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sohin-ace · 4 years

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Jotaro - Possessed

This is cross-posted from Wattpad and available on AO3. This was my first fanfiction, the writing has improved ever since.

Enjoy~

It was a normal day for Y/N and the crusaders. You were all aboard a boat for a day or two to join your destination.

You all decided to reunite at a certain hour to discuss your plan and what to do, but in the mean time, everyone was doing their own things.

Kakyoin and Jotaro were sunbathing in their uniforms, Polnareff was chasing some cute girls to pick up, Abdul and Joseph were getting some light drinks, and you, you were just strolling around the boat, having some time for yourself since it gets tiring being around men all the time.

You were walking along a hallway when you suddenly bumped into someone running around the corner, both of you falling on your backs.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry miss! Are you okay?" said the man while scrambling to get over you and check you out for injuries.

"Ugh... I-I'm fine.." you groaned as you opened your eyes, only to find the face of the man merely inches away from yours. You blushed a bit at the closeness "Um... " you muttered quietly at the man.

"You sure ?" He suddenly put his palm over your forehead, leaning a little bit more "Your face is red, aren't you a little bit sick?"

'Who is this guy??' you thought to yourself, confused at the behavior.

"No, no I'm fine, thank you, can you get off of me now please?" you said quickly, almost in a panic.

"Oh! Of course miss, my bad!" He finally got up and away from you very slowly, almost lingering. "Be careful little lady..."

You almost pushed him out of the way as you got up and hurried away from him, ignoring his last statement.

'Jeez, what is wrong with that guy? Some people are weird, man...' You thought to yourself a bit freaked out as you felt the guy's eyes still on you.

Later during the day, all the Crusaders got together in Abdul and Joseph's cabin to talk about future plans, where to go to next, new discoveries made by Hermit Purple and whatnot.

"So there might be one or more stand users in this very boat. Let's all keep our guards up." inquired Joseph to the group.

"Of course, let's search the ship in groups according to our stands abilities." added Kakyoin.

"I suggest Kakyoin and Polnareff since their stands could team up greatly with a good offense/defense ratio. Mr. Joestar and myself together as well." Abdul said.

"Good idea." said Kakyoin "So that means...." he trailed off, looking at you

"That means I'll team up with Jonathan!"

. . . Silence.

Everyone had a confused look on their faces while Joseph eyes widened like saucers.

You then realized what you said and got horrified.

"Wh- JOTARO! I meant Jotaro!!" You frantically said while putting a hand over your mouth.

No reaction from the men. You started to feel very flustered and added awkwardly.

"I-I don't know why I even said that haha.. I-I don't even know a Jonathan..."

The tension was horrible to bear. No one made a sound. That was weird. You weren't usually one to slip up like that.

"Hahaha... I must be tired haha.." you tried to laugh it off, to lighten the mood, but you could not ignore Joseph's hard stare on you.

As you couldn't take it anymore, so you got up from your seat on one of the beds and went on your way towards the door.

"Anyway, I'll go first, join me later Jojo.." and just like that you were gone.

The others tried to shake it off, like it was nothing, but Joseph was uneasy from the ordeal. He felt like something was wrong, and it wasn't just about getting the wrong name. Jotaro felt it too.

The whole day went like this, with everyone searching in vain, and with you slipping up every now and then, saying weird unusual things, and acting oblivious about it seconds later. That perked everyone up, but nobody knew what that was all about.

Until later, in the evening, everyone reunited again in the same cabin as before to report. Nobody could find anything suspicious on the boat. Not even Hierophant Green who scanned the entire ship.

Everyone was a little bit on edge to not find anything... It was too calm, too easy.

"I'm worried..." you started.

"We did everything we could... Or maybe there really is no one against us in here." said Kakyoin calmly.

"But then that would mean the stand user seen by Hermit Purple was not sent by Lord Dio..."

That was the kicker.

Everyone flinched and your eyes widened at your own choice of words. Something was terribly wrong with you today, and they had to figure it out.

In a matter of a second, before you could even react, Jotaro, who was sitting beside you, forcefully grabbed your wrists and pinned you to the bed, immobilizing you instantly.

"W-WAIT!!! THIS IS A MISUNDERSTANDING!!! I NEVER MET DIO IN MY ENTIRE LIFE YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME!!" You screamed, panicked, trying to sound as sincere as you could while struggling against his grasp.

Although It was true, with everything going against you and your weird behavior all day, you were hard to believe.

Kakyoin and Polnareff were speechless, Abdul was sweating while preparing to reluctantly summon Magician Red at any second if necessary. Joseph was glaring hard at you, not wanting to believe you could have been a traitor this whole time.

You were shaking like a leaf underneath Jotaro, who's expression was unreadable. You were panting heavily with anxiety. You tried to argue again.

"P-please!! It's true! I don't know what's happening today, I'm as confused as you are, but I swear on my own bloodline, I'm not a servant of Dio! I don't even know what he looks like I-" You cut yourself off.

At this point you could not prove your innocence, so in desperation you tried to look at the ones who were the most likely to believe you.

"Kakyoin... You believe me right..?" you called weakly, your voice cracking. He avoided your glance, not knowing what to think anymore. You turned your head to the left where Joseph was.

"Mr Joesta-" You were suddenly cut off by two strong hands cupping your face and making you look in front of you. It was Star Platinum holding you still.

"Wh-what are you d-"

"Don't move." Jotaro interrupted. He moved his hands so that he had both your wrists on one hand and brushed his other through your hairline only to find a fleshbud stuck in.

The other men were shocked at this discovery. So you were indeed under Dio's command... But how?

Confused and scared you wanted to ask what was going on. You eyed the others, asking silently for answers. You felt the pressure on your cheeks lessen and Jotaro replaced Star's hand with his own.

"Y/N, look at me." The dark haired male ordered.

"Jojo..." You were terrified, but trusted him with whatever he was thinking.

You tried to stay still while Star Platinum worked his surgery on you to remove the evil appendice. You couldn't help but but cringe a little and hold your hitching breath as you could feel everything.

It lasted seconds that felt like hours to you, Jotaro's beautiful ocean eyes conforted you through the operation. He was always so harsh, but his eyes held something precious and warm that eased you. Even the hand that held your face felt like a warm caress.

With a sharp burning pain, Star removed the parasyte while you let out a groan. When Star Platinum finally got rid of it you let out a breath of relief.

And just like that you blacked out.

Jotaro got up from his previous position while saying quietly "She went to sleep...". He was smart and perceptive, he figured you weren't always possessed. No, this was recent, and there is a stand user on board. He figured you must have met them and they were the cause of all of this.

"So what do we do now, we wait until she wakes up and explain?" asked Polnareff still very unsure of what's going on.

"Something doesn't add up. If she was sent by Dio, she would have attacked us straight up, or when we expect it the least. She had many occasions to do so. This is strange, I don't get it." added Kakyoin, trying to find a plausible explanation to all of this.

Joseph agreed "I don't believe she's a traitor either, but we'll have some questions to ask her when she wakes up anyway. I'll stay with her, you guys go do a last check up to see if anything unusual happens."

Everyone nodded and went again on another exploration. Now they know that if that stand user can put people into Dio's submission, they'll have to be extra careful and ready to meet not one, but many obstacles.

Long hours have passed when you woke up, only to find Joseph sitting at the edge of the bed where you passed out, but now covered with a blanket and some bandages around your head.

"Mr. Joestar..." you croaked out, a bit of sadness and guilt in your voice. He looked at you with genuine worry, glad that you woke up.

"Oh Y/N you're awake! How are you feeling? Nothing hurts?"

He was always so nice to you, to the boys and even to strangers. Joseph always felt like a caring father to you, which made you feel even more guilty. You shook your head in response.

"Mr. Joestar... Did I... Betray you..?" you couldn't look into his eyes as you said those last words. His expression turned serious and he gazed in front of him.

"No, you didn't. If anything, you're the victim here. Do you remember anything unusual that happened today?"

You couldn't think of anything for a moment until you remembered that weird encounter from that morning, when you bumped into that tacky man.

Your eyes widened in realization. You gasped and Joseph noticed that. As he was about to ask you what was wrong you sat up and exclaimed.

"That guy! It was him!! He's the one who infected me! That fucking bastard, he's so dead." You angrily threw the covers and got up, ready to find that guy and beat his ass.

Before you could storm out Joseph grabbed your arm, stopping you.

"Wait Y/N, explain, what's going on? What happened?"

And so you explained everything that happened that morning, with the guy bumping into you, acting like a creep. You told him how he got very close and touched your forehead too.

"I see..." Joseph pondered, "So that's when he put the fleshbud on you, you didn't feel anything because you were so distracted by his behavior...It's okay, let's calm down and get the others so we can chase him down. You remember his face, right?"

You nodded, now calmer than you were minutes before, thanks for Joseph and his reassuring demeanor. You two then went to get the others, only to find them grabbing a bunch of random people by the collar and beating the shit out of them, and Kakyoin trying to reason them in vain.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Yelled Joseph as he saw the chaos before him.

"We can't find the culprit so we're just punching everyone until one of them admits." Jotaro said like it was common sense, and Polnareff nodded like the supporting friend he was.

Joseph was so done with his grandson's bullshit, so you just got up to them saying that there was no need to, since you knew who was the guy.

Upon realizing that you were awake and safe, Jotaro just threw the guy he was holding over God knows where and just came to you with Kakyoin following.

"Y/N good to see you back! You scared us, you know?" Said the cherry-haired male with a soft smile. He then leaned in close and whispered.

"Jojo won't admit it, but he was worried sick, never saw him walk so fast to beat someone up." he added with a little snicker.

You blushed a bit at this. Really? Jotaro was worried about you? You tried to look at the male for confirmation, but he was looking the other way, efficiently hiding his face.

He just lead the way with his hands in his pockets, acting like he didn't care when he was secretly happy you were okay. It was kinda cute.

At one point, you were all strolling on of the hallways when you saw something that piqued your attention. A scene that felt like 'déjà vu'.

A few feet away from you, that same guy from before, bumped into a random woman, and was now leaning close to her to touch her forehead.

At this, you sprinted down the hall, taking out your stand to attack him.

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER YOU PSYCHO!"

The guy tried to jump back to dodge your stand, but is was too late. You violently pinned him to the wall of the hallway. You glanced at the woman who already had a fleshbud on her forehead.

'Shit!'

The woman ran away, but Joseph and Polnareff were quick to react and ran after her.

"Leave it to us!" Yelled the french man, running off.

As you were distracted by the possessed woman, you didn't notice the guy getting away from your stand's grasp, and kicked you hard in the stomach, sending you stumbling backwards and falling into the solid chest of Jotaro who caught you.

You couldn't even say his name since your breath was cut by the impact. He just put his hands on your shoulders as you coughed while muttering a 'yare yare daze'.

The other crusaders joined your side to help you out, since they knew that even if you were strong, you really didn't like fighting or using violence.

"Huh? And who might you be? Ohh aren't you the cute little lady from this morning? Sad to see you didn't want to join us. Lord Dio treats us reeeaal nice~" the man sneered.

"I swear to fucking god-"

"How many people have you infected so far?" Kakyoin cut you off, scared that you might let yourself consumed by unnecessary anger.

"Oh? You don't wanna know how I do it? Don't worry about how many colleagues I have here, they're all probably with your two boy friends, having the time of their life."

"So how do you do it? I doubt it is just a stand. Did Dio lend you that ability so you can recruit new slaves in his stead?" said Abdul while scanning the guy, trying to find any flaws in his posture and manners, any potential weakness.

"Ooooh you got it first try! I like my men smart~" the guy said with a disgusting tone "I might just take you for Lord Dio."

And as he said that, he launched at Abdul and spread out tentacle-like vectors that the Egyptian recognized as the same ones Dio had when he met him.

"Abdul watch out!!" Kakyoin tried to warn him.

It happened so fast he didn't have time to summon Magician Red. You just tackled Abdul out of the way, while the guy fled the scene. Jotaro ran after him at lightspeed without even thinking twice.

"Jojo!!" you screamed as you wanted to go too, but Abdul held you there.

"Let me go Abdul! I can restrain that guy with my stand!"

"Don't act reckless Y/N, trust Jotaro on this, he can manage. You've already done enough for today."

"He's right Y/N, he'll be okay, let's go find Mr. Joestar and Polnareff they might need us more." Added Kakyoin, trying to reason you.

They were right, you thought. You wore a worried expression as Abdul helped you up.

After you reunited with Joseph and Polnareff, Kakyoin, Abdul and you managed to neutralize every enslaved passenger.

You were waiting for Jotaro to come back and remove all the fleshbuds, but the parasytes just dislocated themselves from their hosts and scrumbled away like insects.

The stand user could probably not control them anymore, which meant Jotaro succeeded.

Jojo finally came back while dragging Dio's underling like a potato sack, looking like a bloody pulp.

"Eeeewwww!! Disgusting! What did you do to his face, Jotaro?!" Joseph exclaimed while squirming. This was not a pretty sight, and the old man was squeamish.

"Jeez, you didn't go easy on him" said Kakyoin with a knowing look. "I wonder why..." he subtly glanced at you, then back at Jotaro, suggesting something.

Jotaro just clicked his tongue and blushed a faint color as he threw the guy over at the group.

"Just do whatever you want with him, I'm tired." he turned on his heels and started walking away while the others -more like Polnareff- were taking great pleasure in planning what they could do to him for revenge, as if being almost killed by Star Platinum's fists wasn't enough.

You just followed Jotaro while calling him.

"Jojo...!" He stopped and waited for you to catch up.

"Jojo... You... You knew that I wouldn't betray you? You actually trusted me?"

He didn't say anything, but his sea colored eyes answered for you. Your expression turned soft in gratefulness.

He believed in you, even when you were obviously acting like a traitor, he immediatly searched for Dio's appendice, knowing you would never betray him.. He trusted you. That thought alone filled your heart with love and appreciation.

"You saved me... Again. How can I thank you?" your soft voice and expression made him feel some kind of way. You were just too cute. He couldn't believe what he was about to say.

"Kiss me." He commanded, his voice and expression not faltering. You thought you heard wrong.

"... I didn't catch that, can you repeat?" You asked, genuinely unsure if you actually heard what you heard.

He suddenly approached you, the closer he got, the faster your heart was beating. His huge build towered over you.

"You heard me" he confirmed.

Your face and ears were burning, you couldn't believe this was happening. But this was your chance, he offered his consent, this was no time to ask questions, even if you had a thousand right now.

You shyly raised your arms to grab his collar, and looked around to make sure nobody was here to watch. God this was embarassing. You slowly pulled him down and got on your tiptoes, trying to reach for his perfect lips.

You succeeded as you gave him a tiny peck, short-lived, but full of love. You thought you could pass out from all the blood running to your face. But before you could let go of him, he wrapped his arms around your waist and captured your lips once again, in a longer, more desperate kiss.

You were loosing balance so your wrapped your arms around his neck, which deepened the kiss even more. It was bliss until you had to part for some well deserved oxygen.

"Jotaro..." You breathed in his neck "I didn't know..."

This small gesture made his heart skip a beat. He rarely ever felt so much love, and warmth, to which responded by squeezing you harder against him, like you were a soft pillow.

"I couldn't find the right time." He muttered quietly.

You both just stayed like this. Enjoying each other's warmth. It felt so right. Like two fitting puzzle pieces. You couldn't be more happy at the moment. Nothing could ruin it.

"Eeeewwww get a room you two!!"

... Except this.

You both separated, startled by an obnoxious voice coated with a French accent. You were even more embarassed at the fact that everyone witnessed this.You were hiding your face and Jotaro just glared daggers at Polnareff who was smirking.

"Finally, you got the balls to do it Jojo. Glad I didn't have to force it out of you." commented Kakyoin, his inner fanboy pleased.

The two other men just wore wholesome smiles on their faces. Glad to see something positive in this ordeal.

Jotaro just muttered his signature "Yare yare daze" as he grabbed your hand and got away from these nosy eyes.

#jotaro #x reader #reader insert #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo #jjba #stardust crusaders #writing #jotaro kujo #jojo no kimyou na bouken #jojo part 3 #part 3 #jotaro kujo x reader #jotaro x reader

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starboundfic · 5 years

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Chapter 9

Liftoff

Chapter 8 - Chapter 10

“How much longer are we gonna be waiting for?” Eva asked finally. The first thing she’d done when she’d woken up—she remembered dozing off but she didn’t remember going back to her room, so someone must’ve brought her there—was to head down to the infirmary. Allura had been there already, but so had everyone else.

“Any tick now,” the former reported, not looking away from the console.

To the side, Jordan was repeatedly tapping one foot against the floor with a bored look on his face, and had been for a few minutes now. Then he stopped. “Hey, uh, Koji?” The technician glanced sideways at him, prompting him to go on: “So before…all of this, Stan said something about that nunvil stuff tasting like engine oil. You know anything about that?”

If the look on Koji’s face was anything to go on, he did know something about it. Coran glanced over at them as well. “I’m unsure of what this engine oil you’re talking about is, but something tells me it’s not typically edible.”

“It’s not,” Eva confirmed. They had Shiro’s attention now as well, and Allura glanced away from the console, both looking curious.

“Well, uh, I kind of promised not to…” Koji trailed off, looking between each of them before sighing resignedly. “Okay, fine, just…just don’t say anything about it. It was about seven years ago, and we had a star-racer called the Storm II in for repairs. I don’t remember what was wrong with it, just that it was damaged enough for us to have to work on it all night.”

“And?” Eva pressed. She thought she felt a chill for a second, but Coran had said earlier that the castle’s thermal-regulator still had to be reset.

“Well, leaving a coffee mug and a can of engine oil next to each other when you’re half asleep isn’t a good idea, and…” He stopped again, looking at Shiro, who was now more focused on the pod that was active. Or at least, it had been active.

The look of indignant betrayal on Stan’s face was almost funny.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, until he finally said, “That’s payback for the maze, isn’t it.” Koji stammered a bit before mumbling an apology, which got a half-smile in response. “Hey, I’m the one who slipped it in the first place, so don’t worry about it.”

“Stan, how’re you feeling?” Jordan asked hesitantly.

“Uh…really cold?” He looked around, confused. “Wait, what happened? What’re we all doing in here?”

There was a brief silence, before Coran asked, “What’s the last thing you can remember?”

“We were talking on the bridge. And then…” Stan shook his head. “Nothing, ‘cept waking up just now. Seriously, what the hell happened?”

“We can tell you about it once you’ve gotten something to eat,” Allura said. “You’ve been in there for an entire quintant.”

“A quint—what?”

They wound up explaining most of it on the way down the hall, they being Allura, Coran, Shiro, and Jordan.

“So lemme get this straight,” he started once they’d reached the dining hall, only paying half attention to the plate of rations Coran provided; he’d taken in all of the details quietly. “Sendak survived his ship crashing, and somehow managed to get a bomb in here.”

“That’s the gist of it,” Allura replied, before frowning. “I’m just glad that the initial scan the castle took of you all was enough to let the cryopod configure itself properly. If it hadn’t, you might not have survived the blast.”

“…oh.”

Oh was putting it lightly. Someone Eva had barely spoken to unless it was necessary had almost gotten killed not even two days ago, and he only would’ve known a front that she’d invented she’d invented on the spot when her dad hadn’t recognized her.

The more she thought about that, the more uncomfortable she was feeling about it.

Stan coughed a bit forcibly. “What’re the odds of them having a thing like Rover though?”

“Almost nonexistent,” Coran supplied cheerily. “But all’s well that ends well!”

Silence followed, and Eva glanced at Koji for a second. He was looking fixedly at the table, shoulders tense. Thankfully, she wasn’t the only one who noticed—she heard Stan sigh before saying “Hey, you had nothing to do with that. Okay?”

No response, and this time Allura spoke up, expression brightening. “The good news is that we know exactly where we’ll be going now.”

“Back to the Balmera me and Coran went to,” Jordan clarified before Stan could ask.

Red was persistently lurking in the back of Eva’s head right now, being sure to point out that they were all in the same room right now. I know that, she thought, clenching one fist slightly.

Allura knew her real name was already, and no amount of avoiding her would change that—and Eva had a nagging feeling that Shiro was at least suspecting something.

She took a deep breath, Red now purring reassuringly. The one reason she kept her identity secret wasn’t here.

(She had no idea where he was and that thought was still terrifying, but the sooner they left Arus the sooner they’d have a chance of finding him and Rick.)

Eva didn’t have a reason to go by Molly anymore.

Not to everyone who was here right now, anyways.

“I think it’s time we got moving,” Shiro said, standing up. “The sooner we get to the Balmera, the better.”

“H-Hold on a second,” Eva started, trying to keep the stutter out of her voice. “There’s—something I should…p-probably tell you guys first.”

The others all stopped where they were heading for the hall leading to the bridge, looking back at her. She subconsciously swallowed when she noticed that, taking another breath to try to steady her nerves, which suddenly seemed insistent on going haywire. C’mon Eva, don’t blow it now…

Jordan frowned, puzzled. “Uh, Molly, what’re you—”

“That’s not actually my name.”

It was out in one go, being louder than she’d intended, but she’d said it. At the same time, she suddenly felt like it was impossible to breathe, and a little lightheaded.

The confusion from everyone else was practically tangible, save for Allura, for whom it had been replaced by comprehension. All four of the mice, having been running around on the table, were at attention now as well.

The princess was smiling faintly in an encouraging way, and Red was broadcasting a prideful sort of reassurance.

There was no going back now anyways, so she might as well finish it. “It’s, um, actually Eva.”

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

For a few seconds, Jordan stood there wondering if he’d misheard something, until Blue informed him that he hadn’t by means of briefly metaphorically yanking him into a disconcertingly-realistic flashback of the first day on Alwas.

“So that’s what you almost said back then,” he blurted, eyes wide. She’d almost said her name had been Eva back then, before saying Molly instead.

Shiro broke out of the shock next. “I’m glad you told us,” he said, smiling warmly. “Owning who you are will help you grow as a person.” In response, Molly—Eva—exhaled quietly, seeming relieved.

At least, until Coran asked, “Is it normal for humans to have two names?” which brought the panicked look back.

“Not really,” Koji replied, both he and Stan looking lost. “Mol—Ev—wait, which one do you…?”

“Eva’s fine,” she mumbled, eyes fixing to the floor. Coran’s question also had Jordan wondering about why she’d had them all thinking that her name was Molly, but he didn’t get a chance to ask.

“You can tell us why when you’re ready to,” Shiro said, and she looked up at him for a few long moments.

Then, huffing a bit, she responded with “Well, weren’t we going to get moving after Stan got up?”

“That was the plan, but—” Allura started.

“Then let’s go!” She turned on her heel and started for the door, with the parting words of “The sooner we get moving, the sooner we can find Rick and my dad!”

And that was what had Jordan’s mind break for the second time that day. Her…what?

“I’m sorry, did—did I miss something?” Coran asked after a solid minute of shocked silence, glancing between all of them.

“I think all of us did,” Koji replied distractedly, looking equally lost. “If…if she really is Don Wei’s daughter, then why did she have all of us think her name was something else?”

That’s a good question, Jordan thought. There was no way the team manager could’ve been in on it, with how he acted with her—but then how hadn’t he recognized her? Don didn’t seem much like a family person to begin with, but Jordan didn’t think she’d lie about something like that.

Then a comment she’d made back on Alwas came back to him—she’d mentioned a boarding school.

“That would explain it,” Stan muttered when Jordan mentioned it, expression darkening. “I think I’m gonna have a few words with that man when I see him again.”

Allura cleared her throat. “Well, all of this aside,” she started. “Eva had a point. The sooner we can get to the Balmera, the sooner we can free its inhabitants from the Galra.”

Eva was on the bridge already, having been sitting on the floor, but she scrambled to her feet when she saw them—and that was when it occurred to Jordan that he wasn’t sure what to say to her now.

Coran went right to the computer console, followed closely by both Stan and Koji, whereas Allura took her spot at the center pedestal, an array of holoscreens appearing right after the control sticks. It was also followed by the room having five extra chairs coincidentally color-coded and by each respective shortcut to the Lion hangars appear from the floor, but Jordan wasn’t really paying much attention to that detail.

Right after the display panels lit up, the foundation that the castle/ship was set on jolted, followed by muffled sounds of a landslide. Blue was practically buzzing in the back of his head with apprehensive excitement.

They were leaving Arus to go free the Balmera…and head off even further away from Earth at the same time.

The sky faded to black in not even a minute, the low humming sound that had been echoing through the castle and felt through the floor quieting somewhat. Eva stepped up to one of the panels, looking closely at the screen, and after a momentary hesitation, Jordan went to stand next to her.

The first time he’d been in space had been in the Avatar’s ship on the way to Alwas. All Jordan could remember of it was that he’d passed out almost immediately, and only woke up after they’d gotten there. So it really hadn’t been a very memorable occurrence.

The second time had been the five of them in the Red Lion, and there had been too much happening in too short a time for him to focus on anything aside from their immediate actions at the time.

The third had been him, Shiro, and Koji in the Green Lion going to infiltrate Sendak’s ship to rescue Blue; he’d been pretty single-minded in getting to and from solid ground then.

The fourth and fifth time had been to and from the Balmera with Coran in the shuttle. Jordan had been too worried about Stan to even think about stopping to look around.

This sixth time, he actually looked around. He’d known that space was…well, big, but that detail hadn’t quite hit home until they’d found how far Arus was from Earth. The view now only reinforced that, featuring nothing but inky darkness and specks of light that were stars. “Some view,” he muttered to himself.

Allura stepped back from the pedestal, saying, “We should reach the Balmera within half a varga.”

“What exactly is going to happen when we get there?” Stan asked.

“We’ll work on that as we go,” Shiro replied. “In the meantime, make sure you’re ready for when we do get there.”

That probably meant having their flight-suits and bayards. And maybe I can get a few minutes of target practice in while I’m at it, Jordan thought. Then something occurred to him. “Hey, um…”

He caught himself about to say Molly, stopping at the last second, but she looked sideways at him anyways. “Yeah?”

“I was wondering if—before we get to the Balmera, maybe we could…” He paused, his confidence flagging abruptly, along with remembering something: they didn’t know how her bayard actually worked yet. “I don’t know, look around the ship a bit more?”

“Um…sure,” was the slow response. “Where should we start?”

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

It was kind of weird, how those two could go from bouncing off of each other perfectly to not knowing how to talk to each other within minutes sometimes.

Then again, there was more than enough reason for Eva to be nervous around them for now—and the matter of Eva was one of the things Stan was still having some trouble wrapping his head around; he’d just learned more about their second star-racer pilot in one morning than he had in over the course of a week.

The other thing was that he’d apparently been out for just over a day, after taking the brunt of an explosion that had shattered the castle’s original power-crystal. At the most, he could remember a sort of blur after talking to Coran, before waking up in the infirmary feeling absolutely freezing.

“You could go with them, you know,” Shiro suggested.

“Maybe some other time,” Stan replied after a short pause—Shiro had a point there, but something about that thought was still daunting.

Part three to the dazedness was the sheer happiness from Yellow that had struck him two seconds after he’d computed what Koji had told the others. (He distinctly remembered Koji having promised to never, ever tell anyone about that.)

Stan had a feeling that he wouldn’t know about everything that happened during the time he was literally out cold, but it was pretty obvious that all of it had been serious.

For one, Jordan had seemed anxious when talking about the Balmerans. He hadn’t looked it at all, but some subconscious part of Stan had picked up on it. Barely, but still. If he had to guess, it was the freaky mind-link at work.

For a second, he’d just learned more about their team’s second star-racer pilot in one morning than he had in over a week, most notably the detail of her name not being Molly.

He had a few ideas as to why she’d gone on like that, but he was going to wait until he knew more before making a definite conclusion.

For a third…he glanced around the room, and realized that there were actually three less people in the room than before. Shiro looked around as well, blinking, before asking, “Does Koji do that a lot?”

“Not really.” Just when he doesn’t want to be around anyone.

“If I had to guess, he’s off to work on that secret project some more,” Coran supplied.

Project? There were a few things Stan could think of that would classify as that, the hyperdrive prototype being one of them—but Koji wasn’t in the shuttle hangar when he went to check.

An assortment of small tools were scattered on the floor near the Arrow, specifically by Eva’s rocket-seat, which suggested that she’d made an attempt on finding the right ones to help her put it back in earlier.

His room was also vacant, which left Stan at a loss. Where else would he be? Before he could put any further thought into it, yet another new alarm started echoing through the halls, and he stifled an irritated groan before turning back toward the bridge.

He made it back there in time to catch the end of Allura saying what it was—something about a ship that lost power somewhere nearby, and that they were changing course to help them. “Wait, what about the Balmera?” Jordan asked.

“The Paladin Code states that we must help anyone who needs it,” was her response, which earned a few irritated sputters that ended with a resigned groan, after Stan dimly heard Molly (Eva, dang it) say something to him. “Jordan, Eva, Koji, meet us by the main lift. Make sure you’re suited up.”

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

The main lift looked nothing like the other elevators, though that was because it wasn’t an elevator at all. It made sense for there to be a second exit to the castle, considering that the main doorway was some hundred meters away from the ground now.

When the doors slid open, they were greeted with the sight of two gobsmacked aliens and one robot. One of the former, purple-skinned and donning a hat that looked like something out of an aviation museum back on Earth, grinned after a few startled seconds, saying “Nice ship.”

Like the official initial encounter with the Arusians, Allura took the lead. “I am Princess Allura of Altea, and these are the Paladins of Voltron,” she introduced. “We’ve come to assist you in any way we can.”

“Good to hear. I’m Rolo.” He gestured to the second alien—tall and yellow-skinned with purple eyes, who waved a bit. “This is Nyma, and our cyber-unit here is Beezer.” The robot beeped a few times, the ear-like parts on top of it waving slightly. “You don’t know how glad we are to see some friendly faces. Most folks don’t want to get tangled up with anyone who’s on the run from the Galra.”

“You’re fighting the Galra too?” Shiro asked, side-eying the blocky-looking ship. He wasn’t complaining—that anyone else was fighting against the Galra at all was a good sign.

“Well, not directly. I doubt Zarkon’s quaking in his boots at the three of us, but we do what we can.”

“So what happened to you guys?” Stan sounded perplexed. “Your ship looks okay.”

Rolo grimaced in response. “The thermal pipe cracked. Roasted almost the entire flaxum assembly. We were able to limp to this moon ‘bout a movement ago—we were starting to lose hope that anyone friendly would come by.”

“I’m sure we have at least some of the things you need,” Allura said. “Do you have a list of what exactly needs to be replaced?” In response, Beezer produced what, in all honesty, looked like a receipt. Stan took it after a few seconds, scowling before muttering something about Coran probably being able to make sense of whatever was on it and heading back to the lift.

“Hang on a tick,” Rolo said, jogging over to him. “We’ll go with you. You shouldn’t have to carry all of that by yourself. C’mon guys.”

“Then I’m going too,” Jordan put in, an edge in his tone. Before Shiro could say anything about that, he clarified “Last time we let someone we barely knew in, a bomb got set off and one of us almost got killed.” To the side, the others flinched a little, Koji moreso.

It was Shiro’s turn to grimace then, partially at himself for not having thought of that earlier and partially at Jordan’s choice of words, but only for a moment. “We can all go, then.”

“There’s no fault in being cautious,” Nyma said dismissively. “It’s every team for themselves out here.”

“How come you’re all the way out here, anyway?” Eva asked once they were back in the castle.

“I could ask you the same, squirt,” Rolo remarked good-naturedly, and she scowled at the name.

“I’m pretty sure our story’s longer,” Jordan deflected.

Rolo glanced sideways at him before saying, “My planet was destroyed by the Galra and I was taken captive. Happened a few phoebs ago.”

Allura momentarily paused. “Which planet?”

“Drios-10. Was on the smaller end of the scale, and it was kind of a backwater, but it’s a backwater I miss. I managed to escape, but not without losing something.” He tapped his right knee, and Shiro heard a metallic sound.

“I know how that feels,” he said sympathetically, clenching his prosthetic’s fist so that the mechanism of it could be heard.

“Anduel’s been under the Empire’s boot since before I was born,” Nyma said. “I took off the first chance I got, and met Rolo not too long after that. It’s not easy, but we get by.”

They reached the supply room quickly enough, which was lined with multiple crates filled with various mechanical parts. “So what can you tell us about Zarkon’s forces?” Allura pressed. “Where are they concentrated?”

Rolo looked toward the ceiling. “His command ship sits right in the center of it all. He mostly calls the shots from there and has his minions do all the work—which commander it is depends on where the work is. This is the territory of a nasty bugger named Sendak.”

“We’ve met,” was Jordan’s toneless remark, coinciding with a muttered “Nasty’s an understatement,” from Eva.

“How far are we from the center of it?” Shiro asked.

“There’s several dozen galaxies between here and there,” Nyma replied.

“Several dozen,” Stan repeated flatly, eyes wide.

“And counting.”

“You guys aren’t the only ones, right?” Eva sounded hesitant in asking. “I mean—the only other rebels, I mean.”

“There’s a few groups here and there, but the most they can do is guerrilla raids. We used to run with Olia’s group, but split off not too long ago. Olia’s is probably the most organized out of them. Aside from the groups, it’s just anyone that hasn’t been colonized yet.”

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

There was nothing quite like having an already-abysmal situation being put further into perspective. The upside to it was that it wasn’t just the seven of them out there, and that Koji now knew where all the mechanical parts were kept in the castle.

It’d be useful for when there was free time to get started on the Arrow’s repairs, or for finishing that cloaking function he’d been trying to figure out for Green.

He felt like he should be helping the others find the parts on the list Beezer had provided, but the storeroom was pretty small for the ten of them—

“You’re awfully quiet.” Koji started at hearing Nyma right next to him, scrambling a bit to the side. She put her hands up. “Didn’t mean to scare you there. What’s your name, anyways?”

“Uh, Koji.”

She nodded before continuing with, “Koji, got it. So what did the princess mean by calling you guys paladins before, anyways?”

So much for this going without a hitch. “I think the title’s more of a formality,” he replied carefully.

“Well, what about Voltron? What’s that?”

“I’m…not actually sure, but I think it has to do with the Lions.”

She quirked one brow. “Lions?”

“They’re—they’re ships.”

She blinked, looking even more curious now, and he resisted the urge to smack himself for saying that much. “Can I see them?”

He bit his lip slightly. This was quickly going past the timeframe which he could keep a steady conversation with someone he barely knew, but Green seemed okay with this. “Well…”

“There’s a magnetic spring not too far from here,” Nyma went on. “Have you ever seen one of those?”

“No,” Koji replied, his own curiosity now piqued. “What’s that?”

“It’s a deposit of metals that’s kept in a liquid form because of certain magnetic fields. No one’s really sure what causes them, though.”

…that actually did sound interesting. A glance toward the others showed that the movable bin was almost filled (since when?) now, and that the others were engrossed in trying to detach a pipe-like object from a tangle of other parts in a way that wouldn’t bring the whole pile down.

Eva could help Stan with the ship’s repairs, he thought after mulling it over. Besides, Nyma said it wasn’t too far from here. Maybe we could be there and back before anyone noticed.

The time it took to get there did not match up with the amount of ground Green passed over, but to be fair, Green was flying pretty fast, slowing only when they got near the spring. Nyma had looked pretty floored at seeing Green, which had resulted in the Lion radiating smugness.

At first it looked just like a stretch of reflective ground, until Nyma kicked a rock into it, which sent ripples all across the surface. “There’s at least a dozen metals in there,” Koji listed off aloud, reading the list that his gauntlet’s computer provided. “It’s mostly chromium, but that doesn’t make any sense, because this is all at room-temperature and that has a melting point of over three-thousand degrees. This shouldn’t be anywhere near being in a liquid state.”

He had a few vague ideas on how it was being kept from solidifying, but he didn’t get a chance to actually put any thought to them, because the next he knew he’d been shoved to the side into the tree he was crouched next to, hard and fast enough for everything to go dark for a short time.

The next thing he knew, he was staring up at the tree’s branches while strongly regretting not having taken the suit’s helmet with him.

Nyma was nowhere to be seen—and Green was gone.

Green was gone and there was a furious sort of panic emanating from her that was a clear-enough sign in itself on why both she and Nyma were gone.

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

It felt almost surreal, in two different ways—the first of which being that the planet (correction, moon) they were on was nothing like Earth, Alwas, or Arus, in that it was really just purple-hued soil everywhere, large rock formations, and solitary pale-gray trees here and there.

The second was that Eva was having to get used to hearing her actual name from the others. Sure, there were stutters here and there from almost everyone, but it was just weird.

Really, really, really weird.

At the same time, she felt like a huge weight had been taken off of her. Confusion aside, they’d been okay with it. And no one had asked about her dad yet, which was nice. (Or about her mom—and that intangible knife was instantly shoved back into its metaphorical box.)

“You guys ever work with one of these before?” Rolo asked after opening the large panel in the side of his and Nyma’s ship.

“Aside from right now, no,” Stan replied, after a moment of looking something close to confused. “It doesn’t look too different from what I’m used to, though.”

“Cool. Shout if you need any help with it.”

The flaxum assembly was a whole mess’s worth of parts, a good portion of them being rusted. Despite the design differences and the detail of it being a lot bigger than what she really knew how to work with, Eva recognized the general layout of it after a few minutes’ worth of watching. “Hey, um, Stan?” she spoke up after a minute. “Is there anything I can help with?”

There was a pause before he came out from under the reactor. “Think you’d be able to reach the switch under there?” He sounded almost sheepish before adding, “There’s no way I’m gonna be able to get to it.”

“Just gimme a second,” she replied, slipping under the machinery. Stan hadn’t been kidding—the lever for releasing the pipe was in a space just barely wide enough for her arm, and it took a bit for her to get a good grip on it. Once pulled, the old pipe dropped to the ground. Putting the new one in was easier, at least.

It was as Eva was standing up that she noticed that the old pipe, apart from a small fracture on one side, looked otherwise fine.

“Too many light-years on it, I guess,” was Rolo’s response to her mentioning it to him. “I think this rig’s just about ready for a test flight now.” He closed the panel and jogged over to the hatch leading into the ship. “Beezer, come co-pilot for me.”

Then they were off, faster than a ship of that shape should’ve been able to move from a standstill, and the gust from it moving almost took Eva off of her feet. “What, not even a thanks?” Jordan grumbled.

Shiro turned toward them after a moment. “Stan, is something wrong?”

“I don’t get it,” was the muttered reply while he turned the old pipe over in his hands a few times, frowning. “This thing looks fine. I mean, there’s a small crack right there, but I really don’t think that’s big enough to cause any real issues.”

“Maybe they were just playing it safe.” A pause. “Wait, did Koji come back out here with us?”

“And where’s that other girl?” Jordan asked, having spun in a quick circle. “I don’t think she came back out either.”

I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this, Eva thought at seeing that Jordan was right. Then she stumbled, blinking at the sudden fury rolling off of Red’s presence in the back of her head. To the side, she saw Stan jump a bit, and Jordan stopped mid-word in whatever he’d been saying to Shiro.

Eva frowned a little at nothing in particular. “Red, what’s—” she started, only to be cut off by a series of images flashing across her vision: Rolo, Nyma, Beezer; their ship racing off; the Green Lion; the open expanse of space above them.

Shiro stood up straighter, putting his helmet on. “Coran, can you pinpoint where Koji is?”

“Just a tick…he’s a few leagues to the west of us.”

“And the Green Lion?”

There was a pause, broken by Coran coughing forcibly. “Well, she’s—she’s not on the moon, that’s for sure.”

“I knew it!” Jordan exploded, already turning toward the lift.

“Everyone, to your Lions,” Shiro ordered, tone slipping into the no-nonsense one he’d used when they’d infiltrated Sendak’s ship. “Princess, could you go get Koji?”

“I was already planning to,” she replied. “Contact us when you’ve retrieved the Green Lion.”

They made use of the shortcuts to the Lions’ hangars from the bridge this time, and Red was lunging upwards before Eva even had a chance to move the handles herself.

“I knew something seemed weird about all of that,” Stan was going on angrily. “When he said the assembly was roasted, I figured almost everything would have to get replaced, not just the pipe! That whole reactor should’ve been toast!”

“I think we get it,” Eva interjected as the others fell into place on either side of her. Red’s HUD displayed a path on which direction to go, up until they reached an asteroid field. While Red stopped in place along with Black and Blue, Yellow kept going forward, hitting one of the reddish-colored rocks. “Whoa, Stan, you okay?” Jordan asked, startled.

“I’m fine,” was the grunted response. “Just spaced out for a sec.” Eva’s eyes narrowed—Stan wasn’t really one to space out like that.

The Blue Lion turned its head to look toward the asteroid field, in time to see the one Yellow had hit collide with another one, leaving a dent in it. “I’m not going in there,” was the deadpanned remark given.

“Then how are we going to catch ‘em?”

“Eva, the Red Lion would have the easiest time getting through there,” Shiro said after a moment. “Get in there and flush them out.”

“I’m on it,” she affirmed, and Red charged in. The narrow pathway she was first faced with was reminiscent of the racetrack on Alwas, with the one gigantic difference being that obstacles could come from anywhere—but that was where Red’s design proved itself in terms of adaptability, being able to jump off of smaller ones to change direction quickly. Rolo’s ship came into sight soon after the field opened up, signified by them shooting at Red.

A few rolls both clockwise and counter-clockwise were more than enough to avoid them, but right as Eva thought she’d caught up to them, the ship banked to the side and she had to slam the brakes to avoid running into an asteroid, before banking sharply upwards, Red running on the surface of the rock, claws digging into the surface for traction.

Eva had felt sympathetic for them earlier, at hearing what they’d gone through, and this was how they repaid that? By conning them like this?

She tightened her grip on the controls, and fired a shot of her own. It hit squarely on the engine they’d “fixed,” causing it to burst into short-lived flames, and the ship slowed to a stop.

Red obligingly opened up a comm link. “You can give Green back anytime now, y’know,” Eva said flatly. Rolo and Nyma both grimaced in response.

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

It had taken a few minutes for them to drag the now-actually-broken ship back to the moon they’d originally been on. Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer came out shortly after Red let the ship down by the castle.

Koji didn’t waste any time in going in to get the Green Lion, shooting a look that was nothing short of venomous at Nyma when he walked by her. She’d glanced off to the side in response.

“We help you, and you try robbing us,” Jordan said, arms crossed and tone dripping with sarcasm. “Seriously, that’s a great first impression.”

Nyma scowled at him. “Look kid, like I said earlier, it’s everyone for themselves out here.”

“Bullshit,” he spat. “You were gonna hand Green over to the Galra, weren’t you?” They both flinched, not denying it. “Huh. Thought so.”

“Watch it runt,” Rolo growled. “We saw an opportunity, and we took it. This one Galra commander, Prorok, put out a pretty hefty bounty on all five of you.”

Jordan sputtered a bit, ready to make another retort, before his brain processed what Rolo had just said. Eva and Stan both looked up sharply, and Shiro’s eyes darkened. “Define hefty,” he said evenly.

“About fifty-thousand GAC each. Almost triple that for the Black Lion—and the other four are doubled if their pilots are included.”

The amount of sense made by the detail of the aliens they were fighting considering them criminals was alarming, when it shouldn’t have been at all.

Allura, who had been watching the exchange stoically, looked up at seeing the Green Lion fly overhead toward its hangar, before saying, “Thank you for this information. We can leave you with some parts to repair your ship, but that will be all we can do.”

Why help them more at all? Eva asked that very question—she used a different wording, but it was the same general idea.

“Desperation can lead one to do things they normally wouldn’t,” was Allura’s response when they were out of earshot. “Despite what just occurred, I don’t think those two meant any ill-will toward us. If they had, I doubt they would have left Koji behind.” Eva looked uncertain at the response, while Stan’s expression darkened.

Jordan stayed quiet until he, Shiro, and Allura reached the bridge; the other two meandered off toward the shuttle hangar instead.

“Do you really think that’s true?” he asked Shiro after mulling it over some more, keeping his voice down so that Allura and Coran wouldn’t hear.

Shiro shrugged his shoulders slightly. “Honestly? I’m not sure.” He paused, before adding, “The princess had a point, though. I can name a few dozen things that happened on Earth that reflect that.” Jordan looked at him, then at the viewscreens at the front of the bridge.

He wasn’t wrong, and neither was Allura.

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

The upside to all of it was that Stan knew where all the spare mechanical parts were kept. He’d stopped by there to grab a few things that might work with the Arrow after some modifications, before heading to the hangar bay.

The current object of his attention was a module that he’d taken apart after a few minutes of figuring out which tool worked best as a wrench. It was similar to the one that he and Koji had modified and put onto one of the shuttles, and would eventually be part of the Arrow’s new hyperdrive.

The sound of the door opening had him glance over his shoulder from where he was sitting on the floor, and Eva stopped mid-step at seeing him look. “Eva? You need something?” he asked, putting the wrench down.

“N-Not really. I mean—” She hesitated, before asking a question of her own. “Um…what’re you doing?”

Stan looked sideways at her for a few seconds, and then back at the module. “Trying to reconfigure this so we can use it for the repairs.”

“Can I help?”

“Well…” It was Stan’s turn to pause there—Yellow’s presence became more noticeable, coinciding with Stan abruptly remembering Eva asking that same question before, day-one on Alwas, though then it had been referring to prepping the Arrow I for the first race.

Now that he was thinking back on it, she’d looked really downcast at hearing he and Koji had it handled.

“I don’t see why not,” he said finally, and the split-second of disappointment on her face that was replaced by bewildered surprise wasn’t lost on him.

“Is this going to be for the hyperdrive?” she queried after a minute. He nodded, before remembering that he’d meant to ask something.

“Did something happen yesterday? Koji doesn’t usually avoid everyone like this. Or do stuff like earlier.” The second part was added as an afterthought.

He wasn’t going to deny that Koji could be a little too trusting sometimes, but he also generally knew when things were starting to go bad. So the near-robbery was strange.

“No. Well, I mean…” For a few seconds, Eva’s gaze wandered off to the side, biting her lips lightly, before she finished, “He didn’t tell any of us about that burn he got shorting out the castle’s engine.”

Static for a few seconds. “What burn?”

The words came out sharper than Stan had intended, and she flinched slightly before pointing to two places on her arm. “It went from here to there. It’s bandaged up now, but it—it looked like it hurt.”

That settled it: something was wrong here, and he was going to get to the bottom of it. “Where is he, anyways?”

“Well, I think he’s in Green’s hangar, but—h-hold on a second!”

Stan had made it halfway to the doorway before she’d raised her voice a bit, though she seemed to shrink a little when he turned to look at her again.

Despite the fact that his thoughts were pretty focused on the detail of something obviously not being right with Koji right now, what bits and pieces he knew about Eva’s general personality was that she wasn’t exactly the nervous type; it was just enough to evenly divide his attention.

“Are you okay?” he asked cautiously, watching her carefully. Eva looked up at him briefly, before her attention was off the side again.

Then, after a deep breath, she got out, “I’m—I’m fine, but—a-are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he replied slowly. “Why?”

“You don’t usually space out like you did earlier.” He almost didn’t hear her that time.

“That was nothing,” he dismissed lightly. “I’m just a bit tired.” Her concern was slightly off-putting, if he had to be honest with himself…at least, until Yellow gave a small concerned rumble of his own, sending a very specific impression of someone.

The last person any of them saw badly injured had been Rick, after his accident.

Which, coincidentally, had been explosion-related, and given that they’d found almost too late that Rick hadn’t been as fine as the doctors on Alwas had thought, it almost made too much sense for Eva to be worried.

How the hell hadn’t he figured that out earlier?

“Hey, it’ll take more than something blowing up in my face to put me down,” he joked, only to have to suppress a flinch at the thorough exasperation from Yellow.

Then he noticed Eva’s borderline-horrified expression, faltering a bit. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say. “But, uh, considering I was out for a day, that’s normal.”

She didn’t reply, and Stan winced inwardly. He was pretty sure he had a new understanding for how Jordan felt now.

“Do you know which way Green’s hangar is from here?” he asked, deciding on changing the subject. “I’d rather find Koji before we get to the Balmera.” And maybe check if Coran had gotten some of that space-coffee. He’d probably need that.

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

They were still a good ten minutes away from the Balmera, but Allura had told them to keep their flight-suits on, so Koji hadn’t bothered leaving Green’s hangar. Instead, he’d gone right to the desk he’d managed to drag into the hangar from one of the empty rooms nearby to grab his tablet.

The first ordeal had been adding new lines of coding to the device so that it would display Altean—of which included more than eighty symbols. That had taken up most of yesterday.

The second had been to put together an adapter so that he could charge his tablet off of the castle’s power. Figuring out how to wire it, and then testing it in a way that wouldn’t accidentally fry the device had taken most of the night.

The third part was copying the data for the cloaking function into a blank file, which had taken less than five minutes, surprisingly—binary code was apparently a universal constant, alongside USB ports.

And that left the third and final part: accessing Green’s shielding systems. Given how easy the third part had been, Koji really should’ve expected this last one to be a whole new caliber of headache.

“I thought you liked this idea,” he complained, looking up at Green from where he was sitting by one of her claws.

It was a friendly reminder on just how big the Lions were, even the smaller two. Standing up, he still wouldn’t be able to reach the top of her paw.

She didn’t show any response, but he wasn’t really surprised by that, given the blunder that happened earlier. Actually, blunder was putting it nicely. In reality it was probably his biggest screw-up so far, ranking second only to—

He shook his head quickly, before looking at the list of access points on the screen. They all looked the same (a lot of Altean letters looked annoyingly similar to each other) to him, and Green was staunchly refusing to give him any hints.

But then again, the Lion had every single right to be angry at him, because him screwing up like that had almost gotten her stolen.

Koji paused, glancing over to the console set into the wall on one end of the hangar. If how it had just lit up was any indicator, it was the first access point in the list. Maybe the second one? A few seconds later, though he wasn’t too sure, he was thinking yes.

If only because he’d immediately been faced with an error screen.

Maybe that was for the better. For all he knew, he could easily render Green’s shield inoperable by mistake if he tried messing with anything. Sure, he could list off every feature of the programming that had gone into the Arrow’s sensor systems on memory alone, and maybe he’d been entertaining the idea of a remote piloting system for the star-racer, but apart from that, he was just a mechanic.

Definitely not a pilot for a ten-thousand-year-old sentient robotic lion.

Koji felt something nudge him not-quite-gently from behind, and he glanced over his shoulder. Then he jumped almost two feet straight up when he found himself face-to-face with Green. He hadn’t heard her move—heck, he hadn’t even known she could move by herself! (Wait, no. Red moved by himself on Alwas.)

“So you’re…not mad or anything?” he asked hesitantly.

The purr that came in response was tinged with reassurance. She was equally at fault in not being cautious enough. So, we both screwed up.

The reassurance shifted into something more like an awkward laugh, like it was karma getting back at her, along with a vague impression of the Blue Lion. Otherwise implying that this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.

Green also seemed to be trying to convey the idea of more screw-ups being likely, and that was, unfortunately, a good point. Though the chances of any future ones being as bad as what happened to—

Koji stopped that thought before it could finish.

At the same time, there was a crackling sound from the intercom system, right before he heard Allura: “Everyone to the bridge, please. We’re approaching the Balmera.”

He hissed out a breath, looking at the tablet screen again. “Could you at least tell me how to get through this?” he asked, gesturing at the device.

Green purred in response, and the error message was promptly replaced by a screen of coding.

“…you were doing that on purpose, weren’t you.”

#Oban Star Racers #Voltron #Starbound fic #Chapter 9 #Liftoff

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petitelepus · 7 years

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Decepticon For Life part.1

I was inspired by one beautiful person to start writing a Transformers story. This person is one and only @rocksinmuffin that we all love and cherish. Forgive me any mistakes, I’m not fluent in English, but I try my best like everyone else does! I hope you enjoy this story.

A booming voice from the room next to your small office was heard in every cube and room on your floor. Your boss was calling you.. You jumped up from your seat so quickly that the chair behind you almost fell over in your rush. You quickly made your way to your boss’s office where he was already glaring in your direction before you even got there.

”Yes mister Perry?” You asked, trying to keep your voice calm and panic away. Your boss would eat you alive if you showed any signs of fear towards him. Fear would have been kindest feeling bestowed to you towards your boss. The balding middle-aged man had too much power for one person only to have and your job rested in his hands. In a temperamental man’s hands.

”Why haven’t you brought me that coffee I ordered?!”

But you just brought him a cup from the workers’ break room. It was even fresh, you had made sure of it. Sure enough, the steaming cup was still on his table where you had left it.

”I- it’s on the table before you sir…”

He went mad, his face turning red like beet and he took the mug in his hand and in a second you yelped and threw your hands over your head to protect yourself from flying cup of coffee that mashed against the wall right beside you.

”I ASKED YOU TO BRING ME A CUP OF COFFEE! BLACK! NOT THIS SHIT OUR EMPLOYEES DRINK WHEN THEY’RE LAZING AROUND!”

”I- I’m sorry mister Perry!” You whimpered as you knelt down to pick up the broken pieces of the cup. ”I’ll get you a new cup from a coffee shop! I’ll just clean these and go-!”

”Leave it there and go already! I’m not paying you for doing janitor’s job, I’m paying you for organizing my paperwork and getting me a cup of decent coffee!” he yelled at, waving his arm in the air for you to go. You didn’t need to be told twice.

You quickly scrambled out of the office to your own little one, grabbed your purse and ran out with your heels clicking against the hard floor. Other workers turned to look at you as you sprinted past their little cubes where they minded their own business. Getting between you and your usually meant being fired.

Only in elevator, you gave yourself a little moment to breath. Your job was seriously some bullshit, running errands like a dog and being yelled at like you didn’t matter at all. In such a big business you might have been replaceable, but you were the only one who knew to use some of the more advanced programs. You knew they knew that you knew, so instead of firing you they made your life as horrible as possible so you would quit and they wouldn’t have to pay to you.

All those years spent in college and this is what you get? A shared city condo with three roommates, lousy secretary’s job with minimum pay and horrible mean boss? Life sure knew how to fuck you up. Could it get any worse?

You didn’t stay to wait for the answer as the elevator binged and opened its doors for you. You made your way outside from corporation’s building and rushed to the busy city’s stream of humans. The closest Starbucks was just around the corner, you could make it there quickly, get that coffee and make it back in one piece. You might even be able to go home tonight without extra work to bring with you.

Those were your thoughts until you heard people screaming. Suddenly people everywhere around you were screaming and running away as you froze on your place. What was going on? Was it a terrorist attack or flood or earthquake or something?

A big blur of metal flashed right before your eyes and you could feel your blood turning cold. It could as well have been terrorists at this point. An evil giant robot that terrorized your city just flew past you until it collapsed on the hard cement. Cars screeched to stop around the giant robot, many colliding with it and with each other in the process.

”You’ll never take me alive Autobots!” the purple giant robot screeched and sat up. It took a quick look at the cars next to it, ignoring people that abandoned their cars they had a loan on. A brave move in your opinion. You bet no insurance would pay for property destroyed by a giant robot.

But when the bot started picking cars up and throwing them at something up ahead, you found out that it actually scared you. Your knees gave up in fear and you dropped on the ground and covered your head as if the robot would throw a car at you.

The cars flew through the air and the robot kept screaming at something until it suddenly stopped. You peeked carefully what was happening and the robot had run out of cars and there was a yellow tinier bot in front of it.

”Okay, Starscream! You got the right to remain silent and only silent! Nobody wants to hear what you got to say!” the yellow robot shouted and pointed his armed hands towards the larger bot. The purple robot raised its hands in the air, but its eyes never stopped analyzing its surroundings. That’s when they landed on you.

You made brief eye contact with the giant bot and a wicked smirk came to its face before it smirked at the yellow robot.

”Why don’t you eat laser!?” the purple robot yelled and pointed his arms towards the tinier bot and suddenly shot lasers at it! The tiny bot jumped away, dodging the deadly beams and that was all the bigger one needed to launch up and over to you.

You screamed as the giant claws wrapped around your frame and pulled you into the air and suddenly you were the only thing between the yellow bot, the giant green bot that had followed the yellow one and your captor the purple robot.

”Oh no!” the yellow bot shouted.

”Starscream, put that human down!” the green bot ordered your captor. Starscream laughed and gave you a small squeeze and you screamed as you feared that he might just squish you like a bug. Suddenly you felt so much sympathy towards those butterflies you used to capture when you were a small girl. Hopefully thought the robot would let you go just like you let the butterflies go.

”And why would I do that? I see that this puny fleshy is the only thing that keeps you two from taking me in!” he brought you up to his face and you stared at his gleaming red eyes. You assume the robot was he. Seeing the fear in your eyes must have been something he liked because he grinned like he had just realized the meaning of life.

”I actually may have the use for you… So I’ll just take you with me!” he gave a high pitched laugh and suddenly the world became a blur to you as he did something with his body. Suddenly you weren’t in a giant robot’s hand but tied on a jet plane’s red seat. You saw other robots through an orange-tinted glass before everything went blurry.

You couldn’t see or hear anything else than the robot’s obnoxious laughter. Then you realized it, you were flying through the air, who knows in what speed.

”Let me go! What do you want?!” you shouted and tried to struggle out of the seat belts wrapped around you.

”Silence you fool! You’re my ticket to the greatness and glory!” came the robot’s voice.

”How!? I’m just a human! Please, let me go! I can’t help you!”

”Not the way you’re now, you won’t…! But I got a plan!”

”I don’t care! Please, just let me go, I won’t tell anyone about this!”

”Ugh, your screaming is like dragging talons against ship’s plate!” as soon as he finished his words you felt your lungs squeeze painfully and you couldn’t breathe or move. It was like all air had disappeared in the plane. You silently gasped for air, coughing and bringing your hands to your throat, clawing your skin in a desperate attempt to breathe, but in vain. You could feel your skin giving up under your nails, but you still didn’t get any air.

”Quieter now that you got no air? Puny human! Your race can’t even live without something as simple as oxygen!” he laughed at you as your vision started to go black. You were scared to death, you might just die. As you started to lose your consciousness you could only think about that stupid cup of coffee…

Everything was pitch dark. You felt light as a feather. Maybe you were dead? If the death was eternal darkness like some people said then this would suck majorly. You would go mad in the eternal darkness. Hey, it’s as dark as that coffee your boss wanted. Black as his soul. What would you give for a chance to say what you think about him straight at his face?

”Wakey wakey fleshy! I need you to be awake for this!”

Scratch that, if you were hearing that robot’s voice you must be either in damnation or still alive.

You slowly forced your eyes open and then violently gasped for air. You could finally breathe again! Your lungs screamed in pain and you wheezed as the air filled your mouth. Your dry mouth, god, you needed a drink.

You tried to move, but something was holding you down. You looked down and saw leather straps all around your body, on your legs, on your arms and stomach. You were literally tied to a freaking table like someone was going to cut you open like one of those fishes in school!

”What the hell is this!? Oh my god, help! Help!” you screamed from the bottom of your hurt lungs and immediately started to struggle.

”Aaah, you’re awake finally! Perfect! I was going to start without you if you wouldn’t have woken up.” came the snake’s voice. You glanced at the side and saw your kidnapper’s back as he was doing something over there. You took a look around and saw that you were in some kind of an abandoned storage unit, big enough to hold in a ship.

”What are you doing? Let me go!” you shouted, your panicked voice echoing in storage.

”What I’m doing is an honor for your pathetic little race! You’re getting a chance to serve the future overlord of the Decepticons! Me!” he laughed, easily overpowering your smaller voice.

”Do you robots eat shrooms or something?! I can’t help you, I’m a human, not a machine!”

”I know and that’s unfortunate. Luckily I have prepared a small surprise for you while you were out.” he said and turned around to show you what he had in his hands. It was small some kind of a cage made with wrung metal strips and wired. It looked like an ancient torture device!

”What’s that? Oh god, what is that!?”

”It’s a helmet you little bug. I’m going to put it on your head so I can transfer your mind into that bot over there,” he said and pointed on the other way. You turned your head another way and saw another giant robot lying on the ground beside you.

This one was more feminine by its looks and curves. It had silver paint and black wires and joints tying its body parts together. There was a red symbol on its chest that stood out in middle of the old beaten silver, but you couldn’t recognize it.

”You like her? She was one of my earlier war trophies. Had to get her from the moon to get her down here.”

Wait, he said he’s going to transfer your mind into that bot?! It was obviously a dead pile of metal!

”What are you trying to do with this?! She’s obviously dead! You’re trying to move my mind into a dead body!”

”Aaah, you see, I can bring her back, but her spark has been offline so long that her processors have been wiped clean! Which I can tell is a good thing because she would offline me second she saw me. But with a new mind, I can control her and make her my right-hand man!”

”You’re crazy! That won’t work! This isn’t a Frankenstein monster! You’ll fry me!” you screamed from the bottom of your lungs in terror.

”Silence you insolent human! I’m a Cybertronian, a prime sign of the ultimate race in the whole universe! I know how to connect some wires and work with neuroscience!” he yelled at you as he made his way to you. You struggled and shook your head as he pushed the device on your head and strapped it on. Once the helmet was on your head the panic and the danger of the situation settled in.

”Please! Don’t do this! I’m begging you!” you were at that certain point of hysteria, you were so freaking scared.

”Don’t worry your little head! My plan is flawless! Once I activate this machine, electric current will take a perfect shot of your little processor’s basic instincts and implant them on her processor!”

You craned your neck upwards and saw a machine almost as big as the robot that took you. You had no idea where he had gotten it, but you bet it was built by him because it looked shitty.

The realization hit you. You weren’t going to get to shout at your roommates for leaving dishes unwashed again, you weren’t going to get fired by your asshole boss and you wouldn’t get to see if Ana Sofia Calderon and Xavi Castillo ever got back together in Telenovela! Screw the rest of those things, you had to see if they will give love a new chance!

”Trust me, this won’t work! We, humans, execute criminals like this! It’s disgusting and painful and oh my god please just let me go!” you cried in horror as you started struggling again, but the leather wasn’t giving up. The robot hummed something under his breath sounded much like ’Lord Starscream’ as he plugged the helmet’s wires into the machine. He pulled some cables out of the machine and-!

Oh god, he did not just snap that robot’s head open! Oh god, you had seen every Saw movie and not even flinched, but this stuff was going to haunt you until your death. Which was probably soon.

As soon as Starscream had plugged the robot into the machine he got up and made his way to you, hovering your immobile body as he grinned at you.

”You should feel honored. You’re going to become a member of the superior species. An honored member, but one still.” he said to you, before getting up and calmly walking to the machine.

”No, wait! Don’t do it! Please, don’t! I’m begging you! Please…!” Okay, at this point you had thrown your dignity away and you were crying like a crybaby. He ignored you in favor of pressing a button and whole machine whirred on, sending another wave of tears into your eyes, ”Please… Don’t…!”

”Don’t worry. This will only hurt you, not me,” he said and pulled a lever.

The pain struck you like alighting. It didn’t sting, it hurt like hell! Your head felt like it was pierced with hundreds of knives that had been heated in flames of hell! You weren’t sure if you were screaming or not, but if you were it probably sounded like a banshee had been let loose on a rock concert.

And then, the lights went dark and you felt nothing...

#Transformers #animated #starscream #Bumblebee #bulkhead #Reader #mine #horror #torture #writing #my story #tfa #decepticon for life

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