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kamekamelea · 4 years

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Planting a seed

This story was written for my dear fandom friend @shannaro-sakura ❤ this is my virtual hug for you and I hope it cheers you up a bit :)

(Big THANK YOUs go to @fm-white and @ashlyne-m for being awesome betas!)

(also, this is my first Zutara piece so this is exciting)

Summary: Zuko turns out to be a cultivator, Katara learns what an "arbuz" is and everything becomes just a little bit sweeter.

read on AO3

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Zuko had been waiting for this afternoon all week.

A week ago Katara announced her plans to stay in the palace after the summit the entire gang attended was over. Every night since that day, just before falling asleep, the young Fire Lord thought about her embarrassed smile as she asked if he’d be okay with her staying a bit longer. He almost gathered up the courage to hug her, to show her how okay he was with that.

After bidding their friends goodbye in the morning, the Fire Lord couldn’t have been more eager to get to work. There were a few crucial matters on his agenda for today and he rush through them to make it on time.

On time for afternoon tea with Katara.

The appointed hour was near and Zuko hurried to the gardens where he was supposed to meet his friend. He did, however, make a quick stop at his quarters to pick up a very important object—a surprise for Katara.

With the large package in hand, he stepped out of the palace straight onto a soft carpet of grass. Zuko breathed in the fresh air, a blissful relief after the morning spent stuck in his stuffy office. The sight of the old wisteria met him, the one Uncle Iroh claimed to be over a hundred years old, sagged under the weight of its flowers. The tree was really one of a kind—Zuko has never seen another tree bloom in blue.

No wonder Katara’s favourite spot in his gardens was the one right under the biggest branch of the indigo tree. She was already seated there, smiling at him over her book which Zuko recognized as one he recommended to her in one of his letters.

“I’m surprised to see you on time,” she said, skipping the pleasantries. They were too close friends to care about such trivial things as greetings. “I thought your ministers would long for you after you abandoned them for almost three weeks for some foreign delegations,” she said the word foreign with mock disdain, her lips twisted in a smirk. Sunlight danced on her crinkled nose and her cheeks were slightly flushed from the heat, and Zuko wished he had any artistic talent as he was hit with the sudden desire to capture the view.

He waved with disregard for his ministers, not caring about them at all at the moment. Before he could answer, Katara took notice of his pack.

“That’s a heavy looking bag. What is it?”

Zuko couldn’t stop the grin from appearing on his face, as he sat across from Katara and dropped the round package on the grass between them.

“Something special I’d like to share with you.”

Or rather brag about.

Katara’s eyes shone, and she raised her brows in anticipation, leaning closer to him. He took his time untying the strips on the bag, giving his friend a messy introduction in the meantime. “I’ve been hiding it for a few days—from the others—and before that I kept it a secret for more than a year. It became kind of a hobby for me,” he revealed. “Took me a long time to get to this point, and for now I’ve only managed to grow this one—that’s why I hid it, because I wanted to share it with you—” he finally uncovered the mysterious object, and turned his gaze to Katara, excited to see her reaction.

Zuko’s smile fell, seeing a sceptic frown on her face.

“A... melon?”

“Uhm...Technically, yes. But it’s different from a regular melon.” He took a glance at the globose fruit, the stripes of various greens shining in the sun. And then he remembered why Katara confused the name. “I know that’s how we called it on the Ember Island during the war, but that is not what it’s called. We call it ’arbuz’ here.”

She nodded, eyeing the fruit with genuine curiosity. “And what’s so special about this ‘arbuz’ again?”

“I grew it myself,” he said with an enthusiasm that suited a child more than a Fire Lord, but he didn’t feel embarrassed in front of her. “Have you ever tried this fruit?”

“No, I don’t think so. I remember blasting it with various attacks, but I didn’t care much for its consumption back then,” she chuckled. “But I know how a regular melon tastes.”

“This one is slightly different. Some call it a ’watermelon’, because it is 91% water.” He put an emphasis on the number and Katara was polite enough to show amused interest in the fun fact he provided. “And I thought…” He put his hands on the sides of the fruit to keep them from shaking. “I thought you might like it, because… you know… you like water,” he finished, his shoulders slumping from embarrassment.

Her frown deepened and his heart froze.

“So, because it is made of water, you figured I’m bound to like it?”

Heat rose up his neck, threatening to bloom on his cheeks. He tilted his head, showing the scarred side, hoping the redness wouldn’t be that evident there. Now that she said it out, loud it sounded so damn stupid.

“Umm...no. I mean yes… but like in a humorous way… I didn’t mean… did I offend you?” he eventually blurted out.

Giggles bursted out of Katara’s chest and she raised her hand to cover the open mouthed laughter. Zuko wished she didn’t—she looked so beautiful laughing in his gardens he forgot to be embarrassed.

“I’m just teasing.” She leaned closer and playfully tapped him on his thigh, and he felt his blush raising up again when her palm lingered on his knee. “I’m honored to be included in this special occasion of arbuz tasting.” She smiled at him and his own lip curled in response. Her teasing couldn’t upset him really when she beamed at him like that.

His heart, which stopped just a few moments ago, now started beating frantically, so he set to keep his hands busy with cutting the fruit. He sank the blade into the rind and once it broke the barrier Zuko was happy to observe the internal part was much softer.

“Is this the knife Sokka gave you?”

“Yes, I always carry it with me.” He smiled, sentiment tugging at his heart.

“Why?” Katara furrowed her brows.

Distracted, trying to form a coherent answer, he stopped cutting the fruit for a second.

“Because my Dao swords freak people out on a regular day.”

He was more than happy to hear her laughing at his joke, and his knife cut through the rind on both sides. The watermelon opened revealing delicious red flesh. Zuko grinned at the sight—it was a good sign—and raised his head to share his excitement with Katara, only to notice her smile fell.

Her tone turned serious. “Is it still so bad?”

He sighed. The issue of Katara’s friends’ safety always seemed to upset her.

“No, it’s been quiet for some time. I have to admit though—chasing the assassins was quite an entertainment,” he added with a smirk. “Now I’m almost bored from the lack of action. And it is you I blame. You scared them off.”

Katara shrugged, nonchalantly playing with her hair. “If they couldn’t take a few water whips, they didn’t deserve to be the Fire Lord’s assassins.” She smirked with a dangerous glint in her eye.

It was the same look she would wear on the nights the two of them chased the criminals through the rooftops of Caldera City. With the bottom of her face covered with a cloth, he could only see the blue of her eyes, sharp with satisfaction when they caught the bad guys. Their duo had never failed.

He smiled at the memory, making clean cuts of the fruit to shape it into small slices.

“So, you grew it yourself,” Katara started with a smirk. “Who would’ve thought the Fire Lord Zuko had a knack for cultivation?”

“No one,” he whispered with a playful smile, handing her a triangle piece of watermelon. “It’s the best kept secret in the Fire Nation. You’re the only one who knows.”

She raised her brow. “Not even uncle Iroh knows?”

“Not even uncle.” The revelation caused Katara’s face to lit up. “Nor the gardener. I was this close,” he pinched his fingers, “to asking for his help after so many fruitless attempts. But I didn’t and grew it anyway. It’s the first and so far only one.” He eyed the fruit. “I’m so anxious to try it.”

Suddenly the stupidity of his actions struck him. He was so excited to show Katara his watermelon, he ignored the risk of the fruit’s dubious taste. What if it was actually disgusting? Just because it looked good it didn’t mean it had to be good.

Katara’s cheerful voice shook him out of his musings. “I’m not.”

And before Zuko could say anything or knock the slice out of her hold and run far away with his watermelon, Katara sank her teeth in the flesh. She munched, making weird noises and pulling faces at him—some affirmative, some not.

“Oh, stop tormenting me, Katara!” Zuko groaned. “So? How is it? Is it good?”

His desperation caused the girl to burst in another round of laughter. He kept an impressive track record of making her laugh today.

“I don’t know how it is supposed to taste, you tell me!”

Katara shoved her nibbled slice right in front of his face. Zuko froze for a second, taken aback by the intimacy of the gesture, but recovered quickly. He grasped her wrist to bring the fruit closer to his mouth and took a bite.

Her smile widened seeing his reaction.

“It is good!” Excited, he took another bite of Katara’s slice. The blush that bloomed on her cheeks had the color of his watermelon and Zuko realized it had nothing to do with the heat. “Do you like it?”

She nodded enthusiastically, grinning. “Yes, it’s very refreshing. And surprisingly cool.”

“I put it in a cooler last night. Even awful watermelons are bearable to eat when cold.”

“But this one isn’t awful.”

“No, it’s not.” He didn’t even try to stop the cheeky grin from appearing on his face. The watermelon was sweet but refreshing—exactly how it was supposed to taste. And so succulent a small bead of juice ran down Katara’s chin as she took another bite. Without thinking, he reached to wipe it.

Katara stared at him with a funny look on her face—she seemed spooked. His palm which lingered on her jaw now sprung as if burnt.

An awfully awkward silence fell between them for a few long seconds. Then Katara cleared her throat. “Better learn how to grow more of them, Zuko,” she said with a stern voice, but her smile betrayed her teasing. “You had a good feeling about me liking them a lot.”

“Thank Agni, it’s good,” he let go of all the anxious breath that was trapped inside him all morning. “It would’ve been quite embarrassing if I grew a disgusting watermelon for you.”

Zuko choked on said fruit as he realized his slip. Falling into a coughing fit, he didn’t notice Katara drew closer until her hair tickled his forearm.

“Thank you for sharing with me. That’s very sweet of you, Zuko. As sweet as this perfectly cultivated arbuz.”

And then a strand of hair tickled his jaw, and the next thing he knew was Katara’s lips on his cheek. She withdrew quickly, avoiding his gaze. The spot where she left the butterfly kiss burned, but it was a pleasant heat (nothing like getting burnt by a parent).

“I should return the favor now,” she muttered, and Zuko barely heard her.

Still dumbstruck a little, Zuko wasn’t able to formulate a coherent question, so he just furrowed his brows in confusion.

“And cultivate something from the South Pole for you,” Katara clarified.

“Oh.” Something warm swelled in his chest, something that suddenly made Zuko very nervous to be around Katara. “I didn’t know stuff grows on the South Pole.”

“Hardly,” she chuckled. “All I can think of are sea prunes. But they grow in the ocean. Do you like them?” she asked, and Zuko saw the excitement budding in her eyes.

“I don’t think I’ve ever tried them.”

“Hmm…” Katara bit her lip and Zuko knew he was staring but couldn’t look away. “I’ve heard they’re similar in taste to Fire Nation’s ocean kumquats. Do you like those?”

Zuko hated ocean kumquats.

“Yeah...I like them a lot.”

Her eyes widened in now full bloomed excitement and she clasped her hands together. “I can’t wait to treat you with sea prunes stew!”

And as Katara carried on describing the details of the famous South Pole’s cuisine Zuko didn’t even have half the mind to be disgusted by the depiction, because a dumb grin grew on his lips and a feeling started sprouting in his heart.

#zutara #zuko #katara #zuko x katara #atla #avatar the last airbender #my writing #wow haven't posted any writing on this blog in a while #my fics

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wintersxsoul · 5 years

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Come Back To Me

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Word Count: 3.7k

Warnings: Angst, memoy loss, mentions of torture.

A/N: This was highly inspired in the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, but I hanged the ending a bit. Thank you to my beautiful beta reader @all1e23 for putting up with my bullshit since I started writing this piece. Italic paragraphs are memories/flashbacks.

Before you, all Bucky Barnes knew was darkness, pain, a hollow chest with a broken beating heart. You appeared like flowers bloom in Spring, taking away the remnants of Winter, giving color and life to a grey world. He thought it would be impossible for someone like him to even talk to someone like you, but as always, fate had its own plans.

There were a few Hydra bases left but The Avengers needed help to locate them since the only clue they had was written in Ancient Greek. Natasha knew Latin but after a few days trying to translate, they knew they would need a professional.

That’s how you ended up in a meeting room with The Avengers. You were one of the best translators in the world, you knew more than 15 languages, written and spoken, you had four Ph.D. in History, Mythology, Literature and Art. After a few months working for them they eliminated almost all Hydra bases. You had to leave New York to do a Mythology seminar in London for two weeks, so you forgot about everything about the team and focused on your work.

In the four months you stayed with The Avengers, Bucky Barnes struggled with his feelings towards you because he had fallen in love hard and fast, so when he heard that you would be gone, his heart shattered. You both were oblivious to the feelings you had for the other, making it a bit harder for you two to communicate.

“Steve, I can’t go. I just can’t.” Bucky told his best friend, who just assigned him to go on a little trip to London. Steve sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Listen, Buck. You are the only one on the team available, so I’m sorry, but it’s vital for you to go.”

So that’s how he ended up in one of your conferences, sitting at the back of the room, taking in all the information you were throwing at the audience. The passion and professionalism with which you spoke had his heart beating rapidly on his chest. Your whole face lit up when you saw his large figure and his blue eyes watching you, your knees almost failing you when you paced around the stage. You paused the talk for a 10 minute break and honestly, to gather yourself. Bucky almost ran down the stairs to meet you, engulfing you in a tight hug, his scent filling all your senses.

“Not that I am not happy to see you but, what are you doing here?” You tilted your head and placed a strand of hair behind your ear nervously. He smiled sweetly and explained that they needed you once more for a top secret mission he didn’t even know about.

“As much as I would love to help, I have to attend two more conferences in the following days, so I can’t go today.”

“Uhm, I...I checked your schedule and informed the team. So I’ll be staying around until you are done, if that’s okay.” You really tried not to show any kind of excitement but failed miserably. Your heart fluttered at the thought of Bucky attending your talks and after decades doing this, you felt nervous.

Bucky thought it was impossible to fall in love with you even more, but he was wrong. You started explaining the myth of Eros and Psyche, your eyes never leaving his. If your Oratory teacher saw you right now, she would be kicking you for being so unprofessional, but you really couldn’t care less.

The myth of Eros and Psyche is probably one of the best love stories in classical mythology. Eros, son of Aphrodite, was the personification of intense love desire and he was depicted throwing arrows to people in order to hit their heart and make them fall in love. Psyche, a beautiful maiden, personifies the human soul. In fact, she is the symbol of the soul purified by passions and misfortunes and who is, from now on, prepared to enjoy eternal happiness. In the love story of Eros (Cupid in Latin) and Psyche (meaning "soul" in Greek), we can see the perseverance of a man even when he is possessed by passion and the effort of a woman to overcome many obstacles in order to achieve the happiness of love.

Bucky’s eyes gleamed under the dim light of the room, and you accidentally smiled at him. He moved to the front rows so he could be closer to you, so know the whole audience knew you were probably ignoring them and just spoke to that single person you were smiling to.

When you finished explaining the whole myth, you saw a few hands rising to ask questions, and you felt pride bubble in your chest because that meant they were interested and not bored to death.

“So how did Psyche lived forever?”

“Well, Zeus decided to give her the Ambrosia, the food of the gods, so she could be immortal.”

After answering a few more questions, you saw a shy gloved hand and you shivered, not expecting him to participate at all.

“I would like to ask what this myth actually represents and what it means to you, ma’am.” Your shaky hands grabbed the glass of water that sat on the small table and drank a bit to ease your nerves. You cleared your throat and smiled.

“The interpretation I gave was the true connection of the soul and love. Eros and Psyche are the proof that everyone has a soul and is capable of love, even the darkest soul.”

Everyone started clapping when you finished, your smile only growing wider when Bucky looked at you like you hung the stars and the moon.

“You can’t tell me what this secret mission is about?” You heard Bucky sigh loudly when you approached the table he was sitting at, waiting for you. He had asked you out to have dinner and since you were staying at the same hotel, you thought it would be a good idea.

“Okay, punk. Whatever, I gotta go.” He hung up and smiled at you, his eyes roaming your figure. You were wearing your favorite dress, the soft golden silk hugging your curves amazingly. You sat rapidly, tripping on the chair and almost falling. You giggled nervously and Bucky just smiled at you, his nerves eating him alive.

“Is the dress too much?” Bucky shook his head rapidly and cleared his throat, running his flesh hand through his hair.

“No, you look beautiful.” You smiled shyly and he added “I mean, you always look beautiful, but now...there are no words to describe how you look.”

You spent the whole evening exchanging information about the other, asking questions back and forth. He asked about your childhood, the pressure of being a prodigy child and being the daughter of a genius, the lack of a normal teenage life since you entered college at 13, the disastrous first and only relationship and travelling around the world alone. Bucky shared the bits he remembered of his childhood, his academic records, war and his time being the Winter Soldier. You, of course, were dying to interview him for professional purposes since you were currently working on a book about the ending of WW2 and the Cold War.

At the end of the night, he kissed you at the door of your room and before he could turn to leave, you pushed him in your room, kissing him like it was your last day on this world.

He caressed your naked skin slowly, taking his time exploring every inch of your body, kissing and worshipping you like the goddess he believed you were. You kissed him as adoringly in return, running your hands all over body, feeling every muscle and scar, loving every inch of what Bucky Barnes was.

You were stroking his hair softly, his head pressed on your chest, your heartbeat soothing all his doubts and in a moment of pure bliss and realization, he said those three words.

“I adore you.” Your fingers froze and your breath hitched, a deep warmth spreading all over you.

“Y/n?” You realized you’d been silent for far too long so his heart started beating rapidly, the thought of you rejecting him starting to cloud his mind.

“I love you.” You said softly and he turned to face you, his expression full of love and adoration just for you. He kissed you and made love to you again, the feeling of your bodies together was like a drug to him and you were more than happy to give it to him, surrendering completely to him and him to you.

When you both got back to New York, Bucky discovered that there was no mission. Steve plotted with the whole team for you two to stop with your mutual pining and realize your feelings, his smug face pissing Bucky off.

“I told you a long ago to tell her, Barnes.” Nat added, rolling her eyes and elbowing him jokingly. You just smiled at your friends and thanked them, because without them none of that would’ve happened.

Everything was dark and cold, the thick leather straps that held your body tight to the metal chair making your skin raw. Your head was spinning, the immense pain you were feeling was blocking all the physical pain your wounds were causing. What did they do to you?

You were unconscious most of the time, but you knew they were doing something, changing something in your body, in your mind. Your loud screams numbed all the voices surrounding you but you still caught glimpses of conversations in Russian.

“He will come to get her, our mole knows how much she means to the Soldat.”

“It’s been a week already, and we haven’t heard nothing. What if she is the wrong woman?”

“It can’t be, I saw them together while following the Asset, it’s her.”

You tried to move or speak, but all it came out of your mouth was a low whine. You tried to open your eyes, your heavy lids making it hard. Everything hurt, stung, your skin felt like it had been burnt over and over again.

“Is she ready?” A thick voice asked loudly and you felt deeply terrified. Ready for what? What have they done to you?

“Well, unstrap her and prep her, he won’t take much longer.” You wanted to scream, to run, to try to fight your way out, but you couldn’t move.

“Tony, we need to find Y/N. Bucky is going insane and I’m afraid I won’t be able to hold him back much longer.” Steve found your location that exact morning, after a week of your disappearance. Apparently, you were in one of Hydra’s last bases in Siberia, one that was unknown for everyone, even for Bucky. Tony just nodded and looked at the files.

“Gear up, we’re getting our girl back.”

But it was too late, Bucky hacked the database, something Tony would be pissed off about, and got the location before Steve could even talk to him. He knew it was reckless to leave on his own, but he just couldn’t wait any longer to get you, to save you from Hydra’s claws.

Bucky Barnes was himself, but he also was the Winter Soldier, all that violence and cold blood was in him still, would always be. He was ready to enter hell for you, even if that meant never getting back home.

The morning light was bathing his room, hitting your skin and making it glow. You were smiling at him tiredly, your eyes full of adoration for him. Bucky leaned in to press his forehead to yours, chuckling lightly when you licked the tip of his nose. He narrowed his eyes jokingly and you started squealing when he pressed his hands in the most ticklish spots on your body.

Breathlessly, you sat down, still laughing and managed to speak.

“I hate you.” You pressed your hand to your belly trying to ease your laughter. Bucky tilted his head, a huge grin plastered on his face.

“You know, you were never a good liar.” You pressed your hand to your chest and looked at him, fakingly offended. He shook his head chuckling and kissed you, pressing your body to the mattress.

You jolted awake, drenched in sweat and dust, the memory making your whole body tremble, silent tears streaming down your face. You scanned the room you were at, and realized you weren’t strapped to that metal chair. Everything was awfully quiet and there was no one around. You stood up but your legs failed you, making you hit the stone cold floor, scraping your knees and palms. You reached for the makeshift bed and help yourself to stand up and once you gathered enough strength to walk, you got out of the room you were at.

Bucky was beating the last Hydra agent alive, trying to get any kind of information out of him. He laughed maniacally and spit blood to the floor.

“Hydra needed someone like her, but she was too damn stubborn to cooperate. So we fixed her.” A metal fist hit his stomach, probably breaking some organ. The agent coughed blood but kept talking.

“If we can’t have either of you, you won’t either.” Bucky could feel his bile rising at the thought of what you’d suffered while he was failing at rescuing you earlier.

“What did you do to her?” The agent smiled, clearly in pain.

“Nothing that cannot be reversed. All we need is for you to control yourself, to be compliant.” Bucky pressed his metal hand in his neck and squeezed hard enough to hurt him but not to kill him. Not yet. He pressed his body to the closest wall and held the agent against it.

“Tell me what you did to her.” Bucky muttered, the blinding rage surging throughout all his pores.

“You remember your shut down word, soldat?” Sputnik. That was the word they used when they needed to shut him down before cryo. Bucky nodded and squeezed a little tighter.

“Well, we implanted that on her, but the effects being worse.” Bucky’s eyes widened, knowing the way to implant something like that deep in your mind.

Before Bucky could say something, the agent spoke again.

“We thought it was too cruel even for us, so you have 24 hours to keep her safe forever. But if you say the trigger words before the time’s up, she will be gone for good.” He smirked wickedly and Bucky squeezed harder, until he heard the neck break.

24 hours. He had 24 hours left.

“Come on, say it.” Bucky shook his head, too afraid to say those three meaningful words. You smiled at him but deep down it hurt you, it hurt that he couldn’t say them.

“You know I do, why do you need to hear me say it?”

“Because it becomes real for me.”

“I can’t say them, not yet.” Bucky’s expression fell but you just shrugged and added a “whatever” with a smile, trying to convince him that you were fine with it.

“Whenever you are ready, I will be here waiting for you to say it.” You kissed him, smiling into the kiss, feeling his tears mixing with your lips.

You heard screams and a familiar voice, so you ran like hell, your body working on its own, your mind racing with thoughts of you and Bucky. You were close to him, you could feel it in your bones, and when you entered the training room, there he was.

Bucky’s eyes widened, taking you in. You were okay. He sighed relieved and moved towards you while you did the same, meeting him in the middle. You gasped when your arms finally touched his body, the sensation of finally being safe and home wrapping you. He pressed his lips to yours in a chaste kiss, needing to check it was really you.

He held your hand and lead you to the Quinjet, you were finally going home.

“Buck?” Your mouth suddenly let out, and you frowned because you had nothing to say. He hummed, waiting for you to continue.

“I love you.” You started to cry uncontrollably, the sobbs getting louder and louder. Bucky pressed the autopilot button and moved to where you were, kneeling in front of you. He placed a strand of hair behind your ear and smiled at you sweetly, all his worries finally leaving him. You were safe, nothing had happened. It was all probably a bluff.

“I adore you.” He told you and you frowned again, because you felt like something was controlling you, was controlling your thoughts and words.

“Say it. I need you to say it, please.” You begged him, crying. He loved you, he had always known that, but he needed time to admit that to himself before being able to tell you. After everything that happened, he knew he was ready, and seeing you so heartbroken made him brave.

“I love you, Y/n.” He pressed his hand to your cheek, caressing it with his thumb. Something inside you clicked, and you smiled at him. You leaned in to kiss him, the tears already gone.

“I love you, Buck. I love you.” You laid down on the seats and closed your eyes, sighing contently. He finally said it.

“I’m very tired, please wake me when we arrive.” You opened an eye to look at him and after him nodding and kissing your temple, you closed your eyes, the tiredness taking over your body.

As soon as Bucky landed the jet, he glanced at your sleeping form and smiled, you were finally home and safe. Everyone was waiting for you to arrive at the hangar, impatiently and some of them even pissed. Bucky made a reckless move that could’ve endangered the two of you, but he knew he would succeed, just for the sake of your safety.

Bucky kneeled in front of you and stroked your head lightly, whispering softly for you to wake up, but when you didn’t even move, he started freaking out.

“We gave to subject Z10 strong doses of Apomorphine enough to kill a healthy adult, electroshock therapy for hours and we’ve succeeded to implant trigger words, stronger than the ones implanted in our first subject, The Winter Soldier.”

“Subject Z10 will be compromised as soon as the trigger words reach her hippocampus, blocking the NEK7 protein, forgetting all that is strongly attached to said words. Subject will never be able to recover those memories, but effects can be reversed if there’s no usage of the words implanted in the following 24 hours.”

“Y/n?” You slowly opened your eyes and Bucky sighed relieved but as soon as he saw your eyes, he gasped. You frowned and sat up fastly, looking frantically around you.

“Who...who are you? What am I doing here?” You cried out, confused and scared. The man in front of you retreated fastly and you could see he had a metal arm. You shivered, frightened.

“Y/n, it’s me, Buck.” He said with a deep sorrow, his eyes shining with unshed tears. You snapped your head towards the door of the jet you were at, two new faces approaching you. The man was bulky and tall, blond hair and blue eyes. The woman was small but seemed strong, a redhead with fierce green eyes. They both looked familiar but you couldn’t place them.

“Buck, what’s going on?” The tall guy asked, stepping in front of Bucky so you couldn’t see him.

“Steve, She...I- I was warned but I still used the trigger words.” Bucky cried, his knees giving up, making him fall to the floor, his body collapsing to the wall. Steve kneeled and hugged Bucky, holding his head to his chest.

“Y/n, my name is Natasha. I’ll take you to our medical bay so they can run some tests, okay?” You looked at your body and you could see a few ugly bruises and you immediately looked at the man with the metal arm. Natasha shook her head, already knowing what you were thinking.

“He would never lay a hand on you, he saved you from who did that to you.” You nodded and followed her out and into the huge building.

“Buck, if you had to choose, would you prefer to lose your memory and not being able to remember me, or me dying but keeping all of our memories?” You smiled when you saw Bucky’s eyes widening, a deep frown seated on his forehead.

“I cannot choose, both of them are the worst things that could happen to me.” You giggled and held his hand, caressing his knuckles with your thumb.

“I know, but if you had to, what would you choose?”

“Forgetting you. Life has its funny ways so maybe we could find each other again. And you?” You frowned now and placed your head on his shoulder, his scent reaching your senses.

“I had my ideas clear, but after your reasoning, I don’t know.” Bucky chuckled, his whole body vibrating, making you laugh as well.

“You would prefer for me to die but remembering me, right?” You nodded, embarrassed because you didn’t reason as he did. He bumped his nose with yours and smiled, his lips brushing yours lightly, waiting for you to kiss him.

It had been weeks since you left after Shuri ran those tests. She was able to recover your memories of the team, but Bucky was totally erased from your mind. You knew who he was, but because he was Steve’s best friend and the ex-assassin, The Winter Soldier. You were a bit shaken off after you said your goodbyes, but Bucky was totally devastated.

“Y/n, I’m sorry.” A sob escaped his trembling lips, hot tears running down his cheeks. His eyes looked dead, all the light that Bucky used to be, gone. “I hope we...I hope we can find eachother again.” You frowned, not understanding what he meant, but when you felt your cheeks wet, you realized something was off, but you couldn’t place it.

“This was never meant to happen, I should’ve died. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” You didn’t know what he meant at all, but your heart was aching, the man in front of you was grieving and all you could do was frown, not remembering him at all. You approached his trembling figure and hugged him, trying to bring comfort, a basic human touch.

“Thank you for saving me, James.” And like that, you left, taking with you Bucky’s heart and soul.

“May we meet again.” He whispered, hopelessly.

#bucky #Bucky Barnes #james bucky barnes #bucky fanfic #bucky fanfiction #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes angst #bucky barnes heavy angst #angst and fluff #memory loss #bucky x reader #james barnes x reader #james buchanan barnes x reader #James Buchanan Barnes #avenger!bucky

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starboundfic · 5 years

Text

Chapter 17

Renegades

Whoops forgot to upload this here

So yeah, I’m not too happy with this chapter and it fought me the entire time it was being written, but I think that’s because it’s an episode-adaptation.

Interlude I - Chapter 18

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stan was pretty sure he woke up two times before actually deciding to get up. And pilfered blankets or not, the floor was hard. Koji was gone, and so were Allura and Coran, but he saw a tuft of red-black hair sticking out from under one blanket and heard Jordan snoring away near one of the steps.

It looked so completely, utterly normal and part of him found that hilarious for some reason.

Yellow found that slightly concerning.

It probably was concerning, honestly.

Another thing they agreed on was letting the kids sleep. At least until Shiro was able to be awake too. Speaking of whom, the others were probably either getting breakfast or maybe down at the infirmary already.

He honestly didn’t want to go down to the infirmary, now that he was thinking about it, and didn’t realize that his attention had wandered to Eva again until Yellow had pointed out that she was fine.

…maybe staying on the bridge wasn’t the best idea either.

She was fine. She’d have those scars for the rest of her life, but she’d be perfectly fine.

Barring all the trauma she already had, anyways. (That mess was even worse than he first thought.)

The Yellow Lion did the mental equivalent of a heavy sigh, if a good-natured one. It was okay to be worried about how the others were doing, but right now it was completely unnecessary.

Worry later. First, taking care of himself. Which meant a shower first, because he never got around to it last night, and he really didn’t need Koji getting on him about that.

Though to be fair, yesterday was…not something he wanted to think about. Or think in general, especially after Things Went Wrong.

He was pretty sure he could be considered a mess too, at this point. Not that he hadn’t been one already, along with Koji. Jordan he couldn’t be too sure about, and Shiro…

If that weird hallucination or whatever on Bherna was anything to go on, Shiro might actually remember more of the last year than he was letting them know about.

And Stan was pretty sure that was something to be concerned about, on top of everything else going on.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Date: not known, probably should have checked a newspaper before we left Elpis

Location: somewhere in the Saphanei system

I’ve decided to start keeping a record of things that happen to us while we’re out here, in case we ever need to reference something that happened before, given that none of us have any idea how long we might be out here.

Yesterday’s rescue mission was wasn’t completely a bomb, given that we were able to rescue almost everyone held captive there and get them started on the way home, but there were some that were moved elsewhere before we could get there, Rick included.

That’s not even starting to cover us almost losing Eva. She seems to be doing okay now. Right now, we’re all in the infirmary waiting for Shiro to wake up.

Koji paused in typing, glancing at the sole active pod, before finishing with I’m not sure how we’re going to explain to him what happened on Epona-6.

“Is he doing okay in there?” Jordan asked. “It…it almost looks like he’s having a bad dream or something.” It did, with the expression he was making every so often.

“Sometimes the healing process can cause involuntary brainwave response,” Allura replied, frowning slightly. “Given the nature of his injury, I’m not surprised.”

Green agreed with her, in a way that implied that the Lion had seen instances of those injuries before, but she wouldn’t give any details on it. Instead, she pushed his attention to the others. Stan was aimlessly tapping two fingers against the pod, not-exactly glaring at the screen displaying Shiro’s vitals, while Eva was sitting on the floor away from the others, looking vacantly at the ceiling.

Koji bit his lip contemplatively for a few seconds, before going to sit next to her. “Were you able to find out where they took him?” she asked. From the corner of his eye, Koji saw Jordan glance over at them, whereas Stan just tensed; he knew already.

He sighed a little. “No. The only thing I could find was that they were brought to a transfer station somewhere in…ugh, I can’t pronounce the area it’s in, but it started with a Q.”

Eva seemed to shrink a little. “Oh.”

“But, I had an idea last night,” he added quickly. “If I could set up a facial-recognition program, we could run it through the next database we can link up to.

“Would that even work?” Jordan asked.

“It should. They keep image records.”

“Can I help with it?”

Eva’s question caught Koji off-guard for a second—even back on Alwas, she’d never really shown much interest in the computer half of all the work.

Then again, it wasn’t just Rick they were talking about here.

“Sure,” he replied, pausing at hearing a hissing sound from the pod; that was the only warning before the glass dissolved and Shiro stumbled out with a groan, catching himself on the side of it.

“Shiro, how are you feeling?” Allura asked, taking a step forward.

“I…I’m fine,” he replied slowly, blinking a few times before looking around. “How long was I in there?”

“Almost two quintants.” Her tone was a little sharper, but she didn’t elaborate.

Shiro nodded, still looking dazed, but only for a few seconds; he straightened abruptly, eyes widening, before stammering out “I remember—I remember how I escaped.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And that was how, after finding the right parts to assemble an adapter, they all found themselves on the bridge, with a cable linking Koji’s tablet to a port found in Shiro’s prosthetic.

During that time, they’d given him a simplified explanation of what happened on Epona-6—that most of the aliens had been rescued, save for the ones that had been relocated before they could get there. Shiro had gone rigid when the bit with Spirit had come up, but he’d just given her a smile and a “I’m glad you’re alright.”

Not what she’d expected at all.

“I’m really not sure what I’m supposed to be looking for here,” Koji said finally, frowning. “Even with the translation program, it’s all a bunch of nonsense. Are you sure it wasn’t just some weird dream?”

“I’m positive,” Shiro replied, tone low. “Someone helped me escape.”

“And he was Galra.” There was thinly-veiled disbelief in Allura’s voice.

“Yes.”

“You know you cannot trust them—”

“Your father must have trusted them one,” Shiro interrupted, then turning to pin a glare on her. “Zarkon was the first Black Paladin, wasn’t he?”

Eva swallowed reflexively, sensing more than seeing the others processing that statement, coinciding with an attempted deflection of “That was a long time ago,” from Allura, who sounded (appropriately) guilty.

“Wait, what?” Jordan exclaimed, going pale. “You’re saying that—that creepy feeling we all got before Voltron fell apart was him?!”

“He was the one that took Voltron apart back there,” Eva clarified uneasily. “And he has Shiro’s bayard. I—I got a look at it then.”

“You have a reason for not telling us that, right?” Koji asked weakly, looking at the two Alteans. Coran looked like a deer caught in the headlights, whereas Allura averted her eyes, ears lowering slightly.

“I wanted to give you all a chance to bond with your Lions, without the history of your predecessors hanging over you,” she said, before looking at Shiro again. “You are the Black Paladin now, Shiro. Not Zarkon.”

“The Black Lion might have a different take on the matter,” Shiro muttered darkly.

“Not that this isn’t a fantastic subject to be on,” Stan cut in, pointing at the tablet’s screen. “I’m seeing a couple repeated symbols in there. Koji?”

Koji started slightly, also looking at the device. “Huh. Well what do you know,” he muttered, tapping a few keys. “I think we might’ve found those coordinates, Shiro. Now how am I supposed to…?”

“Leave that to me,” Coran said, stepping forward and bringing up a holoscreen. Ten seconds later the main display screen also lit up, showing a map of a star system. “Here we are—looks like it’s pointing to a location in the Thaldicon system.”

“Then that’s where we’re going,” Shiro asserted.

“H-Hold on a sec Shiro, are you sure we can trust this?” Jordan asked.

“It’s worth the risk. Someone helped me escape, and if we can locate more allies, especially ones that have already infiltrated Zarkon’s ranks, we might just have a way to start taking him down.”

There was a lengthy pause, before Allura conceded. “We can check the location, but I do not like this,” she said stiffly, turning to head to her control station. “I want all of you to get suited up, just in case. The Galra are not to be trusted under any circumstance.”

They were maybe halfway to their rooms (it had actually been something of a unanimous decision to keep their flight-suits there) when Stan muttered “Well that was a bombshell.”

“No kidding,” Jordan agreed morosely, shuddering. “Just when I was starting to think the whole weird alien mind-link thing wasn’t so bad, too.”

“Well, we’ll just have to work on figuring out how to keep him out of it,” Koji said, the attempt at sounding reassuring coming off as stilted instead.

“Koji’s right,” Shiro agreed. “It’s just another thing we’ll have to work on.”

Can we even do that? Eva asked Red while putting the armor on. The Lion seemed uncertain, but leaned towards it being possible. Maybe.

This was a new situation for them, too.

Returning to the bridge presented them with the sight of gigantic iridescent crystal clusters, starting out sparse and quickly coalescing into what might as well have been a wall’s worth of them. “Well, this is it,” Coran said, gesturing at the displays. “No sign of any sort of activity at all, living or otherwise.

“Can we get in there for a closer look?” Shiro asked.

Coran made a face. “I don’t want to risk bringing the castle any closer.”

“Why? Do those crystals blow up if you touch them or something?” Jordan asked. Eva could tell that he meant it as a joke, but Coran’s expression at hearing it said otherwise.

“Funny you should ask that. Those xanthorium clusters contain dense amounts of nitrate salts, so…yes, just poking one too hard would make it explode.”

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Shiro pressed, voice quieting.

“These are the exactly coordinates Number Four gave me.”

To the side, Koji frowned. “Maybe I mistranslated something.”

“We should move on,” Allura said stiffly. “There’s nothing here.”

“No,” Shiro insisted. “Let’s wait for a little while. Just in case.”

The princess gave him a long look before sighing. “Fine. But no longer than a varga.”

Eva stifled a groan. Guess this means we’re going to be sitting around for a while.

For ten minutes that felt a lot longer, absolutely nothing happened. Then an alarm she hadn’t heard previously started going off, with Coran hurriedly reporting with “There’s an intruder in the castle!”

“Wait, what?” Jordan exclaimed. “How could someone even get on? We’re in the middle of space!”

Allura, on the other hand, didn’t seem surprised at all. “I knew coming here was a mistake,” she hissed, bringing up a wall’s worth of security feeds, one of which was blinking red. “There he is—fifth floor.”

Shiro stood up. “Everyone, split up and have your bayards ready. Don’t take any chances.”

No chances. Wouldn’t going after some mystery intruder be considered taking a chance to begin with?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jordan found the guy easily enough. That said nothing about catching him though—or rather, keeping up with him. Whatever this guy was, he moved fast!

Not to mention Coran’s commentary on it all sounded uncannily like something he’d hear in a sports game. It wasn’t entirely appreciated.

It also went to say that this guy played them all against each other, up until Shiro got there. After that, everything moved too fast for Jordan to really process it, ending seconds later with both Shiro and the infiltrator in a stalemate—the former having his active prosthetic inches away from the side of the latter’s head, and the latter having a knife that he hadn’t seen previously pointed at Shiro’s throat.

Five very long seconds dragged by, with none of them so much as twitching a muscle, before the infiltrator slowly backed away, lowering his hood. After that, his helmet/mask flickered before fading out (more weird alien tech, great!) showing that he was definitely a Galra.

Shiro promptly looked somewhere halfway between shocked and disbelieving, which was just enough to confuse Jordan enough to not do anything right away, and it was reflected in his tone when he asked “Ulaz?”

What.

Then Allura came in and shoved the Galra-apparently-named-Ulaz up against the wall, with an angry-sounding “Who are you?” Emphasis on up.

She only spared Shiro a sideways look when he clarified on who this apparently was, with Jordan almost missing the quiet “You’ve come,” from the Galra.

“Wait, this is the guy that saved you?” Eva asked, slowly coming up to stand next to Jordan. Stan and Koji were both still keeping their distance, with Stan still having his bayard active and in-hand, though Jordan had a feeling it was more for show than any real threat. (It wasn’t like he wasn’t doing the same thing.)

Of course, the hallway wasn’t a good place for an interrogation—and neither was the bridge in this case, or at least in Allura’s opinion, because they just went for the nearest lounge room instead.

“Okay, I get the whole being-cautious thing, but isn’t this a bit overkill?” Stan asked dubiously.

“I will not have some quiznakking Galra on the bridge of my ship!” Allura retorted sharply.

Ulaz didn’t seem bothered by it, or at least he didn’t sound bothered when he said “If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead already.”

Jordan tightened his grip on his bayard reflexively, and he saw both Eva and Koji take a few steps back. “Are your Galra threats supposed to win my trust?” Allura hissed.

“I'm not trying to win your trust. I’m trying to win a war.” Jordan had to give this guy some points—even with Allura up in his face, he was keeping his tone even. “And, because of Shiro, we are closer than we’ve ever been.” He turned his attention to Shiro directly before adding “Our gamble on you paid off better than we could have ever imagined.”

“Wait, you said we. There’s more of you guys?” Stan asked.

“Yes,” Ulaz affirmed. “We are called the Blade of Marmora.” After a brief pause, he added “I am alone on this base.”

“What base?” Allura still sounded hostile. “Shiro's coordinates just led us to this wasteland!”

“The base is hidden. Now that I know it is Shiro that has come, you are welcome to our outpost. It lies directly ahead of your ship.”

“Behind the giant crystals?” Eva asked.

“No.” Now there was a hint of something like…amusement? “Right in front of them, in a hidden pocket of space-time.”

A total of three seconds went by before there was a “A what?” from Koji, alongside Allura’s “Coran, are you hearing this?”

“The castle’s scanners are picking up on some sort of anomaly. I suppose it could be a cloaked base.”

Blue seemed dubious about it being just cloaked.

“Just fly straight for the center of the xanthorium cluster,” Ulaz said. “You will see.” Allura bristled again. “You think you’re going to get me to destroy our ship just because you say so?”

“We came out here to find some answers,” Shiro said finally, turning to look at them all now. “Are we going to turn back now?”

“I’m not sure about this,” Koji said, frowning. “I mean—a space-time rift? That’s more science-fiction than anything.”

“I’m with Koji on that,” Stan agreed. “Something doesn’t seem right about all of this.”

“You know, I’m pretty sure the Lions would’ve been science-fiction to us before we left Earth,” Eva pointed out. Jordan looked back and forth between her and the mechanics, who both looked slightly chastised. She’s got a point.

“Ulaz freed me,” Shiro insisted. “Without him, none of us would even be here.”

The silence following that statement was an uncomfortable one, dragging on for almost a minute, before Allura hissed out a “Fine. Slow and steady, Coran. Head for the xanthorium cluster.”

“Yes Princess.” Moments later: “Uh…I think you all need to see this…”

The display screen on the wall flickered on, and sure enough, there was a base right in front of the giant space-crystal—but at the same time, while the base itself was very clearly there, everything else had taken on a blurry, almost-translucent effect. Blue’s confusion gave way to an appreciative shock, with Jordan himself blinking at it a few times before saying “So…another point to science-fiction?”

He was pretty sure he could see the exact moment Koji realized what they were looking at, opened his mouth and then shut it again, before just asking “How?”

Ulaz actually chuckled a bit at that. “If you’ll free me, I can bring you onto the base to show you. I have to send a message to the leadership so they know I’ve made contact with you.”

“Go with him, and keep an eye on him,” Allura said, scowl still present. “I’ll stay here with Coran.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The closest Lion to where they had all been was the Red Lion, so they were all clustered in his cockpit for the short ride to the base. “That there is the is the gravity generator that creates the space-time fold that hides the station,” Ulaz said, pointing at the conical structure on top of the base. Eva looked about as interested as Stan was in it, though he didn’t miss the occasional irritated glances she was throwing at Koji, who was leaning so far forward toward the display screen that he was probably cutting into her view.

“Who designed it?” Eva asked, glancing back at the Galra.

“A reclusive genius engineer named Slav. His technology allows the Blade of Marmora to remain hidden while we work to take down the Galra Empire. Zarkon would do anything to get his hands on this technology.”

“So, this…Blade of Marmora thing,” Jordan started warily. “Is it just other Galra?”

“Primarily, yes. We have agents and informants from other species as well, though the number has been steadily declining as the war goes on. Not many would trust us now.”

“Which is why you need us?” Stan guessed.

Ulaz nodded. “With Voltron on our side, alongside the members we have working from within Zarkon’s ranks, we might finally have a chance to take him down.”

“How deep in it are you guys?” Jordan asked, after they’d disembarked the Lion.

He got another question as a response. “How do you think you were able to get away from Zarkon during your confrontation with him? Or steal the Blue Lion from Sendak?”

Yellow had an ah-ha moment at the first statement, which answered the question of why the wormhole-thing had gone from not working to working with no warning, the following chaos notwithstanding.

The second statement took a few seconds to sink in, with Jordan blinking a few times before giving Ulaz a dumbstruck look. “Wait, that was one of you guys?!”

It wasn’t until they’d reached what was probably a control room that Eva spoke up again, this time with something Stan had trying to scope out a good moment to bring up: “If you guys have people that can get at records—there’s supposed to be two more of us, but they got taken on Alwas. Could you find them?”

Ulaz paused in typing. “I’m afraid I only knew of two others from Earth being taken alongside Shiro. This is the first I’m hearing that they were any from your planet among those from Alwas.”

“Oh,” she muttered, looking down.

The Galra seemed to hesitate a moment before adding “While I don’t know anything myself, I do have some records of prisoners here. I can transmit them to your ship.”

“That’s better than nothing,” Stan remarked quietly, under Shiro’s thanks for the gesture.

“Yeah,” she mumbled, still looking distracted.

On one hand, Stan was about as curious about the space-pocket thing as Koji was—Koji was on the other end of the room, which had a better view of the device keeping the base hidden.

On the other, the lighting and narrow spaces on the base was reminding him a little too much of what happened on Epona-6. And it really didn’t help when an alarm started blaring for maybe the millionth time within the past however-long-it’s-been. Or that the cause of the aforementioned alarm was the third appearance of the giant metal box that had last been seen on the Balmera.

“I thought this place was supposed to be invisible?” Eva asked, alarmed; she’d snapped to attention when the alarm had gone off, coinciding with a heartfelt “Oh come on,” from Jordan.

“It is,” Ulaz replied tightly. “The only way they could have found us is if you were tracked.”

“Or if you ratted us out,” Jordan accused, though he stopped short when Eva gave him a look.

“It doesn’t matter how they found us,” Shiro cut in. “We have to get back to the ship!”

“Wait,” Ulaz cut in, removing something from the computer desk that looked like an oversized USB stick. “This contains instructions for how to reach the Blade of Marmora’s headquarters. But do not go there until you have figured out how Zarkon is tracking you.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“I knew he could not be trusted,” Allura seethed once she’d been brought into the loop about everything.

“It wasn’t him,” Shiro retorted sharply.

“How can you be sure?”

“It doesn’t matter how they found us now,” Coran cut in. “What should we do?”

Shiro took a deep breath, silently thanking the adviser. “Everyone get to your Lions, but don’t launch.” At the confused looks, he elaborated with “I don’t want us to fight that thing if we don’t have to. It might not have our exact location.”

It was a big might, but given how much trouble the last mech had given them, Shiro didn’t want to chance it unless there was no choice.

This one looked something like a floating torso that was mostly head. Or more precisely, mostly mouth, shown once it started drawing in the various floating crystals, which were then used as fuel for its weapon—a laser that had the larger crystals exploding on touch.

For a few moments, muffled explosions came from outside. Then the entrance to the space-fold rippled, and multiple lasers shot through, jostling the castleship. “Nope, he definitely knows we’re in here!” Coran exclaimed.

Shiro stifled a sigh. “Alright, in that case, let’s not give this thing any more ground than it already has. Form Voltron!”

The Lions came together smoothly, simultaneously with Shiro becoming more acutely aware of the other four—there was a lot of nervous energy, but given how much trouble the last robot…beast…robeast gave them on the Balmera, he couldn’t blame them.

They charged out of the space-rift, promptly dealing out a right-hook that deflected a laser shot upwards and away from the castleship, but that didn’t even seem to put a dent in it, with how fast it returned fire. They barely avoided colliding with a larger crystal; it was remembered at the last moment that they had to offset the inertia that was inherent to being in space.

They got three perfect shots in—but there wasn’t even a mark on the mech, which took advantage of the distance between them to draw in more ammo, and then they had to dodge again—

And the castleship was in full view, exactly the opposite of what Allura had said they would do. The hidden base was also in view, with one vital part of it now absent.

What started as shock-anger-disbelief quickly was replaced with bright, searing heat and something that wasn’t quite pain, more like a detached discomfort when the clusters closest to Voltron detonated, enveloping them in the resulting brief firestorm.

Can’t get distracted

Can’t let him reload

Maybe if they could stop it from taking in any more crystals somehow—the shield! But they had to find a way to keep it distracted first.

“Leave that to us,” Allura said; being fired on by the castleship definitely got the robeast’s attention, with it pulling in crystals, but not as ammo, instead crashing them into the barrier.

At least until the shield was jammed right in front of the beam’s emitter.

After that, it was simple enough to just fire the reverse-thrusters at full blast and recall the shield before the mech hit the largest crystal still (formerly) intact.

Did that do it?

One moment passed, and then two—and then it was only thanks to instinct that Shiro was able to throw the shield in front of them in time to block the laser, if only for a few more seconds before it fell apart and they were sent flying.

What’s this thing even made of?!

What else can we try?

“Hang on!” The sudden voice jarred them all into a moment of complete discordance, but not so much as the rest of Ulaz’s statement couldn’t be heard: “I’m going to take it down from the inside!”

But that would—

“Ulaz, no! Let us handle this!”

“Voltron is too valuable to lose! The universe needs the five of you more.”

The base’s gravity generator—or rather the ship holding it—vanished into the mech, and for one long moment, nothing happened. Then it just…started crumpling in on itself, before detonating, clearing a wide swatch of the crystalline asteroid belt.

What just…?

He did not just do that

“He did,” Shiro confirmed hollowly. He saved us.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The air in the ship seemed to have a charge to it, afterwards, and it wasn’t something Jordan necessarily liked. Shiro was off somewhere by himself; part of him wanted to go look for him, but what would he be able to say? He’d been in the boat of thinking Ulaz had sold them out, when he clearly hadn’t.

He wouldn’t have done that if he had.

Jordan shook his head a bit, continuing down the hall. He was pretty sure both Stan and Koji had gone in the general direction of the shuttle hangar—working on the Arrow was probably their way of dealing with steam—but he hadn’t seen where Eva had gone off to.

He had gotten a quick look at her face, though.

At some point, Blue did the mental equivalent of a thoughtful noise before going distant for a few seconds, before coming back with some directions on where to go.

If the Red Lion had any response to him walking into the hangar, it wasn’t shown, and Eva didn’t seem to notice; she was sitting on top of one of his paws, knees pulled up to her chest.

She did flinch when he pulled himself up onto the metal paw, with him thinking a bit belatedly to ask “Mind if I join you?” Eva shook her head a bit, and he sat next to her.

For a few minutes, it was quiet, before she said “Hey, Jordan? Do you think—we could’ve saved Ulaz?”

“Uh…” Jordan had to think about how to answer that one, and even then, he still wasn’t sure how to put it nicely. So he went for blunt. “Honestly? We were getting our asses handed to us back there. If he hadn’t…done that, I don’t think we would’ve walked away.”

There was a quiet “Oh,” from her, and he resisted the urge to smack himself.

“…how about we go find Stan and Koji?” he suggested, forcing a smile. “Maybe they could use some help with the Arrow.”

“Yeah,” she agreed quickly, doing the same before sliding down onto the floor.

When they got down there, though, Jordan had to take a few seconds to make sure his head wasn’t playing tricks on him, though that would’ve been proven wrong anyways by Eva saying “You guys repainted the Arrow?”

“Well, yeah,” Koji replied, sounding a little awkward. “I mean…purple. That couldn’t stay there.”

It wasn’t too much of a change, with the purple-orange having been replaced by red and blue, but he didn’t have that pang of unease at looking at the ship now.

Stan looked uncertain for a bit, before asking “You two haven’t seen Shiro anywhere, have you?”

“No,” Jordan grimaced a little. “I…kinda want to go look for him, but…”

The door chimed again, and it turned out they didn’t have to go find Shiro; he looked a little distant, but there was a sort of hard-set to them that had Jordan thinking he’d just gotten into an argument with someone. (Blue didn’t give any impressions aside from a sort of mental heavy sigh.)

“…so what’s next?” Eva asked.

Shiro took a deep breath. “First of all, we’re going to check through the entire castle to make sure there isn’t any kind of tracking device. Once we’re sure Zarkon can’t track us anymore, and only then, we’ll be going to the Blade of Marmora’s headquarters. We need all the allies we can get.”

#Oban Star Racers #Voltron #Starbound fic #Chapter 17

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efortmanteau · 5 years

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TMA Headcanons

I sort of spoiled myself in terms of headcanons for The Adventure Zone, so now I try to finish/get caught up on podcasts and form impressions entirely in my head before introducing visual ideas via fanart. And lately I've been focusing on The Magnus Archives SOOOO here we go:

My headcanons for The Magnus Archives. A few were originally written after listening through s2. I've added my s3 thoughts below characters or in a new section. I'm only 3 episodes in to s4 so no spoilers after the end of s3.

Jon (I only recently discovered that there's no H in his spelling, whoops) aka The Archivist - Obviously Jon doesn't really have fun ever, so the main word I think of is 'austere.' He's a pale white guy with dark hair and greyish or brownish eyes who basically always dresses formally--collared shirts, slacks, maybe even vests, usually neutral colors. He's thin, but not fit--just the type of guy who doesn't put on weight since he doesn't focus much on food. Rectangular face, maybe has facial hair… I haven't decided, but if he does, it's like a goatee/mustache scenario that's always well trimmed. In my mind, he's young to mid 30s, but could look older. When he's scared or disshevelled though, he looks a lot younger. I think he's also kind of short, maybe 5'8", so he keeps really good posture to make up for it. Ben Whishaw is almost right, but he'd have to be homelier. S3 updates: Not really any? Although apparently it's Jon without an H. I've confirmed that he looks older than he is since the spider picturebook episode (which I would love Don Hertzfeld to animate, perhaps with assistance from Jules Feiffer who is 90 gd years old… that episode is so vivid in my head). Also I forgot Jon has worm… scars? Pock-marks? Not sure how that works, but you probably don't see them much, given I can't imagine him in short sleeves or shorts, although maybe he has a few on his neck visible pretty frequently, above collars. I'm was pleased to learn he is canonically asexual, but not all that surprised. Something about the way he interacted with Georgie in her apartment had me wondering… maybe it reminds me of me and my ex (I'm the asexual one, my ex isn't, but we still get along).

Martin - I immediately imagined Marty (Terry Gross Waters-Waters SAT tutor in Gayle) when I learned more about soft, sweet lad Martin, so Matty Cardarople has always kind of been in my head. That is probably just a similar name situation, but it's kind of perfect. Since Martin said he wasn't the smallest of guys but still made it into a basement window, I imagine he's kind of tall and chubby, but doesn't seem tall, slouchy, not the most confident person. Sort of a Neville Longbottom situation (before the glow-up). I think somewhere between Matty and Nick Robinson is around the correct appearance: a little more clean shaven and formally dressed than Matty often is with shorter hair (but still flippy), but softer than Nick is. This guy wears sweaters a lot. I guess he's canonically 29 at the end of s1--I had imagined him in his mid 20s somewhere, but I guess he was pretending to be older since he claimed he had a master's degree. S3 updates: Martin is probably the one who was most easy for me to imagine. I never really thought of his fixation on Jon to be a crush, which I'm really intrigued by in terms of character development. I was parsing it more of Martin being a bit of a subservient character, that he was like that to everyone in the office, but we only saw it from Jon's POV as the primary narrator. If I do a re-listen, I'll be very interested to pick out some Martin/Jon moments now that I have a different context.

Sasha (or maybe Sascha) - I sort of had Sally Donovan from BBC's Sherlock in mind initially. I tried to stray away from that and looked up "half black actress." I picked out Zawe Ashton without even realizing that she had in fact played Sally (in one episode, so not her main actress) because of her hair and skin and the fact that her face is pleasant, but not the typical hyper-button baby doll face that some actresses have. Sasha has natural hair with light curls (sometimes straightened). I originally pictured a small afro, but I think in s2, they refer to her as having long hair, so I guess not? I'm also not clear if that was Not-Sasha imitating her, or just straight up not looking like real-Sasha at all. She's slim, pretty posh/minimalist in style--grey herringbone peacoat, umbrella, boots. I imagine she's half Russian heritage-wise, since is a common Russian diminutive for Aleksandra. I would put her in the 25-27 age range. S3 updates: I caught on to Not-Sasha (partially because I saw the name in the voice actor credits, whoops), but I think I also caught something in Lottie's flat affect that clued me in. I thought that the imposter was just good at disguise, not that people had been cursed to forget what real Sasha looked like, so Melanie's introduction and take on Sasha/Not-Sasha threw me off a bit. I don't remember if the "long hair" comment was for real- or Not-Sasha. But I don't have any headcanons about Not-Sasha… just that she looks nothing like the original.

Tim - In my head Tim is the tallest main character, maybe 6'2", and pretty fit. He's imposing at first glance, but since he's so congenial and laid back (at least in s1 before Jon totally pisses him off) everyone who knows him knows he's a nice, fun guy. He's black, with fairly dark complexion, short hair, clean shaven. He probably wears sweaters too, but like… the thinner kind. None of this bulky knit from grandma that Martin rocks. I first think of Alan from Russian Doll (Charlie Barnett), but darker, just black instead of more mixed. I'd say he's around Jon's age. S3 updates: RIP in pepperinos. I guess him being fit is not unreasonable since he is… canonically? (does Alex and Jonny joking about it make it canonical) an outdoorsy adventurer. I certainly missed his friendly nature, but my headcanons didn't really change. He just looked a lot more tired up until the end of s3.

Elias - He is older than the rest of them, I would guess in his 40s or 50s, but given that it's canon that he rose in the ranks kind of quickly, maybe he's not that old after all. I don't really have a good mental picture of him, maybe because I can't differentiate his voice from John's a lot of the time until I piece the context together. In my mind he has a beard and mustache though, kind of full, and maybe dirty blonde hair that's greying a bit. S3 updates: I wouldn't be surprised if he carried a cane that was actually a sword or a gun (I'm American, so having a gun seems very easy to me, so I'm not sure if that would be rare in England). Also, did I hear something about having a grey bun? Maybe I'm completely confusing it with something else, but I'm chuckling about man bun Elias.

Michael - Well, he isn't human… but he looks kind of like a really pale guy who is mishapen and thus wearing a lot of clothing at first glance? He probably wears a lot of clothes so you can't really make him out under the trench coat, scarf, hat, etc. (I might be confusing him with someone else). I think it's canon that his hands are large and maybe have too many bones. For some reason, Michael reminds me of tourmalinated quartz--black and white for the most part, striations cutting through the clearer crystal--sort of like a metaphor for how he kind of… dimension hops? Ends up where he isn't supposed to? I imagine striations of his appearance sort of blip in and out when you look at him based on the static he causes on recordings. S3 updates: I now know that he was an assistant to Gertrude. I guess my idea of his human form is basically the same color and demeanor, just not other-worldly in proportions and bone count. Probably the tall gangly type of white guy. ALSO I guess he's kind of Helen now…? I'll do a separate one for Helen.

---BREAK to add characters I didn't write about until the end of s3---

Basira - I assume she is a Muslim woman, based on her name. I imagine she wears a hijab. I picture her as Middle-Eastern, perhaps Iranian, but she could also be black (there are a fair amount of black Muslims in America, not sure if it's common in England). Other than the hijab, she's not very feminine in her styling. Being on the force probably means you want pretty functional, utilitarian garments. I don't remember if she talked in great detail about how she joined the police, whether it was straight from school, but in my mind she's late 30s.

Daisy - I think I recall she has a back tattoo? She's a murderer so she has a tough air about her, but she's also a subtle murderer, so nothing about her screams that she's dangerous… you just get that feeling, you know? I imagine a white lady, short blonde hair, blue eyes. Kind of like Brienne of Tarth, but more plain than ugly. She's maybe early to mid 40s. I'm not sure if her relationship with Basira is supposed to be romantic or not. I kind of prefer this weird closeness that doesn't always equate to trust given their specific experiences. Regardless, I imagine they are around the same age.

Melanie - Melanie is probably the youngest, early to mid 20s. Typical build and height, maybe a little chubby, but not unable to climb fences or anything (gotta hunt them ghosts). She has a short, asymmetrical bob, dark hair, but part is dyed a bright color of pink, purple, maybe green. I imagine she has a go-to windbreaker that has some neon colors.

Helen - I'm so sad that we had to lose Michael to gain Helen. I really love the Spiral and the characters we've met who are involved with them. Helen in my mind was a badass realtor, ready to close a deal, very driven… and that carried over into becoming SpiralHelen. She sort of outsmarted it with the locked door, didn't she? I can't imagine that's very common for humans/avatars to get the better of their entities. She seems really strong willed, so I'm excited to see where she goes as a human who is becoming an avatar. I think her personality translates into her being 40-something but like lowkey hot? She probably rocks a suit with a skirt in bold colors that men's wear usually doesn't offer (all over red suit, tailored to her, pumps, straight brown hair, nice makeup). I'm not sure how the Spiral would affect her… maybe her angles just get a little more pronounced? She's probably not yet to the point of disfiguration that Michael was anyway.

Georgie - She is like a terrier who will bark at a big dog because they don't know to be afraid of it (or… how to be afraid of it, in her case). She is short, 5'2" or less (I just remembered that a lot of the listeners probably use metric measurements, so sorry for that, but I'm not going to bother converting). I imagine she is cute--she dresses up for her dates to Hungarian restaurants (my favorite detail omg girl get it) and wants to look hot, but really she can't get away from cute. Brown curly hair, big brown eyes, button nose. But resting bitch face… gotta ward off those catcalls and get taken seriously somehow.

Jergen? I can’t spell, it’s Jurgen - Jowly white guy. Wispy caramelly colored hair that's going white. Probably pretty tall, which I'm sure what an annoyance in those tunnels.

Gertrude - At first glance, just some old white lady. But after you get to know her, you realize she can probably murder you and is nowhere near as frail as you think. Curly, wiry grey hair.

#tma #the magnus archives

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overwatch-imagines-hub · 7 years

Text

Fictober - Ghost Stories (Talon!Tracer)

You tugged your whining girlfriend down the compound’s main hallway. Some of the younger and less uptight Talon agents were holding a casual get together-slash-sleepover in the commons room, where candy was to be passed around and ghost stories were supposed to be shared. You, being a fan of both sweets and supernatural, jumped at the fun idea. Meanwhile, your girlfriend didn’t have the same enthusiasm.

“Why do we have to go to this thing?” Lena asked again, dragging her feet as you pulled her along. She made a serious effort to keep you from yanking her forward but your adrenaline towards spooky stories and sugary treats fueled you.

You rolled your eyes and glanced over your shoulder at her; she met your eyes, scowling. Flashing a quick smile her way, you faced forward once again and continued your march towards the commons area.

“It’ll be fun,” you insisted and squeezed her hand for assurance. “Who doesn’t like spooky stories? It’s almost Halloween. The younger people want to get together and hang out. What sounds uninteresting about it?”

Lena groaned in annoyance and shuffled reluctantly after you. “All of it.”

You sighed and silently prayed that the whole evening wasn’t going to be this way. The two of you entered the large lobby type room, where Talon agents in sweatpants or pajamas were finishing setting up and passing out candies to the rest of the guests. You and Lena were quickly welcomed into the group by one of the youngest agents, a sweet but mildly scatterbrained redhead named Jeremy, and were guided to a circle made of soft blankets and sleeping bags. You chose a spot to settle down with a grumpy Tracer, took a handful of sweets from the large bowl being passed around, and snuggled up in anticipation.

You glanced at Lena, who scowling into space. You bumped her shoulder to get her attention, and when she looked at you, you offered her a foil-wrapped chocolate.

“Here, have a kiss,” you punned, “it’ll make you feel better.”

Lena rolled her eyes in annoyance but you saw her crack a smile as she opened the candy. Bumping your shoulder back, she muttered, “If you want to hear some real scary stories sometime, just ask me about some of my missions.”

You replied, “I don’t want to hear about you getting into trouble. Plus, they’re ghost stories.” The room began to quiet down as the last few members settled into their places around the circle, so you put a finger to your lips.

An enthusiastic brunette took charge of the event, making sure everyone vaguely remembered each other’s names before jumping in and asking who wanted to share their story first. The role was taken over by another agent--one of the newer ones, you remembered--who told a short but nonetheless creepy tale about a woman who gave a young boy a ride home from a cemetery because it was pouring outside. When he left, the boy forgot his jacket and when the woman went to return it, the housekeeper told her that the boy had been dead for five years and had been buried at the cemetery his spirit had hitchhiked from.

It wasn’t really terrifying, you thought, but way the story was delivered by the agent gave you an uncomfortable shiver down your back. Beside you, Lena snorted and started folding a candy wrapper into a mini origami swan; you sighed.

“And when her husband unwrapped the ribbon from her neck in her last dying moments, her head fell clean off! The ribbon had been holding her head on the entire time!”

The current storyteller sat back in satisfaction as some agents murmured to those around them and Jeremy hollered, “I knew it!”

“That wasn’t even a ghost story,” your partner grumbled. Unfortunately for her, she’d said it loud enough to catch a few members’ attention.

“Well,” Bailey, the brunette who’d been running the show all night, started, “we have time for one more. Why don’t you give it a shot?”

“Because I don’t want to,” Lena stated simply before going back to her pile of origami candy wrappers.

You elbowed her in the side and gave her a glare before speaking up yourself. “I can’t promise anything amazing but I might have something.”

“Go for it,” Bailey encouraged.

You took a moment to come up with an idea of some sort. Then you jumped into your tale, a verbal horror story of a man who had lost his children in a car accident. The accident caused permanent damage to him, leaving him unable to speak and with a horrifically scarred face. The injury had also caused head trauma to the man, resulting in memory loss; everyday he would forget that he had lost his children and everyday would have to be reminded of the terrible incident that had occurred by simple recording. Over time, he fell into a endless daily loop of constant grief, until he was barely human anymore.

One day the terribly scarred man saw a father walking down the same street that the accident had occurred on. The father walked with three children, perhaps a few years older than the main character’s own, and was shielding them from the street, as if it had had some important meaning to them as well.

For some reason unknown to the scarred man, he was angered by the scene and marched over to the family. He couldn’t speak, so he reached for the father instead; he wanted to tell the family that they should not be hiding from the tragedy that had happened there, that they should engrave it into their minds and remember it, learn from those people’s mistakes.

However, when he went to reach for the parent, the man’s hand passed right through them. He stared in bewilderment before trying again but the family just continued walking. As they walked away, he stared after them with great confusion and sadness, until the youngest child turned around at seemed to look right at him; the child was his youngest daughter.

The only managed to murmur “daddy?” before people pulling along by her older siblings.

“I thought the kids died,” one agent commented as you finished your story; with a flutter of pride in your heart, you noticed eyes were either on you or looking at the person next to them as they whispered about the story.

“They actually lived,” you explained. “The father was the one who died. He was living the accident over and over again without realizing he was a ghost until the end of the story.”

“Gives me the creeps,” another member muttered.

That was the point,” Bailey reminded them after a moment. She then clapped her hands together, startling several of the people around her. “Well, nice job everybody! This was really fun! Unfortunately, the boss is going to come down yelling if we don’t mosey off soon, so you better be scooting back to your rooms. Cleanup crew, it’s your time to shine.”

You expected Lena to hop immediately to her feet as soon as the event was finished but she sat where she was as you rose to your feet instead.

“Lena?” You tapped the woman on her shoulder; she jumped slightly in her seat before climbing to her feet.

“Let’s go,” she said. She didn’t skip a beat to your hand and pull you back the way you had come.

“You okay there, love?” you questioned, to which you got a snort in reply.

“Of course I’m fine,” Lena snapped, “I’m just tired is all.”

“Uh-huh,” you hummed, a small grin tugging at you lips.

The two of you quickly reached your room and you turned to say goodnight, only to be greeted by Lena watching you shyly.

Despite her tough girl facade, she had been spooked from the ghost stories told throughout the night. Still, she’d never admit it.

“Lena, would you come and stay with me tonight?” When she looked at you defensively, you added innocently, “The stories made be a little uncomfortable of being alone. It would be nice to have you stay to protect me.”

“Right,” Lena stated after a moment, “Protect you. Of course. Lead the way.”

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