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mischiefandspirits · 4 years

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Doppelgänger (4/?)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Shades of Gray}

“Thanks, but I'll pass,” Valerie scoffed.

The trio’s ghost senses went off and Sam turned away from the popular girl. I got it. “Same.”

Danny opened his Space Fold while Tucker distracted Valerie, dropping the thermos into Sam’s waiting hand before she climbed onto her scooter to ride off.

“Are you sure you don’t want an-”

“I’m sure,” she scoffed, shoving Tucker away. “Get lost.”

Suddenly the ground began to shake and the ghost dog burst from the ground.

Danny gasped and ducked to the side as Valerie’s dresser was knocked over. His eyes flickered red as he used a bit of ghost strength to catch it before it could fall into the street.

“Wow, nice catch, loser.”

Danny quickly pushed the dresser upright and let go of his ghost power before Valerie came into view. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Thanks, I think.”

“No, thank you.” She looked over the dresser, sighing with relief. She turned to him with a critical eye. “You’re stronger than you look.”

Danny didn’t get a chance to answer before he was plowed over by a ghost puppy.

“Danny!”

As Danny groaned and rubbed his head, the puppy yapped and licked his cheek. He looked up to see it prancing on his chest with its little flame tail wagging. He turned to Tucker and Valerie, who were staring. “Uh, help?”

“Got it,” Sam said, appearing at his side to scoop up the dog by its collar.

The dog immediately started growling and Sam dropped it as it grew into its giant form. Danny scrambled away, but it kept its eyes on the ghost girl.

She flew back as it snapped at her, holding her hands up. “Easy there!”

It crouched down, hackles raised and Sam prepared her ecto blasts.

Without thinking, Danny opened his Space Fold and the dog disappeared inside.

Sam hesitated, glanced at Danny, then shook her fist. “And stay gone!”

“You!” Valerie growled. “Whatever you are, get out of here! You and you're stupid dog have done enough!”

Sam scowled back. “The dog’s not ours. We’re a cat person.”

Danny frowned. I object.

Overruled, Tucker and Sam both said.

“We?” Valerie asked.

Sam gestured to herself. “We.”

“You’re referring to yourself as we? What a weirdo.”

“And here we were about to apologize for what happened to the lab,” Sam snorted and turned invisible. “Nevermind. Have a nice life.”

“You little freak!”

Danny and Tucker shared a look as Danny got up. “Well, I gotta go. Uh, my parents. They’ll want to know about the, uh, ghost sighting.”

“Ghosts?” Valerie asked as he went to his scooter. “Oh my gosh! Those were ghosts?”

“Yeah, hence the whole flying and invisibility and stuff,” Danny said before riding off.

“Why does he need to tell his parents?”

“Oh, Danny’s parents are professional ghost hunters. Kind of,” Tucker said awkwardly. “Didn’t you know?”

“No.” She watched the paler boy turn the corner then turned to Tucker with a flirtatious smile. “Is that offer of help still good?”

“Y-yeah, absolutely!”

“Where’s Tucker?” Sam asked as she met Danny in human form.

He shrugged. Tuck?

I’ll catch up!

The two rolled their eyes.

“How long do you think he’s going to be hanging around her until he realizes she’s not interested?”

“Too long,” Sam said and the two sent off. “Now, why’d you send the dog to the fold? I could have taken it.”

Danny shrugged. “You were going to blast it. You can’t blast a dog.”

“It’s not a dog, it’s a ghost.” She looked over at him with narrowed eyes. “We can’t keep him, Danny.”

“I don’t want to keep him. He’s a menace. I just don’t want to see him blasted.”

“Is that why you didn’t send him to the ghost zone?”

“I did,” Danny huffed. “He just got back out.”

“And now he’s trashing the fold.”

Danny tilted his head. “I don’t think he is. It’s quiet inside.”

“Whatever. You better not have anything of mine in there.”

Danny bit his lip. Did he return that spider plushy he’d borrowed from Sam to use as a pillow last week? “Maybe I should check on him.”

He ignored her glare as he slipped into an alley. After being sure no one could see him, he poked his head into the fold. Thankfully it hadn’t found the plushie, though it was chewing on the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick in its puppy form.

The dog looked up at him and started wagging its tail, so he quickly pulled his head out. “He’s good.”

Sam shook her head. “You’re lucky Audrey II’s not in there anymore.”

“Oh yeah, how’re the Fenton Shears working?”

“Perfect. Strangely enough, she actually likes to be pruned.”

“Yap!”

The two turned to see the ghost dog’s head sticking out of empty air. It gave a dog-smile before its head was replaced by paws making digging motions. Slowly a hole in the air formed, revealing the Space Fold. The dog jumped through the hole and into Danny’s arms.

“Woah!”

“I guess we know how it’s getting out of the Ghost Zone now,” Sam said, looking between the hole and the dog.

“Bad Cujo, no digging,” Danny said, shifting the dog into one arm and waving a finger in its face.

“Don’t name it!” Sam snapped. Then flinched back when the dog started to growl at her.

“No, no, it’s okay. Sam’s a friend.” Danny scratched the dog under its chin and it relaxed.

“You’re getting attached.”

“Am not.” Danny grabbed the edge of the hole and pulled it closed. “I’m just trying to keep it from hulking out.”

Sam made a disbelieving sound and knelt so she could see the dog better without getting closer. “It’s got the Axion Labs logo on its collar.”

“What? Oh yeah, I saw that earlier. It must have slipped my mind after the rampage.”

She transformed and lifted off the ground. “That’s the first place he hit. Maybe there’s something there that could help us get rid of him. He could be an old guard dog. We’ll check it out. Keep him calm.”

“Why me?”

Sam stuck her hand towards him and the dog started growling.

“Alright, fair. But what do I do with him?”

“Train him? Play with him? Take him for a walk? Ghost dog or not, he's still a dog… We think. Good luck!”

Danny glared as she flew off, then looked down at the dog. “Guess it’s just you and me… Wanna take a walk through the ghost zone?”

Cujo gave a yap and wiggled in his arms excitedly.

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

“I think I’m actually going to miss him. The look on Skulker’s face when he stole his leg was priceless.”

“What did I say about getting attached?”

Tucker rolled his eyes as he walked invisibly across the outside of a warehouse. “We still can’t believe this was all over a squeaky toy.”

“Just be glad I took care of it before something really bad happened,” Sam said.

An explosion just missed Tucker, who darted away with a yelp.

“TUCKER?”

He turned to see a woman in full-body red hazmat standing on a hoverboard holding a grenade launcher. He took off, but she followed. “We might need some help. There’s a girl here with a really big gun and she’s not setting off our ghost sense.”

“I’m not far. I’ll be there in a second,” Danny said and hung up.

“A human hunter? And it’s not Danny’s mom?” Sam asked.

“Nope. And she can see us while we’re invisible.”

A blast flew past him.

“Her aim isn’t good though. Can’t be our mom then, her aim is scary,” Danny and Tucker said as Danny came near.

Tucker turned a corner and Danny was there, raising a shield as the hunter threw a handful of throwing stars. Only a few made it to them, and even then they bounced off the shield.

“What? There’s two of you?” the hunter said, pulling to a stop.

“Duplication,” they said, shrugging.

“Wait? Is that Valerie?” Sam asked.

“Valerie?” they said, surprised.

The hunter flinched back. “How did y- It doesn’t matter. I’m ending you.”

The two shared a look, then Tucker held out his hand toward the hoverboard.

Nothing happened.

“Ugh, technokinesis proof,” they groaned.

She fired the grenade launcher at them and the shield shattered.

The two groaned as they pulled themselves out of their shared crater. “We can’t fight her, we’ll hurt her. She doesn’t seem to care about hurting us. Don’t we have a crush on her? Not anymore. We hate technokinesis proof tech. Well, at least some good came out of this. Now go.”

Tucker glared, but dove into the ground while Danny flew past the girl.

She took the bait and chased after the faster of the halfas, letting Tucker slip away.

As soon as his partner was safe, Danny waved at Valerie then began flying through buildings until the hunter, unable to go intangible, lost him.

{Fanning the Flames}

“I think we’re the only ones in the whole school who aren’t obsessed with Ember,” Tucker said as they passed yet another of their classmates wearing the rocker’s swag.

“I don’t get it!” Danny said with a frown. “She comes outta nowhere and suddenly she’s the biggest thing since iPhones! It’s so -”

“Infuriating how mindless pre-packaged corporate bubble gum is preventing true musical artists from being heard?” Sam interrupted.

“I was gonna say weird, but, uh, okay.”

“I’m with Sam. She’s okay, but there are way better groups out there who don’t get anywhere near enough spotlight.”

“We’re not listening to your Swedish pop-techno music,” Sam said. “I’d rather listen to -”

The trio stopped as they came to a school hallway that had been vandalized with posters, stickers, and banners for Ember McLain.

“Ember.”

Paulina came up to them wearing an Ember shirt with matching pants. She looked at Sam and scoffed. “Nice earrings. Sale at the 89 cent store?”

Sam’s hand came up to the Fenton Phones she was wearing. Danny’s parents had invented them to filter out spectral noise, but they also worked as wireless headphones and long-range communicators. The trio had taken to using them during lone patrols and ghost fights that separated them enough that their link couldn’t reach. While the boys only really wore them then, Sam wore them often since she thought they made great techno-goth earrings.

She dropped her hand and gave the popular girl an annoyed look as she stepped closer to Danny. “For your information, Paulina. They’re a gift. Danny gave them to me.”

“Really? He gave you earrings?” Paulina pointed between the two with a smirk. “I always knew you two losers would end up together.”

“We’re not losers!” Sam shouted and Danny added, “We’re not together.”

“Well now I feel left out,” Tucker joked as Paulina swaggered off.

“Shut up, Tucker,” the two snapped.

“Hey, check it out! The lovebirds are ganging up on Foley!” Dash snickered to Kwan.

“They can deny it all they want, but I saw Fenton kissing her when they snuck out at lunch yesterday,” Kwan snickered back.

Danny blushed and Sam jumped for the jocks while Tucker tried to hold her back. “It’s called QPR, you neanderthals! Welcome to the twenty-first century! A guy can kiss a girl on the cheek without it being romantic or se-”

“And we’re done here!” Danny squeaked and grabbed Sam to unsuccessfully help Tucker drag her away.

“Calm down, Sam. It’s not like any of us go around talking about our relationship,” Tucker said. “Of course everyone’s going to think you’re dating if they see you two kissing.”

“People shouldn’t assume things like that just because Danny likes to kiss us or the three of us hug!”

“It’s high school. Assumptions and gossip are the lifeblood of this place,” Danny said. “No need to kill Dash over it. Now stow the soapbox and let’s get to class before we’re late.”

Sam gave the two jocks one last death glare, but let her partners lead her off.

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

“This is insane,” Danny said as he, Sam, and Tucker stood in the school’s front doors, staring out at the crowd that had gathered around the truck Ember McClain had arrived on for an impromptu performance. “It looks like the entire school’s out here.”

He walked out and his breath misted in front of him. He glanced over to see his partners’ ghost senses going off as well. “Uh-oh.”

The trio looked around, but their eyes quickly locked onto Mr. Lancer, who was standing atop a fire hydrant with a megaphone to yell at the rocker.

“Attention, freakishly dressed teen idol! I order you to cease and desist!”

“Desist this, grandpa!” Ember yelled, fiddling with her guitar. She strummed it and a purple energy wave washed over the crowd.

The crowd turned to Lancer, eyes glowing red.

“Pride and Prejudice!”

“Ember’s the ghost? Oh my gosh!” Danny gasped.

“Another blow against mainstream media,” Sam said and the three transformed.

They took off, Danny saving Lancer from the horde and Sam and Tucker shooting towards the rocker.

It was rather easy to get her and her band into a thermos, especially when one of them could shut down her guitar and speakers with a wave of his hand and the other could wrap her in plants when she tried to teleport away.

{Teacher of the Year}

“Why were we up so late last night? We were playing Doomed. We were trying to beat… WE’RE CHAOS! HOW COULD WE HIDE THAT FROM US?”

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

Tucker’s eyes widened as he realized the noob he’d been helping play Doomed was Technus. “Oh, man, I could have been using my powers to cheat! Why didn’t I think of that?” He grabbed his phone and called Sam. “Sam! Did you realize I could be the ultimate cheat code?”

“Obviously. I’m surprised it took you this long to figure it out. What happened? Did you get pwned again? Wasn’t me this time.”

“No, Technus showed up in Doomed.”

“What? Where are you? I’ll meet you there!”

“Level three. Should we call Danny?”

“No, just let him study. Between my grab bag of secret power-ups and your ultimate cheat code, we’ll be fine. He needs to make up that test if we don’t want his parents to come sniffing around.”

“I still don’t get it,” Tucker said as he waited for Sam to reach his character. “Danny’s had straight A’s for years. Why would his parents be mad about one F? It’ll only take him down to a C at worst. My parents are just glad that I’m not failing.”

“The curse of being a family of geniuses I guess. All I know is that if I have to hear him complain about his grades almost falling to a B one more time, I'm decking him.”

#danny phantom #sam manson #tucker foley #valerie gray #danny fenton #Doppelgänger au

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zaeedmassanis · 6 years

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stuck on believing

growing up on the streets of flooded new york, she never dreamed that she could ever have this.

or: five times aina shepard told garrus vakarian she loved him, and one time he told her.

read on ao3

Now is no time for a proper reunion. Not when the last thing she remembers is still the cold, dark eye of Alchera glimmering in the distance as dark spots cloud her vision, not when she’s got two Cerberus operatives at her back (and wouldn’t she rather have Garrus there instead, like old times) and glimmering red scars crisscrossing her skin. But nothing has ever been easy for her, so she supposes she can take it in stride.

That being said, she’s still loath to leave Garrus’ side, and she leaves Jacob with him to try to ease her mind. “I know you can take care of yourself,” she says lowly when he protests, “but just – let me have this? I can’t lose you.”

And he, bless him, still gets it after the two years she’s told she’s been dead. “Understood, Shepard,” he says crisply.

Before she can say anything else (and what is there to say, what can she possibly put into words), the first mercs come into view and she’s got other things on her mind for the time being.

If she can forget about Lawson and Taylor, it could almost be normal – Garrus above her, covering her back and yelling in her ear, the two of them hopelessly outnumbered but still doing their damnedest to stick it through. And the biotic glow from both the Cerberus operatives doesn’t hurt either – if she squints, it’s almost like Liara’s back with them again. Almost like nothing has changed.

She doesn’t have time to think about what’s changed, anyways, even in the breathers between waves when she can rush up to go check on Garrus (and it’s just – she needs him alive, of course, it’s definitely not that he’s the only grounding presence she has in this fuckup of a galaxy.)

They do all right, the four of them, the mercs barely able to take down their shields, let alone actually hit them. Shepard begins to believe that they might get out of here soon enough, and none the worse for wear. It’s probably the most hope she’s felt since she woke up in that lab with alarms blaring all around her.

But then she hears the gunship. It fires a barrage of shots on the upper floor of the building that, themselves, don’t seem to do much damage, but just when she thinks Garrus and Jacob are home free and she can go take out the gunship, she hears one more blast.

A gasp.

A gurgle.

“Garrus!” she screams. The deafening silence – even with the gunshots and biotic flares and the screaming – tells her all that she needs to know.

Suddenly full of rage, she storms up the stairs of the building and zeroes in on the gunship that took Garrus out. (She can’t look at the huddled lump near the couch, the spreading pool of dark, viscous blue blood, the smoking armour plate – not without breaking down herself, and she can’t have that. Not now of all times.)

And she unloads everything she’s got into that damned gunship, even if all that comes to is a submachine gun and a grenade launcher. But it does the job well enough, coupled with a few plasma rounds, and soon the gunship falls in a smouldering ruin.

And none too soon, either, as Garrus still isn’t moving. Shepard dashes over there as soon as she can, not even sparing a glance for the wreckage of the gunship and trusting the Cerberus operatives (and my, isn’t that a thought) to take out the rest of the stragglers.

She chokes out his name, a prayer or a sob (she doesn’t know) when he breathes. But the gurgle is there, the sound of blood that she knows will put him in even more danger if they can’t get him out of here fast enough. But she can’t let him know that. “We’re getting you out of here, Garrus. Just hold on. Radio Joker,” she orders, struggling to hold her voice steady. “Make sure they’re ready for us.”

Taylor says something, probably, but she can’t hear him, blood pounding in her ears as she tries to do something – anything – to stem the blood. “You’ve gotta pull through this, okay?” she says. “You and me, we’re in this together. No Shepard without Vakarian, come on!” But he’s not responding, mouth maybe working to try to form words (or maybe he’s just trying to cough the blood up, not that it would do much good and – Shepard, stop thinking like that, it doesn’t do anything for anyone involved–)

And Lawson says that it’s still going to be some time before Karin can get a medical team down in here, and – well, Shepard’s out of options. She needs to keep Garrus alive, needs him awake, needs – him.

“Garrus, goddamnit, you’re tougher than this, you can get through this, stay alive, I love you–” and she doesn’t even register half the words that come out through her senseless babble. All she knows is that he can’t die on her, not now, not like this, not ever.

“I want something to go right,” Garrus says, and Shepard wants to take him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him. After all this time, how could he still not see what she saw so clearly, how well they already fit together and how they couldn’t hurt each other even if they tried?

But the pain in his eyes is so clear, so open, and – when did she get so good at reading him, when only a year ago (three years, her brain whispers) she would have been at a complete loss? And she can’t bear it, can’t stand to see him doubt, so she reaches up to touch his face, hoping that he might be able to read her the same way.

(It’s not an entirely unselfish gesture. She’s been dreaming about what his plates would feel like under her fingertips for what feels like ages.)

He leans into her touch, meeting her eyes, and – yes, he understands her perfectly. As he did at the beginning, as she thought they had lost with Sidonis, as they’ve found again. As they are found, in each other.

And her world narrows down to points of sensation, words falling out of her mouth and plates on her skin and Garrus, clear blue eyes boring right into her soul. They don’t fit together perfectly, but she wasn’t expecting them to. It’s enough for her to know that he wants her just as badly as she wants him, that he’s willing to try, that they can find some refuge in each other.

Garrus is a quick study, she finds to her delight, and her own curiosity helps break down any remaining barriers they may have between them. She’s fascinated by his body, by the dull shine of his plates and the way they interlock. And by the way he can’t stop touching her shoulders, her breasts, her hips, he feels the same.

When he slides into her, he tries to be gentle at first. And Shepard thinks it’s flattering, she really does, but – she’s not made of glass, and Garrus knows that. So she tells him as much.

“Are you sure, Shepard?” he says, mandibles fluttering. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t,” she responds. “I know you won’t.” This might be all we get, she doesn’t say. I want whatever you can give me.

So he takes a deep breath and starts again, a relentless force that she can barely brace herself against. Her mouth closes in around the spot where neck meets cowl, where his skin gives just enough that her teeth can find purchase. She holds on as hard as she can, helpless against the rising tide, feeling him in every atom of her being.

“I think I love you,” she gasps into his hide, biting down as hard as she can. He’s too far gone to hear her say it, at least, but – would that be so bad, if he knew?

He spills into her, and all thought is driven out of her head.

They’re standing at the very top of the Presidium, and Shepard hears it’s supposed to be a good view –it’s definitely better than anything she saw growing up on flooded, overcrowded Earth at any rate – but her mind is still more on the man in front of her.

And he’s everything she’s ever wanted, and she’s not sure where she went wrong, to make him feel like she didn’t want to leap back into his arms the moment she saw him on Menae, but – this is a chance for her to fix that now, and by god she’s going to do it.

“Are you ready to be a one-turian kind of woman?” he asks, and Shepard could laugh with how quintessentially Garrus that is.

“The only thing that made leaving Earth bearable was knowing you were out there somewhere,” she starts, and that’s the God-given truth for whatever value of god is out there.

Before she can continue, he responds, “I felt the same way. The worst part about the galaxy going to hell would’ve been never getting to see you again,” and – Shepard has never felt so cherished, so wanted as she does right now. Every neuron in her body is firing at high speed, and he’s not even touching her yet.

But he’s looking at her like she hung every moon in every sky, and that – that’s enough. Maybe even more.

The decision is so, so easy to make. Barely a decision at all, if she’s being honest – it was never even a question. “Well, here I am. Exactly where I want to be. I love you, Garrus Vakarian,” she says, and it’s still the scariest thing she’s ever done. She’s never said it before, not to anyone, not where they could hear her. No one had ever mattered as much, been as important, as this impossible, infuriating man in front of her.

And suddenly she understands why Garrus was so nervous in her cabin, all those months ago. She wants for this to go right so badly, wants to see what they can get up to without the constant threat of war hanging over their heads. She wants to go to sleep every night and wake up every morning for the rest of her life with him next to her.

He’s startled, like he didn’t expect her to actually say it, like he didn’t think she’d actually be in love with him. “Wow. The vids Joker gave me – well, they never got this far,” he says, and this time, Shepard can’t stifle her laugh. But Garrus forges on anyways, mandibles twitching in nervousness. “There was the part about sleeping together, but this–”

Shepard doesn’t want to torment him any longer. Anyway, it’s been so long since he kissed her, and she’s beyond due for another. So she leans in and shuts him up.

Growing up on the streets of New York, she never could have dreamed she’d get here one day, here on top of the Presidium with someone she loves, who she knows loves her. And maybe the galaxy is still falling to pieces around them, and she’s still the only one responsible for putting them back together, but this, here, is her happiness.

She’s still breathing heavily when the crowd finally disperses and they make their way back over to the bar. At a signal from Garrus, the bartender sets a copper mug in front of her – a welcome respite from all the krogan and batarian alcohol she’s been drinking lately. “How’d you know I like a good Moscow mule?” she asks, taking a long swig.

Garrus shrugs. “You may have said something about it once,” he responds, taking a much smaller sip from his own glass.

“Mmm,” she hums, conceding the point. And they sit there in companionable silence for a few moments, just resting in the other’s company, and it’s – it’s nice, to slow down and to just. Have this.

Then a thought occurs to her, and she says, reaching for his hand, “And, Garrus? For the record, you were right about your voice.”

“Is that so?” he rumbles, amused. “This voice, huh?”

She laughs despite herself. “You could get any girl you wanted with that voice alone. But you’re not going to use it on anyone besides me.”

“I’m not,” he agrees.

Shepard feels lighter already. “So, what do you say to getting out of here?” she asks, draining the last of her drink.

He’s up before she is, offering her his arm as they walk out of the casino. With every step they take, it’s harder and harder for Shepard to (mostly) keep her hands to herself. Garrus cuts such a fine figure in his suit (better than she could ever in a dress, probably) and Shepard isn’t a weak woman, exactly, but she’s weak for this, for him. Nevertheless, she tries to keep her cool.

The moment they step into the elevator up to her floor, however, all bets are off. As the doors hiss shut, Shepard reaches for Garrus, pulling him into a deep kiss that leaves them both panting. “What’s that all about?” he asks, feigning ignorance.

Shepard isn’t having any of it. “You know what you do to me, Vakarian.”

His mandibles flare outward in a smile. “Oh, I know what I’m going to do to you tonight, that’s for sure.”

So they don’t exactly make it to a bed.

At least not for the first round.

By the time they’re finally done, however, they’re nestled together in her bed, up in her room, and Shepard doesn’t think she’s ever been happier, even if the universe is falling to pieces outside these four walls.

Now that she thinks about it, she’s probably been in love with Garrus since the moment she laid eyes on him. Not that she’d ever say that to his face, of course. His ego doesn’t need any more stroking. But here, in this rare moment of peace when she’s lying in his arms (and they don’t fit together perfectly but god, it’s still like they were made for each other), she lets herself think it.

“Something on your mind?” Garrus rumbles, chest pressed close to her back.

“Mmm,” she hums noncommittally, snuggling backward and seeking more of his warmth. “You.”

“I should hope so,” he says, but he chuckles nonetheless. “Wouldn’t want you to be thinking about anything else right now.”

Shepard smiles, eyes slipping shut. God, she loves him.

“I love you too, Shepard,” he murmurs into her neck, and – oh, she had said that out loud. And it still feels so new, to just say things like that, to open up instead of hiding, and Shepard’s suddenly struck with the need to make sure Garrus knows exactly what he means to her.

So she tells him, with her lips and hands and body, over and over again until she knows it's all he can think about.

Of course she’d bring him with her here at the end of all things. Even though what he had said back at the base had sounded like a goodbye, there was no way Shepard was going to finish this without Garrus at her side.

And they’re doing so well at first, even with three goddamn banshees converging on the burnt-out husk of this convenience store. The ruins of London around her are sobering, as is the constant struggle to just heave a full breath of oxygen, but they’re still alive and she thinks that, just maybe, they can do this.

But then they start to feel the pressure. Shepard’s keeping an eye on the missile bank, making sure no Reaper forces get anywhere near it, when a tell-tale alarm sounds. Her shields are all but gone.

She swings around wildly, trying to find whoever it is that’s shooting at her, but to no avail. It’s too dark, too chaotic. Shots ricochet off the aged stone and the shouts of soldiers fill her ears.

Something punches through her armour then, a sharp, burning pain spreading through her shoulder. She yells, once, instinctively ducking behind whatever-it-is she’s in front of, before she hears the loud boom of a firing Widow.

Garrus dashes to her side, rifle still in hand. “You good?”

“I am now,” she says as the medi-gel kicks in. “Thanks for that. Where was it?”

Garrus jerks his head to the left. “Over there, behind some rubble. Dead now, though.”

“Good.” She slams another heat sink into her Predator and pokes her head around what appears to be the remnants of a wall, firing at the seemingly endless waves of Reaper forces. “Where’s Javik?”

“Right behind you,” Javik calls from a few feet behind them. “You need to get to the missile bank!”

“Working on it!” she yells, taking out a cannibal with a few well-placed shots, looking for an opening. “Come on, come on, come on–”

“Commander!” EDI says. “The destroyer is in range! The missiles are ready for launch.”

Shepard nods reflexively. “On it,” she responds.

It takes a few more heart-stopping moments (and a close encounter of the brute kind) but she makes it over there, slamming the button before diving back into cover. She can’t afford to watch the missiles find their way into the core of the destroyer, not when there are still enemies everywhere and her shields seem to be gone more often than not.

But then the sky fills with fire and an earth-shattering boom. Shepard wastes no time staring at the spectacle, taking out another cannibal when EDI says, “Destroyer terminated.”

“Nice work, EDI,” she says. And then Anderson and his convoy slowly pick their way across the fields of rubble to their location, and after a hasty conference, they’re off and running to the Conduit.

Shepard sees a Mako launch towards her, ducking out of the way just in time. But when she looks back, she sees that Garrus and EDI are both crumpled on the ground, barely moving.

She rushes over to them, helping Garrus up to take cover behind the Mako. EDI’s smoking, her movements stilted, and Garrus is wincing with pain with every movement. They can’t stay here.

“Normandy! Do you copy?” she all but screams into her comm. “I need an evac! Right now!” Garrus looks at her askance, but she ignores him in favour of talking to Joker. He’d talk her into leaving him here with her otherwise, and – well, that’s a death sentence she can’t accept.

The Normandy appears just in time, and the three of them run to its loading bay just as the Mako explodes behind them. Shepard hears the growling of yet more Reaper forces behind them, but her crew provides some covering fire as EDI rushes into the loading bay.

Garrus, however, is having more trouble moving. Carefully guiding him onto the ramp, Shepard shouts, “Here! Take him!”

He’s not having it. “Shepard–”

But she won’t let him. She can’t – if he has any chance of living, he needs to go, now. “You gotta get out of here,” she says, cutting him off.

“And you’ve got to be kidding me,” he says, obstinate as always.

Any other time, she’d reconsider. But not now. “Don’t argue, Garrus.”

“We’re in this till the end,” Garrus insists. Don’t go where I can’t follow, his subvocals say.

But there’s no arguing the point. Shepard’s doing this for him. And he needs to know that, needs to know that – if there was any other way –

She steps forward. “No matter what happens here, you know I love you.” Cupping his mandible, leaning in as close as she dares, she adds, “Always will.”

He leans into her touch, and she wishes she could feel his plates through her gloves, give him more than just this shoddy approximation of a tender caress, but there’s no time. “Shepard, I – love you too,” he says, every breath a new wound.

She knows she can’t linger any longer, but pulling away from Garrus is the hardest thing she’s ever done. And she won’t let herself look back at him, even if it’s – it’s the last time she’ll ever see him, because if she meets his eyes again she doesn’t know how she’ll will herself to let go a second time.

So she doesn’t see his lips move in silent prayer as he stares after her, arm still outstretched, begging any spirit who’s listening to keep her safe.

He got here as fast as he could. It still took a week for them to finish the Normandy repairs and get off that bloody planet, but he’s here in London now and Shepard is alive.

For whatever value of life she has right now. Garrus pauses in the doorway of her hospital room – the least damaged in all of London – even though every bone in his body wants to rush to her, to hold her and never let go. But she looks so fragile, like never before, asleep like some human fairy tale and not the living legend she is, and he’s terrified that he’s going to break her even more, somehow.

And it’s – it’s so hard, seeing her lying there on the hospital bed, swallowed by the sheets and looking so, so small. For as long as he had known her, Shepard had been larger than life, a force of nature sweet-talking everyone in her way and barrelling through them if they still refused to step aside.

But her injuries aren’t something she can just persuade to fall in line. Miranda had given him the lowdown when she had walked him to Shepard’s room, and. Well. Garrus doesn’t doubt that she can get through this, what with the sheer amount of cybernetics (old and new) forcing her to live.

That doesn’t mean that he’s still not absolutely fucking terrified, though. She’s been in a coma since they found her, Miranda had said, and – she wouldn’t want to live like this forever, Garrus knows that. But he doesn’t want to – he can’t – picture a life without her, years stretching on into infinity in a universe without Commander Shepard.

“I’m here,” he says, settling in the chair next to her bed and taking her hand. “I’m here, you’re safe, we won, I love you, please, please wake up.”

And he doesn’t know that he’s echoing history, the universe’s cruel joke reverberating through the past year back to Omega and another medbay on the opposite side of the galaxy. All he knows is here, now, Shepard hurts and he’s powerless to stop it.

He doesn’t know how long he stays there, clutching her hand like it’s a lifeline and he’s the drowning man instead of the other way around. All he knows is that, when she wakes up, he’ll be here for her. Like he always is.

#shakarian #shepard/garrus vakarian #femshep/garrus #mass effect #mass effect fic #the kestrel speaks #kestrel writes fic #aina/garrus #what's up this is my first mass effect fic and it's super basic but i !!! miss them a lot anyways #aina shepard #my ocs

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pipermca · 6 years

Text

A Thousand Years, Part 4

Start at the beginning | Go back a part

Minus 1,031 Years

The words were indistinct at first, but gradually Sunstreaker was able to untangle their meaning. All of his systems were sluggish, and he waited as they slowly warmed.

“Well? Is he recoverable?” asked a deep voice.

“Yes, I’m fairly certain. Yes. Here, look at the processor activity. He’s just finishing his boot cycle.” The second voice was lighter, but had an odd accent that Sunstreaker couldn’t identify. “I wanted to talk to you about some of the information his diagnostics provided, but... Oh, he can probably hear us now. Yes, I’m sure he can.”

Sunstreaker’s sensors registered a warm touch on his shoulder armor. “If you’re online and can hear me, I want you to know that you’re safe. It looks like you’ve been through slag and back.”

Memories slowly reinstated themselves at the same time that his systems finished warming up. He remembered the shouts, the explosion, then floating in darkness, his spark flaring in pain, sending the distress call, and –

Sideswipe!

His distress call!

Decepticons!

Sunstreaker’s optics flew open and his battle systems roared to life. His systems informed him that his weapons were gone and his armblades had been disabled, but he jolted to a sitting position and rolled off of the surface on which he’d been placed. Then he dropped into a fighting stance, quickly taking stock of his surroundings.

He was in what looked like a small lab. Instruments and monitors covered the walls, and things that looked like they might been taken from Wheeljack’s workshop cluttered the countertops. Two mechs were with him in the lab. Sunstreaker could not see markings, either Autobot or Decepticon, on either one. The first mech was a small, grey minibot who was holding a scanner and a datapad. He stared at Sunstreaker with wide optics. The second mech was a much larger airframe, coloured in red and black. He regarded Sunstreaker calmly and held out a hand.

“It’s all right, Autobot,” the larger mech said. Sunstreaker recognized the deep voice as the first one he had heard. “We aren’t going to hurt you. You’re safe here so long as you do us no harm as well.”

Sunstreaker took another step backwards, and his lower legs bumped into a stool. The room had only one exit, and the two mechs were between him and the door. Sunstreaker’s hand flew to his chest instinctively, remembering the pain in his spark when it could not find his twin. But now, his spark did not hurt. He could not feel Sideswipe at all, but the pain was gone.

Sideswipe was still alive. He was sure of it.

Taking a deep vent, Sunstreaker slowly stood upright. “Where am I?” he demanded. “And who are you?”

The larger mech took a step forward, pausing when he saw Sunstreaker go tense again. “I’m Captain Airjump. And this is Eclipse,” he said, gesturing at the smaller mech. “You’re on the Rhapsodic Memory.” His optics flicked down to the Autobrand on Sunstreaker’s chest plate, and he flared his wings out slightly. “Before you ask, we are Neutrals. This is a science ship, and we want no part of your war.”

Neutrals. Sunstreaker narrowed his optics. At least they weren’t Decepticons. “Where is Sideswipe?” he demanded. When he got only blank looks in return, he added, “He has the same frametype as me. Red, black and white. Audial horns. Shoulder rocket launcher. Lopsided smile.”

Airjump glanced at Eclipse, who shrugged. He looked back to Sunstreaker. “We found you alone. There was no one with you.”

“But you picked up my distress call,” Sunstreaker said firmly. “Didn’t you search the debris?”

Eclipse put the datapad down on the berth and spread his hands wide. “We picked up no distress call. Like we said, this is a science ship; we were coasting here to collect readings from the nearby nebula.” Turning around, he flipped on a monitor behind him to show a cloud of glowing red and yellow gas. “When our sensors picked up a debris field, we investigated.” He turned back to face Sunstreaker again. “We were very surprised when we found you, in more ways than one. Your diagnostics indicated that - ”

“Wait,” Airjump said, holding out a hand to interrupt Eclipse. He smiled at Sunstreaker. “If you don’t mind... What is your designation?” He tilted his helm slightly. “If you don’t want to give us your real one, just give us something we can call you other than ‘Hey you.’”

With a huff, Sunstreaker considered the request. He would need their help, at least for a while, to get someplace where he could get picked up. “I’m Sunstreaker. And I need to get back to Cybertron, or at least to the closest Autobot base.”

“I’m afraid that’s going to be a problem,” Airjump said. “We are halfway across the galaxy from Cybertron.”

Sunstreaker’s processor froze for a moment as he stared at Airjump. Sideswipe must be frantic looking for him. No wonder he couldn’t feel his twin. Sunstreaker flared his plating out before resettling it. “Then... Then you need to drop me off at a base! I have to get back. I have to -”

Airjump held up his hands. “We can drop you at a trading station, but you have to understand... You are very far away from Cybertron. Even with a fast hop ship, it’ll take hundreds of years to get back.”

How could he have gotten so far away from Cybertron? Sunstreaker ran through his memory files again: the fight, the grenade, the explosion... The fact they were fighting in the remains of an old science complex... Who knew what experimental tech Sunstreaker had been standing near when the grenade went off? Maybe it had teleported him in the explosion.

Oh slag... The grenade. Sideswipe had been just behind him, and...

Sunstreaker’s hand flew to his chest again, slapping against the plating just over his spark. If Sideswipe hadn’t been teleported here with him, maybe he had been caught in the explosion. Maybe he had...

Sideswipe couldn’t be dead.

Eclipse made a quiet noise to draw Sunstreaker’s attention back to him. “There’s something else,” he said, wiggling the data pad in his hand. “Your diagnostics indicated that you have been in stasis for over two million years. So that explains why your systems were so difficult to reboot. We’ve refueled you and changed out your fluid reservoirs, so you –“

As his processor screeched to a halt for the second time that day, Sunstreaker stared at the smaller mech. Two million years? He’d been in stasis for two million years? His engine whined as the import of that fact settled onto him. Even if Sideswipe wasn’t dead, surely... After two million years, Sideswipe would think that Sunstreaker was gone.

Or would he?

Sunstreaker knew that if the situation was reversed, he would never stop looking for Sideswipe.

Something else occurred to Sunstreaker, and he refocused his optics on Airjump. “Two million years have gone by... And the war is still going on?” he asked. The war had already been in full swing when he and his brother had been forged. If Sunstreaker had been floating in deep space for two million years, that meant that Sideswipe had lived over half his life without Sunstreaker by his side.

The thought of Sideswipe being alone for that long made Sunstreaker’s tanks lurch.

Or worse... Maybe Sideswipe had gotten caught in the explosion. Maybe he wasn’t alone at all because he hadn’t escaped.

But no... It took a conscious effort to turn his processor away from that line of thinking. Besides, Sunstreaker would know if Sideswipe was dead. But he may have been injured.

Airjump frowned at Sunstreaker as the yellow mech’s processor churned. “If you’ve been out here for that long, the war must have just started when you ended up out here,” he said. “You couldn’t have been fighting for very long. We left Cybertron just after the war started, and we’ve been travelling for almost the same amount of time.”

Sunstreaker tried to make sense of what Airjump was saying, and failed. “No,” he said. “The war had been going on for two million years when… when I went into stasis.”

Eclipse’s optics had brightened as the other two mechs were speaking, and he stepped forward excitedly. “I didn’t want to mention this because it seemed so farfetched, but... Sunstreaker, what was the last date you remember before we picked you up?”

“Fourth Cycle, 289. Why?” he snarled, still trying to reconcile the information he’d been given with what he knew.

Eclipse and Airjump glanced at each other. Then Airjump said, “That’s over a thousand years from now... Into the future.”

Continued here.

#a thousand years #tf sunstreaker #my writing #sfw #rough draft #serialized fiction #maccadam

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ebottswake · 6 years

Text

Ebott’s Wake Character List Part One

These summaries will be as complete as I can make them without spoiling future chapters or stories.

Shop Class:

Elijah McGraw: Current owner and operator of the Dank Memehaus, a local hangout that services food, alcohol, and non-alcoholic beverages. The Dank Memehaus has gone through many names and iterations of its primary service, but it has been a fixture in Ebott’s Wake for about a century and it has been owned by the McGraws all this time. Currently it functions as a cybercafe in addition to its other functions. Elijah used to tend the bar himself before hiring Grillby, so he knows recipes and techniques for all of the common drinks and some of the less common ones, and he is also an excellent student of human nature because he has mastered the art and science of listening to other people. He’s also well versed in computer science, although he has little professional training or education in the field.

Hal Greene: The town’s best mechanic and craziest individual, bar none. Hal inherited the Greene Machine’s Garage, Gas Station, and Mini Golf from his father, Dave Greene, and has proven himself at least competent enough at the business side of things to keep them running, but his real expertise is in all things mechanical. Between his knowledge of metallurgy, metal casting, automotive mechanics, pyrotechnics and demolitions, he’s basically a one man Industrial Revolution. On top of all that, he was taught music theory and how to play multiple instruments at an early age. Hal is widely considered insane by the rest of the town (and most of the county) because he does not seem to possess any sense of personal or social self preservation. It is this preconceived notion that makes the “occasional” lucid conversations with him that much more terrifying.

Officer Steven Ward: A beat cop in the Ebott’s Wake Police Department, Officer Steve is the man who Diogenes was looking for; he cannot be bought. This trait would have gotten him stuck at the lowest ranks of the Police Department had monsters not appeared one October day, but as one point of contact between two races, he has become much more important than he or his employers ever expected. By the time the events of the original Ebott’s Wake story take place, he has managed to improve the performance and ethics of the department through a combination of Leading By Example and osmosis, so there’s that. The nature of his responsibilities has precluded him entering into the Ebott’s Wake Kludge Derby for the last few years, but he still tinkers with assorted designs in his limited spare time, most of them based on the “monowheel” drive system.

Josef “Joe” Stanton: Joe works at All Fine Labs, and has been trying to figure out how to integrate monster magic with human science since the moment he knew that it was an option. This finally starts paying off near the end of Ebott’s Wake, so the moral of the story is that good things come to those who never give up. Joe has degrees in electrical engineering and electronics, but the 2008 Great Recession caused the company he was working for to collapse in on itself, so he ended up getting certified as a locksmith and using that as a source of income for a few years. He actually got interested in picking locks and cracking safes after reading Richard Feynman’s biography as a youth, so it was a fairly painless career transition. Joe is widely considered an asshole, but that’s an oversimplification; he can be polite, but he has an extremely low tolerance for bullshit and people trying to bullshit him cause him to drop the pretense of fake kindness. This distinction is something only his friends would recognize, as he himself has completely embraced the title of “asshole” out of spite. Out of all members of Shop Class, he is the one most interested in the “race” part of the Kludge Derby more than the “inventing vehicles” part, although he enjoys that too, and he has a possibly unhealthy love for the Eurobeat musical genre. He’s also an avid motorcyclist.

Michael Van Garrett: Van Garrett is the Vice President of the Ebott’s Wake Librarby Board, does most of the heavy lifting around the place, and is widely (and correctly) considered the strongest man in Lost Eagle County thanks to a regimen of weight training and muscle building exercises he has followed since junior high. Between the size of his body and the size of his beard (not Duck Dynasty length, but pretty big) he presents an intimidating image that is largely at odds with his personality; Mike is a soft spoken intellectual type who is more than happy to answer questions and direct people to whatever books they might be looking for. He’s also very interested in folklore, both historical and the more modern counterpart of conspiracy theories; people don’t think of him in the same way they think of Quentin Forsythe, the town conspiracy nut, because Van Garrett does not shout it from the mountaintops.

Justin Carrow: Justin is the soldier who went to war, and came back home to a land he did not recognize, although Ebott’s Wake itself didn’t change that much until after the monsters showed up. Rather, Justin changed. Having to kill multiple human beings will do that to a person. It’s clear that he experiences some of the symptoms associated with PTSD, although the most obvious is executive dysfunction; for a long time, he had considerable difficulty holding down a regular job. This resulted in him becoming the town’s semi-official odd job guy; between all the practical skills he learned in the Army (computers, construction, welding, etc) and the stuff he learned as part of Shop Class, there’s very little he can’t do as an independent contractor. Justin is a decent marksman, but his real combat expertise is with grenades; he actually managed to send home an M32 MGL that he got from horse trading with a marine unit, a weapon that is definitely not something a civilian would normally be able to own. He is also an extremely fast runner, which is how he got so familiar with grenade launchers in the first place; a soldier with a grenade launcher is a high value target because of the damage they can do.

Byron Thorton: Byron is the unfortunately deceased former Ebott’s Wake Postmaster, who managed to warn the people of Ebott’s Wake when the local cult (The Guardians of the Legacy of the Magi) started getting up to no good. Not everyone could be saved, and certainly the effort cost Byron his life, but he did save a lot of lives in the process. Nobody knows how he learned what he knew. He was the only member of Shop Class to marry and have kids; in a bizarre twist of fate, both children ended up climbing Mt. Ebott and the Souls of Sam and Andrew Thorton were used by Alphys to create Flowey the Flower, and by Asriel Dreemurr to destroy the Barrier.

#ebotts wake #character list

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