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micer2012 · 3 years ago

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no cure is coming, you know (LLSMP Fic)

A few months into Last Life, Skizz and Tango are some of the only members to still hold onto their humanity. With Tango the only member on dark green and Skizz on yellow, Skizz is cursed as the Boogeyman at the beginning of their session. He knows that without hesitation, without question Tango will give one of lives to him… and that’s exactly the problem. [3k words] [crossposted on ao3]

just trust in me, my dear… no cure is coming near.

“Skizz! Countdown time!”

Skizz heard Tango’s voice coming from one of the top layers of their castle, their home. He put down the axe he had been using and ran inside the castle, shutting the door behind him.

“Boogey time?” Skizz called. “Boogey time, my brother!” Tango responded, barreling down the stairs to meet Skizz.

And right on cue, as the moon hit the highest point in the sky, the countdown began in their heads. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

Silence filled their home.

“Nothing. You good?” “Yeah! Yeah, ob-viously. What, were you worried?”

Tango laughed. “I- I mean a little. I gotta be worried a little. There’s what.. 5 non-reds left?”

“And MY teammate is the only one who’s still on dark green.” Skizz boasted, hand on his chest.

Tango punched him playfully, snickering. “Don’t get so high and mighty! I went from.. What, 11 lives? Down to a measly 4.” “That’s only because you were such a good sport about it, Tango Tops. You coulda kept those for yourself, y’know. Been the schamaze of all time.”

“Ha!. Suppose it would have been. But- but I bet we’d have FAR more enemies. It would not have been a good idea to be on that many people’s bad sides that early…” “I coulda took em.”

Tango laughed again. “Y’think? Etho and Bdubs? Cleo?” “I coulda took em. If they were trying to hurt my best friend.”

Tango smiled sadly at him, before looking down. “I wouldn’t want you to lose any more of your own lives because of My theoretical jerk move.” Skizz just looked at his friend, before sitting down on the floor, gesturing wildly with his hands. “Well, Theoretically, I wouldn’t lose any lives then! I’d just do a super good job, and kill them down to 0.” Tango let out another laugh. “Says the guy who lost his life to a mob!”

Skizz pointed his finger accusatory at Tango, still criss-cross applesauce on the ground. “Hey, it wasn’t a ’’’mob’’’ it was a BABY ZOMBIE. You KNOW how much I hate those Lil’ annoying kids! Those- Those are more dangerous than most of the people on this server. THEY are the ones with the bloodlust, I’m tellin you.”

Tango laughed again. “Heh, suppose you’re right. At least it wasn’t an enderman, right?” Skizz narrowed his eyes. Yellow, but the sclera were still tinted purple from the… events of the previous season. “Tango Tops, if I had lost my first life to an enderman AGAIN, I think I would have just quit the server.” Tango snickered. “True that! True that. Alright, I’m gonna go back to my scouting.” Skizz pushed himself up from the floor. “Of course! I’ll be.. I think I might go caving.” Tango turned back to meet his eyes. “W… Will you be far from the base?”

Skizz paused, and then shook his head, hands up. “No, no! Just like, tunneling nearby. I won’t.. I’m not leaving our base, I’m not leaving you here with the.. With those Swarms.”

Tango nodded. “Of course, of course just.. Just checking. Are.. Are you sure you want to go out alone? The boogeyman just got chosen and- and you’re… one of the 4 victi-”

“Hey, don’t you talk like that. You’re a much higher target than me, and you Know I can take care of myself, right?” Tango looked to him, then looked away. “I’m just.. On- on second thought, you’re sure you don’t want me to come? We can go mining together, better- better to have eachother’s backs.” “Then the castle will be unprotected.” “I don’t care. Better it get raided than us.” “No, this- this is our Last bastion. We CAN’T let this fall, then.. Then we’d have nothin’, Tops!”

Tango’s eyes were soft when he looked back up at Skizz. “If I lose you, then I’ll have nothing.”

Skizz was taken aback. He froze for a few moments, before walking over and putting his black-stained hands onto Tango’s shoulders. “Hey, d-don’t talk like that. I’m not going anywhere! F-FIRST sign of danger, I’m calling you and running back home. Okay, buddy?” Tango nodded. “Yeah.. Yeah. Okay. Be-be careful.” Skizz patted his shoulders, before walking out to leave the base. “Of course, Tops! Nothing bad’s ever gonna happen to your buddy Skizz.”

❤❤❤

You are the boogeyman. You must by any means necessary kill a green or yellow name by direct action to be cured of the curse. If you fail, next session you will become a red name. All loyalties and friendships are removed when you are the boogeyman.

Skizz looked down at the message sent to him on his communicator, hands shaking so much it was hard to read the screen.

But he didn’t need to read the screen, he had heard the message beamed loud and clear into his own head. He- He had lied and Tango had believed it. Tango would believe anything he said. He knew that- He- He knew the second he told Tango he was the boogeyman, his friend would immediately let him take one of his lives and free Skizz from the curse. He probably wouldn’t even be mad that Skizz had lied to him earlier.

Skizz had dug himself a hole in the wall of one of the mountains near their base, 10 deep and covered up. He paced the 3x2 room he had made now, this tomb, ranting to himself. He needed to get his thoughts out SOME way.

“Ok. So.So I-I’ve gotta get SOMEONE. A green or y.. Oh, this WHOLE time too I thought killing one of the reds would be fine- THAT would be too easy huh?? We’ve got HOARDS and hoards of hostile reds trying to hunt us down every moment, targeting us like mobs- but NOO. Nooo, it’s gotta be one of the people who’ve still got humanity, huh? Cruel. CRUEL trick to play on Skizz.”

Hand on his head, he scrolled through the list of names on the communicator. He and Cleo were on yellow, BigB and Lizzie were on green… Tango was on dark green. He scrolled back down, cutting off Tango’s name. No. No, that was off the table.

“T..Tango Tops has got the best chance of winning right now out of all of us. Even- not just Life wise, but he’s sharp. Tango’s a sharp cookie. Right now, he’s got the best shot of winning.”

He kept looking at his communicator, before shoving it back into his pocket and groaning, hand on his face. “GAAAGHH, WHY DOES IT GOTTA BE A GREEN OR YELLOW?? L--Lizzie and BigB and Cleo, they’re still up this long because they’re Set up. They’ve Got an alliance, they- they’re untouchable to the reds. I surely won’t be able to be touching them!! ‘Specially without Tango’s help!!” He gripped his face, growling again, before punching the cobblestone wall to the side of him. “And-And I CAN’T tell Tango this. I’m not bringing him into some.. Into some yellow and green fistfight. He’s gotta stay safe, he’s the biggest target on the server.” Skizz was breathing heavily, adrenaline that had been building up leaving as his hand stood in place in the small crater he had made in the wall. “He..He’s gotta stay safe. He’s got the biggest chance of surviving out of everyone. I..” Skizz withdrew his fist, balling it up and rubbing it with his other hand. It hurt. “I can’t do that to him. I’m not gonna be the one who hinders my buddy’s chance.”

The adrenaline gone, Skizz just stood in his little 2x3 box, the chill of what he had to do running up his spine. He kept running his hand over his other hand. “I...I can’t do that to him.”

❤❤❤

He had memories of being reckless and running into battle. Of- Of the loyalty to his friends and the stab of betrayal overcoming his senses, along.. Along with the drive to kill. The drive to dig his sword through Impulse’s heart, through Grian’s, through Tango’s, it.. It was the worst feeling he had ever felt in his life, and it had completely enveloped him.

He remembered Ren crying out, asking him what he was doing. He had convinced himself he was doing it for their benefit, right? Skizz had screamed, as he ran towards the castle, he was doing it for the Red Army. For the only people who defended him. For the only people who gave him a chance. And that chance he had immediately squandered, leaving the Red Army with 1 man less the coming week and.. And leading to Skizz having to watch his friends run into a battle that all of them knew they weren’t going to be coming out of. Skizz had known that when he surged the Crastle too. This was a death game, only one person could make it out alive, and they were all resigned that they were not gonna be that lucky winner.

Skizz ran his hand over the scars around his mouth. Vertical slits where his face had torn itself open, enderman hostility Not mixing well with his human anatomy. His arms were stained black too, not that he had noticed, taken how often they had been stained with blood.

A voice that sounded like his own was talking in the back of his head, reminding him that He was the boogeyman, and reminding him of what he needed to do. Like he could forget.

❤❤❤

Tango was holding his hand, and the two of them were bolting. A swarm of reds, what used to be the southlanders, was chasing them, and their base was already compromised. There were only a few minutes left of this session, if- if the two of them could just get to safety-

“HERE! TANGO, FOLLOW ME!” Skizz let go of Tango’s hand and started digging into the wall, into the cobblestone he had used to patch up his Vent Hole from earlier today. Tango followed after him, panting, as they dug their way into the wall and closed the opening behind them.

“Th...D’ya think we’re safe here?” Tango managed between breaths. Skizz was breathing heavily too, holding his chest. It sounded like the man was about to pass out, whole body leaning onto the cave wall. “Skizz.. Woah, Skizz buddy, take some breaths. The sessions almost over I- I think we’re good.”

When Tango went to go put his hand onto Skizz’s shoulders, he jolted back, chest still heaving.

“Th.. The sessions almost over?” The words sounded incredibly pained.

“Y-Yeah. Few minutes til midnight.” “Few minutes til midnight…” Skizz stuck on the words, and then slumped down against the wall, falling into a sitting position. He was still holding his chest.

“I don’t think anyone’s been killed by the boogeyman yet, right? All the deaths have been red.”

Skizz, still slumped over, did not react to this news.

“...This’ll be the first week where the killer fails, if something doesn’t happen in the next minute..”

A pained sob was expelled from Skizz, shaking his entire body.

“S-Woah, Skizz? Are you- did you get hit? I have regen potions, are- what’s wrong?”

Skizz was shaking now, trying to not make noise as the tears ran down his face. He was failing.

“Talk to me man, use your words. I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on.” Tango was kneeling next to him, also on the floor now.

The tears hurt Skizz as they surged down his face.. A kind of singing burn, like his cheeks were being branded. It had been happening ever since 3rd Life ended, a side effect of the whole enderman thing. It was excruciatingly painful when he was crying big, painful, tears like now, but not as painful as his mind was. Not as painful as knowing what he had to do was.

He could hear the countdown in his own mind. Second by second it ticked by, and the letters filled his brain and his vision with large red text. It was screaming at him. He was screaming back at it, desperately trying to get it to shut up. There were other voices in his mind too, screaming and crying and tugging at him. He can’t do this, He has to do this, Why won’t he get it over with and do it already? He’s learned nothing from last season, keeping this in is just gonna make this more painful for both of them, he deserves all this pain for what he put Tango through.

He was gripping himself with both his arms now, shaking. All of his senses were screaming that he had T-60 seconds left to kill a green or yellow name.

“I.. I-” Skizz managed, voice cracking. “Yes?” “I feel like I’m gonna throw up.”

“Oh!” Tango moved away from his best friend slightly. “Uh, Here, I have a bucket. Let me pour out the water.. Here. Here you go, buddy.”

Skizz was holding the bucket now. His darkstained hands were holding on so tight, it looked like the steel might crack. Not just his hands now, it looked.. It looked like his entire arms were turning black in a veinlike pattern. Tango couldn’t see his face.

Skizz kept hold on the bucket. T-50 seconds left. He had to get on with it.

Skizz slowly moved his hands to the buckles of his chestplate, and started undoing them.

“Wh- What are you doing? Are you hot?”

Skizz pulled the chestplate over his head, and set it aside. “I-I uh Drats I just. Poured out the water. Um, I’ve got.. potio-”

“Tango. Look at me.”

Tango turned back and focused his eyes on his friend. The tears were still running down his face leaving burnmarks on his cheeks, his eyes were still covered, his.. His chestplate was off. The blackness in his veins ran across all the space his skin was visible and.. and he was shaking like an egg about to crack.

T-40. “You- you remember what you said about the boogeyman not killing yet, right?” His voice was shaky, like the words hurt to get out.

Tango’s face was frozen, and then dropped.

“Skizz.. No. NO.”

Skizz’s grip on the bucket got tighter. T-35.

“Skizz I- Skizz, you KNOW if you had just told me I would help you get a kill ri- Ok.Ok, No I’m not mad. There’s no time to get mad, I’m not mad at you, I’m just.. Skizz, you know this isn’t going to break our alliance, right? I’ve told you countless times, I trust you.”

Skizz convulsed like he was trying to hold in another sob, eyes still not meeting Tango’s.

“I’m… I’m not mad. I’ve got 4 lives left, I in no way think less of you. This was inevitable.”

T-25. “Here.” Tango took Skizz’s hands, cold and limp in his grip, and placed his Netherite Sword into his hands. They had only had enough to make a sword for Tango- of course, Skizz had found the Netherite first, but insisted it was used on his buddy.

“Do what needs to be done. I won’t think any less of you.”

Tango spread his arms out now, crouched in front of Skizz.

15.

Do what needs to be done. Skizz..Skizz needs to do what needs to be done, alright. It didn’t make it hurt any less, knowing this was what he had to do. It didn’t make him any less scared.

10.

This was the worst case scenario. Tango had the greatest chance out of all of them of living.

Skizz certainly had no chance. And he didn’t want to drag his only friend, his brother down with him. Like he had dragged the Red Army with his own selfishness.

Tango had the best chance of winning out of all of them.

His hands were shaky as he moved the sword into the correct position, inches from his heart.

Skizz was scared.

“DO IT ALREADY!” Tango yelled, arms thrown out and eyes squeezed shut.

Skizz drove the blade through his chest, piercing his heart.

Piercing his heart.

“Wh-” Tango opened his eyes, and screamed. That scream was the last thing Skizz heard before his vision went black.

“N-NO WHAT- WH NO.NONO” Tango was holding his body. “NO, N- I’VE GOT HEALING ITEMS. I’VE GOT POTIONS, OKAY? ST-STAY IN THERE BUDDY-”

Tango was frantically shifting through his inventory, holding Skizz’s corpse in his other hand.

The second his hands found his way upon an apple, lightning was heard outside the cave.

It pierced through everyone’s hearts, a shot in the air heard serverwide.

When Tango looked back to the body it was gone, the only sign left of his brother being a pile of still items.

“No. N-No. No, I- I was at gr.. No, No h..this. This has to be a dream, th- this has to be a nightmare I- I can’t.. I, I can’t……………” Tango’s voice trailed off into incomprehensible quiet sobbing. He was curled up in a pile around the items, holding close the only remainder of his friend. The only thing that he had left period, since the castle had been taken… But he would have took a thousand structures falling to keep his friend. He… He would have done anything to keep his friend. Both Skizz and him knew that.

❤❤❤

Skizz had respawned in the spruce forest. He was leaning against a tree, still weak on his feet. There was a hole in the middle of his chest, and it hadn’t stopped bleeding.

The reds weren’t gonna hurt him now, he had become one of them. A murderer, just like them.

The curse needed a green or a yellow’s life taken to be broken, and he sure had a spare yellow life.

He wasn’t gonna let his own incompetence, his own selfishness doom the fate of his friend again. Tango had the best chance of winning, and he needed to keep all 4 of those lives.

As-as a red he could help too, right? Pick off any other reds that make claims on his friend. Of.. Of course, he couldn’t speak to his friend anymore. He couldn’t see him. He couldn’t even get his stuff.

It was better this way. Tango had the greatest chance of winning, and he was only going to hinder that chance.

He took his communicator out of his pocket, hands still shaking. They were covered in red now, and the communicator’s screen was splattered with red as well.

Skizzleman was killed by Skizzleman using [YOU BET YOUR LIFE]

LDShadowLady> …

Grian> WHAT

SolidarityGaming> ?????

Skizz looked down at the screen.

Tango hadn’t typed anything.

He put the communicator back into his pocket.

This session was ending now. And the next session might be his last. But he didn’t care, his own life didn’t matter, as long as he used his corpse to lift his brother to the win.

He had learned from season 1, hadn’t he?

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ckret2 · 5 years ago

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Home Is Where Your Shackles Are Anchored

Ghidorah, galaxy-trotting interstellar conqueror-explorer that they are, attempts to impress Rodan by telling him all about the diverse wonders of the universe.

He’s kind of only interested in hearing about volcanoes.

Hey check out who’s back. Written to the prompts:

Anonymous said: How about Ghidorah tries (as best as they can) to describe what space is like to Rodan?

Anonymous said: Hey, love the way you characterize the Titans in your fics, if you're accepting prompts atm how abt Rodan/Ghidorah reacting to blue lavs volcanoes ( they're that way due to burning sulfur right?)

... Although the blue lava only gets a short mention lmao.

This is part of an ongoing series of Rodorah one-shots. If you don’t wanna read the others, all you need to know is: Ghidorah’s an empath (telepathically transmits/detects emotions) but it only works with head-to-head contact; Ghidorah doesn’t speak any Earth languages but is slowly learning Rodan’s; Ghidorah was originally mind controlled & weaponized by Xilien aliens; and this one time Rodan made a whole globe out of lava and melted glass and Ghidorah keeps freaking out about how this dude who lives in a volcano and has never been off his own planet knows so much stuff. Links to the other fics are in the source at the bottom of this post.

###

When the red sprite asked them about other worlds, they wanted to impress upon him the vast wonders the universe contained. The ghostly filament-like serpents hundreds of miles long that swam glittering through nebulas. The vast artificial asteroid belts consisting of the armada ships of empires that spanned hundreds of populated planets. The dizzying way starlight bent and stretched when you fell almost too close to a black hole to save yourself. Planets of pure diamond, planets with hurricanes that never ended, planets where multiple suns twirled through the skies.

It turned out what the red sprite was interested in was the real estate.

"That other stuff is cool," he reassured them, flopped on his back in his volcano with his legs in the air. "But a planet's not a proper planet without volcanoes."

"Lots planets do not have volcanoes," they insisted.

Patiently, the red sprite said, "Then those planets aren't proper planets."

Oh, well, okay, if those were the definitions they were going by. "We do not look..." They struggled for a descriptor. "Do not look near at volcanoes before we come here." They quickly corrected their grammar: "Comed here."

"'Came here.'"

Irregular verbs were going to be the death of them. "Came here. We see them but do not live in them, do not have reason to learn of them." They felt like they needed to justify why their knowledge of volcanoes was so far behind the red sprite's. They couldn't let him think they were stupid. Merely uneducated. Educated in different fields due to different priorities.

(Because really, they were painfully aware, they were stupid—made from creatures that were inherently stupid and unable to change that—and they didn't know if anything would entice the red sprite to stay with them once he figured that out.)

"Nobody learns about them," the red sprite lamented, and they were relieved that he saw this ignorance of volcanoes as a global problem rather than a them problem. "But you saw volcanoes, right? You can describe what you remember."

They supposed they could do that. Second clacked his teeth together thoughtfully, mimicking the beak-clicking sound the red sprite sometimes made to fill gaps in the conversation. "We saw volcanoes with blue lava," they said. "Not blue like sky. Blue like... ih... sky near night?"

"Dark blue?"

That was exactly what they meant, but they hadn't been sure whether the words "dark" and "blue" could be combined like that without sounding like nonsense in the red sprite's language. "Yes."

"We have that," the red sprite said. So much for trying to impress him. "It happens when a volcano has a lot of—" He said a word they didn't know.

"What?"

"It's a kind of rock. Smelly. Burns blue."

Burns blue. Copper? Butane? They repeated the word a couple of times and filed it away as word-for-smelly-blue-burning-material-that-turns-lava-blue.

"What about the nearby planets?" the red sprite asked them. He rolled over, sending droplets of lava spraying over the side of his crater as he did. "Did you see any of their volcanoes? How about the moons around—" Another new word.

"What?"

"The big one," the red sprite said. "The one that takes... I forget how long it actually takes." He pointed his beak upward and leaned back and forth as if tracing an invisible path across the sky as he spoke: "But it looks like it goes forward ten months, backwards four months, and forward ten months."

He was describing a planet's apparent retrograde motion. He knew astronomy, too. Who let him get that smart? "We are not here long enough to learn how near planets cross your sky," they said, "but know big planets. Is it planet with long stripes and big storms?"

The red sprite gave them a blank look. "I dunno. I've never seen other planets," he said. "From down here, they look like stars. Except—you know—the way they move."

Ah. Yes, they supposed that was what other worlds looked like from here. They tried to imagine what that was like, looking up at little glowing dots in the sky and knowing they were other planets but simply having to take it on faith. Never having been to them to see. They could look up at the nearest planets in the sky and mentally trace the flight path that would lead them to the surface, remembering what the worlds looked like as they drew closer and closer and this planet receded to a single bright point behind them. What was it like to be trapped on the skin of a single little marble in the sky? They had been like that once, but couldn't remember it.

Did the red sprite feel trapped? Or did a little marble like this feel like the whole universe until you'd been off of it? They couldn't fully conceptualize a planetbound life that didn't feel claustrophobic.

The red sprite didn't deserve to spend its whole life anchored to this little world.

"What number is the planet?" they asked him.

"Number?"

"Number from sun, near to far. One, two, three, four... Earth is three."

"Right. It's either five or six. But the bigger one."

"Long stripes and big storms," they confirmed.

The red sprite accepted this with a chirp. "So," he said. "What are its moons' volcanoes like?"

"Its moons have volcanoes?"

The red sprite squawked. "You know what its weather is like but not the nearby volcanoes. Typical."

They reared their heads up, each of them wearing a different expression of haughty, judgmental condescension. "You do not know what it looks like but know where volcanoes are near. Typical."

They wondered what "typical" meant.

The red sprite climbed fully out of the volcano—they decided one of them should drop their feigned condescension in order to watch how the lava rolled off his wings and appointed Third to the task. Lightly, the red sprite said, "Oh, well. What good's a volcano if nobody's living in it, anyway?"

They thought he was probably more disappointed than he let on. If they had to make a trip off-planet—something inside them quelled at the thought, the parts of them that were growing attached to this world afraid that the parts of them that weren't would cause this planet to lose its emotional hold on them as soon as it lost its gravitational hold on them—but if they had to make a trip off-planet, they made a mental note to swing past the storm world and check its moons for volcanic activity.

"Maybe we take you to storm world soon," they said, leaning in to bop Third's forehead against the red sprite's so he could tell they were joking. "We carry you through the sky to it. You can see the volcanoes yourself."

"Ha! And you've got a way to make sure I can breathe for the whole trip, I'm sure."

"Yes, just make a long breath in and keep it inside you the whole trip. Easy."

"Easy! Oh yeah, sure." The red sprite bopped Third's forehead back, snapped his beak at Second just threateningly enough to make him bare his teeth back, and then hopped down the volcano's side.

They slithered down after him. "Why are you so..." They rummaged through their vocabulary for a word that meant preoccupied in the red sprite's language, and settled for, "So focused in your mind on volcanoes? There is more to other worlds than volcanoes."

"Sure, but volcanoes are where life is. You're not going to find life on a planet without volcanoes! Unless it's alien travelers like you."

They tried to think of an example that contradicted him, but supposed they didn't know of any populated worlds that they could guarantee had no volcanoes and hadn't been colonized by aliens. They didn't talk to the locals before killing them, how did they know the locals weren't interstellar immigrants?

The red sprite went on, "Any place without a volcano is just a—" He said another unfamiliar term.

Oh, now what was that? Something important, it seemed to them. A term that set these spaces bereft of hearth and hospitality apart from a home. Surely it had to mean something like cursed location, or dead place, or barren land—something like that. "What is..." They attempted to repeat the term.

The red sprite pronounced it again for them, and then explained, "Oh, you know, it's the kind of place that looks interesting—fun to visit with friends, see the sights, that sort of thing—but once you've looked around you don't want to live there. Day trip material. Two days at best."

"Aha." He'd just taught them his term for tourist destination.

"Hey, what about you?" the red sprite asked. "You haven't told me about your home planet yet."

They froze halfway down the volcano.

The red sprite had started carefully weeding the plants sprouting up along the path from his volcano to the coast; but at their silence, he looked back at them. "What?"

At the mere thought of a home planet, they felt heavy collars around their necks and chains tangled with their tails, piercings through the membranes of their wings around the bones; saw a colorless kaleidoscope, white dust and black sky; heard irresistible orders telepathically splitting their heads like a migraine. "We do not remember," they said.

The red sprite clacked his beak dubiously.

"We don't," they insisted. "We do not have our most early memories. It is common. Some species do not keep their memories of what comes soon after they hatch."

"Oh, some species here are like that too," the red sprite said. He bent down to pluck a particularly stubborn shrub from the dirt and tossed it off into the forest. "What is the earliest world you remember, then?

White dust and black sky and despair and enough fury to let them incinerate a billion worlds. "Dumb moon," they said dismissively. "Boring."

The red sprite looked like he still wanted to press them for more details; before he could, they hastily added, "No volcanoes."

"Oh! So not a home."

"Not even a good tourist destination," they said. "We leave it as soon as we could." They paused. "Left it?"

"That's right."

They'd get these irregular verbs down yet. "We do not know our home planet. Do not care to."

Both of which were true statements. The planet on which they'd hatched had existed to them only as a round dot on a propaganda poster that had failed to stir up any of the sentimentality or patriotism it was no doubt supposed to. They'd even forgotten what color the dot had been.

Nevertheless, they felt their planet somewhere behind them, like a chill up their back, like a weight on their shoulders. Like a black hole inexorably tugging them in, forcing them to fly and fly and fly forever just to stay outside of its event horizon. Like a thin chain tangled around their necks that stretched through the dark voids between the stars, stretched all the way across the galaxy.

"No wonder you bounce from planet to planet," the red sprite said. "If you don't have anywhere to go home to. Everywhere's a tourist destination."

They supposed so. Stay a day or two, burn down the planet, move on.

He sounded like he pitied them. It was surprising to be pitied for freedom—especially when, just a moment ago, they'd pitied him for being anchored down as he was.

Anchors were usually used to keep spaceships tethered to their stations so they wouldn’t float off into the dark sky and be lost. Maybe being anchored was comforting if you weren't accustomed to chains being used to strangle you.

Having finished his pruning near the base of the volcano, the red sprite turned a thoughtful gaze toward them. After a moment, decisively, he said, "If you don't have a home planet, then this one's it now."

They reared up, startled. "What?"

"This is your home planet now," the red sprite repeated. "Unless you have a better one."

They froze, their heart pounding, waiting for phantom chains to drag down on their wings.

The chains never came. Cautiously, they said, "We don't."

"Fine. So now it's here." He flapped up to land in front of them and whipped his wings dramatically into the air. "Welcome to Earth!"

First headbutted him over.

The red sprite kicked First's face and hopped back to his feet. "What about the second planet?" He said its name, and they copied it. "It has volcanoes, what are they like?"

They perked up. Ah, they'd actually seen some of those—they'd spent some time ravaging the second planet before moving on to the third. "Flat," they said.

The red sprite cocked his head. "Shield volcanoes?"

"No, more flat. And more wide. They look like..." What was the word. "Plateaus?"

The red sprite drew his head back and asked excitedly, "Really? How wide?"

"Like..." Was their grasp of the red sprite's math terms good enough to describe proportionate sizes? Probably not. They raised their heads, looking around the island for objects they could use for size comparisons. First's gaze landed on the globe of Earth the red sprite had made to explain the local geography to them. "We will make them. Follow."

They lifted off the volcano with one beat of their wings and glided down to the beach, the red sprite close behind them.

They spent the peak of the day dredging up as many trivial details about the second planet's volcanoes as they could remember, doing their best to answer the red sprite's excited questions, and sculpting volcanoes out of sand.

###

(Did y’all know that Venus’s volcanoes are totally different from Earth��s? Most of them are extremely wide and extremely flat and they’re called pancake volcanoes. It’s cool. We haven’t confirmed active volcanism in any of Venus’s volcanoes yet but we’ve found over a thousand probably-extinct ones and there are three that we’re pretty sure are currently active, we just haven’t proven it yet.)

(Next fic features Serizawa Who Is Not Dead and how Monarch at large is reacting to Ghidorah hanging around—not the local Isla de Mara outpost that’s been making memes out of Ghidorah, the main Monarch leadership.)

(Replies/reblogs are welcome and greatly appreciated! Check the “source” link below for my masterlist of KOTM and Rodorah fics, as well as my AO3 and Ko-fi links.)

#rodorah #godzilla #kotm #rodan #king ghidorah #ghidorah #fanfic #my writing #(not proofed because instant gratification)#(... but any bad grammar out of Ghidorah is because they're still figuring out how to speak pteranodon)#(also yes 'ghidorah spent some time ravaging venus before heading to earth' is a reference to three headed monster)#(aka the BEST godzilla movie accept no substitutes)

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strongerwiththepack · 4 years ago

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Curiosity

For FabFiveFeb2021 (John).

Thank-you so much to everyone who’s left me such nice comments on my little prompt fics this past week. It gave me the motivation to finally finish this FabFiveFeb fic (on the 1st of March 🤦‍♀️).

A fluffy John and Alan fic. Set 3 years before TAG. Using the prompt ‘A curiosity’. Thank-you @gumnut-logic for organising the challenge!

“Scott come on, I’m too busy this week.”

“You’re busy every week John” Scott rolled his eyes on the hologram, making John pout pathetically. “Stop putting this off. Besides, you’d be able to test out the coding on your sample collector things while you’re there.”

John narrowed his eyes, he did need to do that, but he could do it on Earth or the moon even. There was no need to go to Mars.

“What if there’s a rescue?”

“We can handle it John, a day off isn’t going to kill you.”

John scoffed. “You’re one to talk, Scott.”

“Alan misses you, just do this for him, please John.”

John narrowed his eyes. He knew what Scott was doing. Scott knew he knew as well. Didn’t mean it wasn’t effective.

“Fine.”

So that’s where he found himself now. With Alan. On Mars.

His little brother was having the best day of his life, bouncing around pointing out the different types of soil and rocks. John smiled to himself at the enthusiasm. Alan was going to make a great astronaut someday.

The journey over had been really nice. John had fielded all of Alan’s questions about Thunderbird 3 and space travel. It reminded him of when they were kids and John would help Alan with his homework. He’d even given Alan the chance to pilot which wasn’t all that thrilling when they were already on course but his brother had seemed happy enough.

Despite his reluctance, this was nice.

“Do you think we’ll see any Aliens John?”

John laughed. The transition from describing soil types to the degree of a college PHD student to asking in all seriousness about Aliens was the perfect description of his youngest brother’s personality.

“Not likely Alan.” John chuckled.

The pout added to the humour.

“Do you think dad ever saw any Aliens while he was here?” Alan queried innocently, eyes wide as he waited for an answer.

John swallowed painfully and tried not to put a damper on Alan’s mood. “He never mentioned it if he did.”

“Can we go see dad’s plaque?”

John had been before, with their dad. The footprint in the soil surrounded by a podium. He’d teased the man about it then, thinking it was rather cheesy. Not so much now.

“Unfortunately no, they’re building the new mars colonies around it so it’s closed off at the moment.” John explained. He was glad, the lone footprint would have brought up unwanted feelings this time around. “That mission is set to launch in 2061. It’ll be the first-time humans have set up permanent residence on Mars.”

“Wow” Alan admired in awe. Distraction successful. “They would need a lot of oxygen for that, or maybe one of those prototypes for oxygen conversion has been approved! And obviously they would need some sort of sustainable way to grow food…”

John let Alan trail off on his rant. The kid was going to ace his Mars paper that was for sure.

He still had to test out his sample collection drones. It was his latest project. When he had been at university it had been extremely difficult to gather consistent interplanetary data for his research. The data was out there but it was either impossible to navigate or hidden behind a paywall. He still liaised with a lot of universities and knew it was still a problem. So, he’d decided to create an open-source, easy-to-navigate database for students and researchers around the world.

He could use the data that was already available but like he said none of it was consistent so he and Brains had designed some deep-space drones that could collect all the data they needed.

They were programmed to test gravity, air quality, rock types, temperature and a host of other categories. The engineering behind these tiny drones was insane. John never could’ve done it alone, Brains truly was remarkable. His dad sure knew how to spot talent.

He placed the little drone down before activating it on his tablet.

“Hey Alan, come check this out!”

Alan bounced over excitedly as the rotor blades retracted from the drone and it rose into the air.

“Cool! Can I fly it?”

“There are no controls, it’s fully automated!” John explained as he passed the tablet to his younger brother. “The readings are already coming in, these tiny little bots can produce so much data – it’s going to revolutionise research and academia in the future.”

“Where’s it going now?”

The drone had begun to quickly move away from them before it dropped down into the earth, out of sight.

John took the tablet back. “Hmm looks like it’s found a deep crater, it’s trying to gather below surface data.”

The tablet made a shrill beeping noise. “Hmm looks like it’s found something unusual down there, we can’t get a clear reading.”

They walked over to peer over the edge of the large crater. It spanned at least five meters wide and it was too dark to see how deep.

John grinned at his little brother as he flicked on his helmet torch. “Want to take a look?”

Alan gaped at him, looking into the dark hole before his face broke into a huge grin. “Yes!”

John chuckled. “Okay, come on, let’s get the grappling gear.”

He and Alan dropped into the crater that was dimly lit through their suit torches. It was incredibly dusty, their torches reflected off the particles floating in the air. There was a tunnel that led further under the surface. They didn’t have enough light to see more than a few meters in front of them.

“You’re sure about the aliens, right John?” Alan questioned unsurely beside him.

“Yes Alan” John rolled his eyes as he shone his light towards the ceiling of the tunnel. “It the structural integrity I’m more worried about.”

Alan whipped his head up to check as well.

“It’s not too far in, just tread lightly and try not to make any loud noises.” John reasoned.

The drone chose that moment to zoom out of the dark tunnel at them, and Alan yelped in alarm as it almost hit his head.

John rolled his eyes facepalming his helmet as a new dust cloud erupted. “Yeah, loud noises like that.”

Alan smiled sheepishly and whispered. “Sorry.”

John cocked his head towards the tunnel. “C’mon.”

They quickly came across the source of the anomaly. There was something partially buried in the red-tinged soil.

“No way…” John gasped as they got closer. “Do you know what that is Alan?”

“Uhhh” Alan focused his torch on it as he inched closer. “A rover?”

“It’s the NASA Curiosity rover!” John explained, brushing off some of the dust that had settled there. “It went missing in 2040 and was never recovered.”

“It looks like a bit of a relic.” Alan commented.

“Oh it is.” John said with a smile. “It was launched in 2011. It still holds the record for the longest operating rover on mars.”

“Oh cool.” Alan said airily.

John chuckled. He could tell his little brother wasn’t impressed. The rover was a dinosaur by their standards but he knew it had been revolutionary at the time.

He couldn’t wait to tell his Grandma. He still remembered her telling him the story of the Curiosity landing. How it had been broadcast live on the television. How Jeff, who’d still been a young child, had sat on her lap bouncing excitedly. The Tracy’s had always had their heart’s in space travel.

“Come on.” John prompted. “We’re gonna tow this thing out of here.”

“Do we have to?” Alan whined. “It’s massive.”

“Yep. Let’s grab the tow cables from Three.” John instructed. “NASA are going to be over the moon.”

“You can’t really ever be over the moon, John.” Alan called over his shoulder.

“I know Alan.”

It turned out Curiosity had fallen into the crater and lost power when it got trapped without the sun. When John and Alan pulled it from the crater, it miraculously began to charge through the solar panels again.

And that’s how, in 2057, Curiosity was returned to the world.

#thunderbirds are go #fabfivefeb #fabfivefeb2021 #John Tracy #Alan Tracy #myfic

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sulfurousdreamscapes · 5 years ago

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My mother knew more about space than anyone I'd ever known, and she'd never even been to college. When I went to bed, she'd come into the room and turn out the lights and snuggle with me, and then she'd tell me about space. She told me the names of stars and planets, and she described galaxies and nebulae. I buried myself into her warmth while she told me about an astronaut floating in space, with nothing but stars in every direction she looked.

She told me about the ships that tread the vacuum, looking perfectly still from a distance, but travelling faster than anything on Earth. She told me about how the thrusters worked, and where the fuel came from, and the names of the different modules, the magnetic drives, the pneumatic systems, the banding tapes, the gimbal blocks, the turbines and heat exchangers and turbopumps.

In those days, I used to play outside a lot, on my friends' lawns and at the park nearby with the swings that were always occupied. I'd come home tired and muddy, and it wouldn't take me too long to fall asleep. Listening to my mother talk about space, however, I always tried my hardest not to sleep. I wanted to find out more, to learn where she was taking me.

Each time I managed to stay awake long enough, it was as if she was leading me to a place I never knew existed. I'd hear new words, new objects doing new things, and then I wouldn't be able to hold on any longer, so I'd fall asleep.

I got a little older, but mum would still spend her nights sitting by me in the dark, telling me about space until I fell asleep. She told me less about the parts now - all those devices and machines and components that would take people into space and back. Now she told me about the mountains on faraway planets, and what it's like to see the sun set four times in an hour. She'd tell me about what it's like to stand on a comet, and how deep the craters can be on some moons.

School was exhausting, and homework was also exhausting. I ended up spending less and less time with mum, until her stories of space were the only interaction we had, most days. Sometimes, we'd have fights and I'd say mean things to her and not apologise. But once I was in bed, feeling her warmth and listening to her talk, it was like nothing had ever happened.

She moved away from talking about places, and started telling me about the people. She told me how they wear their suits and the jokes they tell each other, and the families they have back home. She described the pictures of their kids, and the little souvenirs they'd brought from home. She told me how tears float in zero gravity.

The way she described it - it was almost as if she'd been there herself.

After she fell sick, it became difficult to manage things. I'd have to juggle college and studies with trips to the hospital to sit by mum, waiting for dad to come relieve me later. She used to be too drained to talk, and despite everything we did, her body didn't seem to respond very well to treatment. When I compared her as she was to pictures of how she used to look, it was as if I didn't know the woman on the bed at all.

It was night and I was preparing to go to sleep on the couch in the hospital room when my mother called my name. I got up and went to her. She had her eyes fixed to the ceiling, and she asked me if I want to hear a bedtime story.

I said yes.

She told me about a girl whose mother kept telling her stories about space. The mother told the girl about how it felt to be in space, and what parts made up a spacecraft that took you to space, and what it was like to be on the planets and comets, and the astronauts who travel so far away. The girl was so enamoured by space that she did everything she possibly could to join a space agency. With her knowledge and her passion for space, she was selected to become an astronaut after all.

The girl, who was now a grown woman, was given on a very important mission. She accepted it, and she got into her spacecraft, and she did a thumbs-up to show that she was ready to leave her friends and family and everyone she'd ever known or hadn't known, to be sent off into the depths of space.

The further the woman got from home, the less she could communicate with the scientists at the space agency. Eventually, she was cut off, before she could even say goodbye. Then, for years, she drowned herself in videos and music and books and games - anything that would distract her from the endless expanse of space outside.

She became bored of those things, and then she became tired of those things, and then she became sick of things, and she deleted all of them, so that she had nothing to watch or listen to or read or play. She sat alone with her thoughts, tending to the machines and the screens. She thought of her mother a lot. She missed her mother's warmth.

The woman only remembered her mission when she started seeing a shimmering blue dot out of her cockpit window. It became larger and larger as she approached it, and her mind, which she thought she had unravelled and jettisoned into space, came coiling back around her. She cried, and she tried her best to remember what she could of all the people back home.

It wasn't until she was crawling out of the ocean and onto a beach that she realised where she was. There was no one to greet her. No one who knew who she was, or where she had come from. The people looked just like the ones she had at home, but she could not recognise any of their names, their places, or their languages.

It was difficult adjusting to this new home of hers, but she did it. She had no choice, after all. She had to claw and tear for it, but she found herself a husband, and a family, and a child. And she told her child everything she knew - about space.

I never got to say goodbye to mum, but that night, after the story ended, I asked her if she missed home.

My mother closed her eyes. "Everything I could ever miss, is right here, with me."

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atths--twice · 5 years ago

Text

Fighting for the Future

We have all wondered how Scully and Mulder got home from Antarctica. Many people have written stories with their interpretations of what could have happened.

Here is mine. I hope you like it.

It was bitingly cold. The wind felt like a million knives cutting into her flesh, her wet hair a frozen headpiece. She held him close, her cheek to his forehead, absolutely certain this was where they would die. White all around, no chance to escape the wide expanse before them.

Scully closed her eyes, the thought of how they got there unknown to her, in fact she did not even know where there was. Raising her head, she looked down at Mulder, his eyes still shut, as a shiver went through her. She needed to get up, get them away from where they were, but he was out cold and she did not have the strength to help him.

“Mmmm.” She heard him moan and no sound had ever sounded sweeter.

“Mulder,” she said, her teeth chattering. “Mm-ul-der.” She touched his face and he opened his eyes, shock on his face.

“Scully!” He sat up and held her face in his hands, staring into her eyes. “You’re… oh God.” He looked to the skies and then back to her. Standing up quickly, he walked to the edge of the giant crater beside them. “Holy shit, we need to get out of here.”

He came over to her and helped her stand. Putting an arm around her waist and holding hers around his neck, he nodded at her. “You can do this. I have a vehicle just over those rocks, okay? If you need to stop, we will. Let’s go.” She nodded, her feet tingling from the cold as they began to move.

Twice they had to stop, her body unable to keep moving, too tired to walk quickly. Setting her in the snow, he held her close, keeping her warm as she panted out her exhaustion.

“We’re close,” he said into her freezing hair. “Almost there, Scully. Over the rocks and then it’s just on the other side. You’re doing great.” She closed her eyes, certain what little ground they had covered, could hardly be considered as great.

“I’m tired, Mulder. I’m cold,” she mumbled, wanting to fall asleep, surrender to the feelings weighing her down.

“You can sleep when we get to the vehicle, I promise. We need to keep going. If the sun goes down, we’re done for. Come on, you can do this.”

He pulled her up again, leading her up the rocks and to the crest. Standing and looking down, the vehicle could have been a mile or a hundred, it felt the same to her.

“Mulder… I can’t,” she whispered, staring at him, her feet freezing.

“Yeah, you can,” he said, and he held her upright as they made their way down the hill, stopping at the bottom. She dropped to her knees, then her stomach, her face in the snow. “Two minutes, Scully.” He fell beside her, lifting her head and laying it in his lap, brushing at her hair, keeping her close.

“Okay, once more and we should be there.” He pulled her up again and she breathed hard, shaking her head and leaning heavily into him. It was so close, so very close, but she simply could not do it.

“I can’t. Mulder, I’m so tired. I can’t.” She started to slip and he lifted her into his arms, her own going loosely around his neck. She could hear him breathing heavily and hated that he was suffering under her weight.

“Almost there. We’re almost there, Scully,” he panted out, his breathing harder with each step. She gripped his clothing, trying to do what she could to alleviate any heaviness.

Finally, he stopped. Turning her head, she saw they were by the vehicle. Setting her down gently, he took great deep breaths, his hand against the tracks of the snow vehicle.

“Okay, we need to get inside.” He helped her up onto the tracks, then climbed up and stood beside her. He opened the back door and helped her inside.

It was warmer in the cab, but not by much. As she fell onto the bench seat in the back, she felt him trying to remove her socks as he closed the door.

“I’ve got supplies under this bench. Clothes, socks, sleeping bags, blankets, flashlights, food, water… Scoot up a little and I can get them.”

She did as he asked, too tired to speak. She heard bags being placed around her, but she kept her eyes closed, not caring if she lived or died.

So cold, she thought, almost asleep, when she felt him shaking her.

“Open your eyes, Scully! Look at me!” She had a hard time focusing on him, but he pulled her up roughly, cursing as he did. “Don’t you fall asleep! Not yet. We need to get you changed into warmer clothes.” She nodded, his face becoming less blurry as she stared at him.

“Come on, here we go,” he said, unzipping her jacket and taking it off. She shivered violently, her hands coming up to cover her naked body. “Okay.” He put something over her head and then helped her put her arms inside and pulled it down. “Good. Next one.” Again something went over her head and her arms were placed inside. She raised her eyes to his and he nodded. “Now a vest. Then the jacket.” He put them on, pulling her hair out from inside and looking around.

Taking a rubber band from somewhere, he gathered her hair into a ponytail and clumsily tied it up. She smiled slightly, nodding her thanks. Already she was feeling warmer, her top half at least.

“Socks and pants now,” he said, reaching for the buttons of the pants. “Maybe if you lay down… I could do this easier.”

He helped her to lie down and she felt him taking off her pants, the cab cold once again as her bare flesh was exposed to the elements. She had no time to worry that he was seeing her completely nude, as her legs began to shake from the cold.

Following his quiet instructions, he had some pants on her quickly, then another pair, two pairs of socks, and then the pants she had been wearing.

“Mulder, these are your pants and your jacket. You’ll be cold,” she said, her eyes closing, the exhaustion washing over her, as he buttoned up her pants.

“I’m okay, Scully. I have boots for you, but I think they might be too big. But for now let’s get you in the sleeping bag. Come on, stand up.” He pulled on her jacket and brought her to a standing position.

Holding onto the seat in front of her, she leaned against it as he laid out the sleeping bag. She heard it unzip and then he guided her down, helping her to get inside comfortably. Closing her eyes, he covered her, shaking her shoulder as he did.

“Wait. You need some water.”

“Mulder, I just want to sleep. Please.”

“No, you’re dehydrated I’m sure. Here. Sit up a little. That’s it, just a few sips. Good. Okay, let me…” He pulled her hood up, closing it around her head and gently laid her down. She felt a blanket being laid on top of her and she sighed, her feet still slightly cold, but relatively warm everywhere else.

She heard him moving around, but she faded in and out. Voices she did not recognize, static, and Mulder’s worried voice, all presented themselves to her as she lay there. Opening her eyes, she saw him in front of her, his face blurry again.

“Are you warm enough? Do you need another blanket?” His voice was worried as he touched her, closing the sleeping bag tighter around her.

“I’m okay. Okay.” She tried to reassure him, but then she was asleep again.

Loud voices woke her and she opened her eyes, finding it nearly dark. Mulder was asleep, very close beside her, in a sleeping bag of his own. Hearing the voices again and seeing lights flashing, she panicked.

“Mulder. Mulder!” She brought her hand out and touched his face. “Mulder!!” His eyes flew open and he stared at her with wild eyes. “Someone is here. I can hear them.” He frowned and sat up, looking out the window, with a sigh.

“Oh, thank Christ. They made it. Stay put. They’re filling up the gas tank, and we needed it. The one extra tank I had ran out and the engine cut off over an hour ago,” he said, waving at someone outside. Looking back at her, he shivered and leaned in close. “Are you warm enough? Your feet, hands?” She nodded and he nodded curtly, getting out of his bag and laying it on top of her. He put his boots on and shivering again, he went outside without his coat.

She heard him speaking to someone but was unable to stay awake as she lay there. Fading out, she only awoke when she felt the vehicle moving, the engine extremely loud. Mulder was not at the wheel and not seeing him beside her, she sat up, fearful something had happened.

“I think your partner’s awake,” the driver chuckled and Mulder’s anxious face appeared around the passenger seat. He moved and came back to her, telling her to lie down and stay inside the sleeping bag.

“What’s going on? Where are we going? Who is that?” she asked, as he knelt beside her, covering her and then staring at her, the moon bright around them.

“His name is Cassy. Strangely enough, or perhaps not, he’s a friend of Langly’s. We’re heading back to his research base, and we should be there soon. About an hour and a half or so,” he said touching her face, his eyes soft and concerned. It was then that she noticed the bloody spot on his forehead.

“Mulder, what happened to you?!” She exclaimed, reaching to touch his face.

“Tis but a scratch,” he joked, and she stared at him. He shook his head and gave her a small smile. “Got into a little tussle with an ambulance driver. Nothing to worry about.” She softly touched his wound and he closed his eyes.

“What happened? I don’t remember,” she whispered, causing him to lean in close to hear her. “Where are we?”

“Antarctica.”

“Ant… Antarctica?! What?”

“I know. And I’ve yet to see a penguin anywhere.” He smiled and she failed to see the humor. “Scully, I will tell you everything, but let’s get back first okay?” He held her eyes and she searched his face, finding only truth and worry. She nodded and he did the same, covering her again.

“We’ll be there soon. Sit… lay tight okay?” She smiled as she closed her eyes. He chuckled lightly and then kissed her forehead, moving away and leaving her alone.

The sound of doors slamming woke her again. Mulder’s voice yelling out to someone, caused her to open her eyes. It was bright, wherever they were; every available light must be on at this hour. Men’s voices carried to her ears, but the thought of sitting up was exhausting.

The door opened by her feet and she looked to see Mulder, once again without a coat, climbing in from outside.

“Mulder, you don’t have a coat,” she said and he laughed softly as he shut the door.

“I’m okay, Scully,” he said and knelt down in front of her. “We’re gonna get you out of here, but I don’t want you to get out of the sleeping bag. They’re bringing out a stretcher and then they’ll put you on it and carry you inside.”

“Mulder…”

“A stretcher, Scully. I won’t argue with you on this,” he stated with finality, his eyes serious. She nodded, knowing if she tried to stand up, she would most likely crumble to the ground. “Good. Now, just stay put, okay?” He touched her cheek and disappeared out the door.

The door shut and she closed her eyes, trying to recall the last thing she remembered. Skinner’s face as she handed him her letter of resignation; no chance would she be transferring to Utah. No chance would she leave Mulder that way.

Even if they were shut down, if they no longer worked together… she needed him and he needed her. She could get a job elsewhere, allowing them the ability to still see one another. Would he want that? To continue on at the bureau without her? Could he integrate with fellow agents and work in a different area? Perhaps teach? Would he even want to see her still, after giving up and quitting?

But you saved me! As difficult and frustrating as it’s been sometimes, your goddamn strict rationalism and science have saved me a thousand times. You kept me honest. You made me a whole person. I owe you everything, Scully and you owe me nothing.

Oh…

I don’t know if I wanna do this alone. I don’t even know if I can… and if I quit now, they win.

The words he fairly yelled: his anger, fear, and worry… the honesty they possessed, made her ache, and pulled her back to him. She remembered the sadness in his eyes and then the feel of his arms around her.

And then…

Oh…

The door opened again and then there were two men she did not know, preparing a stretcher, then gently laying her upon it and strapping her down. They carried her out carefully and when the night wind hit her, she was grateful for remaining in the warm cocoon of the sleeping bag.

As they began to walk, Mulder appeared beside her and smiled as he fell in step with them. Beyond the doors they entered, it was much warmer and she breathed a sigh of relief as they continued further inside. She wanted to sink into a warm tub and stay in there, possibly forever.

“We have to go to the medical bay. Get you checked out,” Mulder said in a low voice and she knew they would, but she simply wanted a bath and to sleep uninterrupted for hours and hours.

She was placed on a table and unstrapped from the stretcher. She was lifted and the stretcher slid from underneath her in one fluid motion. The sleeping bag was unzipped completely and taken off of her, when a female doctor walked over to the table. Scully felt incredibly happy to see her, knowing she would soon be undressed and examined.

The men were told to leave and Mulder came close to her, touching her shoulder before he followed them from the room.

“Thank you,” Scully said quietly and the doctor nodded.

“Can you sit up? Stand?” the doctor asked her kindly.

“Yes, if you wouldn’t mind helping me.”

The doctor helped her to a sitting position, then off the table, holding her steady as she gained her balance, breathing hard at the small exertion.

“Okay, we need to get you undressed. I’m Doctor Turk, Emilia Turk…”

“Agent Dana Scully.”

“I’d say pleasure to meet you, but this won’t be very pleasurable,” Doctor Turk said and smiled softly.

“No, I don’t imagine it will be. I’m also a doctor and I’ve been through many quarantines. I know the drill.” The doctor smiled and nodded, helping her to undress.

Laying back on the table, she was covered with a warm blanket, the doctor checking for external injuries. Aside from some bruising, she was miraculously unscathed. No frostbitten fingers or toes, thanks to Mulder’s care, but she could feel where the cold wind had cut at her face. Blood was taken and Scully closed her eyes as it was, still cold and dreaming of a warm bath.

“I’m going to take samples from your hair and under your fingernails and then we’ll get you warmed up. I’m sure you’re cold and wanting to get dressed. I’m sorry this needs to happen, but you’re an old pro at this it sounds like,” the doctor said quietly with a squeeze to her shoulder and Scully nodded.

Scully felt her hair being released from its ponytail and a piece of it being cut from underneath. Her fingernails were scraped and then Doctor Turk told her to wait and she would be back, placing another blanket over her. Scully nodded and waited, feeling exhausted.

A few minutes later, Doctor Turk returned, lightly touching Scully’s arm and smiling as she opened her eyes. “I have a bath ready for you. It’s not exactly the Ritz, but I don’t think you’ll mind.” Scully laughed and sat up with the doctor's help. “It’s not too far down the hall. We’ll just wrap the blanket around you.” Nodding, she stood still as the doctor wrapped the blanket around her and led her out the door, slowly walking with her down the hall.

Walking into a large bathroom, she saw the tub, the steam rising from within, and could not wait to get in and warm her cold body. The doctor led her to a shower stall and Scully looked at her in confusion.

“Whatever you were exposed to, I don’t think you’ll want to soak in it. Let’s get you rinsed off first,” the doctor said and turned on the shower, letting it warm up before removing Scully’s blankets and guiding her into the stall.

The warm water hit her skin, causing goosebumps to rise immediately. She seethed and stepped forward.

“Oh, I’m sorry, is it too hot?”

“No, not at all. It’s perfect,” Scully said, stepping back and standing under the spray, rinsing her hair.

“Okay. I think that will be sufficient. Let’s get you into the tub; that will be best for you.” The doctor shut the water off and reached for Scully’s arm, bringing her to the tub and letting her lean on her as she stepped inside.

Scully moaned as the doctor helped her to sit down and lean back against the tub. The water was the perfect temperature as she slid down, covering as much of her body as she could. Closing her eyes, she sighed heavily, her mind racing with questions, but needing this moment to regroup.

“I’m going to find your partner. Would you like me to tell him to come back here, or wait until you’re finished?” Doctor Turk asked, and Scully opened her eyes. She looked at the doctor and saw understanding on her face.

“You can tell him to wait outside the room and that I’m okay. Thank you,” she said and the doctor nodded.

“I’ll get a towel and some clothes. You take as long as you need,” the doctor said, nodding her head and leaving.

Scully closed her eyes and let the warmth of the water seep into her cold and aching bones. Now that she had been moving around, she felt how sore she was and how tired. She wanted to sleep, but the bath felt amazing. Sliding under the water, she held her breath as she covered every inch of her body.

Coming back up, she laid back and kept her eyes closed as the door opened and the doctor told her she was leaving her a towel, washcloth, toiletries, and some clothes. Scully nodded and thanked her, sighing as the door closed.

Dunking under the water again, she floated, her body light as she did. Coming back up, she sat up and added more hot water to the tub. As she shut it off, she heard a loud knock on the door and leaned back.

“Come in.”

The door opened but no one entered. Instead, she heard Mulder’s voice call her name as he stayed outside of the room, just as she had asked.

“Scully?”

“I’m okay, Mulder. Cold, but okay.” He was quiet and then she heard him sigh. “I’ll be out soon-”

“No… no take as long as you need. I’ll be here. Maybe I can find someone to ask about finding those penguins.” She smiled as she swirled the water around and heard the door close, knowing he would find a chair and wait outside the room until she emerged.

Sliding under a few more times, adding more hot water, she finally reached for the shampoo and washed her hair twice. Washing her body, she leaned back again, ready to get out, but not sure if she had the strength to do it.

“Mulder?” she called, closing her eyes. The door creaked open, but still he did not enter.

“Scully? You okay?”

“Can you come here and help me?” she asked, hating that she needed to do it, but knowing she would not be able to stand on her own, let alone get out and then dress.

“Um, do you want me to get the doctor instead?”

“It’s not as though it’s something you haven’t seen already,” she said with a bitter laugh.

“Scully… it’s not the same.”

“Mulder, please. Please come in here and help me.”

The door opened and he sighed, his footsteps coming closer. Opening her eyes, she saw he was picking up the towel and holding it open, keeping his eyes averted. Appreciating his effort, nonetheless she knew she would need him more than he had believed she did.

“I need you to help me up, Mulder. I just can’t do it.” He flicked his eyes to hers and she saw the panic in them. Smiling slightly, she nodded. “I’m so tired. I need your help.” He nodded and placed the towel over his shoulder and then reached for her hand, keeping his eyes on hers. “I think it might be easier if I sat forward and you lifted me from behind.”

“Okay,” he agreed quietly, moving around her as she sat forward, letting him slip his arms under hers and lift her gently, holding her against him as she gained her balance, soaking his clothes as she did. “Let me get the towel, Scully.” She nodded and he got it ready again, taking her hand and holding it as she stepped out. Wrapping her with the towel, he kept his eyes on her face, and she smiled at him.

“Thank you,” she whispered and he nodded. “There are clothes there, but I think I’ll need your help with those as well, unless you would rather I call the doctor.”

“I can do it,” he nodded. “As long as… if you’re okay with it, Scully.” She exhaled a laugh and shook her head, not meeting his eyes.

No, she was not okay with it, but she trusted him and he knew she did.

“I can dry myself,” she said and he nodded, turning around as she did, giving her at least some semblance of privacy.

Drying her body and then her hair somewhat, she decided to put on the offered pants first. There was a pair of long underwear, a long sleeved shirt, and also a pair of scrubs. The long underwear had most likely come from the bags Mulder had with him. She picked up the pants and sighed, debating trying to do it on her own and possibly falling, or doing what she called him in for, and accepting his help.

A knock sounded at the door and she looked up to see the doctor coming in, glancing at Mulder as she walked closer.

“Out of the tub I see. Feeling better?” she asked, stepping closer and taking the pants from Scully’s hands and setting them down, exchanging them for the long sleeved top. She helped her slide it over her head and down her body.

“Agent Mulder, Cassy asked for you as I was walking over here. I think he had some questions for you.” Scully saw him nod and leave the room hurriedly, without glancing back. The doctor smiled at Scully and she nodded her thanks.

“Thank you, Doctor Turk. We… it’s…” Scully said, attempting to explain their relationship, and the doctor smiled again.

“Emilia. I understand, Agent Scully. Sometimes it’s easier with a woman and also a fellow doctor. I know it’s still not ideal of course, but…” she said with a smile and a shrug as Scully nodded. Emilia next helped her with the pants and then the scrubs.

“There, that’s better, right?” Scully nodded and Emilia helped her sit on the bench, where she gently towel dried her hair and then bent down to put on some blue skid proof socks. Standing up, she helped Scully to her feet and led her out of the room and down the hall.

“I’m going to get you hooked up to an IV and give you some fluids, I’m sure you’re dehydrated. I’d also recommend something to help you sleep and get some rest.”

“Normally, I would say no, I don’t usually like taking anything. But, I think under the circumstances, it would be a good idea,” Scully laughed softly, her body screaming at her with every step, almost begging for sleep.

“Let’s get you settled then,” Emilia said quietly, pushing the door open and helping Scully into the bed.

Laying down against the pillows, Scully sighed deeply, her eyes closed. She heard Emilia moving around, felt the prick of the needle and the warmth of the IV fluid being pushed in, and then she heard and felt nothing further.

___________________

Swallowing, her throat feeling like sandpaper, Scully opened her eyes and immediately shut them again, the sun too bright. She licked her lips and tried to clear her throat, but it hurt. Slowly opening her eyes again, she saw Mulder asleep in a chair beside her.

“Mmm. Mmulder…” she groaned, but he did not stir. Reaching out, she squeezed his hand which was lying on her bed. Squeezing again, he finally began to move and then his eyes flew open, as he leaned forward to look at her.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice gravelly. She shook her head and touched her throat. “Thirsty? I’ll get you some water.” He stood up quickly and she closed her eyes, already imagining the feel of the cool liquid in her mouth.

“Here, Scully.”

She opened her eyes and saw Mulder kneeling in front of her with a cup and a straw. He held the straw for her and she drank it slowly, moaning in relief as it soothed her dry throat.

“Thank you,” she whispered when she finished, licking her lips and closing her eyes, leaning back on the pillows.

“Are you okay?”

“Hmmm,” she said with a nod.

“Do you need the doctor?”

She opened her eyes and looked at him. Shaking her head, she reached for his hand, squeezing it when he laid it in hers.

“I’m okay. My throat is a little sore and I’m definitely feeling every bump and bruise, but considering everything else, I’m doing okay.” She smiled at him, his own expression serious as he stared at her. “I’m really okay, Mulder.”

He nodded and squeezed her hand before leaning back and standing up. He set the cup down and sat back in his chair. Taking a deep breath, he looked at her, clasping his hands together. She sighed and moved to a sitting position with a groan.

The door opened and Doctor Turk walked in with a smile. “Good morning, Agents. How are you feeling?” She stepped closer to the bed and Scully smiled.

“Feel okay. Just needed a good night's sleep.”

“Good to hear. Your preliminary test results have come back and you weren’t exposed to anything that would be considered a threat or a cause to place you under quarantine. In fact, everything was… to keep it rather simple, organic in nature. And while it was not something completely recognizable, it was also not something that raises an alarm. It sounds baffling, I know, but there we are.” She looked at each of them and sighed. “You’ve told us your version of events Agent Mulder and Cassy went out today to inspect the area you claim was ground zero.” Scully looked at him with a frown as he shifted in his seat with a sigh.

“Doctor Turk… I know your testing was thorough, but there has to be something. I know what I saw and I know what Agent Scully was exposed to,” he said forcefully, glancing at Scully. “It’s not a simple explanation. It has to be something other than “organic.” It was an alien virus that would have killed her if I hadn’t had a vaccine for it.”

“Agent Mulder,” Doctor Turk sighed quietly.

“I know what I saw and what I was told,” he said, just as quietly. “Please conduct more tests. If there is proof of an alien virus, we… we can figure out a stronger vaccine… or even a cure.”

“Agent Mulder,” she said, harsher than before, causing them both to look at her. She sighed and shook her head as she crossed her arms.

“We are a research base, we don’t have access to the highest of technologies here,” she began again, her tone softer. “I’m limited as to the tests I can run, and an alien virus… it’s just not something I am equipped to handle. As I stated, there was nothing within the testing that would point toward an unknown virus. If there was, we would be in a lock down quarantine” She looked at him and he shook his head. Turning to Scully, she smiled almost apologetically.

“Maybe with more better equipment, you will find more answers, but for now, all I can offer you is what I have found. Honestly…” She sighed and looked back at Mulder. “I don’t believe in an alien virus, not the way you’ve described it, Agent Mulder. It sounds like science fiction.” She stared at him with a look Scully had seen many times and even given him herself.

Disbelief and denial.

“Agent Scully, I am sorry for what happened to you. I know there was something done, but I simply cannot confirm it was of alien nature,” she said quietly, looking back at Scully. “I can give you all of the samples, and my findings, but I cannot sign off on the idea that an alien race has come to take over the earth.” Scully looked quickly at Mulder as he stared at the doctor, who shook her head.

“When you’re ready to travel, Agent Scully, we will see to your accommodations.” She nodded at them with a sad smile, and walked out of the room, leaving them in silence.

“This is bullshit,” Mulder said, standing up and pacing the room. “I know what I saw and you saw it too.” He stopped and looked at her as she stared blankly back at him. “Scully?”

“Mulder… I… I don’t know...” she trailed off, snippets of her memory returning.

So cold. The wide expanse of… something some place. Pulling themselves up. Crawling through snow. Running. Running so fast.

“You remember.”

She looked at him, opening and closing her mouth, not knowing what to say.

“Scully… you have to remember.” He sounded so defeated, she wished she could tell him she did, wished her answer was what he wanted to hear.

“Mulder…” she sighed and he scrubbed a hand down his face and began pacing again. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but I… Mulder, I don’t know what happened. I have no idea how we got here, I don’t know why we’re here. My memories are not exactly reliable.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” he demanded and she sighed, looking down at her hands.

Honesty. She had to be honest, no matter how much they both avoided it at times.

“I remember coming to your apartment after my meeting with OPR,” she said quietly. “I… remember leaving and you following me out. I remember…” She looked up and stared at him, his eyes intense. “I remember… your words…” He stared at her as she began to breathe hard, the memory of his face coming closer to hers, his warm breath ghosting across her lips, and then…

“I remember being stung. The feeling in my chest.” She closed her eyes and placed her hand on her chest, feeling that stabbing pain again. “I… don’t remember much until you were there and I was so cold. So very cold.” She opened her eyes and moved her hand to her lap, looking at him again.

“You… you don’t remember anything else?” he asked softly.

“I didn’t say that.” She shook her head with a small smile. “But, my memories will not be accurate or helpful the way you may want them to be. I know you will want me to corroborate your story, but Mulder…”

“I don’t want you to agree simply to agree. I’ve never wanted that, Scully.”

“I know.”

They fell silent and he sighed, looking down and shaking his head. She felt she should apologize, but remained quiet, watching him as he stood there.

“Are you hungry? I can get you something,” he said, looking up and attempting to smile, though it did not reach his eyes.

“I’d like that,” she smiled. “Anything will be fine. But first, could I have more water?” He nodded and left to get some for her, leaving her alone.

Sighing, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back on the pillows. Her throat hurt and her body ached, though she would not tell him to what extent, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible.

The door opened and she opened her eyes, watching him bring over a plastic pitcher of water. He moved the table closer to her, filled her cup and set down the pitcher. Handing her the cup, he nodded and left the room again.

Drinking down the cool liquid, she closed her eyes, wondering why her throat was sore. She knew when he brought back their food, they would need to have a discussion.

She just was not looking forward to it.

_______________

She shook her head, the tale he told her almost too impossible to believe. She looked at him and he stared back.

“It’s the truth, Scully.”

“Mulder.” She sighed and pushed the table away, the smell of the food now turning her stomach.

“Scully, we’re in Antarctica. I don’t know what else to say about why we would be here, other than the reason I gave you. You were infected with the virus and brought here to be used, just as the vast amount of people I saw. Scully, if I hadn’t gotten there when I did, if I wasn’t told where to find you…” He shook his head and stared at her.

“But, why would he have told you? Why now?”

“He saw what was happening; it’s surpassing their ability to control it.”

“Mulder, a virus doesn’t do that. It does not… mutate into a creature-”

“Scully-”

“No, Mulder. I will not accept that.”

“Scully, you saw that virus, what it did and what it can do.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Then how can you question-”

“Because I did not see a creature. I did not see an alien gestating in those bodies.”

“Maybe they hadn’t reached that stage yet. Maybe… maybe it hadn’t evolved and those bodies… they were what could have been: the beginning stages of it attempting to gestate.” He shrugged and she shook her head.

“There is no proof of what you’re claiming.”

“I saw it with my own eyes.” He stared at her and she sighed heavily as she shook her head again.

“Mulder-”

“Scully.” He shook his head and paced the room in front of her, sighing loudly. “I saw the effects of that virus. Saw how it changed those people.” He stopped and stared at her and she held her breath.

“He told me how to find you,” he said softly. “He gave me the vaccine that I needed. Whatever he did in the past… it’s … it’s not forgiven, but he knew his life was at risk, and yet he gave me the information I needed to save you.”

“Mulder,” she said, shaking her head. “These men… they don’t give a shit about anyone, so long as they can save their own asses. I find it hard to believe he did anything to help me.”

“His had his reasons-”

“His reasons!” she nearly shouted, her throat hurting and causing her to reach for her water and take a drink.

“He wanted to protect his family-”

“And what about the families whose lives they’ve ruined? All those years and the people they have hurt and taken… your sister…” She knew it was a low blow, especially when he stared at her with pained eyes. “Mulder, he only cared when the threat grew too close and came to his own family. Where was the care for my mother, my family, for y… for you.”

He stared at her and he shook his head. She looked down and sighed, staring into her cup of water. Closing her eyes, she shook her head, and sighed again.

“He told me how to find you,” he said again. “He wanted me to see, to have the proof I needed. He knew what that vaccine would do. As soon as I gave it to you, the thing that was connecting you, like some kind of… an umbilical cord, the virus was pulled out of you and it… it woke those things. Whatever was in that vaccine, it foiled their plans.”

“Foiled, Mulder?” she whispered, with another shake of her head. “You saw what he wanted you to see, but you have no more proof than when you left. You say it was a spaceship flying away… with hundreds, if not thousands, of people that you say you saw… Mulder, they are still missing and it’s unknown exactly what will happen to them. How exactly were their plans foiled?” She sighed sadly and he shook his head, as he stepped back.

“Because you’re still here, Scully. You were all that I cared about,” he said quietly, holding her gaze, before he left the room, saying nothing further.

Closing her eyes with a heavy sigh at his words, she dropped her head back onto the pillows. His story was not so unbelievable, not after all she had seen over the years, but she could not willingly subscribe to a story if she was not completely sure it happened.

Over the years, despite working on the same case, their stories often conflicted with one another. The difference in those cases though, was that she had been there with him, and had her own factual experience of what she saw.

In this instance, her memories were fuzzy, and the tangible or scientific proof she needed was simply not there.

She sighed and tried to think back to what she remembered…

The excruciating pain in her chest, was the last memory she had. She recalled the feeling as it began and when she stumbled forward, Mulder’s arms had caught her, lowering her down gently to the tiled floor of his hallway. The feeling of her painful gasping breaths, her chest hurting more than any pain she had ever felt, as she heard him, his voice echoing, calling for the ambulance.

She remembered him running back to her, and the sound of his heavy footfall pounding in her ears.

His face had swam before her, fuzzy and too large. But then she had heard his voice and for a second she felt that it would all be fine.

“Scully,” he had whispered, close to her ear. “The ambulance is coming. You’re going to be okay. Scully, you’re okay…”

Her eyes had slid shut and it was the last thing she remembered— his voice and his hand desperately squeezing her own.

Then there was coldness, confusion, and fear as he carried, pulled, and guided her out of wherever he had found her. She had no knowledge of where they were, but even with his story and what he claimed he saw, she was not ready to agree and call it a spaceship.

She knew what he was telling her was the truth that he believed. The fact that they were there, in Antarctica, had to be proof of something, but she could not put the puzzle together, if she did not have all of the pieces.

Opening her eyes, she shook her head and took a few deep breaths as she laid her hand on her chest, feeling again the phantom pain.

Setting the cup down and pushing the covers back, she stood to her feet. Gaining her balance, she pushed the IV pole with her into the bathroom.

Washing her hands after she used the toilet, she stared at herself in the mirror. There were scratches and signs of frostbite on her face, and she was very pale.

Sighing again, she shook her head and left the bathroom. Mulder was not back in the room, though she had not really expected him to be. She knew he was angry and hurt and they both needed some time to themselves.

She adjusted her blankets and changed the bed from a sitting position. Laying her head on the pillow, she pulled the covers tightly around her, still feeling chilled. She closed her eyes and attempted to quiet her mind, even as she once again tried to figure out what the hell had happened to her.

____________________

On the airplane the next evening, she sighed as she shifted, bruises she had not known were there, were now making themselves known. Judging by the ache in her back and her ass, it was going to be a long ride home.

“You need anything?” Mulder asked, and she looked up at him, shaking her head.

“Oh, actually, a bl…” she started to say, not wanting to chance being cold, but he was already handing her a blanket and pillow. Smiling, she took them from him as he closed the overhead compartment and sat down with his own pillow and blanket.

“You’re sure those samples will be okay up there?” he asked, looking above them, and she nodded; the samples and information Doctor Turk had given her, stored in a securely packed transport bag.

“They will. I’ll get them to the lab when we get back and run more tests. We’ll see if anything comes up with access to more sophisticated equipment.” She covered herself with the blanket, as she looked out the window with a shiver.

“I know you’re hesitant to believe it, Scully,” he said quietly and she closed her eyes with a sigh. “But I know what I saw. What we saw in Texas. You were stung, I saw what happened to you. They took you away because they knew. They knew, Scully.”

“Or they wanted you to stop looking,” she said, turning her head to look at him. “They shot you, Mulder. They were intent on killing you. If they had…” She shook her head as she looked at the small bandage Doctor Turk had placed on his wound. “I understand what this means to you, but how much are you willing to pay?”

“Are you asking me to quit?”

“No, I would never ask that, I just…” She reached for his hand and sighed as he squeezed gently. “The truth is worth nothing, if you’re dead.” He stared at her and she gave him a small smile.

“I don’t want that either,” he said with a bitter chuckle, as she closed her eyes, and exhaled a deep breath. He squeezed her hand and she opened her eyes. “I just can’t let them win, Scully. I can’t.” She nodded, squeezing his hand and then releasing it.

“I’m tired,” she said apologetically, knowing he wanted to discuss it more, not having finished their conversation yesterday, instead tiptoeing around each other as they made their plans to leave.

She knew they needed to talk, but her eyes were becoming heavy, her body demanding sleep. He nodded with a smile and covered himself with his blanket.

“I just need to sleep for a little bit, Mulder,” she said with a yawn. “We’ll talk more about it soon. Because you’re right… they can’t win.”

He looked at her and nodded again, as she closed her eyes, and put her head on his shoulder, as his hand gently covered hers.

“No, Scully,” he said quietly, his head resting on hers, as he let out a deep breath, and she sighed with him. “No they can’t.”

#XF Fanfic #MSR #how did they get home from Antarctica?#snow #cold #worry #hurt and comfort #Fight the Future #Leaving Antarctica

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iwillhaveamoonbase · 4 years ago

Text

The Long Game ch. 2

Rayla glared a bit at her reflection in the mirror. How could she look just like herself and look nothing like she always did at the same time? Her horns were gone, her skin lacking the pink undertones, and she had the human pinkos. No…pinkies. They were called ‘pinkies.’ Her hair had yellow in it now and her lavender eyes were now a piercing blue. She hated it. Even her voice had lost it’s Silvergrove accent. She had spent the whole six months trying to get rid of it only for the powerful illusion to take care of it for her. Rayla quirked a lip as she remembered how she had reacted to that back at Lujanne’s. Lujanne had taken the whole thing as a learning process, that she was capable of losing her accent, but Rayla had been frustrated with the situation.

Rayla put a hand under her bare eye. She was sorely missing the dye normally under her eyes. She felt naked without it. The dye…she hadn’t been able to bring any with her and the design she chose….it had been a variant of the one her parents had put on her.

Rayla wasn’t foolish. She knew why the Assassins Guild had approved Runaan’s plan so easily and why no one but Ethari had opposed the idea. It didn’t matter if she died in the process; she was here to make up for her parents’ disgrace. “You two just had to run away…”

Rayla turned her head to look around the lavish room. She had hoped that King Harrow would take her in and give her a place among the palace staff. Easy to hide, easy to maneuver. That’s not what was happening, apparently. The room was right next to Prince Callum’s if she had heard correctly because she had asked for a view of the moon. Rayla walked around the room. It was too big, the balcony too ostentatious. She needed the moonlight to continue to charge the talisman, but she didn’t need all this. The dark purple stone had been created by all the mages of Silvergrove and crafted by Ethari. Lunjanne had added her own illusion magic and the power of the Moon Nexus had made it even stronger. It had to be perfect. She had to be perfect.

The moon was slowly rising, signaling the end of the day. Dinner had been awkward to say the least. They had done introductions and Viren had glared at her the whole time. His son, Soren, had stared at her for most of the time. Rayla was used to people staring at her, but this was different. All she knew was she didn’t like it. One of the princes, Callum, had also stared at her most of the night. But, his look had been different than Viren’s suspicious one and Soren’s….whatever that was. Callum looked at her with pure confusion. Did he see through the illusion? Lujanne had warned her that incredibly magically sensitive beings would be able to see through it, but that shouldn’t count a human, right? Right?

As she stepped onto the balcony, she sighed at the cool breeze that came over her. She heard a scritch-scatching to her right and turned her head to see Callum drawing the half moon. The moonlight was hitting the planes of his face and his green eyes almost looked like they were glowing. When he looked up again, she saw the emergence of a sharp jawline; something that would come as he grew older. He was a lot more handsome than her initial perusal had indicated. “Drawing the night sky, Your Highness?”

He yelped, startled out of his thoughts. “Oh! Rayla, right?”

She quirked a brow. “Yep.”

“Sorry. I just…get into a groove, I guess.”

“Don’t let me keep you from your ‘groove.’”

Callum gave her a soft smile, before turning back to his sketchbook. They sat in silence for a bit, Rayla perfectly content to stare at the stars. After some time, Callum nervously coughed. “Do you want to see?”

“Sure.” Before Callum could hand the sketchbook over to her, Rayla got on the ledge of her balcony and jumped onto his. He looked shocked for a moment, unsure. “Everything OK?”

“Yeah. I’ve just never done that before. I don’t think I’d have the confidence to not fall to my death.”

Rayla shrugged. “You need good control and balance. It’s not that tricky once you get those two things.” Callum had a look of disbelief on his face, but showed her the sketchbook. Rayla’s eyes went wide as she stared at the picture. Callum had indeed drawn the moon, craters and all, but he had also drawn her. There was a peaceful expression on her face. “I didn’t realize you were drawing me.”

“Sorry. I should have asked first.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m amazed you would pick me to draw.”

“It was hard not to. I have a feeling you don’t often feel as at peace as you did right then.”

“What makes you say that?”

Callum shrugged. “Just a feeling. Maybe I’m projecting. I don’t feel at peace very often myself.”

“Really?”

Callum nodded. “The king is my step-father and he’s been great, but our relationship isn’t really the parent-child one I want.”

“And your biological father?”

“Dead. Has been since I was about a year old. And my mom died about ten years ago.”

Rayla was quiet for a few moments. “I don’t know where my parents are. I was raised by their friends.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s for the best.”

Callum looked away for a bit. “You said your village is gone?”

“Yeah.”

“And it was elves?”

Rayla shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe. I don’t really know. Everything’s a little fuzzy.” Callum let it drop, but he turned his eyes back to her. There was that look again. “What?”

“What?”

“You’re looking at me like you’re confused.”

Callum flushed a bit. “Sorry.” He apologized too easily, Rayla decided. He tried to make himself small and unnoticed. Why? Weren’t humans supposed to be arrogant? “I don’t know how to explain it, but when I look at you, something’s…off.”

“‘Off?’”

“I don’t know. I asked Soren and Claudia and they both said you’re just really pretty and I’m not used to it.”

Rayla blinked twice. “What do you think?”

The light flush on his cheeks became a dark red. “I mean, you are quite pretty, but I don’t think that’s it.”

“What do you think it is, then?”

Callum stood up, so he was almost at her height. He was about an inch shorter than her, their eyes almost meeting directly. His lips were a lot fuller than she had thought. He tilted his head, an intense look directed right at her. “Do you dye your hair? Claudia does.”

“No.” Rayla gulped. He was too close. Could he hear her heart beating loudly? Why was it beating so fast? What was happening? She had to get out of here! “Sorry, but it’s late. I think I’ll head to bed.”

“Of course. Good night.” Rayla quickly turned and got on the railing to jump back onto her balcony. She turned her head to see Callum still looking at her with that same intense look. She gave him a quick wave and closed the balcony doors. Rayla leaned against the door, putting a hand to her chest. Why was her heart threatening to beat out of her chest? Was she almost caught? No….That hadn’t been it. Prince Callum was dangerous to her mission. That she knew.

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

“Harrow! We can’t trust her!”

Harrow pinched the bridge of his nose as Viren continued to denounce his commitment to Rayla. “We must care for all of our citizens.”

“Prove to me she’s one of our citizens! There has been nothing about what she claims! No villages have been attacked. NOTHING!”

“Viren, there could be a million reasons why her story isn’t adding up. What if she hit her head and this is the story her mind’s put together? We’ll help her find her home. If there is no home, I’ll give her one until she’s ready to leave.”

“This is a mistake. We can’t just take anyone in! Do we want a repeat of Duren? You don’t think things through enough when you’re trying to be compassionate.”

Harrow grit his teeth. “Let’s make something clear. I take full responsibility for what we had to do in Xadia. I lost my wife because I didn’t think ahead enough. My sons have to grow up without their mother! But I will not leave someone in need. I am trying to build a world that will accept the love and compassion that is so strong in Ezran.”

“Ezran?”

“His heart is far purer than mine ever was. He forgives easily and is incredibly understanding. He’ll be a better king than I am. But, I have to show compassion and understanding as well.”

“Harrow, listen to me-”

“The subject of Rayla is closed. She stays unless she proves she cannot be trusted.”

Viren growled low in his throat, quickly leaving the room. Harrow sighed as he leaned against his chair. Pip began to sing, the melody almost cheerful.

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

The next morning, Rayla followed Callum and Soren as they went to do their lessons. Callum looked completely unenthused while Soren kept sending smirks her way. What was with this blonde idiot? She watched Soren basically not teach Callum much of anything, except to expect to fall down. Which, would have been fine if he was also teaching Callum how to get up quickly. “Can I interject?”

Soren gave her a cocky grin. “No offense, but what does someone from a farming village know about swords?”

Rayla wracked her brain for the excuse Lujanne and her had come up with. “I’ve seen the military practice often enough. Besides, you don’t think children pretend to play with swords?”

Soren shrugged, handing her his sword. Rayla shook her head, taking Callum’s from the ground. “You’re not teaching him right.”

“With all due respect, I’m teaching him fine.”

“You’re teaching him to expect to fail but not how to get back up. In other words, you’re screwing with his confidence. That’s not teaching.” Rayla lunged forward, Soren barely able to block it. “His mother used a lance. Train him on that.” Soren pushed back, shock on his face as Rayla spun and used his own force against him so that he leaned forward, almost losing his balance. “Not everyone is made for the same thing.” Soren spun to face her. They traded blows, but it was obvious to all that Rayla was the superior swordsman. She was too light on her feet and knew when to add the right amount of power. She also knew when to back off, which was ultimately Soren’s downfall as she finally swept his legs out from under him, landing him on his back.

“You-You SWEPT THE LEG!” Callum exclaimed. Rayla smirked over at him. She wanted his attention on her, she realized. She wanted his praise.

“That’s not a thing in sword fighting!” Soren groaned from the ground.

“Apparently it is.” Everyone looked up to see Harrow, Viren, and Opeli at the entrance to the courtyard. “Rayla, you have a lot of talent in sword fighting.”

“I played a lot as a kid with fake weapons.” Viren raised a brow as Opeli looked her up and down.

“Perhaps, you would be better suited to training Callum.”

More time with Callum? BAD IDEA. He wasn’t suspicious of her, but he saw through the illusion, in some way he knew it was there. Rayla turned to see Callum looking at her. There was hope in his gaze instead of confusion. How could she refuse him when he looked at her like that? “I would be honored, Your Majesty.” She briefly curtseyed, sighing when the adults moved on. ‘I’m in trouble.’ “Alright, Prince Callum. No more swords. You’re going to be learning how to use a battle lance.”

“Let’s do it!” He looked so excited, his toothy smile and shining eyes hit her heart way too hard.

As they moved through practice, every little touch sent lightning coursing through her body. His laugh was infectious and his questions were actually incredibly insightful. The hours passed so quickly, she had barely noticed when dinner time came and judging by his expression, he hadn’t either.

As Rayla lay in bed that night, her heart still hadn’t slowed down. Every time she closed her eyes, a pair of green ones haunted her. Was this a crush? No, it was too intense for that. Either way, she had to pack these feelings deep into the corners of her heart and forget about that. There was no room for error. She couldn’t…she couldn’t fall in love with someone she was going to leave without a family. ‘Oh, gods…I’m falling for him….’

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

Callum went through his sketchbook. It’d been several months since Rayla had come and his notebook was becoming filled to the brim with pictures of her. The last time he had drawn Claudia had been the day Rayla had come. That itch in the back of his mind was still strong, but he felt drawn to Rayla in a way he didn’t know was possible. Every move she made had his immediate attention. Her laugh was infectious and her snark and sarcasm showed an intelligent mind that was screaming for knowledge and also an eye for loopholes. She had taken to lessons with him and Ezran, devouring knowledge almost as soon as it was presented to her, though she preferred to be outside and moving about. It was hard to keep her attention for long when the sun was shining and there were things to do outside.

“Hey.” Callum looked up to see the object of his thoughts smiling at him from her balcony.

“Hey.”

“The moon’s full.” Callum nodded, wondering where this was going. “Back home, we sing and celebrate the passing of each cycle. I haven’t been able to do it much since coming here. Do you mind if I sing a bit?”

“Not at all.” Callum had not expected the haunting voice that Rayla had when she sang. He felt the gooseflesh on his skin as she vocalized for a bit.

There's an old familiar silence

When I'm lost inside my heart

I can't hear the voice inside me

So I look up to the stars

There is darkness ever waiting

I can feel it in the air

So I call upon my angels

Are you still there?

When the wind bends the branch to softly touch me

When the band plays your song

I feel strong enough to keep dreaming

Even when I'm all alone our love goes on and on

When the wind bends the branch to softly touch me

When the band plays your song

I feel strong enough to keep dreaming

Even when I'm all alone our love goes on and on

When she finished, she turned to him. Callum was struck speechless. The softness on her features as she sang compared with just how deep her song reached his soul…In the back of his mind, Callum remembered a conversation his mother and Viren’s ex-wife had once had when he was little. That, sometimes, souls called out for each other in ways no one could run away from. The light of the full moon hit her gaze and Callum wondered if that’s what was happening. Was his soul drawn to Rayla’s? It felt like it. “Thank you for sharing that,” he whispered. Whatever spell had taken over the both of them, he didn’t want to break it.

“You’re welcome,” she whispered back. When they parted for the night, Callum stared at her balcony for a few moments longer. He wasn’t quite sure when he had stopped liking Claudia, but he knew that what he was feeling for Rayla was far stronger and, most likely, not nearly as easy to let go of.

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

The song is Love Goes On and On by Lindsey Stirling and Amy Lee. If you have not seen the Older Rayllum AU content that is Lindsey Stirling's Between Twilight, go to YouTube and watch it!

#rayllum #rayllum fanfic #moonbase fanfics #tdp #the dragon prince #the long game

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adventuresloane · 5 years ago

Text

The Million Ways The World Ends

Pairing: Dani/Aubrey

Rating: G

Words: 2.7k+

Raffle prize for @space-unicron !

Summary: "It was like before, when they worked in near-silence and with barely more light than the blue stovetop flame, so as not to wake up anyone else. It might as well have been just the same. Except it wasn't, actually. They'd been in the small kitchen for twenty minutes now, the longest they'd stayed in such a close proximity in weeks."

The world is ending, again. Dani and Aubrey decide to make pancakes about it. (Just some quiet pre-Amnesty finale hurt/comfort because we deserved it. Gift for @space-unicron on tumblr!)

Read on AO3

Aubrey was up at 4 AM and knee-deep in a Wikipedia article about the origin of leap years when the knock jolted her. After taking a moment to reassure herself that it was a person at the door and not a sign of worse to come, she let her breath out. She got off Duck's couch and went to the peephole.

Technically, it wasn't impossible that she was hallucinating. It had happened before on nights like this--sometimes when she went long enough without sleep, she heard passing police sirens that weren't there, and once when she got her meds mixed up before bed, she thought she could feel the color blue. But standing outside the door, Dani's form looked solid enough. Her heart beat harder than it had been before, stirred up her insides into mush. She unlocked the door.

"Dani," she said, and then, remembering the others in the apartment, tried more quietly, "Dani." That was all she could think to say.

Dani, though, only had to look at Aubrey once and then glance away. "Have you slept at all?"

"No."

"You should."

"Well, so should you," Aubrey answered reflexively.

"You know I don't sleep," she said in a whisper, all the more muffled as she turned her face toward the ground. There might have been a brief, tired smile there, or just a shadow.

Anyway, this, at least, was familiar. They'd had the same pointless conversation many nights, before everything had happened. Though usually, it had happened when one of them was standing in the doorway of the other's room at the lodge. But they weren't at the lodge. Still, this, Aubrey could handle. "Yeah, I know," she sighed. "Apparently I don't either anymore."

"I didn't think you'd be asleep."

She nodded, then waited for more. When Dani didn't give it to her, she scratched the buzzed back of her head and mumbled, "Um, so...do you need something? Everything's okay at Leo's place, right?"

"Yes. Yes, it's definitely fine, I just..." Her arms squeezed more tightly around the brown paper grocery bag, making it crackle. She seemed to remember, at that point, that it was there, and quickly held it straight out to Aubrey as if she were handing her a squawking baby.

"Oh," Aubrey said a full two seconds before thinking to take the bag from her. She squinted into the darkness to see an egg carton, white bags full of several different kinds of flour, milk in a glinting glass bottle. "Uh...thank you for the groceries?"

Dani had always been quite a bad bluffer. She released the word, "Sure" in a long, heavy breath, not unlike the huff of a sad dog. Something else seemed to come out of her along with it, something that had been buoying her.

It was getting chilly. "Is that it? Or do you vant to suck my blood?"

That wasn't what Aubrey had meant. She had meant to ask whether she needed anything, again, really. The shitty joke was supposed to have translated, however crudely, into an outstretched hand. But Dani hadn't taken it that way. She jerked as if in reaction to a static shock from the doorknob.

Pancakes, her addled mind put together in that moment. They were ingredients for pancakes.

"No, that's all," she whispered. "Sorry, I...you should keep trying to rest, or..."

"No, hey, hold on." Aubrey reached for her, almost grabbed the sleeve of her sweater, and then pulled her fingers back as if from intense heat.

This, she realized, had already become a muscle memory. The flinch was her very body not wanting to repeat what had happened yesterday and in previous days. This past afternoon, when she and Dani and the other Sylphs had made the trek to H2Woah! That Was Fun--the hot springs were closed to them now--they had sat on opposite ends of the backseat, Jake between them. When Aubrey had seen her standing alone over one of the pools and looking straight down, she had thought about it hard, had told herself to let it be, and then regardless had gone over to put a hand on her shoulder. To which Dani had immediately said, Don't, and then, Please. And it was fine, and it made sense that she wasn't ready for that, and it was alright that she was still grieving after Ned and the government and everything, and still of all things that had happened it was this that made Aubrey feel like throwing up into the deep end.

So she wasn't touching Dani now. Dani stopped anyway at her call, hair swinging as she turned her head back towards her.

Even in her disguised human form, there was a moon-like shine to her eyes. The pupils looked almost glossy.

Aubrey kind of wanted to apologize, though she wasn't sure for what. She swallowed that instinct back hard and said instead, "Do you want to make pancakes?"

For a moment, she said nothing. Then, quietly, but in a voice that sounded more alive than she had in weeks: "You have to invite me in first, you know."

The sun was far from rising still. But the sky held a little more of blue than of black now, to more starkly outline the silhouette of the crater that had been Mt. Kepler. Duck got up at six, out of habit, though since the encroachment of the FBI on the town, his Forest Service duties had been reduced, and he didn't need to head into work as early. They had a couple hours alone.

It might as well have been like before, in the lodge. They didn't have the stainless steel surfaces of the building's kitchen--stainless steel that they tried not to muck up too much, lest they invoke Barclay's grouchiness--but this was far from the first time they'd made insomniac pancakes in the wee hours. Dani mixed dry ingredients with the sifter. Aubrey whisked the batter hard. Eggs were broken and left a little shining goo on the edge of the granite countertop, which they resolved to clean later. It was like before, when they worked in near-silence and with barely more light than the blue stovetop flame, so as not to wake up anyone else. It might as well have been just the same.

Except it wasn't, actually. They'd been in the small kitchen for twenty minutes now, the longest they'd stayed in such a close proximity in weeks. Aubrey spoke one or two hushed words at a time, telling her where the pans and utensils were in the unfamiliar kitchen, and sometimes she didn't even speak to do that, just gestured with her spatula or foot at a cupboard door. In the lodge, their quiet had been the quiet of kids at a sleepover after lights-out, warm in the darkness, struggling not to giggle or to look each other in the eye for too long in case their laughing started up again. They had smeared batter on each other's noses. That felt like a long time ago. The only thing they'd had to worry about back then was disturbing Mama, who at that time would either be asleep or up late working on her art, always there somewhere. Mama wasn't anywhere now. Probably nowhere that existed according to the government, anyway.

Aubrey flipped a pancake straight out of the pan and over the back of her head.

She wheeled around only to find Dani dropping to her knees on the tile. She caught the pancake in her palm just before it hit the ground. Then she intoned, "ow, ow, shit, ow," flipping the hot, floppy thing frantically from hand to hand so as not to let it fall, the harshness of her whispers making up for the lack of volume.

"Wait, wait, I gotcha, just hold up--" Aubrey brought the pan over, down to her level. Finally, in sailed the offending pancake like a live fish on land. Even in the dim light, she could see Dani's reddened hands. Both froze, crouched on the floor, locked in eye contact while they waited to hear whether anyone had been woken up by all that. No sound came.

Dani cracked first, with a snorting laugh she tried to muffle by hiding her mouth behind her hair like always. Aubrey wasn't far behind, giggling through her teeth until she sounded like a hissing kettle. They alternated laughing and shushing and more barely contained laughing, calming down only to glance at each other again and start right back up, and this went on for maybe a couple minutes before Dani's voice changed and Aubrey looked up to find her crying.

"Oh, honey..."

"It's fine," Dani blubbered, scrubbing her eyes. "I'll be fine, I'm sorry."

"It's not fine," she murmured, swallowing the lump in her own throat. She looked out the window. "You can cry it out if you want. The world's falling apart and everything's shit."

"Falling apart?" She almost laughed again, wetly. "It's fallen. Mama's not even..." She choked herself off.

Aubrey gulped hard again. Gulped down her desire to brush the tears away with her thumb. Gulped down how much she wanted to feel the smoothness of Dani's cheek like a balm on her hand. Her fingers twitched. Instead of putting them on Dani's shoulder or knee or face, she stood and then, holding her breath, held her hand out.

Through her tears, it took Dani a moment to notice the gesture. She took a few more just to blink in surprise. Aubrey felt her chest about to burst.

Then it was her turn to be surprised. Dani, instead of taking her hand, grabbed her upper arm to pull herself off the floor. Aubrey didn't know whether to jolt away from the touch or melt into it. She did neither. She just stayed steady and stiff. Still, Dani kept touching her bicep. First she clung to it. Then, after awhile of her sniffling and struggling to regain her breath, she started to trace the black tattoo on Aubrey's upper arm. There was just enough light from outside now to see it plainly.

"It's the Black Rabbit of Inlé," Aubrey murmured. "Watership Down was my favorite book as a kid."

"Mm?"

"Yeah," she sighed. While she talked, she felt her own breathing start to regulate again, though she hardly realized she'd been struggling with it before. If she could keep talking, she was still okay. They both were. "I got that after my mom died. He's the rabbit grim reaper, basically, in the characters', uh...weird rabbit mythology. It's cooler than I'm making it sound. Anyway, he's scary, but you find out in the myth towards the end of the book that he can be fair, too, and even kind of merciful."

As she went on, Dani didn't look at her directly, only nodded and "mm"ed occasionally. Early on in their relationship, this was something that had confused and then embarrassed Aubrey. She had assumed that Dani was annoyed by the rambling and simply too polite to say anything. They had had one of their very few fights over it--or, rather, they had come as close to an actual fight as they ever had. When Aubrey, with no small amount of passive-aggression, had said that Dani could leave if she didn't like hearing her talk, Dani had whipped around to look at her with such shock that Aubrey couldn't fathom how her next sentence could be a lie. I do like it, though, she'd said. I just want to hear your voice as much as I can, no matter what you're saying.

Dani wasn't actively crying anymore, just sniffling now and then as snot kept dripping from her nose. "I like Fiver best," she said in a voice that was only a bit hoarse.

"So you have read it!"

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, the way she sometimes did when she grinned. "You mentioned before it was your favorite."

She tried to ignore the familiar surge in her chest, the good ache that almost overwhelmed her. "Figures you'd like the shy, spiritual one. I was always a Bigwig fan myself. Hey, I burnt the hell out of this pancake. You still wanna make more?"

They did. When they were done, they sat on the couch with their plates and ate and watched with parched, tired eyes as golden light peeked over the broken mountain. On the night that the great stone peak was destroyed, it sent up so much debris and powdered rock into the air that the sun looked pale and watery in the gray sky for days afterward. It lent a certain authenticity to the end of the world, a certain movie quality that was almost validating. Now, after the disturbance caused by the destruction of the mountain, the animals were starting to congregate again in the area. The birds in the morning sounded louder in the now quiet town than they ever had. Or maybe they had always been there and were now simply more noticeable. That, too, was to be expected of the end of days.

The pancakes tasted good. While she had a second serving, she tried to keep a running tally of things that still existed, for now, anyway. Birds. 5:18 AM breakfast. Her own encyclopedic knowledge of Watership Down. Presumably, Watership Down itself, assuming the ragged copy in her room hadn't vanished from the shelf. Sunrise.

The woman tucked up against her, having set her plate aside. Dani had always done something to her. For her entire life, Aubrey had tried to get a hold on her perpetually scattered, racing thoughts and wrangle them into order. As it turns out, Dani could quiet them, gently, with just a touch, just the presence of her body. Right now, Aubrey could feel them settling to the bottom of her skull like sand in a slow-flowing river. In the past, no matter what monster she had faced, she could stumble back to find Dani waiting, always waiting at the lodge, steady and calm and content to let Aubrey lean against her as she stretched. That seemed like a very long time ago.

Aubrey almost wanted an apology, though she wasn't sure what for. She pushed the idea aside. She tried to focus on Dani's cool, soft skin against hers. The sense of familiar calm returned to her, like a loyal pet. Everything, objectively, was shit. Mind-blowingly, deathly awful, actually, if you counted the FBI and the aliens and the distinct possibility of interplanetary war. And it didn't feel that way, just now. It felt like she could evade it all, like the thin girl by her side could hide and shield her from all of it. All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand Enemies, and when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you. The still dim, compact living room had the feeling of a den or burrow. The two of them had the feeling of two creatures huddled in the dark, small in the grand scheme of things, but absurdly alive.

"Did you like your apocalypse pancakes?" Aubrey asked.

"Even better than insomnia pancakes."

"Are you scared? About, you know. Everything."

Dani really seemed to think about it before saying, "Kind of...no?"

"That's pretty insane of you, I'm not gonna lie. You're either incredibly metal or you're lying."

"You know I can't lie," she answered wryly. "And, well, I've seen it before, you know. The world ending, I mean. My world ended for the first time when I left Sylvain. I thought I'd die."

Aubrey nodded. She understood. The world had ended on the night her childhood home burnt down. Again when Ned died, when Mama left. Though she was ashamed to admit it, it had even, in some smaller way, ended when Dani seemed to be done with her. She felt that she could lose almost anything else so long as Dani was with her. And here she was, and so, somehow, just in this moment, there was nothing to fear. "Guess the world's always ending, huh?" Aubrey said. "The universe keeps trying to nerf us and we just won't die."

"It ends all the time in a million little ways." By now, Dani's fingers had worked their way in to weave between Aubrey's. She squeezed. "But you and I won't."

#dani #aubrey #danbrey #vampfire #taz amnesty #taz #the adventure zone #the zone cast #taz dani #taz aubrey #aubrey little #taz fanfic #fan fiction #hurt and comfort

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the-woman-in-the-writing · 5 years ago

Text

“When the Moon Walked Among Us” a short fiction

Rating: PG Word Count: 3,164

Author’s note: I’ve always been good at remembering my dreams, and that seemed like a useless talent until I dreamed the world ended. I wrote this story as a way of preserving how vivid and realistic (yet a bit weird) my dream was, though please take note that I am not the narrator (in my stories, the narrator is never me). I didn’t revise, add, or deleted any scene or part in this dream-story. Everything you’re about to read was purely dreamed by yours truly.

Maybe it was the end of the world. Maybe it wasn’t. They never knew for sure what it was and why it happened. Only one thing was clear: nothing was ever the same again. Not after everything…

No.

People came together all over the world to watch the Super Moon. They packed their tents and barbecues, set up camp in wherever there was a clear field and open sky, turned off their lights, and waited. Families, friends, lovers, and strangers. We all came to watch the Super Moon that was said to last for a whole day. People chatted with one another, talking about their families or whoever they came with, over burgers and beer. The children made new friends and played by the sunset with their flashlights and food wrapper paper planes.

Everyone waited for the Super Moon.

They said it will be the most beautiful thing you’ll ever see. And it was. Despite everything that happened after, it really was.

When the evening came and everyone had piled up beside their tents and prepared their telescopes or binoculars, the Super Moon came into view: beautiful, big, round, and luminous, tinged and glowing with a creamy orange light that everyone marveled at. We were wolves staring at the moon, waiting to be transformed into something greater and stronger. It was so close that you could almost see every spot and crater in great detail even without a telescope or binoculars.

Then we went home, talked about it on the drive, posted pictures of it on the internet with stupid captions and hashtags, and showed it on the news. But as the world spun around this captivating piece of heaven, we all took turns, the people of the world. Of viewing. Of taking photos. Of making art. Of writing poetry. At one point you could say everyone was looking at the same thing as you could never miss it, this beautiful thing.

Later, people will believe that the Super Moon brought the world together for one tiny yet impactful moment in history. Not everyone will think so, but most will.

But we would all agree that this was the beginning.

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” - Romans 8:18

II.

No one could sleep.

When it started, no one knew why. Everyone in the world shifted in their beds and wondered why it was 2am and they couldn’t sleep. Though we all woke up on time, in sync with our 7am alarm, the atmosphere felt like noon: hot and awake. At work or at school we all exchanged, I couldn’t sleep last night’s and me too’s, and two hours after we all ate our lunches the sun was already setting. We were all confused. That night, no one got a good night’s sleep.

We asked the scientists, but some of them kept silent. Some of them said it was normal. We didn’t know what to think; we just wanted to sleep.

After a while, people started getting sick or getting into accidents. Most of us developed insomnia and loss of appetite. Those who started falling asleep again began while they were driving on their way to work. By the end of the month, most of the headlines yelled CRASH, DEAD, and INJURED. Children cried out of fear, wondering why they couldn’t avoid the darkness of the night by sleeping. Their parents grumbled, tired and sleepless as well.

Our days shortened. Life felt fast with our 16-hour days, but we’re humans. Of course, we found a way to adjust to it eventually. We stayed up all night partying, reading, drinking, texting, praying, and wandering; we opened and closed our stores much later; we extended our Late, Late Shows; and we made clocks that had shorter hours.

That didn’t mean we slept well and regularly again. Sometimes we would still shift in our beds and turn our pillows over and under our heads. The digits of 8 midnight would seem to blink endlessly by our bedside table. And if sleep was hopeless, we all stared at the moon, which was closer than it was three months ago.

“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed…” - 1 Corinthians 15:51

III.

It was all over the news: a lion with a school of dead fish washed up ashore on a beach in India. No one knew where the lion came from or how it made it all the way there, but people were speculating it had something to do with the moon and how it traveled a hundred thousand kilometers closer to us in just five months.

Again, we asked the scientists. And again, they either kept silent or said it was normal.

It’s part of the earth’s natural process.

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

It’s nothing to worry about.

From 384, 400 kilometers to 274, 575, we knew that was something to worry about, but we didn’t know everything. The how’s and the why’s. So, we relied on the scientists, because in science we trust and in God we doubt.

No one lived by the beaches anymore, even fishermen. By day, beaches would get so dry that you could walk for three hours and see nothing but land still. You’d step on a dead baby crab once in a while and by the time you’re looking back to where you came from, your legs would be gift-wrapped with seaweed and glittered with sand. At first, we couldn’t figure out the best way to fish and go on cruises because by night the water would get so high that it would swallow up any structure within fifty kilometers. In Ireland they say you’d be able to climb half of a sea cliff during the night.

After a while, the ecosystem went crazy and we went hungry. Partly because we’d just been adjusting to the 16-hour days, but mainly because the animals had a harder time getting used to it. Most of the fishes we caught were dead, and no one dared to fish in the middle of the night as weather became more unpredictable. Crops were no exception. Half of them died along with the marine life.

But then again, we were humans. We found a way to survive.

Almost everything we ate were manufactured in a shape of a cylinder or cube. We wrote recipe books that said, “101 Ways to Cook Canned Food” or “Canned You Cook This?” And we hid almost every vegetable we had left in fear of someone stealing it. Then by moonlight, if we felt having something that reminded us of how the world used to be, we would eat our roasted genetically modified chickens and our children would say, “Daddy, daddy, the moon is the size of my fist!”

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.” - 2 Timothy 3:1

IV.

Our days shortened to 14 hours and depending on which part of the world you lived in, you either bathed in the sun or crept in the dark for more than half a day. The lands were cracked eggshells in Southern Asia and Africa, just like their skin. News reporters, missionaries, and tourists who travelled from the cold, dark North cried at swimming pools and parks because they missed the heat, and sometimes children would mistake them for ghosts or banshees.

Earth’s tilt was at 45-degrees and up in the North, where it almost snowed all year-round with only a month to melt almost half of the ice. People who didn’t die to lack of sleep or hunger died in the cold; in the South, they dried up like beef jerky. And before even Christmas arrived there were already no feeding programs or charity cases anymore, because all the beggars were dead and buried under our snow.

One time, a friend said, “My daughter came home from school and gave me her drawing. Their teacher had asked them to draw and color different kinds of people from all over the world and you know what? Even the Asian is black now!” We laughed for a second or so, but we stopped for a lot of reasons.

“You know, you could draw the moon and the sky and still use the same crayons.”

He replied, “The moon will take half of the paper though”

“And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” - Mark 13:20

Big, bold letters sprawled across every outlet store, every shopping center, and every thrift shop, and they all spelled the same thing: WINTER CLOTHES FOR SALE. We scavenged the last of our animals that could provide us warmth and security because nothing says, “We will survive this deadly winter” like wool jackets made from our frozen sheep and a pair of leather gloves, freshly skinned from our endangered cows.

Then the world figured out how to get what it wants. The North began to ask the South for animals: chickens, pigs, cows – every farm animal you can find in a children’s story book. Because no animal we could eat could survive the winter that long and we don’t know where the fishes went. On the other hand, the South asked for vegetables and lots of ice. And finally, we were able to travel conveniently again when we’ve figured out where to put all the ice, and the people of the South were happy as long as they got fresh vegetables on their plates and ice to keep them hydrated and cool. It didn’t matter that their forests and crops burned up and that their rivers were nothing but empty veins, because it was enough that they ate and drank.

It wasn’t easy, of course. We all complained. We all asked the scientists.

“How do we survive?”

We no longer asked if we were going to be okay or if they were lying about half of the world being frozen and the other half burning as something normal, and that we will be finishing the year earlier than expected. The scientists said there was nothing to worry about. We had to take their word for it, because what could we do if even they can’t do something about it?

So, no one just talked about the moon that watched over us, except maybe for the Internet that made jokes and funny pictures about it.

What’s important was that we made it out of this alive.

So, our scientists – all kinds – genetically modified our animals and manipulated our crops; they reproduced fishes in their laboratories; they made special facilities for storing water; they invented brand new foods with whatever was left to help get us all the nutrients we need; and they gave us technology and guides to help us do all of this at home.

If the sky was clear, we would find ourselves looking at the moon and its craters and spots, with our faces painted with moonlight. We were still wolves waiting to be transformed into something greater and stronger. Something that could survive all this.

We prayed.

Even though in science we trust and in God we doubt.

“Pray that it may not happen in winter. For in those days there will be such tribulations as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be.” - Mark 13:19

VI.

What follows is a series of tragedies: tragedies we know of; tragedies we named; tragedies that weren’t 14-hour days, mass animal endangerment, world famine, or a half-frozen, half melting world – tragedies that we were used to.

Earthquakes and the tsunamis that followed sunk islands as we welcomed a new year. All the small countries that lived on islands no longer resurfaced; their people would’ve been declared extinct if it weren’t for migration. If somebody were to make a world map at that time, you’ll no longer find Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Fiji, Cuba, or any of the islands as small as them on the map. Half of Japan and Indonesia sunk, and only a quarter of the Philippines resurfaced.

We lost seven percent of the world population. That’s half a billion people crushed by debris and drowned with the resources they traded all over the world. All their memories of their childhoods, first loves, and heartbreaks were reduced to nothing but rocks in the ocean to be covered by algae or barnacles. They were Atlantis, and a story come true have never felt so tragic.

People were devastated, of course. But we were all very hungry too. Those who weren’t affected by the earthquakes refused to help. There were incoming hurricanes and we all thought,

The dead will remain dead.

Half a billion people don’t need food, shelter, or medicine anymore.

There was no use in sharing resources with the few hundreds of survivors when more than a billion need it to stay alive.

Some people thought it was cruel and selfish, but by then we weren’t humans anymore. We were savages scraping what was left of the world we destroyed. And as much as we hate to eat and drink what should’ve been shared to the survivors of the Great Sink, we still did. We were all so hungry. God, we were hungry.

Then the hurricanes came along with their floods, landslides, and tornadoes, and they killed us and our animals. Homes were destroyed. Families were separated. Children were orphaned. There were about five billion people left in the world.

This must be a bad dream, we thought.

A sick joke.

That’s what this is.

“There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.” - Luke 21:11

VII.

People found evidence of advanced technology being developed and used by scientists, the same ones who told us that the world was not ending. (Or so we believed.)

There was a mass production of high-tech projectors and weather instruments that were launched into space to control what we saw on the horizon and what we didn’t. (Or so they say.)

The media was accused and persecuted for false news and being paid of hush-money to keep the so-called truth a secret. (Or so we wanted.)

Hundreds of data was discovered to contain information about a world-wide human experiment determining the effects of a global catastrophe and series of disasters on human behavior. (Or so they say.)

We imprisoned CEOs, scientists, and news reporters. We raided their homes, stole their food and clothes, and hurt their loved ones. We killed them in our dreams every night and ripped them limb by limb in the sleepless ones as we lay on the floors of our wrecked home, covered in snow or in sweat, and still staring at the moon that isn’t back to its rightful, safe distance. (And so we did.)

Everything will be back to normal once we shut down all those projectors and controllers. We will learn to live again and be humans.

And the world was not ending after all.

(And that’s what we wanted to believe.)

“And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” - Matthew 24:10-12

VIII.

People came together all over the world to watch the world end. They held their children or whoever they had left, gathered food and shared them with others as a last act of kindness, set up camp in wherever there was a field with no debris or remnant of a human being, and waited. Families, friends, lovers, and strangers. We all came to witness The Day that was said to last a lifetime. People chatted with one another, talking about their families or whoever they lost, over empty stomachs and chapped lips. The children stayed with the adults and clung onto them with unending fear and the memory of a lost childhood.

Everyone waited for The Day.

They said it will be the most dreadful thing you’ll ever see. And it was. Despite everything that happened before, it really was.

When the hour came and everyone had piled up beside the broken homes or fallen trees, the moon stared right us as always: terrifying, big, round, luminous, and waiting to collide with our fallen earth. We were wolves staring at the moon, waiting to be transformed into something greater and stronger. It was so close that you could almost see every calamity and loss you’ve endured the past year in great detail even without a telescope, binoculars, or a washed-up family album or baby shoes.

We stayed and faced our inevitable fate. Some still managed to post pictures of it on the internet with stupid captions and hashtags. There were even people who showed it on the news. But as the world spun around this frightening piece of heaven, we all took turns, the people of the world. Of viewing. Of taking photos. Of crying. Of hugging and kissing one last time. Everyone was living the Day as you could never miss it, even if you wanted to.

And we all believed that the moon will crash into us and wipe us out for old times’ sake, but it wasn’t much later that we heard the most chilling, bone shattering sound we ever got to hear: the sound of the moon cracking, like a breaking iceberg, echoing into our souls, and resonating as weeping and almost hushed screams.

Some people swore they saw Christ come out of the moon, accompanied by angels. Not everyone believes so.

But we all agreed that when we saw pieces of the moon falling down on us in slow motion, helpless and blazing, that it was disturbingly beautiful.

It was then that I kissed my wife for the last time.

“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven; and the powers of heaven will be shaken.” - Mark 13:24-25

E P I L O G U E

There were survivors and they were less than a hundred. They spent the last days on earth, freezing, weeping, and gnashing their teeth in the dark. The sun died. The moon is gone. There is only but loneliness living and walking among the few humans who had gathered up the will to keep on breathing.

They couldn’t accept that that was the end of the world. If it was, there shouldn’t have been anyone left. But there was, and it was them.

Soon, they realized there was nothing left to do but wait.

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notesfromthemetro · 4 years ago

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"SECURITY: WE WOULD LIKE TO INFORM YOU TO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON TONIGHT, 10TH JUNE. STAY INDOORS UNTIL 6 AM. POLICE DEPARTMENT"

Confused, still not entirely awake, Serena stared at the alert on her phone. The silence at 3 am made her apartment come alive, every sound--the humming of the air conditioning, the growing pains of the building as it moved with the temperature, a child wailing downstairs somewhere-- amplified by the stillness.

The alert drowned under the deluge of messages from friends and strangers alike.

"I can't wait to see the photos you'll take of the moon," one of her friends wrote.

"You awake? Don't miss the moon tonight, it's never been more beautiful," wrote a stranger.

How she wished Michael, her boyfriend, was lying next to her that night and not away on business in another city. Just the muted sound of his breath was enough to fend off her fear of darkness, of silence and whatever her mind thought was creeping underneath.

She sat on her bed, her legs still under the blankets, and as she leaned to turn on the light on her nightstand she noticed that the light trickling from outside through her cream-coloured curtains was too bright and warm for 3 am. Turning to her phone again, she wrote a quick message to Michael, hoping he, for some reason, was awake, too.

"Are you getting the messages?"

He replied quickly. "Yeah, they woke me up. I don't see anything strange here, though. It's really cloudy so I can't see the moon."

"But isn't it very bright and warm outside, as if it was 7 pm?"

"No, Serena. It's 3 am. It's pitch dark outside. What's going on there?"

"I'll find out. Call you in the morning, OK? Love you."

The hole in her chest grew bigger with every minute she spent in silence, so she got up and turned on the television hoping a human voice in the apartment would take the fear away. Nothing was going to happen, she told herself, breathing heavily. It was just a strange night and it'd be over in a few hours.

Carefully, looking down to avoid catching a glimpse of the moon, she approached her balcony and opened the sliding glass door ever so slightly, but the streets below were dead quiet, not unlike any other Wednesday so late at night.

Before she had the chance to turn her phone off and return to bed, one last message caught her eye.

"So, did you have look? Maybe having a look outside will give you some peace of mind. Send me a photo, will you? Can't wait for the weekend to see you again," wrote Michael.

"Can't wait to see you, too. I may have a few photos to show you."

Maybe he had a point. Maybe there was a reasonable explanation for the warnings, the dozens of messages on her phone, the warm light outside like a second sunset. She'd never know until she went outside and had a look. Quickly, she grabbed her camera from her desk and set it up on a tripod on her balcony. Only a few of her neighbours were outside--she did notice an old man with a child pointing at the moon in the building across the street.

The moon was huge and bright orange, almost like a sun, so large she could see the details of the craters. Stunned, she forgot about the camera for a few seconds. She couldn't explain what she was seeing, but she knew she wasn't afraid. The warm light around her and the cool March breeze comforted her. In her mind, the moon had been reborn, larger and brighter than before, to keep them company if only for that night.

Slowly, she took the first photos and moved the tripod to get different angles. She knew Michael would love one of the moon falling over two apartment buildings like a fireball ready to explode above them.

Satisfied with her photos, Serena returned inside, finally ready to go back to bed. The silence in her apartment was no longer a cold hand running its fingers down her back; it was a soothing company for the night ahead. For the first time in years, she was not afraid anymore.

She put the camera next to its bag on the couch and returned to her bedroom and to her dreams.

***

A loud knock on the door pulled Serena out of her dream. It was 7 am and the morning light looked soft and fresh, as usual. The upstairs neighbour paced frantically in what sounded like high heels, perhaps already late for work. Confused, Serena rushed to the door putting a robe on.

At the other side, two men stood large as shadows, arms crossed, black clothes impeccable. They said nothing. One of them grabbed her by the wrist while the other put a dark hood over her head before she had the chance to scream.

***

The apartment was unusually quiet for a Thursday night when Micheal arrived after cutting his trip short. He hadn't heard about Serena in a couple of days, and his concern was the perfect excuse to leave the exhausting marathon of meetings and brainstorm sessions. When he arrived the door was unlocked, the bed unmade, and her things still lying on the bed as she did every day to get ready for work quickly.

Suffocated with anguish, he sat on the couch, next to the empty camera bag without noticing the camera was not there, and checked his phone again, reading over and over the last message she sent him: "I'll find out. Call you in the morning, ok? Love you."

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nekokoaa · 6 years ago

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Wolves Among Us - Bakugo x Reader (V)

Wolves Among Us – Bakugo x Reader

Series Warning: Fantasy AU, Fluff, NSFW

(Chapter V/XX) New Mini Series!

I love this chapter! Had a blast writing it <3 <3 Thank you everyone who follows this story!!! Reading your reactions always gets me pumped!!

Taglist:

@freedom-for-bum @reallyfuckingangrylatina @risarisarisaa @ashherssss @mels-heart @xa-dia @shanty-lol (((Some of the tags aren’t working for you guys so I'm guessing you have to go to your settings and allow yourself to be tagged)))

Inspired by The Company of Wolves by Angela Carter

(Chapter I) (Chapter II) (Chapter III) (Chapter IV) (Chapter V) ((click the tag wau bnha to find all the chapters since Tumblr killed links.))

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

It was quiet. The sun was completely gone, retired for the day so that the moon could shower its glow across the forest. The skies were oddly clear of clouds with only the moon solely hanging in its vicinities. But it was still as cold as ever with an old sheet of snow slouched across the land in uneven hills. The snow was hardened because of the lower temperatures and every time you stepped your boot into it, it would crunch, and an ice crater created from your foot would be formed.

Katsuki’s boots did the same thing except that they were much larger than your own. You were starting to notice just how big Katsuki was as he had his back towards you, leading you through the shadows between the thick trees. He was holding your hand, tightly, it was the only warmth you felt in this weather. Anytime you touched Katsuki, it always felt hot like summer. It never ceased to amaze you how just simply being close to him could remind you of the fiercest of seasons. Whenever he would escort you back to the main pathway, he would hold your hand to lead you. He knew you couldn’t see as well as him in the dark and he also didn’t want you getting lost. It was your favorite part, ending the day with Katsuki, hand in hand with your heart thumping in your chest. He was your protector and it made you happy how willing he was to guide you out of the forest every time nightfall arrived.

It was a week since it happened. The distant attitude Katsuki had after his tongue left your neck. It left you so confused amongst your feelings of desire. A fire was lit within you when he held you that evening and you had the urge to pull him back when he departed. How strange that feeling was, like you just wanted to surrender yourself to him, to his claws, to his fangs, to his body. You wondered how he must’ve felt. Was it strange for him as well? Did he have the urge to devour you?

“You’re so quiet.” Your eyes flickered up and saw Katsuki’s glowing eyes briefly in your direction, a burning red like usual. “You’re usually talking your mouth off.” He wasn’t wrong. You always took lead in the conversations but this time, you were trapped in your thoughts. Even though he had reverted back to himself the next day after him being distant, you still wanted to know if he desired you as much as you desired him. It’s been more than a month since you’ve known him, you couldn’t ignore these feelings even if you tried.

“The day went by too fast.” Although, you didn’t have the courage to ask him. You decided to mumble something about time, sounding slightly disappointed because soon you would have to separate from Katsuki.

“It gets dark faster around this time of year. Can’t help it.” You wondered if the drop in his vocals meant he was disappointed too. You fell silent yet again with only the crunch of the snow under your boots being the sole conversation between you two. You had fallen victim to your thoughts again, succumbing to your memories of last week. You didn’t notice when Katsuki suddenly stop walking until you had walked into his back. When your eyes met with his again, you found yourself under his annoyed stare. He turned around to face you with a soft snarl and pulled his hand out of yours.

“What’s going on with you? You got something to say to me?” He couldn’t ignore it anymore. He knew there was something bothering you since last week and as the days went by, you became more and more spacey. Katsuki didn’t like it. He could read your facial expressions, but he couldn’t read the mind behind it.

“Nothing’s going on. I’m just not that talkative today.” You shrugged, giving a small smile, but Katsuki’s frown remained permanent even with such a sweet look on your face.

“Bullshit.” He scoffed. “This past week you’ve been weird. All quiet and what not. Are you afraid of me now or something?” His eyebrows were so furrowed that wrinkles began appearing between them. He definitely looked frustrated, but you could slightly see the pain behind his red irises. “I know, alright, I didn’t mean to hurt you last week. And then, all that crap happened with cleaning you. Look, I get it if you don’t want to see me anymore.”

Where did he get that idea? You were already shaking your head and you moved to hold both of Katsuki’s hands. “Wait. You’re jumping to conclusions. I never said I didn’t want to see you and I’m definitely not afraid of you. I just…” You quieted down, feeling your face heat up. You brought your eyes towards the ground.

Katsuki continued to stare at you and they bore into your face like sun spots. “You just what?” You couldn’t read his voice, but it sounded calmer than before. A complete contrast to your heart that was thrashing around in your body. You didn’t know if you had the courage to tell him your feelings. After all, he was a wolf and you were a human. Two different species who are pitted against each other. Could it even work? You thought of the pregnant woman you met in the forest, how sure she was of herself being in a relationship with a wolf. You knew they loved each other dearly, regardless of the issues they might face. But were you ready for such issues? Was Katsuki?

“I-I… Haah.” You made a frustrated sigh, letting go of Katsuki’s hands. “Just forget it. It’s nothing…”

“Come on, tell me.” He was growing impatient, you could tell by the small growl that left him. He tried to grab your hand for whatever reason, but you slipped away just before his fingers could touch you.

“It’s nothing.” You repeated, avoiding his growing intense eyes. You brought your arms around your body and hugged yourself, afraid if any of your limbs were left out that Katsuki would grab hold of them to shake your response out of you. You didn’t want that happening, nor for this conversation to continue. You began to walk past Katsuki, unfortunately, not going too far on the account of you slipping on a rock that was covered completely in snow. If it wasn’t for Katsuki’s strong arms, you would’ve probably fell face first in a pile of snow. His arms easily went around your waist and your body collided with his instead of the icy pile. You almost regretted looking up because you found yourself lost in the field of fire lilies again. You were beginning to notice just how beautiful he looked in the moonlight. His eyes seemed to glow in the dark and reflect the soft lighting of the moon. His seemingly flawless cream skin would glisten, and his ash blonde hair shimmered like jewels embedded in stone. He also always looked calmer during the night, like he was in his natural element. He wasn’t afraid of the dark like you were but was one with it.

“Clumsy woman. You also fell the first time we met.” His eyes were fixed on your face.

You snorted, somewhat hoping he couldn’t feel or hear the sound your heart panging. “Only because you were chasing me.”

“Maybe you should’ve let me catch you sooner.” Oh, that devilish smirk should be illegal. It rattled your mind so as you saw his large fangs and felt his nails pressing into your sides. He looked like he would devour you in seconds, tempting it may be with you in his arms, flushed and heated, looking delirious like you did last week when he had you against his body. It was so quiet between you two, but the words existed in the connection of your eyes. Your hand that was pressed into his chest could feel his chiseled muscles through his clothes. Curiosity had you wondering how he looked like nude in all of his glory, from his muscles all the way down to his… you blushed, and you were sure if Katsuki didn’t already hear the rhythm of your heart that he would most definitely hear it now.

“I never felt so strongly about someone before, Katsuki…” You couldn’t deny it. You yearned for him whether or not he felt the same way. The hand that was on his chest was now cupping his cheek, stroking his soft skin.

Katsuki remained staring at you but his eyes were so intense. Passion was lurking around in those fiery irises and it nearly took you breath away.

And he was seconds away from having his first taste of you. “Me neither.”

It wasn’t what you were expecting, this energy coursing through your body, like static left after a lightning strike. It pulsed within you, blasting into a fire that seemed to spread to your core like wildfire. Katsuki had captured your lips with his and pushed your body until it met against the cold bark of a tree. The cold yet again nonexistent when together with Katsuki. You wrapped your arms around his large form, gripping the clothes on his back as you struggled to keep up with his wild lips. He was kissing you voraciously, like he hadn’t felt the touch of a woman in centuries. You may have yearned for him, but he ached to feel your skin against his for as long as he could remember.

His name found its way upon your lips, soft and breathless like how he imagined. It made him deepened the kiss even more, wanting to know how different his name could sound with your harmonious voice. He tried his best to keep his hands at your hips, he didn’t want to scare you away if he became adventurous—but he knew soon enough when the time comes, his curiosity will be fulfilled.

You didn’t know kissing could feel so great. How just a simple nip at your bottom lip could send your lower stomach into a tizzy of pleasure. And when he first snuck his tongue past your lips, you roamed your tongue around his mouth, personally touching his fangs that were incredibly sharp. The groans that left Katsuki were both sexy and addicting, you didn’t want him to stop as it helped maintain the heat building in your core. You moved your hands into his hair, gripping and running them through his frizzy strands. It must’ve provoked him or something because you soon felt his hot hands touching the bare skin of your hips. He had slipped his hands under the rim of your long skirt and also your underwear. It was a tight fit for his hands, but he couldn’t stop himself from touching you. He wanted more. You couldn’t blame him, it took the greatest willpower to stop yourself from slipping your hand under his clothes to feel his great abs.

“Katsuki…” You moaned hungrily, feeling him pressing his body against yours until all you felt was bark and his hard chest. You didn’t even notice when his wolf ears started to twitch because you were so intoxicating by his lips. Katsuki himself almost couldn’t feel it until something made him startled. He pulled away from you faster than you realized it and when you did, you instantly pouted.

“What’s wrong?” You asked, still a little hazy from the kiss.

“I heard something.” He spoke right away, pulling away from you. His hands slipped out of your skirt and he started to look around the quiet forest. The darkness densely surrounded the trees, the moonlight was no longer shining through as it was shielded by a thick cloud that leisurely moved across the sky. You could barely see anything, but you felt Katsuki grasping your hand tightly. You could tell there was something making him anxious.

“Shit! ____!” You suddenly heard him say and you felt him grab at your shoulders. It was the very first time you heard your name from his lips, but it held no loving emotion or even lust, it was distressed and desperate. “Run!” He began to push you. “Get out of her—” Something suddenly pricked Katsuki in his neck, it was tiny and sharp like a needle and as soon as it pierced his skin, he felt his body become numb. He was slowly losing the feeling of his limbs. It spread from his arms to his chest, and finally his legs. He fell onto the snow-covered ground, unable to support himself any longer. It looked as if he had fainted as his eyes were shut and was completely immobile.

“Katsuki?! Katsuki!!” You called out his name in panic, diving knees first into the snow near his body. You tried shaking him awake but he wasn’t responding. It was like he was dead and that worried you greatly.

What Katsuki heard was something you wished you’d never encounter. They traveled in groups and were terribly skilled at hunting, specifically wolves. They lit their torches to reveal themselves, disgusting smirks were also exposed by the flickering flame as well as their weapons clasped in their hands. They were dressed in all black for camouflage during the night and they surrounded you and Katsuki in mere seconds.

“Looks like we caught ourselves a wolf and a wolf lover.” They snickered.

Remember if you want to be added to the tagslist, let me know! Love ya <3

(Chapter I) (Chapter II) (Chapter III) (Chapter IV) (Chapter V) ((click the tag wau bnha to find all the chapters since Tumblr killed links.))

#bnha #bnha scenarios #wau bnha #bnha x reader #bakugo katsuki #bakugo katsuki x reader #nekokoafanfictions #mha #mha x reader

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theluckoftheclaws · 6 years ago

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Lovebug, a @spaceiplier fic

“There’s no use. We’re almost out of fuel, and the only place to land nearby is that tiny, barren rock. You can barely even call it a moon,” Ethan announced dejectedly. The Barrel crew collectively sighed. Maybe they could signal Jack for help, but who knew how long it would take for him to come get them. They had no other choice but to land and wait for aid.

“Okay, the rock it is,” Mark decided.

The Barrel touched down on the barren planet. Mark clapped his hands together to get everyone’s attention.

“Okay, guys. We’ve been through way worse than this before. It’s just a empty rock. We’ll be homeward bound by tomorrow morning. Ethan, let’s turn our remaining power off completely and focus on contacting Jack. Tyler and Katherine, you guys can check on our supplies. Amy, you and I can explore the place. Just to make sure it really is empty.”

“That plan sounds good to me,” Tyler replied, “Kat, let's get going.”

“You could be a little less bossy about it,” Ethan complained, but he swiveled around in the pilot’s chair to do as Mark had suggested anyway. Amy smiled at Mark.

“Let’s get the dogs. They’ve been cooped up for a while, they need to run around.”

“Good idea!”

A few minutes later, dogs excitedly dashing ahead to sniff interesting things and then running back, the pair walked down onto the surface of the rocky landscape. The moon was empty and small, but it was rather beautiful this time of night. You could see the larger planet it orbited in the night sky, as well as several of the other moons that orbited the same large planet.

Something Amy and Mark didn't see, however, were three starstruck eyes, watching them from the shadows. The watching figure spread translucent green wings and fluttered into the air to get a better vantage point from which to observe her visitors.

Henry ran behind a rock and then poked his head out from behind it.

“Ship,” he announced monotonically.

“What are you talking about?”

“Ship!” Henry repeated more loudly. Then he ducked back behind the rock. Mark and Amy shared a look. Then they warily followed Henry. A dusty, yet rather intact single-person ship was in a small crater, lying on its side. It was one of the smallest crafts Mark had ever seen.

“What the hell?” Mark demanded, “How did this get here?”

“Do you think it has any fuel left? We could siphon the fuel into the Barrel’s tank!” Amy suggested. Mark approached the shuttle and walked around it in a circle. It looked much like the stereotypical flying saucer. A small panel on the bottom led inside the tiny cabin. Mark tried to force the panel open, only for a little light on the bottom to turn red. It started beeping, slowly at first but speeding up incredibly quickly.

“Uh oh.”

BOOM.

Amy covered her eyes with her arms as the explosion kicked a huge cloud of dust into the air, turning the sky brown. She coughed and opened her eyes.

“Mark?”

Nothing.

She took a hesitant step forward. “Mark?!”

Chica let out a low whine.

“Oh my god…”

Amy covered her mouth with her hands. She felt like she was going to throw up.

“Over here!” came the call from above. An alien with pale skin, three electric green eyes, softly pointed ears, and gossamer insectoid wings slowly flew down from above. She held a stunned Mark in her arms. He struggled a little and blinked dazedly.

“You’re lucky I was here. The Superiors don’t like it when the shuttles are tampered with.”

“Could you...put me down...please?” Mark coughed.

“Who the hell are you? What are you doing here?” Amy demanded.

The woman narrowed her eyes at Amy.

“I just saved his life. And this is MY hive, trespassers! I should ask you what you’re doing here!”

“I would like to be put down,” Mark said nervously.

“Maybe I should have just let you get blown to bits!” she snapped. Razor-sharp pincers slid from the corners of her mouth and snapped together irritably as her wings flapped erratically.

“Let go!”

Mark tried to wriggle away. She noticed him then, retracting her pincers and delicately setting him down. She took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry for losing my cool. I’m Peevils. I live here.”

“All by yourself? Oh, maybe you can come with us once we leave!” Mark suggested.

“No! I can’t leave! Not ever!” Peevils yelped, “I mean-” she took a deep breath again- “No. I’m not allowed. I’m the queen of this place. I can’t leave it leaderless.

“So!” she said triumphantly, wagging a finger at Amy, “what are you doing here, trespasser? Hm??”

“Our ship ran out of fuel, so we landed here because it was the closest,” Amy replied, crossing her arms across her chest. Peevils pondered this.

“Well, that seems reasonable,”

“Quick question: why did that shuttle explode?” Mark ventured.

“I was sent here to start my own hive. I can’t go back until I’ve made a thriving world. The shuttle is designed so I don’t even have the option.”

“I thought you said you were a queen!”

“I am!” she said defensively, “I just…don’t have a kingdom yet…” Peevils seemed to crumple a little. She turned away from them and looked down at her feet.

“Well, that’s okay. You’ll do a great job, I’m sure!”

Mark patted her on the shoulder reassuringly.

Peevils turned up to look at him.

“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me… Okay, um, this is awkward since we’ve been talking for a while now, but I never did get your names.”

“I’m Mark. This is Amy.”

Amy frowned slightly. Something about the friendly pharax seemed...off. But she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“That’s a nice name. If you need someplace to stay, you’re welcome to come back to my hive.”

“Can I bring the rest of my crew? We don’t have a lot of supplies left, and I’d be a pretty crappy leader if I left them out in the cold.”

Peevils narrowed her eyes a little.

“There are more of you?”

Mark nodded.

“Sorry for not mentioning it until now, but yes, there are more. Three more, to be precise. I don’t want to impose on you, so we can just stay on our ship if—“

“No, no, no, no, no! It’s fine, it's great! People are great! I love people!”

Peevils’ eyes didn't seem to match her sunny tone. They were calculating something, but what, Amy didn't know. Mark smiled brightly.

“Awesome. Let’s go tell the guys what we’ve found!”

***

As Mark explained to Tyler, Ethan, and Kathrine what had taken them so long and who this random lady was, Peevils tried to pet Henry and almost lost a finger in the process. This made Amy trust her even less than before, but she couldn’t exactly bring it up to Mark without sounding paranoid. ‘My dog doesn’t like her and she has shifty eyes! Clearly we shouldn’t accept any of the extremely helpful hospitality she’s offering!’

Well, she was being incredibly hospitable. It had been agreed upon that Ethan was going to stay at the ship, to take care of the dogs and see if anyone picked up their signal, since he didn't need food and their supply of dog food would last weeks; and everyone else was going to stay in Peevils’ work-in-progress hive. The pharax led them through the rocky landscape to a hole in the ground. She shimmied down the gap with ease. Mark was next, then Katherine. Tyler got stuck for a full minute when he tried to get down, but he made it eventually. The dogs followed him, and Amy was last. The tunnel was narrow and dark.

“I’ll give you the grand tour, but it won’t take long. Mind the bottomless pit into the abyss,” Peevils announced, walking further down the tunnel. After a while it opened up into a larger open area with offshooting areas. One cavern contained sleeping pods, another was lined wall-to-wall with little hexagon shaped shelves containing food frozen in some kind of jelly. The rest of the cavern was empty rock. Everything seemed to be vertically oriented, climbing the walls of the hive. The hive was built using some kind of green resinlike substance that glowed from within.

Everyone settled in different pods for the night. It was cramped, but they were warm and dry and soon they were fast asleep.

***

Mark awoke to see someone with glowing eyes standing over him. He opened his mouth to scream when he realized it was just Peevils, holding a piece of cyan fruit with a little bit of some kind of jellylike substance clinging to it.

“What are you doing in here? You scared the living daylights out of me!” he whispered urgently. Peevils smiled.

“I got you some chilled fruit. Sorry if I woke you up.”

She offered him the fruit. It was fuzzy and cool to the touch. Mark sat up and tried a bite. It tasted sweet, but slightly sour. Mark ate the rest of it.

“Thanks, Peevs.”

There were a few seconds of awkward silence where they both stared at each other. Mark raised a eyebrow.

“Peevils, you’ve been living on an empty rock for who knows how long, so I understand that you may not have the best social skills, but here’s a tip; this is the part of the conversation where you leave the room and continue with your day.”

Peevils’ face flushed dark green.

“Oh, sorry!”

She backed out of the pod and shut the door. Peevils smiled wistfully. Then her eyes narrowed with newfound determination. She headed to the main chamber of the hive and darted down one of the unfinished tunnels. Everything was finally falling into place.

***

A little while later, Mark went to the main hub of the hive, where everyone else was sitting around.

“Ethan called,” Kathrine mentioned, “He said that Jack’s on his way, and he’s bringing some fuel so we can get back in the sk-“

“What’s up, guys? Trick question, it's me!”

Peevils was sitting on a ledge high above them, her wings outstretched. She dropped from the ledge and crossed her legs as she touched down.

“What’re you all talking about?”

“Our friend Jack is coming to give us fuel so we can leave!” Mark replied with a grin. Peevils’ smile looked more forced than ever.

“I thought you’d be staying here for longer?”

“Well, places to go, people to see. It’s been cool knowing you. Thanks for the food!”

“Yes, it has been...nice. I guess you had to leave eventually…”

Her wings drooped slightly. Then she stood up.

“Well, I’ll see you off. Best go back to your ship before your friend comes!”

The group walked down the tunnel they had come in from, Peevils and Mark bringing up the rear. As they passed by the area that opened out into the planet’s surface and the deep pit next to it, Amy noticed that some of the roof seemed unstable. It was being held up by a single support beam. A beam Peevils was about to snip through with her pincers just as Amy walked underneath it.

“Look out!” she shouted as the arch collapsed around her. It all happened so fast. Tyler and Katherine stumbled back into the tunnel that lead outside. Amy tried to dodge the falling rocks, but she tripped over something and stumbled off the ledge into the abyss. Peevils grabbed a dazed Mark by the shirt collar and pulled him towards her.

The dust slowly settled. Mark looked around, then back to the pharax hovering over him.

“Y-you…Amy…”

“Shh, don’t worry about her anymore,” Peevils cooed, “She won’t bother you again.”

Panic gripped him and he shoved her away.

“Get away from me! Amy! Amy!!”

Mark tried to back away, but there was nowhere to go. He was cornered against a wall.

“Stop calling her name!” Peevils snapped, “She’s gone!”

Gone.

“No, n-no, no, she’s not—she can’t be-“

“Shhhhhhhh…I’m here now…”

Peevils retracted her pincers, pulling him into her arms. Mark shuddered, tears pricking the corners of his eyes. He looked over her shoulder at the room, and through his tears he noticed something.

A hand holding onto the edge of the cliff.

A robotic hand.

Another hand reached up to grab the edge, and Amy struggled to pull herself up. Their eyes met and she mouthed ‘stall’.

Mark did his best crocodile tears. He made the most innocent tearful expression he could think of.

“I’ll always be here for you,” Peevils cooed, rocking him back and forth in her arms, “We’re going to be together forever, my prince.”

Mark sniffled in a way he hoped sounded authentic.

“F-forever?”

Peevils’ pincers suddenly slid out and bit into the sides of his neck, injecting him with something that made his knees feel weak. He was so…tired…

Mark slumped to the ground.

Peevils stood up slowly, turning around to glare at Amy.

“You can’t take him from me now!” Peevils snarled venomously before lunging for Amy with an insectoid shriek

***

Tyler and Katherine burst into the clearing where the two ships were, gasping for breath. They had run the whole way.

“Woah, what’s the rush? And where are Mark and Amy?” Ethan wondered.

“Peevils attacked us! She’s barricaded them in her hive!” Tyler stuttered out.

“Who the hell is Peevils?” Jack demanded.

“She’s the ruler of the chunk of space rock we’re floating on, mostly because she’s the only person who lives on it. We thought she was super nice because she let us stay in her home. But now she’s trying to stop Mark from leaving!” Kathrine explained. Jack thought for a moment, glancing at the planet the moon they were on orbited.

“What species is this Peevils lady?”

“Why does it matter? Uh, she said she was a ‘pharax’ or something. It’s not important!”

Jack facepalmed.

“Ya idiots! Have ye never heard of what the pharax do?”

“Until yesterday, I’d never even heard of a pharax!” Ethan complained, “So you don’t have to be all ‘ooh, here’s this info about them that everyone knows’ because everyone doesn’t know!”

“There’s billions of species out there, we aren’t gonna be able to know everything about every single one of them,” Kathrine added. Jack shook his head and took a deep breath.

“That’s not the fuckin’ point! We’ve gotta get over there, now!”

***

Meanwhile, Amy fought for her life against the alien queen. Peevils’ mandibles closed harmlessly around Amy’s metal arm with a metallic ting. Amy punched her in the face with the other hand. Peevils hovered up into the air for a moment before diving back down, grabbing Amy and throwing her into a wall with all of her strength. The green resin of the hive wall fractured with the force of the blow. Amy looked up at Peevils and smirked.

“Too strong for your own good…”

Peevils looked up just as the ceiling collapsed on her. Amy found the strength to stagger to her feet, and she picked up the limp Mark. Heart in her ears, she checked his pulse, and breathed a sigh of relief. He was just asleep. Just then, the others managed to tunnel through the rubble in the entrance.

“You’re okay!” Katherine exclaimed. Tyler looked worriedly down at Mark.

“She bit him, but I think he’s just asleep,” Amy told him as Tyler took Mark and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Jack spoke up.

“He’ll be extremely susceptible to suggestion when he wakes up. That’s a side effect of their venom.”

Amy nodded.

“Good to know. Thanks for coming back for us, I don’t know how much longer I’d have been able to hold her off. Let’s get out of here!”

They quickly made their way back to their ships and took off, heading far away in the opposite direction.

Mark woke up, a few hours later. Amy watched his eyes flutter open in a haze.

“Are you feeling okay?” she asked. Mark looked at her with a dopey smile.

“Huhhhhh…? I dunno…how’re you?”

Amy let out a long, beleaguered sigh.

@spaceiplier

#markiplier #amy nelson #peebles #peevils #alien #alien girl #alien queen #spaceiplier #space #spaceship #scifi #science fiction

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glamrockmonarch · 5 years ago

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MiCO LTD - Brian May x Reader

A/N: I hope you enjoy this, I don't think it is too long. I didn't want to put too much info and confuse everyone... This is not exactly my first time writing more "imaginative" stuff, but it is certainly the first thing like this that I post over here. And I will be waiting for some feedback guys!

"Travelling through space and time has never been easier! Allow us to take you to the other side of the universe, the cosmos awaits! Visit our website www.mico.com to find out more about our payment programs."

The friendly high pitched voice of a woman on TV got everyone excited. The payment programs were too good to be true.

In fact, it was all a lie. We all forgot to read their name. MICO. It was so obvious and simple, it was right there on their business sheets, yet we were fooled.

You would have to be either too poor or too ignorant if you did not get yourself a seat on the Nautilus.

It was all fun and games. The world coming together to watch the ultimate show. To have the stars dance for us, in front of our eyes. Nobody could know, predict or tell how fucked we were.

Royally fucked. Some of the teens described it later, before they were pulled into the youth cells.

Their red overalls stained with dark patches over the knees, evidence of the long day they had at the fields. Like everyone, they wore white long sleeved shirts underneath, as a sign of rebellion some of them cut the sleeves to make them ¾ or even removed the sleeves entirely. These teens were often pulled aside and were seen again with brand new shirts and dilated pupils.

The young ones suffer the most, being 12 already counts as a teen for them. Some are only children still, forced to work all morning, attend school in the afternoons and go to the youth cells every night...but I digress.

Once you had your ticket you were told to pack nothing but your passport. If you had a ticket you were issued a new one. Mine was a metallic blue card with nothing but the words U.S.E on one side and a small golden chip shinning on the corner of the other side - women with university degrees got the same one.

Women without degrees were given golden ones. A platinum one meant that you were an elder. Pink and Violet ones were for the "sexually diverse" - as they call them in HIə. Men with or without university degrees got yellow ones. Children got green ones, all teenagers got red ones.

We failed to see the differences, too distracted by the novelty of a card with a chip as an official document. It contained everything that there was to know about us, beyond our addresses it contained information about our physical examinations prior to the trip, what we were beyond who we were... it was too late when we discovered it.

The ship, the large and beautiful Nautilus, was a piece of metal engineered to take all of us through the galaxy. All of my friends and their mother were going too. Half the world population took ships alike. The classes on the ship were oddly assigned, while women had the best rooms and seats in the viewing salon, men were put on different rooms at the bottom of the spaceship. The children had to stay in a special viewing salon where mechanic Nana's looked after them. Upon entering the ship we were given uniforms. Everyone's passport cards matched their pants and jumpers, we thought at first it meant something like the meal plan people were on, which was later debunked as we were separated from our friends and family.

That was the worst part. That moment when we realized this was a mistake, that we had no option but to do as we were told. When I look down at my hands I can almost see it still, my husband's llong fingers fiercely tangled with my own before the officers pulled us apart.

In many ways, I wish it had gone down a different way. Brian meant well when he got us into the whole thing. He wanted to take the chance, to see the very thing he spent so many years studying. I could see the childish wish spread on his face when we first talked about it. The great darkness of the universe unveiled at last. The large planets, the small moons, the dying stars, black holes and craters on alien earths. We fell for it. Worse, we dragged people along.

It was a nice trip all the way till the third month, regardless of us being apart for the evenings, we were still allowed to eat together and wander inside the ship in the company of whomever we wanted. It was then, when we were supposed to be heading back that we saw the real problem; we were never meant to come back to earth. The ship moved forward still. Had it not been for the airplane pilots in the crowd we would not have seen it happening. The ship was not bringing us back to earth. It took us here, or as they spell it on this planet: HIə.

HIə is a strange place. The city is made up of tubes and cabins. Some call it Earth 90214. We call it... Here. Because there is nowhere else to go.

We got separated from each other. All bluesies, goldens, and greenies went straight to the training camp. The rest were taken away. Apparently Pinks, Violettes and Reds got taken into the reduction chambers before joining us. Male Plats, elders, were put on psyche wards for evaluation while Female Plats were selected and discarded.

The new world awaited, we did not know it until it was too late to reject it. Rejection of the social order meant discarding, meaning you were put inside a tube and shot outside of the atmosphere. Here has breathable air, we could go outside from time to time, see the odd light of the sun on the rocks, but we were not allowed to talk among ourselves until the programme was over. There are plants and wild animals. We have seen them, but it doesn't feel like home when you are put in large rooms with 49 roommates all sleeping in bunk beds.

I don't know what has been of my friends, I fear to know. Are they dead? Have they been discarded? Will I be discarded?

This training...it is starting to look like brainwashing, we reply to the Great Question, we call it Master. Who does that?

We call this home. I know this place is not home. They have machines put chips in the nape of our necks. Will they read my thoughts? Program me like a cheap machine? Use me?

I don't know.

I wonder, as I roll the ring on my finger, and I look out the window in the large sleeping hall. Bunk beds around me, the jumper shining under the light of our night. It is winter in Here. Nights are longer, cold and wet. Sunlight shines the strangest shade of violet during the day, night is pitch black. The glass is starting to become foggy and I have to pull my sleeve over my palm to wipe it. Three moons stare back at me from their odd formation in the night sky.

"Are you thinking of him again?" A little voice to my left hisses.

Rolling on her side she sighs. The bags under her eyes tell the truth of our situation. She pulls her knees up to her chest under the fluffy covers of her bed.

"He must be thinking of you too," she assures me.

I shake my head. A frown forming on my face at the pain inside me.

"They will discard him," I voice my concern, "he is older. Stubborn. They cannot change him into their pet." I hiss.

Another capsule flies away up into the wide nothing and my stomach sinks. Every one of them could be him and I wouldn't know. I am so scared. What do we do? If he is gone, what am I holding on to?

Hope.

I hope he is alive. I hope he is well. I hope they haven't brainwashed him.

"He is famous on Earth. He is smart. They have no reason to throw him into space." She whispers, her voice soft and soothing.

I wipe my face of tears I didn't feel falling.

That is even worse: them using him.

My mouth feels dry, words are gone in my brain. The training has started to take its toll. I sit and stare at the reflection on the mirror and ignore her voice as I stand from the window sill and walk back to my bed, laying down with my eyes looking forward and my body going limp.

Hope is stupid, and resistance is futile.

#welcome to my shitshow scifi fic #brian may #present day brian may x young reader #present day brian #new fic?#if this flops dont worry I might not continue

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wildtige429 · 5 years ago

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Mending of a Broken Heart

For the faint of heart, this one is for those who are trying to reconnect with a loved one who tries to gain acceptance.

WARNING!

The beginning contains brutality not for the faint of heart.

An AU of the finale of Battle for Mewni

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

Toshi was stunned at the events that happened. He remembered waking up in a cell with Marco, King River and some other people he barely knew. The moment Marco found him and woke him up, memories of how he got in the cell returned.

He remembers weeping with his father in the secret dungeon under Butterfly Castle. As he wept, something blunt hit him on the back of his neck and everything went black.

It turns out that his father had knocked him unconscious and delivered him to the dungeons so he can resume his spell on the ice.

“How long was I out?” he once asked Marco when he regained consciousness.

“Last night before we came in here,” Ruberiot, a barb, answered, “One question. Are you The Wyvern?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” he sarcastically replied, “Hip, hip, hooray! The Wyvern turns out to be Toffee’s Son and a monster.”

He paid no mind to their shocked reactions in finding out who and what he is. Especially the revelation of the masked hero.

He doesn't know what is happening out there, until Buff Frog came to their rescue and freed everyone. Later, he, Marco and Buff Frog are met with Queen Moon, who is searching for her daughter.

“What’s happening, Moon?” he asked the queen. Star’s mother gently placed her hands on his shoulders and gave him the shocking news.

“Your father is planning to unleash The Black Sail onto Mewni.”

The escapees and Buff Frog gasped in horror by the plot, remembering the legendary beast that had once struck fear and destruction onto Mewni centuries ago. They had thought the monster was dead alongside his rider, but in truth, he was encased in his icy prison under the castle for eons.

So that’s what’s in that ice, he thought, remembering seeing a shape within the ice block that his father is planting a spell onto to defrost it.

Toshi couldn’t believe what he had just heard and went numb in the legs, collapsing down.

“Is my Dad crazy!? Not only will he destroy Mewni, he’ll destroy both monsters and Mewmans alike if he unleashes Kurogane!” he cried.

“And that is why we have to stop him!” she reassured him, “But first, we have to find Star.”

They raced through the castle until they found her, with Ludo. It is revealed that after explaining and revealing everything to Ludo, she cast a Whispering Spell that caused the other half of the wand in Ludo’s hand to go haywire just like the time it destroyed his castle and Toffee and all they remember seeing was a pink flash. When it dies down, there was nothing there but a huge crater. And there was no sign of Star.

It later turns out, with her communicating through Ludo’s mind like how Toffee did it, that the wand has sent her to some unknown and dark place before it was replaced by Toshi’s father, who devises a trade with her mother for his finger so he can bring back Star in the place they are in. With the deal settled, with his severed finger returning to his missing appendage, Toffee regenerates back into his usual self, his suit intact.

And he barfed out his puppet a moment later.

Regaining his posture, he watches his severed finger heal around his former severed stump. He gave a little wiggle to check if it's functional.

“Where’s my daughter?” Moon demanded.

“Where’s Star?” Marco added.

“Where is she, Dad!?” Toshi called out.

He stuns everyone by crushing the dead half of the star into pieces before them. It is a clear sign that he had tricked her into giving him his finger and had left Star in that place he was in.

“She’s gone,” he answered, and he turns to leave.

Buff Frog and Marco gasped in utter shock of the backfire. And Moon's eyes begin to shed tears.

"Dad........h-how COULD YOU!?" Toshi cried out in distraught and betrayal.

His actions were unbearable. Moon lashes out at him, Toshi noticing and recognizing the dark markings growing on her arms as the effects of The Darkest Spell of Eclipsa, the very spell that took his father’s finger. When she tried to use the spell again, it didn’t work and he whacked Marco away after the boy punched a hole into his chest in an act of vengeance.

“Please,” Ludo whimpered after he grabbed his pant leg, “Just tell me. Do I…..have a part to play in this?”

Toffee glared down at the avian with a cold frown, “No.”

And he took his leave again. And was later stopped by another obstacle.

His own son.

“Shirogane…move,” he ordered in a low voice. Toshi stood his ground, clenching his fists in hesitation, and putting on a brave face to prevent any emotion of fear evident on his face. What his father did, and what his father had told him when he was possessing Ludo, brought a big weight in his heart. And he had no will to fight him after what he've gone through before this ever happened.

“No,” he announced, strongly.

Scowling, Toffee steps up and gives him a hard shove. But Toshi didn’t budge, “No!” he repeated in a louder tone. He did it again, much harder with both hands, making his son stumble back a few steps but he regained balance, still blocking his path.

“No!” he shouted.

youtube

The older lizard clenched his hand into a fist, feeling a surge of anger swelling deep within his veins, “Then you leave me no choice,” he said in a dark and stern voice. Like a flash, he lunged a powerful punch into Toshi’s stomach, making him choke out and cough out a huge amount of blood out of his mouth, staining his father’s suit. And just as he was about to defend himself from what's coming, he was suddenly assaulted by high kicks aimed at his face, brutal swipes at every part of his body and jabbed into his vitals. Each and every blow Toffee delivered drew blood that stained the soil.

Bruised and bleeding, Toshi stumbled, barely standing on his two feet, but he never left his spot before his father after he stops beating him. Toffee began to lose his patience because of his son’s defiance to move out of his way. He watched as he lifted his bruised head up and glared at him.

“No,” he rasped out, his throat dry from the brutality.

Toffee just couldn’t take it from his stubbornness. Tightening his blood-stained fists, he ran forward and with a cry, began to beat his son up to the point that he lost control of his rage, not caring if he broke his ribs, knocked out his teeth, beating the daylights out of him until his face is covered in bruises and cuts, his eyes swelling blue and black, and some parts of his uniform began to tear at every lunge, kick, slash and punch from his father, the blood staining parts of his suit as Toffee continues his onslaught on him.

Moon just couldn’t stand watching Toffee beating his son to death and looked away with a wince, her tears streaming down her face on what he’s doing. Marco and Buff Frog too, had to look away and tried to block out the sounds of Toffee growling and snarling every time he lands a blow onto Toshi and the former grunting from the blows.

What felt like an hour had passed until Toffee finishes it off with a swift uppercut that sent his beaten up son into the air and falling onto his back momentarily. He just laid there, head lolled to the side limply, and not breathing. He almost looked…..dead.

The queen, monster and human gasped in deep dread, fearing the very thought that Toffee killed his own son right in front of them.

Breathing heavily, his suit a mess from brutalizing him and covered in his blood, he simply wipes his blood-stained claws on his pants and slicked back his sweaty hair. Taking one last look at his son’s lifeless body, he begins to walk away.

Until a hand grabbed his pant leg.

“No…” a pained whisper was heard. Turning his head to face back, Toffee was shocked and angry that Toshi was able to survive the torture and is glaring at him through his bruised and bloodied face. When will this boy ever give up?

His anger got the best of him and he shakes his hand off. Marching to where he spots a large discarded sword, he picked it up and marched back. And it seems he has gone out of control now that he is determined to get rid of his son.

Whether it means killing him right now.

“Toffee, Stop!!” Moon shouted, stumbling out of the ground that he pushed her in, “That is YOUR son you’re going to kill!”

“Stop it!” Marco joined in, both of them racing as fast as they can to stop the anger-driven Toffee.

Try as they want, they won’t be able to stop him. Toshi had some strength left and tries to scuttled away on his back as his father approaches him in angry strides. Grunting and groaning from the bruises, slashes and broken bones, he nearly gave up until he saw his father loomed over him, his face matching that of an angered killer who wants to end his victim’s life.

“Dad…,” he begged, lifting his hands up to protect himself. Toffee grabbed the sword hilt with both hands and lifted it above his head, “Dad, please!!”

His lips peeled back in a vicious snarl, making him look identical to an alpha wolf warning off its pack members, and brought the sword down with a swift swing.

But the sword stopped mid-air. For Mint has suddenly appeared between them and got in the way of the blade that was about to cleave her son’s head open.

The sharp edge was mere micro centimetres from her face, touching the tip of her nose, and the sight of her heart-broken face has driven out his anger from his mind and was immediately replaced with shock, horror and realization.

His grip became limp and the sword fell from his grasp, clattering at his feet. His hands trembled uncontrollably from his shock of what he tried to do just now.

"Please.......look at what you've done," Mint begged, her voice straining and weak from betrayal and sadness as tears streaked down her cheeks.

A remorseful Toffee stood there in shock, panting and breathing heavily of the damage he made. He began to hyperventilate and stumble back in horror that he was about to kill his own son. With his own hands.

"You're my father.....," Toshi rasped out, grunting as he gets up in a sitting position. He whispered three words into the wind that will be carried into his father's ears. Words that will make his cold heart melt and his eyes tearing up.

"I love you."

He let a slight wail escape his mouth and he grabbed his hair in sheer panic. His knees were wobbly and he fell onto the ground on his knees. It was a really sad sight for everyone present in the field to see the former rogue general beginning to wail and howl awfully of what he had done.

"Toffee.....," Moon whispered.

Toshi panted as Mint checked on her wounded son, trying her best to use her healing powers to heal his broken bones and bruises on his face and body.

"Mom, how did you get here?" He coughed, when she held his face in her hands, "Don't talk, son. Save your breath."

"Our pets lead me to you," she answered, "And Moon told me where you were."

He took a quick glance at her and onto his father, feeling some tears forming at the corner of his eyes. He felt going over there and comfort him.

Until he felt a tremor.

A minute later, the tremors grew stronger until it became an earthquake. Immediately, everyone, Marco and Moon helping Mint assist Toshi who is still healing, into the safest part just as something huge burst out of the earth. The force of the emerging force made everyone fly in the air and crashing down with a little tumble.

Toffee grunted when he fell onto his side, touching his nose and realizing he had hurt his nose when he landed when he sees red on his fingers.

A huge towering beast silhouttes under the sun, standing about 7 meters tall with the body as long as 16 meters, and it's head is as long as roughly about 6 feet, matching that of a crocodilian. Its blackish-purple scales is littered with ancient scars and broken arrow shafts that embedded into its skin. What is most recognizeable about this behemoth is its piercing gold eyes, its pupils slitted dangerously, and a tall jet black sail-like fin running down its back.

Kurogane the Black Sail......has returned.

"IS THAT A FREAKING DINOSAUR!?" Marco screamed in a mix of awe, horror and shock, "AND KUROGANE'S A SPINOSAURUS!?"

"It is! And that is not just a dinosaur!" Toshi corrected, "Or a spinosaurus!"

"It's Kurogane! The beast that once wrecked chaos onto Mewni with his rider, Shirogane the Unbreakable!" Mint added.

The legendary beast gave out a bone-rattling roar, shaking off condensation and frost debris of its skin. Toffee curled into a foetal position to shield himself from the debris and then tried to make a run for it.

However, Kurogane took notice of him and before anyone could react, it took two strides towards him and lunged its long head down. And gulped him up in chomp.

"DAD!!!!" Toshi screamed in peril, shaking everyone holding him off and dashing towards the dino just as everyone was chasing after him to stop him.

Kurogane, satisfied of its meal after eons in the ice, roared again and charges straight towards the kingdom. Its gait caught Mint's attention, seeing how unstable and wobbly it strides every time it steps down.

Toshi fell onto his knees, bawling at the fate of his father. The queen caught up to him and rests her hands on his shoulders.

"Moon, we CAN'T let them kill Kurogane!!" He wailed, grabbing her shoulders, "Despite everything he's done to the land, he's STILL my father!!"

"I know, I understand, Toshi," she comforted him. What she said next surprises him and the other three.

"That is why we're going to save him."

Toshi, Mint, Marco and Buff Frog gaped at her declaration, never expecting her to say that after everything Toffee has done. With Star trapped in whatever place she's in after the trade gone wrong, Moon is like a different person.

"Why...?" Mint tried to say.

"I'll explain later!" The queen announced, getting up, "First, we have to lure Kurogane out of the kingdom and make sure he doesn't hurt anyone! And secondly, we have to subdue him, and trap him someplace away from the people!"

"I just pray Star were here to help us," she finished with a sob.

There was a loud vroom of an engine and in came Razor the dragon cycle, with Kurogane the tatzelwurm riding it. Toshi quickly snatches up his discarded helmet, dons it on, and hops on just after the cat got onto the head.

"Toshi wait!" Mint halted him, "Kurogane appears to be disoriented and scared, perhaps from being let out after being frozen alive for eons. If we can get to calm him down, we can save your father and the kingdom."

Her son held her hand on his shoulder with a gentle squeeze, "I'll do what I can. And I won't lose my father again!"

"Wait!" She wrapped her arms around him, embracing him tightly. Leaning close to his ear, she whispered, "No matter what....you have to accept yourself as the son of The Lizard. No matter if you're not like him. Let people see the real you behind this mask you wear. Let them accept who you are. On the inside."

He furrowed his brows in deep thought, remembering the awful things he went through when he was a child because of his relation to his father. Now, thinking about it, the people of Mewni accepted him as The Wyvern not Toshi, the son of Toffee. He believes that being The Wyvern and not Toshi will give him acceptance into their lives but...as Toshi, they'll hate him without knowing his other half.

His mom could be right on that topic.

Making his decision, he held her head to lean against his, "I understand."

Mint stepped back to allow him to drive off on Razor as they watch him zoom off, flying into the air.

"Moon, we have to quickly get everyone to safety now!" She commanded, "Marco, Frog, you help Toshi calm Kurogane down. And most importantly, we have to try to get Star -!"

Her plan was halted when a golden flash burst behind them. To their awe, they couldn't believe their eyes and couldn't hold in their joy and relief.

"Star....." Moon smiled, relieved.

-------

Driving through the crowds of panicking people, who cheered when they see The Wyvern coming to save the day from the ancient monster, Toshi twisted the horns tightly to urge Razor to drive faster so he match the pace of the rampaging spinosaurus.

Staying away from the stomping feet, he kicked his heels into his dragon cycle's sides to tell it to fly. With a roar, Razor burst into the air, flying up until they are above its head.

From the spinosaurus' point of view, all he sees is a blurry speck flying around him and began to growl with annoyance, thinking it as a pesky bird mocking him.

Toshi automatically veered Razor to the right immediately, missing inches of bone-crushing teeth that could have crushed them in a split second. Kurogane roared with outrage and began to chase after him.

"Okay, Razor, this is going to be scary and bumpy, so hang on!!"

Kurogane sped up his pace to catch the flying bug, snapping his great jaws that are mere inches from Razor's tail.

"Come on, big guy!!"

The villagers and citizens cheered as Toshi lured Kurogane away from their kingdom. Revving up his dragon cycle, he took a sharp drift to the left that causes the spinosaurus to trip when he tried to turn. Grounded, he lands Razor and drove right up to the beast, snatching up a harpoon with a rope attached to it along the way.

"TOSHI!!"

He snapped his head to the direction of the call and saw Marco and Buff Frog.

"Guys! We're going to tie him down so that way, we can try calming him down and rescue my dad! Grab the harpoons!!"

The duo quickly nabbed the nearest harpoons with ropes attached to them and aimed at the fallen Kurogane.

"Razor!" With a shout of its name, the cybernetic-looking dragon cycle roared out a blue fireball directly at Kurogane's face, blinding him and the force of impact knocking him back down.

Driving up to his crocodilian snout, he aimed and threw the harpoon till it was over it and he grabbed the other end of the rope, tied it up with another harpoon that was not tied to, and threw it to the opposite side, pinning him down.

"Guys, be careful!!" He shouted as he drives back to find more ropes and harpoons.

"THIS IS FOR REXY!!" Marco threw with all his might, throwing the harpoon over Kurogane's massive frame and tall fin and it landed with a thwack. The Hispanic pulled the rope and tries to grab a hook to tied the other end down to hold him.

"Toshi! Need a little hand here!" He got his answer when his masked friend zoomed by on his dragon cycle, snatching the rope and tying it onto a discarded spear, and he immediately thrust it down with all his might.

"We need to secure his tail! You think you can handle it, BF!?" he called out.

The frig monster latches onto the massive serpentine tail and pins it down with his weight. Pinned down by the harpoons and the heavy weight of his attacker, Kurogane thrashed in his bonds.

"Can't hold on much longer!!!" He called out.

"Keep him still! I'm going to try talking to him and calm him down!" Toshi called out, stopping Razor.

"Talking to him!? Toshi, you are NOT Chris Pratt and THAT is not a velociraptor!!" Marco reminded him, "That is the thing that killed the T-Rex in Jurassic Park 3!"

"I know! But if I can calm down Razor, I can calm him down too!"

To the trio's shock, the Mewmans began to cheer, surrounding the area that Kurogane is in. Crap, is all they could think about. With a disoriented and scared spinosaurus in the area, the cheering is making it worse for the dino to recover.

Surrounded by loud noises that sounded like screeching winds and thunders in his ear holes, Kurogane screeched and with a burst of energy, freed himself from the bonds and swung Buff Frog off his tail, the monster landing into the nearby house.

The cheering turns into panic screams as Kurogane stood up and became more stressed out by the noises.

"We have to get these people out of here!" Marco told Toshi.

"I know! But we can't outrun a spinosaurus that woke up on the wrong side of the bed!!" He retorted.

There was a yowl and to their shock, saw Kurogane the tatzelwurm getting on the wheel and performed a wheelie on Razor as both animals zoomed towards the spinosaurus, passing underneath him between the legs and headed straight towards an empty quarry.

"Did your cat just drove Razor like a pro?" Marco gaped in astonishment.

Kurogane the spinosaurus growled and chased after the zooming dragon cycle with tatzelwurm riding it, thinking it as prey in his disoriented view.

Toshi and Marco immediately evacuated everyone and when they spotted those that were in Kurogane's way, they quickly swoop in to the rescue before the giant talons squashed them into pancakes.

"I don't know what your cat is thinking, but there is no way we're gonna save your dad and Kurogane," Marco spoke out as he and Toshi race into the quarry.

"There has to be something to tire him out," he answered.

To their surprise, they saw Moon and Mint running up to them, matching their pace as they witness Kurogane trying to snap at the animal duo.

"Mom? Moon? What are you doing here?" Toshi gaped.

"Help is on the way! I guarantee it!" She informs them.

"You sure they won't hurt Kurogane?" Toshi asked.

"She won't, we told her everything that happened," Mint said.

He was about to ask who is 'she' until he saw a bright golden glow in the sky. To his surprise and relief, it was Star, alive and well, in her Butterfly Mode with her wand fixed and prepared for anything. He knew she has enough power to take down Kurogane but his fear was emanate.

"STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPP!!!" He suddenly screamed to her. She turned to him as he skidded to a halt in front of the scene where Kurogane has finally caught Razor in his talons, "MY FATHER IS IN THERE!!!!"

"I know," she replied, her booming voice reassuring him.

Seeing the blinding light at the corner of his eye, Kurogane dropped Razor and snarled at the light source. He can't see what is making that light and the intensity of it is hurting and obscuring his vision. Hissing, he charged directly at the source of the bright light, mouth opened wide and claws out.

With everyone watching the event with suspense, Star aimed her wand at the dinosaur and unleashes a powerful blast. Before Kurogane could register what the bright light is doing, he was struck by an immense force that sent him flying into a giant mountain dune, crashing into it and the mountain dune shattered in a dozen pieces.

Moments after the blast, Star fell gently down like a leaf falling from a tree, the bright glow gone. She gave out a big gasp after the effects of dipping down wear off.

"Star!" Her mother, Marco and Buff Frog shouted in joy, as they tackle her on the ground in a group hug. Taking a quick glance at where Kurogane was blasted to, he and his mother raced to her side, beaming to see her alright.

"Hi," she greeted exhaustedly.

"Hi," they returned, grinning.

A low, bone-rattling growl filled the area when they realize that the blast didn't kill the spinosaurus. They looked out to where Kurogane laid and saw his head lifting up, dazed and confused.

"He can he survive that blast of magic!?" Marco gasped in shock.

"Because I didn't plan on killing them," Star answered.

Toshi and Mint walked up to the ledge, their eyes set on the dinosaur as the villagers gathered and cheered for Wyvern to finish off the Black Sail now that he is down.

But he can't. Deep down in the bowels of the beast was his father. He HAD to make sure he's alive in there. True, his dad is the most evil monster on Mewni but no matter what....Toffee is his father.

A rebel in his youth, a rogue general during the days of war that Toshi was born in. And murderer of Queen Comet, mother of Queen Moon, who everyone didn't know that she committed the most heinous crime in her life by falsely executing his father's family for being spies of the monster army.

Without knowing, Toshi began to walk up to the beast. Marco and Star were about to run after him to stop what he was doing until Mint stops them by putting her hands on their shoulders. He stopped to face his mother, and it is clear on her face that she knows what he's going to do.

"You're right, Mom," he said to her. She gave him a slow bow of her head as he continued.

"It's time I accept myself as the son of The Lizard."

He bravely reaches for his helmet, now that everyone is here, and whipped it off, revealing the citizens his identity as gasps erupted throughout the crowd. But he wasn't bothered because he has something important to do.

He hears them whispering to each other as he approaches Kurogane.

"The Wyvern ..... is Toffee's Son?" A man gasped.

"I heard he and his mother killed themselves years ago," the woman said.

"I see Commander Mint down there."

"I can't believe our hero is Toffee's Son."

"So their suicides were fake."

"Toshi...," Moon called out, wanting to stop him from getting hurt.

"It's okay, Moon, he knows what he's doing," Mint reassured the queen, holding a hand out to stop her advancement.

"He's got this."

-----

"Kurogane!!"

A golden reptilian eye opened slowly, pupils dilating into slits and they pinpoint the source of the voice. Purring softly, he thought he saw his beloved partner, Shirogane approaching him. But as his disoriented mind and vision adjusted to his surroundings, the person he thought was Shirogane was replaced with a grey lizard with long black hair with a green streak and green eyes.

He chuffed hesitantly, weak from the blast of magic shot from Star, and tries to pull away.

"Shhh-shh-shh-shhhhh," Toshi hushed the frightened spinosaurus. Carefully, he pulled out his daggers from the sheaths around his shins and his pistols from the back of his belt and outstretched his hands out, palms open to tell him that he is unarmed and not a threat.

"It's okay, boy, I'm not going to hurt you," he comforted him, taking cautious steps towards the beast, his hands reaching out to his snout. Gusts of wind hit his face, blowing his hair back a bit every time Kurogane breathes, nostrils flaring and un-flaring at every breath.

He smells nothing dangerous on the young lizard, and his body language and soothing voice calmed him and eased his fears. Whining, the spinosaurus leaned his head forward until the tip of his snout met his palm.

"That's it, boy, everything's just fine," Toshi hush him again, soothing him as he laid his forehead on his nose, stroking his lips and his nose in reassuring circles, feeling the rumble of his content purring.

Everyone was awed by his performance. Marco is astonished that Toshi can calm down a 7 meter tall dinosaur that could crush or eat him in a second.

Is there something lizards have that can calm down man-eating dinosaurs?

"Eat your heart out, Chris Pratt," Marco awed.

Toshi sees the legendary spinosaurus has now calmed down, pulling back so he can look into his eyes, the large golden slitted eyeballs reflecting his image like mirrors. Kurogane let out a chuff, and slowly, move his head to the direction of his stomach.

Where Toffee laid trapped inside.

"You haven't...digested him right?" Toshi asked it with concern. He was relieved when the dino let out a low and soft growl, saying that his father is still alive and that he is sorry for eating him up.

"It's not your fault, boy, you were asleep for eons and had a bad wakeup call, that's all."

He slowly walked up to the spot where Kurogane's head pointed and neared the belly of the dino. Inhaling sharply from long-kept feelings of truth imprisoned within his heart, he took a step forward and laid his hands on the belly, leaning his forehead to picture himself resting against his father's.

"Dad....," he called out in a whisper, "Are you there? If you are....please me give me a sign. Because I don't want to lose you again like that day."

Inside the spinosaurus' stomach, Toffee, unharmed, blinked with tolerance to keep in tears when he hears the hurt in his son's voice from outside his fleshy tomb. Sitting upright on his knees, he laid his palms flat on the flesh and leaned his forehead, imagining his son doing the same thing outside.

He made a sign that he's listening; knocking on the fleshy wall. Kurogane reacted by the twitch by growling a little sickly.

Knowing that his father is listening, Toshi spilled out his true feelings that he kept locked away or just recently heard before any of this happened.

"When people look at you, they see a monster," he looked down, "I'm seen as a monster. Especially mom. Even though she's half Mewman. You became like this because people mistreated and misjudged you even though you have done nothing wrong to them. I've been through the pain and suffering you went through, but I didn't end up like you."

"When you told me that Queen Comet murdered your family in a false execution, I was stumped," Mint, Marco, Star and the citizens' eyes widened, silently gasping upon that revelation. Moon squeezed her eyes tightly, not being able to prevent tears of guilt running down her cheeks, "I thought you killed because you were angry that the king and her are putting aside their differences after the war. But I was wrong. You were actually avenging your family. You hate to see their killer get away with murder."

"Mom, is this true?" Star questioned her mother in total horror. Her mother replied by slowly shaking her head, "I just found out days ago."

"Dad, do you really think your family will be happy for what you did? Is that what they wanted? As a price, you became a villain. And Toffee's Son, me, is treated like a demon everywhere we go!"

"I have done nothing to the Mewmans, and yet they hit me with rocks, fists, feet, garbage and words because my father is the rogue general who killed their previous queen. Without knowing that their queen murdered an innocent family of monsters. Even if they are the enemy, killing a family is the most cruelest crime."

The citizens grew guilty and ashamed by his grieving words. Through 20 years of treating him like a villain all because his father is one, they began to realize and feel his pain and suffering that they inflicted on him.

Does it feel right to shun a child who's done nothing wrong to them?

No. It doesn't.

Toffee feels an ache in his heart and his eyes felt hot from tears he prevented from spilling, listening to his words carefully as he continued.

"I was glad that there are people who accepted me and see I'm not evil like you. Mom says my heart is way more different than yours."

"To tell you the truth, Dad," Marco and Star began to weep by their friend's speech, "I don't hate you. I am so sorry for wishing you weren't you my father on the day of the explosion!" Buff Frog sniffed, wiping away tears, "I wanted to wish that you could open your eyes and come back to us! Your family needs you! I need you, Dad!!"

"Shiro…," Toffee whispered quietly, his voice straining and breaking from the feelings he locked away in his heart. He gritted his teeth tightly, failing to keep in tears streaming down his cheeks, his pain and suffering unleashed as if he thought he heard a click from deep within his slowly-melting cold heart.

"When the kids did awful things to me when I was a kid, Mom was there to help me. But I felt like someone was missing. If you had came with us, you would have seen the pain I went through and comforted me. Like what a real father should do!" Toshi sobbed, not bothered by hot tears streaming down his cheeks now that he has let out his true feelings to him, "And I know you felt the same way! Mom said you're the kind of guy who doesn't show weakness, especially emotions. But behind that mask, you were hurting because you regretting and blaming yourself everyday for leaving your family behind."

"I'm proud of mom for being a mom who could tell her son to do what's right," Mint wept with proud tears and a smile when he brought up the subject of her, "If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be here for this. She is what a mother should be like. And I love her for that."

"I need my dad. Mint needs her beloved," he sniffed, embracing Kurogane's stomach, feeling a sense of warmth on him as if his father is hugging him, "We need each other. We will go through whatever challenges thrown at us. Because that's what families do. They look out for each other."

"Gajog-ilan amudo namgeona ijhyeojiji…," Toshi quoted in Korean.

"...Anh-eum-eul uimihabnida," Toffee finished, knowing what it meant.

Sighing, Toshi finished off with one last quote, "Kazoku wa jūyōde wa arimasen."

Tears dripped down as Toffee finally succumbs to his pain, "Sore ga subetedesu."

Everyone in the area is weeping and crying from Toshi's moving speech. True to his hero alter ego, Toshi is indeed a hero who not only saved Mewni from Kurogane's chaos, but saved the beast from becoming a monster they fear and speaking out his true feelings to his father.

And forgiving him.

Kurogane blinked, tears welling up in his eyes and whining softly, feeling the urge to cry. Moved from his speech and sensing the warmth from both father and son, he decided to return the favor.

Everyone gasped and screamed when the spinosaurus suddenly got up. Watching with suspense and wanting to know what he's going to do, Kurogane became to hack and cough. After a few more coughs and a terrible hack, he barfed out the older lizard onto the ground not near Toshi.

"EEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!" everyone chorused in disgust at the sight of the slobber-covered Toffee.

"Now you know what I went through," Ludo scoffed, arms crossed.

"Dad!" Toshi raced over to his father's side, checking if there were any injuries on him. He felt a little stupid considering his father is immortal and would never have injuries on him. But still, he needs to check on his condition.

"Dad, you okay?" He asked, turning him onto his back. He noticed that his father's arm is draped over his eyes and realizes that he was crying throughout the speech when he was inside Kurogane's stomach judging by how strained his voice is.

"Shiro ...," he began, breathing heavily, "Did you mean all those things? Including those quotes?"

"Yeah, Dad," he answered, relief filling him on being able to talk to his dad like this, "Every one of it. Because you're my dad. And I'll always love you no matter what."

Toffee's began to tremble furiously from the upcoming breakdown and he immediately covered his eyes with his hands and began to cry. His son patted his shoulder as he let it all out.

The friends, Mint and Moon smiled with pride, their tears streaming down to which they wiped if they want to.

Toshi had finally done it. He has brought his father back from the darkness and melted his cold heart. And also accepted his real self.

Monster or not, he is TRULY a hero!

"Toshi, oh my god!!" Mint raced over and jumped on him in a big hug, nearly falling from the impact, "You crazy boy! You had me so scared when you ran away!"

Toshi laughed a tiny bit, sheepishly, and patted her back, "Sorry Mom. For worrying you. And thanks for making me accept the real me."

"Of course," she pulled back to lay a hand on his cheek, "You're my son! Just because his dad was a bad guy, doesn't mean you are one! But I'm proud to have a son like you!"

"Oh Mom!" He laughed as the two hugged.

"AAAAAAWWWWWWWWWW!!!" The citizens gushed by the mother and son's love. Embarrassed thanks to his teenage boy urges, he told his mother that's enough hugging and she released him.

Turning around to face the spinosaurus, Toshi quickly jumped and latched onto his snout in a hug. The dino answered the gesture with a fully content purr that he did the right thing.

"Thank you, Kurogane!" He thanked it, slipping off.

Now turning to his father, he took his arm and wound it around his shoulder so he can lift him up. When the two lizards glanced at the citizens looking at them, they looked at each other.

"I got this," Toshi told him.

Toffee sighed shortly, nodding a little, before they both turned back to the crowd.

"I know my Dad has done a lot of damage in the past and now!" Toshi announced in a loud clear voice, "His anger, vengeance and hatred for the Mewmans who done awful things on him despite him being innocent have made him committed those crimes. If we had known that Queen Comet wrongly killed an innocent monster family, the feud between Mewmans and monsters shouldn't have happened."

"The pain, the sorrow and the sufferings put on me since childhood have became my strength and I learned how to move on and become the hero you always looked up to! Even though the Wyvern is a monster and a son of the immortal monster."

"I know deep down in your hearts, there is goodness and light. I'm not saying this for you all to make a choice. I'm saying this to find the decision to forgive my father. Because I suffered a lot without my father," he turned to face him with a small smile, "Today, I was able to get him back to our family."

Star and Marco wept proudly with huge grins. Even Moon and Buff Frog too. Ludo, who is MIA during Kurogane's rampage, looked like he's about to burst into tears.

"Despite Toffee being a real jerk, I choose to forgive him because he's a dad!" He sobbed, "A dad I recently find out when he took off his helmet the other day!!"

A woman stepped up, "My dad ...is not the greatest person in the world," she confessed, "But when I met him again, he's not that awful person I knew back then. If I can forgive my dad, then I forgive Toffee."

"Some of us are ex-horrible dads!" A man shouted in agreement.

"We're all dads!"

The citizens shouted in agreement, bringing smiles to the lizards' snouts upon the light from the crowd. They have forgiven Toffee, all thanks to his son. Whose heart is bright as day.

Seeing his friends coming over, Mint took over to support his father so he can run up and bring the duo in a bear hug.

"You got your Dad back!" Star grinned, clutching him.

"I just love happy family reunions!" Marco sobbed.

"It was thanks to you guys!" He pulled back to smile down on them, "If it weren't for you two, I wouldn't have gotten my dad back. I'm proud to call you guys my best friends!!"

"Awww! Group hug again!" Star grabbed the two boys in a big friendship hug, making the three laugh.

Mint smiled up to Toffee after they saw their friendship, "See, Toffee? Our son has found friends that accepted him for being himself. That goes to show that there are those who aren't bad at heart."

Toffee sighed, admittingly, "True. It seems there IS a good butterfly in the family."

Everyone hears Kurogane's bone-rattling roar and he bent down to Toshi's level, pushing him gently with his snout as Kurogane the tatzelwurm with Razor scampered up to the dino with the cat leaping onto his snout, making the dinosaur growl affectionately at the brave creature.

"Looks like you have a new pet!" Marco jokes.

"Yeah," Toshi stroked the dino's head,"I have this cool feeling that having the legendary Kurogane the Black Sail as my new mount won't be such a bad thing at all! Right, Dad?"

"As long as he is house trained!" He answered.

Kurogane gave him a frown, making Mint laugh, "I don't think Earth will be ready to see a living fossil walking around. I think it's best he would be like ...a guardian of Mewni."

The citizens agreed to her suggestion. A legendary dinosaur reformed to become their kingdom's guardian is something.

"And uhm….? Maybe we could ...fix the town? Who's with me?" Toshi called out.

Everyone agreed to it with Kurogane giving out his signature roar in a way of agreement. Things are going to be different now that the reformed villain and dino is no longer a threat to Mewmanity.

All thanks to the heroic acts of Toshi and his friends.

-----

(Epilogue)

Moon gazed out at the ice crystal fortress that imprisoned Eclipsa, the Queen of Darkness. The one she made a deal with 20 years ago. With the magic contract broken now that Toffee is spared from death, she need not worry for the return of the dark queen who turned against her people, her own race.

But why does she have a bad feeling crawling around her heart?

"Don't turn around," the familiar authoritative voice of her former enemy spoke out from behind her. She knew why he said that and she stood firm, her back to him.

"Toffee….," she began, her head sagging forward a bit, "I...I had no idea my mother would do such a horrible thing. She, the soldiers and the High Commission didn't tell me she ordered the executioning of monster spies. And she would even dare tell them to kill any monster without understanding their innocence," her shoulders trembled with emotion, " If I had known she killed your family, then I….I…!!!"

"That's enough," he told her. She turned her head a bit for a peek, her eyes streamed with tears of guilt and shame, and saw that he has his back to her.

"My son never held a grudge against you after what you did to me 20 years ago," he explained, "What do you think would happen if you had killed me that day?"

She thought for a while until she answered, "He would have gone down the same path you took. And my mother's crimes will be forgotten."

Toffee inhaled briefly before he sighed out, "Before I leave, I would like to propose something to you. Something I should have done instead of killing your mother that day."

He turned his head around till he is gazing into her eyes. What he did next will make Moon tear up.

"I forgive you."

His words were so sudden, she began to weep and sob, collapsing down on her knees as she cried. She is crying because the former enemy of Mewni forgave not her, but her family for what they had done to him in the past. As well as monster kind. She even felt motherly pride that his son had rescued his father from the dark pits of his heart and helped him see the light.

Toffee left her to her moment, satisfied on the task he accomplished.

Meanwhile, within the tomb where Eclipsa is imprisoned in her cold crystalline prison, Moon didn't hear or sense a crack appearing on the ice.

It seems the 20-year-old magic contract is not broken at all. But rather, decided to take a new twist on the deal. With Toffee alive, the rules have changed for the better. And the answer to it…..

….Was the mending of a broken heart.

And there you have it, folks!!!! Toffee is now reformed!!!! 🥳🥳

I hope you enjoyed the little twist at the ending, @lynea-kureji .

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