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myhairpintrigger · 4 months

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Grieving for the Living (Aleksander Morozova x fem!reader) Part 4

The entirety of a capricious and treacherous marriage between the Darkling and the Lantsov princess.

read previous parts here!! part 1 part 2 part 3

word count: 11.7k

warnings: nothing really, everything is canon typical. examples of an unhealthy relationship

taglist: @il0vebeingdelulu @mellowarcadefun @budugu @eir964 @arwensloanebarnes @marytvirgin @chaoticcoffeequeen @claire-loves-music

“Look at her, with her chin held high. She sympathizes with the witches, you know.”

“I heard her husband tried to kill her and she only escaped because of the Sun Summoner.”

“No, you’ve got it all wrong- she’s only here to spy on her family. She’s the Darkling’s whore, now.”

“Someone told me that she was the one that orchestrated the Darkling’s death. But what can you expect? Poor girl. She’s a princess and she was forced to marry a monster.”

“Rumor has it she’s carrying his demon child.”

People love rumors. Even “good” and “noble” people love them. Powerful men love them, proper ladies love them, everyone will indulge a rumor or an especially interesting piece of gossip.

The only thing people love more than a good rumor is a very public fall from grace.

You’d once been Ravka’s darling. The crown jewel of the Lantsov family. People loved you, they adored you. You hadn’t really kept up on public appearances after your wedding, but after that, there had been a steady decline in your popularity.

No one wanted to see the promising young Lantsov daughter married off to the Darkling.

Then of course after the mishap on the Fold that left Novokribirsk consumed by darkness, you had become hated. Feared. Despised.

Most people thought that you had helped the Darkling organize the entire ordeal, and those who didn’t believed you to be spineless and foolish.

Eyes were on you now. Narrowed eyes. Accusatory eyes. So many eyes.

You grasped Vasily’s arm tightly as he led you through a crowd of Ravka’s nobles and their families. You weren’t entirely sure what everyone was doing here at the Grand Palace, but you knew that it was a political meeting of sorts.

Your father had taken ill and Vasily was ruling in his place. An interim ruler of sorts.

You weren’t supposed to be here, you were supposed to be in your bedroom, but you had tried to sneak out. You wanted to go riding, you wanted to clear your head. Unfortunately, your brother had found you before you even had a chance to make it to the stables.

You and Vasily had never gotten along well, but since you had returned home after running for weeks and weeks, from town to town, he’d stunned you with kindness and concern. He believed every word you told him about the Darkling and about how you had to escape him, unlike your mother who strongly believed you would bear his “devil child”.

The two of you made your way through the crowded room in silence, and you held his arm as if it were your lifeline. You had heard the same gossip since you returned home. You heard it from town to town when you were trying to get home from Kribirsk, and you heard it now, all around you.

You had both nearly made a successful escape from the crowd when you heard someone call out your name.

“Princess y/n!”

You and Vasily both spun around to see a woman standing behind you. She held a glass of wine in one hand and the hand of a small child in the other.

“Y-yes?” You asked softly. Vasily gave your arm a gentle tug, but you turned to him and gave him a pleading look. He relented and allowed you to talk to them, but he didn’t let you let go of his arm.

“My husband. He was in Novokribirsk when the Fold swallowed it whole. When your husband murdered an entire city.” The woman deadpanned, swirling the red wine in her glass.

You let out a dejected sigh and gathered the skirt of your lilac colored dress in your free hand and you gave her a sympathetic look, “I am sorry for your loss. I, too, am grieving the loss of the city of Novokribirsk.”

“You don’t look it.” She shot back.

“I assure you-“

You were cut off by the woman flicking her wrist and splashing the entire glass of red wine all over the bodice of your dress. You gasped and took a step back before Vasily dropped your arm and brought his fingers to his mouth. He let out a loud whistle and a few guards came running towards them.

“This woman has just… assaulted my sister.” Vasily announced and pointed at her.

The guards moved towards her, likely to detain her, and Vasily grabbed your arm and tugged you away.

“It’s your fault! My child will never see her father again! You cannot silence me! There’s a thousand just like me!” She screamed and you could hear her grunt and struggle against the guards, but Vasily would not let you look back.

Once you both had made it out of the grand hall and into the corridor leading to the staircase, Vasily let go of your arm and he pulled a handkerchief out of his breast pocket. He handed it to you and motioned to your exposed chest and neck.

“You might want to wipe that off before it gets sticky.”

You took the cloth from his hand and you dabbed off the droplets of wine that had made it to your chest. You let out a small sigh and looked up at your brother, offering his handkerchief back to him. He took it and stuffed it back in his pocket before he reached out and placed a hand on your shoulder.

“Things will get worse before they get better. But they will get better. You’re here to stay, y/n. Let their tongues wag, sister. You are royalty. It doesn’t matter if they love you or hate you now, their opinions can be swayed. And they will be. Just not today.” Your brother said softly and you shrugged.

“They have their minds made up. I’m only as good as my husband in their eyes.” You stated, motioning to your stained dress.

“Y/n, their minds will change.”

“And then what? Tell me what then? I’ll be in their good graces until a man close to me screws up and then I’ll be cursed all over again. I am a woman, Vasily. I will always be blamed for a man’s poor choices,” You pointed out, wrapping your arms around yourself, “Our own mother thinks I am corrupted.”

“She’s just scared and confused, y/n. Father lays dying because of the Darkling. She’s just… naïve. No one ever accused her of being the brightest. But she never had to be.” He explained, trying to set your mind at ease.

You placed your left hand on your forehead and you sighed, “I just wish this past year had never happened, Vasily.” You breathed, shaking your head slowly.

Your brother eyed the hand you had on your forehead suspiciously and then he reached out and grabbed your wrist, “You know, Mother might have an easier time believing you if you didn’t still wear your wedding ring.”

You glanced down at your hand as your brother held your wrist and you frowned, “I don’t see it as a wedding ring. My friend made it. I think of it as a gift now. He’s the one that helped me escape, Vasily.”

Your brother rubbed a hand over his face and then he lowered his hand and placed it on your shoulder, “Sister, what happened to you was awful, and I’m sure it’s going to stay with you for a long time, but I think the best way to begin to move past it is to let any and all Grisha go. They are a poison to our society.”

“Don’t marginalize an entire group just for the actions of a few bad people, Vasily.” You whispered, frowning.

“Y/n. We aren’t going to talk about this right now. I must join the meeting. Go to your room and stay there. Get some rest, just… go.” He sighed. He patted your shoulder once and turned on his heel, making his way back into the hall.

You watched him disappear into the crowded room and you rubbed your face exhaustedly. Grasping your skirt in your hand, you trudged up the stairs with a sigh. You made your way to your bedroom and you closed the door behind you. You stared at the door handle for a moment and then locked it. Ever since you’d run away from Aleksander, you couldn’t help but feel like he was only one step behind you everywhere you went, like he’d always find you one way or another.

Everyone said he was dead, torn to pieces in the Fold, but deep down, you had your doubts. You couldn’t explain how or why, but you just felt like he was still out there.

When you had begun your journey back to Os Alta from Kribirsk, you didn’t stop for more than an hour at a time, bouncing around from village to village, town to town, moving constantly. Then the news began to spread. The first time you heard that Aleksander was presumed dead was when you sat in a small inn, warming your hands by a fire. From then on out, you slowed down a bit. Then the rumors about you came, and you began to move much quicker again.

You slowly pulled your dress off of your body and let it fall to the floor, kicking it aside. You’d pick it up later- you just wanted to lay down now. You grabbed the nightgown you’d worn last night off of the end of your bed and pulled it on before you laid down on your mattress and yanked the blankets up over your shoulders.

It wasn’t overly late, but there was nothing else to do except sleep at this point. You didn’t want to see anyone.

You lifted your hand up and held it over your face and you peered up at the delicate ring that you wore still. You’d had enough sense to take it off of your ring finger, and now wore it on your middle finger. As pathetic as it may seem, you didn’t feel right taking it off.

Your husband’s words echoed in your brain for what seemed like the hundredth time this week as you lowered your hand and bit your bottom lip.

“Your country will hate you. You will be cursed with the title of my wife for as long as you shall live. You’ll be treated no better than Grisha.”

You lowered your hand down onto your stomach and you looked up at the ceiling with a small sigh. Until today, it had only been rumors. Gossip. Today you’d had red wine thrown at you. What about tomorrow? Things couldn’t just keep getting worse.

But you’d find that they could.

And they would.

“Mother and I have been talking.” Vasily stated, setting his cup of tea on the table next to you.

You looked over at your brother for a moment and then you shrugged, stirring a bit of honey into your tea.

“What of?” You asked, looking back down at your tea.

“Well, we think that perhaps, for the time being, we ought to send you to Ketterdam. To study at the university, or apprentice under a politician-“

“The Fold was hardly safe to cross a month ago. What makes you think that it is crossable now?” You asked and pulled your spoon out of your tea. You pointed the spoon at your brother and clicked your tongue a few times, “I’m not going to Ketterdam, Vasily. That’s silly.”

“It’s not,” he reached out to push your spoon away and he sighed, “Sister, there have been threats made on your life. Last week you were attacked more or less. If we are going to take risks, I’d rather it be this one rather than just sitting here and wait for you to be attacked.”

You blinked a few times and looked over at your brother, “Come on, Vasily. This feels like a punishment.”

“It’s not a punishment, sister. Being in Ravka just… is not a great fit for you right now.”

You laid your hands flat on the table and you ran your tongue along the backs of your teeth angrily.

“And what does Father say of this?” You asked, drumming your fingers against the tabletop.

“He agrees, y/n. You’re a sitting duck. For many reasons. One, there are people in this country who think you should be held responsible for the Darkling’s actions, we aren’t going to wait for someone to try to hurt you. Two…” Vasily trailed off and he let out a small sigh, “Mother and Father told me not to tell you. But I’m going to because you are bound to find out on your own regardless. Sister, the Darkling lives.”

It was as if your blood turned to stone and your heart had stopped beating. Your mouth felt dry and it became very difficult to swallow. Your vision came in and out of focus and you let out an unconvincing, incredulous laugh.

“He disappeared in the Fold. He didn’t emerge. He lives not.” You weren’t sure who you were trying to convince; yourself or Vasily.

Your brother shrugged and he took a sip of his tea, “I’m only relaying what I’ve been told.” He remarked, setting his teacup back down onto its saucer.

The clink of ceramic made you jump slightly and you looked over at your brother, “He cannot be alive, Vasily. He will come for me. I ran from him. In his eyes, I betrayed him. He will come for me. He can’t be alive.” You pleaded, feeling sick as you glanced down at your own tea.

“That’s precisely why we’d like to send you to Ketterdam, sister. With a full team of guards. There are smugglers that are very good at what they do that can safely get you across the Fold. Once you’re across, you can go straight to Ketterdam. You’ll be safe there.” Your brother explained, reaching out to touch the back of your hand, “We can’t afford to lose you. Not when we are faced with losing our father, Nikolai hasn’t been home in over seven years… please. Go willingly.”

You felt shaky and lightheaded, as if you hadn’t eaten for days, panic filling your chest and your lungs as if it were a mere inhale. You looked away from Vasily and you stared at the wall for a long time before you gave your brother a very slight nod.

“Do you promise that these smugglers can get me across the Fold safely?” You asked slowly, your voice sounding distant in your own ears.

“We have had major success with them before, and they aren’t Grisha.” He insisted, placing his hand on your shoulder.

“Okay.” You whispered and gave Vasily a small nod.

“It’s for the best.” Vasily said softly and gave your shoulder a little squeeze before he stood up from the small table you two sat at, “Perhaps you should start thinking about packing.” He remarked and then walked away, likely going off to speak to your mother or whatever else he deemed important.

You stayed seated at the table for a long time and you looked down at the ring that fit snugly on your middle finger. You bit your bottom lip and you shook your head once. Surely he was going to look for you at some point, you just didn’t know what point that would be.

Maybe, just maybe, if you left as soon as possible, you could get ahead. Leave Ravka, get halfway to Ketterdam before he caught wind of it- if he caught wind of it at all, of course. You slowly rose from the table a few moments later and you shuffled out to the hallway.

You glanced at the set of double doors at the end of the hall that led outside towards the Little Palace and you bit your lip. You checked over your shoulder briefly and then you quickly made your way outside. Once you were positive you hadn’t been seen or followed, you walked briskly towards the Little Palace. You swung the doors open and moved inside quickly before closing them again.

You weren’t entirely sure why you were back here, you hadn’t been since you’d returned back to Os Alta. Vasily and your mother had forbidden it. As nice as Vasily had been, you had come to realize he was just as wary of you as your mother.

Whatever.

Nothing you could say would change their minds, and nothing short of being the one to remove and deliver Aleksander’s head to them would make them ever think that you weren’t somehow in on what he did.

Of course that hurt, though. You had never felt loneliness like this before.

You wandered through the halls silently until you reached your old shared bedroom and you pushed the doors open.

The place had been ransacked. Likely by guards and probably your brother as well, looking for anything that might help them with the Fold.

Your wardrobe hung ajar and some of your dresses had been tossed to the ground, but for the most part, your things had been untouched. You wandered around the room silently, feeling a small pang of guilt in the pit of your stomach. Feeling guilt for what happened was insane to you, yet there the feeling was.

You glanced at the bed and almost felt tears rise to your eyes. You swallowed them back.

Despite your husband’s perversion of Alina’s power and his endless chase for his own, sometimes when it was just you and the silence, you missed him.

Not the power-hungry him. The version of him that remembered that you liked sunsets and took time out of his nights to show you them. The version of him that surprised you so excitedly with a dress that matched his own ensemble. The version of Aleksander that fussed over you being cold, that wrapped you in his cloaks and offered to carry you.

Your relationship with Aleksander was complicated. It was up and down and there were a lot of things on his end that he never told you of. Loving him was so short, yet trying to forget him would last you a lifetime.

Some days you were convinced that your relationship was founded on lies and deception and that it wasn’t even healthy for either of you. Then, other days you were certain he was the love of your life, and it pained you that his drive for power made you collateral damage.

You would have stayed forever if he had seen sense, chosen you over his want for power. But he didn’t, and that was a painful reality.

You turned on your heel and took a step towards the door before your foot hit something on the ground. You looked down to see one of your husband’s large, thick cloaks and you sunk to your knees. You gathered some of the fabric up in your hands and you held it against your chest for a moment. You ran your fingers over the soft cloak and then you let out a long, sad sigh.

You wondered if he ever thought of you the way you thought of him. Sweetly at times, scornfully at others. It was hard to imagine that he’d think of you fondly, though. Especially after you ran away.

You did what you needed to do.

That’s what everyone told you. Your mother, your father, Vasily. All of them. It was the right thing to do. You would have just been a little trophy that he got to show off as if to say “look at me. I’m so powerful that even the Ravkan princess would take my side.”

That was his plan all along. You knew that. He’d all but admitted it. The luxury of love and care he offered was a reward for submitting. It was wrong. Everything was so wrong about his proposal to you the night he had planted the amplifiers in himself and Alina. He’d gotten one thing right, though. You had turned out to be hated and blamed by the masses, just as he had predicted. But it was the right thing to do, wasn’t it?

Some days, for just brief seconds, you weren’t so sure.

You shook the thought off as quickly as it had come and you stood up, dropping the cloak back to the ground.

No, you did do what you had to do. To keep your freedom.

You quickly left the room and you took up an unforgiving walking pace back to the Grand Palace. Once you’d gotten back inside of the Grand Palace, you slammed the doors behind you and you walked back to your room as if you’d been there the whole time.

You approached the stairs and took one step up before you saw Vasily come barreling down the stairs. When he saw you, he shook his head and grabbed both of your arms.

“Where were you?” He asked in a loud tone.

“I just went back to the Little Palace to find my dress from Mother!” You lied, trying to pull away from Vasily.

“Sister, something has happened.” He said sharply and then let go of you.

You felt your stomach sink and you looked up at Vasily, urging him to continue with your stare.

“I don’t have the time nor the patience to explain. We are leaving Os Alta. Tonight.”

“Tonight?” You asked and looked up at him, shaking your head, “But what about Ketterdam? We just-“

“I know! But we must leave tonight. We will figure out other ways of getting you out of here but just go get yourself ready for travel.” He commanded and you found yourself reeling.

He pushed past you and bolted down the hall, not saying another word to you.

You stared after him for a moment before you walked up the stairs. You’d nearly made it to the top when your mother came around the corner and stood at the landing at the top of the stairs. When she saw you, her face paled.

You stopped in your tracks and looked up at her. You gave her a small, watery smile and you took one step towards her.

“Mother-“

“You reek of the darkness.” She spat and she walked down the stairs past you hurriedly, leaving you standing alone at the top of the stairs.

You felt as if she had slapped you. You wished that was all she had done.

Sounds of bustling and loud voices echoed from downstairs and you pressed your fingernails into your palms. Tears stung your eyes and you slowly dragged yourself down the hall to your bedroom.

Coming home had likely been a mistake. You wished that you’d gone across the Fold with your husband, and then ran from there. Somewhere far away from here, perhaps to Ketterdam or even beyond, because as you stood there in your bedroom feeling an endless loneliness swirl in your chest, you couldn’t help but think that perhaps you’d traded one prison for another.

Days upon days on the road had been torture. Only Vasily had spoken to you, and you stayed near the back of the group, perched on your horse.

That was, until now. Vasily had summoned you up to the front of the group with him and he offered no explanation until about an hour of awkward silence had passed. Your brother turned to you and he gave you a small sigh, slowing his horse a bit so that he was right next to you while you rode yours.

“Doing alright?” He asked, looking you up and down.

You shrugged and kept your eyes ahead, watching the trees in the distance grow closer and closer, then finding new trees to watch; repeating this.

“You’ve been a bit sour lately.” Vasily commented and you snorted once.

“Our parents are disgusted by me and I was uprooted from my home within a matter of hours. Besides, you won’t even tell me where we’re going, Vasily.” You explained and shot him a look.

“We are going somewhere very safe. A sanctuary.” He replied, giving you a shrug. He led his horse up a small hill and you were quick to follow.

He stopped at the top of the hill and pointed at an old building nestled against a cliffside.

“That is where we are going…” He trailed off mid sentence and you watched him carefully. His eyes were fixed on a small group of people standing outside of the building, and you slowly turned your head to look, too.

People in brightly colored coats stood in front of the building and a few other people were there too, in the drab colors of the First Army. There was Grisha down there, and First Army, evidently. You stared at them all for a moment and realized that these must be Grisha that didn’t side with Aleksander, or else they’d likely be locked in cages or dead, especially with members of the First Army with them.

“Come on, then,” Vasily said in a hard tone, “let’s go see who they are and what they want.” He said slowly. You nodded once and followed him down the hill, holding the reins of your horse so tight that the leather of the reins left indents in your skin.

The ride down the hill was easy and as you slowly approached the building, everyone’s heads turned to you and your brother. You recognized a few of the Grisha from your time at the Little Palace and you searched your brain for names but couldn’t come up with any. Next, you looked at the group of First Army men to the side and you widened your eyes with recognition. A blonde boy in a decorated army uniform stood speaking to a much older man in a similar uniform.

You gasped loudly and you clambered off of your horse as it still moved, ignoring Vasily’s protests. You ran the rest of the way to the group, pushing past a few of the Grisha.

“Nikolai!” You cried, and the blonde boy turned his head to see you sprinting towards him.

A warm, elated smile formed on Nikolai’s face and he stepped forward with his arms open. You ran straight into your brother’s arms and wrapped your own around his shoulders. His arms closed tightly around your torso and he gave you a tight squeeze, letting out a mirthful laugh. An excited smile of your own covered your face and you felt a sense of comfort that you hadn’t had for many months.

“Oh, y/n!” Your brother exclaimed, pulling back. He placed his hands on your arms and he looked you up and down a few times before he let out another laugh, “Saints! Look at you! You’re so grown!”

You felt giddy with delight as you stared up into the face of your brother and you reached up to mess up his blonde hair.

“It’s been seven years, Nikolai!” You exclaimed, the smile on your face not fading even a bit, “Why on earth are you here? Where on earth have you even been? I-“

“That’s quite enough, sister.” You slowly turned your head around to see that Vasily stood behind you now, also off of his horse, “I’m sure the last thing Nikolai wants is for you to be yapping his ear off.”

“I don’t mind.” Nikolai interjected firmly, dropping his hands away from your arms, “I was actually really looking forward to seeing her. When I heard you were all heading this way, I started telling everyone about you.” He remarked and looked down at you with a smile.

“Yes well, we didn’t expect you to be here. With company.” Vasily said stiffly, and you wondered what his problem was.

“The more the merrier. That’s what they say, at least, and if it’s true, I’ve got a merry little sanctuary going on here.” Nikolai quipped back at Vasily.

“I can see that.” Vasily murmured and then cleared his throat, “Why don’t you help us get everything inside, Nikolai? Have your… help aid us.”

You looked around for a moment before realizing that Vasily was less than thrilled to see Grisha here. You pressed your lips together and looked over at him with a frown.

“The help? Oh no, brother. You’re mistaken. They’re here because they want to be. No one here is above or beneath anyone. We all help each other.” Nikolai’s voice was calm and friendly, but you could always tell when he was masking his sternness behind kindness. This was one of those times.

Nikolai looked down at you and smiled, a real, genuine smile. You felt a little less lonely in that moment and he placed his hand on your shoulder.

“We have much to catch up on, and we will, believe me. But I’m gonna help get everyone situated. Maybe you should go inside and meet everyone.” He suggested and you gave him a nod.

You leaned forward and gave him another brief hug before you pulled back. You turned your head and gave Vasily a pointed look before you turned on your heel and walked inside of the large building.

Once you stepped inside, you looked around. The room was bustling with Grisha in their brightly colored clothes. You took a few more steps into the building before you heard your name called.

“Y/n?”

You turned to where the voice had come from, and you almost had to do a double take.

Alina Starkov walked towards you with a tall, lanky boy behind her, who you vaguely recognized as Malyen. Both of them approached you swiftly and you looked up at Alina, a bit shocked.

“You’re alive.” You breathed, looking her up and down a few times.

“I am, and I’m so glad to say the same for you.” She said softly and reached out.

She grabbed your hands gently in her own and she gave you a sympathetic smile. You smiled back at her and took a step closer to the girl, giving her hands a friendly squeeze.

“What happened, Alina? How did it come to this?” You asked quietly.

Her smile fell and she turned to look at the boy next to her and she gave him a little nod.

“Let’s take her to a room. So we can speak privately.” She suggested and he nodded once.

She let go of one of your hands, but kept ahold of one of them so that she could lead you through the halls of what was your supposed sanctuary.

She led you to a room with double doors and the tracker boy with her pushed them open for the two of you and you followed her inside. Once the doors were closed, Alina brought you to the foot of the bed in the room and she sat down on it, tugging you down with her.

She gave you a sad smile and then she sighed, letting go of your hand.

“You were smart to disappear.” Alina remarked and you nodded once.

“I gathered. What even happened? I know things have gotten bad-“

“Bad is an understatement.” The tracker boy, Mal, said from where he stood a few feet away.

Alina nodded once in apparent agreement and she let out another sigh.

“The day we went out into the Fold, Aleksander was… furious. He came and got me from my tent and he told me you’d be coming with us. Which, I was fearful about. He brought me to his tent, but when we arrived there, you were gone. I’ve never seen him lose composure like that,” she said, a distant look in her eye, “he was angry and he was shouting and he was commanding anyone that could hear him to go and find you. But you had just… vanished. It was like he’d lost his mind for a moment there. Some soldiers theorized that you’d been taken, and he nearly had accepted it, but Ivan wasn’t convinced. He told Aleksander that you likely ran deliberately. At that point, he didn’t want to waste any more time, so he continued with the voyage, and he said he’d ‘deal’ with you later. I don’t think he expected to lose.” She explained and then folded her hands in her lap.

You blinked a few times and you looked down into your own lap. The ring on your middle finger seemed to burn into your skin and you bit the side of your cheek sharply. You stayed silent for a while and then looked back up at Alina, puffing out your cheeks slightly.

“What happened to him? To you?” You asked, placing your hands down against the fabric of your riding pants.

“Mal fought him off mostly. He was swarmed by volcra. Mal and I… we got across the Fold and ran. Went into hiding for a while.” She answered.

“By volcra?” You said and perked your head up. If he was swarmed by volcra, there was no way that he would have survived. The rumors of his survival must have been just that: rumors.

“Yes.”

You shuddered at the thought and then you looked up at Alina, giving her a small smile. You didn’t know if you should mention what Vasily told you about your husband being alive. You probably should have, but you didn’t.

“I think… that’s for the best.” You remarked slowly and then laid your palms flat against your lap.

There was a small silence in the room and you didn’t know how to fill it. You tapped your fingers against your lap quietly and puffed your cheeks out slightly. You’d never taken the time to speak to Alina, really. The two of you had exchanged words in the Little Palace a few times but nothing groundbreaking was ever said. To be honest, you never really wanted to converse with her. Not until now, at least.

Alina’s hand grasped your shoulder and you looked over at the girl next to you. She was giving you a small, sympathetic smile.

“I’m really glad you’re okay. At least one of us made it out.” She remarked and you raised your eyebrow.

“But did I really make it out?” You asked, thinking of what your husband had said to you, about how your country would hate you. You felt a bit resentful towards your parents and your brother, Vasily. You couldn’t help but believe you had only traded one bad scenario for another.

“Yes, I can’t even imagine what would have happened if you’d gone into the Fold with us that day.” She said and you blinked a few times.

You’d wondered that, too, a couple of times. You wondered if things would have turned out differently, you wondered if you’d be with Aleksander now, you wondered if your country would still despise you so. You thought you’d done the right thing but it seemed there was no right thing to do. Only the preferable one. The one to save face. You sighed and then gave Alina a small smile.

“I think I’d like to be alone.” You whispered and Alina nodded.

“Of course. I’m right next door- if you need anything.” She said, rising from your bed.

She gave you a small wave as she and Mal left the room and you flopped back onto your bed.

Your mind raced upon being left alone and you tried to clear it by shaking your head a few times. You felt confused, angry, exasperated, and tired all at once.

You closed your eyes and took deep breaths, trying to fight back the consuming thoughts of Aleksander.

You sat between your two brothers at dinner that night, bouncing your knee anxiously. To your left, Nikolai sat sipping his wine next to Alina, and to your right, Vasily sat and picked at his food while your mother fussed over his hair as she sat next to him.

You had finished your first glass of wine and reached across the table for the bottle, only to have the back of your hand smacked by Vasily.

“Sister, we will not have a repeat of the last time you had control over your wine intake.” He spoke, giving you a condescending smile.

Nikolai reached across the table and grabbed the bottle of wine and poured some in your glass before he set the bottle back down and turned to Vasily with a grin.

“No harm done, brother. This is fine wine, after all, she’s got good taste.” Nikolai remarked and then winked at you.

You gave your blonde brother a small, appreciative smile and you grabbed the glass, taking a sip.

Vasily snorted and your mother looked over at you and Nikolai before she shook her head with a small scoff.

“Don’t defend her, Nikolai. The last time she was given wine she made a fool of herself.” Your mother snapped, but Nikolai only laughed and nudged your side.

“If you cause a scene tonight, you’ll have my appreciation. Maybe even some new pearls.” He teased and you turned to look at Nikolai. You giggled softly at his offer and then you shook your head.

“Mother and Father already covertly wish for my swift beheading. What makes you think they’ll not beat me with sticks?” You asked and took another sip of your wine.

“I gathered that Mother wasn’t too pleased with you at the moment. Why?” He asked and took a bite of his food.

You sighed and then shook your head once, glancing down at your own plate.

“She thought I was expecting the Darkling’s child. But clearly I’m not pregnant, so now she just hates me for being his wife. But that’s odd, because,” you held up your finger and jabbed it towards your mother and father, “the marriage between the Darkling and I was their idea.”

Nikolai rolled his eyes and he reached out for the bottle of wine for himself, grabbing hold of the neck of the bottle.

“Yeah, I heard about that. Thought it was a bit of an odd pairing but what do I know? Alina told me that you escaped him. Is that not enough for our parents?” He asked and poured himself more wine.

“Evidently not. I thought Vasily was on my side, but it seems not. But I mean, no one else is. The entire country hates me.” You remarked and then looked up at Nikolai, “you know people and their rumors.” You said and then gave your brother a weak smile.

“I don’t hate you. And I am on your side,” Nikolai began, giving you a sympathetic smile, “you did the right thing, you shouldn’t be punished for it. Sometimes running is the brave thing. Sometimes you have to walk out, have to give up. It doesn’t always feel right, but it’s braver in the grand scheme of it all to have cut your losses and started over fresh.” He said and then placed his hand on your shoulder, “I think you’re brave. Braver than me, even. I’m proud of you.” He said softly and then squeezed your shoulder.

You looked at your brother, surprised. You shook your head once and then you let out a sad laugh.

“Oh, Nikolai. I’ve missed you more than you will ever know.” You murmured and then rubbed your eyes.

You pulled your hands away from your eyes and it looked as if Nikolai was about to say something more, but Vasily’s loud voice stopped him.

“Why must you always play the diplomat, Nikolai?” Vasily asked, holding his wine glass close to his lips. He shot a look at you and then one at Alina, “Grisha dining beside true Ravkan soldiers is a bit too much for all of our stomachs.”

You made a disgusted face at Vasily and opened your mouth to protest, but you were stopped by Alina’s voice.

“We’re all Ravkan here.” She snapped

“Doesn’t have to be us versus them.” Nikolai added.

“Your bigotry is rather outdated, Vasily.” You chimed in, earning a look of disdain from your mother.

“General Kirigan should’ve thought of that before he tried to murder our father and stage a coup.” Vasily shot back and then gave you a nasty little smirk, “That said, absent their Darkling, the Grisha are rather easy to manage. Though, it seems our sister has become more difficult to manage in the lack of his presence. Why do you think that is?” He asked and kept his eyes on yours, accusingly.

“By “manage” do you mean “execute”, moi tsarevich?” Alina asked, sharply, and this seemed to be enough to draw your brother’s accusatory eyes away from yours.

“That fate is reserved for traitors to the Crown, Miss Starkov.” He answered and then looked back at you, lips curling upwards.

“If the Second Army requires a leader loyal to the Crown to assure their fealty, then I will lead them.” Alina said calmly, leaning over the table to look at Vasily.

Your oldest brother tore his gaze away from you and smiled at Alina. He laughed and took a long sip of his wine, glancing at your mother who was also giggling.

“Why should I believe you have any loyalty to my family? I hardly have any within it.” He remarked and eyed you and Nikolai amusedly.

Nikolai glanced at you for a second and then he looked at Alina. The two stared at each other for a moment and then Nikolai grabbed his wine glass and stood up.

For a split second, you thought he might leave the table. He began speaking instead.

“Today marks the start of a new era of cooperation between Lantsovs and the Grisha” he began and held his glass up in a toast, “I’m delighted to announce my engagement to Alina Starkov, the Sun Summoner and the new leader of the Second Army. Together we will build a better future for Ravka.” He finished. He shouted praise to Ravka in the native tongue and raised his glass higher before taking a sip and sitting back down.

You gaped up at your brother and blinked a few times. Vasily muttered something in your mother’s ear and you whipped around to look at them.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.” You snapped, staring at the two of them, “you’re no better than the rest of the gossipers in this country. You just sit on pretty chairs.” You hissed and then stood up.

You looked down at Nikolai and Alina and gave them a smile, “I’m happy for you both.” You said softly and then patted Nikolai’s shoulder before you pushed your chair in and left the dining hall.

You walked out into the hallway without looking back, but you heard heavy footsteps behind you. You didn’t turn around, and you wouldn’t have either, if your brother’s clammy hand didn’t clamp itself around your wrist. He yanked you backwards and you found yourself face to face with a seething Vasily.

“You wretched brat!” Vasily screamed. He lifted your wrist up and snatched the ring off of your middle finger and threw it down the hallway.

You gasped loudly and tried to yank your arm away from his grip, but to no avail.

“After all I have sacrificed for you-“

“Sacrificed for me? What have you sacrificed for me? You’ve sacrificed nothing of your own. You’ve sacrificed my reputation. My name. You’d sooner see me dragged through the mud before anyone blackens your name, Vasily.” You snapped back, reaching out to shove his chest as you yanked your wrist free of his grip.

“You selfish-“

“I’m allowed to be fucking selfish!” You exclaimed and balled your fists up, “After everything that’s happened to me, I’m allowed to look out for myself! I was married off with no say to someone wicked and I am now blamed for that! Once again, another example of how a man’s poor choice becomes my fault! Father chose the Darkling for me, and now he’s angry at me for it? Please. He’s pathetic. You’re pathetic.”

Vasily seemed shocked by your words and he struggled to form any of his own, it seemed. His brows furrowed together and he looked as if he might reach out and strangle you at any second before you heard Nikolai behind him.

“Vasily, I think it’s time to leave her alone and go back to the table.” Nikolai suggested, striding towards the two of you.

Vasily only seemed to grow angrier and before you knew it, he was lunging for you. You shrieked and jumped backwards and Nikolai jolted forward and grabbed Vasily by the arms, yanking him backwards.

“Enough! All three of you, enough!”

You all turned to see your father standing in the hallway with his hands on his hips and his brows furrowed angrily. Vasily shook himself free of Nikolai’s grip and he smoothed his hair back before going to join your father by his side.

“There are wars being waged out there! There are battles to be fought! That is to be expected, but I will not have my own children causing turmoil!” He bellowed, “All of you, get back in there and sit down. Pretend to like each other if you must, but behave! I’ll not have you bring more shame into this family.” He spat and then eyed you and Nikolai.

He turned around with Vasily and marched back into the dining hall. You inhaled deeply and turned around, scanning the hallway for your ring.

“Y/n…” Nikolai began as you dropped to your knees and began to search the floor for your wedding ring.

“Just go back to dinner, Nik. I’m going to my room.” You said with a small sigh as you continued to look for the little piece of jewelry.

“What are you looking for?” He asked, lowering himself down to the ground with you.

You let out a huff and turned your head around to face him.

“A ring.”

“Your wedding ring.” He corrected and you blinked a few times.

“I don’t think of it as a wedding ring.” You protested and continued crawling around the floor to find it.

“It’s okay to miss him, you know.” Nikolai said softly and you froze. You didn’t turn around.

“I don’t miss him.” You said flatly, but you knew it was a lie and so did Nikolai.

Nikolai moved towards you and placed his hand on your back gently, sighing.

“Y/n, it’s okay to miss him,” he repeated, hand still against your back, “he was your first real… suitor. I’m sure despite the arranged marriage aspect, you did come to love him, and that’s okay. You aren’t a monster for loving someone,”

He said softly and wrapped his arm around your shoulder, pulling you against his side, “our parents failed you, sister. Your husband failed you. This country failed you. You are young and you were taken advantage of in so many ways. Our parents took advantage of you, I’m sure the Darkling did as well. You can condemn what he’s done and not agree with what he believes and still miss him.” Your brother said softly.

You felt tears spring to your eyes and you leaned against his side, sniffling once.

“I feel so stupid, Nikolai,” you breathed and turned to look up at him, “I do miss him. I miss him dearly. I sometimes question whether or not I did the right thing when I ran. It’s so hard to accept that this is just how it is now. He said he loved me, Nikolai. He told me that he’d always protect me, and I believed him. I let him persuade me so many times with soft words and affectionate touches, I was weak. I was weak and now I’m paying for it.”

“You weren’t weak. You didn’t know better, little sister.” Nikolai whispered and then he pulled away from you. He stood up and walked down the hallway and crouched down.

He picked something up and came back to you, kneeling in front of you. He held your wedding ring out towards you and gave you a small smile.

“You did the right thing. You did the brave thing. Now let yourself grieve.” He said and you gently took the ring from his fingers.

You slipped it back on and Nikolai offered you his hand. You took it gratefully and he pulled you to your feet.

“Everything will turn out for the best, sister. I promise.” He said, giving you a kind smile.

You returned his smile briefly but then let the smile fade from your face.

Best for who?

The following weeks were hardly eventful and you found yourself bored in your so-called sanctuary. No one ever let you go far outside and when you did go outside- which was a rare occurrence- Nikolai or Alina and Mal accompanied you.

With little to do, you’d taken to following Nikolai around. Most days, he’d entertain you by telling you stories of his time at sea as the two of you wandered the halls of the old building you occupied.

Today, you hoped, wouldn’t be any different. You had risen from bed rather late in the morning and by the time you went to seek Nikolai out, he’d been gone for a while. You spent the morning in your room while you waited for Nikolai to return and you read through one of the three books you’d been able to pack up and bring. But you’d been at this now for hours, and you started to grow deathly bored of your own company.

With a long groan, you slowly rose from the bed and you shuffled out into the hallway. You heard people talking from further out in the hall and you made your way towards the voices curiously.

You rounded a corner and saw Alina, Mal, two other Grisha, a man in shackles, and Nikolai all standing together. You padded towards them all, catching the last words out of Nikolai’s mouth.

“He claims to have escaped from a very alive General Kirigan.” Nikolai said to Alina in a quiet voice.

Not quiet enough, you thought. Because the words still reached your ears.

“He gave himself up without a struggle. We found this on him.” Nikolai added and handed something to Alina, “He says it’s one of Morozova’s journals. I for one, am dying to know more, but he’s insisted he speak with you.”

You came closer and Nikolai caught sight of you and he let out a small sigh, slowly taking a step towards you.

“What’s happening?” You asked quietly, looking up at your brother.

Nikolai swept his arm out towards the group in front of you, and you glanced over at the man in shackles. You were instantly hit with recognition.

The man in shackles had ragged hair and he was dirty, but you knew him from anywhere. It was David Kostyk. The Durast that helped you escape from Aleksander.

You took a step forward but Nikolai grabbed your arm and shook his head, “No.” he said quietly.

David seemingly hadn’t noticed you yet and he stepped towards Alina, only to be stopped by one of the large Grisha you recognized as a boy named Tolya.

“Alina…” David began, “I know I wronged you. Please believe that I regret my role in that deeply. I know you have reason to distrust me, but I have no loyalty to General Kirigan.”

“He survived the Volcra?” Alina asked, almost shakily.

“I’m afraid so,” David began and then he shook his head, “He also knows that you survived and you’re in East Ravka.”

“Tell us where he is.” Mal demanded.

You moved to step forward again, but Nikolai stopped you once more and sent you a warning look.

“No, no, no. That would be a very bad idea.” David said, clearly afraid.

“You can’t expect us to trust you unless you’re willing to share information.” Alina piped up.

“Confronting him would be suicide. Kirigan used merzost to create something in the Fold. Creatures that do his bidding. The size of two men! Formed of pure shadow! They have no breath to take, no heart to stop, no blood to drain, yet they live. They live and they kill. They are nichevo'ya.” He said quietly.

Nothings. Your Ravkan was weak, but you understood what he said.

“Bullets, blades, fire, all simply pass through.” David breathed, “and they all walk freely in sunlight. I fear that merzost may be the only way to kill them.” David finished and then his eyes flickered over to you. You gave him a small smile.

A look of surprise and then terror washed over his face and he blinked a few times.

“So how did you manage to get away, then?” Mal asked.

David struggled to answer Mal and he let out a tired sigh, “Genya. We tried to escape together, but the nichevo'ya… She sacrificed herself to get me out. I don’t know if she survived.” David said, on the verge of tears.

You felt sadness for him and you gently grabbed Nikolai’s arm and looked up at him with a frown. He gave you a look of sympathy and then he let out a sigh, puffing his cheeks out.

“A smart spy will always play the victim.” Tolya pointed out.

“No, no.” David whispered desperately.

“You make a valid point, Tolya.” Nikolai said and you pulled on his arm, “As leader of the Second Army, Alina, this is your call.” He said slowly.

“I trust him. With my life.” You said quickly and suddenly all eyes were on you.

You felt a bit nervous and your brother gave you a sharp look but you let out a sigh and shook your head.

“I wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for David. He helped me escape the Darkling.” You explained vaguely, looking over at the terrified Durast.

“Take him to a holding cell.” Alina finally said and you felt your face fall.

“Alina-“ you began, but Nikolai gently grabbed your arm and he shook his head.

“We can discuss this, but not here.” He said firmly, but the kindness in his voice never left.

You met his eyes and stared at him for a while before you finally nodded. You knew you’d be able to talk some kind of sense into Nikolai, and in turn, he’d likely be able to talk some into Alina. David wasn’t a bad person, you knew this wholeheartedly, and you also knew indefinitely that if he claimed to not be here on the Darkling’s orders, then he certainly wasn’t.

“We need a moment alone.” Mal piped up and you and your brother both turned to him.

Nikolai’s eyes flickered between Mal and Alina for a moment and then he nodded.

“Of course,” he said and offered his arm to you, “come, sister. You and I can also speak privately.” He remarked.

You gently took your brother’s arm and he led you down the hall towards his makeshift office. Once the two of you were securely inside, he closed the door and he looked down at you.

“Alright. Tell me everything you know about David Kostyk.” Nikolai said patiently and walked towards his desk. He sat down in the chair that was placed in front of the wooden desk and he folded his arms, looking up at you expectantly.

“David is a friend. He is the one that created the collar for Alina and he did put the amplifiers in both my husband and her, but you must understand, he had no choice. He regretted that choice. He’s the one that aided me in my escape. He came to the Darkling’s tent and he gave me a disguise and he let me run.” You explained and wrung your hands together.

Your brother seemed to consider this and then he gave you a little nod before he raised one eyebrow.

“You’ve never mentioned this before.” He stated and leaned forward a bit in his chair.

“I didn’t want it to get back to the Darkling. He would’ve hurt David.” You said and then walked to Nikolai’s desk. You laid your hands down against the desk’s cold, wooden surface, and you let out a sigh, “Look, if he’s alive like David says, then we need everyone we can get. He’ll come for Alina.”

Nikolai nodded once and then seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before speaking again.

“He’ll likely come for you, too, you know.” Your brother remarked and slowly rose from his chair.

“I disagree. I think he values Alina much more. I’m dead to him. He gave me an opportunity to join him and a promise that my life would be misery if I didn’t. He’s making good on the promise, reuniting with me would be nonsensical.” You reasoned.

Nikolai shrugged and dragged a hand through his blonde hair, “You aren’t in the clear just because you ran, y/n.” He mused and then stood up, “I’m going to have a word with Alina about Mr. Kostyk. Why don’t you wait here for me?”

He suggested.

You gave him a little nod and then you sat down in one of the armchairs near the desk.

“Can I see him? I consider him a friend, Nik.” You murmured softly, feeling sadness grow in the pit of your stomach at the thought of David in a cell.

“I… don’t see that being much of an issue eventually.” He answered and walked towards the door, patting your shoulder reassuringly as he passed you. He left the office and closed the door behind you, leaving you in the silence of the empty office.

Nearly an hour and half had gone by according to the clock that sat on Nikolai’s desk, and no one had come back to the office. At first you spent your time rifling through papers in Nikolai’s desk, but you found nothing of interest, so you’d sat back down in the uncomfortable armchair you had initially been in.

Now you sat, spinning your sparkling wedding ring around your middle finger. It was a band of thin rectangular diamonds framed in gold. It was missing one stone, and you assumed it had gotten lost when Vasily threw your ring across the hallway weeks ago. It wasn’t noticeable, though. You just wore the part with the missing stone on the back of your finger, hiding it from sight.

You pulled the piece of glimmering jewelry off of your middle finger and slipped it on your ring finger, holding your hand up in front of your face to see. It fit much better around your ring finger, as it was intended to spend the rest of its days upon that specific finger. While it fit on your middle finger, it was slightly too tight and oftentimes you had to slip it off in the mornings when your hands were swollen.

You admired the way the ring sparkled in the sunlight that filtered through the window and you smiled just a bit, wiggling your finger.

Just then, the door swung open and you lowered your hand quickly before turning around to see Nikolai standing in the doorway.

“I didn’t mean for that to take so long, my apologies, little sister.” He hummed and then let out a little laugh, “you could’ve left, you know.” He remarked.

You rose from the uncomfortable armchair and walked over to your older brother, shaking your head.

“Punctuality was never your strong suit.” You replied and smiled up at him.

“Well, to be fair, I didn’t give you a time frame.” He quipped and then he smiled down at you, “Alina spoke to David. She’s deemed him trustworthy enough, which is good. If you still wish to speak with him still, I can take you to him.” Nikolai offered.

You nodded vigorously at his offer and you gave him a small smile, “I’d really like that.”

Nikolai swept his arm towards the door and motioned for you to exit his office and you did so with a certain excitement. He led the way downstairs and through a few winding halls before he pushed open a door and stepped inside with you.

You hadn’t been in this area before, and it was apparent why. The walls were shabby and there was dust everywhere, settling over everything. Nikolai walked towards a row of doors down a hallway that was in the same condition and he unlocked one and opened it up.

As the door swung open, you shuffled into the doorway to be met with the disheveled face of David Kostyk inside. His eyes lit up when he saw you and you slowly turned around to look at Nikolai who stood behind you protectively.

“Nik, can we have a moment?” You asked softly and turned around to look up at your brother.

He looked into the makeshift cell for a moment and then studied David and gave you a short nod.

“Okay. I’m not leaving this wing though.”

You nodded and watched as he made his way back down the hall before you walked inside of the cell and gave David a little smile.

The Durast gave you a small, awkward wave due to the shackles on his wrists that held his hands apart and he seemed to relax tenfold.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” he began, taking a step towards you, “I kind of hoped you would’ve ran somewhere besides Ravka.” He confessed and let out a very small laugh.

“I didn’t really know where else to go.” You admitted and then shook your head, “But it’s really, really great to see you, David. I was worried that perhaps something happened to you. Or that you’d given your loyalty to the Darkling. Neither were necessarily preferable.” You said with a slight shake of your head.

You turned around and slowly pushed the door closed so that it was only open about an inch and you turned back to David, letting out a quiet sigh.

“He lives?” You asked, voice barely above a whisper.

David eyed you with trepidation and finally nodded just once.

“He does.” He confirmed, his lips tugging themselves downwards into a frown.

“I don’t understand how that’s possible, Alina told me he was swarmed by volcra.” You folded your arms over your chest and looked up at David.

David was never an overly confident presenting man to begin with, always holding himself with gracelessness and awkwardness, but he seemed smaller than usual now. He seemed almost fragile. He seemed much less awkward and instead afraid. He seemed to shrink back a bit at the topic and he pursed his lips and looked down into your eyes.

“He used very dark forces to keep himself alive.” He said slowly, eyes shifting away from yours, “I really wish you would’ve run away. Out of Ravka, y/n. There isn’t a safe place in this country. Not anymore.”

You kept your eyes on his face and you shook your head a couple of times, “I couldn’t abandon my family, David-“

“He’s not going to stop until he finds you.” He interjected sharply and then looked up at you with furrowed brows, “You were practically all he spoke about. If he wasn’t rambling on about his nichevo'ya or Alina, he was talking about you. He’s completely obsessed.”

You blinked a few times and then shook your head, as if that would make what he said less true.

“Let him obsess over finding me and delivering punishment for my ‘transgressions’ against him. It doesn’t mean he will.” You said in a small voice. You were unsure if you believed it, though.

“No, it was nothing like that. He’s reached a state of limerence, Princess. It’s a madness that I never thought I’d see in him. He has himself convinced fully that he’s going to rescue you from your family and put you on a throne next to himself. He still wears his wedding ring.” David explained, leaning his back up against the wall behind him.

Your ring seemed to burn through your skin when you heard this, and you realized you’d not moved it back onto your middle finger. Slowly, you clasped your hands behind your back, wanting to keep your hand out of sight now.

“I don’t understand,” you whispered, “he said that if I didn’t take his side that I’d be a traitor.”

David seemed to hesitate as he looked up at you and he pressed his lips together until there was no trace of them on his face. He finally swore under his breath and fidgeted with his fingers.

“I think that at one point, he loved you. But I think that love became… an obsession. Something he clung to in a way that simply cannot be healthy.” He said slowly, tapping on the wood that held his hands apart.

You could tell this conversation was making him uncomfortable and you felt a bit guilty for bringing it up.

“What does that mean, David?” You asked, despite a little voice in the back of your head telling you to drop it.

“I think it means that you need to get out of Ravka before he comes searching,” he paused for a moment and then shook his head, “because I worry that if he does find you again, you won’t be able to say no to him.” He said reluctantly.

You narrowed your eyes at David and you shook your head, “I’m very capable of resisting him. I ran from him once, I could do it again.”

David very slowly shook his head and he nodded towards you, swallowing one time, nervously.

“You still wear your ring, too.”

“Not because-“

“You don’t have to rationalize it to me, Princess. No one could blame you for missing the man you married. You relied upon him for comfort and protection for a while. You two had a very strange and unique bond. I’m sure that hasn’t been forgotten by you. While I don’t doubt your capabilities, Princess, I can’t in good conscience undermine his ability to crawl underneath your skin.” David stated in a shaky voice, as if he were afraid of your reaction.

He had a point, and you couldn’t deny that. Many times he’d found a way to make you give in to him, always knowing what would make you soften. He always used kind words and gentle touches to persuade you to see things from his perspective, always saying just what you wanted to hear from him. He would promise you he loved you, assure you that you were safe with him, he’d give you the affection and adoration you had sought after, and time after time, it proved effective.

He was a master of manipulation, you knew it. Everyone did.

Your eyes flickered to David and he gave you a sympathetic look, chewing on the inside of his cheek anxiously.

“I will not let him.” You finally answered, eyeing David with the same trepidation he had looked at you with earlier.

David shrugged slightly and he shuffled his feet uncomfortably.

“I’m not sure you’ll have a choice if he finds you.” He mumbled and then he looked around the room, avoiding your eyes, and just like that, you realized you’d lost another friend.

Your nose twitched and you realized that you’d really lost everyone. Your mother, your father, Vasily- even if he was truly insufferable. You’d lost your country’s favor, you were sure to lose Nikolai at this rate, and you seemingly already had lost David.

You lost Aleksander, too.

The thought hit you out of nowhere and you almost jumped by the way it had startled you.

Everything he had said would happen if you didn’t take his side, was happening, and you weren’t too sure how to handle it.

On one hand, you wanted to let it all roll right off your shoulder, to come off as unbothered and in control. On the other hand, though, you wanted to lash out and condemn everyone who had turned their back on you just because of him.

But the truth was, you weren’t in control, and you weren’t unbothered. Everyday became more difficult and everyday brought more accusatory stares. Some from Grisha, some from Mal Oretsev, most from your parents and Vasily, and some from a few of the First Army soldiers that came in and out. Now, you felt the same stare from David as he watched you from where he stood against the wall.

It was almost as if he was hearing you work all of this out in your head. You didn’t think he’d ever say it but you wondered if he was thinking “I told you so”.

What was the point of trying to prove everyone wrong when even the truth of the matter wouldn’t sway their convictions? Your case fell on a faulty jury, your judgment was passed by a thousand unjust judges.

Your truth wasn’t the truth they had decided on for you, and to them, it was just a story. A way to save face.

It didn’t matter what you said now, didn’t matter who you swore allegiance to. You were whatever they made you, and they made you more and more a villain everyday. No amount of reassurances and support from Nikolai could erase that.

The realization that your reputation was now as tainted as your husband’s made your eyebrows knit together in frustration. You slowly lifted your eyes up to David and you gave him a disparaging frown.

“I best be going.” You mumbled, not waiting for a farewell from the boy.

You turned on your heel and marched out of the cell, closing the door behind you with a force you didn’t fully intend on. You squared your shoulders and made your way back to the hallway where Nikolai stood and he gave you a small smile when he saw you.

“That was a little bit more brief than I expected.” Nikolai noted, stuffing his hands into his coat pockets.

“I heard all I needed to hear.” You replied, shortly.

“I take it by your tone that it wasn’t exactly what you wanted to hear.” He prodded, taking a step towards you.

You shrugged complacently.

“It never is.”

#grishaverse #shadow and bone imagine #shadow and bone #aleksander morozova imagine #aleksander morozova #aleksander morozova x reader #the darkling imagine #the darkling x you #the darkling imagine #the darkling #the darkling x reader #general kirigan imagine #general kirigan x reader #general kirigan #ben barnes x reader #ben barnes imagine

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on-my-vigilante-sht · 1 year

Text

I Can’t Leave

Aaron Hotchner x Reader

Summary: When the reader is forced into hiding, she’s desperate to inform her fiancé and his son

Warnings: canon level violence, talk of domestic terrorism, some angst, guns

Word Count: 3.2k

Masterlist

“Here you go,” I said, putting a glass of whisky in front of my father. I took my seat across from him, raising my glass. “To the Speaker of the House, part three.”

He smiled, touching his glass to mine before taking drink. “Thank you, dear. So how’s work?”

“It’s good. I mean, as good as hunting down predators and murderers can be,” I sighed. “But it’s good, I feel like I’m doing some good in the world.” I looked up to find my father’s expression falling. “What?”

“I just- uh… well it’s not that I want you to be unhappy but this next thing would be easier if you hated your job,” he chuckled awkwardly. Confused and nervous I urged him to go on. “Well there are some bad people after us, Y/N.”

“Dad, you don’t need to dumb it down. I’m an FBI agent, I take down bad people all the time. What’s going on?”

“Some extremists are after our family. Y/N, they sent death threats… about you specifically,” he said as gently as possible.

“Okay, so? I mean yeah, it’s strange that they were sent about me in relation to you but they’ve sent them to mom. I get them on my own from people we’ve locked up.”

“They suspect that the extremists are working with some members of Congress in the opposing party. Which can be incredibly dangerous for you.”

“So what? You want my team to investigate? I can hang back on this one if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Well I’m glad you’re willing to hang back because… you need to go into hiding.”

I only stared at him, not believing what he was asking. “Did you seriously just ask me to go into hiding?”

“Y/N-”

“No, absolutely not,” I refused. “Dad, I’m an FBI agent. If anyone can protect themselves it’s me.”

“This is serious. I’ve talked to people in Homeland Security, people way above you and your team and they recommended you go into hiding.”

“What about you?” I was visibly upset now. “Are you hiding?”

“I can’t. The houses are already divided and each party is getting more radical. I can’t just leave, especially when I was just reelected.”

“So what makes you think I can just leave? Why can’t I just have body guards?”

“Because your job won’t allow that. I know you’ll run away from them with no regard for your own safety the second a — what is it you call them? Unsub? — when an unsub runs away. Besides, they said you won’t be safe unless everyone thinks you’re dead.”

“Excuse me?” I was angry now. “What could possibly be going on that Homeland Security thinks I need to be dead? Oh my god,” I said suddenly, realizing what my father was asking. “Can I at least tell my team that this is fake?”

He shook his head regretfully. “I’m sorry. Homeland Security wants as few people to know as possible.”

“Can I at least tell Aaron and Jack?” Tears were pricking my eyes now as he shook his head no. “Dad, he’s my fiancé,” I was begging now. “He has a son. Jack is basically my son. He already lost his mother to a bad guy. I can’t leave them. He can’t lose two mother figures.”

“That’s exactly why you need to be protected. So you can be a mother to him again.”

“Can’t you see this will do irreparable damage? Aaron won’t let me back into his life after I knowingly hurt him and his son in a way they’ve already been hurt. You want me to go into hiding? Fine but please let me tell Aaron.”

“I’m sorry dear, my hands are tied. Your death is already being orchestrated now. Your car will be crashed in about 10 minutes.”

My eyes widened as rage filled me. “I don’t even get to see anyone one last time?” I covered my face in frustration. I needed to calm down if I was going to think of a way to communicate with Aaron. “Fine but just let me do one last thing.”

My father nodded eagerly. “I’ll try my best to fulfill that.”

“Part of the reason I came over was to get my old Hot Wheels. I was going to bring them back for Jack. Can they say they were found in the trunk and you said to take them to Jack because I was delivering them?”

He thought for a moment. “I don’t see why not. I’ll ask the agents posing as officers to bring them.”

“Thank you,” I breathed. “I just didn’t want to leave Jack with nothing, you know? I’ll grab them,” I said, heading into my old room. Immediately grabbing a post-it note and a pen.

I’m alive. Tell no one. Love you - Y/N

I folded it up as tight as possible and stuffed it inside the door of a ‘65 Mustang I had once broken the door off of when I was a kid. I then replaced the broken door, which only fell off when you rolled it around, before tossing it into the box with the others.

Aaron had been cooking lunch on one of his few days off, excited for Y/N to return home so they could have some alone time when he heard a knock on the door. Cautiously he grabbed his gun before creeping towards the door silently. Checking the peep hole he spotted two cops. Frowning, he put his gun down behind the door before opening it. Before he could say anything the officer spoke. “Aaron Hotchner?”

“Yes?” he answered hesitantly.

“We’re very sorry to inform you but your fiancée, Y/N L/N, has passed.” Every ounce of hurt Aaron had ever felt hit him all at once. All the shots, stabs, and the countless punches Aaron had ever felt. This hurt more than Haley, which at the time he had thought would be the worst pain of his life. He didn’t even hear what the cops were saying until they mentioned his son. “We found these. We spoke to Y/N’s father and he said she was bringing them back here to Jack.”

Aaron stared down at the box that was filled near to the brim with Hot Wheels. The same toys that Jack and her had been so excited to play with together. He took the box before quietly shutting the door, wanting to be alone. Setting the box on the kitchen counter he leaned up against it, letting his agony consume him. He couldn’t even make tears fall as empty sobs wracked his body. Aaron was consumed with anger, hurt, sadness, any and every emotion associated with grief. But most of all he was trying to figure out what to say to his son. How could he tell Jack that yet another mother figure was taken from him?

Unable to handle anything he texted his sister-in-law that he had to go into work and asked her to take Jack for the night.

Aaron completely lost the rest of the day. He felt like he was in some sort of haze. He only “woke up” when he started going through Y/N’s Hot Wheels collection, desperate to hold onto her. When he stumbled upon the ‘65 Mustang he was consumed with memories. The first time he had met her parents she had showed him her old room including this exact car. She told him that she used to pass secret messages with her friends in this car. Curiously he fiddled with the door until it popped out. Peering inside he was surprised to see a note stuffed into it. Anxious about what he’d find he pulled out that note that had been very tightly folded.

Without even reading it yet Aaron already felt emotion consume him at the sight of her handwriting. Pushing through he read the note.

I’m alive. Tell no one. Love you - Y/N

He read and reread the short note trying to convince the whisper in his mind that it was in fact for him and Jack. Y/N’s father’s reelection had caused some sense of insurrection in radical groups and he had heard rumors of death threats against her family but they had received death threats in the past. They must have gotten worse and more targeted for Homeland Security to force her into hiding. He also knew she’d never fake her death without telling him and Jack and judging by the nature of the note being smuggled in she hadn’t known about the plan.

While he was relieved to know she was alive but afraid for her safety. If a threat was bad enough to force her underground it must be serious. And he still had to deal with the worst part of it… telling the team and explaining the situation to Jack.

He texted his sister-in-law again that their jet was delayed so he could take Jack for the night and bring him to school tomorrow. Just 15 minutes later Jack was back in his home.

After his son got settled in, Aaron went into his room. “Dad, where’s Y/N?”

Aaron hesitated for a second. “Um yeah, about that…” he had no clue how his young son would handle the news. Especially after Haley had already been killed. “Well first of all, Y/N is okay. She’s safe with a bunch of people to protect her but she’s going to be gone for a little while. Some people are angry at her father and well… they’re threatening to hurt her so some very powerful people think it’s best that she hide for a little while until she’s safe.”

“Is it like the people who hurt mom?” Jack asked with innocent eyes.

That hit Aaron like a bullet. He wasn’t quite sure how to handle it. “Sort of. They want to hurt her family but this is about something bigger than her family or our family.” He didn’t really think it’d be a great idea for him to explain the intricacies of domestic terrorism to his son right before bed. “But you can’t tell anyone about this, understood? We weren’t even supposed to know she’s alive. Not the team, not your aunt, not your teacher, not your friends. It could be really dangerous for Y/N.”

Jack nodded. “Okay dad. When will Y/N come back? In time for the wedding?”

Aaron also didn’t need the reminder that your wedding was supposed to be in two months. “I don’t know but I hope so buddy. I hope so…”

The next day at work Aaron was trying to work up the nerve to speak to everyone about Y/N’s death. There was a case about some women who looked like her and he couldn’t help but wonder if maybe this was connected but he knew he wouldn’t be able to share his theories with anyone.

As everyone filtered in they were all wondering about Y/N. “Hey, Hotch, where’s Y/N?” Morgan asked.

Aaron sighed heavily. “About that… I learned yesterday that um…” this was difficult to say even though he knew it was a lie, “Y/N was killed in a car crash yesterday. I thought this news needed to be said in person rather than over the phone.”

The room was left in shocked silence for a moment until Derek spoke. “Hotch I’m so sorry.” Everyone was keenly aware that this would be the second woman their Unit Chief loved that died.

“It’s not just my loss. It’s all our losses,” he deflected, the always altruist boss.

“How’s Jack handling it?” JJ asked.

“He’s not ready to talk about it so I’m giving him some time. I can’t imagine it’s easy losing another mother figure.”

“How are you handling it?” Rossi asked.

That was a question he didn’t know how to answer. Truthfully he wasn’t okay even though he knew his fiancée was alive because he knew dangerous people were after her. “I can’t really afford to think about it right now. Wheels up in 15, we’ll debrief on the plane.”

1 Year Later

Even though his fiancée was still alive he was still reeling from her loss. It was hard having absolutely no contact and no updates about the status of her or her case.

He was filling out case reports when he heard a knock at his door. “Come in,” muttered not looking up. After not hearing anything in response he looked up to find Y/N’s father, the Head of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge. “Sirs, how can I help you.”

“This is about my daughter,” the Congressman began. “She’s alive.” Aaron wasn’t sure if he should reveal that he knew that or not.

“You already knew,” the Sullivan observed.

“Yes, I did. Y/N sent me a note,” he admitted.

“Has she had any contact with you since?” Ridge asked.

“She hasn’t. What’s happened?” he knew they wouldn’t come to him at work unless they needed profilers.

“It’s been a year since Y/N went underground. She’s been bouncing around various countries and they’ve somehow managed to follow her without us making any headway on the investigation. And we’d like the BAU to help us track these terrorists down.”

“I’ll have my team on it. Where are we going?”

“Brazil.”

In less than an hour the entire team was on the plane with Garcia calling in. “Why are we headed to Brazil? We don’t have jurisdiction there,” Reid asked.

“There’s a very high profile victim being hunted by a small domestic terrorist organization. The Brazilian government wants them out and they’ve given us full jurisdiction over any US citizens there as well as the ability to question any Brazilian citizens as long as they’re arrested by Brazilian officers or agents.”

“So who’s the vic?” Emily asked.

“It’s Y/N,” Aaron admitted. It felt like he had just released a breath he had been holding for a year. “She didn’t actually die in a car crash, she had been in hiding.”

The plane erupted into angry yells and confused conversations. “Hotch how could you not tell us?” Derek asked angrily.

“I know you’re all confused and angry, so was I. I wasn’t even supposed to know, Y/N had to smuggle me a note. As far as I know she never knew she was being forced into hiding until it was too late for her to say goodbye.”

“Still you should’ve told us,” Derek seethed angrily. He felt lied to by his boss and one of his closest friends. Both of which were always supposed to have his back.

“Enough, Derek,” Aaron said sternly, silencing the plane. “If you want to be angry be angry at the terrorists threatening her but I was just trying to protect her and she was trying to protect Jack and I. Like it or not this is bigger than you and I will remove you from this case if you can’t keep your emotions in check. Got it?” Derek begrudgingly agreed and soon enough the team was discussing theories.

It took a week full of interviews, analysis, dead ends, hundreds of suspects, and more fake names than they could count but the BAU finally tracked down the terrorist organization that sent one of their agents running. And along with with their investigation they had found where their teammate was hiding. Every member of the BAU wanted to rush over but they couldn’t afford to send the terrorists underground again so they waited for them to make a move.

As soon as the BAU got word that terrorists were moving in on Y/N’s location they headed over. Aaron’s heart was beating out of his chest the entire ride over. Terrified that they wouldn’t reach his fiancée in time.

They pulled up to the small cottage just as Aaron spotted some men dressed in camouflage creeping around the house. Aaron barely put the car in park, too anxious to get to his love. “FBI! Put down your weapons and step away from the house,” he ordered as the rest of the team and several other soldiers stormed out of the cars.

Seeing as they were outnumbered several of the terrorists put their guns down and raised their hands in surrender. The same couldn’t be said for the mercenaries at the back of the cottage as he heard a window shatter and several yells from inside. Immediately going for the door he had to knock it down, stumbling inside to find a stand-off. Y/N was stood half shielded by two guards with her gun raised at a few terrorists. The guards he recognized as Secret Service also had their guns raised and they were yelling.

“It’s over,” Aaron announced as soldiers appeared into the window, drastically outnumbering the two men who had their guns aimed at Y/N. One took a shot and he was instantly put down by at least five bullets aimed at him. The partner seemed to have been accidentally been hit because he went down with a yell. But Aaron didn’t care about him, he was concerned about Y/N. He looked over, finding her tending to one of her guards who had suffered a bullet to the arm. Her hands were covered in blood and Aaron wasn’t thinking rationally as he reached her. “Are you okay?” he asked, gently grasping her shoulders.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Can you call an ambulance?”

“Sure,” he agreed hurriedly. “This is Agent Hotchner, we have two suspects down and a wounded agent. Send medical assistance immediately.” By now the other guard and some soldiers who had medical training were attending to the wounded agent and pushing Y/N away. “Y/N,” he called, dragging her attention away from the guard.

She looked at him, really looked at him for the first time in a year. “Aaron,” she began to cry, throwing herself at him. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for leaving,” she sobbed against his bulletproof vest.

“Hey, no, it’s okay,” he hushed, squeezing her tightly and stoking his fingers through her hair. “I know you didn’t want this. Thank you for sending that note to Jack and I.”

“I couldn’t bear the thought of either of you losing someone again,” she explained. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.”

Masterlist

#aaron hotchner #hotch #aaron hotchner x reader #hotch x reader #criminal minds #criminal minds x reader

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yanderes-galore · 6 months

Note

Hurraahh!, saw the Junkenstein! Junkrat in the drafts and I think, how about a Van Helsing! Cassidy concept

-🍀anon

Sure! Here's my thoughts on him :)

Yandere! Van Helsing! Cassidy Concept

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Stalking, Death/Murder, Stalking, Manipulation, Overprotective/Possessive behavior, Some violence, Creepy behavior, Forced/Dubious relationship.

If I'm correct this version of Cassidy would be one of the mercenaries hired to protect the lord of the castle from Junkenstein.

He is called The Gunslinger and has taken up monster hunting as his job.

I would assume he'd be a monster hunter due to what this skin is based on, even if I have not seen the original source material.

Cassidy has been hired by many to track down monsters, Adlersbrunn is no different to him.

He could be hired at Adlersbrunn and finds a cute townsperson such as you to "get to know better".

As long as he's paid he doesn't mind slaying any monster.

I imagine this version of Cassidy is still as flirty as any other version.

Just because he happens to be a gunslinging monster hunter doesn't mean he isn't also a flirt.

Perhaps Cassidy hits up one of the bars in the town to get a drink before setting off to do more work.

That's when he meets you either working the bar or also drinking in it.

Unsurprisingly Cassidy tries charming you, complimenting you on a sweet tone while explaining what he does since you asked so nicely.

This could be your first encounter with the monster hunter.

Another encounter could be being saved by him.

Be it being attacked by a monster or even normal human attackers, Cassidy rolls in to dispatch them.

He may even comment on the fact you two have met before with a wink.

What may start getting suspicious is when he shows up everywhere.

You can try to excuse it as him just having work to do for the lord here.

He's got to just be sleeping in an inn, right?

However... it's weird how he always searches you in particular out when he wants a chat.

His flirting used to be charming... now it seems strange.

Behind your back Cassidy is tracking your movements like the very monsters he hunts.

Ever since your first meeting you've caught the hunter's eye.

Even the faint look of fear on your face is enough to have him wanting more.

He can't help but let his eyes wander to you.

While watching you from afar he takes a drag of his cigar and winks when you look over.

Oh, baby, he doesn't mean you any harm!

If anything he'll protect you, it's what he's good at.

Cassidy would try to play his cards right other than watching you from the corner of your eye.

He wants to get closer to you so he can make you trust him.

He's pretty good with the whole charisma thing, his tone sounding sweet like honey as he charms you.

Maybe you'll fall for him, or still find his advances creepy.

No worries, he'll wait for a pretty thing such as you.

Perhaps he'll orchestrate a monster attack just so he can save you again.

Or maybe hire a set of goons to dispatch just to do the same thing.

Cassidy is one to try and plan things out around the two of you.

Even if you try to ignore him, he always seems to be around.

Maybe he'll ask the lord if he can have you as payment instead of the money?

Crude... yet he still ponders the idea for a moment.

He knows soon he needs to put some plan into action.

He's starting to grow irritated at the people around you.

Soon it seems like he'll never leave town until he finds a solution to his obsession issue.

Sure... the money from his jobs is good...

But you seem to be a much better prize altogether once he has his hands on you.

#yandere overwatch #yandere cole cassidy #yandere van helsing cole cassidy

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natalievoncatte · 8 months

Text

cw: violence

Lena checked her watch. She only had a few minutes to pull this off, and had to time it perfectly. Lex was across town meeting with an investment consortium from Japan.

Officially.

She knew what he was planning. She just lacked the proof she needed. Once she had it, she would go to the media through her best friend and confidant, Kara Danvers. She had eyes on Lex right now as he met, in secret, with a Kasnian agent, the same one who'd help him orchestrate the theft of a prototype Lexosuit; that had been one of the first times that Superman had shut down one of Lex's schemes, and earned his undying hatred.

Lena needed the final piece of the puzzle before she involved Kara and pulled her into the danger of her private little war with her brother. This was so far beyond anything Lex had attempted that Lena knew now was the time, she had to stop him now, today. The line had to be drawn here, and no further.

The secure lab was deep in the bowels of the Lexcorp Tower in Metropolis; Lena made the excuse of a meeting with some of the research team working on battery enhancements for the upcoming line of Lexmobiles. (Lena had spent hours genuinely trying to talk Lex out of that god-awful name, and actually call them something marketable, but his towering ego was as immovable as it was monumental)

Lena's heart was racing as she stepped out of the elevator, carrying her briefcase under one arm. She strode down the hall like she owned the place (she did, actually- or half of it, anyway) and made sure anyone watching on the security feeds would pay her no mind. She'd worked here for years; even though she'd moved to National City to lead her own division, away from Lex, Superman, and all the drama, she was not an uncommon sight in this place.

Maybe here.

Lena stopped at the door, a heavy steel slab six feet wide and eight feet tall. Breath catching, she slipped her hand in her pocket and slid her finger through the ring she carried there. When she pulled her hand out, an image inducer created a perfect replica of Lex's hand around her own, projecting the unique contours and ridges of his palm and fingertips while simulating his pulse and unique vitals.

It was either going to work or it wasn't. She pressed the false hand to the sensors and waited. It beeped twice and turned a healthy blue.

The door let out a rush of cool air as it slid silently aside, its motion mirrored by an inner door of the same dimensions sliding in the opposite direction. Lena stepped through and removed the ring; the doors slid ominously closed behind her, latching with a heavy thunk as wrist-thick steel bolts slid home, anchoring them in place.

She knew that not only was the entire room lined with lead, but the lights could instantly switch to a red wavelength and the long sliding panels on the wall would open to reveal K-Radiator emitters. This room was designed to be a death trap for Kryptonians, should one be foolish enough to enter. That was why Lena had to do this alone.

Supergirl would rush in where angels feared to tread, and given the chance, she'd barge through those doors and end up helpless on the floor, at Lex's mercy to murder without witnesses. Or worse.

The lab was smaller than she expected, and Spartan. Despite her brother's notorious, arrogant grandiosity, he could be relentlessly practical when needed, and at heart was utterly ruthless. Lab benches lined the walls, and the computer was no different, visually, from any other workstation, though it was connected to a vast private database and would have very difficult encryption and security protocols that no one in the world could crack.

No one but her.

The far end of the room was dominated by a peculiar machine, resembling an incubation chamber of some kind, roughly human-sized and surrounded by thick steel cables and tubes, with several dozen monitors rigged up all around it, displaying all sorts of information.

Including biorhythmic data and vital signs.

Lena ran a hand over the steel of the external pod. It was warm.

Her throat tightened. This might be worse than she thought.

Turning to the terminal, Lena sat down on the stool and took from her bag a small portable drive and connection cable, setting them on the desktop in front of her. Lex had one of those drinking birds dunking placidly away at a glass of water on the desk, another bit of his peculiar humor. She'd once loved that about him, before his joking took on a mirthless, cruel streak.

Letting out a slow breath, Lena wiggled the mouse and woke the computer. It demanded a password, pass phrase, and passkey. The two she had, the latter was what the drive was for.

She typed BUCEPHALUS in the password field, then THY FEARFUL SYMMETRY in the pass phrase field, then clicked the cursor into the last box and plugged in the drive, and waited.

The program loaded automatically. If she made an attempt to brute-force the passcode, it would set off the alarms and possibly even trigger a deadly trap in this room. Lena had to crack it without cracking it; it took her months to create this algorithm, with the secret and begrudging help of Querl Dox at the DEO. He'd been concerned about it falling into the wrong hands; he was right to fear that, as it could crack virtually any system in seconds.

It did exactly that, filling in the require passcode. Lena clicked the LOGON button and let out a soft cry of relief as the screen lit up with Lex's desktop.

He had a series of folders waiting, just sitting there ready to be opened. The folders had names like LEXOSUIT, PARTICLE EMITTER, BINARY FUSION GENERATOR, SPATIAL DISTORTION CANNON, POINT-TO-POINT TRANSMATTER... and PROJECT GALATEA.

Lena opened that folder, and found a series of video files. She opened the first one, dated over a year ago.

Lex' face appeared, the man himself seated in this very lab.

"Mother stole Supergirl's DNA and used it to breach the Fortress of Solitude. She walked those hallowed halls, and didn't invite me! Not only that, she took only one device, when Superman's precious armory was right there for the taking! Is everyone a fool? Am I doomed to be surrounded by incompetents?"

He took a deep breath.

"It doesn't matter. There's enough of what she took left to comprise a viable sample... all I need is time, and I had that in abundance now that I've taken care of that nosy Gotham prosecutor that was working with Superman. He's too busy robbing banks to bother with me, and with the Metropolis police and GCPD in my pocket, Superman and that flying rat of his have nowhere to turn."

Flying rat? What the hell was he talking about?

Lena skipped a few files ahead.

"We'll call her Project Galatea. My initial plan -to create a limited-use drug that would produce Kryptonian superpowers- has been a failure. Nor was I able to successfully create a viable clone."

Lena's stomach sank. Clone? Clone? Had Lex tried to clone Supergirl? Was that was this equipment was for?

"Then it hit me- I could complete the project another way, by filling in the gaps in her DNA, but that still didn't solve all the problems. There was a missing component- I still don't know how Kryptonians actually absorb and process sunlight, for one. Still, that seems to be solving itself. Galatea's cells are absorbing the artificial solar energy that I'm pumping into her maturation chamber at a geometric rate. She might be even more powerful than her mother by the time she matures."

Lena jerked to her feet, a chill running through her body. Mother? Wait, did he mean-

Oh. Oh God.

Lena let the video drone on in the background as she moved back to the chamber. It was encased in steel plating, but it was designed to open. Lena found a pair of goggles on a work table near the control panel and put them on before flipping a switch.

The panels rotated, exposing a human form lying at an angle at rest on a padded platform. A respirator, like a flight mask, was strapped to her face, and she was submerged in thick, bubbling liquid. The chamber would have been too brilliant to look at, if Lena hadn't put on the goggles. It was flooded with brilliant solar radiation.

She'd put the inhabitant between ten and twelve years old, with golden skin and dark hair. Lena blinked a few times; it was like looking at an old picture of herself, actually.

For a brief moment, she just stared.

Then it hit her, and she almost vomited as she shoved the switch and closed the doors over the maturation chamber, stumbling back as she retched.

What did he do?

"I see you've met your niece."

Lena whirled, and found Lex staring her down, standing in front of the lab doors with his hands clasped behind his back, a satisfied smirk on his face.

"How... what... what the fuck did you do, Lex?"

"I think you've already pieced it together."

"Why?"

"Why?" said Lex. "I'll tell you why. Security. The security of a free state, sister. I did it because it had to done."

"This is... this is obscene," said Lena. "This is a violation, Lex. I'm not going to let you get away with it."

He laughed. "Get away with it? What do you mean, get away with it? What are you going to do, sue me for custody?"

"You... this is monstrous, Lex."

"We live in a world of monsters, dear sister," said Lex, stepping closer. "Gods and monsters, and who are we? Men, just men. There's whole universe out there, a multiverse, full of these creatures, and the human race is defenseless against them, and worse, they're being welcomed. They're eating of those Kryptonians' palms, you included, and now there are more of them. The green freak claiming to be a Martian. The so-called Amazon. There's seven or eight of them running around. Eventually it'll be twenty, then thirty, then more. They'll run roughshod over our institutions."

"You're out of your mind," said Lena.

"Am I?" said Lex. "Superman and Supergirl claim they fight for truth, justice, and the American way, right? What if their definition of justice doesn't match ours? What if they decide the American way isn't good enough? What if they decide they need to do more than pull kittens out of trees? Then what? Tell me, Lena, what happens if Superman decides to fly down tomorrow and tear the roof off the White House?"

"He wouldn't do that," said Lena. "I've met him, and I know Supergirl. She's saved my life a dozen times, and I suspect you know exactly what I'm talking about."

Lex shook his head. "Mother's extremism has always been a burden. I've done my best to protect you from her, Lena, and I've been honest about it. That's more than you can say for Supergirl."

"You kept this from me," said Lena.

"Until I was ready. I had to be sure that she was viable before I bring her out of the chamber and introduce you. She's going to be part of the family. Our long lost cousin, who we'll raise as a daughter, knowing that the Earth is truly safe now. That we'll have one of them on our side."

"This... this is Supergirl's child."

"That won't be a problem," said Lex. "It's time for you to grow up and let go of these fantasies, Lena. Supergirl doesn't have any interest in you. You're nothing to her, at best a beloved pet."

"I believe in her. We've worked together."

"I said the same thing about Superman. You know how close we were."

"It's not like that."

Lex's smirk turned cruel. "Isn't it? You've always had a type."

'Fuck you," Lena spat.

He chuckled softly and shook his head. "You're not listening. I guess I have to prove it to you. Computer! Show her."

The droning video log of Lex discussing the problems of merging Kryptonian and human DNA stopped, and another one popped up, taking the entire screen. Lena almost didn't look, but her head turned inexorably and she watched.

"Kara?"

Lena watched Kara Danvers walking down a corridor. She stumbled, as something hit her back, twice. Whatever it was tore holes in her cardigan, and she turned around, standing tall. Taller than usual. She didn't move this time; it was as if little puffs of wind were blowing holes in her clothes.

Except they weren't puffs of wind. They were bullets; Lena could see the muzzle flashes, off camera.

"What... how..."

Kara yanked her glasses off and shook her hair free, ripping the cardigan open, popping the buttons, baring the sweeping crest on the chest of her her blue uniform.

"No," Lena whispered.

"I sent the men who shot her in this recording," said Lex. "Don't worry, I already knew; Mother told me. The alien confessed it to her, before begging her not to tell you. I wonder why."

The video ended.

"This is a trick. She wouldn't... she isn't... she's my best friend."

"No, she's your master and you're an obedient dog, heeling where she tells you, and if you aren't... do you know what happened to the assassins I sent to kill Kara Danvers?"

Lena swallowed. "Shut up, Lex. Stop talking."

He smiled, teeth bared in a wolfish grin. "The martian mind-wiped them. He uses his psychic powers to erase the memories of anyone who compromises her identity."

"Stop," said Lena.

"Ever have any... episodes?" said Lex. "Any of those days, where you were so busy your memory gets a little foggy? Ever find yourself back in your apartment without quite knowing how you got there? Are you sure your own memories haven't been tampered with, Lena?"

"Shut up!" she screamed.

"You've been manipulated, tricked, deceived. She doesn't love you, she never will, and you have nowhere to turn. Help me, Lena. Join me, and we can be a proper family again. We can put things right, and lead a free world to-"

Lena reached into her pocket and pulled out a nickel plated Smith and Wesson Ladysmith revolver with faux-ivory grips bearing Lena's initials. Lex gave it to her on her twenty-first birthday, and went with her to the range the next week to teach her to use it.

"Oh," said Lex.

Lena shot him. The blast was ear-splitting in the confined space, leaving a painful ringing in its wake. Lex crumpled, toppling onto his side as if his strings had been cut. Rolling onto his back, he stemmed the gushing of his lifeblood from the wound just below his ribs and looked at her.

"Didn't think you had it in you," he rasped. "Should have known you'd be the one. You can only count on blood."

Tears stung her eyes, blurred her vision. Lena held out the weapon, her grip trembling as she aimed at his head.

"You'll never stop," she choked out. "You'll kill her. She'll never be safe as long as you're alive."

Lex grinned, the corners of his mouth wet with blood. "Do it."

Lena's finger flexed, but the trigger felt frozen in place. As it shifted slightly, a flood of memories slammed through her- shooting lessons and chess games, strange idle fancies and muted conversations, long rides in the back of sedans. Lena's graduation, Lionel's funeral, Lillian's abuses, Lex standing between their father and Lena with a bruise on his jaw, warning the old man not to lay another hand on her.

A sob tore from her throat. She couldn't do it. She couldn't.

Lex laughed flecks of blood onto the floor.

"Go on, then. I don't need you. I have my own Kryptonian, and she's going to be daddy's little girl."

It was as if the rain suddenly stopped, the sun cracking open the clouds. The gun was terribly loud again, and Lena turned away before she saw the shot connect, looking away from the blood fanning out across the floor as Lex went silent and still.

Shoving the still-hot gun back into her pocket, Lena ran.

Thought I'd share a little bit more from the in-progress Curse of Strahd AU/Crossover!

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bluecatwriter · 4 months

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A couple days ago I was gripped with the sudden need to make myself sad, and I wrote this. A Blood of My Blood AU fic, set during the initial conflict between Jonathan and the others in the group, told from Arthur's point of view. CW for blood, death, limb loss, guns, and all-around bad times.

Thanks as always to @ibrithir-was-here and @animate-mush for the inspiration!

~~~

Arthur stood ten paces away from Jonathan, clutching a Winchester rifle that Quincey had given him just a few days ago. White flakes tumbled lazily down around him, like a wintry landscape from a Christmas card, a surreal backdrop to the scene that laid before him.

Quincey, Jack, and Van Helsing lay dead in the snow. Jonathan stood near them, panting, holding his bloodied Kukri knife in one hand and a pistol in the other (Quincey had given him that pistol), trained on Arthur.

Mina was dead, too, her body lying on her back dripping blood from the cut on her neck where Jack had tried to give her peace. But death meant something very different for her.

Jonathan and Arthur stared at each other, guns pointed toward each other's heads. Arthur was trembling, and desperately trying not to show that he was. It had all happened so quickly, with hardly a sound from anyone— he had had his back turned, thanking God his was not the hand to do the grisly deed, and then…

He didn't even know if his gun was properly loaded. He didn't know if he could pull a trigger and shoot someone, even if that someone had just brutally murdered three people in front of him.

Think. Think!

Arthur had never been good at thinking. It was Quincey who took charge in tough situations (Quincey facedown in the bloody slush), Jack who stepped up in emergencies (Jack's severed hand and body falling at the same time), Van Helsing who had orchestrated plans (Van Helsing sprawled with his limbs at odd angles). Arthur did what he was told, gave money to help things along, followed and helped. He'd never had a gun to his head. He'd never had to make a call like this.

If things go sideways, we're gonna need to watch Harker, Quincey had said. Arthur had never let the thought sink into him, never considered what Quincey meant by those words. But now he had fallen into an awful nightmare, and could not wake up.

Think. Think!

Perhaps if he acted quickly, he could get in a shot, kill Jonathan and stake Mina. But more than likely, if he pulled the trigger so would Jonathan, and they would both be dead and Mina would rise a vampire, alone. And again, he didn't know what would happen if he squeezed the trigger; he might easily hear a deafening click right before his own head was blown off.

He had to try, didn't he? He had vowed to— hadn't he?

(He remembered how Jonathan had looked the day before, groggily emerging from his bedroll, his hair all mussed, saying that he was brutally selfish for sleeping in and letting Arthur stay up all night steering the steamboat.)

He didn't know what to do. He felt a sob rising in his throat and fought it back— dear God, he didn't know what to do.

He heard a soft, strangled sound from Jack's body.

Both his eyes and Jonathan's flicked toward Jack. He was unmoving, but Arthur knew the sound had come from him. He was alive. Or might be, however briefly. That knowledge shot through Arthur like a beam of light.

"Harker," he said. His voice was tight with fear, but he spoke slowly and deliberately, as if trying to soothe a frightened animal.

The murderer of his friends looked at him steadily.

In that instant, Arthur gave up everything.

He gave up his vow to Mina, his hope for saving her from undead damnation, his last chance of revenge on Jonathan, his regard for his own life.

If there was a chance, even the tiniest chance, that he could save Jack, he would give up everything.

He hated how, even in the moment, he suddenly understood Jonathan just a tiny bit.

Slowly, shakily, Arthur lowered his gun. Jonathan's pistol remained trained on his head, but each moment passed as if in slow motion, and Jonathan did not fire. Arthur placed his gun on the ground and put his hands in the air, backing up a few paces and then lowering himself to his knees, icy in the snow.

He never broke eye contact, staring at Jonathan in supplication. "Please let me live," Arthur said. It sounded pathetic to his own ears, cowardly. He should be rushing to his death with honor, rather than begging a murderer for mercy.

But if there was any chance, any chance at all…

Jonathan kept his pistol trained on him, unmoved.

"Please," Arthur said in a choked voice. "I— I rescind my vow." I'm sorry, Mina. I'm so, so sorry… "I won't follow you. I promise you, Harker, I will turn around and leave." His eyes instinctively moved to Jack's motionless body for a moment, willing him to be alive. "Please."

Slowly, Jonathan lowered his pistol. For an instant, his expression cracked, and Arthur saw a glimpse of the person he thought he knew underneath, a shiver of grief or horror. But when he spoke, his voice was like stone. "Lay down on your face and count to a hundred."

Arthur prostrated himself, his face pressed into the snow. He heard the sound of Jonathan sheathing his Kukri, a shuffling as he picked up Mina, and then the stamp of his boots as he walked away. Arthur counted in his head as quickly as he dared, his body aching with the need to leap up and rush to Jack and see if he really was alive or if the sound was merely a death throe.

He didn't make it to fifty before he dared to raise his head, and found that Jonathan had vanished into the swirling snow.

He could wait no longer. He scrabbled to his hands and knees and crawled over to Jack, every nerve burning, his stomach writhing with fear.

When he touched him, Jack moaned softly.

Arthur burst into tears. He sobbed uncontrollably for only a few seconds before scrambling to action— locating Jack's doctor's bag, trying to wind a bandage around Jack's neck and the stump of his hand. He left Jack only for a moment to check the other bodies, but with them, there was no mistake. Of the three people who had attacked the Harkers, Jack was the only survivor.

Arthur found one of the horses still standing nearby, and carried Jack to it, determined to somehow tie them together and ride as hard as he could for the nearest town.

He might've broken his promise to Mina, but he would keep his to Jonathan: he cared nothing for revenge or vampires, stopping the undead or saving the world. He had only one purpose in life now: keeping Jack alive.

If he could do that, he told himself, it would be enough.

#my writing #blood of my blood #arthur holmwood #jonathan harker #holmward #(if you squint)

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emily-mooon · 2 months

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OK! here's the general idea for this Nordegrim Ghosts AU that has been haunting me:

CW FOR MENTIONS OF DEATH, ATTEMPTED MURDER, AND ALSO A TINY BIT SUGGESTIVE (just a tiny bit though)

Stacey, Scott, and Lawrence inherit this big house from a distant great aunt they have never met after she passed of old age. Scott is in debt so he cant take the house like he was supposed to, and Lawrence wants nothing to do with it, so Stacey gets it instead.

It’s perfect though cause her and Neil, who is also her husband now here, were planning to move houses anyways and were struggling to find a good place. Also since the house is super big, they thought about opening a hotel at one point once the house is all fixed up.

What they don't know is that the house is haunted. the ghosts in question are:

Knives Chau: A teenage girl from the 1950s who was a fan of rock n' roll that got pushed down the stairs by a jealous classmate (not Tamara btw that was her gf) at a party

Julie Powers (IDK her married last name yet): An Edwardian women who got pushed out the window by her husband (who is Joseph in this AU btw)

Stephen Stills: A folk singer from the mid 60s who dies in a fire (people confused him with the other Stephen Stills all the time)

Gideon Graves: A music producer from the late 60s early 70s who was poisoned by a rival producer

Lucas Lee: A Victorian lumber guy who was crushed by a wooden beam during the construction of the houses renovation

Todd Ingram: A 90s Rockstar who died while having sex with his bands drummer (which like in the comic, was also cheating on his girlfriend and it is still Lynette and Envy)

Lisa Miller: A somewhat famous 1930s actress who died while filming a scene

Matthew Patel: An early 19th century poet who died in a duel that was orchestrated by a good friend of his

Roxie Richter(she has no last name in this au btw, putting it here cause I put everyone elses last names here): A Viking who was struck by lighting

Ken and Kyle Katayanagi : Inventors/mechanics from the late 19th century who died in a car explosion along with their dog (who is a dog version of robot 0-1 btw). They live in the carriage house as its far more peaceful than the main house

The ghosts overhear the hotel idea when Stacey and Neil are talking about it and they are not too pleased with it. So they try to haunt them so they'll leave, but ultimately fail.

Then either Gideon or Todd, come across Stacey leaning out the window and decide to push her in an another attempt to get them to leave which in turn, almost kills her. Because of this, now Stacey can see ghosts and forms a close friendship with them. Neil, like Mike and I assume Jay in bbc and cbs ghosts respectively, will have a collage of what they all look like since he cannot see them.

So yeah that's my idea so far! I’m still tweaking things but I’m happy with this rn. I’ll definitely make art for it at some point (and if people want it, an ask blog). Feel free to also suggest some ideas for this au if you have any :]

#also btw it takes place on the east coast cause why not make some more changes #its mostly inspired by bbc ghosts cause thats the only one ive seen and i adore that show to pieces #because of this fact decided to check out who the ghosts are in cbs ghosts and some of the time periods are similar to the ones ive picked #some of the charcters also die and are in the roles of some canon characters (ex. Julie and Matthew) but i did essentially tweak some other #and also added in new time periods for it to be unique #this is a new niche au to add to the pile #I’ve kinda done it once before with ST but only managed to make byler capvers stuff along with toxic regency ghost boyfriends stonathan #scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim comic #scott pilgrim takes off #stacey pilgrim #young neil #neil nordegraf #knives chau #julie powers #stephen stills scott pilgrim #gideon graves #lucas lee #todd ingram #lisa miller #matthew patel #roxie richter #ken katayanagi #kyle katayanagi #nordegrim #cw mention of death #cw attempted murder #adding those two tags in cause while i mention them briefly it still could be trigging for someone #lmk if I should add the cw suggestive tag #cause I’m unsure since it is like one word compared to death and attempted murder

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nonclassyparty · 8 months

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man with the plan (j.wy) - chapter 3

Summary: "Don't forget Pretty, I'm serving life plus one. So if I get busted for attempted escape, I'll throw in a homicide in there as well with no problem, that’s like a parking ticket to me." When your brother ends up in jail for a murder he didn't commit, the only thing left for you to do is to find a way to break him out. But after a perfect plan is set in motion, you don't expect a romantic variable to get added into the equation.

Pairing: jung wooyoung x fem. reader, jeong yunho x reader (but if u squint)

Status: in progress

Word count: 11.2k

Warnings: cursing, mentions of blood, violence, death

Taglist: @tinyjuni @hazysan @atinytinaa @tenebrisirae @doggopepper @dazzlingstarrs @lavishloving @cherrypandora @silentcry329 @jeagerist-20 @myunvillage @manipulatedstars @bitteryu @maru-matt @bubbleteakittyy @joonsthethicc

my main masterlist // playlist // moodboard // ao3

chapter 2 // masterlist // chapter 4

Chapter 3; Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?

"I went through all of it five times by now, every appeal is denied, I keep getting brushed to the side every time I just so much as mention it to anyone in the courthouse," Yeosang sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration with one hand while he twirls his drink with the other. "I'm telling you, Y/N, someone made sure the lack of evidence was brushed under the rug, they were stressing his previous record, you saw it yourself that day in court!"

You nod silently, eyes falling to the table filled with, by now, empty plates in front of you both as your voices carried over the pleasant jazz music playing in the background of the restaurant.

"Someone wants Jongho to go down for this and made sure that he never sees the light of day again outside a prison cell." He continues and your gaze flies to his face which was filled with anguish.

Jongho and Yeosang loved each other once upon a time. Highschool sweethearts that you imagined would stay together through thick and thin.

When everything between them fell apart, Yeosang claims it was Jongho's fault and Jongho claims it was the opposite (you think it was both of them), you barely saw Yeosang again unless it was at a crowded college bar somewhere, a smile of familiarity exchanged between the two of you but nothing other than that.

But he was the person Jongho called when he needed an attorney and Yeosang did his best, you can vouch for him, but there is so much a simple attorney can do against people at a much higher security clearance.

And yet, after doing everything that was in his power even still stubbornly investigating the case when all was said and done, his guilt is palpable.

"No murder weapon, no actual motive, nothing except the footage from the security cameras of him walking up the front steps of the house. It doesn't make any sense, it's obvious he was already dead when Jongho walked into his office." Yeosang runs another frustrated hand through his hair before taking a sip of his drink.

"I know." Is all you can quietly say, why?

Because you've spent a good portion of the last eighteen months trying to drill the same thing into the heads of anyone that was willing to listen. Judges, attorneys, police officers...and it all fell onto deaf ears so now, your brother was stuck in a cell for life for something he didn't do unless you do something about it.

Which you are.

"I mean...it has to be someone from the higher ups orchestrating all of this." He voices out with a frown before scoffing, "The governor went on live television and said if the death penalty was still allowed, Jongho would be the first one sent to the chair. Who says that nowadays?! With so little proof..." He trails off, eyes falling downwards in defeat.

Your hands clench at the mention of the governor, the image of his precious son in his scrubs and white coat coming to mind. You wonder if Jung Wooyoung sees the actions of his father as something admirable or does he detest him for it.

"Do you visit him regularly?" Yeosang breaks you out of your thoughts with his quiet question and you straighten up in your seat, hands wrapping around your own glass of gin.

"Yeah, every Friday." You answer with a faint smile, deciding to retain the information that you see Jongho every morning as you work at the prison, from Yeosang for the time being.

"H-How is he? Does he look okay?" He asks, fingers playing with the napkin laying on his empty plate.

"He's fine." You respond with a solemn sigh before forcing a smile, "He bulked up a lot. I guess when there's not much to do, working out gets fun."

"Ah." He nods, eyes still on the napkin.

"You should visit him sometime." You state lightly, knowing that your brother would love to see him but Yeosang just shakes his head.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Yeosang chuckles humorlessly, scratching his nose, "Besides, Soobin and I got engaged and...well, I don't know how to tell him that. It's just best if I stay away."

You nod in response with a heavy heart, knowing that your brother deep down always hoped he and Yeosang would get back together once Jongho got his head screwed on right and stopped messing around. That train has passed now.

"I get it." You tell him, not wanting Yeosang to think that you resent him for anything regarding your brother. While he may be Jongho's ex-boyfriend that's getting married to someone else pretty soon, Yeosang has been there for you almost your whole life.

When all you had was your brother to lean on, there was also pretty and quiet Yeosang with his gentle nature and short but meaningful words by your side.

"I'll keep working on his case though, I'm not letting it go that easily." Those words hit a nerve inside your brain and you bite your lip.

"I don't think you should." You express quietly, avoiding his questioning gaze.

"Yeosang, whoever the people that did this to him are, they're dangerous. They have connections and they obviously have the power, snooping around could put you in danger." You disclose, shifting uneasily under his hard stare but it had to be said, "I don't want for something to happen to you. And Jongho wouldn't want that either."

"So, what? We should all just let him rot in jail?" Yeosang questions, cheeks heating up in anger as his eyes shift into a glare towards you.

"I'm not saying that-"

"Then what exactly are you saying, Y/N? Because he's not getting out any other way." He utters before declaring; "Just because you gave up on him, doesn't mean I have to as well."

The harsh words make you flinch, reminding you of the night you found out Jongho was taken to custody and everything you said to him.

The only time you've ever given up on your brother were the ten minutes between speaking to him for the first time in jail and before speaking to Yeosang afterwards and for the last year and then some, you've been trying to repent for the words you've said to him that night.

Yeosang's way of getting Jongho out includes legalities, courthouses, attorneys, re-listening over and over again to people calling your brother a murderer and in the end losing because you're up against bigger fish. You've given up on that.

Jongho is getting out, Yeosang, just not your way but mine.

The cold air nipped at the skin of your cheeks as you inconspicuously made your way across the gravel towards the wired fence surrounding the yard.

As the days go by, you're starting to learn the routine of the correction officer's occupying the guards room near the yard so by now, you had the gist of when it was safe to walk closer to the fence without anyone seeing you.

Anyone but the inmates themselves that is but so far, apart from a couple of catcalls and whistles, they didn't seem top pay much attention to you.

Your brother would wait by the same corner every morning, back turned to you until he heard your footsteps, this morning was no different except this time; Jongho wasn't alone.

"Gentlemen." You give them a sarcastic greeting, eyes stuck on the back of his cellmate who you have yet to exchange a single word with.

"Hey." Jongho nods at you with squinted eyes and when he notices your eyes on his new 'friend', this Coin guy, he nudges him with his elbow.

The guy turns around and you gauge his face properly for the first time.

He's taller than Jongho with messy hair hidden under a beanie, sharp eyes and plump lips that were currently twisted in a scowl as he glances back at you. "Hey."

His voice is deeper than you expected.

"I'm Y/N."

"Yeah, I know." He leans on the fence with one shoulder, eyes always on lookout towards the yard. "Coin."

"Your real name." You tell him, skipping formalities and Jongho glances between the two of you, already opening his mouth to reprimand you most likely. You're quicker, not backing down. "I don't deal with stupid nicknames, your real name."

Coin glances back at you, annoyance evident in his eyes before he looks towards Jongho and returns his gaze back to the yard, sighing with an eye roll. "Song Mingi."

You let out a breath of relief, making sure to remember it while Jongho mumbles something about finally knowing his real name.

"How are you doing? With the digging?" You mutter, stuffing your hands in your pockets as you try to inch closer to the two of them without anyone noticing anything out of the ordinary.

"I can't get through the wall leading to the tunnels." Jongho mutters back, foot kicking at the grass below him. You frown, glancing over your shoulder to check if the door to the guards room is still closed shut.

"What do you mean? I told you how to do it-"

"No, I know how to do it but I just don't have the time." Your frown only grows. They're locked up, in your books, all they have is time.

His cellmate, Mingi notices your confusion and he answers your unspoken question; "Count."

Your brows raise at that as you glance at Jongho, who only nods in agreement.

"Constantly coming back up for count won't let me do what I need to do to break through that wall." Your brother voices out.

"You don't understand, I planned this on a schedule." You explain to them as quietly as you can, worry displayed on your features, "You have as much time as I'm here which is a month, two at most if I drag it out but it's less likely because my boss will pull me out of here as fast as she can. If you're not through that wall by the end of the week, we'll be behind on schedule and that means you're not getting out of here."

Both of them stay silent, glancing at each other before their eyes fall down to the grass with no obvious ideas of a solution.

You sigh in frustration, already sensing a bigger problem surging up from all of this. "Is there a way to stop count from happening?"

Mingi looks at you like you've lost your mind. "There are three things certain in life; death, taxes and count."

You pursue your lips, looking over your shoulder to check the guards room all while working your brain for a possible solution.

"Well, actually..." Mingi starts again after a moment of contemplation and both you and Jongho swiftly turn your heads to him in anticipation, "The only way to stop count is...."

He trails off, looking over his shoulder. The two of them were huddled by the furthest corner of the fence, the rest of the inmates too busy either playing basketball or working out.

Mingi shakes his head, "Never mind, it's a bad idea."

Jongho cocks an eyebrow, "Worse than the idea of losing Jiyeon to your cousin?"

Mingi gives him a sharp glare which seems rather intimidating but if Jongho says it so freely than you think it's safe to say that Mingi is all talk and no action, he's rather harmless.

He presses his lips, turning to you with a sober expression on his face; "Lockdown. We get Gen Pop locked for a day and he'll have all the time he needs, there's no count, the CO's don't even come around."

Your eyes light up at the genuinely good idea, half thrilled at the solution and the other half at the fact that this Song Mingi guy has half the brain to come up with excellent ideas after all.

Your brother wasn't stuck with someone completely daft at least.

"Okay." You nod, hope filling you up to the brim. You glance between them, "How do you get a lockdown?"

Jongho turns to Mingi again who seems to be deep in thought as he fiddles with the beanie on his head. He straightens out after a moment.

"Can you get to the prison's heating system unit?" He asks you and you take a quick moment to think, trying to picture the blueprints in your head.

"Maybe."

"You want to get a lockdown?" Mingi glances over his shoulder before huddling closer to the two of you, "You'd better get the inmates riled up. And if you wanna piss of the meat in concrete, turn up the heat."

Your eyes sparkle, Song Mingi will most definitely be useful. "Got it."

"Y/N, you better be fucking careful." Jongho murmurs but you're already stepping away from the fence.

"Don't worry." Is all you tell him and with one last rushed smile, you start heading back inside the building where your office is located.

You carefully glue a piece of wood to the beautiful model in front of you, the warden is quietly working next to you as well, gently touching it like it's about to crumble under his calloused fingertips.

"You know, my wife and I didn't have kids but if we did, I think I'd wish for them to be something like you." His confession takes you by surprise as your head turns to him sitting on the uncomfortable chair next to you.

Well, he's about fifteen years too late for that, where was he when you and Jongho were getting moved from one foster home to another?

Still, the confession makes you chuckle softly, cheeks warming up although the guilt you feel is already unbearable. You didn't expect to spend any time with this man.

And the warden, you have to admit, was a nice man. A good man.

You can't really say you could imagine him as your father because you still have memories of your real father and none of them are good but...maybe a grandfather.

"That came out of nowhere, forgive me but I just wanted you to know that I really appreciate you helping me with this." He chuckles, holding another piece to the model and keeping his hand there to make sure it stays intact. "And I know it must be awfully hard to know your brother is so close yet you can barely speak to him. I backed into some information about you, how he is your only family left."

You swallow, a hand that was holding the tiny wooden pieces falling into your lap as you turn to him, not awfully fond of speaking about this to anyone in this place.

It means opening up and opening up meant getting attached.

And you can't get attached to anyone here. Not when you're knowingly using them.

The warden must take your silence for something else because he continues with a deep sigh, "What I'm trying to say is that I've seen you speaking to him through the fence and...in a way, I'm deciding to turn a blind eye to it."

Your lips part at that, blood rushing to your face at the thought of getting caught.

"Partly because Jongho is well behaved in there. He's only had one misconduct and that was when he first was brought it and partly, it's because, as I said, I can't imagine what it must feel like to see your brother in a place like this..."

Your eyes burn, half from the pure gratefulness and half from complete and utter guilt that weighs you down.

The warden is a good man. And all you've done so far is feed him lies with a deceiving smile on your face that leaves him blind to your true selfishness.

"Thank you." You whisper, in complete honesty with a smile, fingers playing with the small pieces of wood in your lap.

"Don't mention it." The warden shakes his head, he hesitates for a moment with his eyes set on the model in front of him before; "I followed his trial closely and my personal opinion is that he was just a man that found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time..."

You almost gasp at that, shocked that he'd actually say it out loud. Many people might share his opinion or not but they're not allowed to discuss it.

"But my jurisdiction doesn't go beyond the walls of this compound, so I'll do my best to make sure he's treated fairly at least in here."

There's the guilt again.

You shove it down, simply murmuring another 'thank you' in the sincerest possible way you can muster up before going back to work.

Your eyes follow Doctor Jung as he moves across the room, carrying with himself a tray with the insulin shot and your mouth can't help but perk up when he catches your eyes and looks at you in question, biting back a smile of his own.

This game you play with him is starting to become a bit too fun.

"What?" He asks as his brows furrow as though he wants to whine but refrains himself from doing so, eyes focused on preparing your shot as you roll the sleeve of your shirt up. You chuckle lightly.

You already poured the corrosive down the grate for today, you can relax for at least this once around him.

"You wear glasses." You comment simply, eyeing the thick black frames sitting at the bridge of his nose. He glances at you, lips still pressed together, still trying to hold back a smile, as he takes your arm and runs a damp cotton ball over it.

"My eyes were too irritated for contacts this morning." He shrugs with practiced ease but you notice a little shyness to his expression, as if he's embarrassed of his glasses.

He shouldn't be. They look good on him.

"Long night?" You ask with playful eyes and he hums in question, eyes trained on the needle sinking into your skin, "Irritated eyes. Were you up doing something til the late hours."

The insinuation hangs heavy in the air and he stays quiet, as he pulls the needle out.

"If by long night you mean laying on my couch with a box of Chinese food watching re-runs of Friends, then yeah, I had a blast." He answers with a sheepish smile, glancing up at you as he presses a clean cotton ball to your hand which you hold instead of him, your fingers brushing in the process.

You hum, teasingly cocking an eyebrow, "So, no girlfriend?"

His eyes catch yours again and for the first time, he looks like you're close to driving him over the edge as he pokes the inside of his cheek with his tongue.

Wooyoung shakes his head, lips pulling in a smirk as he almost returns your flirtation, "No, no girlfriend."

You don't expect a guy like him to be single. Even though it goes in your favor, still, it's a bit surprising.

He seemed like the type who got along with women amazingly, you didn't hear much differently from others.

But Jung Wooyoung seems awfully shy in your presence. Always slightly avoiding your eyes before a great moment of braveness and then an immediate retreat back to his shell.

He just doesn't fit the profile of the serial womanizer and party animal you've been told about when you tried to ask around about him to your old college friends.

So, either Jung Wooyoung is one heck of an actor and all of this was a performance to get into your pants (and you'd be a hypocrite to judge him for it) or you made him shy.

And if it was the latter, well, it's fucking adorable.

You only nod in response as you roll the sleeve of your shirt down, glancing at the grate to your right and feeling the empty tubes in the pockets of the coat digging into your back as it hangs over the chair you're sitting on.

Just a little bit more, and you'll be able to break through the water pipe below the grate.

"You?" Wooyoung's voice brings you back to reality and you turn to him in question as you're too caught up in your own agendas to keep up with the conversation. He sighs, albeit a little embarrassed before he jokingly asks; "Do we have any admirers?"

"Me?" You ask, innocently pointing to yourself before nodding, "Oh, yeah. I have six of them. Currently looking for a seventh so I can have one for each day of the week."

"Ah." His brows raise, a smile threatening to appear as he's obviously catching onto the fact that you're bullshitting him, "You have your hands full, then."

"I manage." You shrug keeping up the act for a couple of seconds more before letting out a chuckle which he joins into, "No, I didn't really have time for any of that in the last year or so."

He cocks his head to the side, observing you with a small smirk, "Career woman, huh?"

You chuckle bitterly because he truly has no idea.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Your eye contact lasts longer than necessary and you snap yourself out of it, noticing that you've been just sitting and talking to him for a long moment after the shot was done and sleeve was down.

You clear your throat, breaking the eye contact and standing up from the chair.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Same place, same time." He smiles and it causes these pretty little indents to appear on his cheeks that do something ridiculous to your chest.

"Right." You nod, bidding him another smile and you're out the door.

You fix the mirror in front of you to align with the mirror behind you hanging from the door of the old closet in your office, your shirt unbuttoned and hanging off of one shoulder as you adjust the mirror so you can see the tattoos on your back.

When you locate the lines that are supposed to represent where the heating system runs through the compound, you carefully trace them with your eyes down to the one common square where they all connect on your lower back.

With a nod to yourself, you quickly get dressed, close the closet shut and make your way to the staff bathrooms on the first floor, right next to the infirmary.

Getting near the prison's heating system doesn't present itself as much of a problem, all you do is kick open the grate leading to the air vents in the locked bathroom stall and crawl up by climbing onto the toilet seat.

The heating room isn't much further away, you crawl through the vents until you reach where it's supposed to be and after stilling for a moment to check if it was empty, you lift up the grate and carefully slink down until your feet touch the dirty floors.

The room is stuffy and dark but it's empty, not a soul besides the scarily looking furnace in the middle of the room. You approach it with caution and check the thermostat located on the pipes near it.

Before reaching out and cranking the temperature to the highest possible setting.

With hurried movements, you carefully climb back up the air vent using a rusty shelf for extra boost and return the same way you got in.

Once you're back in your office, slightly sweaty from all the exercise, you can't help but smile lightly at the intense rise in temperature already that you have to crank open the window in your office to make a little bit of a breeze.

If it must be this hot already in here, then you can't imagine what it must be like in the cells.

"Alright that's it, lockdown! Everyone back to your cells!" Jongho's head picks up at the voice yelling from down below amongst the ruckus and shouts of the agitated inmates. They've been going at it for the last hour, calling out for some AC until one of them snapped and started causing trouble with the correction officers which inevitably made a dozen of them act up as a result, "I said everyone back to your cells! Now convicts! Lockdown!"

Jongho's eyes light up in relief, he was sweating buckets because of your little trick but it just might be worth it.

"Damn, your sister really turned that furnace up." Mingi mutters from the top bunk, sweat gliding down his brow as he jumps down the bed and watches the cell door glide shut as the yelling outside continues. "Well, you got your lockdown bro, do your thing."

Jongho shakes his head, "You're coming with me."

"What?!" Mingi's head whips back from where he was fixing the sheet up to protect their cell from the outer view. "No, no, no. I'm the lookout man, that's it."

"It's a two man job, I need your help to kick down the bricks." He explains to his doubtful cellmate, already kneeling down and using the bolt which you told him to get from the benches in the yard to unscrew the fitting holding the small metal sink attached to the wall. "It'll be quick, then you can come back out."

Jongho moves the metal sink to the side and the hole which he broke through a day ago is revealed and he slinks through it with Mingi cautiously following behind him before pulling the sink back in it's place from the outside, to cover the hole in the wall.

Mingi gasps in wonder at the small tunnel they find themselves in, darkness surrounding them from all sides.

"How do you know which side we're supposed to go?" He whispers to Jongho who is already moving through the darkness with practiced ease.

"Y/N told me." He simply responds, never questioning his sister's directions. "After we break through this wall we'll be connected to the main tunnel and have all the access we need."

"And then what?" Mingi asks, following behind him careful not to trip up on any of the rubble beneath his feet.

"And then...we wait for what Y/N tells us to do next." Jongho says reaching the main wall where he was already picking apart the mort on the bricks.

"You really trust her? That she can pull this off?" Mingi asks after a moment of silence, already joining Jongho's side to pick at the bricks with a nail he found on the ground.

Mingi's obvious distrust in his sister made Jongho angry.

Maybe he didn't think you were competend because you were related to him and to be fair, Jongho was in prison. But you two couldn't be more different.

Where Jongho only excelled in sports and woodshop (when the teachers didn't piss him off), you were amazing at everything. Math and physics being a highlight in your academic records, a structural engineer later on as a career.

That wouldn't mean much to a stranger. Nowadays, anyone could graduate college.

But Jongho knew you. And he knew just how smart and resourceful you could get with just about anything, especially if you put all of yourself in. Which with this project in particular, he could tell you have.

Jongho turns to him with a serious expression. "I trust her with my life."

Mingi gives a doubtful shake of head, muttering while he punches through the wall, "You're trusting her with my life as well."

The bricks slowly start to give out.

You stare at the devil's face which you traced from the side of your arm onto a piece of paper, folding it and gliding it in the pocket of your jeans, making sure everything you need is tucked into the back of your jeans before you walk down to the entrance of the building, nodding at the officers standing by the front door and make way to the sick bay located near B-building.

The sick bay is filled to the brim with inmates suffering from heat exhaustion. Wooyoung is working in a rush, tending to each new patient that they bring in with his face pinched in concentration, not even noticing you passing by.

Which is good. Logistically, you have no business being in the sick bay but it was the only building connected by underground tunnels to A-building where your brother's cell was and the chaos of the self-induced heatwave was a perfect opportunity to slink through the building and to the storage room with an air vent unnoticed.

Finding the tunnel that lead to the cells in building A was harder than you thought, the sounds of the riot above didn't exactly help with the tension you were feeling inside.

It took a lot of wrong turns and roaming in the dark damp tunnels with a flashlight in your hand as your only source of light before you heard a loud thump somewhere to your left followed by what sounded like bricks and gravel falling to the ground.

Cautiously, you stepped around the corner with your heart stuck in your throat, not knowing what you will walk into before you breathe in a sigh of relief when you spot two familiar heads peering through the gap in the wall, surrounded by rubble.

"Thank fuck." You mutter, slightly jogging towards them as Mingi kicks at the lower part of the wall again to make way for them to get through.

They seem bamboozled to see you there.

"How in the hell did you-" Jongho starts but you quickly interrupt him, the chaos from above making you on edge.

"We don't have time, come on!" You tell them, already moving back down the dark tunnel, the dust accompanied by pure stress making you feel choked up.

You can hear their footsteps, quietly following after you as you lead them to a bare wall that you place your palm on.

You start walking backwards, recounting your steps and then stop, rolling up your sleeve and flashing the light over it so you can look at the tattoo and make sure your calculations are correct.

Placing your arm against the wall, you mark a dot on it.

"This is it." You voice out, remembering the wall from the blueprints, you turn to face Jongho and Mingi who hang onto your every word; "Somewhere on the other side of this wall is a drainage pipe to the prison's old sewer system. If you can get through this wall, you can get into the pipe. If you can get into the pipe you can get into the infirmary. If you can get into the infirmary, you can get out of here."

They look like they have more questions but obviously decide that this isn't the time nor place. They seem slightly impressed, maybe even a little giddy as they smile at each other, Jongho steps closer to the wall as he runs a hand over it.

"That's one big pile of concrete." He whistles, turning to you, "How do you know where the pipe is?"

You shuffle a couple of steps away from them, propping a light against a couple of leftover bricks sitting by the side of the other wall and place the small paper you've tucked into the pocket of your jeans against the head of the light.

"We've got someone to show us where it is." You answer, pulling out a small piece of duck tape from your pockets and making sure the paper sticks to the flashlight.

"Oh, really?" Mingi asks, albeit a little sarcastically as he crosses his arms over his chest, "Who?"

You turn the light on, immediately facing the wall and smiling in relief as the image on the paper is projected onto the concrete wall.

Jongho and Mingi follow your gaze, the latter jumping a bit once he comes face to face with the devil from your tattoo staring back at him, reflected onto the wall.

Mingi does a quick sign of the cross across his chest.

"Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" Mingi exclaims, inching further away from the caricature. You would've found it funny if your mind wasn't preoccupied with the current task at hand.

Just as you open your mouth to tell them the plan and loud screech from above interrupts you and all three of your heads snap up towards the ceiling above you.

The screech isn't what worries you (maybe it should but you digress), it's the fact that it didn't sound dulled enough for it to come from the prison cells. No, this screech was a bit too apparent.

Almost like it came from the place connecting the cells with the tunnel.

You glance at Jongho with worry to find him already looking at you.

"I'll go check what that was." He says quietly and you open your mouth to stop him, scared for him to be leaving you. He doesn't let you get a word out, "Y/N, don't worry. Stay here with Mingi and tell him what to do, I'll come back."

You glance at Mingi who stays quiet by your side giving you a nod before you turn to Jongho with a somber expression. "Be careful."

He nods with a small chuckle, "Always."

And he turns around and disappears behind the corner.

Jongho crouches down to get through the fresh hole in the wall and as quietly as he can before walking down the tunnel and heading over to the hole covered by the metal sink which leads to his cell.

He carefully places his ear against the surface, a frown growing on his face when he hears footsteps up and down the cell.

His heartbeat immediately spikes up, fear of someone finding the hole in the wall turning into anger at the potential problem if someone else were to find out about your plan.

With one quick mustered breath, he shoves the sink away and as fast as he can, crawls through the whole to grab whoever it is on the other side by surprise.

"Relax! It's me!" A familiar voice chokes out as Jongho already managed to have his hands wrapped around the collar of the sweatshirt. He blinks at Kim Hongjoong's face in confusion, eyes falling to the drawn up sheet covering the, now, opened door.

"What the hell is going on?" He releases Hongjoong, walking towards the opened cell door to peak outside, just to see the inmates going positively ballistic on both floors.

"All hell broke loose." Hongjoong explains, standing in front of the sink that was moved to the side, "When they called for lockdown, about twenty cons didn't back down so they locked the cells while they were still out. They scared away the CO's and got ahold of the keys to the station, unlocked the rest of the cells from there."

Jongho sucks in a sharp breath, observing the pure and utter chaos happening outside. Screaming, fighting, maniacal laughter echoing from the walls. Not even the wildest of animals behaved like this.

"I saw your cell empty when I was passing by and put two and two together. Can't really disappear into thin air from a locked cell so I figured, I'd keep watch." Jongho turns to the older man who shrugs when their eyes meet, "I wanna get out of here just as much as you do and apparently, you're my golden ticket out of this shithole and I can't have anyone catching you, Choi."

Jongho stays quiet, the noises overwhelming him along with the fact that he most definitely did not trust Kim Hongjoong. The man was a flight risk, he could put all of you in danger.

"So, this is it, huh?" Hongjoong asks, staring down the hole with his hands tucked deep inside his pockets. Jongho notes that the older man looks like he just discovered a gold mine.

"Yeah." Jongho brushes past him and pushes the sink back the way it was, concealing it from the outside world. He can't risk going back there today, Mingi will have to do the job and Jongho will keep watch. "This is it."

"What is the plan, exactly?" Hongjoong questions, leaning back against Jongho's bunk bed with his arms crossed.

Jongho glances over his shoulders to check if there's anyone loitering around his cell but he's relieved to see everyone is more occupied with either going batshit crazy or sticking to their own cells to not get hurt or killed.

"Coin is down there, drilling a hole into the wall separating us from the pipe leading to the prison's old sewer system." Jongho explains to his best ability, hoping he got the order of the words right.

You were always the smart one out of the two of you, he was just the muscle.

"Alone?" Hongjoong cocks a brow in curiosity, although Jongho has a feeling that the older man already knows he's not alone.

"No. Not alone." He says through gritted teeth, sending the man a glare.

"Who's with him?" Hongjoong doesn't intend on backing away as he tilts his head at him.

Jongho sighs, giving away the fact that you're down there seems like such a bad idea. Kim Hongjoong was dangerous and Jongho really didn't want you anywhere near him. In fact, he would feel much more at ease if Kim didn't even know you existed.

"The person who planned all of this." He reveals with a shrug, eyes trained on the wall behind Hongjoong's back as he slowly sinks to sit on the floor.

"You mean that girl?" Jongho freezes at that, eyes snapping towards Hongjoong's face that now sports a smug smirk, "The one that visits you in the yard each morning."

Jongho stays quiet, deciding to not comment on anything but just keep staring at the wall with his jaw clenched.

"At first, I thought it was a bit of a reach," The older man continues in faked thoughtfulness "I was like, 'there's no way she'd be brave enough to pull something like this' but then I remembered that it all started from the moment the construction work started back up again and their new pretty supervisor stepped inside these walls."

"Shut up." Jongho interrupts, his temper starting to get tested as he glares at the older man, "We made a deal, you and I, so respect that and don't talk about her. At all."

Hongjoong holds his hand out in faux innocence, not being able to bite back a grin before dropping his hands.

"I'm just saying, whoever she is to you, she cares about you a lot if she's willing to go through all of this just to get you out."

Jongho pretends like he doesn't hear him.

It's been awhile since Jongho left you alone with Mingi and your nerves are starting to become visible the more it takes for him to return. What if something happens to him up there? You know it's a lock down but so many things could go wrong in matter of seconds in a place like this.

Mingi sighs next to you, obviously sensing your concern; "Let Jongho worry about the noise, he can handle himself. You worry about how you are gonna drill through a six inch concrete wall with what used to be an eggbeater."

You glance down to the modified eggbeater you snuck inside your bag this morning and carried through the tunnels tucked at the back of the waistband of your jeans. "Ever hear of tensile strength? Hooke's law of elasticity?" You ask him, deeming the object in your hand now sharp enough to use as a drill. Mingi gives you a bland look from where he stands, leaning against the wall with the devil caricature splayed over him, "What do you think?" You sigh, turning to him. "If we drill holes in strategic locations, we compromise the load carrying capacity of the wall."

Mingi turns to you like you just spoke in French, "How about speaking in normal people words?" You roll your eyes. "We'll be able to break through the wall." Mingi eyes you stepping closer to the wall in curiosity, taking a stand right next to you as you point at the image of the devil's face on the wall. "We go in through the tip of each horn, the eyes, the end of the nose, the bottom of the fangs, end of the braids, makes a sort of X." You explain, handing the eggbeater to him. "Let's get to it."

Mingi gives you a reluctant sigh before getting to work, placing the tip of the eggbeater to the concrete wall.

He works in silence for the next ten minutes, you keep glancing towards the direction of the tunnel where Jongho disappeared off to as your foot keeps tapping the floor from the nerves.

After another minute, Mingi speaks again being much more talkative than you expected from when you first meet him. The morning before, that is.

"I got a question for you." You turn to him from where you leaned on the opposite wall and watched him work, "What if you do all this work and the pipe turns out to be 10 feet the other way?" "It won't." You shake your head. The confidence in your voices makes Mingi look over his shoulder at you with a scowl, "What, you got x-ray vision?" You sigh again (it's all you seem to be doing in his presence), glancing to see if there are any signs of Jongho coming back before stepping closer to where Mingi was working, "I calculated the drill point co-ordinates, hid them in my tattoo and projected them onto the wall. Everything's been worked out so the image hits the right point of the wall. It's just math."

"Okay, nerd. What if your math is wrong?" Mingi questions without missing a beat, not even taking his eyes away from where he was drilling. You roll your eyes again, getting annoyed by his questions and you bluntly reply; "You'll drill into one of the dozen gas lines behind the wall. There'll be an explosion and we'll be burnt alive." Mingi's hand slows down until it rests to a full stop as he gives you a careful glance; "But you're good at math right?"

Your mouth perks up in amusement but you refrain from answering and just nod to the wall. "Keep drilling."

With another sigh, Mingi goes back to work and you glance at the watch on your wrist.

"Hey, I need to go back." You tell him, attention on the direction where Jongho disappeared off to. Mingi turns to you in question. "I need to get out of here if it's a lockdown, it means all the staff will be together if the CO's won't come around."

He pursues his lips, attention focused on the wall. "Yeah, okay."

You hesitate, "Do you know what to do?"

"I'm not stupid, Y/N." He scoffs, glancing at you, "Keep drilling at the horns, eyes, tip of the nose and so on. Form an X. Go."

Your eyes stay stuck on the tunnel, hoping Jongho would finally come through just for a second. Just for you to know that everything is okay. You feel your heart clench in anguish.

"Hey," Mingi brings you back to reality and you turn to him, "He's fine. He was here for over a year before you showed up, it's not his first rodeo. Go."

After a moment of contemplation, you nod and glance one last time towards the tunnel before turning around and disappearing down the other end.

It's deadly silent on the first floor of the building where the sick bay is when you step out of the storage room whose air vent you just dropped out of.

You quietly close the door shut behind yourself, feeling a chill of unease run up your spine at the deserted floor that was busking with people when you first walked in.

At first, you think they evacuated all staff but Jongho and Mingi would've mentioned that as a procedure during lockdown.

You walk down the empty halls of the building's left wing, trying to figure out where everyone is with your defenses so high up that the crunch below your feet makes you jump a step back as your eyes fall to the floor.

It's glass...broken glass.

Well, that can't be good.

Your head turns to the side where the commercial wood door is located, looks like it's glass lite was punched through with something. You feel your heart pound in your chest and without further thinking you pull the sleeve of your shirt to cover your palm before grabbing a large piece of glass that looked sharp enough to be used as a weapon if needed.

Quietly, you continue heading down the hallway, remembering a spare exist located on the first floor of each wing of the building.

Only you don't make it too far.

Shuffling to your right makes your head snap to the direction in surprise and you come face to face with an unknown man standing a couple of feet away from you.

Your heart drops when you notice the dark blue pants and a grey sweatshirt, a trademark for inmate fashion at Chungju's Detention Center but also, the pair of cuffs hanging from his left hand. His face twists in a nasty grin at the sight of you and that's when you knew; you needed to get the fuck out of there.

You don't even think twice about it as you start running up the staircase, having no idea where it leads or who is up there but it's the last thing you think about when you hear footsteps behind you.

"Hey! The pretty bitch is here!" You hear a deep voice yell behind you and your heartrate spikes as your legs carry you as fast as they can up the staircase.

Once you near the top, you glance down both corridors to your left and right before noticing bar doors on the entrance of one of them, feeling a dozen of footsteps enclosing in on you. Swiftly, you run down the corridor and through the bar doors before slamming them shut and locking them with the pair of keys stuffed into the lock on the other side of them.

Just as you're about to pull the keys out, a hand reaches through the bars and grabs you by the hair, slamming your head twice against the bars on the door which makes you cry out in pain.

"There you are." The inmate breathes heavily as he holds you against the bars, hot breath heavy against the skin of your cheek as you struggle against him and you know he's muttering things in your ear that you even refuse to acknowledge, too busy blinking through the pain in your head that leaves you disoriented for a second before you fling the keys out of the lock and sent them gliding down the corridor as you sink in the piece of glass you held in your other hand into the man's shoulder so hard that it pierces through your shirt and into your own hand.

He screams loudly, losing his grip on you and with a pained grunt you rip yourself away from him, eyes growing wide as you see a dozen of inmates surrounding the bar door and rattling them, all yelling at you, mockeries, catcalls accompanied by a bunch of other adjectives you'd rather not repeat.

A noise you're not even aware that you make escapes you of out of the pure fear and panic as you start running down the corridor, checking each room just to see that they're all empty.

Noticing camera monitors stacked up on a desk in one of the small offices, you immediately run into the room and slam the door shut, locking it with the emergency lock before dragging the bookshelf that was in the room to rest it against the door.

You look around, trying to find something to wrap around your bleeding hand before pulling out a kitchen towel that someone must've left after lunch on the desk and wrapping it tightly around your palm.

You can barely catch your breath, your hair flowing down your shoulders as it must of come lose when the inmate grabbed you by your ponytail, as you come closer to the monitors for the security cameras heart dropping at the sight that greets you.

The left wing, you can recognize the halls where you entered from the storage room, is seemingly empty. But the right wing, where the sick bay is, is in shambles, convicts are running down the halls as they please, breaking stuff and rummaging through the medicine cabinets. There are smashed doors and windows everywhere but what almost knocks the air out of your lungs is the monitor in the left corner.

It's one of the rooms in the sick bay surrounded by glass windows from all sides leaving it completely vulnerable as inmates bang against the bulletproof glass like animals trying to break it and in the middle of it, banging against the window connected to the outside is Wooyoung.

By the looks of it, the glass won't last for much longer. You can already see that they managed to break through a small hole on one of them. You glance through the window from the small office noticing officials armed to the teeth waiting outside...yet no-one was coming in.

He'll be killed if you don't do something. You have to get him out of there.

You glance at the air vent above your head and without further contemplation, drag the desk with the monitors under it before climbing on top and kicking the vent open. With a grunt, you pull yourself up inside the vent and start crawling in the direction where you've memorized the sick bay to be.

It's a maze of small tunnels but when you catch sight of a portion of it turning into a slide, you guess it leads to the lower levels and as gently as you can, you remove the screen and slide down with the help of the pipes running down it, careful to not make too much noise.

You're sure you're above the first level now, the first indicator being that the noise volume is much higher. You can hear the yells and you slow down your breathing as you near one of the grates to peer down.

You can see some of the inmates running around and you crouch lower to see the familiar glass windows that they're all banging against. Bingo.

Carefully, you crawl through the vent in front of you and stop by the grate before peering down. Your breath hitches when the top of Wooyoung's head greets you. He's stomping over a book that was lit on fire and you assume they threw it in through the hole in the window, trying to smoke him out.

As quick as you can, you work on opening the grate, pulling on it as hard as you can until it pops open and you push the lid to the side before lowering your head and a hand down and holding on to a pipe behind you with the other hand for stability.

Once your head is dipped inside is when you realize just how terrified Wooyoung must feel. The inmates screams are loud enough to pierce an eardrum, the banging and smashing against the glass enough to rattle anyone. The room is starting to get filled with smoke, obstructing your vision.

And the new side of you, unusually protective over him, feels like she'll do anything to get him out of there.

"Hey! Hey!" You yell trying to wave to Wooyoung, who fails to hear you as he's more focused on putting out the fire by covering the smoke with an empty garbage can. "Wooyoung!"

His head snaps up at that and his eyes grow wide in recognition when he sees you, immediately running to stand below the vent.

"Come on!" You hold your hand out but not before pointing to the small table pushed near the window, "Drag that over and climb up on it! Come on!"

Wooyoung hesitates but only for a second before he's jumping on the task and quickly pushing the table towards the vent before climbing on top of it.

His fingers wrap around the opening of the vent and you pull him up to your best ability until he's able to hang by his elbows and pull himself up the rest of the way through the opening, crawling up to plop himself down on the pipes next to you, heaving for air as you pull the grate back over the opening of the vent.

You both lean back against the pipes behind your backs, breathing heavily as the yelling from below is heard until he finally breaks the silence.

"What the fuck is going on?" He whispers, still out of breath as his head turns to you. He discarded his white coat and was just in plain scrubs now.

You close your eyes, still leaning your head against the pipes before they flutter open again, "All hell broke loose."

You know there's no time to waste so you get back to crouching on your feet, turning to Wooyoung, "See these pipes? We're going to stay on them. They go through the wall and over the hallway and they're going to get us out of here. All you have to do is follow me. Okay?"

Wooyoung still looks positively shaken but is trying to calm down. He nods. "Yeah."

As quietly as you can, the two of you start crawling on top of the pipes with you taking the lead careful to not make too much noise to alert the inmates roaming below you.

It works for a good couple of minutes before you start hearing Wooyoung getting slightly breathless behind you.

You glance over your shoulder to him.

"Are you alright?" You ask him softly and he picks his head up, dark hair falling into his eyes.

"I'm okay....I'm fine." He breathes out and you hesitate for a moment before deciding it's for the best to keep moving.

So you do. You move a couple of feet down the pipes before you hear Wooyoung again.

"You know what, I need a minute. I'm sorry." Wooyoung says, the words rushing out as he sits on the pipes and runs a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath and probably trying to calm himself down.

"It's not much further." You try to reassure him, thinking that the mention of safety will bring some comfort to him and stop himself from driving into a panic attack.

"Just a second, please." He breaths out, swallowing loudly as he looks around the dark vent.

"Okay, we can stop if you want. Catch our breaths." You nod in understanding, sitting down on the pipes as well and hoping he won't think that you're bothered by the sudden break.

He glances at you, remaining quiet before eventually nodding, "Okay, yeah. I could use a minute."

A long silent moment passes between the two of you. You can hear footsteps accompanied by yells running up and down the halls below the two of you.

"Things should be winding down around now. Pretty soon, the police will break in and it will all be over. It's just a matter of time." You voice out, deep in thought as you stared through the vent right in front of you where you could see the grey tiles of the floor.

"How the hell did this happen?" Wooyoung questions, hand gripping the pipe running at the side of the small airway tunnel.

You pause, knowing exactly how it happened; "I don't know. But...I think if we stay up here we'll be okay."

"I can't believe this shit." He mutters, inching closer to you to peer down through the same grate of the vent.

You both fall into a silence, you can feel that he's still shaken up. Heck, so are you but him being here managed to distract you.

It's only fair if you return the favor.

"You ever been to Baja? Mexico?" Wooyoung looks at you like a second head just sprouted from your shoulder, you just keep talking in hopes of distracting him; "There's this great place down there. Twenty bucks a night. Hammock on the back deck. Beers are fifty cents. Twenty five cents at happy hour."

He smiles at you lightly and it causes a smile of your own to appear. You sniffle,

"You ever been to Thailand? Thailand's great." You comment with a sigh and he snorts from beside you.

"Y/N, if you're trying to calm me down, you're doing a terrible job." Wooyoung comments but it's with a smile on his face which makes you giggle.

"But I am trying."

The two of you fall into light chuckles that dissipates into the air quickly.

"Why are you here?" He asks quietly, smile fading as he turns to stare at you.

You look through the grate just so you wouldn't have to look at him. "What do you mean?"

"Crawling around in the ceiling, risking your life."

"You needed help, and uh," You sniffle, looking the other way so he couldn't see your face, "I came to find you."

What was that about getting attached, Y/N?

If Wooyoung is surprised by your admission, he doesn't show it instead his brows furrow, "How'd you know where to go?"

You still at that, vision trained on the pipes running across the wall opposite of you. "I, uh, was hiding in a station that the CO's left empty and saw you on one of the monitors." You spare him a glance, hoping he doesn't notice the way your eyes shake when you lie, "I saw the blueprints for the whole compound when I started supervising the new construction site, the ventilation system is ancient, I took a lot of time studying it because you don't see a system like that in buildings nowadays and so I was sort of familiar with the layout."

You flinch when you feel him brush a piece of hair out of your face, thumb gently gliding under your eyebrow. He whispers; "And how did this happen?"

You look at him in confusion but your lips soon part as you notice the blood on his thumb and you reach out with your own hand, only then noticing the blood sliding down your cheek from the gash on your eyebrow.

You gulp, avoiding his eyes, "When everything went off, I, uh, went to the first floor of the left wing and a couple of convicts spotted me." His eyes widen before roaming over the rest of your body and stopping on the badly bandaged hand laying on your lap, you chuckle trying to play it off as nothing. "I ran to the second floor but one of them banged me pretty hard against the bars on the door."

"Oh my God." He mutters, jaw locking as he seems to internally scold himself. For what, you can't know. "Are you okay? They didn't do anything else, did they-?"

"No. No." You quickly shake your head, uncharacteristically touched by the concern. "I'm fine."

Wooyoung stays quiet for a second and you sigh lowly, looking through the grate to see that there was still people running down below.

"Wait." Wooyoung speaks up again and his curious eyes make you face him again, "What were you doing in this building in the first place?"

You freeze at that.

Because truly and honestly, you don't even have a lie for that. You haven't prepared one not for your lack of effort, you just simply could not think of a single one.

Your trip to this building should've been a breeze. Just sneak your way to the storage room, crawl up the ceilings to where it connected with the A-building, show Jongho and Mingi the wall and return back, unnoticed. You weren't supposed to be met with a fucking riot in here when you returned.

You don't have a lie to tell him.

So the next best thing you can think of is; just act like you never even heard the question.

You turn away from him, crouching on your feet again, "We should keep moving."

After a quiet moment, you feel Wooyoung move after you again.

You crawl through the ceiling for a minute or so in silence before you glance at him again, "The door to the visitation room. Did you ever use it?"

"Not usually, but my access card should work." He replies, seemingly moved on from your avoidant mannerisms.

You nod, forgetting that he can't see you properly before turning around to respond to him. Instead, you freeze when you see someone lifting the vent screen and motion for Wooyoung to be quiet.

The convicts....they're looking for Wooyoung and now, undoubtedly, you as well.

In confusion, he follows your eyes and sees the back of someone's head poking through the opening.

Swiftly, Wooyoung moves over and kicks the guy in the head with his foot, making the inmate fall back down with a yell of pain before pulling the screen back on as more ruckus explodes from below, banging against the ceiling intensifies as do the mocking yells and taunts of the convicts that are hunting you down.

"Come on, let's go." You declare in a rush as you both continue to crawl up the space.

You don't how long you move but you come in front of an opening where you can see the prisoners who have been stubbornly on your tails, looking around for the two of you.

Once the prisoners pass through, you two find yourselves peering down into the room for a short moment, making sure it's empty.

"All right." Wooyoung sighs, getting down first from the vent, carefully standing on top of a bookcase before jumping to the ground. He holds his arms out, to help you get down.

With a shaky breath, you follow after him, standing on top of the bookcase and looking at the distance towards the floor in slight anxiety. "O-Okay."

"Here," Wooyoung nods reassuringly with wide eyes, arms still held out below you, "I got you."

You place your hands on his arms for at least some type of leverage before sucking in a breath and leaping down, your body slowly thudding against his as his arms enclose around you with a low grunt.

His nose brushes your jawline as he lowers you down to the floor, in one piece.

You pull away from him and your gazes meet for one solid moment before you pull yourself away, reminding yourself that now is not the time nor the place to be sharing romantic moments with the man.

Suddenly,

"Hey Doc, you gonna keep her all to yourself?" Your heads snap towards the inmate standing in front of you two, staring at you specifically with a smirk that sends chills down your spine.

The moment he starts advancing towards you, Wooyoung surprises him with a fist to the nose and an arm around his neck to suffocate him and you're shoved into the wall as the two start to wrestle across the room. You can barely breathe.

Your fear only heightens when another inmate runs in to help his pal, trying to pry Wooyoung off of him but he doesn't notice you huddled in the corner.

You, on the other hand, notice his bandaged up leg and without even thinking about it, you run up behind him and wedge your foot as hard as you can into his injury three times as he wails in pain and falls to the floor, clutching onto his injury.

The prisoner in Wooyoung's hold finally gives out, passing out in his arms and falling to the ground.

On instinct, you latch onto Wooyoung's arm and start pulling him after you, "C'mon. This way."

You keep running down the hallways before Wooyoung pulls on your hand, brows stitched together in confusion, "This isn't the way for the visitations room."

"We can't make it through there, there's another exist here." You've seen the blueprints, you know!

He hesitates, "Y/N, if you're wrong...."

"Wooyoung, we don't have time!" You can hear footsteps and yells behind you and you turn to him in desperation, sweat dripping down your back, "Trust me."

Wooyoung stares at you before looking down both ends of the hall and then finally, giving in and following after you.

You run down the halls that are all starting to look a bit too similar but you know that there's an exit located somewhere near from the view outside the windows lining the walls. You pull Wooyoung through a small room that seems to be used a break room that, like the maze it is, leads to a storage room and finally...

"This is it." You say pointing to the door at the end of the room. You can see the grass through the glass on it as well as armed officers with their guns pointed towards it waiting on the other side.

The footsteps behind you appear to be coming nearer and nearer and you and Wooyoung share a look before you're running towards the door and flinging it open.

You immediately raise your hands up in the air, yelling "Don't shoot!"

All you can process is yelling until you realize that you're being pulled behind the line of fire and you and Wooyoung get separated as you get led away by unknown officers. They recognized you as staff members.

The entire outside space of the compound is surrounded by officers and even soldiers, cars and army trucks are pulled up nearby along with ambulance trucks.

"Wooyoung!" You hear a male voice call out as you're being led to one of those ambulance truck and your head turns to the direction it came from to see a familiar figure that Wooyoung runs to.

"Dad!" He yells back, collapsing into the older man's arms and you feel something in your chest ache.

You don't know if it's from seeing a person be comforted by a parent after a traumatic event as you've been abandoned by both. Or is it from seeing the governor, one of the main advocates for the highest possible sentence to be given to your innocent brother. Or maybe, it's simply from seeing Wooyoung be so vulnerable and small in someone's arms.

You don't know.

"Thank you." You tell the paramedic that just finished wrapping up your hand with a small smile and get a nod in return as he lets you have a moment to yourself, sitting in the back of the opened ambulance truck with a thin blanket wrapped around you.

Your fingers brush against the bandage on your brow, the wound all cleaned and covered now. It still doesn't make you feel any less sticky and gross.

You quietly watched as the officers advanced towards the buildings, you could hear shots fired inside and it all made you feel sick to your stomach.

"Hey." You hear a voice to your left and you look to see that Wooyoung has snuck in to sit besides you, his scrubs replaced by a pair of jeans, sweatshirt and a thick jacket.

"Hey, you okay?" You ask quietly, not even being sure if you can bring the volume of your voice up at this point.

He nods, "Yeah." before his eyes roam over you once again, just like they did when you were crawling up in the ceiling.

"All bandaged up." He notices jokingly, eyes focusing on the wound on your palm

"Yeah, it wasn't anything too bad." You reply, noticing that his father left awhile ago, "Your dad was here?"

Wooyoung chuckles, face flushing red immediately as his eyes fall to the gravel below your feet. "How embarrassing, my dad coming to check up on me like I'm a child."

You hum, eyes tracing over his side profile and the pretty lines of his jaw, "I don't think it's embarrassing, I think it's nice that he cares so much about you."

Wooyoung looks at you, something unrecognizable swimming in his eyes. "You have anyone to check up on you?"

You chuckle bitterly. The only family you have is stuck in the building across the compound. "No."

"Oh." Wooyoung lets out, face contorted into an expression you hate the most. Pity.

You open your mouth to jokingly scold him about it but all the words get stuck in your throat as you see someone get carried out in a body bag from A-building. Wooyoung notices your attention somewhere else and looks over his shoulder to see what caught your attention.

He presses his lips together, turning to you. "You didn't hear?"

Your eyes immediately snap towards him, feeling your throat close up, "Hear what?"

"Someone killed the new officer that started working here two weeks ago."

It feels like a bucket of cold water washed over you and your eyes follow the black body bag that gets placed into a vehicle. His colleagues carrying him seem downright heartbroken.

You didn't know who the new officer was, neither one of you was here long enough to meet each other but it still didn't stop the guilt to burn through your chest like acid.

Your eyes burn. You did this.

"He had two daughters in middle school." Wooyoung adds, eyes plastered on the same thing as you. The man's dead body. "They found several stab wounds in his abdomen."

A sound so guttural leaves you before you can even reign it in and Wooyoung's head turns to you, his eyes softening immediately once he notices the hot tears streaming down your cheeks.

Such a violent death. An innocent person.

"Oh, Y/N...." He utters softly, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder. "It's okay, you're okay."

"Someone died...?" Is all you can say through your sniffles as you bite down hard on your lip, not even being aware of the words that leave you, "An innocent person?"

An innocent person with a wife and kids waiting for him to come back from work tonight.

The guilt almost doubles you over, hits you like a train going at full speed.

You never thought your plan would affect anyone this much that it would result in a life getting lost.

But you turning up the heat this noon, something that was supposed to be so simple and just cause a lock down in A-building, started a chain of events that ended up taking someone's life prematurely.

This is on you.

You might not be the one that stabbed him but you were the one that created a path that led to him getting stabbed.

"Hey, Y/N-ie." Wooyoung softly consoles you, hand now brushing the skin of your cheek, "Why are you crying?"

You barely register the nickname he calls you with but his touch is soothing, warm.

You obviously can't tell Wooyoung the truth, you can't tell him you were the cause for all of this. Instead, you have to let it fester inside of you, slowly eat away at your insides until there's nothing left.

But you have to tell him something. So, you go with the second truth;

"I was scared." You whimper, the events of today finally crashing down on you as you softly sob, "I was so scared."

Wooyoung surprises you by pulling your face into the crook of his neck, his arms coming up around you as he pats your back. But you melt into the warmth of his body and the smell of his clothes.

"I was scared too." He confesses softly in your ear, hand still patting your back over the blanket, "It's okay to be scared. I don't think you'd be human if you weren't scared in a place like this."

You stay in his embrace despite hating to be touched most of the time, until your tears cease and turn to soft sniffles against his sweatshirt.

It feels nice, you think, to have someone check up on you.

On the drive back home. When he enters his apartment. Sits in his living room and later on in the night, lays in his bed;

Wooyoung can't stop thinking about you.

#wooyoung smut #wooyoung fluff #wooyoung x reader #ateez angst #ateez x reader #ateez imagine #wooyoung imagine #wooyoung angst

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