#except for how she's currently on the I-should-kill-my-enemies-instead-of-holding-back train again

[umbrellajam]

New Teen Titans (Vol. 2) #10 - "He's like something out of a bad romance novel. Man, talk about your cornballs. Who writes his dialogue? Hallmark cards?"

Vic speaking my thoughts on Mr. Wing Man >_> and wow, they're sure having him pull overtime on the lampshading meta snark in this issue:

New Teen Titans (Vol. 2) #10 - "Why will the next Teen Titan hate her parents? Will we have to turn Titans Tower into Titans Hotel? These questions will be answered...in the next sickening segment of--"Daze Of Our Lives!" Same Bat time! Same Bat channel!"

[comeandreadawhile]

Au: Boba gets adopted (pt 2)

Part 1

Boba was adjusting.

Perhaps as well as could’ve been expected, having to learn to live in the stronghold of his ancestral mortal enemies as the child of the only Jedi he’d been acquainted with, but Anakin—his new ori’vod, he guessed, who had first come to the temple around Boba’s age—had also taken a while to settle in. He finally had the option to play with children his own age, who weren’t twice his size, and at least the education modules he was given were similar to the ones his dad—

Boba was trying to adjust.

Boba had clung to Kenobi as soon as the man had set down the clanking bundle he’d brought back to the ship with him, and had held fast from the moment they’d left Geonosis’ atmosphere—even as a medic was fussing over Kenobi’s leg, the redhead simply shifted Boba out of the way, half onto Anakin, who’d sat next to the pair on the flight to Coruscant. (Somewhere in the back of his mind, Boba noted how the teen’s attention was torn between him and his new caretaker, and the older girl closeby also being fussed over by a medic.)

Kenobi was certainly trying to make the transition easier. Becoming a High General in the newborn war with the Separtists, in addition to finding out his current padawan had just weeks ago lost his own parent while they were separated, had certainly given Kenobi enough to deal with without unceremoniously adopting a child. Yet he had, and here they were; two grieving, angry children and an already exhausted Master Jedi.

The Jedi bigwigs—council, Kenobi said—hadn’t taken his impromptu claiming of a child lightly.

He was clinging still when they’d arrived to the temple; an emergency meeting of council members to discuss Kenobi’s findings and their concerns of the dawning war had been called. Kenobi had made no move to separate the child from his person and did quite the opposite when the matter was immediately brought up. Boba remembered thinking that if he held on any tighter, he risked choking his new-found guardian. Kenobi simply shifted him a bit higher on his hip, a better hold, at the deep-voiced inquiry. Over Kenobi’s shoulder, Boba noticed an old Master—surely, the person must’ve been one—with a long snake’s tail instead of legs, peering at him kindly from under a thick mane of white hair.

“He’s mine,” was the explanation Kenobi had given. “I will raise him.”

The same deep voice, that had already sounded tired to Boba, now sounded tense. “You already have a padawan, Master Kenobi.”

“Then it is good that I have no intention of keeping him as a padawan,” Kenobi, replied coolly. “I’ve claimed him as a foundling under Mandalorian law.”

“We are not Mandalorians, Obi-Wan,” said a different voice, less deep than the first and oddly accented. Boba could only see a large pink ear in that direction from where he was hiding in Kenobi’s throat. “I would’ve expected this behavior from your master, but not from you.”

Boba did not need the Force to feel the righteous fury the remark inspired in his guardian. A woman—a togruta, his father once called her people—turned slowly towards the pink ear’s owner.

“Master Piell,” she spoke lowly, “that was uncalled for.” The few other people Boba could see looked similarly indignant, and he felt the tensed arms holding him relax minutely at the woman’s admonishment.

The first deep voice spoke again, “Be that as it may, Master Piell is correct in that we are not Mandalorians.”

“The bounty hunter was, and this boy is.” Kenobi responded as if the last minute hadn’t happened.

“We do not take in civilian children, Kenobi, and that doesn’t change because of your fondness for Mandalore’s people.”

“What would have had me do? Leave him on Geonosis?”

“The Republic’s foster system would’ve been alerted of the boy.”

“—and he could sit in the sand by himself, grieving, until they picked him up? You know how difficult it is for older children in that system to find homes.”

“We,” a pause fell that Boba guessed was spent sending a look to a certain Master, “are not attacking you, Master Kenobi. Even if we could adopt every orphaned child into our fold, there is also the issue of attachment.”

“Are we not honor-bound to help those in need?”

“This is not a simple matter of helping! You know that this goes against our code,” The deep voice replied sharply. Boba felt Kenobi tense again.

“You would choose to abide by our code so strictly and whole-heartedly even if it conflicts with the interests of a child?” There was a chill to Kenobi’s tone that made Boba hope to never receive it. A new voice, old and squawky, huffed.

“Both of you, enough. Argue like children, you do. A bad example, this sets.” A cushion shifted. “On this matter, what does Skywalker say?”

Kenobi shifted his feet a bit before answering, “Anakin’s recently lost his own mother; he’s struggled with his attachment to her the entire time I’ve trained him. It’s my hope they will help each other work through their grief in ways I might not be able to. He’s accepted this boy already, Master.”

The ancient voice hummed, a Boba heard the airy taps of wood against tile. “Master Koon,” the voice sounded undecided. “Helpful, your view may be.” The lilt at the end of the sentence, and the quiet sighs of some councilors gave Boba the impression there was a joke he wasn’t getting. A new voice—not unlike the horns the Cuy’val Dar blew on special occasions, noble and deep despite their hollow resonance—joined the fray.

“There is already a strong connection in place,” this Master stated. “It would most likely prove more traumatic for the boy to remove him from Master Kenobi now.” Another cushion shifted, “Besides, who better in this Order to raise a Mandalorian than Obi-Wan?”

“Matters, does it not, that coming, a war is?”

“From my understanding of their customs, certain sects of Mandalorians took their children to war about this one’s age. Am I correct?” The question must’ve been for Kenobi, because he turned his body and answered.

“Yes, Master. Their coming of age rites are performed at thirteen, but most clans start training and going to war as young as eight. I am familiar with their fighting styles and customs, enough to get this boy through his Verd’goten.” Kenobi turned back to the first, critical, deep voice. “Even if I must do so without the approval of this council. I will not go back on the vow I made.”

The voice like strong music hummed thoughtfully, “An admirable conviction, Master Obi-Wan. Your master would be proud of your morals.” The air suddenly felt warmer to Boba, and the voice sounded resolute as it continued, “A Jedi of this Order killed this boy’s father, so a Jedi of this Order will raise him in his father’s place. That is my opinion on this matter.”

The togrutan woman spoke softly, “Exceptions have been made to the code before now, surely they will again.”

“A vote, we shall have,” declared the squawky voice; in the next terrifying minute, silence filled the chamber as hands were raised or stayed, with the blood pumping loud enough in Boba’s ears he wasn’t sure whether or not they’d announced their decision and he’d missed it until the deep voice from the beginning spoke, tight and stern and tired.

“This council has ruled in favor of you keeping your foundling, Master Kenobi. Raise him as befits this order.” Two sighs of relief echoed into the chamber, and Boba saw as the man with the snake tail nodded, smiling under his beard.

“Before we begin Master Obi-Wan’s debriefing...” the voice like horns chimed in, trailing off behind the sound of linens shifting. “It has been some time since a Mandalorian youngling was within these temple walls.” The voice was closer now, and Boba startled as a hand landed on his head. Turning around in Kenobi’s hold, he met eyes—or assumed so, with the mask between them—with a being he’d never seen before. Boba’s first thought was ‘ugly’, and then immediately felt a pang of guilt for such a thought toward the one who’d spoken so in favor of keeping him and his new guardian together. The clawed, orange hand resting on his head gently ruffled his hair before retreating into the Jedi master’s sleeve.

The togruta had made her way over to them as well, peering down at Boba with wide, steel-blue eyes; she swept a gentle hand over his head much as her fellow master had done. He did his best not to scramble as Kenobi made to put him down. “We should give you a proper introduction, then, shouldn’t we?” He kept a grounding hand on Boba’s shoulder as he spoke. “Masters, this is Boba Fett. Boba, these masters are…” and Kenobi went down the line, first beginning with Masters Ti and Koon, who the. Went back to their fancy chairs, and then turning to go around the circular room. The squawking voice had apparently belonged to an odd little green creature, and then Boba met eyes with his neighbor.

He’d have liked to throw up as cold dread wrestled with hot fury in his gut.

Kenobi quieted, he and the other masters going tense and stiff at the boy’s vast and sudden emotional shift. The one Kenobi called Yoda crossed his clawed hands over his cane and spoke as if he expected Boba to bolt; Boba had half a mind to. “Quite distressed, you are. Why?”

Boba wasn’t quite sure how the words got out with how tight his throat had become. “He killed my dad.”

He’d have spat the syllables had they not been choking him. “He killed my dad with a purple lightsaber.”

Boba remembered little of what happened next—torn between running away and lunging at the jedi master’s neck as Kenobi scooped him up and practically ran out of the chamber—somehow ending up in a garden with a winded Anakin to wait out Kenobi’s debriefing. They’d talked, both of them trying to distract the other from recent losses; Anakin even taught him how to blow off steam by skipping stones in one of the larger fountains. Upon his return, Kenobi snatched Boba up and apologized profusely, not having known Mace’s connection to the boy.

They’d gone back to their quarters, Kenobi promising Anakin they’d spar the next day and discussing plans for latemeal with Boba settled back on his hip. The lull in activity only allowed the boy’s mind to wander back to the events leading to his current situation, and both jedi noticed the spike in Boba’s grief and frustration; Kenobi gave him a gentle squeeze as the first sniffle came. “Any ideas for latemeal, little one?”

“Neither of us have spent much time in the temple the last couple weeks but the commissary will be open for a while if nothing else,” Anakin chimed in, sarcasm threading the edges of his tone. Kenobi gave a small ‘tsk’ in response.

“There were plenty of shelf-stables when we left,” Kenobi pointed out. “Besides, a large loud room full of strangers is the last thing Boba needs at present.” He repeated his previous question, and Boba was more than happy to turn his thoughts to potential answers.

“Something warm...and salty, maybe?”

Kenobi nodded beside his head, “There’s a start. What else?”

They carried the conversation on until the trio reached a door set into the wall. Entering the small apartment for the first time, Boba had been struck at the differences, as well as the similarities, to the dwelling he’d been raised in. The jedi clearly weren’t material people, but compared to the sterility of Kamino’s white halls, the room awash in afternoon sun was extremely inviting despite its foreign nature. Plants, slightly wilted from their master’s absence, littered the space’s windowsills, with books in neat piles and rows within several bookcases nearby. Blankets draped over some on the furniture that Boba could see, and the glimpse of a table around a corner hinted at the location of the kitchen.

Anakin had been tasked with showing Boba around the living space while Kenobi went about the kitchen’s stock. He’d been all too happy with the excitement Boba had shown while admiring his collection of ship models, and once latemeal was well underway, Obi-wan had been relieved to pop in and find, despite recent events, his nineteen year old wasn’t too old to play starfighters.

Boba slept in Anakin’s room that night, a belly full of warm soup—it had been just what he needed—and grateful his first night in this foreign place wouldn’t be alone.

The next few days had been a flurry of activity, between the Jedi preparing themselves and their padawans for war, barely being instructed on how to lead the men they’d be assigned—who Boba tried not to think of—and bouts of quiet, where Boba tried to become more comfortable with his new home. Obi-wan, who insisted Boba call him that instead of ‘Kenobi’ his second night at the temple, had begun trying to teach him to meditate, saying it would be a good tool for when he felt stuck or frustrated. The Jedi master said they would pick up Boba’s training soon from where his dad left off.

Boba missed his dad. It certainly leant to his hatred of being alone, and despite the newness of their situation Boba couldn’t help feeling paranoid whenever Kenobi left to attend to some matter or other. What if something happens? What if they change his mind? Will someone else take me? Would someone else want me? What if Obi-wan never comes back?

Yet, each time Obi-wan would return with a tired smile and hug, asking how he and Anakin got along that day. There had a time within the first weeks, with warning of course, that Obi-wan had been gone for a couple of days, and after Boba’s anxiety at their separation came to a head the first evening, Anakin had pulled out a holocomm. He’d pulled Boba onto his leg and suddenly a blue hologram of Obi-wan, unfortunately soaked, sprung up from the device. They’d called again the next night, too. Boba had run to the door the next day when it opened, and was briefly halted. He’d used to run to the door when his dad came home from a hunt; was he forgetting his dad by showing this Jedi the same excitement?

He filed the conundrum away for later when said Jedi called his name. The man’s arms were filled with boxes, with more trailing behind him. “I’ve got some things for you,” he’d said.

To say Boba could’ve cried at what was in those boxes would’ve been inaccurate. Because he did, in heavy sobs, when he opened the first and pulled out one of his dad’s shirts. Going through the boxes with tear-filled eyes and an almost frantic determination to make sure, Boba found that everything personal from the Kamino apartment was in those boxes; his and his dad’s clothes, his dad’s books and even some that had belonged to his ba’buir, and the entirety of the armory his father kept apart from Slave I, among everything else. He tackled Obi-wan’s legs in a hug, wet hiccups making him unsure which language his stuttered thanks was given in. He’d slept in his father’s shirt that night, clutching two more like lifelines.

Boba began his education modules shortly after Obi-wan’s return, content to do them while Anakin went through his saber practice or as a distraction when Obi-wan was busy in with the council. Grief was difficult, especially so sudden a loss, but he was adjusting while working through it. He and Anakin sometimes swapped stories of Jango and Shmi, and it felt good to talk about them even if it left the boys misty-eyed afterward. Boba was trying to adjust.

Then details of Obi-wan and Anakin’s first deployment came.

[hrtiu]

@officialrexsoka I’m a week late but I finally finished! Written for Rexsoka Week 2020, the prompt is “shadows.” 

Rex and Ahsoka were separated for almost fifteen years after the rise of the Empire, but they saw shadows of each other everywhere they looked.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26891554

Wolffe was a good companion. He was Rex’s brother, after all, and nobody understood one another quite like the clones. That being said, Wolffe was a bit of a kill-joy.

“Come on, Wolffe. Just one game,” Rex said, holding his portable holochess set out in front of him like a peace offering.

The two of them just barely fit on the beat-up, tiny transport they’d managed to barter for a few systems back, but Rex somehow still felt lonely at times. He only hoped their intel was right and that they’d find Commander Gregor at their destination.

Wolffe crossed his arms and dug further into the ancient copilot seat in which he’d encamped. “I don’t have time for games.”

“We’re in hyperspace. We’ll be in hyperspace for the next few hours. What else is there to do?”

“Plan tactics. Think up our next move. Sleep.”

“Alright, alright,” Rex said, giving up his brother as a lost cause.

He switched the holochess set on and turned on the one-player setting. It was better than nothing, but he’d always preferred a real, non-artificial opponent.

Rex looked over the projected warriors on the holochess board at Wolffe, who’d taken his own suggestion and fallen into a deep sleep. He remembered a time when he might have behaved the same way as Wolffe. Each of the clones started out essentially exactly the same, but over time different friends, assignments, and life experiences gradually set them on different paths, distinguishing them from each other and refining their personalities. The 501st in particular tended to turn out clones who were more independent, aggressive, and fun-loving.

The battle was fierce, but Rex eventually beat the AI into submission. He knew if the AI had been set on its most difficult setting that he’d never win, which was part of why he preferred a sentient opponent. Rex put the holochess set away and sat back in his seat, closing his eyes and attempting to relax. He remembered the first time he’d played holochess, also on a spaceship but one much larger than this. It had been not long after Teth and the whole mess with the Hutts, and he’d been so shiny it almost hurt to think about.

“It’s your move, Rexter!” General Skywalker’s new Padawan said.

Rex bit back a grimace at the nickname. It was just the kid’s way of showing affection, so he tried to take it in stride, even giving her an affectionate moniker as well, but she’d stick to “Rex” or “Captain” if he had his way.

Rex considered the board for a while, trying to keep all the rules Commander Tano had explained earlier straight in his head. Some argued that holochess could teach valuable ideas about strategy and tactics, but the Kaminoans had considered it too far removed from actual battle to be an efficient use of time. As such, Rex hadn’t learned to play on Kamino.

After some thought, Rex moved a piece three squares over, towards one of her more vulnerable pieces.

“That’s an illegal move,” Ahsoka said.

“What? But I thought it could move three spaces?”

“That’s its range. It’s movement is three.”

“Ah,” Rex said, annoyed with himself for forgetting. “My mistake.”

He moved the piece back two squares so it had only shifted one square from its original position. He was pretty sure it was an awful move, but he didn’t much care. He was just playing to humor the young Jedi anyway.

Ahsoka immediately moved one of her pieces to attack the piece he’d just moved, killing it. She crowed in victory, and Rex leaned back in his chair with a sigh.

“Shouldn’t you be off meditating or something?” he asked.

Ahsoka shrugged. “Eh. You can’t be meditating all the time. It’s important to find opportunities to relax and have fun. It helps you perform better when you need it most.”

“Hmm.”

“I can see you don’t believe me,” Ahsoka said. “But guess what? I’m the best lightsaber duelist my age in the galaxy. Relaxing and having some fun every once in a while didn’t dull my edge.”

“Really?” Rex asked, legitimately impressed. “You’re the best?”

“Yeah,” Ahsoka said with a proud grin. “Why do you think Master Yoda let me get involved in combat?”

That did seem like the only logical explanation for someone as young as Ahsoka fighting. Rex still didn’t approve, to be honest. It didn’t seem right that someone as young and innocent and… full of life as Ahsoka should be on the battlefield. Although he supposed it would be odd of him to object considering he was actually a few years younger than her.

“Well I’ll take that into consideration, Commander. And you’d better watch your back, because one day soon I’m going to beat you at this blasted game.”

Thoughts returned to the present, Rex looked across the cockpit towards his brother again. Wolffe’s eyes were closed, but his frequent fidgeting suggested he was awake.

“Come on, brother,” he said, putting a warm hand on Wolffe’s forearm. “If you can’t sleep at least find a way to relax. We’ll be in a better position to help Gregor if we aren’t wound so tight.”

Wolffe opened first his good eye, then the cybernetic one, casting a sideways look at Rex. “Relaxing and messing around didn’t help save my men.”

Rex’s features softened and he tried to keep the pity from his face, knowing Wolffe wouldn’t appreciate it. “It didn’t get them killed either. That was nobody’s fault but the enemy’s.”

Wolffe stubbornly crossed his arms and closed his eyes again, and Rex decided to let the issue go. He was halfway through another game against the board’s AI when Wolffe stirred beside him.

“Fine,” Wolffe said, turning his seat towards Rex and reaching for the board. “Couldn’t sleep anyway.”

Rex couldn’t help but smile.

---

“Blast it,” Ahsoka cursed under her breath as she dodged yet another laser bolt, this one coming close enough to singe the cloak that covered her montrals. She’d come to this particularly shady smuggler-ridden Corellian city to finally meet an Imperial contact she’d been working for months, but it looked like her contact had set her up.

Ahsoka leapt away from the blaster fire, ducking behind a large crate of who-knows-what for cover and cursing her bad luck. Or maybe it wasn’t luck but rather an inevitability. Whenever she made contacts, no matter how meticulously vetted their background or carefully tested their intel, at some point she had to trust them and take the plunge into a full-blown partnership. The contact she was supposed to meet with today had been very promising, and Ahsoka was disappointed that all that time developing the potential mole hadn’t panned out.

She’d known as soon as she’d stepped into the dingy cantina that she’d been set up—the five imperial soldiers dressed as bounty hunters had given that away immediately. “Dewback,” as the contact had called himself, was a skilled counterintelligence agent, and she had to guess he hadn’t been responsible for equipping the disguised stormtroopers with identical, brand-new E-11’s. 

The stormtroopers’ bodies now decorated the cantina floor, but Ahsoka hadn’t managed to take out Dewback himself. She’d caught a vague glimpse of him in the shadows during her fight, but it wasn’t until the stormtroopers were all down, when Ahsoka was carefully looking over the place to see what hostiles were remaining, that he’d attacked.

And now here she was, pinned behind this stupid crate in the dead-end of an alley in some Force-awful Corellian slum.

If only I could use my blasted lightsaber, she thought, but that had to be a last resort. She’d have to only use her two blasters if she didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb. The empire was looking for her—and her specifically, though she couldn’t imagine why. It would already be bad news if Dewback was able to report back to his superiors that she was a Togruta. If he reported back both her description and that she used lightsabers? That was a worst-case scenario.

Best-case scenario: she killed Dewback here and now without using any Jedi-specific weapons or abilities. He’d already caught a glimpse of her, so he needed to be taken out.

Ahsoka closed her eyes and reached out with the Force, trying to pin down where her assailant might be. The Force was unfortunately being difficult, though, and she could only get a vague sense of distance. He wasn’t sneaking up behind her, and he hadn’t crept too close either, so that was good to know. She took a deep breath, readied her blasters, and decided to take a quick look from behind her crate.

Shec caught a brief glimpse of Dewback maybe fifty feet away from her at the mouth of the alley before he started firing and she had to duck back behind cover. He knew where she was, and she had nowhere that she could run (without using some Force-empowered acrobatics, at least). He had the upper hand in every way except that there was no cover from where he stood at the mouth of the alley to Ahsoka’s current position. She could use that to her advantage.

Ahsoka closed her eyes again and reached out with the Force, this time blocking out any extraneous details and instead only trying to get a sense for when the Imperial spy started moving towards her. As soon as he left the cover of the corner at the mouth of the alley, she’d break cover and fire on him.

Not yet…

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

Now!

Ahsoka rose out from behind the crate, a blaster in each hand, and started shooting towards the shadowy figure she saw darting into the alley. Dewback dodged and weaved, and Ahsoka’s shots went wide, her aim getting worse as the kickback from the blaster knocked her off balance. Dewback returned fire, and Ahsoka was forced to duck behind the crate again.

“Kriff!” she hissed. Over a decade later and she still wasn’t listening to Rex. She could practically hear his voice from her first blaster training session all those years ago.

Ahsoka shot towards the target, her blast going wide and her arm swinging wildly from the force of the shot.

“Not one hand. Two,” Rex said sternly.

Ahsoka pouted. “Why not?”

“The kickback is too strong, it’ll throw off your aim.”

“But you shoot one handed. One blaster in each hand, even!”

Rex took the blaster from Ahsoka’s hand, inspected it, then put it back in her hand, adjusting her grip and bringing her other hand up to support it. “That’s because a blaster is my primary weapon, and I’ve been practicing with it for years. My mind and body know how to stabilize against the kickback and adjust my aim accordingly.”

“I could do that, too.”

“I’m sure you could, but your time is much better spent with your lightsaber. Everyone has their place in an army, Commander Tano, and you can be most effective with your lightsaber. These lessons are just to help you out if you’re in a scrap—they’re not meant to make you a master marksman.”

“Fine,” she said, conceding that Rex knew what he was talking about and she didn’t.

She raised the blaster up, keeping the grip that Rex had shown her with one hand on the trigger and the other supporting, and fired off a shot. The center of the target lit up with sparks.

“Good shot, sir!” Rex said.

Ahsoka grinned up at him. “Thanks, Rex.”

Back in the present, Ahsoka tossed one of her blasters to the side and held onto the remaining one with two hands. She tugged the necklace out from under her shirt and held onto the pendant, taking a deep breath and focusing on the Force. 

The Force came easier to her this time, and she sensed Dewback not twenty feet from her in the alley. Now was the time. She broke cover again and raised her blaster, holding it straight in front of her with two hands, then shot. She fired off several blasts, but the first one was all she’d needed. Dewback dropped to the dirty street, smoke rising from his singed cloak.

Ahsoka let out a breath of relief and sat back a moment, collecting herself before going to the spy’s corpse to collect whatever information she could. She closed her eyes.

Thanks Rex, she thought.

---

“Don’t come after me!” Wolffe yelled before breaking cover and sprinting towards the besieged bunker. He dodged expertly between screaming blaster beams, some coming from the insurgent forces in the bunker and others coming from the Imperial forces in the valley below.

“No, Wolffe, wait!” Rex screamed after him, then cursed and ducked back behind the mossy boulder.

“He’s going to get himself killed,” Gregor said from his spot next to Rex behind the boulder.

Leave it to Gregor to state the obvious, Rex thought with some frustration. He wanted desperately to rein Wolffe in, but he didn’t think Wolffe would stop at anything to get to that bunker.

A whisper of a hint of a rumor had brought them here, deep in the jungles of Dantooine, in search of one of the last members of General Plo Koon’s Wolfpack. After successfully executing Order 66, the 104th had been sent to track down other “rogue” Jedi. Wolffe had had the misfortune of actually finding his target, who proceeded to massacre his men until only Wolffe was left. Wolffe eventually managed to kill the Jedi, but he never recovered from losing his men. That was when he’d decided he wanted out of the Imperial army.

Several years later and Wolffe had believed himself to be the only surviving member of the Wolfpack, but then they’d started hearing rumors about Boost. Somehow the other member of the Wolfpack had survived, and he was hiding out in the jungles of Dantooine. What Wolffe, Rex, and Gregor hadn’t known when they set off for Dantooine was that Boost had somehow gotten mixed up with a group of dissidents in the jungle, and that those dissidents would be under attack by the Empire when they arrived.

“What do we do, Rex?” Gregor asked. “He’s as good as dead, but we can’t just leave him… can we?”

Rex didn’t know why Gregor and Wolffe acted like he was their CO when he ranked lower than both of them, but it was the dynamic that had developed between them. Rex supposed it was because he’d had longer to adjust to life without the chip, though it could also be because he didn’t have to deal with the guilt of killing his Jedi on top of losing all of his men like Wolffe.

“I don’t know. We can’t go after him, but I don’t want to leave him behind,” Rex said, shaking his head.

“If we’re not leaving then we should join the fight!” Gregor said, his eyes reflecting that wild gleam they sometimes got when he was losing his grip.

Great. Another clone going off the deep end in the middle of a firefight. Just what I needed, Rex thought. Every instinct he’d developed over his long years of service told him to hang back. They didn’t know who the dissidents were or if they’d be hostile to him and his brothers, and they didn’t know the numbers and firepower of the attacking Imperials either. It simply didn’t make sense to rush into the middle of a firefight they didn’t have anything to do with.

“Hang back,” he said.

Gregor looked over at him in disappointment. “But Wolffe!”

“I know, but..!” Rex huffed in frustration, screwing his eyes shut. It wouldn’t help Wolffe if he and Gregor got themselves killed. There was nothing they could do.

“Well I couldn’t just stand back and watch!” Ahsoka shouted, and Rex winced. He’d seen enough arguments between Master and Padawan that he knew this would only escalate.

“Ahsoka, sometimes being a leader means you have to watch people die. You can’t save everyone, and everyone here knows the sacrifices that might be expected of them,” Anakin said.

General Skywalker didn’t say “everyone knows what they signed up for,” Rex noted, because of course the clones never signed up for anything. Rex chastised himself for his traitorous thoughts, but he knew nobody would notice. The two Jedi had forgotten he was there a while ago.

“Well I disagree. We have to at least try to save everyone,” Ahsoka said.

“Sacrifices have to be made to win wars.”

“I want to win the war, but not at the cost of my principles! The men of gamma squad would have died if I hadn’t intervened, and yes, maybe it was reckless. But I had to at least try, and I don’t regret it,” she said stubbornly.

“Karking hell,” Rex muttered under his breath. It was like Ahsoka had stretched her hand out from wherever she was across the galaxy to smack him on the head with that memory.

“What was that?” Gregor asked.

Rex shook his head. “Nothing. Ok, we’re going in, but we’re going to do this smart.”

Gregor nodded eagerly. “Yeah! Yeah!”

“See that tree line along the ridge? We’re going to follow it to the bunker, moving one at a time and covering each other as we go…”

Several hours later they returned to their rusty ship, carrying Wolffe between them. They’d found Boost, but the grizzled clone had refused to go with them, explaining that he was dedicated to the rebel cause now. So they’d helped fight the Imperials off, then left. Rex might have thought the whole excursion was a dangerous waste of time if he hadn’t glimpsed the foreign light of happiness in Wolffe’s good eye.

Rex allowed himself a secret smile as he punched in the coordinates on the navicomputer after liftoff. It had been over five years since he’d last seen Ahsoka, but she still managed to barge into his life. And he was a better man for it.

---

“What do we do, Fulcrum?” the rebel agent asked Ahsoka, eyes wide in fear and uncertainty. His fear was reflected in the handful of other faces that clustered around, all of them looking to her for direction.

“I don’t know, just give me a second!” Ahsoka snapped, guilt immediately rising as the agent flinched back at her response. “I’m sorry,” she amended. “I just need a moment to think.”

Of course the first time she decided to meet with her agents in person the Imps would show up to their rendezvous point looking for them. Ahsoka and her nine recruits had all been meeting together in an abandoned hovertrain platform on Ord Mantell when Ahsoka’s comm crackled to life with a warning from their lookout. Buckets on the move. ETA to your location ten minutes.

This would be so easy if she were on her own. Force leap across the platform, vault a few walls, and nobody would even know she’d been there. But she couldn’t very well carry all nine of her agents with her while she escaped. If they’d been experienced spies then she’d feel comfortable leaving them to their own devices, but none of these people were career agents of espionage. Some of them had been passing along information for some time, yes, but they’d simply been going about their daily lives as normal and reporting Imperial activity in their cities and towns, not infiltrating enemy bases or disappearing in plain sight.

Calm them down, Ahsoka. They need you.

Ahsoka blinked in surprise when she realized the voice in her head sounded a lot like Rex.

“Don’t worry, we can do this,” she said, taking the voice’s advice. “The rest of the station is crowded, and we can blend into the crowd, we just need to make sure we leave at different times from different locations.”

“From different locations? But we’re all in the same place,” one of the spies, a Rodian man named Gundie said.

Six other people started asking questions at once, their chatter forming one incomprehensible mass that hurt Ahsoka’s montrals to listen to.

Delegate. Pick the person with the most potential and let them develop under the responsibility you’ve given them, Rex’s voice sounded again in her mind.

“Quiet!” she hissed, her authoritative voice cutting through the chaos. “Gundie, you take half the group and hike down the tracks to the next platform. That one is also abandoned, so there shouldn’t be anyone there. Once you’re there, each of you leave the platform for the main station one at a time, a minute apart each. Some people can leave together if you think you can make it look like you’re traveling together. I’ll lead the rest of us to do the same thing here.”

Gundie nodded, then opened his mouth to ask another question.

“No time,” she said, cutting him off. “We have eight minutes until troopers arrive. Let’s move, and once you’re safe back in your assigned locations send me a signal”

She picked out the four agents with Gundie and sent them on their way, then turned to her own group. “Ok, head for the platform exit. We wait there behind the gate, then one at a time slip into the main station. And keep quiet.”

Lead by example, Rex’s voice continued. Stay calm and inspire their confidence.

Ahsoka schooled her features accordingly and walked to the head of her little group, crouching low and moving carefully but trying her best to project calm and confidence.

It wasn’t surprising to her that this advice would come in the form of Rex’s voice. While Ahsoka had technically been Rex’s superior, that had mostly been by virtue of her status as a Jedi. Ahsoka’s role in most battles had more resembled a specialized advanced combat unit than a commander, and Rex had done most of the leading on the battlefield. It made sense. Ahsoka was an expert with a lightsaber, but she’d become a commander as soon as she’d become a Padawan, and she’d certainly never been trained in battle tactics or military leadership as a youngling. Everything she knew about leading men she’d learned from Anakin and Rex. And now that she thought back on it, most of the lessons she wanted to keep with her she’d learned from only from Rex.

They reached the exit of the abandoned platform, and Ahsoka held up a hand to call her agents to a halt. She took up a position behind one of the barriers blocking off the hallway to the abandoned platform where she could see the main hallway but couldn’t be seen herself. She waited for a large group of commuters to walk by, then signaled for her first agent to leave.

The nervous man who’d asked for her help went first. Then an Ithorian woman, then two humans left together. Ahsoka took a deep breath as soon as the last two spies rounded a corner at the far end of the main hall and finally let herself relax. Right on time, a squad of stormtroopers entered the opposite end of the main hall and headed in her direction.

“I’d like to see them try and stop me,” Ahsoka said to herself with a smirk, though of course she’d prefer they didn’t see her at all.

She faded back into the shadows of the abandoned platform and leapt up into the air to land on a metal maintenance walkway high above the ground. She rushed down the walkway towards a utilitarian door that her preparations informed her led to the roof, and by the time the stormtroopers arrived on the platform, she was long gone.

That night, as Ahsoka curled up in her tiny bunk aboard the ancient stealth fighter she now called home, sleep evaded her. She tossed and turned for a bit, but still her thoughts raced. Hearing Rex’s voice, imagined though it had been, had called attention to the ache in her chest that had laid mostly dormant for a while now.

With a sigh Ahsoka sat up, giving up the fight to sleep for now. She tugged on a leather strap that she always wore around her neck out from under her shirt, feeling along its length for the pendant and holding the smooth metal in her hand. She didn’t need to look at it to know what she’d asked the Togruta craftsmen to etch there for her. Not many people knew how to read Togruti, Ahsoka included, but even if they did they wouldn’t know what 7567 was supposed to mean.

Ahsoka held the pendant tight in her hand and her mind gradually calmed, allowing her to drift off to sleep. She missed Rex terribly, but today had been a reminder that he was always with her, even if only in shadows.

[justanotherwannabeclassic]

prompt 2: quarantine

For those of you who still pay attention to this nonsense blog, I’ve been working with @distant-rose on creating this wildly expansive second-generation Marvel AU. It’s pretty wild, has 20+ AUs of itself, well over 100 characters, and a timeline spanning 40+ years. These are their stories. 

Characters: Francis Barton, Kassandra Page, Matthew Natchios, Ian Rogers, Gerry Drew, Bekka LeBeau, Megan Frost

Prompt 2: Quarantine

Dates: November 10-24, 2019

Day 1

“Since we’re stuck together for the foreseeable, I think we need to establish some ground rules.” Francis Barton laid down a pad of white paper and pulled out a pen. “It should, hopefully, make this a seamless experience while the Richards figure out if we’re going to die horrible, painful alien-virus related deaths.”

There were worse things than being quarantined in a SHIELD facility after being exposed to some sort of alien virus. They could all be dead, for one. They could also be undergoing some weird mutations -- NOT THAT THERE WAS ANYTHING WRONG WITH MUTANTS -- and grow six or seven different limbs. That would be worse. Really, considering those two options, Francis Barton was certain that quarantine was the best case scenario. But he also knew however long stuck in one place with little-to-no outside interaction was bound to be hell. As such, rules needed to be established.

“That sounds like a very El thing to say,” Kassandra Page, absolute badass and love of his potentially shorter life, noted from her spot on the table. She didn’t even bother to look up from her book. 

“Well, she’s the one who gave me the idea.” So what if he wasn’t the one to come up with the rules thing? El was a smart cookie. El was also safe and moderately happy thousands of miles away in New Orleans. That didn’t stop her from blowing up his phone with several texts. He was sure she was doing it to the three other members of their quarantine cohort.

“Should I contact the Xavier School and have them send over their roommate contracts?” Ian Rogers asked drly. 

“That sounds like a great idea!”

“I was being sarcastic.”

“See? That’s not helpful in establishing positive roommate relationships.” Francis argued. “Where’s Matt?”

“In the bedroom trying to convince his pregnant girlfriend from murdering him before the virus does, by the sound of it,” Gerry Drew commented. “For what it’s worth, the ground rules sound like a good idea. I was going to suggest it myself, but grew distracted finishing the mission report. Work never ends, even in quarantine.”

“Has my brother-in-law punched you in the face?” Ian twisted in his chair to look over at Gerry. 

“No.”

“Wonders never cease.”

Kass glanced between the two men and back to Francis. “El might be right. Maybe we should establish ground rules.”

Day 4

Gerry Drew wondered if he had died and gone to hell. Perhaps the virus had actually gotten to him, eaten him away from the inside out until he perished, and this was his punishment. He could hear the unmistakable sound of a bed creaking from one of the bedrooms as well as Natchios talking to his mutant girlfriend from a different room.

“You would think they would have left us headphones,” Gerry groaned aloud, hoping the one other person in the room would agree; instead, Ian ignored him and continued to tap away at his laptop. Gerry turned on the television. He settled on ESPN, and looked over his shoulder to Ian. “D’you like sports?” Again, no answer. Gerry sighed deeply. “What the hell are you working on?”

“Lesson plans.”

“Lesson plans?” That was not the answer he expected. Gerry knew the other man was contracted by the Xavier Institute to assist in some training, but requiring lesson plans didn’t seem necessary. “They require you to do that shit?”

“Since I’m stuck here for the foreseeable future, I don’t want the kids to fall behind. I’m creating reports for the various cohorts. UV is capable, but she’s short staffed, meaning she’s doing to bring in someone like Jet to help,” Ian explained. He didn’t bother to look up from his laptop. 

“I don’t think a few weeks will make or break them.” 

“They’re mutants. Considering the targets on their back, it might.”

“I know it’s our job to be spooks and have contingency plans upon contingency plans, but the school hasn’t been attacked in years. They’re prepared. I’ve been working with them longer than you. The targets aren’t that big. Not on the kids.”

“The X-Men are now down several members, including their former leader. While they’ve been left in capable hands, enemies could view the perceived void as a vulnerability,” Ian explained gruffly. “Beyond that, society as a whole is still anti-mutant. Three states have banned human and mutant marriage. Congress still has very vocal members rallying for mutant registration. There are reports of several hate crimes against mutants this year alone. These kids have targets on their backs, Agent Drew. I am right to be concerned.” 

“You sound like your sister.” How many times had he heard Ellie Rogers expound upon the injustices mutants have faced over the years?

“I will take that as a compliment; however, coming from you, I assume you meant it as an insult.”

“I actually didn’t. I meant it as a neutral statement. Ellie is a pretty large advocate for mutant rights.” He wasn’t a fan of Ellie. He thought she was both entirely overrated and unprofessional, but he didn’t hold the mutant advocacy against her. “It makes sense, considering the mutant husband and kids.”

“Or she could be a good person. I know you think she’s blinded by her relationship with LeBeau, but there’s more to it than that. You don’t need to have a direct loved one be a mutant to care.” 

“But it helps. It is an influence. She wouldn’t have done half the shit she pulled for the X-Men if she wasn’t involved with their leader.”

“Former leader.” 

“Are you getting pedantic with me? He was leader up until three months ago.” Then he and Ellie fucked off to retire to New Orleans and raise their mutant kids. Whatever. Arguing wasn’t going to make his living situation any more tenable, but Gerry never met an argument he didn’t fight. “You mean to tell me your mutant niece and nephew don’t have any influence for why you’re working at the school?”

“They are influences, as are my friends, but they aren’t why I care about mutant rights. Not originally. Contrary to popular belief, I wasn’t always a psychopath.” Ian shut his laptop. “I liked history and politics as a kid. No surprise, considering my parents. Some people are obsessed with studying the Second World War. Others are obsessed with different countries. England. Japan. China. Me? I was fascinated with Genosha. I grew up on my father’s stories of liberating concentration camps, and how we swore never again. Over ten million innocent lives, more than the population of New York City, were lost, slaughtered my Sentinels and the world hardly cared. The world turned their back on an atrocity and wants to put in place structures for it to happen again on a larger scale. I say ‘never again’. Where do you stand?”

He didn’t wait for a response, quickly standing and taking his laptop with him as he disappeared into another room, leaving Gerry alone to his devices. 

Day 9

She missed her dogs. 

They were currently staying with Barnes and Romanov, so Kass knew they were well taken care of, but still, she missed them. She missed a lot of things. She missed her apartment and her bed. She missed the cafe that was two blocks from her apartment. She usually stopped by for coffee most mornings. They knew her order there and called her ‘Kelly’ because that was the name she gave them. She always paid in cash, so nobody needed to know the fib. It was comfort built on a lie, but a familiar comfort nonetheless.

Nothing about the past nine days was comfortable. Kass chafed at sharing living quarters with four other people. Francis, she could handle. She had more or less been living with him for months. The others, not so much. Matt was like a brother to her, and few others understood her the way Ian did, but neither of those qualities made her want to share a living space with either of them. She didn’t trust Agent Drew as far as she could throw him, which was an added element to misery. 

It was only Day 9. Kass wasn’t accustomed to this much stimulus, not without any outlet. She couldn’t go to the shooting range. She was cautioned against excessive training. She couldn’t go to the park for a run. She was trapped in a quarantine pod with several other people on the off chance she was carrying an alien virus. Valeria Richards proposed isolation of two weeks. She had another week of this. Someone was going to die. 

Francis was trying to lighten the mood with ice-breakers and other games. It was mostly annoying. They played poker over celery sticks and passive-aggressive barbs. They argued over movie nights Matt and Ian spent most of the time engrossed texting whoever on their phones, which was fine, except for the excessive buzzing each time either one of them received a message. Matt, himself, had several loud phone calls with Bekka, his annoying, pregnant girlfriend. Kass wanted to shake him and scream that Bekka would be fine, her goddamn mother had flown up from New Orleans to spend time with her while Matt was trapped. Gerry had stupidly tried to institute a ‘No Sex’ rule, targeted solely at her and Francis. Kass, in turn, had threatened to break his face. 

May the alien virus take us all. 

Kass had decided to stay holed up in her room for the rest of the day. It was the only way she could keep from killing everyone, and even then it was a close thing. She could hear Matt having another loud phone conversation in the main area; however, instead of Bekka’s Southern’s drawl, she could hear El’s half-melodic voice over the speaker. From what she could hear, Ian and Francis were also joining in on the chat. 

That twisted something else in her, another emotion she had no desire to dwell upon. She hadn’t spoken to El in months, not since that last argument before she’d uprooted her life and ran away to New Orleans. Kass had called the action out for what it was, a stupid mistake. El hadn’t appreciated that, and since El was a stubborn bitch, she dug in her heels and argued back. They’d both said some shitty things, and that was that. The end of almost a decade of friendship. 

It was fine. She was fine. El was off to live her life with her husband and babies, and Kass was...Kass was trapped in a quarantine pod with several people she wanted to be exceptionally far away from. Most of whom seemed happily to monopolize the living area chatting away with her about....Thanksgiving plans? Whatever. She was fine. She didn’t care about Thanksgiving. Kass didn’t even want to think about Thanksgiving, not while she was stuck in this space.

She wanted to be alone. She buried her head under the pillow in hopes of drowning out the voices and laughter.

Day 11

Ian was on a beach. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He was supposed to be in his quarantine pod, but he was on a beach. He could almost smell the salt of the sea and feel the sand underneath his toes.

“Relax. You’re dreaming,” a familiar voice floated behind him. Ian turned at noise to see Megan Frost standing behind him. She walked slowly toward him, as if she were afraid of startling him. “I hope you don’t mind, but I thought I’d stop by for a visit.”

Megan was a telepath, a damn good one. She’d been the one who had psychically reprogrammed his mind after decades of tampering and torturing. For the past few months, she had also been his lover. Now, she was invading his dreams and doing so while she was wearing a rather daring bikini. 

“I don’t mind at all.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and brushed her lips against his. It was exhilarating even in dream form. “You’ve never done this before.”

“Kissed you? Darling, we both know that isn’t true.” She began to place open mouthed kisses down the column of his throat. He groaned lowly, and tightened his fingers on her hips. She knew perfectly well what he was talking about. She never invaded his dreams before. As if reading his mind, and she probably was, sighed, “I missed seeing you, and since I can’t do that in person, I thought I would try the next best thing. Is that so wrong?” 

“No, it isn’t.” Ian was sure some people would mind the intrusion. He wasn’t some people. He also knew better than to take anything Megan was willing to give. Telling him she missed him was a monumental step in the right direction when it came to emotional displays of her affections. She tended to keep her feelings close to her chest. He supposed it probably had something to do with her fiance. 

Part of him wanted to ask what the Tin Man was doing now. Was he lying asleep next to Megan, while she mentally fooled around with him? The thought thrilled him. If Megan was carrying out a telepathic affair with Ian while her fiance was right there, surely she was steps away from finally choosing him.

The scene shifted around them, and they were in his studio apartment. Megan pushed him onto the bed, and he fell with a laugh. “The beach no good?”

“I suddenly thought you might like something familiar. The beach is lovely, but nothing compared to home.” Ian didn’t know what home was anymore. He barely knew who he was anymore, but he enjoyed everything more when she was involved, but he couldn’t tell her that. Not yet.

Instead, he pulled her down on the bed, and delighted in her laughter and the feel of her body next to his. “You should do this more often,” he whispered against his lips. A telepathic interlude paled in comparison to the real thing, but it was exciting enough. It meant she was here with him.

“Maybe I--” A crash shook him from his dream and pulled Megan away from him. He could hear shouting and the sound of glass breaking. What the fuck?

Francis poked his head into the room. “Sorry to wake you, man, but Matt and Gerry are having a fistfight, and I might need your help breaking it up.”

Day 14

“Your face looks terrible.” Bekka grimaced over the phone. Video chats had many benefits, but this was not one of them. “Not that he doesn’t deserve it or anything, but what got you fighting Gerry Drew anyway?

“Gerry’s an ass. That’s all. He said some shit, got hit.” It hurt to talk. His face was several different kinds of bruised. Worth it. 

“What’d he say?”

“What didn’t he say? He’s been nothing but a pain in the ass for two weeks.” That much was true. He’d been petulant and whiny over everything. Was it annoying hearing Kass and Francis fuck? Sure. Did Ian take extremely long showers? Yes. Did Matt call Bekka often? Also yes. But they all had their reasons for it and even if they didn’t, Gerry was a waste enough of a human that he didn’t care how he felt. 

Gerry might top Matthew Natchios’ List of People He Hated. 

It was an extensive list.

“I’m sure he’s been a pain. That’s baseline Gerry Drew, but he had to say something specific to see you off. Ian, I’d get. If Olivier were there, I’d get the punching too, but this isn’t normal you.”

Matt considered lying through his teeth. There was no way Bekka would know why they fought unless someone told her. She wasn’t a telepath. Her mutation was explosions. She didn’t need to know, but he was going to tell her anyway. That’s what relationships were built upon. Trust. “He just said some shitty things about you and us. That’s all.”

“Oh,” was Bekka’s reply. Prior to dating Matt, Bekka had been dating Gerry’s best friend. It had gone as south as a relationship could go before they split. Gerry held a lot of resentment about that, especially since Matt had played a very big role in Bekka and Damon splitting. “How shitty?”

Matt took a deep breath. “He implied Baby Girl wasn’t mine.” Bekka remained quiet. “Becks?”

“Didja break his face?” Bekka asked finally. “I’m gonna be disappointed as hell if you didn’t at least break his nose.”

“I’m pretty sure I did that,” Matt answered with a laugh, relieved that Bekka was responding with anger instead of tears. Rarely did she cry, but Matt didn’t want one of those instances to be when he wasn’t there to hold her. 

“Good.” She was quiet for a few moments more before she added, “You know Baby Girl is yours, right? No way possible she belongs to anyone else.”

“I know, it’s why I hit him.” He’d been angry about other things. All the shit Gerry had said about Bekka and she and Damon had split, the way he undercut El out of her job as SHIELD liaison with the X-Men, and how he went out of his way to make her miserable. Matt didn’t know much about family, but he knew who his was, and he didn’t like when others messed with them.

“I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. Val swears that y’all aren’  infectious or whatever. She’s been running so many tests. I miss you something awful”.

“I miss you too.”

“Momma and I are baking you something special too. I won’t tell you what, because it’s supposed to be a surprise. I would trade anything to have you home, but it’s been nice having Momma here.” Bekka’s accent was thicker than usual, no doubt thanks to spending the past two weeks with her Mississippi-born mother. Matt didn’t mind at all -- he adored her accent. Truth be told he adored everything about Bekka. He couldn’t wait to be home and in her arms. “You sure you’re okay with her staying until after Thanksgiving?”

“It’s fine. I love you mother.” 

She’d been more of a mother to him than his own mother, not that it was a high bar. Elektra Natchios was a terrible mother, the complete opposite of Anna Marie LeBeau. Besides, it was clear how much Bekka enjoyed having her mother around. Much as she tried to pretend otherwise, Bekka was riddled with anxieties over pregnancy and becoming a mother. Having Anna around comforted her in a way no other person could manage. As far as Matt was concerned, she could stay around as long as she liked.

“Je t’aime. Tu es le meilleur.” She yawned deeply. “Your baby needs to go to bed, which means I am. But good news, I’m seein’ you tomorrow. That’s a win.”

Matt smiled against the phone. I can’t wait.”

He let her go, pleased to know that she was taking care of herself and getting some sleep. He needed it himself. One more sleep, and he would be free from quarantine. 

[shikastemari]

— revenge; shikatemadai. ࿐ྂ。

written for Shikadai Week 2019 | day 06 - family

words | 1412

rating | K

warning | none

a/n | my last admission for Shikadai Week! thank you so much for hosting such an amazing week @shikanaradai!

masterlist in bio

Shikamaru controlled his breath as he could hear the enemies’ footsteps.

He pondered his chances against the two opponents slowly walking towards where he was hiding. Both were extremely strong and Shikamaru doubted he could beat them at the same time. The taller one was a war hero, known by being one of the cruelest ninjas the Villages had seen, and the other one, although a little young, seemed to have a promising career in the shinobi world.

The Nara had no idea what he would do to escape the situation.

“He’s around somewhere. Pay attention!” the most experienced one said.

“Ya,” came as a response and Shikamaru smiled as they continued to advance.

His best shot was to trap both of them with his Jutsu and wait for them to give up

Shikamaru prepared himself to jump in front of them and catch both off guard with his Shadow Jutsu. Counting down to three, he threw himself in his enemies' path, already using his hands seal to trap them.

But it didn’t go as expected.

He only managed to trap the older one, which smirked to him mischievously. It was an ambush, and Shikamaru ran directly towards it.

Before he could expect, the tiny sidekick jumped on his back and poke his throat with his a little fan. Shikamaru let go from the enemy in front of him, but instead of throwing his hands up as a surrender gesture, he grabbed his attacker’s legs, keeping him from falling off. 

“Is that all you can do?” The woman in front of him folded her arms, raising one of her eyebrows and a smug grin plastered on her face.

He rolled his eyes at her. “Dai, what did dad say about pressing too hard against people’s throat? If it was a real kunai, you’d kill the guy before you could make any question.”

“You lost!” A 5-year-old Shikadai wrapped his tiny arms around Shikamaru’s neck and giggles erupted from the young boy’s mouth.

“You’re getting old, Nara,” Temari came closer and touched his nose. She always got unbearably cocky every time she beat him while playing ninja with Shikadai.

“Can we play again?” Shikadai asked.

“Only if you’re in my team this time,” his father replied.

“But mom,” Dai pouted.

Shikamaru grinned. He was such a momma’s boy.

Temari took a step forward and helped Shikadai to get off his dad’s back. “Maybe some time for us to rest before playing again? Dad’s getting old, he needs to breath.”

“Woman, you’re older than me,” Shikamaru frowned, earning a smile from Temari in return.

“But who has better lungs?” She raised her eyebrows.

Before he could say anything to contest her, she brushed her hand against his, an invite to hold it which he promptly accepted. At some point in their teasing, Shikadai had run to the backyard, and both followed him.

They sat on the ground, as their kid ran around with his little fan around, swooping leaves and smiling every time. “See mom? My chakra is better than yours!”

“That’s not really hard, so- ouch,” Shikamaru rubbed the part of his arm where Temari just punched. She had a playful frown on her face as she looked at their son. 

The world stopped for a while as he watched her. Since they met, Temari always caught his attention. Not only by being incredibly beautiful and breathtaking, but she had one of those interesting minds, with a point of view Shikamaru couldn’t even ponder. 

With age, everything about her seemed to have gotten better. He was sure she was one of the most beautiful human beings ever walked on earth. 

“What?” She tilted her head, making her bangs fall on her eyes. 

“I’m pretty sure you lost your tan,” Shikamaru teased. “You should go out on the sun sometimes.”

Temari narrowed her eyes, but he noticed the corner of her mouth trying not to smile. He wished she did. He just loved her smile, especially when he was the reason.

“Shut up Nara,” she turned her head to Shikadai and he did the same, not before spotting a ghost of a smile on her lips. 

Shikadai was still spreading leaves by the backyard. He murmured Temari’s jutsus every time and Shikamaru knew her heart was probably racing inside her chest. 

“You’re pretty focused on mom’s jutsus today, aren’t you?” Shikamaru asked.

“Yes, cause I know pa’s already.” Shikadai shrugged, a copy of Temari’s eyes staring right back at him with determination. 

Temari and Shikamaru just raised their eyebrows to his response.

“Mind showing us?” Temari requested, curiosity laced in every word, and honestly? Shikamaru could relate badly. 

Shikadai just came a bit closer to both, his posture flawless. He dropped the little fan somewhere. 

The little Nara jumped into the Shadow Jutsu position, his fingers like Shikamaru used to do, though the signal was a bit off. One of his hands was too low and he smiled at the sight.

“Shadow Possession Jutsu!”

Nothing happened. By the corner of his eye, Shikamaru saw Temari cover her mouth to keep a laugh from escaping. His heart fluttered with love at the scene, as Shikadai started to get impatient with his own shadow.

“Move,” Shikadai whispered to his shadow on the ground. “They’re watching.”

After a few seconds without nothing happening, Shikadai expression changed from determination to sadness. He had a little pout on his lips, completely bothered.

Shikamaru was melting, and not because of the hot sun.

“It’s okay Dai, my shadow does it sometimes.” The kid raised his head and stared at his father. “My shadow gets so lazy and doesn’t move.”

His expression changed to relief. “Then, what do you do to make it move again?”

“I try again another time. Maybe you need a little bit more training. Dad can help you if you want?”

Shikamaru didn’t want to admit, but he caught his heart beating faster by the proposition. He always wondered what would be like when he actually started training his son, if he would pick things way faster than Shikamaru did when he was younger.

He hoped he could be a good teacher like his father.

“Ya,” he smiled, and it was missing a tooth. The old Nara couldn’t help but smile back.

He watched as Shikadai went to grab the little fan when he felt a hand over his. Temari stared at him, her eyes showing nothing but love and Shikamaru wanted to kiss her right there, but his son screaming her jutsus weren’t exactly building up a mood for them.

“Wind Release: Air Current Wild Dance,” and he swooped the little fan in the air.

A small, yet strong breeze covered both Temari and Shikamaru one second later. They turned their heads to Shikadai’s direction, their mouth agape and his eyes widened.

“Did he-?”

“Konoha’s hot days have no such breezes.” Shikamaru voiced out. 

Shikadai kept rolling on the grass, 

Temari got closer, planting a kiss on Shikamaru’s cheek while his eyes were still locked on the kid in front of them.

“Sorry, old man. I beat you again.”

Usually, he would tease her back. But, Shikamaru knew how much that meant to her. During all Shikadai life, both of them heard he was his mini copy and he knew it somehow affected her to keep listening to it. 

It was just not true. 

Yes, Shikadai inherited his looks, except for the eyes. Those beautiful eyes came from her, and he loved it because it made Shikadai her little copy too. Not his looks, but his personality. His energy? Completely her. All the faces he made, she was there. When he was angry, sad, or just tired, his expressions were purely his wife and that was what no one ever mentioned.

It felt like all the world couldn’t see their son by what he really was: the perfect balance of both of his parents, and Shikamaru loved it. 

“Twice in a day huh, guess I’ll have to make up for it later,” he raised his eyebrow and Temari smiled. 

“And how will you-?”

“Dad, did you rest already?” Shikadai screamed, jumping on him. 

“Yes,” Shikamaru got up, still holding Shikadai, who got heavier, he noticed. He offered his free hand to help Temari to get up, which she took it. Once she was standing next to him, he raised one eyebrow and returned the smile she offered him when she beat him earlier, “Time for revenge.”

[crystalelemental]

New Mystery of the Emblem is complete, and I have many thoughts.

Let’s just start with this: holy shit this was so much more fun than Shadow Dragon.  For three major reasons:

No one is expected to die.  Shadow Dragon bothered me immediately, because I’m required to let someone die in the prologue to escape.  That sucks, and I hated it.  I have never gotten over that, or the expectation to kill more units to access the bonus chapters.  Which, sure, you can argue are optional.  But those characters appear in this game and are recognized, so clearly those happened now didn’t they?!

SUPPORT CONVERSATIONS!  Okay, they’re not like...actual support conversations.  They’re Radiant Dawn style, where you have conversations with allies at your base and only your base.  But there’s a tier of 1-3 for most characters, and they’re essentially support conversations, and god Shadow Dragon was impossible to get in to without those.  Seriously, I may enjoy the gameplay of Fire Emblem overall, but I do not enjoy units for combat performance, I enjoy them for being characters, and thank god they feel like characters this time.

Actually interesting story.  Shadow Dragon was pretty boring, frankly.  Very basic concepts presented, not really a lot going on.  But New Mystery actually expands on a lot of this stuff.  I’ll get into that more below.

Suffice to say, I really enjoyed it more than Shadow Dragon.  I think in terms of ranking, I’d definitely place it above Shadow Dragon, Birthright, Revelation, and Sacred Stones.  Currently I think I’m putting it above Conquest too.  While Conquest is similarly fun to play, New Mystery has the benefit of being more interesting as a story.  I’m hesitant to put it over Echoes, though.  Listen, Echoes sucks as a game.  It’s really not fun to play, almost at all.  New Mystery is fun to play, so this should be obvious.  But while the story is improved, I wouldn’t put it anywhere near the level of Echoes.

See, the main thing with New Mystery is that it filled in gaps that made the world feel more organic than just generic medieval kingdom with magic and dragons and shit.  They delve into what the Fire Emblem here is, about the history of the dragons, and why, say, Tiki’s kept locked away for so long.  Also why Medeus is a villain, and out to eliminate humanity.  Turns out, he was the only Earth Dragon to listen to Naga and convert to a manakete, and even helped guard the seal over the dragons who were slowly losing their minds.  But humans, as soon as they had that advantage, exploited dragons.  Several maps showcase that these deteriorating dragons are being kept in thrall to human tribes who use their power for personal gain.  Exploitation of dragons led Medeus to despise humans, and seek to overthrow them.  Which is pretty cool!  I’m on board with that!  Tiki’s said to also be deteriorating without the seal in place, and that, as a powerful divine dragon, she’s bring ruin to the world if she weren’t contained.  So they basically kept her in stasis to avoid disaster.  Which...okay, Fallen Tiki should’ve just been that.  A feral Tiki that’s no longer all there, instead of just “Gharnef’s power is controlling her.”  Shadow Dragon’s momentarily irritable Tiki wasn’t shit compared to what they implied could happen here.

The trouble is that the game is still pretty basic.  Beyond this bit of worldbuilding, it’s still very much conflict between the kingdoms, again, all ochestrated by Gharnef, who’s working for Medeus.  Again.  They play around more with their themes and set up some cool ideas, but it’s not the most compelling of narratives by any means.  What’s also not helped is that, while support conversations exist to make characters more engaging, it’s not all of them, and not all are done well.  Some supports are just a sort of filling in the gaps.  At least, with the MU they are.  Maybe with other characters they get a bit more.

Speaking of MU, let’s divert a bit to talk about them.  Kris is like...the one MU I have heard universal hate for.  My best guess is that this is due to fans of the original FE3, who didn’t like their inclusion in the first place, because otherwise I have no idea what the problem is.  Kris seems fine.  Really boring, but fine.  The only reason they’re kinda my least favorite is because they’re supposed to be their own character but don’t do anything.  Like, Robin has a personality and is fun, and has a great dynamic with Chrom.  Corrin, for all the faults borne of Fates, feels pretty much like a typical Fire Emblem lord.  Byleth...okay, I don’t like Byleth much, I feel like their inclusion kinda hinders the game’s narrative a little bit, but otherwise they’re pretty blank and exist mostly as a support for the other lords.  But Kris...doesn’t do much of anything.  They don’t really have a dynamic with anyone, including Marth, and are just sort of...generic loyal knight with no knowledge of the world for some reason, and who only ever trained with their now dead grandfather.  Beyond that, they don’t really exude any particular personality.  Which is probably part of the problem with supports; everyone supports with Kris, but they don’t contribute much, so it’s mostly the other character doing stuff at them.  They just don’t have much to do.

With one exception.  We gotta talk about the other, presumably new character: Katarina.  I actually love Katarina.  Which is a shame, I pulled one of her in Heroes once and made her into a manual because I didn’t care.  Oh well.  Anyway, Katarina’s got a pretty solid story behind her, and is one of the more compelling pieces of the plot overall.  She’s part of a band of assassins who were orphans, taken in by Lady Eremiah.  Eremiah is super cut-throat, willing to sacrifice the lives of these children to accomplish her goals, which mostly seem to be serving Gharnef.  While Legion’s boring and lame, Clarine and Katarina are spectacular.  Clarine starts off really obnoxious, and kind of a bitch, but the chapter where she finally falls hit me pretty hard.  Katarina’s supports with Kris also give a bit more context to what had happened, particularly with the talk about how Clarine and Katarina share a birthday, because they never had one but Clarine just decided on a day and that was the end of it.  It’s a really cute dynamic you get to experience kind of in reverse.  You see how bad things have gotten, then get the history of what used to be, and why Katarina couldn’t leave.  Eremiah’s the same.  Gharnef shows up as she’s dying and reminds her of her own history.  The orphanage she worked at was burned to the ground and the children slaughtered in the last war.  In despair, Gharnef appeared and convinced her that if the children were strong, they wouldn’t die so easily, leading her to take in the next wave and train them for strength alone, all the while becoming corrupted by Gharnef’s influence.  That last part aside, pretty compelling.  I do enjoy narratives that play with the idea of kindness being manipulated to a sensible, but corrupted, conclusion.

My main problem is that Gharnef sucks.  He’s not an interesting villain at all.  He just kind of exists, and was largely motivated by getting passed over by his master when it came to who got the cool spells.  He’s a big, stinky baby man whining about not being the favorite, and I could not care less.  Yet he’s supposed to be this grand puppetmaster, of a particularly shitty puppet.  Hardin was an ally in Shadow Dragon, who became an enemy this game.  Why?  Oh, he was mad that Nyna didn’t like him back, and got super buttmad about it.  Which is honestly fair at this point, since they describe it as a depressive episode.  He gets to marry this woman he loves, only to find out she never reciprocated the feeling at all.  Feel like it’s fair to be upset.  But then Gharnef shows up and allegedly corrupts his soul with the Darksphere.  Which...okay, first?  Lame.  Second?  Why do we have that, and why does it do that?  This was a gift from Naga, why the hell is it so dangerous?  Third, super lame!  It takes away all agency Hardin had as a villain and removes it down to “oh, he was possessed.”  Which sucks, because the exact inverse happened for Michalis, and now he’s super cool!

His character arc this game was spectacular!  Showing up to take Minerva away from her captors.  Giving her refuge in the desert and helping her rendezvous with Marth?  There’s something going on, compared to last game where he was just some lame baby man who wanted power.  Minerva says Gharnef lost his hold, and Michalis is like “Oh, no, I would never bend to him.  I killed dad because we disagreed on Macedon fighting to become a major power in the world again, and he tried to have me exiled.  I did it for me, and regret nothing.”  Honestly loved that.  But when asked why he’s helping now, it turns out it’s for their sister.  He talks about how, after he was defeated, he was near death, and the first thing he saw when he came to was Maria kneeling over him, praying to the gods to save him.  He was so touched by her kindness despite his actions, that he’s now solely driven to save her as his final act.  He doesn’t regret his actions, but recognizes that he lost and needs to do something, and god damn if it’s not going to be saving his little sister.  That’s super cool!  I’m so on board with this dude now!  One of the bigger antagonists of Shadow Dragon who offered almost nothing became a big favorite in the game with a single conversation!  I feel like that encapsulates the difference between Shadow Dragon and New Mystery pretty well.

The last thing I’ll mention is gameplay.  I really enjoyed just playing this game, and I think a big component of that is because the maps are pretty short.  And yet.  They’re challenging.  There are a few that just repeatedly required me to restart the chapter, despite being maybe three turns long.  The extra chapter when you first face Legion, and it’s got the two mercenaries to the left and right of your starting position, and you can recruit both but you have to not kill them?  The map was so small they could get to just about anyone, so it was a real challenge to handle the archers with my high movement units, prevent those two from dying against the blockades to the sides, and take out the boss quickly without being swarmed.  Other times, the gimmicks were a little obnoxious.  Like Chapter 18.  You’re trying to take this one castle on the right that’s pretty well defended, but there are these super fast cav archers closing in on you from above.  You basically have one turn to get to the village on the left, so their king calls them off.  It’s a cool chapter, but I had to reset the first time, because I didn’t go into the chapter knowing that.  I put my dancer closer to the fortress, thinking I’d have to just move quickly and take out the boss to get them to back off, so Marth couldn’t reach the goal fast enough.  It’s just small things like that.

Overall, I think it’s pretty solid.  I could see playing this one again some day.  Maybe to intentionally miss one of the spheres so I can see what the bad ending is about.  But on the whole, I like it.  Still not super impressed with the characters in Marth’s game, I still feel like a lot are pretty bland (including Marth himself), but it’s a huge step up from Shadow Dragon.

[trust-goes-both-ways]

Winterprincess Week 2019 Day 4: Enemies to Lover’s AU

          A/n: Well I’m super late to the party. But after getting this idea at 9 am this morning and spending literal hours on it, I’ve managed to turn what was supposed to be a short oneshot for winterprincess week into..something else. I can’t believe I’m gonna try and do it again tomorrow. Well later today by now. Sorry about any grammar/punctuation mistakes. Hope you enjoy!

The United States Military had been crazy to send soldiers into Wakanda. Even their elite Captain America, who’d never failed in a mission. Well- never failed in a mission so far. Tensions had been rising between the two countries for the last few years, ever since America learned there was a ‘potential’ source of vibranium under the mountains of Wakanda. But the rest of the world, Wakanda had no intention of being duped into allowing America access into their borders and to their resources. When America realized Wakanda wasn’t just some third world country that would be ever so grateful for American aid, she turned next to what she knew best- war.

           Okay, so they weren’t actually at war. But Shuri was smart enough to know where there was soldiers, there was a fight brewing on the horizon. A fight she didn’t want anywhere near her peaceful country. Which is why she sat on the other side of a jail cell, distastefully studying the prisoner they’d brought in.

           “Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, part of the 107th Infantry Regiment. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 10th, 1993. Sniper, with at least a dozen confirmed kills. You’re team has spent the last few years dismantling HYDRA facilities and taking out remaining Nazis. So tell me, Sergeant Barnes,” Shuri lowered the tablet she was reading from and looked the man straight in the eye, “Why are you bothering Wakanda?”

           Barnes stood with his arms crossed in the center of his cell, staring right back at her. He was by far the dirtiest thing there. The cells of the prisoner were kept sparkling clean and sterile. Barnes on the other hand was caked in mud and sweat, along with dried blood from a few minor injuries. He showed some bruises and scrapes but nothing serious. His posture rigid, his stare dark- he said nothing.

           Shuri sighed, and looked at the guards on either side of her. The two Dora Milaje mimicked the soldier’s stance. She could already tell this was going to take a while.  So instead of focusing on the first issue, she zeroed in on the one she’d been curious about.

           “What happened to your arm?” she nodded at the metal plated appendage on his left. It was silver except for the Captain America logo painted below the shoulder.

           Finally, the soldier reacted, quirking his eyebrows slightly. “What, it doesn’t tell you in that file you found on me?”

           “Just that you lost your arm in service to your country on a classified mission.”

           “You hacked the US government.” Barnes observed.

           “Your government is easy to hack.” Shuri told him bluntly.

           Barnes may have actually smiled, but it was so small a motion she couldn’t tell. He rolled his left shoulder back, holding up the arm for her to observe. “Fell off a train in Austria.” He told her. “Arm was ripped off on impact.”

           “Was that one of your team’s efforts to take down HYDRA?”

           “We were bringing in Armin Zola himself.”

           “The workmanship is shoddy.”

           “Excuse me?” Bucky said, genuinely caught off guard and just maybe offended. Good, Shuri thought.

           “Your arm.” Shuri clarified. “That model won’t last more than a few years, it’s not nearly sophisticated enough to serve more than a few basic functions, I’m guessing the wiring needs consistent replacing and fixing, and even from here I can tell you don’t get full range of motion.” She listed just a few of the problems she saw with the arm. She could build a better one in a day. Hell, give her a week and she could design and build the perfect upgrade.

           Her mind was halfway through the schematics when she remembered to tap down the need to improve, and create. This was an enemy soldier, not someone who needed her help.

           “The best scientists in America built this arm.” He told her. Oh yeah, he was definitely offended.

           “I pity American science if that’s the best they can do.” Shuri told him.

           “I’d like to see you do better.”

           “Believe me, I could.” Shuri promised.

           Now Barnes definitely smiled. It was a dangerous look. Despite the fact he was in the cell and she was keeping him there, he looked at her like a wolf that had caught sight of its prey. Like all he wanted to do was dig his claws under her skin.  It was dangerous and sexy and errant and promising all at the same time. Shuri bit down on her lip. She should not be eyeing the attempted colonizer.

           “And I thought Wakanda would be another country stuck in the last century. Instead it’s got technology that would make a Stark cry and a princess that would too.” Bucky said. Wait, was he teasingher?

           Shuri allowed herself a small smile. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ayo tensing. It’s okay, she thought. We’re just talking. I’m establishing myself with the enemy. Building trust so he talks to me. At least that’s what she told herself.

           “Wakanda has many wonders, Sergeant Barnes. You can understand why it makes us protective.”

           “Secretive is the word I’d use” he told her.

           “But not threatening. All the records we have show you and the Howling Commandos have done good work taking out HYDRA, rescuing POWS, shutting down the human experiments in Sokovia; all those good deeds, and yet you come armed and uninvited into a country that just wants to be left alone. That doesn’t add up to me.” Shuri stated.

It was true, that even in Wakanda they knew about the Howling Commandos, America’s elite combat unit led by the super-soldier Steve Rogers, aka Captain America. A SHIELD scientist had developed the serum that turned Captain Rogers into the perfect warrior, but had been assassinated just afterwards by HYDRA. In order to avenge him, Steve Rogers had organized the Howling Commandos with the intention of taking HYDRA down once and for all. James Barnes had been there since the beginning; Steve Roger’s oldest and closest friend.

“I’m a soldier, princess. I go where my country sends me.” Bucky’s tone indicated she hadn’t gotten him to spill; he’d merely decided to let her know.

“So you don’t even know why your government sent you here?” Shuri pushed, but Barnes didn’t answer. “If I were you, Sergeant Barnes, I’d be a little more helpful. Your team has retreated back across the border, and they won’t get in again. If you want to go home, you need to tell me what the Americans want.”

           “I’ve been taken prisoner before, Princess. Trust me, they’ll come for me.”

           Sensing she was getting no further today, Shuri stood up to leave, but not before turning over her shoulder to say, “You should settle in, Sergeant Barnes. You’ll be here for a while.”

A while turned into a week, which turned into a month, which in turn started to drive Bucky insane. He often found himself mentally berating Steve and the rest of the Commandos, thinking he was ready to be rescued whenever they would hurry up and get here. Of course he knew it wasn’t really their fault. Steve would never leave him to rot, which means the princess had meant what she said about them not finding another way into the country. Either that or SHIELD had pulled them back. Fucking government bureaucracy.

At least he couldn’t really complain about the accommodations. Wakandan prisoners were nicer than some motels he’d stayed in back home. He’d been able to shower and given clean clothes every day. Even the food was insanely good. The only problem, besides being a prisoner, was he was bored. There was nothing to do except stare at the ceiling all day. He was so sick of being left with his own thoughts, he looked forward to his daily visits from the princess.

To be fair, he probably would have looked forward to those anyway. The young princess of Wakanda had made very few public appearances with her brother when he emerged to address the world. The few pictures and minimal information on her did nothing to convey how beautiful she was in real life, or how clever.

She’d asked a decent question- why had they come to Wakanda? Truthfully the mission hadn’t sat right with any of them, but since they had finally dismantled HYDRA, SHIELD and the higher-ups had been eager to put the Howling Commandos on other missions, ones where regular Ops teams were likely to fail but where their elite soldiers would succeed. They’d been tasked to come scout the areas where there was thought to be possible sources of vibranium. The number of doubts in that sentence alone should have convinced them not to do it. But they were good soldiers, loyal agents. So they’d taken the assignment and gotten ambushed by border guards for their trouble.

Of course one thing Bucky knew now is that Wakanda did have vibranium, and lots of it. He could see the city from the small window of his cell, and even the tech he could see within the prison was unlike anything he’d ever seen. Stuff that Howard or his wayward son Tony Stark could never dream up was operating commonplace in the city. It was brilliant.

And it didn’t take him long to realize who was behind the brilliant inventions. Shuri had schooled him enough times in their conversations he quickly put together a picture of just how smart she was. And she was. Like could probably teach Stark or Banner a few things smart.

And damn if she wasn’t nice to look at too.

Bucky blamed his irrational feelings of the boredom. Of course he’d be attracted to the one person who made his day any interesting. If she happened the beautiful, charming, bright, incredibly intelligent princess of the nation currently holding him captive, so be it.

Fuck. Bucky hoped Steve would get here soon.

           Shuri knew after a few weeks that Barnes had told them all he would without resorting to more extreme interrogation tactics. And frankly, Shuri had no desire to do so. It was clear to her Barnes wasn’t some radical or extremist. He wasn’t driven by greed and power like Klaue had been. He wasn’t trying to kill anyone. What he’d said that first day was true- he was a soldier, and he went where his country told him. Shuri could sense he was regretting that decision.

           It wasn’t Wakandan policy to reach out to other nations, which means they had to wait for the American government to open discussion to get Sergeant Barnes back, which they had yet to do, probably because they didn’t want to admit they’d sent agents their in the first place. But a quick hack into SHIELD communications told her the rest of the Howling Commandos weren’t happy about the wait, and that a much more likely course of action would be their return for their comrade.

           It was a messy situation that didn’t come with a simple answer. Shuri found herself spending more time at her daily meetings with Sergeant Barnes in an attempt to understand him and his team. She didn’t even bother bringing Dora Milaje anymore.

           “You seem to have a lot of faith in your team, Sergeant Barnes, even after all this time. What makes you so certain they’ll come for you?” she asked one day.

           “I’ve been with them for a long time. I’ve got their backs and they got mine.” Barnes said while leaning against his cot. He didn’t seem to mind talking to her about these things. “When you go through the kind of things we have, it forms a bond of trust that nothing breaks.”

           “You mean your missions together?”

           “Some of them. But it’s other stuff too. Nat’s got a past she’s not proud of. Barton’s got secrets he doesn’t want anyone to know. But we know. All of it, everything there is to know about another person. Because when you’re out risking your neck and trusting someone else with your life, you realize you can trust them with anything.”  He told her seriously. He got a faraway look in his eyes, and Shuri actually pitied him. At the same tie, she envied him.

           “I can’t imagine having that kind of bond with someone.” She admitted.

           That brought his focus back to her. “Don’t you have people you trust?”

           Shuri crossed her arms. “Of course.” She said. Then, “I mean, I trust a lot of people. I trust the Dora Milaje to protect me because it’s their sworn duty. I trust my assistants to do their job, though maybe not with my life. I trust my brother completely. But he’s so busy being king these days he hardly has time to see me.”

           Barnes leaned forward. “But what about friends?” he pried. Shuri wasn’t unaware of how their positions had reversed, and he’d become the interrogator. But she only shrugged.

           “I don’t have a lot of friends.” She admitted, eyes drifting away from him. “Most of the time I’m too busy, and even when I’m not there aren’t a lot of people who are willing to be themselves around a princess.”

           When he didn’t respond she looked back at him, only to find him staring intensely at her. The look made her breath hitch. It made her feel like he was seeing straight through her. It made her nervous. It made her excited.

           “I can’t imagine how anyone wouldn’t want to be around you, princess.” He said finally.

           Shuri felt her face turn red and knew she had to get out of there before she said something she’d regret. Hastily she stood up from her chair.

           “I have to be getting on.” She explained. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sergeant Barnes.”

           “Bucky.” He called as she turned to go, stopping her in her tracks. She turned back to face him.

           “Pardon?” she asked.

           “Call me Bucky.”

           She was definitely blushing, but she nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Bucky.”

           Shuri stared at a holographic schematic for 20 minutes before realizing she hadn’t made a single effort to work on it. She looked around, checking to be sure her lab was empty. Seeing it was, she dropped her head into her hands and groaned.

           This could not be real. She could not be crushing on a foreign agent. That was currently in her prison. An American foreign agent who was in her prison for attempting to invade her country.

           T’Challa was going to kill her.

           Except… it wasn’t that crazy, was it? He was just a patriot, doing what his country said. If T’Challa asked her to do something for the good of Wakanda, no matter how immoral it may seem, wouldn’t she still do it?

           And Sergeant Barnes…Bucky… had been so real with her. She new she wasn’t an expert on everything; that a lifetime of an overprotective family and burying herself in her work had left her naïve about relationships and men, but this didn’t feel like manipulation. It didn’t feel like he was playing with her emotions. It’d been six weeks and he hadn’t once tried to convince her to free him, just continued resolutely believing his team would come for him. And the way he’d looked at her… maybe she wasn’t crazy after all.

           Or maybe she’d really spent too much time alone in her lab and now was falling for the first person to pay attention to her all because he was dark and mysterious and incredibly handsome.

           Yeah, T’Challa was definitely going to kill her.

           It was in the middle of their daily ‘interrogation’ when his arm fritzed out. Bucky felt the spark feedback into his shoulder, causing him to yell in pain and jump up mid-sentence, wrestling the thing off him. He twisted and pulled at the shoulder joint, cussing the whole time with words that would have gotten his mouth washed with soap if his mom had heard them.

           He had just gotten it detached when it was taken out of his hands. Looking up he found Shuri standing right beside him, carefully examining the metal appendage.

           “It’s supposed to get weekly maintenance to keep that from happening.” He explained. “They circuitry is super complicated, in order to let me have as much motion as possible. Problem is there are so many parts the electric currents can move too fast, which overheats the system and blows out the electrodes reading my muscle movements.”

           Shuri was examining the smoking end of the limb with such inquisitiveness he had a bad feeling his arm was about to dismantled and studied. What she said still surprised him though.

           “I can fix it for you.”

           “What?”

           “The electrodes. It’s an easy replacement. I can open it up and see if I can do anything about the circuitry too, if you’d like.” She looked up at him with a gaze so full of hopeful eagerness, Bucky immediately knew this was what she lived for. Developing technology. Taking things and making them better. Finding ways to constantly improve in order to help others.

           “Have at it.” He told her.

           She left at once to run back to her lab, arm in hand. It wasn’t until after she’d gone that Bucky realized what had just happened. She’d stepped inside the cell with him. Of course he knew the barrier keeping him locked up was a special force field designed with his specific DNA so he couldn’t pass through. The people tasked with bring him food and necessities were always able to come in by simply walking through. But Shuri had just walked in. She hadn’t hesitated to come help him. She hadn’t been afraid to enter the cell with him. That alone made him unbelievable, unreasonably happy.

           Fuck, he needed Steve to save him soon before he did something stupid like fall in love with the Princess of Wakanda.

           Shuri stared at her screen, the faint glow illuminating the otherwise dark room. Her bedroom computer wasn’t used for much besides personal entertainment and correspondence, and jotting down the basics of an idea when she had one at random in the middle of the night before falling back asleep. But the notification ping was set to loud and she’d been sleeping lightly anyway, so she found herself staring back at an email at 2 am while the rest of the country was asleep. She almost couldn’t believe what she read. Almost. Her faith in technology held her over.

           Steve Rogers had replied to her email.

           T’Challa’s decision to open Wakanda to the rest of the world had been a huge surprise to them all, but completely out of the blue. With superheroes appearing all over the world, aliens showing up, calls for the Earth to band together, now was the perfect time for Wakanda to come out of the shadows. And sure, the Howling Commandos attempted infiltration wasn’t the most important thing on his mind, but he was smart enough to know he wanted to be in control of entering their borders, and that one attempt was likely indicative of more.

           It would be a big process, so T’Challa had been ready to put everyone to work on what would he hoped would be an open cultural and scientific exchange. Before he could disappear into the project though, Shuri had been sure to catch up with her brother and put in her suggestion to return Bucky to his home. Surprisingly, she hadn’t needed to push at all.

           “I agree it would be best to return Sergeant Barnes before we go public. We want America to know they trust us. He can act as an olive branch. See him returned but do it quietly; I don’t want the whole world knowing we’ve held an American hero prisoner for the past several weeks.” He’d instructed her. Shuri had quickly found Captain America’s personal contact information and sent a short message explaining the situation. And only several hours later, here was his reply, wary but still willing to do whatever it took to get Bucky back. For a minute she was almost tempted to hold off on the reply. Replying meant action, and action meant Bucky would leave, and she’d be back to having no one to talk to.

           She shook the selfish thought off as soon as she had it. Bucky was a good man. He deserved to make it home.

           Bucky was dozing when the sudden sound of footsteps rose him. He pushed himself up on his good arm instinctively, only to find Shuri and two Dora Milaje arriving at his cell.

           “What’s going on, Princess?” he asked.

           “It’s time to go.” She said simply, pressing a button to disable to barrier. The wall disappeared.

           “Go, go where?” Bucky asked, still confused. Surely this wasn’t an attempt to spring him. Even if Shuri had gotten it into her head to commit treason, the Dora Milaje would never.

           Shuri smiled then, and it was so bright and adorable he suddenly decided he didn’t care if this was a rescue op or a dead man’s walk. Fortunately he didn’t have to worry about that.

           “On your feet, soldier.” Shuri ordered. “Captain America’s come to get you.”

           Shuri joined Bucky in the back of a truck while the Dora Milaje rode up front. The two sat on either side facing each other, with another bench across the front. In the advanced Wakandan car, it would be a short journey to neighboring Kenya. The meeting point Shuri had given Captain Rogers was only a couple miles from the border. Close enough to get there quickly and far enough that they shouldn’t have to fly to close to Wakandan airspace.

           The ride felt unnaturally quiet. They both buzzed with a nervous, excited energy, but neither new exactly what to say to one another. Finally, Shuri saw an opening when she caught Bucky looking at the case by her feet.

           “Here,” she said, picking up the case and placing it on the seat between them. She opened it and sat back, giving Bucky the chance to examine its contents, “this is for you.”

           He leaned forward, studying the prosthetic arm with care. He picked it up with good hand, seemingly surprised at the lightweight.

           “This isn’t the arm I gave you, Princess.” He observed. Shuri chuckled.

           “No the one you had before was…embarrassing. I really did mean to fix it, but I got so caught up in improvements it was easier to just start fresh.” She took the arm from him and held it up to point out some of the finer details. “It’s made of vibranium.” She said. “I thought Captain America didn’t deserve to be the only one with a cool vibranium weapon.”

           “Technically, Steve’s shield is not a weapon.” Bucky pointed out. Shuri chuckled again.

           “It’s completely myoelectric, and I’ve designed the sensors so that they can pick up on even micro-movements. It has full range of motion. You’ll be able to everything you could with your real arm. Except this one is ten times stronger, unbreakable, and completely detachable.”

           Shuri’s face glowed as she described the invention. Bucky couldn’t even focus on the arm- he was completely taken by her smile.

           “Oh, and I want to show the best part. Put it on.” Bucky took the arm, and with a little help from Shuri quickly figured out how to latch it into place. He felt a faint buzz in his shoulder at first as the electrodes adjusted, and found Shuri was right. He had full control over his new limb. Amazed, he rolled his shoulder, curled his fingers, twisted his arm. The arm worked perfectly.

           “Princess,” he started to say but stopped when he found her kneeling in front of him. She caught his new arm by the wrist and held it palm up.

           “I want to show the best part.” She said, and ran a finger down his palm. Bucky shuttered at the tingle it sent up his arm, then gasped and stared in amazement.

           “I noticed your last arm didn’t have an sensory indicators. Functional, but it didn’t really let you feel anything. So I made sure you’d be able to feel anything you touched with this one.” She punctuated her point by tracing her finger over it again. “Feel that?”

           “I do.” Bucky answered, still staring at the incredible girl in front of him. She looked nervous, focusing on his open palm instead of his face.

           Not totally sure what he was doing, Bucky pulled back his arm and Shuri with it, pulling her up to sit on the seat next to him. They sat turned to face each other, neither saying anything for a minute. But unlike the silence from before, this didn’t feel unnatural. This felt expectant.

           “Can I ask you a question, Bucky?” Shuri said softly.

           “Ask me anything, Princess.”

           “You said you lost your arm in a fall. But I did the math and the physics that would cause an arm to be ripped from the body…would kill you instantly. How’s that possible?”

           Bucky sighed. Shuri was afraid she’d pried too far, but he answered before she could take it back.

           “Do you remember the day we first met, and I told you I’d been taken prisoner before?” Shuri nodded. “That experience wasn’t nearly as pleasant as this one. Zola’s boss, Johann Schmidt, was obsessively trying to recreate the super soldier serum that gave Steve his powers. He used prisoners as test subjects. He injected with something. Not the super soldier serum but something close, that gave me the strength to survive the fall.”

           Shuri’s face twisted in horror. “He experimented on you.”

           “Horrible as it was, I’m grateful it happened. If it hadn’t I’d be dead.”

           “I’m still sorry.”

           “Don’t be. You know, you’re the first scientist I’ve liked since then? The rest of them give me anxiety but you, I know you’re never gonna use your inventions for evil. It means a lot to me knowing you can be so good.”

           Shuri’s breath hitched. In the dark truck bed, they leaned closer, until there was only a hairbreadth of space between them. Which is exactly when the ride jerked to a stop.

           “Your Highness,” one of the Dora called from the front. “We’re here.”

           “As is Captain Rogers.” The other said.

           The two pulled apart, all at once relieved and devastated to have missed the moment. Standing, Shuri pushed open the back to reveal a SHIELD quinjet waiting in the plain. Standing by the entry ramp, looking impressive, imposing, and incredibly patriotic was the one and only Captain America. Several people stood waiting on the ramp behind him, all anxiously watching the truck. These were the Howling Commandos Bucky had talked about. The friends he trusted so much.

           “Looks like they’re waiting for you.” She told Bucky.

           “Yeah.” He replied. “Looks like it.”

           She stepped back to allow him to hop out of the truck. Immediately faces of the waiting soldiers lit up, relief and excitement flooding their features. Shuri new she should let Bucky go to them, so she didn’t say anything. But her heart leapt when he turned around to address her one last time.

           “Thank you, Princess, for everything.” He took her hand delicately in his. “Maybe if Wakanda really does open to the rest of the world, I’ll get the chance to see you again.” He pressed a gentle, gentlemanly kiss on her knuckles. Never breaking eye contact while doing so.

Just as he turned to leave, Shuri tightened her grip and said, “Shuri.”

Bucky turned around, brow quirked. “What?”

“You can call me Shuri.” She said, and then before she had time to think too much, she leaned out of the trucked and kissed him. Their lips met and she swore there were sparks as she kissed him soft but firmly. It lasted only a second and was over all too soon.

“For the next time we see each other.” She explained, pulling herself back into the truck. Then Bucky smiled, wide and happy this time, with promises of laughter and kisses. It was just as sexy as that first, dark smile had been all those years ago.

“I’ll hold you to that, Shuri.”

[soulofatiny]

No Fear, I’m Here... Ch.2: Fellaz

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genre: enemies to lovers, assassin, & mafia!au

word count: 3.7k

warning: none yet but it is an assassin au...

a|n: ***IMPORTANT PLEASE READ*** For those who have read Ch.1, I’ve made some minor changes. Previously, y/n’s affiliation was YG and the ceo of YG. However, I recently caught up with all the news surrounding the company at the moment, and I do not feel comfortable using his name. Therefore, “YG Banks” will be changed to “ZG” and the Boss’ name “Yang” will be changed to “Zang”. I apologize for this odd change but I just felt it was necessary. Thank you and happy reading!

Ch.3

masterlist

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“Nana! Listen to me! You killed me here on October 24, 2011. You. Killed. Me. You have taken my life and you will take others’ lives and feel no remorse doing it. You don’t feel any emotions and you will not feel any emotions except fear. Fear for your life. You will always and forever fear that someone is out there to take your life instead.”

You jolt awake hyperventilating. Cold sweat soaking the strands of your hair and goosebumps marking your body. You felt bile creeping up your throat and ran to the bathroom for its release. “So much for resting before a job…” This wasn’t anything necessarily new in your life. You’ve had the exact same dream numerous times in the past, never knowing what it meant. All you could see in your dream was always a body covered in blood, the face blurred out and the same voice that keeps telling you the same thing every time…

“You killed me.”

You most likely did.

“Fear for your life.”

You are.

You never knew when exactly you’ll have that dream so it was always either a hit or a miss of a dreamless night whenever you slept. Today, however, was definitely a miss. Actually, it’s been a miss the past couple of weeks and it’s getting to the point where you stay up to avoid that dream... It was definitely a bad idea to try to get some rest before a job...but you were getting desperate.

You groaned looking at the clock that read 7:00 p.m. “How fitting,” you thought. Nana is your codename, translating from the Japanese number, 7. It was assigned to you when you first arrived at ZG, being the 7th to arrive and used a fake name, [y/n] whenever it required you to give a name outside of the organization. Much like what you had to do for Yeosang.

7:03 p.m...You still had some time before you head to Fellaz, so you decided to take a shower. Whether if it’s to cleanse the cold sweat clinging to your body or the limited memories that haunted you, you didn’t know. You just needed to feel some sort of relief either way and not think about what’s going to happen in the next couple of hours. Stripping off your clothing, you stepped into the shower. Immediately feeling your tense shoulders ease upon the contact of the warm water and your mind began to wander back to when you first joined the organization.

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“The 7th one is supposed to arrive today. She finished her phase one training and should be ready for phase two. Eight through ten will be arriving the next day after her.”

“How about one through six?”

“They’re all displaying positive results. After seven through ten adjusts, I believe we’ll be able to go into phase three within the next 3 years.”

ZG nodded, “Then we’ll hold the initiation officially on October 24, 2011. No delays. Do not disappoint me, Mino.” And with that, Mino followed escorted his boss to his chauffeur waiting for him outside. Mino was in charge of running the phase two-training smoothly to ensure that everything will go according to the boss’ initiation program. He bowed deeply as the chauffeur drove his boss away from the facility. As Mino walked back inside, one of the workers notified him of your arrival. “Finally…”

You were told that you’ve graduated from phase one, where trainees were educated until they surpass the advanced level in all subjects of math, language, geography, analytical thinking while simultaneously receiving physical training that consisted various martial arts/combat styles, artillery, and blade training. There were many that started from birth, being raised in the facility nursery and officially start training once they learn how to walk and there were others that begin around toddler age but you couldn’t remember when you’ve started. Despite receiving the training from top tier educators, some simply may not possess the potential to be selected for ZG’s special program and were usually terminated. Which obviously isn’t you because you are currently blindfolded and being transferred via car to the building of phase two. They’ve never let you go beyond the walls that completed the perimeter of your first training building. You’ve heard stories of some trying to risk going beyond the walls and were immediately terminated. You felt the vehicle stop and the door opened with someone grabbing your arm to guide you out. You couldn’t see anything but you could hear at least two different footsteps excluding your own. You all kept on walking for a good while until you all halted and waited until a voice startled you. “Take your blindfold off.” You complied and immediately faced with a man perhaps in his 20’s but what caught your attention was his sharp eyes, almost snake-like and threatening aura that sent your body shivering in anxiousness. “You’re the 7th to arrive. If we wanted to address specifically at you, we’ll refer to you as ‘Nana’. How old are you?” You stood in silence and Mino was about to lose his patience until he remembered why “Speak.”

“I was told that I’m ten-years-old.”

“I see. I expect you to make it until phase three. My workers will guide you to meet your new educator. Do not disappoint me or you will be terminated.”

You immediately bowed deeply and Mino walked away. You looked up and saw the two men now exposed free from your blindfolds who presumably are Mino’s workers. One of the men signaled for you to walk and you complied. The building seemed sterile and the long hallways glistened with the fluorescent lights reflecting the glossy white floors, very much designed like your previous facility. You continued to walk, passing by many doors until the man in front of you stopped and pointed at the door of the room you’ll be residing. Before they both turned to leave you, you bowed deeply to show your acknowledgment. You were taught that you were allowed to bow to anyone in a higher up position than you at any given time, but were not allowed to speak before given permission. The two men nodded and walked away, leaving you to your new training. Until you could no longer see them, you finally knocked on the door. The door opened revealing a woman that had the corners of her mouth turned upwards and caught you off guard. From your previous studies, you’ve learned that this is what people would call a smile but it’s the first time you’ve witnessed one in person, how peculiar. “Hi! You must be Nana! We were expecting you! Come in, come in!” You bowed to indicate your greeting and walked in. The woman’s voice was loud in volume and she was still smiling. It looked painful for her cheeks but she continued, “I’m your head educator of phase two-training! Things will be very different from your phase one-training. First off, while you’re in this building, you do not need to ask for permission to speak. Just follow the basic speech mannerism that you’ve learned from your previous training but do so with your will of speaking.” You waited until she continued to speak but realized that she was waiting for you to speak so you mumbled a small, “Yes.” That was the very first time you spoke without permission and it honestly felt strange in your stomach. The woman stared at you, writing something down on her clipboard and smiled even harder, something you didn’t think was possible. “Perfect! Secondly, here, you will learn about emotions and try to enhance the stimulation of your feelings! I’m sure you must be confused but this is all very exciting and I can’t wait until you meet your family member!”

Confused…? Exciting…? Family…? You were familiar with the vocabulary from your studies but never heard them used in a sentence. Suddenly, the strange feeling in your stomach growing larger. The woman looked at you cautiously, “Ah, I’m sorry. You must be overwhelmed! You feel something in your stomach, don’t you?” You widen your eyes, “Y-yes…how did you know?” “Ah just right now! I just surprised you! You see, human emotions aren’t that hard to stimulate. You just need to understand which emotion is which. But don’t worry. You’ll get used it soon. Also, thank you for speaking first.”

You felt surprised yet once again. You got thanked for speaking… it was peculiar and overwhelming but you could even dare to say that you liked the feeling of tying all of these emotions being put in action. Your new teacher smiled softer until she spoke again, “Now follow me! It’s time to meet your family member! Here, you are assigned to a sibling. You both will play, have meals together, and hold conversations much like families in real life.” She pauses to take a quick look at her clipboard and continued, “Ah yes, your assigned family member is number 3! I see you go by the Japanese translation, but number 3 will be the Korean translation ‘Set’. Set is a male so looks like you have gained a brother!”

You decided to speak up softly, “May I ask a question?” The woman stared at you, wrote something down again, and answered, “Yes, of course!” Looking away from the clipboard but continued to write as you spoke, “Why are different translations used to refer Set and I’s numbers?” “There will actually be ten of you coming to phase two in total, numbers eight through ten will be arriving tomorrow. They will all have different translations for their numbers as well. I know you all learned multiple languages during your phase one training so it will help increase brain activity by mixing in different languages for daily use. At least that is what Boss Zang insisted. Honestly, it doesn’t make much sense to me but we just go with it,” ending her blurb with a wink. “Now, come on! Let’s go meet your brother!”

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You felt the water in your shower turning cold, indicating that it was probably time for you to get out.

Brother…...you had a brother. Set? You couldn’t remember what happened to him…. but now’s not the time to ponder upon it. It’s nearing 8 p.m. so you quickly dry your hair, pulling it up into a high ponytail with two shorter strands of hair framing the sides of your face perfectly. You decided to wear some makeup with a darker shade of eyeshadow that accentuated your eye color more. Opening your wardrobe, you sorted and changed into a short black satin dress and leather jacket, that matched with your heeled black thigh high boots. You open another wardrobe that wasn’t for your clothes but the inside filled with various sorts of weaponry.

It’s a jazz club…it’ll be loud but not loud enough to use a gun. You could always put a silencer on, but it was honestly a hassle to carry. Ultimately, you decided on two shorter blades that laid on your forearms, hidden well by your leather jacket. Although you exceeded in any weapon, you still exceeded with blades a little more. It was easy to carry, silent to kill, and easier to aim with the contact being closer. You didn’t think you would need it but you also decided to wear a thigh holster carrying your pistol, that hid underneath your dress just enough. It’s good to take precautions... You took one last look in the mirror, before heading out. Not too much, yet bold enough to charm people as you walk by. Perfect.

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Your heels clacked as you walked down the dimly lit alleyway, feeling the chilly wind sweep across the sides of your neck and thighs. You stopped, finally reaching to the bright illuminated sign of your destination placed on the wall of the brick building that read, “Fellaz”. The structure of the wall was old, to say the least. The bricks were definitely run down that seemed to be barely clinging to its assigned spot and the two metal doors that was seemingly intimidating in size. You pulled the handle on one of the doors, ignoring the sudden contact with the cold metal on the palm of your hand, and smoothly walked in. The door closed behind you, its heavy weight allowing it to do so automatically. However, instead of entering a room, you were only met with a stairway that led directly downstairs, immediately noticing a surveillance camera planted on the ceiling that was directly facing towards the entrance. Without hesitating, you began to walk down the steps, smelling a faint aroma of coffee and hearing the subtle sounds of brass instruments. Stepping your final step, you were surprised to see a modern chic cafe that contrasted greatly from the outer appearance of the building you saw only a few minutes ago. You examined the interior and were immediately connected with jazz music that came from the four men playing on the center stage at the very back of the room. The right side occupied the drink bar that was attended by a bartender, smalls candles were lit positioned on top of the round dining tables that were placed sporadically across the rest of the remaining area. Yunho was nowhere to be found, but you still had roughly 30 hours left to accomplish your task so there wasn’t any need to worry. You usually gather more information on the beginning portion of your timeframe, taking in the lifestyle they lived in completely,  and then finish them accordingly. Which is what you’re about to do as you sat on one of the unoccupied stools at the drink bar counter, the bartender smiling at you as you took your seat. He was handsome, really handsome. His blonde hair that swept over his forehead defined his strong facial features beautifully. “Scotch on the rocks, thank you,” you placed your order as you gave a small charming smile back.

“Ah, you must be new here. I’m sorry, we don’t sell alcohol, just coffee.”

“No alcohol? at a club?”

The bartender chuckled, “Yeah, I know. Strange right? My friend actually opened this place. Something about wanting people to appreciate music to the full capacity while being sober…blah blah blah….but I think it’s just because he’s a lightweight.” You chuckled at the bartender’s straightforward remark over his friend, “Well then, I would like an iced americano, um-“

“Seonghwa. Call me Seonghwa, and one iced americano on the house for?-“

“y/n, thank you.” With that, Seonghwa gave you a quick wink and started working on the espresso machine. Very flirtatious, you noted. It didn’t take long for Seonghwa to hand you your beverage since everyone that was sitting at the bar left to join the dining area. You nodded your head to thank him, getting ready to speak until Seonghwa beat you to it. “So y/n, what’s a charming young lady such as yourself doing at a small unknown jazz club like Fellas,” he asked as he took a sip of his own latte. You took a sip of your own drink before answering, “Ah, I have a strong love for music so my coworker recommended me this place. I’m glad I came. The place is beautiful and the musicians are extremely skilled.”  You weren’t exactly lying. The sounds of the instruments that reached to your ear calmed and soothed you completely despite what you’re going to do in the next day or two. Seonghwa nodded in understanding as he looked towards the stage fondly where the four men continued to play, “I agree. I’m honestly really proud to call them my friends.” “Is that so? Tell me more about them,” you leaned forward to show your interest.

“Hmm let’s see. The one playing the drums with the ash hair is Wooyoung. He’s almost as loud as he plays, but you can tell he’s passionate about everything he does. The tall one playing the saxophone is Mingi, he told me he first started to play the sax since he was in elementary. The one with the dark hair with red highlights playing the piano, that’s San. He seems really serious right now, but he’s actually a really cheerful guy. He’s only ever this serious if he’s ever in the zone. And then lastly, the one playing the violin, that’s Jongho. He’s the youngest out of our friend group and he actually sings really well. He’s almost too talented even though he’s the youngest.”

As Seonghwa finished his description, you could evidently see how much he adored them. “You said your friend group…are there more who also plays like them?”

“Oh no, there’s actually eight of us in total. Half plays while the other half simply appreciates the music,” Seonghwa said while laughing. You shared your laugh with him until a voice caught both you and Seonghwa’s attention. Your heart sped up slightly when you turned to see who it was. “Excuse me miss, is this seat taken-“ he asked in a lulling tone. “No, please go ahead,” you answered as you made eye contact, taking a full view of his face and soft yet prominent features.

It’s Yunho.

Yunho smiled upon your approval as he sat next to you and then looked at Seonghwa who was already looking at him, “Hey, hyung. Who’s this?”

“This is our newcomer, y/n.”

“Newcomer, huh?” Yunho questioned. You could feel his curiosity. They knew each other… You looked between the two men and asked, “Are you both acquainted with each other?”

“Yeah, this is actually one of the guys in our friend group that I talked about earlier,” Seonghwa answered and Yunho immediately looked at you.

“You both talked about me, huh?”

You would think he was suspicious but you couldn’t sense that aura coming from him…only his strong and confident presence that probed you, making you want to leave the scene but you continued, “Yeah, I’ve heard you also admire music? Seonghwa and I talked about how wonderful this place is-“

“Really? That’s fantastic,” Yunho said while cutting you off, the words he spoke not matching with the sarcastic tone in his voice. You tried to fight off throwing a glare at his domineering attitude but he continued, “So that explains why you’re sitting here, by yourself on a Tuesday night being nosy and snatching information from my good friend here? Because of your love for the aesthetics and music hmm?” You accidentally slipped away from your composure for a moment and shot a venomous glare at him until you caught yourself. You never lose your composure. Especially not by a couple of cheap words but Yunho’s spiteful demeanor was truly testing you. Yunho also looked at you with cold eyes, fully aware that he was pissing you off to the point where you lost it for a split second. “Guys please not at the cafe… Yunho, the boss said to welcome her, not piss her off,” Seonghwa scolded at Yunho, the tone of his voice changing slightly as well. Boss…he said, boss... This was a trap and you had to get out of there. Within that short moment, many scenarios ran through your head, trying to calculate which would outcome your survival. Should you kill them both now? But if you do, there’s still four of their men still waiting behind you on the center stage. They continued to play their instruments but you could undoubtedly feel their attention on the three of you. Plus, this is their territory…who knows how many more people that are sitting in the dining area are actually disguised as one of them, or worse, all of them. Yunho was resting his head on his propped hand, looking completely unfazed. Maybe you could at least strike the both of them and exit just fast enough- “Will you relax? I can sense you’re overwhelmed but it’s overwhelming me too,” Yunho spoke cutting the silence, his words not matching his actions yet once again. “We’ve been told that we’re not allowed to kill-“

Now.

You swung both of your arms, sliding your blades out within only a split second. Yunho was startled slightly but moved just as fast and grabbed both of your arms that was aiming to slice both Yunho and Seonghwa’s neck, restricting your movements. You grazed Yunho’s cheek, blood slowly trickling down his cheek but he managed to stop your other arm just in time before it was only a centimeter away from reaching Seonghwa’s artery. Yunho maintained his hold on your arms, still immobilizing you. His face only a few inches away but his cold eyes reached yours even deeper. His voice husky and lowered an entire octave, “As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted… we’re not allowed to kill you but I just might considering I don’t remember the last time I followed rules-“

“Yunho, stop,” Seonghwa said, completely unaffected. Yunho, clearly angry, raised his voice, “Hyung, this bitch cut my cheek which by the way, wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t have to look after your ass too.” Seonghwa chuckled at his last remark, “You know I’m not the fastest.” Then Seonghwa turned to you and smiled, “Forgive Yunho. He has his moods sometimes, but he means no disrespect-“

“She tried to kill us, so why can’t we kill her?” Yunho said emphasizing each word full of spite, but he knew he wouldn’t receive an answer from Seonghwa so he turned to face you again, “Tell your bastard of a boss, that we don’t want or need you on our team.”

Wait, what..? What did he mean by on their team…?

Your thoughts were cut off when your phone suddenly rang. By the specific ringtone, you could tell it was your boss calling you. You knew Yunho wasn’t letting go of your arms any time soon so you brought your foot up and kicked him directly at his crotch. Yunho immediately winced in pain, freeing your arms, with Seonghwa trying to stabilize him stretching his arms over the counter. You turned around heard Yunho in the background cursing at you and swearing that he’s going to end your life but you ignored him and answered your call, “Boss.”

“Retreat your mission and come see me immediately. Things have changed...”

∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘∘

e|n: I hope this chapter wasn’t too confusing because I’ve made some minor changes (as stated in the beginning) We’ve almost officially met all of the members! I hope you’ll continue to read to see Nana meeting all of them. You’ll definitely see more interaction with the members in the next chapter. If you have any questions or need any clarifications, just ask! Thanks for reading and please leave feedback so I’ll know where I can improve :)

[theworkofxanderking]

The Hunter Diaries

Volume One

Warnings: I do not own the original content to “The Originals”, “The Vampire Diaries” or “Legacies” or any of the characters from the television shows.

15 plus, displays of Violence, Gore, Torture, M/M, F/M, F/F.

Dear Diary,

I returned to Mystic Falls to protect my sister Elena from a darkness she never understood but it was me who never truly understood it and now I stay while I try to work out if the Salvatore brothers are allies or enemies.

My name is Hunter Gilbert, and this is my story.

Episode 3: Hunter Gilbert, Tomb Raider

Weeks had passed since Hunter returned to Mystic Falls and he was beginning to start to enjoy being back home except for the numerous deaths he suffered at the hands of one Damon Salvatore. In the past few weeks Hunter had endured several different types of poisoning, gun shots, stabbings and most recently being set on fire all of which killed him but much to Damon’s dismay none killed him permanently.

Hunter knew his permanent death wouldn’t come easy for any vampire and he knew each time the Gilbert ring brought him back that he’d be closer to the last time it would work on him but he never admitted the ring’s weakness to Stefan or especially Damon.

Hunter had become used to the idea of dying young and besides he found each death valuable as he seemed to come back to life with more strength, faster speed and reflexes every time so although Damon was merely experimenting with death and trying to be a nuisance of sorts he was actually helping Hunter in a weird sense that Hunter would never admit.

“I say it’s a bad idea,” Stefan said to Hunter while they stood in the woods of Mystic Falls fight training before launching a punch at Hunter which Hunter managed to swerve. “The tomb vampires are very dangerous and very old vampires.”

“Exactly more training practice for me,” Hunter replied before punching Stefan several times in the face and kicking him to the ground. “No offence but vampires on bunny blood aren’t exactly the best trainers.”

“Offence taken,” Stefan responded before vamp speeding a kick to floor Hunter making Hunter fall to the ground next to where Stefan lay. “Trying to set free any vampire for practice is a crazy idea bound to end in disaster.”

“You may have a point, but I’ve never once claimed to be sane.” Hunter said as Stefan rose to his feet and held out a hand to pull Hunter up off the ground. “If we can even break out just one vampire specifically the one who was best friends with Katherine before being entombed we might be able to learn more about your vampire ex and in doing so learn more about her current doppelganger who you just so happen to be dating.”

“Why must you always bring that up?” Stefan asked while laughing at Hunter’s words.

“Because it’s weird,” Hunter admitted. “Albeit no weirder than your twin sister turning out to be the good twin of a centuries old self-serving vampire.”

“Did someone say my name?” Damon asked as he vamp sped his way to stand beside Hunter and Stefan. “So, this is where you two love birds spend all your time.”

“We’re going to free Pearl from the tomb and then interrogate her until we get some information on Katherine’s whereabouts who knows she may even know something about Elena.”

“Finally, somebody has an idea actually worth following through,” Damon said with a smirk. “Good on you little Gilbert.”

“Please tell me my brother agreeing to your plan is all the proof you need to know that this is far from a good idea.” Stefan said to Hunter who just ignored the younger Salvatore brother’s advice.

“I guess we better find ourselves a witch!” Hunter replied to Damon with a sly smirk of his own.

“I’m just saying before you go and ask Bonnie’s grandmother to reopen a tomb that took a lot out of her the last time she did it for Damon only to find out Katherine wasn’t there you’d at least consult with your aunt and see what she thinks about this idea.” Stefan said to Hunter as the walk down the streets of Mystic Falls, attempting to talk Hunter out of his latest decision.

“Haven’t you got a girlfriend you should be pestering instead of me?” Hunter asked him as they continue walking down the street. “Sheila Bennet is one impressive witch and as far as I know Bonnie’s still in the dark about her magical lineage so Sheila’s our best bet besides, she always preferred me to Elena growing up.”

“I don’t think you’ll still be her favorite when you drag her into vampire business she wasn’t exactly pleased when Damon forced her hand before.” Stefan replied.

“In my defense I’ve got a lot more charm than Damon.” Hunter stated. “She’ll be eager to help me out.”

“You actually think your charming?” Stefan laughed.

“You haven’t seen my charm, yet I can be quite charming.” Hunter argued.

“Clearly I’ve just been missing it,” Stefan joked before being hit on the shoulder by Hunter as the two laughed at each other. “Don’t use that approach to convince Sheila Bennet your charming or you might end up with a hex.”

“See this is why I never normally talk to vampires.” Hunter replied while rolling his eyes at him.

“Well consider me well and truly privileged.” Stefan sarcastically said as the two stopped outside of Sheila Bennett’s home. “Now is the time to back out if your having any second thoughts.”

“First step in the hunting guidebook is learn as much as possible about any possible target,” Hunter stated while staring at Mrs Bennet’s home. “Learning about Katherine will teach us about Elena and by doing so make us prepared if her evil twin ever plans a return to Mystic Falls because something tells me she’s going to be pissed to see her two ex-lovers lusting over her doppelganger.”

“I suppose I can’t argue with that logic,” Stefan responded as he placed his hand on Hunter’s shoulder. “After you Hunter Gilbert.”

Elena knocked on the front door of the Salvatore home eager for Stefan to answer having felt him growing distant over the last few weeks and hoped that they could spend the day together to calm her nerves about their relationship but much to her dismay it was Damon who answered the door without a shirt on not exactly shy about his impressive chest.

“Do you ever wear clothes?” She asked him.

“We both know I’m a lot more likable to most people when I’m wearing as little clothes as possible.” Damon replied rather smugly.

“I wasn’t aware anyone found you likable,” Elena said sarcastically. “So is Stefan in? We’re meant to be spending the day together.”

“Sorry my little brother is already outside playing with your brother I’m sure if you search high and low you will soon find them, but I doubt they want to be found.” Damon proudly revealed.

“If your trying to make me jealous about my brother’s friendship with your brother then you clearly don’t know me very well at all I’m happy Hunter’s made a friend.” Elena replied.

“Wasn’t he real friendly with Tyler Lockwood too?” Damon asked ironically. “Wonder what they got up to.”

“Clearly you have a problem with Stefan getting close to another guy maybe someone’s ego is a little hurt that Stefan’s not chasing after you as much since my brother came to town.” Elena stated before reluctantly sighing. “Look I don’t want to spend all day going back and forth with you.”

Elena quickly pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket dialed Stefan’s number and held it to her ear as it rang and rang until it went to voicemail much to Elena’s frustration and Damon’s amusement.

“It’s not like Stefan Salvatore not to answer his phone to you straight away.” Damon mocked.

“He probably just missed the call,” Elena replied before dialing Hunter’s number which went straight to the voicemail making Damon laugh. “Hunter’s phone is always off I swear he doesn’t know how to use it.”

“Or maybe he does.” Damon retorted before seeing Elena being clearly upset about being ignored. “You may as well come in someone’s got to tell you the truth can’t have your pretty little head fretting over the small stuff when there’s much bigger stuff for you to worry about.”

“What is that supposed to mean Damon?” A clearly confused Elena asked him.

“Come on in.” Damon repeated while rolling his eyes.

“Absolutely not!” Sheila said without hesitation upon being asked to reopen the tomb holding many vampires under the ruins of a church in Mystic Falls as she stood at her open door with Stefan and Hunter on her doorstep.

“I know this sounds like a crazy idea Mrs Bennet but it’s kind of the only idea any of us have.” Hunter explained to her.

“I’m sorry Hunter but those vampires are there for a reason and I will not risk any getting out it’s beyond miraculous none managed to escape the last time I opened the tomb in search of Katherine Pierce before.” Sheila replied making it clear where she stood about Hunter’s mission. “You can’t begin to understand how truly sorry I am the you wound up following in your father’s footsteps one should never meddle in vampire business never mind being forced to make it their own.”

“Nobody forced my hand Mrs Bennet I did what I knew was right and that’s what I need you to help me do again.” Hunter responded adamant to change Sheila’s mind. “I know Damon forced you hand with threats and violence before, but you know that’s not my style. This is my sister we are talking about your granddaughter’s best friend I just want to have as much information as possible to keep her safe.”

“This entire town won’t be safe if even of those vampires get out, they have been trapped in that tomb for centuries without any blood if any got loose, they’d waste no time in slaughtering everyone they came into contact with.” Sheila warned Hunter while standing her ground. “There is no way you can convince me that opening that tomb again would be a good idea under no circumstances will that tomb be opened.”

“I guess if there’s really no convincing you then I’ll have to turn to Bonnie herself I’m sure she’d be more than willing to cast a simple spell to protect her best friend.” Hunter revealed shocking both Stefan and Sheila in the process. “And if she’s reluctant at first then I guess that’s when I’ll have to get Damon himself to persuade her.”

“Hunter!” Stefan snapped, shocked to see Hunter’s darker side.

“Are you really threatening my granddaughter Hunter Gilbert?” Sheila asked while clearly furious. “I have known you since the day you were born and that makes me reluctant to put you in your place but if you ever threaten my granddaughter again, I’ll do just that.”

“And you would be right to do so because Bonnie’s your family,” Hunter said. “Just like Elena is my family.”

“You really are your father’s son.” Sheila stated while glaring at Hunter with a death stare.

“Thank you.” Hunter replied with a smile on his face.

“That was no compliment,” Sheila revealed. “Your father and his brother were ruthless hunters in their day far more cruel than any creature they may have hunted however your father softened when he found love with your mother your uncle however remained a cold hearted monster with the kind of look in his eyes I’m starting to see in yours.”

“Mrs Bennet I’m only trying to protect my sister.” Hunter tried to explain himself.

“Elena Gilbert is merely just a pawn in your hunt it is the hunt itself you live for it’s even in your name.” Sheila told him. “I will help you temporarily break the tomb spell but only because I know a hunter never lets anything or anyone get in their way despite the casualties but you Hunter Gilbert are never to step foot on my doorstep again you hear me.”

“I understand.” Hunter admitted with a sigh of sadness knowing that his mission to protect his sister had in that very moment just cost him a friendship of a woman he deeply admired.

Hunter, Sheila and Stefan had found underneath the ruins of what was once a vibrant church and a vital part of the community of Mystic Falls as Sheila drew a pentagram in the dirt while looking through a large and clearly ancient grimoire while Hunter and Stefan stood in front of the cave where inside the tomb vampires were trapped.

“I still can’t believe you threaten somebody you grew up with just to get somebody you said you liked to be forced into doing what you wanted of them.” Stefan said to Hunter making it clear he was far from impressed with Hunter’s earlier actions.

“She may not be my sister by blood Stefan, but she’s been my sister all my life and I don’t care if my actions turn the entire world against me as long as she stays safe.” Hunter admitted. “I can’t lose another member of my family; I won’t lose another member of my family.”

“I don’t want to lose Elena either and trust me I will stop at nothing to ensure she’s safe but threatened her best friend and her best friend’s grandmother is not the way.” Stefan told him. “I had hoped to have came into your life soon enough to stop the hunter mentality being your only way of thinking, but I’m started to worry Sheila may have been right about you.”

“You really think that of me?” Hunter asked clearly wounded by Stefan’s painfully true words.

“I fear your humanity is just as in trouble and just as fleeting as my brother’s and I’m sorry Hunter, but I can’t save you both my loyalty is to him and your sister.” Stefan explained. “After this you’re on your own or better yet maybe you should find a new partner in Damon you two are clearly more suited.”

Sheila began chanting in Croatian and within moments each candle located in each corner of the pentagram was lit.

“I’m ready.” She said breaking the boys’ awkward silence.

“Use didn’t really think you’d be tomb raiding without me now did you?” Damon said upon vamp speeding into the underground cave holding Elena by his side. “I may have also got a little bit too gossipy with my girl talk but you know me the only thing looser than my lips is…”

“Elena!” Hunter said in shock, not expecting to see his sister and knowing what her presence meant.

“Damon told me everything,” Elena admitted to Stefan and Hunter while pushing away from Damon. “He told me about vampires, about doppelgangers, hunters and that I’m adopted.”

“Whatever he told you…” Hunter tried to deny.

“Is the truth.” Stefan interrupted unable to lie to the woman he loved any longer. “All we were trying to do is protect you from it.”

“We’ll talk about everything later,” Elena replied to Stefan. “But right now, we have a tomb vampire to break free.”

“Wait you want to go along with Damon and Hunter’s plan? You can’t be thinking straight clearly you’re in shock by all the revelations it’s completely understandable.” Stefan said to Elena as he walked over to his girlfriend.

“I’ve known about Bonnie being a witch for quite some time now,” Elena revealed before looking at Sheila. “And that you were one too after adjusting to that vampires, hunters and doppelgangers aren’t really much of a stretch but yeah I want to know why the hell I’m connected to a centuries old vampire.”

“Then I guess I shall begin the spell.” Sheila responded before beginning to chant in Croatian once again.

Hunter and Damon stood side by side silently watching as Stefan took Elena over to one side of the underground cave they had all found themselves in a bid to explain some rather unexplainable things both too busy eavesdropping to speak to each other while Sheila stood in the middle of the pentagram she had drawn continuing to chant in Croatian as the flames on the candles in each corner of the pentagram grew longer, wider, harsher and more powerful by Sheila’s chants.

“Why are you dating me Stefan?” She asked the youngest Salvatore sibling. “Why would you date someone who loud exactly like your ex-girlfriend?”

“It’s not like that at all what I had with Katherine was never real I was a human under her compulsion and then she turned me and my brother only to leave us like some cruel game.” Stefan explained to her. “My feelings for you are what is real, Elena yes I may have been drawn to the mystery of you and your connection to Katherine, but I fell in love with the amazing person you are.”

“I wish I could believe you Stefan I really do but you’ve lied to me the entire time you’ve known me, and I don’t know if I can ever trust you again.” Elena admitted to him.

“What does that mean for us?” Stefan asked her, fearing the answer.

“I honestly have no idea.” Elena revealed much to her own heartbreak as well as Stefan’s.

Hunter and Damon just stood there, Damon looking at the hurt on Elena’s face and wanted to do anything to make her feel better while Hunter looked at Stefan feeling the same way about Stefan in that very moment there was no denying that Damon Salvatore was madly and deeply in love with Elena Gilbert just like Hunter Gilbert had just realized he was in love with Stefan Salvatore.

“The seal is temporarily broken.” Sheila revealed in between her Croatian chants.

“I guess that’s my cue then.” Damon said before vamp speeding into the cave in which the tomb vampires were trapped without hesitation clearly eager to escape this painful for moment for all involved.

“I suppose this means we’ll probably have our answers soon.” Hunter told Elena and Stefan in a bid to break their awkward silence towards each other.

“And then later we can have a talk of our own.” Elena replied to him, her very words striking fear in her brother fearing she wasn’t happy with his secrecy.

“Not to be the guy who blames ghosts, but I was just simply following my parent’s orders.” Hunter mumbled awkwardly. “Then aunt Jenna’s orders so if your mad at anyone you should totally be mad at her.”

“Hunter I’m not mad at you,” She responded while walking over towards her brother. “What you must’ve been going through the last two years only to come back to this madness I mean I can barely get my head around all this and it’s been your life for two years.”

“It’s definitely been an interesting two years but trust you to one up me over being a vampire hunter with having a vampire doppelganger.” Hunter joked as his sister hugged him.

“You need to fill me in on everything,” She told him as she broke off the hug. “No more secrets.”

“No more secrets.” Hunter repeated accepting Elena’s more than fair demands.

Suddenly Sheila let out a loud scream as mysterious figure after figure vamp sped out of the dark cave and quickly out of sight before Sheila returned to chanting in Croatian raising her voice louder while clearly in a lot of pain.

“Mrs Bennet!” Elena screamed clearly concerned for her best friend’s grandmother.

“Something’s clearly wrong.” Stefan said clearly worried for his brother.

Hunter could sense what Stefan was about to do and quickly tripped Stefan as Stefan began to vamp speed towards the cave snapping the Salvatore vampire’s neck before his body hit the cold hard ground.

“Hunter what the hell are you doing?” Elena asked her brother confused by his sudden act of violence.

“I’ll be right back.” Hunter said in a bid to reassure his sister before running into the cave after Damon.

“Hunter!” She screamed. “Damon!”

“I can’t keep this seal open much longer.” Sheila warned Elena as more human figures vamp sped out of the cave.

[seawolvesanddragons]

Merlin Swan Princess AU

Ok, Merlin Swan Princess AU. So, in this AU Uther died instead of Ygraine when Arthur was very young (YAY) and Balinor, as a powerful Dragonlord, is one of Ygraine's closest supporters, and she becomes close with Hunith. About a two years after Arthur is born, Hunith dies in childbirth) and Merlin is born. Balinor is very upset, obviously, but does love his son. However, he and Ygraine are both concerned about the current political climate - Camelot is seen as weak because of its Queen Regent and two year old heir, and Ygraine fears that enemies will fall upon them or go after Arthur, or that Arthur will inherit a dying kingdom. Meanwhile, dragons and dragonlords are getting a bad rep in other kingdoms b/c kings mistrust their power and dragons are scary, and Balinor fears his kind will be hunted. So Ygraine and Balinor come up with a beneficial deal - they will help each other out. They dismiss the idea of them getting married b/c Ygraine still loves Uther and Balinor Hunith but Balinor pledges his support, his clan's support, and Kilgharrah's support to Camelot. In return, Ygraine declares Camelot a safe haven for dragonlords, druids, etc. To keep this arrangement fresh in the minds of the people/other kingdoms, Balinor decides that every summer, he and Merlin will stay in Camelot. If he had to travel on business, than Merlin would still stay with Gaius. 

The deal is great - it gives Ygraine some extra security, and Balinor is pleased that Merlin will have some semblance of a permanent home and a maternal figure at least 4 months of the year. Plus, they both privately hope that if the boys become friends, then the truce will continue. Well, private to each other. They stress to Arthur and Merlin that they really SHOULD get along, for the good of the kingdom/the dragonlord clan, etc. Except, well...Arthur and Merlin? Do NOT get along. Seriously. While Merlin adores Gaius and likes Ygraine and ok Camelot can be pretty cool, he still dreads the summers when he is forced to try and get along with Arthur, who only cares about knights and sword training and riding horses. Merlin doesn't get the big deal about riding horses, he can ride dragons and that is MUCH more exciting. Arthur, meanwhile, is frustrated that this kid (yes, Mother, KID, he is only 5 and I am SEVEN. I am old enough to be a page!) is his responsibility to entertain, especially when Ygraine lets on that it is so Arthur can have the support of the dragonlords in the future and yeah, Balinor is cool and all but Arthur is going to be the King of Camelot, what kind of King can't defend his own people. (Plus there's a jealousy thing b/c Arthur doesn't have a dad and Merlin doesn't have a mom but they are both too emotionally young to really understand that.) So they spend their summers trying to avoid each other, Arthur with the knights and Merlin by learning with Gaius and practicing magic. Morgana, when she arrives, splits her time between the two of them, but she always gives a little extra time to Merlin (she sees Arthur ALL YEAR) and Merlin makes Gwen less uncomfortable, so that also tips the scales. Arthur dislikes this because Morgana is HIS friend. When they both turn out to be magic, well, that's even more annoying. As they get older, more issues are cropping up among dragonlords and Balinor leaves Merlin in Camelot alone during the summer more and more, which Merlin does NOT like. And okay, they probably share and adventure or two, but they do NOT like each other at all, not friends, ok, so shut up Leon. And Gwen. And Morgana. Then one summer when Arthur is 17 and Merlin is 15 and Merlin wishes Arthur luck before a tourney and Arthur sees Merlin practicing magic for a few peasant children who came to Camelot during the famine and distracting them from their hunger, and okay, maybe they other isn't so bad. And they are both old enough to sit in on the Council meetings now and do so regularly, and find themselves working together to solve a crisis or something. So they are not friends - they snipe and everything at each other, but things are at least slightly more cordial to each other. So the end of the summer comes, and Balinor returns on Kilgharrah (who always is giving Arthur strange looks, no one understands it) in time to literally spend one day and then pick up Merlin. He and Ygraine watch the boys barely interact at the farewell feast and Arthur doesn't say goodbye to the next morning, he is already at training so the two sigh and give up on those two ever actually being friends, and Balinor mentions that they will be back next summer, but Merlin is also going to start accompanying him when he leaves to smooth things over. Unbeknownst to them Arthur is lurking behind the palace wall, trying to decide whether it would be awkward or not to say goodbye again, and doesn't know how he feels about that and boom then they are gone. And everything returns to normal in Camelot for about a day. Then Morgana wakes up SCREAMING from a nightmare and Arthur, as the only one who can calm her down besides Gwen, is trying to help when she gets out enough to say that Merlin and Balinor are in danger and woah who knew Arthur could run that fast? And within a half hour, Arthur, Leon, Elyan, Lancelot and Percival are out searching for the Dragonlord, the Dragon, and his son. Its past daybreak when they finally see Kilgharrah flying away in the distance, no riders, crying mournfully. They go to where they saw him take off of and find a dying Balinor. Merlin is nowhere to be seen. Balinor lives just long enough to tell Arthur "the beast..it has Merlin. It’s not what you expect." and then in true unhelpfully vague dying plot device fashion, dies. For a month, Camelot and the dragonclan search, Arthur and his knights leading the fray. But as time passes, and Kilgharrah fails to return, and Morgana sees nothing, they all assume Merlin is also dead. Except Arthur. Arthur is convinced that Merlin is still alive, that he is counting on their rescue. He goes to Gaius, who admits that it would be hard to kill a warlock of Merlin's abilities, but also hard to hold him captive. He goes to Morgana, who says yeah maybe something is blocking her Sight, something is off, but Arthur have you eaten anything today you need to slow down. And Leon and the Knights find themselves suddenly training WAY more than usual, and patrols increased and still going on search parties, which ok they are fine with, they liked Merlin, Lancelot was especially close, but let’s be realistic here. But Arthur refuses, because Merlin is a kind and decent kid and he swore to Balinor he would find him. Merlin, meanwhile, is being held captive by the Sidhe, who want Merlin to use his dragonlord/magic powers to help them conquer all of Albion, including Camelot and the dragonclans and the druids. Merlin said "hell no" , refused to summon any dragons and great,the sidhe have crazy powerful magic and now Merlin is cursed to be an actual merlin, like, the bird, during the day (Alvar thinks he's SOOO funny) and only be human at night, and they used some ancient Sidhe dark magic chain to keep his magic bound. At least he has Gwaine, the captured knight errant whose blood the Sidhe keep using for their "noble blood needed rituals"  and Mordred, a druid changeling who is SO not up for this Sidhe nonsense but is also 10 and scared to leave on his own, to keep him company. A whole year passes. Arthur is supposed to become king soon but is ignoring the coronation preparations because he has to find Merlin. Finally, FINALLY Kilgharrah answers Arthur's persistent call to COME HELP YOU GIANT LIZARD and gives him MORE vague instructions on Merlin and how to help. When Arthur is king he is outlawing vague statements. So Arthur and Leon go on a "hunting" trip where Arthur sees a merlin. Like, a really magnificent merlin. Leon is about to strike it down when Arthur is like wait MAYBE THIS IS THE SIGN KILGARRAH MEANT and follows the bird, Leon wandering behind him wondering wtf is going on. They follow the bird for fucking miles. Until they reach a really pretty looking lake with a convenient rowboat to get to the island in the middle and Arthur uses it and good lords above, the BIRD JUST TURNED INTO MERLIN. Arthur, who has spent a year trying to find Merlin, suddenly isn't sure what to do (do they hug? They never hugged before but Arthur really really REALLY wants to hug him right now) and Merlin doesn't know why Arthur has crossed his mind so much in the past year (its because its too painful to think about his father, and Kilgharrah, and Camelot was some of the best times of his life, and Arthur was undeniably part of Camelot. That’s all right? No other reasons...) but now they are both kinda awkward around each other. Leon is still recovering from the whole bird thing. So, Leon thinks, ok, found him, didn't even need to fight beast, weird that he was a bird but we can go now right? But Arthur feels this was too easy, and yep, now Merlin is talking about a curse, and this fellow Gwaine (...why does Arthur suddenly feel jealous) is backing it up, and now there's a ten year old staring at them while hiding behind a tree, and essentially Merlin is cursed and can't leave the island unless in bird form and according to Mordred the only way to break a Sidhe curse is with something so powerful and true even magic can't withstand it. "A Great Sacrifice" he calls it. Helpful kid, really. Arthur is determined to not leave without Merlin but now it is daylight and the Sidhe are coming and Arthur go NOW and Leon is dragging him off when a wild burst of magic transports them both to the other side of the lake right as the Sidhe arrive and Merlin is let wondering "wait was that my magic? Since when can I do that again? " The Sidhe aren't stupid, and figure out what is going on, and are going to go after Arthur when Merlin tells them to wait. Tells them he's changed his mind, he'll call Kilgharrah and give them use of his dragon and his warlock blood willingly but they can't go after Arthur. The Sidhe agree, and it is decided the ritual will take place at midnight. Gwaine and Mordred are NOT okay with this plan and Gwaine decides he has to escape to get Arthur to help. He is caught in doing so though and Mordred has to summon up his courage to escape and find Arthur. He gets to Camelot and after finding Arthur and being overwhelmed by all the people (Arthur's coronation is the next day) he tells Arthur what Merlin has done. Arthur leaves, essentially blowing off his coronation, with the help of Morgana and Gwen, who he leaves Mordred with. He also tells Morgana that if anything happens, he knows she will take care of Camelot. Arthur is halfway through the forest on horse when Kilgharrah shows up, asking Arthur why suddenly the future was going dark, and hey, apparently Arthur has a freaking DESTINY to unite Albion. Arthur would really like to be kept in the damn loop on these things. So Kilgharrah takes Arthur to the island, Gwaine helps him fight their way to the ritual, and they get there right before Merlin is about to call Kilgharrah already and be ritualistically sacrificed. So Arthur offers himself in Merlin's place. Blood of the once and future king, tempting right? Conceived of magic and the blood of kings and destiny running through his brain, that's way better than anything else. (somewhere above them, Kilgharrah is muttering "this is NOT why I told you about your destiny you idiotic prince"). Merlin is shouting that he can't DO that he has a kingdom to run, he had Camelot and his mother and Morgana and Arthur just responds that Morgana and Ygraine can take care of Camelot, but he made a promise to Merlin that he would save him and that was what he as going to do, because his life is not worth anything if he can't save Merlin.   The Sidhe are like, fine, whatever, blood of kings lets go, and prepare to ritual sacrifice. Arthur lies on the table, prepares to die, and ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. Turns out, that whole "true sacrifice thing" needed to break the curse? Apparently, Arthur giving up his kingdom and his life to save the one he loved fits the bill. Merlin's magic is back. And Merlin? yeah, he's PISSED. There are not many Sidhe who escape his wrath alive, and those that do return straight to Avalon. Merlin, Gwaine, and Arthur return to Camelot on Kilgarrah, missing Arthur's coronation by hours, but hey, they can just reschedule it tonight right? (Ygraine is not amused but is also so happy at seeing Merlin she can't really be angry. Morgana is delighted as well, and when she sees how Arthur keeps looking over at him, whispers to him smugly "I saw this in my dreams, you know.") So Arthur is crowned King, and Merlin is right there to witness it, and the first thing Arthur does is knight Gwaine. Later, Merlin and Arthur escape the festivities to a balcony for some quiet, where Merlin pledges Arthur the loyalty of his dragonclan, but Arthur says he doesn't need any armies or dragonclans, as long as Merlin stays by his side. (Kilgharrah, Morgana, Gwen, and the knights all groan loudly from where they are hiding and eavesdropping.) Arthur and Merlin then go off to unite Albion and everything is happily ever after!

[douxreviews]

Arrow - ‘Spartan’ Review

“I guess bad news wins this round.”

For once we have an episode where Daddy Issues abound and none of it involves Oliver.

In a show that focuses so intently on familial relationships particularly of the Daddy Issues variety, I was as surprised as Oliver to realize that Diggle had never mentioned his father let alone stepfather before this. It was more surprising to learn that the normally composed Diggle had grown up in such a resentment filled environment.

Diggle grew up believing that General Stewart, played by the estimable Ernie Hudson, was the coward who let his father die and then married the dead man’s wife. To add insult to injury, he then spent the rest of Diggle’s childhood trying to “toughen” both Diggle and Andy up. I may not have lived through survival training but as someone who had a literal Army Drill Instructor for a stepdad, I can attest to both the harshness and the rigidity that must have existed in the Diggle household.

That said, it’s a hard lesson to learn that one’s perspective and reality are not always the same thing. The General was not a monster. He was a man who tried to do right by the family he married into. And he cared so much that he was willing to be the villain so that John and Andy could believe their father was a hero instead of a soldier who made mistakes and got men killed.

Like the present day, the flash forwards revolved around Diggle’s family issues. After weeks of wondering what became of Diggle’s other son, we discover that J.J. has fallen far from the proverbial tree. Connor and J.J. grew up in a military household that put a premium on duty and service. In an act of rebellion, he became the leader of the Deathstroke Gang which, as rebellions go, is about as drastic as you could get. It also feels like history repeating itself. Andy and John reacted to the General in very different ways.  John was determined to prove to him how an honorable soldier should behave, while it seems Andy mastered the fighting and survival skills with none of the morality to balance it out. One can only hope that J.J. escapes his uncle’s fate.

Even Emiko was not immune to the Daddy Issues bug. Dante may not have been a blood relation, but he obviously considered her family. And based on what we’ve seen, his love for her extended to grooming Emiko to take over the Ninth Circle. However, her unwillingness to sever ties with her old life appears to be a continual bone of contention between them. And his attempt to solve the problem backfired while simultaneously achieving his goal. Instead of giving Emiko clarity and purpose, her focus shifted to avenging her mother’s murder. Oliver’s Hail Mary to save Emiko gave her that opportunity. Vengeance achieved, Emiko now seems more committed to the Ninth Circle than ever. Too bad Dante won’t be around to see it.

The one possible exception to our Daddy Issues theme is Felicity. She wants a life outside of the vigilante shadows and she thought the Archer program would help her get there. Yet when her invention is stolen and used for nefarious purposes, she wonders if she has become her father. The answer is a resounding no since she was willing to destroy her creation then risk the possibility of it being used for evil. Just for the record, how does someone as intelligent as Felicity not realize how dangerous a program like Archer could be until after the Ninth Circle got their hands on it?

And on a side note. Just when I thought my distrust of Alena was misplaced, she proves me right. She may be well-intentioned but is there any doubt that Alena is responsible for Eden Corps/Galaxy One’s eventual possession of the Archer program?

Which brings us to whatever Galaxy One’s current plan is. Despite his ability to decimate the Canaries, I was a little shocked at how easily Galaxy One’s terminator was defeated in last week’s episode. Learning he was just one of hundreds brought the threat level back up to “Oh God, oh God, we’re all going to die!” parameters. Especially since there aren’t many Canaries left and Team Arrow is not what it once was. I imagine the newly hidden explosives will play a major role in Galaxy One’s ultimate demise but at what cost?

While it makes for great storytelling, every journey into the future is another reminder of Team Arrow’s failure to make Star City a better place. J.J. is a gang leader while Mia and Connor swap stories about their messed up childhoods. The Archer program has made The Glades a police state and Star City a dystopian horror show. It certainly lends credence to the Mayor’s argument that Oliver’s return to Star City made things worse and not better.

I know I’ve spent a lot of time on character rather than plot but I must admit I was particularly impressed with how tightly written this was. It succeeded in furthering the season-long arcs both in the present and future while focusing on the development of multiple characters in the context of a singular theme. It may not have been a perfect episode (I’ll always have nits to pick) but it is certainly one of the most well-crafted episodes Arrow has produced in a while.

4 out of 5 power units

Parting Thoughts:

Oliver and Emiko’s fight was particularly brutal. And either Stephen Amell has upped his hand to hand skills or he’s grown a lot less precious about his stunt double performing.

Dr. Will Magnus is straight out of the comics. And really is the world’s foremost authority on robotic engineering.

Deathstroke territory? Did Slade go bad again? Or was J.J. just trying to piss Dad and Uncle Oliver off?

Also, Mia talked about the awkwardness of Diggle family dinners in the present tense. Does that mean John and Lyla are still around?

Structurally, I understand why Rene and Oliver haven’t talked about Emiko but considering that she means the most to the two of them, it is surprising.

Does Oliver keep “Classified” folders just lying around?

Quotes:

Felicity: “Well, I’ve hacked enough government servers in my day to know that this is the Department of Defense. Not that I do that anymore, because I work with the SCPD.”

Stewart: “Now where are you? Working with the cops? Playing vigilante? That’s no career. That’s a dead end. No offense.”

Mia: “OK, Public Enemy Number One, sit tight.”

Virgil: “Pistol beats keyboard, Darling.”

Felicity: “You must be General Stewart, AKA the stepfather that John hasn’t told his closest friends about."

Connor: “Are you ever going to let me off the hook?” Mia: “Doubtful.”

Mia: “John Diggle has one son in Knightwatch and another who’s leader of the Deathstroke Gang. That must make family dinners interesting.”

Oliver: “I’d imagine his files are really, really classified.” Felicity: “'Really, really classified' sounds really, really fun. I’m on it.”

Stewart: “I wanted you to be prepared. And it paid off. Look at you now.” Diggle: “Really? We’re captured and probably going to die in here.”

Diggle: “Go to hell.” Dante: “Hold that thought.”

Stewart: “You all right, John?” Diggle: “Why did you give him the code?” Stewart: “A thank you would be good enough.”

Alena: “It’s like we’re tracking the DNA of a DNA tracker. This is so meta.”

Felicity: “Oh my God. Oh my God. I am my dad."

Connor: “I guess there are perks to having a gang leader black sheep brother.”

Stewart: “John” Diggle: “Yes, sir.” Stewart: “Call your mother.”

Shari loves sci-fi, fantasy, supernatural, and anything with a cape.

[destructiveshade]

Lightspeed: Chapter 7

WARNING!!! THIS ONE IS A BIT DARK

Also, I accidentally deleted it so it’s above 8 now. So sorry :(

After they untied the 32 other resistance members on the squad, Terry explained the situation and their mission.

“Can you show us your super speed?” One of the women asked.

“Yes, shoot me.” Zxan replied. The woman pulled up her pistol and shot off 4 bullets in rapid succession. They didn’t see Zxan move, of course, but he did. He grabbed all four bullets and the casings before any of them could blink. He held out his hands, revealing all 8 of the bullet items in them.

“That’s amazing.” Whispered a man that looked to be only a couple years older than Zxan.

“There’s hundreds of thousands of people back on our Earth with different powers. There’s actually 234 speedsters on our Earth.” Alyss explained.

“And your power is knowledge?” Asked Terry.

“Yes. There are currently only 5 of us on Earth, including me. It’s an extremely rare gift.” She responded.

“Sorry to break this up,” Started a man who hadn’t said anything before now, “But shouldn’t we move on with our mission?”

“Alan, don’t be rude!” Terry scolded.

“Alan,” Zxan started, “is absolutely right. We need to find Ms. Curren as fast as we can.”

“Alright. Tim, Alan, Simon, and Sam. You’re with us. Everyone else, stay here and wait for our return.” Terry ordered. The five soldiers, along with Alyss, and Zxan all moved out of the base and they moved out towards the East.

They travelled for six hours before they reached the small town that was three miles outside of the city. It was nothing more than a deserted town covered in dust. About halfway through, Neo started talking to Zxan.

“Sir, I think these people are lying. I’m picking up over 100 human life vitals. here. I believe this is an ambush.” Neo said. Zxan knew there was no need to say anything because Neo could read his mind. So instead he asked Neo to tell Alyss to prepare herself for a possible fight and to pass the information that Neo had told him. Alyss looked at Zxan and nodded.

“Hey, Terry, are we almost there?” Zxan asked.

“Yeah, Just a few hundred yards to where their trail cuts off.” Terry replied.

“Zxan, in a few hundred yards, we’ll be in prime ambush conditions for them. It’ll be their perfect point of attack.” Neo said. Once again, Zxan asked him to pass the information on to Alyss, who, a few moments later, nodded at him again.

They reached the spot that Terry had referred too, and they all stopped. Then Terry, Alan, Tim, Simon, and Samantha all pointed their guns at Zxan and Alyss.

“I’m really sorry, but it has to end this way.” Terry said, then shot at Alyss. Zxan pushed all the bullets upward to shoot over her head and punched Terry so hard in the gut that he went flying.

“Open fire!” Tim shouted, and over 50 armed soldiers rose from seemingly nowhere and began firing. But Zxan and Alyss were quick. Alyss’s suit materialized over her body as soon as Terry had fired. She took off into the air, flying above the enemies, and fired plasma from guns that had attached to the tops of her wrists. Zxan on the other hand, took out the initial five soldiers before they could blink. His suit materialized and he shot plasma rounds at the people surrounding him.

“Neo, if they start to hurt Alyss, override her manual control and get her away from here.” Zxan said as he ran at a group of armed men that were firing at Alyss.

“Affirmative, sir.” Neo responded. Zxan kicked them all in the teeth, knocking them out, and then continued on his way without breaking a sweat.

“Incoming message from Alyss.” Neo said.

“Zxan, we need to stop this!” Alyss shouted into her mic.

“Alyss, calm down. You need to be calm and focus. You know what to do, okay?” He responded, then punched a couple more gunmen in the faces. He stopped running and turned on his mic.

“Listen up, fuckfaces!” He shouted, and nearly 40 soldiers turned to him. “You can stop now, and we’ll let you all live, but if you continue this, we will have no choice but to kill you.” He stated calmly.

“He won’t do it!” Terry shouted. “He’s a hero where he comes from! He’s trained to leave everyone alive!” All the yes we’re still on Zxan.

“Terry speaks the truth!” Zxan shouted. “But we aren’t on my planet.” Zxan finished, with a grin. He saw some of the younger soldiers visibly pale, but the older ones only looked more and more determined. They opened fire on him.

“It’s play time.” Zxan said. Then he raised his left arm, and a small tube popped out. The tube shot out a laser that cut through 3 men. 7 other men saw this and immediately dropped to the ground, throwing their guns. The remaining 30 men continued to fire, but Zxan was moving too fast, firing plasma out of a tube on his right wrist and cutting people down with the laser on his left. By the time the blood shed was over, there were only 17 soldiers remaining.

Zxan stared at all of them as his mic turned back on. “You need to leave, now.” He said in a voice that Alyss had not heard before. The 17 soldiers, without hesitation, ran off in several different directions. Then Alyss glided back down to the ground. When everyone was gone except for Alyss and Zxan, he let his suit dematerialize back into his wristband, and he dropped to his knees. He threw his head into his hands and started sobbing uncontrollably.

“Zxan, baby, it’s okay.” Alyss started, “You were only doing what you had to.”

“I was just protecting you.” Zxan said between sobs. “I didn’t know what else to do. I told them they could leave and not get hurt but they didn’t listen.” He kept sobbing.

“I know, Zxan, I know.” Alyss said as she knelt beside him, letting her helmet retract. “I know you were just trying to protect me. But we have to move on with our mission.”

Zxan nodded, wiped his eyes and stood up. He helped Alyss to her feet.

“Grab one of their rifles and a couple extra magazines. We need to blend in and use their tech. At least for now.” Zxan said, pointing towards one of the nearby corpses. He walked over to Alan, took his gun and his extra magazines. He reloaded the AR15 and walked over to where Alyss was kneeling next to Sam.

“I’m sorry about Sam.” Zxan said. “I know you guys got close during the trip.”

“She was only a year older than me.” Alyss said. “She didn’t deserve this.”

“I know, Alyss, but we gave her the opportunity to leave and she chose not to.” They stood there for a little bit. “Grab her gun, babe, we might need it.” Then he grabbed Sam’s extra mags and put them into a backpack he had picked up off of one of the corpses. Alyss grabbed the gun and followed behind Zxan as he walked towards thee point where the group had been leading them.

“Neo, scan this area and find out if Ms. Curren ever came through here.” Zxan said, frustrated at the idea that they lied the whole time. After a few moments, Neo responded.

“Scan complete… She was here, but I’m picking up traces of quantum particles. I think that they found whatever they were looking for, and then they left.” Neo responded.

“Thanks Neo. Can you tell me what they were looking for?”

“No, sir, I cannot. They were purposely blocking our signal.” Neo said. “The only reason I found them was because of the footprints and different traces they left behind.”

“Alyss!” Zxan shouted. Alyss came trotting over from where she was going through Terry’s log book.

“Zxan, look at this. They planned this the entire time. They knew we were coming, but it doesn’t say how.” She said, holding up the log book.

“Alyss, not right now. They were here, found whatever it is they were looking for, then left.”

“So they were here?” Alyss asked.

“Yes, they were actually here at some point. By the looks of the tracks, I’d say it wasn’t more than 12 hours ago.”

“Damn. We need to move then. Neo, can you tell us exactly which Earth they went to? We know it’s either Earth-2, or Earth-72.”

“Well, actually, I cannot tell you. Both dimensions have traces of her in them.” He responded.

“Shit. Well, we’ll have to go find her in one or the other.” Zxan said. He felt a sharp pain in his neck. He reached back and pulled a dart out. Then he turned to Alyss, and saw her fall to the ground. Then everything went black.

When he woke up, he was surrounded by children. They all looked to be between 10 and 14 years old. He studied the room he was in, taking in every single detail. He noticed a boy, who looked about 15 sitting in a large chair a few paces away, staring at him. He looked around and found Alyss, tied to a chair in the corner of the room.

“How are you alive?” The boy asked, looking at Zxan.

“What do you mean?” Zxan replied.

“You’re 17. You should have been imprisoned and executed a year ago. So I ask again, how are you alive?”

“Her and I are not from here. We came here from another dimension. We’re looking for the people who destroyed that village yesterday. We just want them and to leave in peace, that’s it.” Zxan replied.

“You are both going to be executed tomorrow afternoon in from of the entire city.” The boy said. Then added, with a wave of his hand, “Take them away.” The boys grabbed Zxan and Alyss and dragged them through a series of hallways and threw them into a room with no windows. The door bolted closed as it was shut.

Zxan ran over to Alyss, who was just regaining her consciousness. “Alyss! Alyss, are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“No, I think I’m okay. Where are we?”

“We were captured by the kids. They’ve sentenced us to execution tomorrow afternoon in front of the entire city.” Zxan said. “But we won’t be here when they come back for us, I promise you that much.” Then he looked around. There was nothing in the room except them and a door.

“Stay here, I’m gonna get us out of here.” Then he ran at the door, and passed through it. As he ran through the building, he made a mental map of all of the rooms and hallways and how they connected. He noticed that one of the rooms was quite larger than the others, so he assumed that was the 15 year-old boy’s bedroom. The one who seemed in charge. After he had the whole building mapped out, he ran back to the leader’s room and went through it. He found their stuff and took it. Everything except for the backpack. He couldn’t find their backpack.

He put his wristband on, and sat in the chair in the corner of the room. When The boy finally walked in, he sat on the edge of his bed and took off his boots. Zxan went over to the door and closed it. He locked it as the boy turned to face him.

“How did you get out?” He asked, grabbing his gun and aiming it at Zxan.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You see, I’m not an especially violent person, but I have killed many people today, so my conscience already ways pretty heavy. But I don’t imagine one more would kill me.” Zxan said in a cold, emotionless voice.

“Here’s what we’re going to do. You are going to put the gun down and tell me where I can find the backpack you confiscated from us. Then you’re going to let us go.” Zxan finished.

“And if I don’t?” The boy asked.

“Then I will kill every single person in this building, ending with you, so you can see what you’ve caused.” Zxan stated. His emotionless voice made the boy shiver with fear. He put the gun down on the bed.

“The bag we found on you is in the armory. It looked advanced, we thought it was a bomb of some kind.” The boy said.

“That’s our way home. All we want is to leave in peace, but I swear to God I will kill everyone in here. And if anyone lays a hand on the girl, I will kill you all anyway.”

“Fair enough. I’ll escort you to the armory.”

“No. You’ll draw me a map. Then you’ll have the bag delivered to the cell, where I will be waiting for it… You know what’ll happen if you try anything.” Zxan said. The boy nodded, drew a map, then handed it to Zxan.

“Thanks.” Zxan said, then he was gone. The boy stood there for a second, blinking multiple times, not believing his eyes. Then he cautiously looked under his bed and in the closet. But the boy that was only a little bit older than him, was nowhere to be seen.

Back at the cell, Zxan handed Alyss her wristband. He consoled her and they waited for the boys to show up with their backpack. But, it never happened. They waited for 20 minutes and nobody showed up.

“Alright Alyss, suit up. We’re getting the fuck out of here.” Zxan said as he stood up and pulled her to her feet. Their suits stretched over their bodies like a wave of nanobots. They equipped their weapons and got ready to tear the place to the ground. Zxan raised his left arm and the tube materialized on top of his forearm. He cut a hole in the door, then kicked it out.

“Let’s go,” He said, then walked through the hole, punching two guards, sending them flying down the hallway. An alarm started blaring and more guards rushed down the hallway towards them.

“These people never learn.” Alyss said, then fired a burst of plasma down the hallway, striking two unlucky kids in their chests, frying their armor and killing them instantly. They opened fire on Alyss and Zxan, who’s suits deflected the bullets. Zxan’s suit formed wings and thrusters and he rocketed towards the group of teenagers. He kicked the one in front so hard that his ribcage collapsed and killed him instantly, and also sent him toppling into the three kids behind him. Zxan stepped on the dead boy’s body with one foot, aimed his plasma pistol and shot the three boys in the faces.

“You don’t deserve this.” Zxan said to them. His mic wasn't on, so nobody actually heard him, but he knew he meant it and nobody would care for his words at this point. Then he turned to the group of teenagers that were staring at him and he turned his mic on and roared. They were effectively scared and ran away.

He turned around just in time to see Alyss fall to the ground under a pile teenagers with bats. He ran over to them, and ripped them off of her, pulling on some of them so fast and with so much force that he ripped some of their arms off. Then he blasted all of them with plasma.

He pulled Alyss to her feet, and patted her shoulder. She nodded back at him. They lifted off the ground and flew through the hallways, mowing down the hostiles in their way. Zxan led the way to the armory, with Alyss following close behind. When they reached the door to the armory, Zxan hovered for a moment and then dropped to the floor. He opened the door to find two teenagers pointing guns at him.

“Hey, before you do that, you should look down this hallway.” He said through his microphone so that they could hear him. They cautiously walked over to the door as Zxan moved out of the way, and they peered into the hallway. They could see the dozens upon dozens of their dead comrades littering the hallways.

“Now, you can end up like them. Or you can live. Your choice.” Zxan said through the mic. One boy dropped his gun and ran off. But the other walked up to Zxan, spit on his helmet, then shot him in the head. Zxan didn’t even flinch. The bullet ricocheted off his helmet and buried itself into the boy’s own head, spraying blood onto Zxan’s helmet.

Zxan walked over to a vault, ripped it off of it’s hinges, and peered inside. But there was nothing in there.

“Fuck!” Zxan shouted to himself. “Neo, scan and find the boy leader.”

“Scanning… Found him. He’s currently 20 miles to the Southeast of here in a jeep, and it appears that he has the Dimensional-Teleporter.” Neo responded.

“Shit.” Zxan’s helmet retracted, showing his face as Alyss entered the room. She retracted her helmet also. “The leader has the DT. He’s 20 miles Southeast of here and moving further out. Are you ready to see what these thrusters can really do?” Zxan asked, looking her in the eyes.

“Of course I am!” She exclaimed. Then her helmet materialized over her head and she began to hover in the air. Then Zxan’s helmet took shape over his head. Then he jumped, through the roof of the building into the open air. His wings formed, and the thrusters activated and he took off after the leader boy, with Alyss following close behind.

They caught up to the kid in three minutes. And when they did, Zxan shot out the engine of the old jeep with his plasma pistol. The jeep slowed to a stop, and when it did, the teen got out and fired every bullet in his pistol at Zxan. When the clip was empty, he dropped the gun and stood there. Zxan hovered for a moment, then dropped to the ground, landing with a thump. He started walking towards the boy, and his suit started retracting into his wristband.

“I told you what would happen if you tried anything!” He shouted at the boy.

“I thought you were bluffing!” He shouted back, but Zxan was already upon him. He punched the boy in the chest, sending him reeling. When he gained his senses, he tried to hit Zxan back, but he easily dodged the attacks. They he landed 10 solid blows to the boys chest, gut, knee, and face in the blink of an eye that made the boy drop to the ground.

“How are you doing this?” He shouted at Zxan, half filled with anger, the other half fear.

“You should have just let us go.” Zxan replied, then landed another 5 blows on the boys chest in rapid succession. The boy, gasping for air, was reaching out to Alyss, who was now standing on the ground, 10 feet away.

“He- help m- me.” He whispered to her. She walked up to him, knelt down, and looked him in the eyes as her helmet retracted.

“Why?” She asked him. And horror filled his eyes as the realization that he was going to die donned on him. He started shivering uncontrollably with fear, then he began sobbing. Alyss walked over to the jeep and grabbed the backpack.

“Are you ready to leave this Godforsaken place?” She asked Zxan as her suit slipped back into her wristband and she put the backpack on.

“Not quite.” He responded. Then nanobots slid into his hand, forming a needle. “This here, is a neurotoxin that will kill you in 3 hours. I’ve left the antidote in your room in the second drawer of your nightstand. If you can make it back to your base and get the antidote on time, you will survive.” He told the boy, then he stuck the needle into the boy’s neck and injected the toxin into his bloodstream. The boy struggled to his knees and began crawling back towards his base.

“Alright, let’s get out of here.” Zxan said as he selected Earth-2 on his wristband. Then a bright flash shot out of the backpack and portal appeared, then they disappeared through it.