#sir please slow down the spaceship she will not stop
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Chapter 2
Taglist: @hyperfixated-homo, @cryingrainbowsandrocksongs, @duck-in-a-spaceship
If anyone would like to be added to the taglist, please tell me!
Words: 2218
CW’s: Death, transphobia, misgendering, homophobia, religion(fantasy), fighting, ableism
Before we get into the chapter, bold means the character is speaking in draconic, italics means the character is speaking in sylvan, small means that they are speaking in elvish, bold italics means the character is speaking in celestial, small italics means the character is speaking in dwarvish and normal text means the character is speaking in common
It’s been 2 days now, it’s the 5th of Alcoranth. At around five in the morning, Jökull arrives in Phontore. ‘Such a small little town for something so monstrous to occur,’ he thought to himself. ‘Well whoever’s doing this I will bring them to justice, and they will serve their time.’ With that he starts to wonder how he should celebrate the Feast of Heroes in a month. Usually he buys some wolf meat, a specialty in the mountains. Maybe the famous Brandenberry wine, a snow elf specialty. It was important to celebrate all of the victorious heroes of Joraglon. And maybe one day Jökull would be one. Someone the creatures can look up to, and say he was a defender of the innocent. He was the best. That’s always been his goal. The carriage slows to a bumpy stop, and Jökull shakes himself from his thoughts. As he gets out of the carriage, he assesses the pain in his legs. ‘Not too bad, I should be able to walk without it today.’ With that, he gets all his stuff, mainly just his wheelchair, and the go bag he always has on him in case of any immediate cases like this one, out of the carriage. With that he checks his crystal. It’s around 5:05 now.
It’s been 2 days since the bard arrived. Now the 5th of Alcoranth. If Esmera remembers correctly, it should be planting season for some of the farmers who worship Rae soon. While this planting season is seen as the best time to start growing crops by most people, the ones who worship Rae tend to always have the best crops during the harvest season. While she doesn’t worship any one overseer, she does respect those who do. Anyways, it’s been 2 days since Izosul came to her shop, and she’s been working ever since. They were helpful for more than just songs. If anyone came in to threaten or misgender her, they’d take care of it. And it was a lot less stressful to have someone in her corner, that wasn’t part of her guild that was scattered throughout the land. It felt nice to have a friend. Currently Esmera is waiting for her friend to get to her shop, when she notices a snow elf, in full paladin armor, walking around pushing an empty wheelchair. ‘To each their own,’ she thinks to herself, then she notices one of the village kids start crying and pointing to the wheelchair. ‘There goes my peaceful day.’
“Mommy, I wanna ride in it!!!!” The child screams. As Esmera pays attention to that, she notices the kid is human, and if she’s correct, the son of the sheriff in this town. Knowing that, she also knows that the mother is probably going to demand that her son sit in the chair. And surely enough, the woman who goes to pick up the little kid is the sheriff’s wife. Putting up the will be back soon sign on her counter, she goes out of her shop to help this snow elf. After all, they're going to need all the help they can get with the sheriff’s wife.
“Good sir, surely you’d allow my kid to ride in the wheelchair, since no one is using it.” Her voice was dripping sweet as honey, with a poisonous underbite. Esmera could tell what was coming next, “after all, I am the sheriff’s wife.”
“I’m sorry, but this wheelchair is actually for me, I use it on especially bad days for my legs. And I don’t let anyone take a ride in it.” The paladin answered, Esmera was almost there. She had her ears down and her tail was swishing a bit. Ready to tell the sheriff’s wife off.
“Your hearing must be as unreliable as your legs, I’m Lorian Cladsone. The wife of Girfith Cladsone. I demand you let my child sit in that wheelchair!”
“Well that was unnecessarily rude. And I get that you’re the sheriff’s wife, you’ve said that twice now. That has nothing to do with your child riding in my wheelchair, which the answer is still no.” Seeing the tense position that the snow elf was in, and hearing the shock and upset in their voice, made it clear to Esmera that they’ve probably never dealt with rudeness like this before. Before Lorian can say whatever it is that she opens her putrid mouth to say, Esmera speaks up, hissing a little as she speaks.
“Shut it Lorian, they said that they don’t want your grimy little Koluaok spawn. And honestly, no one likes to hear whatever it is you have to say. You’re an entitled, arrogant brat, and so is your son.” Esmera hears this woman gasp, and winces a bit when Lorian practically shrieks her next words.
“How dare you! How dare you call my son a Koluaok spawn! He is nothing of the sort, He is a little angel. If anything he’s the spawn of Joraglon-”
“No offense mrs, but if your son was the son of Joraglon, he’d be a lot more behaved. The principles of Joraglon would be more instilled to him at a young age. Not only that, but Joraglon is one of the gods who doesn’t lay with mortals. However, I also doubt that he’s the kid of Koluaok, because as much as your kid needs to learn respect, he is in no way evil.” Esmera looks at them confused, have they never heard of that saying before? Okay then.
“Hey, snow elf, we should go.” Esmera states, wanting to be done with this. Although, if she has to deal with more of the sheriff’s wife, she would. They look at her, and just nod.
“We’re done here.” They say turning around their wheelchair and following Esmera. “Ah, I should introduce myself, fair creature, for my name is Jökull, and I use he/him pronouns.”
“Esmera, she/her. Sorry about them, I wish I could say that it wasn’t normal.” Esmera looks at the time on her crystal real quick, it’s 5:10. If only Izosul was a morning creature, but they aren’t for some weird reason. Leading Jökull back to her shop, she sighed a bit. Jökull looks around the shop a bit, before he notices the banner.
“Are you part of Ashkoroth?”
“Yeah, I’m a member of the guild. Why?”
“I was just wondering if you could tell me a bit about them.”
“Sure.”
With that the two start talking about the guild for a few minutes. It takes about five minutes before Izosul shows up at the shop.
It’s about 5:00 and Izosul has barely woken up. Slightly annoyed that this whole town is up at around 4:30. But that’s how small towns work, especially more farm based ones. They know they’re from a small town like this, but they’ve lived in the city for so long that they aren’t used to waking up this early in the morning anymore. It takes ten minutes for Izosul to get ready, and they start to trudge up to Esmera’s shop.
As they walk up there, they notice a new creature, what looks to be a blue elf, talking to her. Izosul notices that it starts out looking friendly, but then Esmera starts looking more and more stressed. They go over close enough to partially listen in.
“This is starting to sound more like an interrogation than anything, ha ha.” Esmera states, with the look on her face saying she was not okay with where this was heading.
“Well it’s not an interrogation per se, but I am trying to figure out more about these people because of my investigation.” The blue elf-like creature says, obviously nervous, about what though, Izosul didn’t know.
“Investigation into what?! What could they possibly do? There is nothing suspicious about them!” Obviously upset, she was practically yelling at the creature.
“Murder.” And now would be a good time to make their presence known wouldn’t it. With that, Izosul purposefully steps on a twig.
“Hey Esmera, and whoever you are,” gesturing towards the blue creature, “what’s going on?”
“Well I’m Jökull, he/him-”
“He’s accusing my guild members of murder, Izosul, murder! Can you believe it, who does he think he is!” Esmera cuts him off, agitated with what this Jökull had been saying.
“Ah, I was hoping to keep the investigation on the downlow.” Jökull explains, a little annoyed. “Look, all signs point to them currently, obviously this is still under investigation and we could be looking in the completely wrong place-”
“You are definitely looking in the wrong place.” Esmera hisses, cutting him off again.
Before this goes any further, Izosul decides to do something about the fight that will happen if they both don’t stop.
“Hey, what if we went and investigated the murders, figuring out the culprit or culprits together. If it turns out to be a guild member, then we’ll deal with that then, same thing if not.” Izosul hopes they both agree to that. “Plus what murders are we even talking about?”
“I assume you’ve heard of the Mycelium Menace?” Jökull asks, seemingly unsure of what else to say.
Esmera pales a bit, and takes a minute before she says, “if you’re looking into something this dangerous, you’ll need back up, plus I need to prove my guild members aren’t responsible for this.”
Jökull nods, understanding the commitment to prove someone you hold dear innocent, hoping it’s a misunderstanding. “Of course, however if I allow you two to tag along, I need to know that you won’t look into my case file, as it’s purely confidential.”
It’s early morning, and Vraefnael is just waking up. Fae are filled with content, just looking up at the fading stars in the sky. After surveying faer surroundings, Vraefnael starts faer walk around the place fae live in. It’s too bad faer wolf pack is gone, most had died years ago the rest had left to another part of the forest, but Vraefnael still lives in the cave that they had left behind.
After a while fae heard some footsteps, and the crunching of leaves. As Vraefnael goes to investigate, fae hear noises in different pitches. However, fae can’t understand what it means, and it’s annoying faer. As Vraefnael walks towards the noise cautiously, fae start seeing creatures. Fae notice as one of them, with ears and a tail, pulls back the one with two different colors of skin from falling in Vraefnaels giant mushroom friend’s footprint. And also one of them is blue. Wondering if they’re here to destroy Vraefnael’s home like the others, fae get closer watching them carefully as they all communicate with each other in a language Vraefnael doesn’t understand.
It takes a few minutes of all three of the creatures looking around, before it happens. Vraefnael feels something tackle faer, even though fae haven’t heard or seen anything other than these creatures. Giving a loud shout fae immediately regret everything, fae should’ve just killed these weird creatures, not giving them a chance.
All three creatures venture towards faer, and then look at Vraefnael with confusion and a bit of fear in their eyes. As all of them draw their weapons, Vraefnael casts a spell, a spell that shakes everything around them. The one with ears and a tail and the person that they pulled are pushed away, taking a bit more damage than the blue one who braces themself and stays where they are. The blue one shouts something at faer, but Vraefnael can’t understand what they’re saying. However Vraefnael does try to repeat what is being said.
“What is adest?” All three creatures look at faer confused. Then the blue one speaks again, but again, Vraefnael doesn’t understand. Then all of them start speaking to faer again, but in obviously different languages. And again, Vraefnael doesn’t understand them. That’s when the one with two different colors of skin comes over and leans down and holds out a hand to faer. It takes a minute, but Vraefnael eventually understands that this creature isn’t trying to hurt faer. Taking the hand, Vraefnael is pulled up from faer position on the ground, and all of them start walking away from the forest.
It takes a few minutes for Vraefnael to realize that fae are being led to the tiny civilization that fae got the tiny crystal from. Feeling a bit confused, fae look at the one whose hand fae are holding, and they offer a nice smile. All four of them walk towards this weird looking place, made of wood, and having a closed opening thing. Fae doesn’t understand why one would have an opening that can be closed, but then again, small civilization place is weird. Fae meet another two leg walking creature inside. This one is greenish-gray in color. The one who is holding faer hand, turn and gesture to Vraefnael, and it takes faer a minute to realize that this creature wants faer to talk.
“Who are you?”
“I am Galroth, the village linguist.” Then Galroth turns to the other three and tells them something. Vraefnael on the other hand is confused.
“What is village and linguist?”
“I will tell you more in the morning. If you stay the night, of course.”
“Okay.”
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#corruption and it's depth#vraefnael#vrae#esmera#izosul#jökull#transphobia#homophobia#death#fighting#writing#writeblr#story#original story#author#authors of tumblr#writer#writers of tumblr
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Bonds
Masterlist
Pairing: Ok, so I decided this story is going to be a slow-building Wrecker x OC.
Words: 9945 words
Warnings: Canon violence, cursing.
"This is not an option." Sergeant Hunter's voice broke the tense silence weighing down the Havoc Marauder. How he managed to control his voice enough to keep it level was a mystery and truly, it was admirable, but his stubbornness was annoying. Layla clearly saw how he shook moments ago. He and his brothers were now huddled together in an attempt at sharing body heat while blankets were draped around their shoulders to keep the meager heat from escaping into the cold room that was the barracks.
Today marked the Bad Batch's eighth day on Hoth after they were shot down by a bounty hunter ship that was after a relic she managed to secure right before the cave it was in exploded, thanks to a certain clone. The systems of the ship were out and needed repair in order for anything in the Marauder to function, depriving them of heaters and comms to ask for help.
The insulation of the Havoc Marauder was as good as a spaceship could get, but whenever the door opened and closed to let Tech and Layla out to attempt the needed repairs, the cold wind quickly chased away the warmth. After two days, Tech had to remain inside and guide Layla from inside the ship, or else he would suffer from severe frostbites. Thanks to the moisture-absorbing cloth suit underneath her UNSC issued armored bodysuit, Layla could stand outside unaffected by even the harsher wind. Space, after all, was way colder and she could survive even that environment.
To add to the ever-growing list of problems, since the Bad Batch was initially out for battles and the relic assignment was supposed to be a quick stop before going back to base, the food rations found themselves to be quite low. Even with the rationing of the food in case help didn't arrive as quickly as they hoped, they wouldn't be able to survive the cold and starvation for much longer. Everyone was cold and so utterly tired, the three days of battle they previously fought was now hitting their systems hard.
"We need food, sir, and parts for the ship so we can all warm up and leave this planet." She reminded him even though it wasn't necessary to. He was suffering just like the rest of his brothers and for some reason, Layla's heart squeezed for them.
"And I won't let you go search outside alone. So many things can go wrong on this planet." He denied again, each of his words creating white clouds before his mouth.
"Have more faith in me, please, sir." Could he not see the fast-approaching outcomes? Tech and Kai were on the same page; the longer they stayed on Hoth, the greater the chance of one of them dying became. Hypothermia could kill quickly. Luckily, no one reached that stage yet, but it was right around the corner.
"Oh, I do have faith in you. Clearly, you were trained to survive extreme situations, but you won't have any backup. You could easily get lost or die out there."
"Not if I have Kai with me, sir. I can leave a beacon here and I'll be able to make my way back without a hitch. As for whether I die out there or not, I plan not to, but Kai would let you know if it did happen, sir." She assured him in her commanding voice. She was confident she could find a village and bring back what they needed without even passing close to dying. She had done way worse errands in a covenant-infected zone that actively shot at her, she could make her way in a deserted environment.
"We'll need the remaining power of the ship to receive a message from the Republic and send our coordinates." Tech pointed out, his teeth chattering together lightly.
"So you would be on your own the whole time and even with your armor and all its gadgets, you're as hungry as us. You'd have to walk for hours to find a civilization and we don't even know which way the closest village is!" The Sergeant shook his head, although it seemed like he was losing his resolve. He started shivering again and Layla briefly considered leaving without his permission. She wasn't after praises or recognition of what she did was right or not, she would not have another team die on her.
And she knew where the closest village was.
Right as she thought seriously about turning for the door, Tech chimed in.
"Actually, the closest village is 42 klicks north-west." He informed them, his glasses now long abandoned since their frames were now as cold as ice. "I knew we'd need some repairs and knowing the localization of the closest village was vital. I noted its coordinates before our systems went down and sent them to Kai for later."
The Sergeant looked at the wall for a moment. Layla thought that that additional information finally would be enough for her to receive permission to proceed since he clearly was thinking this through. This hope was short-lived. And she found herself sighing in annoyance.
"42 klicks away… that's a 9 hours walk. With all that snow and on a nearly empty stomach, it'll be even harder."
"Sir, I get it." She answered bristly. "Sending me alone is risky, but none of you can do the trip and survive it. I can. And if I don't do it, we will all die because I highly doubt the Republic will arrive before we all turn into popsicles." She decided best not to mention that they would be popsicles while she would remain alive, starving away. Then she remembered- "Sir."
Then the silence fell once again. Either he somehow picked up on her intention of leaving without his authorization or he didn't like her tone, Layla couldn't be sure which. She watched as Sergeant Hunter rose to his feet, his movements stiff from the cold despite him making effort into hiding it, and made his way past her to the main door of the ship. She dutifully followed suit, Wrecker in tow, leaving Tech and Crosshair to hold their blankets tighter around themselves.
"I don't like that plan much… but I know you'll make it." Wrecker assured with a confident smile. "You're a tough one!" As it became a habit for him to do, Wrecker squeezed her shoulder softly. This time, however, the contact remained longer than usual. Layla found it somewhat odd at first, then figured he probably was feeling some warmth through the fabric of her bodysuit and relished in it. Happy to offer some comfort, Layla stayed put and tilted her head to the side.
"Thanks, Wrecker. I'll be back soon, don't worry." She attempted to reassure him despite knowing the man would worry anyway. Before she knew it, her own hand gave a pat to the one still residing on her shoulder. Then she was free of any contact, Wrecker having backed out of her visual field.
Sergeant Hunter shot a knowing look at his brother for a short moment, then he was back in his serious, commanding self and looked at her.
"If you're not back by the time someone finds us I'll make sure people will stay behind to search for you so keep your coms open."
"Understood, sir. Thank you." She genuinely appreciated the gesture even though it wouldn't be necessary. The two months they spent together had flown by so fast but so many things had happened, some good, others a bit less good, but nothing bad overall.
There was that one time when she kept her word and allowed Wrecker to try out her energy sword. It nearly turned out to be a tragedy, but thanks to ONI who enhanced her reflexes, Layla ducked out of the way of the appearing blades and spared herself from being stabbed in the chest. Clearly, he had been too excited if he nearly killed her after she explained twice how it worked. She shrugged the near-incident off, promised to never talk about it to Sergeant Hunter, and allowed the unsure clone to slice droid carcasses into pieces which made him forget his guilt in no time.
Then Tech attempted to show her how ship mechanics worked and she found herself hoping that General Skywalker was there. He would have repaired the panel in a second whereas Layla stared at the mess of wires and circuits and she couldn't understand a single thing. She relayed on Kai to tell her what to do and the lesson ended surprisingly well.
Following that event, and because she trusted Tech's abilities, she allowed him to look at her helmet electronics under his request. He attempted to add a feature to her equipment, although his first attempt led to a temporarily fried HUD, he managed to repair it with Kai's help and add a full-spectrum vision enhancement system. She could now detect bodies and movements through solid objects.
Then came the mission on Kashyyyk where Crosshair offered to help optimize her rifle so she could shoot farther targets than initially. The customization session passed in comfortable silence, only broken by short sentences from the sniper, telling her to remove this part and fix this one instead. He even made sure the A-280 rifle was calibrated perfectly, so perfectly that it took a whole hour for the blaster to meet his criteria. For Layla, the results looked pretty much the same, but he told her that he saw a difference.
"If you really want to thank me, all you have to do is drop the 'sir'."
"No can do, Sergeant Hunter, sir."
"That's worse." He grumbled to her amusement.
Layla offered a beacon out to her Sergeant who accepted it before letting place to Wrecker. Together they pushed the door open just enough for her to slip through and she made a quick job of dashing out as the cold wind blew snow inside.
"See you soon!" Came Wrecker's cheery voice before she waved back and pushed the door closed.
All around her was a cold, white sea of immaculate snow that extended in every direction she looked. The last snowstorm had lasted almost two days and reset the landscape to its purest state. There wasn’t any animal trail to be seen, no trees emerging from the snow, no ship ripping through the sky above. They were alone in the middle of nowhere, the Havoc Marauder half-concealed under a white blanket and surrounded by mountains and glaciers.
“Judging by the sun’s position, I would say that it is now sometime around 1000 hours. Tech’s database indicates that the sun will set around 1538 hours.” Kai popped on her screen as she looked up at the light shining in the sky.
“So 4 hours of walk in the dark then.”
“I would advise not to progress after sunset, but we can’t really afford to be careful, can we?” Kai sighed. He passed a hand through his locks in a manner that emanated nervosity. “Their body temperature levels are already low enough that I fear they may need some time in a bacta tank.”
“Better start now, then. Where to?” She pressed, eager to get moving and get back with the required resources.
“I marked the location on your map.” Just then a marker appeared in the distance and off she went. For a while, she fought the urge to walk at a faster pace, but ultimately, she knew if she wanted to progress for a longer period of time, she needed to keep a more average walking speed. Plus, the snow reached the top half of her shins, and while it wasn’t a huge deal at the moment, it could gradually become a hindrance.
The road was quiet, only the wind disturbed Layla’s concentration along with Kai’s occasional warning that he detected lifeforms nearby. They encountered the first Tauntauns after more than two hours of walk. Seeing as it would take way too much time to hunt one of them down, cut pieces of meat out and carry them back to the ship, Layla decided that she would attempt to get one on the way back. After all, what the Batch desperately needed was two ship parts that would put the ship back in order and ready to fly away from this hellscape.
She used her blaster to kill a couple of bipedal beasts who attempted to get a jump on her. Thankfully, Kai’s scans detected the creatures and Layla kept tabs on them until they attacked and she shot them. Even with two of their members down, several other Wampas followed her through the snowy plains. They kept their distance for a while until one of them broke the silence with several low growls. The group of predators then abandoned her to get back the way they came.
“I know you can continue walking, but I suggest you take a small break here,” Kai suggested after a couple more hours. “The town is two hours away and we don’t know what we’ll find there so having some extra energy won’t hurt.”
“Fine, but no break on the way back.” She conceded and stopped on the top of a small hill.
“Works for me.”
As she sat on the frozen ground, Layla had to recognize that she started to feel the effect of tiredness slowly invading her system, clear consequences of her last two sleepless nights when she was too preoccupied with the freezing clones by her side to let herself slumber. The muscles of her legs ached softly as she stretched them before her and relaxed the muscles.
The world that once was a nearly blinding shade of white was now the darkest place the Spartan had ever been. Even space was brighter, with its stars and spaceships that brought lights here and there. She was glad the flashlight attached to her helmet worked as it should and provided a, albeit small, light stripe. Without it, there was no way she would be able to see her hands two inches away from her face.
Darkness could either calm someone by blocking any unwanted visual stimulus or make someone more paranoid than usual. The latter tended to happen whenever someone found themselves in a hostile environment. It was like the shadows were moving all around her, like people dashing around, but whenever Layla moved the light in their direction, her eyes would only find more snow. She was alone, hungry, and tired on a near desolate planet.
Before long, Kai urged her to get up and get going. According to his observations, Kai estimated that the first Batcher to suffer from hypothermia would be Crosshair. With his lanky built and how he first refused to share body heat with his brothers, it was now a matter of time and the AI expected him to reach that state by the end of the next day or so.
With her growling stomach keeping her company and Kai's soft chatter about the species of this planet, Layla walked through the snow at a steady rhythm. A sudden need to hurl crept up her empty stomach to her throat, her own body telling her that it was upset by its bad treatment. Fortunately, her goal-oriented mindset was stronger, and thus, she pushed through, thinking of Wrecker whose lips slowly started turning blue even though he did his best to smile every time she looked at him, to Tech who couldn't even type on his datapad due to how frozen his fingers were, to Crosshair who shivered the most violently despite his efforts to calm them down and to Hunter whose senses were so numb he was now reduced to a near-average hearing and sense of smell. Soon, she knew they would be out of their critical situation and back in their top game. None of them would sustain permanent damage and more importantly, none of them would die.
Her hunger was forgotten and she continued walking. She forced her feet to move one before the other until she distinguished a soft light in the horizon. A relieved smile stretched her lips and an hour later, she reached a fire that was carefully lit over a bed of rocks. Six aliens were huddled around the flames, the multiple layers of fur patched together into coats protected them from the harsh wind and their thick-looking boots kept their feet warm. Their heartfelt laughter stopped abruptly when one of them noticed the Spartan approaching, a shadow in the night, and yelped before running away. Layla didn't even have time to open her mouth, the whole group was gone.
With a sigh, she looked down at their footsteps marking the ground around the fire, all of them disappearing in the same direction, further into the darkness of the night. Right where Kai's marker led her this whole time.
"Multiple life signatures detected. Enough to be qualified as a community." Kai informed her. "600 meters ahead of you. I recommend a slow approach since they bolted so quickly."
Approving his method, Layla progressed towards the village, empty hands slightly lifted at her sides, palms open for everyone to see. Houses appeared progressively around her. They were built above ground-level, made of wood all around, with rock chimneys that were all being used at this time of the night. Where they got their wood, she didn't know. Not once during her trip did she find anything other than rock, snow and ice.
Soon, she noticed some curious heads peeking out of the doors on either side of her, the lack of window making it obvious. From what she could tell while without turning her head to blatantly look at them, the villagers didn't seem hostile. None of them made a scared or hostile sound or even raised a weapon toward her. They kept silent, all keeping tracks of her without interfering.
Layla continued to progress within the village even though the tracks scattered at some point. Surely the teenagers fled to their own homes and joined their families. That's what frightened kids did after all.
"I sense a weak radio signal nearby. Maybe there's a com panel we could use." Kai notified his Spartan who noted the information for later.
The more she progressed within the village, the more Layla noticed that the houses seemed to be disposed into a circular shape, all of them orbiting around a bigger house with white furs on each side of the door. Red markings ran beneath the snow covering the furs, although it was too dark to discern the patterns correctly.
The owners would most definitely be the right ones to ask for help.
"Do I knock?" Layla whispered to her AI. She could feel the eyes of every villager fixed on her back, eager to see what her deal was, and what she would do next.
"I guess it can't really hurt?" He sounded way too unsure for her taste. Cultures were so complicated. There were too many of them and lots of which gave totally different meanings to the smallest of behavior. For all she knew, she could be showing some form of aggression by hitting the wood with her knuckles.
Ready to react at any moment, Layla took a small step back from the door just as it opened slowly on a woman who looked surprised to see her. A necklace of wicked talons moved with each of her breath, every inch of her skin was protected by clothes made of fur and leather except for her head, which was kept warm by the thick waves of grey hair framing her cheeks.
Cautiously, the elder woman addressed the Spartan who mentally cursed as neither she, nor Kai, could not understand the language.
"I- eh- my friends and I crashed a few hours away from here." Layla decided to explain in Basic and pointed in the opposite direction the Havoc Marauder was located. For all she knew, those people could be hostiles and could try to get the Batch next. "Our ship can't fly and my friends will die soon if I don't find help. Please, could you help me?"
"Are they sick?" The native woman asked in Basic, surprising Layla. She had a thick accent, but not enough so Layla had difficulty understanding her.
"No, ma'am." Layla's tone was way softer now that she knew the woman could understand her. She had chances of succeeding after all and the native looked quite welcoming to the soldier in front of her. Deep down, Layla felt that the woman was trustworthy. The kind eyes analyzing her without an ounce of malice and her relaxed posture pushed Layla to unlatch her helmet from around her head. With the fire burning in the fireplace, she could look the leader in the eyes easily. "But they're hungry and need water and something to warm them up." Layla informed her. She laid her vulnerability bare for the native to read.
The woman looked at her without any word for minutes. The wind picked up for a few seconds, hurting Layla's reddening skin. She repressed a shudder at the cold she hated so much in order to keep eye contact with the leader who gestured towards a somewhat rectangular house.
"We'll get you some provisions and extra furs. We cannot give too much, but it should help your friends." The elder woman walked past Layla towards the longhouse.
Following suit, Layla pulled her helmet back in place in a hurry. As soon as the seals of her helmet kept everything in place, warmth came back to her frozen cheeks.
"Anything will help, ma'am. Thank you very much." Layla quickly responded in gratitude. Some supplies were better than what she had now, meaning nothing at all, and would most definitely help appease her worries.
On the way, a young man joined the leader's side. He whispered by her ear and kept side glancing at Layla who decided to give the anxious man more space by slowing her steps. They both talked for a few seconds. The lady must be quite persuasive or respected since the man relaxed more and more as he nodded in understanding to the woman's words.
He rushed to open the door for the leader. Layla stopped a few steps away to allow him to enter the shelter and became confused when the man stood near the open door, waiting. It wasn't until he looked at her expectantly that she realized he was waiting for her. She nodded in thanks as she passed him and once the door was closed, he proceeded past the two women to reach a separate room.
"Thalleih will bring you the supplies." She smiled warmly at the soldier who didn't have time to express her gratitude that the woman was already opening the door to leave.
"That was… straight to the point I guess?" Kai chuckled at Layla's slight bewilderment. As they waited for the dark-haired man to come back, Kai piped up silently. "You called them your friends."
"What?"
"The Batchers. You described them as your friends." She could hear the smile in his voice.
"I said 'friends' so she wouldn't get threatened. Imagine someone like me knocking at your door at night, asking for help for four others like me." She defended herself. "Friends is vague enough."
"You can't fool me." He grinned smugly.
She hummed, already aware of the fact. "Well, I think I managed to create some sort of bond with them. I personally feel like it's more than being acquaintances or even comrades." Layla paused, reflecting on the past months, how she became more and more at ease around the Bad Batch, just like she was around the Delta Company. "It does feel like friendship."
Kai's eyes gleamed. It wasn't from the fact that he was an hologram, there was something powerful in his gaze. Joy. Pride. She could read those two without a problem. But there was a third one that she recognized but confused her at the same time. Smugness. Kai knew something she didn't and for some reason, kept her in the dark.
"Once back to friends, put them in small space and mix liquids together." The native entered the room right as Layla was about to interrogate her AI. His accent was way more pronounced than the leader's and the pauses he had to take between some words showed that Basic was not often used around here. She did her best to focus on his words to not miss anything.
Thalleih wore a leather bag hanging from his shoulder and carried two containers in his hands. He lifted them up so the light of the fire reflected over the liquids. "Make heat to warm up fast. Then wrap in furs." He pushed the jars in the bag before showing her the tightly folded furs.
Layla noticed three different patterns and colors right as he used some leather straps to tie a knot around the opening of the bag to close it.
"Meat and water too." Layla gratefully accepted the supplies as soon as he offered them, making sure to pass the strap over her head so it hung to her side. He frowned at her. "Not well." He pointed at her hand that she now noticed was shaking slightly.
"It's nothing. Please, don't worry about it." She brushed it off with a shake of her head. She wanted to go back as soon as possible to arrive as soon as possible.
"I worry. Wait a moment." He rushed back where he disappeared a bit ago and came back a second later with a peanut-shaped container and a few wrapped squares. "Here. Meat and water before going out." He pushed the articles in her arms, forcing Layla to grab them before they crashed to the ground as he let them go.
"Thank you." She forced herself to say. They had given so much to them already. Surely, finding food and water couldn't be that easy on this planet. They already had people to keep healthy but shared with strangers nonetheless. Under the young man's curious gaze, Layla removed her helmet with one hand and dropped it to the floor. "Thank you." She repeated with a nod that she hoped showed how appreciative she was of his gesture.
His eyes widened in surprise, gaze locked onto her face. He looked at her all over, but passed a majority of his time admiring her eyes. It wasn't the first time she found herself in that exact situation. The clones who had managed to get a look at her face whenever she ate her rations late at night on the battlefield had had the same reaction.
As he was too busy looking at her, Layla decided to get on with everything and opened a first wrapping to find a square of cold, cooked meat. It reminded her of the porc meat she sometimes ate back at home. Her brain played some tricks on her and soon, the scent of her mama's kitchen filled her nose and her mouth watered. The three squares of meat disappeared in a couple of minutes, helped down by small sips of water. She was done before she realized it and the man smiled cheerfully.
"Sleep?" He asked when Layla's helmet found its way back to its rightful place.
"Oh. No, I can't. I have to get back." She explained, hoping that she wasn't insulting anyone by refusing the hospitality and that she got the right message. She couldn't let her team down, not when she was so close to succeeding.
He looked somewhat disheartened for a moment, but nodded nonetheless in understanding. He walked to the door and opened it for her. As she walked against the harsh wind, Layla remembered a detail and wiped around.
"Do you have a com unit?" Thalleih tilted his head to the side with a frown. "A com." She pointed to the comlink on her forearm. "To talk to others in the stars." She tried again.
"Com. Talk to villages. Not stars." He corrected her while pointing towards the dark horizon.
Another weight lifted off her shoulders and for a moment, Layla felt her eyes water. Blinking the mist away, she gripped the strap lining her torso to ground herself.
"It would make sense that the com only reach villages and not space since the signal is weak. I could maybe amplify the signal if you could connect me to it and send a message out." Kai chimed in, his own hope showing in his tone.
"Can I see it?"
He looked back at the leader's house, uncertain. The layers of fur protected him well enough so he stood for a good minute, unmoving and unbothered, thinking over her request. Although she did want to pressure him, Layla did not want to be rude, not after everything they offered her.
He looked intently at her and turned around to walk towards a smaller house, close to the leader's home. Unsure if she was supposed to follow or not, Layla decided to try her luck and follow his steps. She was rewarded with an old looking com panel that still looked in a somewhat good shape.
"Good?" He joined her inside after he let her in first and looked at the soldier who eagerly nodded.
"Very good. Thank you." She answered all while using the adaptor Tech created for Kai. Layla connected the AI's chip to the adaptor, then plugged the scomp link to the computer terminal and let him work his magic. The panel rotated a few times and Kai grunted at his first failed attempts. It did not look good from Layla's perspective. Kai didn't have extensive knowledge of this galaxy's technology, he could not hack a ship as fast as he did a Pelican or a Covenant security base back home.
"Got it!" He cheered so suddenly Thalleih yelped in surprise at her side. By instinct, her hand moved carefully to his shoulder in an effort to reassure him. "I broadcasted a looped emergency request for extraction on an open military channel. It was the only one I could reach, so I hope someone is listening."
"Great job Kai." She beamed beneath her helmet. Another good news. They might be rescued some time soon, before she even had to go out once again for another food search.
"Thank you for everything." She presented her hand to Thalleih for a shake.
He grabbed her hand, but before she could shake it, he turned it to the side so her palm faced upward and dragged his fingertips along her palm and stopped at her second knuckles. She felt him close his fist half-way and followed the motion, joining their fingertips in a sort of finger-lock. He smiled brightly at the gesture.
"Welcome!" He grinned in joy.
Layla let go to reconnect Kai to her own systems and pack the adaptor in her pouches. Tech definitely had a great idea and she was glad he managed to create a fully working device. It had been tested on the Havoc Marauder, but never on anything else. She would have to tell him the news.
With a wave of his hands, Thalleih showed her the door again and soon they parted ways in the darkness of the night with his voice wishing her good luck echoing behind.
As she left the premises of the village, Layla adjusted the strap of the bag so it wouldn't chafe against the suit covering her neck and made sure the strap was sturdy enough to not break along the way. At a slow and steady pace, she made her way back towards the beacon she left in the Sergeant's care. The signal was still powerful enough so she never had to guess the directions she took despite having to take some small detour routes to avoid straining hikes on big mountains or a patch of ice that cracked under her weight.
Being this aware of her environment was something she was trained in and excelled at. It was another story when you were exhausted to the bone and on the verge of starvation. She never reached this point before, the UNSC always gave them the supplies and food they needed to function properly, they were humanity's last line of defense after all.
Layla looked down at the logo on her chest. It was almost completely scratched off, thanks to the last months of battles with the Bad Batch. It could have been an easy fix, simply borrowing some paint the boys used to fix their own markings and her army's eagle would still be proudly opening its wings. It should have been simple. But for some reason, it wasn't. Whenever Wrecker or Sergeant Hunter made some touch-ups to their own armor painting, Layla couldn't utter a single word. She looked at them out of the corner of her eyes, refreshing their clone armors and for some reason, it felt wrong to ask for their army's supplies to restore another one's symbol. She couldn't pinpoint the exact feeling, it wasn't only disrespectful, it was like she simply didn't want to talk about it.
So far, no one had wondered what the paintings on her chest plate represented and she was oddly fine with it. That feeling compacting her chest never happened when she was with the 501st battalion. They kindly shared their paint when she asked and even complimented the design. It was frustrating to not be able to ask for what she desired, but even more so to not understand why.
"I detect multiple life forms around you." Kai suddenly appeared on her HUD. "Wampas again. They're surrounding you." He informed her uneasily.
As she came to her full senses, Layla noticed how she had walked into a very disadvantageous space. On her way to the village, hiking the smaller mountain in order to avoid the bigger one had been a great idea which saved them a lot of time and energy. They hadn't met any creatures at that time. Now, Layla could distinguish seven pairs of glowing eyes in the distance, rushing towards her position from all sides. The two rocky walls on each side of her kept her in a narrow path for another seven hundred meters. She was too vulnerable.
"If I use my camo, do you think they'll lose me?" She wondered to her AI as she quickly looked back at where she came from. She could find another way through, but she had to survive the encounter for that. In her usual state, she would have taken the predators head-on, but she wasn't as strong as any other day and her life wasn't the only one on the line. Others waited for her somewhere in a snow sea twenty-six klicks away.
"I think they smell you more than they see you. Maybe it's the meat in the bag." Layla sighed, gathered her strength and spun around to run back. There was a clearing right at the bottom of the mountain, she'd be able to fight there.
Footsteps other than her own echoed around the mountain. They were approaching fast, way faster than Layla who tripped and slid on the uneven ground from time to time. The ground disappeared from beneath her feet for a long second as she fell from a small cliff and landed ungracefully on unsteady feet that gave up under the landing shock and sent her rolling down over herself twice. Ignoring the ache in her limbs, Layla forced herself up once again to continue her way down the mountain, her blaster firmly held in her hands.
"Contact on your seven in three." Warned Kai who kept a close eye on the creatures through her armor scans while she concentrated on fleeing as far away from the inclined area as possible to regain the upper hand.
"Two."
The ground momentarily offered a better footing, allowing Layla to shoot a couple of blind shots behind to hopefully dissuade the beasts from getting too close. It proved to be useless as Kai continued his countdown and she felt something scrape against the metal covering her back.
Her right foot dug in the snow to find purchase on the rock underneath and slowed her course down the mountain in a slide on her left leg. With her body now closer to the ground and way slower than what her opponent expected, she managed to swing the beast over her shoulder as they collided and used the momentum to throw it to the ground with ease. Its grunts of pain were silenced by three bolts to its chest.
Layla stood up as quickly as she could, only to be sent flying by a hit to her right side. Out of breath for a moment, Layla barely managed to roll away from a clawed hand aiming for her throat. She took aim to shoot the Wampa down, finger squeezing the trigger. The bolt missed the creature by a foot when her weapon was slapped out of her grip and her left arm seized in a deadly grip.
With a yelp, Layla punched at the space where she expected the joint of its elbow to be in hope of breaking something. Aiming in the dark was difficult enough and Layla missed, sending her crashing against a warm torso when her feet slipped.
"I'll activate the full-spectrum vision. You'll have a ninety seconds window to neutralize them. After that, it's back to the flashlight." Kai rushed as a bulky arm wrapped around her chest.
Shades of greens and blues washed over her visor, blinding her momentarily. Red forms kept their distance as she trashed around to loosen the grip keeping her close. Her arm slipped down enough to grab the energy sword attached to her hip. With a wave of relief, Layla activated the weapon to slash off the arm encasing her and make quick work of the beast with a precise stab to the heart.
The battle became easier after regaining her vision. Any brave Wampa that lounged at her lost their lives to the covenant weapon, and when the sword powered down due to a lack of juice, Layla used her fists and tactical knife to shatter their bones and cut their flesh.
Before the ninety seconds were up, every enemy nearby had been dealt with and Kai turned Tech's enhancement off so she could look for her lost blaster.
"The add-on works great in combat in a subzero environment. Tech will be pleased." Kai noted with a small smile at the corner of his lips. Layla could only chuckle a breathy yeah. The clone had requested Kai to do an analysis of the enhancement's performances during various tasks like recon and combat, even asking that different variables be taken into consideration, the environment being one of them.
Layla stood in place for a minute to regain her breath and make sure she hadn't sustained any injury. Once she was ready to go again, she dragged her feet through the snow. Her blaster had fallen two small meters away, barrel first in the snow.
Walking up to it, Layla hoped that it would still be functioning. She was a couple of steps short of retrieving her weapon when she suddenly fell through the ground. Her heart stopped during the three seconds fall until her feet hit something hard and she fell onto her ass. Her hands immediately shot outward to grasp at something to stay balanced. All she found was a wall behind her. Confused and disoriented, Layla remained as unmoving as possible.
She moved her head to take in where she was, but couldn't recognize anything. There were walls before and behind her, a thick ice platform kept her from falling down into darkness and what she thought might be snow-covered the space between the two walls over her head. What in the world?
"Looks like you fell into a crevasse," Kai explained beneath his helmet. "The surface is more than 12 meters above you, so eh," he continued somewhat worriedly, already knowing how she would react to his next words, "I recommend staying put and wait for a rescue team."
"What? No, I need to get to them, Kai. They need the supplies or they will die!" She nearly yelled, her voice echoing against the ice walls. Thalleih's bag at her side was still painfully heavy, not from the weight of the food and everything else it contained, but from the responsibility she had and from the consequences that could happen if she doesn't deliver it in time. This bag had four lives weighing it down.
"I know, but there's no way you can climb this." He replied in a calm voice. "You'll only risk falling further down and injuring yourself or even die, and if you die then there's no way you can bring them the supplies. But if you give me time, I might find something."
Layla groaned in frustration. She wanted to kick, punch and scream to let her culminating anger out, but she knew all those things could affect the ice and snow around. Was all this hard work for the past hours for nothing? She pushed through her own limits, took supplies from a village that needed them but shared anyway out of the goodness of their hearts, fought things that wanted to chew on her organs, found what she was looking for, did half the walk back, and for what? To fail? What if the redness that covered their ears never disappeared? What if their coughs were the only thing resonating within the Havoc Marauder, right before the heaviest silence of all took their place? Then another team would die because of her inability to protect her comrades. Nausea came back to drag her down further.
"Your cortisol levels are rising dangerously. You should go to sleep to pass it off." He frowned worriedly.
"I can't. They need the supplies." She groaned in pain, her frustration and maybe even desperation taking over. She had worked so hard, pushed her limits so far, attached herself so much, she couldn't just abandon now. She couldn't fail another team.
"There's nothing you can do to get yourself out alone," he sighed as he reiterated his words, hoping she would understand and stop hurting herself for something beyond her control. Watching his wielder in distress ultimately hurt him too, "so use the time to get your energy back for when you'll be able to. I'll wake you as soon as I figure something out." He promised her.
She sighed and pondered over his words. She knew he was right and everything he told her was in her best interest, but it still felt so wrong to comply. She knew sometimes taking some time to think and look at the situation from another angle could change the outcome of a fight, but she was fighting against humanity’s very worst enemy; time.
"I don't know if I'll be able to sleep, Kai." Her brain was going a klick a second, so many thoughts fought each other to be heard and none of them wanted to shut up.
"Just give it a try," he removed his holographic helmet to meet her gaze and Layla knew she had lost, "please."
She sighed, defeated. He always could read her like an open book and use some words mixed with worried baby glances to make her do as he wished.
Reluctantly, Layla closed her eyes and proceeded to try to clear her head and not think about her very possibly dying teammates. She forced her lungs to take regular, deep breaths and force the air out the very same way. Despite her expectations, Layla fell asleep from exhaustion in under a minute.
She woke up at the sound of Kai's voice calling out to her. Mixed with his voice was a deeper one, one she heard so many times before. It was familiar, it felt safe, so she allowed herself a few more seconds of slumber.
She was back at her parent's house, the mountains reached high in the sky as they always did, the rhythmic sound in the background that never stopped once in her life, even at night, rang in her ears. It was familiar. It was safe. She walked through the forest with her oldest brother who held both their pickaxes so she wouldn't tire herself out too soon. He had always been so kind to her and everyone else around him. He often forgot his own needs to help others and worked hard to provide for their family. Mama always said that he was a good boy and that she should take an example of him. So she did.
She looked up at Gael who wondered what meal would be on the table tonight and asked her if she wanted to look at the traps he installed in the woods with him after work. Before she could answer him that she would love to, the sky turned dark in a matter of seconds, scaring the girl who tripped over her own feet.
The scenery around her had changed drastically. She wasn't on the rocky path leading to the mines anymore and Gael wasn't at her side. Scared to be alone, Layla hurried down the mountain she was exploring and ran towards home as fast as she could. It was only when she reached the edge of the woods that she heard it. The eerie silence that replaced the constant hit of pickaxes on rocks. For some reason, her blood ran cold. This wasn't right.
She didn't remember running all the way back home, but there she was now, standing before a house with enormous holes in the walls. It definitely could fall down at any moment, but for a six years old, this was still home. Layla hurried inside to look for Mama who passed her days in the house doing what Mamas do in the house all day.
At first, she couldn't find her, but that wasn't abnormal. Mama loved to play hide and seek with her as soon as she got home. Layla would knock on the door four times, wait for twenty seconds before barging in and run around trying to find Mama who used to hide in the same five spots.
Those five usual spots were empty. Debris was everywhere, but Mama wasn't. It wasn't until Layla searched the small storage room under the staircase that she finally found her.
The girl fell to her knees before the body of her mother whose dead eyes looked right at her in horror. Blood covered the floor, escaping from the gaping hole in her torso, right over her heart. Crystal shards dug into her palms as Layla crawled into the space and attempted to wake Mama up. The more time passed without any answer, the more tears fell down her cheeks. It wasn't until a crash boomed into the house did Layla tore herself from Mama and investigated the noise.
She found Gael in her bedroom, choking on his own blood. More blood soaked his clothes from holes in his back. He stopped searching the wardrobe when he heard the floor creaking under her small feet and turned towards her, tears of his own staining his face. He was in agony, that much she could figure out. What she didn't understand was the relieved look that flashed in his eyes. Immediately, he hugged her close and let her sob in his sticky chest. The smell of sweat, blood and urine made her sick and she wanted to pull away, but he held her too tightly for her to do so. Despite everything, Layla knew that she was safe now.
She felt his first sobs shaking her around soon after he grabbed her and remembering what he used to do whenever she cried, Layla slipped her arms around his torso and slowly patted his back. He used to do this with only one hand, but she figured two hands were twice as good, and hers were so small compared to his, so she moved both her hands in unison to calm him. They remained in the same position for a long time.
She didn't dare to move away until Gael did. He had stopped sobbing a while ago, his grip around her had loosened and they had fallen on their sides, but he kept her close nonetheless with an arm around her. She continued patting his back until her arm stuck under his body got all tingly. She pulled it out and looked at her brother, expecting him to smile and ruffle her hair with a thankful expression. But he remained on his side, eyes closed.
Shaking him didn't help to wake him up so she figured she could wait for him to finish his nap. Turning around, Layla found more people sleeping on the ground of her room. Three men and a woman in armor. All bloody, scarred and looked at her with their unblinking eyes.
Daniel. James. Aedan. Mirah. Their names crossed her mind, a pang of deep sadness and anger accompanying them. Spooked, Layla jumped backward in hope that Gael would wake up and protect her like he always did. She grabbed his hand but the hand was too big to be his. As she turned, she saw the bodies of men clad in black clothes, all pressed against one another, their skin a blueish color, with black extremities.
Hunter. Wrecker. Tech. Crosshair. Her head started spinning. Her nausea from before came back full force and as she hunched over to empty her stomach onto the wooden floor, Layla could hear herself scream in agony in her head.
She woke up with a gasp, her heart beating so quickly the heart monitor beside her emitted a high pitch sound of distress. Alerted nurses and doctors barged into the room, each of them performing a different task.
"Miss, you're safe. You are in a medbay aboard the Triumphant." A clone rushed to her side and attempted to push her down to her cot, which miserably failed, even in her weakened state.
"My team. Where's my-"
"They're alright. We found them before we found you. They're being treated for their injuries but I can assure you that they will fully recover."
Layla sighed in relief and the doctor chuckled slightly.
"They were fairly worried about you too. At first, they forced our rescue team to stay behind and look for you, and then none of them would sleep until we got word that you were found and safe."
She wouldn't say that she was surprised, Sergeant Hunter did tell her that he would send a rescue team for her if she hadn't returned on time, but that it actually happened? Layla hurriedly swiped away the mist forming in her eyes.
Since her armor had effectively protected her from the cold, they released her quickly with a promise to get some sleep and eat a whole meal soon. Before she could even ask, she was led to the Bad Batch's room. On her way, she put her helmet back on to flee the curious gazes of the nurses and wounded soldiers alike. She wasn't in the mood to deal with the heaviness of their looks. Despite having slept in the crevasse and for some time on the starship, she still felt the exhaustion deep in her bones.
"Happy to see you back on your feet, Layla." Kai smiled from the corner of her visor.
"Me too, Kai." She breathed out, earning a questioning glance from the nurse guiding her. She ignored her. "I believe it's you who guided them to me?"
"Yes." He nodded firmly. "I tried waking you up, but you were stuck in the deepest stage of sleep that I couldn't reach you. You overexerted yourself."
She chuckled at his disapproving expression. "Not the first time, eh?"
"They're here." The nurse stopped before a door. "Please, keep it down in case some of them are sleeping."
"Will do. Thank you."
The nurse nodded and went away, leaving Layla to enter the dark room. She found them in beds, all of them but Sergeant Hunter were unconscious. They all had IV in their forearms and all appeared to be wet, surely from a trip in a bacta tank - she could recognize that smell everywhere. Small blisters could be seen on Crosshair's and Tech's hands, breaking her heart. They had been so close to actually dying just like in her nightmare.
Her nightmare. Simply thinking about it upsetted her stomach.
Sergeant Hunter sat up at her intrusion, his face relaxing in relief. Immediately, Layla got ahold of herself and removed her helmet to thank him face to face for sending a team out for her. She stopped a few feet away from his bed, still shaken mentally but had enough control to complete her task. As she went to speak, Sergeant Hunter reached for her arm and tugged her closer. He looked at her shocked form for a few more seconds before tugging her into a hug.
"We're fine. It's okay." He assured under his breath. She relaxed at hearing the reassurance from him. He wouldn't lie about his brother's wellbeing.
He kept her in his arms for a moment until he pulled away and showed her the chair next to his bed. "Are you okay?" Sergeant Hunter asked when she moved away to take the seat.
"Yes, sir, just-" She looked down to not meet his gaze, sure she would find disappointment in them. "I said I'd come back with the supplies and I failed, sir." She even lost the backpack somewhere after falling asleep and that fact angered her. Thalleih's village sacrificed their own precious goods to help her friends in need and those goods were gone. She had fought so hard to get that backpack and she either dropped it in that ice prison while she was asleep or someone took it-
He hummed in understanding, although instead of yelling at her, he remained calm, soothing even. "But you got us some help when we needed it the most. I hardly see where you failed. It's quite the opposite, thanks to you, we're all still alive and in one piece."
Shocked, Layla looked up at the man. She had to admit that the final objective of her mission, which was to get the Bad Batch away from the planet alive, had been successfully completed, but so many things could have gone wrong. Her failure to bring the supplies back to the ship jeopardized their health greatly. If the GAR hadn't gotten her message, or arrived days later, what would have happened then? Without the supplies, they would have died, or lost some limbs to the cold - which was equal to a death sentence apparently - whereas she could have kept them alive much longer with the equipment in the bag resting at her feet. There were way too many ifs, way too many variables that could have led to unfavorable outcomes.
Although in the end, the Sergeant was right. What truly mattered was that they were fine. "I'm glad they got the transmission in time and that you're all okay, sir." She allowed herself to smile a little at the sight of the men peacefully laying in their beds, the strong waves of the silent EKGs proving that they were hanging on without a problem.
"And I'm glad you are!" He mirrored her expression. "Wrecker wouldn't stop staring at that door and when the rescue team arrived, he almost jumped out of the ship to find you himself." He laughed slightly but stopped in a coughing fit. He waved Layla off who had approached to help somehow. He looked at her, a more serious glint in his eyes and tone. "They said they found you in a crevasse, but that's not the only thing that gave you trouble, is it?"
"I wish." She admitted. Despite her want to brush her problems off and act like nothing happened, she knew there was no way her body would not betray her. He already knew after all, all he wanted was more details. "Met some monsters along the way."
"Monsters?"
"Wampas." Kai informed him. "They tried to kill her."
A soft ah escaped his lips, so faint she could have missed it. "Explain your backplate."
Layla frowned, deeply confused. "My backplate, sir?"
"It's all scratched up." He pointed out.
At that, recognition lit up her face and she nodded. One of them did grab her forcefully, it was meant to leave marks behind.
"And of course, you don't seem phased by it." He shook his head with a light laugh before settling down on the pillow and moving around slightly to make himself comfortable again.
As Layla took in the resting men, all of their slow breaths and resting faces and how they were utterly vulnerable at the moment. A wave of nostalgia crashed over her unexpectedly.
It was the first time in a while that Layla found herself looking over healing comrades. She used to remain by her fellow Spartans' side every time they got sent to the med station, but that habit died when she joined this universe. She didn't have a team to look over anymore, instead, she found herself lost in a sea of men who spared her hesitant side-glances and fought by her side because they were ordered to, Captain Rex aside.
It wasn't until Domino squad joined the 501st battalion that Layla unconsciously found herself doing rounds between her assigned bed in the farthest corner of the barracks and the medbay where one of the men usually ended up, causing the rest of them to gather in the room. She tended to listen to their tales and jokes instead of talking to them like she did with the Deltas and none of them seemed to mind. They eagerly took whatever she gave them, like a description of Skywalker's reaction to her last risky move or how she planned on hitting on the General's nerves next. It was like they accepted her as their own, despite her doing her best to be their comrade without forming attachments.
It hadn't worked as well as she would have liked but clearly, she did a better job of not attaching herself to them compared to the Bad Batch. Those commandos destroyed every wall she had taken so long to build and they didn't even know.
Layla knew she should be concerned of how panicked she was in the crevasse and deep down, she somewhat remembered feeling the tears streaming down her face at the helplessness she felt at that moment. What she tried to avoid since day one ultimately happened and as terrifying as it was, Layla found herself accepting it. Those men were not mere soldiers of a foreign war that she got paired with after she nearly punched a General and had to be transferred, they were way more than that now. They were friends.
"Thank you." The tattooed clone whispered, causing Layla to jump slightly from how deep she was in her own mind and because she was certain he had fallen asleep. He solemnly looked at her. "For saving me and my brothers."
Layla hummed softly. "Don't thank me, Hunter. That's what teammates do." She whispered back.
A lightness spread through Layla at the sight of the man's genuine smile, right before he closed his eyes and let himself rest.
And I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
#bad batch x oc#halo oc#Halo#clone wars#bad batch#sergeant hunter#wrecker x oc#wrecker#tech#crosshair#op:leviathan#crossover#star wars
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Kylo Ren x Reader - He Saves You
Warnings: angst, being chased/fearing for your life, death, mild gore, fluff (I guess)
Word Count: 2,5K
Summary: Someone is chasing you and you’re running for your life. The only person in sight is Kylo Ren. Unknowing of his true nature, you run to him for help.
Author’s Note: Please enjoy! Also, to anyone that comments and/or reblogs, I owe you my heart <3
THIRD POV
Sand was gathering in the air, flying with the wind all over the place and making it a challenge to see far past it. A storm was coming, that was clear for Kylo who had just landed on the desert planet of Tatooine. He had one goal on his mind: to find the merchant who stole something very valuable from him. In Kylo’s eyes, the merchant was a lousy criminal who had a death wish. Who dared steal from Kylo Ren?
Not too far away from where Kylo Ren had landed was Y/N. She was tired of her life on the planet. Long ago, she was sent to Tatooine after her kidnapper had sold her to a merchant, the very same man who Kylo Ren was after. At first, Y/N had tried to escape several times. But after failing and getting punished for it, she stopped trying. Or so they thought. For what had felt like forever, she had waited patiently for the perfect opportunity to leave. Y/N had discovered a spaceship that was stranded on the outer skirts of the village, hidden safely behind a sand dune.
The sandstorm outside was only growing stronger and more dangerous. For her, it meant she could escape. Hopefully, the sand would hide her from the merchant’s sight. With her bag now full of parts she could use to fix the spaceship and valuables she could trade for money, she was ready. Y/N’s heart was pounding harder than ever as she grabbed her daggers that she had also stolen from the workshop. She covered her head with the hood of her dark cloak, and she covered her mouth and nose with a scarf. Breathing in the sand didn’t sound too tempting to her.
It was time to go.
Y/N left the workshop in a hurry and headed right towards the exit of the village. Most people were inside, sheltered from the storm. But of course, it wouldn’t be too easy. A guard noticed her, “Hey! Where do you think you’re going? You’ll die out there!” The cruel man walked up to Y/N in order to stop her.
Fear spiked Y/N’s nerves, but she was determined to leave the sand planet. She hated the sand that had crept into every creek of her mind. Even the scent of it made her sick. “I’m going to collect parts,” She lied.
The guard laughed at her, knowing that no one was stupid enough to collect parts in a storm like this. “Nice try, but don’t think I’ve forgotten about your escape attempts, young one. You’re lucky you haven’t been executed!”
That made Y/N’s blood turn into ice. Did he imply they were thinking about executing her? She was not going to stay around to find out. Before the guard could grab her, Y/N decided to run.
“Come back here!” The guard growled and quickly began to chase her through the storm. His stern voice alarmed the merchant whose workshop was nearby. The man looked outside and noticed Y/N running away.
He couldn’t let his best worker escape. Anger filled his every cell as he witnessed what was happening. The merchant grabbed a blaster and decided to join the chase, having no clue where Y/N would lead them.
She didn’t look behind her as she ran as fast as she possibly could. With each heavy step she took, her feet sank into the warm sand which slowed her down, but it slowed down the guard as well. Her vision was tunnelled. The only thing she saw was what was in front of her nose and she could only focus on running. If the guard caught her, it could be over. This time, she was afraid they would execute her if she got caught.
Kylo had barely taken ten steps as he heard people nearing him. He narrowed his eyes and looked beyond the dune. Even with his mask on, the sand made it hard to see what was going on. He heard a woman. She was panting. She seemed exhausted and terrified for some reason. There were two men tailing her. Kylo sensed something familiar with the other man. It must’ve been his lucky day because the merchant he was looking for was coming right his way.
Preparing to catch the merchant, Kylo grabbed his lightsaber and turned it on. It hissed as the sand flew into the laser and burned away. He was furious and he wanted the man to be scared for his life before Kylo would eventually take his life away. It was only right for a scumbag such as him.
Y/N noticed a man in the distance. He wore a dark hood and he had a lightsaber! It had to be one. Y/N had only heard of them in tales. When she was little, her mother would tell her about the Jedi. Was the man a Jedi? Y/N wasn’t sure, but she believed he could help her. Instead of continuing to the spaceship, she now ran directly towards the man in dark. “Help! Please… they’re going to kill me!” Y/N cried loudly, hoping the man could hear her. The closer she got, the better she saw him. He was wearing a mask which made it impossible for her to see his expression. Something deep inside her told her she could trust him. Y/N wasn’t sure what it was, but she decided to trust her gut feeling.
Kylo was dumbfounded as he heard the woman. Did she have any idea who he was? Why would anyone in their right mind run to him for safety? It made him feel strange. The panic and pure terror in her voice let him know that she wasn’t joking. She truly hoped her life could be saved if she trusted him, Kylo Ren, out of all the people in the galaxy.
Perhaps it was her lucky day as well because Kylo was planning to kill at least one of the men that chased her. She’s just lucky, Kylo thought, refusing to believe he would step out of his way to save some pathetic human. It was just business, nothing else.
“Please…good sir, I will do anything! Please help me, t-they are going to kill me!” The woman stumbled in the sand right by Kylo’s feet and that’s when he noticed she was sobbing. He could only see half of her face, but it revealed a deep bruise. It became clear that she wasn’t coming from ideal living conditions. Something strange within Kylo’s guts twisted. Somehow, he felt like he knew this woman who he had never met before. There was a very familiar aura all around her existence. He ignored the odd feeling and tried to focus on his target instead.
Cursing under his breath, Kylo walked towards the two men who were now frozen on their spots. They stared at Kylo with terror written all over their faces. At least someone recognized him! - unlike that woman.
The merchant knew that Kylo Ren was after him. “Hey! Hey…Kylo Ren, let’s calm down. I’m sure we can negotiate-“The man tried to calm down the enraged man. He sounded horrified and incredibly nervous. How pathetic.
“Shut up!” Kylo growled as he closed the distance between them. Before he got too close, the merchant pointed the blaster at Kylo.
“If you take another s-step, I will shoot you!” He threatened Kylo, but his shaking voice and body made it seem like child’s play. How could anyone take such a coward seriously?
Kylo extended his arm and grabbed the blaster with the force, yanking it out of the man’s hand and throwing it far away into the distance. The sight made the guard turn around as he attempted to run away. Kylo grabbed the guard with the force and dragged him right into his palm so Kylo’s hand was wrapped tightly around the man’s neck. The guard tried to yell out in fear, but Kylo’s death grip made it so no sound left his lips. “You shouldn’t have stolen from me,” Kylo spat harshly and then dropped the man on the ground. He couldn’t breathe as a coughing fit took him by surprise.
The guard tried to get up but failed when Kylo Ren sank his crimson lightsaber deep inside his chest, surely piercing his heart. Just like that, the guard was dead, and the poor merchant was frozen in fear and shock. He could’ve tried to run to make it interesting, but it seemed like the merchant knew it would be useless.
“Sir! Please…you can have your stuff back! Uh- I’ll even gift you my finest worker…Y/N! She’s all yours. Please, don’t kill me,” The merchant seemed to have lost his dignity. Y/N? So, the woman they were ready to kill was called Y/N. It was clear that the merchant was ready to lick Kylo’s boots clean in order to survive. As fun as it would’ve been, Kylo couldn’t agree to it. If he allowed someone to steal from him and survive, what kind of message would he send to other criminals who were practically waiting in line to steal valuables from the dark side?
Y/N’s entire body was trembling from fear. She was trying to catch her breath as she sat on the sand and followed the situation closely. She saw Kylo Ren from behind and noticed how tall and broad he was. His cape made him look elegant and his right side was illuminated red because of his lightsaber. The merchant was barely visible from her view, but she sure as hell heard him. When he offered to gift her to this man, she felt sick. Once again, she felt how a man ripped her humanity away and spoke of her like she was a piece of junk. It made her angry and she wished she could’ve hurt him back somehow.
Finally, Kylo Ren raised his lightsaber and the scream to terror ringed in Y/N’s ear as the merchant realized he would face his doom. With one swing of his lightsaber, Kylo had beheaded the merchant and gotten his revenge. At the same time, he had saved that woman, Y/N, without really meaning to. Realizing he had saved someone made him feel odd. It was something he would’ve done as Ben Solo, not as Kylo Ren. The right thing to do would’ve been to kill Y/N too, but his instincts told him not to.
Kylo turned around and looked at the woman who slowly got up from the sand, brushing some of it off her cloak. Her tears had stopped streaming down her injured face. Instead, she looked at him with deep gratitude.
Kylo knew he could’ve turned around and continued his mission. He should’ve reached the merchant’s workshop by now, but here he stood, looking at the woman he just saved from certain death.
“You…you saved my life. Thank you so much,” Y/N walked closer to Kylo fearlessly. Even the sight of his red lightsaber didn’t spark worry in her.
He wanted her to go away, but at the same time, he didn’t. It almost felt like the force kept him from hurting her. There was certainly something about her that made her life valuable and Kylo became awfully curious. “I was going to kill them anyway.”
“But you saved me while doing so. How could I ever repay you?” Y/N wondered. The storm was getting worse and she knew she would have to hurry if she wanted to reach the spaceship safely. But she knew she couldn’t leave her saviour without hearing his wishes. She owed him that at least.
If she worked for the merchant, she might’ve known where he kept what he had stolen from Kylo. Doubting she could actually help, Kylo tested his luck anyway. “The man you worked for stole something from me.”
“What did he steal from you?” Y/N wondered. She would help him find it, no matter what. Yes, returning to the village seemed dangerous, but if she returned with him, she would feel safe.
“A map,” Kylo revealed to her with a blunt voice. Kylo believed the map would lead him closer to Luke Skywalker who had been hiding for too long. He had searched for the old Jedi master for a long time now. Several maps had led him to dead ends, but how could he not explore every clue they got? “It’s within a small metal piece with a carving on it.”
Y/N was surprised that this man had gone through so much trouble over a map. But she knew exactly the map he was talking about - or so she hoped. The merchant had bragged about it when he brought it to her, ordering Y/N to polish it. The map was inside a small information bank that needed to be plugged into something in order to view it. In fact, it was one of the valuables Y/N had taken with her. She had assumed it would be worth a lot if the merchant had praised it so much. With a small smile of relief on her face, Y/N opened her bag and tried to find it. After taking out some metal parts, she found it and she took it out. “Is this what you’re looking for?” Y/N wondered as she handed the piece to Kylo.
He couldn’t believe his luck. What were the odds that everything would fall into his hands today? Silently, Kylo grabbed the small metal piece that hid the very map he searched for and he felt relieved. He put it in his pocket where it would be safe and then he put his lightsaber safely into its place, hanging from his belt. He had expected his day to be longer on Tatooine, but he was already ready to leave.
“You should seek shelter before the sandstorm gets too bad – that is, unless you wish to be taken away by it,” Kylo warned her as he turned around and began to walk towards his spaceship, a TIE fighter.
Just like that, he was leaving. Y/N watched as he got into his ship and disappeared from her sight. As his ship beamed up into the sky, sand blasted everywhere around it and made her turn around in order to avoid it ending up in her eyes.
She knew the odds of her ever meeting him again were slim, but oddly enough, it was what she wished. They had only met for a brief moment, but the man had done more to her than anyone else in her life. It almost felt like she knew him from before. A past life, perhaps? Y/N had no clue, but she knew she would never forget Kylo Ren. As she began to run towards the spaceship she had discovered before, she found herself wishing ever so dearly that their paths would cross again.
A/N: I hope you liked it! I got this idea from a dream I had and I couldn’t ignore it. I’m a sucker for ‘evil’ characters saving people, whether or not it’s intentional.
#Kylo Ren#Kylo Ren x reader#Kylo Ren x You#Kylo Ren x Y/N#Kylo Ren imagine#Kylo Ren fanfiction#tw gore#Adam Driver Kylo Ren#Star Wars fanfiction
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A Soul to Mend His Own | Ch. 46
Warning, PLEASE CHECK TAGS IF YOU SEE SOMETHING YOU DON’T WANT TO READ THEN DON’T READ.
Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Will tag as I go along, Will update tags, Slow Burn, Influenced by Star Trek and other Sci-Fi themes, References to We Happy Few, Tons of References and quotes to George Orwells 1984 see if you can find them all, The First Order is the new Big Brother, but who is really surprised, Blatant Nazi Symbolism, Interrogation Themes, Eventual Smut, Eventual Romance, Really just drawn out Slow Burn, Don’t repost without permission, Torture themes, Suggestive Themes, Execution themes, Disturbing Themes, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Verbal Abuse, Controlling Kylo Ren, Physical Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, Possessive Kylo Ren
A Kylo Ren x Modern! Reader in a soulmate au with some canon divergence. —————————————SLOWBURN————————————–
He is already the Supreme leader, searching the universe to find you, his Empress. Your name on his wrist has been the only constant in his life, while you have doubts about his existence and his acceptance of you. He isn’t in the database and why did the name Kylo Ren cover Ben Solo?
MASTERLIST
Chapter 46: Packing Up Again
The pressure behind your ear was there again, as was pressure on your lower stomach. You woke up to Kylo kissing and marking that spot again, both of his hands rested on your lower stomach, threatening to drift even lower. “Good morning, Kitten we have a lot to do today,” as he said this, his hands added more pressure. “First we must go to training.” And his lips moved to kiss your ear. He pulled you up along with him, to get ready for the day.
You dressed in a simple boat neck top with cropped trousers and flats. Seeing as it was something simple and similar to your minimalist old wardrobe. The top showed off most of the dark lovebites Kylo has left you, you thought no one this morning would be too shocked to see them, and you were too lazy to find something else to wear.
This outfit choice seemed to please Kylo, while you finished getting ready in front of the bathroom vanity he took the opportunity to darken some of the fading spots all while his hands groped and finally rested once more on your lower stomach. His lips came to your ear, “You look beautiful Kitten, but I am afraid it is time for us to head to my training.” You quickly finished up the last few touches you needed to do before his arm wrapped around your waist and led you out of your chambers. You gave your usual greeting to the lieutenant on the way out.
Somehow you felt better than you had the day before, last night’s dinner and sweet dreams had put you in an overall better mood. On the walk over, Kylo’s lips kept finding ways to kiss your ear and hair. Apparently he was in a better mood too. You entered the room and Kylo stopped to put you in your usual place next to Phasma and Hux, but before he let you go he placed a kiss on your lips. This being the first time both showed such affection in front of anyone. The room seemed to stop around you, everyone stared. He then turned and proceeded to work with the knights.
The room then filled with chatter, people whispering and conversing with those around them. You had no doubt they were all speaking about you.
“I see my advice worked then,” said Phasma, the first to break the silence in your group.
“It did, and I must thank you,” you responded with a small smile. You could still feel the warmth of his lips on your own. And for a few moments, you could feel the buzz of the Force around you.
“Are you prepared to leave m’lady,” asked Hux.
His words shook you out of your happy state. You were leaving, and not returning for who knows how long. You would be confined to the metal walls of a spaceship, surrounded by strangers.
“Yes, for the most part. I still need to pack,” you lied, well you partially lied. You were not ready to fully leave your home, but in many ways, you knew that your home had already said goodbye to you. Your people forgetting themselves and soon, you would too. Leaving parts of yourself all over the galaxy. You would transform fully into a woman whom you did not know. This scared you, this unknown change that you were undertaking. When would it stop? Who would you become?
“Of course m’lady, I have received instructions that the Steadfast will approach Mars during your usual lunchtime, we will disembark and you will take your lessons with your new ladies-in-waiting as they help you unpack. You should find your chambers onboard the Supremacy to be much better than those of the Steadfast ,” said Hux.
The lieutenant appeared with your usual cup of Stimcaf made just right. After taking a sip you asked, “how much better are they?”
“Well, they are much larger, there is a personal bar in your chambers and large sitting room. A large kitchen and dining room. The Supremacy is the largest of our ships so these chambers are your castle m’lady. I believe the Supreme Leader also has some surprises for you,” said Hux.
“Surprises, I suppose you can’t give me any hints,” you ask.
“No m’lady I think it wise if I did not,” replied Hux. As he said this you could see Kylo focus on you for a moment before returning back to fight.
“Will you two be joining us on the Supremacy,” you asked looking between them.
“We will m’lady, we are always at the Supreme leader beck and call, so it is easier to be near him than halfway across the galaxy unless he is the one who sent us there,” replied Phasma. As she was saying this you saw General Pryde saunter over to your group.
“M’lady I am afraid this will be the last time we shall see each other for a while,” said Pryde. His voice laced with something that you could not put your finger on, but you could see his eyes drift over the marks that Kylo had left and it made your stomach roll with disgust.
“Watch your self Pryde,” you heard Hux cut in quickly. He was watching the general look at you and you could see it on his face that he was not pleased with the situation.
“But sir I was only coming over here to bid farewell to Lady Ren, and to offer her and the Supreme Leader a congratulation.” His eyes sweeping over you once more before meeting Hux with a deceitful smirk.
Hux asked the question for you with raised brows, “what congratulation would that be? Is it one that you have been reprimanded for before?”
You could see Pryde swallow back fear, before he bowed and walked away without another word. “That’s what I thought,” said Hux. “If I could have had that man executed ages ago I would have, but he always seems to just barely keep himself out of trouble. If he was as minutely honorable as his former colleagues he would have been dead by now.”
You were glad to know that Hux disliked him, it made you feel safer. “Why does the Supreme Leader keep him around?”
“Because some of the old empire sympathizers want someone of his status still around. If we were to get rid of him, it may make our relationships with them more difficult,” said Hux. “If we can get you to be a good enough diplomat there shall be no more need for him.”
This perked you up a bit, now you had a reason to care about your lessons, a bit of true motivation. If it meant that man would be gone you would gladly take the most boring lecture classes available. You could see that Hux noticed this too and gave you a small nod and smile.
The training was wrapping up and you could see that it was your time to go. Kylo came to your side and stole a kiss from your lips before wrapping his arm around your waist and guiding you back to your chambers. You ate breakfast together hand in hand before he went off to shower and go about some of his duties.
After Kylo kissed you goodbye Ap’lek and Vicrul entered the room to keep a watch on you from the inside. They removed their helmets. “Good morning, sweetheart,” said Ap’lek with his usual drawl.
“The boss wants us to keep a close eye on you,” said Vicrul with a smirk. They both then put their helmets back on, just before the seamstress, that was to assist you packing, arrived.
The seamstress, yourself and the lieutenant went into the bedroom and started to pack. You should really thank Phasma for reminding you to get the largest luggage set they had available, as you were seeming to need every single bag, trunk and case.
The seamstress made sure every garment was packed away properly to prevent damage and wrinkles to any of them, the lieutenant read off what a garment was, and filed away what bag it was put into. It took you about four hours to fully finish packing everything. The seamstress made sure to put in scented sachets and tissue paper to make sure everything stayed nice. You mostly helped put away the accessories and your toiletries. Once everything was packed away you called on some stormtroopers to carry your things down to the hangar where they would be loaded onto the command shuttle.
You only had about 10 minutes before Kylo was to return for lunch, you dismissed the lieutenant so he could go pack his own belongings to join you on the Supremacy. You were left alone with the two knights once more. They took off their helmets once everyone had left.
“Got enough stuff sweetheart,” asked Ap’lek you could see a playful smirk on his face.
“Don’t tease the girl, she is taking the boss for all he’s worth. And I don’t blame her,” said Vicrul who lightly punched his fellow knight in the arm.
“I was told I needed to look like an empress, so I have acquired items to do so. I was also not given any budget so I ran with it,” you explained. “And Phasma gave me the idea to do so.”
The smirk on Ap’leks face turned into a frown, “I once saw her as a formidable opponent, but she has a lesson to learn after what happened to you sweetheart.”
“She is not responsible for what happened to me, both times she was following my direct orders and if you remember, she broke one of those orders to save my life.”
“As is her duty, but we would have never have let that happen,” responded Vicrul placing a hand over his heart.
“You will forgive her. I have unless you wish for me to ask your boss to do so?” As you said this the door opened and Kylo stepped in.
“What are you asking me to do,” asked Kylo still with his helmet on, the tone feeling more menacing than he probably meant it to be.
“Tell them to forgive Phasma, she was only following my direct orders, and she still saved me. They believe they would have done better, that it would have never happened but we can’t know that can we,” you pleaded to Kylo. You took his arm under your hand.
He removed his helmet, his eyes staring into yours, “have you forgiven her?”
Your face was painted in confusion, “She didn’t do anything wrong.” Why was he asking this?
He squarely faced you now, his eyes hypnotic and peering into the deepness of your soul, “have you forgiven her?”
You answered him, “yes.” Still confused as to why he was asking, surely he did not hold her accountable still?
He turned his head to look at his two knights, “She is forgiven.” With that, both knights nodded, donned their helmets and left.
Kylo’s eyes searched your face for a bit, what they were looking for you hadn’t the slightest clue. His hand then came up to caress your cheek and bring your lips to kiss in a gentle sweet kiss. Once you two had broken the kiss Kylo led you to the dining room where you awaited your lunch. There was something different about him that you couldn’t place your finger on, he was in a different mood than this morning you were sure of it.
“We will arrive outside Mars within the hour. We will then embark on the command shuttle to take us to the Supremacy. Both of your ladies-in-waiting will be there to help you unpack and to take your lesson,” said Kylo as your food arrived.
It hit you just at that moment, the Steadfast was moving. Here you had thought foolishly for a time that it was unmoving, yes you knew it to be a great ship, but for the entire time you had been on it it had been stationary just outside the Earth’s orbit. More of a base than a moving ship. You wondered when it was that you had finally left Earth, and how far along were you now to Mars. The planet of your planet’s dreams, the one so many Sci-Fi movies were made about, the one where NASA had plans to explore, the one your people hoped to one day colonize.
You were leaving Earth behind for a hopefully better future, at least if Kylo continued to treat you well and not like a songbird. You looked forward to a better future, one that you could dream about.
#kylo ren#kylo ren x reader#kylo ren imagine#kylo x reader#kylo x you#Star wars soulmate au#star wars#first order#star wars imagine#sw first order imagine#star wars first order#a soul to mend his own
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“There is goodness in the heart
Of every broken man
Who comes right up to the edge
Of losing everything he has." -Mars, Sleeping At Last
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“Peter Parker, report to the guidance office, please.”
Voice blares over the announcement system, stopping the scratching of pencils against paper and the tapping of students’ feet, incessant whispers and the discreet chewing of gum attempting to hide it from the teacher ( but he can hear it all clear ). They all look at him. Or at least, it feels like it. Heads turning and pairs of eyes all burning holes into his already worn down form. Peter grips his pencil just a little tighter. Don’t break it...he places it down instead. His chest aches, and he doesn’t want to get up, didn’t even want to come into school today. Wanted to lay in bed and face the wall and stay there until the hurt goes away and it’s finally numb. But he has to, or else the stares will just continue. So he stands.
Uncomfortable eye contact with his teacher, who gives him a knowing nod, and he trudges out with his gaze cast downward-- everyone knows. Talk spreads fast, and during the week that Peter has been gone from Midtown High, just about everyone who has seen the bright-eyed boy that’s always tapping his feet and excels in Chemistry knows that his uncle is dead.
Maybe he can leave. Maybe he can run out the side door and keep running until he gets back home again. Or he can run into the bathroom and throw up and ask the nurse to go home. But the label on the door in front of him is staring right back at him-- he doesn’t even remember walking here-- and he has to go inside.
He’s spoken to the counselor before, briefly, of course. He’s just a freshman, and there’s no way in hell he’s talking about any of the shit in his life. Still, he recognizes the slightly uncomfortable rolling chair and the posters on the wall and the way sunlight creeps in through the window, leaves rustling on the trees-- it doesn’t feel like they should be. Nothing should be going on. The world should be unmoving, FROZEN in time and shaken from suffocating tragedy. But that’s just Peter. The Earth still turns, the school bell still rings, the sun still shines, but they don’t in his world. Because Ben is gone, and he’s drowning.
“Peter? Why don’t you sit down?”
Startled by the voice, he jumps slightly, gaze flickering around the room as if he expects another GUNSHOT to pour out, droplets of blood splattering against the pavement, before he blinks-- it’s the guidance counselor. Her brows are knit and her expression is full of sympathy-- he’s tired of that look. He knows she means well, but he’s still sick of it.
He wants to scream, yell until his throat is hoarse, but he nods instead, sinking down into the chair. Anxiety pools in his stomach, and he knows what she’s going to say. He knows exactly what’s going to happen, he even GUESSED it would, but he isn’t even the slightest bit prepared.
“I know you already know what I’m going to talk about.” What, can she read his mind now? “But all I want is to help you through a rough time. I know you’re going through a lot, and I would like to do whatever I can to guide you through it.”
Nails scratch against a spot on his hand, a spot still a bit red, even now, from the bite that changed everything. Gave him something he’s always wanted. Took away something he never wanted to lose. “Um...I appreciate it, but....I’m sorry but I don’t think it’ll help.”
“You’re not the first student to say that to me. I know this is something you must be unfamiliar with-”
“My parents died when I was a kid,” He spits out, but there’s no bitterness in his voice. He just sounds tired.
“Well...you’re much older than that now, teenagers handle things differently. We don’t have to discuss anything today, if you don’t want to. We don’t have to discuss anything. We all deal with grief in different ways. I’m just here to let you know that my office is always open if you’re feeling alone, or if you feel as if you have no one to talk to about this.”
But he DOESN’T, does he? Even if he tells her about how every breath feels as if he’s heaving through a million glass shards stuck in his lungs, or how there’s an empty hole where light used to be, he still can’t talk about how it’s HIS FAULT. He can’t talk about how he could have SAVED Ben, can’t talk about how the bang of the gunshot and the way Ben’s breathing came to a shattering halt haunts him every time he closes his eyes. He can’t talk about the guilt, because she won’t GET IT. NO ONE WILL GET IT. Because he has to keep the powers a secret. A childhood dream twisted into a nightmare, abilities he couldn’t even use to save what mattered most and a voice in his head that tells him he has to save everyone else now. He has to be there for May...has to take a deep breath and pretend to be alright as he falls apart. He can’t talk to her about any of that.
“Uh....okay.....yeah-- um...thanks.” He fidgets in his seat, visibly uncomfortable, eyes burning. “Is that-- ...is that it?”
“Only if you want it to be. I can keep talking to you if you need it, or you can go right back to class if you don’t want to right now.”
“Can I...um-- can I go back? Thanks for the offer, I just...I have a quiz I can’t miss...already missed a whole week-”
A saddened smile appears on her face, and she nods. “Okay, Peter. You can go. Just know that you have a place to go when you need to get all this off your chest.”
He pushes himself up, clutching backpack straps over his shoulder, another nod. “Right...thank you...um...bye-” The second he walks through the door, he’s making his way down the hallway, chest somehow feeling even tighter than before. Room 202-- his geometry class-- is down the hall and to the left, but he makes a sharp right, slipping out the doors and into the sun that shouldn’t be up in the sky. It isn’t until he’s two blocks away from the school that the tears finally start to fall.
He doesn’t go back to her office.
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“Peter Parker, report to the guidance office, please.”
He doesn’t get any looks two years later. Students have been called down left and right, nobody pays attention to who. All of them shaken, everyone with their own things to worry about. Two years later, Peter is sixteen. Or...seven years....at least for the rest of the world. He still can’t wrap his head around it. Sixteen and different, sixteen and a superhero, sixteen and back in the same old spiral. Except the world did shut down this time. Just without him in it.
Same trudge through the hallway. Same deep breath before he opens the door. Different counselor...he doesn’t know what happened to the other one, probably left the school in Peter’s absence. Maybe she got a better job offer somewhere...or maybe it was all too much....he doesn’t want to think about it. He doesn’t want to think about anything. But sitting down in the same chair they haven’t replaced in seven years, his head is spinning. Because he’s sixteen and different, sixteen and wants to GET AWAY from all this.
“Hello, Peter.” It’s a man this time, same sympathetic look, except this time, the whole world gets it. Or at least...some of it, in Peter’s case. None of them know anything about what Peter went though...none of them. “I just wanted to talk to you about.”
“I know what you’re gonna say.” Again, not bitter, just exhausted.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re gonna tell me that you’ve been calling down students to talk about what happened..er-- the Blip. Tell me that you’re here if I wanna talk about any of it. Tell me that I don’t have to go through this alone. Right? That’s what you were gonna say?”
“Well...yes, we have been calling students down, but-”
“I’m sorry, sir, but...I can’t. I can’t talk about everything, so there’s-- um, there’s really no point-”
“We do have information about your life. We know you disappeared, and we know of your internship with Tony Stark-”
The world slows down in that moment, and there’s a ringing in his ears that muffles out the rest of the noise, throat suddenly closing up and blocking any air from getting in-- memories RUSH to the front of his mind. The spaceship. Titan. Dying. Didn’t wanna go. Hurt, it hurt so bad, he was scared. The battle. Lasers. The gauntlet. A second chance. Glowing lady. Pain. They won. Pleading. Fear. Death. The slowing of a heartbeat. Kneeling. Sobbing. The ripple of a lake in the soft glow of the sun that should be gone like the light that flickered out from Tony’s chest.
The counselor’s mouth is moving, but Peter doesn’t hear him. He can only hear himself begging not to go, or repeating how they won. He doesn’t even realize he’s crying. It isn’t until there’s a hand on his arm that he shoots right up from the chair, chest heaving up and down before he rushes right out of the office, and all the way down the hallway until he reaches the same exact door he left through two seven years ago.
He doesn’t even make it two steps before he sobs.
Maybe Parker luck repeats itself.
#🕸 ❝ i’ve been so good but it’s still getting harder ❞ → drabble#death tw#(holy...shit)#(ive been sitting here like 'wow i really cant write drafts tonight ://' aND THEN WITH NO PLAN CLICKED NEW POST AND THIS FUCKING HAPPENEDJSD#(I ACTUALLY?? REALLY LIKE HOW IT TURNED OUT WHAT THE FUCK)#(APPARENTLY I C A N WRITE TONIGHT)#(its ...a long boi....but i honestly have no clue how i jsut did that lmao)#(ive written longer drabbles but i did not even THINK for a second holy fuck)#(sorry ill shut up butkjgVHHDSGh AH)
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lets finally be happy
where your Tony Starks adopted daughter and you change his fate
Warning: Swearing, extreme gore, fluffy @ the end
my first fic so don’t be mean (doesn’t completely match the Endgame plot... at all)
words: 2010
You lay right outside of the wreckage of what was the avenger’s tower in pain but refusing to break. You were strong, an elemental demon trying to prove that she can be good. Abandoned by your parents as a child, but Tony found you outside an orphanage and decided to take you, back to the point. You found Cap, Thor, and your dad you turned to them and whispered “What the fuck is he doing?” they glanced at you “Sitting”. Thanos slowly got up and began his speech "You could not live with your own failure. And where did that bring you? Back to me. I thought by eliminating half of life, the other half would thrive, but you've shown me... that's impossible. As long as some remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be. They will resist." Steve rolled his eyes "Yep. We're all kinds of stubborn." thanos ignored Steve and continued “I'm thankful...because now...I know what I must do. I will shred this universe down to its last atom and then, with the stones you've collected for me, create a new one teeming with life that knows not what it has lost but only what it has been given. A grateful universe." You found your voice when he stopped talking “well fuck nutsack chin, you just don’t know when to stop do you?” Thanos Glanced at you “I'm doing what's good for the universe and you wouldn't even comprehend what I’m doing” you slowly started to walk a little closer to thanos and looked toward the guys “you know I never wanted my life to be like this, I found a family, I found my soulmate you strangled him with your bare hands, you’ve almost succeeded in taking my family. Fuck I never wanted to do this and I’m personally terrified, now... I'm gonna have to bash your brains in.” you look towards him and beat on the ground twice your hits echoing throughout the wreckage your skin slowed turns red, two red horns grow from your head, and your teeth sharpen and get slightly longer and a bat with barbed wire wrapped around it comes to your hands made of the same metalcore as Thor’s hammer, and a black skin suit hugging your curves. Thanos looks at you “Now what are you, your new” you looked at him and snarled “I’m your worst fucking nightmare” your eyes turn fully black and you run at him and repel yourself off of the ground with air and land a solid blow to the side fo his face taking part of his face with him “ I can’t do this myself boys!” the guys finally go towards him and start attacking him. Tony gets blasted “DAD!” you scream worried and run over to help him up, and look back over when he’s up and you see Steve summon Mjolnir “Fuck yea Stevie!” you let them go at it and start to see Thanos’s army show up you hit Thanos a few more times when you see a shimmering orange lights and holes open up and its everyone that was gone. everything was at a standstill. you looked frantically for him but had to stay focused on the task at hand. When we started fighting I was going after the aliens and killing as many as I could keep them away from the stones I got peter from the hoard of them and threw him to Valkerie when a big one threw you towards a spike stuck in the ground and you braced for impact. When it didn’t you looked and saw a green light just stopped you and threw the beast into the ocean you looked over and saw him, your heartbeat in your ears, it was him, your life, your god. Loki looked at me and ran to you and held me I wanted to melt into him and never let go but I knew I couldn’t. I looked at him with bloody tears running down my face and kissed him with all of my body and once we separated I wanted to stay that way forever but I couldn’t “Can you toss me over to dad please love?” he smirked at me “Always, love” he threw me towards them I landed a few yards from dad. Thanos Threw him, he had the stones I ran to dad and took off the gauntlet from the suit Thanos looked to us “I am inevitable” little did he know we made it so they can detach and come to dads, I put on the gauntlet and had all of the stones attached a burning sensation ripped through my body but thankfully my heat resistance dulled the pain I knew what had to happen I heard a scream from afar “NO!”, I looked to thanos “you’re pathetic” and I snapped it hurt bad but I knew I had bought myself some time but I would need to feed to heal and fast. Everyone ran over to me the aliens were all dusting dad got to me first “what did you do!” I looked to him and smiled “I can heal easier and faster, I can handle more heat than you I’ll be ok”. Everyone was relieved once I stood still burnt but ok. I walked to Thanos “You wanna know a secret?” he looked at me confused “why am I still here?” I looked at him everyone coming closer and wondering the same “you deserve no pity we’ll all get you to know what you did?” everyone was terrified “we can’t contain him he will escape and try again. What did you do?!” I looked back at them “ he’s paralyzed right now, but he can feel every single thing we do to him, now I need blood if I want to live and I have a worthy candidate” I grabbed a dagger from my side pocket and walked to Thanos and looked at him “you ruined everyone’s lives not they can tell you what you did and torture you for it and you can’t do anything about it” I looked back at all of the left avengers and smirked “how does that sound?” they nodded silently agreeing “Me first” I said I walked over to him and kicked him square in the face and started my own speech “you took everything from all of us here because you have a god complex and think you know what's right. You took my family.” I hit him with my bat in his head “you killed my soulmate” I hit him again “and tried to kill them all over again” I hit him in the head one last time. His head was bashed in and his eyeball popped out “buddy you still there I just don’t know it looks like you’re trying to speak, but you just took a hell of a hit, I just popped your skull so hard your eye just POPPED out! And it is gross as shit!” I chuckled and turned to the others and they were utterly shocked that a tiny 5’3 girl just popped Thanos’s skull I licked the bat needing some sort of blood and held out my bat “come on don’t be shy!” Loki and Dad stepped up at the same time “by all means man of iron after you”. Almost everyone had taken a swing at him beside Cap because he couldn’t handle it. I washed of Thanos who because of the snap was still alive and I walked in behind him “can someone take the arms please?” Thor and Loki came up and grabbed one arm each. “Now on the count of three rip as hard as you can ok?” they nodded and we ripped off both arms and his head off of his body “want some target practice dad?” I asked he thought about it and shook his head no” pepper stepped forward and said “ill do it” I smiled at my adopted mom and said “get ready” she charged her suit and I threw his head up and she obliterated it. I turned back to my normal self and looked at all of the unfamiliar and familiar faces and shrugged “I’m not always that heartless but he deserved it and I’m sorry you had to see it” t’challa spoke up “nice to meet you too that was badass” everyone laughed and started reuniting with their loved ones I walked to Loki for the second time in a matter of 7 years because of Ragnarok. And kissed him with everything I have and held him and never wanted to let go, we both had silent tears running down our faces. Once we parted Peter walked up to us “Hi, Mr. Loki sir I’m Peter” Loki raised an eyebrow. I stopped him from making a snarky comment and grabbed Peter and started inspecting him for injuries and when I saw he was fine for the most part I brought him in for a bone-crushing hug and started kissing his head. Loki looked super confused but the young boy didn’t seem to be a threat to him or his lady so he let them be. I pulled away from Peter and punched him in the shoulder “what did I tell you about not going on the spaceship Peter! I was so fucking worried” Peter looked like he wanted to cry “I’m sorry mama I wasn’t thinking and wanted to make Mr.Stark proud” he started crying and you sat down with him while he sobbed and held on to you for dear life. Loki was confused “Mama?” you looked at him and smiled “his parents died and he was living with his aunt and when he started working for dad I was like his mother figure and stayed with me so I asked his aunt May if I could adopt him and she and him moved in with me in the city and she agreed surprisingly agreed. She’s probably at my house now, but this is my son, Peter” Loki nodded and Peter separated from me and launched himself at Loki and hugged him Loki went stiff and I giggled while Stark and Thor were dying of laughter. Loki slowly hugged him back and eventually pulled him off after a minute. “Dad can you take Peter to my house, he should go and see May please, you guys can bring Morgan over too and we can all stay there tonight?” he was about to rebuttal when look gave him puppy dog eyes and grabbed Loki’s hand. “Fine, be home in a little while though Morgan will want to see you” you nodded “thanks dad we won’t be super long” I grabbed Loki’s hand “can you teleport us to somewhere more peaceful than a battlefield” Loki nodded anything, love” you teleported to a flower garden surprisingly not far from my home. He looked at me and spoke “ I’m sorry I was gone so long Love, I wish I was there when Thanos was strangling me I could only think of you and what I missed out on and I-” I cut him off “it’s ok your brother needed help and you possibly saved everyone, I can’t be mad at you” you kissed him he pulled away while you pouted, But Loki did the last thing you would ever expect. He got down on one knee and pulled out a beautiful diamond ring with emerald accents. “ I can’t miss out on anything else, I just can’t I love you so much and I don’t know what I would do without you right now and it's peaceful now and not dangerous and I can’t waste that time so will you spend the rest of eternity with me and be my wife?” I had tears in my eyes and I nodded frantically “yes, oh my fuck yes, Loki” he put the ring on your finger and kissed and you knew at that moment your life was finally perfect.
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Shieldshock Post-Infinity War WIP - Sneak Peek #1
I’m about a little over 20,000 words into my next project. It’s Steve/Darcy and will be very, very E-rated and somewhat dark/angsty in nature. Not much light-hearted flirting here because it takes place about three months after the events of Infinity War.
Steve is drowning in guilt some days and numb on others. Darcy has lost pretty much everyone and feels helpless. Tony is binging on caffeine and booze. Thor is trying to find the last of his people without much luck. Clint is learning how to be a single dad. Nat and Bruce are trying to keep the other members of the team and themselves from self-destructing. Nebula is biding her time and stewing in hatred. Rocket is pissed that he’s stuck on a rock that has no spaceships to steal. Things are in a bad place, and Darcy doesn’t think offering snacks will help at all. Letting Steve fuck her up against the wall in various places in the tower seems to make her (and Steve) feel better, though.
It’s been slow-going on this baby because work is bananas since we’re short-handed. I need to train the replacement, but we need to hire the replacement first. I’d like to get this fic finished by the end of September, hopefully before then. For now, I hope you enjoy this excerpt from the first chapter.
He ran the heel of his hand over the sweat that had gathered on his brow and weaved his way through a couple pallets of boxes. The two guards on duty nodded at him before returning to their business. Steve often wondered if they thought he was a joke or a failure. He considered that this morning as he stepped over to the service elevator and pressed the button to go up. The light showed red for a moment before his fingerprint registered and flipped it over to green.
“No! Let me in! I need to see him!”
Steve looked at the floor and swallowed his anxiety over the screaming coming from the lobby just behind the steel door.
“Please! Please, go get him. Tell him it’s Darcy Lewis. He knows me. I swear he knows me.”
Her voice had taken on a pleading, broken quality that made his heart ache. She’d lost someone just like everyone else. He wondered who she was looking for and why the security guards wouldn’t let her enter the building. Maybe the trauma had pushed her over the edge.
“Get your fucking hands off me! I’m serious, dude! Go get Thor. He’s going to be so pissed off that you-- Hey! Stop! No!”
One of the guards raised his voice and said, “Ma’am, we’re going to call the police again. They told you last time that you’d be thrown in jail for--”
“I don’t care. Throw me in jail. I need to see him! I need to tell him something. Stop! Let go, you asshole.”
Thor? Was she delusional? Her voice had a desperation to it that tugged at his heart. Steve watched the doors of the service elevator open. He should just go upstairs and take a shower and mind his own business. The woman in the lobby had likely been driven mad by what had happened. If she really knew Thor, then she wouldn’t be barging into the lobby of Tony Stark’s building.
“Thor! Thor, you motherfucker, get down here right now! It’s about Jane!”
Jane. Hadn’t that been the woman Thor was in love with? Steve watched the doors of the elevator shut as he sighed in resignation. Who was he kidding? He couldn’t look away even if he tried. Carefully, he pushed open the door and cast his gaze over the lobby. It was unnerving how empty it looked at this time of day. Normally, it would have been filled with people in suits with briefcases and work to do. Instead, it was occupied by less than ten people, three of who were trying to detain a young woman with dark brown hair and wild, red-rimmed eyes.
“Thor!” she screamed again. “Please, just call him. Please.” Now she was appealing to the guard who was on the phone. He likely wasn’t on the phone with Thor. Thor didn’t know how to operate a phone. Steve suspected he was making good on their promise to call the cops.
“What’s going on here?” Steve said, walking over to the cluster of three guards around her.
One of the guards recognized him even with the hood up. Steve watched the man’s back straighten when he said, “She’s been coming in the past three days making a scene, demanding access to Thor. She’s delusional, sir. She’s--”
“I’m not fucking delusional, you asshat! Just tell him it’s Darcy Lewis. He knows me.”
Steve pushed his hood back and looked at her. She looked right back, defiance in her eyes. If she was crazy, then she was disturbingly good at appearing coherent. “Have you asked Thor?” He directed the question at the guard holding the phone.
The guard sputtered before saying, “Well, no. If she knew him then, she’d have security clearances. She says she’s lost her family and her friend. Sir, she’s just here to ask for help.”
Help they couldn’t give, Steve thought. Instead of admitting it, he sighed and said, “Ms.--uh--Ms. Lewis, why--”
“Darcy,” she said, her muscles relaxing as the guards loosened their grip.
“Darcy,” Steve repeated after her. “Have a seat. I’ll find Thor and pass our message along to him.”
“Thank you,” she said, relief in her voice.
Steve felt bad for the woman. She looked like she’d been through the same hell he had. That they all had, he corrected himself. He wasn’t special; he was just broken. “If he doesn’t come down here, then you need to leave and not come back. Is that understood?”
“Sure,” she said, “but he’ll come down here.”
She seemed very sure of herself. Maybe she did know Thor after all.
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His Name is Peter
Tony tries to deal with the immediate aftermath of Thanos' snap.
Rated: T for language
Disclaimer: While I've seen every MCU movie, some dozens of times, I've only managed to see Infinity War twice, and I'm not that familiar with the canon comic-book material. Also, SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't yet seen Infinity War, please read at your own risk!
Tony wasn't aware—not that he really cared anyway—how much time had passed since… since it happened. He could've been sitting there on that desolate rock for minutes, days, or even centuries for all he knew, cradling all that remained of the kid against his heart. His haunted eyes stared blankly at the endless toxic wasteland that was Titan, as Peter's terrified voice reverberated through his head.
"I don't wanna go. I don't wanna go, sir, please! I don't wanna go!"
Peter was a brilliant kid, as bright as they come, and so strong he could stop a speeding runaway bus with his bare hands. But yet at the end, after witnessing four other people fade into oblivion, he was just as terrified to die as any other teenage boy.
Even so, his last words were meant for Tony, to help comfort him. Because that's the kind of person that Peter was. Always looking out for everyone else.
"I'm sorry."
Around Tony, everything else was still. Even the slight breeze had faded away as soon as the ashes of the dead were sufficiently scattered. It's as if the rest of the universe was as stunned as he.
And why shouldn't it be, really?
They had lost.
They had lost, and now Peter was gone. Turned to ash, along with Strange, Quill, the bug lady, Mr. Clean, and whoever else had faded away. Was Pepper still alive? Rhodey? Happy? Bruce? Aunt May?
Tony had no way of knowing. He was still stuck out here, in goddamn space.
He drew in a shaky breath, his lungs burning from the dry, stale air and the intense throbbing of the stab wound in his abdomen. Clenching his left hand into a fist around Peter's ashes, he brought it to his lips, squeezing his eyes closed. His fingers turned numb they were so tightly clenched, and his breathing grew more and more erratic as his body rocked back and forth, his shoulders shaking with the effort of trying to hold himself together.
He was having a panic attack.
No, no, please, not here! he thought. He clenched his teeth, trying to remember what his doctor had told him about managing these symptoms when they arose. Back at home when this sort of thing would happen he'd usually find something to tinker with to help occupy his mind. Program a new upgrade to the kid's suit. Work on that new computer for Pepper. Rebuild Rhodey's new spinal support. Try and come up with a dampening field for the Avengers Complex so Vision would have to quit walking through the damn walls all the time and scaring everyone.
Why didn't he go home, like I told him? Damn kid, never listened to me when it was important.
"The boy. Was he your son?"
Tony jumped at the sound of the low, soft, mechanical-sounding voice. He'd completely forgotten that he wasn't alone out here. The bluish-green robot girl, what was her name again? She was still here.
Slowly, he turned his head, his breaths still coming in stilted gasps as he studied the girl's androidish face. She wasn't crying—perhaps she was unable to cry—but her shoulders sagged and her eyes were half-lidded. Tony could vaguely remember someone mentioning that Gamora was her sister, so perhaps she was grieving for her loss too.
"No, not exactly," Tony said, forcing the words past the lump in his throat the size of his mini arc reactor. "He was my—, my—"
He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. Peter was his son, really. Even if not by blood, Peter was as good as Tony's son. Tony sure thought of him as such.
"He fought bravely," she said, in that same soft voice. "You should be proud."
I was already proud of him, Tony thought. I didn't need him to fight off a monstrous, mad, space demon obsessed with balancing the universe to be proud of him.
"I know he did," he said instead, pressing his ashes-stained hand to his chest. "He always did."
The girl took a step back, eyeing Tony up and down.
"You're injured," she stated. "I can fix Quill's ship, get us out of here. Back to your home planet."
"Sure, yeah," Tony replied with a half-hearted shrug, wincing as the slight movement sent another jagged jolt of pain through his body. Guess he won't be offering to help. Any other time he would've jumped at the chance to tinker around with alien technology, but this was hardly any other time.
The girl worked quickly, and as she practically dragged Tony into the co-pilot's seat, she handed him a small bottle of some yellowish liquid and fired up the engines. Tony laid his head back against the headrest, trying to ignore the fact that the entire ship smelled like a basket full of sweaty gym socks. He swallowed hard at the rising bile in his throat, willing his heart rate to slow down and his breathing to even out. The last thing he needed was to vomit here, all over this rust bucket spaceship. That surely wouldn't help the awful stench at all, and would also likely tear open his abdominal wound. As it was, he barely had enough nanoparticles left to keep it closed until they could get to Earth.
Stabbed with his own damn weapon. How poetic.
"Drink," the girl said, gesturing to the bottle she'd placed in Tony's right hand. "You've lost a lot of blood and are dehydrated."
"I'm all right," said Tony dismissively. The thick, yellow liquid looked revolting, and Tony suspected it would taste even worse, and then he really would have to puke.
"You're in pain," she insisted. "It will help."
Rolling his eyes, Tony huffed out a sharp breath and twisted the cap off the bottle, taking two large gulps as quickly as he could, trying not to let the liquid touch his tongue. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as he'd feared, and he did notice a slight decrease in the throbbing pain of his wound.
Unfortunately, it only made the ache in his heart that much more prominent.
"Where should we land on your planet?" the girl asked as they took off.
Letting out a sigh, Tony shook his head. His first thought was New York, at the upstate Avengers Complex. Surely there'd be people there who would help them.
Wouldn't there? Or were they all dead now?
"Wakanda," he said a few seconds later. He's not quite sure what made him think of the remote African country, home to most of the world's vibranium, except that when Bruce first explained to him about the immense threat posed by Thanos, right before all hell broke loose in New York City, he was more frightened than Tony had ever seen him. That T'Challa guy was one kick-ass dude, or at least he was at the airport fight in Leipzig. If Bruce did in fact call Steve Rogers on that damn Nokia flip phone, Tony could see Steve directing him to Wakanda.
Bruce also saw—or at least Tony hoped that he saw—Tony fly up to Squidward's donut ship, after the kid, so he'd know they'd be coming from space.
"Wakanda," Tony repeated. "It's located on the second-largest continent on Earth."
The girl nodded, adjusted a couple controls, and settled back into her chair, closing her eyes. Tony did the same, trying to breathe through his mouth, relieved that she didn't seem to want to talk any more than was necessary.
The next thing he knew the android was poking him awake. "They're asking for identification," she said gruffly. "Apparently they don't like mine."
She pointed to a button the console, presumably the communications channel. Tony groaned as he leaned forward, clearing his dry, scratchy throat.
"This is Tony Stark," he said in the most authoritative tone he could muster. "I need to speak with Bruce Banner."
Please Bruce, be there.
There was a loud burst of static, followed by Bruce's relieved voice. "Good God, Tony," he said over the crackly radio. "It really is you. Hold on, we gotta open some force shield or something, then we'll send landing coordinates."
"Might wanna have a hospital bay ready," Tony said, grimacing as he pressed his arm into his bloody abdomen. "I took a pretty bad one up there."
"Don't worry, we'll take care of ya," Bruce assured him. "We're just all relieved to find you."
Tony didn't dare ask who "we" were. He knew he'd find out soon enough.
Bruce was there, waiting with a teenage girl with elaborately braided dark hair and some sort of floating stretcher as soon as the ship jolted to a stop. Tony hesitated only for a second before climbing onto the stretcher and curling onto his side. As embarrassed as he was to be seen so wounded and defeated, he didn't trust himself to be able to walk right now.
They took him into a brightly lit room filled with technology the likes of which Tony had never seen before. If he hadn't been so delirious with grief and pain he would've been quite impressed with the machinery and gadgetry that he was able to glimpse. As it was, he could barely keep his eyes open as the girl—Shuri, Bruce said her name was—started to work on him, mumbling constantly under her breath about having to fix yet another broken white boy.
Once Shuri announced she was done for the time being, she gave Tony some water and pulled a blanket over him, telling him to try and get some rest. Tony opened one eye, intending to utter a thanks, but was stopped short by the immense sadness he saw in her deep brown eyes. She must've lost someone in the purge too.
Against his will, Tony fell almost immediately into a dream, likely hastened by whatever painkiller Shuri had slipped into his water. He saw Peter, his innocent brown eyes wide as he took in the sight of Tony just casually sitting in the living room of his Queens apartment. The look of pure hero-worship that lit up his boyish face, as if meeting Tony Stark—in his own home, no less—was the best thing that had ever happened to him in all his fifteen years of life.
"I can't go to Germany," he'd said a few minutes later, after Tony revealed what he knew about Peter and his abilities, and Peter stopped trying to pretend that Tony was somehow mistaken. Tony was never mistaken about this sort of thing.
"Why not?" asked Tony.
"Ah," Peter stammered. "Cause I got… homework."
It had taken all of Tony's self-control to not laugh out loud at that statement. Tony's own schooling was so convoluted as a child, with skipping grades and special tutors. And it was a very rare occasion at MIT where Tony actually completed an assignment as assigned by his professors, instead of simply submitting one of his own inventions for credit. But here was this kid, who appeared to be almost as smart as Tony himself was at his age, saying he couldn't leave because he needed to do homework.
Peter Parker was about as pure as they came. It was one of the things that drew Tony to him the most. The almost overwhelming urge to protect him from all the bad things in the world, all the things that Tony had to deal with growing up as Howard Stark's son. The anger he felt at the airport when Steve dropped that terminal on his head was so intense it frightened him, as was the deep sense of horror and dread he felt when he spotted Peter lying motionless on the tarmac only minutes later.
Tony shuddered as he jerked awake, groaning as he shifted on the firm but strangely comfortable platform. Through the large windows he could see that darkness had fallen, and the room where he resided was still and quiet. Drawing in a deep breath, Tony clutched his ashes-stained hand to his chest, squeezing his eyes closed.
"Are you in pain?" a voice asked through the darkness, startling him. He hadn't realized anyone else was here.
"No," Tony replied, even though it was a lie. The throbbing in his abdomen was gone, the deep wound closed by whatever fancy healing technology Shuri had used on him. Bruce told him when she was nearly finished that he'd been lucky; a couple centimeters closer to the midline and Tony would've completely bled out only minutes after being stabbed, nanotechnology or not.
"Liar," said Shuri as she stepped closer, so Tony could see her face. "You cannot hide it; I can see it in your eyes. You are in a great deal of pain."
Tony looked away, uneasy under her piercing gaze. "This isn't healable pain," he muttered.
"You lost someone," she said. It was a statement, not a question. Everyone left alive had lost someone. "Who was it?"
The scratchiness in the back of his throat intensified, and Tony shook his head, his jaw clenched and his lips pursed. "His name was Peter," he whispered.
"And he was your friend?" asked Shuri. "This Peter?"
"No," said Tony as burning hot tears pricked his eyes. He tightened his left hand into a shaky fist. "He wasn't my friend. He was… he was… like a son to me."
Shuri nodded, her lower lip trembling slightly. "I understand this pain, Tony Stark." She held out her arms, sweeping them around the room filled with every type of gadget imaginable, and some that weren't. "Unfortunately, with all of my knowledge and technology, I have no way to heal it."
"You lost someone too," Tony said.
"Yes," replied Shuri. "My brother, our king."
Our king.
She meant T'Challa, the Black Panther. Shuri was his younger sister.
"Try and sleep now, Tony Stark," she said. "There is nothing else we can do at this moment."
Tony nodded in reply, even as he knew that further sleep would be elusive. Shuri placed her hand lightly on his shoulder before retreating silently back to whatever corner she'd come from.
After the fight in Germany, as Tony got to know Peter better, the protectiveness he felt for the kid only intensified. Tony could tell Peter was impressed by him. After all, most people were, although Tony suspected it was due more to his Iron Man persona than because he was Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. But what Peter didn't realize, and likely never did, was that Tony was just as impressed by him. If not even more so.
Tony had never wanted for anything, at least materialistically. His father's immense wealth gave him access to the best materials and technology that money could buy. Peter, on the other hand, had to work with whatever he could scrounge up from the Dumpsters around his school and apartment. That old Macintosh computer sitting on the second hand desk in his bedroom? Peter had found that ancient thing sitting outside the back door of a computer repair shop, and after asking the shop owner's permission to take it home, proceeded to turn it into something that was actually useable, instead of just a twenty pound paperweight.
Of course in the months following the fight with Cap, Tony slowly funneled enough money towards Peter—through various anonymous methods—to not only revamp his room, complete with the best new Macintosh he could justify giving a high school kid, but also update his new Spider Suit with the best artificial intelligence system that Tony could think up. The AI that Peter had so aptly named, Karen.
The suit that Tony then confiscated from Peter after the ferry incident, when Peter's lies and disobedience had forced Tony into a proverbial corner. He'd hoped the humiliation of Peter being dumped back at home with nothing except a pair of pink Hello Kitty pajama pants and a too-large New York souvenir t-shirt would be enough to knock some sense into the kid, but alas, he was wrong. All it did was bring Peter back to his friendly-neighborhood, working-class, build-everything-himself roots.
And after Peter brought down that plane, and subsequently turned down Tony's invitation to come and live at the Avengers Complex, Tony rewarded him for his newfound maturity by returning his Spider Suit, complete with brand-new Karen upgrades, not one but two tracking devices, and a new, even better parachute, designed to dematerialize if it became submerged in water.
He also put item 17-A—the Iron Spider Suit—on permanent standby with F.R.I.D.A.Y., just in case.
But in the end, not even the best and most technologically advanced suit Tony could dream up was enough to save Peter. Once again, Tony had failed.
Tony curled his left hand under his chin and closed his eyes. He'd refused to allow Shuri to clean it while she was working on him, not wanting the last remains of Peter to be simply washed away, like unwanted dirt. He wanted to cling to them just a bit longer.
He wasn't yet ready to let go.
XXXX
As the first slivers of dawn crept up over the mountains in the distance, Tony gave up the pretense of trying to sleep and sat up, wincing as various joints popped and groaned in protest. As much as he hated to admit it, he wasn't as young as he used to be.
Glancing around, he noticed he was alone in the large room. Shuri must've slipped out at some point, perhaps going off to try and catch some sleep. There was a glass of water next to his platform, along with something that looked like the Wadandan version of a granola bar. Tony reached for the water glass, his hand shaking as he brought it to his lips, nearly choking as the cool liquid slid past his parched throat.
He was still gasping for breath when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," he croaked, quickly chugging another gulp of water.
He was expecting Shuri to come walking through the door. Or maybe Bruce, or even Rhodey; Bruce had told him that Rhodey survived Thanos' snap.
He absolutely was not expecting to see Steve Rogers enter the room, looking more bedraggled and defeated than Tony had ever seen him.
Almost instantly Tony felt his jaw tighten at the sight of his former teammate-turned-fugitive. Although obviously still very fit, Steve looked rough, as though the years he'd spent running from the law had actually been tough on him. His hair was longer than he'd worn it before, he had a shaggy beard that aged him at least ten years, and although Tony could still make out the star and stripes on his dusty uniform, it was so stripped down from its usual patriotic verve that they were barely recognizable.
Was this was Steve meant about showing his dark side?
Steve paused right inside the room, a tentative expression on his bearded face. Tony's upper lip curled, and that old feeling of wanting to punch him in his perfect teeth flared up in his chest, as if it had been only moments before that Steve had left him lying on the freezing concrete floor of that Hydra facility in Siberia.
Where Steve had dropped his shield—the shield Howard Stark had made for him—next to Tony's prone body as he dragged an injured Bucky What's-his-face away.
"Tony—" Steve started, taking a couple steps towards him.
"What the hell do you want?" Tony interrupted, each word shooting from his mouth like a blast from his palm repulsors.
Steve stopped in his tracks, raising his hands up in surrender. "I'm not here to fight with you, Tony."
The eerie calmness in Steve's voice only served to make Tony angrier. "No?" he snapped, dangling his legs over the side of the platform. "Let me guess, the soldier's finally had enough fighting?"
"Tony, this isn't helping anything!" Steve retorted. His hands dropped back to his sides, and he took another step towards Tony. "I'm only here to—"
"Did you know he was only a kid?" Tony demanded. "When you dropped an entire fucking airline terminal on top of his head, did you know he was just a kid? DID YOU?"
"He wasn't just an ordinary kid, Tony—"
"He was MY KID!" screamed Tony, slamming his fist against the platform. "He was my kid, my responsibility, and you tried to fucking kill him! You laid him out and dropped a hundred ton terminal on his head!"
"I'm sorry!" shouted Steve. He crossed the distance to Tony's platform in three strides, his chest heaving, his fists clenched at his sides. "I'm sorry, Tony, okay? But maybe you shouldn't've brought someone so young in on it in the first place!"
A fresh wave of grief bubbled up in Tony's chest, and he slumped back against the platform, his eyes trained on his ashes-stained palm. "It doesn't matter now anyway. He's gone. We lost."
Steve let out an enormous sigh. "Tony, you're not the only person who's lost someone. Everyone here has lost someone, people they loved. But if someone dies on our watch, we don't give up. Remember?"
"Don't you say that to me," warned Tony, his upper lip curling into a sneer. "Don't you dare say that to me right now. Look around you, Rogers. We've lost. Even you should be able to see that."
"Not necessarily, Tony," said Steve quietly. "Bruce and Shuri have been talking; apparently she was able to learn some things from the Mind Stone… before it was taken by Thanos. Nebula is working with her now. Thor's on his way to pick up Barton and Lang. Once they get here, we can start to work on a plan."
"Plan?" asked Tony, nearly spitting the word. "What plan? What in the hell can be done about… this?" He pointed out the large window, at the battle carnage still littering the vast plain outside.
"I don't know," Steve answered. "I'm not the brains of this organization." He paused, cocking his head as he drew in a deep breath. "They could use your help, Tony. They're working in a makeshift lab at the moment since this one was damaged, but..."
Tony pursed his lips, shaking his head as he thought. Peter was always the optimistic one, not him. Tony always planned for the worst. It's what drove him to upload the near constant updates to the suits, both his and Peter's. It's what drove him to ask Aunt May to list him as an emergency contact for Peter at his school. It's what drove him to invite Peter to come and stay at the Avengers Complex on weekends, so he could see for himself what Peter was up to, not fully trusting the boy's vague phone updates since the battle with Vulture.
What help could he possibly be to anyone right now?
"I don't—" Tony started, but then stopped. He could almost hear Peter's kind voice in his head.
"We should help them, Mr. Stark. They're counting on us."
"Bruce got ahold of Pepper, Tony," Steve said. "She's on her way."
Tony's head snapped up at the unexpected news. Pepper was alive. She was on her way.
Pepper loved Peter, and Peter adored "Ms Pepper" just as much. Tony even caught Peter sleeping on her shoulder in the media room of the Avengers Complex late one Saturday night, after a particularly tough week of school. They'd been watching The Empire Strikes Back for the umpteenth time.
Pepper would be able to mourn with him. She'd understand some of what he's going through.
Okay, kid. Let's help them.
"All right, fine," said Tony, slowly sliding off the platform. "Lead the way, Cap."
With a single nod, Steve turned around and headed for the door. Tony clutched his aching left arm in his hand as he followed, glancing up at the sky through the window, noticing the thick grey clouds gathering overhead. His arm always ached worse when it rained.
He wasn't able to save Peter from Thanos' snap. But maybe, just maybe, with their combined minds and a bit of luck, Tony would somehow be able to avenge him.
After all, Strange did say there was one possibility for victory. One possibility, even out of millions, was at least better than none.
"What was his name?" asked Steve as they turned a corner. "The kid? Spider-Man?"
"Peter," replied Tony, flexing his hand. "His name is Peter."
I love reviews more than Tony loves his suits. ;) I can't wait to hear what you think!
#peter parker#tony stark#steve rogers#shuri#nebula#bruce banner#marvel fanfiction#infinity war spoilers#iw spoilers#infinity war#geeky writes#iron dad and spider son#mourning tony stark#precious peter parker#tony stark has a heart#mcu
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You don't know you're alive until you're almost dead.
Cpt Craig Stevens of the United States Space Marine Corps made his way sliding down the emergency ladder as the sirens were blaring through the ship. His augmentations made him faster, smarter and stronger than humanly possible. His eyes saw every detail of every inch even at almost free fall speed. The signs with levels swooped past his eyes, as he saw level 17 he jumped off, ready to turn right and run to the armory. That was, if there had been any working artificial gravity on 17. There wasn't. He tried to turn as he soared through the air at break neck speed, but to no avail. He desperately clawed at everything, ANYTHING, to stop him from hitting whatever was in his path. In the corner of his eye, he saw the large titanium beam he had just propelled himself towards. "Fuck, this is going to hurt", he thought to himself before the violent impact knocked him out.
Mission specialist/engineer Sophia Karlsson woke up as the first alarm sounded. She practically jumped into her uniform, grabbed her utility belt and looked up at the stat screen. Her eyes widened in pure disbelief, and she bolted through the barely opening door, snatching her MPH (Multi purpose helmet*) from the shelf just outside the door. She felt a massive shiver through the floor, and almost fell over. It had felt like an earthquake, in a spaceship! She put her belt and helmet on, and called out for The ships A.I.
"T.I.N.A! SITREP! deploy repbots A.S.A.P and close all air locks! I wanna know what's going on NOW!" Her training kicked her into overdrive, adrenaline rushing through her veins, it felt like ages before Tina replied.
The familiar robotic voice crackled lightly in her ears before complying.
"A hull breach detected at level 6 caused an automated sealing of all adjacent air locks. Atmosphere holding steady at 86%. A.G.I (artificial gravity inducer*) down on levels 13, 17 and 21. Repair bots deployed. Multiple casualties detected. Smoke alarms on multiple levels."
"What the hell is going on Tina?!" Sophia shouted with a slight hint of panic in her voice.
"I do not know." was Tina's simple reply.
Commander George Engel of the United Space Federation, captain of the USF SX Concorde, woke up freezing, disoriented and had trouble breathing. His ears were ringing, he had a blasting headache, and he didn't even notice the gaping hole in his bedroom wall, that he was on the wrong side of, before his heart had stopped beating. His last thoughts were that he did like the view. Ice covered his grey hair quickly, and his eyes glazed over. Along with himself, a large number of bodies were slowly drifting away from the damaged spacecraft.
MS/E Sophia Karlsson knew she could be hot headed, stubborn and sometimes arrogant. But she loved her job, mostly. But trying to repair a ship possibly under fire, ON fire, isn't anyone's favorite job. But her quick thinking had probably saved at least a dozen lives, even if no one else knew it. She connected the last circuit board to the A.G.I control board and rebooted it. The dull thumping of the gravitational generator recommenced. The vibrations were further apart now, like whoever was firing at them were getting bored. Were they under attack? She wanted to know, but didn't expect someone to tell her. But she had to try.
"Tina, get me the bridge on vidcom."
Her helmet-screen came on, Major Erik Karlsson replied. His familiar voice calmed her frantic pulse, and reassured her everything would be all right. She saw only his right side, as he focused on other matters, his helmet sat at the control panel beside him. He looked drenched in sweat, his red beard dripping. He glanced at the screen beside him and smiled.
"Tell me how bad it is."
Sophia quickly summarized what she knew.
"31 unaccounted for so far, 19 badly injured or deceased. Fire is out, A.G.I. is up and running, hull damage manageable and repairs underway. What happened? Sir." She added hesitatingly, not sure of his new position, he shouldn't be on the bridge?
"Tina, give us a private channel." Tina acknowledged their comlink was secure with a sharp beep. Major Karlsson continued. "It was a meteor shower. Caught us by surprise, since the proximity radar had been turned off. Get me the log, I want to know who did it."
"I'll get on it right away. Anything else?"
He turned to face her on the screen for the first time during their short conversation. She wasn't ready for the gash that ran across the left side of his face, where his eye had been there was a bloodied bandage, and his neck, beard and uniform were stained dark red. A bioseal covered the lower right half of his face, meaning he had been treated for his wounds already. The sight was almost too much for her, and tears started filling her eyes.
"I'm just glad you're alive sis. Everyone above me in rank got sucked out when the captains cabin were hit. Every door opened shortly before. Only reason I'm alive is because I heard the doors open, so I got up and closed the airlock between our half and the senior officers department. The officers in training can get loud sometimes you know?"
She realized how close he had been to dying. Her throat clenched up, and he saw the expression on her face and chuckled.
"It's ok sis, I'm not dead yet, and I don't intend to die either. You just keep us floating and we'll be all right, ok?"
She still couldn't utter a sound, so she smiled, he smiled back, that crooked smile was made worse by half his face being missing.
"You didn't feel anything when this happened right? I knew that twin clairvoyancy was bullshit." She laughed out loud, the shock of seeing her brothers face like this had her mind in shambles. If there was one thing he could always do it was make her laugh. He was her big brother only by a few minutes, but he was as steady as a rock, a fixed point in whatever storm they were in. She couldn't bare to loose him.
"Can you take a look at level 6 when you have time? I hate to load everything on you, but I don't know who I can trust right now." She nodded, then quickly realized he couldn't see it.
"Yeah sure." Her voice held, but just barely. He smiled at her again, then resumed his duty as Commander. Talk about a speedy rise in rank.
She terminated the vidcom and collapsed on the floor. Tears streaming down her face, she shivered from head to toe. 50 probably dead. Sabotage. Murder. On a space exploration vessel? Why? How? Her mind was going on adrenaline, shock and recycled oxygen, she needed a drink. Or five. "Tina, secure the logs, and get me Craig on vidcom." She needed him, now, more than ever.
"Captain Stevens is unavailable for vidcom at the moment. Logs are secured."
"Well where the hell is he then?" Her heart skipped a beat.
"Captain Stevens tracker is at level 17. His Multi purpose helmet seems to be in his personal locker." Tina replied.
"Yeah of course, why have your helmet on you, that would be stupid."
Tina didn't reply.
She headed for the elevator, but it was used for transporting injured down to medbay. She sighed and glanced at the sign next to the elevator, indicating she was on level 30. Great. Only 13 flights up by ladder to 17. She opened the service door next to the elevator shaft and started climbing.
The medbay was jam packed. The I.C.U was full, all nurses had been on their feet for 20 hours, and doctors Green and Moreau were exhausted. But finally everyone was stable. They had only lost two to their wounds, thanks to their surgical skills, and fantastic nurses. Doctor Tom Green collapsed on the couch in their shared office. Doctor Frank Moreau was already sleeping in his chair. They had both taken more than one stimpak, and the crash was imminent. He just hoped nothing else would happen for the next six hours. He slowly drifted of to dream land.
Sophia had reached level 21 and her arms and legs were burning. Only four levels to go she thought to herself. She secured herself to the ladder and leaned back to rest for a moment.
"Tina, show me the logs from when the proximity radar was disabled." Pages of green text on a black background appeared on her screen. Last disabled by Tom Hardy, engineering, one hour before the meteor shower hit. "Tina get me Tom on vidcom."
"I am sorry, I can not find Tom Hardy on the ship." Replied the synthesized voice in her ears.
"Show his last known position."
An overview layout of the ships profile were shown on her screen, a small green blip appeared on top of the bridge outer hull as the ship profile turned three dimensional and turned to show his position relatively to the underlying structure.
The proximity radar tower was immediately above Commander Engel's quarters. Coincidence? Perhaps. But she intended to find out.
"Show me Tom's location at the moment of impact." The image showed Tom's blip floating away into space mere seconds before the first meteor hit them. Something had happened, Tom had been there, but she couldn't say if he had been involved in any way. She dismissed the images on her screen and continued her climb.
On the bridge order was slowly returning, as their new captain slowly assessed his new crew members. His voice was firm and clear, but his mind was racing. He had not been vetted for command as he had a minimum of 6 years to clear the experience needed to be even considered. But he had been an officer in USF for seven years, had commanded several ground missions and he was well known for his calm no matter the situation.
Lieutenant Carlisle requested his attention.
"Commander, we have a possible jackpot 90 minutes out, please advice."
"On screen." He replied.
The screen showed what looked like a replica of Earth. Clouds, seas, and land, it looked perfect.
"Any designation Carlisle?"
"Negative sir, unregistered planet."
He had no choice. They were in desperate need of repairs, and planetside repairs would take immensely less time. "Helm, plot a course, slow and steady. Get us there in one piece."
Their unanimous "Aye sir!" made him smile. Ah, to be young and foolish. He was 32 himself, one of the youngest to make officer, and by far the youngest to make commander. But the circumstances were just that, circumstantial. "Now let's just survive this day, and then we'll see." He muttered to himself.
Sophia had reached level 17 only to realize that the door was jammed. Of course, how could it not? Today was not a good day. Everything was going to hell. What more would turn out to be a disaster today? She sighed. She connected her arm-mounted service module to the door, and forced a manual override. The door groaned loudly as it slid almost halfway open, revealing total chaos on the other side. She squeezed through the opening and stepped into the hallway. "Tina, where is Craig?"
"Captain Stevens location is Junction 6 Delta."
She looked up at the orientation signs at the top of the wall. 6 Bravo. She went right, towards junction 6 Charlie. When she reached Charlie, she couldn't see Delta. The passageway was completely blocked by debris. She went straight ahead but there was no way she could get through. She used her card to unlock Charlie 8, whoever lived there wasn't home anyway. The small living space was tidy, and looked exactly like all the others. She opened the closet towards the Delta wall. All closets had emergency doors in them, in case the electronic doors failed. "Tina, open Charlie 8 emergency 2 please." The door slid open, revealing a wall of clothes behind it. She moved the clothes aside and peeked inside. Empty. She stepped through and made her way through the cloned room to the door, which slid open silently. The debris blocking the corridor to her right was a massive wall, but she couldn't do anything about that now. To her right was Delta junction, but no Craig. "Tina, where is Craig?"
"Captain Stevens location is Junction 6 Delta."
"Show me his tracker on screen." A fluttering image of the junction from above showed him to be just around the corner to the left. She took two steps forward and stopped. Blood. So much blood. She dashed around the corner, careful not to slip in the sticky red substance, her heart beating so hard. "No no no no no, Craig, nooo!" Her panicked scream echoed of the walls. She tried to jump over the pool of blood on the floor, landing on her knees in it, she checked him for a pulse. She couldn't feel anything. His face was pale, eyes half closed, lips blue. "MEDIVAC NOW TINA!" She screamed, she couldn't hold back the tears and panic in her voice. She held her ear above his mouth, and felt the faintest breath escape his nostrils. She couldn't see where he was bleeding from, but she didn't dare move him. An automated emergency stretcher unfolded itself behind her, and beeped loudly to call attention to itself. She slid out of the way quickly, her hands covered in Craig's blood, the stretcher folded itself over him, sealed itself and shot into the emergency transport chute. She sat sobbing on the floor, convinced he wouldn't survive. The floor in the hallway was covered in blood from side to side.
The emergency alarm sound in the medbay, which announced 10 seconds to arrival of an emergency stretcher. Doctor Green shot up from his chair, bloodshot eyes and a headache from hell, but he was awake at once, knowing he didn't have a second to spare. The second alarm meant 5 seconds to arrival, but he was already out the door.
Two android nurses came bursting out into the ambulance room, just as the stretcher came bursting through the door, alarms blaring and red and blue lights illuminating the walls. It landed on the table in the middle of the room and unfolded it's passenger. Doctor Green immediately called out for five units of blood, and turned captain Stevens in his side. He had a deep gash across the base of his neck, but there was almost no more bleeding. "Make that 10 units nurse! NOW!" Nurse Avery, an android powered by Tina, was way ahead of him. She already had two bloodlines connected, as well as stitching the deep wound in the captains neck. Being augmented, he had quick release connections in both his armpits, giving him a fighting chance, but hypoxia will kill any brain, augmented or not. Sophia had made her way to the medbay a few minutes later, and watched through the small window in the door as Tina embodied every tool at her disposal to save his life. A hand on her shoulder startled her, a small scream escaped her mouth before she jolted around and saw Tina's second android nurse Ava. "Forgive me Sophia, I didn't mean to scare you."
Sophia waved her hand at the android, and looked over her shoulder at the lifeless body on the medical table. She whimpered helplessly, tears flooding her eyes again.
"You shouldn't be here Sophia, please come." Tina's soft voice calmed her a little bit, but not much. She shook her head and exclaimed sharply "No! I'm staying here, I need to see him!" Sophia collapsed once again to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably, the fatigue finally catching up to her. Tina lifted her softly and easily into her arms, and carried her to the waiting room couch. She held her closely, while simultaneously working on the love of her life. Tina diverted more computing power to the android nurse, helping it make its best effort at saving Craig's life. Artificial intelligence shouldn't have favorites, but T.I.N.A isn't any AI. And Sophia was her favorite human.
Sophia woke to doctor Green lightly shaking her shoulder. The expression of resignation on his face was what she had feared. Her mind in shambles, she had no reason to hear his apologies. She bolted upright and ran to the window. The table was empty. The android nurses stood at their charging stations. Everything stopped, time ceased to exist. The only thing in her universe was pain. A whimper of helplessness escaped her as she slowly lost all power in her legs, the pain inside tore through her like a plasma grenade, and her scream could be heard several levels both above and below. She didn't hear the door opening behind her, the sound of heavy boots on the floor, she didn't hear her own voice screaming, a deafening sound that drenched everything. But when she felt the familiar arm around her back her scream suddenly ended, the other arm grasping her legs and as lightly as a feather lifted her up to his chest. She looked into his icy blue eyes, she could barely breathe, she clutched his hair in her hand, she pressed her face in his neck and she cried. And she slept.
Part II
https://roninjason.tumblr.com/post/171918375360/you-dont-know-youre-alive-until-youre-almost
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Fanatics 63.5
This story comes to a close as everyone returns home.
Previous!
Next!
Abductions Part Five
Zim, Dib, Gaz, Pepito, Johnny, Devi, Tenna, the Night Terrors, Skoodge, and Kat hustle through the corridors. Reverend Meat is carrying Gle’lep and an injured Smugmar. Gle’lep is directing them to the control room of the ship.
Zim blasts through every door they come to. They move fast, not slowing down for even a second. That is until the sound of multiple explosions echoes in the distance and shakes the entire ship. They stumble to a stop and grip the walls to keep their balance.
“Explosions?” Dib questions.
“It’s gotta be Squee!” Pepito exclaims.
Without another word, they all immediately take off in the direction of the explosions. Johnny quickly takes the lead and covers a lot of ground. He exits that hall into another splitting off to the right and left. He stops and looks back and forth, trying to figure out which direction to go. He stops when he hears crashing coming from the right. Dust and rubble tumble out of an adjacent hallway, shortly followed by Squee, Shmee, Nugget, Gir, and Minimoose.
Gir is flying and carrying Squee. He lets him go and Squee stumbles across the hall and against the wall. Shmee, Nugget, Minimoose, and his bag fall from his arms as he leans his back against the wall, panting heavily. Blood is dripping from the cuts, scratches, and scrapes covering his face and arms and ripped through his shirt and pants. He’s also caked in dust.
Shmee leaps onto Squee’s head before going lifeless to everyone but him. Squee stares at him as he forces himself to take a few deep breaths. Nugget chirps and Squee glances at her. That’s when he spots Johnny, a little ways down the hall, staring at him.
Squee blinks with surprise before immediately tearing up. He gets up from the wall and races to him. Nny can barely prepare himself before Squee glomps him, burying his face into his stomach.
“Squee, you’re hurt,” Johnny states.
“Please don’t ever do that again,” Squee whimpers into his shirt. “Don’t leave me.”
Johnny blinks with surprise before sighing and resting his hands on Squee’s head. “Sorry. I just…wanted you to be safe.”
“I’d rather be a prisoner on an alien ship with you than safe and alone.”
Nny smiles softly and gently tousles Squee’s hair. Squee squeezes him tighter.
Nugget mews at their feet. They split apart and smile at her.
“I’m sure she was a lot of help,” Johnny says sarcastically as he picks her up.
“She’s moral support,” Squee says.
“Squee!” Pepito exclaims happily as he runs in and squeezes him tight. “Oh, you’re okay! I was so worried about you!”
“I’m glad you guys are okay too,” Squee smiles, his voice slightly muffled by Pepito’s arm.
“Jeez, look at you. You’re a mess,” Dib comments when Pepito lets him go.
Squee smiles awkwardly and starts to say something before Gir pops in, hopping onto Squee’s shoulder. “You should see the other guy!”
“Gir!” Zim questions with surprise.
“Masta!” Gir cheers happily and leaps at his head. Zim ducks and Gir crashes into the wall.
Minimoose chirps as he hovers over, Squee’s bag hanging off his head. “Oh, thank you, Minimoose,” he says as he grabs it.
“What happened to you anyway?” Devi asks as she starts wiping Squee’s cheeks with her sleeve.
“We broke into an alien spaceship,” Squee points out, “I’m gonna get hurt.”
“Damn, Squee, you’re some kind of badass,” Gaz says, impressed, and playfully punches his shoulder.
Squee chuckles nervously as he rubs it. “Ow.”
“Well, now that the team’s all back together, all we have to do is get to the control room,” Zim declares, “I hope we’re close. I’m getting real tired of blasting through doors.”
“Oh, we don’t have to break them down,” Squee says and pulls a key card out of his pocket. “I got this.”
Gle’lep and Smugmar gasp with surprise.
“How did you get that?” Gle’lep asks, his voice being translated through Zim’s translator.
“Semi-violent tactics,” Squee shrugs, “the point is with this we practically own this ship.”
He beams proudly as he holds up the card. And then immediately after, the Plitletian monster smashes through the rubble of the collapsed hallway. It’s covered in dark purple blood, is missing several tentacles, and is absolutely seething with rage.
“It’s our old friend,” Shmee grunts.
“Well, that’s what I get for feeling confident,” Squee sighs.
The monster roars and lunges its tentacles towards Squee. He squeaks and stumbles backwards fearfully, bumping into Nny.
A pink force field appears between them and the monster. The tentacles bang against it harmlessly. Everyone looks back at Zim and his extended spider legs.
“What not on Earth is that thing?” Zim asks.
“Yexultex,” Gle’lep breathes.
“What?” Pepito questions.
“It’s a Plitletian super soldier,” he explains, “it’s designed to be completely unstoppable.”
“Unstoppable, huh?” Zim smirks, “sounds like a challenge. Zim accepts.”
“As will I,” Kat says as she drops her human disguise, revealing her true cyborg Irken self. “Sounds like fun.”
“You think I need your help?” Zim scoffs.
“You need all the help you can get,” she retorts.
“I’ll help to,” Pepito says and steps forward.
“No,” Zim says sternly. “You get everyone to the control room.”
“But-,” he starts to argue but Zim cuts him off.
“Take the translator,” he orders as he puts the device into Pepito’s hands. “Get to the control room and take control of the ship. Leave this thing to the Irkens.”
Pepito stares at him, uncertain for a second before nodding.
“Let’s get moving, everyone,” Pepito orders and points down the hall they just came out of.
“Don’t get hurt, Zim,” Dib says as they start running off.
“You too, Tak,” Gaz adds.
Gir and Minimoose hanging off their master’s shoulder, Zim and Tak stare after them until they’re all gone then glare at Yexultex. It’s banging relentlessly on Zim’s force field and roaring angrily.
“Ready to destroy this thing?” Tak asks.
“Yeah,” Zim smirks, “let’s see how unstoppable it is when it’s reduced to mush.”
“Yeah,” Skoodge adds.
Zim and Tak look down at him with surprise.
“Skoodge!” Zim exclaims, “what are you still doing here?”
“You said ‘let the Irkens handle this’,” Skoodge points out, “I’m Irken.”
Unable to argue, Zim just groans with annoyance.
They all flinch as rubble starts falling from the ceiling. Yexultex has started smashing through it and is attempting to climb over Zim’s force field.
“It’s figured out a way around!” Tak exclaims.
“Alright, it’s go time!” Zim barks. He retracts his spider legs and a pair of laser guns pops out.
Zim starts shooting as Yexultex lunges its tentacles at him. The lasers slice through the monster’s appendages but don’t seem to faze it.
Everyone jumps out of the way of Yexultex’s tentacles. The Irkens are lifted up by their spider legs while Gir and Minimoose fly in the air.
Tak points her robotic arm at the beast. Her hand folds all the way back, revealing a hole going up her forearm. From it she fires large laser beams. They slice through the monster’s tentacles and explode on its body. It turns to her, roaring, and whips a tentacle at her. She lifts one of her spider legs to try and block, but it just knocks it out of the way. She screams with surprise as she’s thrown back and into Zim. They both clatter to the floor.
“Dammit, Tak!” Zim barks, “watch where you’re falling!”
Yexultex roars and starts to throw down a mass of tentacles on top of them. They exclaim and struggle to untangle themselves.
Before Yexultex can hit them however, a laser explodes against the side of its head. It snarls and turns to the shooter, Skoodge, who is standing on two spider legs and has two more pointed at the monster.
Yexultex gets ready to attack when Gir flies in smacks the other side of its head. He flies around, kicking and slapping every part of the monster he can reach, with exaggerated ninja sounds.
Yexultex roars with annoyance and stretches out its tentacles, wrapping them around Skoodge, Gir, and Minimoose too for good measure. They squeak in pain as Yexultex starts squeezing hard enough to pop their eyes out of their heads.
“Hey!” Zim barks and jumps to his feet. He begins firing at Yexultex with his guns. He doesn’t do much damage, but succeeds in at least loosening its grip a little.
A little communicator pops out of Tak’s PAK. She shouts into it, “Mimi! Come to me!”
All of sudden, the floor starts shaking more and more quickly followed by crashing that seems to be getting closer. And then Tak’s SIR unit, Mimi, smashes through the floor directly behind Zim and Tak. He looks at her with surprise and peeks through the hole. There are multiple holes smashed through all the floors below leading right outside.
“Mimi! Attack!” Tak shouts, pointing at Yexultex.
Mimi salutes before shooting towards it. She pulls back her large fist and cracks it right in the beak. It stumbles backwards a couple feet, dropping Skoodge, Gir, and Minimoose.
Once Yexultex regains its footing, it shakes its head before roaring angrily. Its multiple tentacles shoot at the group. The Irkens release their spider legs and meet the tentacles head on. Their spider legs stab through many of the appendages while Gir, Minimoose, and Mimi fly around the rest.
Yexultex screeches furiously. It lifts its undamaged tentacles and brings them sideways at the Irkens. Not expecting it, they’re unable to dodge and crushed between the large appendages. Their spider legs retract as they gasp in pain and fall to the floor.
The monster gurgles with delight and prepares to strike again. Zim lifts his head and gasp as it pulls back its tentacles.
“Minimoose!” he barks, “fire!”
Minimoose hovers over the Irkens. His cheeks puff out before his mouth opens, unleashing a giant laser beam about ¾ the size of the corridor. It blasts through Yexultex and the wall behind it, and four of the walls behind that before dissipating.
“Should’ve just done that from beginning,” Zim groans before resting his head on the floor.
“Uh, Zim,” Skoodge whimpers.
Zim looks up and sees the remaining tentacles of Yexultex twitching before crawling forward.
“Are you kidding me?” Zim snaps.
Tak groans painfully and rolls out of the way. Zim and Skoodge quickly follow suit. The tentacles wiggle past them before slipping through the hole Mimi made. Everyone quickly looks through it and watches as Yexultex’s remains fall to the ground far, far below.
Zim, Tak, and Skoodge pant before sighing and falling backwards onto the floor, exhausted.
Meanwhile, the control room of the ship is in disarray. Plitletian officers are scurrying around in a panic. Amidst the chaos, Captain Zul’ut barks orders and questions.
“A quarter of our ship has been destroyed!” he barks, “prisoners have escaped! Yexultex is missing! How could this have happened? Who is responsible for this?”
Nobody can answer him. They’re all too frightened and confused.
A loud bang rings throughout the room, silencing everyone. They all look at a door in the back of the room and notice a dent bulging inwards.
There’s a second bang followed by a second dent a couple inches from the first. Then a third and a fourth. Finally, a large hole is blown through the door.
The Plitletians flinch back fearfully. When they look again, two figures are thrown towards them. Gle’lep and Smugmar hit the floor by their tentacles, bound by their own appendages. They look up at their comrades, scared and guilty.
Captain Zul’ut and his officers stare at the two captured Plitletians with surprise before looking back at the door as a bunch of humans climb in.
Pepito clears his throat as he lifts up the translator to his mouth. “If I could have everybody’s attention, thank you.”
He smirks as he points at himself with his thumb. “This here ship is being commandeered by Earth’s Battalion. It’s what ya’ll get for trying to abduct our city.”
“You!” Zul’ut barks, “are you hooligans the ones responsible for ruining my ship?”
“No, that was mostly Squee,” Gaz replies.
“You abducted our whole city!” Dib snaps, “you’re lucky we haven’t blown up your whole ship!”
“Exactly,” Pepito nods, “now we can either do this the easy way or the hard way. But one way or the other, the prisoners will be freed and safely returned to the surface.”
Zul’ut snarls and points at them dramatically. “Destroy them!”
All of the officers lash their tentacles towards them group.
“The hard way then,” Pepito smirks, “perfect.”
He points his hands forward and creates a black force field in front of them. The Plitletians’ tentacles slap against it harmlessly.
“Dib! Take control of the ship!” he orders, “the rest of us will keep the aliens busy!”
“A-alright,” Dib nods.
“Everybody ready?” Pepito asks.
“Yeah,” the others reply.
“Then let’s kick some alien butt,” he smirks.
He lowers the shield and everyone charges forward towards the aliens. They clash hard, fists and tentacles flying.
Dib races around the fighting, dodging Plitletians until he reaches a computer. He taps the keyboard, trying to make sense of the strange symbols.
Squee hops out of the fray and joins his side. “How’s it look?”
“Not good,” Dib replies, “I don’t know what any of this means and I can’t translate it. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I wish Tak was here.”
“How are gonna free everyone anyway?” Squee asks, “we can’t land the ship, it’s too big. It’ll crush the whole city.”
“Well, when we were sucked up those tubes, we landed directly in that prison cell,” he explains, “maybe there’s a way we can reverse that. But all that is moot until we figure out what these symbols mean.”
Squee looks back at the fighting. It’s chaos with flying fists and knives and bats and tentacles and lots of shouting and swearing- mostly from the human side. He spots Nny amidst the scuffle and waves at him.
Nny catches his eye and shrugs questionably. Squee points at one of the Plitletians. Nny grabs them by the neck and points at them. Squee nods and waves for him to come over.
Nny drags the struggling alien over, still holding them by their neck. The Plitletian gurgles in pain and protest. The trio stares at them blankly.
“We don’t have the translator,” Dib points out.
Squee groans loudly and looks around the crowd. He spots Pepito and waves at him until he looks over. He holds out his hand like he’s holding a small box and points at it. Pepito lifts up the translator, pointing at it. Squee nods and waves both arms at him.
Pepito throws the translator over. Squee squeaks with surprise and immediately covers his head. Johnny and Dib gasp and scramble to catch it. Fortunately Johnny grabs it before it hits the floor and everybody sighs with relief.
Amidst the panic, the Plitletian tried escaping. But Johnny catches them before they get too far. He throws them at the computer and steps on their head, squishing their face onto the screen.
Dib takes the translator and holds it between them. “How do we free the prisoners?”
“I’ll never talk!” the Plitletian barks, “you can’t make me!”
“Oh, boy,” Squee sighs.
Johnny grabs one of the Plitletian’s wiggling tentacles. He pulls a switchblade out of his pants pocket and stabs it a couple times.
The Plitletian cries out in pain then growls defiantly. “You humans are monsters ruled by violence.”
“You’re right about that,” Johnny nods, “so you better tell us what we want to know.”
“Never,” they snarl, “the galaxy would be better off without your species polluting it. That’s why we’re going to destroy it.”
“We’re not a threat to any of you though,” Squee points out, “we can’t even travel to another planet. We’re just a threat to ourselves.”
“A threat is still a threat,” the Plitletian argues, “and all must be terminated.”
Before anyone can argue, a tentacle suddenly flies in and slams into Johnny. He’s knocked off the Plitletian and hits the floor.
“Nny!” Squee exclaims.
The Plitletian scuttles away while Captain Zul’ut retracts his tentacle. Johnny sits up and they glare at each other.
“Are you okay?” Squee asks worriedly.
“Yeah, fine,” Johnny replies as he stands up, never taking his eyes off Zul’ut.
“We lost our prisoner,” Dib sighs.
“Eh, it wasn’t gonna talk anyway,” he grunts, “we threatened the wrong alien.”
“The wrong alien?” Squee questions.
“Squee, give me a Smiley Bomb,” Johnny orders. Squee quickly digs around his bag before grabbing a bomb. Johnny grabs it as well as the translator from Dib.
Without another word, Johnny races into the crowd. He dodges around the waring aliens and humans and charges straight to Zul’ut. He sees him coming and they clash head-on.
Zul’ut whips his tentacles arms at Johnny. Johnny dodges one and grabs the other, wrapping it around his forearm and holding it tight. Zul’ut wraps his free arm around Johnny’s midriff and squeezes but it doesn’t faze him. He body checks Zul’ut, shoving his back into the wall. Zul’ut lunges his tentacle legs at Johnny, wrapping them around his torso and legs, but Johnny keeps a firm grip on his first tentacle arm so he can’t be pushed back and plants his foot on Zul’ut’s chest.
Once they’re face to face, Johnny holds the translator and bomb between them, and squeezes the pin.
“This bomb is the same kind that was responsible for destroying much of your ship,” he growls, “call off your army and free the prisoners, or I’ll blow us all up.”
“You’re bluffing,” Zul’ut scoffs.
“Don’t test me,” Johnny snarls.
They glare at each other. Zul’ut has seen many creatures throughout his travels across the galaxy. But never has he seen eyes as dark and empty as the ones before him. Against his will, his grip starts loosening.
Johnny starts to twist the pin.
“Stop!” Zul’ut cries and Johnny freezes. “Alright. I’ll do it.”
Zul’ut lets go of Johnny and lifts his head. “Everybody, pull back!”
The fighting immediately stops and the Plitletians look back at their captain with surprise.
“It’s over,” Zul’ut sighs, “release the prisoners back onto the surface and prepare to retreat.”
The officers look at each other and garble with confusion.
“Now!” he barks.
They gasp and quickly scurry about the cabin. One of them shoves past Dib and taps on the keyboard. An alarm starts sounding with a message being repeated through the intercom. It’s translated as ‘prisoner release, prisoner release.’
“There. Now please just leave,” Zul’ut begs.
Johnny takes his foot of his chest and steps back. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
He tosses the bomb back to Squee and the translator to Dib as he strides to the door.
“Alright, mission accomplished,” Pepito shrugs.
“Yeah. Now let’s grab Zim and get out of here,” Dib orders.
They all quickly scurry out the door and back into the hall. But Dib stops short and looks back at the Plitletians.
“You’re wrong about humans,” he says into the translator. “We’re not all bad. And I think we still have a chance.”
Zul’ut cocks his head at him. Dib lingers a second longer before hopping through the door and racing after the others.
A few corridors away, Zim, Tak, and Skoodge stare through the many holes in the ships floors. They can see large tubes extending from the bottom of the ship, safely dropping humans onto the surface. Of course from this height they just look like little specks, but the sentiment is there.
“I guess I really should stop underestimating those guys,” Tak says.
“Yeah,” Zim grunts, “you should.”
They look up at the sound of rapid footsteps and see Dib and the others race up to them.
“You guys look like you had a rough time,” Pepito comments.
“You guys look no better,” Zim retorts.
They all look at each other. Most of them are covered in cuts and scrapes from their battle.
“But you succeeded,” he groans as he sits up. “And this might just be exhaustion and delirium talking but… good work, all of you.”
Dib, Gaz, Pepito, and Squee beam proudly. Mr. Fuck, Psycho Doughboy, Reverend Meat, and Sickness smirk arrogantly. Devi and Tenna grin wearily while Johnny just rolls his eyes.
“Now, how are we gonna get out of here?” Dib asks as he helps Zim to his feet, wrapping Zim’s arm around his waist. Gaz does the same with Tak while Pepito picks up Skoodge and Squee carries Gir, Minimoose, and Mimi.
“We’ll never find our way back to the prison cells,” Pepito muses.
“Gir and Mimi can’t fly us all down,” Squee adds.
“We could jump,” Johnny suggests, gesturing to the holes in the floors.
“Are you kidding?” Devi scoffs, “we’d be dead before we hit the ground.”
As they argue and toss around ideas- mostly argue- something approaches them from down the corridor. They hear the tentacles slapping the floor and turn to face them.
It’s Gle’lep. He pants as he walks up to them, bent over and exhausted.
“Gle’lep,” Zim grunts.
“How’s your partner?” Squee asks.
“Smugmar will be fine,” Gle’lep replies, “I, on the other hand, have been demoted for treason.”
“Well, you did lead your enemies to the most important room on the ship,” Pepito points out.
“I knew you humans were trouble from the second we started investigating this planet,” he growls.
“Hey, man, you started it,” Dib shrugs.
“Stay away from my people,” Gle’lep snarls.
“That’s our line,” Zim retorts.
Gle’lep holds up a small remote he was carrying and taps it a couple times. Suddenly a circular section of the floor opens up behind Zim and the others and a large tube extends from it. It sucks everyone up so quickly they don’t even have time to resist.
They all scream as they’re sucked through the tube before hitting the ground in the middle of the city. They fall on top of each into a huge pile, grunting in pain.
As they roll off each other, groaning with annoyance, they’re hit with a huge gust of wind. They look up as the alien ship takes off higher into the sky before quickly disappearing.
They all stare up at the sky for a couple more second before sighing and looking around.
All around them, people are laughing and hugging each other. They’re reuniting with family and friends and trying to figure out what the hell just happened.
“We just saved the whole city,” Zim says, “and nobody will even know.”
“Heroes don’t do the right thing for praise,” Dib states, “they do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do.”
“Fuck that,” Pepito scoffs.
“Yeah, I want some praise,” Gaz agrees.
“Well, it’s not like anyone would believe us if we told them,” Squee points out.
Zim, Dib, Gaz, and Pepito groan with agreement.
“Well, those troglodytes might not know, but we do,” Devi points out as she pats Squee’s head.
“Of course you do; you helped,” Squee points out.
“Yes, yes, we all did good work today,” Zim nods affirmatively before hanging his head with exhaustion. “Now I’m gonna go home and sleep for the next 24 hours.”
“That actually sounds pretty good,” Tak nods as she puts her disguise back on.
“Yeah, and we should find our hopeless roommates,” Eff says.
“And we should find our dad,” Dib says to Gaz who nods in agreement.
Everyone starts splitting off, waving goodbye to each other. Tak grabs Mimi before hobbling off while Zim takes Skoodge, Gir, and Minimoose. He gives Squee a quick pat on the back before leaving. Eventually it’s just Johnny, Squee, Devi, and Tenna, along with Nugget and Shmee.
“So what now? We just walk home?” Tenna asks.
“I doubt any of the taxi services are running right now,” Devi points out.
“It’s gonna be a long walk,” Johnny groans.
And that it is. It takes nearly five hours to walk through the recovering city. Devi and Tenna eventually split off to go to their apartments, leaving Nny and Squee with their pets. Squee sighs wearily and rests his head against Nny’s side as they continue walking.
They reach Grave Road around sunset and they’re not the only ones. It seems their neighbors who were abducted also got home around the same time. Amanda is squeezing her daughter Emily, Colton and his little sister Kay are both hugging their parents, even Shane and Sage are being welcomed home by their dog, Bizner.
Squee smiles weakly at the sight. Colton spots him and waves excitedly. Squee half-waves back.
“What a nice happy ending,” Nny comments.
“It’ll be happier when I can lie down,” Squee yawns.
Nny chuckles and they go into their house together, closing the door on the happy reunions and ending this crazy, erratic day.
#Invader Zim#Invader Zim fanfiction#Johnny the Homicidal Maniac#Johnny the Homicidal Maniac fanfiction#IZ JtHM crossover#my ocs#my art
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The Copy
Henry was walking down the street to get his weekly supply of prEP when he found a little shinny thing on the floor. Picking it up, Henry thought it looked like a blue crystal, all shine and reflective surfaces. After a moment, and only for a few seconds, the crystal began to tremble, the way his mobile did whenever he received a Grindr notification. He took the crystal home, put it in a drawer, and soon forgot about it.
Years passed and Henry went to college, moved out of town, and got a boyfriend. Life was getting better. Everything came to a halt when Henry got a call from his doctor. 'Come as soon as you can'. He dropped everything he was doing and went to the hospital. Even though he got there in less than 20 minutes after the doctor's call, Henry still had to wait almost 2 hours. He was sweating by the time the nurse guided him to his appointment. 'I'm not going to beat around the bush, Billy', said the fat doctor. 'Henry, sir', corrected Henry. 'Your blood tests came in. You have HIV'.
Henry doesn't remember much of the rest of that day. He went back to his parent's house and didn't know exactly how. All he remembers of the few days that followed was sleep. Lots of sleep.
Four days passed. Henry just slept, barely eating and never leaving the house. While he slept, late in the afternoon, the little blue crystal started trembling inside the drawer. Of course, Henry didn't noticed it. He also didn't know they were coming.
Lieutenant Cosmos was sitting at his desk working on some reports that had to be delivered as soon as possible when his assistant burst in. 'It's urgent' was the only thing she had time to say before Hack pushed through her. 'We are being invaded, Richard' he said. 'What do you mean, invaded?' Cosmos said. Funny enough, his brain seemed to slow down, not processing the info, the first thing he did was check the digital clock on the desk. How can an invasion happen at 2 p.m.? 'I'm talking about some alien shit, Richard'. The voice of his superior brought Cosmos back to Earth. 'There are SPACESHIPS orbiting the earth. Real spaceships. Like in a fucking movie' screamed Hack. 'How... what...' the words just melted in his mouth and before being able to stop himself, Cosmos peeked through the windows. Only the blue sky and some thin clouds. No spaceships.
Oblivious to Henry and most people in the country, the main spaceship opened one of its thousands shuttle doors and released a tiny metallic ship in the shape of a droplet. Floating a few feet from its mother, the droplet soon plunged straight to earth at impossible speed. It came to a halt right on top Henry's house. It was a dark starless night. Clouds have been gathering all day and were now covering the sky dome like a blanket. The droplet was perfectly still, unseen by anyone. From its bottom, an orb of blue light shot down to the roof of the house and the droplet started ascending silently back to space.
Henry woke up startled. He felt eyes on him, observed. Cold sweat was rolling down his back. The room was dark only a few weak rays of light coming through the open window. Suddenly something moved on the other side of the room. Just the smallest of gestures. Henry quickly looked and at first saw nothing other than his closet and a few boxes on the floor, but there was a darker shape in a sea of dark shapes. It looked like a person. Henry quickly sat up in his bed, trying to frantically turn on the lamp near his bed. Click click click click. The lamp remained dark. No light. Suddenly the shape moved closer to the light coming from the outside. It was a naked human. It was a man. It was Henry.
Henry and Other Henry stared at each other and the lamp finally came to life. It was a perfect copy of him, but Henry realized that something was off. This copy had a bigger penis.
Too shocked to mutter a word, with his heart pumping blood in violent convulsions, Henry just stared. The Other Henry was perfectly still. Whatever it was didn't even seem to blink.
Without a moment's notice the door of the room opened and in came Henry's sister, Sam. Her face fell as soon as she paid attention to what she was seeing. Henry would laugh if this wasn't the weirdest moment of his life. 'Wha...' whispered Sam. The Other Henry didn't even move. Just kept staring at Henry, all-seeing eyes. 'It's me..' continued Sam. 'What?.. no... it's me' responded Henry, not peeling his eyes off the Copy, scared of getting attacked at any second. 'No, it's me... with bigger tits' said Sam, still holding the doorknob.
Lieutenant Cosmos sat in his kitchen smoking. He had quit years ago when he was caught cheating on his wife with a British shemale but the discovery of alien life and possible hostile invasion made him relapse. His wife was asleep upstairs. He debated telling his wife about the aliens on his way home but feared she would think he was cheating on her with them, jealous as she was. He took his government-issued cellphone and made a phone call to his assistant. 'Bring me some laxatives'. He didn't wait for a reply.
'So.. it reflects our biggest dream?' speculated Henry, after describing what he saw to his sister. 'I mean... I guess. I do look lit with those tits and...' Sam didn't finish the sentence because the Copy moved fast and precisely. It grabbed Sam by the neck and in a swift movement plucked off her eyes, one by one with its hands and began eating them. Henry watched, shocked. The blood started flowing then. Like cold dark lava out of empty sockets. Fleshy holes. He could hear her sister trying to scream, but the Copy was strangling her. He didn't think twice. Henry jumped out of bed and ran to them. The Copy didn't seem to register this, as it didn't even turn around. Instead, its buttcheeks parted, and out came the most perfect fart. It was loud but its enormous force pushed Henry against the bed. As his head met the wooden frame, his vision melted.
All he saw was white. He was looking at the ceiling of his room. It was all but a bad dream. He tried to inhale deeply but the tube in his throat made it difficult.
Henry woke up in his adapted bed. He had been in a vegetative state ever since a car crash that killed Sam and their mom five years prior.
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This short story has been brought to you by Associação do Livreiro Paneleiro that aims to bring the joy of literacy to children under 6. If you liked this book please emails us at [email protected]
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Call Me But Love
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: T
Pairing: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Twelfth Doctor/Rose Tyler (The Doctor/Clara Oswald, Twelfth Doctor/Clara Oswald)
Chapters: 4/40
Read on AO3 here.
“‘Oh, dear. Looks like we might have picked up an extra passenger,’ the Doctor grumbled to himself. His gaze raised to Rose’s once more and she was struck by the sheer intensity of it and the way that he managed to look at once so familiar, and yet so different from what she was used to. ‘Best find something to hold on to,’ he warned her ominously.”
A Season 8 & 9 AU centering around Rose Tyler and her newly-regenerated Doctor as they both struggle to maintain their relationship in the face of some unknown force that seems to be drawing them together. Will they be able to solve the mystery of who is pulling the strings before it’s too late?
This is a direct sequel to “By Any Other Name” and might be a bit confusing if you haven’t read that first.
Tags will be updated as I go.
Rose felt an intense sensation of foreboding as she and the Doctor cautiously began to navigate what he so cheerily referred to as "the larder". It seemed that they had landed in what should have been a basement, but was actually a crashed spaceship that was somehow out of its time. It wasn't long before a group of killer cyborgs from the future began to wake up and reanimate around them, but Rose only had enough time to force the Doctor through the doors and into safety ahead of her, leaving her trapped behind to deal with the danger on her own.
"Doctor, open the door!" she hissed as her hands scrabbled uselessly against the thick layer of metal that separated them.
"Sorry ... too slow," he muttered under his breath, his unfamiliar blue eyes blinking back at her through the grate that allowed them to look at each other but not touch. "No point in them catching us both."
Don't you dare! Rose growled as she pointedly yanked at her end of their mental connection, but he ignored her completely as he turned his back on her and ran down the hallway towards freedom without her, abandoning her all on her own, just as he had been doing ever since he had changed into this new body. Rose couldn't help but wonder if this was just going to be a thing that he did now - was the Doctor always going to be leaving her behind in his wake, keeping a distance between them when she desperately longed for familiarity and connection?
Doctor, what are you doing? she demanded as she pleadingly pulled against his mind and begged for him to come back. Don't leave me ...
The Doctor flashed her a small wave of reassurance that ended abruptly when he steadfastly shielded his mind from hers once more and his thoughts suddenly went eerily, deadly silent within her head. Rose felt her heart break in utter betrayal and she made sure that she projected it as strongly as she could across their dim connection as she faced off against the encroaching cyborgs, who quickly saw through her attempt at disguise and immediately brought her forward for questioning.
"Where is the other one?" the man who appeared to be in charge demanded from where he sat on his charging station before her. "You will tell us, or you will be destroyed."
"Go on, then," Rose muttered wearily, forcing herself to her feet despite the utter hopelessness that weighed down on her and begged for her to simply give up and give in. "Do it."
She was still silently brooding over her hurt and disappointment as she glared up at the strange half-faced man and dared him to try and test her. She honestly didn't know why she had expected this time around with the Doctor to be any different, really. It was all turning out to be exactly the same as it had been that first Christmas that they had spent together - the Doctor was out trying to reconfigure himself, and Rose was left to pick up the pieces and face off against the alien menace alone, with no tools and no plan and no clue as to what was going on or who to get out of this situation alive.
The robotic man before her tilted his head in question as his eyes looked blankly over her, seeming to try and assess the poisonous glare that she was leveling in his direction. As Rose met his gaze as evenly as she could, she suddenly sensed a strange prickling in the back of her mind that she wished very much would just shut up and go away. She was tired - tired of running, tired of fighting, and tired of chasing after a man who clearly wanted nothing at all to do with her.
"I'm not going to answer any of your questions," she continued stubbornly, squaring her jaw in retaliation as she stared down at the cyborg before her and determinedly called his bluff. "So you have to do it - you have to kill me."
The prickling in the back of Rose's mind was growing more pronounced now, and she had to fight not to choke on the lump in her throat as she suddenly recognized it for what it was - the last remaining hint of her bond with the Doctor slowly reawakening within the back of her thoughts. It seemed that he hadn't completely abandoned her after all - in fact, he was still close, lurking somewhere in the ship nearby. Rose wondered if he was actually planning to just sit back and watch as these cyborgs from the future killed her and used her for spare parts. Did he really have so little regard for her now, just because he had changed his face? Would he even mourn her if the cyborgs made good on their threat and destroyed her?
Rose realized, belatedly, why this whole situation felt so familiar to her - it wasn't just Christmas from 2005, it was eighteenth-century France, too. The Doctor was off galavanting about without her and leaving her to fight off the deadly robots all on her own.
Well, if she had managed to make it through back then, then she could certainly make her way out now, and Rose wasn't about to go running off after the Doctor and begging for his help when he clearly had other things - or other people - that he deemed to be more important than herself.
Suddenly, the itch of consciousness at the back of Rose's mind came roaring back to life as the Doctor loosened his hold on the barriers between them and his presence instantly came rushing back into her head. Don't give up on me, Rose, not yet ... he commanded silently.
Rose didn't need to use words to convey her intense sense of distrust and betrayal as she clearly displayed for him why she had very good reason to doubt his conviction.
Hang on just a little longer. I'm here, I'm with you, he whispered gently.
"You will tell us where the other one is," the half-man insisted, instantly shocking Rose back into the present danger that surrounded her.
"Nope," Rose answered him as resolutely as possible. You'd better have a plan ... she added venomously as she went against her better judgement and begrudgingly reached out to the Doctor once more.
Working on it, was the only reassurance that he offered her before he retreated back behind his mental barriers and the added presence in the back of her mind grew still once more.
"You will be destroyed," the cyborg stated plainly.
"Destroy me, then," Rose dared him ominously.
"The information can be extracted by means of your suffering," the man continued, the clockwork pieces of his brain rattling away as he seemed to consider her.
"Are you trying to scare me?" Rose muttered darkly. "Well, I'm already bloody terrified of dying, and I'll endure a lot of pain for a very long time before I give up the information that's keeping me alive. How long have you got?"
She stepped closer in an attempt to seem more intimidating, but was immediately startled back again when the half-man rose to his feet before her, detached his human hand from his right wrist, and began to advance on her with a glowing, blue torch of fire that extended from his arm.
"Okay! Okay, okay, okay, yes - I am crying," Rose admitted desperately as she felt the panicked tears beginning to spring up and overflow from within her, "but it's just because I am very, very frightened of you, and if you know anything about human beings, that means that you're in a lot of trouble!"
"Where is the other one?" the half-man repeated determinedly, taking another step towards her and brandishing the dangerous flame in her direction.
"I don't know," Rose admitted with a small, defeated sigh as she gazed up at the cyborg's face in unrestrained terror. "But I know where he will be - where he will always be." Please, Doctor, please don't leave me now ... she begged silently as she reached her hand out into the empty air behind her and closed her eyes tight as she also reached out with her mind. Please, please don't abandon me again ...
The hum in the back of Rose's mind swelled once more and formed into a deep, complicated emotion that she had never felt form the Doctor in any form before - something new and powerful that she had no name for at all.
"If the Doctor is still the Doctor," she continued, glaring at the cyborg as her confidence slowly began to return, "he will have my back."
Rose gasped in surprise despite herself as a hand suddenly grasped her own and pulled her roughly backwards. She turned around just in time to see the Doctor pulling a skin mask from off of his head to reveal those new features of his once more, a bright grin drawing up his features in the first real smile that she had seen on this body yet. She noticed that it made his lips look oddly crooked, as though he wasn't quite sure of how to form the shape of true amusement anymore.
"Hello, hello, rubbish robots," he greeted the cyborgs grandly. He turned to flash Rose an appreciative wink as he added, "Five-foot-one and crying - they never stood a chance."
Rose shot him an indignant look, but he ignored her as he turned his glare back on the man currently threatening her and Rose felt a swell of defensive anger sweep through their bond before he rushed forward and knocked the cyborg's flaming arm aside. "Stop it," he growled menacingly. "You're out of your depth, sir." He flashed Rose a considering look over his shoulder as he added, "You're brilliant on adrenaline, by the way, did I ever tell you that?"
"Yeah, and you're rubbish with timing!" she snapped back as she crossed her arms against her chest and stubbornly glared at him.
"Sorry, just got ... caught up in the moment," he muttered sheepishly.
"Yeah, isn't that what happened last time?" she sneered petulantly.
"What are you talking about?" the Doctor asked, narrowing his eyes on her in confusion.
"Although, I guess I really shouldn't be complaining," Rose continued as though she hadn't heard him. "At least this time you're not sneaking off to snog Madame de Pompadour!"
The Doctor's eyes grew wide as he stared at her in silence for a moment and Rose might have laughed at his expression if she weren't currently so cross with him, but as it was, she simply glared as realization slowly dawned over him.
"Ah!" he shouted in sudden understanding. "Ah, yes, of course! How could I forget Reinette!"
Rose could only stare at him with wordless, indignant anger as she pushed her burning hurt and resentment into her bondmate's thoughts and watched his big, dopey grin immediately disappear into a look of chastisement. It seemed that a lifetime spent being married to the Doctor still wasn't enough time to erase all of the pain that he had caused when he had abandoned her to go chasing after another pretty blonde woman all those years ago, and Rose had plenty of spite and anger left to go around.
"Right, sorry ..." he muttered awkwardly as he quickly attempted to backpedal and regain control of the conversation once more. "That's not exactly what I was meant to say ..."
"Oh, just get on with it," Rose growled as she rolled her eyes at him and forcefully pushed eighteenth-century France and the Doctor's silent, pleading thoughts for forgiveness out of her mind.
"Just say the word, dear," the Doctor muttered as he crossed the room to join her at her side, his movements stiff and awkward as though he wasn't even sure how to stand next to her anymore, let alone talk to her.
"I don't want to say it," Rose snapped stubbornly as she crossed her arms against her chest and the two of them stepped deftly out of the cyborg's reach.
"I've guessed it already," the Doctor assured her with a lofty, put-upon sigh.
Rose gritted her teeth in frustration once more as she reached up to press the comm link that Strax had inputted into the top button of her dress before she had come to the restaurant to seek out the Doctor, and in unison they stated the codeword that Madame Vastra had put in place: "Geronimo."
#doctor who#dw#fanfiction#fanfic#dw fanfiction#dw fanfic#doctor who fanfiction#doctor who fanfic#the doctor#twelfth doctor#rose tyler#twelve/rose#twelve x rose#the doctor/rose#the doctorxrose
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