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girlhomosonly · 3 years

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Nobody’s Fault But Mine [ Original!Percival Graves one-shot ]

I had originally written this back four years ago when the FBAWTFT fandom was in full swing. This one, however, is a rewritten version that was published on a few other sites four months ago. I decided to post it here.

So, with that said. This is the rewritten version of “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” the last moments of Percival Graves.

The room was dark, lacking any source of natural light. Only a dim light was hanging from the ceiling. The prisoner was chained to the wall and was locked in a magic-built cage. The cage itself was not made with typical metal rods but invisible rods that taunted the man. If he somehow escaped his chains, he would not have been able to escape regardless. The magic was specifically constructed to keep him in. One touch could be fatal to his already fragile state.

It felt like forever ago since he last felt the warmth of the sun. The room itself was damp and cold, his clothes of what was left did not help retain any heat. He wishes he did not take the simple pleasures in life for granted. Percival dearly missed the feeling of the sun enveloping him that almost felt like a loving embrace.

Percival does not know how long he was imprisoned by the Dark Lord but it truly felt like an eternity.

The night he was bested by that bastard keeps replaying in his mind. He wishes he can go back to that night. Word got around saying that Gellert Grindelwald was on the prowl and what did the Director of Magical Security, head of MACUSA's Department of Magical Law Enforcement do? He simply walked back home after a long shift at the office with his Elite Aurors. He did not think much of anything out of the ordinary - his home had protective wards after all. Yet, the cunning bastard must have been watching him for months, dare he say years? He was caught off guard and woke up to see a pair of mismatched eyes staring him down.

Percival thinks of the different ways he should have defended himself. He can say with confidence though, he put up a good fight against the bastard. Until he was shot with an intense cursed spell that should have cost Percival his arm.

Alas, no matter how he should have gone about the intrusion, he is still here. In this cold, damp room. Where he slumps against the wall, farthest from where Grindelwald would be outside the cage.

With a wheezy sigh, Percival slumped even more and he decided to just lay down. He winced as his body's wounds and infections screamed in protest at the movement. His eyelids grew heavier, and since there was nothing else to do besides sleep, wait for the Dark Lord to arrive to feed and water him.

He had been losing hope of getting rescued anyways...

What?

Lost hope?

Percival, if he had the energy, would have cursed himself. His father up above would surely get his wand in a knot if he found out his son was thinking like this. That thought alone made the corner of his lip twitch up in an attempt of a smile.

Graves worked with wizards and witches that trained and studied vigorously to become Aurors. He personally trained most of the ones on his Elite team back in the day. He was known to be one of the greatest Aurors, incredibly skilled with an honourable sense of justice. His team respected him, as well as his long-time dear friend and boss Madame President.

Considering they were up against a madman, he understood that his people would need time to figure out the Grindelwald imposter.

Surely, Miss Porpentina Goldstein unravelled this dilemma. She was headstrong and a valiant Auror. There was no doubt she would have suspected something out of the ordinary by now.

The young woman reminded him so much of himself. The main focal point of taking Goldstein under his wing. At the beginning of her training days, she already had a strong desire to stand up for what is right, sought justice with her people, her community just like he had. Percival knew she would one day be an excellent addition to his team, not to say he already saw a huge amount of potential in her. Which is why he pushed her harder than anyone else. He is certain Goldstein will surpass him and succeed in this career far more than he could.

Restoring his dwindling faith, his eyes finally shut and he fell into a dreamless slumber.

Days passed him by.

And he wondered why Grindelwald did not show.

Eventually, he stopped feeling the hunger pangs. However, every movement jostled Percival's already disgruntled body, driving needles and pins throughout his body, his back, his skull... everywhere. It even felt like his bones were aching.

Wallowing in his seemingly never-ending pain, he did not hear shuffling in the darker part of the room. It was only when a sound coming from the cage did the man put his guards up. The sudden sound of the invisible cage zapping something. There were no sounds of distress or pain following.

"W-Why did you lie to me?" The voice was soft yet held betrayal and hurt within its tone.

Turning his head to the source, he instantly froze.

Credence.

Struggling to get up, he saw the same pale young boy but this time there was black smoke surrounding him, flecks that strayed too far from the boy descended to the floor. His eyes were white, dark circles hung below his more sculpted face.

The boy's voice cracked. "You hurt me. They are gone because of me."

"I know, my boy. I know. I apologize, I-I promised to teach you." Percival's words were hushed, having needed more energy to speak. His face scrunched up, tears stinging at his eyes.

Was it his time already? He has never had hallucinations before.

"You are a coward. Who is weak and useless." Credence hissed venomously.

"I failed you-"

"You promised me, Mr. Graves!" roared Credence.

Percival shut his eyes tightly, emotional and physical pain washing over him, overwhelming him. He uttered to himself, apologizing for being such an incompetent wizard, for letting this young boy down...

He did not know when the hallucination of Credence subsided but the words still echoed through his mind.

Coward.

Weak.

Useless.

Was he truly what Credence said? Possibly. He would not be here if he wasn't. However, the words cut harder than he thought. He wondered what his Aurors would think of him when he was found.

Would he ever be trusted again to be their Director?

Madam President Seraphina, one of his oldest and dearest friends. She must be so disappointed. His underling, Tina Goldstein must be mortified with the fact the "greatest" wizard in her department was so easily defeated. Credence must have been so hurt when Percival stopped showing up on Tina's behalf.

His pain was steadily going away.

It brought him some comfort, he will only be dealing with his emotional turmoil.

Or...

Nothing at all...

He realized he found it difficult to keep himself conscious.

"I suppose... no... Nobody's fault. Bu- but mmm...ine."

And just as Percival Graves exhaled his last breath, a loud rumbling noise and lights came flooding into the room. Voices of people talking in ushered tones as magic spelled around him...

Rescuers.

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lowrollshighhopes · 3 years

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Sunland Episode Sixty-five: The Journey South

The prisoner was turned over to the next chain-gang the party overtook, and a while later they passed through the work camp, where the convict labourers were working on the Road, beyond it, the dirt wagon path stretched on to the East, where it eventually ended at the frontier town of Breaking Point, beyond the mountains.

Long before then, however, Sal turned his caravan off the road and onto a path south, and they arrived at Kragdigger mine. The isolated dwarven settlement was eager for news, as well as the supplies Sal had brought, and the party were made welcome for the night. The next day they parted ways with Sal, and headed south from the mine on their own.

They saw no other humanoids for several days, until they investigated the sounds of a large animal in distress within a small, scrubby patch of forest. They encountered a few crude traps, and noticed some goblins.

The creature was a huge mossy beast, and the goblin tribe were attempting to subdue it, harrying it and attaching themselves with ropes and harpoons. The party drove off the goblins and Cam spoke with the tormented beast, advising it to head back east, away from goblin territory. They left it peacefully eating a tree-trunk, and while they saw the occasional goblin for a day or two after, they were given a wide berth.

One still morning, the party noticed a column of smoke in the near distance, and upon investigating found a small valley that had recently suffered a grass fire, a fallen tree within it was still smouldering; the source of the smoke.

On the blackened ground, there were several repulsive, oily patches, and the party realised they'd seen such things before, when the chittering aberrations and their kin died, this was what was left behind.

George noticed a single horse and rider trailing them, and the party set some decoys on their horses and hid to ambush their stalker. He appeared to be a human with a big white bushy beard but after Hope commanded him to dismount, and ran up to grab his horse, it was a woman's voice who answered her.

Princess Telula was determined to come with them, to try and understand her dragon half better, and see the city the hag had promised was hers. Her father believed her back at the Academy, and the Academy believed her still in Silring, and she pleaded with the party to let her accompany them. She promised to stay out of danger if possible, and that she'd pull her weight around camp, and the party was sympathetic to her cause and agreed to let her travel with them.

Despite offering to help keep watch, after days of camping alone in the wilderness she nodded off at the earliest opportunity. Harmony was sharing her watch, and let her sleep.

The wind blew from the south, warm and carrying traces of smoke. One night on watch Hope noticed some earth disturbed on the edge of camp, and when she finished her watch and returned to her tent she found dirt on her bedroll and Cam's pack was gaping open. Upon waking Cam and investigating, a whole lot of rations were missing.

George set out some rations on his watch to try and tempt out the thief, but it was in Telula's tent that he heard the sound of breaking earth. Quietly investigating, he found a small cat-like creature wearing a woven reed bandanna and carrying some kind of tool digging through Telula's pack. When George spoke it grabbed a bag of rations and attempted to burrow away, but George dived forward and rescued them as the Princess woke up.

Cam set out some goodberries during her watch and saw the creature sneak back to collect them, but it burrowed away when it saw her.

The next day saw smoke billowing from a new grass fire only a couple of miles off, and the party rode to investigate. Over the crackling of flames it was possible to hear the chittering of the spawn, and the bellowing of a beast. In the smoke above, a very large dragonfly, two feet across made of fire described figure eights in the air and spat gobs of fire downwards.

Telula took the spooked horses, minus Gabe, somewhere safe and the party moved in. Through the smoke they saw the unearthly spawn swarming over a large, yellow lizard who was biting and rolling on them. When George started firing arrows and Cam brought down the moonfire, several broke off to meet Hope and Harmony on Gabe.

The smoke was choking and blinding by turns, and Cam assumed a fire elemental form, but the creatures started to die, and as they did so they melted into oily patches, a single flame flickering where they fell.

Only a couple of the creatures were remaining when one leaped onto the back of the heavily-injured lizard and killed it, but rather than leaving a corpse, it vanished and a tall, hide-clad figure with a large thorny club appeared in its place. Hope had shrouded herself in darkness, and thus no one could see as she cleaved through all but one of the remaining spawn.

The spawn dead, the party stood on the burning battlefield with the stranger, a furbolg, as the flaming dragonfly alighted on his wrist.

#lrhh #lrhh: sunland

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wellimagine-that · 6 years

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Smoke and Mirrors Pt. 1

Summary: Six months after a nasty break-up with Jason Todd, a case you’ve been leading brings you two back on a collision course. Pt. 1 of a series; also, it’s my first time writing for Jason Todd, so...

Warnings: mentions of human trafficking

Word Count: 874

The hum of the elevator rang in your ears, the implicit rhythm helping you stabilize your breathing. You could tell he was trying not to look at you directly but his efforts were failing. Twiddling his fingers around their respective guns’ triggers, his nervousness was obvious.

Jason Todd was a good man. He was good at what he did. Beyond the cigarettes and cursing, he had a big heart. But maybe there hadn’t been enough room in that heart for you. Everyone could tell the break-up had been bad. For nearly three weeks, it had been the prime topic of discussion in the Manor (when Jason was elsewhere, of course). You hadn’t remembered how mad he made you until you were so close to him. He hadn’t done anything to you today. At least, not yet. But after half a year, you were still fuming.

It was probably for the better that you had limited interactions with the Bat Family. When you came across information that you thought needed to be passed on, you contacted Bruce directly. And being a private investigator with cases involving some of the city’s dirtiest crooks and cops gave you access to a lot of that kind of information. You usually relayed what you knew and trusted that the Bat would do what was best. On this last case, things had gotten personal.

For the last four months, you had stalked, dissected and tracked a metahuman trafficking ring. You began to understand the warning signs of a metahuman abduction and kept Bruce updated. Maybe if you hadn’t been (stuck) spending your days watching the traffickers from your car and taking notes, you might have thought through intervening more carefully.

Following one of the cars you had labeled as belonging to the gang, you drove to a park and observed as the men inside directed their attention at a young girl on the playground. Inconspicuous, you could tell that if someone wasn’t looking for them, they could creep in silence. Looking at the girl, you saw that something about her seemed different. She glowed lightly in the soft autumn breeze and bent the metal chains of the swing to carry her higher. A child that could control metal. Powerful? Absolutely. Uncontrollable? Probably. You could see why they would want her; it was scary how you were beginning to see how the traffickers would see dollars and figures in place of a human being.

From the pattern you saw, the ring would watch the victim and abduct them when they were alone. Now they should stay in the car, stay unseen, stay out of the picture. The playground was much too crowded to pull off a kidnapping without witnesses. When one of the men opened the door to the car and kept on his eyes on the girl, you automatically followed. Shuffling to the playground, you took a more direct route than the intruder, who would look a bit suspicious if he came in alone.

By the time you saw the gun on his belt, it would be too late to get all the civilians away from the scene. Just as the man began to creep within twenty feet of the girl, you caught his attention and looked him deliberately in the eye. Scare him off. Buy more time. You made your own move to grab your weapon, but before you could bring out the pistol, the kidnapper dispersed a series of gas bombs that left you on your knees. Heaving and feeling heavy, you barely registered the shot as the bullet skimmed your left arm. It was a painful warning from the gang; you knew that if the man saw you again you would get a bullet to the head. In the last moments of consciousness, you pressed the distress button Jason had given you in case of emergencies, knowing already that the girl must be gone. Her wails were becoming more muffled as darkness overcame you.

You woke up to find Dick nearly cradling you in his arms, calmly coaxing you awake. The heaviness you feel in your limbs makes you question your ability to stand without help. You were glad it wasn’t Jason holding you, but also knew that he wouldn’t have had the nerve to touch you like this. With Dick, it wasn’t intimate in that way. You had gotten to know and trust each other, always knowing you were nothing but friends. Still, you can sense Jason nearby.

“He’s looking around for clues,” Dick said, already knowing where your mind was wandering, “Said he recognized some of the weapons-“

“Something bad is coming, Dick, I can feel it. Something big.”

“Y/N, we can focus on the case once we figure out what you were hit with. We’re lucky the bullet passed right through your arm, and not your chest. We need to get you back to the cave. We’ll talk about the case later.”

You try to protest, but realize there is nothing left to say. Before you can register being placed on the bike, you can feel the weightlessness in your legs as you race along the city streets, resting on Dick’s back. In fleeting moments, you can sense the smell of cigarettes beside you.

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