in response. “You get used to it in this line of work.” You flashed him a knowing smile.

Another man entered the room through a second door, to which you instinctively raised your weapon again, but he immediately stopped and raised his hands in self-defence at the sight of you.

“He’s good,” the first man said. “That’s my brother. All good, Sam?”

“Yeah,” the tall man said, running a hand through his shaggy hair. “There was another one in there but I managed to catch him off-guard.”

“Sweet. Well, this young lady saved my ass before I became a vamp snack,” the first man chuckled. “Thanks for that, by the way, um...?”

“Y/N,” you said. “As I said, no biggie. I wasn’t expecting such a big nest, so if you guys hadn’t got here first, I’d probably have been the meal anyway.”

Both men laughed at that. “I’m Dean, this is my baby brother Sam. Come on, let me buy you a drink to say thanks.”

Present Day

“Dean, can you please put a different tape on now?” Sam moaned for the fifth time. “I swear this is the tenth time I’ve heard this song.”

“Sorry Sammy, you know the rules,” his brother smirked. “Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole.”

Sam turned in his seat to face you in the backseat, hoping to get some back-up but he knew he was outnumbered when he saw you playing air guitar.

“She’s got eyes of the bluest skies, as if they thought of rain,” you sang along gleefully. “C’mon Sammy, how can you get tired of Guns ’n’ Roses? I could listen to this all day!”

Sam groaned, shifting back to face forward and slouched grumpily against the car door. “Don’t encourage him, Y/N,” he grumbled. “And I’ve told you, not even Dean’s supposed to call me Sammy, you’re definitely not allowed.”

You leaned over the back of the front seat, throwing him a pout before motioning a tiny violin between your thumb and forefinger. Dean roared with laughter as Sam grunted, folding his arms with a strop. “Tell me we’re nearly there, at least.”

“Only another 50 miles to go, little brother,” Dean hummed. He shot you a cheeky look and you knew exactly what was coming next. You both sang at the tops of your lungs:

“WoooooOOOoooaahhh sweet child of mine!”

As you arrived at the bunker, you jumped out of the car and stretched your legs before hauling your overnight bag out of the backseat. “I’m jumping straight into the shower, I still stink of werewolf.”

“Yeah I know,” Dean remarked, scrunching his nose comically. You punched him playfully in the arm, which he then clutched in feigned agony, staggering.

“Whatever, tough guy,” you huffed as you made your way into the building.

After showering and feeling refreshed, you pulled on a pair of joggers and an oversized hoodie and made your way to the kitchen. Sam was already sat at the table, staring intensely at his laptop screen and scribbling notes.

“I’m feeling pancakes, Sam, you want some?” The tall man just shook his head, his eyes not moving from the screen. “You know you’re allowed to relax every now and then, right?”

The elder Winchester sauntered into the kitchen then, also looking much fresher. “Did I hear pancakes?”

“Yep, you know where the ingredients are,” you smirked, plopping down into the chair opposite Sam.

Dean threw an irritated look at you before reluctantly rummaging through the fridge. “Asshole,” he muttered.

“Jerk,” you retorted without missing a beat. “You boys up for a drink tonight? I fancy going out, celebrating our victory in taking out that pack.”

“Sure,” Dean answered. “Let’s get some grub in us, then we can head over to the bar.”

Sam continued tapping away at his laptop. “You guys go ahead, I’ve just found this interesting article about this new legal case over in Wisconsin. Check it out, so this guy-”

“Yawwwn,” Dean interrupted. “Sometimes I wish I’d just left you at Stanford, you nerd. Anyways, Y/N and I are gonna go have some fun. Maybe you can look up the definition of the word sometime, Sammy.”

You and Dean had settled at a table at the bar, chatting about everything and nothing for about an hour, already four drinks in. You couldn’t forget that impressed glint in his eye when he first realised that you could not only hold your drink, but could also keep up with him quite easily.

You were howling with laughter as Dean told you a story of Sam losing a rabbit’s foot and the chain of unfortunate events that followed. “So I’m there on the phone to Bobby and I could tell Sam was mucking around behind me doing some stupid shit but I wasn’t really paying attention. Next thing I know, I turn around and he’s looking at me with that goofy puppy-dog face. ‘I lost my shoe,’ he says. Dropped it down a damn drain, the dumbass.” You wiped the tears of laughter from your face, shaking your head and taking a swig of your drink. “Anyway, gotta go empty the tank. I’ll be back.” Dean pushed away from the table and headed off to the men’s room.

One of your favourite AC/DC songs came on the jukebox, so you started tapping your foot and bopping your head along with the music. You didn’t really notice the stranger approach you until he helped himself to Dean’s seat. “Hey there, little lady.” You looked up at the guy, he was your typical jock-type, wearing a football jersey and a baseball cap. He was a little broader than Dean, but several inches shorter. “Can I get you a drink?”

“No thanks,” you said, smiling politely. “I’m here with a friend, just having a good time.”

“Yeah, I saw your friend,” the guy scoffed. “I promise you, come with me and I can show you a real good time, sweetheart,” he said with a wink.

You sighed and rolled your eyes. “I said-” your tone was harsh now, your words sharp. “I’m here with my friend. I’m not interested.”

“Aw come on sweet cheeks, I saw the way he was looking at you. He ain’t interested in you like that. I mean, he’s a fucking fool for it, but I’d be happy to step into the shoes if he’s too much of a pussy to fill them.” He tried to wrap an arm around you then, and you were just about to shove him off when his whole body was suddenly ripped away from you, and the next thing you knew, he was on the floor.

Dean towered over him, his eyes sparking with anger. “Did you not fucking hear her when she said she’s not interested?” By now, the rest of the bar had fallen silent, all eyes on the unfolding scene.

“Hey, dude, chill out,” the guy muttered. “It’s not like you were making a move.”

Dean grabbed the collar of the guy’s shirt in his fist, getting right in his face. You jumped up, preparing to intervene. “What I do is none of your fucking business, if you come near her again, I swear-”

“Dean!” You shouted, grabbing his other fist which had raised, ready to take a swing. “Leave it.”

“Oi!” The manager peeked out of the backroom, having heard the commotion. He jabbed a finger at Dean. “Get out of my bar, now!”

You could see the fire in Dean’s eyes redirect towards the manager, but you tugged at his shirt. “Dean, please! Just leave it. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Dean paused for a moment before releasing the guy’s shirt, letting him fall roughly to the floor. He turned his attention back to the manager, eyes like daggers. “You oughta get some better clientele in here, mate, instead of little bitch boys.” You hooked your arm through Dean’s and dragged him out the front door. He let you pull him away, but all the while throwing glaring looks between the manager and the man who had tried hitting on you.

You really did love your new life with the Winchesters, basically considered them your brothers now, but they tended to find their newfound protective role a little too seriously sometimes. You decided it wasn’t worth an argument this time, instead letting Dean cool down as you both made your way back to the bunker.

Chapter Two =>

Dean tags: @akshi8278

Divider credit: @firefly-graphics

#supernatural #spn #spn fanfic #dean winchester #sam winchester #a descent into insanity

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halfbloodglader · 5 years ago

Text

Life In Reverse (Newt)

Newt x Reader - 2,260 words

Happy New Years!!!

Request; How about a Newt x reader where she sends a note in the box for anything to do with her past and since she and Ava used to be close they send up a journal with her name, most of the pages were ripped out by wicked because it gave away too much about the maze, but what they did keep was her pages about Newt and her crush on him. Newt gets upset because he thinks there might be a hint in it and he wants to check it out, he takes it one night to read..... what happens next is up to you! Thx!

_______________________________

The box had shown up earlier this morning, just as it was supposed to. Instead of helping today like she normally would, Y/N hid behind the homestead and kept a close eye on the box. She was waiting until the last of supplies were being hauled up so she could set her plan into action. As she sat and waited, Y/N began to write a note. A hopeless one she assumed, but she figured there was nothing to loose.

All of this time in the Glade with no memories was driving her insane. Every night, she had dreams about her past which obviously meant she had memories locked away somewhere. The moment she woke up though, they all disappeared and there was no way to bring them back. Today, she was going to send a note alongside Alby’s to ask for some kind of information, anything.

As the last of the supplies were brought up, Y/N ran for the box. She watched as Alby dropped his paper down into it and then turned to walk away. Sprinting as fast as she could, the rumble of the box closing made her push harder. Almost there, she pulled out her note, flew past the box and dropped it in just before the doors closed.

“Y/N—“ Alby jumped sideways in surprise as Y/N sprinted past him. Seeing as it was Y/N, he shrugged it off and continued on his way.

The girl had been waiting a whole month. Today was the day she’d find out if the creators finally gave into her requests. Her attempt had probably been futile, but at least she could rest now knowing she’d tried if they didn’t send anything up.

Sure enough, they didn’t. Y/N was nearly done rummaging through all of the supplies and figured there was little hope to find anything meant for her.

“Strange seeing you here, love.” A familiar voice sounded over Y/N’s shoulder. She stood up and turned around to, surely enough, be faced with Newt. His hands were on his hips and he smiled with a tilt of the head.

Y/N raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“If I recall correctly,” He bent down to open one of the boxes. “Last month, you hid over by the homestead instead of helping.”

The girl mumbled. “I had other things to do.”

Newt laughed. “I’m just teasing,” He stood up and handed the girl a bag of apples to be taken to Frypan. “I’ll take your word for it.”

With that, Y/N head off for the kitchen with the massive bag of apples and didn’t look back. She was a little disheartened by the fact the creators hadn’t sent anything back to her. Yet, at the same time, she wasn’t surprised by any means. Why would they send her anything? She was just another Glader.

The evening went by slow. Y/N had dinner with her friends, helped Newt in the gardens for a while after, sat around the fire with some of the builders and then wandered over to her hammock. Most of the boys were already asleep as she climbed in and she knew she’d be listening to their snores for a while to come. There was a million different thoughts rolling around in her head that would stop her from sleeping tonight.

Her mind froze. As she tried to lay down, something hard caught her off guard beneath her side. She reached down and to her surprise, pulled out an old looking leather bound book. For a moment she questioned if she’d climbed into the wrong hammock, but with chuck on her left and Newt on her right, there was no way she was in the wrong place. How the book got there, she had absolutely no idea. But, then again, it seemed anything could happen here in the Glade.

Opening up the book, she could hardly make out anything written on the pages. Carefully, she scanned around to see if anyone was awake. Assuming they were all as deep into sleep as they looked, Y/N leapt out of her hammock and ran straight for the deadheads.

In the maproom, she found some light and sat down. How this book had gotten here and why it was in her hammock, she had no clue. Part of her though, hoped it was from the creators. It could turn out it is just one of the boys journals that had been misplaced, but she prayed not.

On the first page, Y/N’s hopes were confirmed. A note from WICKED. It explained that they had received her request and only thought it was fair to give some sort of information. It explained what they could give was little, but it was still something. The note was signed off by an Ava Paige. A name that sparked some sort of familiarity in Y/N’s mind but not quite enough to remember anything real.

Most of the pages in the book were torn out. What was left to be read wasn’t very interesting. Some things about friends, how fast she’d gotten in the past few years. Of some significance though, were the pages about Newt.

Y/N felt embarrassment course through her when she read them. Apparently, Y/N’s former self had taken quite a liking to Newt. He was her best friend and the two did everything together. Hardly apart, they were inseparable. Apparently, she had never worked up the nerve to tell him how she felt, though. The way it was written, Y/N had herself truly convinced he’d never like her back.

The journal was filled with an old secret that Y/N didn’t find hard to discard. That was then, the past. Things were different now. They had all grown up and changed so much in the past few years that it didn’t matter anymore. Besides, she hadn’t felt that way yet about Newt since arriving in the Glade. Because of that, she tried to forget about it. It must have just been a point in time when she was younger and that was over now.

The next morning, Y/N in her half waken state slowly ate her breakfast. She had a lot on her mind, but that didn’t mix well with the little to no sleep. Even though she told herself she didn’t care and that it was all in the past, she couldn’t stop wondering about Newt. What was it about him then that made her feel that way and not now? Unless she did still feel the same way but was so focused on surviving here in the Glade she never thought about it.

“Morning,” A voice sounded as Y/N was drowning in her thoughts.

She looked up. Sure enough, and by the curse of the universe, it was Newt. “Uh—hi.”

Newt furrowed his brows. That wasn’t the usual good morning he got from the girl. “You alright?”

“Ah, yeah.” Y/N stretched her arms over her head. “Just a little tired.”

“Right,” Newt took a bite of his food. “Because you were out wandering around late.”

“You stalking me?” She questioned.

“No,” He scoffed in defence. “I couldn’t sleep. Kind of hard to not notice when someone jumps out of their hammock and sprints for the deadheads.”

“Oh yeah,” She muttered. “Sorry about that.” The girl began to feel nervous. Why? She had no clue. Picking up her plate she tried to retreat the situation.

“What were you doing anyways?” He asked out of curiosity.

Y/N paused and cursed herself. “Just reading something the creators sent up.”

She really hadn’t thought that one through.

“Was it useful? It could have a hint in it!” He shoved the rest of his food in his mouth and stood up to walk with the girl to the kitchen. “Mind if it take a read?”

“Maybe later,” Y/N cringed. “I’ll look through it first and let you know if there’s anything worth checking out.”

Newt shrugged. “I don’t sleep anyways, I may as well help you.”

“Naaah,” Y/N waved her hand in the air. “You’re already so busy.”

“Fine,” He agreed. “But let me know when you’re done. I’d like to know what they sent.”

“Yeah,” Y/N said as he walked out of earshot. She then let out a panicked breath and shook her head. “What kind of hell hole did I just dig myself into?”

All Y/N hoped was that Newt let the subject rest for the remainder of the day. She had to work in the gardens all day, everyday with him and hoped he wouldn’t use it to pry information out of her.

Luckily enough, he didn’t. What he did do though, was have a different plan. He worked everyone extra hard today, to the point he knew sleep was something they wouldn’t be able to hold off. Just as he had hoped, that was what happened. After dinner and the fire, everyone found their way to the hammocks and passed out, including Y/N.

Knowing the girl, Newt knew she wouldn’t be so bold as to bring that book the creators sent back to her hammock. She would have hid it somewhere last night. And knowing there was only one place she could have gone, Newt head off for the deadheads. He assumed she would have been in the maproom and there was plenty of places to stash something in there.

It took Newt a grand total of five minutes to find the book. Her thoughts must’ve been elsewhere last night because Newt knew she wasn’t one to hide things so haphazardly.

Sitting down, Newt prepared himself for anything. This book with most of its pages torn out could be a useless pile of garbage, or it could be their way out of the maze. He hoped there was at least something useful.

What he found, he certainly wasn’t expecting. Pages written about him, by Y/N, from before the maze. Back when they shared a bit of a different relationship than they do now. Back then, life played out in the reverse. Y/N was the one who was hiding a lot of things from Newt. As to if he felt the same way at that time, he wasn’t sure because he had no memories and there was no matching journal written by him to read. However, he could only assume that he felt the same way he does now.

Y/N woke up. She realized she’d fallen asleep. Panicked, she once again leapt out of the hammock and ran for the maproom. Lights were on inside and her heart nearly jumped out of her throat, but that didn’t stop her. Maybe it was just Minho working late. Deep inside though, she knew it was Newt.

The boy dropped the book in his hands and fell out of his chair the moment Y/N flung open the maproom door. She stood there, wide-eyed, fears confirmed. He’d read it. Newt was as equally frozen. He didn’t know what to say or do.

“So—“ Y/N fretted. “You read it?”

“Yeah.” He mumbled.

“Try not to think too much into it,” Y/N begged. “That was before the maze, I don’t remember any of it. You saw the creators sent it up, maybe they wrote it all too.”

“No, don’t think so.” Newt laughed lightly. “This is definitely your writing.” He picked up the book and pointed to the messy scribbles.

“Yeah, you’re right.” She sighed in defeat.

Unsure of what to do, Y/N just stood there. Why this was so hard, she wasn’t sure. Unless, deep down, she did feel for Newt and was so distracted here in the Glade she never knew it.

“Please don’t hate me now, I just—“

“I’m not here to ridicule you,” Newt said sternly. He handed Y/N back the book and his expression seemed to sadden. “I just—it’s odd things are the other way around now.”

Y/N tilted her head in question. “Other way around?”

Newt shifted his weight and it was obvious he was processing which words he wanted to choose out of the thousands he could. “It seemed like in here that you were the one who—for lack of a better term, liked me. Yet now, I’m the one who likes you but it feels…hopeless.”

His eyes lowered to the floor. A familiar look of pain that Y/N used to see back when they’d first arrived in the glade crossed his features.

“It’s like you don’t notice me. I mean, sure you’re kind and friendly and we talk a lot. But it feels like I’m always pining after someone who can’t even see me.” He admitted, lamenting.

Those words struck Y/N in the chest. It brought back memories, more so feelings, from before the maze when she’d been in the position he is now.

“I notice you, Newt. I do.” She admitted. “I’ve just never let myself think like that because I’m afraid. Scared of something happening…”

“Yeah, I know.” He agreed. “And I tried for a long time. But I can’t not like you, Y/N.”

He stared at her with an obvious hope. It was clear she felt the same way, she’d just ben stuffing it down for so long it was like the feelings didn’t exist at all. The past couple days, they’d been brought back to the surface.

Before she could respond, Newt had lunged forward and had her in his arms.

“No real hints about the maze in there,” Newt laughed into the girls hair. “Just something better.”

“Loads better,” Y/N also laughed in agreement.

“Because if I’m being honest, I can’t say I would have told you otherwise anytime soon.” He stepped back with his hands on the girls shoulders.

Y/N raised a brow. “You don’t think so?”

“Aye!” Newt scoffed. “You have no right to judge, it’s obvious you never said anything back then!”

“Okay, okay!” She knew he was right. Now at least, they both knew.

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mxsinistir · 6 years ago

Text

Serbia (Sherlock x Reader)

Requested by soverignoblivious

Request: You and Sherlock have been dating for a while and sometime after Sherlock’s return from the dead after Reichenbach, a criminal group that Sherlock is working on a case about tries to come after you (gender neutral!Reader) so you have to fake your death, in a similar way that Sherlock faked his, and how Sherlock would react to that and your eventual return from the dead.

It all went to hell as soon as you saw your boyfriend’s body in the morgue. You weren’t even there with John when he hit the pavement. . . You had been at Parliament, sorting something out with a few other politicians with Mycroft until Anthea rushed to tell you both what had happened to the consulting detective.

For the next two years, Anderson would try and convince you of conspiracies from all around the world. It wasn’t until about two months ago that you gave in and accepted that somehow, some way, your boyfriend was alive. And in Serbia of all place.

According to the research that you and Anderson had put to gather in your spare time, there had been sightings of the detective in Eastern Europe. So despite your better judgement, you went to Serbia.

And you went alone.

It was a simple weekend trip. As far as Parliament knew, you had the flu, and you didn’t want visitors. Somehow, you managed to sell that lie to Mycroft and every other MP that knew who you were.

Once you started looking, you came across only one network that got your attention. They called themselves the Druga Crna Ruka, which they told you was a loose translation for ‘Justice Seekers’.

They offered to help you find Sherlock Holmes, claiming they’d bring him straight to you for just a few thousand USD, paid upfront. You were a British MP, and they knew that was pocket money for you. You negotiated the pay the second half of that fee if Sherlock was returned.

In hindsight, you admittedly did not speak Serbian. But any respectable history buff like yourself would realize the screwed up of striking a deal with this organization after figuring out via Google Translate that the legitimate translation went something like Second Black Hand.

You truthfully only figured out about that a few weeks ago, about when Sherlock returned to London for the first time in years, claiming to have disbanded them amongst the other branches of Moriarty’s networks.

So that was the end of your troubles, then, right?

Your boyfriend was home, happy, and alive. The terrorist group that you owned money was long gone. Your job was secure, as was Sherlock’s. Life was perfect. You lived happily ever after. The end.

Wrong.

No ID: Bring the money to Kruševac

No ID: June 5, 15:00 inside the Lazarica Church

No ID: If you are not there with the money, you’ll be dead within 24 hours. Be there.

You bit your nails desperately. June fifth was just two days from now.

“Who are you texting?” You jumped at Sherlock’s voice, which wafted from the living room to the kitchen you stood in the centre of.

You pocketed your phone, strolling out towards the sofa, smiling normally,

“Just Mycroft,” You lied to him, “Something about Eastern Europe again,”

Sherlock awoke to the knocking at the door so frantic that he was sure some insane man was the one outside.

“[Name?]” He called out in fright, “Mrs. Hudson?”

“Who is here so early in the morning, Sherlock?” The landlady called. He opens the front door,

“Anthea?” The younger Holmes brother murmured, “It’s three in the morning, what in the bloody hell-“ He yawned, interrupting his urgent sentence.

“Is [Name] here?” She asked frantically, “God, Sherlock, please tell me you know where they are.”

“No, they said this afternoon that they had to go do work at Mycroft’s and that they’d be back-“ Realization hit Sherlock Holmes harder than a train as he realized that it was three in the morning, and [Name] was not home. When he’d fallen asleep early, he’d thought absolutely nothing of them not being home yet, but…

“They never came to Mycroft’s. He never even asked them to come, so he wasn’t expecting them. Mycroft texted them tonight about a bill, but they wouldn’t answer. We tried tracking their phone when we started to worry, but the last ping we got was a text they sent to Mycroft.” She held out her phone to Sherlock, which showed a screenshot of a single text reading a single phrase.

Bye Mycroft - Tell Sherlock I love him.

“And from the looks of it, their phone was destroyed immediately after sending that text,” Anthea sighed, “Sherlock, Mrs. Hudson, I’m to escort you to a bunker set up by MI6. Mycroft and another one of his assistants are already on their way to pick up John and Mary.”

“Anthea,” Sherlock said, “And we in danger?”

“Possibly,” The assistant said shortly,

“Is [Name] alive?”

If it had been any other person, Anthea would have lied. But she figured that Sherlock was logical, and therefore, he deserved the truth. She figured he could handle it.

“No, probably not.”

The cell was hellishly hot, causing feverish sweat breaking across your white forehead. You had been overcome with a sickness that you couldn’t identify, and you were swamped with regret and fear and numbness.

It had been eight months since you were ambushed in Serbia. They’d taken your money, and they’d taken you.

At first, they’d tried to sell you off the countless other Governments, auctioning off any information that they could get from you.

But that had stopped five months ago. According to what you were able to overhear, you had been confirmed dead by MI6 long ago.

But now, as you stared at the small light beneath the door, you took a breath and reminded yourself that you had a chance now. You could take it, or you could rot away in this miserable, dark container for the rest of your life.

With your cold, bony wrists rubbed raw, you were able to finally escape the ropes. From there, it wasn’t hard to untie your ankles.

You had basic self-defence training, and you caught one of your captors off guard. Once you had their gun, it made your job much easier.

The only thing you knew about your whereabouts from eavesdropping was that you were alone in Iran. And you had waited so long to finally be taken to a country where you had a fighting chance of getting home to London; you could not screw this up.

Stumbling towards the only sliver of light, you realized that you were being held in a container of sorts, and though your malnourishment made it hard, you sprinted out of your cell.

Into the blinding heat. Into the town. And towards the Embassy.

You had no breath left. Your legs felt like breaking faster than a high fever. And yet, after a half hour of ruthless pain and adrenaline to keep you alive, you pushed onto the Embassy grounds,

“I call asylum!” You screamed out in Serbia before falling to your knees to vomit violently, dry-heaving the food and water that you did not have in your body anymore. “Someone...someone needs to get ahold of Mycroft Holmes.”

You weren’t sure if those words ever really left your lips.

Because the next thing you remembered, you were on the floor, and everything had gone dark.

“Where am I?” You said it in Serbian first, and then repeated it in English,

“St Barts Hospital,” A familiar British voice came from your side, “You’re in London now, [Name], it’s going to be alright.”

“Sherlock,” You would have jumped straight from the bed and into his arms if you’d had the energy.

“Malnourishment, severally underweight, a broken fractured forearm and three broken fingers.” Sherlock sighed, “Along with a few other things. It’s a miracle you survived as long as you did.”

“You found me in the Embassy?”

“Mycroft got word that you were there and an MI6 escort was sent to retrieve you immediately. A counterterrorism group handled the Second Black Hand.” Sherlock sighed, “Part of me wants to be furious that you’d think it would turn out well to make a deal with a terrorist group, along with the fact that you let me think you were dead.”

“And is the other part of you the part that realizes that at least it was eight months and not two years?” You snarked.

Your boyfriend smiled sadly,

“Don’t keep secrets like that from me ever again,” he breathed, “I’ve never been so scared in my life, [Name]. Promise me.”

“I promise,” You said, “No more terror cells.”

“If we save the world,” Sherlock said, leaning down to kiss you for the first time in eight months. “We do it together.”

#sherlock holmes #Sherlock #Sherlock Holmes x Reader #sherlock x reader #sherlock imagines #sherlock imagine #bbc sherlock #sherlock x gender neutral #bbc sherlock imagines

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papipopsicle · 7 years ago

Text

AFTERTASTE PART THREE

Pairing: Archie Andrews X Short!Reader

Genre: fluff, smut

Summary: In which two best friends since childhood test whether friendship and can co-exist without causing conflict. Including my OC’s Flick & Cherry, a lesbian couple and best friends of Y/N. Set Pre-Veronica.

Warnings: FWB, swearing, smut, oral (female)

Words: 2.9K

MASTERLIST

feedback is always appreciated

It was early Thursday morning. Usually right about now Y/N, Flick and Cherry would be grumbling about the day of double English and AP Biology ahead of them. This wasn't the case though, thank goodness, as three days of Spring Break were still untouched by the world.

Wednesday night had been spent watching 'The Asylum', then followed by several episodes of 'Santa Clarita Diet' because neither the Y/L/N girl nor her brunette friend were able to sleep. Strange wasn't the right word to describe the trio's friendship; it was simply unique. Felicity Moore and Meredith Simmons have been together for just shy of a year, but nothing had changed about the almost decade long friendship they shared nor it's dynamic in that time.

The trio were residing in the bedroom of a blue haired-girl without a care in the world. The week, as it did when you were having too much fun, had gone by in a flash, and now, the teens of Riverdale didn't want to waste another precious second of their time away from hell.

Y/N messaged a group chat with ten or so of her closest friends and all but Kevin agreed to a picnic in the woods.

Three hours had passed and the group of Juniors now stood on the scorching pavement waiting on Moose to decide which sandwich he wanted. Y/N stood to the side of the group in the shade, leant up Reggie's chest as he stood against the wall. She loved the boy, sure he was a bit of an idiot now and again, but he knew how to make her laugh, and for that she could never stay mad at him.

The sun was shining down on the teens from above, making Archie regret ever bringing a Jacket. He huffed, adjusting his backpack a few times to manoeuvre the unnecessary piece of material away from his body. The boy was currently in a conversation with Betty about what they planned to do over the summer, and just as she asked him about his plans, almost by chance, his eyes landed on Y/N's unassuming figure.

She looked so content in that moment, absentminded smile making her dimples more prominent as she texted back and forth with her sister. Dressed in a simple white sundress and black sandals, she was effortlessly perfect in his eyes. Although the flawless red lipstick adorning her lips would suggest a lot of effort.

At this point, Archie had completely forgotten Betty was even talking to him, and almost jumped when she shook him lightly on the arm to gain his attention.

"Arch?" She implored, eyes flitting to the y/h/c his eyes were transfixed to just moments ago. Betty hid a hurt expression with a pointedly raised eyebrow, her heart aching at the thought of anything happening between them.

"Hm-what?" The redhead stumbled over his words, but luckily before the Cooper girl could question anymore Moose and Midge finally left Earls with a white plastic bag full of food in hand.

"Come on then, kids!" Felicity called a little too excitedly for someone currently getting over a hangover, zipping up her bag quickly then grabbing her girlfriend's hand and skipping ahead of her friends.

"You heard the lady." Reggie called with a smirk, squeezing at Y/N's waist lightly to get her attention. She glared at him, knowing he knew she didn't like her waist being touched, he simply winked and put his arm around her shoulder as they walked towards the park.

The walk was only short, the teens meandering down a secluded pathway which led to a number of different fields. They followed the dirt track down past the playground, through a small woodland area until it opened out into the most beautiful lakeside meadow. This was the other side of town to Sweet Water River, still on the North side though, but twice as beautiful. Water lapped and twinkled as rays of sunlight beat upon it creating s picturesque scene fit of a film.

There was a canopy on the tree boarder, and a few picnic tables scattered around but apart from that, the place was untouched by the hands of men. It encapsulated words like tranquil and peaceful in the most incredible way possible.

Y/N fared away from Reggie and began laying out a blanket with Cherry to put the food on. Setting her backpack on the steps of the canopy, the girl opened various containers and strategically put the foods she preferred closest to her. Her best friend began smiling rather widely partway through speaking, but she thought nothing of it. Up until two large arms wrapped around her waist and threw her over someone's shoulder.

"Archie Andrews put me down this instant you absolute bastard!" Y/N squealed helplessly, earning a wolf whistle from Reggie and giggles from the rest of their amused friends. She kicked and tussled about but his grip only tightened, right up until he stood on the very edge of a fishing pier. He brought her back into his arms properly, holding her princess style as she began to protest again, "Hell no! Put me down right now!"

"You want me to put you down, Tiger? Bad choice of words..." The redhead trailed off with the cheekiest of grins pulling at his lips, and not a moment later Y/N's small figure was flung a few metres into the lake, shortly followed my Archie cannon-balling after her.

She spluttered and manically waved her arms about for a few seconds before swimming over to where Archie was currently surfacing, "You're so fucking dead!" Y/N pushed a huge wave of water in his direction then quickly swam back to the pier not giving the boy a chance to retaliate.

The y/h/c girl pulled herself up onto the wooden walkway, flipping Archie off over her shoulder while wringing out her drenched dress. In that moment, she was thankful for the insane heat, and decided that if he wanted to make her wet, then two could play at that game. She pulled the white fabric over her head, exposing her lilac lace underwear.

"Oh man," Reggie chuckled and gave Archie a hand as he got out of the lake, both boys groaning as Y/N walked away from them "if you had some balls and were actually in a relationship, you just lost sex tonight. She's your best friend, all the more reason hit that, Andrews!"

The ginger boy rolled his eyes with a slight grin and began following after Y/N as she walked to the edge of the trees. He picked up his jacket along the way and draped it over her shoulders as he reached her, "Y/N/N, I'm sorry, baby. In my defence, Flick dared me to, I thought it'd be fun."

The girl put the jacket on and folded her arms, staring up at Archie slightly hurt, "You think I'm upset because of that? I don't really give a shit to be honest, I'm mad because you ignored me for four days straight and then when you see me today you don't even bother to say hello. And, by the way, you may be fucking me but you aren't my boyfriend, you don't get to call me baby."

Those words hit harder than they should've, he watched her for a few moments in shock before pulling her into the tightest hug possible. "I never meant to ignore you, Tiger, I'm so sorry I made you feel that way. You were having some time with the girls and I was helping my dad out at the construction site, not once did I mean to make you feel that way."

Y/N looked up at the puppy-eyed boy with a pout, "Stop making me feel bad for getting upset, you're too good at being cute you need to cut it out before I forget."

Archie took a step closer to the petite blonde, her ragged breaths heavy on his lips as he leant down ever so slightly to tuck a few strands of hair behind her ear. "Forget about what?" He asked lowly.

But the sound of their friends loud laughter shattered the moment, and Elodie simply smiled warmly, "Nothing, it's not important right now." She took his hand in hers and began leading him back to the group, "Let's just enjoy today while it lasts."

Hours of shenanigans later, the sun started hiding away behind a darkening blanket of clouds and the teens of Riverdale decided to call it a night. They'd eaten and laughed their way through the day and now it was time to head home. The y/h/c girl's dress had dried only an hour later, but still she found herself wrapped up in the warmth of her best friends hoodie.

Now, it was just Archie, Y/N and Betty walking back to their triangle of homes. The next door neighbours were wrapped up in some strange conversation and the Y/L/N girl happily listened, not having the energy to fully join in on whatever they were talking about. She had her earphones in playing soft music as her arm closest to Archie swung back and forth in the comfort of his.

But the girl was pulled from her champagne haze when Archie decided to flick one of her headphones out, she peered up at him curiously wondering if he'd been talking to her all this time. "My Dad's got to stay late working tonight, do you want to come back to mine for the night?"

"Sounds like a plan, Andrews." Y/N hummed happily, choosing to quickly message her Mum letting her know where she'd be for the night instead of allowing her worry for hours on end. The two said goodbye to Betty as they neared the driveways, finding it equally confusing when she left without even so much as looking back or replying.

But they shrugged off their friend's odd behaviour and entered the house, five seconds later deciding to try and be silent when they found Vegas fast asleep in his basket. Making their way to Archie's room, the girl didn't even wait for him to ask before taking one of his shirts from the drawer. Turning away from him instead of leaving for the bathroom, she unzipped his jacket and removed her dress, pulling the large black tee over her head. She unclasped her bra and pulled it out from one sleeve, flinging it into the pile of clothes now sat on the boy's floor.

"I hope you realise that jackets mine now, payment for ruining my dress." Y/N huffed, turning on her heel to see her red-headed friend leant against the doorway with a grin plastered all over his face. Her heart sped up at the sight, not able to gauge the meaning behind his expression.

"Keep it," he pushed off the frame and stepped towards her, making the petite girl take a step back. His eyes weren't darkened by lust but with the stern grip on her waist she knew he was in control. His smile faltered for a split second, looking so innocent just for a moment, "I'd say some sappy bullshit like it looks better on you anyway, which it does, but honestly all I could think about today was how you wearing that made you mine. I get so possessive it scares me, I just-"

Y/N cut him off with a simple deadpanned look as she concealed a smile, "Stop being annoyingly attractive, I'm not ready to not be mad at you yet."

"Would this make you less mad?" Archie's lips brushed against the shell of her ear, making the girl shiver involuntarily. He pushed her down onto the unmade bed, following and holding himself over her. His lips ghosted over her's momentarily before moving to the nape of her neck, biting and sucking at certain spots eliciting the most explicit winces of ecstasy from the blonde.

"You're so beautiful." He took off his own top before doing the same with the one she had wore, flinging them both who knows where before finally kissing her. It didn't last long though before his lips trailed down again. She yelped as Archie grabbed the back of her thighs and lifted her up to wrap her legs around his waist, quickly attaching his lips to her collar bone sucking and nibbling up her neck and along her jaw again.

"I mean it, you're stunning, you're so damn funny, and, most importantly, you're all mine." He said between heavy breaths as he left wet kisses down her panting chest and stomach, looking up every so often through his eyelashes. She squirmed slightly at the overwhelming sensations, warmth pooling between her legs starting to cause discomfort. Something primal stirred within Y/N when the redhead's voice became so low and full of lust. She was his, nobody else's.

But the girl was brought out of her thoughts at the hot breath coming down on her clothed pussy. She gasped, her petite hand shooting to grasp at his hair when he decided to lean forwards and nuzzle his nose on her clit.

"Oh god, Archie, carry on what you're doing don't you dare stop." Y/N moaned pornographically at the foreign feeling. The boy's hands explored her body intimately before meeting at her hips, sliding her thong down her legs irritatingly slow then slipping one over each shoulder, nestling between them with his mouth excruciatingly close.

He hovered there without touching her for a moment then looked his best friend dead in the eye with an expression she'd only seen one other time. "Tell me what you want, Kitten." Archie almost whispered his voice was so low, lips so close Y/N felt every word like quiet vibrations electrifying her skin.

"You." Was all she could muster, jutting her hips trying to find any kind of friction. The boy smirked, finding the sight of his headstrong friend writhing under him after he'd hardly touched her utterly entertaining. The soft moans she elicited were torturous, tonight was meant to be all about her, but of course, blood was rushing to other places too.

"Okay babygirl, as you wish." Archie and lowered his head, licking his tonged from the bottom of her entrance all the way to her clit. He sternly pushed against her stomach with one hand, lowering her increasingly arched back as the sensation became too much to handle.

It wasn't like anything she'd experienced before, Y/N was no saint but nobody had ever made her feel this good by doing so little. Not even her own hands had created such a sensation before.

"Holy shit! Oh my god Arch, fuck that's so good!" She rasped as he lapped at her cunt, licking circles on her clit and moaning in satisfaction as she became wetter from arousal. The boy toyed with her entrance, teasing and taunting her then finally slipping one finger into her pussy. His name rolled of her lips in waves of euphoria, only spurring Archie on to go faster and finger her in perfect rhythm.

"Baby, I'm so close." Y/N squeaked between heavy breaths, her core tightening into knots as she tried to hold onto the newfound feeling. He added another finger without warning, pumping faster in and out and grabbing her lest breast with the other hand, squeezing and harshly massaging it in attempts to overstimulate her.

And it fucking worked. "Cum for me, Kitten." Archie commanded gruffly before continuing his movements. Her entire body was covered in a sheen of sweat as a string of curses left her open lips between explicit noises. It was inexplicable. She grasped at the fabric of his bedsheets and moaned his name as loud as her voice would allow before breaking half way through.

He brought his fingers out of her and made eye contact as he licked them clean, which was probably the hottest and most sinful thing Y/N would ever see. Archie lay her legs against the bed and panted lightly, his back against the cool wall.

"I think now's a good time to say that's the first time someone else has ever made me cum, so, thanks, because that was fucking incredible." Y/N mused from her state of complete bliss with her eyes practically shut, missing the look of shock Archie shot at her.

He felt kind of proud truthfully and let a smile rest against his lips, "Happy to be of service, Tiger."

"Could you pick up my top please, it fells weird to sleep without one." She mumbled, curling onto her side to make room for the boy to hound her. He shook his head and chuckled, taking a second before getting up from the bed and picking up the top he'd leant her.

It didn't take long for her to put it on and cuddle up next to Archie once he lay down. It was quiet, serene even. "Get some rest." He kisses the top of her head before wrapping his arm around her protectively and comfortably.

For a while they stayed like that, it could've been hours for all they knew before Y/N decided to speak up again, "This doesn't mean you can call me baby, though."

PART FOUR

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shall-we-imagine · 6 years ago

Text

You've changed. (Azusa KuzexReader)

Requested: 2. "Define normal." From the prompt list.

Genre: mostly comedy and just randomness but also some fluff

(Second Person Point of View)

"Well, clearly, you've never been to the fairies' world!" You argue, taking a few glances at the signs to ensure you don't miss the library.

"Listen; there's no way a little fairy is gonna win against a mermaid! That just makes no sense! A mermaid can literally lure you into your death!" He claims, using some light hand gestures to emphasize his point.

"Yes, but-" your statement was interrupted by Serge's cheerful voice.

"Guys! Come take a look at this!" He peeks his head outside of a classroom- an empty one, you assumed. He immediately drags you both inside and towards the professors' desk, which carried nothing but an ominous orb of pink and purple. It looked like something a fortune teller would own, and since this was Serge you're talking about, it didn't seem very surprising.

You were previously planning to head to the library with your boyfriend, Azusa, to prove to him the strength of fairies, even though it wasn't exactly necessary, but you felt the need to do it anyway. However, your trip was delayed by your pink haired friend. You could use that as one more proof, though, right? Serge certainly knew enough about fairies!

"Hey, Serge, quick question: In a hypothetical battle between a fairy and a mermaid, who would win?" You pop the question before he begins explaining the psychics' item he was presenting.

Serge being Serge, it took nothing to get him to discuss such a useless topic. "The fairy, of course!" He states.

"See?" You turn to face your boyfriend with a smug expression.

Azusa rolls his eyes. "Come on; this doesn't prove anyth-"

"It's only cuz you've never met a fairy!"

"Well, you've also never met a mermaid!"

"Hey..uh..guys, maybe you can finish that argument later? I have an invention to show you." He gestures to the bright globe.

Azusa sighs; you nudge him, giving Serge an enthusiastic sure! and waiting for the explanation. In all honesty, you were kinda curious about the invention, since all Serge's inventions are amazing; you just wanted to prove Azusa wrong first.

A proud -and slightly insane if you pay too much attention- grin spreads across the inventor's face, "Well! This little sphere can basically combine multiple people's strength and thoughts then portray it onto whoever is carrying it!"

Unsure what that's supposed to mean, you and Azusa merely stare with slightly tilted heads. Serge stares back in anticipation until he realizes you both understood nothing of what he explained.

"Okay, how about we try it? That'll explain it a bit better. (Y/N), do you wanna try it?" He offers.

You hesitate, but seeing the gleam in his eyes, you couldn't object. "Uh, yeah, why not?"

He twists the ball before handing it over to you, which resulted in it splitting right through the middle to show a plain, black strip underneath. "Okay, so first of all, you have to think of a range. So, like maybe think everyone in this room, okay?" Serge explains, as he hands you the invention, that was a lot lighter than you expected.

"Then Azusa and I have to think of a creature or something, while you press the ball together, then it combines our magic and thoughts to turn you into whatever we thought of, get it?"

You nod eagerly, and push the two parts of the sphere together the way Serge instructed.

It was a mistake.

Why? Well, first of all, you didn't even warn them beforehand, so they were both caught of guard. Second of all, someone walked in right as you were trying out the invention, which resulted in their inclusion in the range you thought of- everyone in this room.

You fell to the ground with a loud thump, accidentally letting go of the ball of troubles that went rolling towards the newcomer's foot. At first, you didn't understand why this transformation included you dropping to the ground, but it didn't take you too long to figure out. "What the fuck?!"

Azusa tries not to burst into laughter (he didn't try hard enough). Meanwhile, Serge stares at you, his index finger and thumb around his chin, "Maybe we should've agreed to think about one thing.."

"You should've considered that before trying it out on me!!" You complain.

Serge jumps to the defence of his precious invention, "I mean part of the invention is that it reaches common ground! Which it did! I thought of a fairy, and I guess Azusa thought of a mermaid...but why the bunny ears?"

The intruder walks closer, globe in hand. "I suppose that could be my fault?" Klaus hands Serge the sphere but keeps his confused and slightly horrified gaze on you. "It would've fit you well if it weren't for the other..modifications. Now, you're an actual bunnyhead." He adds, as if that helps in any way.

"Well, can't we just turn her back using the invention again?" Azusa, who seemed to be in a weirdly good mood, asked.

Just when you feel like there's a solution to your strange form, Serge frowns. "You can only use it once every forty minutes.."

You groan. "How bad does it look?" You could see the blue tail you'd grown where your legs used to be, and you could feel some scales all over your body, but you weren't sure what happened to your face. You hoped for nothing too weird, as you pull out a mirror from your backpack.

"I mean..It could pass off as normal if we exclude the tail?" Serge gives a nervous smile.

Blue hair. Pointed ears like an elf's. On top of your head were also another pair of ears- a bunny's. There were only a few scales on your face, but your skin had turned to a very light sky blue colour too, so there's that.

You bring the mirror down to squint at Serge, "Define normal."

"I mean people are usually not that attentive or sharp, to be fair." Klaus shrugs.

"I have blue skin! And two pairs of ears! And scales! You'd have to be blind not to notice that!" You snap.

"Why are you snapping at me?! Don't force me to give you extra assignments!" He warns.

You pretend to clear your throat, "uh, sorry. Forget that happened."

"It's important to mention that class begins in like.." Klaus glances at his watch, "ten minutes."

"Ten minutes?! What are we gonna do?!" You begin to panic. "Also, being dry makes me uncomfortable." Man, why are you acting like a real mermaid?

"Do you want me to take you to the lake?" Azusa teases, earning a glare from you.

"You guys need to hide somewhere until I figure out a way to reverse it...or the forty minutes are over.." Serge scratches the back of his head nervously.

"How are we even going to leave the classroom without attracting attention?"

Wrapped in both your own cloak and Azusa's cloak, you felt like you were imitating voldemort's look during the beginning of the goblet of fire. It wasn't the best feeling. The fact that Azusa had to carry you wasn't helping either.

"(Y/N)? Azusa? What's wrong? Why are you carrying her?" Elias stops you both, and you use all your power to pray he doesn't notice anything weird with your figure. Elias would be understanding, but let's just say; the less people that got to see your odd transformation, the better.

"Um..she hurt her leg." Azusa blurts out.

"What?! How?" Elias's voice was filled with concern, forcing you to feel guilty for the lie.

"D-don't worry about it; it's not bad! Azusa is just exaggerating!" You laugh nervously.

"Okay.." The blond male nods slowly, as if slightly suspicious, "why are you wrapped up like that?"

"I'm..I'm cold." You wanted to slap yourself for how bad your lies were turning out.

"Are those..bunny ears?" Elias points out the long, furry ears you'd pressed down underneath the hood of the cloak, in attempts to conceal it.

"It's..it's a costume!" You glance between Azusa and Elias in panic, silently asking your boyfriend for help.

"A costume? What for?" You love Elias; you really do, but at the moment, you just wish he'd stop asking so much questions.

"You don't wanna know." Azusa smirks, earning a bashful oh from the smaller boy, before proudly leaving with you in his arms.

"Really, Azusa?! Out of anything you could've said?!" You complain, fairly embarassed by his bold statement as well.

"I panicked." Shrugs a perfectly calm Azusa.

###

"How much longer do I have to wait?!" You groan, pulling at the hood of your cloak and pressing your second pair of ears further down.

"I don't know; it seems like we'll have to wait for the forty minutes to be over." He gives you a sympathetic smile, but that doesn't stop you from releasing a louder groan and dramatically lying back on the grass in defeat.

You hear a chuckle, directing your attention back to the male sitting opposite to you with crossed legs. "You know you actually look kind of cute like that; I'm considering keeping you from transforming back." He smirks.

"You wouldn't dare!" Your bunny ears push your hood back, taking a stiff, straight position towards the back of your head. It was supposed to show aggression, but it seemed to only look adorable to your boyfriend, who just burst into laughter.

"See? You're so cute." He speaks in utter awe, petting your head to further increase your displeasure.

"Hey! Don't make me get violent with you; I'll-" He connects his pink lips with your pale blue ones, interrupting your empty threat. You could feel your bunny ears relax and stay down near your face. You were glad his eyes were shut; otherwise, he would've once more burst into laughter at your inconveniences.

"Am I interrupting something?" The familiar voice of a person that indeed enjoyed interrupting happy moments for his sadistic pleasures- okay he wasn't so bad, but this was the best part of your day; come on!

"Uh..no?" You give an awkward smile, after you pull away from Azusa in a rush.

"Technically, the forty minutes are over. You're free, bunnyhead." Klaus chuckles, tossing you the troublesome sphere. You could clearly see how much more he's enjoying using that nickname. "Serge was so caught up in figuring out something to reverse it that he didn't notice the time was up anyway."

"Oh! Thank you!" You hold the globe with such relief. "Okay, Azusa think of my usual form!"

"Got it." He gives a thumbs up, signalling you to go on. You comply and once again press the ball together after twisting it the way Serge did earlier. This time your range was just one person- Azusa. This should go perfectly fine.

Your normal skin colour and hair colour were back! Also, no fish tail or scales! You get off the ground, cheering loudly. "Finally! I'm back!"

Klaus was giving you and Azusa confused looks. Azusa was yet again trying not to laugh. You paused, deciding your celebration should probably be delayed- something was definitely up.

"Are we supposed to tell her?" Klaus turns to Azusa.

"Nope."

"Tell her what?" You begin patting your face, trying to figure out what's off. Then you reached it. Those fucking bunny ears were still there. "Azusa!"

"Oops?" He smiles innocently. "You look extra adorable, though, and that's thanks to me." He defends.

"You're pure evil!"

"You know you love me." He states, a smirk decorating his lips.

You huff, trying to distract from your burning hot cheeks. "I do."

"I love you too." You somehow didn't notice until now, but his face was now a lot closer than before. His eyes were switching glances between your eyes and lips.

"You do know I'm still here, right?"

"Yeah, why are you still here?" Azusa rolls his eyes at the blond, reluctantly pulling away from you.

"Oh, yeah, my bad; let me just walk away with this." Klaus had apparently retrieved the orb and was now walking away with the only cure to your current state.

"Hey, Klaus! Klaus, wait!" You chase after the taller male that made it a point to walk faster and ignore your shouts.

Anyway, long story short: now the entire academy thinks you can make some very good, convincing costumes. How you wish that was the case..

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misc-oneshots · 7 years ago

Text

It’s a date

Words: 3,156

Remus Lupin x Weasley!Reader

Reader is the second oldest Weasley child, between Bill and Charlie, and takes a break from her usual Auror role to help with security at Hogwarts the year that Sirius Black escapes Azkaban. But with her sister still reeling from being possessed by Tom Riddle the previous year, her adopted brother being targeted by a serial killer and falling for the Werewolf professor, this year is going to be anything but quiet.

Part one Part two Part three

Being back at Hogwarts was like visiting an old friend.

Back when you were a student running around causing trouble with your brothers you never expected that you’d be stood at the top of the Great Hall beside the teacher’s table as an incredibly successful Auror. If only the circumstances were better, it would make your return perfect but alas, you were back at one of your favourite places as a glorified bodyguard. Professor Dumbledore stood at his podium at the front of the school and addressed his students, “Now I know that as you come back to us at Hogwarts that you may have heard distressing things. What you have read is true, Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban prison. However, the Ministry wants to ensure the safety of all of our students so they have indebted to us Dementors to help guard the school. They have also, very kindly, assigned us several very competent, very successful Aurors to ensure your safety.” He moved his arm back to the table at the top of the hall where you sat with two other Aurors who tried their best to look incredibly cool.

Dumbledore continued, “Now, I must stress that the appointment of these Aurors does not mean that any of you are in danger but rather that we want to make certain that all staff and students feel safe and give them opportunity to report anything suspicious. I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce Professor Lupin, our new head of Defence against the Dark Arts. Now please, enjoy your meals.”

As he finished the tables filled with mountains of amazing looking food. The other two Aurors who sat with you on the smaller table at the front chatted amongst themselves and filled their plates up high, it was nice for them having a moment to relax after the weeks of chasing the criminals who escaped from Azkaban. Still, it bothered you that, as one of the strongest Aurors at the Ministry’s disposal, you’d been taken away from tracking down the criminals and been sent to guard Hogwarts. The Minister may have been putting a brave face on but it was obvious that Dumbledore was expecting something to happen and that the parent’s needed reassurance.

You picked at a few bits from the table and put them on your plate before examining the room. Nothing much had changed since your time there. The house tables sat in the same order and as usual there was a Weasley in residence. Being born between Bill and Charlie meant that you’d grown up incredibly close as the three oldest. Oh, how you used to drive McGonagall insane! Though you doubted that she would have changed anything about you and it reminded you to go and find Peeves the Poltergeist later to remise about your adventures. You were revealing in your memories when Fred caught you eye and waved. At his movement, George, Ginny, Ron and Harry also waved in your direction. Hermione offered you a smile, you didn’t know her well but the boys spoke about her. You gave them as discreet little wave back and they went back to their conversations. You loved your brothers and that included Harry for sure since he’d spent the last two summers living with your family but as the only girls in a house full of boys, you and Ginny were incredibly close despite the age gap. In fact, half of the times that Fred and George had been blamed for blowing things it was actually you and Ginny up to no good. She’d desperately needed you last summer after the incident with Tom Riddle’s diary and you’d spent all summer off work helping her rebuild her control of her own mind and her confidence along with the rest of your family, especially the twins whose jokes at her expense pulled her back to near normality a lot faster. It was only because she seemed so much better that you felt okay to go and chase down the death eaters when Azkaban had been broken into. You often blamed not moving out of the Burrow on not wanting Ginny to kick all the boy’s asses in your absence but really you wanted to help your parents financially since being an Auror was an incredibly well payed job. After Mum and Dad had struggled and scrimped to raise eight children (including yourself), nine if you included Harry, on one underpaid Ministry job you wanted to help them anyway that you could. You paid most of the household bills and lived at home in your quite spacious basement room.

A shadow moved across one of the high windows and your eyes darted to it. A dementor. Ron had caught you in the hallway and told you what had happened on the train and that Professor Lupin had saved them. You made a mental note to check on Harry later and to thank Professor Lupin. You spared him a glance at the teacher’s table where the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher picked at a few bits on his plate and tried to sink back into his chair. You could see the book waiting beside his hand and the encouraging glances that Professor McGonagall sent him, she must has taught him like she had you, she’d always been your favourite Professor. Lupin seemed nice enough, not that the other Aurors would agree, as soon as Dumbledore had told you about Lupin’s werewolf affliction they had made their mind up that they disliked him.

Prejudice assholes.

Like he knew he was being watched, Lupin glanced up at you. His scarred features where tired and you offered him a friendly smile, you didn’t want him to think that you were watching his behaviour just because you were examining the Great Hall. He didn’t return the smile before he glanced back down at his plate. He must have been told that the staff and Aurors were aware of this condition. You focused back on the Gryffindor table were Fred and George were taking it in turns to try and throw carrots into Ron’s open mouth with Harry and Ginny cheering on different twins. You watched them laugh and cheer and hoped beyond hope that your gut instinct about this year was wrong. You swore to yourself you were going to keep them safe from whatever this year would threw at them.

—–

The first full moon of the school year came only days into the first term.

Since you were the Auror in charge of your little gang you took the night shift, you’d kept guard of the Shrieking Shack throughout the night at the request of Dumbledore but you’d not seen Remus Lupin since the first meal of the school year, which was a shame because you wanted to thank him for looking after Harry, Ron and Hermione on the train. You sat to your little Auror table and hid a yawn behind your hand. It was odd eating your dinner before bed when everyone else was eating their breakfast but you didn’t mind running on a mostly different schedule because then no one could accuse you of wasting time with your siblings instead of working. Your Auror teammates chatted idly about their scheduled patrol routes through the castle for the day while you picked at your food.

Before breakfast you’d met them both at Dumbledore’s office and you’d swapped intel for the last few days which basically meant they wanted a report on if Lupin had misbehaved during the full moon.

You were glad that you had nothing to report on that front.

Speaking of the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, he wasn’t at breakfast and if any of the students noted his absence then you didn’t hear anything. You picked at your dinner for a bit longer before picking up a new plate and piling it with chocolate muffins and picking up two new mugs and filled on with coffee and one with hot chocolate. “Have a good day guys, I’m off to bed. If you need me urgently you can signal my wand.” You said your goodbyes to the two Aurors and on your way out of the Great Hall you nodded a goodbye to your family at the Gryffindor table.

On your way to your assigned bedroom, which were behind the teacher’s rooms, you paused outside Remus’ room and, with both of your hands full, gently tapped the bottom of the door with your foot. As you moved to set down the plate and mugs the door swung creaked open and you could make out a slither of Remus in the doorway. You jumped back to stand up straight, “Sorry Professor Lupin, I didn’t mean to disturb you I just wanted to alert you to the fact that there are hot drinks out here when you’re ready.” You lifted the mugs and plates up in your hands to show them off.

The door creaked open a bit more and Lupin leaned against the doorframe, his eyes dark and hallow. He tried to run his fingers through his hair but the action left it sticking out awkwardly, “Why?” He asked. You glanced down at the mugs, “I didn’t know if you’d prefer coffee or hot chocolate so I thought I’d bring both.” “That’s not what I meant.” His voice dry and tired. “Well, I didn’t want you to miss breakfast.” You shrugged and held out the plate for him to take. Remus took it from you and gave you suspicious look, “Thank you, that’s very nice of you.”

You moved your wand out and bewitched the mugs to float between you both and gave him an easy grin, “Not really. You looked after my brothers so I’ll look after you.” “Your brothers?” Remus asked, his eyes brightening within his dark expression. You nodded, “Ron and Harry and their friend Hermione and all that trouble with the Dementor. I’d hate to think about what could’ve happened if you weren’t there.” You waved away the thought. Remus let go of his suspicion at your words, after all these years worrying about Lily and James’ beautiful little boy it was good to hear a powerful Auror referring to him as family.

“Don’t think about it.” Remus advised you, “Thank you again, er-?” “Y/N Weasley.” You held you hand out and Remus reached from the doorway to shake it. “Pleasure to meet you Y/N.” He gave you a tired smile. “And you Professor. Right, I’m going to bed.” You gave him a small wave before leaving down the hall.

——

The next few weeks you fell into the habit of sleeping for a few hours during the student’s classes before going for breakfast in the Great Hall (Everyone else’s dinner) and then spending time with your siblings or retiring to the library before conducting the night patrol. For most of this week you’d spent your evenings sat across from Lupin at the library, both reading and enjoying the silence of each other’s company. Tonight, was one of those nights. Remus offered you a smile in acknowledgment as he sat across from you and for the first time in a while, he started the conversation. “I brought chocolate and butterbeer.” He smiled and put them down on the small coffee table between you. “Careful don’t let Pince see those!” You grinned, “Once me and Charlie snuck a baby dragon in here and it scorched half of the potions journals. We had to get Peeves to help us escape Pince!” “Well that’s one of the benefits of sitting in the restricted section and Pince doesn’t really come near me…” Remus trailed off when he realised that he’d let his guard down. After a week of spending easy carefree time with someone who already knew his secret it was hard not to let things slip.

You leaned forwards to break apart some chocolate and gave him a wide grin, “So you’re like her kryptonite? Good to know, I’ll have to stick close to you.” He smiled despite his confusion, “Kryptonite?” You waved your hand, “Harry mentioned these muggle things called comic books to my Dad and we had to investigate. They’re like our picture books but the pictures don’t move. They’re so weird but a good way to spend a week in the Summer. It means that you’re her weakness, you make her powerless.”

Lupin shook his head, “Well there’s a first. You should have seen how the librarian before her reacted when we set off fireworks in the restricted section. James set them off and because of his hearing Siri-” Lupin stopped abruptly and took a drink from his butterbeer. You swallowed hard, “Professor –” “Remus, please.” He corrected you. “Remus, I’m sure you know that before I was assigned here I was debriefed on the history of Sirius Black and the threat he possesses.” You told him. Remus said nothing so you continued, “All I’m trying to say is that you can have fond memories and reminisce on the past - regardless of present circumstances.” “There are a few at this school who would disagree with you.” He mumbled and you could see him shrinking back into himself. You snorted, “Well then, they disagree with happiness and enjoying life and they’ll have to answer to me.” Remus seemed unconvinced but still gave you a smile as he settled back into his seat and opened his book. You returned the smile and opened your book to read but found that the words on the page danced outside of your concentration.

Shit.

You had a thing for Remus. You hid your face slightly behind your book at your realisation in case your cheeks had brightened. Yes, he was an incredibly kind, intelligent man who was oddly charismatic and his scars made him even more attractive. Shit, this wasn’t good. You were here for a job.

———

“Is it weird for you now, being up at this time?” Remus asked from beside you as you stood outside in the afternoon sun. “Quiet you.” You grumbled and sipped at the coffee that you’d managed to barter from the kitchens. Remus smirked at your attitude before focusing back on his students, “You’re doing very well Mr Longbottom. Keep at it.”

During a night of patrolling the castle you’d found Fred and George smuggling ingredients for their products from the Forbidden Forest. Unfortunately, Flitch had also caught them so you couldn’t let them off but you did hide their ingredients for them – without the evidence against them the twins could only be given detention. You promised to give them their ingredients back when they’d brought their grades in Potions up. After all that fiasco you’d managed to get an hour or two of sleep before a Hufflepuff student had told McGonagall that the reason that they were late for class was because they had seen Sirius Black.

Even though everyone knew that he was trying to lie his way out of trouble it was still your duty as head of your little Auror brigade to search the grounds before reporting your findings to Professor Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape. Then, since the whole school was a tatter with rumours, Dumbledore asked you to stay awake and assist Lupin with overseeing his classes outdoor defence class. “Not a morning person Y/N?” He asked and you were damn sure that you could hear him mocking you. “Not a night person, Remus?” You smirked and sipped your drink, you could see him shaking his head in your peripheral vision. “Below the belt.” He mumbled to you but you could hear the amusement in his voice. He continued to guide the students on proper stance and posture for a while before coming to stand back with you. “What’re doing tomorrow?” Lupin asked you. You magicked your empty mug away and cornered the older wizard with a suspicious look, “Well I was planning on sleeping but what do you have on your mind?” He gave a half shrug, “The weather is supposed to be nice and the students have a half day so I have no lessons in the afternoon. I was thinking, picnic?” “I didn’t know you could cook.” You said. He shook his head and scratched one of the scars on his cheek, “I was hoping to convince one of the house elves to take pity on me and help me prepare it. We could read outside for change.” You shrugged, “Sure, why not? It’s a date.” Your face flushed when you realised what you’d said and unfortunately, he caught it.

“Is it?” Lupin asked, he made sure to keep his gaze out on his students rather than look at you. Making sure none of the kids would see you, you nudged his arm with your shoulder, “Shut up old man, you know what I meant.” Your conversation was interrupted when Ron, Harry and Hermione rushed up to both. “Y/N! Is it true?” Ron blurted out as they stopped in front of you. You raised a brow at your brother, “Is it true that you seem to have lost all your manners? Yes, it is true.” “Y/N, Professor Lupin, is it true that Sirius Black was seen today?” Harry asked, his eyes wide with fear. “Harry it’s true that someone claimed to have seen him to get themselves out of trouble.” You told him, “There’s nothing to worry about. Have I ever stirred you guys wrong?” “Well there was the time you let Fred and George convince me that I should stick wizard chess pieces in Percy’s hair.” Ron mumbled. “I was a teenager and Percy had just told Bill and Charlie about me having a date without telling them.” You told him, “This is different, I’m here to make sure that you’re all safe. Do you trust me to do that?” Slowly all three of them nodded in agreement with you. Remus clapped his hands together, “Now that’s settled, why don’t you go and practice your sparring.” He encouraged them with a soft smile to return to the rest of the class.

You watched the class idly for a while until Professor Snape appeared beside you, “Miss Weasley, the headmaster requires more information about the allegations made this morning. If you have time to step away from Professor Lupin’s lesson that is.” His voice was condescending. Remus gave Snape a tight, forced smile, “Of course if you need to go Y/N then do so, I’ll sure that’ll see you tomorrow.” “I’m sure you will Professor.” You gave him a Professional nod in front of Snape but you couldn’t stop your excitement. No matter what either of you had said, it was a date.

This will either be a series or just this one part – let me know if you guys think I should do it as a series :) @serenity-schuyler

#remus lupin imagine #remus x reader #remus lupin x reader #remus lupin oneshot #lupin imagine #the prisioner of azkaban #weasley imagine #harry potter one shot #harry potter imagine #harry potter x reader #ko-fi #ko-fi misc-oneshots

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amollion · 8 years ago

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Newcomers Pt6

“EAT IT!!!”

“NO”

“I SAID EAT IT!”

“GET OFF ME WOMAN!!” Hesky shouts throwing Karen off him and running out the door.

“YOU WILL ACCEPT MY VALENTINE LOVE!!!” she shouts chasing after him holding her home made chocolates above her head.

The two Humans screaming and running past Dr Loop's door was nothing out of the ordinary these days, he liked the Humans and found them fascinating and rather good company. That did not mean that he did not find them odd to the point of thinking they were all insane. Some were quiet and preferred to be alone and other were loud and found hurting themselves to be hilarious. Suddenly his door opened with another Human limping.

“What happened to you?” Dr Loop asks.

“Sergeant Stabby got me” he replies.

“Why do you keep it around and why the Admiral allows that thing to stay I'll never know”

“Don't talk ill of Sergeant Stabby, he is war hero you know”

“IT is a cleaning machine”

“Irrelevant he is a hero and deserves our respect”

“But-”

“SHHHHHH here he comes”

Sergeant Stabby made his way into the Dr's office and bumped into a few wall and furniture all the while the Human stood up and saluted it until it left.

“Tell me something um...” Dr Loop said

“Cho”

“Cho, tell me something Cho is it the norm for you race to be so....nuts?”

Cho smiled “You've never been to Terra have you?”

“No”

“Shame, because if you think we are crazy you'd love to see us on our home world”

Dr Loop just scoffed and went to look at Cho's foot. “The bleeding has already stopped”

“Well yeah he doesn't stab us deeply”

“But still for wound like this to stop bleeding so soon”

“Yeah it's clotting? Wait...have you worked on Humans before”

“I have studied Human anatomy yes”

“But actually worked with one? In person before we got here?”

Dr Loop did not like his skills being questioned, his race the Seelom were a very proud race especially of their skills.

“It matters not, I know all the ins and outs of your kinds bodies, probably better than you and the rest of your backwards and primitive kind”

Cho raised an eyebrow “Give your arm for a sec” he asked.

“Why?”

“Just trust me”

Dr Loop gave him one of his right arms and Cho stuck out his tongue all the while looking at his face for a reaction but Dr Loop just looked confused and a little disgusted.

Cho licked his arm and a split second later Dr Loop was screaming as Cho's saliva burned through his skin.

Dr Loop fell tot he floor cradling his arm and after a few more seconds the burning stopped and Cho was on his feet.

“Guess you forgot our saliva is like acid to your kind” he said and left without helping him up.

The Benemar Chief of Admiral Polts fleet was back on Bento Prime, he had already been disgraced for not seeking justice after one of his clan leaders was killed by a Human female. And to let the Humans gain all the glory for the liberation of Remer making their kind out to be a joke.

“Cheif Goolack of the Benemar step forward!” called one of the High Chieftains and he stpped forward.

“You are a coward and weak, you let the murder of your own kind go unanswered and these Humans push you around like your are their slave, what say you in your defence”

Chief Goolack stood up straight, the chains around his wrists were heavy and those around his legs were heavier, his pig-like nose snorted and his tusks had been cut to show his disgrace.

“I am a Benemar and I fought for our people and uphold my laws and our laws say that the STRONG!!! rule. Well the Humans have shown their strength and I saw their might in battle against a foe who outnumbered them many times over and they came away from that battle covered in the blood of their enemies. They are the only race who has ever besieged our world and you judge me as a coward for respecting strength?”

“They are the ENEMY!!! they burned our breeding pens and they must be wiped out. They are gaining too much power, power they are taking from us”

The court cheered and banged their weapons which were a combination of ancient war axes and rifles against their armour.

“Let this cry go out across to the star to all Benemar, the Alliance high command has given us the location oft heir breeding ground, we march...TO WAR!!!!”

The Benemar all over the Alliance suddenly began disappearing from Alliance ships, when asked why they were going back to their home world they simply replied “The High Chief has risen the banner”

Many thought this was the Benemar about to begin an independent push into Gal territory but they did not deny or confirm this and the army on Bento Prime continued to grow, the Humans though did not trust the Benemar and kept their eye on them.

Life in Admiral Polts fleet went on a s usual, or as usual it could be with the Humans around and with the Benemar now gone their was no hostility in the air. The Humans did their best to include the other races in their odd practices such as celebrating the anniversary of ones birth. They even as far to inquire to the other races celebrations and traditions and asked to take part which made the others rather flattered. They ranged from celebrating the unification of the Fookkarl under one banner which the Humans described as one large orgy as there was a lot of kissing but the Humans obliged.

The fun did not stop there.

Depit, an Elong like Admiral Polt was travelling in the ship main elevator to the observatory when it stopped to let a number of other crew off but only person got on. It was a Human, female by the looks of her but her stomach was huge, maybe she had just eaten he thought to himself. The elevator stopped a few more times and before long it was only him and this Human who from her tag her name was Sergeant Cathy. He started to sweat, he saw what was left of the body of the Benemar that she had attacked.

She smiled at him and gave a nervous smile back but nothing was said between them, until the elevator suddenly and harshly stopped.

“Ahhh!” Cathy screamed at the sudden change of momentum.

“Are you okay?” he asked and she nodded. “Must be a power outage” he tired raising maintenance but go response, there was no power to the that call button either. Suddenly Cathy was breathing fast and hard.

“Umm, are you sure you're okay” he asked again but she shook her head and held her large stomach.

“The baby is coming” she panted.

“Baby? What baby?”

“I'm FUCKING PREGNANT YOU ASSHOLE!!! she screamed and he jumped.

“Oh? OH?!!! CRAP!”

Cathy sat down as her water broke and leaned back.

“What do I do!! HELP!” he shouted into the call button in some hope that someone would hear.

“What...what is your name?” she asked.

“Depit”

“Depit, come here I need you to help me” she said holding out her hand and he slowly came and she grabbed it.

“I don't know what to do” Depit said.

“Just hold my hand and squeeze when I squeeze!”

“What?”

“AHHHHHHH” Cathy screamed and squeezed Depits hand so hard she broke two of his fingers as he had tried to pull away when he heard the word squeeze.

“WHY YOU PULL AWAY!!!” she shouted at him.

“You'll break my hand if you squeeze it”

It then dawn on her that Humans were far stronger than Elong, so she pulled off her trousers and tore off a piece so she could bite down on it and screamed again.

“Why are you screaming what's happening I don't how to help” Depit said panicking.

“IM HAVING CONTRACTIONS YOU FUCKING IMBECILE!”

“WHAT ARE THOSE!!!!”

“MY BODY IS GETTING READY TO PUSH THE BABY OUT!”

“OF WHERE!!”

“WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU THINK?!!!”

Another contraction came and she screamed so loud Depit had to cover his ears.

This went on for over and hour till finally Cathy stopped screaming as contractions suddenly stopped.

“Okay...okay” she said to herself with Depit fanning her with his wings.

“How long does this usually go on for?” he asked.

“My mother was in labour for 32 hours with me”

“32 HOURS!”

“Ah don't shout, I'm lucky the contractions have stopped”

“What happens next?”

Cathy looked at him “Next comes the pushing”

“Elong births are lot...faster than this”

“You're a bird race, you have it easy” she laughed. Then started panting. “Here it comes! Get between my legs!!”

Depit obeyed and cathy spread herself and Depit froze.

“What do I do?”

“Catch!”

“Catch?”

Cathy burst into laughter “I'm kidding, just guide it out”

Depit got ready and Cathy screamed again, this time louder and so much Depit thoughtt he walls were shaking.

“I can see the egg”

“IT'S NOT AN EGG IT'S A FUCKING HEAD!! WE DON'T LAY FUCKING EGGS!!!”

“WHAT!!! HOW THE...I'M SORRY...BY CREATION WHAT THE.....!” he screamed as the head appeared.

Cathy started breathing again and moved her hand to feel where the baby was “okay, one more” she positioned herself and Depit put his hands by the baby's head and Cathy pushed with every ounce of her remaining strength and it fell into Depits arms.

After the baby began crying he handed it to Cathy who wrapped it up in her jacket and cradled it.

“It's a boy” she said.

“No wonder your race is so tough, you endure coming into the world like that and are willingly go through it to bring one of your own into the world”

“And we do it over and over again, I'll be doing at least two more times I think” she laughed “What did you say your name was again?”

“Depit, my name is Depit”

Cathy smiled and looked down at her son “Do you mind if I call my son Depit?”

Depit's eyes nearly shot out of his head, for a child to bear ones name is a great honor among his people. “You would do me that honour?”

“Of course, you brought him into the world, well I did most of the work but still”

“Thankyou” he said smiling.

“Oh beware of the after birth”

“The what?” Depit said looking down just as it slumped down in front of him.

In the higher levels and completely unaware of the new addition to their family the Humans were having a friendly game of football with some of the Aliens when Captain Clerk called for a stop. Admiral Polt was with him and everyone could tell by their Captains face that something had happened.

“Men and woman of the 8th Human army” Clerk started “Approximately 16 hours ago the Benemar launched a full scale assault on Terra”

The air became heavy as if every Human and Alien had stopped breathing, no one spoke.

“The battle is still going on and all Human forces are being recalled to aid the defence force fighting there, our latest report says they have breached our outer defence net and are landing their troops. So get your stuff I want us ready to go yesterday!!”

The Humans didn't say anything and as a single mind dropped what they were doing and ran to their quarters and collected all their belongings and things they brought with them. The cargo hold that they had made their own was dismantled within 10 minutes, every Human was found and accounted for including Cathy and her new son Depit. Hesky was thrilled to see his son but annoyed that she named him something that reminded him of cesspit.

Within 2 hours the Humans were all loaded onto their own ships, they said a quick farewell to their Alien friends and set off for Terra.

The Benemar continued their assault, unaware that word had gotten out about their attack on Terra, unaware of the armada coming for them.

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #humans are weird #newcomers

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pokemaniacal · 8 years ago

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Pokémon Moon, Episode 16: In Which I Am Judged By The Forces Of Nature, As Personified By A Giant Angry Lizard

Hapu and Mudsdale are waiting for us at the entrance to the Vast Poni Canyon, beneath a tall dead tree. “Did everything go well?” she asks Lillie. “Yes, it did! Though Chris had to help me out of all sorts of trouble, like usual.” “Nothing wrong with that. People cannot survive all on their own. They have got to help one another out.” Hapu suddenly notices B, and pauses. “You are one of those Pokémon thieves, Team Skull,” she says in a calm, level voice. “We ain’t no thieves just ‘cause we got a few tricks up our sleeves!” B objects. “It’s fine, Hapu; he’s with me,” I tell her. That gets me a cocked head and a hint of a smirk. “That is, with us,” I clarify irritably. Hapu squints at B suspiciously. “Are you not the same member of Team Skull who tried to steal that Drifloon on Akala Island? And tagged the fourth storey of that pagoda in the Malie Gardens?” “…uh…” “No, no, no, of course not,” I assure her, “he just- wait, pagoda?” I look at B. “You didn’t tell me about that.” “Yo, you ain’t never told me to tell you nothin’ about stuff I did in Team Skull!” “No, I just mean- the fourth storey, that’s actually kind of impressive; how did you even do that?” Hapu coughs loudly. “Ah… what I mean is… no, that was someone else. Someone else also in Team Skull.” She stares silently for a few seconds. “They, um… look similar because they all wear the same clothes.” “Hmph. You big city types have some strange ideas about dealing with criminals, I can tell you that.” “It’s… a different world, what can I say? Listen, Hapu, it’s good to see you, but we should get going-” “Not so fast,” Hapu interrupts. “I would like to see this battling skill of yours, Chris, that makes Lillie smile so.” She unclips a Pokéball from her belt and brandishes it in challenge. “Just so! It is my grand trial!” “Hapu, do we really have time for this?” I protest. “We have to reach the Altar of the Moone and conduct the ritual before… well… before what, I don’t know, but as soon as possible, anyway.” Hapu looks disappointed, but at this point B butts in. “Yo, ain’t this your last grand trial, homie?” “Well… well, yes, but-” “Then you gotta fight, and do it with all your might! Don’choo know how many Alolans ain’t never had this chance? How many never even got to advance?” The indignant flash in his eyes makes me remember – Team Skull is mostly made up of trainers who failed the Island Challenge. I nod, and turn back to Hapu. “Let’s do this.” Hapu grins. “Then this is the first grand trial of Kahuna Hapu! I will battle you with everything that I have got!”

Hapu, true to her word, doesn’t hold back, coming at me with the full power of a newly-anointed Kahuna. As Mudsdale attests, her specialty is Ground-types, so I open with my Toucannon against her Dugtrio. It’s the long-haired Alolan Steel-type variant, of course, so Toucannon’s Brick Break makes short work of it, and Hapu’s next Pokémon, a Gastrodon, instantly withers under a Bullet Seed assault. My Toucannon even manages to give Hapu’s next Pokémon, a Flygon, a run for its money with her Beak Blast. The Flygon has the good sense not to attack her at close range, though, and finishes her from a distance with Dragonbreath. My Psychu is able to outrun the Flygon and finish it off with Psychic, as well as denting Hapu’s final Pokémon, Mudsdale, but predictably gets demolished when Hapu unleashes the powers given to her by Tapu Fini in the form of a new attack, Tectonic Rage, which damn near collapses the entrance to the canyon. It’s at this point that I remember Mudsdale’s ability, Stamina – every time it takes an attack, its physical defences grow stronger, and my Decidueye, who would otherwise be the obvious choice, relies entirely on physical attacks. I decide to try Salazzle instead, and manage to poison it with Sludge Bomb. That forces Hapu to spend time healing it and lets me weaken Mudsdale further, but ultimately Salazzle still drops to an Earthquake. Mudsdale, though, is now weak enough for my Golisopod to finish it off with the Bug-type Z-move, Savage Spin-Out. Hapu tends to her Musdale’s injuries and chuckles. “Oho… you sure showed me. That was enjoyable. Looks like I cannot beat you even when I am not holding back. Take your Ground-type Z-Crystal, then – this Groundium-Z is yours!” I take the crystal and bow my head in thanks. “Well, I must applaud you, Lillie. You sure found a prodigious trainer to befriend. And you…” she turns to B. “I suppose it is possible I have misjudged you and your… comrades. Be sure to follow this one’s example.” B nods. “Then go on with you three! It will be a tough road – but if you end up in any real trouble, Mudsdale and I will hasten to you.” With that, she hops onto Mudsdale’s back and the two of them plod off homeward.

The Vast Poni Canyon is a truly scenic area, criss-crossed by paths along the canyon walls, bridges across its width, and tunnels through the sides. The walls of the canyon are rippled with different coloured sediments, the fingerprint of millions of years of stratification. There’s a straight path along the canyon floor, but it’s blocked by fallen boulders, and even a Machamp can only clear the way from the far side. Clearly this is one part of Alola that the tourism board hasn’t managed to touch yet. That’s not to say there’s no one here – at least a dozen powerful Pokémon trainers have staked out spots within the canyon for their own personal advanced training regimes, giving the whole place an almost Victory Road-like feel. They knew what they were getting themselves into, and relish the rugged, difficult environment. Lillie… does not. “Phew… this canyon truly is a difficult path to walk,” she says as we drag ourselves up a steep cliffside path. “And you make even the Vast Poni Canyon seem like nothing at all, B!” “Yo, it ain’t no thing. In Team Skull we’re all so boneheaded there ain’t anything what’ll slow us down!” “Well, it does help to have Pokémon to help you defend yourself,” I point out, then turn to Lillie. “I still don’t understand why we didn’t get you a starter Pokémon from Professor Kukui before we came to Poni Island. It’d be about as much use here as a damp sponge at the Battle of the Somme, but you have to start somewhere.” “Oh… I don’t know if I’m ready for that responsibility yet…” “Responsibility?” B laughs bitterly. “There ain’t no kid in Alola what was ready for that responsibility when they got their start. Didn’t stop no-one before.” “You think it should have?” I ask. B pauses awkwardly and sighs. “I don’t think nothin’, I’m just a numskull, ‘member? But if kids knew a thing or three before we got our first Pokémon, maybe there wouldn’t be so many of us what couldn’t find no home except in Team Skull. You give kids Pokémon and tell ‘em to get strong, ‘fore you ever tell ‘em what’s right and wrong, you really think it’s gonna take long, for them to find somewhere dangerous to belong?” I stop walking – we’ve come to a bridge across the canyon. “How exactly do you fail the island challenge?” I ask. B doesn’t answer. Lillie, apparently sensing the awkwardness, jumps in front of us. “Well! Well… you know what? I’ve overcome my fears enough to… uh… cross even a high bridge like this one!” She waves in the general direction of the bridge. “I’m not going to be afraid of heights anymore. Next time I should be able to tackle even that bridge on Mahalo Trail!” This bridge is of a similar construction to that one, wooden and fairly solid, but some underpaid part-time architect saw fit not to equip it with handrails. One good strong gust of wind, and a person of Lillie’s waifish constitution could easily be blown halfway down the canyon. Lillie’s face is sending desperate signals for help, and seems to be trying to tell us that her mouth and legs have been taken over by an insane terrorist cell, but she keeps talking. “Watch this! This is my trial!” Lillie spins around and marches purposefully towards the bridge. B gives me a quizzical glance. “…what she talkin’ about?” “There was a… traumatic experience involving a bridge and some evil birds; the story’s not nearly as interesting as it sounds. This is probably going to be, like, a really big character development thing for her. Just play along.” At first, Lillie inches onto the bridge, but then she gets a sudden burst of determination and dashes out to the middle. “Uh… go Lillie! This bridge ain’t got nothin’ on you!” B tries. “Yeah… uh… you can totally do it… I guess…” I add half-heartedly. As Lillie reaches the halfway point, three Murkrow fly out of nowhere, flap around her head briefly, and then land on the bridge, two in front of her and one behind. Lillie twists her head around, trying to get a fix on where they are and what they want with her, and appears inches from total panic. “…should, uh… should we be doin’ somethin’, homie?” “I think this is one of those… ‘she needs to do this herself’ situations.” We watch the standoff in silence for a minute. “Just say the word if you want us to smoke ‘em,” I offer. “I-I-I’m fine!” Lillie calls back, before inching one of her feet forward. The Murkrow all caw in unison, and one of the ones in front lunges forward, making her jump back. “Try giving them something sparkly,” I suggest. “Do you have any precious family heirlooms on you? Aside from the flute?” Lillie ignores me and puts her hands together in prayer.

“…I cheated,” B says out of nowhere, another minute into Lillie’s crossing. “Hmm?” “I mean… I dunno what my numskull brothers and sisters did to flunk out of their island challenges… but I cheated in a trial.” He looks down at the floor of the canyon. “…go on.” “It was about a year back, just after that wack Sophocles kid got made the new Captain up on Mount Hokulani. That was the first trial I tried. The Cap was busy with one of his ridonk inventions up at the observatory, so he just sent me down to the trial grounds alone.” “Yeeeeah that sounds like him… When I did the Hokulani trial, he’d built some… godawful MacGyver’d space transmitter out of spare parts and duct tape to summon the totem Pokémon so we didn’t have to go down to the trial grounds.” “Hmph. Figures,” B grunts. “So what happened next?” “What do you think happened, homie? My Zubat ‘gainst that Totem Vikavolt? We didn’t last one turn.” “So you tried to cheat your way through it somehow?” “Not at first! We went off and trained some more… came back and lost again. Didn’t last one turn. Same again, three more times.” “That’s determination,” I comment. “What, you think I only turned into a bonehead after I joined Team Skull?” He grins for a moment. “Didn’t help one bit though.” “Aren’t Totem Pokémon supposed to hold back against new trainers? Like in gym battles?” “Gym battles?” B asks, puzzled. “…it’s a Kanto thing; don’t worry about it. You’ll probably have them in Alola before long if Kukui gets his way.” He shrugs. “Anyway… you’re right. Totem Pokémon ain’t supposed to go all out until you got more experience. But that chump Sophocles didn’t know how to control it, and he didn’t care neither! So me and Zubat snuck into the trial grounds one night and rigged us up a trap what’d catch Vikavolt in a mudslide and wriggity-wreck its shiz.” “Did it work?” “Course it worked, homie! You should’a seen the look on that ugly bug’s ugly mug!” He laughs at the memory. “Sophocles didn’t like that one bit though…” “Well… I mean, that’s bad, don’t get me wrong, but… honestly I knew a guy back in Kanto who pulled some $#!t just as bad in his first gym battle, and no one ever barred him from competing.” I think about that for a moment. “Maybe should have, mind you, but for a new trainer in a desperate situation, you’ve got to figure a few second chances…” “Stuff like that’s supposed to go all the way to the Kahuna, but Ula’ula’s Kahuna don’t give no f&%£s; he ain’t given a f&%£ in years. The number of f&%£s that homie don’t give is friggin’ bananas. So Sophocles called the old Captain… Moe or whatever his name is.” “Molayne,” I tell him. “The Steel-type specialist. I met him too.” “Yeah, well, he weren’t there when this went down; he was… I dunno, at a science convention or something. Homie never even spoke to me. Sophocles talked to him on the phone for, like, ten minutes, then took my trial amulet… and that was that.” “…that’s rough.” “Yeah. It is.” B looks back out over the canyon. I follow his gaze. “D’you think… if Professor Kukui’s new Pokémon League gets off the ground, and he can establish an Elite Four with a Champion… d’you think a Champion would have the authority to overrule that ban?” B frowns. “I dunno… Alola ain’t never had no Champion before. Guess it’d be a new start for a lot of us…” We both remain silent for a while. “Try throwing your shoe!” I call out to Lillie.

Eventually, after getting my Decidueye to quietly snipe the Murkrow with his spirit arrows, we manage to get Lillie to the other side of the bridge. I congratulate her as effusively as I can bear to, and try to subtly offer to cross any future bridges together. As it turns out, there are a couple more bridges on our path through the Vast Poni Canyon, which we cross three abreast with Lillie in the middle to avoid any further evil bird attacks. The next bridge, though, is not guarded by evil birds – instead, standing in the middle is a teenaged girl, blonde with pink streaks in her hair, wearing a baggy white tee-shirt covered in splotches of paint. When I first see her, she’s staring out over the canyon scribbling in a sketchbook, but seconds later she notices us, and immediately puts the book away and holds up her hands in front of her face to “frame” me, Lillie and B between her fingers. I notice, to my surprise, that she’s wearing a wooden ring with an Alolan Captain’s insignia. A couple of Seafolk mentioned that Poni Island had a Captain, and Ilima told me that there were seven in total, but the previous three Kahunas all waited for me to be approved by their subordinates before the grand trial. I’d assumed that Poni Island’s captaincy was vacant and Hapu would need to find someone to fill it. While I’m sizing her up, the Captain apparently finishes her own inspection of us. “Oh! Now, that’s a great composition,” she says. “I could paint a picture of you – the visitors to Poni!” “…should we strike a pose?” I offer hesitantly. “Sort of stare pensively out over the canyon?” B idly flicks his hands through a few gang signs. “Nah, that’s fine. Just act natural.” All of a sudden, her sketchbook is out again, and her pencil is flying back and forth across the page as she records the rough shapes of her composition. Lillie looks at me quizzically, and I shrug at her. “Um… excuse me?” Lillie asks. The Captain glances up from her sketch. “Oh, right. Guess I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Mina; I’m the Captain. I mean, I sort of am. I actually just wander around doing my art, so I don’t have an actual trial or anything…” “No trial? That’s wack, homie; ain’t you got like a duty or something to put trainers through the island challenge?” B looks at me. “See? Alola ain’t fair and it don’t even care.” “Island challenge? Oh… no one’s come about that in aaaaaaages. I actually thought they must’ve taken Poni Island off the route or something.” She laughs. “Hang on,” I break in. “You can’t have been Captain since before Hapu’s grandfather died; you’re not old enough. And she was only just appointed by Tapu Fini to replace him as Kahuna a few days ago. Who appointed you? Were you chosen by your predecessor, like Sophocles was?” “Hmm…? Appointed? You know, I’m not sure anyone did. People just started calling me the Captain, and I decided to go with the flow.” “…you know what? That doesn’t even surprise me at this point.” “Oh, yeah. Ohhhh, yeah,” Mina says, as if remembering something she was supposed to bring up at the start of the conversation. “Here. Take this as a token of our acquaintance.” She hands me a pink Z-crystal. “It’s the Fairium-Z! Get your Z on!” “…no trial, just-? I just get the crystal?” B rolls his eyes, but says nothing. “Weeeell, I’m the captain and all, so I’ve got to come up with a trial,” Mina replies. “Maybe it could involve painting pictures and picking flowers… Maybe a trial like that could be cool?” She gazes off into the distance. “…are we still talking?” Mina’s eyes seem to be glazing over as she contemplates her trial plans. “…hello?” I look at B and Lillie, shrug, then quietly step around Mina and continue across the bridge. Finally, after passing through a gauntlet of trainers, we reach the end of the canyon… which is marked by a pair of brightly coloured totem poles like the ones at the entrances to a the trial site. I exchange puzzled glances with Lillie and B. Just inside is a stone tablet bearing an inscription. “Ahead lies a sacred ground of trials,” I read. “None who do not take part in its trials will be allowed to walk upon this earth. Those lacking the courage to defeat the totem guarding this land will be denied entry… blah blah blah.” “Then this really is a trial?” Lillie asks. “But where’s the Captain?” “I guess this is the trial that Mina chick is supposed to be running? I don’t know; it seems like she specialises in Fairy-types, and I haven’t seen any wild Fairy Pokémon around here… well, aside from a few Carbink in the caves…” “So do we all gotta clear the trial before we can get through?” B asks. Lillie gets a worried look at that. “But- but I can’t take a real Island Challenge trial; I still don’t have any Pokémon!” “Hmm? What? Oh- oh, no, I doubt that will be a problem.” “But it says right there that no homie who don’t take part in no trials gonna be allowed to walk on this here turf, yo!” “Ah, that’s ridiculous; that doesn’t apply to us.” “…for shizzle?” “Yes, for shizzle; it’s just some ancient prohibition that no-one’s probably observed in years. This is the only way to the Altar of the Moone, right? The path can’t just be barred to anyone who’s not on the Island Challenge. Besides, I doubt the trial is even active.” “Active?” Lillie asks, confused. “Well, look around. I don’t see a Captain, or a Totem Pokémon.” Lillie and B both give me a sceptical look. “Come on, guys; this island hasn’t had a Kahuna in years, and the only Captain doesn’t even seem to know what her job is. It’s obvious this place isn’t exactly a well-oiled machine. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tapu Fini just forgot about this trial site.” That doesn’t seem to settle them. “I don’t know…” Lillie says, clearly still worried. “None who do not take part in its trials… will be allowed to walk upon this earth…” I repeat from the tablet slowly. “Ah! Just don’t touch the ground!” “…what’choo smokin’, homie?” “Your Haunter can levitate you, so you can pass through the last part of the canyon without ‘walking upon this earth.’ And Lillie… my Decidueye can carry you. I mean, probably, right? You weigh like 40 kilos soaking wet. It’s airtight! Even if there’s anyone watching the trial grounds, and even if someone actually cares about some weird decades-old ritual prohibitions.” Lillie and B stare at each other in trepidation. “Come on, let’s get moving!” They shrug resignedly, B calls out his Haunter, and I deploy Decidueye, then step forward to the stone tablet and stop. “Yo, we ain’t got all day, so what’s the delay?” B asks. “Just… thinking about the tablet…” “I thought you said it didn’t apply to us?” Lillie asks nervously. “Well, of course it doesn’t,” I reply, then step past the threshold and into the trial grounds. I wait a couple of beats, and nothing happens. “See? Told you.” A deafening roar with a strange brassy echo rings out from the depths of the canyon. “…coincidence.” Suddenly, a little hard-headed dinosaur-like Pokémon, identified by the Rotomdex as a Jangmo-o, hops out from behind a rock and growls at us. “See? Aww, look at you,” I coo at the tiny Dragon-type, reaching out to scratch it under the chin. “Did you make that big scary roar? Did you? You’re gonna grow up to be a ginormous monster some day, aren’t you, you little cutie-” As if on cue, the same clanging, brassy roar sounds out again, and a huge lizard-creature, covered in round metallic-looking armour scales, crawls out from behind a rock that seems like it couldn’t possibly have been large enough to hide it. It roars again, and a blazing totemic aura flares to life around it. “…uh oh.” The Rotomdex claims that the giant lizard, Kommo-o, is a Dragon/Fighting Pokémon, so I try throwing Toucannon at it first – and learn first that Kommo-o’s ability is Bulletproof, and second that Toucannon’s Beak Blast is on the vaguely defined list of blast and bomb moves that Bulletproof negates. The Kommo-o summons a Hakamo-o, evidently the species’ middle stage, and they crush my poor Toucannon together. I decide to deploy my secret weapon, Zygarde. Its Aura Break ability must be effective against Totem Pokémon auras, otherwise why would it even be in this game?

…that doesn’t help one bit.

“What are you even for?” I yell at Zygarde. It snorts indignantly, knocking out the Hakamo-o and wounding the Kommo-o with a Thousand Arrows barrage, but then gets hit full in the face by Kommo-o’s own signature move, Clanging Scales, a cacophonous blast of sound that sends the World Shaker reeling. Kommo-o calls out again and a Scizor appears from nowhere, so I choose my Salazzle next. She, of course, is actually competent, and not only melts the Scizor’s armour to slag with Flamethrower, but finishes off the Kommo-o with her Dragon Pulse. B and his Haunter float out from behind a rock where they had been hiding, and my Decidueye, with Lillie’s shoulders still gripped tightly in his talons, descends from above. “See, what did I tell you?” I proclaim before either of them can say a word. “Doesn’t apply to us.”

The team:

Tane the Decidueye Male, Timid nature, Overgrow ability Level 47 Steel Wing, Leaf Blade, Synthesis, Spirit Shackle

Rhea the Toucannon Female, Lax nature, Keen Eye ability Level 46 Bullet Seed, Roost, Beak Blast, Brick Break

Ashley the Psychu Female, Timid nature, Surge Surfer ability Level 47 Thunderbolt, Focus Blast, Nasty Plot, Psychic

Joanna the Salazzle Female, Timid nature, Corrosion ability Level 47 Flamethrower, Nasty Plot, Sludge Bomb, Toxic

Sigourney the Golisopod Female, Careful nature, Emergency Exit ability Level 47 Brick Break, Payback, First Impression, Leech Life

Zygarde Genderless, Sassy nature, Aura Break ability Level 43 Safeguard, Stone Edge, Dragon Dance, Thousand Arrows

#pokemon #alola #pokemon moon playthrough #lillie #hapu #poni island #mina #jangmo-o #hakamo-o #kommo-o

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