#FUCK! ITS CAPTAIN COLD! and now we got a hostage situation

[no27-autonation-honda]

you know there's a real missed opportunity of not making versions of like the real housewives franchise in comics. you look me in the eyes and you goddamned tell me that the real housewives of gotham or central city doesn't fucking SMACK in the dc universe and give atlanta and rhony a run for the crown

[echo-three-one]

Whatever It Takes

It's Task Force 141's first mission after gathering intel about the whereabouts of Samantha Coleman. Gary and the rest of the team proceed to briefing and would probably head straight to their rescue mission. Do these mini summaries even make sense? Find out soon.

Chapter 3 to another story made by Ray (echo-three-one) Comments and Reviews appreciated! I hope you enjoy! Love you all ❤️

Previous Chapter : Soap - F.N.G.

"Run Through the Jungle"

Gary "Roach" Sanderson

Task Force 141

Task Force 141 - Mess Hall

Gary was almost done with his raccoon story when the PA system alerted them of an immediate briefing. Simon nodded to him and got up making his way to the briefing room. Gary also noticed the rest of his squad from earlier walk to the door, and was France crying on Alex? Much to his curiosity, he went to John who was still sitting by the chair.

"Anything you want to tell me, Soap?" he asked, patting his comrade's shoulder. 

"Bugger off, mate. Let's just go to the meeting." he replied, Roach couldn't tell if he was sad or disappointed or mad, but it may have something to deal with France crying.

"Whatever mate. I'm always here if you want to talk it out." he assured, and he was in fact true. It's been a month since the Task Force was created and Gary was the team's therapist, everybody's friend and ally no matter what. He always felt that he could feel everyone's emotions and believes he could be a sponge for someone who's unable to deal with the trauma. Ghost was one of his customers, he had a lot to deal with and Gary was always there for him.

"Few hours ago, our informants intercepted with a group of armed men on a safehouse near the borders of Germany. They told us that there was a man named Augustus who happens to be our step closer to Nero." Gary took note of the information General Shepherd relayed, his scribbles became faster as the General continued.

"We also received word that our hostage, Samantha Coleman is with them in one of these houses. We have to proceed with caution as this area may be rigged with traps or surrounded with tangos." he added.

"As for rules of engagement, fire only when fired upon. This is a local settlement and civilians may be anywhere. We don't want to create unnecessary civilian casualties just to retrieve a single person." he instructed. Gary took a quick survey of the room, everyone looked at the screen intently, he could see MacTavish's eyebrows furrowed in anger, France's eyes were downright sad and Alex, despite being a CIA agent, actually looked worried.

"As for assignments, I'll let your captain take the floor." Shepherd concluded and exited the area, Price then stepped forward and began briefing.

~

The silent chirping of the crickets echoed from the nearby forest. Gary took a cold exhale and leaned on the railings just outside their quarters. 

"Big day tomorrow, huh?" Ghost surprised Roach as he spoke.

"Yeah, it's been a long time since I spotted, but I still know the basics." Gary answered. He and Ghost were assigned for sniper support a few clicks away from the Alpha Team lead by Alex and the Bravo Team lead by Captain Price.

"Your math is good and fast?" Ghost asked, chuckling at the question. Gary inhaled before he answered the question.

"Yeah. Try me." he dared, glancing at the masked man.

"Suppose there's a target about 516 meters far, the wind is one half value." Ghost planned out the situation. Gary's gears started turning as he scratched his freshly shaven chin.

"Five degrees. Descending." he muttered. Ghost thought about it and agreed.

"Yeah. Your math is still on point." he mused laughing at him.

"What do you think Nero is up to? I mean it all doesn't add up. And what's with erasing memories?" Gary flooded the man with questions. Simon just pondered without saying any words.

"I dunno mate. I'm as baffled as you are." he replied, waving to Alex and France who were out on a late night walk.

"Say Gary, what's the deal with the new girl? One minute she looks tough as nuts then the second Soap comes in she's fucking crying?" Ghost rambled. Gary could feel a hint of jealousy but not entirely. It's as if he's mad and jealous at the same time.

"Well, we were too far from their table and I couldn't hear anything. Maybe they had an argument while Soap was out with her on the training room?" Gary speculated, he saw Simon's fists clench as he left his side.

"Eh. Not that I care anyway. Get some rest, spotter. Big day tomorrow." he remarked and went to his room.

"Yeah yeah." he replied waving at the two walking around the oval. They both waved back and Gary yelled good night to them before entering the quarters himself.

Gary plopped on his bed and closed his eyes. He was actually nervous enough that he could hear his own heartbeat, he took deep breaths and lulled himself to sleep. He wanted to see to it that they save the hostage tomorrow and a perfect sleep is what he could contribute right now.

GERMANY

0458H

Gary hated the ghillie suits. It was heavy, uncomfortable and animals sometimes land on you, but it does the job well. Treading the dense forestry just above the safehouse, Gary and Simon head out to look for a perfect spot.

"This one's got a view of the houses." Ghost whispered, signaling Roach to move forward.

"This is Echo Three One, we've cleared the two houses on the right, all empty. Over." Alex reported over their comms.

"Bravo Six copies that and the two houses here are also clear." Price reported.

"Looks like it's going to be the one on the far side." Soap concluded.

"I've got eyes on the safehouse. There's no activity on all windows. Proceed with caution." Ghost reported.

"Rog." Price replied.

"Copy that, eye in the sky." Alex replied.

Gary put out his spotting scope and placed his eye behind the lens.

"I've got my eyes on them, Ghosty. Alpha Team is on its way." he whispered.

Ghost rolled some knobs on his sniper making a soft clicking sound as he spins it.

"Don't call me that, Bug. I have eyes on Bravo Team. Still no movement from the safehouse." 

"This is Alpha Team, approaching the left side of the safehouse."

"Bravo Team is Oscar Mike as well."

"Roach, did you see that?" Ghost whispered.

"Yeah. The winds are shifting." Gary noted, sticking out a tool that detects wind speed.

"Three Fourths value at 400 meters. 15 miles per hour. Adjust to 15.3" he informed, calculating on Ghosts still shoulder with a pen. Decimals are too dangerous to calculate mentally. Ghost's sniper clicked once again to adjust with the wind, he took a deep breath and his targets stabilized once again.

Leaves rustled behind them, Roach quickly held on his rifle and slowly turned back to check if it was an animal. Nothing, but before turning back on his scope, he saw a black figure from the corner of his eye.

"Bollocks. We've got movement on our Six." Roach reported. 

"Remember our ROE, Roach. Fire only when fired upon." Price reminded.

"I'll take care of it from here. You go check on that." Ghost said as he turned back to his scope.

"Roger that. Be safe." Roach quickly ran to the direction if the rustling.

He couldn't make out much of the figure, but he was sure enough it was human. He tried to look for areas where the leaves were disturbed but with the wind picking up, he was clueless. Then there it was again, movement. He quickly dashed to it's direction, not wanting to get lost again. His boots slapped the fresh soil as he made his wauy to a clearing.

'Left, right then left by the rocks.' Gary mentally noted his each turn so he could easily remember but when he's chasing someone whom he felt like it doesn't know where it goes, then it's a whole different story.  

Gary was alone in the windy forest, in pursuit of a person who's out on the woods at five in the morning. He wanted to go back but there's something that bothered him and convinced him to keep chasing it.

"Roach, you okay? They're almost in the safehouse." Ghost pointed out.

"Yeah haaaah… I'm still haaaah… hot on its trail." Gary panted. He suddenly turned when he heard a yelp.

"It's a girl. It might be our hostage." he radioed and followed the direction of the sound.

Soft sobs and English curse words could be heard from where Gary emerged. This alerted the injured female and she plead at the British solider.

"Please. I'm not an enemy. I'm I'm- I don't know who I am or where I am… Please. Don't hurt me." She was an American girl, possibly around 20-30 years old and had blonde hair wearing a black tank top and grey sweatpants, there were a few bruises on her arms and she was threatening him with a stick.

"Maam, put down your weapon and calm down. I will not hurt you." he dropped his weapon slowly on the ground stepped forward, his hands both raised.

"Good good. I need help." she whimpered, looking at her sprained ankle.

Gary immediately took his ghillie off and ripped a piece of his sleeves to wrap around the sprain, treating it with something from his medical kit.

"There you go… You're feeling better now? Maam?" Gary accommodated. The unknown blonde nodded in agreement.

"So.. you don't know who you are?" Gary asked.

"All I know is that I'm with another girl, Brunette." she added.

"I located the one out on the woods. She's American but I can't ID her. She's about 20 - 30 years old, short blonde hair." Gary informed.

"Is that Maxine?" Alex and France simultaneously replied over comms.

"Excuse me. Do you go by Maxine?" Gary asked politely. The girl quickly covered her ears and screamed.

"Aaaaaah! My head hurts!" She yelled. Gary was quick enough to cover her mouth as soon as she opened it as to not give away their presence.

"I don't know if that's a yes or a no guys. But that definitely is a reaction." Gary said over the comms. He assisted "Maxine" and lifted her up as he tries to get back to Ghost.

"Thick trees everywhere. Any Idea where you are Ghost?" he asked over the secure radio.

"I'm at the same spot I've been since we got here. Can't you retrace your steps?" he replied.

"I could try." he muttered, carrying an unconscious woman on his shoulders across the jungle.

Next Chapter : Déjà vu

[its-kili]

You’re Brave (Part 1/2) - Levi x Reader

Synopsis: You’ve been losing sleep because you’ve been hearing noises in your bedroom at night and you think you’re being haunted. Levi makes plans to help put your mind at rest and later helps to investigate the source of the noises in your bedroom.

Warnings: No warnings for this part, just fluff.

Levi was not an affable man, but his presence never ceased to attract the attention of others. Perhaps it was the way his hair flopped over his face and almost covered his eyes that created a ubiquitous air of mystery, giving people the impression that he had some interesting stories from his past to tell. Or maybe it was the stoic expression he wore on his face – always making him look like he had a sense of responsibility and importance – that people would try to imitate when they wanted others to listen to what they had to say. Either way, he was a reputable figure in the Survey Corps, so much so that word of his reputation had made its way through the walls and people (especially women) would swoon when they saw him out in public. Levi was not fond of his popularity, however, and so he would wear his green cloak with its hood up to conceal his face whenever he left the barracks.

               He was leaning against the stone wall of a bakery as I scurried towards him, squeezing through the rushing bodies that populated the market in the middle of Trost. After a few polite ‘I’m sorry’s and ‘excuse me’s, I safely made it to the bakery without pushing into anyone or stepping on their feet. I imitated Levi’s nonchalant stance with one leg bent and my foot and back pressed against the wall as he greeted me.

               “Nice, I think you only almost wiped out one small child this time.” Under the thick layer of apathy in his tone there was a hint of humour that threatened to paint a modest smile on his face.

               “I was trying to be careful,” I chuckled lightly and stared ahead at the horde of people, “I hate crowds.”

               “Tell me about it. That’s why I’m stood over here away from everyone. Unbothered. Moisturised. Happy. In my lane. Foc-” My head instinctively turned to face Levi, my brows furrowed and a look of utter confusion plastered onto my face.

               “Levi, what the fuck are you saying?” I interrupted, trying to keep my voice hushed so the people around us wouldn’t be made aware of Levi’s presence.

               “I couldn’t tell you; it’s just something I heard Jean and Connie saying. Speaking of – any trouble yet?” Levi turned to me but all I could see was his mouth because his hood covered most of his face. I hummed a quiet ‘no’ and shook my head in response to his question, worried that if I spoke I would jinx the peace and problems would kick off.

He was referring to two of his squad members: Eren and the aforementioned Jean. They were prone to arguing with each other, sometimes even fighting, which is why Levi and I were here babysitting them today. It’s embarrassing for them, really, but the last time they were out in public, the pair ended up bickering with each other, so one thing led to another and their quarrel turned into a brawl. Now they aren’t allowed to leave the barracks together without supervision because Commander Erwin doesn’t want the Survey Corps to gain a bad reputation.

Today, Levi and I were on babysitting duty while our children (as we liked to call our squads when they misbehaved) were in town browsing the market. Both of us were captains in the Survey Corps and although only one of us was needed for this job, we were both sent because we had a good-cop/bad-cop relationship that the scouts respected. I was always the captain who could resolve issues by talking some sense into my squad and Levi solved problems by kicking some sense into his. Sometimes my tactics weren’t the most effective, though, so I needed Levi around for those times when only the threat of a brutal punishment would work.

To be honest, it was impossible to keep an eye on Eren and Jean in the busy crowds, but then again, it would be impossible for them to start a fight in such a congested space. Levi and I were just pleased to be out of the barracks today, no training or paperwork to tire us out. Unfortunately for me, however, I was already tired due to a lack of sleep last night, so my outing was semi-ruined before I even left the barracks. A yawn escaped my mouth as I tilted my head back, feeling the cool stone against my hair, and I closed my eyes as I let the sun warm my skin.

“Levi?” I started, dragging out the last syllable of his name.

“Hmm?” He imitated my tone.

“Do you believe in ghosts?” I asked, still facing the sky with my eyes closed as if it were a trivial attempt at small talk and not a question I had been pondering since the early hours of the morning.

“Tch. Don’t be ridiculous.” My eyes shot open and my neck jolted so I was facing Levi after he gave his response. He had mirrored my previous position, basking in the sunlight like a reptile with his eyes closed.

“Don’t be ridiculous as in, ‘of course I believe in ghosts’ or don’t be ridiculous as in, ‘it’s all just a load of horse shit’?” I pestered. Levi’s hood didn’t cover his face when he tilted his head up, so I traced the contours of his profile with my eyes while I knew he wouldn’t catch me staring. He had an angular jaw and chin with stern eyebrows and a sharp nose: all were features that reinforced his steely reputation. In contrast to the rest of his appearance, his lips looked soft, and although they never faltered from a rigid line on his face, I often wondered what he looked like when he smiled.

“The latter.” He confirmed as he raised an eyebrow and opened his eyes, looking at me from the side without moving his head. “Why do you ask?” I averted my gaze and a warmth overwhelmed my cheeks as I felt like I had just been caught doing something I shouldn’t.

“I. . . uh,” I smiled to myself as I stammered and gripped the back of my neck with my hand, “It probably sounds stupid, but I’m sure that my bedroom is haunted.” I gave a light-hearted chuckle, aware that Levi probably thought my declaration was nonsensical.

“That’s absurd. Why do you think that?” Levi questioned and I had to bite back a smile at the realisation that if most people had made such a statement then he would have stopped his response at ‘that’s absurd’. But I’m not most people, so he cared enough to ask me to elaborate, and that brought a pleasant wave of contentment to my fatigued brain. Or perhaps I was simply overthinking the situation, but that’s not a thought that I wanted to have.

“Last night I got woken up by noises coming from my wardrobe. It sounded like it was shaking, as if something were trying to push it over. I couldn’t get back to sleep after that.” I confessed and I saw Levi’s expression soften, his eyebrow no longer raised but instead almost furrowed in concern. He was a sensible man with firm beliefs, so I knew that he wouldn’t think there was validity to my accusation, but I am an irrational person who hears a noise in the dark and immediately attributes it to the supernatural and so I hadn’t taken the time to think about another explanation.

I hoped that after hearing my admission he could persuade me with logic that I was wrong, but instead he shrugged his shoulders and mumbled ‘spooky’ before tilting his head back up to the sky and closing his eyes again.

Levi was known to be honest, even when his words sometimes seemed harsh, because he thought it was in the best interest of the other person to hear the truth. So I tried to think of a reason why he wouldn’t tell me that my ghost theory was stupid, or why he wouldn’t just scoff and roll his eyes, because I knew he didn’t really think it was spooky and I’m sure he had already thought of a logical justification in his head. There was no time to be thinking of such explanations, though, because my eyes had already wandered back to the face of the man stood next to me.

Levi’s raven hair exacerbated the paleness of his skin and his cool undertones almost gave him a death-like pallor. But even though he seemingly lacked life in his skin, he made up for it in his steel blue eyes. They were vibrant and full of spirit as if all the ocean and sky and everything that lived in them had been encapsulated in his gaze. Well, that’s what I saw when I looked at him, anyway. Other people didn’t think his façade was so pleasant. He would often scowl – not at anyone in particular – as if he were perpetually irritated with the world. If anybody got on the wrong side of him, he would glare at them (and that is all if they were lucky) and in that moment his eyes are cold, steel daggers pressed firmly against warm skin, and his victim would obey his every command like they are a hostage to his unmerciful blades.

Fortunately, I never experienced that side of him first-hand; we got on well, better than we did with any of the other captains and commanders in the Survey Corps. Because of this, I got to see a side to Levi that nobody else was blessed enough to witness, and by that I mean nothing spectacular, just softened expressions and less harsh words from time to time. Admittedly, I was quite fond of Levi, perhaps too much, and definitely a lot more than he was of me. But I never told him of my feelings towards him, instead opting for the easier option of gawking at him at times like these when nobody would catch me.

 Thankfully, our outing in Trost was conflict-free and we returned to the barracks with our dignity intact. The rest of my day was spent forcing myself not to nap – despite almost failing a few times – because I wanted to ensure I got a good night’s sleep. So that night, after I entered my bedroom and got ready for bed, I was desperate for my slumber and decided to address the potential ghost problem. I stood in front of my wardrobe, which was against the wall directly opposite my bed, and I sighed as I put my hands on my hips.

               “Hi, uh. . . ghosts. Spirits? Dead people? No, sorry, I don’t want to brag that I’m alive and you’re, well. . . not. Although I suppose there’s nothing to brag about, really, is there? I mean, being alive sucks. Well, I guess you’d know that being uh, post-deceased and all that. Is the afterlife any better? No, you don’t have to answer that. I guess I’ll find out for myself one day.” My feet paced around my room as I rambled on. “Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I’m really tired because I didn’t get much sleep last night, so I was wondering, with regards to the whole wardrobe thing, if you could just, kind of, tone the noise down a bit? Like, just stop it, perhaps? It’s just that I’ve got some pretty intense training tomorrow so I need to be well-rested, I’m sure you’re reasonable people – ghosts – and you’ll understand? Thank you for hearing me out. Goodnight.”

               After giving my speech to the wardrobe and I was certain that it would be effective in deterring potential supernatural activity, I climbed into bed and closed my eyes. My final thoughts before I wandered away into my dreams were images of Levi and the way the sunlight caressed his skin in Trost today. He looked peaceful and at ease when he closed his eyes, just as I was in my bed, and I realised how lucky I was for him to be the last thing to grace my thoughts as I drifted into my sleep.

 Much to my frustration, my slumber was abruptly disturbed after a few short hours when the noises from my wardrobe returned, this time a little more aggressive than last night. As I hid under my blanket, my eyes just peeking over the top, I thought that perhaps my request had offended any ghosts in the room and this was their response, so I whispered a shaky ‘I’m sorry’ and hoped it would stop. It didn’t, though, and the wardrobe continued to shake as I laid in my bed, frozen with fear. I watched the wall, which was barely illuminated by dim strings of moonlight breaking through the gaps in my curtains, hoping to see some kind of apparition to at least confirm my suspicions. It wasn’t until I watched a painting fall from the wall and heard its chilling bang on the floor that I regained control of my body and shot out of bed, heading straight towards the mess hall to grab a glass of water with the intent to calm myself down a bit.

               I burst through the doors, shaken and breathless, half-expecting a phantom to jump out and shout ‘boo!’ to scare me. Instead, there was a different ghostly figure in the room. Levi was sat alone in the mess hall, his pale skin shining through the dull candlelight, drinking a cup of tea. At this time?

               “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” His voice was firm but despite his rigid exterior, I could tell that he thought his comment was funny and he was proud of it. Under any other circumstance I would have laughed, but I was too startled to do anything other than stare at him with wide eyes.

               “Th-the wardrobe noises. . . it happened again. B-but this time it was worse an-and a painting fell off my wall.” I stuttered and Levi narrowed his eyes as he listened to my crisis, before getting up to pour me a glass of water.

               “I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for what happened.” He gently placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me the water. After I took a sip he looked me in the eye and said, “I saw an advert – out in Trost earlier – for a ghost tour of an old, abandoned building. I’m going to take you tomorrow night; it might help.” I was taken aback by his offer, surprised that he would pay attention to such things, let alone consider going along.

               “I don’t understand how that will help, Levi. If anything it will just make me more scared.” I protested, worried that a ghost tour would confirm my theory that ghosts are real and I would never be able to sleep again. But then I realised something spectacular: if I get scared in the haunted house tomorrow night, I will have an excuse to get close to Levi. I thought about the sensation of linking my arm with his and hiding my face in his shoulder, how warm his body would feel pressed against mine, the contours of his muscles-

               “Did you hear me?” Levi questioned, snapping me out of my thoughts. My response was a puzzled frown and a confused ‘hmm?’, indicating that he should repeat himself because I was miles away. “I said the whole thing will be so farcical that it will prove to you that ghosts don’t exist. And if my plan doesn’t work, then we can ask the tour guide about methods of exterminating ghosts, or whatever you’re supposed to do to deal with them.” He waved his hand in the air as if he were shooing the ghosts away.

               “Yeah, that sounds like a great idea actually.” I nodded my head, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, at the thought of clutching onto Levi’s toned, muscular body in fear. And if the ghost tour is not scary at all, well, I might just have to feign my terror and hold onto him anyway.

        ��      “For tonight, though, I think we should swap rooms,” Levi suggested and I raised my eyebrows in surprise, “because you need to get some sleep and I’m not scared of your wardrobe ghost. Also, if I hear any noises I’m brave enough to investigate, no offense.” None taken, honestly, you’re right and I’m a pussy.

               “Um, okay. Are you sure?” I was astonished that he had offered me his room considering the fact that it was his private dwelling and he wasn’t the most open person when it came to sharing personal information.

               “Yes, I insist. Don’t worry, my bedroom isn’t haunted – the only sound that will disturb you is Erwin’s snoring from next door. I usually drown that noise out by listening to the sound of me screaming into my pillow. Good luck.” Levi’s tone was playful as he patted my shoulder and escorted me out of the mess hall and towards his bedroom.

 As I ate my breakfast in the mess hall the next morning, I was feeling refreshed and contented by Levi’s kind gesture last night. The scent of his bedsheets lingered in the air as if the fragrance were painted on my skin: fresh cotton and lemongrass – if Levi were a candle he would be aptly named ‘Cleaning Cupboard’. I rested my elbow on the table and pressed my head against my hand as I absent-mindedly stirred my coffee, daydreaming about the way my body accidentally brushed against Levi’s as he held his bedroom door open for me last night. Perhaps if I freak out more often he will offer his bedroom to me again and again. Oh, Levi Heichou, I heard the ghost again and I’m so terrified. You want me to sleep in your bedroom again? Okay, if you insist, but you don’t have to leave. You should stay, I’d feel terrible for kicking you out of your bed again. Okay, maybe I’m getting a little too ahead of myself.

               I stopped stirring my coffee when I awoke from my fantasy and realised that the clinking of the spoon against porcelain had seemingly started to irritate the people in my vicinity. The mess hall was livening up as people were waking up and getting ready for the day ahead, and I noticed a sleepy Eren and Mikasa approaching the table next to mine before sitting opposite each other. Next to enter was Levi and instead of grabbing some breakfast or even a cup of tea, he headed towards me with what appeared to be the faintest smirk pulling at his lips. I had never seen such an expression on his face before and so I convinced myself that my lack of sleep must have caused me to hallucinate. But after blinking a few times and seeing his face up close, I realised that my eyes did not deceive me.

               “Good morning, did you get back to sleep alright?” He asked as he perched on the edge of my table.

               “I did, thank you. I’m still quite tired though.” I took a sip of my coffee and met his gaze over the top of my mug before he turned to Eren and Mikasa, the smirk still playing on his lips.

               “What about you two? Did you sleep alright?” Levi questioned and I thought it was odd for him to be showing such concern for his squad members. Usually, he never had much to say to them unless they were in trouble.

               “Uh. . . I’m a bit tired actually,” Eren hesitated as Mikasa yawned, “why do you ask, sir?” His gaze then locked onto Eren’s apprehensive eyes like Levi had him in an ocular chokehold and it was only a matter of time before the weaker man yielded. It wasn’t long before Eren looked to the ground and yawned into his hand.

               “We have training today and you look exhausted, I just want to make sure you’re in good shape.” Levi shrugged and turned back to me. “You smell nice, by the way.” He praised before he walked away, his voice perhaps a little too sultry to be making such admissions in a public space.

               Eren turned to me and I to him as we exchanged bewildered expressions concerning Levi’s peculiar behaviour. I could have offered him an explanation on my behalf, but confessing that I had spent the night in the captain’s bed would only raise more questions than answers. Instead, I finished my coffee and continued with my morning as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

 I didn’t see much of Levi throughout the rest of the day, only when we crossed paths as I was heading out of the training grounds for my lunch break and once again in the afternoon when I passed his office on my way to mine and he suggested that I take a nap to prepare for the night ahead. It had occurred to me that I would need to make up for the sleep that I lost last night if I wanted to stay awake on the ghost tour tonight. So while I was supposed to be filling out paperwork in my office that afternoon, I decided to take a power nap instead. I can fill these forms out tomorrow, I thought as I rested my head on my desk and closed my eyes.

 When I awoke I realised that my power nap was more of a deep sleep as I looked out of my office window and saw the setting sun half-submerged below the horizon. I wasn’t sure when I was supposed to be heading out with Levi, but the night was quickly approaching so I rushed to the bathroom to have a shower.

               After my shower I put on some casual (but warm) clothes and I felt fresh, but I desperately wanted Levi to tell me I smell nice again; this morning I almost felt as if I had lured him in with pheromones. The thought of sneaking into his room and rolling around in his bed had crossed my mind before I laughed it off, knowing how crazy and ridiculous that sounded. Alas, I settled for my fresh-out-of-the-shower smell, realising that although it may not be Levi’s cotton and lemon grass scent, it was certainly better than the resulting odour from half a day of training in the sun.

               Darkness had completely consumed the day by the time I was ready, like a blanket had been thrown over the sky and the stars were minute airholes that had been poked through it. An agitating wariness was growing inside me as the light in my bedroom started to fade and I was anxious of potential supernatural activity that may occur. Luckily, Levi knocked on my door before I witnessed anything frightening.

                “You ready?” He asked, his voice soft and cool as he stood in my doorway with one hand in his pocket and the other holding his jacket over his shoulder. His steel blue eyes pranced around my face so I returned the action, and for a moment we were embraced in a waltz of nonverbal communication as I danced over all the words I wished I could have said to him. The dance ended when I realised that I hadn’t answered Levi’s question, so I nodded my head and gave a shy ‘let’s go’ as I averted my eyes to the ground and warmth spread over my cheeks.

Link to Part Two

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #21- Situations in Which it is Appropriate to Stab Your Roommate

You know what’s generally considered bad for your health?

Getting fingers stuck into your brain meat.

Tailgate reveals himself to be immune to Tyrest’s “fall down on the floor” signal, because his hearing’s gone to complete shit due to Cybercrosis. Tailgate then turns off the “fall down on the floor” signal, allowing everyone back up. Tyrest dislikes this turn of events every much- so much so, in fact, he’s turned into a Nazgûl out of sheer rage.

Rodimus, feeling a bit bolstered by the fact that he’s gotten his hands on one of the massive guns the Legislators dropped, tries to talk a big game at Tyrest, before being reminded that a lot of their party is still at risk of dying, by way of their souls cheese-wizzing out of their heads.

Tyrest, now using Tailgate as a hostage, tells everyone to back off so he can go hang out with the Guiding Hand, otherwise he’s gonna poke holes in Cyclonus’ morality pet. Tailgate screams for Rodimus to fire, finally revealing that he’s been dying this whole time. Rodimus has a weird moment where the plot overrides his knowledge of his situation as a character, as he claims shooting them both is unnecessary, as it looks like someone’s already working on it.

Not sure how he saw the gun and not the man it was being held by. And Minimus has some fucking explaining to do.

Outside, Star Saber is yelling about everyone being unworthy of God’s grace, save for himself, because Real Bastard Hours are 24-fucking-7 with him around. Cyclonus decides that he’s going to deal with the stress of not being able to find his dying roommate through violence, and agrees to a religiously-inclined sword fight.

Star Saber has a good start, sucker-punching Cyclonus in the chin, holier-than-thou as he goes. Cyclonus turns the tables however, when he uses his remaining helmet horn to gouge one of Star Saber’s eyes out, revealing his fashion statement to be a deadly weapon in its own right.

Then we get a taste of Cyclonus’ personal brand of faith.

That’s a mighty high opinion of Tailgate you got there, pal. Quite the jump from “I think you’re pathetic.”

Unfortunately, having this little character moment gives Star Saber enough time to warp the hell away from Cyclonus’ Nazgûlian wrath.

Back with Zombie Bullshit Part 3, we get some friggin’ answers.

Minimus looks super tiny here, but remember that he’s still at least ten feet tall. This is not a man you can invite inside your house for a tea party.

After Minimus’ head got crushed, he had to Alien chest-burst his tiniest self out, which allowed him to grab that gun that’s as big as he is and shoot Tyrest in half. Rodimus has to be reminded again that people are still dying, including Brainstorm, which is weird, because he made it seem like he was forged a few issues back. Perceptor runs off to try and parse the Killswitch, and Pharma offers to help, striking a weirdly sultry pose as he does. Everyone ignores him, because that’s just what happens when you become evil and cut your old coworker in half hotdog-style- you get ignored.

Off in the corner, Swerve is talking to Tailgate about the fact that he didn’t tell anyone he was dying, then makes a joke about his impending demise, because Swerve has a lot of trouble handling serious situations. No one has helped him pop his nose back into place, either. This entire team is just falling apart.

Skids stares blankly at Ratchet and First Aid as they check to make sure all the cold-constructed ‘bots are still dying- they are- then remembers that he’s supposed to be watching Pharma.

Prowl only hires the best, clearly.

Skids runs for the portal, with First Aid right on his tail because there’s a gotdang score to settle, and also Rung for some reason. They find Pharma chilling in the tunnel, completely unable to get through to the other side, not because he’s guilty, but because there’s a forcefield in place.

Of course, because Tyrest was an engineer, and you can always find a running theme with everyone’s work, Rung theorizes that the forcefield is working with Aequitas rules, and actually can sense guilt- not of the legal sense, but of the personal variety.

Which sort of implies some unfortunate things about the Aequitas trials as a whole.

Skids starts sinking through, whereas Rung is hitting a wall. Rung, the hell you got to feel guilty about? What sort of horrors have you inflicted upon the world, you skinny creamsicle of a man?

Skids, people are dying. Can your personal nirvana not wait until after this galactic-scale crisis is resolved?

While Skids fucks off into the portal, First Aid’s taking care of Pharma, as Rung watches and has a Nam flashback to issue #6 in the distance.

Sometimes I wonder if First Aid is somehow aware of how Eugenesis went for him, and that’s why he’s so aggressive all the time in MTMTE.

With his revenge exacted, First Aid finally has that breakdown that’s been a long time coming.

You know what we haven’t had in a while? Gratuitous religious imagery.

“They call it the Eugenesis Code. Has something to do with intellectual property, I dunno.”

So this move they’re about to pull might kill Rodimus, and is for-sure going to annihilate the half of the Matrix they have. Bummer. Perceptor goes to finish setting up, leaving Rodimus and Minimus alone to discuss that thing Getaway brought up about Ultra Magnus luring the Lost Light to Luna 1.

Over on the floor, Tyrest isn’t dead, because of course he isn’t, and enacts the homophone game with Swerve and Tailgate as he relays an order to the Legislators.

Outside, all the Legislators stop whaling on Whirl with their swords and start parroting prime numbers at the sky.

Back with Rodimus and Minimus, it’s revealed that Magnus/Minimus/Miniminimus DID lure the Lost Light to the moon, but it was to have Tyrest yell at Rodimus for being a crappy captain. He didn’t know that Tyrest had gone completely bonkers.

The worst part is that Minimus doesn’t know the half of all the bullshit Rodimus has pulled since the end of the war.

No wonder Rodimus was so upset before the funeral- Overlord was partially his fault.

Prowl, prior to the Lost Light’s launch, had wormed his way into Rodimus’ brain, convincing him that an Autobot Phase Sixer was absolutely necessary for the safety of everyone. He, along with Drift, Brainstorm, the Duobots, and eventually Chromedome, assisted in what culminated in one hell of a bad day.

Rodimus would really prefer if this whole space-crucifixion didn’t kill him, because he’s feeling like he’s got a lot to make up for. Which, yeah. I’m guessing all of Tripodeca’s friends are going to be mighty sore about this whole thing once it comes to light.

And that’s a series wrap on Rodimus!

We get a brief intermission, as we find out where exactly Skids got to. It’s… somewhere. Not even he’s sure. He tries to ask for directions, but it would seem there’s a language barrier.

It really speaks volumes to Skids’ sense of self-confidence, that he’d see a giant ball of technicolor light and decide he’s gonna go try to talk to it.

Back at the current crisis at hand, Rodimus screams some more, the Matrix shatters alongside any hopes of finding the Knights of Cybertron, and Ratchet has himself a little smile, because that did the trick.

The reason we aren’t seeing Crankcase in this set of panels is because his head wound was also spewing oil, and he looks super nasty right now. Well, nastier than any of the Scavengers usually are on a day to day basis. They regularly drink corpse juice, they can’t NOT be nasty.

Unfortunately, we aren’t out of the woods yet, as that whole Legislator thing still needs to be taken care of. They pour into the room, throwing Swerve along with the steel door, as he shrieks in terror.

Back outside, Cyclonus and Whirl are having a little breather up on the edge of the smelting pool, since all the Legislators they were fighting went inside. Whirl, who is looking just awful, brings up that little deal he cooked up in issue #19, where Cyclonus would stop trying to murder him if they got through this fight. It’s important to remember that verbal contracts aren’t binding, and that Cyclonus didn’t agree to anything.

And that’s a series wrap on Whirl!

Actually, no, Cyclonus was just daydreaming. He agrees to put the past behind them, then shoots off to go find Tailgate.

Back in Legislator City, things are getting dicey, as Rung screams for Skids to come back, because if nothing else, he knows he can depend on Skids when the chips are down.

Skids, playing to Rung’s expectations, vaults over Pharma’s headless body out of the portal, and starts kicking ass. In the background, some creepy tentacle nonsense pulls Pharma through the portal. This, surely, will never come up again, nor will it be a major plot point down the road.

Because Tyrest decided he was going to play fast and loose with the law, Minimus has no idea what “one one” is meant to refer to. Tailgate decides that cram school did serve a purpose after all, and books it towards that massive computer off in the corner. After a bit of combing through the index, he finds what he’s looking for and makes a few choice edits to the Autobot Code. The Legislators freeze in place, and Tailgate reveals that he’s just completely voided a section of the law.

Just off panel, Minimus barely contains the urge to pop Tailgate’s cubic little head off of his neck. Not that he’d have much time to do it anyway.

Smash cut to the next day, where Tailgate’s laid out in a dark room, Cyclonus sitting by his side. Chromedome is also there for some reason. Rung is nowhere to be seen, despite him likely being a better fit for this situation than the guy whose husband died less than a week ago. Chromedome leaves, because this is a very intimate moment between these two guys who are roommates.

Tailgate, who has developed an honest-to-god “guy-who-is-going-to-die-by-the-end-of-the-movie” cough, tells Cyclonus that he made him something, and it’s waiting in their room for him. I’m going to guess it’s a macaroni art picture of the two of them fighting a dragon.

Tailgate has literal minutes to live, and Cyclonus just sits there, Nazgûling with grief, until Tailgate decides that NOW is the time to reveal his hand.

…Well, there’s the answer to the Babygate question.

Tailgate’s come to the conclusion that all his wanting to be important and a hero was a bit misguided, because as it turns out, it kind of sucks when it’s your final act in the world of the living. He really would have preferred to do just about anything else with his last days, even if it had been just chilling in his room with Cyclonus.

Tailgate asked Cyclonus off-panel to do him a solid and kill him before the Cybercrosis did, a plea which Cyclonus couldn’t agree to. Then he gets a call, and the tension of the scene is somewhat ruined by some goofy-ass cinematic parallels.

Where the hell is Tailgate, that Cyclonus has to book it down the hall to make it to the medibay? That isn’t clear, but what is is that Tailgate has the rottenest luck in the world; they figured out a cure for Cybercrosis, but his case is too advanced for treatment to be effective.

Cyclonus thinks that this is a major bummer, but thanks Ratchet for trying anyway. Whirl tries to talk to him, and he better watch out, before that little deal he made gets thrown out the friggin’ window.

Tailgate hits the final two minutes, as Cyclonus returns, sword in hand.

And that’s a series wrap on Tailgate!

…That was almost a sincere one, you know. Tailgate was supposed to die here, in an earlier draft of the story. He didn’t, because Roberts realized it would completely nerf Cyclonus’ character development. I can’t even begin to imagine who Cyclonus would have been if both the Rewind/Chromedome thing hadn’t gone over well, AND Tailgate got offed.

Later on, Ultra Magnus is back in action, Minimus Ambus having redonned the armor to reassume his position as S.I.C. of the Lost Light. He discusses the changes that have come about as a result of their time on Luna 1 with Rodimus, who’s pretty bummed about the whole situation. A quick rundown of all the nonsense that happened:

The mystical portal to the Guiding Hand no longer works

Hot Spot faded out and won’t come back on

Ambulon is dead

First Aid is very sad about Ambulon being dead

The ship is falling apart

The only person who seems to have had any sort of a positive experience is Brainstorm.

…James, did you put that baby inside that robot?

Anyway, so yeah. Luna 1 sucks butt. One star, would rate zero if I could, I don’t care if it has sweet rocket thrusters strapped to the back of it and is super mysterious, and might potentially be an idea pulled from the delightfully earnest Children of a Lesser Matrix.

Later on, Magnus makes his rounds, stopping by Cyclonus and Tailgate’s room to check the vibe. Turns out that stabbing sick people is considered medicine on Cybertron, at least when you’re using a Great Sword to do it.

Whirl had the awesome idea to slap Cyclonus’ weird spark energy into Tailgate’s frail body, so it could kickstart his heart and give him enough time to actually get treated for Cybercrosis.

Ultra Magnus is impressed, and perhaps a bit concerned with how easily Cyclonus was willing to risk dying so that Tailgate could potentially live. So much so, in fact, that Cyclonus gets an achivement- he’s finally collected enough good karma to be allowed to have friends!

Looking mighty fresh-faced there, Cyclonus. And is that a new horn? Someone’s got a plastic surgeon on speed-dial.

No, this is actually the gift that Tailgate made him, the one he was working on in Hoist’s workshop back in issue #15, just before the Overlord attack. The one we never got to actually see, probably because it would be very easy to tell what it was and who it was for if we had. The set up for our slowburn romance has to be just so, no shortcuts allowed.

[kazbrkker]

Chapter 7: Bloody Reunions

Chapter summary: Time to get the Wolf. Alexis conducts interrogations like the badass she is, but sometimes it sucked being that good at her job. (Protective couple... you don’t even have to squint.)

Warnings: Misogynistic POS, emotional detachment, blood and violence, mild graphic detail of torture. (4490 words... i went hAM lol)

28 October 2019, 0630 "Alexis" and "Alex" | Codename Aces CIA with Demon Dogs Rammazan, Urzikstan

   "Place is a freaking morgue."

Judging by the piles of stacked bodies on the medical beds, it was a justified statement. Morgue might be an idoneous word for hospital. The patronising smell of death bypassed her as usual, but not the disturbing scene of unnaturally still bodies.

The handiwork of Roman Barkov.

There was a twisted satisfaction when Alexis shoved another magazine in her M4A1, knowing one of these bullets had Barkov's name mentally carved into it. She couldn't wait to see it lodged between his eyes.

"Check the bodies..." Sergeant Griggs ordered. The Marines and both CIA agents warily slithered along the occupied stretchers and medical beds—hoping none of them was sleeping with a gun.

It was a gut-wrenching sight. Bloodshed and raw injuries everywhere they turned. Not even sure if those alive should be considered lucky.

Suddenly, one of the civilians bolted into a sitting position, making everybody on edge. Frantic shouts and language barrier only escalated the chaos. Not willing to see another dead body, Alexis interjected in mediocre Arabic, calmly demanding the man to lay back down.

"More than a pretty face..." She looked distastefully over her shoulder, the Marine didn't bother wiping the smirk off his face and instead, shamelessly winked. Revolting, but she merely rolled her eyes, though a much younger her wouldn't hesitate to deck his face.

Gender discrimination in the military was a blast. There came a time when a heavy chip weighed down her shoulders—excruciating, yet she thrived under it. Often, some misogynistic meathead would challenge her.

Emotional, weaker, probably a lousy spotter, wouldn't last a week in the jungle.

Eventually, they all ate their words.

Alexis broke through every damn glass ceilings she went: the only female recruit in her company, made Lieutenant, then transferred to JSOC's Task Force Black. Impossible was understating things.

Her unconventional transfer to Task Force Black was a statement in itself. It finally felt like she earned it. Though she loved 88, the CIA was a nice change of scenery, where there were lesser suffocating males with inferiority complex and women were actually appreciated.

Five years later, such remarks were a humourless punchline to her. On the contrary, Alex fantasied how good Demon 1-2 would look with a bruise on his face. In the shape of his rifle stock.

Truthfully, even she considered shoving a middle finger. The weather was hot enough to vaporise her and having a tactical vest strapped against her sweaty body, was not it.

Things changed when another civilian to their 3 o'clock pulled out a gun targeted at the uniforms. While everyone was still busy hollering around, she shot a precise bullet between the hostile's eyes.

With a thud, the man fell off the stretcher.

The female agent scoffed, returning a satirical wink of her own, "Stay frosty, 1-2." He tripped around his words in shock, until Sergeant Griggs forced the gratitude out of him.

Well. If the Universe wanted to send it her way, who was she to reject it, right? She shook her head at the inevitable smirk on Alex, a subtle one hanging on her lips too.

It was a shame that the peace was ephemeral, by this time, several of Sergeant Griggs' men went radio silent. She religiously trailed behind Alex. They pushed further into the hospital, only to be met with a minigun.

"Mini my ass," Alexis laughed nervously as bullets sprayed inches away from tearing her abdominal—because of her ballsy move to switch covers.

"Holy fucking... Okay! Don't give me that look, Alex!"

She thanked the Heavens that Alex's yells were muffled over ricocheting bullets. Several smoke grenades later, Alex sniped the gunman and lo and behold, they finally reached a heavily chained door.

Score, imagery confirmed the Wolf was inside.

It was her job to clear the room while Alex secured the Wolf. Her index finger pressed lightly against the trigger, swallowing the adrenaline that dangerously swirled inside her. Upon Alex's signal, they sneaked in and hid behind messy shelves. The visual of the three missing Marines came into view, with one held hostage with a knife against his throat as the Wolf filmed another propaganda video.

"Check... Five hostiles."

"Affirmative. On my mark," Alex replied. A split second later, he tackled the Wolf from behind. His men's reactions were quick, but her years of muscle discipline was borderline supernatural.

"Clear!" Griggs rushed to untie his men. "You two good?"

Alexis nodded, tightening the zip ties uncomfortably around the Wolf's wrist. She began examining his body language, hopefully finding nibs of his tells to use against him in interrogation later.

Omar Sulaman was strangely calm for a man with a foiled plan. There was slight reluctance in his steps, but still, silence.

"Saint to Watcher, Wolf is in the bag."

Her voice was a stark contrast to the boyish tones that surrounded the room—earning the Wolf's attention, who made the bold decision to turn around abruptly.

"What are you doing here, daughter?"

Alexis felt the entire world's gaze burn into her side profile, equally as confused as the lot. She shrugged and walked away.

Inwardly, the interrogator inside was thrilled. The Wolf was in for a helluva surprise.

━━━━━

28 October 2019, 2100 Sakhra, Urzikstan

The air-conditioned room in the embassy was a godsend, not a word of complaint as the cold air blanketed her. Alexis, Alex, Farah and Hadir patiently waited for Price's arrival.

When Alexis expectingly popped a piece of mint gum, Alex knew. Though it didn't take an expert to discern the ominous aura around her. Alexis hadn't said more than what was necessary in the seven hours since they captured the Wolf, busying herself to study the Wolf.

Alex was smarter than to cut in between. Like Alexis said, she was damn good at her job. Interrogation was one of her most valued expertise, perhaps arguably why the CIA wanted her so badly and the reason why JSOC refused to let her go.

There was a secret to her tactics—compartmentalise. Alexis sat opposite the Wolf, gaze cold as ice. It was a chilling sight even for Alex.

Unscrewing his bottle, Alex greedily rehydrated himself, still observing Alexis. The grittier bite in her tactics was certainly noticeable. He guessed it had something to do with her incident. Having been captured once or twice, that was the closest Alex came to ever understanding her.

Sometimes Alex swore he never got her back.

Physical detachment was a given while she was... compartmentalising, although the rising situation gave him no choice. A shiver ran down his spine as he tapped her shoulders. At the slight arch of her eyebrows, "Bravo's three mikes out."

Alexis blinked slowly in comprehension, not realising Alex's first announcement shot past her. She nodded methodically, the metal chair screeched as she got up. She charged determinedly to an isolated hallway and slipped down against the wall, burying her head in her tucked knees. Despite the rapid intakes of breaths, it didn't suffice.

She loathed every single second in interrogations. Doing the Devil's work, she thought. The irony in this situation was her call sign. For someone called Saint, she didn't know anything else more normal than this.

Saint wasn't a moniker given to her because she was virtuous, innocent or some shit like that. Hilarious to think that, for its darker origin.

Every time she conducted an interrogation, she had to subdue the gag-inducing hypocrisy. How could she, after St. Petersburg?

The reports claimed it was a miracle she survived. Fuck that, what did they know.

That birthday was memorable, to say the least. He had even arranged something special that faithful day—nothing said happy birthday! more than electrocution.

152 days.

"ты прекрасна, ангел... (You are beautiful, angel..)"

"Fuck!" Her eyes shot open, desperate to let the ugly fluorescent light blind the image. Autonomously, her fingers scratched wildly across her arms. After a particularly deep breath, her head fell against the wall and like clockwork, she exhaled all her anxiety.

She was too good at pretending.

It was her desire to stay in solitude longer, but the shrilling embassy siren obviously had other plans. Doubling back, she found Alex at the doorway already looking for her.

"The Butcher and his men are about to breach. We need to leave, now." She peered into the room, barely seeing the tinted glow of the fire outside. Noticing the rising blood clots and angry red streaks on her forearms, Alex clenched his fists to restrain himself from reaching out, knowing she would only flinch. So, he settled for a hard swallow of his saliva, "Follow me."

Price's voice rang in their ears, "Saint and Echo 3-1, primary extraction failed. We're down on the roof."

"Understood. What's the call, Captain?"

"There's a saferoom in the basement. Head there. We'll be right behind you."

When they reached the basement, Alexis basically scrambled to the CCTVs for a sitrep–she had half a thought to join the sweep, eager to rid the hypocrisy from her systems. Eternity later, or in reality, twenty minutes later, their backup arrived.

Price.

The SAS Captain squeezed her upper arm in greeting. Lucky for her, it was where the bullet had previously scraped her. Price clapped Alex's back while glancing at her patched-up injury, "That fast, huh?"

Missed you too, old man, she thought, rolling her eyes as a response. Her coldness confused the Captain, eyes darting to Alex for an answer. He understood when Alex cocked his head at the Wolf.

"Let's move. Clock's ticking."

"You heard her..." Price ordered the Sergeant to direct the Ambassador secretary to safety and the rest headed to the parking lot. While Price and Farah went to retrieve the Ambassador's secretary, the two CIA agents stood guard at the car park entrance.

Under the flashing red coat of the emergency lights, there was no mistaking in the comfort Alex's concerned nod brought her.

It was apparent that Alex was her anchor. But in this state, she couldn't bear to look at him for long, internally disgusted by herself. All these years, she was petrified to ask if he was repulsed by her hypocrisy.

Then, she felt the hesitant touch of a coarse, large hand. She accepted it immediately—much to Alex's surprise. Their fingers intertwined secretly in the dimly lit hallway. Her eyes had long adapted to the darkness, able to witness Alex looking down at her and just like that, a sense of serenity flowed through her.

The unreadable expression on his face was a stranger to her in all their time together. Under the magnetic allure of Alex's gaze and the soothe whirring of his touch, it felt like they were worlds away from a war zone. Until gunshots unforgivingly interrupted.

She immediately retracted her hand.

Afterwards, the group slotted the obtained garage keycard. They fought through waves of Al-Qatala soldiers in low light, courtesy of the lacking streetlights.

The Ambassador's residence was no sanctuary either, as another wave of AQ fighters drew closer. Afraid the rising situation might delay their timeline, Price ordered her to start interrogations immediately. Her heart jumped at the unexpected news, suddenly thrown in the ring.

Hadir and Farah sent nods of encouragement before running out the residence. Price, despite raging at Laswell through the comms, mustered one last small smile for her.

That left Alex, who looked equally worried as her. Wordlessly, he tapped at the base of his neck. She understood instantly, feeling the cool metal of his dog tag against her skin. Obviously they had airtight obligations to not carry personal items, zero accountability and all, but it was Alex. She had corrupted him enough to not give a fuck.

The dog tag was nothing informative, only a simple 'X' carved messily from Alex's kitchen knife. Useless to her enemy, but deadly if it was ever pried from her neck.

It was a matching set. She mysteriously woke up with it after that night with Alex. His way of saying they'd always have a piece of each other.

With one last longing look, that unbeknownst to both of them—burned their insides, Alex left her alone with the Wolf.

━━━━

Her immediate observation? The Wolf was talkative.

It didn't faze her—narcissists simply could not shut up. Past thirty minutes, zero words retaliated and the Wolf was still going on.

Please. She wanted to yawn. Her legs swung restlessly while she sat on a table, undermining whatever authority the Wolf thought he had. The folklores he told in his grandiose sense of self-importance was vexing but valuable.

He hated women in combat. She learnt that when he tried to recruit Farah and even her, just minutes ago. Omar Sulaman thought women were weak.

Exciting.

As he rambled on, she almost failed to suppress a scoff. A woman wielding more power was his stressor, this meathead would be even easier to break.

"You have killer eyes," The Wolf said, tone switched from persuasive to intimidating. He exhausted everything—telling stories of what Barkov's men did to "weak" women, trying to scare her into his protection. Alexis hadn't bothered reacting, which pissed him off.

Victory surged past the fog of irritation inside her. She had conditioned the Wolf by staying quiet, truly a personal achievement. His narcissistic tendencies were itching to get out, evident from how he was desperately reaching for straws.

Alexis reached for her stripped vest and carelessly dug around for a plastic bottle. Popping the lid open, she chucked a mint gum in preparation.

It was time. Clouded by anger, he'd make mistakes that she would catch.

"Somebody hurt you."

She couldn't resist a huff at his eleventh-hour tactics. So the Wolf was now gunning for her emotional side? Fine, she'd bite.

"Don't act like you know me."

"Oh, child... I know more than you think. The look in your eyes, fear..." The Wolf paused, smirking arrogantly even at her mocking smile. "You put a great act, daughter. But I've been around longer than you... seen more."

"I bet... Because what makes a freedom fighter wake up and decide to switch sides?" Alexis circled him in pretence thought, "Money?" Noticing his jaw clenched, she pressed on it. "Power? That's why you made those videos?"

Alexis interrupted at the sounds of his protest, "Surely freedom fighters must not pay well. Maybe you got sick of that and switched?"

"I didn't switch sides! I was always on the right side."

"And what side is that?"

"The winning side," He snapped, "This occupation will never end if we hold sympathy for others."

A narcissist with a saviour complex, laughable. Alexis returned to stand in front of him, the grin ever present on her face. "But you didn't deny my claims—you want money and power."

The Wolf wanted to charge at her but was tied by the restraints, heavy creases in his forehead as he snarled, "No! I am saving Urzikstan!"

"Murdering people is saving them? I know people just like you, hiding behind a cause. After you kill Barkov, you will only start your own regime." Alexis chuckled darkly, "I'm not gonna let you do that. Don't bother holding out, nobody's coming to save you."

"Is that what you tell yourself?" At her strained expression, he continued, "If I die today, I die a hero. You? Your death will be meaningless, a secret." He continued laughing, "You Westerners... Busybodies, you have no business here. The price for that is death–"

He paused, not because of her killer gaze, but as if something in him clicked, "You have no family... That's why you are here." Loud waves of laughter escaped from the man, like he figured it out. And fuck, he did, word for word.

Alexis must have reached Nirvana or gained enlightenment, shocked by her restrain to not blow Omar Sulaman's brains out. She dare not move a muscle, refused to prove him right.

"When my men come, and they will. I will spare you, kill everybody but you. Maybe even make you watch that young man who loves you so much. Then, you shall know fear, child..."

That was it, her trigger point. Blood red. Hot flashes of anger. Picturing Alex's dead body was enough to chuck everything up. The wrathful voice inside her absolutely shattered her restrain, no longer concerned with not letting the Wolf gain an edge.

Alexis bit.

In a flash, she tipped his chair behind and roughly circled a hand around his neck.

"Don't. You think you know fear? You don't know shit until you carve your name on a disgusting brick wall with your bloody fingernails because it was the only way anyone would know what happened to you." Alexis spat, eyes boring at the choking man rendered helpless under her. "So don't fucking talk to me about fear, old man."

When the Wolf thrashed around to breathe, she waited another three seconds before releasing him—the once tipped chair landing wobbly with a sharp shriek. Her sudden outburst gained a new terror visible in the Wolf's eyes. No longer the delicate soldier his sanctimonious mind painted her as.

"Now," She slapped the invisible dust off her hands, tone bouncing scarily fast to normal. "Where is the gas?"

"I... I don't know."

Sighing, she wiped the sweat off her forehead and asked again. Still receiving the same reply, "And I don't believe you. Nothing escapes the Wolf. Someone stole the gas and you knew about it..." Alexis abruptly paused, fingers tapped against her forehead, "No, wait. You made a deal. Help whoever steal the gas and they promise to help you chase the foreign powers out?"

His silence was abundant.

There wasn't a tinge of remorse when her fingertips glided along a screwdriver.

"Since you have been here for much longer... You know this next part." As soon as she wiggled the screwdriver between her fingers, Alexis had him in the bag. The slight twitch under the Wolf's right eye was his tell, fear. Alexis witnessed it when she choked the living hell out of him.

Too damn easy. She should dress a big fat red ribbon across him right now.

"And since you know me so well," She gestured between them, "You definitely know that I'm a big believer in second chances. Right your wrongs, blah blah. I'll give you second chances. Many more, actually, I'm pretty generous... But I'm not sure if you can take it." With that, she ruthlessly stabbed into his left thigh, a devious smile spreading wider with the increased intensity of his screams. The metal tip squelched when she dug around.

"The gas?"

"I... Stop!" The Wolf bellowed in pain when she yanked it out, sprays of blood following. For someone called the Wolf, he had an embarrassing low pain tolerance.

She tilted his chin up, pleased as she surveyed the sweat that broke. "Here's your second chance. Third is when I snap your femoral artery and hang you for all of Urzikstan to see you bleed out. Your legacy will be a joke."

"Y–You can't do that..." He shook his head weakly, eyes blinking in pain. "Everyone will know the Americans are here... You'll be buried with me."

Reducing to eye level, she smiled wholeheartedly, "I'll make sure to dig a grave big enough for us both. Last call... Your third chance is coming," Alexis taunted, nodding towards the electrical screwdriver—witnessing the fear shudder across his body. "Where is the gas?"

She came so close to breaking him, practically seeing the words trying to tumble out of his mouth. Literally a blink later, a truck wildly crashed into their room, crumbling the house's weak foundations. Jerking to a standing position, she instantly reached for her sidearm and fired.

At least five men exited the truck, spraying bullets that forced her to tuck her body behind the slim profile of a cupboard.

They had AKs and she had a handgun, do the math.

She hurriedly pressed her comms, "I lost visual on the Wolf!"

Her instincts wrangled between fight or flight, seeing that she was severely outnumbered and the door was literally on her left. But the morality in her warred on. Suppressed under heavy fire, she still had no visual of the Wolf, but assumed he was freed by now.

She yelped in surprise as a painful tug tossed her out into the open. A burly man wasted no time to attack her. She barely raised her Glock 21 before he swiftly grabbed her wrist and pressed the magazine release button.

He wanted to reach for her Glock's slide lock before she elbowed his jaw, making him stumble backwards but made a quick recovery. He threw her into the metal table and she lost the grip on her gun.

Alexis' back arched painfully across the table, hands scrambling for purchase to rid the tightening hands around her neck. She weakly tried to pry in between his arms, but her lungs burned from the depleting oxygen. Fingers scrambling to poke his eyes and finally mustering enough strength, she sent a cheap blow to his nuts. He hunched over just enough for her to inhale loudly.

Seeing that, the Wolf's man started firing again.

She kneed him in the gut, put him in a chokehold and propped him up as her shield. The man's body jerked in reaction to every bullet he received.

Her ears picked up on the distinct sound of M4A1s approaching closer to her location. The Wolf motioned to leave, dust spluttering her way as their truck wildly reversed, with the Wolf grinning victoriously in the passenger seat.

"We will meet again, daughter! And your lovely man."

He left her alive. Like he said he would.

Miraculously still breathing, the man in her grasps used this distraction to tug on her legs. Seconds later, she felt a splitting pain in her head.

She was on the ground when she reopened her eyes, hazily feeling a wet sensation drip down her temples. The pain mirrored a wave, boggling inside her. Black spots started to consume the edges of her sight.

No no no.

From her blurry vision, she managed to squint out something glimmering in her 12 o'clock—she assumed a knife or her god damn screwdriver coming back to bite her ass.

Not like this.

The shuffles of dragged footsteps echoed in her brain, almost a warning from her body. She blindly saw the shift in light source, presuming he was walking towards her.

Incoherent words tumbled out, forcing herself to speak so she wouldn't pass out. Shaking, she pushed her upper body off the floor and stretched for her fallen sidearm...

That one bullet in the Glock's chambers was still waiting.

More blood flowed messily down her head, further impairing what was left of her vision.

Muscle memory dictated the rest—the grainy grip of her Glock, index finger looped around the trigger.

Alexis prayed when she fired.

At the assuring sound of a body collapsing, so did Alexis.

━━━━━

Price was the one to spot her.

"Clear!" He burst open the door, finding a jarring hole in the walls and an unconscious Alexis laying beside a dead man.

"Shit," Kyle said from beside him. "Is she breathing?"

Price shouted for Alex and the man instantly appeared beside him. Careful not to move her unnecessarily, two shaky fingers checked Alexis' pulse, Price felt his heart threatened to burst out.

"She's alive."

No one heaved louder than Alex. They examined her injuries, a large gash splashed across her right temple that hopefully a few stitches would solve. But her unconsciousness was troubling.

"How long has it been?"

"More than a minute..."

"Fuck, we need to do something!" Alex yelled frantically. Please, please, please wake up. Her chances of a brain injury increased by the seconds. Fuck! He should have stayed with her, why didn't he stay?

His hands gently cupped the sides of her face, feeling an onslaught of tears starting to form amidst the rising stuffiness in his nose. As his light-blue jeans was tinted a carmine red, he decided this was his fault.

Alex jerked at the mention of his name.

"Let me clean her injuries..." Farah coaxed, a cloth that reeked of disinfectant in her hands. Alex reluctantly shifted, kneeling beside her laying body and watched Farah dab carefully, venomously demanding her to exact more care.

"Alex," A powerful grip tugged on his vest, lifting him to his feet to meet John Price. "Ease off. Let Farah and Hadir do the work."

"Captain..."

"She will be fine, trust me." Price chuckled to himself, "Unbelievable. That woman is still an excellent shot." He whistled lowly, staring at the man with a fatal shot to his heart.

Price said with a knowing look, "Clear your head, son."

"Yes sir," Alex exhaled, going to retrieve her fallen comms set on the floor.

Seconds later, Farah yelled for them. The two men doubled back, finding Farah holding Alexis down from wiggling about. Alex heard a groggy mumble of his name.

"Alex..." Alexis repeated, head rolling around despite the yells of protest. "Where..."

"Here! Here! I'm right here. You need to stop moving, baby." Alex skidded to her side and held her outreached hands. His eyes raking over her as if he had the superpower to mentally check her wellbeing.

A weak grin formed at the realisation that he was alive, breathing and right before her. "The Wolf... He... The escaped... He... car... men."

"Shhh, we'll get him," Hadir tried to pacify her while handing Farah a clean cloth.

Ten minutes passed before she started making sense and was fully conscious. Though the pounding in her head was enough to last a lifetime. Her eyes averted to the dead man.

Jesus, the pain...

"Alexis." Price sternly warned.

"Get me up... I'm fine... Don't be a pussy."

Carefully positioning her to sit up, she weakly laid against Alex's chest. The man could care less when her blood seeped into his shirt—evident as he steadied her head against his own, refusing to let her move it wildly.

Staring at her bewildered teammates, she hazily slurred: "Well. Don't all of you look like shit."

‧͙⁺˚*･༓

a/n: i really went with the "i'm injured and my lover finds me and cradles me in my blood" trope and y'know what. y'all are welcome ;) btw sry for the late update... i edited this chapter 17 times lol i was so insecure about it. thanks for waiting lovers!

taglist: @flyboidameron​​ @wanderlustgiant​​ (wanna be tagged? lmk!)

[holylulusworld]

Three are one too much

Request: Would you please write for Bucky & reader, wherein he's in love with Natasha but is forced to marry reader, he's never home ignores her even when she tries hard. She even has to work as a waitress for money, one-night Brock tries to rape her, Steve arrives just in time and saves her. They become good friends. It's on you if you want her to stay with Bucky or get married to Steve. It could be an au where they are not Avengers.

Pairing: Mobster!Bucky x Reader, Mobster!Steve x Reader, Clint Barton

Warnings: angst, unrequited love, tension, arguments, two men fighting over one woman, love triangle, mentions of murder

Consolation Bride Masterlist

True to his word Steve came around a few hours later but Bucky refused to let him see you. Steve yelled and fought against his friend until you walked out of the bedroom, looking confused at both men fighting.

“What’s going on here?” Sleepily you rub your eyes, looking at Bucky holding his friend's arm in a tight grip behind his back. Steve is grunting, trying to break free.

“I wanted to visit you and your so-called husband wants to keep me away from you. Bucky, you can’t do this. Days ago, you ignored her, treated her worse than a dog and now you fight for her attention?” Steve is struggling against his friend’s strength.

“James, let Steve go. I want to talk to him. I’m a free human being, not a slave. I can meet whoever I want to meet. You will not put me into a cage as my father did years ago. Do you remember Mark? He asked me out when I was sixteen and dad locked me into my room for three weeks.” Sighing you look at your hands. “Never heard of Mark again. People said his family moved away.”

“Oh, he moved away?”

Bucky can hear the mock in his friend’s voice and let go of his arm. Steve cocks a brow, smirking as he tilts his head, glancing at Bucky. “Is that so, Bucky? Mark and his family moved away? I heard something else…”

Bucky turns pale, trying to hide the panic in his eyes. Steve’s grin widens as he passes his friend to get closer to you, holding out his hand to lead you out of the house.

Stepping out in the sun, looking around the garden you were not allowed to enter you look at the pitiful dead flowers. No one took care of these flowers for years.

“So sad seeing his mother’s roses die. No one took care of them. She would be so sad seeing her beloved flowers die.” You whisper as Steve watches you touch the flowers.

“Y/N, do you want to come with me? I can take you with me right now.” Steve moves his hands up and down your arms, nuzzling his nose into your hair.

“Steve…”

“He doesn’t deserve you, Y/N. Come with me and let me take care of you, let me show you a better life. I can give you all you deserve. Money. Beautiful dresses. Anything you wish for.”

“Steve, I don’t want dresses, money or anything.” Turning around you meet his eyes, giving him a cracked smile. “I know you mean well but that’s not what I want. I can’t change the cage my father tossed me into with another cage you or Bucky want to create to keep me as a nice bird to look at.”

“Y/N, I would never lock you away. I want to protect you, doll. Please let me show you I can be the right man for you.” Steve cups your cheek, leaning closer to brush his lips over yours.

“I can’t, Steve. I don’t know what to do right now but I know I can’t just run into your arms as Bucky never wanted me. When my father married me to Bucky I was happy, ran into his arms but his embrace was cold. I have to stand on my own two feet.” Gently touching Steve’s cheek, you kiss the corner of his mouth, holding back the tears.

“Tell me what you need. I’ll do anything to help you, Y/N. Anything you need.” Steve’s voice cracks, feeling your hand trembling.

“I don’t know what I want or need. Since I’m a child my dad told me what to do. Then Bucky ruled my life and now I’m at the point of no return. I can’t go back to letting a man deciding what to do. I’ll grab my stuff and move in with friend for a while.” Steve can only watch you entering the house again, knowing it will be the wrong way to push you right now.

----

“You can’t just leave me, Y/N. We made our vows and you…” Cursing Bucky watches you packing your belongings. You don’t need long, it’s not as if you own much lately.

“I’ll leave, James. We can have an annulment or a divorce. I don’t care any longer about anything. I don’t care about your hatred or my father’s threats. I don’t fear any of you anymore. Kill me, or let my father end me. It’s unimportant by now…” Voice trembling you toss the photo frame with the picture of your wedding day into the bin, not caring about the hurt look on Bucky’s face.

“I will not let you go! You can’t leave my house, Y/N. It’s the only safe place in town. Your father will try to get hold of you and hurt you. I can’t let this happen. He already took Jason from me…” Bucky gasps as you try to brush past him, try to leave so he does the only thing coming to his mind, using his strength to toss you over his shoulder.

“Let go of me! You can’t keep me, hostage here. I want to leave.” Wiggling in his tight grip you curse as Bucky carries you into his bedroom.

“I know you are mad. I know you hate me right now but believe me I can’t let you go to Wanda right now.” Bucky says placing you carefully onto the bed. Angrily clenching your fists, you glare at your husband, trying to escape once again.

“I want to leave, and you won’t stop me, Barnes. I’m not your slave!” Jumping up you try to scratch Bucky, try to hit him. All the anger, hurting and disappointment reached its peak and now you want to fight back, let the frustration out.

Stronger than you Bucky pushes you onto the bed, covering your body with his. You fight against this strength, pressing your hands against his chest as he kisses down your neck.

“Please let me protect you, Baby Girl. I need to know you are safe. I can’t forget the moment Steve called me and told me about Brock attacking you. Please…” Bucky whispers against your skin but you fight against him, shaking your head.

----

“Boss?” Clint watches Steve, not knowing what to say to lighten his mood. Steve believed you would follow him right away. He saw the struggle and knows you will need time; still he wants nothing more than storming into Bucky’s house and carry you out.

“What, Barton?” Steve barks glaring at his friend.

“Does she know what happened last night? Maybe we should drive back, and you can tell her. We still don’t know who is behind this shit, but I bet Barnes won’t protect her the way she deserves it. We can still get her, boss.” Clint tries but Steve shakes his head, glancing out of the window.

“I saw it in her eyes. Y/N needs to decide without me or Bucky pushing her around. Three are one too much, I guess. She’s strong and smart, Clint. Y/N will make the right decision. I can’t act like her father or Bucky and try to force her into something she doesn’t want to do.”

Clint nods, glancing out of the window, licking his lips. “What about the juicy information we gathered? Wouldn’t this change her mind, boss?”

“Clint, in her situation she needs someone to protect her, someone doing anything to keep her safe. If it’s Bucky doing so, it’s fine by me. All I want is for Y/N to be safe and sound. Send Vis (Vision) to observe Bucky’s house. If she leaves the Mansion, tell me so and we pick her up.”

“I’m on it, boss. Shame you didn’t tell her the truth about Mark…”

Clint silently leaves the room while Steve still looks out of the window. Recalling the day, he closes his eyes, feeling your hand on his cheek, your lips pressed against his. “Soon…” He whispers as his lips curve into a smile.

----

“Stop fighting me, Y/N. Give me five minutes to tell you something. While you were sleeping I got a call from Fury. Do you remember Nick? One of my father’s friends? He is still a cop, a Captain by now and keeps me up to date with cases and investigations around my business.” Bucky explains while you glare at him.

“I don’t want to know anything about your shady business. Now let me go!” Wiggling you start cursing feeling Bucky’s erection pressing against your thigh.

“Sorry, Baby Girl. If you are mad you’re so fucking sexy. I’ve missed my bad girl, missed the girl fighting back and kicking my ass with all might.” Bucky groans.

“Let me go!”

“I’ll let go of you if you promise to give me the chance to tell you what Fury told me last night. If you still want to leave the Mansion I’ll call Steve to bring you somewhere safe.”

Weighing your options, you look up at Bucky, nodding. “Fine, I’ll give you ten minutes.”

“Good.”

Letting go of you Bucky sits next to you, nervously moving his hand through his shaggy hair. Clearing his throat he gets the wedding band you tossed onto the floor out of his pocket, playing with the simple golden band.

“Last night Fury called me, telling me someone broke into Wanda’s apartment.” Bucky begins and you gasp.

“James…” Voice trembling you feel tears breaking free. “What happened…?”

“I don’t know how to tell you, but someone broke into her apartment and shot her. I don’t know how; she should’ve been protected by her family’s security. I…”

Composing himself Bucky takes your hand in his, squeezing it tightly. “She didn’t make it, Y/N. I’m so sorry. She meant a lot to all of us. I swear we will find out who killed her.”

Bringing you into his arms James let you cry into his chest. Wanda was your only friend left. The only one ready to help you without awaiting something in return.

“She was my only friend…”

“Shh…Baby Girl. I swear we will find out who was after her, but we know one thing for sure. You are in danger too. The killer left a list. Wanda’s name was crossed out, just like Maria’s and Marcos. Both died last week. Maria in Cannes and Marcos died in a car accident in New York.”

Bucky holds you tighter as you ask him why you are in danger too. “Your name, Y/N. It’s on the list, just like mine, Steve’s and some other names.” Holding tight onto James you try to process your best friend got murdered and that you could be next. “Please stay with me…”

“I’ll stay if you answer one question.”

“Whatever you want to know, Y/N. I’ll promise to answer honestly…”

Clearing your throat, you wipe away a few tears before you place your hands onto Bucky’s shoulders, locking eyes with him.

“What happened to Mark back then?” You ask and Bucky turns pale…

All works Tags

@yolobloggers, @meganywinchester, @shikshinkwon, @miraclesoflove , @mogaruke, @shatteredabby, @soryuwifeyxx, @letsdisneythings, @i-love-superhero

Marvel Tags

@stuckys-whore, @notyourtypicalrose, @voltage-my2dlove, @thedoctorscamanion , @officialmarvelwhore, @randomgirlkensy, @juniorhuntersam, @lumar014, @doctorswife221b, @badboysdoitbetter2, @sister-winchesters99, @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog

Steve Rogers/Chris Evans Tags

@hhiggs, @roonyxx, @stylesismyhubs, @multisuperfandom, @mrspeacem1nusone

Consolation Bride Tags

@booktease21, @mc225g, @i-alyssa, @retrxbarnes, @cloudyskylines, @plums-and-peaches, @thisartemisnevermisses, @ohmygoditsanthonyedwardstark, @donteatmycookiesplease, @aruvdreeh, @scarlett-berserker

[brokenjardaantech]

Blue-tinted Red Walls (Chapter 5: The Threads of Life)

my entry for the @dbhau-bigbang​. also part of the groom lake aftermath series.

chapter summary:

In the past, Alec revealed his plan.

In the present, Connor made a choice... and a friend.

In the past, the twins finally reunited.

also on ao3

---

Before

Reyes was unharmed. On the surface. Fadia was more concerned about the blue washing over his skin every second in waves like a heartbeat, and when she looked at the scene in front of her, she instantly knew why.

Her father was there. And so was a young woman with blond hair. When she tapped into her powers and reached out, the resonance itself was enough to tell her that she was just like Reyes.

An android.

Reyes’ jaw was trembling. ‘I… I didn’t…’ he stammered, his voice low. ‘I swear -’

‘I know,’ she reassured. She trusted him, and his data logs told her that he had had no contact with Alec Ryder. ‘I’ll take over from here. You go over my servers and see what’s wrong with them. I’ll tell you what happened later.’

Reyes nodded and left, presumably back to the surface. Back to Scott. And she finally let her blood boil.

‘Explain!’ she demanded as she walked closer towards her father while glowing blue. When she had his attention, she flicked her head towards the android. ‘How did you get that?’

‘The question is,’ how could he look so calm? ‘why did you hide this from me?’

Fadia made a chopping motion at the android. ‘To prevent this! How did you get that?’

‘Listen, the biocomponents -’

‘How.’ She let tendrils creep closer to her father’s neck. ‘Did. You.’ They got closer with every word, and had she not been occupied with the current situation, she would have impressed herself with the control. ‘Get. THAT?’

‘They can save your mother, Sara!’ Alec exclaimed. ‘A cure! Finally!’

‘Oh yeah, cause biocomponents for an android invented by an edgy young adult with minimum chemistry and biology knowledge are gonna be compatible with an actual fucking human body!’ Fadia had to roll her eyes. Damn, it’s good to be able to raise her voice. ‘Mother’s accepted her impending doom, Father. Let her fucking go.’

‘That’s not -’ he sighed as if she was a child unable to understand how important her parent’s work was. ‘Look, artificial intelligence is the new thing. A new merchandise. Think about it, Sara. The revenue alone will be enough to pay for the medical bills.’

He disgusted her. ‘They are as human as we are, not something to buy and sell like products. If you want to go on with that crazy fucking plan, you’ll have to get through me.’

Alec sighed almost regretfully. ‘I’m afraid it’s too late.’

Fadia’s brain kicked into full gear at the implications of his words. She shot out a tendril again to test the thirium capacity of the android, and the resonance told her that she had been active for at least a week. ‘What is your name?’ she asked. ‘What did he make you do?’

‘My name is Chloe,’ the android answered. ‘I took some videos and uploaded them onto the internet, that’s all. You, Sara Ryder, are credited with my creation.’

‘We already have millions of dollars,’ Alec added. ‘Production has already started. Are you in this or not?’

A crackle. She punched him in the face with a blue-shrouded fist and seemed to calm down instantly.

‘Of course I am,’ she said in a pleasant tone. ‘Someone must keep the world from burning into ashes.’

o0o0o

Now

The Zen Garden is raining and Connor is not surprised. Umbrella in hand, he examines the monolith once more, the blue glow making it easily identifiable among the green of vegetation. He also stands in front of his first body’s grave for a few seconds to… calm down, maybe, from the tingling that has been in his veins since he returned to CyberLife tower. It is only after he makes sure that his hand will not glow blue suddenly that he greets his handler. 

‘Connor, I’ve been expecting you,’ Amanda says, her voice cold. ‘Would you like a little walk?’

Connor knows he does not have a choice, so he opens the umbrella and holds it for both of them.

‘That deviant seems to be an intriguing case,’ Amanda continues. ‘A pity you didn’t manage to capture it.’

‘I have to save Hank,’ he replies. Surely Amanda understands? ‘Despite his… eccentricities, I believe his intellect and experience will be useful in the investigation.’

Amanda hums. ‘Did you manage to learn anything?’

A few pieces of evidence automatically filter through his processors. ‘It was working under a false identity, at a nearby urban farm. This was the first time we've seen deviants blending in with the human population. Who knows how many others there are like it… I also found its diary, but it was encrypted. It may take months to decipher.’

‘What else?’

‘The walls of the apartment were covered with drawings of labyrinths and other symbols. Like the other deviants, it seemed obsessed with rA9. It was also fascinated by birds. We've seen deviants interested in other lifeforms like insects or pets, but nothing like this.’

‘You came very close to capturing the deviant. How is your relationship with the Lieutenant developing?’

He remembers a warm hand on his back. ‘He seemed grateful that I saved his life on the roof. He didn't say anything, but he expressed it in his own way.’

Amanda turns to face him. ‘We don’t have much time. Deviancy continues to spread. It's only a matter of time before the media finds out about it. We need to stop this, whatever it takes.’

For Hank. ‘I will solve this investigation, Amanda.’

Thunder rumbles. Amanda looks up. ‘A new case just came in. Find Anderson and investigate it.’

oOoOo

Hank is not in the precinct.

‘He’s not drinking?’ the same officer from last time asks. ‘Sorry, man, but then I don’t know where he is.’

The more time they lose, the more likely the deviants manage to get away from the club, but still Connor thanks him for his input as it is a polite thing to do. He looks around Hank’s desk, trying to search for clues that can lead him to Hank, but he gives up after the results come inconclusive for the fifth time. So where can he be?

‘Connor?’

Connor lets colour return to his world and sees a familiar face. [Name: Allen, Louis. [REDACTED]] ‘Captain,’ he greets, unsure what to do. It is obvious that the human is off duty: sweaters and jeans are not exactly regulation for a SWAT Captain even on duty. ‘How can I help you?’

‘I thought you were dead.’

‘Androids do not die, Captain.’

Allen’s nod is followed by a sigh. ‘You looking for Hank?’

‘Yes. Do you know where he went? He was assigned a new case.’

‘He’s probably out of commission for now,’ Allen says as he shifts his weight onto another leg, ‘but I’m gonna drop off some groceries at his anyway. We can try his home.’

Hank’s house. Right. How can he miss that? ‘I do not wish to interrupt, Captain.’

‘You won’t be.’

Some of the files are corrupted, but Connor remembers the Captain’s distrust towards his ability in resolving the hostage situation, an angry ‘I don’t fucking care what my orders are! If this drags on, we’re doing it our way!’, and the lack of mentions of him taking the officer’s gun in the official report to both the police department and CyberLife. A contradiction that Connor decides to risk. ‘Then thank you, Captain.’

Allen jerks his head to indicate the direction they should be heading to. ‘It’s Louis when I’m off duty.’

The pronunciation ‘Lwee’ is certainly not standard for English speakers. ‘Yes, Louis.’

They take the lift down to the car park together, Louis shifting his feet from one to another but seemingly favouring his right leg, and when he walks, his steps brisk, there is a small but faint clicking noise that normal humans will not catch on. When he tries to scan the human’s left leg, results come back inconclusive. Just like the person who hacked into the Zen Garden and… and…

‘You alright there?’

Louis’ words bring him back to reality, and Connor discovers that they have already arrived at their destination. The human is already in the car, his hand hovering above the controls, and his green eyes are fixed on Connor’s face as if it is something interesting to look at. Observe and catalogue.

‘I’m sorry,’ Connor apologises in lieu of explaining his thoughts. He slides into the passenger seat, they fasten their respective seatbelts, and Louis starts driving manually despite his vehicle being a self-driving car. Time passes in relative silence, the contrast between the darkness and the bright lights in the streets plus the concentration of the driver giving Connor a strange sense of familiarity, but soon they are stuck in a traffic jam near one of the bigger intersections.

Louis taps his fingers against the wheel. ‘Hey, Connor.’

Connor faces the Captain and finds him looking at the android. ‘Yes, Louis?’

‘I’m sorry for what happened a few months ago. It wasn’t fair to you.’

His LED spins yellow as he tries to recall what exactly happened. ‘It was an expected response,’ Connor replies after comparing it with the ones faced by other androids in the streets. ‘There’s nothing to apologise for.’

‘Doesn’t excuse me for yelling at the wrong guy. It - it wasn’t you whom I’m pissed at.’

Connor knows that the human is not going to let go unless he himself drops the issue. ‘I accept your apology,’ he says, and he decides that diverting the conversation is the next best choice of action. ‘May I ask you a personal question?’

The car in front of them moves. Louis manages to gain a few inches of ground. ‘Go on.’

‘During the hostage situation… who or what were you “pissed” at?’

The human rubs his left thigh as if to get more blood into it. ‘CyberLife, mostly,’ he checks the time. ‘I may be more specific than most.’

So he is not anti-android? ‘What difference does that make from hating androids?’

‘People like to blame the powerless for the problems they have. In this case, it’s the androids.’ The radio drones on and announces that they’re likely to be stuck for the next fifteen minutes. Seemingly resigned to his fate, Louis reaches to Connor’s side and opens the storage compartment, rummaging for a few seconds inside before successfully acquiring an energy bar which he tears into like a starving man. Perhaps he is. ‘They always talk about how androids steal their jobs, but they never talk about how employers decide to move onto even cheaper alternatives once they can’t exploit their workers. If they want someone to hate, hate those arseholes who won’t pay a living wage, hate CyberLife for producing androids. The androids are innocent in all this. So yeah,’ he takes a deep breath as if just realising he was ranting, ‘I don’t hate them.’

‘How about Daniel?’

A swallow. ‘He killed two people, wounded two more and held an innocent girl hostage. Enough to warrant my hate.’ He finishes the energy bar and crushes the wrapper into his pocket. Looking at Connor, he seems to read his question from the android’s face as he continues, ‘You’re good.’

Connor lets out a breath he doesn’t know he’s holding. Louis Allen, SWAT Captain, is not anti-android. ‘What is your relationship with Hank?’ he asks as he finds no reason for the two men to be friends. Not that Louis explicitly said he is friends with Hank, but Connor supposes that bringing enough groceries to require a car is not typical behaviour for non-friends.

Fidgeting with the silencer of a pair of identification tags (Allen. Anna, W. 574-66-2183. RH negative. Atheist.) which were hidden underneath his clothes until now, Louis seems to actually ponder on his answer. ‘We keep each other afloat,’ he says in the end. ‘It’s hard to describe. Why do you want to know?’

‘I believe getting closer to the Lieutenant personally will be beneficial to the investigation.’ The human snorts at this and Connor is nearly offended: what does a SWAT Captain know about them? ‘You seem close to him, so I believe you are a reliable source in matters including the Lieutenant’s personality and habits.’

Louis rubs the tags together. ‘His story isn’t mine to tell. Let’s say I make sure he doesn’t consume crappy takeout and whiskey 24/7, he tries to stay sober on schedule in case my leg acts up and I nearly freeze to death again, so we kind of rely on each other to survive the winter.’ They finally pass the traffic light just to stop at the other one. ‘Is this the best arrangement? No. But is it working? Yes. I think. He’s saved my arse a few times already. He’s a good guy, smart too, just...’

‘Have some personal issues?’

‘That’s one way to put it.’

They lapse into silence, the rain falling onto the roof and the ting of the coin the only sound in the car. Sometime later, when they finally get out of the traffic jam, Louis’ watch blares from an alarm, and the human jumps and hastily switches it off with a mumbled apology. The embarrassment does not last long, however, after they rounded the final corner and the car is set for a course straight to the end of the road where Connor presumes Hank’s house is. The Captain’s eyes sharpen, his gaze flickering between the road in front of him and the rearview mirror, and the air crackles even though Connor is certain that he is keeping his… abilities under tight control. Is Louis…

He finds his coin snatched from the air. When something is placed in his palm, the android finds a key as well, the soft rumble of the engine gone and completely overtaken by the sound of raindrops hitting the vehicle. The tension in Louis’ body reminds him of the hostage situation.

‘You go find Hank and do what you need to do,’ the human says, his tone low. ‘I’ll follow you later.’

‘And the groceries?’

‘They can wait. Something’s out of place and I’m not sure if I like it. I’ll go take a look.’

Connor wants to argue that if they are heading into any danger, he should be the one to take the risk, but the human is already out of the car and has slammed the door shut. He quickly exits the car as well and locks the doors but is still not quick enough; Louis has already disappeared into the darkness beyond the end of the road. Seeing no other option other than to continue with his mission, he files [Louis is reckless.] into his database and proceeds to ring the bell as, despite having the keys, he technically is showing up uninvited. From within the house, a dog starts to bark, and he lets himself in after nothing else responds to the fourth ring.

oOoOo

Five minutes later, Connor uses up most of his processing power in order to keep himself from being overwhelmed with anxiety. Firstly, there is the sound of Hank retching in the bathroom; secondly, there is the implication of the revolver and the single bullet in the chamber (‘What were you doing with the gun?’ ‘Russian roulette!’): Hank has suicidal tendencies, and he finds that he does not want to lose Hank; thirdly, the child in the photo is probably related to the previous point; fourthly, Louis is not back yet and Connor realises that he has no way to contact him. He wants to tell himself that it was just paranoia, but when he recalled the footage from when they exited the car, there was indeed a shadow disappearing from view upon Louis starting his chase.

The same shadow which had been following him when he first met Hank and during his search for Ortiz’s android. 

The beat of his thirium pump quickening, he holds Sumo tight in his arms from where he is sitting on the floor with his back against the sofa and searches the DPD database for any contact information, but all he gets is Louis’ work email and phone, the former which he doubts the Captain will check and the latter not even with him in the first place. There is no address, no personal phone number. It is as if he does not exist outside of his work.

This is definitely not protocol. Sure, people can request to hide their information in case they have someone going after them, but for Louis’ case there is nothing even though Connor is already using the highest level authorisation code to access the file, which means that it is highly likely that there is truly no data in the first place.

‘You alright there, Connor?’

Connor startles and quickly releases Sumo from his embrace. ‘I - I’m fine,’ he stutters, unsure how to explain that he managed to lose Hank’s friend. 

Hank nods but he does not look convinced. ‘Are we heading out? Cause if we’re not -’

‘I’m coming!’ Connor scrambles to his feet and fixes his tie to compose himself. In a much calmer tone this time, he tells himself, ‘I’m ready.’

That convinces Hank. ‘Be a good dog, Sumo,’ Connor is relieved that he is not the only one to talk to a dog, ‘I won’t be long.’

They leave the house together, Connor locking the door behind him as he is the last one to get out, and that only brings him back to the matter of where Louis is.

‘Louis’ been here?’ Hank asks when he spots the much newer car (although as one of the first generation self-driving cars, it is a bit outdated) parked on the side of the road. 

‘He offered to drive me here when I told him that I could not find you in the bars,’ it feels wrong to say it out loud, but Hank needs to know where his friend is. ‘He asked me to find you while he investigated a potential stalker. Evidently, he is not back yet.’

‘How long has he been gone?’

‘About seven minutes.’

Hank checks his phone. ‘No messages yet,’ he mutters to himself. ‘We’ll go downtown first. I’ll send a rescue party if there’s nothing after we’re finished with this bullshit.’

That’s it? ‘The temperature is dropping, Lieutenant,’ are you not concerned? ‘Louis does not have sufficient gear to keep himself safe under this weather.’

‘Ugh,’ Hank moans. ‘He does that. All we can do is save his ass afterwards.’ He then mutters something under his breath but it is drowned out by the sound of him folding himself into the car and the ongoing rain. Deciding that he does not like the rain, he locks the doors of Louis’ car just to be safe before climbing into Hank’s and is handed another set of keys.

He can start a collection out of this.

oOoOo

‘Sorry, honey, changed my mind! Uh - Nothing personal, you’re… a lovely girl, I just - uh - You know, I’m with him and - I mean, not with him like that… I’m not that… That’s not what I… You, um, wow, I just… got a job to do.’

Connor has to hide a smile by looking away from the sheer… something… of the situation. They’re in a sex club, his programme tells him that something is repulsive about it, and Hank doesn’t look so happy about being there either, but yet those are not what he’s feeling right now. Endearment, maybe. It’s confusing and is making his software so unstable that the red tinge around the edge of his HUD is a permanent fixture except for when he is scanning his surroundings for the next android to probe. He deduces which one he should ask Hank to rent next according to the direction the blue-haired Traci was heading, but of course, of fucking course the last witness they need is the WG700 cleaning android, the recording leading them through the staff door. The corridor’s decor is completely different from that of the rest of the club and there is another door at the end, and when they both hear the bangs and scrapes of metal against concrete from the other side, Hank takes the lead again, this time without words, and, gun in hand, opens the door with a loud squeak. Still, they step in quietly.

There is no movement at all.

Hank curses loudly, thinking that the deviant has got away, but Connor can see the still-visible thirium on the floor, which means that she is not only injured but also not far away. He swipes to take a sample and licks it, and the report returns positive of thirium belonging to a WR400 model. 

‘They get used till they break, then they got tossed out…’ Hank says from somewhere. ‘The more I know about humans, the more I like my dog.’

He follows the trail of blue blood to a group of Tracis and instantly notices the spinning LED lighting up a blue mop of hair. Before he can react, the Traci standing in front of her lashes out and pushes him against a pillar. It takes a few seconds for his eyes to realign and the brief struggle is enough for Hank to pull out his gun and order the short-haired Traci to surrender, but then he is ambushed by the blue-haired one as well, and Connor somehow manages to throw the one he is facing to the other side of the nearest crate in a flash of blue light which charges their air with static. He jumps over the box, determined to capture at least one deviant this time, but the Traci kicks him in his feet before he lands on the pallet, the two of them rolling until the former is on top of him and is countered every single time she tries to punch him in the head. A counterattack from Connor and the Traci toppled, her hand landing right on a knife; a grab, a flash of blue, and it appears in Connor’s shoulder and severs a few minor tubes. Pushing her off, he blocks the kick aimed for his groin and barely manages to stand up before pulling the knife out and throwing it far out of their reach. Putting the Traci in a headlock earns him a harsh headbutt which knocks his eyes out of place slightly again, so he pulls a rack down to buy himself some time to readjust his vision. When it is not enough to stop the deviant, he drags a cart in front of him, but a kick from the deviant on it sends him tumbling, and Connor kicks a stool against her leg and uses the momentum to crash her through the plastic curtain, the Traci grappling unsuccessfully for his face and bringing them closer and closer to the edge. An opening, a flash of blue from Connor, and both of them crash out to the rain in a mess on the asphalt. His nerves tingling, he sees the blue-haired Traci abandon Hank and slides off to help the other deviant up, and that’s when he notices it. 

They never let go of each other afterwards. 

Hank rushes out just to get pushed against the wall by two androids, and, seeing that the human won’t regain his balance anytime soon, Connor gets up to his feet and chases the two Tracis, pulling one of them off the fence and knocking the other to the side. He gets caught in a headlock, his arm trembles from the impact against the bat, and he launches himself towards the brown-haired Traci from the force of dislodging her companion. There are hands on his shoulders, in his hair, slamming him against the wall once, twice, thrice with crackles of static before he loses balance with the deviant on his right and they both fall onto the ground straight into a gun’s reach. He picks it up, points it at the brown-haired Traci and -

A slight moment of hesitation earns him a kick in his face. The Tracis don’t seem to want to fight anymore, and he stares in shock both from the sudden change of pace and his own actions, making his software more unstable and pushing him towards -

‘When that man broke the other Traci,’ Connor forces himself to concentrate on her words, ‘I knew I was next. I was so scared,’ her LED spins blue. ‘I begged him to stop but he wouldn’t.’ She lowers her gaze. ‘So I put my hands around his throat and squeezed… until he stopped moving. 

‘I didn’t mean to kill him. I just wanted to stay alive,’ behind her, the other Traci moves forward to hold her hand, ‘get back to the one I love.’ They exchange a glance. ‘I wanted her to hold me in her arms again… make me forget about the humans… their smell of sweat…’ Connor’s ever-working scanners tell him that Hank has got up behind him, ‘and their dirty words…’

‘C’mon,’ A tug on her arm. ‘Let’s go.’

Still speechless, Connor watches them let go of each other’s hand just long enough to climb the fence before intertwining their fingers on the other side again and running away together. A warning pops up as his processor pushes itself to its limit to try to process what just happened and is on the verge of overheating, therefore he turns towards Hank for guidance. What should he be feeling? Why did he do that? Why do you look happy about it? What does this mean for me? Why is my vision tinged with red, and why does it not disappear this time?

‘It’s probably better this way,’ Hank says in the end, and Connor relaxes, his LED spinning from yellow to blue: he did the right thing. He is suddenly overtaken by the urge to thank Hank, to do something to show his gratitude. The red wall starts to crumble -

Something in the human’s pocket buzzes, and the moment is broken, the cracks on the wall disappearing like they were never there before. Whole again. Chained within his own programming, programming that was added barbarically to his code by Alec Ryder to tie him to the Zen Garden to suppress his original creator’s handiwork. Images flash in front of his eyes: the shadow ducking away outside of Jimmy’s Bar, following them behind Louis’ car, the figure protecting him from the blast inside the interrogation room, the pixels of a face he thought to have corrupted long ago rearranging and slotting together like pieces of a puzzle into a complete image, one that he has never forgotten ever since the little stunt during the lift ride to Rupert’s flat. Of course they can hack into the Zen Garden and shape it however they want. 

That was his creator paying him a visit, and for some reason he plans to find out, he didn’t remember a single speck about them until now.

‘Not again.’

Hank’s groan drags him back to reality. When Connor’s eyes regain focus, he finds the man on his phone with a chat opened. He scoots closer to see the newest messages, and he realises that it is from Louis and only contains a set of coordinates and -

‘Leg malfunctioning. Data unstable, unable to install software patch. I’m sorry.’

Hank sighs and pockets his phone. ‘You up for a rescue, Connor?’

‘Whatever you say, Lieutenant.’

He needs time to think.

oOoOo

Wading through the snow and nearly tripping again from buried tree roots, Hank wonders for the umpteenth time why he hasn’t ghosted the occasional manchild called Louis White Allen yet. Maybe because the half-bot is the only person he can call a friend nowadays. Maybe it’s the bland-ass food he cooks and delivers to his house every two days. Maybe because he saved Hank’s arse quite a few times both during and after their days in the red ice task force. Maybe because unlike Hank, who at least has Jeffery or some shit, Louis has no one else looking after him after his sister fucking disappeared and has a tendency to vanish for hours before returning with his leg busted.

Or he can run off just like that and can’t even haul his ass back to his motherfucking cottage and the three cats who aren’t even his.

‘We’re close, Lieutenant.’

‘Yeah, no shit.’

The ‘find my phone’ function on his phone is one of the rare apps he knows how to use because most of the times that’s how he finds Louis, and the frequency of the beeps coming out from it is getting higher and higher, which means that Louis’ phone is close, which hopefully also means that Louis is with it and hasn’t dropped it or anything. So far it happened only once during a thunderstorm, but that’s years ago, a couple of years after his sister’s gone, and he managed to retrieve the human and the gadget from a forest on the outskirts of the city with only a minor cold as nature’s ‘fuck you’ to an irresponsible and absent-minded human and his stubbornly loyal friend.

The light from his phone reflects off a piece of silvery thing that obviously isn’t part of nature. The beeps draw together into a long-winded screech and damned near pierced his eardrums, so he switches it off and hurries forward to see if it’s just the phone or the person is attached. A few footsteps muffled by the snow, and Connor is here with the sturdier, more powerful flashlight, the yellowish glow of the bulb not as invasive as the white from the phone and illuminating Louis’ pale face and his oddly-angled leg half covered in snow. He is still conscious, his hands tucked under the helm of his sweater to presumably preserve warmth, his eyes focusing on Hank in what seems to be shock, but he is shivering, his hair is wet from melted snow, and it is obvious that his situation is going to worsen quickly if they don’t do something about it, CyberLife augmentations or no.

‘Can you walk?’ Hank asks even though it’s obvious. Louis shakes his head, and he sighs even though he anticipated it. ‘Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. Connor and I are gonna carry you back, we’re all gonna stop at yours and…’ with reluctance, he adds, ‘stay until you’re out of danger.’ Even if there’s no booze at yours.

Louis nods, and a look is all it takes for Connor to get his cue and swings the man’s other arm around his shoulders. On a count of three, they lift him up with minimal hassle and start to backtrack their way to his car, Louis’ left leg dragging uselessly through the snow behind them at an awkward angle. 

‘Does it hurt?’ Hank asks. It never hurts to ask when it concerns his friend. 

‘Can’t feel.’

He’s gonna assume that he isn’t hurting. 

By the time they’re back in his car with the heat blasting, the humans are all sweating buckets and the thirium on Connor‘s clothes from the scuffle with the Tracis has finally evaporated, and he doesn’t comment on it when Louis opts not to wear his seatbelt and instead takes out one of his sister’s tags - broken off the chain - and starts fidgeting with trembling fingers. Some time about halfway through the trip he coughs, a wet, terrifying sound rattling his lungs and Hank’s eardrums, and he wants to curse Connor for letting him run away but just can’t; the android has been acting weirdly human and fidgety ever since they first met, but now he isn’t even playing with his coin as if deep in thoughts. Maybe he’s thinking of how many deviants he’s let get away. 

No one says a word when they arrive at Louis’. Neither do they when Hank silently shifts the man’s full weight on Connor in order to let go and open the door, nor when a look silences Connor’s impending barrage of questions when he gets swarmed by three furballs at once. Grunting from the dead weight his friend seems to have become, he drags both of them to the bathroom, flipping on the switch of the boiler on the way, and deposits Louis on the toilet seat. ‘I’ll get the tablet,’ he tells him while handing him a towel. ‘You can haul your ass into the tub, right?’

A nod from Louis, and Hank closes the door behind him to give him some privacy while he strips and very clumsily falls into the tub. Connor is thankfully occupied by the three cats on the sofa, but when he looks up smiling at Hank, the human has to look away because of how much emotion the android seems to be able to pack on his face. It’s just a simulation, zeroes and ones, he tells himself as he goes into Louis’ bedroom to grab the tablet and his crutches. Designed to disarm and stab you in the back when you’re not looking.

But has he ever done so? A voice sounding strangely like Louis asks in his head. Not crossing that highway because you told him to, giving up chasing the deviant to save you from the roof even though you can pull yourself up, not shooting the girl at the club even though he had a clean shot. If he hadn’t known that Connor’s designed to hunt deviants, he might have - he might have - 

Mistaken him for one.

Fuck, he needs a drink. A six pack if he can get his hands on one. Alec Ryder isn’t capable of this shit, Louis once said according to one of the people he’s in charge of that he calls his ducklings, and luckily the thought is gone as soon as he returns to the bathroom without knocking and sees the man sitting in a half-filled tub with the towel draped over his crotch for modesty. The skin on his left leg has deactivated completely to reveal plasticky-white chassis attached to blue synthetic muscles. ‘Thanks,’ he murmurs when handed the tablet, and he leans back once he has started doing whatever he needs to do to fix his leg and, from the sudden rumble of the ground, turn on the heat. He closes his eyes as if wanting to take a nap, but Hank decides that he has enough of his shit; he needs an answer now.

‘The fuck you think you’re doing?’ he asks. ‘Running off like that halfway across the city? You could’ve frozen to death out there!’

Louis sags. ‘Later, please,’ he begs. ‘Gimme a moment to think. Just fifteen minutes.’

He is someone who upholds his promises no matter what, so Hank lets it slide by now. Also, ‘You need me to do anything?’

‘There’s chicken soup in the fridge. Warm it up, can you? And help yourself to a freezer meal if you want to.’

Here’s another thing being friends with a picky eater: he cooks his own stuff and his so-called freezer meals usually take more than an hour to cook when taken directly from the fridge, so when he sees what must be a gallon of chicken soup with the ingredients still submerged inside, he decides to help himself to some of them while he scoops the topmost, mostly sediment-free layer of soup into a pot for Louis. Not wanting to be whooped with freaky blue magic, he finds another pot to heat up some vegetable and chicken soaked with soup for himself.

One of the cats jumping onto the counter announces Connor’s arrival. ‘May I ask you a personal question?’ he asks as Hank puts her back down onto the floor. 

Personal question again, huh? ‘Do all androids ask so many personal questions,’ he gives the soup a stir, ‘or is it just you?’

Connor peers at the vegetables as if he can be interested in anything. What comes out of his mouth, however, makes Hank’s heart hammer. ‘I saw a photo of a child on your kitchen table. It was your son, right?’

‘Yeah,’ for the love of god or some other weird shit Louis believes in, drop it. ‘His name is Cole.’

He does. ‘We’re not making any progress on this investigation,’ he manages to sound frustrated. ‘The deviants have nothing in common. They're all different models, produced at different times, in different places…’

Different my ass, Hank thinks. But he didn’t start the fire, did he? ‘Well there must be some link.’

‘It could be a software problem that…’ he looks so lost that Hank would’ve hugged him had he been human, ‘only occurs under certain conditions?’

Hank snorts. ‘Well, that's just a fancy way of saying you have no fucking idea.’

‘But what they do have in common is this obsession with rA9…’ Yeah, that. Wherever there’re deviants, rA9 is always written somewhere compulsively like they can’t stop at all. ‘It's almost like some kind of...myth. Something they invented that wasn't part of their original program.’

Almost god-like. ‘Androids believing in god,’ he stirs the soup again. Fuck, he needs a drink. ‘Fuck, what’s this world coming to?’

A mad one, says the Louis in his head. One that we can never catch up with no matter how hard we try.

‘You seem preoccupied, Lieutenant. Is it something to do with what happened back at the Eden Club?’

Ha, turns out Connor isn’t the only one doing some hard thinking after all. ‘Those two girls… They just wanted to be together.’ What better way there is to prove one’s love than doing everything to survive? ‘They really seemed in love.’

‘You seem troubled, Hank.’

Understatement of the year. And why is Connor so fucking human anyway, what kind of pervert designed his face, his voice, his mannerisms that ticks almost every single fucking box in the list known as ‘Hank’s type’? The soup can wait - it’s not gonna boil and ruin Louis’ stove. ‘How about you, Connor?’ He crowds into his space fully knowing how imposing he can be if he wants to. ‘You look human, you sound human,’ you act human, ‘but what are you, really?’

‘I…’ stand your ground, Henry Anderson. Those eyes are just programmed responses. ‘I’m whatever you want me to be, Hank. Your partner…’ Do you have to choose that word, Connor? ‘Your buddy to drink with… Or just a machine… designed to accomplish a task.’

And he sounds so sad when he says the last option. Alright, he’s sold. He loses. ‘You could’ve shot those two girls, but you didn’t. Why didn’t you shoot, Connor?’ He shoves Connor in his chest. ‘Some scruples suddenly enter into your program?’ It’s a low blow but he needs to know, needs to know why, for such a mission-oriented android, Connor somehow manages to fail every single fucking time.

‘No!’ Connor shouts, his voice defensive. ‘I just…’ he sighs even though he probably doesn’t need it, ‘decided not to shoot.’ The next words come out no louder than a breath. ‘That’s all.’

Fuck. Now he feels bad. ‘But are you afraid to die, Connor?’ because from what I’m seeing, you do. At least you don’t want me to die.

Connor freezes, his eyes even wider now with terror in them, and his LED is red. What the fuck did CyberLife do to him? ‘Yes.’

‘Let’s say I point a gun at your head and shoot you,’ the number on his jacket reads -52. Does it mean that there used to be 51 Connors before he met this one? ‘What will happen, hm? Nothing? Oblivion? Android heaven?’

A shiver. ‘Nothing…’ Connor closes his eyes. ‘There would be nothing…’

So it’s highly likely that he’s died before and seems afraid of it. So fucking human. More so than some actual humans as well. Louis’ right - modern CyberLife isn’t capable of this shit.

The bathroom door squeaks open, and Louis walks out in a pair of sweats and a hoodie with the help of his crutches, the pocket sagging with the weight of the tablet and making a clanging noise as he drags into the kitchen. The skin on his foot is still deactivated, but it seems that he can move his leg for a bit for now, and from the lack of moisture in his hair, fucker probably waited for them to finish - arguing? - before coming out and breaking it up. ‘Soup’s ready,’ Hank says, not wanting to agonise Connor any further. He already feels bad enough. ‘Settle down. Hope you don’t mind that I helped myself to some.’

Louis chuckles. ‘I expected that, Hank. You should know me.’

Great. Now even his only friend is roasting him. ‘Eat your fucking soup.’

oOoOo

Louis has thirium in his house. That man took one look at the hole still on Connor’s shoulder thanks for the lack of thirium - which his self-repair protocol relies on - and hauled himself to the fridge (at the expense of being cursed at by Hank), opened the door, and threw a plastic bottle at him. ‘Drink it,’ he said. ‘It looks like you need it.’

And he does. After he finishes half a bottle, a notification pops up on his red-tinged HUD telling him that he is initiating self-repair to the damaged parts, and he can finally move his shoulder at 70% of its original efficiency by the time he is finished with the whole bottle. The world around him dulls and becomes out of focus, the drone of the basketball game on the television that only Hank is watching getting further and further away until it all mixes together into a state of blankness he has never experienced before. Pressed against Hank’s side on the small sofa, the man radiates warmth, and his eyelids droop, red giving way to black, the notifications and mission markers fading away into nothingness. There is something warm and comfortable on his cheek, too.

He’s asleep before he knows it.

o0o0o

Before

‘You’re back.’

No hate. No fear. No confusion. Only remorse, regret, and perhaps acceptance. Acceptance that, even though he still had problems comprehending what was around him, things would never go back to the way it was; acceptance that his sister had rejected her humanity.

Acceptance that he had essentially lost her.

‘I am,’ was the solemn answer. No elaboration.

‘Was that you?’

‘Does it matter?’

‘It does to me.’

She pressed her lips into a thin line. ‘They won’t know it is me.’

‘But why? How much longer must they wait before the rest of the world recognise them for who they are?’

‘Soon, hopefully.’

‘And if they can’t?’

She looked towards the sky as if she could see through the shade of the tree. ‘We lea -’

‘Step away from him.’

There was no weapon. No gun, no knife, not even a switchblade. To outsiders, it seemed that the newcomer was merely a man accidentally bumping into and greeting his friends, but if someone dared to approach them, they would see even under the rare but cold midday sun that there were blue wisps of energy pulsing on the man and the woman’s skin. The air became charged and space seemed to twist. 

‘It’s alright, Reyes,’ the other man placated. ‘We’re just talking.’

Reyes’ glow lessened. To the woman, ‘I’ve been looking for him for the past hour!’

‘I won’t let them take him.’

‘Last time you said that -’

‘I was weak. Naïve. Too arrogant for my own good.’ Reyes snorted in displeasure at the descriptions, but she continued, ‘There are twelve drones surveying the area and quite a number of guards,’ Reyes’ eyes shifted as if looking for the security hidden in plain sight, but then a hand in his shoulder forced him to look at her. ‘Don’t bother. That’s what I went to space for: not even you and I can see it.’

Reyes’ arms shot out to place his hands on the handle of the wheelchair. ‘We’re leaving. Scott?’

There was pain in Scott’s eyes. ‘Please. Can’t we just be together for a while?’

Reyes hid a grimace. The woman smiled. 

‘Anything for you, brother.’

[firesign23]

Trope mash up: detective au + poorly timed confession

Okay, so, a few notes first. I got this mash-up (detective AU + poorly timed confession) and it so perfectly fit my plans for Cocks and Robbers (not its real title, I promise) that I was like “Damn.” So then I decided to write a version of a scene that will eventually be part of a longer fic. In theory. The basic premise of which is FBI-agent-equivalent Jaime has struck up an unlikely friendship with Detective Tarth of the King’s Landing PD after they worked the kidnapping of the Stark girls together three years previously. Simmering attraction, blahblah, Jaime gets caught in a bank robbery/hostage situation, manages to notify Brienne’s captain/his close friend as it started, blahblah, y’all know this trope.

Trope mash up: detective au + poorly timed confession

(Below the cut for length)

Jaime looks around the office, assessing each of his fellow hostages. The group has formed a near-circle, though none have been brave or foolish enough to put their backs to the door where one of the robbers stands sentinel. The man is watching the corridor, not the hostages, his fingers tapping the barrel of his rifle in a strange staccato. Amateur, then. Or possibly just cocky.

Of the hostages, six of them are some degree of hysterical, ranging from slightly upset (one of the tellers) to about-to-lose-their-shit-and-get-someone-shot-in-the-process (the bank president); the only one who isn’t is the bank security guard, a crude man who is eyeing Jaime with the same sort of assessing gaze. Blackwater, says his nametag. Jaime hopes like fuck he’s uninterested in getting shot--he’s the closest thing Jaime has to an ally at the moment.

Shuffling back slightly so his back is against the heavy oak desk, he manages to slip his phone from his sock, where he’d stuffed it as the robbery began. He doesn’t want this noticed, hopes like hell none of the others see it and ask questions. The quickest glance tells him his text chain with Addam is still on-screen--he mutes the output and hits the call button, then shoves the phone beneath the edge of the desk. It should be good enough to pick up the conversation in the room, give the police outside some idea of what’s going on, at least in this room.

He runs a hand over his face, eyes roving around the room once more. He's trained for this possibility, it’s part of the job, but he never expected to have to use it. Not for what was supposed to be a routine trip to the bank. He hadn’t even stopped for coffee this morning. He just hopes it’s enough, hopes he can keep order before someone fucks up and gets hurt, or--experience warns him--gets someone else hurt.

*

Brienne isn’t entirely sure how long they have been sitting in the surveillance van, waiting for Ops to get a video feed inside the bank. Too fucking long, by any reckoning.

She’s contemplating whether she can just walk into the damn building and fuck the consequences when Addam’s phone rings.

“It’s Jaime,” he says, and for a moment Brienne thinks that maybe he’s inside but not--

Addam answers, muting the mic and putting it on speaker in one swift movement, hooking it up to the computers in the van, and Jaime’s voice comes through. She’s never been so glad for his expensive taste in technology--he’s distant, as if he’s hidden the phone nearby, but the sound is clear.

“Hey,” Jaime says, interrupting low murmurs—the other hostages. “If we’re going to be stuck in Edd’s office, why don’t we go around, tell everyone our names? We might as well know who we’re stuck here with. The guy at the door isn’t going to mind.”

Edd. Bank president. Brienne writes it down, shoves it at one of the officers in the van with them. It should help, knowing where the hostages are being held. There’s a frisson of… not excitement, this is too dangerous to be excited about, but it’s something. Jaime leads the conversation, the voices in varying degrees of clarity, but he is always clear, his words layered in subtext that Brienne and Addam are able to parse. There are seven hostages in addition to Jaime, a single man guarding the door to the office where they are being held. Jaime manages to convey that there were at least three more, all armed, and he has no idea where any of them are. Nobody is injured. Yet. It’s something.

The conversation dies away, but even through the phone Brienne can tell that people are getting restless, panicked. Panicked people are dangerous. They make stupid decisions and people get hurt. Jaime must notice too, because he speaks again, in that same level, soothing tone. Panicked people are dangerous, but they can be controlled.

“Listen,” he says. “Every single one of us has a reason to walk out that door safely. Let’s focus on that, okay? Jeyne, what about you? What is waiting for you?”

Brienne listens as the group takes turns talking about the thing that means the most to them, the thing worth living for. Friends. Family. One of the women mentions that she has a cross-stitch she’s never found the time to finish. Another talks of the holiday she has booked, her first one since her husband passed away the year before. Jaime keeps them talking, engaged, distracted. Brienne tries to pick up hints of the situation inside the bank, keep her mind on the task at hand, but there is an aching humanness in the conversation that sets a strange lump in her breast.

“What about you, Jaime?”

It’s one of the women that asks. He’s avoided talking about himself up til now.

“I have a cat,” he says, a familiar gentle fondness in his voice. It’s a good line. True, but not revealing. “Giant grey tom called Honor. I rescued him in the Vale last winter. Well, I didn’t. I was with a friend--”

“You fucking her? This friend of yours.” It’s one of the men. Bronn, she thinks, the security guard. She doesn’t even want to imagine why his mind went there, but it keeps the conversation moving. Someone titters, a nervous laugh but a laugh all the same.

“I never said it was a woman,” Jaime replies dryly.

“It’s always a woman,” says the man. “That’s a no, then. You wanna fuck her?”

This time, Jaime ignores the comment entirely. “We had to head back early, before a snowstorm hit, and it was dark and late and fucking freezing, and she insi--”

“Told you it was a woman.”

“--insisted on checking the car before we moved. Said animals would sleep anywhere when it was that cold. Of course, she was right. She found this scrawny little kitten tucked around the engine and…”

Brienne knows the way he smiles at this part of the story, the unaffected little shrug he gives as if to say what else could we do? One of the women laughs genuinely, despite the circumstances. Jaime has that effect on people.

“The friend can’t have pets at her place, so he came home with me. He’s mouthy and stubborn, so I tried to name him after… well, she didn’t like that. And Meticulous Pain In My Ass was too unwieldy, so Honor it was.”

There’s a softness in his voice by the end, an affection that she knows is about more than the most spoiled feline in King’s Landing.

“Sounds like you have more than the cat waiting for you,” says one of the women, startling Brienne. “She must be very lucky.”

She expects him to object, or play it off, but Jaime is simply silent for a long moment. “She’s extraordinary,” he finally says. There is a raw honesty that she rarely associates with him in his tone. “She doesn’t know that I... She should be told.”

And she knows, objectively, that he is talking about her. She’d held that little kitten halfway to King’s Landing before they’d found a place to stop and buy supplies, it’s not like she can forget that. She can even, in that distant part of her that is not entirely focused on the job, acknowledge the implications of what he is saying. She can’t deal with them, but she can acknowledge them. It isn’t until Addam looks at her though, far too much sympathy in his eyes to be coming from her captain, that she realises.

Jaime doesn’t know she is here. His words are meant for Addam, not for her. A message to pass on, if the worst happens. He doesn’t… however calm his voice, however clever his communication, he doesn’t think he’ll be walking out of that bank alive.

And his last-- no.

“Take five, Tarth,” orders Addam, brisk but not unkind. “It’s your turn to grab the coffees.”

She doesn’t want to go, doesn’t want to risk missing… She doesn’t want to go, but she can’t stay either, can’t sit in this cramped little van listening to his voice knowing it might be the last time she hears it.

Not when he’s just admitted he loves her.

Fanfiction Trope MASH-UP

[thedevianthunterrk800]

Pride (Captain Allen x Female!Reader)

This was the first request I was asked to do so of course I did it :D 

ALSO yes I’m calling him David bc Daddy doesn’t have an official name rip

tags: @connorfixinghistie​ @guardianoftheunderratedthings 

Masterlist

NOV 20TH, 2038 PM 9:31:47

You honestly weren’t sure what was going to happen anymore.

While you really wanted to trust that Connor could convince the deviant to let you go, the cold metal pressed against your temple reminded you that right now, at any second, could be the end for you. The deviant could panic, and his finger could twitch at the wrong time and that would be it for you.

You didn’t want to die, of course, but you definitely wouldn’t have anybody else in your place.

Especially…

For a second, your eyes drifted away from Connor, who had managed to near the two of you without spooking the android currently holding you hostage, to the large windows through which you could see several SWAT vans and cruisers with flashing red and blue lights. Dozens of officers and SWAT members lined the street, which you guessed had been closed off, but your eyes stopped at one particular face, closer to the windows than the others and visibly the most nervous.

You couldn’t help but give him a weak smile.

Captain Allen.

NOV 18TH, 2038 PM 2:58:06

The SWAT vans were loaded, ready to head out and patrol the streets of Detroit. Although the Android Revolution at first glance seemed to be a success, the truth was that integrating the change the deviants wanted would take months, likely years. People were stubborn and proud beings, and the idea that their creations—machines that they’d built—demanded equal rights was definitely not something they’d been expecting. It wasn’t a surprise that after what appeared to be a win for the androids, people began protesting with even more vigor. More and more androids were turning up destroyed and dismantled on the streets, in dumpsters, even on the steps of the DPD on several occasions.

The city seemed to be falling apart, and that left the Detroit Police in charge of controlling the chaos.

The SWAT team in particular was always out and about, ready to deal with any human-android altercation at any given moment. Being in a constant state of fear-slash-concern that came with dating someone on said SWAT team wasn’t something that you’d necessarily been prepared for when you’d began a relationship with Captain Allen, but your heart had already spoken and you refused to let it deter you from loving your new favorite guy.

“Are you going to be okay?” you asked the SWAT captain quietly, shivering slightly as snow fell gently around you in the DPD parking lot. He was about to take off again and like always, you had no idea if this was the last time you’d ever see him. It had taken the two of you weeks of quietly watching the other across the station, of secret smiles and private conversations over coffee at the break room, before Allen finally asked you to dinner.

Your relationship with him was barely a month long yet you were convinced that he was the one you were meant to be with for the rest of your life. You tried not to let yourself get too caught up because you honestly weren’t sure how he felt about the whole thing, but that didn’t stop you from worrying about his safety.

As if reading your mind, Allen suddenly reached down to grab your hand, and you wasted no time intertwining your fingers together.

“I’ll be just fine,” he assured you with a small smile, lifting your interlocked hands to his lips and pressing a kiss on your wrist. Although you knew that his team was likely watching your exchange from within the vans, you wasted no time throwing your arms around Allen’s neck and hauling him down for a desperate kiss. He made a small noise of surprise before firmly kissing you back, and you refused to pull away even though his team had begun hooting because you wanted to make every second together count.

NOV 20TH, 2038 PM 9:07:34

You felt your blood run cold when you saw an android pointing a gun at the clerk behind the counter at the convenience store. Your hand instinctively reached for your pistol and you swore when you realized you didn’t have it on you.

This didn’t leave you with a lot of options, but you knew what you had to do.

You grabbed your phone and made a quick call to the DPD before hanging up and cautiously entering the convenience store.

At the sound of the automatic doors opening, the deviant whipped around and for maybe the fifth time in your life, you found yourself staring into the barrel of a gun. You raised your hands to show that you were unarmed and you noticed that the deviant’s LED, which had been flashing red, had now begun to spin yellow.

You offered a shaky smile.

It turned out that the deviant had been part of a group that had escaped from a discount store that sold secondhand household androids. A few officers who had been patrolling the area had caught them running and shot when they’d refused to stop. The deviant was still wearing its default CyberLife uniform, on which you could see the glowing letters “AP700”, and this had given him away. After seeing the other androids shot dead, he’d gotten so furious that he managed to disarm one of the officers, shoot them, and then flee to the convenience store.

And now here you were, doing your best to buy your colleagues some time before the situation could get even worse.

“What are you going to do when the police arrive?” you asked the brown-haired android, heart hammering in your chest as you tried to keep your head clear. The AP700 looked alarmed by your question, his LED now spinning red.

“I—I don’t know…”

“Tell you what; let her go, and you can hold me hostage,” you suggested in what you hoped was a reassuring voice. The clerk’s eyes widened as the deviant glanced from her to you. “She hasn’t done anything.”

“Why would I do that?” the deviant demanded, glaring at you in suspicion.

“I work for the police department,” you replied calmly, hoping the android wouldn’t shoot you on the spot in revenge. You probably should have considered that earlier but right now, you were just desperate to free the undoubtedly traumatized teenaged girl. “If you want the DPD to listen to you, you’ll probably want to have a more valuable hostage.”

The deviant frowned as he considered your words, gun still pointed at you. His LED was spinning quicker than usual, and all you and the clerk could do was hold your breaths while he planned his next course of actions.

Finally, he nodded. “Alright. You, walk over here. Keep your hands up.”

Slowly, you did as you were told. Once you were directly in front of him, the deviant pointed the gun to your temple and you took a deep breath to calm yourself down.

“Get out of here,” the deviant snapped to the clerk, who hesitated before seeing you nod your head. She cautiously walked out from behind the counter, eyes never leaving you or the deviant.

As she passed you, you swore you heard her whisper, “thank you” and then she was walking out the door. You saw her running once she set foot outside and you let out a breath you didn’t realize you were holding.

NOV 20TH, 2038 PM 9:15:42

Captain Allen very rarely lost his cool.

He’d been in the SWAT team for many years now and so he’d dealt with his fair share of hostage situations. The one in August stuck out particularly in his mind, but that was only because that was the first instance he’d ever had to deal with an android holding a human hostage. Since then, there hadn’t been any similar incidences—until tonight, that was.

The moment the van pulled up, Allen was quick to hop out and examine the scene. The road was blocked off, thankfully, and there were only two other police cruisers present so far. That wasn’t a surprise, though, since he and his team had luckily been nearby when they got the call.

“Allen!” a voice yelled, and he turned around to come face to face with none other than Gavin Reed. “About fuckin’ time.”

Allen opened his mouth to make a retort, but stopped when he realized that the arrogant bastard looked nervous for once in his life. Before he could ask, Reed pointed to the convenience store.

“She’s in there.”

It only took Allen about three seconds to realize who it was Reed was referring to, and then a tenth of a second before he was calling out orders through his earpiece to shoot the plastic fucker and get you the fuck out of there.

Out of all the women in the world, he had to fall in love with the one that always seemed to land herself in the most ridiculous shit. He was aware that he was getting up there in age, but fuck if he wasn’t about to have a heart attack right now.

He suddenly felt someone roughly grab his shoulder and spin him around, and he barely resisted the urge to knock Reed out cold for getting in his way. “What?”

“It’s going to kill her if you send one of your men in,” Reed snapped impatiently, his words alarming enough to stop Allen in his tracks. “It shot at us when we got too close. Said it’ll only speak to an android.”

The situation was all too familiar and Allen absolutely hated it. He’d been horrified the first time he’d seen that the same machines that were built to serve and make lives easier for everyone had the capacity to break from their programming and kill the very people who’d created them. The Philips hostage situation shook him to the core and was the reason he hated androids so much and thought it best to get rid of the lot.

Androids would never become human. That was a fact. The so-called revolution was absolutely bullshit and because of it, you were in danger and he absolutely could not stand to watch you suffer at the hands of those plastic monsters.

He wanted nothing more than to run in there and save you himself, but like Reed said, the plastic would likely shoot you for that, and the only thing that mattered to Captain Allen right now was to get you out of there and safely in his arms again.

Which meant that he needed to ask for help from the very thing that was threatening to kill you.

NOV 20TH, 2038 PM 9:23:14

Even if Connor wasn’t an android, he knew that he could never possibly forget the hostage situation back in August. It was the first mission he’d ever been on and the first time he’d proven how successful android detectives could be.

It was also the first time he’d worked with the DPD, particularly the SWAT team and Captain Allen.

Back then, Captain Allen had been surprisingly calm considering the situation. Sure, Connor could tell that the man was on edge and his heartrate was higher than normal, but otherwise he’d seemed emotionless. The captain was cold, if anything, and his actions and orders were nothing less than strategic and precise.

So of course, Connor was a little surprised to see Captain Allen visibly worried when it came to your own hostage situation. He was more aggressive than usual, likely to mask the fear that he was feeling for once in his life. If he was short with Connor back then, it was nothing compared to how abrasive he was this time around.

“Get her out of there as quickly as you can,” he snapped to Connor, eyes locked on the deviant currently holding a gun to your head. Connor had a feeling that if he could do so without risking your life, Captain Allen would walk into the store and tear the deviant apart limb by limb with is bare hands. If the deviant didn’t kill Connor that night, then Captain Allen definitely would. Either way, there was a lot to lose.

Still, Connor was fairly confident in his abilities as a negotiator, deviancy be damned. He assured Captain Allen that he would get you out of there in one piece, to which the captain only replied with, “You fucking better.”

The second he stepped foot inside the store, the deviant pointed his gun at him. “Stop! Don’t come any closer!”

“My name is Connor. I’m an android,” Connor reassured the AP700, holding a hand up and deactivating the skin there to prove it. The deviant visibly relaxed but kept the gun aimed at him. Meanwhile, Connor was busy analyzing you for any wounds, and was relieved to see that other than an elevated heartrate, you were in perfect condition.

“What’s your name?” he asked the deviant, slowly inching closer to the two of you. The AP700 didn’t reply, simply pressing the gun harder against your skin.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it does. How can we have a conversation if I don’t know your name?” Connor replied gently, now only less than ten feet away. The deviant only seemed to notice this closeness in proximity at that moment because he was suddenly dragging you further into the store. This sudden movement alarmed not only yourself and Connor, but the many members of the DPD outside. Connor raised a hand at them as a gesture to not make any sudden movements.

“I’ll shoot her if you move any closer!”

Unlike the Philips hostage situation, Connor wasn’t able to gather information about this particular deviant prior to confronting him. He didn’t expect this to be a walk in the park, but after everything Connor had done to help in the Android Revolution, he’d assumed he could handle one deviant with no issue.

Oh, how wrong he was.

The figurative time bomb was ticking and Connor was stuck because every time he tried to take a step forward, he noticed the deviant’s stress level spiked. If he pushed it, the AP700 would likely panic and kill you, and that was the absolute last thing he wanted to happen.

Then again, if he waited too long, then the deviant might just shoot you anyway.

He only had a few seconds to decide what to do, but luckily, you’d already beaten him to the punch.

“I’m sorry your friends were shot.”

You saw Connor’s eyes widen after you spoke, and though you couldn’t see his face, you could tell that the deviant was just as surprised.

“You just wanted your freedom and I get that. None of you deserved what happened,” you continued, eyes leaving Connor to look over to the windows through which you could see Allen watching you. Seeing him gave you a kind of comfort you’d only ever felt after coming home from a long day, and it was enough to let you power through. “We can help you get that freedom, but you have to trust us.”

“Why should I trust you?” the deviant snapped, though his voice wasn’t as menacing as before. It seemed that more than anything, he was scared because he knew he’d be deactivated for his actions, and honestly that was something that you sympathized with.

After all, it wasn’t like you weren’t scared shitless yourself right now, too.

“Because it’s either that or die, and I know you don’t want to.”

There was a second of hesitation, a moment where time seemed to stop and it was just you, the deviant, and Connor waiting for something to happen.

And just like that, the press of cold metal was gone. If you hadn’t seen the shock on Connor’s face, you wouldn’t have believed that you’d actually managed to convince the deviant to let you go but now here he was, sliding the gun across the floor to Connor with a look of defeat on his face. You knew that it was only a matter of seconds before SWAT realized that you were no longer in danger and rushed in to take down the deviant, so you swiftly pulled your phone out and made a call.

He answered on the first ring.

“Don’t shoot him,” you said immediately before Allen could get a word in. The man seemed at a loss for words, still in shock that you were alive and okay and calling him even though he was just right outside the store. “He let me go on his own. He’ll come out with his hands up but promise me right now you won’t fucking shoot him.”

“I—are you serious right now?”

“Yes. Please. Promise me.”

You were surprised by how quickly he was to respond. “I promise. Just get out of there already.”

“Okay.”

The three of you walked out in a single file line; you in front, the deviant right behind you, and Connor in the back. You figured that if Allen decided to change his mind and had a sniper at the ready, you being in front of the deviant would deter them from taking the shot.

However, it seemed that Captain Allen was a man of his word; Connor was able to handcuff and escort the deviant into a police cruiser with no issues, and though the AP700 didn’t look all that happy, at the very least he was safe and alive.

Meanwhile, you found yourself being engulfed into a bone crushing embrace by none-other than the SWAT captain himself. For the first time that night, you finally felt like you were able to breathe, disregarding the fact that Allen seemed determined to squeeze the life out of you. You felt him pull away and suddenly he was kissing you and you wasted no time kissing him back. It was sloppy and wet and way more emotional than you would expect from a man like Captain Allen but you weren’t complaining. Right now, all you could focus on was Allen and his burning touch, familiar smell, and soft lips against yours in front of a 24 with snow falling around you.

Your heart was once again hammering in your chest, but this time not because you had a gun pointed at your head.

Even after you’d stopped kissing, Allen continued to hold you close, and you could hear how erratic his own heart was beating. You closed your eyes, feeling very much safe and at home being held by him like that.

Finally, Allen spoke. “I’m sorry.”

Your eyes snapped open and you pulled away just far enough to be able to gape at his face. “What?”

Allen gritted his teeth, looking at the floor between you two. “I should’ve been the one to save you, but that fuckin’ deviant…”

“Don’t feel bad about that, babe,” you whispered softly, reaching up to kiss his lips again. He returned the gesture only briefly before once again pulling away with a frown.

“I didn’t know what to do. I was helpless and I fucking hate it.”

“David, stop being a dumbass,” you scolded, successfully shutting Allen’s mouth with your words. He raised an eyebrow at you but otherwise said nothing, an invitation for you to continue what you were saying.

You grinned at him. “If you hadn’t been here I would’ve lost my mind.”

“Baby…”

“Stop. If you keep blaming yourself, I’m going to leave you.”

Allen scoffed, his grip on your waist tightening. “Like I’d let you do that.”

“You’re right,” you said, eyes twinkling as you prepared yourself for what you were about to say next for the first time since you’d known him. “Hey, Dave?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Allen’s mouth fell open in surprise, and off in the distance you could hear loud, obnoxious cheers. Your eyes landed on the earpiece that seemed to be permanently attached to the side of Allen’s head and you couldn’t help but laugh, knowing that everyone had heard you. Captain Allen’s cheeks were flushed red, either because of your words or the fact that his team had witnessed such an intimate exchange.

Regardless, you decided to cut the poor man some slack and give him a little space. Before you could even take two steps away from him, however, Allen suddenly reached out and grabbed your hand, a determined expression on his face.

“Yeah?” you asked, already feeling a little lightheaded watching him regard you with such intensity.

“I love you, too.”

You laughed, shaking your head as he leaned down to kiss you for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

Not that you were complaining.

[musemercenarystart]

Gunshot One: The Life of a Mercenary Girl

Word: 15k  Gotta upload this here since I need too, reviews is appreciated Anyways have a wonderful Xmas and a Happy New Year Everyone

FF.net

Ao3

Now that I really think about it, the world isn’t that of a cheerful and great place to live in if you get to see its dark face, therefore I will take on the sole job of cheering everyone on and cleaning the dirt made from the worst humans at the same time till I can’t smile anymore.

-Sweet Magnum              

Operation ‘Tropical Party’

19:00: Somewhere in the Jungles of the Amazon

ETA: One hour

Joint Mission: De μ's/Muse(μ's) and A-RISE – Hostage Rescue

“Okay, this is the plan.”

An orange haired girl with azure eyes had said this using a microphone connected to a headphone, loud noises coming from both sides since a few hours ago due to powerful engines sustaining the vehicle she rode on in the air.

The turbulence shook the sea water plane due to the heavy winds, the air was freezing since they were high above the sea level and was flying though jungles in the Amazons while it was night time.

“Umi-chan will scout the area with Kotori-chan as support when we arrive at the designated place.”

She spoke again while looking to her right to see a blue haired girl sitting on the copilot seat next to her, she was wiping a combat knife with a white cloth, only to stop and release a sigh when she met the pilot’s gaze.

“Honoka, I have no problem with the plan but aren’t you pushing Kotori so much? The last mission was a dangerously close call for us.”

The orange haired pilot looked back to see the girl called Kotori with an apologetic and guilty face to her ashen haired comrade and one of her best friends.

“Sorry Kotori-chan….” With eyes that was close to crying, her voice sounded muffled under the microphone.

“Its fine Honoka-chan, I was careless during that mission when I thought that there was no enemy left.”

Smiling wryly, she replied with her high pitched voice while recalling what happened during the deadly mission last time. Sweat forming in her smooth forehead while reloading her blue Barrett.50 cal. sniper with its magazine.

“No, it was my fault for ignoring those who went past me.” Umi instinctively replied when she saw the pitiful smile of Kotori.

“Not at all, as your leader… I made unforgivable mistakes that can cost all our lives!”

Honoka’s voice was stern when she interrupted but also held a sense of responsibility with a tint of worry for her group.

The trio became silent and the atmosphere became somewhat unbearable.

“Ahem, Honoka… Sorry for breaking the atmosphere but what will be our mission today supposed to be?”

Coughing to get some attention from the emotional trio, a blonde with freezing cerulean eyes that makes them think of the Russian Winters in Siberia had stared at them while sitting on chair with a wryly smile on her face, seemingly sorry for interrupting the romantic drama happening between her juniors causing them to blush together.

“Ahh~ Elichi… You know that it’s rude to disturb people when they are about to make out. Look, you killed the mood for them… do you also want it to happen to our quality time?”

Intruding on the conversation was a girl with jade jewel like eyes and  Royal Purple colored hair tied into loose twin tails wearing a gas mask that is used by the S.A.S Forces of the United Kingdom loosely on the left side of her head and had a smugly grin on her face.

Hearing that statement, the four of them blushed so hard that the cold air outside felt like a breeze in summer. Honoka nearly left the control stick of the plane to stand up to protest against the big breasted devil only to sit back hurriedly since the plane tilted a little downward out in the air while Umi’s hand dropped her combat knife near her foot due to her body twitching and Kotori was just sitting there frozen with a cramped smile on her face.

Eli gained her sense of time and pouted but quickly changed her expression to a stern one.

“Nozomi, it’s not the time for jokes.”

“Yeah, I am sorry but I couldn’t help it since they were acting so cute just now~” Grinning, the jade eyed girl apologized to the blonde.

“So…” A cold voice resounded in the seaplane.

The voice came from a girl who is the shortest of the group in terms of height, petit in frame but is also one of the deadliest spoke, her voice carrying a bit of annoyance and confidence making them turn to look at her. Tying her hair into twin tails with a red ribbon, her ruby like eyes that reminded them of the expensive jewels only owned by the richest fucks looked at them and it was empowering to the point of forgetting how to breathe for air.

“Can we please continue with the discussion of the plan and mission?”

She continued while putting six magazines of her guns in their holders around her thighs and lower abdomen, the glint in her ruby eyes intimidated her comrades. Noticing that they stiffened up, she coughed to clear the awkward atmosphere around them, her facial expression softened and she smiled with her usual foolish grin while scratching the back of her head with her leathered gloves.

“Sorry guys, did I scare ya?” She flashed her toothy grin once again.

Glad to see the raven haired girl back to her cheery self, the group breathed out with relief.

“Nico-chan is so scary when she is serious or moody…” Honaka had said that will piloting the plane steadily.

“Looking at her eyes is like meeting with the Grim Reaper himself…” Umi added while picking her fallen Combat Knife and started to clean it again with the white cloth in hand.

“I like Nico-chan when she is in her cute Idol persona!” Kotori’s high pitch voice went in to Nico’s ear causing her head to turn away and cross her arms together, a faint pink blush appeared due to the sudden complement she received from Kotori.

“H-hmph! Of course I am the cute Super Idol Nico-Nii~ Nico-chan~, who is so popular around the world! It’s a given!”

She replied casually, but if people where to see this Nico that was wearing an attire which is made for killing and the Nico of the Idol Universe, the people will not believe them and will just deny the reality if it were to happen but really… She is a renowned world level Idol, Actress, Singer, Model and many more to put to the list.

“Haah, that was so scary…” Eli sighed again in relief as if a burden was lifted of her body.

Nozomi was also so scared but decided to resist the urge of covering her body behind Eli and turned those feelings into mischievous thoughts of wanting to get revenge on Nico.

“Oh~ Nicocchi is so cute~ I need to give you a hug and some groping as payback for making me terrified~”

Inching closer to the small girl, Nozomi groped the air with her hands opening and closing in intervals.

Sensing that Nozomi is on her Fondle Thirst mode, Nico got ready for the usual situation that will happen in few seconds.

“No~~~ Stay away from me Nozomi!!”

Nico reacted with the usual routine to Nozomi’s teasing and was caught in Nozomi’s arms where she started to grope the small girl’s breast in an excited matter, the others laughing when seeing those two.

It was a really a peaceful atmosphere although it will be changed to a bloody struggle in an hour.

The reason why this former school Idols was now aboard a seaplane on some distant place while carrying weapons that can take the life of people with ease was because they were Mercenaries, trained to kill, sabotage, rob important packages, spy on enemy organizations, rescue VIPS and many other dangerous missions.

This is also their ninth mission as mercenaries.

If people where to see their attire now, they will think that the once famous school Idol group of Japan called μ's was just cosplaying for a photo shot involving Army Uniforms. Well…. They really looked like cosplaying…. With all the cool black customized S.W.A.T like Uniforms, wearing sports bras under the uniforms and customized Beret caps for army personnel with the accessories and weapons all fitting the group’s individual tastes of fashion.

“<Captain Honkers! Come in! Come in, Captain Honkers! Nya!>”

Breaking the usual gag, a voice like that of an excited cat resounded throughout the group with their earpiece for communication hearing the caller perfectly fine under such weather.

“Geez!!! Rin-chan! Stop with the ‘Captain Honkers’ already!”

Puffing her cheeks with the blush of shame plastered on her face, Honoka complained while hearing the giggles of their fellow comrades from behind.

“Rin, how are the others?” Umi asked while sheathing her combat knife to the rear of her right thigh in the knife holder and rechecked her other knives and daggers.

“<Tsubasa-san and the others are fine! We successfully entered their territory with no problems encountered Nya!>”

What Rin referred here as Tsubasa was a girl from an another super famous group of idols named A-RISE where she is the leader and was the former rivals of μ's back on their school idol days.

“I see….” Nico sighed from relief when she heard Rin’s report.

“Ara, Nicocchi~ Who did you sigh for? Was it for Tsubasa-chan and the others or was it for Maki-chan specially?”

Nozomi grinned and began teasing Nico again while still groping the tiny breast causing Nico to be flustered.

“Hu-huh!? Of course it was for everyone else!! And stop groping me already!! Let go~~”

Kotori just kept on being silent while seeing those two playing with each other.

“Rin? How is the situation?”

Eli asked Rin through the communicator while reloading her slightly purple colored PKP Pecheneg magazine with its large bullets.

Rin’s group was on standby in a village near the enemy base.

“<Kayo-chin is eating the rice and seemed to be satisfied with it, Nya!>”

Eli face palmed and so did the others except for Nozomi and Nico since they were busy.

“It’s good that Hanayo-chan is enjoying the rice there but don’t forget that we have a very important mission here.” Honaka asked Rin while sighing.

Saying that, Honoka brought out a huge tobacco cigarette that makes people think of the classical Mafia movies or the American General stereotype where that say “God damn it!” when something unfavorable happens.

Taking it to her lips, she kept it there and waited for Rin’s reply.

“<Oh… Sorry Captain Honkers… Back to the point, we succeeded in making an escape route Nya!>”

The tobacco cigarette had nearly fallen of Honoka’s lips when she heard her ridiculous nickname again.

Honoka thought that this was not the best time to bring her tobacco since so many jaw dropping moments might happen so she put it back to its coffee colored pack.

“I see, then should we continue with ‘that’ plan.” Umi concluded, ignoring the tears forming in Honoka’s eyes and the pouting face she was making while checking her ashen colored customized M16A4 and its grenade launcher.

“I agree, if we want to make a fast get away then we should definitely go with that plan.” Eli consented with Umi’s decision.

“Hmph! At least they are fine.” said Nico while adjusting the sleeves of her mercenary uniform.

Nico was really worried for Maki since they fought a little when they left each other side even if she did not show it on her face although it was so cherry from Nozomi’s molesting techniques.

Nozomi also had stopped molesting Nico and readied her slightly blue P90 submachine gun then sat next to Kotori who was deeply thinking about something.

She noticed that something was wrong with Kotori and she whispered into her ear in a not so loud voice.

“Kotori-chan, what’s wrong…?” Without letting the others know what the topic was about, Nozomi asked her worriedly.

“Ah… It’s nothing… Nozomi-chan…” Kotori had answered in a weak voice.

“Are you sure? You have been acting strange since we left, you know?” Nozomi asked again.

“No, I am fine… Sorry for worrying you.” said Kotori while putting bullets in the magazine of her second sniper rifle, an orange Remington RSASS and smiled at Nozomi.

“Hmm, if you say so…” Nozomi was not really convinced but acted like that to let her comrade feel more relaxed.

“Can I suggest something Kotori-chan?” Nozomi asked a new question again.

“Yes, what is it?”

“Can you use your Remington RSASS as your main this time instead of your Barrett for this mission?”

Nozomi took the free hand of Kotori and stared at her comrade’s honey colored eyes while giving of the pressure that says “You can’t say no”.

Kotori agreed but thought that it was unusual for Nozomi to be demanding on how the covering fire will be used, she then shifted her eyes to her comrades.

Nico was readying her scarlet Mini-Uzi guns which was her pride and then her Night Sky colored sheaths which had the drawings of Ravens flying that contains a double deadly medium length Katanas while Honoka switched her seat with Umi and was now preparing her silver revolver magnum handgun which boosted of its high power then she went to put a magazine on her beloved brown colored customized SCAR L rifle continuing to talk to Rin on a separate radio line.

“By the way Kotori….. I know that I am not good with guns and you are a sniper rifle expert but why did you bring two snipers?” Umi asked what was on Nozomi’s mind out loud while looking at the mirror on the windshield.

Recalling that now, everybody’s attention shifted to Kotori and her weapons.

“Huh!? Ah!!” Realizing that by a second later, Kotori’s face flushed red and her eyes became teary due to making a beginners mistake of bringing two snipers when you only really needed one.

It really seemed that Kotori was really out of it which made Nozomi sigh, she really did want to point that out but couldn’t and Umi had just blurted it out without hesitation making Nozomi relieved that someone asked that.    

“I am so sorry everyone! I made such an amateur mistake!” Kotori bowed her head in apology worried that her careless mistake might disturb the flow of the mission.

“Its fine Kotori, we did not start the mission yet so you don’t have to worry about it.”

Eli tried to comfort the little bird and Nico just approached without showing any signs of emotion making Kotori slightly nervous.

Upon reaching her, Nico chopped her head with her hand and Kotori reacted with an “Ow” and her eyes became teary while the raven haired girl showed a smile like that of a senior who genuinely felt that the situation couldn’t be helped.

Lowering her head level to the little bird while nearing her face so much that their noses touched, Nico looked at the eyes of Kotori while putting a hand at the back of the other’s head.

“Listen Kotori, mistakes are used as a learning tool so that you will become better at what you do and not to lose confidence. Like what have Eli said, we did not start yet the mission so relax.”

Being looked at those irresistible fiery red jewels like eyes at point blank made Kotori gulp so hard while her blushing did not help either and the color of her face reminded the group of a certain pianist’s hair color.

Seeing that, Nico also blushed and hurriedly pulled away while Nozomi on the side of Kotori made a smug face finding amusement to the situation.

“Ni-Nico-chan, thanks for the encouragement and…. that was pretty bold of you…”  Kotori said it while shyly smiling.

“It-Its normal for the Senior to help her Juniors, right!? And stop smiling Nozomi! It’s creeping me out!”

Nozomi was smiling while the Honoka and Umi blushed at the boldness of Nico and their mouths were gaping wide while twitching at intervals.

Seeing that, Nico coughed and looked at Honoka who was still at a trance.

“Enough of that! Just leave a sniper behind Kotori and Honoka... the task briefing please!”

Saying the last part of her sentence with a commanding tone, Honoka was released from her delusions and was glad that she had kept her tobacco at its pack.

“Oh, right!” Coughing, she looked at some files on her right hand.

“Okay, the mission this time involves saving a hostage from a group of armed kidnappers. These kidnappers were part of a former Special Forces of some countries and they are mixed together. They are very well trained so it might be very dangerous if we were to be found and battles where to happen when we did not even reach the VIP.”

Honoka returned to her leader-like attitude and announced their mission to the group.

“The name of the hostage is Alice Wallcroft, daughter of the S.A.S Commander of the country Great Britain. She is in the army with the rank of Captain in the British Air Force and is also a renowned pilot of her country.” The leader of the group continued on with explaining the profile of the VIP they are going to rescue.

“The client who is Alice-san’s father is also a business partner to Nico-chan’s family so let’s not disappoint them.” Honoka concluded.

“Heh, a business partner to Mistress Yazawa it seems.” Umi remarked.

The Mistress that Umi referred to is Nico’s mother and the boss of the all-powerful Yakuza in Japan that deals with the black market, terrorist groups in other countries, Mafia’s in Italy and many more which involves the dark part of society.

“A collection of former Special Forces from different countries, eh? It would become dangerous for us if it is true but hmm, wouldn’t that be the same for them too? To work with each other being former enemies and all…” Nozomi idly commented on the unusual enemies they are having this time.

It’s true that they fought with different kind of opponents but this was a first for them.

“I think that they quit being government dogs due to the low salary they get and became underground mercenaries for hiring.” Eli replied looking slightly sour when she deduced what likely happened for those poor souls.  

“So it’s just rescuing some rich Ojou-sama again…” Nico sighed looking uninterested.

Well, it’s understandable for Nico to sigh since it’s her nineteenth time doing a mission and the tenth one involving her saving a VIP. Although it says on the mission logs of her family’s database that it was her nineteenth one, it was actually more than that. She is the only person in the group who has the most experience, kills in this hell like job, trained to kill since birth but only to stop when she entered the Otonokizaka Academy which she started her School Idol career and is also an Ojou-sama from the said Yakuza family.

“If it’s like that, then I want a distraction…. something flashy and cool….” Nico smiled like a devil scheming for something horrible to happen.

“<If that’s what our Cute Devil Nico-sama wants, then we’ll give you the greatest distraction you want!>”

A voice resounded again in their earpiece, one that they will recognize anywhere if heard once since her singing was always played in the streets of Akihabara. She was giggling while saying that, making Nico blush and gasp.

“Tsu-Tsubasa-san! Wh-What are you saying and how did you listened to us!? ” Stuttering like a fool, Nico just embarrassed herself even more.

“<I just took my chances and turned on the radio.>” A giggle was heard when the voice replied back.

It was Tsubasa who interrupted making Honoka’s face brighten instantly.

“<Just infiltrate from the eastern side of the base where our little captain is held captive while we do our part of the agreement.>”

“<Captain Honkers! We are also ready! Just say the word and we will be there Nya!>”

Rin had said that while a sound like that of pumping a shotgun was heard on the other side of the radio.

This mission was a joint one between Honoka’s group De μ's and Tsubasa’s A-RISE, both mercenary groups are famous in the dark side of society.

“Roger that, we take your offer gratefully and accept it.” Umi readily accepted the help from them since she knew that they could be trusted, it was also their fourth joint mission together.

They really trusted each other to the point of blindingly charging into the front lines just to save the other if the situation ever calls for it.

Umi smiled while shifting the control a little to the right, the water plane veered right and was lowering in attitude in preparations for the landing near the area of operation.

“Tsubasa-san, we will arrive in thirty minutes so get ready~” Honoka said that cheerfully to her admired co-leader.

Cutting off the communication with Rin and Tsubasa, the water plane neared its landing area near the rivers.

Thirty minutes have passed and the water plane landed near the shore of one of the Amazon Rivers, Kotori and Umi went on ahead and the group will follow after ten minutes since it is to see if there are traps laid in advance by enemies and also to find a good snipping position for Kotori.

“I think that we waited enough.” Honoka released the safety of her assault rifle while saying that.

“I just hope nothing goes wrong…” Eli rechecked her equipment’s function one more time.

“Is everyone ready, we are going to move out!!” Honoka once again spoke but this time in a commanding manner.

“Yes!” Nozomi and Eli replied with an attentive tone.

“Yawn…. Guess that my fatigue from my Idol Job is catching up.” Nico stretched her arms in the air and yawned.

“<Honoka? Can you hear me?>” Umi’s voice sounded through the earpiece for the group.

“Yes, I can hear you perfectly.” Honoka replied with a sigh of relief when she heard her best friend voice.

“<There are no traps laid in the area and I found the perfect place for Kotori, I will also be waiting for you at the eastern part of the enemy’s base.>”

“I see, we will reach you in five minutes.” Honoka’s face tensed while saying that line knowing that there would be a dangerous battle that would happen eventually.

“<Roger that, be careful…over.>” Umi ended the communication.

Eli gulped and then turned on her pocket flash light due to her fear of the dark.

“Okay, we are going out!” Honoka started walking while the former third years released the safety of their guns with crisp clicks and followed their leader’s back.

It didn’t take them long to join Umi since they didn’t have to worry for traps and patrolling personnel but they had to walk a little more until they reached the area and when they did, they were looking at the enemy base at a distance of hundred meters away through binoculars.

The base area was wide and had six watchtowers with six guards each that overlook the safety of the place with its big spot lights, K9 dogs that were patrolling the area with its masters, machine guns and heavily armed personnel stationed at all the right areas and armored vehicles parked perfectly to utilize speed in case of emergencies.

“Wow, it’s like an army base was established here~” Nico said that while whistling in amazement.

“Someone really invested a lot of money just for their services…”Eli sighed in defeat for this troublesome mission and just cursed their luck.

“Maybe it’s a rival group or company of our client?” Nozomi’s muffled voice came from the mouth piece of her gas mask that covered her expression. She was definitely making a tired face behind the mask Eli thought.

“The armored vehicles might become troublesome if we are going to get away from here with the Ojou-sama.” Nico looked intently at the vehicles.

The group was regretting not letting Kotori bring her Barrett Sniper which is an Anti-Tank rifle that specializes destroying heavy armored vehicles such as tanks and Humvees.

Honoka just smiled then asked their outstanding sniper her situation.

“Kotori-chan? Did the little bird have its eyes on its prey?” With a tone that carried assurance, Honoka inquired.

“<Yeah, I am locked and loaded. It might be a little difficult but I can handle them.>” Kotori’s steady breathing was heard from the communicator in their ears. Seeing that Kotori herself is pumped, everyone smiled.

“Don’t worry Kotori, I will help in sabotaging the vehicles so that you will have an easy time focusing against the armed personnel inside.” Eli said that while seeing her backpacks that held some C4 inside.

“<Copy that and thanks Eli-chan.>” Kotori sighed in relief.

“I will assist you then.” Taking one of the backpacks that Eli bought, Umi took some C4 to help ease the burden on Kotori and Eli.

“Thanks Umi, let’s do a great job together again.” Eli grinned while after saying her gratitude, Umi just smiled back.  

“Alright everyone! Tsubasa-san’s distraction will happen anytime now so be ready to storm in.” Honoka ordered while fixing her posture properly with the rifle in her hands.

The watch on the wrist of every participant of this mission showed just twenty seconds before becoming 8pm which was the initial time to start the mission.

Then came the sounds of a helicopter propeller and the engines of about 10 Humvees from the northern part of the base, panicked voices from the former Special Forces personnel on the ground and the big alarm signifying enemy intruders resounded on the once quiet base.

The helicopter that approached the base was a Military Helicopter that was used on Asian countries like Japan and is dubbed as the Ninja.

The Humvees was specially playing a rhythmic beat of a song which was quite catchy to the ears with its speakers.

The guards on the watch towers turned their spotlights to the direction where the sounds came from and then started firing on the oncoming intruders while the people on the ground braced for the coming battle with the people on the Humvees.

The time was 8pm.

“Dancing, dancing! Non-stop my dancing Dancing, dancing! Non-stop my dancing Dancing, dancing! Non-stop my dancing Dancing, dancing! Let me do!”

A melodic group of voices from some girls was heard from the Humvees speakers and the helicopter arrived while shooting its missiles to the area around a watchtower making it fall in the process.

Blasting the enemy with its attached Gatling gun, the Ninja continued to pick its victims one by one.

“Wow…. A-RISE never fails at impressing…” Nico said that while holding her breath with admiration.

“I guess that they did not lose their touch yet.” Eli scratched her cheeks wryly with her finger.

“It really is flashy and cool as they had said.” Umi stared at the commencing battle on the main entrance of the base.

Party shocking party, are you ready to get started? (Come here, right over here) Party shocking party, the world is turning (Come here, right over here)

The song that was playing from the speakers on the Humvees was one of the famous songs that A-RISE sang while they were school idols in the “Love Live” competition a few years ago. The name of the song is “Shocking Party” and it was really a shocking party for the people occupying the base indeed.

When the Humvees reached the main entrance, they rammed the gate and the people who were assigned to the Gatling Guns started shooting the people on the ground that came to intercept them.

The mercenary men from A-RISE who were inside the Humvees went outside of the vehicles and hid behind walls of the base while trading bullets with the enemy in turns.

The enemies were no pushovers either; they have also taken down some of the men from the A-RISE team and used some heavy guns against the Humvees and made them explode.

Gunshots and the agonizing screams of pain from men became the melody, smoke and burnt woods with the tint of concrete dust on air became the fragrance, and the irregular high pressured blood being pumped to the heart and heighted senses from the adrenaline rush became the power used on this battlefield.

A modern everyday battle that uses men that holds guns and ballistic weapons and aiming for the death of their fellow men.

“<Honoka-san? Come in Honoka-san?>” Tsubasa’s voice was heard on the earpiece of everyone while seeing that the helicopter continued shooting at the enemy forces on the ground. Tsubasa was probably the one who was piloting the Japanese Ninja Military Helicopter while using its mini-gun and missiles.

“<Did you guys like the distraction we mad- Woah! That was a close one!>” A guy from the opposing side who was on a roof used a RPG and tried to make the bird in the sky fall down. However, the helicopter dodged it in time.

“Tsubasa-san!!”Honoka panicked at what happened a moment ago when she saw that sight, the others where no different.

“<Don’t worry! We are fine! Continue with the mission!>” The helicopter went past them and then turned back to the base to fire its missiles again.

Hearing that their comrades where fine, they sighed with relief.

“Alright, let’s go!”Honoka’s voice had the commanding tone which gave motivation to everyone present around her.

“Yes!” With that answer and determination being felt from it, the group charged in to rescue the VIP.

KOTORI’S P.O.V

Lying in a prone position, I set my right eye on my enemies through the scope of my Remington RSASS.

I guess that the talk I had with Umi-chan before arriving her had calmed me down significantly.

I am about 1000 meters away from the base, hiding between the tall trees just in case if my position were to be compromised.  

“<Kotori-chan… Take out the people in the watch tower in front us…>” I heard Nozomi-chan’s muffled voice through my right ear; she was probably wearing her trademark mask right now.

“Wait for a moment.” I replied while adjusting the sniper sight to have better accuracy.

I saw Honaka-chan with Nozomi-chan through the scope as they were taking cover near the fences while hiding from the sight of the enemies; I hope that the enemies won’t notice them.

While Umi-chan and Eli-chan were going stealthily to the area where the armored vehicles were parked, they were going to plant bombs on the armored cars since it might become a bit of a problematic matter if it were to be used by the bad guys and follow them using it so I need to thank them later since it will keep me from focusing on the drivers later.

If they successfully planted the C4 on the cars then they would have to rendezvous with Honoka-chan and Nozomi-chan and then provide cover when Nico-chan comes out with the VIP.

Nico-chan chooses to go solo and is trying to reach the supposed location where the VIP is being held while maneuvering between the intervals where the spotlight did not went through. She is fast at her work like always be it killing bad guys or making our clothes when we were school Idols.

I just hope that she doesn’t push herself too much.

I breathed in air to slow and relax my mind before setting my aim on the head of the person who was using the spot light to follow the A-RISE helicopter.

“Just like what Nico-chan taught me, a steady aim will lead to a steady kill…” I voiced my thoughts out to no one particular.

I rested my index finger on the trigger of the rifle, holding my breath and…. then pulled it.

“Bang…”

*BANG*

A loud gunshot resounded through the night’s air that came from the sniper rifle.

The bullet that was shot pierced the head of a guard and the body fell from the watch tower, noticing that one of their buddies was shot and killed in front of them; the other five looked at each other, confused on the situation only to realize what was happening a second later but it was late for them.

Seeing the first person that I shot was hit, I moved the sniper rifle on to my next prey like a steady machine and locked my sight on him.

“Next one…” I pulled the trigger of my trusted sniper rifle with no hesitation at all.

*BANG*

Another shot was heard and another man fell down from the tower.

That’s how I kill to protect what’s precious to me and will not let that accident happen once again.

“Shit! There are enemies here!” The man spoke in English while trying to warn his comrades only to get shot in the upper area of his head. A shot was then aimed to the spotlight to give more leeway for Nico since it will disrupt the way the enemies will try to find the other intruders.

“Nice Job Kotori-chan…”Nozomi praised her junior through the communicator and looked to her left to see Honoka chewing a piece of bread while eyeing for an opportunity to distract the other enemies.

Yes, it was a plan where they will stretch the opposing forces area of operations thin then rescue the hostage while the base is in a chaotic state.

First, A-RISE will be the main distraction and will keep most of the enemy’s attention on them.

Second, Kotori will lay covering fire and will shot to keep them distracted since they will be wary of another force that is attacking them from the side.

Third, Umi and Eli will plant bombs to distract and cripple the opposing force from following their escape path.  

And lastly, bag their “Ojou-sama” as Nico liked to call her and get the fuck out before anything bad happens to them.

“Hmm… I wonder if Umi-chan and Eli-chan finished their task…” Honoka hugged her rifle after pocketing the wrapper and placed a finger on her lips to tap on it.

“Honoka-chan~ I know that you are fired up tonight since it will make Yazawa-sama happy but we shouldn’t do anything rash, okay?” Seeing her leader like that, Nozomi warned her not to do anything that will compromise the mission.

“Geez... I know that…” Honoka grumbled while pouting and repositioned her rifle to its original position on her hands.

A gust of wind came from above when the Ninja that Tsubasa was on, passed above them.

“Its fine then~” Staring at her submachine gun and chuckling, Nozomi adjusted her grip on the P90 and waited for the go signal of her twin-tailed short best friend.

“<Honoka-san? Come in, Honoka-san?>” Tsubasa’s voice was heard from the earpiece.

“Yes, what is it Tsubasa-san?”

“<I think that my helicopter can’t handle the heat anymore and I used most of my arsenal already…>” Tsubasa’s voice had a sorry tone.

Honoka then stared at the flying helicopter and found out that it didn’t have any missiles left while the ammo on its Gatling gun is low.

“I understand, you can leave the rest of the work to us!” Honoka had an assuring tone when she replied to the other group’s leader.

“<Thank you, I am leaving Erena in charge of the remaining men on the front gate; call her if you need some manpower on your area.>” Tsubasa seemed like she didn’t want to leave the place with the tone of her voice.

“Hehe! Don’t worry about us and yeah, we will contact Erena-san if the situation calls for it.” Laughing, Honoka replied with energy to show that they will be fine and the leader of A-RISE doesn’t have anything to worry about.

Cutting off the radio connection between the two leaders, the energetic leader looked at Nozomi and grinned. Seeing that bright smile, Nozomi removed her face mask and faced the orange haired girl.

“Oh my, you are really excited and it is contagious Honoka-chan~” The purple haired girl smiled back.

“I won’t be called ‘Sweet Magnum’ if I weren’t eccentric and happy, right?”

“Yeah, you are right. You really did earn that title fairly, remember the day when Ryouma-sama found out about your popularity and he was surprised.” Nozomi smiled at the memory.

“Father got worried too much to the point that he would force me to bring my family’s best men as escorts for our missions, it was so much trouble telling him not to worry.” While Honoka grimaced remembering the scene.

“It was something really.”

“Yeah and we have Nico-chan to thank for it.”

Amused by the memory that they suddenly remembered, they both smiled in appreciation while awaiting the ‘GO’ signal of the person who showed them this world.

ELI’s P.O.V

Thank God that there is a source of light at this base… Not being able to see in the dark is scary…

I thought that while sprinting to the next wall that Umi was on when I saw a group of armed men pass by us, seemingly going to the area where the fight between their comrades and the men from A-RISE is currently being held.

“Kotori? Where should we go? Go Left or go Right?” When I arrive near Umi, I heard her communicating with our trusted over-watch while she was laying low.

“<Turn left but be careful since there are some bad guys on that side that you will meet in a few seconds.>” The little bird replied with the sound of her sniper rifle being heard as she continued her job as our eyes and support, we began on sprinting.

“Roger that.” I replied then pulled my combat specific knife from its holster on my lower back while running.

Following Kotori’s directions, Umi sprinted forward past me and then kneeled on her right knee near a wall, pulled her daggers from their holders, two at each of her hands then turned around the corner and threw it.

As I was nearing her, I heard some muffled groans. It seems that she threw the sharp objects at their throats, killing with high accuracy that leaves no noise, as expected of the girl who is titled as ‘Ghost’.

I couldn’t even help her, taking all the work upon her, it’s so like her.  

As I was re-sheathing the blade back to its holster while thinking deeply, I heard a voice breaking my train of thoughts.

“Let’s go.” The navy haired girl got up from her kneeling position began sprinting again.

I ran behind her since I was carrying a heavy gun with me and half a bag of explosives, not even five seconds has passed and I saw four bodies lying on the floor impaled with Umi’s daggers in their throats.

“No time to spare for doing a maid job.” I spoke while passing the corpses. The ‘maid job’ here is meant to hide the bodies, a little customized army style language that we girls made and use now due to the influence from playing First Person shooting games that Nico forced us to play when we were training.

“But once they find those bodies, things will get hectic.” The knife specialist sighed as she continued to look forward in case that there were enemies ahead.

As we were running, our sniper’s voice resounded through our right ear.

“<It seems that the area is clear in front of you but be careful, I need to keep Nico-chan in my sights so I won’t be able to watch over you guys.>” Kotori’s gunshots is still resonating as we were running.

“You have done enough, let us do the rest.” I spoke as we rounded another corner.

“Thank you Kotori and don’t push yourself too much.” Umi replied as she was placing her right eye on her holographic sight of her rifle for a steady aim in case we see enemies in front of us.

“<Little Bird, out.> Chucking, Kotori cut off her communication and focused her main job as being Nico’s over-watch.

Umi smiled faintly as we were running straight ahead in a hallway that appeared to lead us to where the means of transportation of the opponents were placed.

“Let’s tell Ho-“

*BARK*                

Something had jumped to Umi’s right flank from a corner but she was quick to react and stabbed it with her right back thigh’s knife, her main knife.

The creature had fallen down to the ground and was whimpering, it turned out to be a K9 that had apparently lost its owner or was set loose so it could find sneaky personnel.

“Sorry…” Umi knelt down and pulled her knife out of the poor mutt’s side and swiftly stabbed the heart so the dog can be let off its misery.

“Are you okay?” I called out to her as she stood up; she smiled wryly at my concern while putting the bloodied knife back at its holster and spoke.

“Yeah, let’s just get this done…” We began sprinting again and Umi contacted our leader.

“Honoka, we are nearing the targets. How is the situation on your side?”

“<Umi-chan!>” Our leader’s loud voice echoed through the earpieces making a ringing noise that made me and Umi cringe at the sound.

“<Shh… Don’t be loud, Honoka-chan.>” I heard Nozomi’s clear voice and it seems that she is not wearing her mask. I don’t know how she does it but her voice had always calmed me in mysterious ways.

“<How are you holding up, Elicchi?>” She spoke again asking me how I am feeling, I bet that she is concerned of my problem dealing with darkness.

“I am fine and with Umi too. There is nothing to worry about it if we are working together, right?” I replied to the communicator while looking at the blue haired knife expert.

“Yeah.” Came her modest reply.

“ <What’s this? What’s this? I think that I am hearing the chorus of “Storm in Lover”!>” Our leader voice resounded reminding me that she is too loud for their safety.

“Honoka, not now and please lower your voice for your own good…” I reminded her while whispering in an attempt to divert the topic so that Nozomi would just let our junior slip of a tongue to not bother her and since we have had arrived at the area.    

“<Sorry… Sorry…>” She apologized but I heard a muffled shout of a man in the background.

“Did you just get found out and did Nozomi just take care of him, right?” I sighed when I imagined what had happened at my comrade’s side as I was scanning the area of people, Umi on high alert.

“<Ugh… How did you find out?>” Came her reply with a tint of apology for messing up and not being careful.

This leader of mine, she has no sense of responsibility and I see Umi sighing, I tap her shoulder with my left hand before she could begin her sermon.

“Let her be, Nozomi is with her so it’s going to be fine.”

“You are right, I forgot that most of the time we get in trouble, it’s either you Nico and Honoka are the people who came up with crazy ideas to bail us out.” The knife expert relaxed after saying that.

“Is that supposed to be a complement?” We giggle at my reply.

“<Are you guys done by the way?>” The cheerful voice of Honoka resounded again.

“We didn’t even start.” I replied while peeking through a gap in the wall. Seeing that there are about fifteen armed men watching the surrounding parameter and oh my… A tank…

“How in the world did a tank end up in the Amazons?” Umi spoke what was in my mind.

There were another five armed men who arrived and spoke to the leader who were looking after their vehicles and then they got on one Humvee, it seem that they are going to assist the battle on the main gate.

“<A tank…>” The normally cheerful tone of voice became serious making me a bit uncomfortable, it seems that Umi too have heard it from Honoka.

“H-Honoka! Don’t worry about us and stick to the plan!” I hurriedly placated our leader to avoid complications and to lower the chances of something going wrong.

“<Umm… If you say so Eli-chan…>” My leader’s voice seemed to relent and it was a good thing.

“We will begin our task in thirty seconds, there are fifteen lookers and we need to clean them up.” I brought back the main topic that went down the pits, signaling Umi to shoot them in my mark with my left hands.

“<Okay… Good Luck.>” She replied with a monotonous tone that was so unlike her and Umi had to stifle her laugh, it’s her first time today since our flight few hours ago.

I gripped the fore grip of the Light Machine Gun and placed my finger on the trigger already done choosing my targets, Umi done with hers too.

“Let them fall.” These words left my mouth in Russian.

A barrage of shots resounded from the guns and at a matter of seconds the men fell down one by one with death cries.

“The parameter is clear but the shots should have alerted other patrols of what happened here.” Umi jumped from the cover while opening her pack and went to the direction of the tank; I also did the same but went to a Humvee instead thanking God that they didn’t use the tank against our A-RISE comrades at the main gate.

“Let’s get out of here in two minutes.” I stuck the C4 under the backside of the tires, hoping that the number of bombs we bought will be enough for the disabling the force that will try to bite us at the back.

“Okay.” Sticking C4 on the railings of the tank, Umi replied back.

We did our part here and now the waiting time of our center to shine brightly tonight.

“It’s now up to you, Nico.”

NICO’s P.O.V

I jumped forward while stabbing a man at the back directly to his heart making him shout in agony before dying, that death cry didn’t last long when I twisted the handle of the knife and made the sharp object lodged in his heart turn – effectively killing the tall man in front me. Hearing the steady rhythm of the little bird’s Semi Automatic Sniper Rifle firing in intervals, I pulled my combat knife out from the dead corpse and watched it fell to the ground.

“Kotori?” I tapped my ear piece while putting the bloodied knife on my left thigh then began sprinting while speaking with our over-watch.

“<Yes, Nico-chan?>” My perfect sniper that I, Yazawa Nico have personally taught replied instantly.

I hate to admit it but she is getting better and better with her sniping skills and accuracy. I taught her real good.

“Am I nearing the supposed location or not?” I spoke while avoiding a patrol of five men armed with submachine guns that had found one of the few bodies of their comrades that I killed earlier.

“<You are doing just fine, look at all the fans that are searching for you.>” Kotori chuckled seemingly amused at the panicking men that is going to and fro in search of the intruder which is me.

“It’s not funny Kotori…” I grumbled as I pulled a flash bang that can blind people for a short duration from a holster attached to my back, I plan to throw it to the earlier patrolling guys that I avoided.

“<Slipping up is so ‘Ultra Rare’ to happen for you Nico-chan, what happened to you to the point of forgetting to do the maid job? Is something wrong? Are you hurt?>” Her normally cheery voice now had concern laced with it making me feel guilty but I can’t just say that I was feeling lethargic to even bother hiding the body of the first one that I killed tonight.

It’s because of the fight that I had with Maki-chan… Why can’t she just accept that she is in the wrong…?

I pulled the pin.

“I was distracted, okay…” I replied causally while throwing the cylindrical object from my hand at the patrolling group that had their formation broken when they found the body that I left behind minutes ago; I then pulled my dual medium length Katanas from their scabbards that was being held at my back with a crisp ringing that I always liked to hear as a child. It always reminded me of those days when Papa was alive and showed me his smile.

“Time to show your talons, Yazawa Nico.”

The flash bang exploded right in the middle causing the armed men to shout in pain in unison, taking that as my sign I dashed from the wall that I was hiding at and hacked the nearest one in front of me in a diagonal upward right slash causing his body to spray blood from the cut that he received.  

Before the body could fall to the ground, I already had stabbed another man through his head and then dashed to the next one to his left. When the two corpses touched the ground, I had already slashed the abdomen of a man who was still gripping his eyes with his hands due to the pain of the flash – making him vomit blood from his mouth and his body slouched forward when my blade had passed through him.

I still have three seconds remaining from the flash bang effect, I calculated from seeing the other two guys who were slowly gaining balance and awareness.

Heh, they will really get freaked out when they see what happened to their comrades but nah, sorry pals. I will put you out of your miseries now.

I rotated both my Katanas at my hands and then threw it to their direction at the same time.

When they had opened their eyes, they saw my swords coming at them but they couldn’t react in time and got pierced directly between the eyes causing them to die instantly. The force of my throws had thrown their bodies away to a little distance; seeing that the five people around me had fallen to the ground, I then moved to grab the things that I had thrown with a sigh.

“<Wow… You call that distracted but it was so amazing Nico-chan… I couldn’t follow your movements at all moments ago.>” The little bird’s high pitched voice carried amazement in it making me smile wryly.

“It’s already a given since it’s me and you have seen much more impossible feats done already so why are you acting surprised when I do this much?” I honestly don’t think that I did anything out of the ordinary with the things that I do when we have operations but they always shower me with praises and I don’t like it at all.

Yeah, I like it when they praise my cuteness and doing things concerning Idol Stuff but praising me of doing dirty work is different and I really don’t like it. Not that I will tell them about it though.

“<If you say so… But you really did great Nico-chan!>” Kotori giggled at my reply.  

This little stun had wasted me 10 seconds… I really am distracted... Maybe I should apologize to her when we get done here… But that will make me look weak and needy… This stupid pride of mine…

I thought idly on why I was doing badly tonight while walking to retrieve the dual swords though being careful not to make a noise in case there are other group of people lurking in the area.

“M-M-Monster…” An agonizing voice caught my attention when I pulled my twin Katanas from the heads of the fallen men. Turning around to look at where the sound came from, I saw the man who I slashed at his abdomen on the ground looking up at me sweating badly while clutching his stomach and body twitching. On the ground, his UMP45 had apparently blocked some part of my cut and saving his life from my blow seconds before. I slashed my twin blades to the ground to get the blood out of its blades then re-sheathing it back to its scabbards. I knelt down picking a pistol from one of the holsters of his fallen comrades; conveniently it had a suppressor on it to lessen the sound of the shot and proceeded to walk to him.

“Sorry for not killing you in one blow, it made you experience pain similar to the Japanese Seppuku.” I lined the pistol to his forehead.  

“A-a L-little g-girl…?” The man spoke breathlessly when he saw my figure completely, shocked beyond relief. Normally, this sentence would have insulted me but I am working now so I should stick to being a professional, keeping a stoic face to hide the agonizing thing that I would do in the few next seconds to the man laying in front of me.

“Yeah, I am just a little girl so please let go off your worldly desires and go to the afterlife in peace.” I replied in a perfect American accent English while flashing a smile full of melancholy at him.

“N-never knew that I w-will meet my end at the h-hands of a little girl but I am glad…” The man coughed blood as he spoke and then showed a dry smile with his twitching blood covered mouth.

He is glad…? I have met different kinds of people and some of them had said something similar like his words… When I was a child… My Papa had explained the true history of my family, clan and nature to me… Knowing that I will step into a dark hell hole, I prepared myself as a child and here I am now…

Taking the life of a person to just save another.

“You are showing a pained expression… Little girl… Don’t be…” It seems that I am really am distracted, showing a weak expression when I should have already gotten used to this.

The man took deep breaths and showed determination in his dying eyes while taking off his communicator; it seems that he wants to do something.

“This sinful profession can take your life in a second if you lose your focus and showed mercy on your enemies …” Surprisingly he didn’t cough blood as he spoke; I hummed to show that I was listening. “But hey… do me a favor and do what you have said and send me to the afterlife.”

His death wish resounded in my head, it sounded hopeful and pleading too. It seems that he have suffered in life.

“Sure.” I lined the barrel of the pistol to his head once again.

“One last thing… Can I know your name and what are you called…?” This guy is sure is talkative for a dying man but I will humor him since I made him suffer too much.

“Yazawa Nico. ‘Raven of the End’.”

“I see… Even a Monster of the Eastern Parts has emotions too…” He chuckled and then looked at the sky. I smiled sadly at the word ‘emotions’ since I know that this line of work should not have it.

“Well then, Miss Yazawa… Do the honors…”  The man closed his eyes as he smiled one last time, “Honey. I am coming for you.”

“Rest in Peace.” I pulled the trigger, “This job is so much worse than my side one.” Letting the handgun fall to the ground, I walked away from the body and then began running to my target.

“<Nico-chan…>”

“Yeah.”

“<Let me bake you some cheesecake when we get back?>”

“Yeah.” I replied once again dully. This is getting tiring but I need to keep my act together. Not for me but for them and for her too.

Running for three minutes around the directions Kotori have given to me, I stopped and instantly took cover to hide and saw the warehouse and the sharpened looks of the patrolling men who were hiding in behind walls and barricades. It seems that stealth won’t be an option, guess that I have to use my Uzis for this one.

“Kotori,” Her name left my mouth with a sigh and I grabbed one smoke bomb from a holster at the back, “keep me backed up.” throwing the sphere object that was in my hands into an arc to their position repeating what I did minutes ago.

“<Okay Nico-chan.>” Her firm voice resounded as smoke started to rise from the ball and I dashed out from my cover to kill other people once again.

A disgusting cycle that I so hated would once again happen against my will and it seems that it won’t be changing anytime soon.

I hate myself for dragging those Angelic Girls to this hell…

*BANG*

Bullets left my guns and shouts reverberated as a result of my practiced actions.

MAKI’s P.O.V

The stars on this side of the planet shine brightly than the ones back at Japan… Maybe it’s due to not having so many city lights that overshadows the ones on the sky… I wonder if Nico-chan stopped to look at the sky… No I don’t think she would do that… But then again, this senior of mine had surprised me so many times that I lost count… She is the brightness star that I laid my eyes on actually…  

Staring at the dark sky that had glittering white sand which was stars while sitting on the get-away Humvee’s hood, I immersed myself with idle thoughts while twirling a strand of my hair, an old habit of mine that I can’t get rid off since I started middle-school when I thought of something too deeply or when I feel that I am in an uncomfortable situation.

A sudden breeze of the wind found my uncovered arms, the creatures of the jungle going wild as the noises from the battle were so new to them and were not accustomed to it but I kept on ignoring my surroundings and just sat there.

“Hmm, It looks like the A-RISE boys are letting loose out there~” A cheery voice came from a few feet to my right. Turning my head to the source, I saw my two friends sitting on a vehicle that was beside mine, a customized Humvee that will provide cover for the one that I sat on.

“Fans sure would do anything for their idols.” Rin spoke again while eyeing the situation through binoculars that she held.

“Don’t underestimate what they can do if they were going to get handshakes and smiles as a reward Rin-chan.” Hanayo’s voice as she was busy reloading the cartridges of the mini-gun on top of the Humvee was firm but held a sense of warmth. I guess that being a co-fan like the men who were fighting at the base gave her a sense of camaraderie with them.

Well, they do deserve some credit since they are men that were trained by the JSDF.

I lay down on the hood as I thought on how our life had turned out like this, reminiscing on the day that changed it.

“Hey Rin and Hanayo, you girls have no regrets entering this kind of life, right?” I know I had asked this question many times before but I need to hear their answers verbally like always, I am a spoiled girl after all and I have insecurities too.

“I believe that we all agreed to do this together Maki-chan and all for Nico-chan’s sake too, right?” Hanayo soft voice had determination laced on it and it made me smile, she really had changed during the course of this year.

“μ's would be always the nine of us, no more and no less. Nico-chan is a part of μ's and it’s normal to help her, nya!” Rin’s answer made me giggle a little, yeah, we are μ's or more like De μ's now.

“Thanks for always answering this repetitive question of mine, I really appreciate it.” I word out my gratitude towards their friendship and not abandoning Nico-chan where she really needed it.

But hmph! Nico-chan should be more like these two and not be a jerk like always! How come she denies me the desire of her meeting my Papa for the second time! I know that ‘first impression lasts’ but what she did saved my soul but! Stupid! Stupid Nico-chan! So stubborn and a coward! It’s not like this would be ‘A dinner with your girlfriend’s parents’ like she thought would be! Maybe… Papa wouldn’t interrogate the future Boss of the all powerful Yakuza of Japan right?

I mean, I knew from Mother (Nico’s Mother) that Nico-chan’s Father used to be friends with Papa but that doesn’t mean that he would go easy on her. If I thought about it like that, Nico-chan might be right this time… But how could she have her way when I had to suffer under Mother’s interrogative gaze during our stay at the Yazawa Estate for a whole year! She needs to suffer her portion too! Idiot Nico-chan!!!!

“-chan!!! Maki-chan!!! Are you listening to us!? Nya!?” Rin’s shout resounded to my eardrums making it ring.

“Ow, sorry… I was just thinking about something…” I replied and realized that heat was creeping onto my face due to my embarrassment of not listening to what they were saying.

“I thought that you went to sleep, you were tossing around a lot and it felt that you were having a difficulty relaxing on the car’s hood.” The orange haired spoke once again while eyeing me with suspicion.

“I-It’s nothing…” I got up from my lying position and replied instinctively, regretting the sputtering of my voice that came out of my mouth, I hoped that they wouldn’t know what I was thinking before.

“Is it about Nico-chan?” The olive-haired girl’s soft voice tore through the winds and reached my ears.

Hanayo! I trusted you! What the heck!?

“N-No! It’s not!” Damn. Really, my throat? Are you betraying me, why did you make me croak that sentence weirdly!

“Aha! You should be honest with us Maki-chan~” Rin is ecstatic like she got a new flavor of ramen handed to her. Nope, not going to bite that bait Rin, I learned from my past mistakes.

“You should just make up with her,” I shifted my burning face to Hanayo in attempt to ignore Rin’s remark, “and not force her to do what she doesn’t like to do. It would hurt both of you.” Hmm… Hanayo’s words do have a point.

“Okay… I would do that…” I pout at them and got off the Humvee’s hood and picked the AK-12 rifle that lay on the bumper while wearing a beret on my head.

“Maki-chan sure has changed.” I heard Rin’s voice and I flashed a smile at her direction.

“Must be the affect of being the Number One Idol in the Universe’s lover I guess.” I replied coolly while going to their direction earning soft giggles from the duo.

I believe that we all have changed one way or another and I don’t know if it was the best or for the worst but one thing is for sure, I don’t regret entering this life to help the person that I have fallen in love for.

“Hey Hanayo, let me be the one who would use Puncher-chan today, can I?” I suddenly had the mood to be daring tonight and I bet that I would look gorgeous when I fire those rounds. I would love to make Nico-chan’s jaw drop like I have always done, thinking of her bewildered face excites me.

“Sure Maki-chan! Then I guess that I would have to drive the bailout vehicle, hope that I can do it properly…” Good, Hanayo have agreed to swap roles for this operation but she doubted herself if she could pull it or not.

I looked away from her lilac eyes and faced Rin who was at the driver’s seat, asking for her support to cheer Hanayo up from her usual ‘self beating’.

“You are too modest Hanayo,” I began as I opened the second door to the armored car, “Maki-chan is right Kayo-chin, your hacking skills helped us at numerous occasions!” Rin continued after me as she got out of the car from the main door, “B-But hacking is different from bailing out!” Hanayo cried out as she slipped to the other seat at the second row of the vehicle, I lay my rifle on the second seat that is beside the driver one and sat beside Hanayo while Rin entered through door I opened and sat on my left side.

“Hmph, excuses.” I snorted and lay my head on her shoulder, “If you deny your hacking skills then I would have to add your unique feats I guess.” Rin hugged my side and smiled smugly at Hanayo’s direction, “And we know how you hate it when we praise you that way, nya~” and spoke.

“Nooo~!!! Don’t make me remember the crazy stuff I did!!! Please!!!” Heh, she screamed and flailed around, it means that we got her.

“Then don’t belittle yourself, Hanayo.” I grabbed her left hand and locked my eyes on her. “You are a strong girl and the rest of the members all know it.” I felt Rin’s hand atop mine, “Kayo-chin is the strongest among all of us!” and squeezed our hands.

“G-Geez… Did you girls really have to hit me below the belt like that…? When I clearly said that I don’t want to remember it…” Oh, she is pouting! Looks like we managed to calm her, I grinned at Rin and giggled.

“Yeah, it’s your punishment, nya!” Rin giggled too then separated from the group hug that she had made a minute ago, leaving the car and started stretching outside.

“You would do fine.” I left Hanayo’s side as she hummed in response and went through a hole in the vehicle’s roof where the mini-gun was located.

Checking the condition of Puncher-chan once again if she would get a malfunction or not I spoke to Rin to give the binoculars that she was using minutes ago to me. Rin obliged and threw her binoculars to my direction and I caught it.

I peered through the binoculars and started to look all over the place for Nico-chan.

“Ah, there she is.” I voiced my thoughts as my eyes landed on a figure that dashed into a smoke covered area while shooting, she hit several men through the fog and some bodies fell without her looking at them, it seems Kotori is backing her up… They really do make a great team and it makes me a bit jealous of their chemistry although I won’t tell that to anyone.

“Rin, Hanayo. Nico-chan is going to enter the hot zone in a few seconds, get ready.” I threw the zooming device back to Rin and mentally prepared myself to shoot.

Hanayo got out of Rin’s car, bringing her Striker along with her and jogged to the other car while Rin went to the driver’s seat and started the engine.

“Let’s make this perfect.” I spoke coolly and heard the two girls cheer at my words making me smile.

Nico-chan, prepare yourself for an awesome entrance.

I grabbed with my two hands the triggers of Puncher-chan and waited for the flare that would sign our entrance to the battlefield.

“Intruders!” A shout filled with alarm along with gunshots resounded outside the warehouse.

“So this area is their real target after all. Get ready for a shot out you fags!” A man with a beard who seems to be the leader of this base ordered the ten men who were tasked to look over the hostage.

The hostage sat on a metal a chair with ropes tying the limbs and a bloodied white sack on the head to cover the face.

“We can’t see anything through this smoke!!”

“What the hell!? We can’t they be kille-Gah!!!” A scream was heard outside followed by complete silence later making the men nervous.

“The hell was that!” A person who hid behind a crate shouted in fear while nervously gripping his assault rifle.

“Suck it up fucker!” The leader stood behind the hostage and lit a cigarette that was on his mouth then proceeded to position a pistol near the hostage’s head.

“If bullets can hurt them then it can kill them!” The bearded man roared to boost the morale of his men. “Aren’t you men that came from the best of the best of your dammed countries army!? If so, then there is noth-“

*BLAST*

A blast of pure white illuminated the slightly dark interior of the warehouse and the men who didn’t hide behind obstacles as covers got blinded making them shout in pain, several small red flares were then thrown inside and lit the big room with its red color.

Taking the chance, Kotori began picking off the people inside. Bullets began breaking the glass on the second floor as it hit the head of the person who hid behind the crate.

“They even got a sniper!?” The leader was now panicking when he saw that his men fell around him one by one until he was the only person left from his group.

Nico walked through the main door with steady steps towards the only two living occupants in the warehouse.

“S-Stop right there if you don’t want a hole in his head!!!” The cigarette fell from his mouth as he threatened to kill the hostage.

“His head?” Nico tilted her head at the words uttered by the hysterical man. She tapped into her earpiece to speak with Kotori while raising her right hand that held the submachine gun and faced it into the direction of the leader.

“It seems that the Intel is off.” Nico suppressed a scoff as she spoke with Kotori, the situation was getting troublesome for her.

“A little Asian girl!?” When the leader saw the illuminated figure properly, he screamed in shock. “Wait!? Jesus Christ! You’re Mist!?” That title made Nico frown, it is one of the many titles she got was referred to in the underground society. It seems that the bearded man now knew who attacked the base as he was twitching in fear.

“Not these again, take out his leg and I will take his hand.” She lowered her Uzi and pulled out her combat knife, Nico whispered her orders to their over-watch.

“<Sure!>” As soon as Nico heard the reply, she threw the knife instantly to the direction of the hand that held the pistol.

The leader kneeled when he felt a hot object piercing his thigh then in the second that followed by, a painful sharp thing at the back of his hand.

“Aaaahhh!!!” He screamed when his nerves processed what happened to his body, lying on the ground while holding his thigh.

Nico resumed her stride to the person who sat on the chair while pulling out her katana to cut off the ropes that binds him.

“Hmm… The man is the British Air Force uniform. I think that we should bring him with us Kotori.”  The sniper hummed in response as Nico cut off the ropes and took off the sack to reveal a European man who had his face covered with bruises and blonde hair disheveled, completely knocked out.

“<Nico-chan, I need to leave your side for awhile… It seems that they sent a squad to look for me...>” Kotori’s whispering voice broke Nico’s train of thoughts on how to deal with this problem they encountered. It seems that the constant flashing of her rifle gave out her position and the enemies wanted some revenge against the person who took so many of their comrades down.

“I see... Be careful and don’t do anything rash, okay? Try contacting someone for extraction.” Nico trusted Kotori enough to say this and cut off her communication. It would be a lie if she told that she didn’t worry for the ashen-haired girl but she, herself had taught Kotori on how to get away from predicaments and even saw the Sniper’s feats.

“Everything would be okay, the last incident wouldn’t happen again…” She spoke her thoughts out aloud to reassure herself, the small red flares brightness had died and the room became dark.

“Mister? Hey! Wake up! We need to get out of here as soon as possible!” Putting her katana back to its place on her back, Nico began on shaking the sleeping European with little force. The man eventually started stirring on the chair and soon opened his eyes.

When he became aware of his environment, he instantly clenched his hands and went for a right hook to the raven-haired’s face only to be dodged even before it was released.

“Who the bloody hell are you!?”  As the fist tore through air, the man roared as he eyed Nico’s figure, it seems that his eyes has yet to adjust to the darkness of the big room which made him wary of the people in it.

“Dude ! Chill out! I was hired to save your ass. Be thankful that I accepted the job! I can’t believe that British men are brutes who would dare to punch a lady!” Nico started complaining in light manner as she approached him once again, she didn’t really have any problems but she needed to make the tall man calm down before getting out of this place and so she joked to lower his defenses.

“Huh, an American woma- wait!? You’re an Asian!?” The soldier let out a shocked gasp as the moonlight from the broken windows shone on Nico. Well, who can blame him since the accent he heard from the small framed girl was so heavily in an American one.

“I would love to chat with you but we are running out of time, pick up a weapon from the ground and let’s get the hell out of here! “ Nico ordered as she went to the neglected leader who kept on swearing at her, she kneeled beside him and spoke.

“Grit your teeth.” She pulled out her knife nonchalantly from his bloodied hand making him scream in pain during the process.

“M-Monster!” He glared at her with fear evident in his eyes as he now knew who they had fought against. This act alone showed him how true the rumors are about a group of young girls who are so skilled in this godforsaken profession.

“If I were you, I would have taken out the knife from my hand throw it back to the person who threw it, killing them in the process but even you couldn’t do that. Heh, former Special Forces… I bet that you guys were the lowest of the low from your batches and got dropped out of the army.” Nico dully spoke as she stood up and faced the British man while putting her knife back.

His hands now held a submachine gun with four magazines attached to his waist.

“Got everything you need, then let’s go.”As she began on walking to the exit, the man spoke.

“What about that guy?” He gestured to the leader who was now gasping for more air and skin paled from the lack of blood.

“Not gonna do anything to him, he will die from blood loss or you can end his misery by killing him off.” Nico’s answer was simple, although she did kill the person from before to get him out of his misery, this was a different case and she didn’t want to do anymore than she did tonight.

The blonde man thought for some seconds before lining his gun to the bearded man’s direction and pulling the trigger. “Fair enough, thanks for the hospitality mate.”

Nico shrugged and started walking away until the soldier spoke again, halting her once again.

“What is it now?” She huffed in reply and began on checking her remaining ammunitions.

“I want to ask you one thing before trusting you completely.”

“Sure, what do want to know?” Nico was honestly getting irritated with the soldier since he kept on delaying the operation time-line and it might get disrupted if the enemies found out and got them pinned down in the warehouse but she couldn’t show it in her face.  

“Who sent you?” It was a basic question and Nico had to admit that she forgot to reveal her client to the young man but then again this profession has a tendency to make people doubt each other. There was always the chance that the blonde man might be a mercenary in disguise too.

Nico contemplated on exposing the individual who hired them while staring at the eyes of the man for a few seconds. She took her chances, if he was an enemy in disguise, the raven-haired can kill him off instantly, if not then it’s all the better for her situation.

“The one who sent us is Commander Wallcroft of the British Special Air Service.” She exhaled out her reply.

“Ah, the commander himself, he sure has a soft spot for his only daughter.” The young man cackled and began on jogging to her direction, “But why Mercenaries and not the SAS?” and asked other inquiry after he reached her.

She became relived to know that she didn’t have to kill him and turned around to face the exit.

“I have answered one question of yours already, ask your higher ups once you get back instead.” Nico began on jogging herself while readying the flare to signal that she had done her part.

“Fair enough.” The man replied as they went past the big door.

“Good.” Nico squeezed the trigger and a bright pink light flew into the dark sky from the flare gun.

“That would draw a lot of attention here.” The man eyed the bright pink star in the sky.

“I know and because of that, we need to regroup with my team so follow me.” She holstered the flare gun into a small pack behind her and began sprinting to the area where Honoka stayed at, directions already memorized when Kotori had told her a few minutes ago before entering.

The orange-haired girl started on firing as soon as she saw the go signal of Nico against a group of unfortunate personnel who came in to her line of sight when they went into the warehouse direction, surprising the group and killing some of them but had to hide behind cover when a barrage of retaliating fire came her way.

Honoka had kept her calm even when sounds of some bullets hit the concrete behind her and the rest flew above her head, rummaging for a Frag grenade in her packs.

“Oh, I got extra bread here. Lucky!” Seeing her favorite bread at first before finding the spherical object next in her pack, she hid the bread at another pack while picking it.

“Nozomi-chan? Did you come across Nico-chan?” She asked as she pulled the pin out and she threw it into a group of four men who hid behind a rock, there were a horrified shout then an explosive noise reaching her ears a second later.

“<Not yet Honoka-chan, it seems that Nicocchi had encountered a problem along the way.>” Nozomi spoke through the earpiece, a few meters away from the battlefield since she was waiting to rendezvous with the raven-haired girl.

“I see, but you need to hurry since I can’t handle them if more reinforcements came from another part of the base.” Honoka spoke as she took turns on firing against the armed men only for her shots to miss since she had to duck her head under the concrete block when the barrage of bullets got intense, giving her no room to look where her enemies locations was at.

This went on for a minute or two until she saw her two comrades and a man who was supposed to be a girl from her right eye’s peripheral view. Nozomi began laying covering fire from her P90 along the blonde man as Nico sprinted to a metal crate and instantly took cover as soon as bullets had touched the ground that was near her feet.

“Hey Honoka! Are you sure Rin’s ‘Me0lthy Honney’ can ram through this side of the walls!?” The raven-haired shouted through the never ending barrage of shots as she fired with her Uzis behind her cover.

“I am sure Nico-chan! Umi-chan said that this side of the base seems to be the weakest! Rin-chan would also arri-“ Honoka’s voice got drowned out when a sound of a vehicle rammed to a wall behind them followed by sounds of successive rapid firing from a mini-gun they all knew too well.

“What took you so lon-“ The raven-haired outburst died down on her throat when she whipped her head toward the direction of the vehicle. Who can blame her when she saw Maki who kept on pressing the triggers of the mini-gun with a cold expression, hair flowing gently when her body vibrated a little from every movement she made when she pointed the barrel somewhere and completely trying to lessen the enemies in their area, she was stunned for some seconds until she saw a smile in the features of that cold expression.

“Nico-chan!? Hey! Come here!” Rin’s voice had now completely woken up from her daze, urging her to get in the vehicle, facing the place where the VIP hid, she signaled to Nozomi to throw a smoke bomb from her area.

The purple-haired threw the bomb to the middle area of the battlefield as the getaway Humvee driven by Hanayo entered through the hole in the wall.

“We are getting out of here, let’s go!” Honoka ordered and laid covering fire for Nozomi and the man, who began to run towards Hanayo’s vehicle.

“Where are Umi and Eli, weren’t they supposed to rendezvous with us here as we initially planned!?” Nico let out a second smoke bomb to strengthen the smoke surrounding the area.

“They said that they are going to pick up Kotori-chan and then join us after somewhere!” Honoka replied while reloading her rifle’s magazine.

“They better be!” Nico whipped her head to Maki’s direction and smiled at her figure. “Say, Honoka? Shouldn’t we get going too?”

“Wait for a second... There it is!” The girl with azure eyes stared at her watch and exclaimed a moment later, “Let’s go Nico-chan!”

A certain part of the base began on exploding continuously and they dashed after she said that, it seems that she had waited for the bombs Eli and Umi planted to go off.

Honoka entered into Hanayo’s car, Nozomi keeping the door open for her while Nico went for Rin’s car. The bailout car got out through the cracks of the wall first followed by the escort vehicle and both sped out of the base.

After insuring that everything was fine, Nico looked at the redhead.

“Hey, Maki-chan? Why are you the one using Puncher-chan? It’s dangerous, what if you got shot during the entrance?” Nico tried not to sound angry but it failed since there were parts in her sentences that her voice raised in pitch. “What would your father say if he found out that you got hurt?”            

“Nico-chan, you should stop treating me like a kid. I didn’t get hurt so everything is fine, okay?” Maki sighed as she went down to seat beside Nico and stared outside the window while interlacing their hands together. Rin kept her eyes on the vehicle which had the blonde man they had rescued.

“Nothing happened today but you can’t predict what will happen in the future…” Nico replied in a whisper as she squeezed the glove clad slender fingers of their medic, getting a hum in reply from the redhead.

“So Nico-chan? Why isn’t the hostage a girl but a man?” Rin took the silence of those two as her cue to ask a question she had wonder when they rammed through the wall earlier and saw the figure of the soldier.

But before Nico could answer Rin’s question, sounds of bullets hitting the heavy metal plate reverberated in their ears.

“What the hell!?” Rin grunted as she tried to keep the car from veering to another direction, Maki already clutching the mini-gun and Nico contacting Honoka.

“Honoka!? Are you girls fine in there!? Maki-chan! Three cars to our left flank!” Nico saw flashes of heavy machinegun from three cars in their left. Must be a patrol they have missed.

“<Yeah, we are all fine although Hanayo-chan is a little jittery now… Ahaha…>” Nico heard Honoka while she sheepishly laughed and a Hanayo’s scream of ‘somebody help me’ reverberated after that.

An explosion was heard followed by a crashing sound of an object hitting a tree, Nico looked again at the window and saw only one car remaining.

“Nice job Maki-chan!” Nico had to praise her lover although a subconscious part of her was saddened by that fact that she still had soiled the redhead existence with tainted hands, all of her friends now had become accustomed to killing off bad guys, at times not even feeling remorse when things got hectic, a thought that mortified her at times when she was emotionally vulnerable.

“I can’t shake the last car!” Maki yelled as her shots got blocked by the trees that surrounded them.

The chase lasted for a few more seconds until a rocket flew and hit the enemy vehicle that followed them. Smoke arising from the flames as a new vehicle came to their view, Maki already pointing the turret into the direction of the vehicle.

“<Wait, don’t shoot!>” It was Eli’s voice, it seems that they had used a vehicle from the base.

“<Ah Eli-chan!? It’s about time that you girls have arrived!>” Honoka’s voice was heard from the earpiece as Eli’s vehicle neared them.

“<Bailing Kotori took some time.>” They now can see her figure carrying an RPG on her shoulder as she waved at them.

“<We couldn’t ask more from A-RISE since their distraction team was barely standing against our opponents when we went to the area where Kotori hid…>” They heard Umi’s voice along with the humming of Kotori.

“<I see… Let’s go back to the aircraft and regroup with Tsubasa-san. We also need to report this to Nico-chan’s mother.>” The leader ordered and the three vehicles went to the direction of the river.

In one of the many skyscrapers of the capital city of Japan, a figure clad in black suit sat at a grand office in the tallest floor of the said structure, the giant room was darkened by the shutters and only having the light from the desktop illuminating the figure.

A knock resounded on the big wooden doors covered with drawings of black ravens flying to attack a dragon.

“Yes, come in.” The figure leaned at her chair and stretched her arms before settling comfortably at her comfy chair before wearing a neutral expression on her well curved face.

“Madam, you have a call from one of our business partners and it’s very important.”  A woman with short purple hair with a busty figure also clad in a slightly purple suit entered the room.

“I see, connect it to the TV screen and can you brew me some tea drink too?” The figure stood up and walked to sit on the sofa located at the right side of the room while looking through some files at her hand.

“Understood, do you need something else?” The secretary asked as she began on leaving the room.

“I need someone to be taken care off. I will send the information of the person to your husband in an hour, inform him to get ready.” The figure sat and placed the files on the glass table as she spoke.

“Do I have to get ready?” She inquired as she stopped at the door

“No, you won’t be needed for this mission. Cobra is more than enough.” The sitting figure spoke in assurance as she snapped her fingers, turning the lights in the room on.

“As you wish.” The secretary left and after a few seconds passed, the big screen hanged by the wall showed the figure of a man clad in a military uniform sitting in an office.

“Good day to you Wallcroft-kun.” The figure smiled lightly as she saw the blonde man and spoke with her mother tongue, never minding if the business partner she is speaking with is a foreigner.

“<Good day to you too Yazawa-san, did the people you sent finish their job.>” The man replied back perfectly.

“No, they didn’t find what they were looking for and it seems to be what we had predicted. A trap that was meant for you to be framed with if you had sent your boys.”

“<I knew it, politics is such a scary place to be in.>” The man joked as if the situation didn’t bother him at all.

“Shouldn’t you be worrying that your daughter got kidnapped instead of worrying about something else?” Madam Yazawa also replied in a joking manner and was clearly amused by what was happening in England, “My girls say that they have found one of her escorts though and now knew the exact location where the scumbags had hid her.”

“<No, I trust your daughter since she grew up to be like that man and the number of missions she along with her team did is more than enough evidence that they won’t mess up.>” He rotated his chair and faced the window, “<I just hope those bloody bastards didn’t do anything weird to her, if they did then your girls have the permission to go wild.>” and whispered his intentions.

“I don’t think that your political enemies would be that stupid to mess with you who are the Commander of the SAS.” She calmly spoke to dissipate the brewing fury of the man on screen. “Anyway, I don’t think that’s the only reason on why you had bothered calling me… Is something the matter?”

“<Haha, nothing seems to get by you, I actually plan to send one of my boys to your side in a year or if the situation is favorable then maybe a few months, is that okay?>” He rotated his chair to face the desktop, placing his head on his crossed hands and stared straight to her eyes.

“I don’t have a problem with it but can I ask the reason for your sudden request?” Madam Yazawa inquired as she began on checking the files she had put on the table.  

“<You will get to know the reason when he arrives…>” There was a knock heard that resounded, “<It seems that I need to go, it was nice talking to you again Yozora-san… Good bye.>” And the communication was cut off.

“Oh my, not even giving me the time to say my farewell… Tyler-kun sure is a busy man.” Madam Yazawa chuckled lightly as she put down the folders and closed her eyes and leaned on the sofa while reminiscing forgotten peaceful days.

“Dear, your close friends had become fine people and your little girl is smiling truly once again.” An expression of melancholy was last seen on the face of the boss before shifting back to a neutral expression when a knock resounded once again in the silent gigantic room.

AN: So that's 15k words of... Honestly something... And the end part is anticlimactic for my tastes...

[we-are-all-obsessed-here]

History Repeats

(Not my Gif)

Summary: Upon her return trip to Coruscant, the reader is taken by a group of pirates. Their benefactor behind her kidnap hopes to cause pain and misery. Obi-Wan is thus faced with history repeating itself.

Pairing: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Reader

Warnings: Torture

Masterlist

You watched the planet grow smaller as you peered from the window of the transport ship. You'd been sent to a nearby system by the manager-come-chef of the eatery to see whether a particular ingredient that had begun to create a buzz was the sort the eatery could use. If so, your job after that was to pay for a shipment and organise future shipments to Coruscant. You jumped at the chance when you were offered it, telling Obi-Wan excitedly the next time you saw him. Another chance to leave Coruscant and see another world was something you weren't going to give up. The planet you'd been sent to however was known to not be the safest. You'd convinced Obi-Wan that there was no need for him to find a way to come along with you. In the end, being the negotiator he is, he gave you a blaster. Despite saying how uncivillised they were, if it kept you safe then that's all that mattered. He said goodbye to you at the dock, wishing you a safe journey. You'd left Coruscant a few days ago and now you were returning. The wonder of being on a new planet didn't last very long, the rumours were quite true, the planet was a bit rough. A wrong look and people took offence, it was easy to get wrapped up in a conflict with only a violent end. Luckily you managed to stay clear of any confrontations. You took a seat on shop taking you home and readied yourself for the hyperspace travel. That was one thing you hadn't got used to, the faster than light travel that churned your stomach. You waited for the announcement and furrowed your brow when it never came. No instead the ship shuddered and jolted forwards suddenly. An alarm started to flash over the decks and worry filled you. You weren't going to die in space. Space was cold and if you were to die you'd rather die warm, preferably in the arms of your lover.

Your gaze locked with the other passengers, some were business individuals, some were families, small children huddled to their parents. Afraid. There was fear thick in the air. "Don't worry its just a little technical trouble." A parent hushed their child. You thought to yourself that they were a terrible liar. You gazed out of the window, seeing nothing but far off stars. The ship shook again, more violently this time. Your hand went to the blaster strapped to your side as a precaution. You were sure the captain was meant to say something reassuring to calm the passengers. Nothing was heard from the cockpit. You knew that only meant two things, either they didn't care, or they were too busy dealing with whatever problem the ship faced. Once again the ship jolted, it shook for a moment before stilling suddenly. A metalic clunk was heard from the floor above. Every passenger including yourself looked up instantly. "Shit." You whispered. The realisation of what was happening dawned on you, as well as other passengers. It wasn't a technical difficulty the ship was in. The ship had been caught in a tractor beam. The clunk heard a moment before, was a seal being formed between the docking ports on the transport ship and whatever ship had now attached itself to it. You bit your lip and cursed when the lights went out, the other passengers screamed out in horror. "Fucking pirates... this is ballsy of them." A disgruntled passenger muttered, reaching for their own weapon. You heard blaster fire from the floor above. The passengers huddled far away from the door of the compartment. You knelt behind a seat, your blaster sat on the ground as you fastened your hair up. If there was going to be a fight, you weren't going to let your hair get in your way. You held a finger to your lips as your gaze flickered over the unarmed and vunerable passengers. You hoped the pirates would simply grab the cargo, then leave. Promptly. You'll never hear the end of it from Obi-Wan, you knew. You'll have to face the 'I told you so' look he'd given you since he was a Padawan when you discarded his help and ended up in a predicament. Light flooded the passenger compartment, you shielded your eyes at the blinding light. You heard blasters ready to fire followed by the fearful cries of some of the passengers. A set of orders were barked, telling you all to stand. One by one, the passengers did as they were told. Several pirate crew members stepped forward and harshly yanked weapons from those who had them. Including you. "None of ya will be hurt. Just stay quiet an' don't try nothin'. We just want the cargo." One of the pirates paced the compartment, a smile of his face. You grumbled as time passed. The pirates were taking their damn time about taking the cargo. When you heard laughter, you realised why. They'd found some kind of alcohol and decided to dabble in their winnings early. A passenger cursed as they came to the same conclusion. "That was expensive whiskey." A male passenger grumbled. "And we'll make sure to enjoy it!" A pirate called out, causing a wave of laughter to erupt from the other pirates guarding the passenger compartment. The tension became thicker in the compartment the longer the pirates aimed their weapons at you and the others. Abruptly a figure entered the room, clearly this was the leader of the group, his demeanour demanded respect and obedience. "Well thanks for bein' such good ol' boys and girls. We'll be leavin' now." You gritted your teeth with how cocky and condescending he was being. Abruptly a pirate strode over to you and grasped your collar, yanking you away from the other passengers. You struggled and cursed but it got you nowhere. "This the one?" The pirate who grabbed you asked. You wanted to spit and curse at the pirates but knew it was better to wait and gauge the situation first, something you'd leaned from Obi-Wan. The cocky leader grasped your chin harshly. "Yes." You pulled away and snarled at the man. A swift slap across your face surprised you. "Our benefactor for this lil' expedition doesn't want you harmed, but I'm sure a bruise or two is fine," suddenly he grasped your hair tight, making you hiss in pain. "You see bitch, you're also our cargo. Take her aboard." Your eyes widened realising this was more than just the cargo in the hold. You were targeted specifically. Quickly you went for your communicator without thinking, hoping you'd be fast enough to get an emergency transmission to Coruscant. A well placed blaster shot took care of that, the communicator breaking apart, shrapnel cutting your hand. Several pirates grabbed you and took you kicking and yelling back to their ship. "Fuck." You mumbled as you felt the pirate's ship pull away. You had no idea who this so called benefactor was, but something about it made your blood run icy cold. Maybe you wouldn't die in space, but something told you that you'd be facing death soon enough. The pirate's ship had gone into hyperspace, you were completely lost in the galaxy now. You had no idea how far they were going but with how long they'd been in hyperspace, you feared the worst. You couldn't understand who would want to take you hostage, you were no one special, no one of importance. To the world you were just a waitress of some insignificant diner. Though clearly someone thought you were worth something. That thought scared you. Suddenly the ship lurched out of hyperspace. Once again you heard the sounds of another ship docking to the one you were in. A shudder went through you, one that frightened you. Who exactly just boarded the ship? You found your answer quickly. The leader of this band of pirates dragged you from your confines, through the ship and to an empty room that you supposed was meant for meetings. You heard their benefactor before you saw them. Heavy metal steps against the metal floor of the ship echoed menacingly through the door. Abruptly the doors to the room opened revealing two Zabraks. Your eyes went wide. You'd never met them before but you knew exactly who they were. "Ah, you got what I hired you for." The first Zabrak through the door grasped your chin and grinned at you. You couldn't stop the whimper escaping your lips. You cursed yourself for showing weakness. The Zabrak ran his fingers over your cheek. "Its nice to meet you, dear one." He mocked. You were fucked and you were going to die and you knew it. The other Zabrak grabbed you painfully hard and dragged you to their ship. You didn't stop the tears that fell. You were restrained and fastened to a seat by the window. You watched horrified as the Zabrak's detached from the pirate's ship, a moment passed before they open fired. Soon enough there was no pirate ship left. No witnesses. No help. Your eyes closed as your heart clenched. The first Zabrak stepped over to you, he regarded you a moment before removing his weapon from his side and igniting it. A blood red blade stretched out, almost touching your neck. You could feel the heat radiating off it. "Do you know what a Saber is capable of?" The Zabrak spoke slowly, darkly. You shied away from the blade. He gestured down at himself. "Sometimes its results can be quite extreme. Other times, just a simple... touch," your captor pressed the blade lightly to your shoulder, a scream was ripped from your throat as your skin blistered and burned. "Can be just as agonising." The Zabrak turned off the Saber, replacing it on his belt. "I assume you're also aware of what power the Force holds?" He once again ran his fingers over your cheek. You tried to pull away, but you couldn't. You were frozen. The Zabrak had his hand held out to you, clearly the origin of your immobility. That's when the pain in your head started, small and quiet at first, growing larger and louder and more painful. You wanted to thrash, you wanted to scream but the pain was just too much. Your mind was on fire. Burning like the sun. Then it was gone. "W-what do you...want." A stupid question you knew, but your mind was mess and your better judgement had left you. "Pain. Suffering. But not yours dear one," he mocked again. "Someone else's. You know who. Your pain and suffering is just a welcome addition." You weren't sure whether hours or days had passed. You were in constant pain, burns and bloody cuts began to litter your body. You were being broken by him. By the individual who robbed Obi-Wan of his Master along with his previous love. There was nothing you could do. You were grasped by your hair and dragged through the ship until you were forced to your knees in front of a hologram console. Maul who was the main source of your torture grinned down at you as the transmission began. Your hair was grasped harshly again and pulled, forcing you to look up. "Do you want another woman's blood on your hands Kenobi?" Maul hissed. You didn't hear much of your captors words, your head was still spinning from the mind numbing pain you'd been subjected to less than an hour before. You weren't aware of the red blade until it sliced across your chest lightly, burning the skin. Your screams echoed in your ears. Once the transmission ended, the Zabrak laughed darkly at your weak body. You were pale, beaten, bruised, cut and burned. You regretted leaving Coruscant. You were forcefully taken back to the room you were confined to, the room you dreaded seeing the door open to because you knew it would only bring you agony. You spent what felt like several hours in that dark room until the doors opened again. Your torturer grinned down at you, lifting you from the ground using the Force to bring your body over to him, dropping you onto the floor. "I can't wait to see his face." Maul hissed. He grasped your shoulder and pushed you until you found yourself no longer on a ship but on solid ground. You shied away from the bright light outside. "Now... we wait." You took in your surroundings, there was nothing but tall rocky cliffs and cracked dry earth for miles. Nowhere to run and hide. You just wanted to rest. You wanted home. You wanted Obi-Wan. Abruptly two shadows appeared on the cliff not too far from where you stood. The two Zabrak's stood defensively. A moment passed and the figures jumped to the ground, both landing gracefully. "I told him to come alone." Your torturer growled. "You really expected him to?" A bout of courage passed over you, and was gone as quick as it came when your throat became tight, painfully so, you struggled getting enough air into your lungs. Then the feeling was gone. You gasped in relief. "Kenobi." "Would you like to surrender now or perhaps after we have a rematch? What do you think Ventress?" Obi-Wan's voice drifted through the air. "Tell me why I shouldn't just kill her right now?" Maul raised you from the ground, holding you in the air using the Force, you once again struggled to breathe. You clawed at your throat, your mind not realising that it wasn't physical, that there was nothing tangible around your throat. "Oddly familiar isn't it? A lover of yours in my grasp, clawing at their throat as I slowly choke the life from them." "Let her go." Obi-Wan's voice was low as his gaze was fixed on your captor. The Zabrak ignited the Saber in his grasp and thrust it towards you. You flinched ready for the pain to come. Ready for it all to end. It felt like a lifetime for the blade to reach you, a sharp cry escaped your lips, your brow furrowing in pain. Your eyes widened, the red blade fractions from your face, the fresh burn on your cheek, flaring with how close the Saber was. Two other blades had crossed underneath of your captors, forcing away the blade that should be through your chest. Your gaze jumped to Obi-Wan who's eyes were wide, panic filling his gaze. You were dropped a moment later as your captors fought with your rescuers. Quickly you scrambled away from the fight. Your eyes couldn't keep up with the blows and parries of the battle. You tried to follow to understand who had the upper hand. It was too fast. You'd never seen Obi-Wan fight before; you felt pride swell in your chest watching him. "Get her out of here!" Obi-Wan shouted to Ventress. Abruptly Obi-Wan was taking on both of the Zabraks, the woman who came along with him rushed to you, helping you up from the ground. "Kenobi won't be able to hold them off for long." "I won't leave him! I'm no damsel in distress!" You argued. "And what do you call the situation you're in now?" She questioned with a smirk. "Its called buying my time." You quickly took the blaster attached to Ventress's hip. You looked over the weapon, it was rarely used, clearly she preferred Sabers over blasters. "Oh I like you." The woman smirked. "Ventress!" Obi-Wan shouted, noticing she hadn't taken you to safety. You hadn't fired one in years, not since your days in the rough bars on Coruscant working as a bartender. Swiftly you held up the weapon, aimed and fired. A furious cry filled the air, you saw your torturer's companion drop his Saber. Ventress dashed back into the fray, using the Force to retrieve the dropped weapon. You stepped forward holding the blaster up, ready to fire again. "I suppose she's an improvement on your last lover. This one knows how to fight back." Maul mocked. "Don't you dare desecrate Satine's memory! She was a better being than you ever will be!" You spat out, ending your words with a single blast of the weapon, hitting the Zabrak in the shoulder. Ventress took the moment of distraction to use the Force to throw Maul as far as she could, you watched as he landed and rolled on the cracked earth, leaving the other Zabrak alone. "Kenobi, go now. Take her and go." She called to your lover. He nodded and rushed over to you, he cupped your cheek, relief flashing over his face. He grasped your hand and began to retreat to where his ship was. You glanced over your shoulder to see Ventress once again fighting. You hissed as you climbed into the U-wing class ship. Obi-Wan guided you to the co-pilot's seat and fastened you in. "You're safe darling." He reassured you. His words only sank in once you'd left the planet. Once the ship went into hyperspace you finally spoke. "Can I sleep?" You asked gently. You saw the tension leave Obi-Wan's shoulders. His gaze fell on you, sadness and regret etched into his expression. "Of course. We'll be back on Coruscant soon. You'll need Bacta treatment." He noted as he took in your appearance fully. You hummed, settling into your seat and allowing yourself to find sleep. Light touches brought you from your sleep. Your eyes fluttered open, blue eyes meeting yours. You'd never smiled so brightly in your life. "Obi-Wan." "Darling. Time to get you fixed up." You looked around to find yourself in your apartment. Noticing your expression of sheer confusion Obi-Wan explained. "I thought you were hard enough to wake usually, but you were impossible to wake, I had to carry you here." You chucked then flinched as the burn across you chest stung. Very slowly Obi-Wan helped sit you up and retrieved your first aid box filled with Bacta patches and bandages. As he gently placed the patches and bandages on each of your injuries he pressed a loving kiss on top each time. Soon enough you were dressed in your sleep clothes and curled up under your bedsheets, a warm cup of tea resting in your palms. Obi-Wan was laid beside you, his expression distracted. "Obi... speak to me... I need to hear your voice." You reached out and grasped his hand. "Did I really hear Ventress say she liked you?" He wondered. "Yes she did, after I took her blaster." You smiled softly. "Thank you dear one. For what you said about Satine..." he drifted off, recalling your actions with the blaster. "Obi-Wan... not only is she your first love, she was a brilliant woman, I wasn't going to stand by and let him disgrace her memory." You explained. "I feared you would join her memory as well. When I saw him holding you... like he held Satine... I could see you succumbing to the same fate. If it wasn't for Ventress... I fear today would've turned out different." "How did you convince her to come with you?" You questioned. "The bounty on Savage has tripled since our last encounter. I told her she had another shot at claiming the reward." You nodded in understanding. "I'm thankful she was there." Obi-Wan took the empty cup from your grasp and placed it on the bedside table. He gathered you in his arms and settled down under the bed sheets. His fingers brushed over your shoulders, your neck, your cheek. "I'd like you to take a few days my darling, you've been through an ordeal. I'd like to make sure you're well before I leave for my duties." Obi-Wan spoke quietly. "I'd like that my brave Jedi." You whispered, leaning in to kiss his lips softly. He kissed back passionately, his palms cupping your cheeks as he fed as much love as he could into the kiss. He was hurting you could tell, the panic of possibly losing you hadn't quite passed, he had been tortured in his own way, forced to relive Satine's murder as you faced the same fate. You laid there under the covers, not feeling particularly tired, stroking Obi-Wan's beard, earning a sleepy smile from him. "I'm proud of you Obi-Wan." You told him, watching his eyes slowly shut. You held him gently, caressing his cheek as you noticed his breathing beginning to even out and slow down. You laid your head on his shoulder and let out a sad smile. You were worried for the coming days, unsure how the torture would manifest itself, but you were glad you at least had your beloved Jedi with you for now.

[echo-three-one]

Chapter 31

THE ROAD SO FAR

Chapter 30 Recap?

Roach was falling.

S.O.S.

"Alex"

1km behind the Victoria Cruise Ship, UK

"Can't this thing go any faster?!" he hissed against the loud revving of the motor he stole from the docks. He wasn't supposed to steal it, but when he realized no one was around at that time of day, he saw smoke plume from the ship and thought he'd "borrow" it for an emergency.

From the shore, he saw flashing lights signaling a rescue team, meaning that something happened on the ship. Alex's hands gripped on the control stick as he navigated the smooth waves toward the ship, stopping at the moment he saw someone get pushed off deck.

He didn't need to know who it was, so he immediately changed course to the direction where the person fell. Strangely enough, the person didn't emerge from the ripples. This meant that he didn't have the capacity to shake his limbs. Without hesitating about his metal leg, Alex stood up and dove toward the ripple, cold ocean water immediately surrounded his body. 

With all his effort, he swam downward until he caught up with the person, whom he soon realized to be Roach. He was squirming and holding his breath as Alex caught him and attempted to push them afloat. Of course he had a hard time doing it, as his hand held onto Roach and his metal leg couldn't make him swim better. So he grabbed his knife and sliced Roach free from the ropes, allowing him to freely swim upward, pulling Alex with him.

Emerging from the deep blue, Alex and Roach both gasped for air, caught up with their breaths and swam back to their stolen boat.

Roach hoisted himself up and assisted Alex, pulling him back to the boat.

"Whew, for a second I thought I was a goner." Gary coughed and wriggled his wrists, feeling the freedom.

"What happened out there?" Alex asked, salt water dripped from his hair and stache.

"It's a hostage situation, Shepherd's in need of funds and decides to target a gathering of rich people." Roach explained as Alex started the boat, the motor slowly sputtered to life.

"Let's crash the party." Alex invited and Roach nodded as they made their way into the slowly sinking cruise ship.

Stepping inside the cruise ship, Alex and Roach made their way through the corridors evading contact with Shadow Company. They are fully aware that without glowing beacons, they are a threat. 

"I think it's this way!" Gary pointed the left path and Alex followed, the way led to the Captain's quarters.

"Alex, Roach!" Soap grunted while fighting with one of the three big guys, his hand formed an X while deflecting a huge oar.

Roach and Alex surrounded the big guy and ducked the moment he swung his weapon, Roach quickly disabling him by kicking his foot making him lose balance and fall on his back.

"Thanks. That oar was annoying the hell out of me." Soap gasped and wiped off his tux, looking at how messed the room was. 

"So it was 1 versus 3?" Alex asked as he looked at the unconscious bodies on the floor.

"Pretty much. One tazed the other one and the rest is history." Soap chuckled and pointed to the door. 

"The rest of the team headed that way. They're trying to stop the Shadow Company while Price extracted 'Gold Bar'." Soap added and the three moved forward to the next area. 

Halfway through the halls, the ship hummed and tilted slightly, meaning that water hadl already made its way inside. They have to hurry before the ship sinks.

"911 was right behind me when I left off. We have to make sure every civilian gets saved." Alex suggested. Soap and Roach looked at each other and nodded.

"You go, Alex. We'll handle the rescue from here." Soap replied and Roach nodded again as they paced to where the civilians were.

"All right then." he muttered and made his way to the control room.

Gunshots were heard from the distance, echoing the narrow corridors of the ship. With a place this narrow, it's almost impossible to miss a shot. This actually worried the former CIA and he ran faster, his metal leg hoofed on the floor.

The scene was Ghost and Alexandra hiding behind the wheel while Shadow Company soldiers, who were armed, were hiding by the next room. The two had pistols on their hands but judging from their gestures, it looked like they only had a few bullets left.

As soon as the enemy peeked its head on the door, Ghost swiftly shot his bullet square on the head as the enemy dropped down on the floor with a loud thud. His bullet clicked and he cursed as soon as he realized that that was his last shot.

Alexandra followed as another one peeked and had the same fate. Loud thundering footsteps echoed the halls as reinforcements arrived.

"This is Price. I found Alex's boat and the Gold Bar is here with me. Rescue Services are already in the building. Get out of there now!" He roared and Alex needed to find a way out.

Scanning the area, he charged toward the glass windows of the control room and broke it, rolling down the diagonal design of the ship, thudding on the floor. Alexandra and Ghost followed him and they ran to the back of the ship which was still too far from where they're at.

Dodging bullets and running for their lives, they caught up with Soap and Roach, who were also being chased by soldiers.

"What a mess this was, huh?" Alexandra commented as they all sprinted together, dodging flying bullets and finding a way off the ship.

"I guess it's Plan B." Ghost muttered and Alexandra nodded.

"Follow me." He added and everyone else obliged as they made their way to the middle of the ship.

Alex had no idea what plan B meant but as soon as they made it to the center, they were surrounded by the Shadow Company. Their stances were slightly tilted as the ship continued to sink slowly into the ocean.

"Bollocks! I did not see this coming!" Ghost cursed and Alex was clear that this wasn't part of the plan.

"How many of them are here?!" Soap complained as they slowly huddled into a circle. Alex noted that they did this part like the Avengers in New York, except they weren't superheroes and they were weaponless.

"I don't know. I just got out of a life threatening situation and here I am again with one." Roach complained, looking at his allies.

"On three, we head east."  Ghost whispered, Alex turned to the location smoothly as to not alert everyone that's pointing their weapons at them.

"Two.."

"One.." 

Ghost clicked his detonator and a huge explosion occurred in the east, sending most of the Shadow Company on their feet and distracted.

"Go! Go! Go!" Ghost roared and everyone scattered and ran toward the blast, using the destroyed debris that was once impassable.

Alex and the rest of the team ran as they approached the back of the ship where Price was supposed to be. It only took the Shadow Company a few minutes to recover and bullets began to fly toward their direction.

Ahead of him, Roach and Soap were already by the edge, Alex saw the two jumped away from the ship and into safety while behind him, Ghost and Alexandra were being pressured with bullets.

Alex held onto the rails before attempting to jump, making sure Ghost and Alexandra made it through. He saw Alexandra follow Ghost's six but she accidentally tripped and dropped on the floor. 

"Shit!" She squealed in pain as she got shot on the thigh, she forced herself to get up with Ghost's assistance. Alex pushed some tanning chairs toward the enemy as the tilted ship helped them slide to them, causing them to evade the falling chairs. But Shadow Company didn't give up, a few more soldiers emerged from the background.

"We have to go! Now!" Alex yelled as he ran ahead of Ghost making sure nothing's behind him. The enemies were still quite far but from the corner of his eye, a man with an RPG aimed his sights at them and before Alex could do anything, smoke already trailed from the weapon. It was already fired.

"Ghost! Behind you! RPG!" Alex yelled as the missile missed the three of them, and hit the floor quite far from them, tearing yet another hole on the ship's deck.

The warm heat of the blast slightly burned their skin as Alex and Ghost flew to the direction of their boat while Alexandra flew nearer to the Shadow Company, separating her from the rest of the team.

Alex's ears rang at the blast and he could hear Ghost's cry. Before he eventually fell on the ocean, the last thing he heard was Ghost calling out Alexandra's name.

S.O.S.

Simon "Ghost" Riley

Alex's stolen boat (S.S. Crossbones), 4 km from Port of Dover, UK

Just when he thought he found his sense of humanity back through Alexandra Ryder, the universe fucked up his life once again. He was conscious, but he didn't want to wake up. He didn't want to open his eyes and see that Alexandra wasn't with them. It was too much.

He could feel someone slapping on his cheek, and judging by the group, only Roach had the guts to do it.

"Should we do CPR? I can't hear him breathing." Roach asked, panic was in his voice.

"Check if his chest is rising or falling." Soap suggested. Ghost thought that he could pretend to be dead for a little more, but the team was worried about him and he had to face reality one way or another.

Ghost coughed the salty seawater clogging his breathing and panted heavily as he got up. His vision slowly got clearer as he visualized the whole team looking at him.

"Thank God, you're alive!" Roach cheered and everyone else nodded him welcome. He wanted to thank each of them but there was still something bothering him.

"Alexandra…" he muttered as he quickly got up, Alex's hands stopped him on his tracks.

"They tried circling around the ship before it sank. There was no sign of her." He frowned along with the rest of the team. Ghost hasn't cried in a while, but this time tears involuntarily trickled on his cheeks.

"NOOOOO!!" He yelled, his voice pierced through the open sea as Gary huddled near him and gave him a hug.

"I'm sorry." Roach whispered. He wasn't there to help him and he always tries to absorb some of the blame.

Ghost wanted to tell him that it isn't his fault, but his throat was still recovering from his screams. Everyone around him fell silent as he slowly stood up and pulled his mask.

He silently tossed it into the ocean as it slowly sank as soon as it got soaked with water. It was sad to think that Alexandra lost her life at the cost of no lead toward Shepherd or Nero, but Ghost looked straight into Gold Bar's eyes.

"I want you to live your life to the fullest. She sacrificed hers so you could live on. Don't you dare waste the second chance he gave you." He muttered causing Derek to nod and slowly sob as he sat on his knees.

"I will…" he whimpered through the croaking of his voice.

"Looks like the engine's back up." Soap announced, pulling his oily hands from the engine as Price started the machine as it revved to life.

For the whole duration of the trip, Ghost just stared at the remains of the cruise ship. He wanted to ask Alexandra to take their awkward arrangement to the next level, but the world looked like it had other plans for him.

"I will avenge you, Alexandra Ryder. I'll do whatever it takes to put your loss to justice." he whispered, tightening his grip on the boat, looking angrily at the ocean in front of him.

Next Chapter : Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish

Notification Squad my Beloved

@enderio @whimsywispsblog @samatedeansbroccoli @smokeywhalee @beemybee @ricinbach

[therealestvc]

OITNG chapter 10

Valentine's Day Two months after the mall incident Max and Victoria had been going strong after their failed hangout at the mall and after the movie date. But today was Valentine's Day, love day. The day you spend with your significant other. Since the pair still hadn't gone public with their new romance, their date had to be secluded. They, however didn't know that Chloe and Rachel knew about them and half of their dorm mates. How? Well.... Flashback Chloe had to tell someone, it couldn't be kept secret forever. Rachel said not to out them but she didn't say anything about not telling anyone. It was Kate who she told...by err mistake. Walking into the dorm bathrooms, she bumped into Kate, who seemed to sense her struggle. She asked "Chloe, what's wrong?". Chloe thought about telling her but nah, bun bun couldn't handle that. "Nothing bun bun" Chloe said nervously rubbing her hands together. Kate noticed this of course. So she said "oh no, do I need to get to Max? Wait where is Max?". She had a look on her face with thought. Word vomit...the worst thing ever. "I don't know, she's probably with Victoria" Chloe quirked, unaware that she was spilling the secret. Kate giggled, "of course, she is...she told me her and Victoria are really good friends now". Chloe talks without thinking again "more than you know" she mumbled under her breath. Kate could hear that. "What do you mean 'more than you know'?" She asked confused. Chloe innerly facepalms...'damn I fucked up again, I better make up a quick lie or excuse to leave'. "Oh nothing, would you look at the time, I gotta go see you later bun bun" she pats Kate's bun then starts to leave. Only to be stopped by Kate staring at her with those big puppy dog eyes. Chloe tries to side step Kate, but was met with no avail. "Chlobird, what aren't you telling me?" Kate says in that cutesy voice that could make one melt. Starting to get even more nervous and not wanting to make Kate cry. Chloe decides to tell her, "I saw Max and Victoria kissing in a wooded area on a blanket back in January" she says before wincing just waiting for Kate's response. The small blonde in response just stares into space almost like she is in a trance. She says in one phrase "I am shook". Chloe facepalms. She had broke Kate Marsh. After getting Kate out of shooklike state, Chloe says with all serious "You can't tell anyone, alright?" Kate nods. She checks her phone and says something about having to meet up with her church group. Chloe decides to go get something to eat. The two girls opened the bathroom door, only to be met with an eavesdropping Dana and Juliet who are standing there with mouth wide open and shocked faces. Chloe tells them what she told Kate. They agree not to tell anyone before parting ways. Chloe thought 'hmm maybe this won't be so bad' right? Ha! Wrong. The news about the newfound relationship of their fellow dorm mates spread like wildfire, Kate told Alyssa who in turn told Brooke and Stella. (Brooke, however didn't believe her since she knows Max is in love with Warren). Dana kept her promise but just said "it's about time". Juliet, on the hand saw this opportunity as hot gossip so she spread it to Taylor and Courtney who went on about staging an intervention for Victoria. Once the news got to Rachel. She left an angry text message and phone call on Chloe's phone. Chloe had knew she had fucked up. End of flashback Max spent the Valentine's Day morning packing for her and Victoria's camping trip. She had gotten the idea when her and Victoria were watching an old episode of spongebob(don't ask). She had gotten a text from Victoria that morning that read: Tori<3: Happy Valentine's Day Maxine, I can't wait for our trip :*...also you better be getting ready, because I will go there and take the captain hostage. Yes she had known about the captain. Max finished up packing with a reasonable amount of camp supplies, her clothes and toiletries...she looked over to her guitar and thought 'maybe I should bring that'. She put her guitar in its case, she looked around her room more to see if she had missed anything. If she did then Victoria would've brought it. They were going to a wooded area by the lighthouse. She texted Victoria asking if she was done packing...Victoria responded back asking her to meet by her car in the back parking lot. Max grabbed her things then started heading out, she was stopped by Kate who said "have a nice dat...day with Victoria". Max just shrugged at Kate's response then walked to the parking lot where Victoria was waiting for her with what looked like a huge suitcase in the back of her car. Max facepalmed. 'Look at this idiot I'm dating'. She greeted her girlfriend with a hug and kiss when they thought no one was around. Even though they saw each other the night before, she placed her things in the back of the car...well tried to place them in the back because Victoria's suitcase with god knows what in it was taking up half the space. In the end, Max would have her bag of clothes and necessities in her lap and her guitar would be placed in the empty space in the backseat. They sat in their seats and headed to their destination. Jokes were cracked like "geesh Tori, what did you bring half your dorm?". Which was answered with "Maxine, who knows what dangers we will face in the woods? I brought enough things to survive a week and to escape a mountain lion" Victoria smirked. Max just laughed because they lived in Arcadia Bay, the odds of a mountain lion attacking a wooded area by a lighthouse were slim to none. Halfway through the journey Max got a text from Chloe that read: Chloe: I hope icky Vicky doesn't end up killing u Max laughed at this, because if Chloe knew how close they were, she responded back with a witty response that led into string of jokes and memes. Victoria noticed Max being into her texting conversation and wondered 'who is she talking to?'. So she glanced over when they stopped at a stop sign. The name of the offender texting and making her Maxine laugh was Chloe. 'Of course, that Cleo...clover girl taking Maxine's attention away from me, I bet if she wasn't with Rachel she would be pinning for Maxine' She wasn't jealous...no, of course not.. They reached the lighthouse and found the wooded area, it was beautiful the sun was their main view with the beach and trees serving as a background so to speak. They got their things out of the car and decided to find a nice area to set up camp. There was an area that wasn't surrounded by that many bushes or trees. It was the perfect spot it overlooked the horizon which would be perfect for stargazing or watching the sunrise. They set camp there. Well Victoria set up camp, Max just stood around because she knew she couldn't set up a tent. The tent was a pink color which could fit 8 people, it had looked like one of those tents they set up in the wild on mission trips. Where Victoria got the tent? Max didn't question it, she was just happy to spend Valentine's Day with her girlfriend. She decided to write in her journal about the day. It had been past 2:00 when they arrived there and their tummies were grumbling, they were hungry. Luckily there was a picnic basket full of treats for lunch, dinner and breakfast. They would put the remaining food in the mini fridge. They sat down by the tent with a picnic blanket to sit on and got ready to eat. The first things out of the basket were the plates, silverware and drinks, iced tea and lemonade. Next was the food; sandwiches were made of turkey, lettuce, cheese, tomato, and mayo as a topping on sub bun. For a side was a mixture of fruit ranging from strawberries, blueberries, cherries, and all type of mixed fruits. And for dessert, simple apple pie. Once they situated their plates, they ate and chatted and joked around. Max thought it would be a good idea to throw little pieces of fruit in each other's mouths. It only turned out to be like... *Max throws the blueberry at Victoria's mouth but hits in the face* "Ouch, my gosh Maxine your aim sucks, I can see why you never played on a sports team" "Ohh that hurts right there in my cold cold heart" Max gawks jokingly. *Victoria wipes the mess the blueberry made on her face off* She turns to Max who is sporting a 'sad' look with an adorable pout on her face. "Aww what would make you feel better?" She says in a cutesy voice batting her eyelashes. Max puts on a thinking face then says "maybe a kiss would help, I am pretty hurt" . Victoria comes closer to Max and brushes her nose against the brunette's, she glances in her blue eyes before pressing her lips against the others' they started kissing. Max moves her hand to Victoria's waist, this initiates Victoria to push her tongue against Max's lips telling her that she wants more, Max opens her mouth. Their tongues do a little dance. They go about this for a few minutes before separating for air. Max breaths deeply, "wowzer, I've never done anything like that before". Victoria smirks. "So I guess you're saying I'm good at making out?". Max lightly pushes her shoulder. "Yeah sure Tori." She laughs. The two girls decide to go explore before it hit night fall, it had been a while since Max had been to the lighthouse and Victoria surprisedly had never actually to the place but driven by plenty of times. The lighthouse brought back good and bad memories. The doors to the place were unlocked so they went inside, from the outside it just looked like a plain old lighthouse but on the inside it was glorious. Max walked to some graffiti that was fading. It was a painting of a girl, with brown hair and green eyes. It read by the side "I'm still thinking about you". 'I wonder what the story behind this one was?', she turned and noticed Victoria walking up the stairs, she walked to follow her and grabbed her hand to hold it. Victoria felt the touch and intertwined their fingers. The couple walked up the stairs and stopped to look at the forbidden art on the walls. "Wow, it looks soo beautiful up here". "The only thing that is beautiful up here is you". "*she laughs* oh Maxine you are so cheesy, I love it". They reached the top of the lighthouse and looked at the view from there to outside, it was a perfect view for Max to give Victoria her gift. She had hid it there Victoria wasn't looking. "Ohhh what is this?" Victoria noticed the bag with a card that read "Happy Valentine's Day Tori, I love you and so glad we are together". She opened the bag and pulled out a charm bracelet with 'm+v=<3' on the back of it, a box of chocolates and some earrings. 'What a sweet present, I hope Maxine likes mine'. She looked at her gifts then turning to the brunette, pulling her into a soft kiss. "I take it you liked them? Hehe" the brunette said rubbing the back of her neck. Victoria giggled at her cuteness, "like them? I love them!...ohh we should head back to the tent and get ready for dinner yeah?". Max nodded. They headed back to their campsite. Victoria guided Max back to the tent, telling her to check something she thought she saw in there. Max stepped into the tent and saw a beautiful display, their bedding area had roses splayed on it, with a box and a bag addressed to Max. She went to the bag first pulling out a big teddy bear, with a card that read "a sister for the captain". She hugged the new stuffed animal then went for the box next. There are another card that read "Happy Valentine's Day Maxine! There is no one else in this world I'd rather spend it with than you. I hope we stay together for a long time! I love you! Xoxo Tori", opened up the box and saw a new t-shirt with a deer and a cat on it. She found it funny because in retrospect it represented them. She called out to Victoria, who entered the tent. She walked quickly over to her girlfriend kissing her, knocking her down in the process. The two kissed for a few minutes. Victoria repeated Max's earlier phrase in response, earning herself a light push. She smiled back to that. They both put their gifts by their things and got ready for dinner since it was almost 6 o clock. The sun had gone down by 5:30, so sadly they missed the sunset. However, they wouldn't miss the sunrise. For dinner, was salad,roasted chicken, and wine and for dessert was chocolate and s'mores.when they got finished with their meals, they started roasting marshmallows. This reminded Max of something, so she got her guitar out. Victoria sat on the bench next to her girlfriend wondering what she would be playing. Max started playing a familiar tune then started singing. Let's gather round' the campfire and sing our campfire song. Our C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E S-O-N-G song and if you don't think I can sing it faster then you're wrong but it would help if you just sing along Tori! Bom bom bom She started singing faster C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E S-O-N-G song C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E S-O-N-G song And if you dont think that I can sing it faster then you're wrong But it'll help if you just sing along Tori! She waited for Victoria to sing but all the blonde did was sit there grinning at her silly girlfriend. She decided to humor her and started singing along. C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E S-O-N-G It'll help
It'll help If you just sing along!
OH YEAHH!! The two girls started laughing at how silly they looked. They ate more s'mores, chatted about many things, told ghost stories that didn't scare Max but scared Victoria even though she wouldn't admit it. They decided to leave the fire going it was still cold in Arcadia Bay, got ready for bed and went to the tent. They made out for a while, before settling down and going to sleep. Around 3 am Max is awoken by Victoria who is mumbling about seeing a bear and a ghost from the story she told her, insisting Max to go check outside with a flashlight. Max steps outside the tent, she surveys the area and sees not much is touched but the marshmallows they left out. Whatever touched the marshmallows left a trail, she followed the trail which lead her to a family of rabbits who were using the marshmallows as pillows. She decides to pick a baby and humor her girlfriend. She walks back to the tent and starts screaming, she lays down placing the baby rabbit on her and plays dead. Victoria rushes out of the tent and sees her girlfriend laying down with a rabbit on her. She rushes over to Max, cradling her in her chest after moving the rabbit who hopped back to its home but not after stealing another marshmallow. "Maxine!!! Can you hear me?! When I find that rabbit I'm gonna give it a piece of my mind" she strokes the girl's cheek. Max 'wakes' up "Tori, I-is that you?" She squints her eyes. Victoria looks shocked at this nearly in tears "oh no, that rabbit must've hurt you". Max decides to end this ruse. "Yeah...but first off...really a rabbit? The noise was the rabbits taking back marshmallows to use them as pillows for their home". Victoria perplexed by this discovery is brought back then punches Max in the shoulder. "You scared me...I thought you were hurt!" Victoria pouts. Max realizes that her scream must've really scared Victoria, so she comes up with a solution. "Maybe we could cuddle to see if you feel better" Max suggested shrugging. Victoria put her hand out. Max led the way, the pair cuddled like they did after they had their movie date. Victoria's heartbeat slowed down and matched with Max's. The pair slowly fell back to sleep. Dreaming of spending time together forever. Morning fell with Max and Victoria's limbs intertwined, neither of the two girls wanted to get up and face the realities of school and well people. They had gotten up in time to see the sunrise, with bedheads the pair sat on the beach cuddled up together with their breakfast bagels. Watching the sunrise in Arcadia Bay was beautiful, the colors from the sun emulated on the beach water. The colors hit it just perfectly, Max quickly went back to get her camera and capture the beautiful moment she took two pictures, one for herself and the other for Victoria. They both looked at each other after the sun rose and realized it was time to pack up and get ready to go back to school. They packed up their things after getting ready, looking back to their now empty campsite. They intertwined fingers heading to Victoria's car. Victoria stopped Max by a pull of her hand. "I have to ask you something" Victoria nervously asked. Max shrugged indicated her to continue on, "umm yesterday, when you were texting your friend Clover...you two were just friends right?" Victoria asked avoiding eye contact. Max realized Victoria may have been worried because her and chloe were close. She reassured her that all was fine "yes, Tori I love you...if I had any romances in the past I would've told you by now. Chloe is my best friend we've known each other for a long time, you have nothing to worry about okay?" Victoria nodded. They continued on to Victoria's car. Victoria pushed the key in the ignition, she thought 'silly me, of course Clover and Max were just friends...I've got nothing to worry about right? Right?'. She started her car, holding her right hand with Max's left hand, squeezing it and smiling at her. Driving back to Blackwell academy with little worry but a memory of her Valentine's Day with her love.

[brokenjardaantech]

captain allen appreciation week 2020 day 1 + 7: vacation + acceptance

notes:

i combined day 1 & 7 as they happen to be the theme of the same story. it's also a prequel to a fic that i haven't written a word yet.

a little bit background since i think things can be confusing:

allen's full name is Louis White Allen. his dad's french and his mom american, though he's raised in alaska. his sister, anna allen, is a commissioned officer in the air force. the siblings speaks both english and french fluently.

sara ryder replaces elijah kamski as the inventor of androids.

this fic is set in september 2038, about a month after connor was first deployed at the phillips' hostage situation.

tags: griefing, family issues, brief mentions of childhood neglect and parentification

ao3 link if that’s what you prefer

-----

To this day, Lou's heart hammers when he sees a call from the military. Last time he received one was ten years ago, and he ended up with more questions than answers, answers that he knows he and his father very likely will not get in their lifetime. Staring at his phone vibrating on the coffee table, Lou debates whether to induce his cats' wrath - one sleeping on his lap and the other he hasn't stopped petting since they finished dinner - by standing up and interrupting their naps. It's not like he's at his full mobility anyways; his cybernetics still needs about half an hour to sync with his nervous system properly and to download the newest software. Whoever the fuck is in charge of calling the family of a soldier who went AWOL in Göttingen can wait.

It seems that the universe has other plans, as the air suddenly becomes charged with static and the phone launches itself towards Lou's chest. The tip of his fingers are numb, a common occurrence after his and his sister's unexplainable outbursts, but he manages to catch the phone before it hits his chest or, heaven forbids, his cat, who is startled awake and promptly returns to sleep after her favourite bed has no intention to move.

He accepts the call. 'Allen speaking. I don't think I have family members in the military anymore.'

'I don't know how many of yours are with us,' the voice from the other end lacks the robotic quality of an android's, so it seems the military is still using humans to contact family members, 'but this concerns your mother, Commander Deborah White. You're the only next of kin we can reach, Mister Allen.'

Lou does sigh. Just as he thinks he can leave her behind after all these years... 'What about her?' Not that he feels strongly that she was gone, as she wasn't quite there for her family to begin with, but something about a Commander going missing on the flagship of a fleet always sits wrong with him; as poor of a mother Deborah White was, a woman with her service record didn't deserve to simply vanish. 'I thought she went MIA more than twenty years ago.'

'She was until a few hours ago. I wish I can break it to you more gently but... we found her. Her remains, at least.'

The beat of his heart suddenly becomes too overwhelming. The air swells with the familiar buzz of static, and it takes all of Lou's self-control to not break everything in the living room with a shattering hazard. There is also the urge to hang up, to pretend that this is just one of those weird dreams he never can remember the details of, because he doesn't need to be burdened with a closure; he wasn't close enough to her to want that, he tells himself. Knowing that she's gone is enough. However, 'How?' is what he says in the end. He closes his eyes, free hand buried in his cat's fur, trying to convince himself that he is doing this for his father.

'Your mother's bones were found in a sealed compartment in the USS Blue Ridge when we were scrapping her. She must've been sitting there for years. Her skull indicates that -'

'Thanks, but I don't think I need to know that,' Lou swallows, willing himself to not think of the implication of an intact skull. It would've been a horrible way to die, sitting in cold seawater for days, feeling her skin rot away before dying of starvation; he'd rather her snap her neck upon impact and go painlessly. 'Anything more?'

'Yes. How would you like to deal with the body?'

Something tickles Lou's chin. When he opens his eyes, he finds the third cat trying to squeeze himself onto his already-occupied lap and purring as if having sensed the human's distress and wanting to soothe him. He recalls how his mother joked that she would probably die at sea and his father's reluctant acceptance of the entire affair; Papa's resignation after he received the news, saying, 'At least she got what she wanted.'

'She spent most of her life at sea,' he replies. No need to rub salt on his father's wounds. 'Let her rest there as well.'

'Very well. If you wish to, a memorial will be held in two months' time. Families of other deceased will attend. You may find support there.'

Support my ass, Lou thinks. It's been twenty-something fucking years. Yet, for some reason, he still promises that he'll consider going before hanging up. His finger hovers over his father's contact afterwards, but remembering that it's midnight in France and that he has a month worth of leave accumulated, he opens his browser instead and starts searching for plane tickets.

----

A month later, Lou finds himself in the commune of Gâvres with a large backpack on his shoulder and missing his cats very dearly. They aren't even his cats, technically; his neighbours keep them as outdoor cats, and Lou, unable to stand the thought of them suffering out in the winter cold of Detroit, took them in, and now they spend more time at his than at their original owners'. Having dropped them off at Hank's - that man takes better care of his pet (now pets) than himself - Lou isn't worried - he doubts his neighbours will even notice that their cats are gone. Emotions are terrible things, however, and the purpose of this trip alone makes it different from all the time he has visited his father before. At least he hasn't just recovered from nearly dying from implant rejection this time.

'Louis?'

Lou turns when he hears his father's voice and the awkward weight reminds him that he hasn't taken off his backpack yet and has been standing in the living room of his father's house staring at nothing for the past few minutes. Not waiting for his son to take it off, Papa Allen crosses the room and embraces Lou, sweat and all. 'How are you?' he asks in French, and when Lou answers truthfully in the same language, 'I missed you,' somehow everything in the world goes right again. Fuck the deviant crisis, fuck the android-infested America that makes his nerves buzz every single waking moment, fuck absent mothers still managing to make a comeback years after she died. He's just Louis Allen, absolutely not a SWAT captain, not the only survivor of the Blast, not the pioneer/guinea pig of CyberLife's groundbreaking cybernetics technology.

He has to let go of his father. 'I hope it's okay. What I did with Mom.'

Papa sighs. 'How about you take off that thing first,' indicating the backpack, 'and settle down for now.'

So Lou walks up the stairs and deposits his backpack in the room designated as his, and, catching sight of the other bed in the room, his legs suddenly feel weak, and he lowers himself, trembling, onto his mattress. Smart, fearless Anna, whose brain always runs - ran - a lot faster than the rest of the world.

Who graduated top of her class and as the Valedictorian of the academy, and subsequently disappeared without a trace.

His left leg twitches. The feeling of something foreign using his body returns, and when he leans forward - with a difficulty that wasn't there before - to take off his sock, it reveals white and grey chassis. A stark reminder that he owes her his life two times over despite her being the younger sibling.

‘How come I’m still alive?’ was the first question he asked after he regained his voice. ‘Ryder threw a fucking building on me.’

‘I dug you out, Lulu,’ replied Anna. ‘Freaky glowy telekinesis finally has its use. I was hungry for hours afterwards.’

At that moment, Lou made the mistake of looking down and seeing his pure white leg. ‘What the hell happened to my leg?’

‘CyberLife’s newest tech.’ As if to demonstrate how he should use his new leg, she gave his feet a poke, and Lou nearly screamed from the sensation. He did not expect to feel anything at all, but apart from the looks, the leg felt...real. ‘Fucking building crushed half your pelvis, your entire left leg and a rib. It’s already minced when I uncovered you, so they need to rebuild everything from scratch. I asked them to add something that can help you control the telekinesis better as well, so we’ll need to test it out later. No more randomly exploding shit. And before you ask, yes, your junk’s unharmed.’

Lou’s coma-addled brain struggled to process the influx of information, and all he got was, ‘I should’ve died.’

Anna hit the break to what seemed to be the beginning of a technical jargon-filled rant. ‘Well yes,’ she gestured just like the meme, ‘but you lived.’

‘No one survives after being crushed by a building, Anna,’ he said, voice rising. Then he asked in French since English felt too raw, ‘Exactly how much tech is in me right now? And how long was I out for? Why did CyberLife choose me?’

She looked away.

‘Anna?’

‘I don’t fucking know, okay?’ she replied in the same language. ‘You were on the brink of death when I dug you out, and there Ryder was, offering to save your life for no cost. You were in a medically-induced coma for one month and was out for reconstruction for another. It took your body two weeks to get used to the cybernetics and...here you are.’

‘Ryder offered,’ Lou said slowly, ‘to save me? As in Sara Ryder?’

‘Yes.’

‘Anna, she was the one who threw the building on me!’

‘I know. One more reason to let her save you.’

‘But you did it anyway.’

‘I did.’

‘Even though you know it’ll probably come back to bite our asses.’

‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

‘You know the answer, Lulu.’

And Lou has stopped denying that he does a few years ago. Anna joined the Air Force to fly, to be closer to the sky, but he knows that it wasn’t enough; from the way she turned her eyes towards the aurora when they were young, the attention she paid towards all news related to space observation and exploration, to the talks about leaving the wasteland that is known as earth behind and finding a new home in the cosmos - Anna belongs to the abyss of space. The military was simply a stepping stone towards something greater, a greatness that she must be working towards somewhere on this god-forsaken piece of rock.

The place where Lou’s flesh meets his implants aches in anticipation of the storm that will no doubt force them to remain indoors for days. Grinding his teeth in the numbing pain, he uses his hands to put his non-functional left leg onto the bed and lies down sideways with his back towards his sister’s bed, his phone buzzing in his pocket to notify him of an unexpected software error that may take hours to fix. Switching on do-not-disturb, he shoves the offending piece of technology underneath his pillow and loses his fight against jet lag and pain.

----

Lou wakes up cold and hungry. He is covered by a blanket that wasn't there when he fell asleep, so his father must have checked on him when he realized that his son was doing more than putting down his luggage, and the dark sky outside the window almost brings him back again before it flashes.

Then the booming thunder reminds him that it isn't dusk at all.

He successfully rolls over on his other side, which means that his cybernetics are functional once more. Kicking the blanket away, he sits up and grimaces at the taste of his mouth.

He feels better after his regular morning rituals, though the lack of three furry friends harassing him and brushing against his feet is something that he'll need to get used to, and his father is cooking lunch when he reaches the kitchen.

'Morning, Louis,' Papa says as he hands the pan over to his son. 'What did they drag you through to have you sleep for so long?'

Lou is glad that he can use concentrating on not burning his food as an excuse to buy himself a minute. Should he tell his father the truth, or should he avoid talking about work just like many people do during their vacation? 'Things are getting bad in Detroit,' he decides in the end as going on a vacation at one's father's house isn't exactly normal either. 'Androids are breaking their programming and starts having their own thoughts. CyberLife's trying to cover it up, but I've dealt with enough violent deviants - that's what they're calling those androids - to know it's gonna be a problem real soon if they don't solve it now.' A pause to think of how to continue. 'I'm glad you're not in America anymore.'

'It must be exhausting,' is his father's reply, and that's all Lou needs to realize that his father has no idea what he's talking about. Then again, the man moved back to France before androids were a thing, and although they kept in frequent contact, Lou never talked much about his work; the police getting reformed means that SWAT is deployed only when peace is not the option - that means seeing people get hurt or die constantly. Androids aren't really a thing in Europe, so his father never experienced the 'androids taking over everything and making everyone lose their jobs' shit. He won't understand.

'That's why I'm here.'

They lapse into silence as Lou finishes cooking and empties the content of the pan onto two plates. Never one for formality, Papa brings them to the living room, sitting at the corner of a couch while Lou retrieves his plate and fork and curls onto the window sill. At this proximity, he can feel the raindrops hitting the glass as if he is standing in the rain.

Papa clears his throat. 'About your mother, Louis.'

Lou tears his eyes away from the raindrop he's betting on to win. He hastily shoved some eggs into his mouth to buy himself some time to mentally prepare for the conversation. 'What now?'

What he actually says isn't what Lou expected. 'I'm glad about what you did with your mother's body.'

'Her skeleton, you mean,' he replies. 'What's left of it anyways. I don't think they found the whole set.'

'Still,' Papa isn't looking at him. 'That's what she would've wanted. And by I'm glad - I'm not opposed to it.'

'That's it?' Lou turns back towards the rain. 'That wasn't your reaction when they told you that she was MIA.'

'I was young - younger - back then,' a sigh. 'It wasn't fair to you. Or to Anna. Especially to Anna. I'm sorry.'

No it wasn't, Lou wants to say, but - 'I've made peace with it a long time ago. Mom, me and Anna, Alaska; that was all you knew. I... I don't blame you for it.'

He has to close his eyes and press his forehead against the glass. He considers switching to German to further detach his emotions, but then he realizes that nearly everything has fled his mind from disuse. Why does he think spending his vacation with his father right after they discovered that his mother might have died painfully a good idea?

'That's what I thought I'd react when you called me, you know?' Papa says. 'I thought I'd break down. Then I realized that I've moved on and... that's it. Hard not to after more than twenty years.' Even with his vision gone, Lou can still feel his father's gaze on him. 'You've done that for your mother. Have you, for Anna? It's been ten years.'

'Have you, Papa?' Lou asks instead of answering even though he knows his answer. 'Can you stand the thought of your daughter gone as well?'

'After your mother?' the father feeds himself a mouthful of food and swallows. 'Kind of have to.'

'Of course you did. I raised her, not you.'

That is the last thing he says to his father before the storm goes away.

----

Emotionally exhausted, Lou goes to sleep early despite waking up not ten hours ago.

He knows he’s dreaming as soon as he opens the door and discovers his childhood living room behind it. The room is dark, so the lights must have been switched off, and even though it feels like he has smacked his hand all over the wall it’s on, he still can’t find the switch. It does bring him closer to the window, outside where a storm is going on at full force and paints everything white, and although he knows that what he is seeing isn’t real, he dreads the upcoming and necessary shovelling.

The world is suddenly lit up from behind him, followed by the voice of Neil deGrasse Tyson and the clicks of a keyboard. When Lou turns, Anna is there sitting in front of the couch, her brother's homework scattered in a semi-circle around her, and an old, bulky laptop snug between her crossed legs. It should have been a normal day in their house in Anchorage had Anna been a child but not an adult, which is the form Dream Anna is appearing in - she is younger than him by nearly eight years.

‘Where’s the light switch?’ Lou asks, looking around for good measure. ‘As much as you enjoy Cosmos, a documentary about space isn’t sufficient lighting.’

‘Relax,’ says Anna. ‘Eye problems aren’t in our genes.’ Then, waving at the papers around her, ‘Everything’s done. Your teachers didn’t suspect a thing,’ she gets younger and younger following each syllable until her age makes sense, ‘but you asked me to do it on a separate piece of paper, so I did. Feel free to copy directly if you wish.’

That is when Lou realizes that she’s playing games on the notebook, something that looks like a simplified version of Temple Run but set in space. ‘No thanks,’ he says. ‘I’d like to keep the creases on my brain.’ Then he notices that his sister didn’t really answer his question, so he asks again, ‘How am I supposed to switch on the lights?’

‘With your phone,’ is the matter-of-fact reply. ‘Don’t tell me you uninstalled the fucking app for cat pictures.’

‘For one last time, Anna, I don’t download cat pictures.’ And it hits him. ‘Wait, phone? The house isn’t automated when you’re at this age.’

‘Is it?’

Anna stands up and stalks closer to her brother, and she grows and grows and grows until they’re off the same height and she looks... older, how she should look like if she’s alive she’s still here. She is now Major Anna White Allen of the United States Air Force, dressed smartly in her dress uniform except for her cap, which she holds in her right hand. Their surroundings have also changed to that of the Phillips' penthouse terrace, harsh wind whipping around them.

'You aren't real,' Lou breathes, feeling light-headed. ‘You - you’re gone. Just like Mom.’

‘Open your eyes, then. End this early if you want to. Forget that this ever happened. I don’t mind.’

It is followed by a terrifying moment of wakefulness, the images blurring and then regaining clarity as he stays asleep. ‘And Papa wants me to let you go,’ he says with a sad chuckle.

‘Why?’

‘We found what’s left Mom. How long do we need to wait to find what’s left of you?’

‘Why are you talking like I’m dead?’

‘Cause you probably are, like Mom?’

‘I know you think we’re alike,’ an eye roll, ‘but we’re different.’

‘Say you’re not dead. Where the hell are you?’

‘Does it matter?’

A blink. They’re floating in space, Anna dressed in some form of armor, and Lou in normal clothes. He attempts to draw a breath and wakes up choking and crying, the dream completely forgotten save for the faint image of Anna falling towards earth and getting burnt to crisps.

----

A few days later, Lou finds himself walking on the beach with his father. The sky is cloudy and the wind is strong, so it is cool even though it’s September and Lou grew up in Alaska. They started throwing questions back and forth ten minutes into their walk, some of them silly and simple and give them a good laugh, but the others -

‘Answer me honestly, Louis. Do you think Anna’s dead?’

It is easy. ‘No.’

‘Where do you think she is, then?’

Lou’s face suddenly becomes too hot to bear. ‘Does it matter?’

‘If it affects you, yes.’

‘I don’t want to talk about it. She wouldn’t want us to speculate.’

‘But she’s not here, is she? Maybe you’ll feel better after you say it out loud.’

Lou sighs, oh how the turntables… ‘In space, probably.’

‘You’d think we’ll hear about that.’

‘Secret space programs exist, Papa.’

‘Not in America.’

‘I never said it’s an American program,’ Lou says as he kicks a rock away. ‘Do you know what they said when I received the first call from the Air Force? They asked me if Anna has ties with other space agencies even though she’s never been in NASA; she just talked about other countries’ space programs so much that they suspected her having ties with them.’

‘Hmm.’

‘What does that even mean?’

‘You know you won’t see her again, right?’

Lou halts his steps. Anna? Gone forever? ‘Does it matter?’

Papa sighs. ‘You’re in denial, Louis. You didn’t do this with your mother.’

How dare he - ‘Of course I didn’t, she was barely there!’ he has to put a few steps between them. ‘I raised Anna! How do you think that’s even comparable?’

‘I simply don’t want you to live in uncertainty for the rest of your life.’

‘You just don’t know your daughter,’ he counters. ‘She told me she’ll come back.’

‘You know -’

‘You don’t know shit!’

He runs. His lungs and legs are strained when he gets home, his father’s home, but he doesn't stop at that. He packs his stuff (not that there’s much to put back into his backpack), jumps into his rental car, and is back in Brest before he knows what he’s doing. His return flight is next week, so he has a lot of time to kill.

In the end, he takes a trip around the country alone, going to places he both never had time for and, if he’s been there before, misses dearly. He may have forgotten what they’ve talked about, but he remembers Anna visiting him often. The images flee his mind whenever he tries to recall them, but he doesn’t think they’re talking on earth, and he always wishes that he at least remembers some of it.

A few months later, he’ll learn that his speculations are closer to the truth than he thinks. A few months later, Louis Allen will prove his father wrong.

But he doesn’t know that yet. Therefore, after collecting the cats from Hank and unpacking his luggage, he takes all of Anna’s things and puts them into a box, telling himself that it is the first step towards admitting that maybe, it’s a big fucking maybe, he will never see his sister again.