#I need to know everything about how the mi6 got involved

[theodoraflowerday]

i need to know exactly what kind of conversation shaan had to have with some MI6 higher up about alex's personal phone number like "hello this is kensington palace speaking can I get mr alexander claremont-diaz's phone number? yes the first son of the united states. it's a request from his majesty the prince of wales--no not philip--[long silence] as far as i am aware they mostly communicate through instagram--[long suffering sigh] i am not privy to the inner workings of his majesty's friendship with mr claremont-diaz--yes i am aware it is a matter of national security--perfect thank you very much"

followed by like eight shots of whiskey

[addledmongoose]

Good Omens Fanfic Friday (7 Jun 2024)

My internet was out for nearly a week, so I missed posting last week, and I had a whole lot of free time to read fanfiction, so this week is a long list, because I refuse to cut anything out.

Too Hot for Heavenly Handling(2.4K; Rated E)

Aziraphale and Crowley have only been back in Heaven for three weeks when they get called before the Council to answer for some (ahem) indiscretions. Very, very funny short. I've already read it twice, and I'll just be walking around and suddenly smile in remembrance of some of the dialogue.

***

Put A Little English on It (5K; Rated T)

Aziraphale and Crowley hustle humans in pool.

***

An Ineffable Arrangement (10K; Rated G)

Lots of S2 cameos in this amusing story. There are no indicators as to what happened post-S2 or how they got back together. They're together; they're happy; they're annoying their neighbors.

Maggie and Nina have a plan to get those two troublesome supernaturals to give the street a little peace and quiet for a while. If they can only get the two immortals to cooperate. Nina's stuck wrangling a demon who loves to complain, while Maggie gets the full force of Aziraphale's bastardry here.

The Second Coming has been averted. Crowley and Aziraphale are finally together and on the same side. And the Whickber Street Shopkeepers and Traders Association thinks they could take their bliss somewhere else. Or at least the storms associated with it.

***

That Gay Pirate Show (29K; Rated E)

Actor AU. Crowley has a crush on his costar and best friend, but Aziraphale is in a relationship with a mysterious, in-the-closet man (Gabriel), and he assumes his crush will remain unrequited. As the show's romantic storyline between its two leads heats up, he finds it more and more difficult to shield his heart.

This isn't an OFMD crossover, really. There aren't a ton of details about the show they're in, but it sounds more serious and plot-based than OFMD. (BTW, while the relationship tags include a Crowley/Newt relationship, that was decades ago, and now they're just friends).

***

Pride Month and Prejudice (30K; Rated E)

Human AU/Enemies-to-lovers. Crowley takes an immediate dislike to the famous and seemingly-stuck-up famous actor, Aziraphale Fell, but he can't seem to keep his mind off the man, either.

They say that you should never meet your celebrity crush. Especially when you know what an absolute bastard he is. So, of course, Anthony J. Crowley's participation in a queer adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for Pride Month has nothing to do with the involvement of A-lister A.Z. Fell. Crowley is only doing it so he has some gossip for his column. He didn't mean to get cast as Lizzy Bennet, he certainly didn't mean to be acting opposite Fell's Mr Darcy. And to make matters worse, Fell keeps staring at him...

***

The Trojan Horse Virus (36K; Rated T)

Human AU. Enemies-to-lovers (briefly) plus fake relationship. Crowley asks his best frenemy next door, bookseller Aziraphale, to be his fake fiance in order to gain access to his inheritance. He needs to convince his cousins, Shax and Ferdinand (Furfur) that the relationship is legitimate to get them to sign off.

Of course, since the two have been secretly pining for each other for years, this goes about as well as can be expected with any fake relationship story.

***

For His Eyes Only (69K; Rated M) by @afrenchwriter

James Bond AU/Crowley POV. Crowley has been an MI6 agent for ten years. He's been secretly in love with his quartermaster, Aziraphale, for almost as long. When Crowley's past catches up to him, he's determined to keep Aziraphale safe, even if it costs him everything. This is quite a plot-heavy story, not to mention it has a lot of pining and angst, but there is a happy ending. It's a very light M-rating.

***

Faster Than a Speeding Bentley (76K; Rated M)

Superhero AU. I put out a call asking for plot-heavy (but not S2-related) stories, and people came through with some suggestions I hadn't heard of before, including two different—and equally amazing—superhero AUs.

Crowley, a journalist by day, is The Serpent, a mysterious superhero with snakelike powers. He has an impenetrable disguise (dark sunglasses) and a serious crush on (read: he's madly in love with) fellow journalist and best friend, Aziraphale. When Aziraphale keeps getting kidnapped, The Serpent keeps having to rescue him. Is it weird to be jealous that the love of his life seems to be falling in love with his alter ego? There's plenty of humor, action, and pining in this one.

***

Hereditary Enemies (153K; Rated T)

Superhero AU. Aziraphale is tired of being a superhero. Tired of working for The Host. And tired of trying to stop The Serpent. He wants to retire. Run a bookshop. Enjoy a quiet life. And maybe, just maybe, find a life with the attractive ginger who runs the flowershop down the road.

The author lists this as a crossover with a show/movie called Megamind, which I don't know anything about, so I'm positive you don't need to know anything about that show to enjoy it. I do, however, know The Boys and Gen V, and there are similarities with those shows (but this is a whole lot less dark and violent). Getting hired by The Host is considered an honor. There's merchandising. Branding deals. Comics. Fame. Fortune. And of course, stopping the evil villains who occasionally rampage through the city. (Canon angels are the superheroes; canon demons are the supervillains). Crowley's villain self, much like his demon self, is not really all that villainous. He's a bit of a troublemaker, and it's impossible to keep him imprisoned, but he never causes any real harm.

A sequel has just begun to be published, so maybe subscribe to the series if you're interested.

***

Saltwater on Skin (186K; Rated E)

Ezra Fell, an award-winning novelist, has just sold the one millionth copy of his newest book. While celebrating with friends and family on a rented yacht, Ezra falls overboard and is washed ashore on an uncharted island. Ever the optimist, he keeps his spirits up while he awaits rescue. That is, until he gets the distinct feeling that he isn't ALONE on this island; that there's SOMETHING else out there. Watching him.

Human(ish) AU. Ezra washes up on the shore of an island and finds himself in the company of a naga, Crowley, a creature that shouldn't even exist. While trying to figure out how to get home, he finds himself falling in love with the kind, loving creature until he eventually decides he'd much rather stay on the island with his new love.

I simply can not say enough good things about this story. It's magnificent, beautiful. It sucked me in and didn't let me go. Even days after I finished it I wanted to still be reading it. I love every character here, from Ezra's baby brother, Gabriel, to Crowley's four sisters and everyone in between. It's one of the best stories I've read this year. There's surprisingly little angst for a story of this size, and most of what there is gets resolved fairly quickly. There are no villains, not even Gabriel, an adorable himbo.

There is, however, monsterfuckery. Crowley's not a shapeshifter; he's a naga: human top/snake bottom. The author does tell you where the smut starts and ends, but there aren't anchor tags to make it easy to skip.

I wrote a longer review here, if you're interested in more details.

[clochanam]

👀 // heehee hoohoo

send in 👀 to hear what aisling would say about your muse to another person. ( ACCEPTING! )

it's been six months since alec left. what a pleasant way to describe it. like he just handed in his resignation and went to portugal for his early retirement. not like he broke her heart and turned against the tiny shard of MI6 that remained good at their core. six months. and if you include the period of determined denial, it's really nine.

high time to do something about it, then. she hands in her resignation, packs her bags, and gets to work. every single location the two of them ever visited on missions. the sites of highly important government officials who owed him favors. past safehouses, places close to his heart. she tracks every single one of them down, and records everything. photos, notes, recordings, footage, all documented meticulously. no disguises. just aliases. anna jenkins. alice jennings. allison james. aliases that cling to the truth and lure him in like breadcrumbs. only he's much too clever to fall for something so indiscreet.

it's what she wanted. a loyal recruit sent to figure her out, desperate enough to prove himself that he might get a little... excited. and he does. he takes a metal pipe from a construction site, follows her into the dark apartment, arm raised to strike. and then she emerges from behind him, slams her heel into the back of his knee, and cracks her elbow against that spot between the neck and the base of the skull.

when he wakens, enraged by how easily he was taken down, she's got him cuffed to the shower, door closed and leaving a grimy pane of glass between them. " scream. go on. you have five seconds, then we need to get back on track. you were a little easier to handle than i expected. "

" you think he doesn't know where i am?! "

" no, babe, i know he does. it's what i'm counting on. i just need you to deliver a message for me. " she lowers herself to sit on a soft velvet stool. the second he opens his mouth, she twists around to pull the toilet chain. instantly, ice-cold jets of water spit from the shower head, dousing him as a stifled yelp leaps from his open mouth. " yeah. shit plumbing. explains the low rent, though, huh? anyway. the message. i want you to tell alec that i left. i'm no longer working for MI6. and i want a meeting. "

" the two of you are actually certifiable. why the bloody FUCK can't you just go be with him?! or leave him alone?! what's this bullshit of turning the world into a fucking chessboard?! "

" not an MI6 man, then? not CIA, not by the inability to follow orders. so an independent mercenary. makes sense. see, here's the thing, tom. you join something like MI6, or the CIA, and you learn a code. brotherhood is a sweet name for it. loyalty. but in the end, it's just blind faith. just assuming they give you the correct information, the truth, the honesty that you're obligated to give them. alec saw it way before i did, probably since before i ever got involved. i suppose... ever since we'd met, he'd been protecting me. he'd take the kill shot so i could go home with clean hands. he'd hold me when the nightmares had me caught. he went through so much just to keep me safe. it took me ages to see it. the lies, the deceit, the amount of times we were fucking abandoned. when i got the call from felix, he urged me to go. so then i was the one who abandoned him. he had to endure it all alone. when i'd come back, it was like watching him disappear bit by bit. you know what that does, tom? to a person? to watch the love of their life fade and transform and emerge completely different? "

" ...this is who he's always been. "

" doesn't matter. either he lied to me for all those years in the field, in the cabin, in our bed, or he's lying to me now. either way. the lies end here. tell him, tom, because i know he's enroute, i know it's only a matter of minutes. tell him to meet me in the cabin. alone. he knows better, after all. hallowed ground, if you like the religious metaphor. "

" i don't. "

" tough shit. " she yanks the toilet chain on the way out, and another onslaught of ice cold water hits him, causing a shriek to serenade her on her way out the door.

[stupidthoughtsinwriting]

Back Home (Adam Lawrence)

Summary: In the middle of everything, after all these years, you come back to your family when they need you the most

Warnings: Angst, Fire, Cursing, look i really have no idea what to put in these eheheh

Note: This was promised when the show came out, nearly 5 months ago so sorry for the long delay eheheh. This was originally gonna be a oneshot but thoughts kept coming and i got stuck at the end of this so im leaving the next part for the next part. this might have two more parts so this is one of three in total.

‘Ella darling, wake up’ you whispered in your daughter’s ear, kissing her temple as you shook her lightly.

‘Hmn?’ she groaned, shaking you off. ‘five more minutes mummy’ she grumbled before turning to hide her face back on her pillow. You chuckled at her reluctance, looking to the door and across the hall to where Adam was carrying Callum, sound asleep in his father hold.

The kids had spent all of the day before playing and running around the park when you and Adam took them to Winter Wonderland, and due to the heavy traffic, you came home late, so it’s come to no surprise that they were still exhausted.

A knowing grin flashed your lips as you made eye contact with your husband before turning back to your daughter.

‘But darling, It’s Christmas’

‘Christmas?’ she asked, a bit more alert but still barely conscious.

‘Yes darling, Christmas’ you smirked

‘Mnn, Christmas’ she murmured as she finally started stir.

‘Come on up love, dad’s making cocoa’ you bargained, rubbing a hand on her arm to help her finally leave the gentle comfort of sleep.

‘Cocoa’ she repeated, rubbing her eyes as you helped her sit up. Another chuckle left your lips as you took a good firm hold of her.

‘Yes Cocoa, dad’s making us some Cocoa. Come on up love’ you instructed, lifting her up from the bed and she instinctively knew to wrap herself around you like a koala. She laid her head on your shoulder and you placed another kiss on her temple as you carried her out her room and to the kitchen where you found Adam making the promised cocoa, Callum sat on the bench, laying his head on the counter. You looked at Adam who just shrugged and continued on with his task.

This was five years ago. The last good memory you had of your family before all went to shit.

You remember that day clear as day. How Adam made the hot chocolate for everybody and the kids were more awake after a cup. How you all stayed cuddled up on the couch for a bit before they all but attacked the presents. The feel of Adam’s hold on you and the soft press of his lips… you missed him, them. You missed your family so much.

Five years it’s been since you’ve seen them, but it was for their safety.

You and Adam both worked as agents in MI6. FIve years ago, you were given a case that eventually involved the Russians but at the time, it seemed so simple. Long story short, the case drove you everywhere until you got a lead about a bombing in a building found in the city.

It was an all-hands-on deck situation, so Adam partnered up with you as you went to the building. The building was evacuated but it was a children’s clinic, you and Adam went back to double check for others and found a pair of siblings hiding in a closet. A fire started out of nowhere and you urged Adam to take the kids out as you looked for more. The siblings needed medical attention and you couldn’t have gotten them out as quickly as he did. You fought him on this but in the end, you won (like always) and he took the children out as you looked for others.

The fire reached a storage room that contained oxygen tanks and as soon as you found how close it was, you rushed to get out. The comm in your ear screamed as a mix of people talked but the one that stood out was Adams, frantic as soon as he heard you swear and mention how close the fire was to the tanks. He said something about going back in the building to get you and you screamed NO before a piece of debris hit your head and everything went black.

Now you were driving down to Surrey after you got a call from Kara that Adam was in trouble. In the five years you’ve been away from your family, you’ve been trying to solve the very same case that took you away from them. It’s taken you all around the continent but here you were driving back to your family, putting everything on hold and risking undoing the work you’ve done the last 4 years because your family was in danger.

The fear and panic that overtook you when you got the call was… Terrifying. The cup of coffee you had just bought, fell and was forgotten as you ran to your car, driving like a maniac to your old home only to find it ransacked. You went through each room, but the house was empty, so you called Kara.

‘WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY’ you demanded.

‘I don’t know’ she responded.

‘What do you mean you don’t know, you promised to keep my family safe! How the hell are you fucking doing that if you don’t know where the bloody hell they are’

‘Look, I know what I promised okay, so don’t take that tone with me. The last I’ve heard is that they were last spotted on the A24 heading south, other than that, I don’t…’

You hung up as you heard where they were headed and now, you’re driving down to your parents’ lodge in Hopewood. You and Adam used it as a getaway during tough days and not many know it so it was the safest place they could be at the moment.

Reality dawned on you that you were finally going to see your family. Your darling girl Ella and sweet little Callum. Your babies. And Adam. Your beloved husband Adam. God how were you going to explain all of this to him. However, your main concern was their safety so however they react, whether they want you back…. or not, you would protect them no matter what.

Pulling up at the familiar driveway of the lodge, you turned the car off and took a deep breath before you stepped out.

‘Dad are we safe?’ Ella asked, coming from the rooms, taking Adam’s attention from the news on the laptop to his daughter. He sighed, taking a deep breath before urging her to sit on the couch beside him.

‘Come here, love’ he asked of her, pulling her closer to his side.

‘I don’t want you to worry, okay. I will always protect you and Callum. Always. Alright?’ he insisted, looking at the eyes that were always the same as yours. She gave a faint nod with a small smile and Adam pulled her in for a hug.

‘I love you’ he said as he placed a kiss on the top of her head and laid his. She hugged him back and her eyes landed on the headline on the screen.

‘What’s a mercy killing?’ she asked, causing Adam to pull away.

‘A what?’ he looked at the new headline on screen before they heard a car drawing up, their attention drawing to the door.

‘Who is it?’ Ella asks as she turned back to look at her father.

‘Don’t know’ Adam replies as he stands up to look. ‘You and your brother stay here’ he instructed just as Callum runs past him. ‘No Callum, wait, wait’ he exclaimed but ever so curious, he ignored his father and ran to the door.

He threw it open only to stay frozen in his spot when he sees the person walking the path. Adam and Ella, who were close behind, caught up with Callum and looked out the door.

Adam stilled when he finally saw the figure approaching. Emotions running wild only to be quickly brought back to reality when Ella sped past him and towards you.

‘Mum!’ she cried, running to you as tears quickly welled up.

‘Ella no!’ he tried reaching for her but missed.

You dropped everything you held when you saw your little girl rushing to you, only managing to open your arms before she crashed on you.

‘Mummy’ she sobbed as arms wrapped one another, hers both tightly around your waist and yours cradling her head as the other wrapped around her back. She had grown so much; your little girl is not so little anymore.

‘Shh, it’s alright darling, it’s me. I’m so sorry’ you managed to say as tears ran your cheeks. The sound of your voice caused her grip to tighten, and you would have reciprocated had you not been interrupted.

‘ELLA COME BACK HERE NOW’ Adam shouted, commanding his daughter back as confusion clouded his mind. He didn’t know what was happening. He thought you dead. For five years you’ve been dead so how were you here?

You looked up to find Adam only a few feet away, his expression a cocktail of so many emotions fighting to understand the situation at hand. Worry was his foremost expression at the moment, so you tugged on Ella who only sobbed harder. It broke your heart, but you had to before something drastic happened, so you pulled her off you.

‘NO mum please’ she begged, her arms tightening like a vice around your waist as she cried harder, fear of losing you again frightening the child to death.

‘Shh, it’s okay, listen to me darling. Listen to me’ you pulled back and tilted her head up a bit, so she looked you in the eyes. Those glistening eyes stared up at you and your heart only chipped away as you saw the distress in your poor child.

‘Listen to me okay’ you looked at her as she hesitantly nodded. ‘Do as your father says. Take Callum and go back inside. I promise I’m not going anywhere’ you explained, hoping the bit of assurance would convince her to follow. Fingers wiped the fallen tears on the girls face and your thumb stayed to caress her flush cheeks.

‘Promise?’ she questioned, feeling like a little girl again. A small smile shaped your lips before they pressed a kiss on her forehead while you untangled her arms around your waist and placed another on her fingers.

‘I promise luv’ you reply, pulling her for another quick hug ‘I love you’ you whispered in her ear before releasing her. She looked at you one last time before she turned back to Adam. Callum who stood behind his father, looked at you before you watch Ella urge him back inside.

A hand quickly wiped your soaked cheeks before moving to cover your mouth, hoping to muffle the sob that escaped you lips without consent after finally seeing you family again.

‘Who are you?!’ Adam yelled after making sure the children were safely inside. It was enough to pull you out of your own thoughts to finally focus on the man in front of you.

‘Adam…’ you sniffed, slowly starting to move closer to him.

‘NO. Stay where you are. WHO ARE YOU?’ he roared out in anger and anguish. The situation at hand was already complicated but “you” adding to the mix is making him completely lose his head. He can’t figure out what is happening. You were dead. Five years ago, that building collapsed in on you. There were no survivors, so how the hell were you there.

The past five years have been painful without you. To raise your children as a single father has been difficult. The explanation he had to give them of your passing was heart breaking, seeing the looks on their faces. The years he’s mourned you. To watch that building collapse after the explosion, knowing you were inside made him go mental. He lost a part of himself that day. All that pain it had cost him, all the pain he felt was returning as he as he stood watching an imposter mimicked you.

It just wouldn’t comprehend to him. He couldn’t believe it. He’s in denial of the concept of you there, living and breathing. He has wished so many times for you to be alive and to come back but never did he ever think it would come true. Now here he was, finally having his wish yet in denial of it.

‘Adam, its me.’ You pleaded, begging him to believe you. You knew of the pains you’ve caused to your family, and you’ve imagined your return so many times during the years, but this was not one of them. Never did you think that your husband would be so deep in denial like this.

‘No’ he hissed ‘No because my wife is dead. She died five years ago when that building collapsed. There were no survivors. I watched that building crumble while knowing she was in there. She is dead.’ He said, his voice wavering as tears welled up in his eyes. His throat was constricting yet he still managed to say furiously, ‘So who the fuck are you?’  

Your presence pained him as memories and everything you came flooding back to him. So many emotions fought to co-exist, all of this was overwhelming.

It pains you to see the man you love, the man you married, the father of your children, deny your existence but what broke your heart was to see him so pained and crumbling slowly. Tears continued to run your cheeks as you took a careful step forward.

‘Adam, darling’ you closed your eyes, taking a deep breath before you opened them again and looked him in those hazel eyes, the very same that you used to love to wake up to in the morning ‘I promise you’ you croaked taking another step forward, ‘It’s me.’ Another step, the distance that separated you drawing smaller with each step you took.

‘No’ he denied again, taking in your form, looking over every new detail he sees before it proves to be too much and he shakes his head and looks down, letting his tears run.

You close the remaining gap quickly, a sob escaping your lips once you finally stood in front of him. You raised your hand and hovered it on his cheek, hesitating making contact after years without it but when you heard the cry that left him, all second thoughts were cast away. You placed your palms on his cheeks and tilted his head up to look at you.

Your heart softened when he leaned in the warmth of your palm. Tears continued to run both your cheeks and you couldn’t bear to see that pained look on his face.

‘Adam’ you let out a whisper, making his eyes open and look you in yours ‘it’s me’ you pleaded him to believe you because you missed your husband so much. ‘I’m so sorry Adam’ you cried, dropping your head, letting your hands fall and covering your mouth with one while the other wrapped around yourself as some sort of last semblance of composure.

You desperately tried to hold back the sob that threatened to leave your lips, but it was helpless to even try, your mouth moving in its own accord.

The feel of you clouded his every senses. The whisper of his name, the scent of you, to the feel of the warmth your soft hands always held, it was slowly -but in also a rapid way- finally coming to him, the belief that you were truly there.

He opened his eyes and nearly all doubt left him when he saw the same identical eyes, he saw every day in Ella. Tear filled eyes stared back at him, tears he vowed to make sure never to glitter your beautiful face. He thought the plead in your voice was what broke him but really it was cry that left your lips and having to feel your hold slip away again. Fear overtook him when any and all rational thought led to loosing you again. It crippled his heart when he saw how you started to crumble and hide yourself, muffling the noises you made and the arm around your waist as you tried to hold yourself together.

Instincts he thought were long gone, kicked back into action as everything in him was against seeing you hurt. His body moved without hesitation, and he wrapped his arms around your crumbling form just in time as your knees were about to buckle.

He pressed your head to his shoulder, your arms folded in the middle as held you comfortingly, memories of the past -similar to this- flashing before his eyes. From when you got too frustrated with a case or the time you lost a pregnancy, he held you each time, just as he promised in his vows.

You started to cry harder when Adam finally pulled you in, the feel of him holding you, bringing you the comfort you have missed the last five years.

You completely enveloped everything around him, it was suffocating. Enough that the last of his doubt started to dissipate but he just needed one more thing to confirm it all.

‘y/n?’ he bleated as tears continued to run his cheeks. All you could do was nod your head against his shoulder, though you started to unfurl your arms and wrap them around his waist as hope begun to bloom inside you.

‘And you know’ he whispered against your ear, like he’s done millions of times before.

‘You know I love you so’ you whispered back unconsciously just as you have done before, and a small smile crept your lips as you realized what you said.

Adam let out a breath before he buried himself in the crook of your neck. Doubts relieved and he finally came to grip the concept of you being there.

Your hands hooked to his shoulders as he was now the one that’s crying in your hold. Your own troubles, forgotten as you finally held your beloved in a moment of complete vulnerability. He believed you. That was all you wanted.

‘Adam I’m so sorry darling, I’m so so sorry’ you cried. He cried. He shook his head in protest but never said a word until either of you calmed down. He pulled away enough to look at you, pushing away the few stray strands of hair that covered and stuck to your face, wiping your damp cheeks and cradled your head in his hands.

It really was you.

‘j-just’ he stuttered, stopping himself for a breath ‘just… why?’ he asked.

‘Adam, I promise you. I will explain everything, now just isn’t the time’ you said, moving your hands to cradle his face. ‘But what the hell is happening?’

[notsuchacleverboyq]

This Scene Confuses Me

Since I was a child, my family enjoyed watching 007 movies (even if they used to stick more to the vintage versions of it).

So, I've never been new to this fandom nor to the general plot and everything that comes with it.

After becoming a fan on my own, my favourite 007 movies absolutely turned out to be Skyfall and Spectre.

More Skyfall, to be honest.

I was eight when it first came out, but I started questioning details (and getting obsessed over characters) only after nine years.

And it is my ability to overthinking that caused this shitty and useless post.

There are plenty of details that are worth a debate and I think that 90% of those are just how bloody lucky (and unlucky at the same time) Bond can be.

But today we'll be discussing about a specific scene, which involves Silva and 007.

What the hell is going on?!

This scene confuses me every time because I don't know what I'm supposed to get from all of the details in here.

The way Silva touches Bond, the way 007 reacts, their chat...the whole just doesn't make any sense to me.

1) Silva

Obviously, my queer brain jumped to conclusions: Silva is gay.

He does give off gay vibes, but it just seems random for a character like him to put up such a scene just for pleasure.

There must be something else.

This is the point in which I got lost under a comment section of another YouTube video.

I found out that there are three kinds of people:

Silva is gay;

Silva is trying to make Bond uncomfortable;

Both at the same time.

We've already clarified that we can agree on number 1.

What about number 2?

He has tied up Bond to a chair, he's basically undressing him and touching him in way too intimate spots, he's listing any of Bond's bad results from MI6 tests...

I think it might make sense for Silva to be doing anything he can to make 007 uncomfortable.

In that comment section, indeed, the most popular explanation was Silva hitting several weak spots at the same time, in order to open Bond like a can of tuna and leave him helpless.

Here are the things Silva tries:

He ties Bond to a chair: it's a detail that is so common in these movies that people don't even consider it. It is necessary for Silva to tie Bond, in order to prevent him from escaping; but when Silva unties him it is clear that he isn't worried about 007 at all. They're on a damn island where the only people are Silva and his men: it would be stupid to even try something on your own. It also was Silva's plan to be captured by MI6, since the beginning. Which leads to an only possible conclusion: 80% of the reasons why Bond was tied up was just to get him annoyed by it. It also connects to the following points;

Silva touching him: this is the part that made all of that confusing to my eyes. Being a former MI6 agent himself, Silva knows how double-0s work, think and act. That's they key of the whole scene. So he knew how 007 could have played it cool in any possible situation and that's why he tied him up. Double-0s can fake complicity even in the most horrible scenarios, but what if it is happening and they could do nothing about it? This was Silva's strategy: getting Bond in the position in which he can't switch from being a victim to being accomplice of it. Silva started running his fingers over 007's skin and scars, stopping on the weakest spots (such as the throat);

Silva attacking Bond's identity: it connects to point 2. This the moment in which Silva gets flirty, since I don't have a better way to call it. Someone's sexuality is part of their identity, so Silva attempts to overstep Bond's boundaries by violating both: his touch is intimate and gentle, despite the situation, his voice is soft and the gaze is too dary. But 007 quickly makes clear how he has no problem with all of that and how it isn't his "first time";

Silva attacks Bond's patriotism and loyalty to M: we well know how Silva has completely lost trust in M and it seems that, for a moment, he's trying to get Bond on his side. In my opinion, that's not completely true. At first impact, it's easy to miss it, but Silva attempts to get all of Bond's beliefs to falter. He firstly tries with M: he tells 007 about how disloyal and unfair the woman can be, reproaching him even how she has sent him on missions even after he failed all of the tests; then, Silva tries with England: he tells Bond about how the Country he still defends and believes in is already dead, fallen, and how useless it is to save it. Nothing of this works and it's misunderstood as an attempt to get 007 on the evil side, since Silva's lost trust both in England and M;

Sévérine: after all of the above didn't work, Silva is left with only one thing. We know know that Bond seduces Sévérine in Skyfall and then Silva finds out; so, he decides to put up a sadistic game to get rid of her and punish 007 at the same time. All of Silva hopes is that Bond got affectionate to the woman and he suffers as a result of the game. Eventually, Silva has to shoot Sévérine himself and Bond reacts as if he couldn't have cared less.

In conclusion, we can agree to point 2 as well.

So, yes: Silva might be gay and trying to make Bond uncomfortable at the same time.

Yet the most confusing part still needs to be discussed.

2) "What Makes You Think This Is My First Time?"

I have several questions, but the first is: what the hell does that mean?

He has already been in such a situation;

He has already slept with a man;

Let's consider the quote Silva's just said before James':

How you're trying to remember your training now.

What's the regulation to cover this?

Well, first time for everything. Yes?

Considering that Silva is trying to discard Bond's sanity, I guessed that he alludes to rape when he asks 007 what his training can do for that situation.

Double-0s are prepared to face anything and get out of it almost as nothing has happened. This might explain Silva's reference to the training.

Bond's reply suggests that he had already gone through that and could do it again if circumstances required it.

It all connects to Silva trying to make 007 uncomfortable through homosexuality.

It wouldn't be new that Bond, due to his job, has needed to seduce a man. We could expect such.

So he might fly over Silva's gender and sex.

I'm still really confused over this point and don't know what to think. But James being a rape survivor is somehow an underrated Headcanon and probable, considering his job.

If someone has different ideas and explanations they're all well accepted. Maybe we can end up to a conclusion that makes sense.

[work-of-waking-up]

In Defense of the Psychopath

Alright, wanna venture into my crazy ass brain? I’m going to start by saying one thing that will set the tone for everything else that follows: Villanelle is not a psychopath in the way that we currently understand them. Why am I even bothering to write about a fictional character, you ask? Because representation is important. Media portrayal of various mental and behavioral health topics (including ones that people might not think need to be discussed) is important and this show has a big audience. I also just want to contribute to the conversations that are taking place because I am seeing A LOT of them and the reason for that I believe boils down to the fact that Jodie makes Villanelle so relatable and people want to know what that means and looks like for them. Even those who felt they could relate to Sandra’s Eve, or the relationship between the two, maybe questioned what that meant the further they went down the path with them. “It’s probably a bad thing I relate to a psychopath, right? But she can’t be a psychopath because she cries and she feels things! Psychopaths don’t cry, which means she isn’t realistic so therefore it’s okay that I relate to her! Right? Or are my assumptions about psychopaths and people with antisocial personality disorder wrong? I relate to Eve but look what she is underneath it all...so does that mean I relate to that part of her too?” Not only is villanelles character relatable, but people see the freedom inherent within her, the freedom that Eve sees, and they realize that, at least on some level, they want it too. The show has (unintentionally I think) created a massive dialogue which is super cool and you can tell everyone involved on the show is aware of that now, I mean they have a consulting psychiatrist so I think that speaks for itself. This is less of a commentary on the character herself and whether or not she is a genuine psychopath, and more so a commentary on the conversations she has inspired and why... For the record, this is literally just my opinion sprinkled with a few facts, nothing else.

So, the term psychopath gets thrown around in the show, more so in the beginning, MI6 explicitly labels Villanelle this way, even going so far as to use her in a presentation about psychopaths, although I think that was more so to gauge Eve’s response than anything else. The reality of Villanelle, which we come to learn, is that nobody has been able to get close enough to really know the truth. Anna and Konstantin both got close but we never hear either of them use that word (Konstantin says it once but he clearly doesn’t mean it, it was more of an attempted manipulation tactic). They make it clear that she has, and can, and WILL cause damage, but that’s as far as they go. Eve is getting close and she tells Villanelle when they first meet that she knows Villanelle is a psychopath but it’s obvious from Eve's behavior and things she says later on that she truly doesn’t believe Villanelle is what everyone says she is. It’s easier to label her as a psychopath because that alienates and isolates her and her behavior completely. She is an outlier with behavioral anomalies and therefore it isn’t necessary to look any closer. For MI6 and others (not talking about the shows creators) to label Villanelle as a psychopath is easy, it’s lazy, it’s reductive, it serves a single purpose... a means to an end. They (anyone other than Eve basically) simply do not care about Villanelle’s truth. But as an audience we are lucky enough to see more of her with each episode. The psychopath label begins to fade and Oksana is what’s left. We know based on what she has said that she is aware that people think she is a psychopath, a monster, a person built to kill. It’s not always easy to decide that who you are is different from who you’ve always been told you are, especially given her history. Villanelle hasn’t told us yet if she thinks (or knows) that she is a psychopath, but it’s clear towards the end of last season that she no longer wants to be the person that they (meaning the twelve, Dasha, Konstantin, etc.) created. We see moments where she clearly has no remorse and clearly enjoys what she does, but then we have little moments sprinkled in between where she very obviously struggles, even if its short lived. And those moments are important. We have the moment where she struggles with the choice to shoot Konstantin, saying he is a good person, she thinks. This comes shortly after a conversation she had where Irina tells Villanelle she thinks she is a good person because she is sad, so we know she is thinking about it, we know the awareness is there, and it becomes more and more there as times goes on. I like to think of it in terms of having moments that are pure Villanelle (ie the way she killed Inga in the Russian prison), and then we have moments that are Oksana, vulnerable and emotional. Villanelle is a creation and a mask whereas oksana is the truth. Those moments are starting to really mean something. I'm not even going to start with her trip to find her family, that’s its own thing, but it's a Really Big Thing.

So. Villanelle is not a psychopath in the way that we currently understand and perceive them. Yes, she displays psychopathic traits, and yes, she absolutely has antisocial personality disorder. I read an article where the psychiatric consultant for the show (makes it pretty obvious how hard they worked to make Villanelle as realistic as possible) said that the Villanelle in Luke Jenning’s books scored a 32 on Hare’s psychiatric checklist, but I like to think (and I think a lot of people would agree) that number is a bit high, at least for Jodie’s Villanelle, maybe not even hitting 30 at all (close though, let’s be real lol). The max score is 40 which would be a fully blown primary psychopath. For reference, Ted Bundy scored 39. This checklist is flawed though, mostly created and based off the prison population. Which is why it isn’t used as a proper diagnostic tool. 32 is apparently extraordinarily high for a female (think Aileen Wuornos), which brings me to my next point which is that because it’s hard to measure a lot of the classic traits objectively, there is not a ton of solid data surrounding psychopathy, and even less of it is on female psychopaths. Like most things in life, psychopathy exists on a spectrum, there are levels and layers. It’s not black and white, there’s no definitive test (psychopathy isn’t even in the DSM-5 because as I said earlier it’s extremely hard to measure objectively) and it's important to distinguish between someone who exhibits psychopathic traits and someone who is actually an identifiable psychopath. Chances are high that someone you know displays at least one characteristic shared with psychopaths and this doesn’t make them one.

I think what’s important about this is that mental disorders (mental illness/personality disorders/etc.) of any kind are much more nuanced than a lot of people tend to think they are. That they exist less in black and white and more in shades of grey. Jodie Comer is absolutely remarkable for showcasing that through portraying the different layers of Villanelle. Her performance is a literal gift. We cannot keep thinking and acting like we know everything about how a person thinks, feels, and behaves based strictly and entirely on one label. The thing that has stuck out to me the most, the reason I decided to even write this bullshit babble, is that one of the most searched topics about the show is whether or not it’s realistic that Villanelle cries, and honestly how sad is that? That makes me sad for V. Is it more realistic for her to develop connections and cognitive empathy if she was made into a psychopath vs if she was born that way? Is there a legitimate difference between the two? And how do we even decide which one is applicable for someone? It’s important to add that antisocial personality disorder is not the same thing as psychopathy or sociopathy. You can have aspd and not be a psychopath. Research has shown that about only a third of those diagnosed with aspd would meet criteria to be considered a psychopath. Society is not doing a great job at getting people to understand this. But to be fair, understanding personality disorders specifically has been somewhat problematic, a lot of diagnostic confusion and overlap between disorders. A LOT of work needs to be done. But as far as portrayals go, society has strictly chosen to go the route of giving us psychopathic characters and having them be inherently violent, incapable of remorse, feelings, or change. Poverty of all emotions. Subhuman. They are made out to be so abnormal and unrelatable to the point where the character of Villanelle has sparked so much debate and fascination simply because she exists in a way that actually IS relatable...and layered and beautiful and thrilling. We thought she would be the bad guy and yet we root for her at every turn, we cry for her, we want good things for her! We see her darkness and without question or hesitation we forgive it. She makes us question what we’ve previously been shown. Questioning whether or not it’s realistic that she acts the way she does is less important than questioning our own personal assumptions and beliefs and where those come from. I think that’s awesome. Villanelle is truly a gift. She is hands down one of the most well written fictional characters, which is saying a lot considering when you put something, or someone, in a box it doesn’t leave tons of room for expansion. and I honestly don’t even really need to say this, but.. Jodie Comer.

[gentlemen-of-lies]

Gentlemen of Lies, chapter 1

British towns have weird names (Or last time I stay in a London hostel)

(Next chapter) (Prologue)

————

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

The café was further than Curt had originally thought, and getting lost down the maze of roads and blocks of flats didn’t help him with time keeping. He was already running late after spending twenty minutes- not getting dressed like he was supposed to- but instead fuming over the fact that he’d forgotten half of his clothes at home. All he had were a pair of trousers and thankfully a new pair of underwear. But other than that and his coat, he had to wear what he had on last night, and it was starting to feel like cardboard.

Needless to say, he failed in his attempt at not looking a mess. He was unshaven and all he could do with his dishevelled hair was try and flatten it down with the palm of his hand. He was chewing on a mint as he raced into the café, out of breath, ten minutes late, and stinking of whiskey.

He spent a few seconds pulling himself together before scanning the room, ignoring the looks he was getting from customers. He had to figure out which one of these people were his new partner. He did a mental count. Four customers, one waiter and a person behind the counter. Six possible people. One of the customers had a child. So it was most likely five possible people. That wasn’t too difficult.

“I hear the weather in Teignmouth is particularly bad,” he greeted the guy behind the counter, in a British accent that he’d been instructed to use, but which he’d completely forgotten about until now- once again hoping that Cynthia didn’t find out. He thought his accent was pretty good, he had to be good as a spy of course, but he still received a slightly confused stare. And no reply. Or at least, not the reply Curt needed. So it wasn’t the bartender.

“Right...” was all the man had to say. Curt put his mind at ease by immediately changing the subject and ordering a coffee. The man raised his eyebrows, nodded and turned to where the coffee beans were kept. Curt resumed his search, and his eyes landed on a man sitting in the far corner of the restaurant.

A young looking man, perhaps around his age. Dark hair, brown cap over his eyes. Certainly very secretive looking. Curt decided he was his best option, hoping his decision was right; he could get away with a slightly eccentric opening statement to the bartender, but not to a complete stranger. As if he needed to lose his dignity any more today.

He tried to smarten himself up as much as possible, so even if he had got the wrong person, he hopefully wouldn’t look too ridiculous. Curt cleared his throat just before he reached the man, and once again put on his mock accent.

“I hear the weather in Teignmouth is particularly bad.”

“To travel there you’d have to be mad.” Curt breathed a sigh of relief. Thank god. He sat down opposite from the man, just as the waiter came over to give Curt his coffee. Curt gave a swift thank you, and turned back to the man, still hiding underneath his cap.

“So... you’re who I’m teaming up with?” Asked Curt, a little awkwardly. It wasn’t like him to lack any sort of confidence, but the man sitting across from him was clearly much more together than he was.

“Unfortunately,” replied the man, revealing a very low voice. “For me,” he added. At Curt’s silence he raised his cap above his eyes and leant his crossed arms on the table, his face nearing Curt’s. “I take it you’re a newbie and, judging by your appearance and the whiff of booze that met everyone’s poor noses as soon as you entered the shop, you’re not a very good one.” Curt was defiant.

“I had a rough night,” he explained. “The flight over was long and the accommodation sucks. Doesn’t make me bad at my job.”

“No, what makes you bad at your job is doing so little research that you can’t even pronounce the name of the place you were given in your secret code.” He sat back again in his chair, arms still crossed. His eyes were bright, smug. Cocky. Curt already hated him.

“You mean Tane-mouth?”

“No, I mean Tin-muth, my dear.” He gave a slight chuckle, laughing at Curt’s stupidity it seemed. “First rule of England,” the man continued. “Don’t trust the signposts. Chances are you’ll pronounce them wrong.” He held his hand out. “Perhaps a proper greeting is in order,” he said. “Owen Carvour. MI6.” Curt reluctantly took his hand, tightening his grip as if to assert some kind of dominance after having his last remaining dignity stripped away in a matter of seconds.

“Curt,” he replied. “Curt Mega.” Owen snorted.

“God, how American.” Curt sipped his coffee, if only to stop himself from saying something he’d regret. “Well, enough of the chit chat, Curt Mega. We have work to do.” Owen stood up, and put a few coins on the table.

“Where are you going?” Asked Curt, his coffee cup still almost full.

“We are going someplace more private,” replied Owen. “Or did you forget that we’re part of the secret service?” Curt took one more gulp of coffee, drinking down as much as he could- burning his mouth in the process- and stood up to follow Owen.

“Your place or mine?” Owen said, and Curt couldn’t work out if it was rhetorical or not.

“Yours?” Owen looked him up and down.

“Better not. People know me. We’ll go back to yours.” It was Curt’s turn to scoff.

“If you say so, but fair warning. The place is a dump.”

“So is everything around here, we were in a war after all.”

“So were we.”

“Oh hardly. You came in forty five minutes before the war ended.” Owen opened the café door with a clink of the bell, and the two stepped out into the grey street, weak sunlight barely piercing through the sides of the surrounding buildings.

They barely talked on the way back to Curt’s hostel; Owen didn’t seem to mind. Curt was apparently so beneath him that ignoring him was as easy as ignoring a flea. Curt on the other hand was suddenly very aware of his movements, how his arms were swinging, how many steps he was taking. He didn’t want to walk faster than Owen, nor did he want to walk slower. But the middle ground meant that he inadvertently fell into step with his new partner, which just felt embarrassing. As if he was copying him or something.

God, Curt, what’s wrong with you? He was supposed to be leading Owen, but it was as if Owen was leading him. He didn’t like this imbalance of power one bit, so he reluctantly sped up his walk to ensure that he was in front of Owen, and not the other way around.

Bill looked at the two suspiciously when they finally returned, a clear question of ‘who’s this bloke?’ playing on his lips. Curt declined to explain himself; simply nodded in greeting and allowed Owen to follow him to his room.

“You know you’re supposed to tell the man that I’m a colleague from work, or here for a game of poker,” informed Owen, a low voice in Curt’s ear. “Saying nothing will make him suspicious-”

“Are you going to criticise everything I do?” Replied Curt, his voice louder and more abrupt as he became more and more irritated at Owen.

“If it fucks up our job, then yes. How are you supposed to learn otherwise?” He was so full of himself, and how? He barely looked older than Curt himself, he couldn’t have been in the force for that much longer. How was he so confident?

If Curt wasn’t such a proud man, he’d probably be able to admit that he was jealous in a way. Jealous that someone in the same position as him was so much better at their job. Cynthia would love Owen, and they didn’t even work for the same government.

But Curt was a proud man. So he settled for viewing Owen as nothing more than an arrogant bastard. And by now they had reached room 17, the worst room in London. Curt brought his key out and unlocked the door, pushing his weight against it since the door itself barely fit in its own frame.

“Huh. Quaint,” was Owen’s observation of the room. Sarcastic of course, but it could have been worse. The room was an absolute mess, every piece of furniture was rotten or broken, the wallpaper was damp, the curtains were covered in mould, and not even Curt could deny that the smell was overpowering, like a drunkard’s basket of dirty laundry. It wasn’t pleasant.

“Perhaps we should have gone back to mine after all.”

“I’m sorry about the smell, nothing works here and half of my stuff is back in America.”

“A spy without a change of clothes? You really are bad at this aren’t you? I’ll have to lend you some of mine.” Curt blinked at him.

“Really?” Owen raised a confirmatory eyebrow. “That’s a bit... personal isn’t it?”

“Bloody hell, Curt, there’s nothing personal about our job. If it makes you any more professional, which clearly is a tall order, then I have no choice.”

“Fine...” Curt replied through gritted teeth. “Thank you for the offer.” He sat down on the chair near the bathroom, the only piece of stable furniture in the room. As much as he didn’t want Owen sitting on his bed, with any luck the frame would break and Owen would finally have a taste of losing one’s own dignity. But alas, Owen declined sitting down altogether, and simply leant against the window frame.

“I won’t go through everything,” Owen began. “We’ll start afresh tomorrow. You need time to get to grips with the case. You do know what the case is don’t you?” Curt nodded, trying to remember what Cynthia had told him. Something about a mole in MI6 feeding information to the Russians. He didn’t know why he was involved though. Surely this was enough for the British secret service to handle.

“I have the necessary files inside my jacket. I’ll give them to you to peruse,” he pulled out a light brown folder from his jacket, and placed it on the tabletop beside him. “Try not to lose them.” Curt rolled his eyes.

“I’m not going to lose them.” He wasn’t that incompetent.

“If you say so. Read them over tonight, and we can report back tomorrow. The files contain a list of suspects. Do try and memorise them.” Curt reached over and picked up the file, opening it up and scanning the first page absent-mindedly. All he managed to take in were the photos of people’s faces, not yet bothering to even read their names.

“Where are we meeting tomorrow?” He asked, looking up from the file.

“Down by the station. It’s not far from here, but I’ve slipped a map into the file for you.” Curt turned the page, and as expected, a small, square map was slotted into the fold, with what was presumably the station circled in red pen. “We’ll meet outside, and maybe take a little wander. Better to talk on the move, but I suspect you already know that.” His tone of voice suggested a conviction that Curt did not, in fact, know that. Curt decided that a response wasn’t worth his time.

“Right. I’ll read the files.” Curt stood up, the chair creaking as he did so. Perhaps it wasn’t as stable as he first thought. “Anything else?”

“Yes. Take a shower. I’m not working with someone who smells like the inside of a pub.” And with that, Owen went to leave. “I’ll see you at ten tomorrow, old man.”

“Ten it is.” The door closed, catching on the frame, so Curt had to push it in fully once Owen had left. He sat back on his bed, the mattress sagging at an alarming rate. He was sure he could feel the floor underneath. He lay on his back, staring at the popcorn ceiling. He wanted a drink, but he thought against it. He was determined to prove that Owen bastard wrong. Show him- and Cynthia- that he wasn’t the idiot, drunken agent they though he was.

He was Agent Curt Mega. The greatest spy to ever live.

[filterpermanentlyattached]

…And the Happily Ever Afters

This episode was fairly Flynn centric, which as someone who originally fell in love with the first series of The Librarian, was wonderful! Though, since this re-watch is focusing on Ezekiel I will try to stick to that. The fact that when Flynn is trying to remind Jenkins of who is missing and he says Ezekiel Jones and the Conclave incident, was that the last time Flynn was really involved in their day to day activities? Way back in season 1, and he’s talking about the Conclave incident because it got Jenkins all fired up, and it is likely to elicit some kind of response or memory.

Going to take a moment to appreciate Stone pulling up in a motorcycle with a hot girl in his side car. Cassandra and her well-deserved confidence. Eve as the sheriff in a relationship with Moriarty, Flynn’s reaction was priceless.

The fact that Ezekiel is an FBI agent is honestly not that far-fetched considering his stint with MI6. ‘Rule breaking maverick’ indeed. That just applies to his whole life.

That makes no sense. That’s the opposite of sense. That’s nonsense! I love these lines!

This guy, Special Agent? He’s like 15 years old! And Australian! How can he be in the FBI?!?! Again with bringing up Ezekiel’s (supposed) age and not a single one of them still even asks, once they get themselves back, how old he was when he received the invitation to The Library. Why does no one, not a single one of them, ask or question why he got an invitation at the age he got it, what age that was, and what had happened in his life to that point to qualify him even a little bit to even receive one. I’m just saying, I could go for an Ezekiel Jones prequel.

I feel like Ezekiel dramatically running over the counter knocking stuff out of the way is so opposite of who he is and how he operates. He’s quiet and quick and gets his job done before anyone even really notices he was there.

Eve being all up in Flynn’s space as she questions him about how he got to the island, like, girl I’m not sure it’s necessary to be that close or touching him so much. But, hey, you do you.

As Flynn is explaining why they need to fix everything, why did he point out specifically that Jones was an FBI agent as his point of exasperation? C’mon Flynn, you steal things all the time for The Library, he isn’t that different from you. Is that why you struggle so much with him?

Ezekiel running with a group of guys and sending them the other way, makes sense as a man who always works on his own. Stone just walking around with a bunch of college girls.

“She’s-“ “very unhappy to still be here” oh Ariel

Jones, you’re no lawman. You are a stainless steel rat. You’re the fly in the ointment, the answer to the riddle, the one who crosses all the lines, and opens all the doors, The Library invited you in. Flynn, my guy, you just explained why he’s important to The Library, now you also need to accept it.

Getting rid of the talisman and Ezekiel knows he’s THE Thief, remembers getting the invitation to The Library. I would even bet that the man still has the invitation somewhere just because he is at least a little sentimental and is always proud of his achievements and if he got such a thing as an invitation to a job, but it had magic golden letters that appeared when he opened it, I believe he would have kept it.

Everyone trying to figure out if Jenkins is okay and how to get in and Ezekiel is just like, we can use the side door. They’ve all been there the same amount of time, so why are they so surprised he knows there is another door in? I have a side door. I always have a side door. The fact that Stone and Cassandra actually just followed Ezekiel without any argument or complaint. They just knew he knew what he was doing and followed. It could be that they were just confused about what he was saying and wanted to see for themselves, but I doubt it.

[unmaskedagain]

Gabriel Agreste Must Die

I have no idea what inspired this but I just thought this would be funny. It Salt towards Gabriel. So enjoy. Warning Gaslighting ahead

Nino never thought that, out of everyone in the entire world, he would be the one to figure out Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth. Granted, it wasn’t like he had done he any searched or used any expert detective or journalism skills. No, instead he had been hanging out at Marinette’s; getting his butt handed to him in Ultimate Mecha Strike III. Alya chilling as she scrolled through her phone. Chloe, who they somehow managed to become friends with, was taking selfies in Marinette’s newest design outfits.

Nino knew it was because the blonde had proven herself to be a good hero and loyal ally. So when Marinette, the new Guardian now that Fu was gone, that more permanent heroes were needed, she brought in Chloe, along with Nino and Alya. It was then that Ladybug and Chat Noir revealed their identities to them and to each other.

It had been one hell of a shock. But they all became really good friends. Though any crushes the original heroes had died. It turned out Marinette thought of Chat Noir as a brother. And Adrien just couldn’t see Marinette in that light. It was for the best. Alya had been pissed about the love square thing.

That had been over a year ago, and the heroes had all become really good friends; banding together against anyone (Lila or Gabriel) who tried to tear them apart.

They had been talking about the recent akuma attacks, when Nino got a text from Adrien apologizing for not being able to hang out.

“Adrien can’t come,” Nino glared at the screen. “His dad’s got him working late.”

“Again?” Alya asked. “He does know what child labor laws are right?”

           Chloe scoffed, “Like he cares.”

“Still, we should do something,” Marinette frowned as she rapidly pressed buttons on her controller. “This isn’t right.”

“Like what?” Nino asked, already gracefully accepting yet another defeat. “He’s Gabriel Agreste. He’s as big of an asshole as Hawkmoth; and I didn’t think that was possible.”

           As soon as he said those words, something just clicked. Everyone in the room suddenly paused as they processed the words in their minds.

           Nino slowly put down her controller, “It’s not possible, is it? That level of asshole-dom can’t possibly be reached by two different people in the same city, at the same time, in the same universe. There’s no way.”

“Even my mom left once Gabriel took power,” Chloe added. “And she’s a total bitch but she knew that Paris couldn’t handle both a Queen Bitch and the King of the Assholes fighting it out.”

           Marinette’s eyes narrowed as she considered everything they knew about hawkmoth and Gabriel Agreste, “When did Adrien say he last saw mom.”

“Three years ago,” Chloe answered. “Sometime near the end of January, I remember. It was before Valentine’s day as I had been planning yet another amazing party.”

“Alya, when was the first akuma attack?” Marinette asked.

“One sec, I’ll look,” The glasses-wearing girl said and as she frantically researched. When Alya was done, she looked up at them with a dark expression on her face. “February 4th, three years ago.”

“Gabriel has a book on Kwami,” Marinette told them. “He uses it for ‘inspiration.’”

           After that, suddenly they were recalling all the little ‘coincidences’ they overlooked involving anything Agreste related and Hawkmoth; it all added up to something no one could deny.

“Gabriel is Hawkmoth,” Alya whispered stunned. “Adrien’s dad is Hawkmoth. We always said Gabriel was a monster but damn, really?”

“What do we do?” Chloe asked. “What can we do? Hawkmoth is too powerful; especially with Mayura on his side.”

           Marinette nodded but there was a thoughtful look on his face, “Hawkmoth is strong but Gabriel is human like the rest of us. He has his flaws, his weaknesses; cracks in his facade.”

“Mom always said Gabriel was nuts,” Chloe said. “On the edge of his sanity. One good push…”

           Marinette shrugged, “If we can’t defeat the villain…”

“…Then we break the man behind the mask,” Alya smirked,

           Nino growled, “Gabriel Agreste Must Die.”

…

…

           The next day after school; the heroes met up again at Marinette and sat Adrien down to talk.

It turned getting Adrien on board with the plan was difficult. He wasn’t hard to convince him that Gabriel was Hawkmoth, though it did take a while for him to stop throwing up. However, there was thing the blond boy wouldn’t budge on…

“You’re not killing my dad!” Adrien told them.

           Nino nodded calmly and folded his hands on his lap, “I get where you’re coming from, dude. I totally do,” He told his best friend. “But hear me out. Your dad? He really sucks.”

           Adrien shot his friends an incredulous look, “And you think that’s a good enough reason to kill him?”

“Well, yeah,” Nino shrugged. “I mean we talked about this before.”

           Alya pushed her ex-boyfriend turned one of her bestie out of the way, “You’re dad is a megalomaniac magical terrorist that’s been destroying Paris, turning people into monsters, and killing innocents. Sure the damaged gets reversed but the victims, who aren’t Akumatized, still have to deal with the freaking trauma.”

“There are support groups for it,” Marinette said. “People remember dying; drowning, burning, crashing; it’s terrible.” She sighed, “However, we can’t just murder someone. It’s wrong.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. It would be wrong not kill him,” Chloe told them. “The amount of time and effort it would save us is nearly too much to count. And the amount of relief all of Paris would feel knowing he was gone is out of this world.  We can stop SO many people from getting hurt if I call my mom’s guy Fredro, and Gabriel has a little ‘accident’.”

           Nino shot up, “See! Chloe agrees,” He shot a victorious look at Alya and Marinette.

           Alya snorted, “Chloe thought burning Gabriel at the stake was good idea.”

“What?!!” Adrien looked at his oldest friend, shock on his face. “What?!!”

           Chloe shrugged, “There’s no such thing as a bad idea. And It was a suggestion..”

“A good one,” Nino added. “And why does it sound like your mom has a hitman on speed dial?”

           Chloe scoffed, “Hitman? Don’t be so crass. Fredro is former MI6. My mom used to work with him. He’s so good even Shield only had the slightest idea he exists.” She looked at her childhood friend with a softest expression anyone had ever seen on her face. “No one would ever know. If you want, he doesn’t even have to feel like a thing. Gabriel goes to sleep one night, and doesn’t wake up in the morning. It’ll look like a heart attack. Trust me, my mother only works with the best.”

“I have a lot of questions about your mother,” Alya said. “And what type of work she did with a former MI6 agent. But we’re gonna circle back to that. That fact is, Adrien, it’s up to you.”

“He’s your dad,” Marinette agreed. “Plus; its two to two. Me and Alya who don’t want to go to prison. And the two psychos who are more than willing to.”

           Nino huffed and moved to stand next to Chloe, “Well, I’m feeling a little called out right now.”

“I told you we should’ve just handled this last night,” Chloe crossed her arms. “Just the two us. Ditch the Halos at home,” She motioned to Marinette, who didn’t like the idea of killing, and Alya, who didn’t want to make the choice with Adrien’s approval. “Bury that asshole alive.”

“Nah, they’d have known it was us,” Nino shook his head. “The second Gabriel doesn’t show up for something he’s supposed to, Marinette’s knocking on my door. I’m always a suspect. Gabriel nearly got killed by a falling headlight during a fashion show in New York, and Alya still gave me suspicious looks for days. Jerk’s literally on the other side of the world, and I’m still the primary suspect.”

           Chloe looked contemplative, “…Didn’t you say you had a cousin in New York?”

“You a cop?” Nino asked. “No? Then stop asking so many questions.”

           Adrien sighed, “I’m sorry, guys; we can’t kill my dad.”

           Alya nodded firmly, “Then option two. We’re rip apart his sanity, destroy his reputation; tear apart everything that makes Gabriel Agreste, Gabriel Agreste until there’s nothing left except the miserable, sorry excuse for man and father, that he really is.”

“Oh but I’m inhumane?” Nino glared. “I was just gonna cut the breaks in Gabriel’s ride. Take him and Nathalie out at the same time. But, yeah, sure, breaking him to the point where he’s ripping out his own hair and locked away in a padded room is a noble cause as any.”

“And yet we’re the evil ones? Really?” Chloe rolled her eyes. “Fine. Whatever. Let’s gaslight the bitch.”

           Adrien looked up at the ceiling just so freaking done with world. “What we do first?”

“Your dad’s a total control freak,” Alya said. “We got to make him feel like he’s losing control.”

           Marinette looked over Adrien, “You’re gonna need tight leather pants, chapstick… And how do feel about piercings?”

“That they look like they hurt!” Adrien protested.

           Chloe shoved his shoulder, “Beauty’s pain, woman up!”

“Why do I need chapstick?” Adrien whined.

“You can’t make out with Scott with dry lips!”

“Make out?” Adrien’s face turned bright red. “And who’s Scott?”

           Nino shook his head, “You’re asking a lot of questions for someone who was against the Murder plan.”

           It turned out Scott was Marinette’s cousin. His mom Melissa was Tom’s half-sister. He was handsome tall sixteen-year-old with olive brown skin, curly dark brown hair, and a crooked jaw. When Adrien met him he was wearing a leather jacket and big happy smile on his face.  Adrien couldn’t stop looking at him.

           He had come out as bisexual to his friends months ago but had only briefly experimented with Luka in the kissing department. Marinette had stumbled upon and quickly squeaked, turned red, and scampered off. Though Adrien did have to deal with her grumbles about having dips. To which Adrien replied, “You snooze, you lose.”

Scott was with a brown haired, pale skinned, gangly guy, with lots moles and a rather pretty redhead.

“Oh come on!” The pale guy complained when he saw Adrien. He looked at Scott. “What leprechaun did you sacrifice so that you got the fucking luck in the world? First the Disney princess Alison, then badass ‘she could stab me and I’d thank her’ Kira, and now Apollo’s freaking love child. No! It’s not fair.”

“Dude!” Scott complained. “Stiles, you’re dating Derek.”

           Stiles suddenly looked really smug, “Yeah I know,” He smirked. “But this isn’t about us. This is about all the other Scotts and Stiles’ of the world who are still growing out of their loser stage. Give them a chance, bro.”

           The redhead rolled her eyes, “Hi I’m Lydia!” She introduced to the young heroes. “The loud moron is Stiles. The moron who’s been drooling since he saw you is Scott.”

           Scott reared back, and started to quick wipe his mouth, “Man, am I drooling?”

“A little,” Stiles shrugged. “I just thought it was moon thing, you know?”

           Lydia ignored them, “I love your dress. It’s an MDC, yes? Up in coming designer, so chic!”      

           Marinette smiled, “Thanks. It took forever to design this.”

           The redhead paused, “You designed?” She looked stunned for a moment before glaring at Scott. “Is your cousin MDC? Did you not tell me your cousin was MDC?”

           It was a little hilarious how quickly Scott stepped back in fear of girl a foot shorter than him.

“About why we’re here,” Alya decided to intervene before blood was drawn. “Adrien, this is Scott. He’ll be your boyfriend for as long as he’s Paris.” She looked between Scott and Adrien and smirked. “And I have no idea who I should congratulate.”

“Me,” Scott let slip as he stared at Adrien in a daze.

           Pictures of Adrien Agreste making out with Scott were everywhere an hour later. Adrien tweeted his response, “I’m Bisexual. So what? To quote Taylor Swift: You need to Calm down.”

           The tweet was the first thing that made Gabriel realize something was very, very wrong.

           Adrien went home and was met the angry expressions of his father and Nathalie. It was time for step to.

           Before either could yell at him. “I quit,” Adrien said. “No more modeling. No more anything I don’t want to do. This is not up for debate. I’m not asking. You can’t make me. And if you try to take me out of school; my friends will public with all the evidence of all times you broke child labors. And if you think I’m bluffing, a copy of the evidence was sent to Nathalie’s email.” He gave them hard looks. “You will go to prison. Try me. It’s over,” Adrien told them but didn’t add that it was in more ways that one.

           He walked passed them; only sparing a glance to see the stunned looks on their faces.

           Adrien knew his father wouldn’t back down. This was only the beginning.

           Unfortunately for Gabriel, he would be far too busy putting out the fires of his burning empire to have any time to rein back in his son.

           During the middle of the night, while everyone was sleeping, an anonymous user *cough Alya* released videos of Gabriel verbally berating his employees for the smallest things, and firing them. It was not a good look.

           The Gabriel brand took a hit. The first of many.

           Over the next few weeks; Gabriel found himself forgetting things. First he found a box of imported silk that Nathalie swore he called her himself to have her order, and he saw the call logged in his phone but for the life of him he couldn’t remember making the call. Then it was scheduling meetings, ordering lunches or coffee that he couldn’t remember doing. Then he forgot where put things.

           For example, one time Gabriel swore he took out his sketchbook from his briefcase and sat it on his desk and left for a meeting. However, when he returned, it wasn’t there. And He nearly went raving mad trying to find it. Only for Nathalie to take it out of his brief case.

           The suit he had laid out for him the night before would be an entirely different color than the one he remembered putting out but then Nathalie would tell him that he ordered her himself to have it pressed.

           It was little thing and big little just slightly out of place that started to grate on his nerves.

“The stress,” Nathalie told him. “It’s getting to you. Perhaps a vacation is in order”

“I’m fine,” He waved her off. “How is the plan to pull Adrien back in?

           Nathalie frowned, “Nothing. He’s still going strong with his boyfriend, a young Scott McCall. Every time we try anything, a new video of Adrien, uh, at work, is released to the media. CPS and the police knocked on our doors three times already. Next time, I fear, they may take him. Amelie Graham de Vanily has been spotted in town, speaking with several lawyers. My sources say she will attempt for custody if CPS deems you unfit.”

“Nothing of the sort will happen,” Gabriel sneered. “I will not lose my son; not to my sister in law, and not to some American boy. Tell Adrien, we will have dinner together. I will talk some sense into him myself.”

           That was his plan at least.

           However, Gabriel found himself waking up in the morning, in his pajamas, utterly confused. “Nathalie, when did I go sleep?”

           She looked confused, “Around midnight, sir. You had dinner with Adrien, and then had to rush off to take a call from Audrey.”

“I… had dinner with Adrien?” Gabriel asked. “Are you sure? I don’t remember. And I didn’t talk with Audrey, did i?”

           Nathalie suddenly looked very concerned. “Sir, I was there. Adrien and you had a lovely conversation about his school and him going back to modeling. Adrien decline. You tried to protest but Audrey called. You two argued for an hour. I was there the entire time. You really don’t remember?”

           No, Gabriel didn’t.

           A week later, after a series of incidents. One of which apparently he had ordered Nathalie to take him to a salon and walked out with blue hair, but couldn’t remember when he woke up the next day. And swore he hadn’t.

“I’ve scheduled a meeting with doctor,” Nathalie told him. “We’re going to get you looked at, okay.”

           It was the first of many, many doctor visits. Until one day Adrien came home and His aunt was there with Nathalie. They told him that his father went on a little “vacation” for a while.

           It turned out the vacation was a very luxurious mental institution.

[nebraska-is-a-myth]

Your cold dead heart - part 9

I am very behind on recent events on the smp, but I promise after these next few chapters we’ll start catching up to the present with all the shlatt stuff. Just bare with me okay :)

Masterlist

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“Why do you wear them? The glasses?”

Eret shifts in the bed slightly, it’s not like he's never been asked the question before, he just never thought he would be so willing to tell anyone the answer, let alone a child.

“You don't uh, have to tell me if you don't want.”

Tommy says it so quietly, so full of concern, it's strange to Eret not hearing the boy be so loud and brash all the time. He sometimes forgets how young the boy really is.

“Shit hit the fan back at my old job, had to lay low for a while. Still kind have to.”

The two stay quiet for a while, Eret knows Tommy is curious, it’s what makes Tommy Tommy, but Erets not sure if he can tell the boy what he wants to know.

“What was it like, back in England? I don't remember much of it from before I moved.”

Tommys the one to shift now, they're both under the covers just staring up at the ceiling. Tommy had come in to seek Erets comfort after another nightmare, the teen usually came to Eret on nights like this and Wilbur on some occasions, but now the tears had stopped, neither one could find themselves particularly drowsy.

“It was nice, a lot nicer than here. You would have liked it, all the greenery, trees everywhere, weather wasn't great over there though. Rained a lot more.”

“That I remember.”

They both share a soft chuckle and the room goes silent again.

“I got involved in some really bad stuff when I was younger, much worse than any of this.”

Tommy doesn't respond, Erets almost thankful for it.

“I got offered a position at MI6 when we eventually got caught. I had a choice, either join the secret services and do whatever they say, or get beaten to death halfway through my life sentence in prison.”

“So I worked undercover at MI6, doing whatever the fuck they told me to, too scared of going to prison to ever question what I was doing. Until one day they asked me to do something and I just couldn't, so I ran. I had no money, no friends, nowhere to hide. They had my fingerprints and retina scans, that's how they keep track of all of their agents both in and out of the field, they're shitty people but they're smart. That's how I met Dream actually. I knew of George from the work I was doing, he was on MI6 radar, and well, George knew of me because he’s a good hacker. Knew everyone who was against him. They offered to help me out if I did a few clean up tasks here and there, offered me safety in the SMP, so I took it. And you know the rest.”

“I just thought you pissed off the queen or something.”

”Go to sleep Tommy.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eret is alive!

He is alive and breathing and standing in front of them with sunlight reflecting off his stupid black sunglasses and all Tubbo wants to do is run over to Eret and give him the biggest hug. But then he hears Tommy's breathing pick up next to him. Tubbo turns his head towards his friend and he doesn't know what to do. Tommy's body is rigid and there are tears streaming down his face, his eyes are fixed on Eret but he hasn't blinked in what feels like forever. Something is wrong, something is very wrong. He can't tell whether his friend is having a panic attack or if he’s just in shock, but he knows Tommy needs help. And it seems like sapnap’s noticed too. 

“What's up with the kid.”

Tubbo makes eye contact with Wilbur and he hopes the older man understands the panic stricken look he gives him, Tommy is not okay. Wilbur hurry's over to Tommy's side and cups his face with his warm hands, Wilbur hasn't seen Tommy this grief stricken in, well, ever. Sure he cried and sobbed when he thought his friend was dead, but it was nothing like this. This is terrifying.

“Tommy, hey Tommy it's me, it’s Wilbur. Can you hear me Toms, your safe alright. It's just me, your safe.”

Wilbur feels so scared, anything could be going through Tommy's brain right now. His limbs have locked into place and his eyes look so, empty. 

It feels like forever before Tommy finally gasps and breaks out of whatever flashback he was having. Wilbur feels a wave of relief wash over him and he holds Tommy's face in his hands. “Hey, it's okay, it's okay, It’s just me Tommy.”

“Wilbur, I, I don't know what's, what's happenin.”

Tommy sounds so broken and so scared, Wilbur doesn't know how to help the boy. Wilbur presses his forehead against Tommy's and he can feel Tommy grip on his shirts just below his body armor.

“Eret, is, is he”

“He’s alive Toms, he's okay.”

Tommy lets out a breath and the two separate for a short moment.

Tommy looks past Wilbur at the man in question, he sees the sunglasses on his face, and the gun in his hand, and suddenly the sadness is completely wiped from his face. Tommy softly moves past Wilbur and he sees sapnap raise his gun slightly.

“How are you alive?”

Nobody answers him for a second, even George is surprisingly quiet for once. The atmosphere changes around them and suddenly all Tommy can feel is anger.

“I said, how are you alive.”

“Answer me!”

“Tommy.”

“Shut up dream, let him speak.” Wilbur steps forward closer to Tommy, now catching on to what the boy is implying.

“I watched you drown! Tell my why you aren't fucking rotting at the bottom of the ocean Eret or I swear to god you're gonna wish you fucking were.”

“We were never going to win Tommy.”

“I don't give a shit Eret! Why are you not fucking dead!”

“There were oxygen tanks okay. An oxygen tank and a tunnel that takes you to the other side of town. The plan was-”

“The plan! You fucking planned this!”

“The plan was to swim out and get here and convince you to surrender.”

A chorus of disbelief erupts from the people of l’manburg and in the chaos Tommy lunges forwards and draws his pistol on Eret.

“I- We trusted you!”

“Tommy I-”

“We fucking trusted you!”

“Tommy put the gun down”

“He betrayed us Fundy!”

“It wasn't meant to be Tommy.”

“Shut the fuck up you bastard.”

Suddenly everything goes silent as Tommy feels the cold metal of a gun pressed to the back of his head.

“I suggest you lower that gun Tommy.”

“Why don't you take that gun and shove it up your-”

“Tommy! I am ordering you to stand down!”

Tommy stares at Eret for a second longer while the silence suffocates him, before swatting sapnaps gun away from his head and walking back towards Wilbur.

George puffs and turns to dream like a nagging child.

“I’m bored, are we fighting or not.”

Tommy is raging, he wants to scream and shout at Eret and punch him until his knuckles break. But he’s not here to fight for himself, he’s here to fight for L’manburg. He’s here for his friends, and most importantly, for independence. So with his anger boiling, and his head held high, TommyInnit goes to war.

“You wanna fight, lets fucking fight.”

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Fundy is the first to fall. He’s hit with a bullet in his right shoulder that sends red hot pain scorching though his body. He feels paralyzed and Tubbo has to help him back behind cover to tend to his wounds. “I’ll be fine, I just need to keep pressure on it, go and help the others.”

“Are you sure, this is a lot of blood?”

“Yes Tubbo, I’m sure. Now go.”

Tubbo is reluctant to leave his friend, but he can hear his team mates shouting at one another, they were running low on ammo, whereas the dream smp seemed to produce the bullets out of thin air. It was barely a fair fight to begin with, they certainly didn't need two of their team members away from the fight. Tubbo runs back out towards where Tommy is firing and sets his gun back into position.

“How many rounds you got.”

Tommy ducks for a moment to check.

“I've got one clip left.” He takes a deep breath and peaks over the edge at the opposing team. “Cover me.”

“Tommy what are you, Tommy!”

Tommy runs out across the barrage of bullets, straight into enemy territory. Tubbo does as he says and fires straight back at the people who have spotted the blonde, Tommy needs to move, and fast. He spots Eret across the war strip and heads out of cover towards them. He’s almost within punching distance when a sudden weight pushes him to the ground.

“Look who we've got here.” Tommy tries to get up but Sapnap just pushes him back down onto the floor again, face first. “Well if it isn't the little cry baby.”

Sapnap presses his heel into Tommy's back and the familiar feel of Sapnaps gun forces Tommys face into the dirt.

“Get off me dickead.”

The other man chuckles and makes Tommys blood boil, he never really did understand why Dream was friends with him. Maybe it was fear, or maybe this was who Dream really was, a ruthless, merciless killer. (Tommy sometimes wondered whether the persona was just another lie.)

“Move sapnap, this one's mine.”

George? What does George want with Tommy?

Sapnap grabs Tommy by the back of his shirt and forces him to his feet, pushing him in George's direction .

Tommy feels the pain before he registers what's happening. Gorge punches hard. Warmth blooms in his nose and he can feel his head spinning, when he’s finally able to look at George properly, he thinks he sees two of them.

“I never understood why Dream took you in, you were dirty and poor and fucking useless at almost everything.”

Oh, so this is why George wanted him.

Tommy raises his arms in defense, he knew how to fight, techno taught him that, he just had to block George until everything stopped spinning.

“I never understood why he spoke to such a pathetic kid like you, why he trusted you. But then he told me what his plan was, and it finally clicked. Dream doesn't give a shit about you Tommy.”

George swings again, Tommy blocks.

“You're just another pawn for him to mess with, another character for the cameras.”

Swing

Block

“You're just a dead weight to him, a burden for him to find purpose for.”

Swing

“Did you really think he cared about you?.”

Block

“You're not loved, you're not special.”

Swing

“When you die here today, nobody will remember you, no one will even-”

Hit

George holds a hand to his jaw and smirks at Tommy.

“You can't kill me, no one can.”

“Oh I won't kill you.”

Tommy lowers his hands for a moment, confusion set on his face.

“Dream will.”

[magnumdays]

Magnum PI 3.14 - Whispers of Death review

Man, I’m not sure if every episode is just super good in season 3 or if I just had a crazy week and thus lower expectations/ less build up from the promo but dang I enjoyed this one quite a bit! 

I think mostly because of the obvious yet not obvious way they got the Higgy issue with “should I tell E about MI6 or not” bit in there. Like no way was this the focus of the episode but somehow it thematically worked itself in there without it being to in your face while at the same time making total sense to me... (unlike the cheating gal episode where I thought it was a bit of a stretch for Higgy to get guilt feels, but then again my fiancé has never been murdered so what do I know.)

It also gave us the fluffy Miggy ending convo ‘then he’s not the one’ (like come on Higgy, you’re worrying about Ethan being upset you used to be a spy and lied about it while you’re making heart-eyes at your devastatingly sexy business partner? I think your relationships has bigger problems...)

(What? We really like looking at each other... that’s not a crime is it?)

The psychic spying on people was a little bit of a bummer, I’d have loved it if they left just the tiniest bit of a “but how did she know when?” or had said ‘I also saw the airport’ or something. Because that would have been a fun thing to tease Higgy with at the end. Just a tiny little “maybe” there are some things beyond what we understand. I don’t believe in physics but I don’t love the idea of there being nothing exciting and beyond what we understand in the world. And now we’re rambling totally off topic...

But speaking of cosmic connections... this episode features a Swedish guest star (for those of you who don’t know I’m Swedish) and her ex- assassin husband. I’m kinda little bit unsure about the case but I think this is how it went...

Psychic spies on clients with listening devices in crystals (? don’t bugs need to be hooked up to power sources? she should have sold salt lamps if you ask me...) hubby is contacted by some people from his old crime life, and learns a shady female lawyer is going to flip on them and goes “she’ll be dead before X” right after saying his wife isn’t going to be a problem - psychic overhears this and tells Megan, mistakenly having assumed she is the one who is going to be killed but she’s like “no way” and tells hubby about it. Meanwhile psychic lady hires Magnum and Higgins, claiming she has had a vision. In the morning hubby goes and murders the psychic lady. Then comes home as acts totally weird and takes Megan to the airport and tells her he/they have to leave the country. 

No offense Megan but you should maybe start asking some questions rather than just chill in your hotel room like everything is fine and dandy. Maybe call your psychic and discover she’s dead and get a little worried. Just saying...

But hey, when you love someone it’s hard to see them for what they are. And that goes for just normal stuff, not assassins so I guess I’ll let it slide.

I do love that in more of Magnum’s cover stories these days he and Higgy are married. This one they even have fictional kids waiting at home! 

Over all this was a fun and light episode. Maybe it lacked...IDK a little bit of heart. But I think Higgy’s little side issue with Ethan tied in very nicely with the case and that was maybe enough. Still don’t feel like the episode before the finale.

(We didn’t actually have to see Ethan so that’s a big plus.)

Old psychic lady was fun, freaking Higgy out about her and Ethan. That was a real good cold-read (I mean it would have been if it wasn’t scripted TV show...) 

Kumu’s side plot was fine. I wasn’t really that invested in it. I wish they’d have Kumu be a little bit more involved in the heist or her husband, make it more of a ‘we all make mistakes when we’re young’ or something. Or have Gordon have to make a choice about arresting the nephew or not or just something in the present. It’s nice to see Rick and TC being there for her though.

I don’t know, I liked this episode a lot when I watched it and now I feel like I knit-picked a bunch of stuff that’s not really that big of a deal and perhaps like it a little less. But I think I was hoping for a little more psychic stuff. There is so much potential for funny things and maybe I wish they’d have gone for more of that rather than slam-bam-murder and an assassin. 

I guess I’m starting to sound like a broken record but I’d like some less crime-y crime-y cases and more wacky ones like this. Like what if the psychic hadn’t been killed? But they follow the husband and see him acting shady and IDK discovered the psychic lady was listening in on her clients without her being dead. 

Over all though, I liked it and it was good yet I wish it would have been ever greater because it had the potential for it. And we all hate wasted potential. 

Now I just have to be bummed there are 3 whole weeks until the finale! But now I gotta go or I’ll be late to  my almost three weeks late birthday brunch!

[cali-holland]

Golden Bullets, Ch. 6: The Spy Who Loves Me

Harrison Osterfield X Reader, James Bond!AU

Harrison Osterfield, Agent 007, was once the best MI6 agent around with the astounding reputation as a womanizer. Between illegal gold smuggling and black market trading of weapons, he finds himself deeper in his latest mission than intended, weaving himself into a web of the criminal organization, S.P.E.C.T.R.E.. At the center of it all is the one woman who’s never fallen for his charms- you, Agent 006, the best MI6 agent, the new assistant director of the program, and his new partner.

Word Count: 4100

Gif is not mine

Golden Bullets Masterlist

Masterlist   Harrison Osterfield Masterlist

Let me know if you want to be added to the series tag list

Warnings: violence (character death, punching, kicking, brass knuckles, guns, explosions, choking- just everything), swearing, sexual themes

Featured Song: Nobody Does It Better Carly Simon from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

 ~ “But like heaven above me, the spy who loved me is keepin’ all my secrets safe tonight, and nobody does it better, though sometimes I wish someone could, nobody does it quite the way you do, why’d you have to be so good?”

This was also for @spideygirl2003​ ‘s 800 follower writing challenge with the prompt “It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.” (I forgot to add this in the original haha)

~~~

“Kentucky.” You heard Q call out as you stepped out of the hotel bathroom.

“What about Kentucky?” You asked, running a towel over your hair in an attempt to dry it faster. Just an hour ago, Q picked you up from near the river; you two grabbed the flash drive and got a small hotel room for the time being- at a different hotel, of course. After a warm and much needed shower, your body was beginning to feel normal again, and it definitely helped that your arm and wrist were both patched up now.

“That’s where they took 007.” Tom replied as his fingers continued to type away on the laptop before he showed it to you. A GPS satellite image showed a map of the U.S. with a blinking red dot right in Kentucky; zooming in, the satellite shifted to display a farm outside of Louisville. “Turns out Goldfinger’s family owned a stud farm. It’s retired now, but it must be a good location to smuggle gold bullions and super spies.”

“And the flash drive?” You opened your suitcase, taking inventory on your guns, itching to leave and shoot something in Kentucky.

“Almost done. Contrary to what you field agents believe, hacking is a lot of work.” He said, and you looked over at him. Glaring, you cocked one of your guns as if to say “test me”. He held up his hands defensively and you refocused on packing. The room was silent for a moment, before Tom spoke up again, “He’ll be alright. 007’s a tough one to break.”

“I’m not worried about him. I want to kill the bitch that keeps attacking me.” You muttered.

“For a spy, you’re shit at lying.” His words made you freeze, and he continued with a laugh, “I know that look in your eye; you’re worried about him, even if you try to hide it as revenge on Galore. You and Harrison- you’re both independent and badass, but you’re both into each other and are just too much of wimps to say anything about it.”

“I killed a dozen men tonight already. I hardly think I classify as a ‘wimp’.” You used air quotes around his descriptive word choice.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.” Before you could reply, his laptop beeped, signaling he was into the flash drive. “Holy shit.”

“What is it?” You asked, coming to sit beside him to look at the screen. Tom’s eyes trailed over the laptop, taking in the information as he continued to scroll through the files.

“Goldfinger’s planning on blowing up Fort Knox. He’s got the schematics for it and everything right here.”

“How does this connect to S.P.E.C.T.R.E.? And Sciarra? And Le Chiffre?” You questioned, and he began researching more of the files. 

“These are-” Tom started.

“Bank records. This is Le Chiffre’s system.” You explained, recognizing it from your time spent tailing him. “Le Chiffre wasn’t his competition, he was an investor in Goldfinger’s plot- that’s why Goldfinger killed him off.” You got up, hurrying to grab your laptop and opening one of the electronic files M had sent. You sat your laptop down next to his on the table.

“Look.” You pointed to the screen. “M sent me a comprehensive list of all the sniper’s targets this morning.” You and Tom looked between the two lists, spotting how every single one of the targets had their bank account on this flash drive. 

“Goldfinger was scamming them to become the leader of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and bombing Fort Knox would make him the sole supplier of gold, too. It’s like a sick, get-rich-quick scheme.” He shook his head in disbelief.

“We need to stop him from getting to Fort Knox.” You paused, “But Silva isn’t on this list. How was he involved?”

“Tiago Rodriuez is, though.” Tom stated, and you looked at him confused. “Tiago Rodriguez is Raoul Silva’s given name. I bet he found out what they were doing and created this flash drive as protection.”

“There needs to be something else on it. Something that Goldfinger and Galore were terrified of losing.”

“I’ll keep looking, but we need to get going. M got us a private jet, and we have a flight to Kentucky to catch.” He had barely finished his sentence and you were already on your feet, gathering your bags. He looked at you for a moment, a humorous smile on his face.

“Are you just going to sit there or are you coming with me?” You asked.

“You’re so into Harrison.” Tom chuckled in amusement, and you scoffed, rolling your eyes at him.

“I will leave you behind if you say one more word.” You threatened, picking up your bags, and he shut off his laptop.

“If it wasn’t for me, you’d have no idea where 007 is.” He reminded you as he put away his things.

“You act like I wouldn’t hunt down Galore with or without you here.” You stated, opening the hotel room door.

“Trust me, I know you would.”

~~~

Everything was a blur. Harrison blinked repeatedly in an attempt to clear his vision. He heard a voice announce that he was awake, and he was quickly reminded of his last memory: getting drugged by Galore in the Montenegro hotel room. He was sitting rather uncomfortably in a wooden chair, his ankles bound to the chair’s feet and his wrists bound together behind his back. And his mouth was covered by what felt like duct tape, leaving his lips feeling dry. His vision finally cleared up, and he took in his surroundings: three metal doors on three of the dark gray walls and a window behind him on the fourth. There were four armed guards in the room as well as Oddjob and a man in a crisp white suit with gold detailing- Goldfinger, no doubt.

“Oh, how lovely of you to join us, 007.” He said, ripping the duct tape from Harrison’s mouth, but leaving it to tauntingly dangle from his cheek.

“How lovely to meet you, Goldfinger.” Harrison replied, sarcastically. Goldfinger stepped closer as Oddjob came up beside the chair, adjusting the cap on his before tugging a brass knuckle onto his hand.

“You and Agent 006 have certainly been a nuisance.” Goldfinger started, and Harrison cut him off.

“Why, you’re welcome.” The air was swiftly knocked out of him as Oddjob threw a painful punch straight into Harrison’s gut. He held onto the back of the chair with one hand to keep it steady. “You couldn’t have started without the brass knuckle.”

“You stole a very valuable flash drive from Sciarra, who stole it from me. Where is it?” He questioned.

“If it’s so valuable, how did Sciarra end up with it?” Harrison let out another groan, hit with another hard punch.

“Where’s the flash drive?”

“I don’t have it.” He shut his eyes, ready for the next blow, but it never came. Instead, Goldfinger just glared at him, narrowing his eyes in anger and frustration. Harrison noted how stressed he looked, raising his eyebrows at Goldfinger, “What’s on that flash drive? You and I both know you’ll kill me in here, so there’s no need for the secrets. Give me the long-winded villain backstory, I’m itching to hear it.”

That time, he earned a punch from Oddjob. Harrison could already feel the bruises forming as his stomach repeatedly got abused, and he could definitely tell Oddjob had been pulling his first few punches.

“I believe you’re familiar with Raoul Silva? Before you killed him, he hacked his way through my system, froze my accounts, stole information. Now, that drive has the final piece to my masterplan, a neurotoxin so powerful that it can wipe out Fort Knox in its entirety.”

“Fort Knox?” Harrison asked, biting back the smirk on his face. “Steal from the U.S. gold supply, brilliant plan.”

“Not steal. Destroy.” Goldfinger stated, a devilish smile on his face. “Now, where the hell is my flash drive?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” A voice said, stepping into the room. Harrison didn’t even look to know it was Galore. “He doesn’t know where it is.”

As she stepped into the room with a small limp in her step, Harrison got a good look at her face. He could see the bruising on her neck, no doubt from his own chokehold on her during their last encounter, but, judging by the fingernail marks, you’d gotten your hands on her, literally. Her perfectly arched eyebrow was interrupted by a large gash over it, some medical bandages doing their best to cover the fresh wound. He also spotted some dried blood in her hair from a gash to the back of her head, and he felt a small wave of pride wash over him. There was only one person that he knew would have given Galore hell- you. He wasn’t surprised at the fact that you put up an impressive fight against her. That pride though was fleeting and was quickly replaced by worry because, if Galore was here, that meant either you were captured or dead, or you somehow managed to escape her clutches better than he had.

“Get into a cat fight, Pussy?” Harrison asked, a smirk finding its way onto his face. She crossed her arms, pursing her lips in annoyance.

“For Agent Y/L/N being MI6’s assistant director, I thought she would have put up a better fight.” She let out a small sigh, watching how Harrison’s jaw tightened involuntarily. “A pity really.”

“What did you do to her?” He questioned through gritted teeth. She laughed wickedly at his emotional response. Goldfinger and Oddjob stepped backward to let Galore come closer to Harrison. She trailed a 

“Harrison Osterfield, Agent 007- the famed womanizer falling for the maneater. Who would have thought indeed?” She clicked her tongue in sadistic amusement as her nails began to dig into his skin, making him squirm under her. “Oh, I’m sorry, do you not like me calling her that? Funny, she didn’t take a liking to me calling you womanizer either.”

She let go of him, before pulling the duct tape back over his lips. She took a step back, her cold glare never faltering. Goldfinger shook his head, “I would’ve loved to meet Agent 006 and have my way with her.” Harrison couldn;t refrain from letting out an angry breath, his eyes narrowing at the thought of Goldfinger ‘having his way’ with you. He watched as the man in the suit turned back to Galore, “Where did you leave her again?”

“I left the bitch at the bottom of the river.” At her words, Harrison dropped his head down, and Galore let out another cynical laugh. She, along with Goldfinger and Oddjob, froze as they noticed Harrison’s shoulders start to shake. He threw his head back in laughter, the sounds muffled by the duct tape.

“What is he laughing at?” Goldfinger spat, growing suspicious of the agent in front of him.

Before any of them could react, a bullet went racing through the window and straight into one of the guard’s heads. Everyone ducked as another bullet flew into a second guard’s heart- well, Harrison did his best to duck in his chair.

“How did they find us?” Goldfinger questioned, and Galore and Oddjob drew their guns. Galore looked over at the amused Harrison. A third bullet came through, right into another guard, and immediately afterwards, the last guard was taken by another bullet.

“We need to go.” Galore pulled open the door to the left and escaped with Goldfinger. Just as Oddjob pointed his gun at Harrison, the door right in front of them blew off its hinges, sending Oddjob towards the door to the right, which he quickly got up to escape through. Harrison groaned from the sudden explosion, but as the smoke cleared, he saw your figure come through the doorway.

“Wait on the balcony, my ass.” You said immediately, pocketing your gun as you stepped into the room. You ripped off the duct tape from his mouth, giving him no time to prepare for the pain.

“Ow.” He muttered. “Watch the lips, I need those.”

“Oh, do you now?” You replied. You grabbed out a knife from your belt to cut his ankles free.

“Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy these lips.” Harrison teased with a smirk as you reached around him to free his wrists, your face just inches from his. The second his wrists were loose, he untangled himself from the ropes and grabbed your cheeks to kiss you. You couldn’t help the smile that formed on your face as your lips moved against his.

“Moneypenny owes me 50 pounds.” You pulled away from Harrison, hearing Tom’s voice in your ear comms. You sighed, reaching into your pocket to grab one out for Harrison before handing it to him. He quickly put it in his ear, and you handed him a couple guns.

“Do you have to be such a prick?” You asked Tom, moving away from Harrison as you looked out the window, knowing he was in the distance with his sniper.

“‘No, I’m most certainly not into Harrison.’” Tom replied in a ridiculously high pitched voice to mock you. “Are you going to keep standing there or are you going to go after Goldfinger?”

You looked at Harrison, and he cocked his gun, nodding to the door to the left. You slowly opened the door all the way, checking for anyone down the hall, and Harrison quietly spoke up, “When you said those lipsticks were tranq lipsticks, you were serious.”

“Really? That’s how she got you?” You asked with a small laugh as the two of you continued your way down the hall, guns at the ready.

“I was going to use it on her.” He replied. You couldn’t reply before you two turned a corner and saw three more of Goldfinger’s men down the hall, backs to you.

“I’ll get the two on the left.” You whispered.

“Why do you get two of them?” Harrison asked.

“Because I’m a better shot than you.” You said as if it was obvious.

“We both get one on the outside and then it’s whoever gets the middle one first after that.” He offered a compromise and you nodded. The men turned before you two could fire and instantly engaged in a fist fight. As much as you two had discussed who got the third, it wasn’t important anymore as the third guard ran off, most likely to inform Goldfinger of your whereabouts.

Harrison blocked the opposing man’s first punch, but the second hit him in just the right spot in his gut, sending him stumbling back for a moment. Regaining his footing, he gripped his gun and shot at the other man, hitting him in the shoulder. While he staggered in shock and pain, Harrison kicked up right into his face, knocking him backwards onto the ground.

Meanwhile, you dodged the second man’s punches, letting him strike right into the concrete wall. You grabbed his outstretched arm, kicking under his elbow hard enough to break the bone. Then, as he shouted in pain, you jumped down to sweep your feet under his to send him falling backwards. Before you could grab your gun and shoot him, Harrison shot him for you.

“That counts as mine.” You argued as you two continued your journey down the halls.

“But I killed him.”

“Are you two done competing yet? I’ve got a visual on Goldfinger.” Tom said from his perch outside, yards away from the scene.

“Where is he? Which way?” Harrison asked as you both came to a halt with a fork in the road.

“Goldfinger’s to the left.”

“And Galore?” You questioned.

“To the right, up the stairs.”

“I’m going after Galore.” You stated, starting to make your way to the right, but stopped when Harrison’s hand grabbed yours.

“Goldfinger’s the one we need to stop. Leave Galore.” He urged you.

“They’re both heading this entire thing. You get Goldfinger. I’ll get her.” You replied. Seeing the concerned look flash across his features, you smiled, “Look at her and look at me- I can take her.”

“Just kiss and run separate ways already.” Tom’s voice came through the comms and you rolled your eyes.

“I’ve got Galore.” You said, before running off to the right. Harrison looked at your disappearing figure for a moment before taking off to the left.

Once you were up to the second story of the building, you were met with a single long hallway and over a dozen doors. Gripping your gun tightly, you spoke quietly into your comms, “Q, where is she?”

“I can’t tell. My heat map is malfunctioning.” You could hear him messing about on his laptop, trying to get his sniper heat map to work. Slowly, you continued your way down the hallway.

“Here, kitty kitty.” You tauntingly called out. You kicked down the first few doors, checking them for any signs of her.

When you kicked open the fifth door, you heard something shuffle behind you. Before you could turn to take her, Galore used a belt to wrap around your neck. In shock, you dropped your gun, attempting to keep her from fully cutting off your airway. You threw yourself backwards, with her still tightly holding onto the belt behind you, hitting her into the wall. You gasped out, trying to regain your breath as you blindly rammed her into the wall again. On your third attempt, she loosened her grip, giving you the opportunity to grab the belt away from your neck. You kicked yourself up, using the wall in front of you for leverage to twist around and kick her in the head to knock her down.

“You know, I’ve always been more of a dog person.” You breathed out, still trying to regain your breath.

“Bitch.” She spat out, blood coming from her newly broken nose. She grabbed your gun from beside her, aiming it at you. Before she could shoot, you grabbed your second gun and shot her in the shoulder. She dropped your gun as her shoulder began to bleed.

“That’s for 009.” You said, using your foot to press your weight on her wound. You leaned down to grab your other gun, not easing up on the pressure. With her good hand, she tried to hit your foot off her, and you shot her in her other shoulder, stepping harder to the spot you were already on.

“That’s for 007.” You added.

“Let me guess, you’ll shoot me in the heart and that’s for you?” She muttered. You moved your foot to her throat, letting the small heel of your boot dig into her skin.

“Heart? No, head.” You raised an eyebrow at her, before shooting her right between the eyes. You watched as her body fell limp, and you quickly searched her for more guns- surprisingly, she had none, but maybe that’s why she’d been so keen on taking from you.

“Harrison, I’m coming your way.” You announced into your comms, leaving back the way you came.

In the meantime, Harrison had been stalled by more of Goldfinger’s men. At first, it was a game of duck and shoot, but then, as he ran out of bullets, it became a fist fight. He had his eye on the machine gun one of them carried, but he accidentally kicked it down the hall when getting it away from the man’s grip. Eventually, he picked up a gun from one of the men, but with six men coming at him, he didn’t really have to pause and aim properly. He didn’t even hear your call through the comms, too focused on not dying. He did his best- ducking in between two of them so they shot each other, ramming one into the wall, blindly shooting at one as he had the other in a chokehold.

He turned to fight the last man, kicking the gun out of the enemy’s hand but losing his own gun in the process. Harrison blocked the punches and sent some of his own into the man’s jaw and chest. Just as Harrison was about to kick him, the other man beat him to it, kicking him right where it hurt most.

“Fuck, that’s cruel.” Harrison groaned, falling involuntarily to his knees. He braced for a kick or a punch or something, but instead he heard a series of gunshots ring out and the man before him fell to the ground, dead.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing on the ground?” You questioned as you ran down the hallway to his side, abandoned machine gun in hand.

“Praying.” He sarcastically replied. You helped him up and he winced a little.

“Your dick really is your biggest weakness.” You teased.

“Trust me, darling, it’s not.” He stated, picking up a few guns. He noticed the red mark across your neck, clearly from a chokehold, “Where’s Galore?”

“Dead.” You smiled, proudly. “Now, come on, we’ve got to get Goldfinger.”

You and Harrison made your way through the facility in search of Goldfinger, under the watchful eye of Tom that directed you two where to go. When you both finally caught up to him, he was on the helipad, moments from taking off in his helicopter.

“Stop right there, Goldfinger.” Harrison warned, holding his gun up at the ready. Keeping your new machine gun up and your eyes trained on Goldfinger, you slowly stepped sideways, preparing to encircle him. Goldfinger drew his own golden gun, making both of you tense your trigger fingers.

“I think you’re going to let me leave.” He smirked, his eyes trained on Harrison, gun pointed at you.

“No way in hell.” You stated. You stepped forward, almost taunting him to pull the trigger. Before you could take another step, you heard Tom call through the comms.

“It’s a trap. Oddjob’s behind you.” He called out. You turned quickly, ducking behind a few boxes, as Oddjob fired his machine gun. Harrison dove towards you, finding cover beside you.

“Damn it, he’s getting away.” Harrison muttered, watching Goldfinger jump into the helicopter. Meanwhile, Oddjob hadn’t stopped firing at you two.

“Cover me.” You said, and he nodded. You popped up enough to aim your gun at the helicopter pilot, shooting in his direction repeatedly, while Harrison shot at Oddjob. Your shots hit the helicopter just right and you eyed it as it went crashing down on the other side of the building. At the sound and sight of the explosion, Oddjob ran, clutching onto his hat and gun as he disappeared from the helipad.

“We have to go after him.” You stood up from your spot, getting your gun ready for another round.

“You go, I’ll wait here.” Harrison replied, and you looked down at him, confused by his sudden tiredness. It was then that you noticed his hand pressed down on his hip. You crouched back down and slowly removed his hand to see it covered in blood. “Guess we got matching scars after all.”

“Why didn’t you say anything sooner?” You asked, a sudden worry overcoming your voice. You lifted his shirt to inspect the wound, a single golden bullet barely visible in the bloody hole. You removed your jacket, bunching it up to apply pressure to it.

“I didn’t want to worry you.” His voice trembled as his eyelids got heavier. With your free hand, you cupped his face.

“Hey, hey, stay with me. It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.” You reassured him.

“What’s going on with you two?” Tom asked through the comms.

“Harrison’s been shot.” You said, looking down at the growing pool of blood on your jacket and the ground, “He’s losing a lot of blood.”

“I’ve got the ambulance on their way.” He replied.

Harrison reached a hand up to hold onto the wrist of your hand on his face, his thumb gently caressing your skin. “You need to go after Oddjob.”

“I’ll kill him later. I’m not leaving you.” You told him, not budging from your spot.

“You’re my weakness, Y/N.” Harrison said softly.

“Harrison,” You breathed out, a small smile on your face as you looked at your partner. You pressed a kiss to his forehead, “You’re mine too.”

~~~

General Tag List: @viagracex​​​ @theamazingtomholland​ @Hellomoveonby @heyitsshrez @harrisonosterfieldhazmyheart​ @joyleenl​ @t-o-m-holland​ @lonikje​ @sleepybesson​ @sunkisseddreamer​ @holandsamor @in-a-lot-of-fandoms-tbh​

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[katherinemallory]

#9 The spy who kissed me

All the previous chapters of this soap opera can be found here: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8

I've never eaten such an expensive dinner before and I was relieved I didn't have to pay for it. Bond insisted to dine somewhere outside the MI6 Headquarters, so no one could interrupt us, and I willingly agreed. I can't even recall the restaurant's name. All I can remember is his laugh caused by some filthy jokes.

He seemed more enthusiastic than ever, probably because he has just been informed that we would go on a mission together. I could tell the news surprised him, but in a positive way, as if he hoped his predicted scenario would eventually come true. And it seemed to me like it gave him a massive self-confidence boost. At times he has been insufferable, as if he wasn’t too arrogant already... The good thing was that it made him let his guard down, and I used this to my advantage, responding to each of his flirtatious comments.

Not only did I play my part well, but also I enjoyed it. And even though I really intended to improve our friendship (or should I rather call it a relationship?), I considered the fact that I could use Bond to my own ends. It's high time someone has taught this womanizer a lesson... how many women in the SIS alone did he deceive? The list's endless, but he doesn't care at all. He will break any heart without regret as they say, only because he's that *famous* James Bond. Just like that. Why on earth would he be so interested in me? Does he fancy me that much? I don't think so. And even if he does, I thought, it’s likely that he just wants to sleep with me, adding me to his collection. It's your turn, Kath. He deserves this. *You* can use him. On your own terms.

I wasn’t sure who I was anymore. Me as a ruthless adventurer? Such description didn’t suit me at all. But I felt some strange power inside of me, I heard a voice that assured me being heartless for once won't change much in my life.

The truth was, I needed us to look convincing. Not necessarily like a romantically-involved couple, but as passionate lovers. Just in case my plan to get Mallory went wrong, I could always leave the Service after a "whirlwind” affair with James Bond.

Of course I never wanted to leave the Service in the first place, not after I just have been promoted to the double-0 section, not after one of my biggest dreams came true, but... my feelings for Mallory kept getting stronger and stronger every day... until I finally realized I *had* to take chances...

After the dinner both Bond and I went back to the SIS building and visited Q in his "office”. We were given some standard equipment: a brand-new tracking device and cyanide pills. And, of course, we left the meeting armed ("And the guns, just in case. A direct order from M") - me with a Walther P99, and Bond with a Beretta 418.

We examined the guns, while Q kept browsing through some documents on his desk.

“Yeah, I think... That’s all I have for you,” he said, scratching his head.

Bond looked at Q in disapproval.

“That’s all? Not exactly Christmas, is it?”

“Were you expecting an exploding pen? We don’t really go in for that anymore,” remarked Q. “And besides... you won’t need this kind of stuff this time. But the guns are always a good idea. The ones here are the best we’ve got right now... all for our best agents.”

“I love you too, Q,” said Bond with a smirk.

“Oh, don’t mind him, Q,” I dragged in. “He’s unbearable recently,” I added, looking pityingly at Bond.

“I’m afraid he’s always been like that, you just don’t know him long enough, Kath,” replied Q and burst into laughter. “It was great to see you both.”

“Thanks, Q. You’re the best!” I exclaimed when Bond bundled me through the door.

...

We took the elevator and planned our next move. Bond promised to hand me the mission’s files the next day, so he could have enough time to go through them. We would meet in three days’ time at the airport and travel together to Monte Carlo.

I stepped into my office to check the documents I had signed earlier. I also made a call to Eve, as I didn't want to meet her in her office and cause any suspicions about my frequent visits there.

I lied down on the couch next to the window and dialed the Eve’s private number. I preferred to avoid using the SIS phone line.

"Eve... it's Kath. Do you have a minute?"

"Yes, Kath, what is it?" she answered. "You left so quickly... I immediately began to wonder what your gesture did mean..."

"Well... I'm sure you know.”

"Yeah... the thought had occurred to me," Eve chuckled. "I'll see what I can do. But finding out *anything* about *him* is definitely not going to be easy. He’s the most enigmatic man in the Service."

"What’s it to you? I will owe you one if you prove my point," I promised her, trying to sound charming.

"Alright, alright," replied Eve. "You know I’d help you anyway... Listen, you'd better be sure about this... I guess it means you put it all on the line... for him?"

I got lost in my own thoughts for a while, suddenly realizing all the consequences. I stood up, went to the bookcase, and started to read what was written on the books’ covers.

"I guess it does... It's everything or nothing."

It took Eve a moment to respond.

"I will always have your back, Kath... but... You should seriously consider this... it could cost you your career..."

"I know, Eve,” I stammered quietly. “I just can't pretend any longer..."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kath", said Eve. "I've got to go. M needs me. We’ll talk about it later, I promise. Now I have to go."

As soon as I have hanged up, I understood that I had placed myself in a truly risky situation. In the end, I could never get Mallory... but I could easily throw away my future instead. If I was a more rational person I could seduce James Bond and live happily ever after with him as the most dangerous pair of the double-0s you'd ever met.

I've been wondering why M sends us on a mission together. Is that a test for both of us, so Mallory could see if we can cooperate despite being attracted to each other? Does he expect us to reconcile professional and private life? Anyway, I was aware of the fact that whatever happens during this mission, it would have a major impact on both my career and my relationships with Bond and Mallory.

...

I left the office after half an hour. I was standing on the corridor with the keys in my hand, when someone hugged me from behind and kissed me on the neck.

"002 is still at work, huh? What James Bond could do to make her let him... drive her home?" Bond whispered gently into my ear. His voice was smooth and very sexy.

"James," I said, trying to lock the door and free myself from his embrace. "You can't just do this in public. What will people say when they..."

The touch of Bond’s lips made me shiver, as they slowly moved from my neck to the collarbone.

"There’s no one here... and I asked... what he... could do... to make her... let him... drive her... home..." he murmured.

I closed my eyes for a moment. Bond continued to caress my waist and holded onto me. He was so close I could smell his perfume and feel his slightest move.

"Just a few more... um... kissess... and I'm sure she'll agree," I moaned with delight.

I haven’t been entirely honest with Bond. His touch was very pleasant, but not as pleasant as I kept telling him.

“Just be careful and don’t make my shirt wrinkled...”

I opened my eyes and then I've seen Mallory who was watching us from around the corner. He spoke to one of the male double-0s I barely knew. Damn, he looks dashing in this red tie, but I’m sure this man could wear *anything* and would still catch my eye, I thought. He has a pretty good figure for a man at his age... even with his arm in a sling.

"Let go of me, James," I said nervously, trying to turn around. "That was wonderful, but we can't really behave like this... here."

Bond didn’t loosen his grip, sensing the changes in my mood.

“What is it?”

“It’s Mallory,” I huffed. “He’s seen us.”

“So what?” asked Bond when I nailed my eyes on Mallory. “Is he still looking...?” Bond whispered and kissed me on the neck two more times.

I couldn’t stand being watched by Mallory when Bond kept kissing me, so I turned my head to Bond and kissed him on the lips. He was so surprised he allowed me to turn around, and then I finally broke the grip.

“You don’t waste time, do you? Our last meeting wasn’t that... steamy. What business is it of yours, James?”

“I’m your fictional husband, remember? I need to stay in character,” he answered with a smirk on his face.

I rolled my eyes.

“Katherine, didn’t we agree to start from scratch? Let’s say I’m trying to show you my best side... And that includes showing you... a few tricks I know.”

“That’s really impressive,” I replied. “But you’re mistaken if you think I will fall into bed with you in Monte Carlo. Casual flirt isn’t enough to get me,” I assured him, smiling provocatively.

“Is that so? You know what kind of things happen when two attactive agents go on a mission together...”

“I have no idea,” I said, putting my hands in my pockets.

“But you’re dying to find out,” he commented at winked at me.

I shook my head and sighed.

“James, you’re so terrible sometimes...”

“I’ll stop being terrible if you let me drive you home,” he said and took my hands in his. “I promise!”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“So, now you’re blackmailing me?”

Bond squeezed my hands.

“Can I drive you home or not?”

I came closer to him and straightened his tie.

“Sure you can. It seems that I don’t need my own car anymore...”

"Perfect," he said in his deep voice and grabbed me by the hand. “Let’s go!”

"Oh, James. Uhm... I have to get a few things from Amanda’s office,” I lied, as I didn’t want to be seen by Mallory leaving the building with Bond.

"Alright, do it quick. I'll wait for you downstairs,” he leaned in and lowered his voice. “And Katherine... pay no attention to Mallory. I can see what’s going on here... he doesn’t care. The sooner you understand it, the better.”

Damn, I thought. He can be really bossy when he wants someting, and what is even worse, he really wants *someting* from me... He thinks it’s me who deceives myself, but the truth is, he is way more deceived than I am. Over my dead body I’ll forget about Mallory! And I use the word *damn* way too often recently...

"I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I stated and kissed him on the cheek.

“Oh, you do,” said Bond quietly. “You may think he’s a better choice than me... but I will make you mine. You underestimate how much I like a challenge...” he added and gently touched my arm. “Don’t be long,” he whispered.

As soon as Bond has taken the elevator, I saw Mallory walking towards me. The thought of unexpected conversation with my supervisor made me blush, so I quickly turned my back on him, pretending to lock the door to my office. I hoped that he would just pass by.

"002..."

"Sir,” I responded, turning around.

"... why are you still here? You should go home and get some rest before the flight. To get a few days off is a rare occurence in this business."

"I just wanted to make sure I signed all the papers, sir," I replied, staring into his eyes. “I always find it hard to leave this place.”

"It’s totally understandable, but you’ll be back in no time.”

I didn’t say a word, I just smiled mildly and nodded. Mallory tilted his head.

“You wonder *why* I send you and Bond on a mission together, don’t you?”

“Actually I do, sir.“

He bored into me.

“The answer’s simple. You two look like a real, *charming* couple... judging by the way you both *enjoy* to go undercover,” mocked Mallory.

“Oh, but it only looks that way, sir,” I replied nervously. “We make some effort to look the part. It’s easier this way.”

“I’m sure it is,” Mallory commented curtly. “But the thing is that fictional husbands don’t have to always behave like gentlemen,” he added and looked at my wrinkled collar.

I got embarassed after he had said that.

“Go home, Katherine, you deserve to rest,” he said calmly. “Good luck.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said, watching him turn around and walking down the corridor.

I looked at my wristwatch. It’s time to go, Bond waits for me... but first I have to calm down a bit, I thought. I felt my heart racing in my chest. It seems that Bond’s kisses can’t make me feel even half of those things that a short conversation with Mallory can... but it doesn’t mean the current state of affairs will last forever. It’s something I know all too well.

Monte Carlo, here I come.

***

To be continued.

[guigz1-coldwar]

'A voice in my head': New chapter for "Always for the greater cause..." is out!

Chapter Summary: While a relationship was seen to be born between Wraith & Bell, the former is struggling with how things happened while for Bell, her curiosity causes her to know more...

To read it on AO3, click here!

Taglist: @snowgoldwaylon , @clxudtea , @efingart

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2nd March 1981, 21H32 PM PDT

Freya 'Wraith' Helvig, Ex-NIS, Perseus

Coming back to the Perseus safehouse 'Hidden Angel', north of Los Angeles

What...what did I do wrong? What happened really? Was I a bit...too much tactile towards her? Maybe...yes, I was. I managed to get her on a perfect spot away from the others & the safehouse where I could declare my feelings towards her, and then, we kissed, it was amazing, to be honest, but I think I did go too far in my moves as if I was literally burning the own steps I put myself for a relationship like that and because of it, she got scared and walked away from the scene, leaving me alone in a bit of a shock.

It took me almost 5 minutes to gather back my thoughts to understand what happened before I could leave this wooden pier and this lake, taking the dirt path to get back to the safehouse, my wonders about what could have crossed inside her head at this moment to do this...did she see something that she isn't supposed to see? Was it her past? It has to be, she's looking very different for some days now and we might need to know what she's thinking...she's special...

When I came back to the safehouse, I thought that Bell would be here but instead, the only person that was here is Bellamy himself, just next to the safehouse main door, his back leaned against the wall & smoking a cigarette...

"Wraith," He called me out once I was at his sight. "You're okay?" He demanded, looking at my questioning face as I was arriving near him.

"Maybe," I muttered, stopping in my moves to get inside the safe house with the idea that a talk could be necessary with him.

"That...isn't an answer for me," He objected, taking the cigarette off his lips to get it between his fingers. "Something bad happened, right?" He supposed and I could either shake my head or nod it but instead, I shrug.

"Yes & no," I replied to him, unsure to tell him what happened before I resigns myself to do so. "We...I kissed Bell if you want to know," I revealed and the first thing I saw in him was to get his eyes wide open, looking surprised on his face by that. "But it didn't end well," I finally added.

"Wait, how can a kiss end badly?" He asked me, his voice adding to his surprise

"Let's just say that I did try to burn some steps..." I started, looking down at my feet in a bit of shame. "...And she was scared about this so she left, like what? 5 minutes ago," I resumed myself, sounding a bit bad for what I did.

"I thought that you were an expert on..." He wanted to say before I could give him a deadly glare, his words not going to help if he continues in this path. "Never mind," He mumbled, putting his cigarette back between his lips, keeping his fingers near it. "She came back here but she went directly in her room," He told me, giving me where's Bell at the moment.

"How did she was?" I questioned him.

"Wasn't looking great, I wasn't willing to know why, not wanting to have the same thing as Knight," He responded, blowing some smoke out of his mouth away from me. "Talking about Knight, he went into town, an acquaintance who wanted to see him personally," He added to his words, changing the subject.

"Who?" I demanded, deciding to get along that little change.

"I don't know, he didn't tell me," He said, shaking his head at me for this.

"Must be Aldrich asking for him," I presumed and Bellamy shrug at this, maybe thinking the same thing as me. "Anyway, I guess that's the end of the day for me," I thought to myself and was ready to leave Bellamy alone to get to my room before he stops me in my walk, putting a hand in front of me.

"Wait, got something for you," He told me, reaching his other hand inside his jacket and revealing a file that he was having on him. "Liliya sent this minutes ago," He explained, handing me over the file and I took it in my hands, seeing on it, the very own MI6 emblem.

"MI6?" I whispered, opening the file to check it closely.

"You said that you wanted a better look on Helen Park, guess that you got served," Bellamy reminded me as my eyes were crossing through the multiple lines inside the file, describing perfectly who is Helen Park for me. "You're seeing with who she is," He pointed out with his left hand inside the file, especially on a picture where I could see Park and...

"Bell," I muttered, seeing her standing right next to Park, Bell's right arm behind Park.

"I suppose that the two are...very closely," Bellamy supposed and for me, one of my fear came to life with that picture in my hand.

"Shit, Bell's remembering her, she must have something that makes her reminding of Park," I suggested, holding the file widely open, looking at Bellamy for an answer from him. "That wasn't supposed to happen with MK-Ultra,"

"I ain't the one with the answers here, Wraith," He commented, sounding right as he was. "You're the one with Stitch, Aldrich & Naga to fuck up her brain, you're the ones that can answer that question;" He insisted, still sounding right in his voice as I was understanding his meaning. "I'm just the guy that's giving her the needed dose & drugs, nothing else," He implied.

"You got to help me with something to make Park a real enemy to..."

"And adding to that, you want me to participate in that fucked up plan?" He cut me in harshly, his cigarette dropping out of his lips. "I'm already posing as her old best friend and even if I'm not liking it, I'm not going to get myself involved to mess with her brain," He asserted as I closes the file in my hands. "You fucked up her brain, that's your problem, not mine,"

"Bellamy, you got to help me for that case," I repeated as he removes himself from the wall, giving me this time, a deadly glare.

"Your shit, your problem," He said again, pointing his finger over the file between my hands. "Deal with that case yourself, you fell in love, so do it yourself," He directed before he starts to get away from me to enter the safe house.

"I'm not in love, Bellamy," I told him, making him stop in his moves to turn around and look at me.

"Oh?" He scoffed, going back to face me with a face that could say that none of my words was true. "If you weren't in love, why would ask me to make Bell hate her MI6 girlfriend?" He asked me and I thought I could answer but nothing comes out of my mouth to tell it. "You're in love,"

"No, I'm not," I insisted to him, trying to get my voice back to a normal tone and better than Bellamy. "I'm only doing this to make sure that she isn't thinking of her anymore,"

"Sure, isn't something that was saying that you want her only for you?" Bellamy presumed in a questioning tone, looking very assertive in this conversation we're doing. "See? You got obsessed by her, just by asking me, I know that you want to keep her only for you," He added again.

"No, I..." I tried to say before Bellamy shook his head, making me stop in my words.

"I'm maybe working against the West but I'll not help you on that case, you messed up with her brain, you're dealing with it," He repeated in a determined tone, making a little poke in the front of my left shoulder and now, I could have maybe hit him back but not here. "This conversation is done, Wraith," He announced before he turns around again to head inside the safehouse leaving me alone outside with that file.

I couldn't bring myself to understand what just happened with Bellamy but he wasn't sounding very good towards me and that was a first, even I couldn't get a bit angry against him as if the event with Bell caused me to change a bit. I went back inside the safehouse to see that Bellamy already left to get to his bedroom as the only light that was on was the one near my desk on the dashboard where I walked to.

When I reached it, my curiosity make me look back at the file that he gave me about Helen Park and each time my eyes were looking at her picture, the more I was starting to hate her, a feeling that I wasn't understanding but I was hating her. I put the file back on my desk before I move in front of the dashboard, looking up at the picture of the CIA's team until my eyes blocked at Park's picture sight...impossible to remove them as a sign of hate was coming up on my face to see it...

"I don't know why but I hate you...and I'll kill you,"

---------------------------------------------

3rd March 1981, 00H01 PM PDT

Yirina 'Bell' Grigoriev, Ex-KGB, Perseus

Bell's bedroom in the Perseus safehouse "Hidden Angel", Los Angeles, USA

I couldn't sleep at the moment and the only thing that I could do was to keep my eyes open, feeling a bit...disturbed & confused about a lot of things, I was loving Freya but there's sort of something that was blocking me, something that is trying to say something to me...something that I can't understand. Because of it, I forced myself to not close my eyes since I came back here, going straight inside my bedroom and get up on my bed, trying to think of something else than all of this but it wasn't working, I was still thinking about everything at the moment.

It was midnight passed, I stayed more than 2 and a half hours to stay focus on not shutting down my eyes, seeming also scared to sleep and face another weird dream in my head but as the minutes were passing, there were like a thing that got me into waking up from my bed, my curiosity getting high on that particular subject of this...Helen Park, seeing that face again in a few flashes...even having one when Freya's lips were on mine...why that person was appearing in my head...something's wrong and I needed to know why...that question must be answered now.

As I was already dressed up, I got up from the bed and decides to get out of my room, checking first that there was no one up at this moment in the little hallway before I got in it, making very silent steps to reach the door separating me from the main room. No one was up at the moment when I peeked my head to look inside the main room, all the little lights were shut off with only the moon's light enlightening the room, allowing me to get into it and walk towards the dashboard.

Once I arrived in front of it, the first thing that got my eyes' attention was that picture of that Park and the more I was looking at it, the more her face was coming like flashes in front of my eyes, making me look away from the dashboard with a bit of a struggle about that, still seeing her face before I suddenly got attracted by something that was on the desk near me, the one that Freya's using and that thing was labeled with an MI6 emblem on it...

"MI6?" I whispered, curious & confused to see a file like this and I was getting to put my hand over it before suddenly, I starts to hear something inside of my head...something that was...louder...a voice...multiples voices inside of my head...

"You're not yourself,"

"They're lying to you!"

"Don't trust Stitch!"

"You need to come back!"

"They're lying....lying...lying..."

"Who...what...who's lying?" I demanded like that, sounding very low as my hand was trying to grab the file to read it as I was trying to wonder who could be that voice that was sounding more different than the other voice that I have been hearing for some time. "Who's lying?" I repeated, taking the file in my hand...

"They're using you!"

"You're not what you're supposed to be!"

"You need to come back!"

"Don't trust them!"

"Stop," I whispered, the voice continuing inside my head and struggling with it as I managed to open up the file and take a look at it, discovering who is this Helen Park and why I was seeing her...until..."What the fuck?" I was shocked when I saw a picture of her....with none other than....me?....me?...with her?

"This is the truth!"

"They're lying, come back home!"

"You're used by them, it's all lies!"

"You need to resist, they're lying to you!"

"They're lying to you, they're lying to you...lying to you!"

"No, no, no, no...no!" The shock of seeing myself in that file with her and that voice in my head caused me to drop the file on the ground, my hands trembling about it and...I don't know what's happening to me but I wasn't feeling really great now.

I wasn't well...and I needed to come back into my bedroom, trying to figure out what the fuck did I just see, why was I with that Park on that picture, seeing myself with my right arm behind her? Why? Why do I still have her face coming in front of my eyes like that? Why do I...know her? All of these questions continues to flow inside my head as I got back inside my room, falling down in my bed and trying to understand what's going on...what's going on in my head, was it a dream I was making?

It has to be a dream, what's happening to me?

[uservillanelle]

Killing Eve ― 3x01 (Review)

I didn’t rush to write this review right after the episode, as I sometimes need to rewatch the episode several times to actually appreciate it and spot a thing or two. I know, everybody’s writing these, their thoughts, so I’m sorry if some of them will be repetitive, but I do want to get my thoughts out! Soo shall we get to it?

Dasha

What is interesting to me is that they chose this flashback of Dasha being a gymnast in her early age as the very first scene of the episode. And let’s not forget, it is the first scene of the entire season, meaning it has to be very important one. I don’t think they brought her in just to play Villanelle’s next handler. She was her mentor before, which makes it a lot more personal to both of them. There’s more to her, I’m sure. So far I’m loving the dynamic between her and Villanelle. There’s this... old-friends reunited kind of vibe, but then again, they can be laughing one moment and trying to choke each other to death the next. In this aspect they are very similar. 

That brings me to Dasha’s killing style. It is unique, something we haven’t seen in the show before. It can only mean competition to Villanelle. And she’s so confident that her work is better than Dasha’s. Not only does she say it to Dasha, but later on copy her style during the spice kill ― which, by the way, I think is very underrated. 

Villanelle had to ask Dasha about her part of the deal, twice. Then she brought up the possibility of going back home ― back to Russia. It might be true, but I don’t think that’s everything she was promised. And it’s one more reason for us to keep watching to find out, hm?

The Wedding

All I can say about the wedding is ― WOW. I was looking forward to it and it didn’t disappoint. Actually, it’s the best part of the episode for me. Many people have said that it was ‘waste of potential’; ‘they only did it to set up a meeting with Dasha’; but really. I don’t think we would’ve gotten the Villanelle wedding in any other circumstance. Like, think about it. A wedding is not something Villanelle would normally do, right? She doesn’t care about such things, yet in this case she does it. Yes, she LOVES a good show and attention as well as being rich and have everything she ever wanted including having the power and control of it all. And since she’s getting over Eve, why not find another woman and marry her to prove to everyone and to herself, that she is totally over the Asian woman with amazing hair? She’s extra like that and I love it. And don’t get me started on the tuxedo blazer AND black tulle ruffle top. She wore THAT for her own wedding. Just thinking about it makes me want to go feral. 

Mooving on, the irony of Villanelle not only bringing up Eve during her wedding speech, but saying she is ‘so much happier now she’s dead’ while immedially afterwards glancing around the place almost as if she’s expecting to see Eve. She hopes she’s there... and it makes me wonder, what if Eve actually was there? What if she somehow made it to Villanelle’s wedding and just... can you imagine? What their interaction would look like? Plus having MARIA there the entire time and the guests? Damn. 

Then there’s casual Villanelle simply enjoying her wedding cake, because why the hell not? And on top of that ignoring her new wife during the dance. I mean... this is SUCH Villanelle thing to do. She couldn’t care any less. Then again we are reminded of how awkward/uncomfortable she could get around people when she’s being.. more or less herself. I haven’t seen her like that for a hot minute. She has always been brilliant in slipping into other groups of people, pretending to be a part of a conversation, it never really was an issue for her. Yet this time she’s not really pretending to be someone else. She is Villanelle and yes, she is awkward. I love that we got to see that bit. 

And of course... it wouldn’t be Villanelle’s wedding if there wasn’t a fight involved. Why not start a fight herself? It’s exactly what she did and having Dasha show up only highlighted the wedding scene even more. It wasn’t all about Dasha being there, it was about Villanelle trying to prove to herself that she’s finally moving on and I, personaly, needed that. It’s a shame the wedding scene ended so quickly, I mean we could’ve gotten a kiss or two, since it’s a damn wedding! Though I’m still really glad we got to see it. We actually got to steal a glance at Villanelle’s wedding. That sounds so surreal on itself. Are we sure they didn’t take this from any of the fanfics? 

Carolyn

(warning: possible spoilers/predictions ahead)

She’s still a very shady lady. Carolyn must be the most mysterious character on the show, based on how little we know about her, her work and her family. I’m glad that someone is finally confronting her about the previous operation in Rome. What’s even better ― Hugo sued MI6 and he has EVERY right to do so. The entire mission was a blood bath and someone has to answer for it. Yet, despite given circumstances, Carolyn remains completely still during all the accusations she has received and even refuses to apologize during her conversation with Kenny. None of the previous events that took place seem to be valuable and important enough for her. And that makes me wonder.. that maybe the Twelve ordered Kenny’s death to stop any further unofficial investigations AND to punish Carolyn, because Kenny’s all she has, right?

Well, now they will be bringing up Carolyns daughter ― Geraldine. Up to this point we knew that Kenny was Carolyn’s only child, but since he’s gone now, there has to be someone else related to Carolyn and we got Geraldine. From what we know now, they do not have a great relationship which makes me even more excited to see them interacting. 

Since the Twelve put a hit on Kenny... I’m starting to think that maybe Carolyn is next on their list, and possibly Konstantin. In S3 trailer we got a quick shot of Carolyn in a car with a driver. And there’s Villanelle, pretending to be a police officer, chasing someone down. If I’m correct, Villanelle will come after Carolyn and will try to assassinate her. Now why would Villanelle try to kill Carolyn? Either she will find out something related to Eve and Carolyn being involved, maybe wanting to take revenge? It’s not very likely is it? But the Twelve deiciding to take out Carolyn, and Villanelle doing the job sounds more like it. At least to me.

Eve

First off... the scene in the store is not only the first scene of Eve we see in this episode, but it shows exactly where she is right now. Where her mind is, how she’s dealing with everything around her. Cearly, she’s done with everything, running on auto-pilot for the most part of it. She’s one huge mood. Eve really must be the most relatable character for us as viewers. If something like this happened to us... we would basically be Eve. 

It’s been 6 months and that’s the Eve we see. She’s struggling. And she should be. She almost died and now everything seems to be reminding her of Villanelle. The song in the store, the cashier’s talking about spaghtetti and Rome?! Then the other cooks at the restaurant talking about one of their’s crush and how it started with infatuation and now it’s love. Everything about it screams Villanelle. We know it. Eve knows it. And most importantly... the SCAR itself. No matter where she goes, what she does... she won’t be able to erase Villanelle. She has been scarred for life and so was Villanelle and guys... that is just so brilliant. They are meant for one another and that’s a fact. Either they will end up together (hopefully) and somehow manage to create some kind of future together or they will die together. Either way.. they can’t hide from one another and that makes their next meeting so... so special and important and intense and all of the other things. I simply cannot wait.

Knowing how the episode ended, I didn’t think I’d appreciate Eve and Kenny’s scene together so much. It’s so deep and sincere and reveals a lot about what happened and where they are separately and together. I’m glad their first and last interaction this season was a light, positive one. They even talked about getting beers at the office during weekends. And knowing that.. Kenny was basically the only person who understood Eve and where she’s coming from, his death is exactly what can and WILL push Eve forward in investigating the Twelve and eventually reuniting with Villanelle. Back to S1, when Bill was killed, Eve was so determined to catch Villanelle and ‘kill her with her bare hands’ that no one seemed to be able to stop her. So this time... will be similar to it, if not even greater. 

Villanelle

Soo... Oksana wants to be a Keeper. Oksana the Keeper! It actually makes sense to some extent, that she will eventually want to get a ‘higher’ position in the industry and why not be the Keeper then. She has always wanted power and control and Keepers have that. They hold valuable information about the organisation that no one else knows. It’s a very important and dangerous position too. I can see why she’d want to be a Keeper, and not only that... she is still curious about who is in charge. How the whole system works. Though, at the same time.. knowing Villanelle, this might get tricky. She’s still very childish and impulsive and all other things.. she still needs to be handled by someone. That’s why I’m a bit concerned that if she ends up becoming a Keeper or having to handle other assassins (which she will, in next episode), things will go terribly wrong. I hope I’m wrong about this, because god, do I want to see Villanelle as a Keeper and continue being the top boss bitch in the industry.

Her confidence continues to fascinate me. Especially her confidence around Dasha. She knows she’s better than her and that’s all there is to it. Not only she says it but she proves that by her first kill this season. I honestly can’t wait to see her future kills, because so far it looks very promising.

Konstantin

Only a couple of scenes of the show’s dad this episode. Apparently he has several phones which he is struggling to deal with. He’s living several lives and that shows. In S2 he was all determined to get back to his family. But what we see in this episode is that he’s not with his family anymore. He’s working again. And based on Irina’s voice mail, he and his wife are separated. His wife has a boyfriend now and Irina is there with them. (I hope they will bring her back, what an iconic, hilarious yet annoying child) 

Konstantin receives several shady messages, one of which reads “time to go fishing”. It can mean literally anything. But for some reason I’m feeling that they want us to think he had something to do with Kenny’s death. It could be him, it could be an assassin Konstantin is handling right now. Or it’s not him at all, but we believe it’s him based of what we saw so far. Too many questions and not enough answers so far. 

He was the Twelve’s target back in S1 and had to stay low during S2 as a “dead man” so now.. I’m not really sure what his status is. Some of us saw the leaked photos of S3 finale and what might possibly happen... and that just brings me back to my previous point of Carolyn and Konstantin being the Twelve’s targets this season. Will they survive? And if they do... how? If they don’t... does that mean Villanelle and Eve will now be completely by their own and possibly on a run from the Twelve?!

Kenny

There’s not really much to say here. We ALL loved our dear Kenny. He’s probably the most innocent character on the show and he had to go. Now, I don’t believe his death was done for shock value. Not his character. A huge, meaningful character had to die in order for the rest of characters to get moving. For the entire story to move forward. They are setting up a serious plot here and I am excited, despite being really upset about Kenny’s death. 

I think Eve will be the mostly affected character in the show by his death. Carolyn doesn’t seem to be very affectonate towards her son, but hopefully it will make her realize just how big of a trouble she in. Eve, however, will be forced to get back to investigate the Twelve and she will not stop until she does so. She’s all by herself now. The determination, the anger as well as other feelings will drive her this season to get the much needed answers and get to the bottom of the whole thing. Meanwhile... Villanelle seeks information and control as well. She is trying to investigate the Twelve in her own way. So why not pair them up?

Overall thoughts

As many have said it, the episode felt different to me as well. I think that’s mostly because we have set our standards so high, that we immediately become disappointed if the episode doesn’t deliver as much murder, Eve/Villanelle scenes or something else we might be expecting in particular. 

I found myself wanting to compare the episode with other seasons and that is a mistake. We shouldn’t be comparing it because previous season had different plot, the overall feeling was different and the characters weren’t as developed as they are now. Furthermore, the show runner changes each season and that is what we need to look at. Phoebe and Emerald have done incedible job during those first two seasons but now it’s Suzanne’s time to shine. All three of them are different people and have different ideas and views as to how they see the characters and where they want to take them. So I think we might need to “forget” the previous two seasons and be way more open minded when it comes to third season. After all it’s the most personal one and it has a different feel to it. It’s more serious, and it is setting up an actual plot for the series. It’s a good thing. And as much as we hate changes like these... I think we should embrace them this time and let the show go in the direction it is going without the need to criticize it or control it. 

I’m beyond excited to see how everything will unfold and where this season will take us. Based on all the trailers and interviews I’ve seen so far... this will be a one helld of a ride and I am NOT prepared for it!

If any of you reached this point, you seriously deserve an applause! Hopeuflly you enjoyed reading my nonsense lol! Let me know if you’d like me to write a review for the next episode, because I do have plans for writing for the entire season, but it’s always better when I have an audience to write for! 

Now if you have any theories or thoughts don’t be shy to comment or message me so we could chat about it! I’d love nothing more than a good conversation about the show we have a common obsession for! 

[dyke-remy]

Live And Let Die, part 4

Part 1    Part 2    Part 3   Part 5   Part 6

Description: Agent 008 and Agent 009, professional spies for the MI6 with liscense to kill. Partners in both work and love. After an agent goes missing the partners have to once more go out into the field. (It’s a James Bond AU)

You don’t need to know anything about James Bond to be able to read this fic, trust me

Note: If anyone tags this as r/mr/m I will hunt them for sport

Words: 4853

6 years ago

Remus looked out of the car window. He felt like he wasn't supposed to be here. This was the wrong place. The wrong time. Maybe he should make the car turn around.

"You still here bro?"

A hand landed on Remus' shoulder making him jump in his seat. He looked over to the driver. To Roman.

His brother sent him a smile before looking back at the road "Seriously you good? You looked like you were going to mars"

"Just kinda zoning out" Remus replied.

"You took your meds right? I don't want you nearly getting us killed because you were too busy daydreaming about Beetlejuice again"

"He's the man of my dreams Ro-bro!!!.....and yes I have taken them"

"Re-Re I gotta get you a date once we get back. I can Not let Beetlejuice be your standard of men!"  Roman playfully poked his elbow into his ribs "Hey that new Q assistant has been staring at us even since they read our files. I'm sure all it'll take is asking them out and they'll fall head over heels for you"

"They would probably only be interested 'cause of dad" Remus muttered out while crossing his arms "It's always like that. Either that or 'cause of mom"

"At least It's definitely not because of your horribly ugly monster you call a mustache" Roman got a bonk on the head for that.

"Whatever. You go and get yet anotha fling once we get home why dont you. One day you're either gonna get cannibalised or get syphilis. Or both!!!"

Roman let out a gasp "I am far too clean and princely to get syphilis you dirty heathen!!!" He smacked his brother with one arm while driving with the other.

Remus smacked him back "No-oh. Syphilis and gonorre and some weird blue stuff!!"

The smacking got more intense and the prince's gasps and shrieks of defence even louder and nasalier with every sex joke. Until he finally stood on the brakes. The car stopped so suddenly Remus had to hold himself back from flying out the windshield.

"We're here" He simply stated.

Remus let out an overly extra breathe of relief "Finally! Thought my skin was gonna rot off my bones before we got here!"

Roman leaned back and took out his usual weapons from the box sitting in the backseat while continuing to talk.

"Remember: this is a serious mission! Not just some ol' dragon we gotta arrest. Army of fire breathing dragon witches levels of serious. No unnecessary fighting and absolutely no inspecting dead bodies!!"

"You know I can't promise that" Remus replied while stuffing the biggest handgun he'd been able to get his hands (heh) on into the holster stuck onto the side of his waist.

"I know far too frick fracking well"

"PLEase just say fuck!"

"No. Fuck you!!"

They got out of the car. Their feet sank down into the sand the moment they stepped off the gravel road. For dozens of miles around them there was nothing but them, sand and a few even sandier hills.

And of course the statue. That goshdarn statue.

Enfuel, a company with ties to both energy and oil distrubution, had recently bought this random piece of land in the middle of the desert. A statue was placed in the middle of it a year or so later. It looked similar to one of the old egyptic statues and when they looked up information about it all sites said it had been around for hundreds of years. Of course MI6 had satellite pictures to show otherwise.

MI6 had been keeping check on Enfuel for a while. An anonymous worker had been selling them information for months. Even without the leaked information the vast buying of land and spikes of Enfuel employees dying in 'accidents' was enough to rise suspicion.

The agents made their way towards the statue. Guns ready in their hands. No one was around. It was a large one. Over 20 feet wide and at least 15 feet high.

Roman hunched down in the shade from the statue and took out a mechanical gadget he'd gotten from Q. It was a scanner. He placed it on the ground and activated it.

"And now we wait"

"Time to rant and or infodump?" Remus asked.

"Yes but not from you. You got to infodump the last time. It is my time to rant to kill time on a mission!"

He rolled his eyes "Yeah sure go ahead"

His brother instantly went on a long rant about the local theater production he'd landed a role in. It was the first time he'd ever acted. Aside from exercising and his special interest (disney) the theater was the first time he'd ever had a real hobby. His (now ex) boyfriend had been the one to take him to audition after introducing him to (and accidentally making him instantly hyperfixate on) musicals.

"And I just can't wait to-"

He stopped midsentence when the machine made a sound. He was still happy stimming as he checked it.

"Holy zeus" He gasped out.

He showed it to Remus. The scanner had created a blueprint of everything within a 10 feet radius. It clearly showed that there was something built under the ground. There was also an entrance built into the statue.

Remus went over and clicked on a specific point on the statue like the blueprint showed. A keypad appeared. They sent a photo of it to Q. Within minutes he'd somehow been able to come up with the correct code.

He put in the code and a hidden door nearly obscured between two pillars opened up. The brother sent each other excited smiles before entering.

There was a short staircase that led down into a corridor. The walls looked like something they'd find in a mourge and the dim lights shone a cold blue. Roman buttoned up the shirt he had on that was supposed to look like the uniform many Enfuel employees wore.

"Sure doesn't look ancient" Remus muttered.

It was practically a maze of corridors and rooms. Everywhere that cold blue light was the same. None of the rooms they passed seemed to have any important information in them. Having a secret facility wasn't enough for an investigation! It was just aesthetic as fuck!

They aimleesly stumbled around for at least half an hour as they got to the parts the blueprints hadn't showed. They probably walked in circles a few times too. Roman was about to suggest they call up Q when he saw guards, armed guards, out of the corner of his eyes.

He threw out his arm to stop Remus and dragged him back to hide behind a wall. He peeked out and saw how the 2 guards were staying outside a door.

"Bingo" He whispered. He turned to his twin "Wherever there are guards are the important things"

"The juicy secrets!" Remus agreed.

The brothers got out from their hidingspot at the same time. They tried to look casual while walking up to the guards. Right when one of the guards moved to stop them, to ask who they were, Roman took out his gun and shot them in the knee.

Remus elbowed the other guard right between his ribs before pulling his arm around the guard's neck. It didn't take long before he let the guard collapse onto the ground after choking him to unconsciousness.

The other guard feeble sat on the ground with their hands pressed to the wound on their knee. Roman held his gun to their head "Give us the key to the room"

They didn't even hesitate to throw the key over to Remus. They looked up at Roman with pleading eyes. With one swift kick they too laid on the ground knocked out.

The brothers pushed the guards to a good hiding spot in silence. The door opened reveleaing a quite small room but it was filled with computers, databases and of course at least 10 people working on those computers.

All it took was Roman holding up his gun to one of them to make the others freeze in fear. It was very clear that they were just doing their job so Remus tried to go as nice on them as possible when he knocked them out.

"Remind me to request instant sleeping pills from Q" He said after the last one laid still on the ground.

"Noted" Roman replied while barricading the door so no one could get in.

Remus glared at the computer with the biggest screen. He tried to read what was on it but only got a headache and some scattered words. Roman gently pushed him aside.

"It's probably better if I try to find what these guys are up to and you stand guard. Please try to not let me get shot"

"I'll do my worst! Maybe I'll even shoot you myself!" Remus joked.

He looked through the room while hearing Roman mumbling to Q about decoding and taking down firewalls. It didn't take long to realize there was actually a second door in the room. He wasn't sure where it lead but decided to barricade it as well.

"You're still free on Saturday right?" Roman suddenly asked while waiting for Q to hack into the database for him.

Remus rolled his eyes "Nah dude I suddenly got loads of friends and we're all gonna go raid a cemetery and create a zombie army. Supa busy that day sorry"

"Ha Ha" He let out druly "Well the new mission impossible movie is coming out so I kinda thought we could go see it. Y'know cinema caturday like we used to do"

"Oh yeah using our free time away from our spy work to watch a spy movie. Real smart decision Ro-bro"

"It can some other movie! I just wanted to do something" Roman slumped back against the desk so he was leaning on it "I know I've been kinda busy like whenever we're not on missions with the whole theater work-"

"Kinda?!" Remus let out a scratchy laugh "Bro you've been going to that theater like you'll turn to dust if you're not there all the time"

Roman plucked at the green bead bracelet on his wrist "Well it's exciting! I never really thought I could wokr with anything that didn't involve fighting or smugling. It's...nice..getting to do something else. I can't wait until it's time for the premiere and I'll actually get to hear the audience"

"Let's just hope no villain decides to try and take over the world during your perfomance nights" Remus joked. Roman's expression went from excitement to worry "Ro-bro I was kidding. I'm sure if anything happens I can just go with 0012 or something- or I mean like I'll come see you of course I just- It'll be chill!"

There came a silence. There always came a silence after talking about the theater thing. Spending an entire childhood learning about jewel smuggling, self defense and the innerworks of crime made any kind of work that didn't involve any of those shocking enough to warrant silence. Especially after it was Roman's idea to start working at the MI6 as soon as they moved away from their mom and the floating palace at 18.

He'd wanted to be a hero. Remus had just wanted to stay close with his brother.

"But yeah I guess I'm free on Saturday if you wanna go see that movie or whatever" Remus muttered while glancing over to his brother "More surprised that you're not busy honestly"

"Oh I was! Some friends from the theater heard I would get back from 'work' soon and wanted to hang out and I still got that guy who wants to go on a date with me as soon as possible and some guys from the Q branch asked me to test some gadgets for them. But I made sure to clear time in case you said yes" Roman replied with a smile.

"That's....That's....Ro-bro you're a sappy dork you know that right?"

"Of course! That's part of my everlasting and undying charm!"

The conversation was forcibly stopped as Q announced that the code was cracked. Roman flapped his hands in excitement to see the movie, Remus flapped back. They both turned back to what they were doing.

The duke to his surprise noticed a small crack in the wall right next to the door. He couldn't stop his curiosity from taking the better of him and looking through.

On the other side was a big room. There was a long dinner table in the middle with excessive amounts of expensive food on it. There were crystal candelabras hanging from the ceiling. The walls were white just like the floor but there were old paintings decorating the walls.

Most importantly there were 4 people in it. 3 men who looked to be at least 40. All of them were wearing suits but one of them was sitting in a chair by the luxurious table in a glistening dark purple suit. The other two were standing by the table with briefcases gripped in their shaking hands. Remus could see the sweat from nervousness dripping down their neck all the way from where he stood.

Last and least was the fourth person. A young boy, he was at the most 9 years old, sat on another chair by the table. He was holding the hand of the older man. His eyes were hidden by his hair and he had a large hoodie on.

"-So even though there has been someone selling important information about my company you two are 100% certaint that neither of you have destroyed my trust?" The man clad in purple asked.

The two men quickly shook their head. The purple clad man, who happened to be the leader of the Enfuel company, shone up into a wide grin. It was too wide. Too eerie. Not happy. Just sinister.

"How wonderful! I knew I could trust you both!" The leader took out a gun and shot one of the men in the leg.

He fell down on the ground and writhed in pain. The young boy let out a scream and flinched away. The other man bolted for the closest door which instantly made Remus take out a knife and get ready to defend Roman. But before he could get anywhere the leader had pressed a button on his chair which made all doors lock.

"I heard that the MI6 were on to us because of you fools running your mouths" The leader said while standing up. Remus nearly chuckled at how right he was.

The shot man simply cried while the other got down on his knees and begged "Please please I'll do anything. I have a family. I have 2 kids. I can- please don't kill me"

"How funny, I have a kid too" The leader held out his hand "Son come here"

The young boy quickly ran over and took his dad's hand. He was already crying. When the gun was reloaded he turned his head to look away. It resulted in the leader grabbing onto his son's head and dragging in it so he was forced to look at the helpless men, soon to be corpses. Remus could hear the boy whimper from pain.

"Do I-I h-have to see ev-every time?" He cried out.

"Until you learn to stop crying over some insect's death, Yes. These people are traitors. They're beneath us because they have hurt us. You have to see what we do to people who hurt us"

A bullet went off. One of the men collapsed dead on the floor. The other desperately crawled away until he hit the wall. The young boy's crying turned into sobs.

"You should be used to it by now" His dad said in a calm tone.

The leader forced the gun into his son's shaking hands. He held onto his hands so he couldn't let go. He moved his hands for him, reloaded the gun for him, held the gun to the living man's forehead for him. The young boy's entire body was shaking from fear. He closed his eyes. Pretended like the cold metal wasn't in his hands. Pretended like he wasn't one move of his finger away from taking a life.

"Open your eyes son" The leader commanded "You have to see. See the fear in his eyes. That is the look of a dead man. We could ask anything of him"

"I-I want him t-to live. P-Please dad w-we can send-d him to the b-bad room instead"

"The bad rooms are for those who are of use to us. This man has nothing for us"

A hand landed on Remus' shoulder. He turned around and pointed the knife at the person's neck. Thankfully it was just Roman.

"The files are all here" Ro informed while holding up an USB drive. He had on a strained expression "It's sick. Q told you they made it so Enfuel was the only company avaible for like an entire part of Latvia right?"

"I wasn't listening but probably yeah"

"They're planning to make all electricy and fuel unaviable for those cities for months. And they're going to make it look like an accident so they won't even have to take accountability. They're planning to try and completely cut them off from the rest of the world"

"People are gonna die" Remus concluded.

"Bet"

"Why the fuck would someone even do that?"

Roman shrugged "Said nothing about that. At least we can stop it if we know it will happen. All we have to do is get out of here and get it to M"

Remus was about to nod but then he heard muffled sounds from the other room. He closed his hands into fists. There was a cold lump stuck in his throat.

"There's a kid here. Like 8? 9 maybe? Being made to hold a gun" He whispered.

"Mom teached us how to use pistols at 12" Roman replied with a shrug.

"She made us shoot at targets" Their mom is a very powerful lady so they had to know how to defend themself since so many people wanted to hurt them to get to their mom "This is-"

A gunshot went off. Gutwrenching screaming followed. It sounded like it came from the boy. Soon sobbing took over.

"Don't cry like that. You weren't even the one pulling the trigger" His dad snarled out.

The brothers at looked each other. They both knew that the mission was hundreds of times more important than one kid but....with that one look they both knew they had to do something.

"Okay new mission" Remus said "Protect the kid"

They searched the room and found an entrance to the vents in the roof. They climbed in and crawled as quietly as possible until they could see down into the other room. The leader had gone back to sitting by the table, he was drinking some wine. The son was still sitting by one of the corpses. His sobs was racking his whole body as he held onto the dead body. Quiet beggings to wake up could be heard.

The brothers took out their guns in anticipation. Remus slammed his foot down into the vent panel and jumped down onto the ground. He jumped back up on his feet and held the gun to the leader's head.

Roman was just as quick with getting down. He went over to the kid and hunched down in front of him, half to comfort him and half to be a human shield.

"It's okay now kid. We won't hurt you. We'll get you out of here. I promise" He whispered to him while sending him a warm smile.

He was full on hyperventilating "No. No. Please. Get out. I don't- dad will- I don't want to have to see anyone else die- I don't want to hurt anyone- please- NoNoNoNo"

"Shhh. No one will be hurt. Just focus on my breathing okay. In and out. Deep breathes. You'll be safe soon" Roman assured. He kept one hand on the young boy's shoulder and the other hand on his gun.

Remus held the gun as still as possible against the leader's forehead. The older man didn't look away even for a second. His cold blue eyes stared at him until it felt like he was digging into him. The agent tried to glance around for a clear exit. At best he saw another entrance to the vents close to the wall on the side of the room.

"I've buried people like you before" The leader let out in a dry emotionless tone. "Even if you do get anyway it won't do much. All of the evidence will be gone except for a meek little plan I can easily manipulate away in court. You're really just delaying the inevitable"

"Not letting people die isn't doing nothing" Remus snarled back.

A smile crept up on his face "Letting people die does just a little"

He pressed down on a hidden panel on his chair. All Remus could see was that it was some sort of controller before hearing a muffled shout. He spun around in time to see Roman sitting with his arms around the kid. Blood was seeping out of his shoulder.

By the press of a button a panel on the wall had turned around and a mechanic gun had become visible, useable too via the panel. The gun head moved again, readjusting it's line of sight.

Logically Remus should have moved his gun back towards the leader's head. Logically he should have shot his brains out. Logically he shouldn't have made a single sound. Logically he shouldn't have shown any ounce of care or emotion (weakness), it'd been drilled into them during training after all.

But Remus wasn't thinking logically. His brother was hurt. His brother was in danger. He had to protect him.

A guttural sound of terror left his throat. It sounded like something close to his brother's name. He wasn't fast enough. There was nothing he could. He watched as the bullet went into Roman's chest.

Remus didn't reach him. There was a hit to the back of his head. The hit was hard enough to make it feel like his brain split apart. He was already unconscious as he fell down on the ground. He was just close enough so the blood from his brother reached him.

--

The moment Remus awakened again his heart immediately began to beat fast enough so he could hear it. He wanted to yell out for his brother before he'd even had time to open his eyes.

The fear calmed won just a bit when he did look up and saw Roman, thank god he saw Roman, laying next to him. He didn't calm down completely because his brother was visibly hurt. Hurt badly.

There were swelling on his cheeks from soon to be bruises and his right eye had closed completely from a black eye. Blood had dried around the wound on his shoulder and the one on his chest was still bleeding. Thankfully it hadn't hit his heart but it was still heavily bleeding. The kid's hoodie had been pressed against the wound. His left leg from the knee down had been mangled and turned the wrong way.

Remus had rope tied around his wrists and ankles. They hadn't even bothered to tie Roman's ankles. Even with all the injuries his twin tried to send him a weak smile.

"don't speak too loudly" He whispered out. His breathing was uneven and raspy.

Normally Remus would have screeched in defiance. Now he glanced around the room while making his every move as quiet as possible.

The leader and his son were still in the room. The leader was polishing a knife. There were multiple knives and other gratuitous tools laid out across the table. Oh god he'd only kept them alive to make them suffer until death as much as possible.

When he turned back to Roman there were tears in his brother's eyes. His smile was strained.

"I was going to resign"

Roman let out a sob as his smile disappeared. It only left an expression filled with pain.

"I-I never really wanted t-this! I just- I didn't know what else I would be. Re I was planning to make this my last mission. I don't know if I want to be an actor. But fuck at least I-I want to be an actor ten times more than I want to be an agent"

Remus tried to move closer. He wanted to reach out and hold his brother. Comfort him. Tell him half the things he said didn't make sense.

"You- What-" He let out a nervous chuckle "Ro-bro what are you talking about?"

At first there was no reply. Just a choked back sob. Roman moved closer and stared at the ropes around Remus' wrists. Anything was better than looking at his face. He moved his hands to try and untangle the ropes.

"You have to hug mom for me. And tell her I love her. And hug Lucy a-and Macey and Amita-" Roman closed his eyes, tried to force back another wave of tears "-And Everyone on the island. All of them. And the people at the theater. A-And everyone in Q branch a-and Oh god Q. Please hug Q- Logan. Hug Logan for me. Please. And Patton and M even though he will hate it. Please. I wish I'd known. I just want to be able to say goodbye at least. I just-"

"Shut up you dork. We're getting out of here. I'll just carry you. What's some old weak boned guy and some kid gonna do against us"

Roman glanced up at him, just for a moment, before going back to the ropes.

"Remus I-"

He coughed. His entire body shook and writhed in pain. He ignored it and continued with the ropes. Blood was coming down his lips. He was coughing up blood.

"Remus-"

Roman met his eyes this time. He didn't have to say anything more. They both knew it. Even if one of them didn't want to accept it. It'd taken at least an hour to drive here. He wasn't going to make it unless he got medical help within the next minutes. He wasn't going to- He wasn't-

Roman wasn't going to make it.

"You can't- I- I'm sure- I can-" Remus stuttered out.

"You need to take the information and get back to M alive" He pulled the ropes away from Remus' wrists "There's a vent right above us. The bitchass dragon witch is too busy with torture devices to look at us. If you go now you can-"

"You will-"

"Remus I'm already dead! The kid isn't being saved either! He's stuck here! We failed! The least you can do is try to stop more death!"

"But you will-"

"Please I need you to survive" Roman pressed the USB drive into his hands. His hands were shaking "I-I'm trying to stay strong to make this easier for you b-but-" He let out a shakey sob "I just want to hug mom again. I want us to-to- I- I need you to survive. I need you to stay alive. Please. If I know you survive I can attempt to die in peace. I can't- I can't-" It continued into incoherent sobbing.

They couldn't hug each other, the leader would realize they were awake if they did. All they could do was press their hands together. They held onto each other's hands so tightly it hurt. Neither wanted to let go.

"....I love you...I wish- I don't- I just want you to- I love you" Remus choked out through tears.

Somehow Roman mustered a smile "I love you too" He wiped a tear away from his twin's cheek "I'm sorry. I wish I could stay with you. Please go. Please survive"

Remus tightened his grip on his hand for one last second. He wished he could drag it out. Even Continuing to exists in this moment of misery sounded better than spending the rest of his life without him.

He forced his hands away and sat up. Heuntied the ropes around his ancles in one rushed pull. He heard a yell from behind him. He jumped up and grabbed onto the vent. A bullet went past him as he climbed in.

He continued to cry as he hurried away. He kept the USB drive in his mouth. It felt like a part of him had been ripped out. A big part. A part he needed to live.

(He wished he'd never noticed the crack in the wall. He wished he'd just left the kid to be abused. He was horrible. He just wanted his brother to be okay)

It should have been him who was left for dead. Roman had so many more people who would mourn him. He had had a future. Goals. Dreams. Relationships. Remus was replacable.

Remus pushed himself out of the vent. His lungs were burning. He was numb. There were so many emotions he'd overloaded. He couldn't even feel the cold against his skin. Only the tears against his cheeks.

He escaped the facility and ran. In the distance he could see the car. He wanted to die. He couldn't imagine a life without his brother. Roman was the one who was supposed to come back with the information to save people. Roman was the hero! It wasn't fair!

Remus wanted to stop and let the guards catch up to him. Wanted to let himself scream and sob and be killed. Wanted to hug his brother again even if the only way to hug him was if they were both dead.

Instead he forced himself survive but only because it'd been Roman's wish.