#when we walk around like a gun waiting to go off is it any surprise that we are held at arm's length

[shaddy-bee]

Why is it all so hard.

[reiderwriter]

♡ Forever Only ♡

Week 3 of my Playlist series

Summary: You thought you wouldn't see him again, at least for a while, but Spencer Reid finds you, and he has questions.

Warnings: smut, 18+ minors dni. Penetrative sex, voyeurism, fingering, multiple orgasms, semi-protected sex, creampie, almost breeding kink, like if you squint, slight angst, dom!Spencer Reid.

A/N: First smut of the series! This one is based on one of my top songs of 2023, everyone say thank you, Jaehyun, for releasing the closest K-pop is ever going to get to 00s R&B. I hope you all enjoy it 🥰

Masterlist || Spotify Playlist

Of all the places you'd been where you thought of Spencer Reid and your paths crossing again, you never expected it to actually happen here.

The club was lit so low, so you didn't really expect it to be him, your ex-something, not quite boyfriend, far from nothing, situationship maybe? But there he was.

Not just him, but all of them. The BAU, minus their bosses, were all dancing and drinking at various points around the club, having fun but still being vigilant.

You're surprised you notice him before he notices you, but you're not surprised that it doesn't take him much longer.

You're not exactly here to blend in with the crowd.

The low-cut dress with the lower-cut bust line is already getting as much attention as you'd expected it would, and that doesn't go unnoticed by Spencer as he finally drags his eyes over to the commotion you've made in the corner.

“I don't know you,” you tried to politely explain to the creep who'd blocked you in with one arm. “I'm just waiting for my friend, please leave me alone.”

“Let's have some fun, baby, you, me, that body you're hiding under those scraps of fabric. I'll make you scream, I promise.”

You'd scoffed the first few times he'd made similar remarks, but he was tenacious, and he didn't understand the word “no,” and was vaguely unfamiliar with “leave,” “me,” and “alone” too.

You'd scanned the room for a friendly face and had locked eyes with the man you'd been waiting six months to meet again. Perfect timing.

Of course, he'd picked up on your discomfort and walked your way, and of course, he'd bought back-up.

“Y/N, you should've sent me a text when you got here!” Emily Prentiss expertly grabbed your wrist and pulled you into a hug, as the man was forced to let you move.

“Sorry, I got a bit sidetracked,” you mumbled, still feeling the weight of the creeps gaze on you despite your newly inherited guard dogs.

“Come on over to the table, baby girl, we got bottle service. I'm going big tonight.” You tried to thank Morgan as well, but the smile you sent him didn't reach your eyes as you consciously avoided Spencer's gaze.

“You know these people, babe?” The stranger from behind you put a hand on your waist as he pulled you back a step, leaving you stumbling wide eyed until your back was to his chest, shoulders unconsciously rounding into a protective stance as you tried to shrug hum off.

“For the last time, let go of me. I don't know you, and I don't want to know you. This is your last warning.” You rounded on the man, turned your back to the other three agents, and tried to calm your thoughts to see his next reaction.

“Stuck-up bitch, I said you're coming home with me tonight.”

You made sure his last attempt to grab you was his last attempt to grab any woman as you flipped him onto his back, your fellow agents behind you pulling their guns and handcuffs to helpfully lead him out of his hunting grounds.

You'd hadn't wanted to see Spencer Reid again so soon, and you certainly hadn't wanted to enlist the entire teams help on a serial rape case, but it wasn't your final decision to make.

And honestly, you'd been glad for the help in the take down, with your office so understaffed.

After reading the creep his rights, seizing the date rape drug he'd planned to slip into your drink later that night, and the knives and rope in his card that he was planning to also use on you, you were just thankful that you had all the help you could get.

Now that you were back at the station at 4am, with nothing but aching muscles from handing the nearly 200 lbs man his ass to him on a platters and aching feet from doing it in heels, you wanted nothing else than for the last week to erase itself.

Six months absence from the BAU wasn't long enough to fall out of love with Spencer Reid, and you never thought it would be.

A year was all the time it had taken to fall head over heels for the man, and you'd assumed you could reverse that in the same time, so you'd left.

It wasn't a leave of absence but a strategic departure to a task force in Rapid City, where rape numbers were spiking. You were still doing your job, that was the important part.

You changed into your comfortable clothes in the locker room and grabbed your bag, ready to head out for the night, picking up your keys to head home. You only got two steps out of the room when you ran into him.

“Early start?” He joked, looking at you again with that hesitant half-smile he'd worn the entire week he'd been here.

“Late night.” You replied. It had been a joke you'd developed after so many unusual shifts, so many 3am run-ins where neither of you could find the effort to make actual polite conversation so you'd said the two sentences and sat in amicable silence, often rested against each other as you let exhaustion carry you through the night.

“Can we talk? We're leaving in the morning, and I…” he struggled to find the words, jaw clenching and releasing the way it always did when he couldn't put his emotions into words just yet.

“Sure. But not here. My apartment is a five minute drive.” He nodded and followed you out of the building as you primed your heart to shatter into pieces again.

The drive home was quiet and peaceful, too late for natural traffic, and too early for the morning commute to begin. You made it home in record time and led him inside the apartment you'd chosen.

You flipped the light switch and kept you back to him while you completed your daily routine, trying your best to ignore that he was standing in your doorway. You tried not to be curious about what he could tell about you from the doorway, what the lack of decoration meant, how different it was from that cosy box room three blocks from his apartment, how cold it seemed instead.

So you kept your eyes off him to not have to answer the questions he'd likely have.

“So what did you want to talk about, Spence?” You almost cursed yourself for how easily the nickname slipped from your tongue. You'd heard JJ call him that a few times your first week in the office and assumed it was something everyone used for him. The way he flushed red when you said it the first time was engraved in your head, those first heavy beats of your heart alerting you to oncoming danger.

You grabbed two bottles of water from your fridge and walked back to your living room, where he was still stood taking things in.

“Spencer?” You asked again, holding out the bottle.

He took it with a small smile of thanks, and you led him over to the sofa, urging him to talk again.

“What did you want to talk about?”

“You… you didn't say goodbye.”

You knew this was coming, but you hoped he wouldn't have the courage to ask you the questions you knew were about to arrive at your door.

“I'm coming back in six months, Spencer. I didn't say goodbye because it wasn't going to be goodbye.” You'd turned this excuse over in your brain enough to know it was a weak argument, but you hoped your friendly smile would reassure him.

“You didn't tell anyone you were leaving until you were gone. That hurt a lot.”

“I didn't want to hurt you. Everything was just so fast. I had to take the offer immediately, or they would've moved onto someone else. You understand, right, Spencer?” He sat back, resigned, and nodded again slightly.

But a silence built up as he stared at you, and your hands got all sweaty the way they always did when he paid attention to you. You couldn't just stare everywhere else until he broke the silence again.

“How is Rachel? I haven't heard from her in a while.” You blurted the words under the weight of his gaze.

And you knew you'd said too much in those two sentences.

You'd first introduced Spencer to your college roommate after you realised you were in love with him. You'd spent a year at the BAU, and you thought he felt the same way, too.

You hadn't said anything, but you ate together at his apartment weekly, and you went on outings - dates, you'd thought they were dates - to museums and movies. He'd slept over at your house once, and you'd never felt happier than waking up with his arms wrapped around you.

So, of course, you'd taken him along to a party your friend from college was throwing. You'd nearly introduced him as your boyfriend, and looking back, you were glad Rachel had cut you off before you could.

“Is this the famous Spencer Reid? You're cuter than I thought you'd be.” You saw the flirtatious spark in her eyes, heard her tone, and felt uncomfortable.

You felt even worse when she took his hand and led him off to introduce him to more of your friends without a glance back at you.

For the first hour, you were worried about him, knowing that he never did great in social settings. You contented yourself by catching up with old friends, nursing a glass of wine, and trying not to follow him around the room with your eyes.

You'd given up and sat miserably in the corner for the next hour before you'd decided you wanted to leave. This time you'd had to track him down.

It wasn't that you'd found him in any compromising situation. He was just sat on the couch, smiling and talking to her. But when you said you wanted to go home, and he'd agreed to drive you back, she'd grabbed his hand.

“So Tuesday, 8 pm, right? It's a date." He nodded and said his goodbyes, and you wiped all of the emotion off your face so you didn't break down right there.

He talked to you as he drove back, but you could only nod and hum in response.

You shrugged off his concern as you walked into your apartment alone and let your heart break.

You were in Rapid City the next week.

“Your friend from college? I'm….I'm not sure.” He looked genuinely confused down at you as your lungs capsized in on themselves.

“Oh, right.” You nodded again and forced out a yawn, desperate to get rid of him before he could climb back into your heart again and roost there.

“You didn't keep in touch with her after you moved?”

“We had… a disagreement.” It was a kind way to put what had happened. You'd sent her one text asking her what all of that was at her party, and she'd sent you a paragraph back the day of her date with Spencer calling you pathetic and lonely and jealous. And then she'd blocked your number.

“That sucks. She seemed nice.” You couldn't help but scoff at his words, completely forgetting your plan to ask him to leave. Of course, he thought Rachel was nice. He'd been half in love with her by the end of that party.

“What was that for?” He asked, the words spilling out quickly as his eyes narrowed, eyebrows furrowed.

“Nothing. It's late, Spencer.”

“I don't think it was nothing. Why are you asking me about your friend? Why would I know?” He was on the edge of his seat now, and you needed desperately to put some space between you. You stood up and stretched, moving to clean up a pile of papers you'd left on your coffee table that morning.

“You certainly seemed interested six months ago, Spence. I just assumed there was a second date after that first one. My bad.”

You moved to your kitchen, bit he followed you.

“What do you mean? Y/N?” You weren't listening though, instead organising and cleaning things at a quick pace so your brain didn't have to focus on his question.

“Y/N, look at me. Please.” He stepped closer his chest nearly against your back as his hand found your wrist.

It was involuntary, but you relaxed into his familiar grip, your body finally content, and now it was back in his arms.

“Or don't look at me and just listen to me. I don't know what you're talking about, but I never went on any date with Rachel. I wasn't interested in her like that, I was interested in-” He stopped short, frustration ebbing his voice off as the silent words hung between the two of you.

You finally turned around to look at him, and you could see the hurt in his eyes.

He whispered his question again.

“Why didn't you say goodbye?”

“Because my heart was broken, Spencer. Because I took you to meet my friends and I thought I was going to introduce you as my boyfriend, but instead I got ignored the whole night and then you arranged to meet with her and she called it a date. I loved you, I love you and I couldn't say goodbye because then I'd have to hear about it. About how you were happy without me, when I was lonely and broken without you.”

You didn't know you were crying until the tears his your lips. He wiped then away, but they still tasted salty as you licked your lips.

“I didn't come to work for a month,” he confessed. “After you left, I tried to give Hotch my resignation letter. He wouldn't tell me where you went. I came back but it wasn't the same without you.” His forehead rested against yours, noses touching as his words came out barely above a whisper.

“I can't come back, Spencer. Not until I don't feel this way anymore.”

He didn't miss a beat before pressing his lips against yours.

“Don't.” He said between kisses, pinning you against your kitchen counter as he gripped your waist in one hand. You didn't pull away, even as you felt your hot tears flow freely.

“Don't stop loving me. Please.” His voice broke as he pulled you in for a hug, wrapping his arms tight around your back, pinning your hands to his chest as sobs wracked through your body.

You'd held onto this pain for a year and it was all spilling out now.

He looked at you again and started kissing each tear away, lifting you up until your legs were wrapped around him, and he was as close you you as he could possibly be.

“Love me forever. Please.”

You pulled his head away to look at him again, searching for reassurance again that this wasn't going to be one-sided.

“What about you? If I love you forever, which I don't think I have a choice in, how-”

“I love you. I loved you then, I love you now, I will always love you. I don't know how it wasn't clear when I followed you around every second of the day.” He kissed you with each confession, looking angry at himself that he'd never said the words before.

“I asked your friend how I should ask you to be my girlfriend. She had a lot of ideas and said we should meet up and talk about it. I didn't know…” He cursed, not quite as quietly as he'd attempted to. The strangeness of it shocked a laugh out of you, the rumble of it vibrating through your chest. He still held you tightly, but he looked at you again, getting out of his head.

“What's funny?”

“You tried to quit your job to look for me.”

“You moved to South Dakota instead of asking what we were.”

“You kissed me before you told me how you felt.”

“You kissed me back and then you laughed at me.”

“You swore!” You laughed again, and you were sure that he was going to have to put you down this time. You were laughing so much.

Instead he pulled you tighter into his arms and walked out of the kitchen.

“Is this the bedroom?” He asked nodding towards the closed door.

Your laugh quieted at the charged question, until your eyes found his lips as you nodded.

“Good.”

You let him lay you down on the bed before you pulled him in for another kiss, this one more fiery than any you'd shared in the kitchen as he hovered over you on the bed.

“Spencer!” You gasped as his hands trailed under your shirt. You regretted changing out of that small dress now, regretting the amount of fabric between you and him as his hands glided up to your breasts, mouth pressing kiss after kiss into your neck and collarbone.

He nestled his knee between yours and climbed fully over you, pushing your legs open as he showed you where you were going next. You moaned as your back arched into his touch, rubbing yourself against him but still needing him closer.

“I love every sound you make.’ He whispered as his other hand worked its way under the sweatpants you'd thrown on earlier, silently pushing them down your legs as you lifted your hips to help him once again.

His mouth connected with yours again after he got them to your knees, hand pressing flat against your stomach as you finished off the job.

He laid next to you, pulling his lips off your own as you trailed after him. But his eyes weren't on you anymore. You followed his gaze to his hand and watched him slip his fingers under your panties as he began to tease your sensitive parts.

You whimpered slightly as the contact, as he gathered some of your wetness and ran his fingers up and down your sensitive parts.

His lips found your ears. “Just like that. I want to hear you just like that. Whimper for me, Y/N. Beg for me. Let me know how much you want this.”

You gasped as he started rubbing slow even circles around your clit, his body still rolled to the side so he could watch intently the pleasure on your face.

It was near voyeuristic, his eyes focused on your face, the pants of air escaping your lips, the way your nipples had hardened, and had become visible through your shirt.

You hadn't been able to wear a bra with your dress earlier, you wanted to explain, but you couldn't find the words.

“Look at your body reacting to me. You need me to make you feel like this.” He whispered, lowering his head to press a chaste kiss over your clothed nipple. “Right?”

“Yes, fuck, yes Spencer. I need you.”

“Here. Can you feel how much I need you, too?” He grabbed your hand in his free one and pulled it over his erection, instructing you silently on how to hold it and rub it.

“I can feel it, Spencer. Please, please fuck me.” Your voice felt alien to yourself. You'd never had that high of a sex drive before, so you'd never thought you'd ever have to beg for it. But there was something in the tender touch of Spencer's fingers that has you desperate to feel him inside you.

“Do you have condoms?”

“No.”

“Birth control?”

“Yes, yes, please, Spencer. Please, I don't care.” His pace had picked up, his fingers moving slightly rougher than before, but you knew you were close as he kept massaging your sensitive clit.

You knew you were going to cum before you felt him inside you, you knew you'd want to cum again. You were going to be forever insatiable because of this man.

He kissed his way across your skin as he peeled your shirt and his clothes off, leaving your panties for last as he watched you grind your cunt into his fingers.

“I love you,” he whispered In your ear as he stroked his cock, watching your body convulse as you came just at his touch.

He kept his lips close to your ear as he entered you during the throes of your first orgasm, whispering again when he had slid his entire length into you. “And you're mine.”

You were intoxicated by his touch, cum drunk as he began thrusting and you wrapped your legs around his waist.

He nipped and sucked at your neck, listening to you moan and whimper as he pulled out and entered you again and again, head thrown back into the sheets of the bed you'd been too eager to climb underneath.

A few minutes of thrusting and he gripped your waist and sat you up on his cock, moving his hands to your thighs as you wrapped your arms around his neck as he bounced you steadily on his cock.

“Shit, Spencer, you're…so…deep,” you pulled him in closer, burying your head in his neck as you deafened as embarrassing squeal.

You came again on his cock as he used you like a flashlight, his own pants and groans soundtracking your breathless orgasm.

“That's it, good job, Y/N,” he cooed at you, lowering you back onto your back and thrusting shallowly through your convulsions. When you'd recovered slightly again, he gently pushed your legs up, stretching you so your knees were as far back as they could go, splayed open so they were almost touching the bed.

His forehead rested against yours again as he held you in place, keeping his eyes locked on yours as he snapped his hips into you with long, quick thrusts that had you gasping again for the breath he was forcing out of your lungs.

“I love you. And you are mine.” He said. “I love you, and you are mine.” The words were a mantra to him as he worked himself to the edge.

“Yes, yes, I'm yours. I love you, I'm yours, Spencer.” He came with a whimper, releasing inside of you and collapsing gently into your arms as you readied yourself to hold one another for the rest of eternity.

[persevereforahappyending]

No Man's Land |13|

Pairing: Sam Carpenter x Reader

Summary: Sam can’t help but be drawn to the cute stranger from her gym, even if everything about them makes them the perfect suspect, just when Ghostface has returned.

Warnings: Bleeding, Stab Wounds

Word Count: 3.5k+

Main Masterlist | Series Masterlist

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15

You leaned against the wall as you waited for Sam to talk with her sister. Tara was clearly upset, which you couldn’t blame her for, a psycho was trying to kill her and her friends, again. You thought it was best to make yourself scarce though, so you chose a wall to lean against where you could keep your eye on everyone. You tilted your head as Ethan walked around, looking at the stuff in the cases. As far as you knew Ethan was new to the friend group and hadn’t been a part of any previous attacks, he was looking at everything as if this were some sort of museum, not as if he was looking at the complete history of a couple serial killers, or at the evidence of his so-called friends’ attack last year.

“Hey,” Kirby said, nodding at you. “We think we got a plan to catch Ghostface.”

You pushed off the wall and stepped up to Kirby with your arms crossed. “What do you got?” you asked.

“We’re going to trace his call.”

You slowly nodded, tracing a call was the quickest way to find where someone was. “But you’d have to expect him to call to be ready.” You had traced plenty of calls when on a mission, well, the people back home did the tracing, you and your team were just the boots on the ground, waiting to see where your target was.

“Which is why we’re going to tempt him,” Kirby said slowly. You furrowed your brow, the only thing that would tempt Ghostface to call was Sam. Your eyes widened when you realized what Kirby meant, and you shook your head. “She already agreed.” You let out a huff, Sam was very bad at keeping herself safe.

You nodded. “Let’s get to it,” you gestured for Kirby to lead the way. You weren’t happy about Sam basically using herself as bait to tempt Ghostface, but you knew you didn’t have any say. You were just going to have to do your best to protect her until Kirby could trace the call.

“One other thing first,” Kirby whispered as she leaned closer to you. You furrowed your brow, but you looked down to see her sneaking a gun to you.

You looked around to make sure no one was paying any attention to either of you as you took the gun from her and as casually as you could slipped it in the holster at your back. “You sure about this?” you whispered. You didn’t look at her, you didn’t want to draw any attention to the two of you.

“Call it a leap of faith,” she shrugged. “Maybe this is a mistake, maybe you use it against me,” she gave a little nod in the direction of the gun. “But my gut is telling me you having that is what’s for the best.”

You nodded. “Thank you.” You knew the kind of trust Kirby was putting in you. Kirby was betrayed by her best friend and the guy she liked, her giving you a gun was probably the riskiest thing she could do.

You followed behind Kirby as she led you to where everyone else was beginning to gather. “So, we doing this?” Gale asked.

“Sorry, no press allowed,” Kirby said with faux sympathy and smile.

Gale glared at Kirby but just rolled her eyes. You were honestly surprised Gale didn’t fight Kirby a little harder. You weren’t sure what the history between Kirby and Gale was since Kirby was in high school during the 2011 attacks and you didn’t think she had interacted with Gale before then, but it was clear Gale had a way of getting on people’s bad side. The relationship between Gale and Sam was complicated to say the least, sometimes it seemed like Sam couldn’t stand Gale and other times it seemed like she knew Gale was the only one who could truly understand. You didn’t dislike Gale by any means, but you had a natural distrust when it came to reporters, especially when said reports used other people’s tragedies to make a profit.

You offered Sam a smile when she looked at you which she instantly returned. You told her everything that happened to you last year and the reason as to why you were in town now. She ran off to talk to her sister almost right after that and you hadn’t gotten a chance to talk more, you hadn’t talked to her about your theory about Ghostface either, there were just too many eyes around you all the time now it seemed. A part of you wanted to know what Sam thought about what you told her, when you said it was her who should stay away from you, you meant it.

You followed everyone out of the shrine and waited patiently as Kirby and Bailey got everything together for the plan. You knew Tara wasn’t thrilled the last time you had a gun and didn’t tell her, but you opted not to tell anyone, including Sam, you had one this time. You knew it probably would come off the wrong way when they did eventually find out but you didn’t know who to trust. You didn’t think the sisters were behind any of the attacks, but Ghostface somehow knew to wear a bullet proof vest and maybe it was because they knew the history of the mantle, or maybe it was because they somehow learned you had a gun on you. Sam was the only one who knew that information and she didn’t even share it with her sister, that didn’t mean Ghostface didn’t bug her phone or was somehow watching and listening to her, you could never be too careful.

Once all the details were worked out the plan went into motion. The plan was for Sam to walk around central park and await Ghostface’s call. It didn’t seem like the best plan considering it was the middle of the day and Sam would be surrounded by people, but it seemed to be the only plan all of you had. You weren’t sure what Ghostface’s mindset was in these type of situations, he usually called his victims before attacking them, you weren’t sure if that was just part of the routine to honor the first Ghostface or if he got pleasure in causing fear and panic in his victims before he struck.

“I’m not sure I can do this,” Anika said, before everyone parted ways. “I’m sorry,” she looked at Mindy and there were tears in her eyes as if she thought Mindy would be angry with her.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Mindy assured her. “I don’t want you anywhere near this.” Mindy pulled Anika in for a long hug and only parted to give her a passionate kiss. “I want you to be safe.” Anika nodded as she tried to hold herself together as tears continued to fall.

“I can take you somewhere safe,” Kirby offered, Anika nodded at the offer. “I’ll meet you guys in an hour?” she pointed at all of you.

You all watched Anika walk off with Kirby, you didn’t know her well, but she didn’t deserve anything that was happening, none of them did. You hoped that without being around the others Anika would no longer be a target. Even if Ghostface tried to go after her again you believed Kirby would get her somewhere safe, preferably with some police protection. While Kirby took care of Anika, Bailey left to gather everything they’d need for the trace, and you and the others all began making your way towards Central Park.

You couldn’t help but nod your head in approval when Kirby pulled up in a truck with an Enterprise logo on it. Any time you did undercover work it was usually you wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses or sitting in some cramped truck with five other people without any air conditioning. Though, when you were undercover or spying on someone it was always in another country, a beat-up old truck would draw much more attention than an Enterprise van, at least this way you’d be hiding in plain sight.

“I’m going with you,” Tara said.

“Wha-no,” Sam said, shaking her head. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Which is why I’m going with you.” Tara looked up at her sister with a determined look that even though you had only known her for a few days now you knew that look meant there would be no arguing with her.

Sam looked to you for support. You silently chuckled and shook your head. “I’m not going anywhere,” you said. You didn’t think it needed to be said but if Sam thought her sister was still willing to stay behind then maybe you did need to clarify you weren’t sitting back in the van either.

“Alright,” Kirby said turning to the three of you. “We will be in this van,” she pointed back to the van. “Bailey will be waiting on a park bench, ready to make his move,” she gestured at Bailey. “Just relax and enjoy the nice weather.” Sam nodded. “Don’t worry,” Kirby rested a comforting hand on Sam’s shoulder. “You got this. As soon as he calls, I’ll be able to trace him within seconds.”

Sam nodded. You could tell she was nervous, but you knew she was ready. She had talked to Ghostface plenty of times on the phone at this point, the only difference between now and all those other times was you all actually wanted him to call. The three of you walked away so you wouldn’t draw attention to Kirby as she hopped into the back of the van. You caught Bailey walking towards a bench, wearing a baseball cap and carrying a newspaper as if that wasn’t suspicious looking at all.

The three of you began walking around Central Park, you made sure to keep your eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. You weren’t suspecting someone in a Ghostface costume to run straight up to the three of you but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be close by. He could be waiting in the shadows like he was when he attacked the three of you on the street. You were prepared for anything, anyone that looked the slightest bit suspicious you had an eye on them.

You could tell Sam was getting antsy with the way she kept looking at the phone, as if she was willing it to ring. You weren’t sure if she wanted it to ring or if she was secretly hoping it wouldn’t. You didn’t have to wait too long because the next thing you knew, the phone rang. Sam looked up, meeting the gaze of you and her sister, you both gave her an encouraging nod before she swiped to answer.

“Hello?” Sam asked.

You couldn’t hear Ghostface’s side of the conversation, so you focused on Sam’s words and watching her facial expressions. Sam always looked shaken when she talked to Ghostface, though you were sure the fear was less for herself and more for her sister. When Sam talked to Ghostface though, you could see her determination and anger at this all happening, her desperation for all of this to just stop.

The call ended almost as quickly as it began. From the looks of it, it didn’t seem the conversation went as Sam wanted, or you guessed it went as well as expected. Sam quickly tapped her phone and put Kirby on speaker. “Did you get it?” She asked.

“Yeah,” Kirby said, sounding slightly distract as she probably tried to narrow down the location. “That’s weird,” she mumbled more to herself.

“What?” You asked. Weird was not a good word to use when tracing someone’s call, that usually only meant a few things, the phone was either from someone you knew, the call was coming from right outside the van, or it was out in the middle of the ocean or somewhere it couldn’t possibly be. You might not know much about Ghostface, but you figured it wasn’t the latter, Ghostface seemed well equipped in hacking or using a number that was clearly someone else’s.

“He’s nowhere near here.” You furrowed your brow, the only reason he wouldn’t be anywhere near all of you was if he knew the plan, which was seeming more likely, or he had another target. “He’s in an apartment on the upper west side.”

“On West 96th?” Tara asked, snatching the phone from her sister.

“Yeah, how did you know?” Kirby asked.

Your eyes widened with realization before Tara said anything else. “Gale.” The sisters shared a look, and you knew you’d be running off after them to confront Ghostface once again.

Tara and Sam took off running without a word and you were right behind them. It was clear they had absolutely no plan except for to get to Gale. “There!” Tara shouted and pointed at a police car.

Sam hopped in the passenger seat while Tara ran around to the driver’s side. She had just begun to open the door when you put a hand on it, closing it on her. She quickly whipped around, shooting you a furious glare. “I’m driving,” is all you said. You gave her a look that told her not to argue with you.

Tara pulled her hand away from the door and glared at you one last time before hoping in the backseat. You jumped in the car and found the keys Bailey carelessly left in the vehicle. It wasn’t that you doubted Tara’s driving skills, you just had more experience in this type of thing, and you didn’t want to put your life in some college kids’ hands by them getting behind the wheel. You looked past Sam as Bailey waved his hands and ran towards the squad car, you just smirked before flipping on the lights and sirens and whipped out into oncoming traffic.

You sped down the street, swerving in between cars as you made your way halfway across the city. You didn’t worry about anything as you made your way uptown, you had the sirens on, you were in a police car, everyone should be making way for you anyway. It didn’t even cross your mind how much trouble you could get in for technically stealing a police car. You knew Bailey hated you so him arresting you wasn’t too far out of the realm of possibilities.

You made it to the Upper West Side within a few minutes. Before you knew it you were slamming on your brakes right out front of the apartment building. You didn’t even bother turning off the lights as you rushed inside behind Sam and Tara.

Sam tapped her foot repeatedly as the three of you waited for the elevator to reach Gale’s floor, of course she had to live at the top. Tara wasn’t much better, she was practically vibrating as she stared up at the numbers, as if she was willing them to count faster. Finally, there was a ding, and the elevator doors slid open.

The three of you ran out of the elevator only to stop dead in your tracks at the sight of Ghostface over Gale with a knife in their hand. Sam only waited a second before she rushed forward, already reaching for the gun on the floor. You didn’t want to reveal your new gun yet, but you reached back for it, this could be your only chance to kill one of them. Just as your finger brushed against the weapon Sam began firing and Ghostface took off out the door.

You tracked Ghostface’s movement as they went down the hall, most likely headed for the stairwell. If you ran after them, you could probably catch up, a stairwell was a tight space, but you could easily take them out. “What do we do?” Sam asked, breaking you out of your thoughts.

You hated to let Ghostface go but you didn’t hesitate to drop down next to Gale. You quickly assessed her wounds. “Call an ambulance,” you said. Tara quickly pulled out her phone and with tears already falling she brought the phone to her ear. “Put pressure here,” you ordered Sam, grabbing her hands and showing her where to press on the wound on Gale’s shoulder. You pushed her hands down, using the same force you wanted her to use. You then moved to the wound on her stomach and began applying pressure there as well. You didn’t focus on what Gale was mumbling to Sam, more concerned with making sure she didn’t bleed out. “Don’t stop,” you ordered when you caught Sam relaxing slightly.

You kept your hands firmly pressing on Gale’s wound until the medics arrived and took over. You backed away as they got to work on Gale and looked over at the sisters who were both holding each other as tears streamed down their faces. You looked down at your hands, seeing them once again covered in blood, you flexed your fingers as you tried to avoid wiping the blood on your pants.

Once the three of you gave your statements you were allowed to wash the blood off. The three of you ended up in the lobby of Gale’s apartment along with Chad, Mindy, and Ethan. You stood away from the group, leaning against the wall as you watched them, you didn’t want to intrude while they processed what happened. Gale was alive when the ambulance took her, but she had lost a lot of blood already, it would be hit or miss on whether she survived or not.

You furrowed your brow when Tara went from being huddled together with her friends to standing up. You couldn’t hear what they were saying but it was clear Tara was talking on the phone with someone and with the way she held it they seemed to be on speaker. You knew it wasn’t Ghostface they were talking to, there was too much anger coming off all of them and absolutely no fear.

You raised and eyebrow when Sam broke away from the group and came to lean on the wall next to you. “They’re making a plan to kill Ghostface,” she said. You hummed, that meant Tara was talking to either Bailey or Kirby if not both of them. “We plan on using the shrine.”

“Makes sense,” you said, not taking your eyes off the friends. “A lot of places to hide and take someone out.” It truly was the perfect place to stage an attack, but just as many upsides as there were there were as many downsides. The plan would only work if Ghostface didn’t know what he was walking into, but he had been a step ahead of you this entire time, so you didn’t foresee surprising him.

“If we’re really doing this,” you whispered, not looking at Sam as you spoke. “There’s something you need to know.”

“What?” she asked. You could feel her eyes on you, but you still couldn’t look at her, you could risk giving anything away.

“Don’t react when I tell you.” You glanced out of the side of your eye and when you saw Sam nod and mimic your position of leaning against the wall and not look at you, you knew this would be the only chance you would get. “There’s three of them.”

“Wha-”

“Don’t,” you cut her off. “There’s three killers, I’m sure of it.”

“There’s usually only ever two,” Sam whispered.

You nodded lightly but to anyone else it would look like you were just leaning your head back against the wall. “There were two when you were attacked in the gym. Those two were untrained, no combat experience whatsoever.” You shook your head, you clocked that instantly when you faced off against the one, then the other surprised you and ran instead of taking you out or trying to continue going after Sam. “But the one from the bodega,” your voice got lower, afraid someone would listen, even though there was no one around. “They were trained, like professionally.”

“Like a cop?” You nodded. “You already have suspects.”

You nodded again even though it wasn’t a question. “My top suspects have been Bailey, Ethan, and Quinn from the moment I met them.”

“Quinn is dead.”

“Yeah, I haven’t figured that one out yet,” you bobbed your head back and forth. “But the other two,” you glanced at Ethan as he crossed his arms and swayed back and forth as he listened to what the others said. “Look, cop, FBI agent, military,” you listed off, including yourself in there as well. “There are three Ghostface and one of them is highly trained, don’t trust anyone.”

“Even you?”

You looked over to see Sam’s eyes already on you. “Yes,” you said simply.

You would do everything to protect Sam and her friends, but you didn’t want Sam to blindly trust anyone, even you. If she trusted you after only knowing you a few days then she could easily trust anyone else, you wanted her guard up and for her to question everything. “Now,”’ you said, pushing off the wall. “Let’s kill these assholes.”

Taglist: @thatshyboy1998 @artrizzler19 @btay3115 @acutenobody @godamnityess

@luvwanda @rqizzu @riyaexee @bella423 @rayisaknight

@assgradiangod @canyonyodeler @marsyay78

[damnfeelings09]

Animals AU- Shadow's version

A.N: Sorry, got lost in crimson eyes! RED for stalker thoughts, GREEN for yours Please check your surroundings, someone is coming.

Shadow stopped his motorcycle just in front of your house. You got off, still on shaky legs, feeling dizzy. “Thanks... for the ride, for saving me.”

“Now you owe me a bunny”  he said with a wink. “Why did you show up out of nowhere? Be thankful I have good reflexes or you'd be a stain on the floor by now.”

“Ah...” you quickly thought of an excuse, because telling him that you had been chased by a madman was not an option “I missed the bus and the only way out is to walk 5km to the next stop, so I was running to catch it.”

Lies.

“Really? I thought you looked scared, are you afraid of the dark bunny?” he asked getting close to your ear. His hot breath hitting your neck. The memory of what you had done in the afternoon and even more the why came back to your mind blushing you instantly. Shadow had the power to make you furious and now, it seemed, he also had the power to make you blush and he was enjoying it. “Would you like me to walk you to your bed? You won't be afraid of the dark if you’re with me.”

“Asshole” you said coming back to reality. You threw the helmet back at him, but Shadow had good reflexes, catching it in mid-air. You frowned and turned around raising your middle finger at him.

What you trying to do to me

It's like we can't stop, we're enemies

“Love it when you play hard to get”. - He said putting on his helmet “You turn me on” And with that Shadow disappeared again among golden sparks.

The next morning you were at the bus station, Mailo had been apologizing for leaving you alone for 10 minutes straight and excusing himself that he had to go for his sister and you were nowhere to be seen. Mailo and you were best friends since you were in high school, you were both in the same class and his house was 2 blocks away from yours, you used to spend a lot of time at his house because your parents were too busy working for GUN. However, when you turned 15 something changed, both of them became paranoid, locking you at home with them, you were not allowed any electronic devices, you could only talk to your friends when your parents were asleep. Little by little, the stress was consuming you, nobody knew what was going on, a mobian virus the doctors said, it was slowly eating your parents brain and there was nothing to do. You went through many studies but fortunately you had not been infected.

That was the reason for you to study medicine, you would find a cure for that virus, for the Mobian diseases. When you enrolled in medicine Mailo was surprised, he had no idea that you liked sick people, he cared so much about you, saying it was his job to protect you at all costs, that he ended up enrolling with you in the faculty, however his other interests did not allow him to have a clear conscience and he changed some of his classes to biology.

“Forgive me, honey,” he said, pleading with his blue eyes. He’d always been like this, you knew he had feelings for you, heck you even tried to feel the same but in your eyes Mailo was like your brother “I promise I will never leave you alone again.”

“It's okay. Besides, the bus ride wasn't so bad.” You lied. If Mailo knew what was going on he would surely get upset and go straight to his father Commander Clarke, they would start an investigation and have you watched 24/7 or worse, locked up in a safe house. You wouldn't let either of those things happen. You would never be locked up again.

“It is my duty to protect you,” he said with a peculiar smile, ”I will never leave you alone… again.”

When you arrived at the university Mailo said goodbye to you, gave you a kiss on the cheek and assured you that this time he would wait for you. You smiled at him and waved goodbye. You turned around and bumped into a hairball. You blew it away from your face before it made you sneeze, when you opened your eyes white fur was in front of you, shiny and tempting, inviting you to run your fingers through it and check its softness.

“Wow, are we getting along like this bunny? It's my turn to touch” it was his stupid teasing voice again. You were beginning to miss the Shadow who only teased you or hid your stuff. You walked around him and continued on your way to Psych class. “Hey, no good morning kiss for the one who saved your pretty little ass last night?”

“I said thank you.” you reminded him, hurrying your pace.

“You still owe me one bunny,” Shadow walked at your pace, wearing a black sports outfit, which camouflaged perfectly with his fur except for his chest. White fur peeked through the V-neck of his shirt; the same one you had bumped into minutes ago. On his wrists and ankles, he wore golden rings, imprisoning him as if he was something dangerous, he also wore his typical aero shoes.

You're like a drug that's killing me

You rolled your eyes at his words. You might be a good person, but you would never, ever do that hedgehog a favor. “Consider it a truce between us.” You smiled mockingly at him.

Shadow tugged on your wrist, pulling you into the hallway between the buildings. He placed you back against the wall and positioned himself in front of you, one hand resting on the wall close to your neck and the other resting on your waist with a firm grip, a mixture of the warmth of his hand and the coldness of his ring against your bare skin.

“Wha- Shadow let go of me.” You brought your fists to his chest striking him but only managed to get laughter from your opponent. You could feel the vibration under your hands.

“Somone's got fire inside,” he said looking you up and down with his eyes. “Careful  you might get burn bunny.” He withdrew his grip on your waist, your body yearning to feel the touch again.

“Maybe I want to” you whispered, holding his gaze. Shadow smiled, the glow in his crimson eyes turning dark, as if warning you of danger. Seeing that you were not frightened, he looked away.

“I need you to repay me for last night's favor,” he turned his attention back to you, that darkness gone from his eyes.

“What?, Mr. I do everything better than you, Mr. Perfection, Mr. The Ultimate Lifeform is asking for the help of a mere mortal?”

“You're so funny bunny, are you sure you didn't take the wrong career path? You should be a comedian,” he said sarcastically with an annoyed grimace. Seeing Shadow annoyed was not something that happened easily, but when you did it your whole being enjoyed it. You enjoyed making him feel a hint of what he provoked in you.

“I don't think so, sombrita.” you teased, a smirk perfectly drawn on your face, however, your moment of satisfaction didn't last long. Shadow closed the distance between you, his face only inches from you, his breath crashing against yours and his grip again on your waist, this time, gently caressing you with his thumb. The heat rising to your cheeks, almost as red as his eyes. Shadow inhaled deeply, allowing the strawberry scent of your perfume to flood his lungs causing him to shiver, his spikes standing on end.

You can start over you can run free

You can find other fish in the sea

“You're going to help me” it was more of a command than a plea. Your mind focused on his touch, his pads were rough against your skin but the contact didn't bother you, it felt... good.

“Wh-what for?” you hesitated to speak.

“Something simple bunny. There's a girl who doesn't understand that I'm not interested, I just want you to get her off my back.” he said as he played with the strap of your bra, very close to the curve of your breasts.

“Ho-how?”

“Go out with me.” he smiled. “It'll only be a few weeks.”

“No fucking way” You refused, but the blush on your face and your body's reaction to his touch gave away what you felt.

“Pleeeeeease,” he pleaded softly, ”I'll be good to you and help you pass your self-defense class.”

Danger alarms were ringing loudly in your head, but the way Shadow was looking at you had you trapped, you couldn't pay attention to anything else but him. His commanding presence over you and his deep voice, unsettled your senses. And his eyes, fuck those crimson eyes hid behind them an indomitable fire and you a simple match waiting to burn. You were at his mercy, whatever he asked for at this moment you would give it to him.

“Okay” You replied, almost inaudibly, but Shadow had excellent hearing.

“That's my girl.” he smiled, releasing you from his grip “Later bunny.”

But you can't stay away from me

Stupid, sensual hedgehog you thought. How could he look so carefree and disappear just like that after all the wave of emotions he had caused in you.

[celenexox]

Don’t Blame Me - Chris Sturniolo

pairings: bf!chris x gf!reader

summary: when your jealous boyfriend, chris, interferes in your hangout with your guy friends

————————————————————————

chris has always been the jealous type, and because of that you barely have any guy friends

but you decided that he doesn’t rule what you can and can’t do so you made plans with the few that you did have, and to be honest with yourself you only did this to piss him off

a few hours later you start getting ready to meet up with them, you guys were just going to an arcade, everything was casual

you had your hair slicked back in a ponytail, you were wearing a jersey and cargos, and for accessories was a few gold bracelets and gold hoops

you look down at your phone that buzzed to a text from one of them telling you that they’re outside, you get your bag and put your shoes on and walk out the house

you get inside the car and they all greet you in “hey y/n” “bro where have you been?” “we haven’t seen you in so long”

you look at them and reply to all their comments at once “i don’t even know why it’s been this long since we’ve hung out, but we’re here”

after about ten minutes, the car parks and you and your friends get out and go inside the arcade

one of them pays for you, and you guys all walk into the arcade and start to play the games, going from ones with guns, to pac-man, to air hockey

by now you’ve played a few games and you’re having fun, and a few of them have posted on their stories already

you then get a text from your boyfriend chris while you’re playing on the race cars, he’s asking you where you are and you reply “at the arcade” and set your phone down to continue your game

thirty minutes have now passed by, you’re talking to your friends and in the corner of your eyes, you see him, chris

you wanted to be surprised that he was here, but you honestly were not, you knew he was gonna do something when you got the text from him asking for your location

you excuse yourself from the guys and walk in his direction, the second you got close to his proximity he grabbed your arm and yanked you outside, holding the door open for the both of you

he takes a deep breath before speaking “why are you with them? the only girl might i add”

“chris calm down they’re just my friends, nothing happened, yet” you smirked slightly at the last word you said, you knew that wasn’t going to sit right with him

“yet?” he chuckles, his grip on your arm tightening “we’re leaving”

“wait let me atleast say bye to them” you reply

“no. you’ve had your fun, we’re going home” he says, opening his car door, setting you inside then slamming your door

as he’s making his way around the car to get to his seat you laugh, knowing you’ve won

he opens the door, sits down and slams his door as well, he takes a deep breath and pinches the bridge of his nose before going to speak “do you know how insane you make me feel whenever you’re with another guy that’s not me?”

“are you intimidated by them? they’re just some stupid guys-“ you try to finish your sentence, but you’re cut off by a loud voice

“no- no i’m not intimidated, i’m just frustrated, why are you even with them? did i do something wrong?!” he says, trying to keep his composure, but failed

you look at him shocked, he barely raises his voice at you

“okay, this is stupid, i’m trying to tell you that it’s not that serious, nothing happened, we’re just hanging out”

“okay don’t blame me for getting upset that my girlfriend is hanging out with other guys, alone” he says

you take his hand, and look at him “you don’t have to be, okay? i dont even like hanging out with them”

he looks at you, all confused “then why do you?” barely above a whisper now

“i just wanted to see your reaction, to be honest, but i wouldn’t have done that if i didn’t think you’d be this upset about it” you slightly laugh, trying to lighten up the mood

his face blank, not sure what to say next, “okay whatever, im sorry for yelling at you- just please, tell me before you see who you’re seeing”

you squeeze his hand “okay i will”

after he got your reassurance, he turns the car on and drives off.

[smoky-lucine]

Close Call

Little sister!Reader

After a close call during a hunt, The Winchester brothers panic as Castiel heals you.

Injuries, angst

My second fic :) I'm still trying to get the hang of writing but hopefully you all enjoy :)

You and the boys have been working on a case dealing with werewolves. You managed to catch one and kill it, and he confessed there is a whole pack in town and now you need to find the rest of them. You and Sam stayed in the motel and studied up on werewolves while Dean and Cas went out to the recent attacks around the town.

You didn’t get a lot of sleep the last few nights, as the werewolf attacks were happening faster and faster, and the four of you have been out every night on watch for any leads. Sam nudges your shoulder, and your chin slips off your hand and you jolt awake.

“Everything alright?” Sam asks while he shuts the book you fell asleep reading and sits down next to you.

“I’m okay, just tired from being out so late last night.” You say, rubbing your eyes.

Dean calls Sam and he gives you a gentle smile before he answers the phone and puts the call on speaker.

“Hey Dean, did you find anything?”

“Yeah. One of the Officers was a werewolf. He told us where they’re all staying before we took him out. We’re gonna hit it tonight alright?” Dean explains and you hear Castiel in the background ordering food for the three of you.

“Sounds good to me. Did he say how many of them are staying there?” You reply

“Nope. By the looks of how many attacks there's been, I don’t think it would be more than 7 or 8.” Dean says confidently.

Sam keeps talking about the case with Dean and you start getting silver bullets and knives ready for the hunt.

Later that night the four of you are on the way to the werewolves hiding house in the Impala. Sam and Dean are having their own conversation in the front while you and Castiel talk in the back.

“Have you ever hunted werewolves before?” You ask Cas.

“A few times yes. Angels don’t usually deal with them. Have you?”

“Occasionally yeah. I haven’t seen them in a while though, not since we still hunted with dad.” You say looking away. You didn’t like talking about your dad anymore, nobody really did. “I haven’t practiced my shooting in a bit too.”

“I’m sure we got it kid.” Dean says to you looking in the rear view mirror. “It’s gonna be a small pack. It’s gonna be in and out.”

You give him a smile. You turn to yawn and look out the window for the rest of the ride.

The four of you get ready and watch the house waiting for Dean to decide when to go in.

“Alright. Sam and Cas you two go in the side door, Y/N and I will go through the front.”

You look at Dean surprised. He normally chooses Sam when splitting up and it would make sense here too.

“Are you sure Dean?” You ask him nervously. “Yes, I’m sure. Do you not want to go in? What’s wrong?” Sam looks at you knowing you're tired, but he knows you don't want to tell the truth to Dean.

“No, it’s okay.” You say quietly, walking away a bit and focusing back on the house. Everybody does one last look at each other before splitting up and breaking into the house.

Dean kicks the door down and you both run in aiming separate ways. You hear Dean shoot a werewolf down and he turns to check on you in the now empty room. You can hear the other wolves in the house warning the others and running to defend against the four of you. You run up to the doorway, calling it clear and Dean runs into the kitchen with you following.

Making your way through the house, you and Dean each take down a few werewolves, and eventually meet up with Sam and Cas. The upstairs is still loud with werewolves running and escaping. You all say how many you took down and quickly realize there are at least triple the number of werewolves than Dean previously thought.

“But that doesn’t make sense. How can there be so many??” He says reloading his gun and looking around the room.

You responded “The attacks were happening faster and faster. I guess they don’t want to be careful anymore.” You focus on reloading your gun when you hear a growl.

You turn and see a werewolf sprinting at you and tackles you, losing all air in your lungs and dropping your gun. It claws at your stomach, leaving a huge gash. You quickly start seeing stars and your vision starts clouding, black slowly starting to take over. Coughing and screaming out you hear multiple gunshots and the werewolf dying.

Sam and Dean run up to you, eyes shocked at your injury.

“She’s really hurt.” Sam says, tearing up trying to get your eyes to focus.

“Sammy we gotta get her out of here.” Dean says loudly and begins to pick you up, flinching when he hears you cry out in pain. “There’s too many wolves here we need to leave.”

Dean runs as quickly as possible to Baby, putting you in the backseat. He throws the keys to Sam and yells "Drive!!” Castiel gets in the passenger seat and Sam runs to the driver’s seat and quickly starts the car, driving away from the house.

Dean holds you in the backseat trying to keep himself composed as he talks to you. “It’s okay Y/N. It’s gonna be okay alright? I’m so sorry I should’ve paid more attention. Look at me Y/N, open your eyes.” He begins to panic and yells at Sam to drive faster.

“We need to get far enough away; Cas needs to heal her.” Sam says speeding down the road.

You slip in and out of consciousness and wake up to Dean crying over you, and Sam and Cas yelling in worry. The three boys can’t stand hearing you scream in pain. You pass out and when the car is suddenly silent, Sam pulls over quickly as he and Castiel rush out of the car to reach you in the back seat.

“Cas, heal her.” Dean says solely focused on holding you still. Sam holds your hand as Castiel puts his hand on your stomach. His hand emits a bright white glow and Sam and Dean look away.

You wake up in the motel room. You look around at the quiet room and see Castiel in the corner staring at you.

“You're awake.” He says walking up to you. “I healed you. You’ve been asleep for a couple days, Sam finally got Dean to leave and eat.” You lift your shirt and there isn't a single scratch on your abdomen.

Castiel helps you sit up and hands you a bottle of water. “Your physical injuries are healed, but your body is tired. I could tell you haven’t slept in a few days.”

You drink the water and hand it back to Castiel. “Yeah, those night watches have been pretty hard. I appreciate you healing me and staying with me.” You give him a small smile and he gives you one in return and lets you rest longer.

Sam and Dean come home and seeing you sitting up in bed they run up to you. Dean hugs you tightly and when you yelp in surprise he lets go, scared you were somehow still injured. “Kid, I was so scared. I thought we lost you.” he says kneeling beside the bed, looking at you.

Sam gives you a big hug before climbing into the other side of the bed and letting you lean into his side. “It was really scary Y/N. I’m so relieved we got you healed in time.”

“I’m really sorry guys.” You say tearing up. “I haven’t slept in days, and I really wanted to help fight them, but I know I should’ve stayed back.”

Dean grabs your hand, “Y/N this isn’t your fault. I shouldn’t have put that pressure on you, and I should’ve stuck to the plan. Please don’t blame yourself.”

You all sit there quietly talking to each other until you slowly fall asleep and get more rest.

[rinhaler]

OMG HI I LOCW UR WORKS U ARE SO TALENTED THAT MEGUMI KNW WITH THE GUN?? JAW DROPPED SCREAMING DLENCHING THE TOES WANT TO LICK THE SCREEN

anyways i love you and everything you write <3 was thinking about ex babysitter jujutsu kaisen guy.. envisioning geto or sukuna or gojo (???) idk but they like used to make fun of u and be a little angel for the parents n stuff but seeing them again but ur all grown up and a little spicy reunion !! n they’re like 5-7 yrs older so yum

got so so so carried away as usual but this was so fun to write.. i made it satoru and suguru bc i thought it would be fun :3

warnings: 18+ MDNI, slight dubcon, fem!reader, age gap (reader 20s + them 30s), childhood crush to lovers?, alcohol consumption, love bites, tit sucking, praise, slight cucking?, double penetration (one hole), spanking, hair pulling, squirting, slight pussy eating, creampies, snowballing, pet names (sweetheart, baby).

words: 2.3k

It’s been months since you got to see a movie in the theatre. You don’t even remember the last time, or what you saw. But you’ve been counting down the days until you and your best friend finally had a day off work that lined up with each other. Why you’ve been craving seeing a movie, you’ll never know. But what you’ve been most excited for is the food.

Nothing has caught your eye, but your friend points out a cheesy sounding horror movie that you’re happy to see.

“Satoru? Is that you?” you ask, a familiar head of white hair catching your eye as you and your friend walk closer to him, seeing him leave the cinema screen you’re about to walk into. “Oh my God, I haven’t seen you since I was…”

“Wow,” he chuckles. “Look at you, all grown up. Yeah, it’s been a long time.” he continues. Your eyes meet the stare of the woman on his arm.

She smiles, but you see it’s disingenuous. Her body language is clingy and affectionate, desperately holding onto Satoru’s arm as she urges him to leave with her. You aren’t surprised that she’s trying to lead him away, but you are taken aback that someone has managed to tie the Satoru Gojo down. He was always popular with girls back when he used to babysit you, but he was never one for commitment or staying faithful.

“You two make a cute couple.” you smile at them both, trying to put the girl at ease. It doesn’t work, however. Instead, it seems to make her more nervous.

“It’s our first date.” Satoru informs you. He sighs a little as she pulls at his t-shirt, and it’s less than discreet. “We’re going to dinner later, so we better get going. It was nice seeing you though.” he smiles.

“Wait,” you stop him. “Um, are you still in touch with Suguru?” you wonder.

He smirks at that. He always teased you about having a crush on his best friend after the first time he brought him over for babysitting duty. They didn’t come as a pair every time after that, but it was more often than not. He made your heart race and you lost all ability to form a coherent sentence. You knew he’d never be interested in you; he was older and cooler than you’d ever hope to be.

“Of course. You know what? Here, give me your phone.” he tells you. The girl’s eyes fill with water, a look of defeat in a battle you weren’t even participating in overwhelms her. He quickly types his number into your phone and texts himself so that you can exchange contact information. “We can arrange a little reunion, yeah? See you around.” he winks before leading his date away.

A whole fortnight has passed before any plans come to fruition. That cinema trip is a distant memory that has been replaced with flirty texts in the group chat Satoru decided to make with you and Suguru.

It’s like being a teenager again.

Satoru’s teasing is ceaseless. Everything is so casual and generic in the group chat save for the occasional comment about your crush on Suguru back in the day. But it’s worse in the private messages. Now that you’re older and wiser he sees no point in holding back. He’s so flirtatious and grotesque and vulgar all at once.

Your conversations with Suguru, however, are a lot more reserved. Your fingers tremble whenever he texts. And the conversation is a lot sparser in comparison to how you talk with Satoru.

He’s sweet and kind, but you wonder if he’s just tolerating you for Satoru’s sake.

Satoru: are u cooking for us?

You: we’re getting takeout 🙄

You smirk at your phone as you continue to read the bombardment of heartbroken messages from Satoru, disappointment from the lack of a home-made meal. You can’t even tell if he’s being serious or kidding. You laugh, nonetheless. Though you’re easily startled when hear your doorbell ring.

As you open the door, you have to will yourself from allowing your jaw to drop. Pocketing your phone as you look up at Suguru. That handsome youthful face ageing into a more mature and chiselled one. It makes your heart skip a beat, but you try to downplay it.

“H-Hey!” you smile. “Nice to see you, it’s been forever.”

“It has, hasn’t it?” he smiles too, walking into your home when you move aside. He follows you to the kitchen, watching your every move as you pour two glasses of wine for yourselves. “I’m glad you got in touch.”

You continue to converse as you lead him to the front room and sit side by side on the couch. Neither of you seem to notice how time flies as you chat and reminisce about the days he used to come over to keep Gojo company while he babysat you.

As if you weren’t old enough to stay home without a sitter. That hardly helped your ability to seem cool for your age. And Satoru didn’t fail to tease you about that either.

“I always thought your little crush on me was sweet.” he laughs. “But I was too old for you, then.”

“I know.” you nod, taking a sip of the red liquid sloshing around your glass. “Do you remember that time Satoru invited two girls over?” you ask, face filling with heat as you recall the embarrassing incident.

“Oh,” he chuckles lightly, like a memory has been unlocked in the back of his head. “You locked yourself in your room and wouldn’t come out all night. Even after we sent them home.”

“I was jealous!” you try to defend yourself. “I was such a lame little pre-teen and then these gorgeous girls with perfect skin and perfect hair came over and you guys were hooking up and I was just… heartbroken!” you clutch your hand to your chest dramatically and begin to laugh as you try and make light of the memory.

He breathes, a soft smile prominent of his face as he thinks about it some more. The girls in question were the pretty, popular, cheerleader types. Everything you wanted to be, everything you wanted Suguru to see you as. And yet, you weren’t even close to achieving that reality. And still, he told them to go. Satoru felt bad for upsetting you, too. So they didn’t hesitate to tell them they had to leave.

“I remember sitting with Satoru outside of your bedroom door the whole time. You didn’t even use the bathroom.”

“Oh my God,” you laugh. “I ran to the bathroom after you left. And then I cried to my mom all night about how devastated I was.”

He thinks to himself, putting down his glass of wine on the coffee table before he looks at you. Your body freezes, worried you’ve offended him or creeped him out. A slew of words run rampant in your mind as you try and formulate an apology.

You’re taken aback, however, when he cups your face and slowly tilts his head before kissing you. It’s everything your teenage self had ever dreamed of. You want to drop your own glass to the floor and cup his face in turn as it deepens. But he pulls away, leaving you breathless and longing.

“We’re not kids anymore.” he whispers.

You put down your glass beside his, before lunging in for another kiss. He lets you push him back against the couch, stripping yourself of your sweater so you’re down to just your bra. He smooths his hands over your hips, watching you eagerly as he awaits your next move.

“We’ll have to be quick.” you tell him. “Satoru will be here soon.”

You bend down to make out with him again, keening as he expertly unhooks your bra. His lips latch around your nipple before you’ve even realise he’s tossed your bra halfway across the room. Your hips roll against his clothed bulge, still in a state belief that this is even happening.

“I always wanted you to be my first.” you confess, and he halts his actions momentarily. “But I’m glad… I can fuck you properly instead.”

He allows you to help him out of his own shirt, neither of you capable of keeping your hands off each other for more than a second. Even less than that for your lips. Each sentence is hushed and hurried as you try and navigate this new and exciting development in what was meant to be a casual, friendly, reunion.

“So you’ve got experience now, huh?” he asks, kissing your neck greedily as he thinks about how much you’ve grown in the last decade. “You know how to fuck like a good girl?”

You nod, dumbly, kissing his neck in turn before traversing down his sculpted body. You both freeze, however, when the doorbell rings again. Your eyes widen in horror as you realise all of your clothes are scattered across the front room. There’s no way you can get dressed quick enough. Maybe it would be better to pretend you aren’t home. That you ran out because you forgot something at the store.

“It’s open.” Suguru yells, your heart pounding even faster than it had previously.

Satoru swaggers in as you sheepishly look in his direction with your arms across your chest, doing all you can to preserve your modesty.

“Wow.” he sneers, a teasing lilt in his tone as he looks at you both. Sweaty and dazed, though one of you seems to look less embarrassed than the other. “I knew this would happen.”

“It’s not what it looks—”

“Your tits are in his face and I can see a bruise forming on your neck, sweetheart.” he interjects, getting closer to you both. “I’m not judgin’. Why would I?” he smiles.

You can’t help but feel like you’ve been set up.

“Oh fuck,” you moan, “It’s too much Satoru. I can’t. I can’t. Y-You’ll have to wait your turn!” you protest as he prods at your already occupied cunt. But despite your whining he continues to push himself inside of you, determined to stretch you to your very limit. He shudders at the sight of your pussy swallowing his tip and doing all it can to spit it back out.

He’s been watching on the sidelines, patiently, as Suguru fucks you in the comfort of your own bed. Palming himself as he gets off to the image of his best friend’s cock drilling into your perfect little cunt. He thought he could be patient, but he was sorely mistaken. He’s seen with his own two eyes how well you can ride cock, but he wants to see how well you can handle getting railed.

He pushes you down towards Suguru has his palm splays across your back. You’re soon comforted by the feeling of his lips on yours, though you break away to moan as Satoru inches in further and further. His cock flush against his best friends without a single care, revelling in the sounds of your ragged breath and desperate whimpers.

“I can’t wait, baby. You’re swallowin’ this cock so good. Just take it, yeah?” he tells you, slapping your ass as he starts fucking you slowly.

“You look so pretty full of cock, sweetheart. Does it feel good?” Suguru asks as he plants his feet down onto the mattress and starts to fuck you in tandem.

You nod as a response, yelping as you feel Satoru’s fingers interlace with your hair and yank you up towards him. Your sweat coated back pressed flush against his chest. His free hand holds your hips while he uses your hair to his leverage as his pace becomes brutal. Your pussy oozes and gushes as they each poke and prod and fondle you through their eager assault.

Suguru’s hands wander to pinch and slap your tits, his lip bitten raw as he gets off to the sight of your flesh jiggling and bouncing in all of the right ways.

You squeak, unable to utter a single word or even so much as moan as you begin to squirt from the pleasure. The feeling is enough to have Suguru tumbling over the edge right after you while Satoru wraps his arm around you to play with your clit.

“Again.” he orders, pulling you away from Suguru so that he can kneel in front of your twitching pussy.

The pleasure builds again. Harder, slower, but finally you snap. Your cunt gushes divinely and Suguru savours every last drop. Satoru finishes deep as his balls tighten and he moans pathetically in your ear. But he doesn’t give you or himself a second to relax as he hooks his arms under the bends of your knees, spreading you open wide so that your combined coupling drips out of your hole.

Suguru buries his face in your cunt, slurping up the mess created by the three of you. He sticks his tongue out to show you the lewd combination of your fluids, before looking at Satoru with lust filled eyes. Satoru leans in to kiss him, accepting the tangy tasting mixture into his own mouth before looking down at you.

“Your cunt tastes beautiful, sweetheart.” Suguru tells you as he lightly spanks your clit.

Satoru forces you to look in his direction as he holds your jaw, prompting you to open your mouth wide for him. He kisses you passionately, encouraging you to follow his lead and welcome to lewd fluids onto your own awaiting tongue. You gasp as the taste hits you, but before you can object, he covers your mouth and pinches your nose with one hand.

“Swallow it like a good little girl.” he orders, and you do.

He lets you go after that, though your body just goes limp in his arms. He helps you lie down next to Suguru as he spoons you, and your childhood crush peppers you skin in delicate kisses as you begin to drift off.

“I’m glad I went to see that shitty movie the other day.” Satoru smirks.

© 2024 rinhaler

@enchantedforest-network

[devildomwriter]

The Spirit of Giving | Mephistopheles x Reader

1K+ words | GN! Reader | CW: None

“Thank you so much for coming with me, Mephistopheles!”

“Why, of course.”

Christmas songs echoed over the speakers of the supermarket as you pushed an empty basket toward the toy aisle.

Mephistopheles accompanied you, making the excuse it was to investigate the human world during the holiday season but you could see a faint blush every time you smiled at him.

In the spirit of the holidays, you decided to help with the toy drive for the local impoverished kids. Mephistopheles, being as rich as he was, did not understand the concept that five-dollar toys could not be bought. This made his journey to buy toys with you that much more interesting.

He observed dolls of stylish monsters, miniature versions of food, plastic garbage trucks, and mystery stuffed animals with horns and large eyes. He was entertained, to say the least. Humans had such a wide variety of interests. He looked at the tiny tricycles and chuckled imagining a small child playing with it so he quickly picked it up and put it into the cart.

“Uh, how much is that?”

“It’s only forty.”

“I have a two hundred dollar budget, maybe let’s try quantity instead of quality. That way more kids can get things.”

“Two hundred?” Mephistopheles was baffled. To him this wasn’t even a budget it was less than pennies. “That’s far too little, make it a million, that’s more reasonable.”

“Are you out of your mind!? I don’t have anywhere near that much!”

“But I do, I’ll take over from here, push the basket and I’ll put things in it. Does this place have shopping assistants?”

“This is a Walmart…”

“That doesn’t answer my question?”

“It definitely doesn’t have any.”

“Hmph. I’ll call by butler from the limo, he can help us. I’ll summon a few more while I’m at it.”

Although you felt small pangs of jealousy that this money was nothing to him you were more overwhelmed with the joy of how excited the kids in shelters were going to be.

You quickly took his hand as soon as he hung up the phone and grinned.

“Let’s get shopping!”

He was flustered for a moment but quickly composed himself and matched your smile. “Right! Tell me what they like?”

“Okay! Let’s start with the little ones!”

Mephistopheles was confused by the idea of a giraffe specifically meant for children to chew. Weren’t they born with fangs? How else can they defend themselves?

And why are all their toys so soft? Will wood and plastic break them? He couldn’t believe any of them made it to adulthood.

“Okay, these ones are for kids around eight to ten,” you explained walking down the aisle. “This side is girl-coded and this one boy-coded.”

He took a moment to look around. “There certainly are a lot of dinosaurs and fake bugs. What is this… a robotic cockroach…” he grimaced.

You laughed at his expression and nodded, “I don’t know what to tell you. I can say for certain though I was a dinosaur kid, hand me one of the moving t-Rexes.”

“This one?” He asked as he handed you a triceratops.

“Nope, but we can get that too.”

He smiled and nodded approvingly as the third basket was filled and passed off to one of the butlers he summoned.

“And these dolls that look like monsters…these are for little girls?”

“Yes. Monster High, it’s a childhood staple.”

“I see. What’s next on the list…arts and crafts?”

“My favorite!” You exclaimed loudly which caught him by surprise but he followed your brisk pace down to the next aisle.

At one point you noticed several employees watching you warily, as well as security standing near the butlers waiting with their full baskets. You decided to ignore it in favor of shopping as eventually they’d see you weren’t trying to steal anything.

“Aren’t guns…an issue? Why are there so many mock guns for kids to play with?”

“It’s a nerf gun, don’t question it.”

“And this…thing…”

“I honestly don’t even know, kids are weird.”

“That they are…”

When it was time to check out the sun had set and the employees were very relieved they did not have an organized theft on their hands, as this was normal for Walmart.

As you sat in the limo you made sure to choose the middle seat right next to Mephistopheles.

“Oh?” He questioned, legitimately taken aback but he decided not to question it as you held his arm with both hands and rested your head against his shoulder.

He stiffened up and turned a deep shade of pink. “A-are you tired?” He stammered out.

“No. Just very happy.” You said as you smiled up at him and he turned a shade of red.

“Is that so? Well…I’m glad I could make you happy.” He hesitated to ask but was too curious not to. “And what have I done to please you so much?”

You were astonished he hadn’t put it together. “You bought toys for the little kids in need.”

“That made you happy? Even though they aren’t for you?”

You tilted your head curiously. “Then why did you help? Didn’t it make you happy, knowing a little boy can ride a bike now that his parents can’t afford it, if he even has any parents? Doesn’t it make you smile thinking about a little girl brushing her Barbie’s hair and showing her off at school? What about the kids who can race each other with remote-controlled cars or ride around in expensive fake cars? You don’t feel happy that thanks to you all of that is possible? That all these children are happy?”

Mephistopheles was silent but thought deeply for a moment. This wasn’t in line with how he was raised both as an aristocratic noble and as a demon. Happiness just from giving? And giving to someone with no recognition and no ties to you at all? He thought some more and realized that yes, he was happy. He felt he had a responsibility now to these kids to give them a good holiday even if he was against said holiday.

He smiled at you in confirmation and you snuggled deeper into his side. Pleased with how the short trip to the human world had gone, he let his guard down and rested his head atop yours. For the first time, the moral of Christmas had gotten through to him, and it was thanks to the adorable human attached to his side.

[sunsbaby]

❝ birdie, where did my jacket go? ❞

⋆ dean w. x photographer .ᐟ reader

the air was crisp and cool, sam had stayed behind in the hotel—choosing to research lore instead of hanging out you and his brother. well, it wasn't really hanging out. more like investigating the scene. a metal aroma clung to the air, death loomed over your shoulders. and of course, a camera was in your grasp.

dean glanced over at you, a soft smile formed on his face as he saw the way your eyes twinkled with childlike excitement every time you got your little hands on a camera. for as long as he's known you—which hasn't been long—he's only had fond memories. no fights, only playful ones, and you've always made him feel safe. your free nature was inviting, a warmth radiated off of you; even in the cool air you were like the sun. bright and warm.

"de, i think i got something!" you shouted, even though you two were rather close.

you giddily showed him the image reflecting off of your camera, an array of sulfur almost spread out around where the body was found. the smell was overrided by the scent of blood. you were proud of your work—more importantly your photo taking skills.

"damnit, demons." dean groaned, he hated those black eyes bitches so much.

"i mean, demons aren't hard to kill–we have that demon knife for a reason." you stared at him in confusion, why was he complaining about killing demons when they were practically one of the easiest ever.

"birdie, be quiet, they're just a pain in the ass." dean muttered, rolling his eyes at you—sassy much.

"bla bla bla, 'birdie, be quiet,' bla bla.." you pouted as you stomped back to the car; dean and his attitude were starting to piss you off.

⋆⭒˚.⋆

with sam having stayed up researching just for it to end up being a demon, that meant he wanted to rest and you and dean could handle it. you still were mad he told you to be quiet, who did he think he was. so, you did what any logical person would do—steal his jacket. it was going to be a cold night anyway.

you were sat next to him in baby, you would've liked sitting in the back, but dean said it was inconvenient. in all honesty, he wanted you next to him. he hadn't noticed his leather jacket gone, instead his mind was focused on ganking that demon bitch and sending them right back to hell. your mind, however, was filled with a little you jumping around waiting to get her hands on a camera.

"are we almost there, de." you whined, voice laced with an undertone of annoyance both towards having to be in the car for so long and towards dean.

"birdie, if you ask me that one more time, i'm going to pull baby over and make you walk." he threatened, his eyes sharpened, yet somehow still soft—he could never truly be angry at you.

"geez, someones mad.." you mumbled, quiet enough to where dean wouldn't hear you, but you still felt like you did something.

his jacket emitted a smell of gun powder and whiskey, it was rather soothing. it calmed the fire raging within you towards the man in the driver's seat, it was warm and felt like he was hugging you—which you always liked being in his arms. you're surprised he hadn't noticed yet.

⋆⭒˚.⋆

killing the demon was pretty easy in your books, you did end up with a cut on your face—which could make for a gnarly scar. dean, however, wasn't happy with that.

"you could've gotten seriously hurt, y'know that, right." dean grumbled as he patched up your cheek, pressing a kiss to his fingers and then onto the bandage.

this something he'd picked up from you when you would patch up their injuries. it was now engraved into his brain to do, that and because he knows you would get sad if he didn't; that's something he never wanted to see.

"but de..i got a really cool picture!" your hands clenched onto the polaroid you managed to get of the demon's body flashing as the knife was lodged into its head—by yours truly!

"what's not cool is you getting cut up, and birdie, where did my jacket go?–i swear i grabbed it from the hotel." dean said, his eyes focused more on your face, his mind racing with hundreds of outcomes.

not once did dean ever look anywhere besides your face, the prettiest thing in his eyes. he didn't realize that all this time you were wearing it. to you it was out of spite—well it was—before you figured that there was no reason to stay mad at dean. he and sam were your safe place, and what's a safe place if your mad at it; a non safe place or something like that.

"de, i've been wearing it silly!" you giggled, the sound was music to his ears, it made his heart clench and his eyes shine.

"oh, well, looks good on you birdie." he planted a kiss to the top of your head before leaving to grab a beer, or two.

he didn't understand the feeling and emotion brewing inside him as he took in your appearance. how beautiful you looked in his jacket; not sam's. not your own. his. the one thing he did know his that he couldn't let it take over, not when your the only other person beside his brother and cas he couldn't bear to lose.

sunny yaps! WOAH! something long from sunny, its a miracle AHHHH! JUST KIDSDINGG! I LOVE YOU GUYS AND I HOPE YOU ENJOYYYYY!

special tags! @bluemerakis @figthoughts @dulcescorderitas @h8aaz @deansbeer

𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘 ® 𓂃 do not repost or copy my works without permission!!

[wynonnahyde]

The saloon was lively, most if not everyone dancing, drinking, or socializing. Two younger people had recently been wed, so naturally, it was time to celebrate the new couple. Wynonna sat at the end of the bar, smiling as she watched everyone dance around, a smile on her lips. It had been a little, at least in her time, about 3 weeks since her horrid week. She wasn’t healed by any means, but she felt much better than she did, just had to be careful as any harsh hit to her chest or stomach would make her collapse.

She wasn’t drinking, which came as a surprise to most people, rather, slowly eating some chips that the saloons owner had made himself. She hummed along to the song on the piano, smiling at a few people as they passed by.

Later into the night, a younger man sped into the building, eyes darting around until they landed on Wynonna, speaking to an older woman. He quickly passed the crowd, excusing himself as he intervened.

“A—are you Wynonna Hyde—? Sand-spider?” He asked, his voice trembling.

Wynonna looked at him, a little off guard as she looked at the boy. “Yeah? Why?”

“There’s been a sighting out by the towns watering hole, where we all put our horses during off season, and sheriff has gone missing.”

“Missing-? How long?” She was shocked, no one went missing, especially the guy who uses his gun more than handcuffs.

“4 hours now, he said not to get you, but I heard a yell up by there and— well you catch the bad guys! I’m just a watcher at the jail!” He rambled, hands shaking as he looked into her eyes.

She hesitated, but sighed, nodding as she stood to her feet, nodding to the woman as a goodbye as she started to walk away, the boy following.

They exchanged more details, apparently a guy who was a little to snake like was out by the watering hole, seeming to be waiting. “And when the sheriff left, I heard a yell and couldn’t find him! So—so I came to get you..”

“…I—I’ll see what I can do, okay kid? If I ain’t back you get some people to come looking.”

The boy nodded, watching the woman start to walk off, her shadow disappearing into the darkness. It was a moonless night, visibility was low, very low, meaning you couldn’t really see who was around. Her steps were slow, and quiet, scanning the area as she slowly made it to the watering hole.

“…Sheriff? Jacob sent me out here, said you was missing?” It was silent, no reply. “…Timothy? You out here?”

Yet again, there was so reply, making the hair on her neck stand up. She was looking at the water, the towns watering hole, somehow, the water stayed, it was deep, about 6 feet, some people said it was an old burry sight that got abandoned, then filled. Everyone sent their horses down here during off season, when there was no work to be done.

“…fuckin’ hell man, c’mon don’t do this, Mary and Andrew just got married, we don’t need a death…” she sighed, going to step back to walk more down west, before a snap of a twig filled the air, her senses firing as she turned her head, seeing Timothy standing by the waters edge, staring her down. “Shit! Jesus, Timothy you scared me straight a moment…are you okay? You look like you’ve done seen a ghost.”

“I should’ve killed you when I had Johnny.” He simply said, his voice calm, cold.

“…what…?” She took a moment to reply, raising an eyebrow. “…Johnny died at the hanging tree, his guts were ripped open, what the fuck do you mean by that.”

“You stupid woman,” he spat, stepping closer, hands twitching. “My daddy spent his entire life tracking your family and his, just to die three day shy of your wedding?! and you all get off SCOTT FREE”

“Johnny was turning his life around, that man was fixing what his family had done! Your daddy wouldn’t leave us alone! We had never done anything!”

“Exactly why your father paid me to end it, you were to valuable, if I caught you two, I would have taken the entire ring down!”

“…what.”

She stood still, staring at the man as he started to chuckle, rolling his eyes. “What..? You thought it was a random man? Idiot!”

“…you…no. You—you helped me take him down from the tree, you helped me keep his guts inside.” She said lowly, breathing slowly.

He scoffed, eyes rolling as he held a sick grin, “you did the easy part in killing your daddy for me.”

Wynonna just blinked slowly, her hand moving to her side, grazing the fan, and handing on the handle of her gun, her breathing turning ragged. “You…fucking…BASTARD.”

She ran at him, drawing her gun, which caught the man by surprise as he stumbled back, a few gunshots ringing out. They struggled, Wynonna blinded by pure rage as she tried her hardest to shoot the man, a few bullets raining into the air.

“YOU FUCKING BASTARD. HE FAUGHT SO HARD TO MAKE A LIFE FOR US. WE WERE GOING TO HAVE A CHILD. WE WERE GOING TO BE SAFE DOWN IN WASHINGTON.” She screamed, her voice ragged, a guttural yell.

The man simply grunted, looking for a way to get her down, the two ending up in the shallow end of the waters. He let out a yell, and hit her ribs, causing her to gasp, loosing air as she fell to her knees. The next moments were a blur as he struggled, shoving her down into the water with a splash. She let out a yell, trying to grab a breath of air before her head went under the water.

His hands wrapped around her throat, held down under water, she fought, she really did fight hard, but she was loosing air. She clawed, she hit, she kicked, she tried to get up, nothing. Her head was getting fuzzy, her eyes hurting, her chest begging for air. She inhaled, water rushing into her lungs as she gagged. She felt weak, her mind slowly starting to fade, and in her final moments, her thoughts were only one person, the one person she made a promise too. Rider, Doll, Juniper, June,

Junie.

[lowkeyrobin]

headcannons where quackity's s/o has tattoos? could also be nsfw, if you're comfortable with it :))

I don't write NSFW but I can definitely do the tattoo part! thanks for requesting!! I don't think I've actually posted a quackity focused thing yet which is surprising to me bc I have like 3 drafts for him LMAO

QUACKITY ; tattooed lover

summary ; you have tattoos and your boyfriend is head over heels

warnings ; language; talk of needles / pain of tattoos, use of quackitys real name (lmk if I should change it!)

word count ; 670

masterlist

In general, he'll act normal about all your tattoos and whatnot, but inside every time he sees your arms (especially if you have sleeves or some sick ones around your wrists that trail up your arm even a bit) he'll just get a little red in the cheeks. He absolutely loves all your ink. He thinks it's so sick, but he's not committed enough to get any, and he doesn't think he has the pain tolerance.

he went with you to get a new tattoo on your shoulder/upper arm area

he learned you'd be there for like 5 hours and he groaned like a shitty iPad kid and took his phone out while he threatened to call Philza

once he saw the tattoo gun... oh lord it was over

literally whisper shouted at you while the artist got up to get gloves

"that's what you're getting jabbed with??? why are we here again???"

genuinely can't look

once he hears the buzzing he turns his music on and he's staring down while he sits on the couch across from you

"Alex, look!" you smile, "I'm fine"

"how do I know you're not a clone?"

"Holy shit. dude it's the quackityhq duck, that's why I brought you along"

"WAIT WHAT?"

it's not a big tattoo whatsoever, but it's a reminder that he's always with you, how you've grown together and how that's always going to be an era of your content you'd never forget about

literally gets emotional about it

"You didn't have-"

"I wanted to, for the millionth time"

he genuinely didn't know tattoos were so expensive, once you leave he questions why it was 450 dollars and you explain to him how tattoo artist income works

He's not the one to want to peel off the second skin or pop the ink bubbles or even touch the tattoo until the skin goes back to normal. He's just kinda freaked out for some reason, it's just one of those things and it honestly makes sense.

He takes some dedicated time to sniff all the lotions and numbing creams and comment on each and every one, though. All while you're trying to do some aftercare on it and shit, and you just watch.

"this one smells like buttercream icing"

"yeah?"

"ew, this one smells like badboyhalo's ass!"

"why would you even know that? 😁"

If you have any tats without color, Alex will gladly color them in with washable markers like you're a walking coloring book. He'll literally call for you and ask you if he can color on you again, it's cute, really.

"y/n/n, can I color your tattoos again?"

"aren't you streaming?"

"so?"

"yeah, fine"

he has a whole gallon sized ziploc bag filled with Crayola washable markers

like he goes from playing on the qsmp and hanging out with some people to coloring all over you while said people watch 😭

you wave to his friends like "Hello, I am his walking therapy coloring book"

he's like a little kid. You just look over at him like, "Holy shit I could love you forever wtf"

Sometimes, he'll just draw you new tattoos (with washable markers dw) cause he gets bored and wants to doodle on you. Most of the time it ends up being stick figures and dicks but it's okay, it's his way of showing affection.

He'll genuinely think of song that remind him of each of your tattoos. Somehow, some way, he does. He has a whole playlist titled 'Y/n's tattoos', and he rarely listens to it, but he thinks it's fun to think of a new song when you get another tattoo.

Although he is a little concerned because what's gonna happen when you're old and wrinkly? How do the tattoos last? Do they become old and wrinkly like the tattooed grandmas meme? Because if so, he'll rip on you til the end of time.

"well I have a long time before I look like a tattooed elderly person, but okay"

"So you will? Oh my fucking God! BAHAHAHA"

[scary-grace]

Enough to Go By (Chapter 17) - a Shigaraki x f!Reader fic

Your best friend vanished on the same night his family was murdered, and even though the world forgot about him, you never did. When a chance encounter brings you back into contact with Shimura Tenko, you'll do anything to make sure you don't lose him again. Keep his secrets? Sure. Aid the League of Villains? Of course. Sacrifice everything? You would - but as the battle between the League of Villains and hero society unfolds, it becomes clear that everything is far more than you or anyone else imagined it would be. (cross-posted to Ao3)

Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Chapter 17

When you get to the supply cache, Giran is waiting for you, leaning back against the door of the storage unit and smoking a cigarette. It’s not his first one, either – the ground around his feet is scattered with the remains of five or six more. He notices you looking and smirks. “Seems like I’ve been littering, Saintess. Are you going to absolve me?”

“Only if you want me to,” you say. “Do you have what we ordered?”

“Cash first.”

“We paid in advance,” you remind him. Giran holds out both hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Was any of it hard to get?”

“Only what you asked for,” Giran says. “For the others, I’ve got replacement parts for Compress’s arm and Toga’s gear, more of those gloves for Shigaraki, gauntlets for Spinner and Twice – you sure you don’t want a set? They were buy two, get one free.”

You’re not sure if he’s joking or not. “That’s everything for the others. How about for me?”

“Of course.” Giran sets the crate with the rest of the supplies aside and pulls out a smaller box. “I have to say, I was surprised when you asked for this. I didn’t think the League’s resident angel would have any interest in a gun.”

“I’m interested in defending myself,” you say. “Open it.”

Giran opens the box, revealing a gun that looks like any other gun you’ve seen, not that you’ve seen many guns up close. “You don’t know enough to specify, so I chose something beginner-friendly,” he says. “This is a .22 caliber handgun. It’s designed for minimum recoil, so as to avoid knocking you back on your ass when you try to fire it. It’s also designed to be quiet, but I’ve thrown in a silencer free of charge.”

“Thanks,” you say. “What about ammunition?”

“Also included, but I’m charging for that. Thanks to the Americans and their mass shootings, it’s hard to buy ammunition in large quantities anywhere else,” Giran says. “Call it a convenience fee. Additionally, the trigger on this model is known to be fairly sensitive, so trigger discipline is going to be key. You know what that means?”

“I know.” You’ve been researching. “Safety on and fingers off unless I’m planning to shoot someone.”

“The instruction manual’s included,” Giran says. You scowl. “Ask Twice for help if you’re confused. He knows how to shoot.”

“Twice with a gun. That sounds safe.”

“Safer than you,” Giran says. “Running around with villains is one thing. Murder’s something else. I don’t think you have it in you.”

“Then I’ll hand the gun off to somebody who does.” You pick the crate up, grimacing at the weight, and Giran shuts the box with the gun and sets it down on top. “Thanks for getting it for me. Stay safe.”

Giran laughs at that. “Try ‘get lost’ next time. It’ll make you sound more intimidating.”

Your costume is a veil and a crown of thorns, and as of right now your weapon is a backpack. Intimidating is a lost cause. “Thanks for the tip. We’ll be in touch.”

“Pleasure doing business with you.” Giran lights up another cigarette as he walks away.

You unlock the storage unit and step inside. This is a supply cache you haven’t visited before, and you can tell Mitsuko’s the one who set it up, because there’s a box of condoms prominently perched atop six or seven cases of bottled water. You and the others have a water source right now, and while your medical supplies are dwindling, you don’t need a refill just yet. What you’re short on is food. You set down the crate, followed by your backpack, and open them up. Then you start filling both of them with prepackaged food.

Energy bars are the most efficient, space-wise, and they at least make a gesture at containing any kind of nutrients. Unfortunately, the League of Villains is full of adults with children’s tastes in food, and they wouldn’t know a nutrient if it walked up and introduced itself. It’s taken almost a month into the effort to batter Gigantomachia into submission for them to admit that eating nothing but calorie-rich, nutrient-poor food makes them feel gross. If you could get them real food on a regular basis, you would. But it’s almost never feasible, not with the tiny amount of downtime Tenko and the others are working with. It’s packaged food or nothing. They need to eat.

You pick out a variety of items and stuff them into the crate and your own backpack, text thank-you to Mitsuko while pretending you don’t see her message asking if the condoms were the right size, and head out. There are a few more things to buy before you can head back to the others.

As the medic, you’re responsible for the team’s health, and you’re worried about Tenko in particular. He’s exerting himself more than anyone and resting barely at all, and when he does get to rest, it’s all you can do to convince him to eat a few bites of anything before he passes out. The caloric input to output imbalance has stripped him of any remaining body fat, and when you touch him now, all you can feel are hard ropes of muscle and prominent bones straining beneath his skin.

The caloric imbalance is bad enough, but you’ve seen everything he’s eating, so you know he’s massively vitamin-deficient as well. If he won’t eat enough to get the amount he needs, you’ve got another way to do it. The clerk at the drugstore looks askance at the number of pill bottles you’re carrying. “These aren’t cheap, you know.”

“I know,” you say. “I’ll need a bag.”

The bag plus the crate and your backpack are stupidly heavy. You’re struggling as you head for the train station, gritting your teeth against the pain in your arms. You’ve been more active in the last month and a half than you’ve ever been in your life, and there’s not a day when some part of you isn’t sore. You pause at the bottom of the stairs to the platform and stare dismally upward. This one is going to hurt.

“Do you need help with that?”

You almost jump out of your skin, and almost drop what you’re carrying in the bargain. There’s a girl standing next to you, and you recognize her. In fact, you know her hero name, her real name, her quirk, and her blood type, courtesy of Toga. “Ochako?”

Uraraka Ochako, hero name: Uravity, looks shocked. “You know my name?”

“I remember you from the Sports Festival,” you say. It’s not so much that you remember watching the Sports Festival and more that Toga watches clips of it on YouTube to fall asleep. “You were really good. I liked your plan a lot.”

“Oh, thank you! I just wish it had worked,” Uraraka says ruefully. She gestures at the boxes you’re carrying. “Do you need help with those? I can make them lighter for you.”

You were going to say no, but if all she has to do is touch them – “Thank you so much. That would be really great.”

It’s much easier to get up the stairs when the stuff you’re carrying is lighter than air. Uraraka follows you up. “Do you live nearby? I can help you get them home.”

You shake your head. “I have a really long way to go.”

“I’ll stay until your train gets here,” she decides. You protest that your train’s running late, and she probably has somewhere to be. “My internship is right around here, and I’m off for the day. I don’t mind.”

You sort of mind. You’re on your way to hook back up with the League of Villains and you’re carrying what feels like a literal kiloton of contraband. You have a hard time believing that the word VILLAIN isn’t stamped on your forehead. But you can’t be rude, the crate really is heavy, and Toga will kill you if she finds out that you had the chance to talk to Uraraka and didn’t take it. You struggle for a topic to raise, and your brain suggests the Shie Hassaikai raid. “I saw in the paper that you helped rescue that little girl.”

“That wasn’t me. It was Deku,” Uraraka says. “I helped with other things, but he was the one who saved her.”

“Do you know how she’s doing?” you ask. “Is she okay?”

“She is! She stays with Aizawa-sensei and the other teachers and we all love her so much.” Uraraka is beaming now. “She’s okay even though the League of Villains kidnapped her. I can’t believe they just gave her back.”

Not ‘dumped her’, not ‘threw her away’. Gave her back. Your heart lifts enough that it’s a struggle to come up with the appropriate civilian response. “She must have been so scared. Did they hurt her?”

“That’s the weird part. She says she wasn’t scared,” Uraraka says. She frowns slightly. “She said they were nice to her. They gave her this blanket and this dog plushie. Aizawa-sensei keeps trying to swap it out for a cat plushie, but she won’t let it go.”

“Weird,” you agree. “Are you sure it was the League that got her?”

“She described them all. Shigaraki, Toga, Dabi – everybody.” Uraraka’s frown deepens. “And one we hadn’t heard of before. One nobody had heard of before. Saintess.”

You were hoping Eri wouldn’t remember, but it sounds like she does – and she knows what you look like. Did she describe you, too? Is that why Uraraka won’t leave? You struggle to stay calm. Physically, you don’t stand out. There are probably thousands of people who match your physical description, and Uraraka isn’t acting like a hero who’s just cornered a suspect. Heroes don’t play it cool. She thinks you’re just a random civilian with a bunch of boxes to carry, and she’s helping out. Which is – nice. Heroes aren’t usually nice like that.

“Saintess,” you repeat. “That’s a weird name for a villain.”

“Right?” Uraraka’s frown shifts into confusion. “The whole thing is weird. They’re villains. It’s easier when they just act like it.”

Huh. You don’t spend a lot of time around full-fledged heroes, but when you were Kazuo’s girlfriend, you spent a lot of time around heroes in training, and you don’t remember any of them ever saying something like that. “What do you mean?”

“I mean –” Uraraka pauses to think for a second. “Shigaraki tried to kill us at USJ. The League of Villains attacked us and kidnapped one of my classmates. It’s weird that they’d draw the line at hurting a little kid.”

“Villains have lines?” You fake confusion. “I thought they didn’t care who they hurt.”

“Some of them don’t. The one Deku fought to save Eri definitely didn’t. I guess the League does.” Uraraka looks uneasy. “That doesn’t change anything.”

It does, though. You can see it in her face. The fact that the League let Eri go, that they took care of her while they had her, is challenging her worldview to a degree she’s not comfortable with. You need to ease off, switch the topic before she doubles down – and before you can slip up defending the others. “I’m glad she wasn’t hurt, and that she’s doing better. It sounds like you all care about her a lot, and everybody deserves people who love them.”

“They do.” Uraraka’s smile returns at last, and you breathe a sigh of relief. You got her to agree to that statement in the middle of a conversation about the League. That feels less like a narrow escape and more like a win.

Your train arrives late, and you bid Uraraka goodbye and thank her for her help. Then you climb onto the train with your crate full of supplies and check the time on your phone. If you’re lucky, you’ll get back just as the fighting’s dying down.

At first you thought Gigantomachia could keep fighting forever, but it turns out that his strength and stamina aren’t infinite – just more than sufficient to outlast any normal human. He can fight for three days at a stretch, hibernate for less than three hours, and pick up right where he left off. There’s no hiding from. Wherever he is, he’ll seek Tenko out, and while Twice’s copies of Tenko can keep him occupied for a short time, three and a half hours is the longest break you’ve ever seen Tenko get.

It’s not enough. Not even close. The fight against the giant is destroying Tenko, and there’s nothing you can do except try to make sure he eats something before he falls asleep – and try to make sure that whatever sleep he does get is as restful as humanly possible.

The train gods are kind to you. You get back on time, meet Compress just outside the small town nearest to where Tenko and the others are fighting so he can contain the supplies and make them easier to carry, then head towards the base camp that’s been set up for the hibernation period. Compress’s phone rings as the two of you hurry along. It’s Twice, and you can hear him shouting even though he’s not on speaker. “Do you have her? He’s going to want to see her.”

“I’m here,” you say. No matter what, you make sure you’re there when the fighting pauses. It’s the only time you get to see Tenko these days. “How is he?”

“This was a rough one,” Twice says, but he says that every time. “Better hurry.”

You pick up the pace until you’re practically jogging. It’s been three days since you saw Tenko, and you’ve missed him a lot more than you want to let on to the others. You know they don’t question your commitment to the League or your devotion to him. You just don’t want them to know how far it really goes.

You reach the base camp a few seconds before Tomura and Twice do, and it’s just enough time for Compress to release the supplies and for you to set them down before Tomura collides with you. You realize instantly that Twice wasn’t kidding – instead of his usual limp exhaustion, Tomura’s shaky, and when he hugs you, you can feel his heart beating through his ribs. The level of adrenaline in his system must be absurd. He’s not getting to sleep like this, and if you wait for him to crash, he’ll be exhausted by the time the fighting picks back up again.

You piece together a plan on the fly, a plan that will hopefully net you some time to make sure he eats and get him at least an hour of uninterrupted sleep. Tomura’s trying to put on his gloves without letting go of you. You step back out of his embrace and take hold of his wrist. “Come with me.”

You don’t tell Twice and Compress where you’re going or what you’re doing, but you have a feeling they can guess. As much as that makes you cringe, it’s not enough to stop you. This is important. You have to calm Tomura down if you want him to sleep at all, and even though it’s selfish, you want a chance to be close to him again. Tomura puts on his gloves clumsily as you walk, his hands shaking too badly to fasten the Velcro around his wrists. You stop walking, turn, and do it for him. Then you take both his hands in yours and pull him forward into a kiss.

Tenko kisses you back with enthusiasm, in spite of the fact that his lips split and bleed instantly, that his hands are shaking so badly that he can barely hold onto yours. You nudge him a few steps backwards, and a few more, until he’s leaning against a tree. You’re not pinning him, exactly, but it’s close. “Hey,” Tenko mumbles against your mouth. You don’t want to interrupt him, so you switch to kissing his neck, conscious of just how little time you have. “Where did you go? Twice said you left.”

“Supply run.” You pull his jacket down from his shoulders, then tug the neckline of his shirt aside to kiss him there. “I made sure I’d be back in time. I wouldn’t have risked not seeing you.”

“I know.” The affection in Tenko’s voice is direct and obvious enough to make you blush. “We’re making progress. I’m wearing him down.”

“You’re a wreck.” You ignore the insulted noise he makes, a noise that turns sharp when your teeth scrape along his collarbone. “Something happened today. What was it?”

“Twice doubles you, sometimes. In case I get hurt and the others aren’t close enough to help.” Tenko’s grip on you is bruising. “He didn’t tell me he’d done it. That thing got to you. It threw you –”

And he wouldn’t have seen the copy dissolve, the way all of Twice’s copies do when they take too much damage. He’d have thought Gigantomachia killed you, and he probably wouldn’t have believed Twice when Twice told him it was just a clone. “I’m okay,” you tell him. You bite his shoulder lightly to underscore the point, making him shiver. “I was a long way away from this.”

“I don’t want you a long way away. I need you – here –”

You slide your hand under his shirt and run your fingers along his flank, swallowing alarm at just how prominent his ribs are. Then you trace downward, finding the waist of his pants. Tenko goes tense. “What are you doing?”

“I need you to relax, or you won’t be able to fall asleep in time,” you explain in between kisses to his neck. “This is the best way.”

“Is that the only reason?”

“No,” you say. “I miss you.”

“Me, too. No, you, too. I mean – fuck, I miss you too.” Tenko fumbles the sentence, but that doesn’t surprise you. Underneath the adrenaline rush, he’s exhausted, and you did just stick your hand down his pants. “Fuck, that feels good –”

“Good.” You tug his pants and underwear down to free his cock. “Relax.”

Tenko slumps, half against the tree, half against you. “What about you?” he mumbles.

“Don’t think about that.” You kiss his cheek, the corner of his jaw, and begin to stroke his cock in earnest. “Let me take care of you.”

It kills you that this is the best you can do – one quick hookup in the forest, before you feed him whatever he’s willing to eat along with a bunch of vitamins to make up for the nutrients he’s not getting and try to get him to fall asleep. But you’re never anything but pleased to have a chance to be close to him, and it amazes you how completely Tenko gives up control. His legs shift apart to make more room for your hand, tilts his head to one side so you can go back to kissing his neck, moans when your lips move over his scars. One hand is scrabbling for purchase on the trunk of the tree you’re leaning against. The other is glued to you, struggling to work its way under your jacket and shirt to make contact with your skin.

You told him not to worry about you, but you’re going to have a hard time walking back to the others like this. Your face is hot and you’re way too wet for the fact that you barely kissed him. This is Tenko’s fault. It’s his fault for going from too embarrassed to let you see his face when he comes to letting go of any sense of shame, and it’s your fault for finding it really hot. Are you really this addicted to being wanted, needed? When it comes to Tenko, absolutely.

The two of you have been together long enough now that you know when he’s close, just by the way his breath catches and his hips jerk. You pull away, ignoring Tenko’s protests, and sink to your knees in front of him. When you glance up, you find him staring at you, jaw dropped and face flushed. “It’s not as messy,” you say by way of explanation. You steady yourself with one hand on his hip and lean in to take his cock in your mouth.

Blowjobs aren’t your favorite thing in the world, but you’re a big fan of the effect they have on Tenko. You’ve gotten better at handling your gag reflex, and you never have to handle it for very long. Tenko lasts maybe thirty seconds before he gasps out a warning and his hips jerk sharply forward. You don’t let up, even when the taste of his cum fills your mouth. You don’t just need him calm, you need him relaxed to the point where he can barely keep his eyes open, and drawing back by degrees, lavishing attention on his tip as your hand closes around his length, is the only way you can think of to make it stick.

Tenko squirms but doesn’t tell you to stop, and a few small spurts of cum paint your tongue. You stop, draw back, and swallow a few times. Then you look up to see the results for yourself.

You’re sort of worried you might have killed him. He looks semiconscious, his chest rising and falling rapidly, lips split and mouth open to pant for breath. You pick yourself up off the ground, bringing his coat with you, and he pushes it away in favor of struggling to pull up his pants. His free hand slides almost absentmindedly between your legs, rubbing you through your jeans, and you’re so turned on that the sensation makes you gasp.

You struggle to stay focused. “We don’t have time.”

“It won’t take long.” Tenko’s eyes are barely open, but his mouth tilts into a crooked grin.

Once he’s got his pants up, he goes after yours, one hand down the front of them just like you did to him. His fingers brush your clit, then dip lower, and when you try to pull away, his other hand seizes your hip and pulls you against him, too tight to pull away. “Tenko,” you protest again. “There’s not enough time –”

“Not with that attitude.”

Your attitude isn’t going to matter all that much. Just like you’ve gotten to know his body, he knows yours – which means he probably knows how badly you want his fingers inside you and how frustrated you are that he won’t stop teasing your clit. But your attitude doesn’t matter, and you need him enough to take what you can get. It’s been a month since you were together like this. You miss him too much to say no.

His touch sends sparks through you, and you bite back a gasp. It’s hard to spread your legs wider when you’re standing, but you give it your best shot, and Tenko slides two fingers inside you. He mimics the shallow thrusts that drive you insane when you have sex, only this time, he’s been teasing you too long for you to hold out. You bury your face in his shoulder as his languid, barely-enough touches tip you over the edge.

When he speaks, he sounds triumphant – or maybe smug. “Told you it wouldn’t take long.”

You don’t know how much time Tenko just burned through. Too much. “Come on. We need to go back.”

“Say I’m right first.”

“Fine. You’re right.”

“I know.” Tenko yawns. “Love you.”

You kiss him instead of responding in kind, your mouth coming away bloody. “Let’s go.”

If Twice and Compress know what you were up to, they have the sense not to comment on it. If Dabi was here instead of off cultivating an ally, you’d never hear the end of it. You sit Tomura down next to the fire Twice must have built and dive into the supply box, coming up with food and water and the collection of vitamins you sorted out on the train. Tomura shakes his head. “I’m tired.”

“You need to eat.” Your plan might have worked a little too well. You hold two energy bars out to him and he grimaces. “Okay, fine. If you won’t eat, at least take these.”

Tomura makes an even worse face at the sight of the pills. “What are those?”

“Vitamins,” Compress says from across the fire. “Saintess has decided that we’ll get our essential nutrients one way or the other.”

“That’s right. I don’t want to have to treat any of you for scurvy,” you say. Twice snickers. You return your attention to Tomura and pull out your only remaining weapon, other than a whiny-girlfriend guilt-trip. “If you won’t eat and take your medicine, you can’t use me as a pillow.”

“Oh, come on.”

“You already did,” you say as quietly as possible. Tomura tries to glare at you, but the effect’s spoiled both by his mouth twitching as he tries to hold in laughter and the enormous yawn that swallows up whatever retort he was going to come up with. “Just eat a little bit. Please.”

“You’re lucky I love you,” Tomura mutters, and you know you’ve won. You pass over the water bottle, followed by the pills. “Otherwise this would be annoying as hell.”

“I’d be a bad sidekick if I didn’t take care of you,” you say. “And I’d be a bad medic if I let any of you pass out from vitamin deficiency.”

“Or get scurvy,” Twice hoots.

“Scurvy?” Spinner and Toga are back, Spinner to relieve Compress and Toga to continue her mission to collect some of Gigantomachia’s blood. It hasn’t worked yet, but it keeps her busy. “Who has scurvy?”

“All of us, according to Saintess,” Twice says, cackling. “She’s gonna make us take our vitamins.”

“That’s right,” you say, as Tomura downs a handful of pills and chases them with half the water bottle. You’re worried you’ll have to fight him over the energy bar, but he peels back the wrapper and takes a bite without prompting. “Twice, get over here. You’re next.”

“So the supply pickup went okay,” Spinner says, coming closer as you hand Twice his vitamins. “You didn’t run into any trouble with Giran?”

“He gave me a hard time for not being a real villain, but that’s it,” you say. “He found the gauntlets you and Twice asked for. And the spare parts for your gear, Toga.”

“I can fix it while we’re waiting,” Toga says brightly. She peers into the supply box, then emerges immediately with a gasp. “This is a cute little gun! Who’s it for?”

“Me,” Spinner says at once. “I need a ranged weapon until I get better at throwing knives.”

You wonder if Spinner knows he’s covering for you. You can ask him later, once Tomura’s asleep. Toga doesn’t look convinced. “You need something bigger,” she says. “You have muscles. It’ll look silly if you’re holding such a small gun.”

“I’ll tell Saintess to send it back, then,” Spinner says. “Quit messing with it. It might be loaded.”

You’re pretty sure it’s not loaded, but your internet gun safety research made sure to point out that even if the gun looks empty, there could still be a round in the chamber – and Toga’s having a little too much fun pointing it around and striking poses. You need to put a pin in that, and you’ve got just the thing. “If you don’t quit messing around with that, I’m not going to tell you who I met today.”

“You just met Giran,” Toga says. You allow a smirk to cross your face. “Wait, who else? You have to tell me!”

“Put the gun away. Then I’ll think about it.”

“Saintess –”

The sound of a wrapper crumpling up yanks you clear of Toga’s whining, and you glance over to see that Tomura’s eaten both energy bars and finished the bottle of water. He looks even sleepier than before. “Okay,” you say. “How do you want to do this?”

Over the last month, Tomura’s tried out a variety of positions for using you as a pillow, and his favorite involves him sprawled out on top of you with his head on your chest. Your favorite is when he’s got his head in your lap and you can mess with his hair, but you’re not the one running a potentially-deadly sleep deficit. You find a rock to lean back against, and Tomura flops down on you. Usually he rustles around a bit, trying to get comfortable, but this time he’s out like a light as soon as his head hits your chest. It’s a deeper sleep than usual, which is good. He needs every second.

It’s not until you hear snickering that you realize where one of Tomura’s hands has landed. “I knew the boss was a boob guy,” Twice crows as you move Tomura’s hand off your breast, cringing the whole way. “There’s no way to go wrong. No, bullshit! The ass is where it’s at!”

Spinner shushes him, looking about as uncomfortable as you feel. Toga, meanwhile, drops down next to you. “I put the gun away. Tell me who you met. Was it Izuku?”

You’ve met Izuku. As of today, you’re two for three on Toga’s hero crushes. “I met Uraraka.”

“Ochako?” Toga squeals. Thankfully, Tomura’s too deeply asleep to stir. “That’s even better! How did she look? Was she wearing her school uniform or her costume? Say it was her costume – no, her uniform! We’d look so cute if we matched, don’t you think?”

You think Uraraka wouldn’t have been nearly as nice to you if she’d known you were going to report back about her to Toga. “It wasn’t her costume or her uniform. Civilian clothes. She had this pink coat –”

“Like mine?”

“No, puffy,” you say. Toga nods, beaming. She gestures for you to go on. “Um, and she had a hat that matched. With a white pompom on it.”

Toga looks like she’s going to faint. “Did you talk to her?” she asks. You nod. “Did she mention me?”

You don’t want Toga to have a heart attack, but you also don’t want to lie. “She mentioned Tomura and Dabi and you,” you say. Toga blushes. “I asked her about Eri – I figured even civilians would know about that, since her picture was all over everything – and she said Eri mentioned you specifically.”

“Wait, she remembers us?” Spinner looks alarmed. “How much?”

“More than I thought she would,” you admit. “But apparently it’s good. She remembers that we took care of her.”

“Ochako told you that?”

You nod. “It seemed like it was messing with her. The idea that we’d treat a kid we kidnapped well.”

“It shouldn’t mess with her,” Twice says. “We kidnapped the explosion kid and we were nice to him, too. And he wasn’t even cute.”

“I don’t like him. He’s mean,” Toga complains. “We should have stolen Izuku instead. He looks so cute covered in blood – I know you’d like him, Saintess –”

“I met him.”

Toga’s eyes look like they’re going to pop out of her head. She swats you on the shoulder. “When?”

It takes her fifteen minutes to forgive you for not mentioning that you handed Eri off directly to Midoriya himself, and another fifteen minutes for her to interrogate you for every detail of that interaction, too. “You’d tell me if you met Tsu, right?” she demands, looking like she’s this close to drawing a knife on you. “You wouldn’t hide that from me. You wouldn’t dare.”

“I haven’t met her,” you say. “If I do, you’ll be the first person I tell.”

“Which one is Tsu?” Spinner probably wishes he’d left this conversation half an hour ago, but for some reason he’s still hanging on. “The pink one?”

“No, look!” Toga’s downloaded every UA Sports Festival video to her phone. She pulls one up and shows Spinner. “I love her big eyes and her hair – and she’s so mean! She says we’re not friends, but I know we are –”

“You have a crush on a heteromorph?”

Toga gives Spinner a weird look. “You can’t have her, she’s mine. But you’d have a crush on her, too.”

“That wouldn’t be weird. I’m a heteromorph. But you –” Spinner stops, shakes his head. “Forget it.”

“It’s okay.” Toga pats his shoulder. “Love is just weird like that. It doesn’t care about the stuff we care about. Like Tomura-kun and Saintess. Tomura loves her and he says it all the time. She loves him too but she never says it back. I would hate it if someone did that to me! But they don’t mind, so it’s fine.”

She gives Spinner a meaningful look. “I don’t mind, so it’s fine. Besides, I’m a heteromorph, too.”

She is, technically speaking – her amber eyes and almost-fangs are far enough from the human standard to count – but it’s a tone-deaf thing to say to someone like Spinner, who can’t hide who he is. You can tell it bothers him, but he stays put, and Toga eventually gets up to repair her support items. And Spinner stays. It occurs to you that he might want to talk to you. Alone.

He doesn’t speak up until there are twenty-eight minutes left on the clock, when it’s just him leaning against one side of the rock and you with Tomura fast asleep in your arms on the other. “How come you don’t say it?”

“What?”

“Toga’s right. He says it all the time, but you never do.” Spinner is cringing, like he can’t believe he’s saying this. You can’t believe he’s saying it, either. “What’s the deal? Do you – not?”

“Why are you asking me that?” You don’t mean to sound as defensive as it comes out, but you’re honestly confused. Then it occurs to you why Spinner, the person in the League who’s least likely to comment on anybody else’s life, is bringing it up. “Did he say something?”

“When? In between trying not to get flattened by Machia and sleeping for two hours at a stretch?” Spinner can’t make eye contact with you. He keeps looking away. “He said something one time while we were hiding. Asked if it was normal that you wouldn’t say it, like I know anything about girls.”

You think Spinner would probably do okay with girls once they got to know him. “If anything goes wrong with you two, it’ll snap his focus and he’ll get us all killed,” Spinner continues. “I want to see his vision come true and I don’t want to die. So I’m asking. That’s why.”

“I do,” you say. Spinner looks relieved, but he doesn’t look surprised. “I don’t know why I don’t say it. It feels like – a lot. Like something will happen. I don’t know what.”

Spinner gives you a curious look. “Something bad?”

“Just something.” This is making you feel stupid. “I do, though. I thought it was obvious.”

“I mean, it is.” Spinner gestures awkwardly at the two of you. Tomura’s still dead to the world, and maybe drooling a little bit. You must be really far gone, because you think it’s sort of cute. “Like I said. I don’t know anything about girls, but I don’t think someone who didn’t love somebody else would put it on the line like this. It was just a question. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” You want to stop talking about this, and you’ve got a question for him. “Why’d you cover for me earlier? You must have known the gun was mine.”

“It would have freaked him out.” Spinner doesn’t have to say who he’s talking about. “He thinks it’s his job to protect you, since you’re his sidekick. And his girlfriend. And if you’re using a gun, you can commit actual crimes. The kind people get put away for. I don’t think he wants that.”

You’re pretty sure you’re already going away if you get caught. You haven’t directly participated except in the attack on the CRC, but that was probably enough to put you within Kazuo’s search parameters, and if your interaction with Uraraka told you anything, it’s that the villain named Saintess is officially on the heroic radar. But Spinner’s got a point. Right now you can only be charged as an accomplice to the League’s crimes. That charge carries a significantly lighter sentence than whatever you’d do with a gun.

Still – “Tomura can’t be everywhere,” you say. He stirs in his sleep but doesn’t wake. “I can’t have him getting distracted trying to look after me, so I have to be able to look out for myself.”

Spinner doesn’t answer, but you know he knows you’re right. “Don’t tell anybody I have it,” you say.

“I’m not going to lie to him.”

“Don’t lie to him. If he says “hey, Spinner, does my girlfriend have a gun”, tell him the truth.” As far as you’re concerned, it never needs to get that far. “Just don’t tattle on me.”

“Don’t say tattle. Say snitch,” Spinner corrects. ‘It sounds more – villain.”

That’s the second person today who’s knocked you for not being villainous enough. “Fine. Don’t snitch on me.”

“Deal,” Spinner says. It’s quiet for a moment. “Do you ever think about what happens when we win?”

“You and me come up with a new world that doesn’t suck?”

“Besides that,” Spinner says. “Like what has to happen for it to count as a win. We don’t all have the same answer. Toga thinks it’s a win as long as the stuff she likes makes it through. Twice probably thinks it’s a win if Toga makes it, and Compress probably just wants to do the same stuff he’s always done and not get arrested. Who even knows about Dabi.”

“He’s got a mission,” you say, and Spinner snorts. You’re starting to see where he’s headed with this. “What about you and me?”

“We win if we build the new world,” Spinner says. He glances down at Tomura, whose hand has migrated back to your breast in his sleep. You move it off again. “And we lose if he’s not in it.”

You blink, taken aback. “I don’t have another best friend,” Spinner continues. “I can’t replace the one I have. And you can’t replace him.”

“I know,” you say. And then, without thinking: “I tried.”

Spinner stares at you, opens his mouth, but before he can say a word – and before you can backtrack straight to Yokohama – your phone starts buzzing in your pocket. So does everybody else’s, plus Spinner’s watch and your stupid laptop, which is shut and supposed to be off in your backpack. The clamor sends a jolt of pure fear down your spine, just like it does every time you hear it. It’s your timer, synced to everyone else’s. Gigantomachia’s awake.

Tomura lurches awake, in command from the second his eyes open. “Twice, send out a double to buy us time. Make it run.”

“It can only run as fast as you can –”

“I’ve gotten faster. Send it to the hills. He’ll have a harder time with the terrain.” Tomura gets to his feet, and you scramble after him. He turns to you. “Get clear. We’ll drop a pin once we have a new campsite. Will you –”

There’s not time for that question, and he should know the answer. You silence him with a kiss. “I’ll be there.”

He’s already peeling off his gloves, fastening on his family’s hands, scanning the horizon. “I love you.”

You remember what Spinner said. The question Tomura apparently asked him. How just showing it might not be enough. That you shouldn’t expect it to be enough – but you can’t get the words out. You need to try something else. You grab his hand, careful to avoid his fingers, and raise it to your lips, kissing the heel of his hand, the center of his palm, the ridges of his knuckles. His hands have so many scars now. He’s being hurt, and you can’t help him. There’s nothing you can do.

Tomura’s grip on your hand tightens, index fingers raised. The ground rattles slightly beneath your feet, and he lets go. “Run.”

Compress has already contained the supplies; Twice has stomped out the fire. He and Spinner have their gauntlets, and Toga’s support item is fixed. They’re ready to go, and so should you be. You spare one more glance for Tomura, then turn to flee, bolting into the woods alongside Compress as Gigantomachia’s silhouette appears over the horizon.

The two of you shed your disguises at the outskirts of the same town, uncompressing the supplies to reorganize them. “Spinner forgot his gun,” Compress remarks. “Shall I hold onto it?”

“I will,” you say. “We’ll see him at the same time, and nobody’s going to search me.”

Compress nods. “I’ll be getting some sleep. I’m three days behind. What about you?”

Your phone pings with a fresh text, and your heart sinks when you see the number. “I’ve got some stuff to take care of. Keep me updated.”

Compress nods again, and the two of you split. He heads down the street, probably aiming for the capsule hotel you scoped out on your way into town, and you go in the opposite direction, towards the train station. You don’t check your messages until you’re waiting on the platform.

You texted Kazuo a few days ago, asking him a question, ordering him not to look unless his health allows it. You’ve been anxiously awaiting his reply, if it comes at all, and now you’ve gotten six texts from him in a row. Your heart races as you open them.

Kazuo: Yoshimi is in remission. Mitsuko and Ryuhei are supporting her in your absence. All three appear to be doing well.

Kazuo: Their involvement with your friend has not been noticed.

That’s good news. You’ve been thinking about her. And about them. For a moment, you’re almost suffocated by a wish that you could celebrate with them. You gave up your old life, your old friends. And you miss them even more than you thought you would. You swallow hard and keep reading.

Kazuo: Your codename has appeared on the official roster for the League of Villains. They are attempting to track you by quirk and criminal history, and therefore coming up empty.

Kazuo: I’ll keep you clear as long as I can, but if they sufficiently alter their questions, I won’t be able to.

Kazuo: I was able to look into the question you gave me. It was specific enough to instantly rule out all other answers, so I thank you for that.

Kazuo: The answer is yes. Congratulations.

Your eyes go blurry, and a second later, your throat closes off. Your train arrives, but you don’t get on it – instead you sit down on a bench, staring down at the floor between your feet, trying not to cry and furious with yourself for wanting to cry at all. You asked Kazuo to use his quirk and see if you – you, identified by your birthdate, blood type, height, career, and city you were born in, for all the specifics he could ever need – have a latent quirk. You trust his word over the doctor’s. His quirk isn’t wrong, ever. You told yourself that you’d accept his answer as the truth. You were hoping he’d say no.

Instead he says yes. You do have a latent quirk, something that’s been hidden your whole life because the conditions necessary to awaken it have never been met. They’ll probably never be met, and your quirk is probably worse than useless, but the fact that it’s latent means you’ve spent your whole life being treated like you’re quirkless when you aren’t. You should feel cheated. Instead you feel betrayed.

It doesn’t matter, you tell yourself. If you don’t know what it is, it’s like you don’t have it at all. Nothing needs to change. You don’t need to tell anyone. You tell yourself that, but it doesn’t make much of a different. The doctor knows, and so does Kazuo. So does All For One.

The next train arrives long before you’ve calmed down, but you get up and shamble aboard anyway. Nobody looks at you – not for long, anyway. Most people go out of their way to avoid seeing others’ pain. When your eyes have cleared a little bit, you take your phone out and start looking up firing ranges. You might not be able to be useful to Tenko and the others with your stupid, latent quirk. But you can definitely be useful to them with a gun.

[torukmaktoskxawng]

tsamsiyu ta'em - nothing is lost

Masterlist - part twelve

Summary: The Sky People make their move. The Metkayina rise up against the threat of their home.

Pairing: Ronal/Tonowari/Original Female Character

Tag: #tsamsiyu ta'em fic

posted on ao3

Word Count: 14k+

Warnings: canon-compliant, mature language, slow burn, polyamory, found family, cool aunt agenda, rushed, time skips, fluff, angst, major character death, child endangerment, etc.

Taglist (bold indicates "could not tag"): @motheroffae @undeniableadrenaline @mooniequeen @shit-i-say-shit-i-think @heart-an0n @amiets2 @slutforsmut4ever @yeosxxx​ @im-in-a-pansexual-panik @sucker4angstt @inolaphoenix @ilovechickenwings @tojisleftarm @andyfromku @ivysully

A/N: Thank you for your patience! At the very least, I'm not George R.R. Martin, who is 12 years late on the new book 🤣

This... is a very long chapter. Strap in. You guys deserve a treat for waiting for me 💕

The village was eerily quiet. Yes, it was raining and gloomy again, but something smelled off in the air when Kayla took a deep breath, her avatar nose smelling more than her human one could even dream of. It was an odd hour of the day for the Metkayina to be completely absent as she walked down the slippery pathways, her dog tags cold from the weather and clicking softly from where they dangled around her neck, the safari jacket she had thrown on that morning soaking through to her skin as the rain pressed on. Kayla scoffed to herself and wanted nothing more than to peel the useless piece of clothing off since it was now uncomfortable, but the rifle in her arms kept her from doing so. She intended to walk to the Sully marui that morning to ask Jake to borrow his cleaning supplies for his weapons, wishing to run maintenance on her own AK, but upon walking into her brother's home, she is surprised and confused to find all her nieces and nephews keeping warm inside but neither Jake nor Neytiri was around.

Tuk got up to greet her aunt with a hug around her waist, and as Kayla pat her back, Neteyam helpfully took the gun out of Kayla's arms while the older woman looked around, squinting her eyes, "Neteyam, where's your parents?"

"The tulkun returned again and they were afraid of something," the teenage boy lowered his head, ears drooping and voice laced with concern, "Mom and Dad went out with the clan leaders and a party to see what was wrong."

Kayla's eyes widen while looking around, now easily seeing the concern on all of the children's faces. Instinctively, she didn't want to assume any danger and immediately sought out to comfort her nieces and nephews, "Alright, well, maybe we should get some food going for when they get back. I'm sure it's nothing."

No one spoke as they got to work strengthening the embers of the hearth and preparing a meal. Kayla sat down with the teenagers while gathering Tuk in her lap, watching Kiri prepare some fish over the fire. Something hung heavy in the air. Perhaps it was the moisture or the thunder off in the distance, but no one bothered to speak up and question it. The mood was sour as the Sullys patiently waited for the patriarch and matriarch of the family to return. Kayla noticed that Lo'ak was the only one unable to look his aunt in the eyes as they all sat around, worried about whatever might be waiting for the party of Na'vi warriors, but she decided not to ask about it. She had a feeling that since this situation was tulkun-related, her youngest nephew was likely glum about yesterday's events involving Payakan. 

Unaware of how much time had passed, all Sullys perked their heads up at the sound of crows and yips, indicating the Na'vi conversing with one another from a distance. The village began to stir with life once more, and before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, Tsireya had run into the Sully marui, out of breath and hair drenched from the rain.

She looked frightened, appearing far younger than a thirteen-year-old girl, "The party has returned-- Your sa'sem are alright," she's quick to reassure Lo'ak and his siblings before her eyes darted back to Kayla, "But my father has just declared war on the Sky People!"

"What?" Kayla hastily stood up, dumping Tuk into Neteyam's lap when he wasn't as quick to stand. Kayla's heart had plummeted into her stomach, dread beginning to rise the little hairs running up and down her back, neck, and arms.

"They are gathering for a meeting right now!"

"Show me," Kayla ordered lowly, voice full of authority and determination setting in her gaze. Tsireya nods and runs back out of the pod. Kayla doesn't hesitate to follow.

Neteyam set his baby sister down in front of the fire as he and his other siblings stood to follow their aunt, "Tuk, stay here until someone comes back and gets you."

"But--"

"Stay here!"

Kayla could hear her older niece and nephews run out of the marui to join her, but her feet didn't slow as she walked with a destination in mind, unwilling to stop for anything. She followed Tsireya through the village. As they got closer to the communal canopy, more and more Metkayina emerged from their homes, and a growing crowd formed. It quickly became dense, the area full of Na'vi as Tsireya and Kayla drew closer, lightly scooting past other men and women to get to the center. Kayla spots something in the crowd and reaches out to grab Tsireya's shoulder, stopping both of them in their tracks. Kayla's eyes had narrowed in on the sight of Neytiri and Jake, standing at the front of the crowd and looking as though they had both seen ghosts. By the time Neteyam and his siblings joined Kayla, she already had a goal for them in mind.

"Get to your parents," she sternly told the teenagers, nodding in Jake and Neytiri's direction, "Tsireya, let's see if we can get closer. Break."

The small group scatters, going separate ways and weaving through the crowd. Tsireya and Kayla stick together until they find themselves standing at the very front of the gathering, apart from Rotxo and Ao'nung, who stand in front of them. The two young warriors didn't look very happy and while Kayla looked around, she finally spotted Tonowari and Ronal. They stood at the center of the crowd, standing over the rest. The tsahik appeared distraught and torn, streaks of rain and tears mixing while a hidden rage swam in her eyes. The olo'eyktan stood beside her, enraged, barely keeping in his anger while furiously gripping the spear in his hand. Jake has moved into Kayla's line of sight, right in front of Ronal. When the avatar woman looked around for the rest of her family, she spotted Kiri silently comforting Neytiri, the Na'vi woman looking distressed and welcoming her daughter's hand. Neteyam was off to the side of them, holding onto a device that drove Kayla's blood to freeze. She recognized the design of humans from anywhere, a long and large spear-like contraption with red, metal encasings to shield the mechanics inside from saltwater. A tracking device.

Ronal confirmed Kayla's suspicions while crying out in anger so that the entire village could hear, "My Spirit Sister and her baby have been murdered by the Sky People!"

A small sob can be heard off to the side of Kayla and when she looked down, she was quick to throw her arm around Tsireya while the girl wept for her mother's tulkun. Meanwhile, cries of anguish and rage emerged from the crowd, snarling and cursing the humans at the top of their lungs so they could be heard over the rain. 

Tonowari exclaims angrily over their cries, "This war has come to us. We knew about this hunting of our tulkun people. But it was over the horizon, far away. Now it is here!" 

They all respond to their chief with cries of war, snarling menacingly while baring their fangs and displaying their tongues as he did.  

The crowd continues to rile themselves up for battle while Jake is desperate to calm them down, "No, you don't-- You gotta understand how the Sky People think! They don't care about the Great Balance!"

"We do not answer to Sky People!" One warrior shouted menacingly to Jake from the back of the crowd, and an encore of agreeing, snarling Metkayina responded in kind. Kayla flinched, ears lowering as the familiar whispers, snarls, and stares suddenly overwhelmed her. Jake's eyes flick drastically over the head of Na'vi and quickly lock onto hers, to which she silently says what she had been saying all along by gritting her teeth behind a closed mouth and narrowing her eyes at him.

'I told you so. Demon Siblings.'

Neteyam was desperate to control the crowd in his father's favor, waving the large, red tracking device in his hand while pleading, "Listen! Listen to him!"

"The Sky People are not gonna stop. This is only the beginning," Jake continues to try negotiating, directing his attention back to the clan leaders standing before him, "You gotta tell your tulkun to leave! You gotta tell them to go far away!"

"Leave?" Ronal echoed the word with a resounding scoff of sorrow and disbelief, "You live among us, and you learn nothing!"

"We will fight to protect our brothers and sisters!" Another warrior behind her exclaims and the Metkayina begin another wave of snarls and hisses. 

"No, no, no, no... If you attack, if you fight, then they will destroy you!" Jake shouts over the crowd, "They will destroy everything that you love!" His voice cracks in desperation, angrily motioning to Ronal's baby bump while looking her dead in the eye. The tsahik instinctively placed a gentle hand on her stomach as all of her people began shouting angrily to Jake, all the while he kept trying to talk over them.

"We will fight!"

"No! You hear my words!"

"We will fight!"

"Hear my words!"

"Stay calm. Stay calm!" Neteyam pleads to those who stood closest to him. Meanwhile, over his shoulder, his mother remained eerily quiet. She glances around at all the angry Metkayina, all of them anxious for a fight, anxious to protect their home. It was all too familiar to Neytiri, overwhelmed with that familiar dread and grief for her Hometree. Her older son continues to try and negotiate alongside her husband, drowning out her thoughts as he shouts, "Listen to my father!"

"Damn it!" Jake was frantic when nothing he said appeared to slow the Na'vi down, desperate for leverage until his eyes zeroed in on the large tracking device in Neteyam's hands. Quickly, he dives forward.

"He speaks the truth!" Neteyam is unable to say more as his father snatches the device out of his hands, the fast movement driving Kayla to straighten in alarm as her brother races to the center of the crowd, stepping up over everyone and raising the device in the air, silencing the entire village with his act and grabbing their attention. The clambering died down and Kayla couldn't help but notice Ronal reach for Tonowari in the heavy silence, holding onto his arm out of fright until he opened his hand without looking back at his wife. Wordlessly, Ronal slips her hand in his, a perfect fit, their conjoined knuckles brushing against her baby bump as they stare at the device in Jake's hand with caution.

"You tell the tulkun that if they're hit by one of these, they're marked for death. And call for me or my sister, we'll silence it." 

Eyes look between Jake and Kayla, and it took a lot of willpower for the sister not to curl in her shoulders and try to hide. It helped that Tsireya looked up at Kayla with hope in her eyes as if the avatar woman was capable of grabbing the stars. Kayla faintly smiles down at the girl but it disappears just as fast while Jake continues, "Saving their lives, that's all that matters. Right? Saving your family."

Tonowari peers around at all his people, cautious, his anger beginning to fade as he's left with begrudging acceptance. Looking down at Ronal last, his mate briefly flicks her eyes up to him before they close and she gives a brief nod, clutching his hand tightly for a moment to silently share her opinion. 

Finally, the great olo'eyktan steps up to Jake, overlooking the crowd and raising his spear, speaking softer but with more weight in his words, "Tell the tulkun."

Ronal briefly lets go of his hand and turns to her people, "Go. Go!"

Shouts echo off one another as the chosen warriors leave the gathering and journey out into the reef, calling their respective ilu and tsurak. Tsireya turns to see where she had last seen Lo'ak in the crowd, only to find him already walking away. Neteyam also sees his brother exit and an all-knowing gaze washes over before he moves to stomp after Lo'ak. Tsireya had left Kayla's side amidst the chaos of people upon watching both Sully brothers disappear before she could get to them, sensing what was about to happen.

Kayla looks around as the crowd begins to disperse, and already her family has left her alone, moving in separate directions. Her head turns to each one, wondering which way to go first, and who to follow. Kiri had run off to get Tuk while Jake brought Neytiri away to talk privately. Her hesitance to choose where to go causes her to stall and she's suddenly aware of Tonowari and Ronal stepping down onto the pathway, beelining toward her. 

Tonowari's solemn gaze keeps Kayla still in her tracks, unable to move. He stared down at her with purpose, voice low so that only they could hear, "Now it is our war."

Dread takes over Kayla once more, adding to the cold of the rain on her skin. Ears lowered under the chief's scrutiny, her eyes briefly turned to Ronal. The tsahik was still clearly devastated by the loss of her Spirit Sister, ears drooping and frown trembling. Kayla opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to find the right words to say, the only thing ever coming out in a hushed whisper, "I'm so sorry..."

She regrettably pulls away, knowing that she would not be good company while Ronal mourns. Kayla isn't able to look away from the clan leaders until she's forced to watch where she's going, turning to look ahead and find her brother. Jake and Neytiri were outside the communal canopy, off to the side to avoid any traffic going in and out. When Kayla approached them, Jake held out the tracking device to her.

"You can disarm these things, right?"

Kayla grabbed the tracker and inspected it, going back into marine mode, "Looks simple enough if we run into more. What happened out there?"

"Bad things. I'll tell you later," Jake shook his head, defeated, "RDA is definitely closing in. I need you to either break your link tonight or radio Norm. Let him know what's going on."

"You got it."

He looks around, "Where are the kids?"

Both Kayla and Neytiri look around while the former answers, "I saw them leave. I know at least one of them went to check on Tuk. We left her at home."

Neytiri didn't appear convinced when she turned her head back to Kayla, "They left without saying anything?"

"I assumed you knew where they were going. Tsireya seemed to know. She went after them."

All three adults fall into silence before they agree to go and find the children. They stick together while looking throughout the village, asking around. At first, no one seemed willing to help them, and the small glances at Jake and Kayla were the only indicator as to why, much to Jake's annoyance and Kayla's inner smugness toward proving her brother right. Neytiri hissed at those who were openly unhelpful and went her own way, down to the ilu pens. Jake and Kayla are quick to follow her, staying behind her so as to not get in her way as they search for the kids.

Eventually, they found a boy who occasionally hangs out with Ao'nung. Neytiri doesn't hesitate to question him, "Have you seen my children?"

The teenage boy looks up and his eyes widen at the sight that was Neytiri te Tskaha Mo'at'ite. He's quick to answer her, stumbling over his words, "I saw Ao'nung and Rotxo with them just a minute ago. They took off."

"Dad, I-- I mean Devil Dog. Do you read me?"

Kayla and Jake quickly pick up the sound of Lo'ak's voice coming from their respective earpieces and quickly grow concerned as to why he would call them. Neytiri is unaware of their sudden alertness as she continues to interrogate Ao'nung's friend, "Did you see where they went?"

"-- It's Eagle Eye, do you copy?"

"They went outside the reef." The boy responds, only to be ignored by Neytiri when Jake taps her arm to get her attention, still focused on his son's voice while reaching up to his throat mic to respond.

"Yeah, Lo'ak?"

"Dad!" Neytiri is quick to understand what's happening and pulls her own listening device back in her ear to hear the conversation. Lo'ak's voice was frantic and scared, "We're with a tulkun that's under attack. Killer ship's inbound. It's about two klicks out."

"Shit," Kayla muttered while Neytiri grabs Jake's arms, eyes widening in terror.

Jake's voice is laced with that same terror, "Who's with you?"

"It's all of us! Ao'nung and Tsireya, too." Neytiri gasps silently, visibly wincing at the idea of all of her children in danger, "We're at Three Brothers Rocks."

Neytiri's hand covers her mouth while Jake spouts instructions, "You get to cover, and you do not engage. All right? You hear me? Do not engage, we're comin'."

"Yes, sir."

Jake sprints back into the center of the village, his wife and his sister hot on his heels. Other warriors run with them when they sense their fear and alarm, all racing to get to the olo'eyktan's marui. They yip and call out to Tonowari as they draw closer, the chief looking up from where he sat inspecting a fishing net at the lip of the pod. He's instantly alert to see Toruk Makto racing to him, Ronal soon appears at the entrance to see what the commotion is about.

"The kids are under attack!" The chief immediately rises to his feet as Jake explains, "The kids are under attack. They were defending a tulkun. It's your kids, too."

The weight of the news causes Ronal to spin back around and immediately grab her weapons from within the marui. Tonowari tilts his head to Jake for clarification, "The demon ship?"

"Yes! We gotta go!" Jake yells back as he, Neytiri, and Kayla race off toward their own home. 

"Weapons. Sound the alarm!"

The Metkayina warriors yip and runoff, spreading the news as they went, drawing more and more Na'vi to start yipping in unison, growing louder and louder in number. As they draw closer to the Sully marui, Neytiri and Kayla mimic bird sounds to call their respective ikran, seeing the familiar distant sight of wings flying toward them from the forest. They then follow Jake into the pod, gathering as many weapons as they can carry. Jake hands Kayla's rifle to her before grabbing his tomahawk and slipping it into the sheath on his back. He then grabs his arsenal vest and flings it over his shoulder, kneeling down and helping Kayla divide all the ammunition they have on them. 

Neytiri grabs her father's bow and holds it to her, breathing in deeply and willing for Eywa to protect her children through her. She then grabs her sheath of arrows and turns around, briefly pausing as Jake catches her eye. The parents share a knowing look and a nod before sprinting back outside with Kayla closely following them. The rest of the village is alive with alarm, dozens and dozens of Metkayina with spears diving into the water below, summoning their tsurak and following their clan leaders out beyond the reef. Jake follows them into the water to grab his own tsurak while two ikran land on the pathways for Neytiri and Kayla to mount. Gracefully, both women take to the air as the banshees squawk, holding onto their reins with one hand and clutching their weapons in the other. They quickly swoop down to fly just above the army of tsurak as the skimwing slowly rise out of the water and fan out their gliding wings, one by one. Neytiri raises her bow up and gives her best war cry to which Jake echos back from below. Ronal looks up and sees Neytiri and Kayla astride their banshees and ululates, adjusting the spear in her hand to which her whole village responds behind her as their army takes off, ready to defend their children and their home. 

"Kayla, Neytiri," both women focus on the voice in the earpiece. Jake gives them instructions when he has their attention, "I need you up top, using the clouds for cover. Be my eyes from above and wait for my signal."

"Copy that," Kayla presses her throat mic and then pulls up on her handlebar, making a demand in her head while Thena simply follows it. The ikran squawks and further rises into the sky, breaking away from the army of tsurak and Metkayina. Neytiri yips and pulls her ikran to follow them, the two women disappearing into the clouds until Jake is unable to see them.

They flew through the clouds for a while until they made it to their destination. Neither of them could see Three Brothers Rocks from this height, but they knew their whereabouts. Kayla had Thena slowly descend, just ever so slightly beneath the clouds so she could get a visual, looking through the scope of her rifle to look down toward the ocean with a bird's eye view. She saw the three large peaks of rocks sprouting out of the ocean that Lo'ak had described and once she got her bearings, she proceeded to look for anything else in the surrounding area.

It wasn't hard to spot the hunting ship, large enough for even larger prey, like whales, floating not too far away from where Lo'ak had pinged his location. Several speed boats armed to the teeth with harpoons and sound cannons lined up around the front of the ship, likely as the first line of defense, and it was hard to miss the submersibles diving down into the water, forming large splashes and ripples around the ship. Kayla recognized the two gunships sitting silently on the hunting ship's platform, and she silently thanked God that for now, the rotors didn't appear to be moving. What actually worried her, however, was the half a dozen ikran idly flying around or sitting idle on the ship, sporting modern-looking saddles and pouches. In her experience knowing the behavior behind these animals, they don't appear alert or battle-hungry for the time being. They were more or less bored looking and basking in the sun while waiting for their riders. 

She leaned away from her scope to press her fingers into her throat mic, "Devil Dog, do you read me?"

Jake's voice soon answered her, "Go ahead, Desert Fox."

"I got eyes on the target. One WIGE ship, and several boats lined up in front. They have idle subs and SeaWasps on board. Can't get a headcount of personnel. There's about five or six banshees decked out in military gear, riderless."

"Copy that. Stay hidden with Clever Arrow for the time being."

"Lima Charlie." 

"We're just approaching Eagle Eye's last location. Stand by."

Kayla doesn't respond, taking a deep breath instead and using the strap on her rifle to prop the weapon behind her back, letting it dangle. She looked over to Neytiri as the Na'vi woman and her ikran glided close beside her, "We stay up here."

"And what about my children?" Neytiri snapped, though Kayla didn't take it to heart, knowing the anger wasn't directed at her. She could only imagine what her sister-in-law was going through, stressed and worried sick for her babies. 

Before she could answer or provide Neytiri with a form of comfort, a strange voice, much different from any voice Kayla knew, came in through her earpiece, addressing her brother, "Jake, tell your friends to stand down."

Kayla quickly held up one hand to let Neytiri know she was getting something, then cupped her other hand over her earpiece, trying to pinpoint the strange southern drawl that had intercepted their radio chatter, "You want your kids back, you come out alone. You know better than to test my resolve."

Kayla's blood began to freeze, her heart hammering in her chest to keep it all pumping. The voice had to have been Quaritch to address Jake as if they knew each other, and even if it wasn't the colonel, whoever it was had Kayla's nieces and nephews. Whoever it was had Lo'ak captured at the very least, considering he was the only one out of the Sully children to have a mic and earpiece. The suspected Quaritch continued to speak, "I took you under my wing, Jake. You betrayed me. You killed your own. Good men. Good women. I will not hesitate to execute your kid."

"Just wait one!" Jake finally responded, his voice deeply disturbed and desperate.

Silence fell over the radio chatter, and Kayla could only wait with bated breath. Neytiri and her ikran were visibly growing distressed and irritated, flying in short, unpredictable turns from left to right as if trying to burn off their pent-up energy. Kayla gave the other woman a wider berth while trying not to appear anxious herself, her quiet pants and rapid heartbeat pounding in her ears, along with the wind. 

"Offer's fixin' to expire. What's it gonna be?" Quaritch asked after a short minute.

"Check your fire. I'm comin' out."

"Fuck," Kayla muttered, turning to Neytiri, "We should drop lower. Jake is approaching alone."

Neytiri barely gives Kayla enough time to finish her sentence as she leans forward and internally orders her banshee to dive. Kayla orders Thena to do the same, and together they lower through the clouds, trying to remain hidden while moving in for a closer look. 

They lower a significant amount, flying out from behind a small mountain peak sticking out of the water, soft gray clouds drifting apart to reveal the battlefield site below. From this distance, it appears everything is at a standstill, and there weren't any indicators to suggest otherwise. Neytiri quickly presses into her throat mic, "Ma Jake, what is happening? Ma Jake?"

Kayla shifts her feet in the footholds of her ikran, Thena jerking her head to share the tension she felt in their bond. Jake didn't answer Neytiri, which worried both women further, unsure of how to proceed. Both looked at one another, thinking the same thing. Do they stay or attack? Does Jake have a plan?

The wait felt like ages, but eventually, movement could be seen down below, and it was so large that Neytiri and Makayla could clearly see what was happening. A large form erupted from below the waters, rising up and leaping over the hull of the WIGE ship, slamming down with a large bellow and jostling the entire ship along with its passengers. A tulkun bull, young and smaller than ones Kayla has seen, but still large enough to give those idle gunships a run for their money. As the tulkun wiggled around on deck, flailing his fins and tail around to knock over or crush any Sky People or Recom, Kayla finally managed to spot a missing fin among the chaos. From listening to Lo'ak and Neteyam's stories, she was able to identify who this fearsome creature was. Payakan.

For a moment, the Sky People and Recom avatars were distracted by the whale-like animal that had quite literally flopped up on deck, making the mistake of disengaging from the Na'vi as they turned their boats and guns around on the tulkun outcast. Rapid gunshots could be heard from all the way up in the sky, and Kayla and Neytiri could only look on in amazement. Payakan bellows again, louder, echoing in Kayla's ears even from this distance, startling the Recoms' idle ikran as they all spread their wings and took flight out of fear. 

As the humans were too busy trying to defend themselves and deal with Payakan, Jake was finally pinpointed in the chaos. Kayla had only managed to see him when he drove his tsurak forward and the skimwing took flight, spreading its wide, orange gliders, charging for battle by his lonesome across a dark blue ocean. Suddenly, several other tsuraks took flight, spreading their wings out one by one until the battlefield below Kayla and Neytiri looked like flying ants charging toward a toy boat in the bathtub. Amidst the charge, Payakan was seen diving back into the water, using his fins as leverage to push his weight off the ship. With the tulkun out of sight, the Sky People had turned back around and found themselves fumbling to meet up against the Na'vi as the Metkayina came up behind them using the element of surprise. Rapid gunfire sounded out, now aimed at the army of skimwings, who responded by folding their wings back up and diving down into the water to escape the bullets. 

With both sides now engaged in battle, Kayla turned to Neytiri and gestured with her arm, "Let's go!"

Neytiri screeches out a war cry and together they dive down to join the fight, their ikran crowing in response. The banshees fold in their wings to dive faster, the wind whipping wildly in Kayla's face and ears while she held on tight to Thena with one hand and gripped her AK in the other, primed and ready.

Two primary targets took to the sky around the same time Neytiri and Kayla reached the battle. The Recoms had mounted their ikran and were flying up to greet the enemy, with the gunships now following their example. Neytiri broke off from Kayla and flew to the gunship as it was shooting down into the water to get to the Metkayina, approaching fast on her target from above. She raised her bow and aimed, expertly shooting an arrow into the cockpit, shattering the glass while the arrow lodged into the pilot's chest. The gunship crashed into nearby rocks and blew up in a cloud of fire and smoke, Neytiri celebrating her small victory with chants of ululating as she flew by. 

By now, the Metkayina have finally begun their assault, their tsurak springing out of the water and leaping above the smaller boats, the Na'vi riders spearing any Sky People on board before dragging them down into the depths of the ocean below. The skimwings themselves have attacked alongside their riders, opening their rows of teeth to any unsuspecting humans when they lept out of the water. Jake flew around and opened fire, emptying rounds of ammunition into a patrol boat until it burst into flames before swiftly turning his tsurak away from the explosion. 

It was like the Sky People had finally woken up and begun to wreak havoc themselves, emptying bullets into any nearby Metkayina or tsurak and letting their bodies sink back into the waters. Rocket projectiles, machine guns, grenades, harpoons, and depth charges were used against spears and arrows, proven effective by the growing body count of Na'vi. It began to become an obstacle course for the tsurak as large plums of water sprang up all around them like erupting geysers, forcing the Na'vi to dodge and weave to avoid injury or worse. Jake managed to dodge the grenade launcher that formed these waves of geysers and took aim, shooting the driver of the patrol boat that the launcher was stationed on. With the driver dead, the boat sped into rocks and sent the rest of its crew flying before exploding. Jake took a minute to breathe and reload, grunting tiredly in his old age.

He was caught in a moment of weakness as a Recom dived down with their ikran from above, aiming their sights on his head, before a screech could be heard and the Recom avatar only managed to turn his head just in time to see Thena with her armed jaws spread wide before everything turned to black. Kayla grunts when her ikran makes an impact with the Recom's beast, holding tight as both banshees struggle and flap their wings against each other in the air. Kayla only heard the resounding crunch of the Recom's skull before Thena finally pushed away from the enemy ikran and disengaged. Jake had looked up just in time to see the Recom's headless body slide off its ikran's back and Kayla flew away above hers, a small smirk taking form on the proud brother's face. He looked away and brought his focus back into the fight, taking his tsurak and diving back down into the water.

Another gunship was about to take off from the platform of the hunting ship before Neytiri spotted it, swiftly taking it down and causing it to explode using only a single arrow. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees an enemy ikran pursuing her and she quickly turns her own banshee away. The Recom rider that followed her was none other than Quaritch, and like he had a score to settle, he began to open fire. Neytiri learned from past experience to have her ikran dodge and weave the bullets, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't scared. She knew she couldn't serpentine forever, and flashbacks of the last time she was shot out of the sky haunted the back of her mind, so she called out in short bursts of yips, yelping for assistance.

The backup came in the form of her husband, answering her distressed calls. Jake and his tsurak leap out of the water, flying right behind Quaritch, and roared as he began to open fire on the colonel. Quaritch takes evasive maneuvers, Neytiri forgotten, while he tries to avoid getting shot. He was only given a window of opportunity when Jake ran out of ammo and quickly had to stop and reload. Jake threw his empty clip over his shoulder and pats around his vest for more, only to come up empty aside from the dread now looming in his chest, "Oh, shit."

Meanwhile, Neytiri had flown back to aid Kayla in taking down the other Recoms flying around, the Forest woman using her ikran to make a large loop upside down as she aimed and fired an arrow into an enemy avatar. Kayla responded in kind by shooting down another Recom that was ready to go after Neytiri for killing his friend. Kayla looked around for more targets and saw another Recom shooting down into the water, presumable at a Metkayina and their tsurak. Kayla flew down to their aid, raining a hellfire of bullets into both the Recom and their ikran. The bodies of both banshee and avatar crashed into the water, and the Metkayina briefly turned around to glance at her pursuer's corpse. 

It was Ronal, her spear missing and her heart skipping in her chest to see the demon that was trying to shoot her while she was helpless was now dead. Peering up through the ocean's surface, the tsahik could make out an image of Kayla and her ikran flying away with the enemy dead, distorted by the movement of water and unaware of Ronal's gratitude. 

Kayla now turned to a particularly large shape forming in the water, deciding to finish off any survivors from the damage Payakan left in his wake. With the flick of his tail, he had sent a whole patrol boat into the propellor of the hunting ship, killing everyone on board the smaller boat as it burst into flames. Weirdly enough, the propellor fans began to kick into high gear, the flames of the explosion getting pulled through until the whole fan exploded as a result. Suddenly, the very large WIGE ship is pushed forward, going at high speed toward a scattering of rocks peeking out of the water as if the ship had been sabotaged from the inside. The vessel crashes, being thrown into the air while the rocks scrape along the underbelly, causing irreparable damage. The ship momentarily flies in the air before slowly crashing back down into the sea, worse for wear as it slows to a stop. Kayla noticed a surface boat with a harpoon holder welded into the bow of the vessel quickly picking up speed to avoid getting crushed by the large ship and decided to set her sights on its crewmembers. She leans forward as Thena picks up speed, flying toward the vessel at the same time Payakan appears to have noticed the small boat as well. 

Elsewhere, Jake had to dive back into the water to avoid getting shot by Quaritch now that the colonel had the upper hand. When The Recom leader managed to lose sight of his target, Jake took the moment of opportunity to leap his tsurak out of the water and have the skimwing latch its razor-sharp teeth into the neck of Quaritch's ikran. Quaritch yells out, surprised and enraged as both tsurak and ikran struggle together, entangled while their riders shout out grunts and war cries, pushing and pulling to gain the upper hand with all their stubborn might. Quaritch is flung from his banshee, crashing into the water while Jake's tsurak drags the ikran into the depths before finally unlatching its teeth and letting go. The ikran swims then fly away upon surfacing, abandoning its master as Quaritch swims to the surface, gasping for air with his rifle in hand. 

The harpoon vessel had begun to follow Payakan upon sighting him, and the tulkun swam alongside it until the harpoon was let loose. Payakan dove and shifted in the water, narrowly avoiding the harpoon before using the tusk-like structure on the bow of his head to spin and tangle the strong cable attached to the harpoon around him before further clamping his jaws around the cable for extra measure. He swims fast, faster than normal until he's dragging the whole boat behind him like an excited dog dragging his owner by the leash. The tulkun pulls the boat along for the ride until they get to another cluster of rocks poking out of the water, then swims around it until the boat is helplessly skimming toward its doom. The boat crashes and briefly floats in the air along with any crew member on board who had quickly grabbed a hold of something, before diving back into the water. The boat is miraculously still afloat, bobbing up and down in waves as the chaos subsides for now. The vessel looked as though it was floating dead in the water, with no engine or noise coming from its hull. The harpoon launcher was reloaded as they waited, looking around for any sight of the tulkun. 

Payakan repeated his maneuver and breached the water, cable still in his mouth, as he lept over the small boat. The cable now wrapped securely around the boat, Payakan gave a quick tug until the cable dug into the metal of the boat and then began to sink deeper and deeper. The crew scrambles to duck down just as the cable comes crashing through, cutting everything in its path until it catches onto the harpoon launcher, a crewmate's arm caught right in between them. 

Kayla was flying around Payakan's whereabouts and winced just as the cable cut through the man's arm and harpoon launcher, sending both flying and then crashing into the ocean below along with the severed arm. Kayla then dives down to finish off the survivors, aiming then firing at any humans that pose a threat. She spares one man among the wreckage, however, as he clearly appears to be a scientist, not a soldier. She could afford to spare one man to go crawling back to Ardmore and relay his horrific stories... but she wouldn't feel the loss if another Na'vi decided to finish him off instead. 

~~~~~~~~~

The sky slowly turned dark as eclipse rolled around, the fires from prior explosives the only thing lighting up the war zone that transpired, turning everything red and orange in its wake. It was like a waking nightmare, a sky full of smoke and pollution, taken out of a dystopian novel. The eery silence was only filled by flickering fire, with no signs of Na'vi or man in sight. Both had mysteriously disappeared.  

Kayla had looped around the battlefield several times already, trying to pinpoint any danger or sign of a familiar face. There were a lot of floating bodies and debris, empty boats with blood dripping down. It looked unnerving as they began to float away, with no sign of life on board. 

There's a distance splash and Kayla reflectively turned in the direction she heard it. There's an outline of a Na'vi jumping off the back of his tsurak and walking along a face of rocks, soft waves of water lapping over the surface and giving off the illusion that he was walking on water. Thena lowered from the sky until Kayla managed to depict certain characteristics and instantly recognized the Na'vi man, "Jake!"

Jake looked up at the sound of his name and noticed an ikran land on the rocks, huffing from exhaustion as its rider disengaged, running toward him. A small wave of relief encompasses Toruk Makto at the sight of his sister, "Kayla! Hey--"

"'You alright?" She immediately asked upon reaching him, her eyes briefly looking for any injuries.

"Yeah, you?"

"Yeah."

There's a distant splash resembling a breach in the water, causing the older Sully siblings to turn at the noise. Immediately, Kayla's stomach falls at the sight. It was like a waking nightmare for Jake, watching a small group of teenagers come rolling onto the shore of the rock face he and Kayla had landed on. Quickly, he noticed something was wrong, running over as Lo'ak waved him down.

"Dad! Dad, help! It's Neteyam!"

Tsireya briefly closes her eyes as a harsh wave smacks her in the face, ears drooping when listening to the sounds of Neteyam's rugged coughs. He was weak, and short of breath even though he had been an excellent student in her lessons on how to take large gulps of air for deep diving. It scared her, "Hurry!"

Lo'ak peers back at his brother before sinking into the water, dismounting his ilu and handing his brother to Tsireya, "Here, take him!"

Jake and Kayla proceed to rush over, eyes widening at the sight of the teens holding Neteyam above water as he sputters and coughs, one of which was not like the others and was the very same teenage boy Kayla had spent a long time searching for. The gasp she let out at the sight of a human boy among the Na'vi teens was from pure shock, "Spider?"

"Oh, no," Jake gasped as he took in the horrific sight of the half-drowned kids trying to pull his wounded firstborn to shore, blood pouring from his chest like the water he was floating in.

Lo'ak keeps repeating the same words through his fear, "It's Neteyam! He's hurt!"

Spider reaches out for Toruk Makto's arm as he grasps Neteyam's body, "Jake, come on! Come on!"

"Hurry, please!" Lo'ak begs.

Jake finally snaps out of his daze and grabs Spider's arm, trying to help drag all the connected teenagers to shore, "Pull!"

Kayla shakes herself from her shock and steps up to help, also grabbing onto Spider's arm and assisting her brother in pulling them all up out of the water.

"Bro, watch his head, watch his head!" Lo'ak instructs Spider, panic beginning to set in as he watches Neteyam's eyes begin to roll back, the older boy still coughing and otherwise unaware of his surroundings.

"Pull! Come on!" Jake grunts, finally getting all the kids out of the water. He grabs Neteyam's torso, lifting him in the air while Lo'ak and Spider have his sides and Tsireya has his legs, Kayla's hands hovering around the wounded boy's neck in case it rolls. Jake has them bring Neteyam to more solid ground before lowering him, "Just watch his head. Okay--"

Neteyam shallowly breathes as he feels the cold and wet rock surface underneath him, unable to suck in more air as Lo'ak grasps one of his hands, squeezing hard in comfort, "It's okay, bro. We got you."

Jake pushes Neteyam onto his side, immediately clocking the exit wound bleeding profusely with the help of Spider's flashlight, "Oh, no," looking around, frantic, he instead grabs Lo'ak's hands and presses it harshly against Neteyam's bleeding chest, "Put pressure-- put pressure on it!"

Neteyam stifles a grunt at the pressure against his chest, trying to get a word out, "Dad, I--"

"It's okay, I'm here!"

Kayla thinks quickly and rationally, stripping off her jacket, "Jake, the exit--"

"I know, I know!"

Without another word, Kayla has Lo'ak help her lift Neteyam until she has her rolled-up jacket pressed up against the exit wound behind him then lays him back down, helping Lo'ak continue putting pressure on the profusely bleeding hole in the older boy's chest. But she couldn't know how long Neteyam had been bleeding out. It was impossible to determine and her attempt to save him might be in vain. Kayla remains hovering over him, trying her best to conjure up a smile, "Hey, kiddo... it's alright, just take it easy. Remember to breathe..."

Neytiri lands her ikran when she spotted a few members of her family, barely pulling her braid from her mount before running over to the scene, muttering in fear and denial, "No, no, no, no, no!"

Kayla moves out of the way the moment Neteyam's mother arrives, surrendering her spot next to Lo'ak for Neytiri, and backs up, hovering over her brother's family and unable to look away.

"It's okay. It's okay, son, I gotcha." Jake comforted.

Lo'ak tries the same, "It's okay..."

Neteyam's eyes wildly looked around, unfocused and frightened, even when directed at Jake. It was like his son couldn't hear him, the shock setting Neteyam into panic mode as Jake tried to firmly reassure him.

Neteyam briefly looked relieved before tears started to gather in his eyes. Just this once, he allows himself to be a little boy again, tearful and sad, "I want to go home..." he grunts out his small plea before gasping rapidly, the words exhausting him.

Jake's voice quivers, holding his son's shoulder, "I know. I know. It's okay, we're goin' home. We're goin' home."

He softens his voice, pushing the desperation away to try and calm his son, as if he was still an infant he was soothing to sleep, "We're going home. It's okay, it's okay."

Neteyam gulps and tries to force the words out of his mouth, "Dad, I..."

His words are abruptly cut off, fading into the wind. The boy's eyes begin to unfocus and his body goes unnaturally stiff, rid of all muscle movement and heartbeat. Silence lingers over the Sully family as they wait for their son and brother to catch his breath, Neytiri gripping his hand tighter to get him to focus, "Neteyam..."

But there was no response. No breath, no words... nothing. Complete silence while Neteyam's eyes are permanently stuck watching the sky, unblinking and unfocused. Jake's heart plummets to his stomach, his breath escaping his lungs as he bows his head in distress. Neytiri's eyes flicker over her firstborn's face, over and over, frantic as she begins to rant, "No. No, no, no, Neteyam!" 

She begins to scream in anguish and denial, her voice shattering everyone's ears and hearts. Tsireya couldn't bear to look at her friend's body anymore and had to look away to cry, flinching at the sound of Neytiri's screams. Jake shushes his wife softly, reaching out to her but his touch goes unnoticed, as the mother desperately clings to any part of her dead son's body, trying to shake him awake. A single tear slips down Spider's face, collecting at the bottom of his mask, while Lo'ak begins to quietly sob, staring down at his hands, covered in his brother's blood. 

"Neteyam!" Neytiri sobs while leaning over her boy, holding his head close to hers as she wails, "Oh, Great Mother. No, Great Mother! Please! Oh, my son! My son... No!" 

Jake had gone completely numb, leaning back with his hands in his lap, eyes drifting off to somewhere distant while unable to comprehend the sight in front of him. Neytiri continues to sob and plead to anyone who will listen, her voice growing hoarse over time, "My son! No! No!"

Kayla silently stood over the Sully family, tears running down her face, but otherwise quiet to the world. Initially, she wanted to clench her hands into fists but immediately unfurled them again when she felt the squish and stick of her nephew's blood, to which she refused to look down and see for herself. She didn't want to see the color, nor what it represented... a young life taken from his family far too soon. 

"Can you hear me, Corporal?" Kayla's ears perk up to the southern drawl in her earpiece, and when her eyes flick to Jake, she notices his ears move to attention as well. Both Sully siblings felt cold as the voice dragged on, "Yeah, yeah, I think you can. I got your daughters. Same deal as before. You for them."

At the mention of the girls, Jake appears to wake out of his trance, turning his head to the direction of the hunting ship, then realization begins to creep in. His head slowly turns back to Lo'ak, his voice quiet as terror begins to settle in his chest, "Where are your sisters?"

His remaining son slowly peers up at him, eyes rimmed pink from crying, and his silence only angered Jake as he snapped his demands, "Your sisters. Where are they?"

"I don't know," Lo'ak whispered. 

"Where are they?!" Jake shouts.

"They're on the ship," Tsireya sobs quietly, her bottom lip quivering as Toruk Makto turns to her, "They are tied up on the ship."

"They're-- They're at the moon pool," whether it was out of grief, shock, or fear of Jake, Spider continued to stutter while the older man turned to him, holding onto the boy's arm as he spoke, "At-- A-At the well deck. Midships."

"What?" Jake asked, unable to make sense of the human boy's rambling. 

Spider sighs in defeat and then rises to his feet, grabbing onto Jake's arm and helping him stand up, "Come on. I'll show you. Come on. I'll show you."

Jake stumbled initially, the shock and adrenaline still coursing through him as Quaritch continued to speak through the radio, "Talk to me, Corporal. I need somethin', Jake or there's gonna be consequences."

"Yeah, I hear you," Jake responded as he pressed into the throat, sounding a little out of breath. He stumbles over to Kayla, ignoring the blood on her hands and gripping both of her arms as he speaks to her, his voice like gravel scrapping together, "Fly up ahead. Don't engage until I get into position. Lure the hostiles away while I grab the girls. Wait for my signal."

Kayla forced herself to nod, swallowing whatever broken cry threatened to come out as she whispered, "All right."

She forces herself to break out of Jake's hold, forcing herself to turn and walk away from the others, Neytiri's cries following her as she went. There's a small pool of water that collects on the rock surface and Kayla briefly kneels down to clean herself up, tears beginning to well up in her eyes again when she finally sees all the blood. She quickly stands back up, forming tsaheylu with Thena while hopping up onto her back, barely glancing back at what she assumes is the top of Neteyam's head of braids before rising into the sky and flying away.

Even though she could no longer hear Neytiri's cries from this distance, Kayla could still hear the horrific sounds in her head, following her as she rose higher into the sky. She uses the clouds and smoke for cover as she silently looms over what she knows is the location of the WIGE ship, using the scope of her rifle again to look down below to see what she is dealing with. The ship was slowly but surely beginning to sink, slightly tilted in the water, but the remaining Recoms and human soldiers on board were trying to balance out the weight but positioning themselves on one end, gathering their weapons and anxiously waiting for Jake's arrival. 

As she's waiting above, alone in her grieving silence, she's suddenly startled out of her daze when the earpiece kicks on again, and Quaritch's voice seeps through, "Talk to me, Corporal. This ship's going down and your girls with it... Your boy didn't have to die. You brought that on yourself. You thought you could keep your family safe, but you can't. Only one way to keep them safe. So let's get this over with before you lose another kid."

Thena mewls quietly when feeling the blood-boiling rage through her bond with Kayla, the avatar's grip tightening on the reins of her ikran. Flashes of the many ways she could kill Quaritch play in Kayla's head like a movie, deep and dark thoughts she would never voice out loud unless she'd risk scaring the people she loved around her. Back on Earth, she would've immediately been sent to a shrink or a psychiatric hospital for voicing her murderous thoughts and she didn't want to risk finding out what would happen if she did so here on Pandora. 

Her thoughts are abruptly cut off, however, by the loud sound of an explosion going off on the upper decks of the WIGE ship. While Kayla was waiting in her dark mind, Jake was below, sneaking onto the ship along with Spider. As Quaritch was monologuing, Jake had taken a grenade and lodged it into a gunship that Neytiri had shot down earlier, the wreckage now resting on the top of the WIGE ship. Jake quickly ran back to Spider and shouted for him to take cover, right before the gunship exploded into fire and debris.

Kayla watched the explosion bloom into smoke before she finally flew down, knowing that was the signal. She uses that smoke as cover, flying down through it to remain unseen to the RDA goons. The fires were blinding the humans, scrambling away from the flames or diving in to save anyone who survived the initial explosion. At the moment, everyone was distracted, and it was this perfect distraction that the Sully adults used to their advantage, striking the Sky People while they were down. Jake leaped in and immediately took out a human and a Recom by impaling them with a Metkayina spear. He wasn't able to take the weapon with him as it lodged completely through the body of the Recom, so Jake quickly took his AK out and began firing at nearby soldiers once they began to notice his presence. 

At the sound of gunfire, Kayla and Neytiri swoop into action, flying down from opposite ends of the ship, and surrounding the Sky People. Neytiri lands in a front-ward roll before skilfully aiming and firing her bow and arrow, immediately lodging said arrow into the leg of a female Recom. While the enemy avatar is distracted, Neytiri picks off the two humans who were covering the Recom's six. Neytiri raises the last human male up and shoots an arrow through his body and into the female Recom's skull before she can further react. Neytiri scrambles to retrieve her arrows once all immediate enemies are dead just as Jake approaches with his gun in his arms, keeping an eye out while his wife collects her ammunition. 

"Clear," he announces to her, expertly looking around to spot more enemies.

Meanwhile, Kayla has landed on a different end of the ship, and Thena flies away. One Recom, bald and sporting tattoos with a patch on his vest that read L. WAINFLEET, immediately noticed her and shouted to the top of his lungs while aiming his gun in her direction, "We got another avatar!"

He and other humans begin to open fire, while Kayla immediately ducks for cover. Jake had climbed up onto the upper levels of the ship as this began to transpire and used the distraction to attack the RDA soldiers who were firing down at his sister from their high ground. He killed and flung their bodies down from the catwalk, the height surely killing their small and frail bodies. Wainfleet noticed the sky was raining bodies and briefly stopped firing to look up before his eyes widened and he immediately moved his gun sights onto Jake, "Eyes up!"

The human soldiers follow his order and begin to raise and fire up at Jake. Kayla uses this distraction to come back out of hiding and, with their backs turned, she immediately begins to open fire on the Sky People, expertly shooting most of them in the back of the head or top of the spine.

Neytiri throws herself into the fray, leaping down the flight of stairs leading down to the lower deck of the ship. She dives for cover as Quaritch and other Sky People take notice of her and open fire. Wainfleet and any Sky People that managed to escape Kayla's cascade of bullets try to surround Neytiri, moving up slowly to her hiding place as she continues through her murder spree. She manages to get above and behind the humans trying to get around and corner her, jumping down behind Wainfleet before disarming him and knocking him out when she swings her bow into his face. Out of arrows, Neytiri readies her bow to swing again and hides, waiting for the remaining soldiers to come find her. 

Jake continued to be her eyes from above, shooting down at the soldiers below once they got too close to Neytiri's hiding spot. She comes out of hiding once her husband kills her remaining pursuers and rushes to grab any nearby stray arrows. Meanwhile, Kayla is pushing the remaining soldiers forward, shooting her AK into the fray and drawing them back. Little did the humans realize that Kayla had pushed them toward Jake and Neytiri in their rush to fall back away from Kayla's barrage of attacks. Jake jumps down once Kayla has their prey clustered close together and begins picking them off one by one. He lifts humans into the air and throws them into Recoms. He chucks empty rifles into RDA masks, causing the masks to shatter and the humans to suffocate while he moves forward with his tomahawk in hand. Kayla appears on the other side of the surrounded Sky People, completely cornering them into the blood bath. Once her section was cleared of hostiles, she moved further up to the highest point of the ship to provide support for Jake and Neytiri from above.

Neytiri shoots arrows at those who manage to break off and run away from Jake. Once out of arrows once more, she dives for one that was lodged into a dead body nearby, struggling with it as it got stuck. Meanwhile, Wainfleet had woken up behind her, face bleeding as he scrambled to reload his rifle. Neytiri had managed to get her arrow loose of the body and was about to aim and finish the Recom off before Jake appeared out of nowhere, attacking Wainfleet head-on and obstructing a clear shot for Neytiri to take.

"Ma Jake!" 

While the two male avatars fight in close combat, more soldiers try to get around them. With her husband preoccupied, Neytiri covers him and fires her already-loaded arrow into one of the soldiers, killing him instantly. Behind the body was a clear view of Kiri and Tuk, cuffed to the center railing of the ship, just like what Spider had said. 

With their daughters close at hand, Jake and Neytiri move in, now acting like a frantic couple of animals as the threat of their young is further imminent. Kayla provides backup support, knowing better to stay out of the parents' way, and empties her AK onto anyone below who is trying to subdue Jake and Neytiri, but through the smoke and flashes of gunfire, Kayla quickly loses sight of Na'vi pair, and the ground level grows eerily silent once there are no more soldiers to kill. Deciding to get closer to Kiri and Tuk's position, Kayla slowly and quietly makes her way back down, not wanting to make her presence known. She climbs down onto some gunship wreckage, not yet on the ground level once she spots the back of Jake's head. Getting a closer look, she realized Jake was weaponless, hands open in defeat.

Little Tuk was standing behind her father, shivering in fear, while in front of them stood Quaritch, his knife pressed tightly against Kiri's throat. At least, Kayla could only assume it was Quaritch, faintly seeing his name on the patch of his vest. They were all at a standstill, and when Kayla immediately jumped down to help, Jake threw his arm out for her to stay back, "Don't move!" He begged.

Quaritch keeps Kiri in front of him, using the teenager as a shield as he bares his fangs at Kayla upon her arrival, "Weapons down, now!"

"Do what he says." Jake sternly tells his sister. Kayla hesitates, eyes flicking between him and Kiri, then at Quaritch's knife that had already made small red cuts into her older niece's neck. Slowly, the female avatar sets down her gun and kicks it away, tossing her remaining ammunition over her shoulder before raising her arms up where the colonel can see them.

Satisfied, Quaritch quickly digs into his vest pocket and pulls out orange slap cuffs, tossing them onto the ground at Jake's feet as he snarls, "Cuff yourself."

"No!" A voice from behind Quaritch begged just as Jake was kneeling down to grab the cuffs. Everyone looked up to notice that the voice belonged to Spider, the human teen running around to get into Quaritch's line of sight, "No, don't hurt her, okay? Don't--"

"Stand there!" Quaritch roared, pointing a threatening finger at the boy while he kept Kiri in place with the knife against her neck.

"Spider, stay back!" Kayla yells out of fear, surprising even herself when her voice sounds stern.

Tuk softly cried while leaning back into her aunt's legs when Kayla drew close to the child, Jake firmly keeping his sister and his youngest child behind him, "Don't..."

"Don't. Move. Not a step," Quaritch threatens Spider before turning back to Jake, "Cuffs. On. Now!"

"You son of a bitch." Jake forces out through his anger and fear, slapping one side of the cuffs onto his wrist.

"Please, don't hurt her." Spider continues to beg.

Out of nowhere, Neytiri creeps up behind the human boy and retrieves her knife, grabbing hold of Spider and pressing her knife against his own neck with a snarl. Quaritch is startled at the sight, proceeding to hold Kiri tighter while looking between the boy and Neytiri.

The Na'vi woman's voice sounded so unlike her, hoarse and breathless, "Release. Or I cut."

Quaritch paused before trying to play off the threat, shaking his head, "What, you think I care about some kid? He's not mine. We're not even the same species."

"Just please don't-- don't hurt her," Spider continues to beg, ignoring his own life in exchange for Kiri's as he continues to plead to the man who holds the memories of his father, "Just please let her go."

"Don't!" Tuk continues to cry quietly, while Kayla holds the little girl's head against her. Both hers and Jake's ears and eyes flicked to whoever talked during the whole hostage situation, unable to move and feeling helpless.

"Please!"

"Don't kill him--" Kiri had begun to beg as well.

"Listen to me! Let her go. Don't hurt her."

"Mom, don't kill him."

"A son for a son." Neytiri shakily growls, tilting her head in Quaritch's direction as if studying him. She looked completely unhinged, sweat and human blood scattered all around her face and body, shrunken yellow eyes staring only at Quaritch.

"Neytiri, don't!" Kayla begs, holding Tuk close for protection and comfort, "Please!"

"Please don't hurt her," Spider continues to ramble until Neytiri takes her knife and slices the blade tightly over his chest, drawing small beads of blood, "Ah!"

"I cut," Neytiri hissed, flashing the blood on her knife to let Quaritch know she meant business. 

Spider huffs in pain and grits his teeth, but he goes right back to begging, "Please just let her go, okay? Just let her go."

Quaritch and Neytiri stare down at one another, unblinking until Neytiri screams in rage and raises her knife up to cut down Spider. Barely anyone had time to react, apart from Quaritch, as he quickly pulled his knife away from Kiri, "NO!"

Kiri gasped only to realize that she wasn't in any more danger, calming her heartbeat as the relieved tears began to well up. A scream that threatened to climb out of Kayla's throat suddenly subsided, and she held her breath while waiting for Neytiri's reaction. The air is thick and tense, both knives raised in the air either to destroy or spare. Neytiri slowly looks back at Quaritch, breathing heavily as she waits, keeping her knife posed and her grip on Spider. Quaritch grunts in defeat, pushing Kiri away and stepping back. Kiri immediately gets to her feet as Jake, Kayla, and Tuk inch closer to her, the younger girl whispering reassurances for herself and her sister, "Kiri... Kiri. Kiri."

Neytiri watches her family reunite with one another before slowly lowering the knife back down, then pointedly shoves Spider behind her, away from Quaritch.

"Spider!" Kiri exclaims as she, Tuk, and Kayla run to him.

Jake slowly approaches Neytiri while they're occupied, taking the knife out of his wife's hand and keeping an eye on Quaritch, "Spider, get 'em outta here."

Without hesitation, Spider began to tug on Kiri's arm, pulling her toward the ocean that was slowly creeping onto the tilting ship, "Come on. Guys-- Tuk."

"I owe you a death," Quaritch points directly at Neytiri, who snarls ferociously back at him with pure hatred in her eyes. 

"Mom," Kiri calls out, while Tuk begins to tug on her mother's arm.

"Mama."

"Come."

"Come on. Please, Mama."

Neytiri finally relents with her daughters' pleading, slowly backing up, inching toward the water. Jake keeps himself between Quaritch and his family, Kayla standing dutifully at his side while the children and Neytiri sink into the water. Quaritch keeps his knife in front of him, at the ready, acting like a cornered tiger while trying to bait Jake into staying, "You're not leaving, are you, Jake?"

"It's okay--" Kiri reassures Tuk as she and Neytiri draw closer.

"Knowin' I'm out there?" Quaritch continues.

"Kayla, back up," Jake muttered warningly, and his sister slowly sank into the water to join the others behind him. 

"Knowin' that I'll never stop?" Quaritch seethed, his voice lowering now that it was only him and Jake still standing on the sinking deck of the ship, "I'm comin' for you. And when I do, I'll kill your whole family."

The water laps at Kiri's face as she sinks into the water, worry in her eyes while watching Jake stand still, no longer moving to join them, "Dad..."

Jake's body stiffens as if his mind had been made up about something, eyes focused only on Quaritch as he stands up straighter, "Then let's get it done."

"Jake, no!" Kayla yells just as Jake leaps for a nearby medkit at the same time Quaritch dives toward him. Jake swings the medkit and hits the Recom with it, momentarily stunning the colonel as he goes in for another attack, this time with the knife he took from Neytiri. He swings at Quaritch several times, closely missing his neck before finally getting a slice at his vest. As the ship continues to tilt and sink, crates and other debris slide down toward the fighting pair and both Jake and Quaritch have to move out of the way to avoid getting hit before moving back in for the kill. They grapple and wrestle for each other's knives, trying to shove the sharp tip into each other's skulls.

"Jake!" Neytiri calls out to her mate just as a burst of flame begins to spread over the water where coolant and oil had spilled into the ocean. The wall of flame grows and begins to inch closer toward the Na'vi and the human boy floating just above the water's surface.

"It's coming!" Tuk cries.

"Back. Back!" Spider orders to the girls, beginning to tread water back the way they came, "Get back to the ship! Go!"

"Tuk, swim. Swim!" Kiri instructs hurriedly. 

Kayla, who was the last to get into the water, was now the first one out, grabbing onto the others one by one and pulling them back up onto the deck, starting with Tuk and ending with Spider as he made sure the others made it on first. Kayla continued to push the whole group ahead of her, occasionally looking around to see if Jake and Quaritch were still nearby, but she had lost sight of them. 

And she wasn't the only one. Neytiri was also frantically looking around, fear in her eyes while clinging on tightly to Tuk's hand, "Jake--"

"I'll get him, go!" Kayla exclaims in a last-second decision, backing away from the group and breaking off while shouting at Neytiri from over her shoulder, "Get the kids outta here, we'll come find ya!"

Kayla then turns to look ahead of her as she runs, determination setting in as she goes over to where she last saw her brother. She hears grunts and growls in the distance and doesn't hesitate to sprint over just in time to see Quaritch kick Jake in the gut to disengage from their knife wrestle. Jake doesn't have time to react as a motor or a generator of some sort comes sliding down toward him and shoves him into the water. 

Quaritch stalks over to the place Jake disappeared, knife glinting off of the flames of destruction around him. The Recom's muscles flex as he pants heavily with adrenaline, and with his back turned to Kayla, she makes a split and reckless decision. Unarmed, she leaps over sliding debris and then uses that momentum to jump up onto Quaritch's back with a small war cry, the both of them grunting at the impact while Kayla doesn't waste time to reach for and grapple for the knife in the colonel's hand. Quaritch growls and pitches Kayla forward off of his back, only for his grip to loosen around his knife and fall right into her hand. The female avatar stands up straight, quickly repositioning the blade more securely in her grip before charging forward, swinging in the air in front of Quaritch as he continuously dodges and leans away from the knife.

Eventually, he sidesteps and grabs her swinging arm, stopping the blade in its tracks before twisting her arm into an uncomfortable position. She cries out, forced to drop the blade before taking her other arm and elbowing Quaritch in the face. He staggers back with a pained grunt, then reaches for her arm again. He slams her against the rigging, driving her to take a gasp of air and regain her footing. A feat that was proven useless when Quaritch quickly grabbed the knife on the ground and reached forward, grabbing Kayla's kuru braid at the very base, connected to her skull. He yanked, hard, driving Kayla to scream in pain, the action rendering her immobile. He keeps her braid tight in one hand while the other retrieves his knife and is sure to let her know he means business when he presses the sharp blade to her throat. Kayla reduced her struggle to a minimum as she felt a small trickle of blood run down her long neck along with her sweat.

Quaritch grits his teeth and through the struggle, manages a small, gritted smile, "You're a newer model. You must be the little missing guinea pig the General was talking about."

She hissed, baring her fangs to the best of her ability, making the intimidating sound from the back of her throat, only cutting the sound off when Quaritch tugged painfully against her braid. Kayla gulped back air and frantically reached back for her queue at the base, trying to relieve his grip on such a sensitive part, following the motion to be sure the kuru wasn't torn from her skull. The movement brings Quaritch's attention to a certain item dangling from her neck.

Her RDA military tags, clinked softly together, proudly bearing her rank and station. Quaritch sees the name, so familiar that causes both dread and rage to eat him up from the inside out. He snarls, the fangs forming a cold, threatening smile, "Well I'll be damned... betrayal must run in the family."

Kayla nearly lunged at him before she felt a twitch in the knife and her body immediately stiffened, the cold blade digging further into her skin. She could see the male avatar's whole form tightening, preparing to use his strength to give the killing the blow. Quaritch's grip on her braid and his knife tighten and he's ready to just end her with the flick of his wrist.

"NO!" Is the only gutwrenching warning Jake gives either of them before he tackles Quaritch, shoving his whole body into the colonel's torso like a football player. The impact drives the older man to grunt in pain and also let go of Kayla, but the force of the tackle sends her falling backward, stumbling over the railing. Kayla is thrown overboard and sent falling into the ocean, where her screams forming her brother's name are drowned out by the water consuming her.

Unable to take a breath in before she hit the water, Kayla struggled to get air. She quickly swims up to the surface and manages to gulp out a breath or two when she breaches, but the moment is cut short when she realizes that the tipping ship was throwing debris off the side of the hull down into the ocean and onto her. Kayla instinctively holds her breath, properly this time, and dives back down into the water in an attempt to avoid the collision. Heavy machinery and other objects from the ship are falling quickly through the water around her like a knife through butter, too heavy to stay afloat. She narrowly misses as much debris as possible, trying to swim away as fast as she can, but she gets caught but a large piece of shipwreck that had broken off from the initial boat. It's heavy enough to drag her down, deep into the dark depths until the bioluminescent lights of the coral reef below light her surroundings, the glow of the fire and eclipse above the ocean's surface faintly disappearing the deeper she got dragged down. Her arms burned in exhaustion as she tried her best to pull and swim herself out from under the debris, but it was too heavy and sinking too fast, and her foot and gotten caught in a shredded hole wedged inside the metal. 

Against all that she had learned, Kayla began to panic, her heart racing while she frantically looked around to the best of her ability. Because of this, the need for air came quicker, and her lungs began to burn and try to constrict. Pressure began to build in her skull and chest, and dark spots started to form in the corners of her vision. The creaking of metal fills her ears as Kayla's arms finally stop fighting, too tired and weak to continue to try. With her mind now foggy and devoid of logic due to lack of oxygen, Kayla opened her mouth and took in a breath.

Just as the water rushed through her mouth and entered her lungs, a sharp tug on her foot had wrenched her free. Whatever was wrapped around her ankle now rose to wrap around her waist, and distantly, Kayla felt herself being pulled against a solid form as they swam through the water. Barely gaining the strength to look up, she faintly realized she was quickly rising to the surface.

The moment her face is free from the water, she takes big gulps of air, coughing seaspray from her lungs as she's pulled up onto a tsurak without much of a struggle, laying across its strong back and part of its head as she catches her breath. The strong arm secure around her torso was heavily tattooed and clearly Metkayina, the limb letting her go once she remembered to hold herself up out of the water. Between breaths, she takes a moment to glance up and lets her body relax at the sight of Tonowari, sitting calmly on the saddle of the skimwing.

The olo'eyktan appeared grim at the sight of her, silently urging her to cough up the water with a hand gently placed on the back of her neck. Kayla winced when the initial touch was sore from where her queue braid had been tugged, and so Tonowari drew his hand away, instead tilting her chin up to inspect the cut on her neck, small trickles of blood flowing down her skin.

"Are you injured?"

"I'm fine." Kayla managed to spit out as she pulled her chin from his grasp, ignoring the sharp pain in her foot. She began wildly looking around and immediately spotted Ronal and her tsurak floating beside them. Closely watching Kayla, the tsahik's big eyes briefly glanced down at the neck wound her mate was inspecting on the avatar.

Satisfied by the answer, Tonowari instructs Kayla to lean against him so he can reach the handlebar of his tsurak, adjusting her until she's properly straddling the back of the powerful lungfish. Still a little dazed and recovering, Kayla doesn't fight being puppeteered as the tsurak begins to move in the direction its rider wanted to go. Kayla tiredly looked around, freezing in fear when she noticed the WIGE ship was barely peeking out of the water now, and she could do nothing but watch as it slowly disappeared, into the ocean, leaving nothing behind but large bubbles and ripples along with the groaning of metal.

It was only when Kayla realized that she was being led away from the location of the sunken ship did she begin to struggle, startling the skimwing and irritating the chieftain. Tonowari grips the handle of the tsurak with one hand but makes a point to restrain Kayla with the other, wrapping his whole arm around her torso again as she starts to protest loudly, "No! NO! My family's still in there! They're still down there, stop!"

"You will do them no good if you drown before you can get to them!" Tonowari snapped.

Ronal blocked the path of her husband's tsurak with her own, looking dead in Kayla's eyes with ferocious determination and fear, not willing to look away, "My daughter-- where is she?!"

Briefly stunned with the adrenaline slowly wearing off, Kayla sputtered for a moment, catching her breath while stuttering out, "On... On that rock face over there."

She points in the general direction where the dreading idea of Neteyam's body now lay, but neither Ronal nor Tonowari notice the look of defeat and grief on her face. Looking back at the ship, she couldn't help the tears falling down her face as she quietly whispered, "I'll take you to her."

They idly swam in silence, and it felt as though the world was ending. They swam past floating bodies and debris, empty boats, and life jackets. The sky was still red along with the scattering ocean of flames and smoke. The smell was almost unbearable. It was the longest silence in Kayla's life, her only thoughts on the whereabouts of her brother and his family. Had they gotten off the ship? Are they safe? Where was Quaritch? 

Tsireya had spotted them in the water before the three Na'vi adults spotted her, crying and waving them over to the stranded rock fixture she stood on, her knees covered in blood, but not her own, "Sa'nok! Sempul!"

Kayla was immediately forgotten as both Ronal and Tonowari hopped off their skimwings and scrambled up onto the rock fixture, rushing toward their daughter. Ronal instantly gathered the crying girl in her arms, a little difficult with her rounded belly, but she had managed while whispering into her hair with relief in her voice, "Tsireya... Thank you, Great Mother, thank you."

Tonowari joins the embrace, wrapping his long arms around his wife and child. A soft yip in the wind draws the olo'eyktan's attention away, and upon looking around, he catches sight of two reef boys astride ilu. The boys call out again before jumping up onto the rock face. It was Ao'nung and Rotxo, both unharmed and a little frazzled. Ao'nung raced to his family and his father pulled him into their group embrace, relief now fully flooding the family's veins. 

Rotxo stood just outside of the family, his eyes only set on one thing lying on the ground, dread seeping into his skin as his breath was taken from him, "Neteyam...?"

Tsireya only cried harder at the sound of his name, and when her parents and brother turned to what Rotxo was looking at, they came across a horrific sight. Their joy and relief were shortly outlived and exchanged for sorrow as they observed Neteyam's corpse, unmoving and now cradled in Kayla's arms. She was kneeling before her nephew's body, holding his torso up on her lap with her arms wrapped protectively around his head. She was crying silently to herself, sobbing so softly that none of the Metkayina standing before her could hear it over the wind and waves. Kayla was short of breath for an entirely different reason, her body shaking as the shock wore off and the realization sunk in.

Her nephew was dead, and for all she knew, so was the rest of her family.

The sunlight finally reemerged beyond the eclipse, the fires no longer setting a dreadful horizon. Kayla didn't care for the sunlight, her stomach turning when Neteyam's blood only became more noticeable. She was cold, wet, and exhausted, the adrenaline turned to full-body shakes up and down her spine. She didn't want to move, keeping her eyes shut so she could pretend that she was simply hugging Neteyam, but it was hard to do so when Neteyam felt so cold and stiff.

A large bellow is heard from the water as something big swims up to the rock fixture. Kayla remembers Payakan and looks up, tear tracks marking down both of her cheeks. Another wave of emotions took over her when she noticed that the rest of the Sullys were all hanging onto Payakan's fin, climbing tiredly up the rock fixture once they got close enough. 

"Auntie!" Tuk cried when she first spotted Kayla, rushing over to her aunt. Kayla immediately set Neteyam down and tried her best to shield the girl from such a sight as she gathered the child up in her arms.

Kayla cried loudly, out of relief, holding onto Tuk tightly as if there was no tomorrow. Taking deep breaths through her sobs, she quickly looks around to take a headcount, quickly finding the remaining of the Sullys standing around her. Jake, Neytiri, Kiri, Lo'ak, and Tuk. All safe, all unharmed. Kiri runs up to join the group hug while Tsireya breaks away from her family to run into Lo'ak's arms. Jake and Neytiri pay no mind to anyone else, tired and distant both physically and emotionally. Neytiri simply walked back over to Neteyam, kneeling down and pulling her child into her arms as fresh tears began to cut down her face. Kayla finally lets her nieces go and gently leads them over to Neteyam, stepping away so the girls have their own time to grieve. After a while, Jake takes out a knife and goes around cutting away any remnants of orange slap cuffs still hanging off of anyone's arms and wrists. He cuts them off of himself, then Lo'ak, then Tsireya, and begins to cut the cuffs off both of Kiri's wrists. He doesn't want to take Tuk away from her big brother just yet, as the little girl cries into Neteyam's hand, holding the limb to her chest for just a little bit of comfort.

Another figure approaches, seemingly out of thin air, but only because he had just swam up to them. Kiri is the first to spot him, a relieved smile spreading over her face, "Monkey Boy!"

For the most part, everyone looks up to notice Spider, walking up to them unharmed apart from the long, thin cut across his chest. Jake stands up and puts his knife away, while Kayla watches the boy closely, looking for any signs of distress. But Spider was breathing perfectly through the mask, tired but otherwise intact.

Lo'ak gently breaks away from Tsireya to further observe his friend, likely also trying to see if he was injured, "Spider."

Ronal and Tonowari catch the name and glance at one another. So this was the sky demon boy affiliated with the Sullys. Kiri reached up to him from where she was sitting once he got close enough, placing her hand over Spider's heart. He looked down at her, equally solemn and relieved, reaching up to gently hold her hand. They smile faintly at one another before Jake interrupts to inspect the boy himself, placing his hands on Spider's shoulders.

"You all right?"

"Yeah."

Jake believes him and brings the human boy close in an embrace, looking around and then over to Lo'ak, seeing his son standing alone and looking ashamed. Immediately, Jake reaches an arm out and pulls Lo'ak into their group embrace, "Come here."

For the most part, Jake looked the worst out of all of them, bruised and slowly bleeding through small cuts and scrapes. They all stand or sit around, quietly taking in each other's presence and everything that just happened. Kayla finally felt as though she could sit down, slowly sinking to the ground until she was leaning back on her hands, properly regaining her breath, and trying to elevate her injured foot. Sighing now that pressure had been taken off her ankle, she looked around at everyone, the threat of danger still in the back of her mind, all the horror they had dealt with today now fully being comprehended in her mind. Looking over at Spider, she knows that she and Jake will have to question the boy and have him tell them everything that happened to him and how RDA had managed to find the Sullys. At the same time, they'll have to explain why they never went looking for him and offer their sincerest apologies. But for now, it'll have to wait. For now...

A son for a son.

A/N: Kinda not sorry. I love angst... no matter how much it hurts to write it. I definitely cried while writing this, but I really needed it cuz I haven't had a good cry in a while.

THERE'S GONNA BE MORE CHAPTERS AFTER THIS. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE FIC. I have future chapters already written out so keep an eye out for an update! I intend to stretch this fic out until the next film, but let's see how it goes lol. Lemme know if you want a request or want to be added to the taglist!

Rip Matthew Perry

[phoebepheebsphibs]

Double-Mutated Mikey

Chapter 16: Genetics

Continued from the short story written by @boots-with-the-fur-club

Prev || Next

Mikey is in the Interaction Room again. He's waiting for something to happen. There is a staticy feeling in the air, the lights keep flickering. Mikey can sense unease from the evil humans. Instinct has been taking charge more often than not. Mikey's head is getting worse... It doesn't remember things. Mikey can't remember how he became like this very well. Mikey can't remember what he did the other day. Instinct was in charge all of yesterday, so he probably knows. But Mikey can't recall anything. Mikey's not even sure if 'Mikey' is his name. The only reason he thinks it could be is because the evil humans in white will sometimes call him that. But when they say it, it almost sounds like a joke.

Mikey sits patiently, waiting. Wondering. He's never been made to wait this long. At least, as much as he can recall.

There is a buzzing noise, mechanical whirr. A soft rumble through the building. The lights flicker again. A panel opens and a robotic arm with a pellet gun descends from the ceiling. It points at Mikey --

He prepares himself, getting into a quick stance.

-- and the gun turns around and points at a corner in the room. It swivels and points at another. It shoots a pellet. The shot is lazy and the pellet weakly flicks off the wall.

Mikey tilts his head in confusion. What is happening?

The gun swivels round and round, shooting randomly before being forcefully retracted into the ceiling, snapping and shortcuirting as it disappears. Not one second after, another panel opens, and another machine lowers, but it stops halfway and starts shooting out sparks before it snaps off and crashes to the ground, almost crushing Mikey.

He yelps in surprise before jumping away at the last moment.

There is a crispy static sound and speakers in the room start going off.

'*CCCCCRRRSSSSHHHHH* -- Wha-- *CCKKKKHHSSPH* -- last time we mutate an electric eel -- *FFFFFSSHH* -- stupid EMP powers -- *KRRRAACKLE*'

Mikey is very confused.

A panel opens from the wall, and a wolf mutated with a rat walks in, sees Mikey, and charges.

Instinct doesn't ask to take over. He just does.

He dodges the wolf and studies its attacks and looks for any weaknesses it has. Underbelly is weak. Strike there. Instinct's tail sharpens and he --

Another panel by the floor opens up. After a second, a curious new mutant saunters in.

What? They've never sent in two at a time before!

The wolf takes advantage of the fact that Instinct/Mikey is distracted and bites the tail. Instinct roars, wraps the tail around his mouth, and whips him into the wall. Instinct turns to this new mutant, an armadillo. The shell looks somewhat similar to his with its jutting scutes and scales that fold over each other. But it smells bad. Not just nasty, but VILE. There's something wrong with it. It smells like disease.

'*KKKRSHSHSH* What are you doing?! -- I thought we were putting the armadillo in quarantine! -- has leprosy -- idiot -- I didn't do it -- something's wrong with the controls! *CCCXSHRSH*'

Instinct stays away from the diseased creature, but the wolf sees it and attacks. The armadillo balls itself up into its protective casing, a green ooze beginning to penetrate the outer shell. The wolf snaps its jaw on the armour, ingesting the poisonous ooze. It growls and begins to play with the round thing, scratching it and kicking it like a ball... He kicks it towards Instinct!

Instinct hisses and dashes away from it, clambering up the wall. He watches as the wolf starts to cough and turn a sickly green colour. The armadillo uncovers itself and watches. It saunters over to the wolf, who is getting greener and more sickly by the second. The dasypodidae glares at the canis lupis and shoots out the ooze at him. It sizzles against the wolf, who howls in agony before toppling over and decaying at a rapid pace. Instinct watches in disgusted horror as the wolf becomes nothing more than putrid acid-drenched roadkill.

Instinct needs to kill it. Fast. He dashes down to the smashed machine and grabs the whole thing -- heavy as it is -- and throws it on top of the mutant armadillo. The creature balls itself up just before the heap of heavy scrap can crush it.

Instinct wonders if that did the trick. The armour looked pretty tough...

Before the question can be answered, the lights go off. Then on. Then off again. Instinct hears three wall panels open, and sees three-- no, FOUR pairs of eyes glowing at him. This is going to be a long day...

'*KKKKKRCK* Oh, sh--SHHHHKK*'

Instinct activates the heat vision and sees that there are three creatures coming into the room... One is small and slithering. One is taller, a long snout and tail, but walking on its hind legs. The last one is a two-headed beast. Well, this should be fun...

The lights come back on, and several panels from above open, turret guns descending and misfiring in dozens of directions. Instinct reactivates the normal vision. There is a snake, an anthropomorphic crocodile, and a fox with two heads. Instinct challenges them to come closer.

They make the mistake of accepting the challenge.

Instinct dances around them, dodging the pellets and bullets as they all simultaneously charge. The two-headed fox is fastest, but clumsy; its vision impaired by the extra set of eyes that throw its depth perception and placement off. It misses Instinct by a mile, running straight past him. The crocodile runs on his stubby little legs with a gurgling snarl. He goes for Instinct, but is shot in the face and a pellet strikes his eye. The snake is swift, slithering straight for him and lunging. Instinct jumps over the serpent and lands atop the bigger reptile. He grabs onto the crocodile's mouth, gripping the jaw and pulling hard, making the mouth go wider and wider and --

SNAP! CRACK!

The croc falls to the floor, Instinct having broken its jaw.

The fox(es) lunge at Instinct again, snarling and yapping and barking. It misses yet again and runs into the wall.

The snake curls back and goes to attack, jumping up and snapping at him, fangs dripping with venom. Instinct grabs it by the neck, but it slithers out and coils around his throat, choking him. He grips it as tightly as he can, but it keeps slipping out of his grip... The fox returns and jumps once more at Instinct.

Instinct holds the snake's body out and the fox rams into it, snapping his teeth into the serpent's slim body and clamping down hard.

The reptile hisses in anger and throbbing pain, releasing its hold on Instinct's throat and wriggling around to get free. While the two mutants are distracted, Instinct turns his tail into a spiked mace and rams it into the chest of the fox. The poor, pathetic animal is struck down.

The serpent manages to wriggle itself free, bleeding profusely and incredibly infuriated. It turns back to Instinct.

From behind him, the pile of scrap metal starts to move. The armadillo emerges, the armour having protected it.

From ahead, the snake.

From behind, the armadillo.

They both leap forwards.

Instinct must act fast.

He ducks quickly and barely manages to miss the serpent, grabbing it by the tail and swinging it round, throwing it straight at the diseased armadillo.

The snake bites the armadillo on the neck, filling it with venom while ingesting the victim's poison. Both miserable creatures fall to the floor. The turrets start to deactivate and slide back into the ceiling.

Instinct exhales deeply, hoping that no more monsters will come in --

Another panel opens. Of course.

But the eyes are different. The smell is, too. It smells like...

Human.

A large, lumbering figure makes its way into the room, groaning miserably. Instinct's eyes go wide.

Human...

The human stares at Instinct. It growls low and angrily.

'*SCCSRRRSH* -- Wait, what is this?! -- test subject -- meant to take them down to the basement for surgery -- storage room -- Get them out of there before he kills it!! *KKKSHKSH*'

Instinct growls low. There is something different about this creature... it is susceptible. It doesn't think for itself. It takes orders...

Instinct/Mikey can feel some strange connection between themselves and this odd malformed human. He recognizes a smell. It matches one of his own... the biggest smell. Krang smell. Mikey doesn't know what that smell means yet. But Instinct knows. Instinct knows all.

Instinct knows that this human smells like krang.

Instinct clicks at the creature. He growls a command at it, testing something...

The human turns its head. It peers at Instinct carefully. Instinct clicks again. The human sits down.

'*KRRSH* ...What the...?'

Instinct/Mikey commands the krangified human to follow his bidding, ordering it to slink back into the hole from whence it came. The creature does. Instinct/Mikey watches as it sits in the dark, waiting. When it tries to come back out, he snarls at it, and the krangified human slinks back into its room.

Soon enough, the panel slips closed, and the door opens behind Instinct. Three scientists rush in, followed by practically an armada of guards.

The scientist known as 'Dr. Timothy' runs to the front with 'Dr. Chaplin', and the two stare in shock and awe at all the carnage and wreckage. But Instinct feels they are more concerned with how he controlled the mutated human...

Dr. Chaplin smiles.

"Well, I think this is something we can use..."

.

.

.

Donnie stares at Mikey, the box turtle's tongue hanging over his lip in that silly expression he would make on occasion before the mutation happened. The 'blep', he called it.

Mikey sits in front of the giant horde with the biggest grin on his face, beaming as if he'd just shown them how he'd trained a new puppy to roll over. He is somehow oblivious to the horrific danger he was just in...

Leo steps forward nervously and starts to pull Mikey away from the krangified crowd.

Mikey is confused. Didn't he do a good job? Aren't they proud of him? Are they still mad at him?

They don't look mad. They look scared. Scared of the horde, and scared of...

Mikey?

Monster.

Mikey churrs at Leo, furrowing his brow anxiously.

"Lllleee-oh? Why Leo s-s-scared-d-d? Mikey do good?"

"Y-you did... uh, you did good, you did great," Leo stutters, not looking at him but keeping his gaze glued to the zombie mob. "April, Cass, I'm going to open a portal now. You take Mikey, drop him off and grab the formula."

Leo sounds so scared. His voice is soft and chilled and shaky. His arms wobble as he carefully drags Mikey away. Mikey doesn't want Leo to be mad at him again, so he follows his directions. Leo's hands shake as he slices the air and creates a blue portal. Mikey is led through the blue light, and instantaneously finds himself in the lair again!

Casey is pacing back and forth with a phone in his ear as he redials the guys. He yipes when the trio jump in.

"Come on, pick up, pick-- Ah!! What -- Mikey?! How, what, I was just calling Leo --"

Casey stiffens when he sees Cassandra. Mikey notices this, but the others are moving quickly and are focused on their mission and don't pay any mind to him.

Mikey sniffs around, confused. How did he get back to the lair so fast? The sensation from the portal is familiar, and Mikey's mind foggily recollects a memory of him and Leo jumping through these blue things a lot...

April and the other human Cass rush away to Donnie's lab, leaving Mikey alone in the halls with Casey, who slowly creeps to him and starts to check him over as he scolds him.

"Mikey, what were you thinking running off like that? I was worried sick, I thought you might've gotten lost, or recaptured, or hurt -- and what was I supposed to do when Leo came and saw you were gone?! They already hate me here, they're too scared of me to talk to me like I'm a normal person, and now I'm the guy who almost lost their brother --"

Casey freezes, realizing he's said too much.

"Uh... don't, please don't repeat any of that to the guys. I just... I'm struggling to fit in here, and I lost the one most important thing to this family. I'd get disowned if I wasn't already estranged to them..."

Mikey chirps at him sadly, nuzzling his beak against Casey's chest.

"S-s-sooor-r-r-ry..."

Casey sniffles and hugs him.

"It's okay, Mikey. Just... don't ever do that again?"

Mikey beeps at him with a nod.

Cass and April run past the two of them, carrying several boxes of glowing blue vials.

"We'll be right back, just gotta take care of something!" April shouts as they go through the portal again.

It stays open, and Mikey wants to see what they're going to do --

But Casey pulls hims away softly, saying something about needing to clean him up from the mud on his claws.

Mikey is taken to the bathroom, his hands and feet cleaned until they hear the clambering of feet against stone. The others have finished with whatever it was that was so important and returned. Mikey skedaddles out of the bathroom and greets them happily, if not a bit nervously. He thinks they may still be a bit sore about his escape...

But they don't look mad, they all look tired and wrung out. Donnie's hands are stained with glowing blue.

"...That giant squirt gun you made with your ninpo was perfect, Dee," Leo compliments, stretching his back out. "It got pretty much all of em at once..."

"Yes, well, I need to go and wash this toxic elixir off of my hands..."

Mikey runs up to Leo with a happy chirp and rubs his face against his fingers. Leo strokes his head gently.

"Hey, Mikey. Glad to see you're okay... we're gonna have a talk about you running out, though."

Mikey whimpers, but is relieved that Leo's anger and scoldings will be over soon. The sooner the better. He wants Leo to be happy with him again... He doesn't like the sadness that hangs around him, it reminds him too much of... of... of what?

Nevermind, it doesn't remind him of anything at all. He just doesn't like it.

Mikey then goes to Raph, asking for head pats from him, too. Raph smiles and rubs his thumb across Mikey's forehead.

"That was pretty impressive, big man," he chuckles. "I didn't know you could do that... How did he do that, Donnie?"

Mikey runs over to his third brother, circling around him and asking for head pats as the genius does his best to explain hypotheses and theories.

"Well, it seems that Mikey's... erm, 'leading genome' allows for him to sort of... control the others that also carry the same genome. My guess is that Mikey could be something like... the alpha male of the species."

"Alpha male?" Raph asks. "So, they saw him as the leader of the pack?"

Mikey whines quietly, waiting for Donnie's headpats. He lifts his head up to nuzzle against his fingers.

"I think so," Donnie says. "I'd have to do some more studies of the DNA sample, and I'd much prefer--"

"AAAAGH!"

The room is struck silent as Mikey screams in pain, pulling away from Donnie's stained hands, the glowing blue liquid sizzling against Mikey's forehead. He tries to wipe it away, but it burns his hands. Mikey screams and cries, the others screaming in chorus as they rush to help. April wipes the toxins off with her sleeve, Leo runs to his aid and inspects the injuries, Raph goes to pick him up and carry him somewhere safe, Casey goes to get water and rags, Donnie reels back and keeps his hands far away from his brother, Cass helps to direct them all and keep the calm.

Mikey sobs as his hands smoke softly, the blue liquid like acid against his skin. The burning against his head continues, the pain immense. It's searing through him, reverberating throughout himself. Casey Jr. returns and helps Leo start treating the wounds, cleaning the remaining smudges away with water as quickly as possible. The acid is gone, but the pain lingers for eternity. Mikey is lost in the deafening sound of everyone shouting orders at each other, everyone touching him at once, lifting him up and carrying him away.

Mikey squeezes his eyes shut and cries, the tears seeping through as the burning lingers...

Just stay still. Let it happen. Let it happen, and let it linger, then it will end. Just let it happen...

Mikey is laid down on a table or a bed, he's not sure. Leo commands the room, giving orders and instructions that Mikey doesn't understand. Salves and ointments are applied. A sharp stinging starts in his forehead where the burn is, the same sting pricks his hand. The sting fades, as does the burn. Mikey's head and hand go numb. His claw is swathed and a bandage pressed against his head.

As the doctoring continues, the room quiets and calms...

.

.

.

Mikey's wrists are locked into place. He cries and weeps. He knows it won't change anything. He knows they won't understand, or won't care...

Needles are pressed deep into his skull. Injections are made.

Tiny wires are set against his arms. They shock him, over and over and over again.

Syringes dig deep into his chest. Fluid fills him up, burning his intestines like fire.

Someone grabs a scalpel and begins to make incisions. Blood leaks from the open wound.

Something pink and wriggling is shoved onto him, into him. It integrates into his flesh, becoming one with him. It crawls under his skin, it crawls into his mouth, his eyes, his nostrils. He suffocates from it. He gags on it. He chokes from it. It won't kill him. But it sure wants to see him suffer...

Mikey hates this. Mikey hates himself. If he weren't him, maybe he wouldn't be punished like this...

Mikey lets it happen. There's no point in fighting, it will just make it worse. Mikey just lets them hurt him, slice him, change him, kill him. Mikey lets the pain etch away at his mind, scraping him away piece by piece. Destroying him.

Mikey waits for the pain to end.

It never does.

.

.

.

Leo wipes the tears from Mikey's face, trying to calm him down.

"I'm so sorry, bud. I know it hurts," Leo whimpers.

Leonardo wants to cry so badly. He wants to sob. He wants to scream and shout out his pain and frustrations at the universe for letting this happen to him, to Mikey, to everyone --

"This is my fault," Donnie moans. "I should have realized that the formula would hurt him. I should have been more careful. I should have --"

"I shouldn't have let him escape," Casey interjects. "If anything, it's my fault for letting my guard down..."

"No," Leo corrects. "if I'd just stayed behind, or had Raph or Donnie stay behind, then he would have been okay, he wouldn't have run off. If I'd -- if I'd been better, smarter, s-stronger... I..."

"It's no one's fault but mine," Raph weeps quietly. "I took him to the TCRI building in the first place. I did this. It's my fault."

"Oh please," Cass scoffs. "All this blame game is getting ridiculous! You all did the best you could! You made mistakes, sure, so WHAT?! It's not like you intentionally tried to hurt him! You're all so focused on what you did wrong that you can't focus on how to make it right or how to move past it!"

The three turtle boys stare wide-eyed at Cassandra Jones.

"If you want things to get better, act like they will! And soon enough they will! Half of this whole thing is a mind game you play with yourself! Do you want to lose?! No! Do you think that after I quit the Foot, I moped around like a pathetic weakling?! NO!! I knew that my mistakes were big, but I could work past them and make up for everything! I could do something amazing if I put my mind to it, and I am! So stop acting like there's nothing you can do to change things, and start actually changing things! Starting with your perspective!"

The boys hang their heads sheepishly. Casey stares at his future mother in amazement.

"Yeah... Cassie's right," Raph mumbles. "We can't keep focusing on what we did wrong. We need to move forwards, not backwards."

"Darn right, I'm right!" Cass whoops. "I'm always right! HAH!"

Raph smiles and chuckles softly. Leo sighs and sits besides Mikey, rubbing his face as the baby brother finally relaxes.

"Okay. Move forward. Got it."

Donnie's gazes diverts to an empty corner of the room as he ponders a few things. He ponders how this mutation is far beyond what he expected. He ponders how everyone -- his brothers, Splinter, April, Mikey, everyone -- is counting on him to reverse the process.

He ponders how he's been pondering all night, every night.

He ponders how this is not his area of expertise; he's the tech guy! Sure, he know some science facts, he knows a few trivia tidbits about animals and stuff, but not enough to reverse engineer a cure all by himself! He ponders how he has no idea what to do or where to start.

He ponders about going backwards... back to the beginning. To the first mutation.

Donnie leaves the room and pulls out his phone...

.

.

.

Draxum is in the process of remodeling his home lab. After the events of the invasion, Draxum managed to help protect the Yokai from the krang dogs that made their way down into the Hidden City, and in doing so cleared his name and reputation. As a reward, his criminal record has been expunged.

He directs several Yokai on how to repair his ancestral home and build four additions for his surrogate sons. He is secretly eager to see Michelangelo's reaction to the room he has planned for him... whenever he gets back, that is. They told him about the mission gone awry. Draxum had offered to 'take care of' the humans in the building, but they'd declined. Ah well. Some other time, then. But it has been a little over a week or so since then, and Draxum has received no word...

Draxum's human communication device known as a 'cell phone' begins to buzz. It is Donatello. Draxum answers.

"Yes? What do you need?" Draxum asks plainly.

Donatello only ever calls him if he needs something.

"Hey," he mumbles through the speakers. "What are you doing now?"

"Rebuilding my lab from the last time it was blown up," Draxum grumbles. "By, who was it -- oh yes... you and your family."

"Draxum--"

"Of course, I'm willing to let that slide, since my goals at the time were less than cordial or moral. By some standards."

"Drax."

"Although, I'm sure it weighs on you and your brothers that you single-handedly destroyed the home and livelihood of one whom you might consider a mentor, or creator. So, if you wanted to repay old debts, you could always come and help --"

"DRAXUM!" Donnie yells, then sighs with deep exhaustion. "Would you... like to come and see Mikey?"

Draxum pauses.

"...He is home?"

"Yeah, we got him back two nights ago. He's recovering. I texted you about this."

"I have no idea what a text is," Draxum groans. "But yes, I would like to greet him."

"Okay. But before you come, I need to let you in on a few things," Donnie says quickly. "Mikey has gone through a tremendous amount of trauma, and will most likely not recognize you. And you will probably not recognise him at first, either. Be careful, be gentle, speak softly. Secondly..."

Donnie pauses.

"...I need you to bring everything you have on genetic studies and mutations."

Prev || Next

[gingiesworld]

Family Is Forever

Chapter Eight

Wanda Maximoff x GN! Reader

Warnings: Angst

Taglist: @fxckmiup @ginnsbaker @gb12d @angrywhisperslove @louxbloom @casquinhaa @natashamaximoff-69 @wizardofstories @canvascoloredin @wandanats-goodgirl @forthelesbians @the-ox-fan20 @marvelogic

18+ MINORS DNI

Over the next week, Pietro decided to stay with his sister and the twins. Especially with the police coming back and forth, even having Y/N's statement from when they had done it over a zoom meeting. Just recounting the events made their blood boil as they tried everything to keep it together.

"I think this separation is pointless." Pietro stated as the twins were doing their homework. "You and Y/N are meant to be Wanda and everyone who knows the two of you will say the same."

"No." She told him bluntly as she turned to face him, drying her hands on the towel after she washed the dishes. "I get that everyone has Y/N on this high pedestal but."

"But nothing Wanda." He cut her off, stopping her from saying something she will regret. "They risked everything to protect you. Even the hell they went through as they bought this house for you and the twins."

"You knew?" She questioned as he just nodded. "And you never told me a thing."

"Y/N wanted it to be a surprise, especially with the deed being in the twins name." He told her. "They wanted the three of you looked after in case something happened to them. Especially after that night they were walking home when the car was in the shop."

"What night?" Wanda questioned as his eyes widened, realising he had said to much.

"It was the night you accused them of cheating because they wouldn't answer their phone." He told her. "They managed to use a nearby bar phone to call me and ask me for help."

"What happened?!" Wanda questioned once more.

"They were mugged Wanda." He told her. "The guy had a gun and he held it against their forehead as he robbed their phone, wallet and everything that had any sort of value. Even their dad's watch was stolen."

"Why didn't they tell me?" She whispered as he sighed.

"The twins were babies and Y/N was scared of your mood swings because let's face it. You were a real mean woman when you could be." He chuckled as she looked down.

"It was me who faded first." She whispered sadly. "I was the one who pulled away first, it wasn't them."

"Wanda." Pietro tried as she stood up straight.

"I think I've made a mistake." She told him shakily. "No, I know I have made a mistake."

"Then you need to be the one to fix it." He told her sternly as she just nodded, grabbing her phone and sending a simple text. The same text as to when Y/N had told her parents.

'We need to talk.'

She waited all night until she had gotten a reply, laying as she looked at the phone as it a vibrated. Signalling that they have replied to her. Her heart beating incredibly fast as she picked it up.

'After Billy's decathelon, we can have a coffee.'

Wanda smiled knowing that it was going to be as fast as a couple of days. They would be back home in New Jersey in time for Billy's big event. So she soon fell asleep with a memory in mind.

Y/N led Wanda through the house, the one they had managed to rent so they could move out of her parents home.

"I figured this would be a nice well, second home for the four of us." They told her softly.

"Y/N." She whispered as she walked through to the kitchen. "I don't know what to say."

"Just tell me if you like it or not." They told her as they watched her. "If you don't like it we can get someplace else."

"How will we afford it?" She asked them.

"Your dad mentioned he will give us a loan for the deposit and I will be paying him back." They told her. "With my apprenticeship coming to an end, I am getting a pay rise and we can get second hand furniture for now until we save up for brand new." As Y/N rambled on about everything, Wanda just walked around the house, a smile growing on her face before she turned to Y/N.

"Let's do it." She told them, cutting them off. "Let's put down the deposit. I know mom is going to miss the twins but I know she will be happy to get a full nights sleep."

"So we're doing this?" They asked her with a smile, approaching her with their arms open.

"We're doing this." She squealed as she jumped into their arms as they lifted her up, spinning her around as she held on to them tightly. When she pulled back, she had her bottom lip between her teeth. Y/N started to lean in, they were drawn to her like a moth to a flame. Kissing her lips softly before she pushed her tongue between her parted lips. Causing them to groan as they soon pushed her up against the nearest wall.

The kiss grew hungrier as Wanda started to grind against Y/N. Taking all of their strength to pull away from her, looking in her hooded eyes as they brushed the hair from her face.

"We should wait 'til later." They whispered as Wanda nodded, her breathing calming down as Y/N helped her on her feet. "This isn't our home yet."

"Maybe when we officially move in, the twins can stay with mom and dad." She suggested as Y/N nodded, kissing her tenderly before they stepped away from her. Wanda already missing their warmth as she soon moved away from the wall.

"Let's head home to our boys." Y/N held their hand out for her to take as she just nodded with a soft smile on her lips. Ready to start in this new chapter with them.

Everyone had gathered in the auditorium, preparing for the Decathelon. Billy approached his mom and Tommy excitedly. A huge smile on his face which soon dropped when he noticed that Y/N hadn't arrived yet.

"Where's O'pa?" He asked as Wanda looked around the other parents.

"I don't know. They might be running a little late." Wanda reasoned as Billy just nodded.

"They promised." He whispered as Wanda got down to his level.

"And they always keep their promises." She told him as he nodded with a smile. "Now, go and prepare with your team and we will be here, cheering you on."

"Ok." He smiled before he disappeared, Wanda led Tommy to a seat as Nat and Maria were already sat in a seat.

"Y/N still isn't here." Wanda stated as she took a seat beside Nat.

"What?" Maria questioned as Wanda nodded.

"They promised him and they aren't even here." She scoffed as she got her phone out, dialling their number which just rang out before going to voicemail.

"They must have a reasonable explanation." Nat reasoned as Wanda shook her head.

"They promised him they would be here." Wanda spoke bluntly. "They promised and they have failed to keep it."

"It's just ringing." Maria stated as she tried to call them again.

"Maybe they're stuck in traffic." Nat told her as Wanda just shook her head. Anger coursing through her veins at her soon to be ex. "They are coming from Manhatten Wanda. It is a fair distance."

As the event started, Maria disappeared as she continued to try to get through to Y/N. Soon enough it just went to voicemail without ringing.

Once the event was over, Maria had asked Steve for help in finding them. Soon returning to Nat, Wanda and the twins. A sad Billy as Wanda hugged him.

"Anything?" Nat questioned her.

"Nothing." She informed her. "Now it's not even ringing, just going straight to voicemail."

"Come on. Let's head home." Wanda told the twins. "When you find them, tell them they need to watch their back." With that Wanda left as Nat followed her friend.

"Maria is going to find them." Nat said as she stood beside the passenger door. "So how about we celebrate the win, go to McDonalds and then ice cream?"

"Yeah." Both boys cheered as Wanda gave her friend a grateful smile before they all got settled in the car. Driving to the nearest McDonalds as Tommy spoke animatedly about Billy's win.

Maria headed straight to the station, just in time for Steve to approach her. A solemn look on his face.

"There's been a 14 car pile up on the interstate." He informed her. "The same interstate that Y/N would be on."

"Do you think?" She questioned as she followed him out to her car.

"If they were in the hospital, someone would have been notified." He told her as she drove towards the accident.

"So they are stuck." Maria stated. "And we don't know the extent of their injuries."

"No." He told her. "So far, there has been around four admissions. The emergency services are working as fast as they can."

Once they had arrived at the scene, Maria's heart dropped at the sight. Everyone was working as hard as they could to get everyone out and treated. That was when she spotted their car, right in the middle. Her heart dropped as she ran to their car, hoping that what she was thinking right now was wrong.

[cablecar-s]

to love and self loathe

Note :

AAAAA I'M ALIIIIVEEE!!! I'm not dead I swear!! Real life just has me in a chokehold at the moment I'm so sorry guys T-T. Also! Since it's a special someone's birthday (Jason Todd, the love of my life).. YOU GUYS GET TWO UPDATES!!!

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4

Insert Clown Music

Rain fell on Jason as he sped through the forest, the sound of his motorcycle revving in the darkness. Speeding by all the trees, Jason tried to drown out his thoughts that were full of 'what if's and 'maybe's. 

He revved his bike, loud, and tried to drive through the forest quicker, feeling as if the branches of the trees were trying to pull him back. Coming out of the clearing, Jason made his way across the bridge and back into the city, having to slow down before he ended up hydroplaning.

He slowly came to a stop in front of a red light, the streets quiet and empty for once, an honest surprise since it was Gotham after all. Jason having lean on one of his feet as he waited for the light to turn green, he became lost in thought, the raindrops that fell onto his body almost entrancing.

Maybe he should have stayed at the manor after all.

But what if he ended up regretting to stay there?

Would Bruce regret asking him to stay?

It was probably for the best that Jason hadn't said yes after all.

Maybe Jason shouldn't have even gone to the party in the first place. It would've been better if he just stayed back to patrol like he said he was going to. Maybe then—

"WATCH OUT!"

What?

Jason's brows furrowed, but by the time he tried looking, something, or someone to be more specific, had crashed into him. The sudden crash caused him and his bike to both fall and skid against the pavement.

The vigilante grunted, his entire body slightly aching as he stared up at the night sky, the rain falling down on his helmet. Slowly turning his head to the left, he had found his bike lying on it's side, the engine still running as the headlight was now slightly cracked.

Just. Great.

Slowly getting up, he grunted once more, his bones popping as he got himself up to his feet. Walking over to his bike, he looked at the side that it had fallen on. A frown made its way to his lips, seeing the scratch marks all over on it now.

A groan could be heard over the soft pattering of the rain, and when he had looked over, Jason's face only soured more at seeing the familiar spider suit. She seemed to lay there on the asphalt for a good while before slowly sitting up.

"I knew I should've taken the bus." She grunted, getting herself up on her feet. She began to brush off any gravel that stuck to her suit, quietly muttering to herself before seeing a pair of boots stand right in front of her.

Slowly looking up, she looked at the familiar red helmet and white glowing eyes that stared her down.

"We really gotta stop meeting like this." She tried to joke, an awkward smile on her lips.

". . ."

The two vigilantes only stared at each other before the Spider cleared her throat, shooting him small finger guns. "Good talk.."

"You scratched my bike." 

"Sorry?"

"You scratched. My. Bike." He repeated, enunciating his words more.

She stared at him for a good moment before leaning to the side a bit, her head peeking out from his broad shoulders to see his bike propped up, seeing faint white scratch marks on its left side.

"Oh. It seems I have." She looked back at him who only continued to stare her down.

She shuffled a bit under his piercing gaze, feeling a bit uneasy at his lack of raging emotions that wasn't turned towards her.

"I can uh.. I can pay you back?" It came out as more of a question, but Jason only rolled his eyes. 

"I don't want your money." He scoffed, turning around and walked back to his bike. The Spider quickly followed behind him.

"My offer still stands though!" She quickly said. "I mean, maybe not right now, but if you give me a bit of time—"

She let out a small 'oomph!' as she crashed into his back. Soon, the second Robin had turned back around, slightly leaning down and stared right into her large slanted lenses.

"Wow you are.. Very close..." She chuckled nervously.

"I am about this close to putting a bullet through your big ass eyes if you don't shut your damn mouth." He threatened. He soon turned back around, swinging his leg over his bike.

"No small talk, duly noted." She muttered. Clearing her throat, she stood to the side. Jason only ignored her though, about to start the engine to his bike until the words she spoke had baffled him.

"Got room for one more..?"

Jason froze, staring at his hand that was about to turn the ignition on. Slowly turning his head, he looked at her who just stood there a bit awkwardly.

"Are you fucking serious?"

"Very."

Jason only stared at her in disbelief while she rubbed the back of her neck, beginning to ramble.

"Usually I wouldn't have a problem getting home, but I didn't realize how far the city was from Wayne Manor and by the time I made it here I sorta ran out of my webs. And you know this usually doesn't happen, and I promise that-"

Jason was going to lose his goddamn mind.

Her words were going through one ear and out the other for him. And the more she talked, the more he could feel his patience running thin. Honestly, she was worse than Dick, and that says something because his brother doesn't know how to shut his mouth either.

"Which is crazy because-"

"Just get on the damn bike already."

"What?" She quickly straightened her posture once looking at him in mere surprise.

"Hurry up before I change my mind." He turned the key in the ignition, his bike roaring to life again.

"Oh! Uh, okay!" Quickly jogging over, she slid herself behind Jason. "Do you have another helmet or-"

"Nope."

And he sped off, causing the woman to yelp and quickly wrap her arms around his mid-section tightly. He couldn't help but let out a small amused huff, a slight smug smirk on his face, continuing to speed down the streets.

At some point, she had pointed out where he could drop her off, saying she could walk the rest of the way back to her apartment. 

Slowly coming to a stop, the Red Hood leaned on his foot while the Spider got off his bike. 

"Well, thank you again for—"

SCREEEECH!!

"Aaaand he's gone..." She watched as he sped off, the sound of his motorcycle becoming more and more distant.

"At least I don't have to pretend to start walking..." She muttered and looked over at her apartment building. 

Looking around, she jogged her way over to an alleyway before climbing up the wall of the apartment building she resided in. Once she made it to her bedroom window, the Spider let out a long sigh, relieved to have finally made it back home. 

With tired limbs, she dragged herself through her window, using whatever strength she had left to close it. Pulling the mask off from her head, she shuffled her feet near her bed, only to fall face first into the covers.

Another exhausted sigh left her lips, this one being a bit more exaggerated.

Today was definitely tiring. From having to swing to pretty much the country side to get to the mansion, to fighting Black Mask's men and then swinging back to the city, only to end up having a bit of a gnarly fall and meeting Red Hood again—which she was sure he hated her guts.

Her entire body ached, not having moved that much since her more active days as Spider-Woman. Turning her head, she stared at her phone that was resting on her bedside table. With a lazy arm, she swiped it off from the table, looking at the unread messages.

One being from her Aunt May and the other being from her boss.

Shit, right. The pictures..

With an exhausted groan, she pulled herself away from her comfortable bed, shuffling her feet over to her laptop. Grabbing her USB, she plugged it into her laptop, looking at the files that held all of the photos she had taken throughout the years with bleary eyes. 

Letting out a large yawn, the Spider rubbed her eyes while tiredly humming, picking a random file and letting them be transported to her USB.

While that was happening, she got back up and tiredly changed out of her Spider-Woman suit, throwing the pieces of her suit all over her bedroom floor. Continuing to drag her feet against the floor, she was able to make it to her bathroom to give her face a quick splash.

Eyes not even opened anymore, she shuffled her way back to her laptop, quietly cursing as she bumped into a few of her things or stubbing her feet into whatever she had decorated her room with.

Squinting her eyes opened, she saw that the photos were done uploading. Unplugging her USB, she closed her laptop and put her USB into her camera bag. Turning around and going back to her bed, the vigilante dove face first into her blankets and pillows, only to knock out a few moments later.

In the morning, the Spider was making her way to her work, coffee cup in hand, camera bag slung around her shoulder, and feet shuffling against the ground. 

She was unbelievably tired. She didn't know what time she had got home or what time she went to bed, all she knew was that she didn't get enough sleep at all. She wondered how she could stay up so late and be energized in the morning back in high school.

She'll never know.

Walking up to her boss' office, she stared at the door, hearing female Jameson's voice just beyond it. It was obvious she was irritated with how she was practically yelling at whoever the poor soul was.

Continuing to wait for a few more moments until it was complete silence, the Spider soon gave the door a light knock. Once hearing a stern 'come in' after the knock, she quickly entered the office.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath before exhaling quietly and entered the office. The woman was currently on her computer, not even looking at the vigilante.

"Ma'am I-"

"I want you to take pictures of Spider-Woman."

"What?"

"Preferably with Gotham's vigilantes." 

Turning her computer screen to face her employee, the secret vigilante's eyes widened, seeing a shaky video of her, Red Hood, and Nightwing working together to take down Black Mask's men.

Oh she was—

"—So dead." Jason muttered, staring at the video that was playing the fight from last night. People were commenting on the video like a wild fire, and soon enough, different articles of Spider-Woman started to be published as well.

SPIDER-WOMAN SEEN IN GOTHAM CITY!!

A NEW VIGILANTE IN GOTHAM CITY?

WILL SPIDER-WOMAN BE REPLACING THE BATS?

"Replacing the bats?" Jason scoffed at one of the titles. "I bet she couldn't even kill a fly." He rolled his eyes. 

The door in front of him opened, making Jason look up, turning off his phone simultaneously. Alfred was there, a warm smile on his face.

"You do know you can enter the manor as you please, don't you Master Todd?" He chuckled. "You do live here as well."

The second Robin gives a small chuckle at this as well. "Yeah I know, just something in this article caught my attention Alfred."

"Spider-Woman I presume?" He rose a brow, taking a step back while Jason entered the mansion, the butler closing the door behind him.

Jason sighed, a small frown on his lips. "Seems like she's the talk of the town recently." 

"It is obvious that her skills are nothing but mediocre compared to my skills." A young, yet arrogant voice could be heard from one of the rooms up ahead.

"She seems to be the talk in the manor as well." Alfred chuckled softly, Jason only groaned at this.

Parting ways, Alfred going back to the kitchen while Jason went to the room all of his siblings seem to be currently in, he watched Tim wave his phone around, a smug look on his face.

"Really? Because to me it seemed like she caught you by total surprise." He mused.

Damian only glared at his adopted brother. "Father told me I was not allowed to fight in any way, I was simply following orders."

Jason snorted at this, making the two boys look over at him. "You? Follow orders? That's hilarious."

All eyes were soon on Jason.

"Well look who finally decided to show up." Dick mused from the couch.

Jason only rolled his eyes and made his way over to the youngest. He handed him a neatly wrapped present. The boy let out a huff of annoyance, taking it with silent gratitude and opened it, only to reveal a copy of Les Misérables.

"Happy birthday demon bird." Jason mused, ruffling the boy's head who glared at the taller man, quickly fixing his hair. 

"These traditions are still stupid.." The boy muttered, looking down at the book, the tiniest hint of a smile on his lips.

The older siblings all glanced at each other, knowing smiles on their faces but kept quiet. 

"You think we'll see her later tonight for patrol?" Stephanie questioned, watching a video of Spider-Woman fighting, Cassandra—who was sitting next to her—watched the video as well.

"I will make sure she feels my wrath after what happened at the party." Damian huffed

"Oh you mean her webbing you to the ceiling?" Tim pulled out his phone, waving it around in the air for everyone to see a zoomed in photo of a not-so-happy Damian stuck to the ceiling.

"If you do not delete that Drake I will murder you." The fourth Robin hissed.

"Already in the group chat." Barbara chimes, making the others snicker.

Damian let out a small Tt while crossing his arms.

"That's enough teasing." Bruce comes into the room, a small chuckle leaving his lips. "It's his birthday after all."

"All the more reason to tease him." Tim rolled his eyes.

Jason tensed as Bruce had all taken a good look at his children until he landed lastly on him. He smiled at Jason, almost making the second Robin slightly squirm under his gaze.

"Glad you could make it Jason." He said softly.

"..Yeah." Jason crossed his arms, looking away.

A sad smile made its way to Bruce's face, but Dick was quick to try and not make the room too sad or awkward.

"Find anything useful on the cameras?" He quipped.

Looking over at Dick, he only shook his head. "Nothing, just a replay of Sionis's men blowing up the ballroom wall." He answered.

"We also seem to have a broken camera." Alfred walked in, setting down a plate of cookies onto the coffee table. "It seems our surprise guest accidentally broke it." He chuckled softly.

"Got it." Barbara chimed, waving her tablet in the air. 

Everyone grouped behind her as she played the security footage from last night.

Nothing was shown at first, until the body of someone climbing up the wall could be seen at the very edge, and then the view was quickly pointed down at the wall instead of the yard.

"Oh shit..!" A voice quietly hissed. 

The view of the camera began to swing a bit, the quiet sound of webs coming out as the camera was once again facing the yard, and then the mask of slanted eyes with webs decorated on it appeared.

"Hi Mr. Wayne, uh, sorry about breaking your camera. I kinda fixed it? You might have to replace it though because my webs disappear after a certain amount of time. I would like to say that I would pay you back but I mean, you're not called a billionaire for nothing right?" She laughed nervously.

Soon, the camera shook, the sound of an explosion going off, alerting the Spider.

"I should, probably go tend to that." She pointed out of view of the camera. "Hopefully me saving the party is a good repayment for breaking your camera. Anyways, uh, I'll be going then." She soon began to crawl off, a distant 'Sorry about the camera again!' being picked up from the mic before the footage ended.

"At least she was nice enough to apologize." Tim commented.

"She seems fun!" Stephanie smiled, Cassandra nodding along.

As everyone continued to talk along, Jason only stood off to the side, his lips pressed into a thin line, his arms crossed.

It wasn't long until an arm slung around his neck, his body being slightly pulled down as he was briefly given a noogie.

"Hey—!" Jason exclaimed, pushing the culprit away, who—of course—was none other than Dick.

He laughed a bit, a grin on his face. "Come on Jaybird, she's not all that bad." He tried to reason.

Jason rolled his eyes, trying to fix his hair. "Yeah but she's still a pain in the ass." 

"She can't be all that bad." The first Robin smiled. 

"Maybe for you.." Jason muttered, remembering how she had crashed into him last night, causing a bit of damage to his bike, it was brand new too.

Now Jason was starting to become irritated just thinking about it.

With a slight nudge from Dick, Jason had an unimpressed look as he looked at him.

"Ah come on, you don't really mean that!"

Jason in fact, did mean it.

Especially when she was the cause of the both of them getting caught by Black Mask.

Jason stared at the wall, annoyed as they hung upside down on the ceiling from her web, the two vigilantes slowly spinning.

"So uh.. Nice weather we're having..?" She laughed nervously.

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4

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