#i shall continue to project onto these two until you guys say its annoying

[dawnthefluffyduck]

[my-creative-hell]

Music (Teen au)

Grave and Hannah sit inside her room in the twin’s house, Iden was out for practice and they had a lab assignment to work on together, being lab partners. Hannah sits on the floor with her Braille laptop resting in her lap as Grave is lounging on her bed so she could see over the shorter girls shoulders easily as she types.

The project wasn’t ridiculous, a study on atoms and their makeup, and how they formed molecules and were the building blocks of everything in pure scientific and mathematical terms. An in depth study, if you will. But, there was a lot of work to be done, even between the two of them. Hannah had been working on it for the better part of a week, preventing her from sleeping as she was striving to create the best quality of work she could, researching at ungodly hours of the night instead.

“We are the science boi’s. Gonna… save… the worl. With s c i e n c e.” Grave flaps her hands around in a happy manner as she speaks, making Hannah snort through her nose as she can feel the breeze being created by Grave.

“I mean, maybe…” Hannah half answers, focusing more on what she was currently typing out onto the computer, trying to make sure she didn’t spell anything wrong by going too fast.

“Just a couple of smort boi’s. We’re very smart. Awesome dudes.” Grave smiles as she flaps her arms more, the breeze getting stronger for Hannah as she continues to type.

“I hope we’re smart, otherwise we’re gonna fail this paper.” Hannah says blandly, focusing on her typing once more.

“Yeah… if you don’t mind me asking, are you okay? You seemed kinda off these past few days and I-I just…” Grave sighs as she continues. “I just wanna know if something’s wrong.”

“Hm?” Hannah hums out as she types, talking a second to register what Grave had asked of her. “Nothing out of the ordinary, just really wanna get this finished.” She explains nonchalantly, her voice sounding neutral and blunt.

“I know, but…” Grave shrugs and lays down on the bed more. “I don’t want you to like, pass out in the middle of the thing. Like we go to present it and you just flop onto the floor and pass out… that sounds like it hurts a little. I don’t want that to happen to you.” Grave explains as Hannah listens to her slightly concerned voice, unphased.

“I’ll be fine, Grave. It’s not like I haven’t stayed up a bunch before. I’ll survive.” Hannah reasons as she types. She had done this shit all too often, and it barely messed her up anymore, though it hadn’t been a full week for a while, so it was a bit harder.

“But… that’s not good. I’ll do the rest of it you go to sleep.” Grave offers, Hannah snorting, a small smirk on her face as she types.

“I’m not tired Grave, trust me. Besides, I’m in the zone right now, I don’t wanna break it.” She reasons, which was true. Hannah had currently entered a steady workflow, and to break it would just annoy her at this point.

“Okay…” Grave huffs as she answers, allowing Hannah to continue working on the project, typing up all of the information they had jotted down.

“Sides, its not been that long…” Hannah tries to reason, though it kind of had, and she knew that. But worrying Grave meant her pestering Hannah about sleeping, and she didn’t want that.

“I don’t feel like that’s true, but okay I guess.” Grave says in a neutral tone as she watches Hannah, who frowns as she works.

“You sound annoyed, are you annoyed?” Hannah questions, pausing her typing for a moment as she questions Grave, unsure of the tone of voice she had used.

“No! I-I’m actually really concerned. Like, you don’t seem okay at all.” Grave explains, the worry a bit more obvious to Hannah in her voice now, making her stop her typing for a moment.

“How do I not seem okay?” She questions, confused. Though she couldn’t see herself, she was sure she looked okay, considering she always looked tired as hell, no matter how much she slept.

“I-I um…” Grave fiddles with her fingers as she struggles to answer. “I just… for some reason… I-I dunno how to explain it, b-but something felt wrong-” Grave tries, though Hannah still looks confused.

“I think I’ve been the same. I mean, I haven’t been super off, have I?” Hannah questions, turning her head towards Grave now as she asks.

“Yeah, not extremely… but its still noticeable.” Grave explains, Hannah nodding as she scrunches her face up.

“Well, I guess I haven’t stayed up this long in a bit, so maybe that’s why. Also running off of coffee does fun things I guess.” Hannah explains, shrugging nonchalantly as she talks.

“I almost set a dude on fire when I drank coffee. Well it wasn’t really coffee, it was a fuck ton of espresso shots, eighteen five hour energies and something else. I’m pretty sure I ascended into the astral plane.” Grave explains her story, making Hannah snort.

“That’s pretty impressive, not gonna lie.” Hannah admits. “Don’t think I’m quite there yet, just using it to stay alert and shit.” She explains, turning away from Grave again as she prepares to resume her typing.

“Makes sense, but if I cant get you to sleep now… can you like at l e a s t take a nap after you work for a few more minutes?” Grave asks Hannah, staring at her with puppy eyes she knew she couldn’t see. “Please? I can take over!” Hannah lets out a deflated sounding sigh in response.

“Grave… look, I’m fine. I really just wanna get this done so I can stop stressing about it.” Hannah reasons as she starts typing again.

“You don’t have to stress about it! I said I can do the rest.” Grave says as she pouts, crossing her arms as she watches Hannah rub her hands over her face.

“C’mon Grave, we haven’t got that much left, its fine…” Hannah almost groans out, looking more tired as she gets frustrated.

“It doesn’t matter, my fresh Cicada Honda civic broski! You need to r e s t. if not now, you rest the second you finish or else I’m gonna put impossible to thaw turkeys in your closet.” Grave threatens, making Hannah laugh, though it sounds very off.

“Sure, Grave. It’ll either be don’t today or tomorrow, depending on any new information…” Hannah explains as she works.

“T o m o r r o w??” Grave sighs, Hannah not saying anything in response, only nodding her head as she types. “Hhhhh.” Grave covers her face as she frowns. “Bad. This is b a d.” She complains.

“It’s fine, it could be worse.” Hannah reasons out, voice back to being blunt and uncaring.

“That doesn’t make it okay! Just because it can be so much worse doesn’t make the current situation alright.” Grave argues as she frowns down at Hannah, who shrugs.

“It makes it slightly more acceptable to me.” She deadpans. Grave makes a sound of concern in response, flailing her arms around her.

“Are you flapping? You sound like you are…” Hannah observes as she works, listening to Grave behind her.

“Yeah, but its not happy flapps!! Its c o n c e r n.” Grave emphasises as she speaks.

“I gathered. What are you so concerned about?” Hannah questions, raising an eyebrow as she works, though she knows Grave isn’t currently looking at her face.

“Sleeb!!!! You!!!! I’m concerned about you!!!!” Grave exclaims, making Hannah laugh again, sounding broken.

“Grave, I’ll sleep when it’s done. Until then I just have to get through, and I’ll be fine.” Hannah explains as she types. Grave frowns in response.

“But I can do the rest of it!!! I know what to write!!!” She exclaims in argument, Hannah sighing.

“Its fine Grave, I’m already doing it, and you’ve already helped a lot. You can’t force me to sleep, so just let me do what I’m doing.” Hannah curtly responds, not moving from typing on her laptop.

“Ugh… fine.” Grave pouts as she answers, almost making Hannah smile.

“Thanks…” Hannah trails off as she works, trying to get absorbed into the flow once again so she had a chance of finishing the work faster.

“…wanna listen to music?” Grave offers, making Hannah pause for a second before she continues typing.

“Music?” Hannah questions as she works, not quite sure how to respond. She liked music, but she never tended to listen to it while she worked, since it removed one of her remaining senses.

“Yeah, m u s i c.” Grave insists, Hannah thinking it over.

“I don’t normally listen to anything while I work, sides, don’t you wanna talk?” She questions as she types, cocking her head as she talks.

“God, you sound like such a mum.” Grave chuckles.

“How rude, show some respect.” Hannah jokes lightly as she works, a small smirk on her face.

“Oh, I’m t e r r i b l y sorry, mother. How shall you e v e r forgive me?” Grave puts on a snobby rich guy voice as she talks, making Hannah snort.

“Alright, no need to be an ass.” She smirks as she jokes around, making Grave laugh.

“Sorry, I had to do my best ‘rich asshole’ impression or else it would simply be a bit b l e h.” Grave explains, making Hannah smile slightly.

“That’s fair enough, it was pretty good.” Hannah admits with a smile as she listens to Grave.

“Thank you, I try my best!” Grave says in a proud voice.

“That doesn’t surprise me…” Hannah laughs, sounding slightly happier than before.

“I’m glad it doesn’t!” Grave flaps her arms around a bit. “Heyyy Hannah, guess what?” Grave asks in a pitched voice.

“What, Grave?” Hannah asks in a neutral voice as she works. She had a knack for always sounding annoyed, but Grave knew her well enough to know she just sounded like that.

“You!!! Are!!! Rad!!! Radder than ten whole cakes!!!!!” Grave exclaims, making Hannah smirk.

“That’s a lot of cake. You’re pretty rad yourself.” Hannah admits as she focuses on typing.

“I am?” Grave questions, surprised, making Hannah snort lightly.

“Yeah, least I think so.” She shrugs, though a small smile plays at her lips as she pauses in her work to compliment Grave.

“Thank!!! You!!!” Grave flaps her arms around more and starts tapping her feet onto the bed in happiness.

“Oh my, calm down, you’re gonna smack me. But you’re welcome.” Hannah smiles as she hears the noises coming from Grave in her excitement and happiness. Grave smiles largely as she stops her flapping.

“Okay, sorry. But really, would you like a m u s i c? its not rude cuz I’ll be listening to some music too!” Grave reassures, Hannah pausing.

“You sure?” She questions, tilting her head towards Grave as she asks.

“Positive.” Grave assures Hannah firmly, making her smirk.

“Okay then, I’ll accept some music.” Hannah yields, her voice lighter and jokier as she speaks. Grave carefully hands her the headphones.

“Happy borthmas, hav music maker.” Grave says in a jovial voice, making Hannah snicker.

“Thanks, you weirdo.” Hannah jokes as she takes the headphones. She puts them on, and if she could have said something, she would. Her brain instantly felt fuzzy and wrong, like it was being shut off by something, even though the headphones didn’t seem to be doing anything yet. It didn’t take more than a few seconds for her mind to completely shut off, Hannah collapsing and falling sideways onto the floor of her room, her laptop being knocked off of her as she falls. It takes Grave a few seconds to process what just happened before she reacts.

“fuCK-” She panics as Hannah lays unconscious on the floor. Grave moves quickly, getting down beside Hannah, quickly pressing her fingers against her neck to check for a pulse, making sure Hannah was still alive. She manages to find one, and it feels normal as it pulses against Grave’s fingers.

“Good. Nice. That’s… good… hh shit.” Grave panics as she hovers over Hannah on the floor. Grave pulls out her phone, calling Iden, waiting in a panic for him to answer.

“Grave? You okay?” The voice of Iden floods through the phone as he answers, sounding confused, with an edge of concern.

“I’m fine, but we’ve run into a minor problem-” Grave admits, Iden instantly growing more concerned.

“Problem? Whats happened?” Iden asks, the concern more evident in his voice as he talks on the phone, wandering farther away from the practice he was participating in.

“Hannah passed out.” Grave says simply, Iden making a strangled noise on the other end.

“She what?!” He exclaims worriedly, voice strained and coarse with immediate stress.

“Yeah, I um… I-I don’t know why. But she’s breathing okay-” Grave reassures, a small sigh of relief coming from Iden.

“Okay, at least she’s breathing.” Iden reassures himself, thinking for a moment. “Did she do anything weird?” He questions in a serious voice.

“No. She just pa-o h.” Grave realises something, mentally hitting herself.

“Oh? Whats oh?” Iden asks, worry spiking again as he thinks over the many possibilities.

“The headphones. I gave her headphones and she passed out.” Grave explains, only confusing and worrying Iden more.

“Headphones?” He questions, sounding utterly lost with the situation that was playing out over the phone.

“Yeah, headphones…” Grave sighs. “Okay, could you come up here?” Grave asks, listening as Iden immediately starts moving.

“Yeah, course I can. Give me like ten minutes, okay?” He asks, already signalling to his teammates that he had to leave and leave now.

“Okay!” Grave exclaims gently, listening to Iden shift around.

“I’ll be there in ten, make sure she’s alright…” Iden hangs up the phone, presumably getting ready to leave and picking up his gear for the walk back to the twins house, though he would likely run it.

“Okay…” Grave sits in silence besides Hannah, who looks very tired now that she could see her properly.

“It’s good that you’re finally sleeping…” Grave smiles a bit as she looks at Hannah, who looked more peaceful than she had ever really seen her as a teen.

Grave gently picks Hannah up, the smaller teen not weighing a ridiculous amount, placing her carefully on the bed and pulling the headphones off of her head as she does so. Grave sits with Hannah until she hears the downstairs door unlock, indicating Iden had returned to the house.

“Grave?” He calls out from downstairs, sounding slightly concerned as he puts his stuff down in the living room, throwing it onto the sofa.

“Yeah. I’m… here.” Grave steps out of the room, Iden coming up the stairs towards her, looking concerned.

“Okay, this is fine, is she okay?” He questions as he reaches Grave.

“Yeah! She sleebin.” Grave elaborates, making Iden huff as he pinches his nose.

“My question is why and how, because I know she didn’t do it on her own…” Iden explains as he looks at Grave, knowing Hannah was way too stubborn to be convinced to sleep.

“The h e a d p h o n e s.” Grave insists as she gestures towards them where they lay in the room.

“You managed to make a pair of headphones that do that?” Iden questions, looking exasperated.

“…” Grave looks down at her feet and mutters the next words. “Yeah.” She admits, Iden frowning.

“I’m going to assume you didn’t mean to do this, otherwise you are in deep shit.” He explains in a slightly stern voice, looking down at Grave, though concern still tugged at his features.

“Yeah, I gave her the wrong ones…” Grave admits. Iden sighs, running his hands over his face in a tired manner.

“This isn’t good, you know that right?” He questions, looking into the room at his twin, his expression twisted and worried.

“Yeah, I-I know… I wouldn’t have said anything if it was alright…” Grave agrees, watching as Iden walks into the room, sitting on the floor.

“She’s gonna freak out… shit.” Iden swears, something he never did. He left all of that to his twin, not liking the way it sounded when he said it.

“Sorry.” Grave takes the laptop off of the floor, making sure it still worked and placing it on her lap as soon as she’s sure it does.

“It’s not your fault, I doubt she even told you enough to know why she’s gonna freak out, did she?” Iden questions, huffing as he puts his head in his hands on the floor, exhausted.

“She…” Grave shakes her head. “She didn’t.” She admit, Iden sighing and leaning his head further into his hands.

“Of course she didn’t… so you cant even know the reality of the situation, that’s not fair.” He explains, sounding frustrated and exasperated. He didn’t blame Hannah, nor was he mad at her, but Grave couldn’t have known what was so wrong about this entire thing, and that wasn’t fair to anyone.

“I mean, if she didn’t tell me that probably means she didn’t want me to know, so that’s fine. I don’t wanna know something she didn’t want me to… if that makes sense.” Grave shrugs.

“She was planning on mentioning it, she spoke to me about it, asked it I was okay with it. I guess she hadn’t figured out when to do it. But she did want you to know.” Iden explains gently, raising his head to look at Grave with a more serious expression.

“Oh…” Grave mumbles as she looks down at the keyboard of the laptop. “Well I can wait until she wakes up for that.” She reasons, Iden smiling sadly.

“I wouldn’t expect her to want to talk to you…” He explains in a gentle voice, not wanting to make Grave upset, but needing her to know the truth.

“I…” Grave nods in acceptance. “Good point.” She admits, Iden coming to sit next to her.

“Unfortunately…” He agrees sadly, a small smile pressed onto his face.

“It’s understandable though, so I’m not really disappointed. Just wish I didn’t ask if she wanted some music…” Grave trails off, Iden looking concerned and worried for her.

“You didn’t mean to, and you couldn’t have known. But the unfortunate reality is you, accident or no, put a traumatised person into a state of complete vulnerability they’re afraid of, against their will.” Iden explains gently, keeping his voice low and soft.

Grave looks at him, looking like she wanted to say something, but had no idea of what she could even say or how she could respond to what Iden had just told her, her face reading this loud and clear, making Iden smile sadly, giving her a sideways hug.

“I know, it’s harsh… I don’t want to upset you, that’s the least of my intentions. But, we’ve had a rough life, and we’re both still pretty messed up. Hannah might just need some time…” Iden explains in a gentle and soft voice as he hugs Grave.

“You didn’t upset me, Iden. I just had no idea what to say.” Grave chuckles and hugs Iden back. “But that’s understandable… sorry life was an ass to you.”

“It’s okay, we got out this year, now it’s just about dealing with it…” Iden smiles gently.

“I’m glad you got out…” Grave tightens her hug, making Iden smile.

“We were lucky the owner of this house knew us and allowed us to rent off the books.” Iden explains as he smiles, his gratitude evident in his voice.

“That’s good!! Glad they weren’t a shart-face.” Grave muses, making Iden laugh.

“Me too…” He agrees as he hugs the smaller girl close to him, watching as Grave finishes the work Hannah had been doing for her so she wouldn’t have to stress when she woke up in about eight hours.

 The next day when Grave goes to school and heads into their shared lab class, she can see Hannah sitting at her normal desk with her laptop in front of her as normal, though something was different. Hannah normally wore ear buds to listen to her recorded lessons, allowing her to make notes at her own pace, since she couldn’t see what was written on the board in front of her. But normally, she would only put in one ear bud in case Grave wanted to chat, though today both of them were in, blocking out the world around Hannah.

Grave sighs gently, sitting down at her own desk beside Hannah. She wants desperately to speak to the other girl, to apologise to her, but she knew it probably wouldn’t end well, so she stay silent as Hannah registers her sitting down, never turning away from typing on her laptop as she plays through one of her lessons, still looking tired, worn out and stressed. Grave frowns, but looks at the board as the lesson starts, paying attention to the words the teacher was saying.

Grave watches silently throughout the day as Hannah avoids her, not speaking a word to anyone, not even the teachers, simply completing her work and leaving the lessons, eating alone and eventually, heading home alone, never interacting with Grave. And Grave let her. She didn’t want to upset Hannah anymore than had already been done, so she left her alone, despite how much she didn’t want to.

The next day, Hannah comes in the same way, alone and silent. She looked more tired and worn out, not engaging with anyone at all, simply putting her ear buds in and working in silence, refusing to speak at this point. Grave continues as she had the day before, feeling worse about the situation as she watches Hannah avoid almost everyone, staying by herself all day, even to eat. She left school alone again, not even saying goodbye of acknowledging Grave.

The third day, Hannah looks a little worse. She’s sitting in class as normal when Grave walks in and takes her seat next to her, her ear buds in her ears, though she handy turned them on yet, unbeknownst to her. The class was noisy as they waited on the teacher, and it was getting to Hannah, the tiredness she felt not helping, clawing at the inside of her brain and making it feel itchy and wrong. Everything that was being said melted inside her brain, being turned into pointless white noise that fogged her thoughts, and made her panic, as it effectively blocked off the most useful sense she had left. After a couple of minutes, Hannah felt like she would either explode or cry if she didn’t move, and she wasn’t about to let everyone see that. Without speaking a word, she pushes her chair out from her desk, leaving the room silently. Grave follows her out of the room, watching as she goes into the single disabled toilet, since she never used the normal toilets, finding them way too cluttered and annoying in her blindness, shutting and locking the door behind her.

“Um… look, I-I came to apologize. You don’t have to respond, that’s… that’s fine. I didn’t mean to put you to sleep. I-I know you don’t like being vulnerable around other people and… sorry.” Grave apologises as she stands outside the door of the stall. Hannah doesn’t respond, making Grave think at first that she doesn’t want to answer, but after a few seconds, she can hear the panicked breathing coming from inside the stall, that was preventing Hannah from talking to her.

“Hannah?” Grave says softly as she lightly knocks on the door of the stall. Hannah doesn’t answer using words, but a whimper like whine can be heard through the door.

“Can…” Grave hesitates before continuing. “C-Can you open the door please?” Grave asks, listening for Hannah behind the door. There’s a long pause, but eventually Grave can hear shifting in the larger stall, the lock beginning to shake as Hannah unlocks the door so Grave can come in.

“Thank you.” Grave says in a smaller voice as she gently pushes open the door to the stall. Hannah has pushed herself against the wall, shaking, and her head on her knees, not allowing Grave to see her face with her hands covering her ears due to over stimulation.

Grave, not knowing what to do or say, sits close to Hannah in silence. Hannah’s ears are still ringing and noises don’t seem to be picked up as well as they should, making the world she knew blurred and distorted. The hands on her head automatically start to go at her skin a little, her cut down nails scratching at her skin to create a sensation to distract from what was going on in her head.

Grave gently pulls Hannah’s hands away from her head to prevent her form hurting herself, holding onto them as Hannah resists slightly, sounding panicked. Grave keeps her grip gentle and kind, trying not to stress her out even more, but knowing she cant allow her to potentially injure herself.

“Um… would you like… head touchies?” Grave asks in a soft voice, watching as Hannah leans back off of her knee’s slightly, allowing Grave to see her tear stained and tired face, giving her a very small nod to indicate she was okay with that.

Grave gently pushes their foreheads together, Hannah accepting the gentle touch as she continues to shake a little, trying to steady her breathing. After a minute, Hannah proceeds to slump into Grave, falling gently on her shoulder. Grave gently hugs Hannah, feeling slightly worried at how Hannah had fallen onto her, Hannah leaning into Grave, not talking.

“Cool, you aren’t dead.” Grave mutters gently, the worry being thrown from her mind as she smiles slightly. Hannah’s arms gently snake around Grave as she presses her face into Grave’s shoulder as she gently shakes, clinging onto Grave in a way Hannah had never done before. This makes Grave’s smile get bigger, her feet beginning to tap gently on the floor as Hannah starts to calm down, her shaking decreasing and her hearing coming back to her as she relaxes into the hug, shuffling closer to Grave, who feels happy that she’s starting to feel better.

“Sorry for dragging you in here…” Hannah says in a small voice as she clings to Grave, felling well enough to speak again, though it’s slightly shaky.

“You didn’t drag me in here, silly… and its fine.” Grave reassures Hannah as she gently hugs her.

“Sorry for ignoring you…” Hannah apologises, sounding more genuinely upset than Grave had ever heard her, the façade of the normal, neutral Hannah completely off now.

“It’s understandable… I’m just glad you’re okay now…” Grave reassures, making Hannah feel a little better.

“I’m fucking tired though…” Hannah jokes, though she does sound it, her voice low and quiet.

“That’s also understandable, your day kinda s u c k e d.” Grave reasons.

“Little bit…” Hannah smiles slightly as she pulls away from Grave, wiping her face. “Okay, maybe a lot…” She admits, Grave nodding.

“Yeah… but at least its kinda better now, right?” She reasons, Hannah smiling again.

“Yeah, little bit…” She admits, though she still looks exhausted.

“Good! Do you uh… do you wanna leave? We can just say that you went to like the hospital or something.” Grave offers, Hannah sighing.

“Honestly, yeah, I’m not gonna get anything done anyway, and I could use some sleep I think…” Hannah admits, a small smirk on her face.

“F u c k y e a h, close them eyeballs and enter your free trial of no brain work-” Grave jokes, making Hannah laugh genuinely.

“You’re such a weirdo.” She comments in a lighter voice as she smiles.

“I know, but so are you. Just two weirdo’s sittin in a room of rest.” Grave replies in a similar jokey fashion, making Hannah grin gently as she allows Grave to help her up off of the floor. A quick call to Iden ensured he would pick up their bags after class, as well as Hannah’s laptop, so they could walk back to the twins home uninterrupted to get some rest and ignore their responsibilities for one day.

[coldtomyflash]

I can't stop thinking about the soulmates AU you posted! I really love the premise, and Barry's "promise to dump my body somewhere else" pulled at my heartstrings too. Except now I'm wondering how this would have played out without the soulmark conveniently (well, or inconveniently, depending on the perspective) the encounter, because Len already seemed somewhat reluctant about killing Barry before that. Ack, why is this so intriguing?!

I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s been thinking of it, to be honest. I enjoyed filling that prompt more than I expected.

And it’s a neat question, what would happen were it not for the Deux Ex Machina of them Bonding…. 

Let’s copy/paste and edit the scene to find out, shall we?

“CSIs aren’t supposed to have ‘hunches’ Barry. Leave it for the detectives, please.” Joe had been so exasperated when Barry wouldn’t stop badgering him over it. He’d promised to look into it but not until after he finished interviewing all his other leads and Barry was sure he was right. He had to be.

A chemical under the nails for a victim at one of the crime scenes had been traced back to an out of state refinery and Joe was waiting on information the firm promised to send them, but Barry had discovered that another person of interest in the case having an old connection to this distribution facility, which used to manufacture the chemical before the company had gone belly up under mysterious circumstances two years ago right after Luthor Industries had purchased it.

Joe thought the only reason Barry was interested was because he’d investigated the company before for his blog, because when it had gone under there were allegations on the internet of the company experimenting with chemicals on gene splicing and the internet ran with it and made it seem like they were trying to create a chimera or something. But so what if Barry thought there was something off about the company in general? Just because Barry believed in the impossible didn’t mean that the very plausible couldn’t also have happened here, and recently.

Barry was sure there was a connection to Joe’s case. And all he had to do was head to the abandoned building, poke around, and see if he could find any sources of the chemical still around. That should be enough to get the ball rolling, anyway, and bring some justice to the victims.

The taxi driver who drove him here clearly thought Barry was nuts for getting out a car in such a creepy place, but he just smiled and tipped well and hoisted his CSI kit higher on his shoulder before heading to a side door. Bingo. He saw the rusty old chain and lock were cut smooth, clearly by bolt cutters. He snapped a photo, latex gloves already on, and headed inside.

The door creaked loud and heavy on its hinges in the dark space and a sense of foreboding finally started to creep up on Barry. He pulled out his flashlight and clicked it on, walking in. It opened up to a warehouse, aisles and boxes, all in disuse. He cast the flashlight around, footsteps reverberating off the metal grated catwalk he’d walked in on, just a few feet above the floor of the warehouse, the sounds echoing around the space.

He swallowed, feeling like he was being watched. He told himself it was his imagination, or bats. A place like this was bound to have bats, and probably mice and other rodents. As if on cue, a scurrying noise shot his heartbeat into overdrive and he flashed his light onto an angry looking rat that sped away from the light, hissing.

Barry let out a breath and clutched the railing, almost giggled nervously, trying to calm himself down, thinking about solving the case with rodents. What a silly –

A heavy sound and echoing metal sound landed right behind him and he didn’t even get a chance to turn before he heard the tell tale click of a gun’s hammer and a “don’t move, kiddo. If you know what’s good for you.”

[ … ]

Len was giving a rundown of the plan to Rutenberg, Calis, and Thomspon when they all heard it - the door to the warehouse creaked open with a squeal on its rusted hinges, a loud bang as it hit the opposing wall and a quiet, surprised swear at the sound. The voice sounded young and a second later there was a flashlight waving around in the distance.

Len tensed. His men caught his eye and he raised a finger to his lips, sliding his feet slow and careful on the platform they were on, more or less overlooking the warehouse, around the wall and equipment that blocked their little lights from view of this intruder. A glance around told him it was just the one guy, carrying some bag. Len and his guys were a storey above him still and it was too dark to get a great view, but if he had to guess, he’d say the kid was too young to be a cop.

Which meant he was a total mystery, really. Len didn’t like mysteries, not until he’d solved them.

He nodded to Rutenberg, who had a question in his eyes and dragged a finger across his throat. Len shook his head and pointed at their little table. Bring him here, don’t kill him yet.

The man nodded, got it, and slipped down between the rails on the catwalk, moving like a spider. The kid freaked himself out with a rat - what an amateur - and it was all the opportunity Rutenberg needed to get him.

Len had to admit some surprise when the kid, when faced with a gun at the back of his head, actually tried to run. Wow. That took guts. Or stupidity. Len could almost appreciate it. But Rutenberg clocked him on the head and he dropped, groaning, and Calis went to help. They grabbed the kid’s bag and hauled him up. Len watched him struggle, curiosity mounting, but they twisted his arm and dragged him up the stairs all the same.

“Little shit - calm the fuck down, would’ya?” Rutenberg was complaining, trying to keep the kid’s feet on the ground

Calis was laughing at him even as he helped, voice deep. “He’s got spirit, this one.”

“Well well,” Len said, voice carrying. “What have we here?”

They threw the kid down in the empty space of their makeshift ‘workshop’ and he caught himself on his hands and his knees, breathing heavy, probably terrified. Thompson was at Len’s side and the other two opposite, blocking the stairs. There was no exit. Len pulled out his gun and tapped it idly against his own thigh, stepping forward.

“And just who might you be?” he drawled.

The kid looked up at him and caught sight of the gun, level with his eye. He yelped and shifted back, landing on his ass with his arms behind him and Len stepped hard on his ankle, twisting it down. The other man hissed in pain and glanced behind him, realizing he was trapped.

Calis kicked the kid’s bag over and he watched it slide up to Len’s feet, looking halfway sick.

“What’s in here?”

“You’re the ones responsible for the midtown murders,” the kid said as a complete nonsequitur. Len had… no idea what he was talking about, but it made him suspicious nonetheless.

“Who are are you?” he snapped.

He swallowed, glancing behind him again. Rutenberg made sure he was standing right in front of the stairwell, not that the kid was going anywhere with Len’s gun ready, boot still on his ankle.

“I’m not leaving, am I?”

“You catch on quick,” Len didn’t bother sugarcoating it.

“Why am I even still alive?”

“Because I’m curious what got you here in the first place.”

He nodded, and Len had to hand it to the kid, he had a stiff upper lip. He looked like he was fighting back the panic, it was all over his face, but the fact that he was succeeding at fighting it back, that was better than most.

“If I tell you…”

Len was prepared to put on a less frightening smile and make some believable promise about letting him go. Turns out, he didn’t need to.

“If I tell you, will you promise to dump my body somewhere else?”

That got his attention. His eyebrows drew together and he tilted his head, waiting.

“I’m - my foster father’s a detective on this case. He’s the only one who knows I’m here. If he doesn’t hear back from me or if I don’t show up at work tomorrow… he’s the one who’s going to come looking and I don’t–” his voice cracked, finally, and he held up his arm to his mouth, taking a second to gather himself before wiping his tears on his sleeve. “I don’t want him to be the one who has to find my body.”

Well. That almost pulled on Len’s non-existent heartstrings. It would make his life more difficult, but already he was getting more information than he’d bargained for. “That’s… fair,” he drawled, stepping off the guy’s ankle. “I’ll leave you in the river.”

He choked out a laugh, the type of skewed sense of humor Len could appreciate. “Thanks, I guess.”

Len’s crew chuckled too, already relaxing a little. It was a strange encounter. Killing the kid was gonna be annoying at this rate. The kid who was sitting up better now, knees drawn in closer though he was still on his ass. He was still trying to keep some measure of calm, so Len kneeled down to a squat, gun loosely craddled in his hand.

“What’s your name, kid?”

“Barry. Allen.”

“Well, Barry, why don’t you tell me what got you here?” He was curious about that.

“I was following a lead.” Len nodded for him to continue and he took another breath, getting calmer with something to focus on. “There’s been a series of murders, sex workers mostly, and one of the victims had a chemical under her nails that can be traced somewhere out of state… or to here. No one wanted to follow this lead without exhausting other options so… I did.”

There were pieces missing here. Len narrowed his eyes. “And why are you investigating? Senior project? Wanna follow in your dear old dad’s footsteps?”

“What - you mean - oh Joe? No that’s - I’m a CSI, not a college student.”

He tensed and could feel his crew do the same. This kid was CCPD?

“How old are you?”

It wasn’t pertinent, but it somehow felt pertinent.

“24?” He moved suddenly, hand reaching up and Len had the gun in his face in and instant and he stopped even breathing for a second. “I was just - “ he croaked out, “just reaching for my laminate.”

Len used the gun to knock his hand aside and shifted till he was on one knee, right in the guy’s space so he could reach for where he saw the string of a lanyard at the kid (the man’s) neck with his other hand. He brushed aside the collar of his shirt, exposing his neck. The guy, Barry, stayed stock still, like a properly spooked animal, fight flight and freeze. Len’s fingers and thumb grazed the skin of his neck when he reached to tug at it and his skin was warm and smooth, the touch enough to stir something deep inside him. 

His lips twitched into an almost smirk, unconsciously indulging the train of thought for a half second. Dark imaginings, the ancient instincts of a predator with a lean neck arched and on display, prey in his grasp when Len was already so close, right between his knees. A racing heartbeat beneath his fingers. It would be easy, too easy, to take Barry by that neck and press him down against the floor here, take him and mark him and make him beg –

Barry flinched and Len pulled wrenched himself out of the sudden fantasy fast and hard, tensing his jaw, shoving aside the unwelcome mental imagery. 

The laminate had all the right credentials - Assistant CSI, downtown precinct, not an easy job to wrangle - and a photo of Barry’s grinning face, even younger than he was now. The contrast between the old photo and his current state helped him look closer to the 24 he actually was. Some people would always have a bit of a baby face, but around the eyes, Barry didn’t look all that younger after all. 

Len flicked the plastic back against his chest and shifted his weight to stand, knees reminding him why he didn’t squat all that often or for that long.

“So tell me, Barry,” he drawled, looking down at the man again, “the lead that brought you here - this chemical - what are the chances your hunch was right?”

Barry swallowed and Len willed his eyes not to track his Adam’s apple, collar of his shirt still askew. Except the look he gave Len was a little disbelieving. “I’d say… 100 percent?” He chanced a look behind him at Len’s crew then back at Len. 

He pursed his lips. “Boys, any of you kill a working gal recently?”

They shook their heads, Calis the most evenly. “More class than that, Snart. Even this one,” he pointed his thumb to Rutenberg, an inside joke and Len’s lips quirked. He glanced at Thompson, who shrugged.

“Hookers never done me wrong, boss.”

Len nodded. He tended to know what his men were up to, but even so, none of them looked nervous enough to be lying, no tells, no sudden shifts. A good liar could get away with it, but he’d be surprised if this apparent serial killer was one of his guys anyway. Which left the question.

“Who’s been here besides us?” Len mused. Barry’s attention snapped back to him. 

“If it’s really not you… “ He stopped talking and looked down.

“What is it?”

He seemed to be debating with himself and it was enough for Len to step closer to him again, enough to make him tilt his gun under the man’s chin, and he told himself he wasn’t doing it out of misplaced spite just to see Barry’s eyes widen like saucers.

Just to see his resolve harden despite the weapon. Had to hand it to him, he was a tough son of bitch, whoever he was.

“You’re in trouble,” Barry rasped.

“’N how’s that?” 

He swallowed again and Len relaxed the gun, refusing to let himself feel a little disappointed at the loss of an excuse to touch Barry, if only with his weapon. 

“Well?” he prompted, expecting an answer.

“The chemical - if it’s residual in the dirt here, which I think it might be, i’ts on your boots, might be in your clothes. If anyone knows you’ve been around here, you’re going to be the prime suspects.”

Len glanced at his men, all of them shifting uneasily. 

“Keep your cool, boys. Barry - these murders, how many’ve there been?”

He looked mulish, frowning a little, glancing at the gun at Len’s side then back up at him with some resolve. “Does it even matter? You’re going to kill me.”

“And dump your body in the river, yes.”

His resolve hardened. Len tried not to be intrigued.

“I’ve already told you enough.”

Len’s eyes narrowed. “I intend for you to tell me everything.”

Barry was silent, glaring. Len considered revoking his agreement to play nice with the corpse, debating if he was crass enough to promise to leave it ugly for the detective who might come looking.

“Snart?” Thompson broke the staring contest they devolved into and Len’s eyes snapped to him, angry. He’d almost been enjoyed that stalemate.

“What?”

Thomspon was standing with Rutenberg and Calis now at the stairs.

“Kid said a detective was gonna come look, right? Tonight sometime?”

Right. Thompson had the same train of thought but it went to a different station. They might not want to hang around for long.

“Why don’t you boys pack the place up? I’m gonna take Barry here for a walk by the riverside.”

Rutenberg and Thompson looked relieved, muttering their thanks and moving to pack of their gear. Calis looked calculating.

“He’s seen all our faces, Snart.”

Len tensed. He’d already moved to Barry’s side, ready to haul him up, but Calis’s words stopped him short and darkened his expression.

“You wanna kill him, be my guest.” He waved a hand at Barry, who flinched again, but Calis didn’t move. “Didn’t think so. I’ll decide what we do with our little CSI problem. Now–”

He shifted his attention back onto Barry, tempted to dig his fingers into all that hair and use it to haul him to his feet. Instead, he grabbed his arm and hauled him onto his feet, threw him against a cabinet. Barry caught himself against it and Len didn’t give him a chance to turn.

“Hands behind your back.”

With a shudder, Barry complied. He was tall, Len hadn’t realized quite how tall, long limbs like a gazelle. Len stowed his gun away and accepted the zip ties Calis handed him off the table without needing to be asked. He made sure to move up Barry’s sleeves to zip tie his wrists without them in the way, feeling the warm skin again, his pulse under the skin going a mile a minute.

He should probably be concerned about how tempted to was to find any excuse to touch this man, even if it was to hurt him, but it had been a long time since anyone as interesting as him walked into Len’s world. It was a shame that he should kill the kid, and probably would.

“C’mon.” He dragged Barry forward by the arm, grabbing up his bag as he headed for the stairs. “Let’s go for a stroll, Barry.”

.

.

.

[Y’all are making me want to write this]

[liannyeong]

Hate That I Like You

Summary: Just two people who like each other.

Word count: 1643

Pairing: Jaebum X OC

Warning(s): just two idiots who like each other, oh and Jackson being annoying to Jaebum but it’s okay! there’s no conflicts around! :D

A/N: this fic was written a long back, and i forgot about it until i rummaged through my ideas and found this lol. so yeah. anyway, i wanted to post more fics but... my brain just ain’t working well with me so idk. i’ll try to update as much as i can.

"You're not avoiding me, right?" he confronts her when he spots her outside of her lecture hall.

She blinks. She can't say the truth, can she? She can't say why yes, I have been avoiding you for a week because I can't stand being hurt no matter how much she wants to. But then again, she can't confess her feelings either, since she fears being rejected and being awkward with him. So she just frowns as she says, "Why would I?" She forces a reassuring smile before adding, "I've been too busy these days. I've got projects to do and there's a lot of work for me to catch up. Besides, I have a part time job to handle too." She smiles yet again, "I think you're just overthinking."

"Am I?" Jaebum says lowly, his words rather mumbled. His eyebrows are slightly narrowed together, as he accuses, "Because clearly, you saw me just now but you acted like you didn't."

"What are you talking about? I saw you? When?"

"While you were walking to your lecture!"

"I did?" she feigns her surprise, her hand goes to her chin, her fingers rubbing her jaw as if trying to recall the earlier incident. Which, of course, she remembers clearly, but she pretends she doesn't remember. Anyway, it's not that she's lying. It's true that she didn't see him. On the first glance, that is. She was too preoccupied with her lecture notes, memorizing facts and chanting them out like a mantra. Her brain didn't register the male as quick as it always did. She did notice a tall auburn haired male on the far end of the corridor, and she did glance at that direction for a moment before reverting back to her notes. Only when her mind started wheeling at that memory did she look up once again to see Jaebum. By then, he had already disappeared into another corridor. "Sorry then. I guess I didn't notice you."

Jaebum huffs. "Apology accepted. But clearly you-"

"Jaebum!" Jackson comes and slings an arm around his shoulder. "I'm sorry I'm late- Oh." Upon setting his eyes on her, Jackson's arm slides down to his side and for some reason that she can't comprehend, Jaebum's all flustered red. He's not looking at Jackson at all, as if afraid that Jackson would do something to him. She's confused, but she brushes away any thoughts in her head. She smiles at Jackson as an acknowledgment of his presence.

"Seems like you guys should hurry along now!" she says. "We can talk another time," she adds, but at her eyes were on Jaebum only as she said so.

Jackson is already bidding goodbye and pulling Jaebum by the arm, but Jaebum's feet seems stuck to the ground. "You're not going to avoid me, right?" Jaebum asks, resisting Jackson's attempts in pulling him. Jaebum isn't fazed, his eyes solely on the female, waiting for her answer. She shakes her head as she answers, "I didn't even avoid you, Jaebum! Stop thinking that!"

Jaebum opens his mouth to argue but Jackson intervenes, "Please continue your lovers' quarrel another time. We've got a class to attend!" He's still tugging Jaebum's arm.

To this, Jaebum's face turn beetroot and he lashes out at his friend, "We're not lovers!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Can we please go?" Jackson pleads. Finally, Jaebum lets the male drag him off, though he keeps his eyes fixed on her. He's glaring at her, as if meaning to threaten if you ever avoid me once again..., but she seems to be able to understand the words behind his glare for she rolls her eyes at him. Jaebum then breaks into a smile, bidding her goodbye before turning around and releasing himself from Jackson's clutches, walking next to his friend.

She watches the pair of best friends disappear from her view. They nudge at each other playfully, which then turned into a game of pushing each other around, before finally, turning into a game of chase. She smiles at their playfulness, before turning on her heels.

"You like her, don't you?" Jackson teases as he pokes his friend's cheek, an arm slung around his shoulder. He has been pestering Jaebum with the same question for the umpteenth time and Jaebum feels annoyance bubbling inside. He has already been frustrated enough with the fact that his work has just got rejected by his professor because it's not up to standards. He nearly wanted to cuss at his professor for throwing away his two months worth of work in less than a minute. Jackson's hysterical laughter is loud in his ear, which sets off the switch in Jaebum. The temper in him rose and he slaps his friend's hand away hard enough to make him nearly topple over.

"No, I don't like Y/N, okay?! I hate her! So stop pairing me up with her!" Jaebum lashes out at his friend. Jackson's face was stricken with shock as Jaebum slams his book shut and jolts up, grabbing his back as he turns. And that's when his eyes meet another shocked face just a few steps away.

She stares right through him, no words spoken at all. Too frozen from his earlier outburst that she loses her train of thoughts. Jaebum calls her name as he steps forward, but instinctively, she backs away slowly. "I- uh... gotta go." She strides off, away from Jaebum and not meeting his eyes at all.

"Y/N!" Jaebum yells after her, but she doesn't look back at all. She runs off and Jaebum nearly stays there until he hears his own mind screams at him Run after her, you idiot!. He dumps his bag onto the table and speeds off, lungs working to its fullest. He keeps his eyes trained onto the pastel blue shirt that she wears, brushing past anyone who walks in the opposite direction. Within seconds, he managed to catch up to her. "Y/N, wait!" he yells as he corners her. She nearly slips away, but Jaebum blocks her way, arms widely spread out so that she won't be able to escape. "Please, listen to me! I can explain!"

"What is there to say, Jaebum?" she spits out, tears threatening to fall but she holds it all back. "I heard it clearly. You don't like me. You hate me. I'm nothing to you. Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Look, I didn't mean that!" Jaebum starts. "Jackson was just being annoying and-"

"And you had to yell that you hate me? Really?" she scoffs at the male.

"I just wanted to shut him up! He kept teasing me liking you and I was just annoyed at it because it's so obvious that it's the truth and he probably knew the answer already but he just had to be an annoying prick and so I was so done with him and I just yelled at him and you stood there when I turned and you looked terrified and I was scared you'd take it the wrong way because I didn't mean it that way! I just- What?" Jaebum blinks at the sight of her blank expression. No more is there the expression of anger on her face. She stands there, blank, clueless of what just happened. Jaebum had blurted out the whole buildup amounting to where they are now.

And most importantly, did she just hear him admit to his feelings for her?

"What did you say about Jackson teasing you about liking me?" she asks, face as blank as a sheet of paper.

Jaebum's expression is as blank too, but then his eyes widened in remembrance of his words. His hands goes to his mouth, covering it as if in shock that he just leaked a top secret. She stares right into his face, watching every facial muscle on him work itself into different expressions. His cheeks turn red and he brings his hands up to cover his face.

"Don't look at me like that!" he says, cheeks flushed a shade darker.

She stumbles a little backwards, still disbelieving the current situation. "Is this a joke...?"

"No!" Jaebum blurts, embarrassed. His cheeks are much redder than she expected it to be, and the shade reached the tips of his ears too. It's the first time she sees Jaebum so red in front of her, and she reckons he wants to dig up a hole in the ground and bury himself forever. Or perhaps just disappear from the face of the earth for eternity. But she doesn't mind if he can bring her along. So that both of them can escape the embarrassment that just happened. Just moments ago, she was on the verge of crying at the thought of Jaebum hating her. She wondered what went wrong, and if everything was a lie. If Jaebum was being kind to her out of sympathy, or if he was just playing around with her feelings.

"Please don't hate me," Jaebum's soft voice pulls her out from her thoughts. He's looking at the ground now, his head hung low, as if he's a little boy being scolded. "I didn't mean to hurt you. It just came out on its own, before I could even stop myself."

"You've hurt me enough, Jaebum."

Jaebum's head snaps up fast, worry plastered all over his face. "And I hate you so much-" Jaebum opens his mouth to speak. "-because finally, you return back my feelings."

Jaebum's face stills for a while, registering her sentence in his mind. Then, Jaebum breaks into a wide smile, eye crescents formed and his dazzling white teeth exposed for the world to see. She reckons he's never smiled that wide for her (or anyone) and for once, she feels like she had the whole world in her hands.

"So," she starts. "Shall we tell Jackson the truth now?"

[drshaffopolis]

More Gallagher than Milgrim

“Okay, ready?”

“Ready.”

“Let’s sweep the garage.”

“Just a crawler over here, nothing I can’t handle,” Jason kept his fireteam updated as he gunned down a small robot, “I see three heading your way, Admiral. Look like maybe brutes … can’t make them out from here.”

“I’ve got your back,” Carrie decloaked, taking down one of them by surprise with a shimmering energy sword, “Uh, bad move!” She jumped back, just out of the reach of the two creatures angrily swiping their claws in her direction.

“Show off,” she said, as two perfectly aimed sniper rifle shots pierced their skulls.

“Nice work, Admiral.” Jason’s voice again, “Hey, check it out, there’s a car over here.”

“I call gunner seat!” Andrew opened the car door, as it was rocked by two explosions, “Shit! I didn’t realize there were traps in this game mode! Shit! I’m a dead. What a freaking noob move.”

In the upper-right corner of Jason’s screen, the name RearAdmiralPoopants2029 turned from blue to red.

“Any other vehicles in the garage?” Carrie asked.

“I don’t see any. We’ll just have to see how far we can get on foot without our sniper.”

“Right, opening the door… Oh, great, a big empty fucking field. That’s perfect!”

“Think you have enough cloak to make it to that clump of trees?”

“I can try. I say we both run for it; you’re not gonna do much good back there with just an assault rifle.”

One-third of the way across the field, an opposing team’s vehicle drove toward them, spraying fire from its mounted machine gun. Jason had nowhere to hide.

Carrie’s cloak gave out before she made it to the cover of the trees; she listened to the other team’s taunts as they ran her over.

*   *   *   *   *

“Well, that was embarrassing.” Andrew said at the between-rounds loading screen.

“Yeah… what are we going to do next time? Does anyone have a bomb defusal skill?” Jason asked.

“No, sorry.”

“No. Is Scout online? He always equips something like that,” Carrie was asking rhetorically, of course – she could see as well as anyone that he wasn’t.

“Probably doing his biology project that’s not due until next week,” said Andrew, “we go to school together IRL and he’s, like, a total goody two-shoes.”

“Ugh god, don’t remind me how much of an old lady I am,” said Carrie, the 53-year-old sales executive, who couldn’t decide whether winning or losing was more embarrassing, but was having fun, anyway.

"Well, I have one multi-tool. But it looked like there were two bombs,” said Jason.

Andrew suggested, “I can take out one with a grenade—”

Carrie interrupted him, “Sure, yeah, let’s just blow up the car. Fuck that car, we don’t need it, anyway.”

“No, no, the model TX just has a cargo compartment up front, so setting off that mine would barely affect it. The explosion will probably trigger the other mine, but if we time it perfectly, you can probably get in there with the multi-tool and disable the second one.”

“How does he know that? How do you know that? I’m picturing, like, fake car schematics on posters on your wall. You’d better be an automotive engineer when you grow up.” One never quite knew which side of the line between sarcasm and earnestness Carrie was on.

“He’s not even old enough to have a job, he has time for this stuff,” Jason was a college student, home for winter break. “You and me have more important things to learn.”

“You’re probably a really annoying intern. I take my coffee with two sugars. Write that down.”

“Looks like the rest of the teams finished the round,” Andrew read out loud, “49th out of 50. Yeah! We weren’t dead last. Suck it, SquadDoobieDoodz!”

“Whoo!”

*   *   *   *   *

The second round went more smoothly – the team’s plan to disable the bombs worked, they drove their slightly damaged car out of the garage and scored 7 kills before getting knocked out.

“24th out of 50, not too bad!” Jason exclaimed.

“Okay, kids, I do have work tomorrow, so I’ll be signing off on that wining note.”

“Good night, Carrie.”

“Peace.”

“Hey, looks like Scout’s online. Hopefully he’ll join the party.”

“Yeah, we’ll kick ass with him in here. I’ll ping him and tell him to play his infiltrator.”

“Leave it to Carrie to play an infiltrator without any ranks in explosives,” they chuckled.

“Um, guys?”

“Carrie, sticking around for another game after all?”

“Well… I can’t sign off.”

“Neither can I, that what I try to tell my parents every night.”

“No, I mean, I… Can’t. Sign. Off.”

“Just plug your headset into the charger, it’ll be fine. You’re worse than my grandma.”

“No, I really can’t!”

“It’ll boot you for inactivity. You don’t care about your stats, anyway, stop being such a drama queen.”

“I mean, I can’t take my headset off.” Carrie sounded seriously distressed.

“What, how can you not take your headset off? Like, you’re trapped in the game?”

“Stop being so gullible, Andrew,” Jason said, “She’s messing with us.”

“No, I’m really not, I swear. I think I might be having … I don’t know, a stroke? I can’t move my arms. If I give you my address, can you call the police?”

“Okay, but if I call the police and it’s a prank, it’s gonna be a prank on yourself.” Jason started to sound more serious, “I’ll get a pen.”

“Hurry, please… I’m having some trouble remembering my address… it must be aphasia or something…”

“I hope you’re okay. I’ll send a card to the hospital,” added Andrew.

“What the fuck! Oh my god. Oh my god. I can’t take off my headset, either.”

“Now you’re both definitely pranking me. I wasn’t born yesterday.”

“No, Andrew, try to take yours off.”

“I’m not going to fall for it,” he lied. Then a few seconds later, “… oh my god, I can’t either!”

“How is this possible?” Jason asked.

“It really shouldn’t be,” Carrie was trying calm herself down, “these things tie into your senses of sight and hearing, but they can’t control your motor cortex. The FDA inspects these; there’s no way.”

“Well, maybe it’s an illusion of some sort… MOM! MOM!” Jason was yelling through his microphone, “Don’t worry, they’ll hear me.”

A few tense moments passed.

“MOM! I’m serious; come help me! I’m stuck! I need help! DAD!”

Another tense minute.

“Okay, okay, nobody panic. Even if we can’t talk out load, or whatever, someone is going to stumble onto one of us pretty soon. Either Andrew’s mom is going to call him for bed, or something. We’ll all be fine, and someone at OctopusGames is going to go to jail.”

Jason didn’t like the idea of sitting around. “If we’re going to be trapped in here for another hour or two, maybe we should explore. Try to figure out what’s going on? If they’re doing some illegal experiment, we’re better off knowing what it is, right?”

*   *   *   *   *

The team walked cautiously out of the garage. The saw a grenade explosion halfway across the field, and an opposing player spinning around and firing wildly into the air. He started walking toward them, fired a few more shots into the air, and continued walking in their direction.

“Looks like we’re not the only ones. He wants to talk.” Jason also fired wildly into the air, displaying their new ad-hoc signal for non-aggression.

BOOM! The player who had been walking toward them was gone in a blast from a tank that just rolled over a hill.

“Back to the garage!” Andrew yelled, “Looks like not everyone got the memo!”

They ran inside and sealed the door.

“This is ridiculous, there’s no way they can actually hurt us,” Carrie said, “for all we know, getting killed is our ticket out.”

“Maybe, but if you’re wrong, how hard would it suck if we had to stare at a loading screen in silence all night until Andrew’s mom comes to take him to school?”

After a few more minutes, they all heard an announcement, as if over a loudspeaker, “All players, please congregate in the valley for further instructions. Do not fire on each other unless ordered. Failure to comply will result in ejection from the game.”

“Do we listen?” asked Andrew.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” said Jason.

“We might at least get some answers,” agreed Carrie.

*   *   *   *   *

Players from dozens of teams were gathered in the valley. The valley was ringed by tanks, and hovering helicopters. In the center, a ring of soldiers surrounded a tank. These new characters were wearing military police uniforms, in stark contrast to the colorful anime sci-fi outfits that the players were wearing. The military police had firepower at their disposal on an order of magnitude greater than that of all the players combined.

The one standing on top of the tank was speaking through a bullhorn, “We’ve brought you all here for a little experiment. You’ll be participating in a series of drills, and will be released in 6 hours, when we’re all finished.”

Whispers and mumbles cascaded through the crowd. A shot rang out, hit the speaker in the head. The game character slumped over, dead. The helicopters fired a salvo, obliterating the shooter, his teammates, and a few other players unfortunate enough to be standing nearby.

Another MP climbed onto the tank and calmly continued, “Fighting against us is futile. We’re the moderators. If you break the rules, you’ll be killed.”

“You’d better have a good lawyer!” Shouted Carrie.  “I refuse to participate!”

“When the time comes, we shall see. For now, I want you all to stay in this valley, except for you, you, you, and you.” MPs ushered four players from different teams into a prison bus.

*   *   *   *   *

Over the next few hours, players were ushered out, onto the bus, a few at a time. Everyone was talking amongst themselves.

“Where are they going?”

“So far, no one has come back.”

“What’s happening to them.”

“Maybe that’s the experiment. To see how long we put up with it.”

“What are we going to do? We can’t fight them.”

“What if getting killed is the ticket out? And we’re all afraid for nothing. I mean, it’s game. We’re wearing $500 headsets.”

“What if the bus is the ticket out? I mean, like, if someone figures out how to unplug, instead of the game character disappearing like normal, they just program it to hop on a bus.”

“If someone figured out how to unplug, wouldn’t they just disappear?”

“I mean, that’s what usually happens, but it wouldn’t be that big of a modification to have your avatar stay even if you unplugged, just like an NPC.”

“And then they’d program it to get onto the bus?”

“Maybe.”

Similar conversations were happening all throughout the valley.

Jason, Andrew, and Carrie stuck together. “We need a plan,” Carrie said, “but we also need to be careful; if they’re experimenting on us, there’s no way they can’t hear what we’re saying.”

Someone behind them coughed. They turned to see the floating text above his head, it read ScoutRegiment4lyfe, the fourth member of their squad.

“Scout! You signed on just as this weirdness was starting. Did you hear about it? Was it on Twitter? Did you come to get us out?” Jason was excited.

Scout didn’t say anything, but instead of motioned into the distance. Of course! The clubhouse; why didn’t we think of that before! The four of them split up; they had the first step of a plan.

*   *   *   *   *

Jason sensed his opportunity when another bus departed – the guards were distracted and not looking at him. Sure, they probably had some centralized tracking that told them where everyone went, but a handful of players among hundreds could sneak off without anyone noticing, so long as no one was looking directly at them when they did it, right?

Jason made his way out of the valley into a forest. The trees grew denser, as he approached the edge of the world. He stepped between the trees, until he found himself unable to continue moving. Here, even where there were gaps between the trees, an invisible wall blocked him. He turned “north” and kept moving, until he reached a small hut with no doors or windows.

Jason faced away from the hut, and did a spinning backflip onto the roof. Thud! He never got that right on the first try. Again… thud!

On the third try, instead of hitting the roof, he went straight through as if it weren’t there. The walls of the hut were only partially visible from the inside. One wall had a giant black triangle with pulsating edges. Another was see-through from this side. Players were clearly not meant to be in this part of the level. It was a design flaw; almost every map in every game had something like it if you looked hard enough. More importantly, the game’s built-in tracking and logging functions didn’t work, here. Unscrupulous players would often come in here to activate cheat programs; it was the one place they wouldn’t get caught and banned. Carrie, Andrew, and Scout were already there, along with two players they didn’t recognize – their gamer tags read JoeyBiddleRocks! and CowboysFan45252.

“Okay, I think that’s everyone we were expecting from our team,” said Scout, “Now, as for the plan to get out of here…”

“We know a glitch that’ll crash the game,” said CowboysFan, “sometimes we do it to troll if we’re losing.”

“Ass-hats.” Carrie hated playing against people like him, but that seemed unimportant, now. “Whatever, I guess you’re just kids.”

“Actually, I’m a corporate lawyer by day, believe it or not.” That was JoeyBiddle.

“Even worse.”

“Anyway, look, the way it works is this. If you hit a friendly tank with enough explosives to flip it over, while the tank is firing its main gun, it crashes the game.”

“So, that means we need to capture one of those tanks, and then we’re going to need like … 5 rocket launchers?” Jason asked.

“Two will do it if you put five or six mines under it.” Rocket launchers appeared, instantly, in JoeyBiddle’s and CowboysFan’s hands. “Here, trade weapons.” Andrew dropped his sniper rifle on the floor and grabbed the rocket launcher from CowboysFan. Another appeared to replace it a second later.

“Pretty handy cheat.” They all equipped themselves with rockets and mines.

“Now we just need the tank,” Scout sounded optimistic, “Carrie, you maxed out your stealth ranks as usual, right?”

“Of course, but… are we sure this is going to work? I mean, is crashing the game going to get us out of here?”

“Well we have to try something, are there other ideas?” asked Jason.

“Civil disobedience,” suggested Carrie.

“What’s that?” asked Andrew.

“What do you mean, ‘what’s that’? How do they not teach you that in school? The civil rights movement? Come on. Like, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and all! Ring a bell?”

“I have this feeling I really should know who they are.”

“Joey? Didn’t you just say you were a grown up? And a lawyer? Tell me you’re joking!”

“No... No, I’m not… This is really weird… could they be blocking out our thoughts or parts of our memories, too?”

“That’s insane!”

“All of this is insane! Look, we have to move!”

“Okay, okay. I’ll use my cloak to get into the tank and execute the driver. Let’s try this.”

*   *   *   *   *

They filtered back into the valley one at a time, so as not to get caught. There were still hundreds of players milling around, talking amongst themselves. There were a few dozen corpses, as well, as if another firefight had broken out. Hopefully someone else hadn’t tried their plan. If the moderators were prepared for it, it’d never work.

Carrie hid behind another player and engaged her cloak. She stepped out. No one seemed to react. So far, so good. She stepped slowly toward the tank. (cloak at 85%) She very carefully tiptoed through the ring of guards. (cloak at 30%) She quietly climbed on top of the tank, and slipped through the hatch just as her cloak gave out. The driver was facing the controls, and didn’t see her. For a moment, she could see her own avatar put its hand over his mouth as the game transitioned into its “assassination” animation.

Now, I just need another minute for my cloak to recharge; I can get out and under the tank to drop these mines and hop back in. This is the easy part, thought Carrie to herself.

At that moment, she heard a clank behind her. Someone had tossed a stun grenade into the tank’s hatch. The gig was up.

For the next 30 seconds, all she could see was her health indicator and heads-up display. Her ammunition bar went to zero – someone had taken her weapons. When her avatar’s vision returned, she was on the bus, along with the rest of their band of conspirators, with several MPs.

“I’m sorry, guys, I let you down.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” said Jason. “That stun grenade came from another player. They had the same plan as we did, and didn’t realize you were in there. It was just bad timing.”

“Quiet! We’re taking you to a detention facility.” Yelled one of the MPs, “You’re going to be disciplined.”

Carrie didn’t acknowledge the MP, and kept talking to her comrades, “A detention facility? On a bus? In a game world? When will any of this start making sense?”

“I said quiet!” The guard hit her avatar with the butt of his rifle, and Carrie cried out in pain. It sounded real.

“I will not be silent. I refuse to comply!” He struck her again.

“La la la. I’m still talking. La la la.”

“Another word, and we shoot you,” two of the MPs aimed their weapons at her head.

“Whatever, enough of this bullshit. Kill me! I’ll stare at a loading screen for a few hours. My body is probably lying in a hospital bed by now. And I’ll see you on a real prison bus.”

Pop! Pop! Pop! Carrie’s avatar stopped moving. For a what seemed like nearly an hour, no one said anything.

Finally, once the guards turned their focus toward looking out the windows, Scout whispered, “She’s not really dead, right? She can’t be. I mean, her real dead body, on her couch in her house? Or in a hospital? That’s murder.”

Jason answered, “My new theory is that this is all an illusion. It feels like hours, but it’s really only been a few seconds, like a dream. They can’t make us feel pain and we’re not actually paralyzed.”

“Her screams sounded awful real.”

“So do our guns, and they’re not. I mean, for all we know that wasn’t even her voice. You can pipe any sound through a video game.”

“Maybe we should all get ourselves killed.”

“Maybe.”

For the moment, however, no one was willing to risk it.

*   *   *   *   *

“Jason! Dinner’s almost ready!”

Jason stood up from his desk, closed the lid on his laptop, and walked down the stairs. He could smell the tomato sauce and meatballs. His parents always cooked his favorite comfort foods when he was home for the holidays.

“Playing that new game again?” his dad looked up from the newspaper to ask.

“Actually, I was reading about it. Sort of. It was a story about AI research.”

“AI research,” his mom said, “You work hard enough between your classes and internship that you need to just relax this week.”

“It was really interesting, though. Octopus is partnering a company called with DaveyAI—”

“Hah! I met their founder a few years ago at a conference!” His dad put down the paper, “What a quack! He’s one of those ‘singularity’ nut-jobs, thinks he’s going to live forever in a computer, like a god. You know, five years ago, this guy bought a bunch of warehouse drones and had them act out the Milgrim experiments?”

His mom chimed in, “Are you talking about BattleBotGhazi?”

“Yeah, that’s the one, he had these things ‘torturing’ each other, and talked big philosophy, ‘oh the ethical ramifications of the drone inflicting pain on each other because they were ordered to.’ He got some bad press and relished it. For a minute, he got to be the guy who was starting the conversation: Is it time for us to start treating robots as living things? To empathize with them? Do they have rights?”

“So, what happened?”

“Well, it all lasted about a week, before we collectively realized how absurd the situation was. I mean, here’s a bunch of inanimate objects, that are programmed to roll up and down aisles until they find a certain barcode, and literally nothing else, and he’s trying to get a reaction from all of us by having them smash each other to bits?”

His mom laughed, “A video went around where the drones had these big comical-looking mallets attached to them; the whole thing was more Gallagher than Milgram.

“Tell us, what’s he up to this time?”

“He said in the interview that they were going to use players’ in-game data from Octopus’s shooters to make simulated versions of our personalities, then put those simulations into various scenarios in the game to see how they respond. I don’t know how I feel about my data being used to create a copy of my personality; a computer program running around thinking it was me.”

“Hmmm… Let’s take checkers, for example. I could write a program that recorded you for a bunch of games, analyzed your play style, and emulated you.”

“Yeah, that’d be pretty easy.”

“And if mom played that checkers program, she wouldn’t be able to tell that she wasn’t actually playing her son. My checkers-bot would be indistinguishable from the real you.”

His mom pointed out, “But that’s not a real Turing Test. Sure, the checkers program would play checkers just like you, but it’s still just a few hundred lines of code. It wouldn’t, quote unquote, ‘think it was you,’ it wouldn’t ‘think’ anything at all.”

“Right, it’d fool you perfectly into thinking it was me, but only up until you tried to do anything besides play it in checkers. Then it would obviously not be me.”

“Now, using data from a shooter, a much more complex program that took a big team years to develop would be more impressive… especially if they fed in information from your headset chats.”

“I get it, though. You’re saying it wouldn’t be fundamentally different from the checkers program.”

“Exactly. A really good program might even be able to simulate your voice, chat about game tactics, but it wouldn���t be you.”

“It wouldn’t know anything about you that you didn’t talk about in the game. It wouldn’t have the same skills you do in the real world, it wouldn’t know what you learned in class last week, it wouldn’t even know what you had for breakfast unless you talked about it while playing the game.”

“Yeah, it’s still kind of creepy, though.”

“Well, it’s a privacy issue if, nothing else. You sign one of those EULAs, you don’t expect them to use your game activity for something like this. They should have to ask permission.”

His mom turned off the stove. “Let’s eat!”

[agent-7-at-your-service]

Future Plot: Project Titanomachy - Chapter 10

(( Camille and the Wonder Inkling idea belong to @inklingleesquidly

Nebula (mentioned) belongs to @myzzy and @agenttwo

Emerald and Sapphire belong to @son-of-joy and @twelvetailedkitsune

Telemachus, Chaodis, and greek mythology depictions belong to me ))

Hephaestus's Forge, Mount Olympus, Greece - 3:50 PM

Camille approaches Hephaestus in his main forge where several Cyclopes were organizing metals. She placed Athena's spear on the anvil in front of him.

"I want to know about the War that happened in Troy," Camille added.

Hephaestus sounded surprised to hear her say that, but quite scared to answer.

When I asked that, he refused to answer. I kept pushing him a bit until he gave a vague answer: "You'll never understand what Zeus has done to our family." I knew it wasn't enough, but I didn't have time to talk further.

Chaodis convinced me to bring Telemachus along and leave Nebula in Mount Olympus. The reason for it was because she needed time to herself for a moment. When I made the final choices, I brought with me Telemachus, Emerald, and Chaodis to Mount Othrys. We took a few taxis and buses to get to the place.

Mount Othrys, Greece - 8:11 PM

The mountain they arrived wasn't as tall as Mount Olympus, but it did look like a natural hill with vegetation and hiking routes. Hephaestus has been told stories by his mother of how she and her brothers and sisters laid waste to the place. Telemachus can speculate that there was something built on the mountain by the Titans and got demolished by the Olympians.

There was a mini drone floating in mid-air, waiting for Camille. It was there to drop off the Wonder Inkling Nemo outfit and the .96 Gal and .96 Gal Deco which were kept in a secondary Mermaid's Purse. Camille retrieve the package and kept it safe in her inventory.

All Camille and her rescue party could do is follow the hiking trails and reach the top. On the way to the top, they had no encounters with any hostile creatures, not even a titan. Their destination was a recently built ritual grounds with a sigil in the shape of a triangle carrying 12 stars and the symbol of Saturn. Ouroboros circled the sigil. It seems a cult has formed recently here as there's a marble baptismal font, a few lit candles, clumps of pyrite ore, and traces of cattle blood. And, ominously, there are black sea slugs and hagfish crawling about in puddles of murky water.

Emerald picked up one of the clumps of pyrite ore and examined it; It was chiseled into the symbol of Saturn.

"Saturn is associated with the King of the Titans, Cronus, since it's the planet he reigns on," Telemachus explained, "I blame the Romans for this complicated connection."

"Then I guess this cult is serving the Titans," Emerald guessed.

"But what are they doing, worshipping the Titans?" Chaodis asked.

"...I think we're about to find out." Camille pointed to a band of unknown hooded beings. "We need to hide."

As we hid in the bushes, we watched these cult members perform some rituals. They brought in two cattle and stone carved into a certain pattern.

These humanoids were dressed in silver, adorned in lead, and represented with two white feathers. Silk curtains covered all their faces.

Among them wore a headdress with horns and two feathers; this was possibly the cult leader. And as she spoke in an unknown language, four hagfishes appear out of her sleeves to execute the cattle with nothing but the carved stone.

"What are they saying?" Emerald asked.

"How should I know?" Camille replied.

Somehow, Chaodis knew the words.

Chaodis looks at Camille and Emerald and whispered the translation of the cult leader's words:

"To the mighty that have overthrown the skies, to the mighty that have been overthrown by the children of Cronus, and to the mighty that are now bound to the Ophion's Incarnate." Chaodis smiled at Camille.

"I wonder what that means." Emerald looked to Telemachus for an explanation

"Don't look at me, I don't know how Ophion is connected with all this," Telemachus responded.

"Typhon...," Camille assumed.

Nebula screaming that name still rung in Camille's head.

Chaodis continues translating: "From the depth of Tartarus, we sacrifice life for life, and from the darkness, Enceladus rise."

The cult steps back, and a gigantic being made of cracked clay and magma. From the crack, hagfishes enter inside and a dark purple ink oozes out. The awakened giant roars and takes out a rusty iron spear and round shield.

Chaodis translates the last words from the cult leader: "We shall serve the Titans well, freeing every being from Tartarus. We'll bind them to Typhon and reign under the Creators and Eurynome one more. A gift to the Titans."

The Cult leader and the other members began chanting and clouds gather only to part to reveal a violet star. The star flickered red and red lighting comes down to strike the giant Enceladus. This could be a possible chance for Camille and her rescue team to track down Rhea and Sapphire.

"Telemachus, put on Hades's Helmet." Camille change from Agent into Olympian. "We're going to get struck by that lightning."

"I can guess why." Telemachus changes into his Olympian form.

Telemachus offers to pick up Emerald while Camille picks up Chaodis. They start flying towards the ritual's center where the giant Enceladus we going to be struck by lightning.

"Hey, Princess, after this would you like a date?" Chaodis asked.

"Is now a good time to be asking that!?" Camille sounded annoyed.

The cult was alarmed as the four inklings approached Enceladus. The giant recognized Camille being a champion of Athena and Zeus and it prepared to fight. When Camille and her team were close enough, the lightning strikes the giant and then Camille.

"Guys, hold onto me!' Camille ordered.

Emerald and Chaodis grabbed onto her legs while Telemachus grabbed her arm.

Afterward, everyone went white, fading to reveal a land of night and temples. The skies were different, the sun didn't bring day, and the earth was like their home planet.

((Insert battle against Gigantomachy Veteran- Enceladus:  https://soundcloud.com/squid_fish/meta-knights-revenge-super-smash-bros-brawl ))

They were in a marble pier with the giant, Enceladus, and he delivered a thrust of his spear at Camille. With her Capoeira moves, she moves out of the way. She then pulled out her shield and spear.

"Champion of Athena," Enceladus began, "I shall redeem my defeat against the Wise Goddess!"

"We'll see about that, Clayface!" Camille points Athena's spear at him.

Her team got ready, changing their ink colors to green.

Telemachus took out the Key to the Underworld and stood by Camille's side. Emerald got into her Olympian form and prepared Apollo's bow. Chaodis didn't have an Olympian form and just took out his Mini Splatling.

Enceladus waves one arm around and scattered drops of dark purple ink for the squids to dodge.

Emerald kept her distance and fires glass arrows at the giant, blinding him with flashes. Telemachus raises an army of skeletal figures made of ink and sends them attacking the legs. Chaodis kept his eyes on Camille, making sure the giant doesn't outsmart her.

Camille flies around the Titan, swoop towards him to deliver a deep stab. There were no clouds for her to strike thunder.

Enceladus stomps the ground to crush Telemachus's undead minions and stagger him, Emerald and Chaodis. The hagfish from the cracks from his clay arm extended and took advantage of it by grabbing Camille.

In response, Camille used the Medusa head on her shield to petrify the extended hagfish and she make them crumble with a few choreographic kicks.

Emerald saw this and decided to draw the parasitic extension away from Camille by firing at the hagfishes. However, one huge hagfish replaces the clay arm and roars at the Olympians. Emerald continue firing at that arm, but the arrows did nothing but blind Enceladus.

Enceladus, blinded by more of the light from the arrows, was swinging his magma arm now, scattering molten ink. Telemachus was dodging them. The hagfish took a mind of its own and targeted Camille; when it was about to strike, Chaodis fire a few shots and warned Camille.

"Camille! The arm!" Chaodis alerted.

Camille flew towards the stunned hagfish arm and electrifies Athena's spear. She then threw it at the arm and it bursts into green ink. She then swoops down to catch her spear.

Enceladus roars in pain and tries to burn the wound, but Emerald relentlessly fire 3 glass arrows at a time. This made the flashes so bright that Camille, Telemachus, and Chaodis had to cover their eyes. These relentless flash attacks make the giant back up only to end up falling off the pier and into the water where the water cools off the magma part of his body.

The lifeless body soon sinks.

Emerald watched one of the Titan's cousins sink. "And stay dead!"

((End of battle music))

Emerald was pretty mad that Sapphire's kidnapped, but I thought to myself that she will be saved. We just need to search the Titan's home.... and it was a massive castle.

The Titan's Castle - Unknown Planet - Time Unknown

Camille changes to the Wonder Inkling Nemo outfit instead of the Agent outfit. After all, they were on another planet. Telemachus, Chaodis, and Emerald were back in their Agent attires.

"It suits you, Camille," Chaodis complimented.

"Hmph, I prefer the agent suit more," Telemachus commented.

Emerald waiting for them. "Come on! No time for costume changing."

Once Camille had the .96 Gal Deco out, they continue their search for Sapphire. But through the maze of halls, dungeons, and rooms, giants, harpies, hellhounds, minotaurs, and nagas patrolled. Telemachus had to lead the rescue team to assure that stealth was on their side.

However, Telemachus decided to try out Hades's helmet and put on a disguise of a Minotaur. Once in the guise, he has Camille, Chaodis and Emerald wait. He approaches a patrol of minotaurs and asked them. He also made sure his Multi-Personality Disorder doesn't blow the cover.

"Cronus has sent me to check on the Olympian," Telemachus began, "As a new recruit, I need directions."

One of the minotaurs pointed to a hallway. "Just take the hallway and go right. The cells should be there with the Champion of Artemis."

"Thank you." Telemachus then pretends to escort Camille, Emerald, and Chaodis over there as prisoners. "I am also informed to take these trespassers there as well."

The minotaur patrol didn't question the order and they leave Telemachus be.

"Real clever, Telemachus," Emerald thanked.

Telemachus remained in the minotaur disguise.

"Let's make it quick, alright?" Telemachus replied.

This rescue mission went smoothly, but that was until we reach Sapphire's cell. Thanks to Telemachus, we found her cell..... but it was empty.

"Empty!?!' Emerald enraged.

"I could've sworn..." Telemachus drops the disguise and puts Hades's helmet away.

"Where could she be now?" Camille asked.

"....Guys..." Chaodis was looking behind and noticed a titan.

It was Rhea again.