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jedi-hawkins · 29 days

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Flower Sniping

The Clones all deserve flowers! Or maybe they think you deserve flowers 😉 Either way, love is in bloom this week for the Clone Flowers Fic Event!

Throughout this week, May 20th-25th, certain participants will be posting their own fics of Clones and different flower themes that were selected! The participants as well as the Clones and flowers they will be writing for are listed below and links to each fic will be added as they are posted! 💐 Follow the tag #cloneflowerficevent to see them all as they come!!

Event Masterlist

Written for an event with

@arctrooper69 - Tup, Rex, Gregor

@photogirl894 - Hunter, Wrecker, Fives

@nahoney22 - Fox, Tech

@totallyunidentified - 99, Cody

@dragonrider9905 - Hardcase

@l-lend - Wolffe

Make sure to go check out their entries too, we'll be posting throughout the week!

Pairing: Crosshair x f!reader

Chosen Flower: Lilies, Forever Lily

Word count: 8.1k (don't look at me like that)

Warnings: Brief mentions of war struggles and death, suggestive fluff, some swearing, reader has hair, frienemies (briefly) to friends (idiots) to lovers, mutual pining, a bit of angst, Crosshair is somewhat bad at expressing emotions

Beta-read by @photogirl894

"So, why are you putting me on babysitting duty, Argus?" You grumble, rolling your fingers over a knot in your shoulder.

"You're one of my best agents, Lieutenant, and this is important. I need your eyes on it." Your commandant says plainly, glancing over a few things on the holotable in front of you.

You cock an eyebrow. "Seriously? The war has been going on for a year and a half. What's so important that the Republic is taking an interest in Scarif now?"

Argus rolls his eyes. "Look. I didn't ask. It's some sort of deal that the Prime Minister struck. In exchange for food and medical supplies, he's letting a single squad come and scout Western Sector 14."

"You've got to be kidding me." You scoff. "Sector 14? There's nothing out there, I would know, it's where I spent most my childhood."

"Another reason why you're the perfect person for the job." Argus says with a smirk. "You know as well as I do, Scarif has been struggling. The trade routes rarely reach all the way out here to us. If the Republic wants to send some supplies our way for showing a few tourists around, why not?"

You fold your arms across your chest. "How can I argue with something as logical as that?"

Argus lets out a chuckle. "Then get ready to play nice, they'll be here soon."

"When do I ever not play nice?" You tease back. "How long are they staying?"

"Six weeks."

A laugh escapes your lips. "The Republic better be sending the good stuff, then."

"They're some elite team, Squad 99, I think. I've been told they're one of the best." Argus retorts.

Smiling, you roll your eyes. "That's not what I meant. If they don't have a bottle of Corelian whiskey, this won't be worth it."

Argus just shakes his head at you and exits the command center. "Outside. Ten minutes."

The squad's ship touches down gently and you adjust your rifle on your shoulder slightly, sinking your weight into one hip. As much of a front as you put up for Argus, you really didn't mind this assignment. It was pretty cut and dry; serve as an escort for Squad 99 while they sniff around the western sector for a few weeks. It would give you a break from the frequent relief missions you were usually running.

Scarif hadn't seen any true action from the war so far, but the effects still reached the outer rim. Argus was right, the steady trade that once flowed from the core worlds had weakened to a trickle and now many of Scarif's provinces were riddled with conflict over the little resources the planet had left. That meant you were more often out running supplies, assisting in makeshift medical camps, or dissolving scuffles than anything else.

Your interest in this squad increases as you realize their ship is a heavily-modified Omicron-Class attack shuttle. The ramp lowers and four men stride down, coming to a stop in front of Argus. The man in front removes his helmet, revealing a mess of long dark hair pulled back by a bandana. He holds his hand out to Argus. "Commandant, I presume?"

Argus takes the man's hand. "Yes sir. Welcome to Scarif." Your commander turns and waves his spare hand to you. "This is my First Lieutenant, and the one who will be hosting you on your mission."

"Sir." The soldier acknowledges you with a curt nod. "I'm Sergeant Hunter, Galactic Army of the Republic." He looks to the man on his right, who removes his helmet to reveal striking silver hair. "This is Crosshair, our sharpshooting specialist and my right hand."

The Sergeant turns to his left, "This is Tech, engineering and data analytics." The soldier with goggles barely glances up when his sergeant claps a hand to his shoulder. "And Wrecker, weapons and demolitions." Hunter finishes, jerking a thumb behind him to the soldier towering over his comrades.

"Right. Well, good to meet you all. The command center is right this way" Argus says, turning to lead the group deeper into the yard.

"So, Lieutenant. How are the military operations going here? The Prime Minister easy to work with?" Sergeant Hunter asks you in a husky voice.

"Hm," You have to stifle a chuckle. "I wouldn't really call us a military, Sergeant. We operate as a Coalition dedicated to the service of Scarif's people. The Prime Minister has his own division of special forces for ‘keeping order.’ We work with him, not for him."

The soldier in goggles, Tech, takes a few quick steps forward to get level with your shoulder. "You use military ranks, do you not?"

Argus steps aside to let you lead the group into the Command Center. "Mainly for ease of identifying our hierarchy of command."

You gesture for the soldiers to circle the main holotable. "Argus is our main point of coordination and connection to the Prime Minister-"

"And the Lieutenant here is my first pair of boots on the ground." Argus says proudly. "You boys are in good hands."

A fond smile crosses your face at Argus' praise as you flip the holotable on, but you could swear the silver-haired sniper muttered something under his breath. Straightening up, a red pin highlights the command yard.

"Alright. We're here." You say, pointing before motioning for the map to rotate and zoom. "Western Sector 14, where you all have requested to scout, is here. The base camp will be a few hours’ ride."

"We can't just fly in?" Tech asks pointedly.

"If you want to jump out of the ship and drop in with chutes, sure.” you say, shaking your head. “The jungle is too dense to make a landing with anything bigger than a one-man fighter anywhere near where you want to be."

Sergeant Hunter glances at his men. "Alright then. Thank you, Commandant." He says pointedly at Argus. "The first wave of supply ships will come in tomorrow."

"Fantastic, thank you." Argus replies. He moves to lead the group out the door and back out into the yard, but falters when he notices the squad's sharpshooter, Crosshair, sizing you up. "Is there a problem?" Argus asks, tentatively.

The soldier smirks, swishing a toothpick between his lips. "I just don't want to have to pull a civvy out of danger. We were told this planet was hostile."

Argus' brow furrows. "I already told you, the Lieutenant is my best agent, and you'll respect them as such-"

"No, Argus, it's fine." You cut him off, keeping eye contact with Crosshair. "If the soldier doesn't trust me, he doesn't trust me and nothing you say will change that." You take a few steps around the table to stand in front of the sniper. "By definition, yes, the planet is hostile, but they're bandits, raiders; people that have been driven to desperation. I can assure you, soldier, I've had my fair share of run-ins with them and I'm just fine." A smirk spreads across Crosshair's face and you narrow your eyes. "What?"

"You called me 'soldier,'" he responds.

You tilt your head to the side. "That's not what you are? Soldiers of the Galactic Army of the Republic?"

His comrade with the goggles, Tech steps forward. "Technically, you are correct, but not many refer to us as such."

"Well, what do they call you?" You ask, curiously.

Wrecker, the tallest soldier is the one who answers this time. "Eh... Most people just call us 'clone.'"

You run your eyes back over the squad, each of them so different from the others. "You're- you're clones?"

"You know we're GAR, but you don't know what we are?" Crosshair remarks.

"I didn't want to assume, the GAR does have a few divisions of enlisted nat-borns." You say simply with a shrug. "It’s not like you’re carbon copies of each other. Besides, it doesn’t matter how you came into this galaxy, you’re men, soldiers first before anything else."

With that, you step past the sniper and back out into the yard.

"We're packed and ready to go, Sergeant,'' you say to Hunter, gesturing to the group of gorsets standing tied nearby.

Tech adjusts his goggles. "We're using equine species?"

You shrug again, moving over to yours and stroking its face. "Only the rich can afford speeders out here. Plus, who can say no to a friend. Get your stuff loaded on the spare cart and we can head out."

Hunter leads his brothers back over to their ship and before you know it, they have their supplies all packed up.

Argus grasps your forearm just before you mount up. “Be careful, okay?”

You give him a reassuring smile, “You worry too much, Argus. My job here is easy. I’ll see you in a few weeks.”

With that you slip your foot into your saddle’s stirrup and throw your leg over your gorset’s back. With a click of your tongue, it moves to the front, Hunter’s following closely behind.

The first part of the ride goes pretty smoothly. You make small talk with the soldiers, or three of them, at least. Hunter, Tech, and Wrecker regale you with stories of their life and training as soldiers of the Republic and in return, you tell them your story as a nat-born.

About an hour in, you come to a stop at a stream and let your mounts rest. You watch intently as the four brothers, take in their surroundings. You’ve always liked Scarif. You’d certainly seen a few other planets in your line of work, but Scarif and its dense forests always meant home. Crosshair settles on a fallen log while Hunter checks over their gear on the carts and Wrecker begins making friends with the gorsets. Tech, however, is wandering around with his face buried in his datapad.

“Find anything interesting?” You say, approaching him.

He looks up at you, his wide inquisitive brown eyes filled with excitement. “All the flora on this planet is fascinating. So many native species are unique to this biome. Of course, I researched them before our arrival, but to get to document them personally is a wonderful opportunity.”

You smile at his curiosity. The clones’ homeworld, Kamino, probably left much to be desired. “Those ones are my favorite,” you say, motioning your chin towards some striking burgundy-orange blooms nestled in the undergrowth.

“Ah yes,” Tech remarks. “Liliaceae Lilium Asiata. A fairly ordinary species though, not that remarkable.”

You smile. “Their common name here is the ‘forever lily’ and while they’re not a rare species, they are special.”

“What makes them so special?” Wrecker asks loudly.

“Here on Scarif, they’re often given as a sign of admiration or partnership. They bloom in early summer and also represent new beginnings. My father actually gifted my mother one when he asked her to dinner for the first time.”

“That’s…actually quite romantic,” Tech replies.

“And obviously it went well,” Hunter adds.

A laugh escapes your lips. “Oh no, the date apparently went horribly wrong. My father made a complete fool of himself and accidentally tripped, knocking my mother into the fountain in the center of the village. There were probably thirty witnesses to the whole thing. My father’s family never let him live it down. When he asked my mother for a second chance, he brought two lilies. For their third date, he brought three. By the time they got married, he decorated the entire gathering hall with them.”

Crosshair hops up off his perch. “So why are you out here and not with them picking flowers, sweetheart?” He jeers.

You cock an eyebrow at him. “They’re dead.”

Crosshair stiffens at your response, but doesn’t retort. His brothers look at you with wide eyes.

“Bandit raid,” you say plainly. “I was seventeen. Took less than a day for our village to be cleared out. Those who tried to hide food or resist were laid out in the street. A number of us survived and we made our way to the capital for refuge. That’s where I met Argus, and he gave me a chance to do more with my life.”

Silence settles among you, the brothers unsure of what to say.

You clear your throat, breaking their stupor. “Ready to move out?”

“Uh, yeah. Let’s go.” Hunter says, jerking his head at his brothers.

As you swing your leg over and settle into your saddle, Hunter catches your eye. “The color. I like it.”

A soft smile crosses your face. “Thanks. I do too.”

Once again, you take the lead, but this time your group travels in silence. The next couple hours are uneventful. Occasionally, Tech or Wrecker would point something out and you’d give a few words on it. A couple times, Hunter called for the group to stop, and you reassured him whatever noise he heard was probably just a kybuck. ‘Bandits haven’t been spotted in this sector for years.’

As you round a bend in the trail, your mount slows out of instinct. You can hear Tech mutter under his breath when the old buildings make their appearance.

“Fascinating… Did you know this was here?” he asks.

You glance around at the familiar ruins of your past life. “This used to be my home.”

You pull your mount to a halt outside the largest building. “And it will be our base camp for the duration of your stay here.”

“Do you come back often?” Wrecker asks hesitantly.

“Mm-hmm,” you answer as you dismount. “Once every few moons. It’s quite peaceful out here.”

Crosshair’s brow furrows. According to your story, you all are currently standing at the center of the greatest tragedy of your life. He’s drawn to ask about your response, but his twin beats him to it.

“You said raiders destroyed your village, yet you continue to return. That’s very brave.”

You smile at Tech’s words, pulling your bags off your gorset. “I wouldn’t say brave. It took me a while to be able to come back, but look at this place,” you say, gesturing to the buildings overgrown with flora. “You can’t even see the scars of the raid any more. No people, no conflict, no pain. With a little bit of time, nature came back and healed, same as I did.”

Your response hits Crosshair in a peculiar way, but if you had asked him to describe it, he wouldn’t have had the words. Instead, he moves over beside you and gently takes a few bags from your shoulders before moving inside.

The next few weeks pass with little fuss. The boys tend to leave at 0700 to go about their scouting missions and return around 1800 for dinner. Every few days, you’ll go along to lead them to a new part of the sector or provide information on the area. Most days you’re left to your own devices. You spent your first few free days setting a trap line along you r well-known foraging routes. Hunter had protested your hunting and gathering. He tried to explain they had brought enough GAR rations for everyone, but you were happy enough to prepare warm meals for the team.

It didn’t take them long to crumble to your mouth-watering camp cooking, leaving the rations to be quick dinner solutions after long days. Hunter offered his talents once or twice to help you get a nice score, or Wrecker would help haul firewood back to camp. Tech even provided you with some new recipes you fused with Scarif-style dishes.

Hunter took quickly to you, as did Tech and Wrecker, but the fourth member of the team always kept his distance. Any words exchanged between the two of you were more often than not snarky comments. Hunter would chastise him for it, tell him to stow the attitude, but you knew Crosshair didn’t mean it. And it’s not like you didn’t dish it back.

On this particular day, you were on your own. Crosshair had been particularly grouchy the last couple rotations, so Hunter had benched him for the day. Crosshair’s excuse had been a migraine, so you left him sleeping at base camp with a blanket gently draped over him and a canteen of water within reach when you started out on your own hike.

It doesn’t take long to reach your shooting range. Your sniper’s roost is up on the crest of a hill that looks over a small hollow. Wooden targets are scattered from the undergrowth up into the branches of the dense forest around you.

After taking a few practice shots in a crouched position, you lower yourself down onto your stomach. Just as you shift your weight onto your side to pull an extra mag out of your belt pocket, something catches your ear. A twig snapping, and it was from something much bigger than a kybuck.

You freeze, waiting. After a couple seconds, you start creeping your hand down your thigh and gently grasp one of the throwing knives strapped there. The wind changes and something hits your nose, a scent - the camp soap. Smirking, you roll back onto your stomach like normal, keeping the knife tucked underneath you. You act like you're checking over your rifle, still intently listening. A couple seconds more and another twig snaps. Fast as lightning you roll over and send the knife flying. It buries itself into a tree - right next to his head.

“Are you karking crazy?!”

You sit up, a cheeky smile on your face. “That’s what you get, trying to sneak up on me, soldier.”

He rolls his eyes. “You did pretty good, sweetheart, but Hunter would’ve noticed sooner.”

“Hunter has been engineered with enhanced senses, that’s cheating,” you say, standing up and brushing the dirt off yourself. “Good to see you’re feeling better.”

Crosshair rolls his eyes. “I would’ve noticed sooner.”

You smirk. “You are also enhanced, that’s still cheating. When do you think I noticed?”

“Right before you threw the knife, when I snapped that twig on purpose,” he says, crossing his arms. “They’re stashed in your chestplate, you acted on instinct.”

“Wrong. I heard you when you stepped on that first twig, but I knew it was you when I smelled the camp soap. Very distinct,” you say with a wink.

Crosshair gives you a look, maybe one of awe, but he glosses over the moment, looking out onto the shooting range. “What is this place?”

“A shooting range. Never seen one of those, Crosshair?” You tease back, bending down to pick up your rifle..

He scoffs.

“My father built it and taught me to shoot here,” you explain. “Part of the reason why I come back every so often. Here the rest of the world just melts away.”

Crosshair steps closer to the crest of the hill. “Where are the targets?”

Gently, you heft your rifle up off the ground and hold it out to him. “Have a look.”

He hesitates. “Oh no, I-” Crosshair knows a sniper’s rifle is sacred. In the similar way as the Jedi and their lightsabers.

“It’s okay,” you reassure him. “I trust you.”

Crosshair’s eyes stay latched to yours as he gingerly lets you place your rifle in his waiting hands. “Not as fancy as your firepuncher, but I've made a few modifications,” you say proudly.

Crosshair turns your weapon over in his hands with a sense of reverence before taking his stance. His form is perfect, though that’s no surprise. Hunter and the others had told you all about their enhancements. You watch as Crosshair sweeps the scope over the range, taking inventory of the targets camouflaged in the greenery. One particular mark catches his eye.

“That one down there, how do you get to it?” He asks, pointing to one suspended in a tree and swaying gently in the wind.

You smile, that target in particular is placed at an odd angle relative to the sniper’s nest. “Take the shot and you’ll see.”

The sniper braces in his standing position and lets a blaster bolt fly. He nearly growls in frustration when the bolt barely hits the edge of the target. “What the-”

“Good shot,” you say, impressed.

“That’s not the center.” Crosshair sneers, lowering your rifle.

“You still hit it. I don’t think anyone else could have made it at that angle,” you reply.

“You show me then if you’re so good, sweetheart.”

Paying no mind to his snappy remark, you take your weapon back from him and lower into your crouched position. You center your sights on the target in question and wait a moment for it to stop bouncing as much. Once you’ve got its steady bouncing rhythm down, you move to focus on a shiny chunk of quartz sticking out of the hillside. Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

Your shot flies perfectly, hitting the quartz and ricochetting up into the dead center of the target. You look up at the Crosshair, making no effort to try to hide the smug look on your face.

“Tricky girl,” he says, his eyes narrowing.

“Got to consider all the angles,” you tease as you straighten back up.

Crosshair reaches to his belt and holds up a couple shiny discs. “I prefer these.”

“Smart,” you respond, shifting your weight into one hip. “And yet you still took the straight-on approach.”

He smirks at you as you stand up. “Thought it’d be best to be direct with you.”

“Oh yeah, what about?”

“I don’t get you,” he says plainly.

Your brow scrunches as you lean your rifle against a nearby tree. “What’s there to get?”

“Everything about you.” He shakes his head and runs his fingers through his silver hair. “I saw you when those scavengers came up on us scouting last week. You stared down the barrel of their weapons and tried to negotiate our way out. Then when they turned, you didn’t even flinch. You’re a good hunter, you’ve been feeding us this entire trip; yet you cleaned the wound on that kybuck’s flank and let it go instead of taking the easy score. Even with me, I- I can’t figure you out, nothing gets to you.”

It takes you a second to realize that’s the most words Crosshair has ever spoken to you, and they didn’t even come with a childish jab. You just shrug. “I learned it's best to make the most you can with what you’ve got. I try to give everyone a chance, no matter how we meet and I don’t take more than what I need. I don’t have time to let things get to me; there are much more important, more worthwhile things to be taken care of. And if I can’t let something go, I bring it here,” you finish, glancing out at your shooting range.

Crosshair looks you up and down a couple times, then turns his back to you to face the range. Then he speaks, so softly you barely catch it, “Do you mind if I let some things go here?”

A soft smile crosses your face. “Of course. Here.” You reach back over and hold your rifle out to him, which he takes without looking at you.

You can see his muscles shift as he lowers himself to the ground. Not wanting to intrude, you take a few steps back up the trail.

“Where are you going?”

“Oh, uh I was just going to go get some water from the stream, check my snares,” you respond, covering your true intentions.

“You won’t have your rifle,” Crosshair mutters.

“I have my side arm, I’ll be fine,” you reassure him.

A soft sigh drifts from his figure laying on the forest floor. “Please… stay. I can check the snares with you later.”

You try to hide your smile as you gently lower yourself to the ground, resting your back against a tree as Crosshair brings the scope of your rifle into position. And there you stay.

At first, Crosshair doesn’t say much. He just takes his shots at your range, adjusting things here and there. After a while, you lean your head against the tree trunk behind you and let your eyes close. The sun is filtering through the trees as it rises higher in the sky, and birds are softly chirping. It’s peaceful, like always, and the rhythmic pattern of Crosshair’s shots roll through the forest like a heartbeat.

You don’t know how much time has passed when you hear him shift.

“Here.”

Straightening up, you open your eyes and see he’s sitting cross legged, holding your rifle out.

You take it back from him and move to stand up.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asks, still sitting on the ground.

You tilt your head at him, for him saying he couldn’t figure you out, he seems to be the odd one. “The snares?”

“It’s your turn to shoot.”

“Oh it’s fine,” you say, waving your hand.

You shift your weight again to stand, but this time Crosshair reaches out and grasps your bracer. “That’s what you were coming out here to do anyway, right? I interrupted you.”

His words are so different from the ones that normally pass between the two of you. Not gentle, necessarily, but less defensive. You take a breath before nodding your head, just barely. Crosshair scoots out of your way. If you weren’t so focused on making the space between you a place where he could be open, you might have giggled at the way he moved, still in his cross-legged position.

You slowly lower yourself onto your belly and bring your scope to your eye. Crosshair had adjusted things slightly, but strangely you didn’t mind. Usually it would irk you if someone had moved things on your rifle, but you had handed him your weapon of your own volition. It was nice to know that he felt so comfortable with you and had handled your rifle with such care and reverence. You take a few shots, aiming at various targets over the range.

As you sit up to replace the mag, you notice Crosshair is studying you intently. You smile. “What?”

The corner of his mouth twitches. “You’re a skilled sharpshooter. You even pace with your breath, impressive.”

You rock back on your heels. “Took me some time to get it, but practice makes perfect.”

Crosshair smirks at you, but not unkindly. “And that you are, nearly. Perfect- I mean…” He trails off. Again, You might have giggled at this newfound temperament, but you simply dust off your rifle a bit.

“Oh yeah? Got any pointers for me?” you reply.

The sniper moves closer to you. “If you’ll actually listen,” he jabs.

You chuckle. “I’m always listening.”

He gestures for you to take your prone position again and makes a few adjustments to your limbs. The time flies away from you as the two of you pass your rifle back and forth along with small conversation and stories. Crosshair doesn’t exactly soften, but he does open up to you a bit more.

In giving you some pointers, he’s the most comfortable you’ve seen him the whole mission. Instruction and leadership are clearly his elements. You’re surprised at how attentive he is, continuously checking in that the adjustments he makes feel correct for your body.

‘Every marksman is different.’ He had said. ‘Even if it’s the ‘correct’ way, if it doesn’t feel natural for you, then you’ll be tense or unstable and then it’s all pointless.’

You learn more than just that. Before you know it, Crosshair is telling you about his brothers, more than even Tech had told you. ‘Hunter’s helmet is specially modified to dampen his senses when needed.’ - ‘Although Tech is the smartest at basically everything, Wrecker beats him with weapons and explosives.’ - ‘Tech and I came from the same tube.’ - ‘Wrecker can tell you every ingredient in a ration pack just by tasting it.’

Some facts surprise you, like the fact that while Hunter has enhanced eyesight across the whole spectrum, Crosshair is actually farsighted and he has his holopad on the biggest text size to avoid wearing the reading glasses Tech made him. Other facts aren’t as much of a surprise, like the scar on Hunter’s chin was a gift from Crosshair when they were roughhousing as cadets.

Crosshair even tells you what it was like growing up as ‘special’ clones on Kamino. ‘Clones are outsiders among the nat-borns of the galaxy. We were outsiders even among the clones.’ - ‘The advanced growth rate meant that for a few years from bio age 7-18 our joints always hurt. The bumps and bruises from training just blended it all together.’

You had no idea Crosshair could be so much of a talker, and he even chuckles a few times at his own stories or your side remarks. The conversation was far from annoying, though. You sat and listened intently, basking in his sudden willingness to share. Without warning, your chrono beeps, cutting one of his sentences short. You glance down and gasp at the time.

“Everything okay?” Crosshair asks, his brow furrowing.

“We’ve been here all day.” You say. “We have to hurry if we’re going to walk the traps and get back to camp to meet the others.”

Crosshair shoots to his feet, his jaw tense.

Guilt settles in your stomach. “I’m sorry.” You look up at him, but he refuses to meet your eyes. “I was enjoying it here, but-”

“We have to go.” He says in a gruff voice. The walls are back up.

You solemnly gather your gear and the two of you walk your snare lines in silence. You’re tempted to respark the conversation you two had been sharing, but you can tell the moment is lost, and pushing would be futile.

When you arrive back at base camp, the others are already milling about preparing the dinner rations. Hunter glances between you and Crosshair as you enter the camp, but says nothing. Not even when he notices Crosshair is the one carrying the score from your traps.

Dinner is served as normal, but Crosshair takes his into the building serving as your bunk house rather than eating around the fire with the rest of you. You try to keep that sinking feeling out of your stomach to no avail. Had you pushed him? He was opening up to you, being receptive. Why did your chrono have to bring you crashing back to reality?

Your thoughts continue to swirl in your head as you wash up after dinner and you barely notice when Hunter appears beside you at the basin.

“You okay?” He mutters, picking up a dish and swirling it in the water.

“Mm, yeah,” you mutter.

A chuckle rumbles deep in Hunter’s chest. “I saw you two today.”

You can feel the Sergeant’s implication pressing in on you. “Oh yeah, he just got bored and wanted something to do.”

Hunter shakes his head. “No, that’s not it. He likes you.”

“He has a funny way of showing it,” you jab back, shoving the memory of your day at the range deep into the back of your mind.

“He’s just...” Hunter sighs. “Figuring it out on his own terms. He takes patience. You’ve been doing well so far, just hold out a little longer and he’ll open up to you.”

‘He was…’ You think to yourself. Instead you finish wiping the last dish and flick the water off your hands. “Well I don’t have forever,” you say shortly, turning to walk into the bunks.

Grumbling nonsense to yourself, you turn the corner to your room and your breath catches in your throat. On your bed lies a single item.

A bright orange and maroon lily.

After that day at your shooting range, little changes in your interactions with Crosshair. His snarky comments return, but his demeanor towards you does begin to shift. His morning jab was now accompanied by a cup of caf complete with a splash of milk, just the way you liked it. His hand was now the first to reach out when unloading gear to lighten your load, though it still came with some iteration of a sly ‘sweetheart’. There was even a time you had fallen asleep by the campfire and you woke with a blanket draped over you. Hunter swore up and down that Crosshair had been the last one to bed that night.

With two weeks left in the squad’s mission, you make your way to the range alone, lost in thought. At 0400, your comm had beeped with a message from Argus: you would be immediately moving on to your next assignment upon your return to the Coalition Command Base. A scuffle on Scarif’s opposite pole needed your attention, and reportedly the territory was still severely hostile.

Though you didn’t want to admit it, your time hosting Squad 99 had been little short of a vacation. Just last night, Hunter had pulled you aside and offered you a spot on the team as a ‘Civilian Consultant.’

‘Even though we’re supposed to be a clone squad, it’s a way of skirting the rules.’ He had said with a wink. ‘It wouldn’t pay much, but you’d be taken care of.’

You had told him you’d think about it, but you couldn’t imagine leaving Scarif. Your people need you. As your thoughts tumble in your head, you nearly step on something as you break the treeline into your sniper’s nest. Not something - someone.

“You’re very observant today,” Crosshair groans as he stands up.

“Sorry,” you say, shaking your head trying to clear it.

Crosshair looks down at you, his brow furrowed. “Hey,” he says, his voice soft. “What is it?”

The moment your eyes meet his, the words start tumbling from your mouth. You tell him everything. The comm from Argus that arrived before the boys rose that morning. The stress that’s been on your shoulders as the First Lieutenant of the Coalition.

You tell him about the pit in your stomach that grows every time you see a starving child, or a family ripped apart by raiders. Even about the pity you feel for the dying light in the eyes of bandits you arrest. How your homeworld was dying and there was little you could do about it.

You find yourself telling him about Hunter’s offer, and your temptation to take it. How the allure of staying with the squad you’d grown fond of was near irresistible, but the guilt at your eagerness to leave your homeworld behind was clawing at your chest.

Before you know it your breath is rising in your throat, your pulse quickening, your head beginning to spin, when suddenly your world becomes dark. It takes you a second to realize that you didn’t pass out, but your face is pressed to something… warm. Something solid and stable.

The scent of the camp soap surrounds you as Crosshair presses you to his chest, one arm curling around you, the other cradling the back of your head. Your breathing begins to steady and your heartbeat slows to match the steady beating of his heart under your cheek.

After a while you find it in yourself to mutter “Cross-”

“Shh.” He cuts you off, ruffling your hair slightly. “Don’t speak, just breathe for a second.”

Another couple minutes like that and you feel your body begin to relax. Crosshair releases you from his grip and you feel your weight on your own two feet again. Again you try to speak. “I’m so-”

“Don’t say you’re sorry.” He cuts you off again. “You have a lot going on and a lot to think about. Let the rest of the galaxy melt away for a bit. That’s why you’re here, right?” He says with a smirk.

You let out a breath. “I suppose.” Then you realize. “Hey, speaking of - what are you doing here?”

Crosshair rubs the back of his neck. “Ehh. Needed some time to think?”

“You don’t sound so sure.”

He just shrugs. “I’ve never been… good with talking.”

You smile but take a step back from him. “You don’t have to be. We don’t have to talk at all.” You say, your words gentle.

Crosshair’s deep honey eyes look down at you. “The thing is… I want to. I just don’t…” He sighs, then leans over to pull something from his pack laying nearby. “Here.”

You look down at what he’s trying to hand you. It’s two maroon and orange lilies. Their bright colors stand out against his dark gear. You take them from him, delicately and look back up. His eyes are searching your face for any sign of caution.

His shoulders relax with relief when you take one of the flowers and tuck it behind your ear. “How’s the practice going?” you ask with a smile.

Crosshair’s face brightens a bit at the mention of sharpshooting. “Good. I was hoping you would be here today. I wanted to show you something new.”

Gingerly, he takes one of your hands in his and eases your rifle off your shoulder. Rather than handing you your weapon, however, he leans it up against a nearby tree.

“Cross, what-”

“Shh” He hushes you gently, taking the second lily from your other hand and dropping the stem into the barrel of your rifle. He guides you over to the sniper’s ridge and picks his own weapon up off the ground. “Here.”

Your eyes widen when you realize what his intentions are. He’s giving you his firepuncher.

Ever so carefully, you let him release his prized rifle into your grip. “Hmm,” you hum as your hands dip with its weight. “I assumed it would be heavy but… wow.”

“Start on the ground, then we’ll work you up to standing.” Crosshair says, his voice steady. “Adjust the scope how you need it.”

You get settled and with him crouched beside you, you bring the scope up to your view. The sounds of the forest start to melt away as you zone in on a target.

A little puff of air hits your ear as Crosshair leans close. "Be prepared for the recoil," he mutters in a low voice. "It’s strong, but don’t fight it. Whenever you’re ready."

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

The blaster bolt is nearly silent as it flies home to the center of the target.

There your day melts away again as you and Crosshair pass a weapon back and forth. Fewer words accompany his rifle, but it feels as though more is said.

The last two weeks of Squad 99’s mission pass uneventfully, but there is another shift. There’s a shift in how Crosshair treats you. After your first day at the range, he had warmed more to you, but now he’s like a tooka always at your heels. He’s not overbearing, just always present.

You’re catching yourself smiling at his little quirks more and more. The way he can fall asleep almost anywhere, curled up in a tight ball. The way he claims he drinks his caf black, but you spot him sneaking sugar into it out of the corner of your eye. The way he’s always watching, even if his back is to you.

He also seems more physically drawn to you. Of course, he never crosses a line, but in subtle ways. He tends to brush against you more when moving about your daily routines. His hands seem to linger on your body when adjusting your sniping form, and you could feel the heat of his palm on your lower back when he steadied you after you stumbled on a trail. His voice seems to drop and soften when he speaks to you, he nearly sounds like Hunter - it’s definitely genetic.

Of course Hunter noticed too. After your second day with Crosshair at the shooting range, Hunter had pulled you aside again. You expected an ‘older brother talking to’ where he either would grill you about your intentions or warn you to stay away, but the first words out of Hunter’s mouth had shocked you.

“You’re good for him, you know.”

“I beg your pardon?” You had instinctively said back.

Hunter placed his hand on your shoulder, you knew it was a gesture of his affection. “You’re good for him. With you, he can just exist.”

“You’re imagining things, Hunter.”

“I promise you I’m not. I know he can be difficult, but it’s not because he’s apathetic. It’s just a challenge for him to put words to what’s going on in that head of his.”

“There are more ways to understand someone than with words.”

Hunter laughed at your remark. “Like I said, you’re a good match for him. In more ways than one.”

Hunter left the conversation at that. He didn’t push, but he would tease you under his breath about it. You hated to admit it, but Hunter was right, you had grown soft on the sniper and you would come to see the effect you had on him. His shoulders were less tense, his brow furrowed less, he turned his face to the sun more. Maybe there was something growing between you and him, maybe it was something worth exploring.

‘Karking Siths Hells. Collect yourself, woman.’ You scold yourself. You shake your head to clear your thoughts as your gorset moves around a group of trees.

Here you are. The day had finally come for Clone Force 99 to ship back out. You didn’t want to admit it but it was hitting you harder than you thought it would. You were trying to keep that armor up, but you were sadly failing.

When you reach the Coalition’s Command Base, the brothers immediately start moving their things back to their ship. Sadly, Argus had been called to the Capital so he wasn’t there to welcome you back. As you helped the brothers repack, each made sure to say their goodbyes.

Tech held his hand out, and you moved to return the handshake. Instead you found him grasping your forearm in a much more meaningful gesture. “It’s a physical form of farewell from our mother culture of Mandalore. It’s a symbol of respect and honor. You have been a wonderful host, and I will miss your company. You do not know how much it means that you not only answered my questions but returned them with some of your own.”

Wrecker was next. Your hands seemed to dance in the intricate handshake you two had created. “I’ll miss having ya around!” He boomed. “I think you ruined the ration packs for me forever with your camp cooking. And Lieutenant? Thank you, for seeing us as more than clones, it’s been refreshing.”

Hunter pulled you into a tight hug like many times before. “I know I don’t need to say it, but take care of yourself. Keep in touch, I need someone to chat with that hasn’t thrown up on me.”

This made you laugh for the first time today. “That could be arranged,” you tease back.

Before Hunter replies he looks at something behind you. Turning around you see it’s Crosshair walking towards you. You meet him halfway, searching his face for any sign of what mood he’s in.

“Where did you disappear off to?” You ask trying to ease into a goodbye.

“Nowhere important.” He curtly replies, shoving his helmet on his head.

You bite your lip. “Okay… Best of luck, Crosshair. Stay safe out there.”

“You too.” He holds his hand out, but unlike Tech he just gives you a simple, firm handshake. Only he doesn’t let go.

You want to say something, but what would be the right thing? The two of you always seemed to communicate through actions more than words. There you two stand for a moment, awkwardly holding your handshake, and your eyes drift for a moment.

When you look back at Crosshair he’s moving. Before you can register what’s happening his helmet is smacking you on the forehead, causing you to cry out and clap a hand to the sore spot.

Did he just headbutt you? Or was he trying to kiss you and forgot his helmet was on?

He lets go of your hand like he was shocked, standing straight as a pole. “I uh… I’ve got to go. Keep practicing, stay alive.”

Without another word he walks, more like runs, away from you and up the Marauder’s ramp.

Hunter appears at your side obviously trying to contain his laughter. “That was interesting.”

“What exactly just happened?” You grumble, rubbing your forehead.

“A very Crosshair farewell.” Hunter sighs. “Look, I know that we aren’t exactly built for relationships or even plain friendships outside of the GAR, but… don’t be a stranger. We’ve all come to like you and Crosshair, he won’t say it anytime soon, but he needs you.”

Hunter squeezes your shoulder and jogs up the Marauder’s ramp, leaving you standing alone in the ship yard.

Sighing and shaking your head, you turn and walk to the Command Center to gather the intel for your new deployment. After sitting through a painfully redundant briefing meeting with a couple squadron leaders with sticks up their asses, you stop by the cantina for dinner. The food weighs heavy on your tongue like glue. It doesn’t taste nearly as good as beans and rice Scarif stir fry around a campfire with a choice four troopers.

The supply depot is your next stop to restock your personal supplies and check that your shuttle was loaded correctly. You still have a half hour before your crew is due for deployment, so you head over to the base stables to see a friend.

Your gorset has his nose on the ground of his stall, snuffling around for remnants of his evening grain, but he raises his head at the sound of your footsteps.

“Hey there, boy.” You coo softly at him. “What are we gonna do, huh?”

As you scratch behind his ear, your gorset turns his head for you to get to the other side and a gasp leaves your lips when you see his mane.

Woven into your gorset’s thick locks are three bright orange lilies.

Your back aches as you make the hike from the ruins to your range. Your last assignment had been far from comfortable. The relief mission was supposed to be non combative, just transport of supplies and giving aid to the rebuilding effort in Northern Sector 7, but of course you weren’t that lucky. A band of storms blew through while you were there, sending refugees into the town you were based in.

Your forces were already spread thin and the influx of people hadn’t helped. Then of course the raiders came. You were able to deescalate the situation the first time they showed up, but the second time they stormed the town with ballistics. The stockpile was pretty depleted at that point so at the very least the Coalition didn’t lose much.

Argus had taken pity on you and said you had a week before he’d even think about shipping you out again, so you decided to go home for a few days. You hadn’t been back in months, much longer than usual, not since them.

The peaceful ruins of your village had felt emptier that morning when you’d arrived. You half-expected Wrecker to come barreling through the brush asking about dinner, or for Tech to appear beside you with some obscure question about your home world.

You had to admit you did miss Hunter, he had his way of knowing what was going on with you without even asking. Though the temptation was there to take his offer and join the squad, you just couldn’t leave Scarif and her people. Hunter didn’t blame you though, he knew the pressure you were under as the Coalition’s First Lieutenant. Who would’ve done the job if you left?

You had exchanged comm frequencies with Hunter, but hadn’t heard anything from them, about anything. Not that you were expecting to. The fourth member of Squad 99 lingered on your mind more than the others, but it’s not like you were pining after him.

Crosshair had made you no promises, nor had you him. You just wondered where he was, what his missions were. You wondered if he was okay, not just physically, but under the armor he put up around himself.

The sun is already high in the sky when you reach your range. You take a couple minutes to go over your rifle, then take your standing position.

Your sore muscles shift as you bring your rifle up to your view and set the barrel on the rest you added to your shoulder plate. You sweep the range, checking the status of your targets, but stutter when you notice something nestled in the foliage.

A bright orange lily.

Shaking your head, you keep sweeping the range, then you spot another lily. Then another, and another. Your mouth drops open as you lower your weapon. It couldn't be, could it?

The undergrowth behind you rustles and you know it’s him before he speaks. "Good to see you're practicing. We need you again. I need you again."

#cloneflowerficevent #clone trooper crosshair #crosshair #bad batch crosshair #tbb crosshair #the bad batch crosshair #crosshair x reader #tbb #bad batch #the bad batch #ct 9904 #crosshair bad batch #crosshair the bad batch #crosshair tbb #forever lilies #lilies

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myymi · 4 months

Text

lost world angst, anyone?

Sonic wasn't sure what he expected to happen to Tails after he got stuck in that trap and taken away before he could save him.

But his money certainly wasn't on the kit being half-roboticized.

He wanted to puke at the sight of his brother. (Which is an idea he wasn't too entirely fond of at the moment. Amy had made him a really nice breakfast this morning and it sits better in his stomach than on his shoes.)

He wanted to say he didn't even recognize the kid, but that'd be a lie. He'd always know when he was looking into his little brother's eyes, no matter if they're drained of life or artificial.

He could imagine the screams the fox probably let out as his body was torn into, flesh and blood being forcibly replaced by steel and oil.

Eggman had gloated about the process once years ago and it still haunted the hedgehog. To think Tails, his kid, fell victim to it..

He was going to rip those stupid zetis into shreds.

“What did you do to him.” Sonic demanded, even though he knew the answer. He just needed them to say it.

He needed them to admit they tortured a barely seven year old child.

“Calm down.” Zavok waved off the obvious anger radiating from the hedgehog, not at all worried about his opponent. “We simply gave him a few upgrades. Isn't he so much better?”

Better?

Better?!

How could anyone think that was better?

Sonic's face fell into a harsh glare, his royal blue quills shifting a few shades darker as he stared right into Zavok’s stupid, purple eyes.

“I'm going to fucking kill you.” He growled, angrily baring his fangs. He wasn't the biggest fan of swearing, especially not around Tails, but he'd let it slide this time.

“You'll have to deal with your little tagalong first.” The zeti stayed nonchalant as he gestured to the half-robot fox and, oh Chaos, his eye was so dull. There was no life in him.

Sonic didn't say anything in response to that, so Zavok decided to begin the fight with a simple command, “Tails, kill that worthless creature.”

The fox-robot listened to the command, lifting up its arm that now had a cannon attached to the end of it. The reality of the situation only fully kicked in when it started charging, a small purple energy or quickly growing in size.

“Oh, buddy.” Sonic knew he could fight Tails. Even if it wasn't him anymore, he couldn't hurt his brother. He promised him, “I'm so sorry, kid. I should've been faster.” He apologized, raising his paws in surrender to show the other he wouldn't fight.

Even if the fox was about to kill him, he was going to accept it. He deserved it after failing to keep the kid out of the zetis’ hands.

He braced himself for the inevitable impact of the orb once it looked like it was finished growing. It wouldn't be long before it shot, and Sonic would've left Mobius as a failure of big brother.

But then the light in Tails’ eye resparked.

With a wink, the kit quickly pivoted on his heel and dropped to crouch on his knee. He did his best to prop up the cannon as he aimed it right at Zavok’s head, “Never!” He shouted, pulling the trigger.

The blast ended up striking Zavok right in the center of his chest, the force sending him flying a few feet backwards.

Sonic could do nothing but stand and gape at his little brother. He didn't understand what happened, it all went by too fast—isn't that the craziest thing? Too fast for Sonic to keep up.

“Hold it, fuzzball.” Zeena said, stepping up as she pointed a remote at the fox and pressed a button. “You're still ours. Now do as you're told so we can end this. I need to fix my nail polish and you're delaying it with your wanna-be hero stunt.”

Tails yelped and grabbed his head with the paw that hadn't been turned into a weapon. His organic eye closed tightly in obvious pain as the other flashed between blue and red.

Sonic knew he should do something, but it felt like his feet were glued in place. No matter how much he begged, his body wouldn't move.

“No!” Tails cried out, shaking his head before just barely opening his eye. The first thing he saw was the arm cannon, which reminded him of a program he added in last minute as a backup plan.

Sonic was going to be so mad at him for this.

He didn't give his brain a chance to bail on the plan in fear of upsetting his big brother. He spun his tails as quickly as he could, doing his best to ignore how one of them felt like pure metal and flew straight into the center of the zetis.

He didn't stop flying until he landed on top of Zomom, looping his legs around the orange zeti’s neck as much as could as he pressed a hidden button on the cannon.

As the three second timer kicked off, the fox looked up to find his brother. He sent him a smile, quickly mouthing ‘I'm sorry.’ before his vision was full of white, then almost immediately fading to black.

“Tails!” Sonic screamed right before the explosion hit, knowing that silent apology couldn't have been a good sign.

The force of the bomb knocked him back a bit, but he was back on his feet in a second and running to where he last saw his brother.

One of the zetis, the depressed one, was entirely missing from the group. But, other than that, the rest of them were all knocked unconscious.

“Tails?” Sonic's voice choked on tears as he slid beside the kit’s body. The bomb had destroyed some of the metal, revealing that most of it was just show.

Tails hadn't been roboticized.

He swallowed past the lump in his throat as he gently cradled his baby brother, shoving away the haunting bits of metal.

He knew this entire encounter was going to haunt his dreams for a while.

He didn't dwell on that matter though. Tails was far more important. He needed to get him away from these monsters.

So he ran.

He wasn't sure where he was running to exactly, but anywhere away from the zetis was a good place to be.

By chance or maybe an unknowingly conscious effort, Sonic had made it to where they had parked the Tornado. She hadn't moved a muscle, her red paint still glistening in the sun as she soaked in the heat.

Feeling calmer from just the plane's presence, the hedgehog carefully climbed into the cockpit and settled into the seat.

Tails was still cradled to his chest, his grip on the fox tightening as he found a comfortable enough spot.

He didn't know what to do. They didn't really have the supplies to treat whatever happened to the kid.

He was just gonna have to wait it out. Figure out how Tails was feeling when he woke up and then go from there.

The hedgehog curled around the younger boy as much as he could when he felt his eyelids growing heavy. He nuzzled the fox's fur, making sure to lay extra attention to the sections that had been covered by metal. He planted a small kiss above the eye that had been seemingly replaced by an artificial one.

They would be fine if he took a quick nap. He'd wake up if something attacked them, and the Tornado’s keys were already in the ignition. It'd be okay.

Chaos, he prayed Tails would also be okay when he woke up.

He didn't like his slow heartbeat or his weak pulse.

#tails may or may not be okay #idk i haven't decided #really badly written cause i rushed it sorry #i got excited :/#miles tails prower #sonic the hedgehog #sth #tails the fox #sonic #unbreakable bond #dynamic duo #sonic lost world #zavok the zeti #zeena the zeti #zeti #major character injury

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etaleah · 5 months

Text

Jotting down my initial thoughts on Part 3 of Prime:

Love the few Sonadow moments we got but I don’t get why Sonic rushed to save everyone else yet didn’t even bother to ask where Shadow was when he got to the Grim. Didn’t even try to go down below and get him. Seems more than a little unfair.

The Rose sisters teaming up was excellent.

That 3-minute recap was fuckin’ ridiculous; they really must have been struggling to pad out the runtime.

Dropping Sonic back in the moment of the shattering was a nice touch.

Having Sonic find out about the palm trees in the Grim was also a nice touch.

Why is the Alpha Big the thing that gets everyone scared? Big is easily the least effective fighter of them all.

I love that Sonic asks Rebel Rouge to take command, but I’m not sure what the point of that is if her plan doesn’t work and falls apart quickly. Good character development for Sonic at least.

FINALLY SHADOW AND ROUGE INTERACTED

The ending was clearly setting up for a Part 2, which we are never going to get because Netflix is garbage like that.

For that reason, the ending isn’t nearly as satisfying as I had hoped for. New Yoke City is still a hell scape, Boscage Maze still hasn’t been rebuilt (meaning Sonic broke his promise to Thorn, something both of them seem to have forgotten), and Nine is still alone in the world. The whole point they’re trying to make is that everyone deserves a happy ending and yet it feels like only the Green Hill characters got one.

I love Renegade Knux so much; he’s easily the best version of Knuckles.

Shadow was robbed once again by both being stuck on the sidelines for so long AND for not being allowed to kick Nine in the head at least once.

WAY too much repetition holy hell. If you took a drink every time more robots appeared or every time Nine growled/yelled before zapping more prism energy, you’d be dead by the end of the season. That fight was Battle of the Five Armies levels of long and drawn-out, which is a real shame because that time could have been much better spent elsewhere.

I don’t think Nine and Dread really deserved their redemptions and both felt very rushed. To me, Nine crossed the line into irredeemability when he decided to kill the foxes just because he didn’t like that they looked like him. That isn’t a trauma response from years of bullying or a matter of self-defense. It’s just murderous and mean.

On that note, it felt like quite the emotional bait-and-switch to say that Sails and Mangey were fine actually and they just flew away when no one was looking. Bit of a cowardly move on the writers’ part, I think.

The Chaos Council is so ANNOYING can’t they just fucking DIE.

Overall I’d say this season turned out similar to the last in that the first episode of the batch was EASILY the best of the bunch. It peaked at the first and never quite got that good again. I’m biased here because Shadow is my favorite, but I just feel like it’s better to have a quick fight scene with two or three characters than it is to have a long fight scene with dozens of characters because then you have to jump around too much.

The sad thing is, the disappointments make me glad the show is ending, because now I feel certain that if it kept going, it would only get more repetitive and the quality would decline rapidly.

#sonic prime #sonic prime season 3 #sth #shadow the hedgehog #amy rose #sonic the hedgehog #my thoughts #sonic prime spoilers #renegade knucks #rebel rouge #rouge the bat #nine sonic prime #sonadow

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vodika-vibes · 6 months

Note

“Dooku calls Palpatine Master, and you're pretty sure it's an old person sex thing and you're really not interested in reading about it.

Maybe you can make Fox read the letters instead. Yeah. That's a great idea. If you have to be traumatized then so does Fox, that's the rule.”

Fox: . . .

PA: And that’s why I’m here!

Fox: *realizes that Palpatine is a Sith* It’s too early for this shit—

Yuu over here causing problems on accident, good thing that they have Fox to help them.

"Man, the Guard's new Bullpen is nice," Wolffe says as he walks through the clean halls, taking note of the large desks, and clearly comfortable chairs, and the improved armor that the vod'e are wearing, "They even have better armor than us? What the kriff?!" "Don't be jealous," Cody says, as he admires a pair of blasters a younger vod is meticulously cleaning, "They have to deal with a lot of shit, they deserve nice things." "Damn straight we do," Thorn says as he walks passed them while holding a personalized mug with some kind of spiced latte in it, and holding a very nice datapad in his other hand, "Hey Thire! Have you read the new Child Services policies-!" He shouts as he turns towards a door. "The Commanders even have their own offices-" Cody says, sounding awed as he follows Wolffe towards the door that clearly labeled 'Marshal Commander Fox, Coruscant Guard'. "You have your own office on the Negotiator." Wolffe reminds his brother. "Yeah, but I don't have an office in the Barracks." Cody enters the code to Fox's door (the same door code he always uses, you'd think that he'd know better-) and steps into the office. Yuu is sitting in one of the cozy chairs, using a glue gun to repair something on their boots, while Fox has his face buried in his hands. His gaze locked on a bedazzled datapad laying on his desk. "Yuu, sweetling, how far back do these messages go?" Fox asks, sounding pained. "Years." Yuu replies as they hold up their boot, eye it critically, and then go back to bedazzling their boots. "I think the earliest message I found was 11 years ago. When I was still a kid." "You are still a kid." Fox grumbles. "I'm older than you." They yelp as Fox throws a stress ball at them. "Only in terms of years you've physically lived," Fox says, "Stars, Yuu, how have you not been killed yet?" Yuu grins at Fox, "Didn't you know? I'm a vapid child who only cares about fashion." They hold up their boot, "Should I add more gemstones?" "No." Fox says, his gaze finally flickering to his brothers. "You're right. I should definitely bedazzle the entire thing." Yuu muses, before they turn their head to the door, "Your brothers are here." "Thank you, I never would have noticed." "Then it's a good thing I'm here to help point out the obvious." "Get out of my office." "I'm not wearing shoes, and you have my datapad. So I'm staying." "...are we interrupting?" Wolffe asks dryly. "No," Yuu chirps. "Yes." Fox bites out at the same time. And then they share a look. "Yes," Yuu corrects with a peaceful smile. "No." Fox says at the same time. "...should we leave so you can work out your story?" Cody asks.

#star wars #star wars au #PA AU

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bard-of-worlds · 2 months

Text

Chapter 29

Sorry for how long I was away, I've had to deal with a lot of Drama offline! But I'm back and will be trying to get this story finished by July! Everyone who rereads my Work, I. AM. BACK!

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As Volpina rode her mount over the rooftops, she laughed out loud! Whenever they empowered her like this, she always felt so alive! Those fools who rejected this power, every one of them deserved nothing but scorn. How could they even thinking of letting it slip through their fingers! And all master Hawk…..Shaowmoth wanted her to do a task that she would gladly do anyway hurt Ladyslut!

All he had wanted from her when they began her ‘employment’ was to spy on the peons in her class. Tell him if she ever saw anything that might lead to Ladyslut and Stray Noir’s defeat. And for her revenge she would done it anyway! And her plan to use that little bitch Marinette to trigger a mass attack? That was some of her best work ever, and it got her an in with Gabriel Agreste of all people as well!

She still didn’t know why or how the plan failed and what Adrien did after she tried to get him on board……. She needed to find him and have a long talk with him. While she was transformed of course. Maybe if she showered him just what her new claws could do to a steak, maybe then he would get the message. Make him think about what she could do to Mari-trash! Then maybe he would play nice, if not then she could give him Mari-trash’s hand. After she severed it, and in a garbage bag of course.

But then those thoughts died down as she remembered what she had learned. There was her mother to consider and what she had done to Lila, she needed to run. That witch…… Merda, she might be one! I need to find someplace to hide! Wait, he could help me, if she can’t track me or maybe even he could create another Villain to kidnap her! She thought with a grin. With how he’s been doing up until now, Shadowmoth could do with competent help beyond that Mayura witch. And if while she was helping him she learned a few things that let her

But as soon as the thoughts entered her mind one of the Midnight Crew cried out as it was pulled away and down.

Volpina looked at it in shock for but a moment before sending a mental command and her mount to get away from here. But as it jumped over a gap between buildings something shot up. She saw an orange blur barely missed spearing the briefcase by inches!

From bellow the rooftops Rena Rouge shot up with her flute extended to its staff form. At the top of her jump Rena Rouge backflipped and landed on the roof opposite Volpina and glared at her.

“So you’re that faux fox I’ve heard about! I know what you have there so just hand it over before it goes too far!” Rena Rouge growled as Volpina looked at her first in shock then in hunger.

Volpina couldn’t believe how lucky she was. Here she was, wondering how to get away from her mother and this happened?

“So the lesser fox following Ladyslut decided to come out and fight a superior specimen? Will tying you to the top of the Eifel Tower naked without your Miraculous cause her to come and try to save you from me? ” Volpina asked with a smug pure to her voice as she glared at Rena Rouge. The captured Midnight Crew was thrown out of the shadows at the other one and both fell to the street below them.

“Just try, you sorry excise for a vixen!” Rena Rouge growled back. Okay, I gotta keep the attention on me. Gotta not strike back and block all the bolts I can, need to wait for the others to strike first. She thought as she growled as she clenched her staff flute.

Volpina just laughed as she gestured at Rena Rouge. With a roar from Dark Kitsune it raised its tails out and started to fire blasts from the orbs.

As Rena Rouge spun her staff, blocking the blasts as she moved backwards. Volpina just laughed as Dark Kitsune stalked forward. As she was forced to move backwards, Rena Rouge just kept blocking the blasts.

Volpina watched and grinned devilishly. All she could think about what she could do once she took the Miraculous of the Fox. How having any power that wasn’t Hawkmoth’s would help her so much. She was waiting for Ladybug to strike. She had to be around, who else had captured the two Midnight Crew Sentimonsters that were her guards. Perhaps she was busy holding them? If so then she had a fox to skin!

As Rena Rouge moved backwards, she kept hope. All she needed to do was keep Volpina's eyes on her. Once the they had a chance, one good strike would end her part of this.

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As Dark Owl slashed out with his sword Lunar Raven kept blocking as she led him around the rooftops. Bellow the Midnight Crew were still mostly fighting themselves.

As Dark Owl took a stance he glared at Lunar Raven. This is insane, how could I have been so fooled by this witch! What was her end game, why did she break cover now of all times!? Dark Owl thought as he looked at Lunar Raven with a scowl.

“Foul temptress! Was anything that you ever showed to believe in true!?” Dark Owl bellowed as Shadowmoth’s energy mask formed over his face. Lunar Raven only looked back at him for a moment before speaking.

“Battle is no longer profitable to us both. I request an end so this unit can leave while still enhanced, and unit DARK OWL, can deal with Miraculous users. Agreement?” Lunar Raven asked stiffly and Dark Owl only scowled at her.

Dark Owl glared at her as Shadowmoth sent him a message. Keep fighting, our primary target isn’t here yet! And don’t give in, we need to capture her so I can find out how she tricked us! Dark Owl nodded and glared at Lunar Raven as she waited for his reply.

Dark Owl heard the commands from the commissioner and agreed, but he knew that he needed to find another way to win. Just fighting alone wasn’t doing anything to defeat this criminal. He looked around and took notice of a few things here and there. If he timed this right, then maybe they might let him win if the she-devil didn’t have more tricks up her sleeve. If he failed……. Then he guesses he’ll be no worse off than he is now.

“Justice never makes deals with evil!” Dark Owl barked as he charged forward and slashed out. She dodged backwards and looked at Dark Owl as her eyes turned red.

“Reply within possible outcomes. Activating full battle mode,” Lunar Raven said as two metal sickle blades formed on the back of her legs. She shot forward, jumping and spinning around with her right leg out. She fell at him, the blade spinning towards Dark Owl.

Dark Owl back flipped away from her attack, throwing two disks at Lunar Raven as he spun in midair. The discs hit Lunar Raven’s sword, deflected to the ground by her feet.

“A failure again, your tactics lack the proper way to defeat me. Letting me leave, allows you to fight against the Miraculous users. This combat is pointless,” Lunar Raven said robotically, staring at Dark Owl as he held his blade.

Dark Owl felt his rage pulse for a second. This witch had taken the place of his loyal follower, and she dares to insult him? This wrench deserves my blades! Time to stop holding back! I can find out what happened to Lunar when she’s under control! He thought as he looked at the False Lunar Raven with a glare. “Then let’s see just what my plans can do villain!”

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Below, the heroes fought on against the Sentimonsters. As they covered the Police as they moved away, the heroes keeping them from being a problem.

Chat Noir looked around at the buildings. He saw that people were watching from the windows waiting for this to end. He was at least they were staying off the streets. At least that program the Mayor set up works. Even fighting themselves these things are still focusing on us! The only chance we have is for Sis and the others to get here. He thought as he looked at the police as some of them looked at the battle.

Carapace gripped his shield harder and tried to keep his eyes locked on the battle from behind the line. No matter how hard he tried, the duel on the rooftops caught his eye. For a second he almost missed the mass attack, wincing as he saw a few of the Corrupted Crew coming towards them at a run. “Incoming!”

“Remember, try to maim, not slay!” Roi Singe called out as he jumped towards them, spinning his staff.

“Carapace, stay back and coordinate with the others! Arashiko, with me!” Chat Noir called out as he dashed forward to meet the charge. Inside he wished their friends could get done sooner, that they could find Lila and get the item.

Carapace stayed back as Arashiko and Chat Noir shot forward, helping out Roi Singe. The three fought as the police moved to cover. Some of them were carrying their sergeant with them over his objections.

Carapace held up his shield, using it to block a ranged weapon from one of the Sentimonsters. He didn’t know how long they could hold, but they had to last longer.

As they fought on, the Corrupted Crew kept trying to die on the heroes' weapons, and in some cases succeeded.

“This is a losing situation!” Arashiko said with a scowl as she deflected a blow and then kicked the Corrupted Crew away.

Roi Singe jumped backwards and landed on his knees to swing his staff out at a Corrupted Crew’s knees and sent it down. He smiled only to scowl as other Corruped killed the first as it landed. As the dead body became two new Corrupted Crew Roi Singe felt that this was going to be hard.

“Yeah, but if they go after civilians……. We gotta hold and hope that the others can pull off a win!” Roi Singe said as he blocked the blow from another of the Corrupted Crew.

Carapace had a snarl on his face as he was forced to watch. He knew his shield wouldn’t do any good in this situation, but man did he want to help them. A beeping caused him to look at his shield and activate the com function. “Tell me that’s you queenie, please!”

“Yeah, we’re inbound and ready to fight!” Apisera said with a savage edge.

“Good……..WAIT! We’re guarding some police, well I am! The others are trying to hold back the Sentimonsters! The Akuma are dueling on the rooftops and….. just hurry!” Carapace exclaimed and he heard swearing from the other end.

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“You heard that?!” Apisera asked as she led the way. Behind her Salacia and Pegasus nodded. This is bad, very bad! How can we handle this now?! We’d need to try and….. that works! She thought as she looked over her shoulder and grinned. “We’re gonna win, remember that! Horse-boy, we’re targeting the Akumas! Swim-girl, handle the Monsters! Snake Boy, you there?”

“Ready, just give me the words and I’ll start the Chance,” Viperion said and Apisera laughed a little. As she jumped over the gap between buildings she heard the sounds of blades.

“READY!” Apisera called out.

“Second Chance!” Viperion called out and activated his powers. Apisera nodded and Pegasus used his weapon tool to take a look.

“Above or behind them?” Pegasus asked and Apisera grinned.

“NO! To the building beyond the fighting! Any other place will cause Apisera to die! Once you’re there, Apisera you have to back up Dark Owl! Pegasus, recharge once you get her through the portal, then go back help Rena Rouge. Salacia get to Carapace, use your ability on the one that gets by the others! Apisera, keep your power ready but wait, don’t charge in! And speak like a comic hero to Dark Owl! I’ll back you up from my side once I’m recharged! And ignore the street no matter what happens! We tried this a hundred times; this is the best way we’ve found! And this is try number one hundred" Viperion said urgently and then they heard him jump away.

Apisera went still and swallowed before looking at the other two. They looked back with horror on their faces.

Aspiera looked at them and took a deep breath. “You heard snakey, so let’s do it. Lives are counting on us, we won’t let them down!”

As the other two nodded, Aspiera…….. no, Chloe, felt a spark of happiness that she was able to help inspire her fellow heroes.

“Portal!” Pegasus called out and a portal just where Viperion had said Aspiera needed to go. “I need to get to Rena Rouge, so move! And good luck, we’ll be back to help you all soon!”

“Go save our fox girl Horse Boy! And thanks!” Aspiera said as she leaped through the portal that closed after her.

Salacia looked at Pegasus and nodded before she dashed away. Pegasus heard the first beep of his Miraculous and turned. Running over Paris, hoping to get as close as possible before he needed to recharge.

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As he fought on, Dark Owl tried to keep calm. So far Lunar Raven’s blades had only sparked against his armor. But she had changed her approach, trying instead to hit his eyes. He didn’t know how long he would be able to keep dodging, and he could figure out the plan she had. He spared a glance and saw his Midnight Crew fighting against the other traitors, his side was losing.

He knew he was fighting a losing battle, but he had to hope that there was a way to win he hadn’t seen yet. As he jumped back something shot out and wrapped around Lunar Raven’s right arm. They looked at it and realized it was Apisera’s top and followed the line to her, standing there with a glare on her face.

“Well, when I talked to Chloe after getting this she told me about her school. Are you the ‘Spineless Teacher’? The owl is her old principal from what the Ladyblog told me,” Apisera asked with a mischief smirk on her face.

“HOOT HOOT! Justice always wins for evil fights itself!” Dark Owl called out as he lunged forward and Lunar Raven moved her arm and his blade hit Apisera’s top!

Apisera was almost pulled forward but she held fast and grinned as she looked at Dark Owl. “Hey, I plan to take down Lunar Raven to find out her origins. Mind if we fight after we deal with her?”

Dark Owl glared before an energy mask formed over his face. Do it! We don’t need her gem to solve this case! When we capture the rest we’ll find out who she is, for now, deal with the traitor! Hawkmoth sent and Dark Owl nodded.

“Very well, for now, but my justice will catch you soon villain!” Dark Owl called out as Apisera recalled her top and grinned.

“You can try hero, you can try!” Apsiera said with a dark-sounding laugh as she jumped behind Lunar Raven. As one she and Dark Owl charged at Lunar Raven from both sides.

While Apsiera acted like she was all level-headed inside her inner nerd was laughing up a storm. Who knew those old acting lessons would be used like this? And she was so happy she watched all of that anime now! To deal with the Owl, just copy lines from generic evil queens!

Lunar Raven dodged a blow from behind her and jumped over Dark Owl as he slashed down where she had been.

As Apsiera grits her teeth, she risks a glance at the street and hopes that the others held the line.

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Chat Noir blocked a blow from one of the Corrupted Crew with his staff-baton and pushed it backwards. He scowled as he saw another one of them kill the one he pushed. “We need to do something!”

“What?” Roi Singe called out as he batted away one of the Midnight Crew. But before he could react one of the Corrupted crew ran under his weapon. “NO!”

“HOLD!” Carapace called out. Moments later Salacia landed and charged forward, right at the charging Sentimonster.

“DISCORD!” Salacia roared before she punched it in its head, sending it flying backwards. The heroes watched as it landed and came apart. The resulting puddle then shot towards the nearest Sentimonster and engulfed it.

“Now what?!” Arashiko demanded and all of the heroes' weapon-tools beeped.

“Now we hold off the giant! It’ll be as big, as in twenty feet tall big! But all we have to do is hold for a few minutes to let the others get the Akuma!” Viperion’s voice said and the others all nodded.

Roi Singe looked at Salacia and felt a spark of affection for a minute before it went away. He shook his head, he already had a girlfriend for crying out loud! Maybe it was from his partner-Kwami? What he couldn’t know was Salacia was having the same thoughts as he was.

Before either of them could think about it, all the Sentimonsters had been eaten by the puddle. In moments the blob started to grow. It changed into a humanoid form, and kept growing until it was over twenty feet high. It condensed into a giant Midnight Crew and roared. The heroes all cried out and ran to meet it.

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As Dark Owl jumped backwards, he saw the giant Midnight Crew Sentimonster. He laughed as he landed. “Justice has a large reach and a larger helper!”

Lunar Raven stayed silent as she charged in, her blades ready to slash at the Akuma and Hero.

As she dodged, Apsiera looked at Lunar Raven and glared. She had never liked her as a teacher, and as an Akuma, she still wasn’t acting right! As she dodged the blows, she looked at the Akuma and wondered just how Hawkmoth had lost control. This whole situation was completely unacceptable! What should have been a nice beat down on this failure of a Teacher instead was she going off script! No other Akuma had ever gotten off Hawkmoth’s control, and this little witch of a teacher had? And what was the deal with her claws?

“Apsiera, dodge to the left now!” Viperion’s voice caused Apsiera to react.

She knew what his powers were. So without a thought, she lunged to the side a moment before Lunar Raven fired one of the claws at where she had been.

Viperion fired bolts from the other side of the street, and one of them hit Lunar Raven’s right hand and tore it off.

Apsiera could only stare in horror as even Dark Owl was shocked. The stump was fully metallic, wires and sparks danced as Lunar Raven looked at them with no emotion on her face. She stayed silent as she aimed the stump at Dark Owl.

“What are you!? Where’s Raven!?” Dark Owl demanded in horror as he looked at what he thought was his partner.

“MOVE! That’s arms a gun now!” Viperion’s voice caused Apsiera to lung and push Dark Owl down as an energy ball formed at the stump. It fired and hit the Giant Midnight Crew, causing it to stumble forward.

As the Giant Midnight Crew started to turn Apsiera gritted her teeth. I knew something was wrong with Miss Lingerie! But she’s a robot?! Okay, Max’s son shows that AI can have emotions, sure! But she’s so old! Who made her!? She thought as she looked at Lunar Ravem as Night Owl charged past her.

“Dropping back, last recharge! Hold on for a minute and I’ll come help you!” Viperion’s voice said over the coms.

Aspirea only nodded as she watched Night Owl catch a blast on his sword swung it down with a roar.

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Volpina laughed as her Kitsune Sentimonster carried her closer to Rena Rouge. So far Ladyslut was staying far away, and that just showed what a coward she was!

And once she got the Fox Miraculous, she could use it to bargain with Hawkmoth for his help with her mother. She couldn’t even begin to think of how she was controlling her, and that scared her. She had always been a fighter, but looking back on her life she couldn’t know if her choices were her own or her mother’s. She needed this, she had already played her hand with the woman who spawned her, and she couldn’t fail anymore.

“So where’s Ladyslut? Hiding because her pet fox is dying and can’t stand to see it?” Volpina asked and Rena Rouge just grinned at her.

“No, Ladybug isn’t here, that’s just a Mirage,” Rena Rouge said and Volpina went still. That was the power of the Fox, Illusions. If she had been fighting an Illusion, then who had attacked her guards!?

“Wait, if Ladybug isn’t here, who is?!” Volpina asked in shock.

“ME!” A voice called out. Then something hit Volpina’s side, sending her flying off her Sentimonster.

As she flew through the air, Volpina covered the briefcase with her body. She prepared herself to hit the ground but then she heard something that caused her blood to freeze.

“VOYAGE!”

Looking up she saw a portal form before her leading to a grass-covered ground. As she flew through it she started to scream and curse. She hit the ground on her back and made a line in the dirt.

“Well, so that’s Lie-la? After what I saw I expecting. I don't know, maybe someone smarter,” A sensual voice that Volpina had never heard before asked. She looked up and saw a tall seductive-looking female teen in a grey bodysuit with a red spider over her breasts. In her right hand was a black gymnastic ribbon, and she smirked at Volpina with black lips. “I’ve felt more danger from sick-looking dogs!”

“Who the hell are you!?” Volpina demanded and the figure laughed.

“The name’s Arachne. I usually stay out of these kinds of things really. But my partner said I should help out so here I am,” Arachne said nonchalantly.

Volpina just stared at the person before her, realizing that she was a Miraculous wielder. Another bimbo that dared to stand against her! “You shouldn’t get involved with things that don’t concern you!”

“Couldn’t not step in really. They just wouldn’t shut up about it, and this is Paris. I keep my stuff here!” Arachne said stiffly.

“WHO!?” Volpina asked and Arachne only laughed.

“If you don’t know who or what I’m talking about, I won’t tell you. We Miraculous users have to keep some things secret after all!” Arachne said with a grin.

Volpina just glared, a growl coming from her throat.

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“WHAT!?” Shadowmoth exclaimed and Enhancetress looked up.

“Sir, Lila went through a portal, what happened?” She asked and Shadowmoth looked up and scowled.

“Another hero, this one a female Spider. And Lunar Raven, she’s a robot!” Shadowmoth spat and looked up at Enhancetress.

“A what?!” Enhancetress asked, totally shocked. All she could do was think about the times that she had

“Yes! She’s a robot! I Akumatized it before, and I saw nothing! I don’t understand, is she the same being, has it always been there!?” Shadowmoth asked as Enhancetress just stood there.

Enhancetress was having as much mental strain as he was. unlike him, she had been in the same room as Adrien’s teacher. The very idea that she had been near a robot for so long was shocking. It was all Enhancetress could do to keep calm and try to figure out what this meant. She almost missed Shadowmoth’s next words.

“We need to recall your Sentimonster, it’s time to move the plan along to the next step!” Shadowmoth said as he looked back towards the window, taking in his pawn's vision.

“Of course,” Enhancetress said as she put her tablet down.

Shadowmoth recalled the feather, and with a thought sent it to follow Enhancetress. As soon as she touched the item they had brought up here for that exact reason. Within seconds, a new Sentimonster was formed and Shadowmoth grinned. At least this part of their plan was going perfectly, and the perks of this plan might help them with Adrien.

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“Give it Up Lila!” Ladybug’s voice caused Volpina to turn around. There they were, Ladyslut and the one in orange.

She just glared at Ladybug as she looked around, trying to figure out how to escape.

“You can’t escape from us, so just give it over!” The orange heroine said with a forceful voice.

Volpina glared at her and snarled, barring her teeth. “And who are you supposed to be?!”

“Miss Hound, remember it!” Miss Hound said with a sneer.

“I will!” Volpina promised as she brought her flute up to her lips. As soon as it touched, she was covered by clouds with lightning going around them.

Within she was in a safe space, and she looked around as copies of her, each with a briefcase appeared. Before she could send commands to them, the energy mask of Shadowmoth appeared over her face.

“Hold Volpina! Leave the briefcase here and create an illusion copy!” Shadowmoth sent and Volpina looked around, trying to understand what he had in mind.

“But I thought I was supposed to watch this!” Volpina said as she put the briefcase down.

“You are, but this is just the first step of the plan to get away! Now Follow my orders!!” Shadowmoth sent and Volpina blinked for a second. She opened her mouth before she closed it and started to grin evilly.

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Outside the smoke, Miss Hound stared at it and frowned. She thought she saw something for a split second, a flash of light or something else. She hadn’t activated her powers, so why? She went still as she thought she heard something, something that sounded familiar. A moment later Volinpa dashed out of the right side, still carrying the briefcase.

“GET HER!” Arachne called out and raised her ribbon. But then five more Volpinas shout out, each going in a different direction.

“MISS HOUND!” Ladybug screamed as she threw her yoyo at one of the Volpinas, only to destroy it as three more shot out of the cloud.

“Got it! Tracker’s Eye!” Miss Hound cried out. As she looked around she saw red lines in the air. All of them were centered on one of the Volpina’s as it ran away into the city. “THAT ONE!”

“GO!” Ladybug roared as they all shot forward.

Miss Hound was just going to follow when the last of the Volpinas came out of the fog and ran into her. Miss Hound cried out in shock and fell backwards. As she tried to keep calm she looked back up and stopped. The fog had blocked her vision but from the ground, she was able to see two red lines from something within the fog. And unlike these lines they led away, towards a place near where the court was.

She was about to call out when she saw the source of the two lines moving away from her. She looked towards the others and saw they were out of sight. She could call but if whoever was controlling it was watching them chase Lila! She shook her head and charged after it alone.

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Pegasus transformed back to Max and his hands shot out and grabbed Kaalki before she dropped to the ground. “You okay Kaalki?”

“Just fine Max, just a side effect of cutting through one of Duusu’s creations! It’ll be gone in a minute,” Kaalki said as she sat in Max’s hand.

Max looked at Kaalki and saw her start to look better. Still, he felt bad that his plan caused her to feel this in the first place. “I’m giving you an extra salad tonight.”

Kaalki grinned and looked at Max, happy to have such a kind holder. For a moment she thought about the last holder who was kind to her. And she barely kept the pain from what happened to them from activating her geass. She hoped that Fu would destroy the chains on the Kwami, it was the only hope they might have. If she was right, soon the results of people destroying history will appear, and that would be very bad.

“Now, now. You were moving fast all around Paris to get to this place. Some of my former chosen would have used my power instead of your body. Well done my boy!” Kaalki praised and Max laughed a little.

“Well I only have so many sugar cubes,” Max said as he brought out a small bag.

Kaalki grinned and summersaulted as Max handed her one.

A beeping on his phone caused him to grin, pulling it out he saw it was Alya.

“That trick of yours worked perfectly in the game! So you’re going to join some of the gang?”Alya asked and Max grinned.

“Yeah, I thought I’d go help Sabrina with that project, you?” Max asked and Alya laughed.

“Thought I reset and go join up for some hunting, see you………. I’m gonna have to call you back, that field boss has a second stage!” Alya said with a growl.

Max looked at Kaalki who only looked back, a question in her eyes. Max’s mind went over what Alya said before he paled in fear. “Kaalki, full gallop!”

As soon as Max finished transforming into Pegasus, he was moving. He dashed over the roofs of Paris, moving closer to where Alya was, hoping he was wrong.

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A screech came moments before Rena Rouge dodged to the left. A split second later a large black beam of energy hit the wall that had been behind where she had been. As she landed she looked at what had fired at her and scowled. The headless Sentimonster had gotten back up despite not having a head. Its tails had grown longer and its neck had a large eye in the center, and that was where the blast had come from.

As soon as she saw it get back to its feet and attack a building she had transformed and attacked it. So far she had been able to keep its attention and lead it towards the river. She had to hope that Max could come and help her.

She only glared at it as she tried and failed to keep calm. What happened!? I mean one minute I was ready to head out and help the others and then this happens! What the heck! I mean I thought Senti’s were destroyed when they were dealt damage beyond what they could handle…..unless! Rena Rouge thought as she dodged another blast.

“HIIIYAHHH!” Pegasus screamed as he appeared and slashed three of the Sentimonster’s tails off.

Rena grinned only to stare at the tails as they all locked together and a mouth opened on one end. As it reared back and hissed at them, Rena looked at Pegasus as he landed. “Thanks for the help, I just hope we live.”

Pegasus looked at the snake-tail creature and grinned. “The odds are even my friend, so just hope the others can find the Akuma!”

Rena Rogue nodded before she looked around, paling in fear. Around them, civilians were running away from the buildings. She noticed the sign for an Akuma Shelter and cursed herself for not realizing where they were. As a few people behind the Sentimonsters directed the others away, she made a choice. She locked eyes with Pegasus and saw that he had seen the same thing she had.

“Don’t fight to win, fight to keep their focus on us! Once those civilians are clear, we’ll get rid of them through a portal!” Rena said with a snarl.

Pegasus grinned and chuckled. “Think Sentimonsters can float?”

“How about a nice bath in the Arctic Ocean to find out?” Rena asked with a dangerous purr in her voice.

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As Ladybug chased after Volpina, she wondered if she wasn’t being led into a trap. But something within her, Tikki maybe, told her she was making the right choice. I wish you could talk to me like this Tikki, I do. And I can only hope that this is the right choice. She thought as she ran.

Next to her Arachne jumped and spun in the air, a laugh barely kept down. Oh, this is amazing! I should have transformed months ago! Maybe I should have tried to join the battle, or at least tried to help the victims! She thought and felt a spark of laughter from her partner. For months her Kwami had tried to get her to transform more than training, and here they were. As she spun head over feet, she looked for the third heroine but couldn’t see her.

As she landed she moved closer to Ladybug she tried to keep her voice from reaching Volpina. “Hey! Where’s your friend?”

Ladybug looked over her shoulder and paled in shock. Bringing her yoyo to her face, she opened it and spoke into it. “Miss Hound, can you hear me? Where are you? Did Lila trick us?”

“Miss Hound here, yeah,” Miss Hound’s voice caused Ladybug to perk up. “Chasing down the head of the Sentimonster, it’s still alive! It has the Duel Akuma! I’ve retransformed it and am moving to attack it! Keep Volpina off me and I’ll meet you at the Tower!”

Ladybug forced down the sheer terror that she was feeling. This is bad, really bad! This has to be his new trick! I have to tell the others, we need to make plans and we’ll need Sabrina a lot more! I should go and help her, but Volpina? I can’t let her go back and cause chaos with the others, I can’t! I have no choice. She thought as she looked down before looking at Volpina, a hard edge in her eyes. “Miss Hound, you’re on your own. I can’t let Volpina circle around to the others. Keep an eye on the head, once I defeat Volpina grab the chaos and get to the tower!”

“Understood! Good luck!” Miss Hound said with confidence in her voice.

Arachne looked at Ladybug and smirked. “Trusting her?”

“I’ve got no choice. And I do,” Ladybug said.

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Volpina smirked as she ran. So far the boss’s plan was working great. All she had to do was keep ahead for the other Akuma to handle the other heroes then lead Ladyslut into a trap! And once she had won this for him, then he could handle her mother. Once he understood just what threat the old witch represented, then he would act. She could spin a lie blaming it on her mother and everything would be perfect! “Oh, I can’t wait until I can hold that bitch’s neck between my hands!”

She almost clapped her hands but stopped herself. It wouldn’t do to give the game away now. As long as Ladybug thought that she was carrying the other Akumatized item, then the plan would work. And without the item, then the others would overpower the other ‘heroes’. And that was all she needed to do, keep one step ahead of Ladybug. And once she had some time, she’d go and pay that little witch Marinette a visit. The things she could do as an Akuma to a human…. Oh, she’s wanted to experiment and now she had a reason to!

As she jumped over another alley she looked over her shoulder. That Ladyslut and the Spider-witch just won’t give up! But then that is how I can trick them….. where’s the dog?! That mutt must be trying to get me from below! Volpina thought as she landed. She brought her flute to her lips and within moments a fog was all over the streets below. “Let’s see if that bitch can get by me now!”

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Chat Noir dodged to the left as the Giant Midnight Crew slammed one of its arms down. Without a word, he ran around it, hoping to keep its attention. So far he had to admit that this was one of the most unusual Akuma fights. From the way that an Akuma went rogue to corruption the Sentimonsters to this, nothing was normal. What has my life become that fighting brainwashed superheroes is normal? I thought dealing with a parent without emotions was all I would have to deal with for the next few years. He thought as she yelled and looked up at the Sentimonster.

As Arashiko yelled and slashed at it with her sword, she kept her mind on the battle. She hadn’t used her abilities yet but she didn’t see any way that using them would help. And before, fighting not even to wound had been taxing. But now that the foe was so large, her weapon couldn’t even wound it enough to count. She had wondered how it had felt to fight the ice cream Akuma and now she knew.

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Rena Rouge jumped and dodged the blasts from the kitsune body as she tried to strike it. So far she and Pegasus had been unable to kill the Sentimonster. Every time Pegasus tried to use his power, the tail snake spat a glob of acid at him. And she had to keep moving, always one jump ahead of the blasts from the kitsune body.

As she spun and dodged another fireball, she looked at it and snarled. I so hate Lila! I mean Fu said the person who gets the feather may make the creature. So why did she even know about this thing? I mean why would she even look it up in the first place?! It’s almost like….. no! she wouldn’t, she couldn’t! She couldn’t be that evil! Rena thought as she landed and dashed towards the body. “Pegasus, get up above and get ready to form a portal for me to you!”

“Got it!” Pegasus said and grinned as he realized her plan.

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As Volpina spun around and looked back at Ladybug and Arachne, she grinned as she prepared to fight. But when the only thing she saw was Ladybug charging at her, she blanched. Trying to find any clue where Arachne was, she was unprepared for Arachne’s ribbon to wrap around her right leg.

Before Volpina could react she was pulled down into the alley below her. As she hit the ground the fact that Akuma were stronger than normal humans helped her. Before even a second had passed she was back up and striking at the Spider Heroine.

Arachne dodged and then slashed down. Volpina jumped over her and then Ladybug came down and kicked Volpina into the ground.

“You can’t just let me do what I want, can you insect!?” Volpina growled as she rolled to her feet. She looked around, both Ladybug and Arachne had her between them, and that was a problem. Both of them were mid-range fighters and she was in a kill box. All she could do was hope that she could escape. “No, fight them here! Don’t give them space to move around!” Shadowmoth sent.

Volpina looked around and nodded, bringing her flute to her lips. As the ribbon and yoyo flew towards her, she jumped and created an illusion of the alley being larger. As she shot towards Ladybug, all she could feel was anger and greed. If she could get her hands around Ladybug’s neck then she could kill the little insect.

But when she got closer, Ladybug kicked out and sent her flying. “Her necklace, her necklace is the item!”

“Got it, Tether!” Arachne called out and she cracked her ribbon at Volpina. Unlike last time, this time the ribbon shot out multiple black lines of silk shot towards Volpina. Before Volpina could land, the silk had wrapped around the necklace. Arachne pulled her ribbon and the necklace of flew off Volpina's neck, breaking the chain.

“NO!” Volpina cried as she landed. Her hands went for it but they missed. Her eyes followed it and they found Arachne looking at her with contempt.

Arachne only looked at Volpina as she grabbed the necklace in both hands and cracked it in two. As soon as that happened a dark purple butterfly and blue feather flew upwards. When this happened purple fog rolled over Volpina changing her back into Lila. Al she could do was glare at Ladybug. Ladybug’s yoyo shot out, catching both the butterfly and feather.

Ladybug grinned as she pulled her yoyo back, opening it and releasing a pure white butterfly. Pointing her yoyo upwards, Ladybug grinned. “No more evil-doing for you little butterfly! Miraculous Ladybugs!”

As red ladybugs formed out of her yoyo, they swarmed over Paris. Ladybug watched them go before looking at Lila with a glare. “And now you Lila!”

Lila glared at Ladybug as she leaned against the wall. “You must think you’re the big hero! You wouldn’t know the truth if it bit you! You take care of everything on the surface, never the shadows!”

Ladybug only looked at Lila in concern. What’s she talking about, what does she know? Is it something she learned on her own, or something that Hawkmoth told her? Ladybug thought as she looked at Lila in concern. But her eyes widened at what happened next.

Lila fell backwards, into a golden doorway that appeared in place of the wall she was leaning on. As she fell in Ladybug shot forward and tried to grab her. She missed by a single moment, and the doorway disappeared.

She looked around, trying to find Lila she felt nothing but shame.

“Come on Ladybug, we’ve got to get to the tower! Miss Hound has to be heading there!” Arachne said as she pulled Ladybug away.

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Miss Hound grinned as she saw the Sentimonster Head disappear. The creature had been running, trying to find a way into the sewer. But she had found it before the monster could escape underground. After attacking it, the head fired blasts from its eyes at her. She dodged, but the blast hit some of the trees, setting them on fire. But then the red ladybugs had appeared, and the fires were out. She looked at the case and grinned. “I did it!”

She felt the sheer joy of Victory. But the feeling was nothing compared to the fact that she had done something that she had chosen to do. Chloe was right, I can be a leader! She’s been supporting me for so long, but I did it! She thought as she started to laugh. For a moment all she could see was the victory that she had won, then the reality crashed down onto her head. She had to move, and she had to move now. Without a single wasted moment, she grabbed the briefcases, running towards the Tower.

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As soon as Pegasus formed the portal Rena Rouge had jumped through it. As he closed it and detransformed back into Max. Rena Rouge had created a Mirage of her and Pegasus jumping down to attack the Sentimonsters. But as Max fed Kaalki, red ladybugs swarmed around the Sentimonster, deforming it.

Rena Rouge just blinked and looked at Max before shrugging. “Trixx, let's rest!”

As soon as she detransformed she moved to feed Trixx, an urgency in her actions.

“We need to get to the others! Even if they got her, Lila might have gotten the other item away,” Max said as he looked towards the courthouse.

Moments later they had transformed. As they ran over the rooftops their tools beeped.

“Ladybug, good job!” Rena Rouge said with a grin.

“Negative, they tricked us. Miss Hound caught it and has the item. We’re moving towards the tower, join us there!” Ladybug’s voice came through and the two heroes nodded and changed direction

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Lila blinked as she looked down. All she could see was a blackened floor, so she just stayed there, trying to understand where she was. She couldn’t see anything. For a moment she wondered just where she was and how she got there. But then the lights dawned on her and she smiled. “Master Hawkmoth, sir? Thank you so much for you for saving me! I can’t wait to talk to you sir! There is so much I have to talk to you about! You just can’t believe what I found out sir!”

After a few moments of silence, she tried to stand up. But as she tried to move something hit he was keeping her down. Before she could even turn to look something had hit her and she fell asleep. The last thing she saw were legs in red sandals walking towards her.

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Salacia jumped as the Giant Midnight Crew attacked again. She had expected something from her abilities, but this was more than she feared. If Hawkmoth ever tried something like this again, then she would need to talk to the others. She still had to get the message

Salacia heard a beep and looked at the river between the buildings. There! That’s the way! It’ll take you to the sewer! You can retransform there! Bolla sent to Salacia. For a moment she hesitated until Roi Singe tackled her away.

“What’s wrong with you? Keep your mind on the battle!” Roi Singe said only for another beep to sound. At this he winced and got off her, helping her up. “Your power, your timer! Go girl, go!”

“I’ll be back!” Salacia said as she dove into the water. She swarm towards the greater river, moving twenty feet a second. She saw a large tunnel and dove into it as she heard another beep. As she saw light ahead she swam upwards. She reached for her right glove, pulling out a large plastic bag from her tool’s ‘item space’.

As she landed she took a deep breath and felt the magic reverse and transform her back into Odine.

As Bolla floated she beamed at Odine. “I told you you’d handle this! And that was perfect, that was how to use Discord!”

Odine only looked away as she pulled out a small bag and opened it. Bolla grinned and shot into it, swiftly eating the small snack.

“Eat fast Bolla, we need to get back to it. I have a bad feeling that something is coming. Something that we need to be there for,” Odine said as she looked up at the stone ceiling.

“Good! My wielders are attuned to the harmony of the world! But if you feel something is coming, then we need to move! Say the words girl!” Bolla Said with a grin as she snuck her head out of the bag.

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“There’s got to be something….. CARACE!” Chat Noir cried out as he suddenly got an idea. And it was such an obvious idea that for a moment he wondered how they didn’t even think about it before.

“Yeah, dude?” Carapace called out.

“Think you can make a dome big enough to hold that thing?” Chat Noir asked with a grin.

Carapace looked at the Sentimonster for a moment he felt doubt. Then he felt the feeling of a gentle support and grinned. “Yeah! I’ll handle this you all dogpile the robo teacher!”

Chat Noir only grinned as he looked at the Sentimonster. He hoped that Ladybug would be able to handle Volpina in the window they had. “Roi Singe, you hang back and guard Carapace, have Salica do the same! Arashiko, with me!”

“RIGHT!” The others all called out as Carapace shot forward.

Chat Noir jumped back and once he was behind Carapace the turtle hero called out his power.

“SHELL-TER!” As the green energy dome formed from Carapace’s shield, it grew until it covered the Sentimonster. As the Giant Midnight Crew roared it tried to break free but it failed.

Chat Noir grinned and as Arasihiko followed after him he felt a spike of pride that his idea worked.

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Dark Owl yelled as he jumped at Lunar Raven, his sword back. Lunar Raven moved to the side and Dark Owl missed. As he got up Lunar Raven came around in a circle and charged at him.

But the blow was stopped by the top of Apisera stopped Lunar Raven’s arm blades.

Apisera glared at Lunar Raven, all the anger she was feeling about how Miss. Buistier had been as a teacher boiling over. If it wasn’t the fact that letting the villain win, I’d help her beat up that principle! Still, this is just the kind of therapy I needed after all! She thought as she locked eyes with the rogue Akuma. “So, did you replace this…… gonna say lunch lady? And are you like that AI that became an Akuma?”

Lunar Raven kept quiet and kicked Apisera away with her right leg. As Apisera flew into the air, a bolt from Viperrion flew at Lunar Raven. She blocked the bolt with her right blade, looking towards where Viperion was hiding.

Before she could do anything Dark Owl threw another disc at Lunar Raven who sliced it in two. She looked at the energy dome that covered the Sentimonster. She frowned as she saw Chat Noir and Arashiko ran toward the building.

Before she could do anything Arashiko was suddenly in front of her and slashing out with her blade. As she dodged the blow, Lunar Raven jumped backwards five feet into the air. Chat Noir appeared, swinging his weapon down at her. Lunar Raven kicked off it, rocketing downward and landed in a crouch.

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As Lunar Raven watched she sent a report to her master. Cover identity broken, heroes assisting Akuma. Chances of escape below ten percent. Requesting help.

Command to Lunar Raven, help sent. Hold out until Combat Drones reach area. Directive changed, send signal to drones then attack and claim Miraculous. Their power source will be an invaluable item for research. For a logical world.

Message received and directive acknowledged. For a logical world.

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As Chat Noir landed next to Apisera, he looked at the scene before him and whistled. “Man, this is something else. I never thought we’d fight with the Dark Owl.”

“Not the best choice,” Apisera said softly.

“Only one you could make,” Arashiko said just as softly.

As Dark Owl got back to his feet he stood behind Lunar Raven as the three heroes fanned out. They were all looking at Lunar Raven as she looked around, her head rotating 360 degrees.

“Option offered. Let this unit retreat and these forces allied to this one will not engage. Otherwise, expect battle,” Lunar Raven said as she crossed her blades in an X.

Apissera only looked at her as the other heroes moved in.

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As she climbed into the Helicopter, all that Nadja could feel was anger. The fact that it took her so long to get back to the station was one thing. The other was that it took the fact someone sent in footage of the horde of Sentimonsters to get her boss moving.

“I tell them that another double attack is happening, and they won’t move. But then they see a picture of the Giant Monster and they send us in. I just don’t get them at all,” Nadja said with a snarl on her face. I can’t believe this! I had to wait until someone posted a pic about it! I need to talk about what my results are worth around here. I swear if they weren’t the only game in town that paid well! She thought as she tried to keep calm. It wasn’t fair to get mad at the people around her, they hadn’t done anything to deserve it. But still, she wondered if she had made a mistake all those years ago sometimes.

“It’s the job boss. What else can we do?” Sarah asked softly as she followed Nadja into the helicopter.

Nadja looked at Sarah and tried to keep what she wanted to say down. It wasn’t the girl’s fault. She was just one of the many employees that worked for the station, just above interns. She and her brother were some of the best they ever had, there was even talk about promoting them. Every show wanted them as part of their production teams. There was even talk about offering them to be extras on a few shows to start.

“We have to keep moving forward Miss Nadja, that’s all we can do. if we stop we die. We have to keep hoping for something better ahead. And that our terrible bosses get what’s coming for them,” Sarah said with a grin.

All Nadja could do was chuckle and shake her head. Her problems with the management were long and not something to get into now. All she could do was hope that they were able to get there in time to catch the heroes winning. If she could get a big enough win then she could get the okay to investigate Marinette’s school. If she found something there then she could silence a lot of the bosses. Then she could show the city the truth. There would be accountability and punishment for what the school let happen.

“Welcome aboard ladies! We’re about to take off…. Who?!” The Pilot barked as he looked up.

All Nadja and Sarah could do was look out the window as ten blocky large helicopter drones flew overhead.

“What the hell!?” Nadja cried out in shock as she looked at the drones. Sarah had gotten out of the helicopter and aimed the camera at the drones, zooming in on them as they flew away.

“What were they?” The pilot asked as he got out of the helicopter and moved towards the edge of the landing pad.

“A scoop. Get airborne!” Nadja cried from the helicopter.

As Sarah climbed into the helicopter after the pilot, she looked at the horizon with a strange look. Those things were all pure tech, so they weren’t golems! Brother I hope you don’t get involved, we have to stay under the radar! She thought as she looked down as the helicopter took off.

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As Rena Rouge landed on the Eiffel Tower’s upper ledge and saw Miss Hound holding the Akuamtized case.

Grinning Miss Hound looked right at Rena Rouge and Carapace as they came over to her. “Look who tracked down the item!”

“How? Wait…. The head was alive too?” Pegasus asked in horror.

Miss. Hound only nodded, shuddering as she did so. “And it had these tentacles.”

“Nightmare fuel right there,” Rena Rouge said with a shudder as well as her face paled in horror.

A moment later Ladybug and Arachne landed on the platform and smiled at them.

Without a word, Miss Hound dropped the briefcase. Pegasus stepped forward, his horseshoe axe in his hand.

“Allow me,” Pegasus said. When Ladybug nodded he swung his axe down, splitting the briefcase in two. As the purple slime went over the briefcase, turning into a stack of papers. Moments later a purple butterfly and blue feather flew upwards.

Ladybug grinned as she started to spin her yoyo. Without a single wasted moment, her yoyo caught the butterfly and grabbed her yoyo. As she pulled it back towards her, red butterflies swarmed away from them. They flew away, heading towards the courthouse.

“One Voyage to order!” Pegasus said with a grin.

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Carapace looked up as he heard cries. He saw Commissaire Bertolfo with a small squad coming towards him.

“Commis! The other police are down that alley! I’ve only got a few minutes before I time out! Get them out of here!” Carapace called out.

But before Commissaire Bertolfo could reply a wave of red ladybugs flew over them all. within moments the Sentimonster roared one last time as it faded away. Carapace dropped the shield and grinned before he paled. “Wait! The lady Akuma, help the others! She’s a robot!”

“I’ll go help the others!” Roi Singe called out as he leaped for the roof and the other heroes.

“Wait what?!” Commissaire Bertolfo asked in shock as he looked upwards. With a word he looked at the officers he brought with him. “Two of you, follow me! The rest of you go help our comrades!”

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As Chat Noir looked at Lunar Raven and Dark Owl, purple smoke suddenly surged over them. Without a word, he stuck his staff into the roof and vaulted over Lunar Raven to land in front of Dark Owl. As the smoke faded away, Damocles blinked as he looked around, trying to remember where he was. As Chat Noir landed, he stepped backwards and almost slipped. Arashiko was there in an instant and grabbed him before jumping downward.

As Miss Buistier turned back to normal, only her two blades were still on her arms. She looked around with her eyes hard and spoke again. “Data fully recorded, final offer to allow hostilities to end peacefully……… rescinded.”

A moment later ten black metal flat triangle shaped drones appeared on the side of the building. Each one was three feet wide and had three helicopter blades at each point. Each one carried a black metal box two feet wide and tall

The boxes dropped and landed on the roof, each one unfolding into a robot. They looked like black metal skeletons with large three-fingered clawed hands.

As Chat Noir and Apisera both went back to back, they looked at the robots.

“Offer; surrender now. Your powers will be studied, copied, and used logically. Survival for a time will be promised. Forces arrayed against you number three times your own. Defeat, impossible,” Bustier said as she pointed her blades at the heroes.

“Odds seem to be more even ya know?” Roi Singe called out from the side. As Buistier turned her head, a bolt of energy shot an inch from her face. One of the drones broke off and crashed behind the building.

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As Arashiko hit the ground and dropped Damocles to the ground. As Commissaire Bertolfo Laborous came towards them Arashiko glared at Damocles.

“Commissaire, this man was the ‘loyal’ Akuma. I don’t know what caused this, but he might. I’m needed up there,” Arashiko said, and before she jumped upwards to the roof, Carapace followed behind her.

Bertolfo looked from the heroes moving to the rooftop, wondering what had happened. Then he looked at Damocles who was trying to get away. “And where do you think you’re going?”

“Back to the court, I have sentencing to get back to. I might think they made a mistake but it was lawful,” Damocles said as he tried to smile at Bertolfo.

“You’re not going anywhere until I know just what happened here! You!” Bertolfo snapped as he looked at one of the two officers following him.

Damocles looked at them and smiled shakily. “Oh, are you sure? We don’t need to! I was just a small part of this, and the other one, my employee? She was the one who got all emotional. I was just trying to try and calm her down!”

Bertolfo looked at him and then his scowl grew more fierce. “Yeah, I don’t think so. You sir will stay right here!”

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As Carapace and Arashiko joined the others, Chat Noir looked around at the robots and drones. Bustier just stared at them, she seemed to be waiting for something. These things were unlike anything the heroes had faced before, and part of him was worried. So far this had gone completely beyond what he had been expecting. He thought maybe Dark Owl or Volpina. But to have a double attack, then one of them go rogue and be revealed to be a robot? He couldn’t even say that he had expected that this was how the day would go.

Buistier moved backward and looked at the heroes. “Final offer, surrender now or what will happen is on your heads.”

Chat Noir looked at her and tried to keep calm. Something in the cold way she spoke caused him to feel a spark of fear. There was just something in the way that sentence. How it was spoken that made him feel that they were standing on the edge. That everything would change here and now. That this one choice was the turning point.

He looked at the others and saw the same feelings in their eye. In the eyes of all but one who spoke up.

“What will be on our heads?” Roi Singe asked as he twirled his staff.

“This,” Bustier said simply. Moments later five of the remaining drones shot down towards the street.

#miraculous ladybug au/ the law is the law #miraculous tales of ladybug and cat noir #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #miraculous ladybug #ladybug au #ladybug fic #adrien x marinette

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banisheed · 8 months

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TIMING: Pre-goo LOCATION: The Common PARTIES: Owen (@apaininyourneck) and Siobhan (@banisheed) SUMMARY: Falling victim to a promise to share his murders with Siobhan, Owen meets up with her and spills more than he meant to.

A crochet fox tumbled off the bench, its plush body produced an enviable initial bounce and then a pitiful second bounce before it rolled away. Siobhan watched it with a glazed expression; no feeling or thoughts processed in the valley of her mind. Siobhan had no trouble finding the bench beside the man who sold the crochet animals, she did have several troubles with his presence, however. First: the annoying chorus of his hocking of nonsensical animal toys was unbearable the first second she heard it. Second: she didn’t understand why they weren’t crochet dead animals, roadkill made much cuter subjects, though she still preferred the real thing. Third: that the sight of him ruined the green horizon, staining it with his ugly, living human body; he, like the toys, would have looked better dead. She thought she devised the perfect plan when she purchased all his animals, certain that with nothing to sell, he would leave. Instead, as Siobhan piled up the useless toys on her bench, he produced a second box filled with even more crochet animals and a false sense of their worth, imbued by having a woman buy all of his first batch outright. He had become more annoying, Siobhan was buried in a pile of crochet animals, and Owen was nowhere to be seen. Not that she could really see from under the mountain of crochet.

It was her fault that she refused to look at clocks based on the principle of the matter (how dare something tell her what the time is) but if Siobhan ever admitted something was her fault, the skies would turn red, birds would fall, and rivers would dry up. She thought it was in the best interest of the planet that she remained as she always had been. When Owen finally appeared, or at least, whatever spindly man she assumed to be Owen appeared, she swiped the bench and sent more crochet animals tumbling away. “Sit,” she commanded the man; no ‘hello’ or ‘how are you’ or ‘nice shirt’. “I’ve been sat here covered in these insipid toys; I’ve had a terrible day. I deserve entertainment.” The entertainment in question was the deal they’d made: Owen would tell her about his murders and she would pay him. It was a simple deal, but during rough times (boredom) she needed whatever she could get. Eventually, her manners came back to her. “Siobhan,” she said, hand outstretched. “Like on the internet. Normally I am sexy, today I am covered in toys. Tell me about your murders.”

—

For someone who regularly sought out the unusual, the never before tried, Owen was surprised to find this town still had the ability to reveal something new. Some of the town’s inhabitants did, anyway. Talking blatantly and casually about murder online was more of a joke than anything else, meant to shock and offend. Being asked very seriously about ‘his murders’ in exchange for money was a first. For a moment, Owen considered bailing on the strange woman. Not like he particularly needed the money and talking to weirdos was always draining but something pulled him to the park that day. Morbid curiosity?

Whatever the reason, Owen found himself surprised, again - a woman sat on the proposed bench, covered in crochet animals. The man at the stand looked very happy with himself, his creations’ lifeless eyes staring into the distance. Kicking away a stray animal that tumbled towards him, he sniffed at the demand. The thought ‘too dumb to be a narc’ popped into his head again. Arms crossing, petulantly not sitting down, Owen cocked his head. Entertainment was a morbid way to describe whatever this exchange was. “I would have picked a different location if I had known about your crochet fetish. My bad.”

Ignoring the offered hand, Owen finally took a seat, leaning back and spreading his legs so more crafts fell to the ground. The seller didn’t look all too pleased with how his work was being treated but a sideways glance from the slayer turned the man’s attention away. “Eager.” He regarded Siobhan curiously before the words spilled out. “First one was at sixteen. If you count beheading something that’s already dead a murder.” Perhaps a bit more information than he’d previously considered providing but Owen had never been all that shy about his origins. And it would be interesting to see this strange woman react.

—

“It’s not a fetish,” Siobhan grumbled, pushing more crochet animals off of her. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was beginning to feel rather fond of them. At least, the weight of all of them felt a little like a very pointy blanket. She didn’t take offense to the lack of hand shaking, she wasn’t sure why humans did it to begin with. As a child, she assumed it was so you could feel up the metacarpals but when became more knowledgeable of the human world, she learned that it wasn’t polite to squeeze so tightly on someone’s hand. “Sixteen?” She repeated. She’d been fifteen herself, not that this was a competition (it was).

Siobhan hummed, tapping her chin. “No, I don’t count that as a murder. If they’re already dead—a vampire or zombie or what have you—it doesn’t count. You’re just putting them back where they belong.” Was Owen a slayer? It didn’t matter much to her anyway, of all the hunters that existed, she liked slayers the best. They were the only sort she agreed with. “Tell me about a living person you killed.” She turned to him, excitement twinkling in her brown eyes. “Something good! Everyone does a little killing in their adolescence; it’s natural. I want the fun stuff.” She smiled wide.

—

The lack of a reaction, doubled with Siobhan rattling off a few types of monsters, was telling in a way. She wasn’t like him, that much was clear, but knowledgeable for sure. Owen honestly couldn’t tell whether she was simply the weirdest human in town or something different. Either way, she was less than impressed with putting the undead back where they belonged - certainly a sentiment the slayer agreed with - which didn’t leave Owen with a lot of stories he particularly wanted to share. Leaving was always an option. Or just bullshitting this lady since this was resembling a bad prank video a bit too much.

Lying came easy to Owen, it was second nature when sarcasm was the default and more than half of what left your mouth wasn’t serious in the slightest. Which is why it came as a surprise that the perfectly fabricated story in his mind stayed there when he spoke. “The first one wasn’t on purpose. I was just supposed to stop him, knock him out but human necks are much more fragile than vampires’.” His mouth clamped shut and an expression that was fairly unfamiliar to the slayer slid across his face - confusion. “I think his spine severed the moment the brick hit his head.”

Without warning, Owen was on his feet, eyes narrowed and heart pounding. Her name had been inches away from leaving his mouth in connection to the story. A story he hadn’t even meant to tell, to this weird as shit stranger who… He felt off, ill almost, with every second that passed when he wasn’t speaking. “It was much easier after the first one. A few slayers, ones that found out about her, threatened her. Used their own weapons to get rid of them. A warning to the rest if they wanted to keep their eyes. Or their scalps.”

—

Siobhan always thought delight looked good on her face; her features were suited to the actions. Her soft pink lips knew just how wide to go, and they pushed up the lightly freckled skin of her cheeks into her big, friendly brown eyes. Siobhan was aware she didn’t have many sharp edges, not really, and it was during her adolescent years—it was always the adolescent years that made a body seem detestable—she hated how soft she looked. As she’d aged, some sharpness had come to her but mostly she just looked like a woman enjoying her time with this lanky man. With the crochet animals on her lap, none of the grotesqueness of their conversation was apparent and she reveled in the dichotomy. She also reveled in the adorability of Owen’s actions against the futility of his situation. Even as a slayer, he was still just as silly as every other human.

A few more crochet animals tumbled from her lap: a fox, a sheep, a racoon and a bear. “Divine,” Siobhan hummed, imagining the crunch of his spine and the almost comical thud noise blunt objects made against the human body. Did the brick shatter when it hit the ground? Did his body bounce? What had Owen’s face looked like, staring down at the accident? What did he think when blood started to pool out from under the body? How did he hide? Did he even bother to? “Her?” Siobhan asked but she was smart enough to put the pieces together; what kind of a ‘her’ would earn the ire of slayers? “Love? Family? Sentimentality is strange, isn’t it? It can twist you against your own people.” She knew all about it.

Siobhan waved her hand in the air. “Okay, so how many was it? How many people did you kill for ‘her’? Did she think it was romantic? I would.”

—

His throat felt constricted, pieces settling together as the familiarity of the fog over his mind registered. Fae. A fucking fae that he had made an honest to fuck deal with. Apparently, the internet was fair play when it came to getting mind fucked. Siobhan looked completely unphased by the slayer now looming over her, even as anger settled over his features. It didn’t matter that the man responsible for adding stuffed animals to this situation was still present, still very curious about what was going on - a knife was withdrawn from inside Owen’s coat all the same. Except she was still rattling off questions and he was still obligated to answer them.

“I lost count. Couple dozen, at least,” he gritted out, the sound of panicked footsteps running in the opposite direction reaching his ears. At least the damn audience was gone. Which allowed Owen to lean in closer, one arm braced on the bench behind her, the other holding the knife tight against her chest. It wasn’t iron but it would still hurt like a bitch. “We’re not talking about her and the deal is off. Now.”

The words burned his throat, made his grip on the knife a little bit shaky. Not part of the deal. “Lots of cut jugulars, it’s easy and quiet.” They kept spilling out but at least Owen had made no deal to answer questions about her. “Decapitation if I needed to make a point. Sometimes asphyxiation, sometimes they were supposed to wake up again but didn’t.”

—

“Oh, getting kinky, are we?” Siobhan grinned, flush with delight. The sting of his knife digging into her chest was an electric thrill across her body; sharp pains were her favorite, nothing like the throbbing ache of a punch or the burning aftermath of a stab. A firework; brilliant and bright, popping under her skin. It was easy to say that Siobhan adored knives. From the mess of crochet animals, her hand slipped out and she pressed one of her knives to the underside of his wrist. “I didn’t know you felt this way about me, Owen. Oh, you’re just an adorable lad, aren’t you?” Most people didn’t understand that she could kill them far more easily than they could kill her; it wasn’t the knife Owen had to worry about, which she held rather casually at an admittedly weak angle for herself, but the seconds it would take her to breathe. Hands moved slower than mouths. Screams happened faster than jugular slashes and she didn’t even need to scream, that right kind of squeak would do it. To Siobhan, practiced in her deadliness, threats were a baby’s babbling and the fact that no one ever seemed to understand this was the thing that actually scared her; boredom was terrifying.

It was for that reason that she never screamed; her fun had to be invented when the sort of people she was stuck dealing with were so unoriginal. “Sore subject, Owen?” Siobhan’s grin widened, spreading lopsidedly across her face. “I didn’t know you had a lover’s heart under there; all broken now, is it? Do you see her? When you think of taking off my head, do you see hers? Do you imagine the curve of her neck, the softness of her lips? Do you see her teeth? You must have loved her teeth. Did she bite you? Did you like it when she did? Did it make you feel loved?” Siobhan shook her head, pitching her knife harder against his wrist, forcing him to make a choice: either try to kill her or take the bloody thing away. “Darling, you’re all smoke. You see it, don’t you? You’re a dying fire, smoldering; smoke in the shape of a man.” She shook her head again. “I release you from your promise to me, pet.”

—

The threat of a knife to the chest did literally nothing except delight the fae who seemed to grow more amused by the second. Owen, on the other hand, was a breath away from snapping. There weren’t many situations where he wouldn’t be amused and interested in a discussion about the innate nature of knives which didn’t involve killing but this was one of them. His head felt stuffed to the brim with more and more memories, stories being dragged to the surface by the deal, stories that had successfully been kept under lock and key for years. “And you’re a bitch,” he hissed back, even with a second blade now added to the equation. Not a clever retort by far but at least it wasn’t yet another admission from his past.

With every word Siobhan spoke, his knuckles grew whiter, edge of his knife pressing harder against her chest even as it caused the blade against his own skin to do the same. Owen wanted to laugh at her, to belittle the words she cooed like facts but the only thing waiting on the tip of his tongue was the reasoning for all the murders which would only confirm the fae’s little narrative. He would have shoved the knife through her chest then and there, consequences to his own odds of survival be damned, if the knowledge that she would just enjoy it hadn’t been lingering.

The noise he made as he finally backed away was closer to a growl than anything else, a few stray drops of blood trickling from his wrist. Smoke didn’t bleed. Smoke didn’t feel all encompassing anger of the likes currently directed at Siobhan.

A veil lifted then, clearing his mind from the pressure of more stories, more sharing, but leaving behind the bitter aftertaste and the fae’s cleverly concocted words. Owen could try to kill her now but he didn’t have the equipment, didn’t have the knowledge. Didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of taking his life along with everything else she had managed to claim in just these last few minutes. “You don’t know shit,” he spat instead, still clutching at the knife like a lifeline. “And the only fact here is that I’m going to find you again.”

—

“Oh no, not a bitch…” Siobhan teased, her voice withered through the air in one extended breath. Where Owen’s anger filled the space between them, an almost palpable heat that rose off of his contorted features, Siobhan found herself increasingly curious. What happened with his vampire lover that turned him so sour? Did she get bored of him? Did he suddenly know better, that higher being wouldn’t fall for a pathetic human? No, Siobhan reasoned that if he’d been the one to break off their little engagement, he wouldn’t be so angry about it. It must have been her and whatever she did, he must have really loved her. Did he kill her? Did he have the strength to watch his lover leave? Siobhan ached to know, as if Owen’s life was some book she’d tossed open and now needed the ending of. He wouldn’t give it to her. Likely, if she tried, he’d stab her and he wouldn’t be a gentleman about it. Pity.

“Oh no, you’re going to find me? What are you going to do? Cry at me?” Siobhan dug around her crochet pile until she found a little bunny, with ears longer than its chunky, gray crochet body. She held it out to him, ears flopping; a harmless creature, a sweet, innocent, rosy-cheeked creature. “One for the road, Owen? Maybe if you hug it while you sleep it’ll send your sad dreams away.” She watched blood drip from his wrist in drops so tiny that she couldn’t find them when they fell. He clutched his knife like that was the thing he slept with and Siobhan thought that he probably did. “Owen, darling, don’t be cross with me. You’ll still be filled with self-loathing if you kill me. As much as it pains me to say this, sometimes murder is not the solution.” She shook the bunny. “Well?”

—

Owen knew he should have left by now. Maybe if he was someone who was used to his confidence getting dug at, his whole being turned inside out, he would have recognized the signs that this was well and beyond over. Well, he did recognize the signs but was foolishly choosing to ignore them because she couldn’t be allowed to have the last word. His jaw ached from the tension of clenching it, narrow eyes turning from the fae to the fluffy creature being held out to him.

“You’ve heard my stories. I’ll think of something creative for you,” he gritted out, furious at how the tables were turned. Normally the one putting people on edge, the one getting threatened with violence while casually grinning, now Owen found himself on the other end of it. With a heavy exhale, his grip on the knife loosened slightly, blood finally flowing back into the clenched fingers. “Not the solution, no. Going to be really fucking fun and satisfying, though.”

The knife sliced through yarn and cotton with ease, leaving only half a torso and a head in Siobhan’s hand, fluff dripping from the bunny like blood. Owen stalked away once the offending bunny had gotten what it deserved, which was a picnic compared to what he would do to Siobhan when the time came.

#i love owen im so sorry he got bullied #c: owen #writing #s1 #smoke and crochet

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crossovernonshipstournament · 1 year

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I love the thought you are putting into James and Boyd. Like for this poll that is your endgame dynamic. You know your golden children and you've prioritized.

During the poll for Commissioner Gordon and Commander Fox (which was a lovely image thank you) I had a similar moment. Like I could keep coming up with propaganda for them. But...they're not my favorite that's still in the running.

So I left them to the fate and whims of the voters and saved my energy. Also, I feel like Commander Fox and Commissioner Gordon would have wanted Beaks to be continued to be tormented. They've had their fair share of rich jerks they couldn't touch. It's nice to see one get what they deserve.

Thanks! One thing I've learned as a pollrunner that really surprised me is that I have a very strong sense of fairness that comes into play, and trying to balance that while also not pretending that I don't have my own preferences is tricky- it wouldn't be fair if I went around talking about how great all of my personal pet submissions are, so I decided to just prioritize. James and Boyd mean so much to me; quite apart from how much of DTLS is such a big part of my life in so many ways, James and Boyd are very much a projection of my relationship with my own best friend. While we are certainly not the same people as them, we both identify with our respective fave to the point of taking their names, and both identify them as, respectively, closet key and egg cracker for our identities. Boyd means everything to me because my friend Boyd means everything to me, and so his relationship with James, who means so much to me as well, is all tangled up in those feelings. As much as I love all of our other DTLS dynamics and crossover relationships, none of them are ever going to mean as much to me as those two do.

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elthadriel · 1 year

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001 for Kix/Rex and 002 for Thorn?

Kix/Rex - 001 | send me a ship and I will tell you:

when I started shipping it if I did: I only sort of ship them. They aren't a pairing that I think about all that much, but there is a lot of potential there.

my thoughts: I think they're most interesting towards the end of the war or way after it. I think them getting closer as the rest of original torrent die is tasty, particularly when Kix just ups and leaves himself. I also think relationships between officers and medics is a fun time because of the weird power structures.

What makes me happy about them: I think there's so much potential for angst which is really what I'm here for.

What makes me sad about them: See above

things done in fanfic that annoys me: I think Kix is often flattened out and denied a lot of characterisation beyond "medic"

things I look for in fanfic: I've only read fanfic of them from a couple people. They aren't a ship I go looking for.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: For Rex, Cody is the big one. Echo too. For Kix, I do like him meeting Ahsoka again in the New Republic Era.

My happily ever after for them: This isn't really happy for them, but it makes me happy: Kix being released a little earlier from his pod and finding Rex again. But Kix is still young, with so much of his life a head of him while Rex is at the end of his. So they have these two or three years together knowing that Kix is going to end up alone.

who is the big spoon/little spoon: I don't think they're picky.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: I think they should both be into sports ball but always supporting rival teams.

Thorn - 002 | Give me a character & I will tell you:

How I feel about this character: Thorn is the best boy who deserves only good things which is a shame because I pair him with Fox. I think he's a man who has made the conscious choice to be kind despite his circumstances.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Fox, Rex, and Cody a little

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Stone

My unpopular opinion about this character: I think he's got plenty of anger of his own to work through. As I said above, being kind is a choice he's made, it's not always one that comes easy to him.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: It sure would be nice if any of the CG commanders had got to have a conversation with each other.

my OTP: Fox (Sorry Thorn)

my cross over ship: I got nothing. I don't really do crossover ships all that much.

a headcanon fact: He has a stomach of steal. He can eat more or less any food with no issues, even stuff that is technically poisonous to humans.

#ask meme

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postapocalyptic-cryptic · 2 years

Text

(below the cut is a sample of Lighthopping for zine application purposes. word count 2237)

Summer on Coruscant hits fast and hard, humid and smoggy and chokingly heavy. It makes doing rounds worse. It makes filling out flimsiwork worse. It makes standing in Senate meetings worse. It makes sitting in Defense councils worse.

It really makes swallowing your own bile during any of the aforementioned activities worse. Fox doesn’t really have a choice, though.

(Briefly, he entertains the notion of simply opening his mouth and vomiting stomach acid and last night’s latemeal all over the datapads and Republic-notarized flimsipads. It’s kind of funny. He smirks into his caf.)

Washing acid reflux down with caf probably isn’t the best idea, health-wise, but it tastes a lot better than grimacing through the ordeal unaided. Besides, he needs the caffeine. He’s starting to float around in his head again, a precursor to nodding off and distractingly miserable in its own right. He slept last night, for six hours, even. And five the night before. He’s got what he needs, he’s just got to put his head down and do it.

----

“...But considering the circumstances, I don’t feel comfortable working with such a large margin of error. Commander Fox, your feelings?”

Shit. Shitshitfuck, what are they talking about?

“Commander? On the extrapolated fourteen percent margin of error?”

“Ah, considering the, the circumstances,” Fox hedges, skimming the slide at the front of the room. It’s the data-rich one, thank ka’ra. “Ah, I would disagree, Corporal Skinner. Fourteen percent is an unfortunate, but ultimately workable margin…”

----

Another thing about the summer heat: it makes people want to do things, especially if those people are troopers on leave. Especially if those things are drinking and roping other vode into drinking.

Fox is in the middle of his first patrol of the day when Cody messages him. Cody, evidently, is in the middle of his first leave of the year.

Cody: hey do you want to go to 79s later

Cody: it’s gonna be me and rex and like 3 cts

Fox rounds the corner and sweeps the room ahead of him. It’s another lobby, usually empty this time of day, but frequented by aides around lunchtime, so he likes to make sure everything is as it should be: empty. He looks back down at his comm.

Me: what time

Me: I’m on shift until 2045

Cody: shit, vod, who did you piss off?

Fox frowns. No one. This is his shift schedule.

Me: no one

Cody: okay how about 79s at 2130 then?

Fox thinks for a moment. If he gets out on time, it’ll be fifteen minutes in his quarters changing and shoving something down his throat, then twenty five minutes to 79’s if he gets lucky with traffic. It’ll be close, but, well, Fox hasn’t seen any of his batchmates in a long time.

Me: works for me

Me: i can’t stay late though

His alarm goes off at 0500 on Taungsdays. He’ll probably get five hours of sleep tonight. That’s enough. Fox can do that.

Cody: awesome k’oyaci

Me: k’oyaci

Fox reaches the far door of the lobby and takes a moment to breathe. He’s going out with Cody and some of Cody’s friends. He feels giddy. And a little light-headed, but maybe that’s all the same thing.

----

The closer the lift gets to Palpatine’s office, the tighter the sick, anxious feeling in his stomach gets. He finds himself counting the seconds and wishing the ride could take longer.

It’s stupid, he knows. He shouldn’t be nervous about a meeting with the Chancellor, something he does nearly every day. It’s stupid because the Chancellor is nice to him, has never done anything to hurt him. Palpatine deserves better than Fox’s hysterical anxiety.

Still.

Something about the Chancellor, the way he talks, makes Fox feel like he’s being flayed open. He has this way of seeing right through him and picking out the things that bother him, like Fox is a patient and Palpatine his psychiatrist. Fox doesn’t like facing the things that Palpatine tells him about himself.

He shakes his head. They have things to talk about, real, serious, war-related things, and the Chancellor probably won’t have time to discuss Fox’s personal problems. Hopefully.

The lift reaches the top floor.

“Commander Fox,” the Chancellor greets, sweeping out from behind his desk to greet him. “How good to see you.”

“Sir,” Fox salutes, coming to attention.

“Do take that helmet off, Commander,” Palpatine orders, relaxing again to sit behind his desk. Fox complies and Palpatine grants him an indulgent smile. “Good, good. It’s nice to be able to see your face during these meetings, don’t you think?”

Fox actually doesn’t like it at all. It makes the sick feeling worse. He nods. “Yes, sir.”

“Now, about those reports from level 4280.”

----

The meeting is fairly straightforward. Fox is well-briefed and the Chancellor is satisfied with his interpretation. Standing begins to wear on him after about fifteen minutes, knees locked and head swimming, but Fox tries to ignore it. What sort of soldier is he if he can’t stand for a single meeting?

Palpatine finishes the interaction with a swirling flick of the wrist and a signature on an order authorizing an investigation into the spice trading ring on 4280. Fox bites down on a yawn. It’s nearly 1630. After this, he can go take his break.

“Commander,” Palpatine begins. “Are you tired?”

Fox snaps back to full attention. “No, sir.”

He smiles, gentle. “Really? Because that looked like a yawn to me.” Fox says nothing. “Am I working you boys too hard?”

“No, sir.”

“Good.” Palpatine smiles again, setting his hands palms-down on the desk. “I’d hate to think so, especially considering how much worse your brothers on the front have it.”

Fox bites the inside of his lip hard.

“Of course, you know that. Some people just aren’t made for the same type of action as others, I suppose.”

Fox isn’t made for that kind of action. Fox is weak and lazy and flawed and even the Chancellor can see it. “I understand, sir.”

The Chancellor raises his eyebrows. “Oh, Commander, I didn’t mean that as any slight against you or your men, of course not!”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, good. Run along now, Commander Fox. I’m sure your brothers in the 212th and 501st are eager to see you.”

Fox’s head fucking hurts.

----

Fox almost backs out of drinks. He has his comm out and everything, ready to type something, anything to get him out of this overwhelming disaster and into his bed that much sooner.

He hurts, and he is so, so tired.

No. He should go out. Who knows when he’ll get the chance to see Cody again? If either of them will still be alive the next time the 212th is on Coruscant? Fox needs to suck it up and go to 79’s and get a drink with his brother.

Fox hates bars. Granted, he’s only ever been in a few, but still. They’re loud, with bass-heavy music, and the lighting is often strange. It makes Fox’s head spin.

Thankfully, it’s easy to find Cody. He’s at the bar, right next to Rex and a few troopers Fox is completely unfamiliar with. He hopes they don’t expect him to talk too much.

“Fox,” Cody calls, all smiles. Fox smiles back. “Get over here, I haven’t seen you in an age!”

It’s true. Fox feels like he’s lived three lives in the time since they’d last been together. He approaches the bar.

“You good with shots?” Rex asks, holding up a tray of what looks like whiskey. Fox shrugs and Rex shrugs back.

The table the ARCs lead them to is empty, despite the vode standing around them. Reserved, somehow, without words. Idly, Fox wonders how one goes about doing that. Sometimes, people do it for him. He never means for it to happen, and he’s never sure what he does that prompts people to do it.

“Hi,” greets one of the unfamiliar troopers as they sit down. “I’m Echo. This is Fives.”

“Fox,” he says, and Echo smiles.

“I know.”

“Yeah, we know, Commander,” the other ARC, Fives, quips, flopping down into the seat next to Fox’s. “You’re kind of a big deal.” He throws back a shot and grabs another before Echo can stop him. “It’s good to meet you, though. Not what I thought you’d be like.”

Fox raises his eyebrows and Fives throws his head back and laughs.

At 2200, Cody gets up and returns with two colorful, sweet drinks: one for him and one for Fox. It’s good. Sugar is always good to Fox these days, like his body is crying for it. Anything with carbohydrates.

The drink’s better than anything Fox remembers drinking recently, but then again, the whiskey helps. Everything’s sweet in comparison.

“Gods, I’m fucking done for,” Fives says, burying his face in Echo’s shoulder. “That campaign was too fucking long. No more. I’m retiring. Rex, drum me out.”

Rex snorts. “You figure out how to leave, you tell me.”

Fox takes a sip of his drink and hums in earnest agreement. “Then me,” he adds. “Could use a break, considering ‘m out on my fucking sleep cycle right now.”

The table laughs, and Fox warms for a moment, but then Cody says, “Gods, it feels like that, doesn’t it?” and Fox realizes they think he’s joking.

Every time he lets himself go still, he starts to fall asleep. It’s alright, he tells himself. He’s been up since 0445 and it’s (he checks his communicator) (he checks his communicator again) 2314 now. That’s, fuck, that’s eighteen and a half hours? That’s a lot. It feels like a lot. He wonders what a lot is to the other people at the table.

His eyes drift closed, heavy and dry, and he feels himself lean towards the table.

Someone kicks him under the table.

It’s Cody. He’s laughing, wide-eyed and happy. “Are we boring you, Commander?”

Fox digs his fingers into the softest part of his thigh and tries to laugh.

It’s nearly 0100 when he stumbles into his quarters, too drunk and too tired to even try and take his blacks off. They hate him, he thinks. They hate him.

He’s so tired.

Shit.

----

Fox slogs his way up to the Chancellor’s office for the second time in a day. Distantly, he wonders what this is about. He’s already been through their daily briefing, held today at 1030. Anxiety burns at the back of his throat.

“It’s good to see you again,” Palpatine greets, not even bothering to rise from his desk. They’re past those formalities now. “I assume you received my message?”

No, Fox wants to say, I just came up here for a cup of caf and a fucking chat. “Yes, sir. What did you wish to discuss with me?”

The Chancellor steeples his thin, brittle fingers on the desk in front of him. “It has come to my attention, Commander, that a medical report was added to your file earlier this morning.”

Panic takes all the weight out of his bones and Fox’s vision goes a little grey around the edges. He’d been to the medbay last night after his shift ended. He doesn’t make a habit of going, but last night had been… he’d been having a rough time. He’d been exhausted, no—

Not exhausted. Words don’t cover how tired he’d felt. Every step he’d taken from the Senate floor to his quarters had been counted, because the numbers were all that kept him from collapsing into a pathetic little puddle right there on the floor. He’d gotten nauseous taking his kit off and stumbled to the ‘fresher just to bring up nothing but bile. Time to have something to eat, he’d thought, and stood to drag himself to the cafeteria.

He’d thought he was feverish. It was the only explanation for the way he was feeling. Everything hurt and he was so, so cold. Eating just made it worse and worse until finally, Hound said, ‘You don’t look so good, boss,’ and walked him to the medbay.

Very low fever, Hemlock had said. Not much wrong, but he was very tired.

‘Thanks,’ Fox had said, ‘I could have told you as much.’

Hemlock had told him, ‘No, you don’t understand, you’re very medically tired and it’s making you feel like shit.’

He hadn’t known Hemlock would file a report.

Force fuck, he didn’t know the Chancellor would get a karking notification.

“Yes, sir,” he finds himself saying. “I was in the medical bay last night.”

The Chancellor gives Fox one of those odd little smiles, like he’s biting down on a secret, or maybe a sour joji fruit. “So I read, Commander. What I didn’t read, though, was a reason.”

“Sir?”

The Chancellor cocks an eyebrow. “According to your chief medical officer, you came in complaining of symptoms of a fever. However, he was unable to find anything wrong with you. The final note lists all bodily systems in perfect working order.”

Fox blinks. No. No. He knows that’s wrong. Hemlock had made a final diagnosis: acute fatigue. He’d told him himself. Why would the Chancellor lie about that? “Sir, to my knowledge, CMO Hemlock did list a diagnosis.”

Palpatine pulls out a datapad and taps at the screen, leaning back and squinting. “No, no, I’m reading it now. No final diagnosis. No reason for any discomfort.”

Fox just stands there gaping.

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lale-txt · 2 years

Text

🌸 (n.sfw) loving Denjiro all night long

a/n: it all started with a dirty dream that stopped when the good part was about to start; so i wanted to continue it with a small drabble but Denjiro took the wheel and now it's a long ass fic, probably the longest smut i've written so far. oops. enjoy? ps: he is my favorite dilf of Wano, he deserves this

contains: afab!reader (no pronouns, reader gets called a 'good girl' twice), softdom!Denjiro, spanking, oral (reader giving & receiving), light breath play, dirty talk, penetration (vaginal), overstimulation

word count: 2.1 k

“You want me to fuck you so bad. It’s written all over your face.”

Strands of his long blue hair are falling into your face like silk as he pins you down on the bed, one thigh pushing between your legs. You wonder if he can feel your throbbing cunt through the thick fabric of his kimono, but judging from his face… he can.

The way he had pushed you onto the bed with such ease and hunger in his eyes made your whole body shiver in excitement. He was more than right with his assumption. You wanted to be fucked so bad, you want him to ruin you, want to moan out his name over and over again like a prayer.

It felt like a fever dream. The way his fox eyes had rested on you earlier, when you sat with legs spread wide open on the bed facing him, three of your fingers buried in your cunt. How he had locked the door behind him, never averting his gaze from you. His big hands, pushing your legs further apart for a better view as he squatted down in front of you, on eye level with your hot core. You called out his name as you pushed yourself over the edge, your juices dripping down your fingers as you curled them up inside of you, your walls clenching around them. How often have you dreamt of being watched by him?

You arch your back, grinding on his thigh, showing him how bad you want to feel him inside. The smirk on his lips is almost feisty, he knows exactly what you’re doing and there’s no doubt that he’s about to show you your place. A shiver wanders over your whole body, leaving you breathless as he leans down to you, his lips almost touching yours. After what feels like an eternity he shortens the remaining distance and brushes your lips, gentle and teasing, making you sigh and whimper under his touch. He kisses you again, pinning you down with your wrists above your head. You moan out his name again. His kisses are getting more greedy, his tongue teasing yours, letting you know all the things he could do with it…

Just as you’re about to wriggle yourself free from his grip (as if you ever had the strength to do that), he grins against your lips before he pulls back, clicking his tongue in disapproval.

“You think I’ll let you take the upper hand that easily?”

Just like that he flips you over on your stomach. One hand of his keeps holding you down by your wrists while the other wanders over your exposed body, setting your skin on fire everywhere his fingertips brush you. You audibly gasp when he gives your ass a nice spanking, just hard enough to make you whimper in pleasure and lust, demanding more by the way your hips move on their own, grinding up and down on what you wished was his thick cock.

“Denjiro, please…”, you whine, turning your head to the side to look at him. “Fuck me.”

The corners of his lips curl up, there’s a twinkle in his eyes. He’s visibly enjoying your devoted position, your begging words. Your body is showing him very clear how badly you want to feel him inside, to fill you up. But he wasn’t ready to give you that, not yet.

“Don’t move unless I say so.”

His command leaves no room for doubt that he was serious about that. After one last spank he pulls his hands away, not taking his eyes off you. You manage to hold his gaze as he slowly loosens up his dark kimono, exposing his muscular, broad chest. He slips out of the sleeves, smirking under your hungry eyes but doesn’t do you the favor of taking off the whole thing, he keeps it wrapped around his hips. You grip the sheets, trying hard not to move as he told you, but damn, it was hard with him looking like a snack there. And he knew.

“Good girl. Now lift those hips for me.”

You feel exposed when you do as he says, arching your back for him; exposed but aroused as he gets on his knees behind you, getting a good view of your dripping wet core. You whimper out his name over and over again, biting the sheets but he takes his time, letting his fingers run up and down your slit in a painfully slow movement, rubbing your clit in soft, big circles and spanking you when you start to move your hips too much, eager for him to fill you up and fuck you until you forget your own name.

When he spreads your folds you shudder, holding your breath until he’s burying his face in your cunt, eating you out like a starved man. His cheeky tongue licks your most delicate spots, playfully circles your clit, making you melt under his touch. You moan out his name, not caring if anyone can hear you. His fingers are digging into your flesh, charming out the most delightful sounds out of your throat. You can feel him smiling against your cunt before he continues eating you out, humming in satisfaction.

Just when you’re about to cum he pulls away, smirking from your groans of frustration. He gets up and licks his lips, still smiling when you turn around and crawl to the edge of the bed, your fingers running over his toned torso down to the kimono around his waist. You look up to him, an unspoken question in your gaze which he answers with a soft nod. He wants it just as bad as you do, you can tell from the silhouette of his hard cock under his kimono. Your hands loosen the waist belt that’s holding the thick fabric up, not without brushing his swollen flesh above the cloth, charming out a few delicate sounds out of him.

“Think you can take me all in?”

He was huge. Huge. But you don’t recoil, instead you unwrap his throbbing cock and stroke it with your hands, watching it pulsate underneath your touch. The way Denjiro sighs your name when you open your mouth to take him all in sounds like a poem; your tongue curling around his cock, licking it from the shaft to the glans like a popsicle. His hands are now buried in your hair, gently guiding your head. You gasp and moan, your hands running up and down his body as if they were seeking something to hold onto, as if they could pull him any closer than he already was.

“Fuck me. Fuck me, please. Fuck me already.”, you whimper between two breaths, only causing him to speed up his tempo more, leaving you trembling and sobbing under his touch. When he pulls out, he gently cups your face with one hand, leaning down to you, his fox eyes fixating you, undressing you once again to the depths of your soul, every fiber of your body craving him. He kisses you, hungry and full of lust, and you can taste yourself on his lips; he is praising you over and over again for being such a good girl, for how good his cock felt in your little mouth. He wipes away the mascara stains on your face, kissing your cheeks softly.

“How do you want me to fuck you?”

You wrap your arms around his broad neck, putting all your weight in to pull him down to you until you lie down flat on your back, Denjiro bent on his fours over you. He could absolutely crush you if he wanted. You wouldn’t mind. In fact, all you wanted right now was to be fucked dumb by him.

“Please use me, Denjiro. I want you so b–”

You hiss through your clenched teeth when he is shoving himself inside your heat, spreading your legs wide open. He isn’t rough but demanding, taking his time to enter you whole, inch by inch you feel like you’re losing your mind. It felt amazing how he stretched your walls, how they clenched around his cock. You can’t help but watch, biting your lip, forgetting how to breathe. You feel like you could cum from the view alone. His torso was covered in a thin sheen of sweat and his forehead touched yours, both of you enjoying the view. He kisses you again and again, making sure you’re comfortable. You mumble against his lips. Fuck me. Fuck me. Fuck me.

When he starts thrusting inside of you, all you can see are stars, a whole universe even. He fucks you in the mattress as if you were merely a hole, moaning your name over and over again. Your eyes roll back in your head as you gasp for air, your nails are leaving red trails on his back. You have never felt more alive than with his cock hitting your insides, with his hands wrapped around your neck. What’s the point of fucking if it doesn’t feel like a little death?

Denjiro fucks you through your first orgasm and through your second, praising you the more you whined and whimpered, plastering your face and your neck in kisses for every time you cried out his name. Just when you thought he was close, he paused, allowing you to catch your breath.

“Let’s switch positions. I want to see you riding me.”

Bitch, I can try, you thought and nodded weakly, not even sure if you would be able to walk for the next three days after he was done with you. But stopping now wasn’t an option. You want to milk him dry, want to see him lose his facade just like you did underneath him, want to hear his moans over and over again like the sweetest song. So you crawl into his lap like a cat, returning the smile curled around his lips. You were both enjoying yourselves so much. Why haven’t you done that earlier? Right, you had to be caught masturbating in his room first for him to make his move.

He leaned against the headboard of the bed in a seating position, stroking his cock in one hand, the other supporting your back as you wrap your arms around his neck and slowly lower your hips onto him, gasping from the new sensation and the different spots he was hitting. You take him in inch by inch, biting your lip and moaning into his open mouth, cursing out loud when he spreads your folds with one hand, praising you and your warm cunt. You still manage to take him all in, a triumphant smile on your lips when you straddle him.

Your hips start rolling on their own, slowly, getting used to the new sensation that fills up the throbbing arousal between your thighs. With a newly found energy you ride him like there’s no tomorrow, bounce up and down on his cock as if nothing else matters. If he’s surprised by you taking the lead he doesn’t show it, but leans back and enjoys the show, one hand on your clit to make sure you feel good, too. When he pulls you close to suck on your nipples, letting his tongue twirl around them carefully, you’re close to your third orgasm.

“Don’t stop. Yes, yes……..”

You almost black out from the thrill of it. Your walls are clenching around his cock, sending shock waves throughout your whole body. When you moan out his name he pulls you closer, holding you as all of you trembles. The heat of his body, the way he touches you, all of him makes you feel dizzy and yet so safe, as if you could lose yourself in him and still not be lost. He patiently waits until your breath returns to normal, his hands resting on your hips.

“Can I cum inside?”, he mumbles in the crook of your neck and you nod, smiling as he kisses your cheek and wraps his arms around you. A few more thrusts that send you into the milky way and the nirvana and he groans and hisses, a familiar warmth filling you up and mixing with your juices dripping down your thighs. You roll your hips a few more times until you slump into his arms, your head resting against his bare chest. His heartbeat is surprisingly slow and steady, the total opposite of yours.

“Can we do that again?” “Like, now?” You raise an eyebrow and Denjiro sends some kisses your way, smiling against your lips, as if he wasn’t only a few minutes away from fucking you into the mattress again for the whole night…

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