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handy-dandy-monster-candy · 3 years

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Nymrius

Rating: NSFW Length: 1546 Pairing: Male Drider x Male Reader (both cis)

Pure filth. *Blows kiss* For the spider lovers out there.

xxx

Hanging upside down from a thread of silk wasn’t the first thing I thought would happen on a weekend evening, but I would be lying if I said it was my first time. This instance was significantly less sexy, however, and I was sure the kind of eating that was planned wasn’t the pleasurable sort. “Getting desperate?” I asked, trying to ignore the pressure of the blood rushing to my head in favour of looking up at my captor.

“Shut up,” said the young drider who was dragging me up into his web, thin arms struggling with my weight. Driders always were on the delicate side, and I was anything but; I’d make a few meals for him yet, I reckoned.

“I might have the right to remain silent, but I lack the capacity,” I said, struggling to get a better view of my soon-to-be-murderer. “Afraid for my life and all. You understand.”

“I said, ‘be quiet’!” the drider snapped, though his voice trembled.

“‘Shut up’, actually,” I quipped, letting out an embarrassing squeak when I was heaved the rest of the way up in one unceremonious yank.

“Are all humans this odious?” the drider muttered, chest heaving almost as much as mine was.

“Only the ones who don’t want to die.”

“Well, neither do I,” the drider quavered, stubbornly beginning to wind me up in his silk. “I’m sorry, but I have to feed.”

“Couldn’t hunt something smaller?”

Acid yellow eyes narrowed in my direction, gleaming in the twilight. “If you must know, no. They were too quick for me.”

“You look much too old to be a helpless spiderling. What’s the matter? New management saw you as a threat?”

The drider bristled, hissing at me. “I should bite you just to silence you.”

“But you won’t,” I reasoned, “because you don’t have the venom for it. You’re not a hunter. You’re a weaver.”

“And just what gave you that idea?”

“You’re wasting your silk on me and crying. You’re no hunter.”

Thin hands scrambled up to wipe beneath the drider’s wide, shimmering eyes, his breaths hiccuping sharply in shock. He scowled at me thunderously, and if he’d had the venom, I’m sure he would have bitten me just as he’d threatened.

“Now what?” I asked, looking up into his face from my odd, twisted angle. “You’ve either got to kill me or wait for me to die. Do you have the stomach for either?”

“I don’t have a choice now, do I?” he waspishly replied, crossing his arms over his lithe chest. “Seeing as ‘management’ saw me as a threat for their precious offspring, I now have to fend for myself.”

“And you’ve up and managed to hunt yourself a hunter,” I laughed, helplessly amused. “Let me free and I’ll hunt you all the food you can fit in that pretty belly.” The drider flushed red at my words, which was both exactly what I was expecting and a pleasant surprise. “Oh, so it wasn’t your weaving that was a threat, but your appetite.”

“Bite your tongue!” hissed the drider, jabbing me painfully with one of his hard, slender legs. “What would you know of my ‘appetite’?”

I coughed the air back into my lungs, grinning widely; perhaps the blood rushing to my head was making me more reckless, or maybe it was my own appetite rearing up for one last hoorah before I was put out to pasture for good. Either way, I found myself saying, “Put your sweet cock in my mouth and find out.”

The drider squeaked. Mortified, no doubt, and by the looks of his shimmying against his webbing, aroused. Of course out of all the driders that could have caught me, I’d been caught by a prim and proper little beast.

“Come on,” I wheedled, going breathless at the prospect of what I was suggesting. “Give a man his dying wish to make a pretty thing like you come in his mouth.”

“Oh, gods,” whispered the drider, hiding his face in his hands as his thorax quivered. “It’s a trick. You’ll bite me.”

“Only if you want me to, sweetheart,” I purred, and delighted in the way he shivered from head to spinneret. “What have you got to lose? I’m dead anyway. I might as well rub myself off against this silk of yours before I go.”

The drider swore, eyeing me venomously and shifting closer with something between wariness and anticipation. “I’ll make your death painful if you hurt me,” he warned, and I nodded as he climbed over me, revealing a silvery-pink prick almost as long as my arm. My mouth watered as he pressed the slender, tapered tip to my lips, slipping my tongue out to taste him and groaning as his slickness coated the inside of my mouth with a gentle bittersweetness. He swore again above me as I took him into my mouth, sucking gently and pushing him against the insides of my cheeks as best I could.

“So good,” I whispered when I came up for air, wriggling my own erection up against my bindings as much as possible. “Look at you, so hard for me. Having me all tied up get to you, pretty boy? Like having the power?”

“Oh, gods, shut up,” the drider groaned, though judging by the way his prick twitched and throbbed, I’d hit the nail right on the head. I slipped my tongue into the little opening at the head of his cock and swirled it about, trying to hide my surprise at the way he cried out and ground down against the roof of my mouth. The next time, I applied a touch of teeth, nibbling at the opening and being rewarded by a healthy spurt of pre over my hungry tongue. We both moaned when I slurped him back into my mouth and lifted my head to have him grind against the back of my throat, his long, slender fingers spearing into my hair as he slid further and deeper into me.

Watching him was a madman’s wet dream. He bit at his fingers to quiet himself and gyrated his hips, rocking himself into my throat and teasing his body with his small, dexterous hands. Figures that I’d find a new passion on my last night on earth, but I was determined to see this whole thing through to the end, whatever end that may be. I redoubled my efforts and relished in his twitches and moans, losing myself to the breathless rhythm of riding him with my throat until he pulled away, leaving a string of pre and saliva joining my lips with his cock.

“What’re you doing?” I slurred, but he didn’t answer, instead moving around me and shifting me around until I was on my front, knees glued to my chest with silk and ass in the air. I twitched when I felt him cut away the silk and fabric of my trousers covering my aforementioned ass, then squeaked in my own right when I felt his cock grinding against my taint and balls. “Easy,” I gasped, cheek stuck to the silk beneath me. “Easy, baby, you haven’t even—“

“Hush,” the drider hissed, pushing insistently against my entrance and making a high noise of triumph when he made his way in, slick and persistent.

“Fuck,” I wheezed, tightening around him reflexively and finding that the intrusion barely bothered me more than my own fingers.

“Oh, I intend to,” the drider purred, pushing into me with tight, shallow thrusts that slicked up my insides and eased more of his dick inside me as he went. It was tapered at the end but broadened considerably as the length trailed on, and it wasn’t long before I was sobbing for mercy beneath my unruly lover. I was going to be gaping if I survived this, and I must have said so, because he laughed above me, grinding his thorax against my back and making me moan pitifully. “I’ve changed my mind about killing you,” he whispered as he fucked me, speaking between my wanton groans and the lewd noises coming from our slippery union.

“You might kill me yet,” I managed to choke out, though my traitorous body was already starting to push back against his cock, greedy for the fullness he offered. “Oh, fuck, at least tell me your name.”

“Nymrius,” he answered, soft and sibilant, and dug his nails into my skin when I echoed it a moment later when he thrust deep into my ass.

“Nymrius,” I said over and again, a prayer and a plea all at once. “Nymrius! Fuck me. Please fuck me. Not going anywhere. I’m yours. Trapped. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Nymrius snarled, pistoning his hips into me hard enough to make me see stars, over and over again until I came hard enough that I wasn’t sure he hadn’t bitten me to make my insides liquid in the first place. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into that,” he muttered somewhere above me after several moments spent catching our breaths, and I laughed.

“I’ll hunt you a damn bear if that’s what you want. Just don’t stop fucking me tonight.”

The drider sucked his teeth. “Are all humans this obnoxious?”

“Only the ones who want to live.”

#exophilia #exophilia fic #mlm exophilia #gay exophilia #monster x male reader #monster boyfriend #monster romance #drider boyfriend #drider #Nymrius #My work

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nasabeck · 3 years

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the last 20 years playlist (spotify)

(photo credit: found on pinterest and text added by me, i assure you that i scoured pinterest, instagram and google searched the image to find the original creator but cannot find them anywhere. if you know, please drop me a message so i can credit appropriately) this playlist has been unfinished for so long that the title changed from the last 15 years to the last 20 years, albeit none of these songs were actually a major deal to me when I was 7 y/o, more like 10+ y/o. but these songs have all meant something to me at some point in my life, they represent a good time or a tough time, a happy time or a really sad time, they were the monumental songs that got me through life up to this point. there’s pretty much a tale to tell for everything on this list, so let me know if you want to hear a story about a song or band!

1. numb without you - the maine // 2. can’t take my eyes off you - lady a // 3. i’ve got a dark alley and a bad idea that says you should shut your mouth - fall out boy // 4. transatlanticism - death cab for cutie // 5. northern downpour - panic! at the disco // 6. roses for the dead - funeral for a friend // 7. beating heart baby - head automatica // 8. runaway - cartel // 9. diamond days - kids in glass houses // 10. you’re not alone - saosin // 11. run away with me - aaron tveit // 12. stay together for the kids - blink 182 // 13. disenchanted - my chemical romance // 14. ghosts - laura marling // 15. walk on water - 30 seconds to mars // 16. terrible things - mayday parade // 17. cute without the “e” - taking back sunday // 18. family portrait - pink // 19. there’s a good reason these tables aren’t numbered honey, you just haven’t figured it out yet - panic! at the disco // 20. you owe me an iou - hot hot heat // 21. the middle - jimmy eat world // 22. two beds and a coffee machine - savage garden // 23. (un)lost - the maine // 24. love steals us from loneliness - idlewild // 25. makedamnsure - taking back sunday // 26. did you hear the rain? - george ezra // 27. nicotine and alcohol saved my life - deaf havana // 28. everything is alright - motion city soundtrack // 29. i caught fire - the used // 30. sunshine - kids in glass houses // 31. slip the noose - the maine // 32. if i didn’t believe in you - jeremy jordan // 33. c’est la vie - stereophonics // 34. disconnected (live) - 5 seconds of summer // 35. time to dance - panic! at the disco // 36. english girls approximately (live) - ryan adams // 37. do you hear the people sing? - les miserables 2012 film soundtrack // 38. love to love - jessie ware // 39. you matter to me - waitress obc soundtrack // 40. take on the world - you me at six // 41. history - funeral for a friend // 42. shimmy shimmy quarter turn - hellogoodbye // 43. r-evolve - 30 seconds to mars // 44. remembering sunday - all time low // 45. helena - my chemical romance // 46. i like america & america likes me - the 1975 // 47. simple man - jensen ackles & jason manns // 48. moments - one direction // 49. this is gospel - panic! at the disco // 50. it ends tonight - the all-american rejects // 51. red sky - thrice // 52. i don’t want to be - gavin degraw // 53. ocean avenue - yellowcard // 54. i could be in love with someone like you (live) - norbert leo butz // 55. taxi - the maine // 56. passion for publication - anarbor // 57. carry on wayard son - kansas // 58. red is the new black - funeral for a friend // 59. local boy in the photograph - stereophonics // 60. the gambler - fun. // 61. rite of spring - angels & airwaves // 62. dying in la - panic! in the disco // 63. somebody told me - the killers // 64. as if we never said goodbye - glee cast // 65. three cheers for five years (acoustic) - mayday parade // 66. raise hell - kids in glass houses // 67. why - busted // 68. bodybag - hit the lights // 69. send in the clowns - judi dench // 70. on my own - the used // 71. not alone - mcfly // 72. all too well - taylor swift // 73. the mother we share - chvrches // 74. bennie and the jets - elton john // 75. beggin for thread (gryffin & hotel garuda remix) - banks // 76. teen idle - marina // 77. give him a great big kiss - the shangri-las // 78. found/tonight - ben platt & lin-manuel miranda // 79. hurricane - 30 seconds to mars // 80. good enough - little mix // 81. it must really suck to be four year strong right now - four year strong // 82. vegas - all time low // 83. champagne supernova - oasis // 84. set the fire to the third bar - snow patrol ft. martha wainwright // 85. gemini feed - banks // 86. rubber ring - the smiths // 87. this scene is dead - we are scientists // 88. wasted - cartel // 89. we’ll all be - the maine

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tenderlyrenjun · 3 years

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[2:05 A.M.]

You drag your feet into your bedroom and dramatically fall face-first on the mattress, mumbling something incoherent, even with the super hearing, through the blankets. Renjun closes the textbook over his lap, sitting up in anticipation for you to make an announcement. He waits another minute then reaches across the blankets to pull back your hair, checking to see that you are still alive. After he sees your blank stare (okay, crazy person), he reclines against the headboard, asking you to repeat yourself.

“We have to send Jaemin another letter.”

“Ah.” Renjun puts the contemporary art textbook on the night stand, freeing up his hand to thread his fingers in your hair. He outlines your ear brushing away a few strands to see your cheeks and moves on to the heaven’s pillar behind your neck, dipping two fingers in the pressure point. You jerk forward a little, unexpectedly relaxed by a treasure. Renjun thinks that you try getting into a better position and helps you lean on his shoulder. You kiss above his clavicle, wrapping an arm around it also, loosely hanging on him like a body pillow. “It’s late. Why are you studying at this hour?”

You know that he is talking about the family’s most recent addition, not the upcoming o chem exam that you are more than prepared for. Unfortunately, he has not been available in the last month to help train new members, with all the work he has for school, the internship, and Jaemin’s new stupid coven leaders rule that requires Renjun to be chained to a zoom meeting twice a day.

“The new recruit -”

“Aurora?” Renjun asks. His hand slides to your lower back, pushing you into his side, and he takes your leg, draping it across his waist. It is not your cycle to sleep yet, but the position brings a great sense of ease to your subconscious.

“Yeah,” you nod, verifying. You open your eyes slowly, tracing his pretty jawline as he takes a turn to close his eyes, almost equally exhausted. His arm raises behind his neck, acting as another pillow to slouch against. It feels like years since you two have been able to relax, despite having just went on a weekend vacation a few months before. You sigh one last time, melting into his collar during your exhale. “She’s only been a vampire for about a decade, and there’s so much to go over.”

“Any special abilities?”

Renjun leans over, manipulating your situations in a way that keeps him as the big spoon, an arm wrapped under your chin and the other supporting under your head. It feels even more comfortable. You shimmy toward his waist, hugging him even tighter.

“No,” you answer, shaking your face in his chest. Sometimes you wish his heart would be a little bit louder, because when it is this low, you know he will have to feed again, meaning that he needs to get up and you would be without a body pillow. It is the equivalent to a stomach growl. Although, his actual growls are pleasant in your ears. Still, you give in, slacking your grip enough, knowing that you likely need to drink something as well. Drinking in bed is something that he prohibited, after you ruined an 18th century duvet, but these informal meetings function like pillow talk, considering that the rather large water fountain by your window blurs out the conversation to outsiders. “She has excellent people skills, and she is very charming, but other than that, no.”

Renjun sighs. “We need to recruit new members with special abilities.”

You turn over, looking at the sparkles across his pretty cheeks, and tuck his hair behind his ears (it is not blocking his face, but the gesture is meant to be a tender display of affection, something to show that you love him). His strands start to neatly frame his forehead again, then you tangle your fingers in the ends. You reiterate his sigh, shoulders dropping with your hands.

“I know,” you tell him, fatigued by the politics and tensions. “I know, but I also don’t want to participate in another war.”

Renjun kisses the corner of your mouth, leaving his lips there too, to whisper cautiously, “It can’t just be Mark all the time. He needs a break eventually.”

“No, I know,” you lament again before repeating, “but I don’t want to participate in another war. I won’t be able to handle another loss like that.” The last war saw the complete annihilation of your coven, in terms of death and abandonment. Those who posed the greatest threat were slain without reservations, and neither of you ever heard from those who went off to fight after they left, so you assumed they either perished or took on an alias. No one won that last war, and everyone who fought assumed new identities hide the fact that they participated in the political upheaval. “And I don’t want to be like Doyoung’s elitist cult either.” The Kim Clan exclusively watched and turned noblemen for a few centuries in the late 13th century. They became the fourth largest coven, even to this day, with 29 people. “He keeps trying to absorb us; he wants you for his inner circle.” You bury your face in his chest again, trying to find comfort as his heartbeat slows and the breath leaves his lungs. “Everyone keeps watching over kids and mortals, waiting to turn them if they haven’t already, just for their potential abilities.”

“We’re all trying to protect ourselves,” Renjun reasons, combing the crown of your head. “We need to be able to defend ourselves, defend our people. We have nine members in their rooms right now, not accounting for the protection detail around the manor.” He sits up, pulling you with him, then he shakes you off his shoulder, awake. “Come on, let’s go to the kitchen and get something to drink.”

You fall back on him, hanging across his torso like asking for a small request.

“No,” he disagrees, dragging you off the comforter. “You’re not going to ruin another blanket. Come on, let’s get some blood and then we can finish talking about this tomorrow, when you’re not so exhausted.”

“Fine,” you cave, feeling slightly more enamored with him, a side effect of his special ability.

You slip off the duvet and accept his hand, trailing behind him through the corridor to the kitchen down the hall. He sets a teapot on the stove, straining a fresh pouch of AB positive over a few teaspoons of water, while you sit at the island, taking out two mugs from the cabinet below. You settle them across from Renjun and assume a seat opposite him, knowing that he will eventually lean over the top instead of sitting with you. When Renjun finishes his small tea ceremony, you stare at him.

“Is my presence enjoyable?” he joke while stirring a few sugar cubes. You nod once, slightly timid as he slides a cup to you, the ceramic squealing across the granite. “Well, then we will have to keep meeting like this.”

You roll your eyes, hiding a smile behind your nutrition. “Over talks about leading our coven?”

Renjun glares at you. “Stop using that word,” he growls. “It’s so ... cringey.” He shakes his head, “No, but I miss having these meetings with you and feeding with you.”

You sigh too, knowing what he means. The only time you even share a bed now is to sleep; your room is, otherwise, empty, for the most part. He is either studying, out of town, or in a meeting from time that the sun sets until it rises. And you are either training the new member, studying, or running one of your businesses, from the time the run rises until it sets. The moments when neither of you work are when you take time to relax a little bit, reset your minds from the 12-16 hour schedules. It gets hard, not seeing him, even if he is around the corner.

“I miss you, too,” you confess. You hesitate for a second, tapping the your nails into the ceramic teacup briefly. Renjun lowers his own mug, raising his eyebrow in a silent question, so you sigh .. again. “Do you regret signing up for college now?”

“No,” he answers near immediately, making you sit up straighter, at attention. Renjun groans. That is not entirely what he means. “I like going to college. I know it’s,” he hums, rolling his eyes and sucking in his lips jokingly (to which you roll your eyes, sarcastically), “trying, to you, but I really like it.” He walks around the island, hugging your waist from behind. “And I like that you’re doing it with me. Do I wish that we’re not the brink of war, or whatever the tensions are rising to, that keep making other clans enlist new members? Yeah, definitely, it puts a little dent in our 10-year plan, but I don’t regret this experience. I only wish to see it through.” Renjun rests his chin on your shoulder, not daring to meet your eye just yet, slightly scared of your reaction. You already were not on board with this decision (thankfully, he did not have to use his compulsion for this request, not that he would - you have free will either way, but you chose him in the end and he appreciates that). “Do you regret any of it?”

You place your hands over his, trailing your thumb across his knuckles comfortingly. He thinks, for a second, that you might answer yet, but you surprise him: “No,” you say honestly, “I don’t regret any decision that I’ve made with you.”

“Not even the time I convinced you to replace Ten’s entire blood collection with mentos in coke bottles?”

You smack his hands, then return to stroking them, alleviating any potential pain. “Do you have any regrets then?”

“Just the one,” he recalls bitterly. Renjun kisses your shoulder as another apology. Even a millennium later, he cannot believe that you forgave him, so he never forgets to show you that it was not the wrong decision to let him back into your life. “I love you.”

You spin around fully. “I love you too.”

“Wanna show me?”

#nct #nct renjun #renjun #huang renjun #renjun x reader #nct imagines #nct drabbles #nct timestamps #nct dream #nct dream imagines #nct dream drabbles #nct dream timestamps #renjun imagines #renjun drabbles #renjun fluff #nct fluff #nct dream fluff

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shulto-masusdesus · 4 years

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The Cryptid Machine [BNHA AU: Chapter 1]

Time for the cryptid machine to go wild

(this is my writing sideblog btw)

i havent written anything else in days. i pushed for it so hard. 7k in three days and its just one chapter lol, fuck (i mean i wasnt writing anything else anyway so im glad i was productive at least thanks for giving me something to do lol)

But it was also fun

I accidentally really made them into the scooby-doo gang and honestly its the best thing ive ever done unintentionally. They just fit so well

@kawaiipotatuh @vango-bango and @sooske yo hi yall said you wanted to read it so i wrote it

sorry sooske i didnt get to shiga in this chapter but hes comin,,,,this is gonna be chaptered so he’ll definitely be in this soon. definitely plot relevant because i love shiggy.

anyway A/N over time for the story

Rating: T for language and fantasy violence (no nsfw this time this is group friend story)

tags in the tags. some body horror because cryptid-related creepiness yknow. and major character death later on so yknow

if i missed anything tell me, okay now time for the story <3

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Izuku, frankly, was stunned.

“I thought it was just a hobby!”

“A hobby?” Shouto threw back what looked to be his thirtieth Five-Hour Energy, pouring syrup on the pancakes Izuku brought without paying much attention. They were more syrup than pancake at this point, but that was hardly priority at the moment. “A hobby?”

The giant frog sitting on the table between them blinked its left eye, and then the right, after a little delay. Izuku shuddered. Too much frog, too close, too much detail. Very scaly and slimy and bumpy. Frogs were not supposed to be big. But it was easily bigger than his head, almost the size of his torso.

“How did you get it in here?”

“Thawed crickets.” Shouto raised an eyebrow, as if having frozen crickets stored for a time such as this was normal and expected. Like a madman consumed by his own craft, he picked up a syrup-coated pancake with his own two hands, and bit into it. Then he looked at the mess with mild surprise, a gaze that read “What the fuck is this? Where did all this syrup come from?” Izuku didn’t have the heart to answer him. “…You’re underestimating me.”

Izuku shut his eyes, sucked in a breath, rubbing his temples. “So. You found this frog in the woods behind your house. You just so happened to have a pack of frozen crickets-”

“No, that’s not what happened,” Shouto leaned forward, elbows on the table, the plate of pancakes Izuku brought ruined and pushed to the side, with that damned cursed light in his eyes he got when he was about to tell a story, dive head-first into a theory, or conjure up a new way to ditch work. “I’ve been hunting this frog for months. I learn about many creatures when researching,”

Scrolling r/cryptids, Izuku thought. And various other unspeakable 2chan threads and dark web sites. He sighed. Those pancakes were better than usual, too...he managed to remember to use less butter…he forgot that all the time…if he was going to make pancakes in the middle of the night, they may as well be good...what was Shouto talking about? Oh yeah, the frog.

“-and I encountered this post about a kappa sighting. It was confusing, and I almost wrote it off as another incident of someone just seeing something very mundane in the wrong light - until I recognized the location of the sighting.” There it was, Shouto’s rare grin, a look very reminiscent of the cat that finally caught the mouse. “…Heartstone Lake, on the park side of the woods.”

The giant frog grumbled. Loudly. Its chest puffed a little and Izuku felt a wild fear for what a real croak would sound like. This thing was huge. “Uhm, yeah? And?”

“So I went and checked it out.” He went over to his Wall, pointing to photo after photo, and Izuku hummed along, suddenly very, very worried about this frog in the Todoroki’s basement. This could end in many ways, and a very loud croak waking up his dad would be one of the worse ones. “Found tracks. Tracks, Izuku. You have to understand - nobody ever finds tracks.”

Izuku nodded. “Crazy.” He said, noticing how the frog’s eye was starting to slowly roll around, as if looking, scanning its surroundings. He was a little bit more than freaked out. He really had thought that this was just an interest of Shouto’s. Not something he was actually going to pursue, and that it produced a very crypid-like thing, a real result? A part of him wanted to go home and go back to bed, before Shouto decided to find a demon from hell or something. Or before the frog turned out to be a demon from hell. “…Did you do a steak-out?”

“Yes. Many steak-outs.” Shouto sighed, rubbing his face. “For…six weeks. Every night and every spare minute I could get. Along with a camera live feed setup. Only today did I actually see something, and once I did, I didn’t let it get away.” His smile was so wholesome, but the fruit of his labor was probably a harbinger of the void. Izuku was torn between supporting his friend and self-preservation.

Izuku decided to call the two people who would help back him up in whatever answer was the right one. The guardian angels, Tenya and Ochako. Because he needed help.

“I’m gonna call Tenya and Ochako.”

To Izuku’s bewilderment, Shouto deflated, smile dying, abruptly concerned. Izuku sputtered, pausing in pulling his phone out of his pocket. “What?! Do you not want them to know, or-?!”

With a sigh, Shouto grumbled, “Tenya…You know what he’d say.”

Izuku rolled his eyes. “It’s probably what you need to hear, really. Monster or not, this frog doesn’t belong indoors. We could get money for it, and what if it’s a new species or something-”

The other boy sighed. “Fine, whatever-”

The underside of the frog’s throat started expanding. Izuku watched in mute horror as it opened its mouth, and released a croak.

It was louder than Izuku expected. Very much so. His ears were left ringing from the rumbling warble, but that was hardly the biggest problem. There was a lot of thudding and yelling going on upstairs, in the upper levels of the Todoroki household; the family converging in on Shouto’s basement for whatever that definitely inhumane noise was.

Shouto’s dad was the strictest father around, and didn’t allow Shouto to have friends over on weeknights, nevermind late at night; since Izuku, an unapproved friend, basically snuck into the house on a weeknight at the unholy hour of three in the morning, he was breaking many, many rules.

And a giant fucking frog on the table in the middle of the room also would do more than raise a few eyebrows.

Shouto, however, was prepared. He pushed a mysterious white jar across the table to him, and pointed to the basement awning window. “I’ll help,” He said. “It’s actually not all that heavy.”

“Shouto! What was that?! What are you doing in there, it’s three in the morning on a school night-!”

There was his father. However, aside from the actual basement door lock, Shouto secretly installed about six extra locks, so he wasn’t getting in any time soon. “Studying, Dad,” Shouto said, heaving the massive, slimy frog off the table. He nailed he tired, annoyed, exasperated tone perfectly. Izuku opened the jar, and forced down a squeak - mushy, wet, dead crickets. “There’s a science tomorrow, I want to make sure I’m ready.”

His dad went quiet, which was his “you’re probably lying, but finding out the truth is more effort than I’m willing to put in at the moment” response. Izuku’s been witness to it a lot, as this is far from the first time he’s been a Master Lock away from getting caught. Shouto gave Izuku a look, frog in hand, as he opened the small window.

“Studying at such an…early hour is counter-productive. Get to bed, Shouto.”

“Alright.” Izuku shimmied out the window, onto the grass outside, and cringed as he opened the jar and gently picked up a soggy cricket corpse. With some difficulty, Shouto shoved the fat mass of jiggling skin through the awning, and Izuku pulled it the rest of the way out.

“Don’t let it out of your sight,” Shouto mouthed, scowling a little. Most likely because he was forced to get rid of his first find. Weird giant frog or not, it was really important to Shouto, so he couldn’t lose track of it-

The frog grumbled, and started hopping off.

“Get it!” Shouto hissed, and Izuku ran after it.

It wasn’t as fast as he thought. He caught up to it easily, and offered it a few crickets to bribe it into sitting still for a moment. Shouto’s window shut, and tense yelling ensued; Shouto buying time so he could hide incriminating evidence. His dad probably heard them.

An awkward ten minutes passed. Routinely, Izuku dropped a cricket or two, and the frog stayed put. Eventually, Shouto opened the window again, glaring.

“Take it to your house,” He said. “God knows I’m not gonna get away with hiding it here.” And he shut the window.

“So,” Izuku said, to the monster frog, dropping a couple more crickets. Its tongue flicked out to grab them, and honestly, Izuku feared for his safety. “I guess you’re coming to my place?”

_______________________________________________________________

Step one; get it onto his bike.

His basket was definitely big enough for the frog. He could probably stop every couple minutes to feed it a cricket so it wouldn’t struggle too much while he was on the road. It wouldn’t end well for either of them if it decided to upset the balance of the bike on the road.

He lugged the frog into the basket - it really wasn’t as heavy as it looked - and gave it a few crickets before locking the lid. Step two; get it home. That was the easy part.

The ride was mostly uneventful. The route was mostly muscle memory, so it wasn’t hard to hyperfocus on every odd rustle and bump on the back of his bike. He stopped to feed it about five times, and each time its tongue lashed out harder and faster. His fight-or-flight instinct begged him to run away from the very real monster frog on the back of his bike. He channeled the energy into maintaining cadence. If Shouto wasn’t his best friend, and wouldn’t probably murder him if he lost it, he would’ve let the frog hop into the woods when it tried to.

Finally, he reached his plain suburban neighborhood. He considered stopping at Kacchan’s house, but he’d probably kill the frog on sight, so he couldn’t rely on him for moral support. Time to call Ochako up for an early-morning napover. She said “anytime”, right?

Step three; get it to his room. His backyard didn’t have a fence, and he didn’t have a basement, and even if his mom didn’t have a panic attack when she saw the frog, she would definitely tell him to get it out of the house. Any rational person would, really. So. Hiding it in his bedroom was the only choice.

Mom never got out of bed past midnight, so it was easy to trudge inside, to his room, and to lock the door behind him. Then the frog leapt from his arms, and hopped its slimy body onto his bed. Ew. Time to call Ochako.

As promised, she answered by the fourth ring. “…Yaeah…Deku…?”

“Uhm, come to my house?” Izuku chuckled nervously. “Shouto found…uh, a giant frog, but he couldn’t keep it at his house, so I’m keeping it at mine. I need a little moral support?”

“...” Ochako sighed, a very, very long sigh. “...”

“Ochako?”

“What?”

“Shouto found a giant frog-”

“A WHAT?!”

It took Ochako all of fifteen minutes to get to his place, on foot. She took the short route to his room - through his window - and gawked at the frog for another five minutes, school backpack and sleeping bag falling from her hands.

“He - really?!”

“Yeah…”

She stared at it for a long, long time. It grumbled again. Izuku felt a sinking feeling.

“It’s - a giant frog.”

“...Yeah.”

“And…he just…?”

“No, he said he’d been looking for it for the past six weeks.”

“So that’s why he’s been passing out in class?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Ochako stared at the frog. “I thought it was all…”

“He flipped out a little when I said I thought it was just a hobby.” He ran his fingers through his hair with a huff. “This is really important to him.”

“Well…” She mumbled, eyes wide. “We may as well…take good care of it. H…how do you get a frog to go to sleep? Don’t frogs need heat lamps? How do we take care of a frog - a giant frog-” She stomped her foot. “Did Shouto think about this at all?”

She looked at Izuku. He raised an eyebrow in return. And she fell into giggles. “Yeah,” She said. “Let’s get it in front of a heater?”

Izuku left the room, running down to the hall closet to get a heater; on his way back, Ochako suddenly screamed.

He ran to his room, and to his horror, the frog was, for lack of a better term, erupting. Blowing up like a balloon. Ochako shoved him out of the doorway, into the hall, and slammed the door shut.

“What is going on here?” Oh, his mom was up now, rushing down the hall with concern. “What happened? Ochako, very…nice to see you, but at this hour? What’s happening?”

The two teens were speechless. They looked to each other for answers, but found nothing there but shock and general horror. Tentatively, Ochako cracked the door back open.

The frog was splayed about thinly like a shed bag. Sitting on Izuku’s bed now, instead, was a girl with long green hair. And also very naked, the frog broke open and was now a naked girl-

Confusion ensued. Mom screamed a little, shocked by the frog flash bag, and Ochako and Deku screamed because the frog was gone and Shouto was now on the list of people who wanted them dead; then his mom ran in, bringing the blanket up around the girl with shaking hands and firing off questions one after another, and Izuku screamed louder because he realized that somehow the frog became the girl - Ochako screamed louder, because she realized that with Shouto’s internet skill and wide range of information sources, there was no way to hide from him.

“Izuku, who is this?! Why is she naked?!” Mom turned to him with an unfamiliar demanding tone. “Explain! Now!”

“I don’t…!” Izuku was, completely, lost. “I don’t know…! I think - she was-!?”

Ochako stopped screaming, and said, “We don’t know! She - the frog - it exploded and - it was a frog before-!”

“A frog!?” Mom shouted - his mom never shouted. Izuku felt like reality was fraying at the seams. “What-”

“RIBBIT.”

Everything stopped. Ochako stopped. His mom stopped. Izuku felt like he suddenly lost the ability to breathe, like someone clicked ‘end task’ on his lungs and his panicking head.

The girl’s eyes were very, very big, an expression of pure confusion and shock on her face. “RIBBIT!” She screeched, again.

“R…’ribbit’…?” Mom said, weakly. “What do you mean…?”

“...” The girl stared at Mom with a wild lack of recognition. Not just that she didn’t know who Mom was; she had no idea what she was seeing at all and was completely lost. Izuku was almost as lost, really. “Ribbit…”

Ochako swayed lightly, gripping Izuku’s arm. “S-so - the frog was there before - did she come out of the frog…?!”

Izuku looked at the frog flesh and slime splayed on his bed. “…P…probably…”

His mom’s expression faded from extreme shock and confusion, to general surprise. “Izuku, Ochako, please explain - what is this mess - who is she-”

“I don’t know!” Izuku burst, shaking a little. “I don’t know! It was a frog before and now its a girl and Shouto didn’t tell me and I don’t know-”

“Izuku-”

“Izuku, baby, calm down,” Mom quickly crossed the room to him, softly taking his hands. “It’s okay, I’m sorry I yelled. I’m sorry. Let’s have some tea, and we’ll talk about it, okay?”

“...O…okay.”

_______________________________________________________________

Tea with a splash of honey was always good. It warmed him down to his core. The girl seemed to also be enjoying it, if her regular sips were any indicator. Even if she was a bit tentative, slow, testing about it, each time.

His mom sighed heavily. “So, according to your story, she’s…”

Ochako hummed. “Yeah. I don’t believe it either. We should call Shouto.”

“He’d love this,” Izuku mumbled, staring into his tea. “He probably knows what…she is. I certainly don’t.”

“...Well,” Mom glanced at the girl. She had a permanent frown on her face. “We’ll deal with this tomorrow. Today, we’ll…well, It’s already five, isn’t it?”

Izuku dropped his head onto the table. “One hour. Please. I want sleep. I didn’t sleep at all.”

“Ditto,” Ochako also dropped her head, with a heavy thud. “No sleep. At all. I almost was asleep, but then Deku called…”

“Sorry…”

“’S alright….I wouldn’t wanna miss this.” She huffed a laugh. “Somehow, I’m glad I saw it live.”

Mom sighed again, sounding old. “Okay,” She said. “You only have about two hours, though. Remember, you both promised you would ride to school this year.”

Izuku groaned, muffling himself on the wood table. Ochako also whined. The girl watched the both of them curiously.

His mom agreed to watch the girl while they napped; Izuku was so not sleeping in his bed, so he took Mom’s bed instead. Ochako splayed out over one half of the king-sized bed while Izuku took up one third, sharing it because his mom’s bed was wonderful.

It was, without a doubt, the worst nap of his life. Because just as he was getting settled in and kind of almost sleeping, the six o’clock alarm on Mom’s bedside table buzzed loudly. Along with the knee Ochako unconsciously jammed halfway up his ass and her loud drool-snore-choke-drowning, he kind of wanted to die, to get some real sleep. The reason why he stopped sleeping in the same bed as Uraraka Ochako came back to him. Violently, in the form of a foot mysteriously journeying its way up his pants. She was just the weirdest sleeper.

He untangled himself from the covers and Ochako and trudged down the hall. He went to his room, intent on grabbing a shower before school.

He grabbed his clothes from his closet and was on his way to the bathroom before he suddenly recalled what happened last night. Where the fuck was that girl-

He ran around the house, looking for her and Mom - the car was gone from the driveway. His mom had work early in the day, so that was normal, but the girl was still nowhere to be seen. Where was she?!

He texted his mom urgently, and she responded, I left her at home. She should be there with you. Have a good day at school <3

One, was he really going to just leave her at home all day? And two, she was absolutely nowhere to be seen. He checked the kitchen, the living room, all the closets, both bedrooms, and their house was one floor and small as fuck, so there wasn’t many places to hide. She was gone.

And then Ochako screamed. Izuku could probably guess where frog girl was.

He ran to Mom’s room, and there she was, Ochako standing on the bed in a martial arts defensive position with frog girl sitting on the floor, blinking cluelessly, now dressed in spare clothes Ochako left here. But she still had such an alien air around her that it felt like the clothes didn’t quite fit her. She confounded Izuku on every level.

Izuku was cobbling together some way to react to the situation when his phone started ringing. He answered.

“H-hello?!”

“Is the frog okay?”

Shouto. Izuku felt a range of emotions, from relief to joy to murderous intent to numbness. “…It turned into a person, Shouto. A girl. Did you know this would happen!?”

A silence passed.

“Shouto?”

“...S-sorry, I…”

“Shouto, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just…” He sniffed faintly. “I wanted to see it.”

“You knew it would happen?!”

“No, but I had a feeling. Part of the witness reports described a frog standing on two legs like a person, and even people with frog-like features, y’know, like a person, but a frog.” Shouto sighed. “So either it was just one creature that could shapeshift to varying levels of frog to humanoid, or it was many creatures that were all varying levels of frog to humanoid. Like kappas or something.” Something tapped rhythmically in the background. “I wished I could’ve seen the shift. Do you still have the shed skin?”

“For what, Shouto,” Izuku was, frankly, pretty fed up. The frog girl was now on top of Ochako and very closely watching her, scanning her features. “What are you going to do with a giant frog flesh bag, Shouto.”

“Research.”

“Shouto.”

“Testing.”

“Shouto! You’re missing the-”

“Fine!” The other boy huffed roughly. “I’m gonna call Mei and cash in a debt to use her research facilities.”

“Shouto, I love you, but you have a C in chemistry. But that’s beside the-”

“She’s going to examine the frog skin, okay?! That’s it! Sorry I don’t have a genetics lab in my fucking basement!”

Izuku tried to be exasperated, but he ended up fighting back a smile. “N-no, Shouto, that’s not - I - whatever Mei has to do with it, it’s a nasty sack of frog skin, Shouto. I was talking more as in, ‘it’s absurd that you would want it, so why’, not ‘you don’t have the means to do anything with it, so why’.”

Shouto went quiet. “…” It was a long, self-depreciating quiet.

“Look,” Izuku said, smile fading, because fuck, Shouto drove him crazy sometimes. “Get your ass over here and help me decide what we’re going to do about her. She can’t stay here while we’re at school all day, can she?”

“I don’t see why not,” Shouto mumbled. “Can’t take her to school. Can’t let her loose.”

“Shouto, you have the skin, basically, so you have a model of what the crypid frog looks like, right? And proof?”

“Yeah. That’s the best part.”

“So do we really need to keep her?” Izuku watched as the girl tried to lick Ochako with a freakishly long tongue. Being a reasonable human being, the brown-haired girl was scrambling away before she made contact. “She’s…well, I mean, endangered species preservation, right? And - I dunno, what’re we gonna keep her for? She looks like a person, kind of…it’d be weird. Morally.”

“...How human does she seem?”

“One hundred percent. She has big eyes, but that can be passed off as a feature, y’know?” Ochako ran to the doorway - the girl opened her mouth wide, tongue flicking out, and it reached all the way across the room, wrapping around Ochako’s waist and pulling her back in. Izuku flinched as his friend shrieked. “…But her tongue is super long and weird, like a frog’s, and she currently has captured Ochako with it.”

“...Well, human meat doesn’t sit well with frogs, so she isn’t going to try to eat her. Unless she’s an adventurous type or something. I mean, she is a monster, so she’s probably full of surprises. Don’t trust her.” Shouto laughed, like this was a joke. Izuku didn’t find it very funny...How did he know that human meat doesn’t sit well with frogs…?

Ochako was released once she was dragged close enough for the girl to grab her. “So we’re just gonna leave her in my house for the day.”

“Yeah.”

“There are hazards everywhere, Shouto.”

“She’ll probably be fine.”

“But what if my Xbox isn’t, Shouto? What if she burns my house down, Shouto? What if she breaks my Xbox Shouto-”

“Forget about your Xbox,” Shouto snapped. Izuku gasped loudly. “It’ll be fine. She won’t mess with anything. I think. And like you said, if she escapes, it isn’t that bad. As long as the skin is still there, she exists. That’s all I need. I have to take a shower before school, I smell like black coffee and steroids. Later.”

And there he went. Almost angrily, Izuku pocketed his phone and said, “H-hey!”

Frog girl looked at Izuku boredly. “Help me,” Ochako begged, held captive by the two arms around her waist. Izuku debated the pros and cons of tearing her away from the literally mutant creature. What was the likelihood of survival?

“We have an hour before we meet up with Shouto,” Izuku stated flatly. “I’m taking a shower first.”

“No!” In a flash, Ochako twisted free of her bindings and was out of the room, and zooming down the hall. “You take all the hot water!”

Izuku sighed. Frog girl, covered in her own hair like she was drowning in it, stared at him with wide green eyes. He averted his gaze, nervously.

“U-uh, hi,” He said. Wow, could he be any more awkward? Well, she wasn’t human, so it wasn’t like she’d pick up on any of human societal nuances-

“Hi.”

She said. She fucking said. She said?! She said. She talked. She said words. She said ‘hi’. Whoawhoawhoa - it had to be simple parroting, it had to be just-

“Where did she go.”

Izuku felt the inexplicable urge to cry. “Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-”

Frog girl stared at Izuku, eyes peeking between strands of hair with a strange light. “Where is she.”

“I-I-I-I-I-d-d-d-d-on’t-”

She stood up, and walked past him with halting, almost jerking steps. She left the room, and looked one way, then the other. “…”

“O-O-Ochako?!” Izuku felt like curling up in a corner and sobbing wildly. He felt like he just looked into the void and it talked back to him. He felt a number of things, and all of them involved some level of existential terror. “Sh-she’s i-in the sh-shower…D-don’t-”

She was already on her way down the hallway. Izuku didn’t really think upsetting this being of mysterious and potentially reality-breaking power was a good idea. Technically, she was another girl, so it wouldn’t be that weird for her to walk in on Ochako, right? Uh.

Right on cue, Ochako screamed. Izuku groaned. By finding this cursed being, Shouto effectively turned his life upside down. For better or worse was yet to be seen. But from how Ochako was currently fighting frog girl out of her shower, it was probably for worse. Would his life ever go back to normal?

_______________________________________________________________

By some miracle, they managed to get on the road on time, meeting up with Shouto on the way. While he and Ochako rode very practical bikes, he rode a skateboard. Why, he refused to really tell. If he wasn’t wearing his school uniform, he’d look like he was in the wrong decade. And somehow the uniform made it look even tackier. But it was alright. It wasn’t like he was bad at it; in fact, he pulled many moves that were reminiscent of a certain famous skateboarder, but he was also from the wrong decade. Somehow, it suited him. He, to a concerning level, didn’t care what other people thought of him, so it was okay. Just weird.

“So,” Shouto said, cruising along with Ochako, keeping up easily despite having much smaller wheels. Also weird. “Show me a pic of her.”

“A what?” Izuku blinked.

“A picture.” Shouto raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you didn’t take a picture.”

“...”

Ochako shrugged, rhythmically tapping her bell. “Didn’t think to.”

The boy huffed. “You guys are the worst,” He said. “How are we supposed to get proof that she shapeshifted if we didn’t get the after picture?”

“Shouto, I’m tired,” Izuku sighed. “I’m sorry. But this is way over my head. I’m not good at…this paranormal cryptid stuff. It’s fun when it’s just creepy stories, but - I dunno, this is too much.” He shuddered. “She talked. Just, started saying words. Like a normal person - super blunt and to the point, but it was like she said it like that on purpose. She knew. Just like that. And she was a frog before-”

“She talked?!” Shouto’s eyes lit up. “What did she say? What did her voice sound like? Ugh, I wish we got it on tape-”

“Shouto!” Izuku snapped. “Pay attention! Forget that stuff - I don’t want any part in it anymore! I’m scared! After school, we’re gonna let her go, and that’s gonna be the end of it! Okay!?” If there’s even a home to return to, Izuku thought bitterly.

Shouto stared at him, blankly. Then he looked away. “…Alright.”

Ochako whistled. “You guys fall out hard,” She said. “I give it…three days before one of you starts apologizing.”

Izuku’s face burned. He was the one apologizing, most of the time. But not this time, He thought resolutely. He wasn’t at fault here. Shouto was going to apologize to him, for dragging him into this mess in the first place.

_______________________________________________________________

[10:25 A.M.]

nessie: im dying. im actually dying

shouto: why

nessie: what the fuck is a lamange

nessie: mange is a disease

nessie: in french it means what??? food???? kill me

shouto: it means eat

shouto: pay attention in class and you might get it

nessie: fuck you

nessie: youre the last person i want to hear that from

shouto: ow

nessie: Rip Believe It Or Not

shouto: Ripley’s I Know This Stuff Is Real, But I Can’t Handle It, Dog

nessie: nibyguvtfcu

nessie: so you do get it

shouto: get what

shouto: what

nessie: oh my god

nessie: Oh My God

nessie: you are a national treasure

nessie: you know that

shouto: ??????

shouto: ?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!!what am I missing now

nessie: shut up for a minute teach coming

shouto: well I hope not thats a little inappropriate

---

[10:30 A.M.]

nessie: shouto holy shit what the fuck oh my god what the fuck

nessie: dude

shouto: yeah I sent that without thinking

shouto: and then I couldnt send a correction because

shouto: and yeah

nessie: dude

pppppppppppink: whats happening

pppppppppppink: oh wow what was that shouto hahahahha

shouto: oh my god look it was an accident

tenya: ochako its hardly fair to make fun of him for that

tenya: it was an honest mistake

nessie: tenya coughs, “unfortunately”

shouto: say that shit to my face deku

shouto: whos on the football team huh

nessie: surprised you caught that

nessie: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

shouto: i am going to kill you,

pppppppppppink: hey no death threats on my friendly christian minecraft server

nessie: deadmeme

tenya: yes, death threats are not the way to handle strife between friends

tenya: but neither were those insults, izuku

tenya: you know shouto’s skill does not warrant comments such as those

nessie: hes gonna get a coma i know it

tenya: what does that have to do with anything

nessie: football

nessie: caveman sport

tenya: that is inappropriate

shouto: dudedudedude look man

shouto: im sorry okay

nessie: FOR WHAT SHOUTO

shouto: I DONT KNOW

pppppppppppink: wow that was fast

tenya: please quiet teacher

------

[10:35 A.M.]

shouto: look man I dont know what youre so angry about

nessie: im not angry

pppppppppppink: izuku coughs, “im furious”

nessie: im n o t

tenya: izuku i believe you are, in fact, angry

nessie: im not angry

shouto: youre angry

nessie: SHOUTO WHAT THE FUCK MAN

nessie: EXCUSE ME IF IM A LITTLE SHAKEN UP ABOUT YOU DROPPING A FUCKING FROG DEMON ONTO ME

shouto: i wouldve kept it if i could

shouto: but i forced it onto you without asking

shouto: sorry

nessie: “sorry if i valued a mythical creature above my friends feelings”

shouto: well fuck

shouto: i tried

shouto: yeah fuck you

shouto: i wouldve loved to have it

shouto: you love it when i talk to you about it so what the fuck is the difference

nessie: THEYRE JUST STORIES

nessie: S T O R I E S

nessie: I DONT WANT THEM TO BE REAL

nessie: ITS TOO MUCH

nessie: ITS SCARY

shouto: dude theres always a chance of the stories being real

shouto: you didnt know that

nessie: dontdothat

nessie: i dont want to think of them like that

nessie: no one wants them to be real

shouto: i do

nessie: yeah but ur a weirdo

tenya: foul

pppppppppppink: yeah try again

pppppppppppink: stay within bounds

nessie: are you reffing our fight

tenya: yes

tenya: go on

shouto: dude if you dont want any part of it then ill take her okay

shouto: okay?

nessie: that isnt it

nessie: because ur gonna be all weird about it and be all offended

nessie: bullshit

nessie: were gonna straighten this out here

nessie: rn

tenya: as a distraction in class.

nessie: sure

shouto: im not gonna be offended

pppppppppppink: hahahahhahahhha

shouto: im not

tenya: you will be offended

nessie: you will be offended

nessie: you dont think my fear is valid

shouto: being scared of it and pushing it away isnt going to make it disappear

shouto: theres a monster under your bed whether you want it to be there or not

nessie: oh my FUCKING GOD SHOUTO

nessie: THIS IS WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT

nessie: YOU DONT LISTEN TO ME

shouto: i am

shouto: im doing nothing but listening to you

shouto: im getting on aizawas nerves

tenya: he means respect

tenya: you arent respecting him

tenya: as evidenced by you “twisting the knife”, for lack of a better term

tenya: you understand that stories of paranormal activities entertain him?

shouto: yes

tenya: the rift seems to lay in the fact that although he enjoys them as stories, he does not wish them to be real, intimate experiences

tenya: this is where you two seem to split

tenya: because you strive to live the stories

pppppppppppink: *is eating popcorn* marriage counseling :D

shouto: i mean who wouldnt

nessie: I DONT I DONT I DONT I DONT I DONT

nessie: NONONONONONONONO

nessie: UCK AMN DO YOU THIINK I WANNA FUCKING

nessie: THAT IS

nessie: NOOONONONONOONONO

shouto: shit man calm down

shouto: so it scares you

nessie: fuck yess??? you get it????finally????

shouto: why

[nessie has left the group chat.]

pppppppppppink: dude you messed up

shouto: .

tenya: i advise understanding

tenya: not everyone feels the same way you do

shouto: well duh

shouto: but it isnt scary

shouto: .

pppppppppppink: are you hearing yourself? finally?

pppppppppppink: not to be mean, ur just

pppppppppppink: really dense :D

tenya: to him, it is scary.

tenya: and thats just how he works

tenya: youll have to respect that

shouto: but its not scary

tenya: that is an opinion, shouto

tenya: not fact. it varies from person to person

tenya: you have to respect his opinion, shouto

shouto: .

shouto: god

shouto: fine

tenya: now what’s this about a “frog demon”?

pppppppppppink: ohohoohooho

shouto: first of all, it isnt a demon

pppppppppppink: do i have a story for you!

_______________________________________________________________

Izuku settled on giving Shouto the cold shoulder. It lasted out of school and on the way home, even as they pulled up to his house. Even as he kept pestering him with his constant, creepy, begging stare. Fuck him. Because if he talked first, he’d end up apologizing. And he couldn’t do that. He wasn’t the one at fault.

The frog girl was gone. They searched high and low, all over his house, but she was nowhere to be seen. Izuku found the frog skin wrapped up in the dumpster outside, and threw it at Shouto without a word. Shouto didn’t say anything, either.

“Hm,” Ochako popped a sucker into her mouth. “I changed my mind. Two days.”

Izuku grumbled, flushing bright red.

“I find this whole story a little hard to believe,” Tenya said, and Izuku felt a wild urge to punch him. “You mean to tell me that this so-called giant frog split open and turned out to be a young girl? Who is now missing?”

“Tenya, I wish it didn’t happen,” Izuku crossed the driveway, grabbing the taller boy by his quarterback shoulders. “I wish desperately that it didn’t happen. But it did.”

“Oh yeah,” Ochako said, nodding. “It was crazy. I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t been there.” With a shrug, she added, “Still kinda in doubt. It was super late.”

“Maybe it was a dream?”

“No,” Shouto said, coming up to show Tenya something on his phone. “Pictures. Video. It’s real. The frog, at least. I also have samples at home. I did some research - actually, there are some frogs that can grow up to about the size of our frog, but they can only live in equatorial Guinea. Without the girl, the skin only proves that a new species of giant frog lives in the area unless they map its genome or something.” He shrugged. “Not the story I was looking for, but cool nonetheless.”

“’Story’?” Izuku bristled. “What are you even looking for, Shouto? Why are you doing this at all?” Whoops. But he couldn’t help it. He’d been wondering it for a while, but this was the breaking point. Would he just hand the girl over to scientists for testing if he did have her? Would they take advantage of the fact that she isn’t human to do whatever they wanted? What was Shouto getting from this? Money? Fame? He wasn’t the type who would search out stuff like that, so what-?!

“Huh?” Shouto tilted his head. “...Why not? It’s fun.”

He could scream. Angrily, he stomped back to the porch, yanking open his door and ready to lock it behind him-

-and the kitchen was a mess, like a tornado whizzed around in the few moments they went outside. The dining table was on its side, chairs thrown around, cabinets raided and foodstuffs everywhere. The fridge was open, and judging from the aggressive clinking going on, someone was there. Izuku could probably guess who it was. But why now? She barely touched anything, earlier.

And then she peeked above the fridge door. Izuku screamed.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

if anyone knows how to color text please tell me because i spent a lot of time coloring the chat messages in the original doc and im sad it didnt carry so please and thank you tell me,

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tarisilmarwen · 7 years

Text

Cracks In The Mirror: Exctracted

(Chapter One. Chapter Two.

You know the drill, also on FFNet here.)

---

There was an old story, in which a hero was tasked with destroying a cursed tapestry, without setting blade or tool to it. The clever protagonist of the tale had examined the tapestry closely, finding among the thousands of strands a single loose thread that, when pulled, unraveled the fabric at its seams.

Thrawn had the tale hovering idly at the back of his mind as his crimson eyes perused his kaleidoscope of holographic displays. Ezra's information was projected on one side, a portion of Kallus's data on the other.

Bridger was beginning to awaken. Thrawn had dispatched a few of his people to the room with... special instructions. He had remained in his office, looking over the files that Pryce had brought him.

People were almost as fascinating a study as art. Almost. Each snippet of information told him some new aspect and facet of the man who had become Agent Kallus, rebel spy.

Thrawn pulled up a new hologram. After perusing it a moment or two, he straightened, and leaned forward in his seat.

Here was something. Whenever he was stationed above Lothal, Kallus appeared to make frequent, unannounced trips to the planet's surface. From the shuttle logs, always to Capital City.

Now what was down there that he had to keep visiting without telling anyone?

Remembering something, Thrawn shifted his focus back to Ezra's files. The one he was looking for wasn't currently projected, so he had to rifle through them on the console to find it first.

A cold smile touched his lips.

He'd found his thread.

***

The guard station on Level 5 was smaller than the others, crewed by only two people. Both of which, after getting over the excitement of having a Rebel spy and an infamous Lothal troublemaker in the brig, were now once again... very bored.

One of them sat slumped forward in his chair, flicking bits of crumpled durasheet off the panel with his fingers. The other paced back and forth idly.

"So when do you think they're gonna junk the old BTL-A4s?"

The one seated shrugged. "Hopefully soon, if they keep getting stolen."

THUMP!

"Oh, what now?" he groaned, shooting a glare towards the closed door.

The man pacing lifted his sidearm, heading for the exit. "If that Nikto in Cell B-138 is banging on the walls again I'm just gonna—"

He didn't get to finish, for as soon as he punched the button to open the door he was assaulted at knee level by a powerful shock.

He let out a rather undignified shriek before toppling backwards, out like a light.

The other guard snapped his head around and had just enough time to take in the black and red metal dome and think, A droid? before an arc of electricity shot across the room to hit him square in the chest.

He twitched in his seat, comically wide-eyed, before slumping over and not moving.

Chopper rolled into the room, cackling maniacally. He smugly shimmied up to the plug-in port, extending his arm.

"No, no, no, no!" AP-5 scolded sharply, strutting in and grabbing the astromech by the dome, sliding him back. "Do not just bludgeon your way into the system! You'll set off every alarm on the ship."

Chopper buzzed irritably at him, demanding to know how then he should proceed.

"Most binary programs are reasonable. Try asking nicely," AP-5 told him, waving towards the port.

The C1 droid chirped skeptically, but slowly rolled back towards the port, hesitantly plugging in. The system registered him, querying his intentions.

"WWWwww-WUB?" Chopper tried awkwardly.

The system responded politely, asking for his authentication code. Chopper dug it up from his memory files and passed it on.

After a moment or two, he was permitted access, and suddenly found the entire network open to him. He beeped in pleasant surprise, turning his head around to compliment his counterpart.

"Thank me later," AP-5 dismissed. "Let's see about getting those camera feeds to display on the screen."

***

Kallus paced back and forth in his cell, wearing a hole in the floor. His ears strained anxiously for any sound of movement, any hint that they were bringing Ezra down to a cell.

There'd been nothing for almost two hours. So they still had him in Interrogation.

He could still hear the boy's screams as echoes in his mind. Was that why no one had been down to confront him yet? So he could go mad worrying about what they were doing to him?

Well it was working.

Kallus forced himself to stand still a moment and take a deep breath. This wasn't helping. He needed to think.

All that kept running through his head was Ezra's face, twisted in pain. It was his fault the boy was here. The Rebels had come for him. To save him. Ezra had made his dislike of him and the plan to extract him vehemently apparent and he had still come, still put himself in danger in order to get Kallus out. Absurd, but after so many encounters with Bridger, no longer surprising.

And now he was suffering for it.

And more would follow, if Kallus couldn't figure out an escape. Kallus knew the crew of the Ghost too well—Jarrus would not continue to sit out in space fretting forever. The Jedi was... reckless when it came to his padawan.

He didn't realize he'd resumed pacing until the sound of footsteps out in the hallway made him stop in his tracks. Kallus froze, listening hard.

Several pairs, heavy-booted. They were coming from the wrong end. It wasn't Ezra. They were here for him.

Fear prickled in his heart, but he steeled himself, turning to face the door. Every limb tensed, ready to jump the guard the minute the door was open.

Borrowing tricks from Bridger, he thought, shaking his head. What have I come to?

The first trooper would be standing left of the door, at the access panel. There would be a second just behind him waiting to enter the cell, and possibly a third hovering to the right. If protocol was followed, he'd have approximately two seconds between when the door opened and when the guards proceeded into the cell. His timing would have to be precise down to the millisecond.

Lunge forward, grab the wrist of the facing trooper, get inside his firing arc, stun with blow to the diaphragm. Swing him around and smash him into the guard by the panel. Retrieve sidearm, shoot all guards before they're able to sound the alarm.

Several variations of the scenario were already rehearsed and perfected in his mind when the stray thought came to him suddenly—What if the Grand Admiral or Governor Pryce is out there?—and he scrambled, adrenaline sounding stressful alarms inside him, but the code cylinder was already clicking in the lock, no time, every muscle strained, ready to move—

There was a white uniform in-between the Stormtroopers. But the man wearing it was not Thrawn.

"Yularen!"

He couldn't help the surprise—and relief—in his voice. His body relaxed involuntarily, the planned action he'd intended fading fast. He had no chance with Thrawn or Pryce. Even Lyste would probably show him no sympathy now. But Yularen...

Yularen could be... persuaded.

There was a look on his old mentor's face, a bald, betrayed sort of disbelief. "Is it true?" he asked, and Kallus's relief slowly began to morph into guilt. "You," Yularen strained, emotion clogging his voice as the door closed behind him, "are Fulcrum?"

Kallus lowered his head and said nothing.

"Are you?" Yularen pressed.

He considered the merits of denying it, running through a few different excuses in his head. But by now Yularen would know of Bridger's capture, would know Kallus had concealed the boy's presence. There was no point in hiding it anymore. Not now.

He sighed in defeat. "I am," he answered.

Kallus lifted his eyes, and almost regretted it upon seeing his superior's expression.

"Why?" Yularen asked, shaking his head like he still couldn't believe it.

Kallus gave a short, bitter laugh. "I've asked myself that same question," he drawled. "Why would I defy the Empire? Why would anyone?" he asked rhetorically. His shoulders rolled in a half-shrug, his voice lowering. "Maybe I was just tired of yelling over my conscience," he muttered.

It had been all too easy to drown out the sound of his doubts before. He still couldn't quite tell when he had begun to listen. Certainly not at Lasan, though the guilt from that day had prickled him like a festering needle even then. Perhaps it had started at Tarkin's arrival. When the Governor callously had Aresko and Grint executed right there in the office—good men, not very bright or particularly competent but eager and loyal to the Empire—it had stunned Kallus to his core. Massacring the Empire's enemies was one thing. Thoughtlessly killing their own... shook him.

But then he had turned around and done the exact same thing to poor Tua, so perhaps that had not been the true start of his turn at all, just the crack through which the seed could be planted.

Yularen spoke again, pulling Kallus out of his musings.

"But treason, Kallus? Spying for the Rebels, trading them Imperial secrets?" Yularen said, incredulously. "You knew the consequences for that."

"I did." Executed for treason, he'd screeched at Ezra, almost hysterically, just that morning. Kallus shook his head. "But I couldn't just do nothing. If that leads to my death, then..." Kallus had to swallow down the fear building up a lump in his throat. He didn't want to die. But it seemed inevitable now, so he had to at least accept the possibility. "...so be it," he finished.

He felt just a little lighter for having said it.

"But you were more determined than anyone to catch these Rebels, see them brought to justice," Yularen protested. Kallus held himself back from making a biting quip about the Empire's idea of 'justice'. Yularen gestured with agitated motions. "Now you'd die for them?" he demanded to know.

Kallus gave a grimace of chagrin. "That wasn't the ideal plan," he told Yularen. "But if that's what it takes to keep their location secret and get Ezra off this ship..."

Yularen shook his head. "I don't understand."

"I don't expect you to."

"You were a star pupil. You're one of the best ISB has to offer," Yularen reminded him, anger beginning to creep into his voice. "You would throw that all away? Throw away your life?" The stern rebuke held a touch of concern. Yularen still had some fondness for his former student, Kallus noted for reference. He could use that. The older man stilled, face still full of disbelief. "For the boy? For Bridger?" he repeated.

"Do you know what they're doing to him, right now?" Kallus interrupted, remembering Yularen had a grandson about Ezra's age.

"Questioning him, I suppose," Yularen shrugged with stiff indifference.

"They're using the Brisney-Favvin on him."

Kallus's words had their desired effect. Yularen stopped his ranting, his eyes growing ever so slightly wider. For a long time, the older man didn't speak, processing what Kallus had said.

The silence stretched out.

Finally Yularen spoke up, haltingly, sounding almost unsure of himself.

"...The Senate has strict regulations about—"

"I know," Kallus interrupted once again. "And if I were another man..." Kallus sighed as he shook his head. "...if I were the same man I was six months ago... I might have kept my mouth shut. Justified it in the name of order, of putting down the Empire's enemies, despite whatever... personal misgivings I had." He met Yularen's gaze, gesturing helplessly with his hands. "But I... I can't anymore, Yularen," he said. "I've seen... I know too much of the Empire's true face. And I can't stand proudly with it as I once did. I am... ashamed I ever did," he admitted, hanging his head, the weight of the confession pulling him down.

Yularen didn't speak for a long moment. Kallus was a little worried he'd pushed too far with the wrong tactic, as he peeked up from under his lids, measuring the frown lines on Yularen's face.

Or... maybe not? He'd known the man to react with disgust to most incidents of treason and he'd yet to hear any. Kallus chanced looking up again. Yularen looked deep in thought, eyes pinched from some internal conflict.

"How old is your grandson?" Kallus said abruptly.

Yularen stirred a bit, replying blankly, "Eighteen. Just graduated the Academy."

There was an undercurrent of somber emotion in the old man's voice. Kallus nodded soberly. "Ezra's just a little younger than him, then," he said. He stepped forward a bit, arms out, open-palmed. "Can you imagine? How you'd feel if it was him strapped to that table?"

A flash of pain in Yularen's eyes, good. Ezra was becoming less of a concept and more of a human to him, a person with feelings and people who cared about him. That was part of what had worked on Kallus—that glimpse of the Ghost crew on the Geonosian moon, out of combat, relating to each other like friends, like family. It would work here.

He hoped.

"You know it's wrong, Yularen. Please... help me save him," Kallus pleaded. He drew slightly closer, some of his own guilt and desperation rising to the surface. "It's my fault he's here. Help me make it right," he begged.

For a long time Yularen just stared at him, a private war waging behind his eyes. Kallus's body was tense with anticipation. He was just starting to run through ways to disable the man when Yularen broke eye contact with a sigh.

"...Make it look good," he instructed.

Kallus's legs buckled, and he very nearly staggered on his feet as the relief crashed over him like a pounding wave. Yularen still trusted him.

He might not understand his actions, or why he would turn on the Empire, but he trusted him.

That was good enough for now.

"Thank you," he breathed, reverently.

***

The two men on the screen appeared to be in some sort of argument. Chopper had been only paying half-attention, more focused on the camera feed that showed Interrogation. But when there was a sudden flurry of activity in the other room his motors jerked his head around, drawn to the motion.

Kallus was engaged in a pitched scuffle with a white-uniformed officer. It was intense, the ISB agent had the other man on the ropes quickly, though his opponent seemed to be giving as good as he got.

The skirmish ended when Kallus slammed his opponent into the wall, just in time for the cell door to open and a pair of Stormtroopers to come rushing in. As the officer crumbled Kallus whipped around to lunge at the first trooper, both hands grabbing hold of his weapon.

"Sir! We have—"

In the seconds it took for Chopper to cut off the comlink feed and prevent the general alert from being sent out, Kallus had pulled some trick that had disarmed the trooper he was wrestling with. Blaster in hand, the agent pulled back.

Three shots. Three bucketheads down. The last trooper banged his helmet against the console as he dropped.

Kallus stood alone, breathing hard, amidst the chaos.

"WOAH," Chopper beeped, stunned and... slightly impressed.

"Well. That was efficient," said AP-5, apparently sharing the sentiment. The inventory droid swiveled. "Chopper, see if you can patch in to the comlink in one of those troopers' helmets."

"WUB-WUB," the astromech acknowledged, his manipulator clicking in the port.

***

"Is he still awake?"

The head technician stepped back, squinting at the limp body of their prisoner. Ezra gave a low moan, turning his head a bit.

"Eh, barely," he dismissed. He waved over for an aide to bring the tray. "Better give him another dose anyway."

"We've already given him enough to knock out a man twice his size!" the first tech complained.

The head technician shrugged. "You heard the Grand Admiral's orders. Here, give me the syringe."

His subordinate sighed, but passed it over. The head tech took it, looking for a place to stick Ezra. There were plenty of older holes he could reopen.

He'd just taken hold of Ezra's left arm when there was a commotion from outside. The technicians looked up in confusion, hearing thumps, thuds, and a few shouts. There was silence a moment and then a code cylinder unlocked the door.

"Trooper, what's going—"

The Stormtrooper suddenly raised his blaster, firing a deadly red bolt directly into the head technician's chest. The other two barely even had time to yell before they, too, were shot dead.

Three more bodies fell at his feet.

Kallus yanked off the Stormtrooper helmet, muttering low curses. "Blasted optics," he complained, setting the helmet aside on the tray. How anyone expected them to see straight through those helmets was beyond him.

The agent turned towards the interrogation table, haltingly, pulse rapid.

Ezra was unnaturally pale and still as death, only the soft sound of his breathing a sign that he was still alive. Kallus bit his lip as he took in the boy's condition.

His head lolled, the movement sluggish. He was still very drugged, almost to the point of unconsciousness. His mercenary disguise was a bit worse for wear, needle holes and rips spotting it, and the fabric singed in places. Ezra's face was bruised and burned, his lip bloody, and... was that an allergy rash?

Shaking off his horror, Kallus reached for the restraints holding Ezra to the table, quickly beginning to unfasten them. Ezra stirred as he worked, bleary eyes unfocused, clouded.

"Shndn't've come..." he muttered. "...stupid..."

Kallus couldn't tell if Ezra was referring to him, or to himself. "We can scold each other later," he told Ezra, throwing off the final strap. "Can you walk?" He took hold of Ezra's left arm, slowly easing him away from the table.

The minute his feet found the floor Ezra's knees collapsed, the boy falling heavily against Kallus's side, Kallus scrambling to catch him.

He was heavier than Kallus expected. The man hefted Ezra upright by the armpits with a grunt. "I guess not," he concluded.

"'m okay... 'm..." Ezra insisted, rolling up to a wobbly stand. His shaky legs were slow to move, but he made a few stumbling steps towards the door, with Kallus's careful direction.

"Don't try so hard," the agent told him gently, slinging Ezra's arm over his shoulder to support him. It was amazing the boy could stand at all, with all the empty vials of sedatives littering the worktray next to them. "Come on," he urged.

He left the helmet behind. He couldn't see out of the blasted thing and he would've drawn suspicion dragging Ezra along either way. This part of the escape would be the most harrowing. He was counting on Chopper and AP-5 to direct him away from patrols, but even their eyes were limited to where the cameras were.

Luck would be his greatest ally here.

"Chopper, AP, I'm on my way down," he said into his comlink, as he yanked Lyste's code cylinder from the lock on their way out. Both devices had been shortly retrieved from the prisoner belongings locker. Kallus was grateful for the Stormtrooper's rigid adherence to protocol. And their assumption that the cylinder was his. His own code authorization would have been locked out of the system by now.

He hoped it caused Lyste no undue amounts of hassle.

"We are generating a general alert on Level Eight, Agent Kallus," AP-5 relayed. "That should draw a few patrols out of your path."

"Create one for Levels Three, Seven, and Nine as well," Kallus instructed. "Then cut off all comlink transmissions and internal communications for the whole ship and meet me outside the hanger bay."

"Acknowledged."

Kallus stowed the comlink. "Hopefully that'll cause enough chaos for us to slip through," he muttered to himself, half-leading, half-dragging Ezra beside him. He sighed in aggravation. "I wish you'd brought your lightsaber. We could've cut a shorter path." But then again, the boy was in no condition to wield it. They'd just have to make do.

Kallus led them away from Interrogation. Groggy, Ezra wasn't always able to keep up with the agent's frantic pace, and tripped often, slowing them both down. He lurched back upright each time, determinedly, even though the hallway rocked dizzily around his pounding head and his vision and hearing blurred in and out. His thoughts slogged through a thick hazy mire. There was something pulling at the back of his mind. Something... important. Ezra felt so certain he had something he needed to tell Kallus...

The agent pulled them back, sharply. He flattened them to the wall, holding in a breath as a pair of Stormtroopers trotted down the intersecting hallway.

They're heading for the aft turbolifts. Tube three was on Level Five. Thirty seconds to call it to this floor, then allow ten to fifteen seconds for them to board, Kallus calculated in his head.

He started counting, waiting for the Stormtroopers to be gone before he risked sprinting them towards the lifts.

Ten... eleven... twelve...

Ezra's fingers were pinching the corner of Kallus's breastplate armor, tugging insistently. Kallus ignored it.

Twenty-three... twenty-four... twenty-five..

"Kallus..." Ezra slurred.

"Not now, Ezra," Kallus hissed. Thirty-seven... thirty-eight... He pushed off from the wall and started moving them towards the lifts, gripping Ezra's arm tighter to keep a better hold of him. The boy's head drooped towards his chest, his feet leaden and sliding. His voice was barely a mumble.

"...put s'mthing... 'side me..."

That got Kallus's attention.

"What?" Kallus stopped dead in his tracks, alarm bells in his head, swinging Ezra around to face him. "What was it? What did they put inside you?" he asked. He was already scanning down the boy with his eyes, looking for anything unusual. He quickly spotted the long rip, too clean and precise, in Ezra's shirt. His fingers found the gash, felt underneath. His breath hitched, the ringing alarms in his head growing louder as he uncovered the wide, stitched-up surgical cut, running straight across Ezra's abdomen.

That's not from the interrogation, came the horrible realization.

Kallus gripped the boy's shoulders tightly, raising his eyes to Ezra's face.

"Ezra—" he called. Ezra's head started to fall forward, and Kallus turned his face to make him look back up. "Ezra, look at me! You have to concentrate! What did they put inside you?" he asked urgently, shaking him by the shoulders.

Ezra squinted in confusion, racking his brain. Trying to bring up the dull memory he had of the surgical blade and the hands poking under his skin. Pushing something in.

Dazed, he whispered all he could remember.

"...metal..."

Adrenaline kicked into overdrive for Kallus. He slung Ezra's arm over his shoulder once more and didn't wait for the boy to get his feet under him, pulling them both to the corridor in front of the turbolifts and pounding the button.

"That's not good," he said. As soon as the door opened he bustled them inside, casting worried glances at Ezra every few steps.

He pulled out his blaster. Four levels down, left turn, sharp right to bypass a guard station, a long hallway and then left again and he'd be at the hanger bay. If he was lucky, there were only about three patrols in his path. And an untold number of things that could go wrong.

The door opened and Kallus shot the man waiting outside before he'd even had time to cry out.

No time to waste. It was a long way still to the hanger, he could only shoot one-handed, and he had to keep Ezra off his feet as much as possible, so as not to aggravate his wound.

If they survived this, he was going to gray early, he just knew it.

***

Chopper rolled back and forth, swiveling every few paces, the droid equivalent of pacing. Alarms sounded dully through the ceiling above them, and muffled footsteps rattled down the hallways. His manipulators were itching to plug back into an outlet somewhere, get some kind of idea what was going on, but ever since disconnecting from the security system and leaving the guard room their eyes had been dark.

By his calculations, Agent Kallus was about five minutes late.

He beeped out his worry to AP-5.

"Bridger's condition may be slowing him down. He's still within the margin of error. Give him a little more time." AP-5's flat monotone sounded just a tad shriller, more anxious. Chopper was glad to know he wasn't the only one concerned.

Six minutes.

Chopper was about ready to find the nearest data port and demand an answer from the Chimera's computers, irregardless of how many alerts that sent out, when his sensors picked up the approaching footsteps.

He jerked around so fast his wheel skidded.

Kallus was rounding the corner, practically carrying Ezra as they rushed along. Chopper gave a worried noise as he rolled to meet them.

"What took you?" AP-5 asked, ambling along after Chopper.

Kallus grunted, leaning Ezra against the wall for a moment, setting him down gently. "We ran into some problems," he summarized, shedding the last pieces of the white outer shell of the Stormtrooper armor—which he'd already halfway taken off, trying to lighten their weight so they could move faster.

Once disposed of the armor, he reached down and raised Ezra's arm up, pulling it back over his shoulder, tugging him back up. Ezra moaned softly in protest, but didn't resist, his legs weak as he stood on them. Kallus swung around to face the C1 unit.

"Chopper, I need you to scan Bridger for foreign objects," he ordered.

Chopper grunted in surprise, but complied. After a moment or two he clicked, holographic display turning on, beaming out a wire-frame image of a small, cylindrical device.

Kallus thought several choice curse words, hissing aloud only Zeb Orrelios's favorite, "Karabast." His mouth twisted. "I was afraid of that," he said, shaking his head.

"What is that?" asked AP-5, recoiling.

"I'm not sure," Kallus replied. "But it resembles an incendiary device."

"Oh. Lovely," the inventory droid remarked flatly. "So what is the plan?"

The agent glanced towards the hanger door. "There should be two shuttles already docked. It's twenty meters to either one, a thirty-second dash if we're quick." He glanced at Ezra. "More realistically it will be fifty seconds. We'll make for the one on the left. Input the coordinates to the waypoint as soon as we're in." He sighed. "And if we're lucky, whatever they put in Ezra's stomach won't explode."

He motioned forward.

Silently, the trio struck for the hanger door, which opened almost soundlessly for them. Kallus was already scanning all around the room with his eyes, eyes and ears keened for signs of trouble.

Problem the first, there was a third shuttle just coming in for a landing directly ahead. Its ramp was already extending. Kallus hissed through his teeth, steering them towards the edge of the room.

"Stop!"

Problem the second. That was Governor Pryce's voice, right behind them.

Kallus doubled pace, trying to get them behind cover. Blaster fire singed his hair and he was forced to drop Ezra, turn and crouch to put both hands on his sidearm and return fire.

The trooper next to Pryce dropped backwards. The others came on, four of them at least, and further down the hall he could see several more. So his first few shots were aimed at the door controls.

The panel blew out in a shower of sparks, sealing the doors shut behind Pryce and her entourage.

That won't hold them forever, he knew. He tried to reach for Ezra, but a rapid burst of blaster bolts forced him to dive around behind a supply crate.

He popped up, firing and felling another trooper. "AP, get Ezra out of here!" he shouted.

But the inventory droid was cut off too, flailing awkwardly out in the open, only avoiding being hit because he wasn't the Stormtroopers' target.

Where had Chopper gotten to?

Kallus spotted him, charging Pryce with his electro prod extended.

"What are you doing?!" he yelled at the astromech in frustration.

Pryce glared at the droid, leaning back and swiftly side-kicking Chopper in his barrel chest before he reached her. Chopper squawked, teetering and skidding, trying to slow his momentum.

Kallus grit his teeth, pressing his back to the supply crate. Blaster bolts pounded into his shelter, and hot sparks dropped across his shoulders. He looked over the edge.

AP had been driven behind the nearest docked TIE fighter by the firefight. Ezra hadn't moved from where he'd fallen. Pryce was yelling into her comlink for reinforcements. Loud thumps were coming from behind the locked hanger door. And there were two more troopers on the ramp of the recently-docked shuttle.

Wonderful.

There was a clattering sound as Pryce threw her comlink, apparently discovering the ship's lack of comm radio. Furious, she grabbed up a fallen blaster and joined the fray herself, pressing in with her two guards beside her.

Shots ripped through the crate, puncturing out the other side. Kallus scrambled away, fingers scratching at the floor to find enough purchase to get up.

Flushed from his cover, with the troopers rushing him, Kallus went on the offensive instead of remaining a sitting womp rat. He threw himself into the trio's midst, swinging for Pryce first.

She ducked under his fist and nailed him in the gut. Kallus felt the breath leave him and he stumbled back, holding his stomach.

Damn... He'd forgotten how strong she was.

The troopers had hold of him in moments, but Kallus twisted out of one's grip, slashed his arm in a hard chop to the man's neck. He went down, and Kallus turned his attention to the remaining guard.

He had to hurry; the other two from the shuttle were rushing across the room towards them, and the hanger door was starting to burn down the center from an electrosaw. Kallus could see Chopper and AP-5 teaming up to shove a large crate in front of it and block the opening.

He grappled with the Stormtrooper, jabbing sharply at the man's shins, knees, stomach, acutely aware all the while that Pryce wasn't fighting him and was heading for—

Ezra turned his head with a groan. The firefight was dull cacophony in his muted, ringing ears, sounds blurring together in an incoherent mess. His whole body ached, heavy and sluggish when he moved. He blinked up from where he lay, struggling to focus his eyes.

There was a dark shape in the center of his vision and he stiffened, the breath catching in his throat as he registered short-cropped black hair and ice blue eyes burning from a woman in Imperial gray.

Ezra's heels kicked weakly, his palms and elbows scraped against the floor as he tried to move, tried to scramble backwards away from her. His limbs were like straws, unresponsive, no strength in them. Ezra fought the mud in his brain and the drugs in his system as she closed in, heaving up his torso with a burst of effort, swinging an arm around, turning himself over. His arm reached out pitifully as he tried to drag himself forward.

"Nnngggghh..." he groaned, the movement igniting painful fire in his gut.

It was a futile attempt. Pryce swooped in like a predator hawk, seizing his hair by the roots and dragging him up.

"A-Aaah!" Ezra cried.

Kallus's head whipped around at the sound, dismay on his features. He slammed the Stormtrooper in the chest with his shoulder, knocking him to the floor, kicking him square in the helmet to keep him down, reaching out a hand as Pryce jabbed the barrel of her blaster into Ezra's neck.

"Stop, stop!" he yelled.

Pryce froze with a look of smug satisfaction on her face, Ezra squirming weakly in her grip.

"Don't..." Kallus said, breathing hard. He couldn't believe he was about to plead with Pryce. "...don't hurt him."

"My..." Pryce said, as the troopers from the shuttle came up to flank her from behind, "... we have gotten sentimental, haven't we?"

Kallus dropped his arms in defeat. He didn't voice his other fear—that the device in Ezra's stomach might be sensitive enough to—

"It was a valiant attempt, Agent Kallus," Pryce interrupted his thoughts. "But your escape ends now." Her fingers tightened in Ezra's hair, twisting, making him wince. "You are going right back to Interrogation," she hissed in the boy's ear.

A stun bolt suddenly hit her from behind, square in her back. Pryce's eyes widened in shock, her body stiffening, tilting as she fell senseless.

Kallus rushed forward to catch Ezra, looking at the Stormtrooper who'd fired the stun shot in bewilderment.

The trooper removed his helmet, revealing a bearded face with scarred eyes, and Kallus's relief could have powered a starfighter.

"Jarrus..." he breathed.

---

Chapter notes!

1. Kallus used the Persuasion Check "make Ezra out to be as innocent and helpless as possible". I mean, it would definitely work on me, so...

2. I always kind of appreciated the fact that just because Kallus switched sides he still wasn't a very nice character. He was still coldly calculating and manipulative and brutal. Hard to unlearn all his Imperial ways right off the bat. So some casual Stormtrooper murder because Kallus is ruthlessly effective like that.

3. ...Probably actually why Chopper likes him so much.

4. The tapestry myth Thrawn muses on is made up, but I tried to make it sound like something that could come out of Greek myth, a la the Gordian Knot, or Theseus in the labyrinth. The Chimera is also a creature from Greek myth. So yes, the parallels are deliberate.

5. Do not threaten Space Dad's kids. It will not end well.

Chapter Four is in the works, as I said, and will be finished soon.

#star wars #star wars rebels #spoilers #ezra bridger #agent kallus #grand admiral thrawn #prompt fics #fanfiction

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