#my house number my dead grans house my alive grans house

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

Hold Me Close

John Constantine x Original Female Character, Angst/Hurt Comfort

A/N: So this little bit of self-indulgence turned into a thing, because it's me and of course it did. I'm still in the early stages of developing Evie and her relationships, so please let me know what you think.

Warning: Mentions of child neglect, lots of crying

Summary: After an emotionally draining day, Evie finds herself with some unexpected company.

Word Count: 2.6K

The Waverider was completely silent, a rarity on the best of days, and a blessed relief to Evie.

She sat in the kitchen, holding a warm cup of tea in her hands. She hadn't taken a single sip in the fifteen minutes since she made it.

All the emotions of the day were simmering to the surface. A tightness clung to her throat making it hard for her to breath. She needed to cry. She needed to sleep. She needed to scream. She needed so many things, all she could do was sit and stare into nothing.

"Are you ever going to drink that?"

Evie blinked. Looking up, she finally noticed John leaning against the doorway, fully dressed in his usual white shirt and tie.

"John? What time is it? Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

She wanted to say something smart. On any other day she might have, but she was just too tired to be clever. Instead, she raised her mug to her lips and finally took a sip.

It was warm and did its job, loosening the lump in her throat, but it did little to help with the one in her chest.

"Need something stronger?" John suggested.

She shook her head. "This is about as strong as I can handle right now."

"Fair enough."

She expected that to be the end of it. But he surprised her, walking into the kitchen and pouring himself a drink.

"What are you doing?"

He shrugged. "Well, you know what they say, misery loves company."

"And what have you got to be miserable about?"

He gave her a cynical smile. "Oh don't you worry love, I’ll think of something."

He took a seat beside her and raised his glass in a toast.

Evie obliged, clicking her mug against the tumbler before drinking.

They sat in silence for a moment. It was comfortable, but there were questions hanging in the air that needed to be addressed.

"What are you doing here, John?"

"I told you."

She shot him a skeptical look.

He let out a sigh. "I don't sleep most nights. I saw you in here and..." He met her eyes, his expression softening. "I saw the look on your face when you saw your mum."

The tightness came back in her throat. Quickly, she turned back to her tea and took a long swig. All it did was stall the inevitable.

"How much did Michael tell you?" she asked, with a twist in her stomach.

"Not much," he admitted. "Just that his dad died before he knew him, didn't talk to his mum and that his sister was about the only parent he ever really had."

Evie huffed out a short laugh. It certainly sounded like the description Michael would give, and a more accurate one than she was willing to admit before.

"I take it there's a bit more to it than that," he continued.

She nodded. "Just a bit."

She took a drink, once again assuming a natural end to the conversation.

"You're just going to leave me with that?" he asked.

Her brow furrowed. "Why do you want to know?"

"You seem to know most everything about me, whether I like it or not,” he answered, casually. “I like to work on an even playing field."

Evie considered him for a moment. It seemed like a reasonable answer. Still she couldn't help but feel her problems were childish compared to his. There was a reason she kept them to herself. Nobody actually wanted to know.

She turned her head away, her fingers rubbing absentmindedly against the mug. If she kept her mouth shut for just a few moments, he'd forget the whole thing.

She could feel the pressure building behind her eyes. Her grip tightened. She willed herself to breathe.

"Evelyn..."

She stopped.

Looking down, she finally noticed rough fingers pressed gently around her wrist. She followed the line connecting the fingers to a hand, then to an arm, moving her gaze ever up until she dared a glance at the man they were attached to.

John’s expression was not soft, but his eyes held something she had not seen in a long time; a need to understand. How could she say no to that?

“My dad died when I was eight,” she began, swallowing the roughness of her voice. “My mum took it really hard. She might as well have been dead that first year. I’m not sure she even left her bed. Gran watched after her and didn’t want me or Michael causing trouble.

“Eventually though Mum was able to leave the house and Gran even got her a job at a pub not far from where we lived. But, it didn’t last long. Mum just...wasn’t there anymore. She’d forget to go into work or mess up orders or any number of other things until eventually they had to let her go. She didn’t work after that. Dad’s life insurance kept us afloat and Gran helped so, it wasn’t like we were starving. Even so, she would still...forget. By the time I was ten I was cooking most of the meals and made sure to stop by the shop on my way home from school, that sort of thing. And Mum would just...drift. It was like living with a ghost.”

Evie paused, giving herself a moment to collect her thoughts.

“I can remember my dad, before he died. I can see his face. I remember bedtime stories and how he called me his little Evie Rose. But, for whatever reason, any time I try to remember what my mum was like, I draw a blank. Every memory I have of her is as this...corpse. It was easy for me to believe she was always like that. I convinced myself she couldn’t help it. She didn’t choose not to be there. She was trying and I just needed to pick up where she couldn’t. That was my job.”

Her throat tightened. She sucked in a breath and let it out with a slow quaver.

“But seeing her today, before...everything. She was real. She was real and alive and...there.”

Warm tears spilled down her face. She wiped them away, trying and failing to keep them in check.

“I know grief affects people differently. I know it does. I can’t imagine losing the love of my life like that. But I was her child. Michael was just three years old. We were alive and scared and confused, and we needed her. I needed my Mom and she wouldn’t…”

There was no stopping the tears now. Anger and resentment and grief twenty six years in the making poured out of her. It burned her skin, even if she tried to hide it, ever aware of the man watching her in careful silence.

“I spent so long telling myself it wasn’t her fault. I blamed myself for not doing better by her. But she never cared. I know she was grieving, but at some point she decided her grief was more important than her own children.”

She stopped, forcing herself to fill her lungs with much needed air.

“And I would get so angry. I used to think Michael was just being selfish, that he only cared about himself. But he knew. He knew what she was doing was wrong. He just wanted me to see it too. God, I said so many awful things.”

Guilt weighed in her stomach as she pushed away her straggling tears. She could still feel the prickling behind her eyes, but she didn’t want to spill any more than she had. She had no right to them.

“I’m just a horrible mess of a person.”

A scoff came at her side.

She turned, to see John shaking his head.

“Something funny?”

“Aye, everything,” he said, sardonically. “Trust a Catholic to come to that conclusion.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh c’mon Evie, you’re not a horrible anything. You looked after your brother and your mum when no one else would. When you should have given up on her is a matter for yourself to deal with, but you’re not a bad person for holding out hope. As for Michael, I have a feeling he’s not as resentful as you think he is. Besides, he definitely had some of it coming.”

Evie couldn’t think of what to say, but the corner of her lip did quirk up, just a little. Still, guilt lingered and exhaustion was now taking the place of her anger. The prickling was back, reminding her of the tears still left to shed.

“Now, how about that drink,” John said.

Evie let out a long sigh, rubbing her hand across her face. "Not a bad idea. Honestly, what I could really go for is someone to just hold me for two or three...hours." She tried to make it sound like a joke, but the strain on her voice made her attempt at laughter come off as forced and awkward.

The look on John's face only made her feel worse. He had been uncharacteristically kind to her already. Now, she just made an embarrassing situation down right uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry I laid this all on you,” she said. “I should just go to bed.”

She stood quickly, not even bothering to grab her mug as she headed towards the exit.

She barely made it two steps when a hand grasped at her own.

“Wait.”

She turned.

He was still sitting. His eyes focused on their intertwined fingers. The expression on his face was unreadable. For a moment, she thought he’d let go and forget the whole thing. But then, he came to a decision.

Standing, he took a step toward her, never dropping his grip for a moment. He watched her, carefully checking she had no objections to how close he was.

Her stillness was his answer.

Reaching out his free hand, he cradled her head and guided her to him.

For a moment, neither of them knew what to do.

His hand slipped from hers, but found no place to land, as if he wasn't sure where exactly to touch her. All the same, the intent was felt.

Taking initiative, she leaned into him, resting her head against his shoulder as she wrapped her arms around him.

His clothes still held the scent of detergent with just a bit the tobacco smoke she secretly loved. She let herself breathe it in, enjoying the warmth against her cheek and the firmness of his body.

Slowly his hands found purpose. One wrapped tight around her waist while the other curled gently in her hair.

For a while, they just stood there, neither of them daring to break the quiet calm that had settled in the air.

"It's alright Eves," John whispered into her ear. "I've got you, love. It's alright."

It was only then Evie realized she was crying again. The tears and emotions leaked out of her, spilling over the side like an over filled sink. She was starting to shake, trying and failing to keep her breath in check all the while John held on, pressing her even closer into him.

"You're alright," he promised. "I've got you, Eves. You're alright."

The tears weren’t as violent as before. This was catharsis. The last breath of emotional release she needed. So, she let herself feel.

She cried for her brother. She cried for her father. She cried for what might have been and what was. All of it came out in gentle sobs made bearable by the man who wouldn’t let go.

She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, but after a while she had nothing more to give. Her breath returned to something manageable. Her heart, no longer quiet as heavy. Still, she couldn’t pull away from John just yet. She was too tired and he felt too good. She could see herself closing her eyes and staying right there until her legs gave out.

“Not that I’ve got anywhere to be,” he said, gently. “But were you serious about the two to three hours thing?”

She laughed, a real one this time; short, but bright and welcome.

“No,” she assured. “I wouldn’t do that to your reputation.”

He didn’t say anything back, but she took the hint.

With a great effort, she pulled herself from him, leaving her skin colder for it. Now that she had a proper view, a sudden spike of embarrassment shot through her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, immediately reaching to brush away the obvious stain on his shirt.

John looked down as if just noticing himself.

“Oh believe me, I’ve been covered in worse. Besides, holy woman’s oughta be good for something.”

“I’m not that holy,” she said, with not as much annoyance as that sentence usually carried.

“But you are good,” he countered. “You can’t be anything else.”

Again, something was missing from this usual exchange. The irony had somehow disappeared. The way he was looking at her now, she could believe he meant them.

Then, something happened. His expression became pensive. His eyes shifted away as he took a small step back, putting some visible distance between them.

“You should get some sleep,” he said, his tone now back to its usual guarded self.

Her brow creased in confusion. “You sure you don’t want company?”

“I think if this whole exercise has taught us anything it’s that you need to stop worrying about other people all the time.”

His tone was curt, but there was something performative in it, making it land awkwardly on its intended audience.

All the same, Evie knew rejection when she heard it and felt the intended hurt in her chest.

Apparently it showed on her face as John gave a long sigh. “Look just, get some rest and you can worry about me tomorrow, yeah?”

She nodded, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave just yet. She didn’t know what she had done to make John’s mood shift so abruptly, but she needed to fix it. He had helped her, after all. It didn’t feel right to end the night like this.

With cautious determination, she took a step forward, effectively closing the gap he had created.

John appeared frozen in place, his brow creased in confusion.

Taking the opportunity, she stood on her toes and pressed her lips to his cheek. She was met with rough stubble and the smell of whiskey, a combination she was surprised to find she liked. But couldn’t appreciate it as John turned his head, meeting her eyes.

“Now, why would you do something like that?”

Evie swallowed, a sudden dryness coming to her throat. His lips were much closer to hers than she anticipated.

“I just wanted to say, thank you,” she said, softly. “You’re a good man, John Constantine.”

He looked down at her, his throat and lip tightening as he shook his head. “No, I’m not.”

She smiled knowingly. “Yes you are.”

She kissed his cheek again, this time lingering just a moment as if touch would convey the truth of her statement more than her words could.

“Goodnight, John,” she whispered.

To her surprise, he didn’t push her away. His eyes lingered, floating between her eyes and lips and back again.

She held her breath, wondering if he would lean down and feel her lips for himself. She wondered if she would let him.

But he hesitated. A breath was drawn in and his gaze settled on her eyes.

“Sweet dreams, Evie.”

She nodded, feeling the moment slip away as quickly as it had come.

She settled back down on two solid feet, turned and walked back to her room without looking back. Only when the door closed did she allow herself to linger on the burning of her lips and the hard thumping in her chest.

She didn’t know what truly happened between her and John, but there was no use denying it. Something was different and time would only tell what that meant.

[theotherace]

CharlieBone!AU

Alright. As a child, one of my absolutely favourite book series was Charlie Bone. My sister and I would pretend that we had special gifts while playing all the time, I read all of the books thrice (which I know isn’t a lot, but I’m not usually somebody who re-reads books at all, so that’s a Big Thing for me), one time in the span of about five or six days. (Could think neither straight nor in German after that.) 

So, ATLA!CharlieBone!AU. Yes.

The Bloor Academy is probably run by Ozai. (It’s also not called “Bloor Academy”, but that doesn’t really matter right now.) Azulon is still alive and kicking, willing to murder children at the drop of a hat, just like Ezekiel. Iroh fucked off with Lu Ten after his wife’s death. Nobody’s entirely sure what the hell happened to Ursa, but she’s still (kind of) around, just not talked about. 

Zuko and Azula grew up inside the school, but with very little contact to the outside world; probably homeschooled, too, until they’re old enough for the Academy.

They are both gifted, but just “control of fire” would be boring, so Azula has a gift similar to Uncle Paton’s, but with a better grip on it than him – she can control electricity. Zuko can technically control heat, but he’s not particularly good at it; he’s basically a walking mood ring. Rooms get cold when he’s sad or lonely, hot when he’s embarrassed, and that’s probably why he doesn’t have too many (any) friends. Constant swings in temperature aren’t pleasant. Nobody wants to sleep next to him in the dorm (if he sleeps in the dorm at all, as his family lives in the school). 

If we’re keeping with the three houses, then both of them are definitely in the Theatre house. 

Aang’s special gift is basically the Avatar State; he can call onto either his ancestors (a bit like Lysander) or his past lives (as in canon). He’s not a bender, so if and when he calls onto somebody, he has their powers at his disposal instead of the elements. (Unless one of them can control the elements. Kuruk could control sealife? Cool, Aang can do that now. Something like that.) His control over that power is shaky at best. Once he’s mastered it, he can manage all of his forebearer’s powers (super OP, basically), until then, it’s more like channeling one person at a time. (Or he’s just a medium. Or he can transform into birds/birdlike creatures like Emma.)

He’s raised by his grandfather Gyatso after the tragic death of his parents (at the hands of Zuko’s family, but shh, they don’t know that yet), and Appa is just the most ginormous dog you can find. Momo is a cat who likes to sleep on people’s faces. Aang, Zuko and Azula are (not so) distantly related via Gyatso and Roku, who are brothers instead of friends in this AU. Gyatso’s quite a bit younger than Roku, though. (And Roku’s already dead.) 

Aang would probably have a hard time deciding between Art, Theatre and Music, because everything sounds great, but settle on art in the end, because his dad was an artist. 

Neither Katara nor Sokka have a gift. At least that’s they think for the longest time. Katara is the student assigned to show Aang around when he transfers after his gift manifests (Gyatso didn’t initially want to send him to the Academy), and she bullies Sokka into looking after him in the “boys only” areas (the dorms), so they’re his first friends there. 

They live with their Gran-Gran and their dad. Their mother was probably murdered by Zuko’s family or some allies of them, too, for Reasons. Maybe she saw something. Maybe she knew what they did to Aang’s parents. Doesn’t matter, I won’t write this, they killed her. 

Katara’s gift manifests late, under a stressful situation; she can either heal or control blood (i.e. bloodbending). If it’s bloodbending, Hama (old friend of Gran-Gran’s, now either an ally of Azulon and Ozai or just wreaking havoc on her own) would probably try to get her hands on her, because she has the same gift, and it’s very rare. (Katara is much more powerful than Hama, though.) 

Sokka gets a sword at some point in the story, and it’s some old-ass sword, prophesized to be wielded by a great warrior. 

He picks Art, Katara picks Music.

Toph’s parents are a little less strict in this AU (they send her to school, after all), but still pretty overbearing. She mostly keeps to herself in the beginning; her and Zuko become friends before she befriends any of the other guys. 

She’s still blind. (Stating this because she sometimes isn’t, in these (semi-)Modern AUs.)

Her gift is either her Seismic Sense or she can bring to life (so to speak) statues (like Erik). Leaning more towards the Seismic Sense, though. Otherwise, she has no control over earth or stone or anything, and the Seismic Sense works basically everywhere (wood vibrates, too), but she does still have to be barefoot. She isn’t even fully aware that she has a special gift until she talks to Zuko about how she gets around so well and he’s like: Dude, that’s not normal. 

She’s in the Music house. (I don’t think they’re even called houses. Branch might fit better. But anyway.) 

Suki does Theatre with Zuko and technically, she is his first friend, but they aren’t as close anymore when Aang starts school, since she befriended Katara and Sokka, who aren’t Zuko’s biggest fans initially. 

She doesn’t have a gift, but she still kicks ass. Maybe she even still does tessenjutsu. Either way, you don’t wanna cross her. (that’s what fighting with fans is called, right? correct me if i’m wrong.)

I don’t know if Mai and Ty Lee would’ve gifts, but if they did, it would be hitting every target with every thrown object and seeing auras. (Could be just hard training and synethesia, though, which number one definitely is in canon; number two is a HC of mine.) Ty Lee does Theatre, too. Mai joins Sokka and Aang.

[insanityclause]

Cats review: a sinister, all-time disaster from which no one emerges unscathed

Tim Robey - The Telegraph

(Zero stars)

Dir: Tom Hooper. Cast: Judi Dench, James Corden, Idris Elba, Ian McKellen, Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, Francesca Hayward, Jason Derulo, Rebel Wilson

Pre-judging Cats based on the widely ridiculed trailers wouldn’t be fair, especially once you realise they did it a lot of favours. They hid the big numbers. They silenced the singing. Minimised were James Corden’s wobbly pratfalls into piles of dead fish, Idris Elba’s leering expressions, and the entire role of Ian McKellen as Gus the Theatre Cat.

Once seen, the only realistic way to fix Cats would be to spay it, or simply pretend it never happened. Because it’s an all-time disaster – a rare and star-spangled calamity which will leave jaws littered across floors and agents unemployed. For the first time since the head-spinningly dire dadcom Old Dogs in 2010, I'm giving a film no stars.

At every turn, you imagine the panicked justifications. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical ran for 21 years in the West End and has grossed $3.5bn worldwide. Memory, sung by the depressed ex-glamour cat Grizabella, is a household favourite even your gran has covered. All of Tom Hooper’s last three films have won Oscars, somehow, and doesn’t the eclectic cast have something for everyone?

It becomes a scramble to get out alive. What worked in the round off Drury Lane in 1981 – a  suspension of disbelief, with the whole cast pirouetting in cat-suits – has been converted into a computer-aided hellscape so off-putting you may suspect eye failure. Hooper's Cats has an impossible job recovering from its own surreally charmless visual... I can’t say style. Choices certainly abound. Not one of them is good.

Meanwhile, the Frankensteinian marriage of live performance, “digital fur technology” and human/cat anatomical splicing – the boobs! they have boobs??!! – has such endlessly sinister impact that the film's U certificate ought to be an 18.

As it starts, a writhing pillowcase is flung into an alley off Piccadilly Circus, containing Victoria, an unwanted ingénue cat played by pretty, helpless ballerina Francesca Hayward. From all around her, a chorus of disembodied faces, atrociously wedded to the efforts of the effects team, bear down; a ghoulish synthesised arrangement of the overture gathers force; already, we know we’re in deep, deep trouble.

Jokes don’t save us, since Lee Hall’s script tries every cat idiom in the OED to find a funny one. Plot, too, can’t come to the rescue, because T.S. Eliot’s source poems didn’t provide one. As each cameo performance comes and goes, the mind boggles at which of them – according to judging matriarch Old Deuteronomy (a deeply earnest, inescapably hilarious Judi Dench) – could possibly be deemed top cat.

First contender Jennyandots is a lazy house tabby in the desperate, crotch-scratching shape of Rebel Wilson. Her big number has mice in a doll-house with human faces, and cockroaches in march formation, one of which she gobbles down in mad close-up. With its nightmare production design and nauseating lurches in scale and perspective, it might be the ugliest big-screen musical sequence ever mounted.

But let’s not count our chickens quite yet. In come Jason Derulo as a sleazy playa called Rum Tum Tugger, and Corden’s greedy-guts Bustopher Jones, neither carrying a tune to speak of, and both made to strip off outerwear and get furrily naked, sans genitals. McKellen, meanwhile, is caught lapping backstage from a dish, tongue loose. It’s one of a thousand giffable moments an audience won’t be able to delete.

Grizabella (Jennifer Hudson) traipses about in shadow, shawled in what look like the remains of four other dead cats’ pelts. Hooper gets her to do Memory at the base of a lamp-post, essentially duplicating his one-shot I Dreamed a Dream for Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables. No Oscars here: when J.Hud hobbles amateurishly into the ball for a double-the-pathos reprise, my adjacent colleague was reduced to a senseless, cackling wreck for a full minute.

An hour and a quarter in, I wondered if Taylor Swift, who’s nowhere to be seen, had forced her management at knife-point to yank her out of the edit. But no. She drops by on a suspended moon and is gone in the space of a song – Macavity – which comes closer than anything before it to genuinely working.

Swift is catlike and can sing, which – guess what? – turn out to be attributes helpful in a Cats musical. If we pretended this bit was just her weirdest ever pop video, and ignored Elba’s Macavity – sashaying in with shiny chocolate fur for the worst shots of his life – we might just about live with it. Finding any high point in Cats, though, takes some serious scratching.

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Their Hero Academia – Chapter 41: A Mighty Internship Begins!

Presenting the next raw and unedited chapter of my on-going, next-gen, My Hero Academia fic, Their Hero Academia!

Earlier chapters can be found here

Might Tower!  Once home to All Might, now home to Deku and Lemillion, the Number One and Number Two Heroes (who often traded off positions in the charts).  It was also home to two of the most effective Underground Heroes, the Voice and Glamour. There were also countless Sidekicks and an in-house Support Studio headed by Melissa Togata.  

The bottom floor included a museum, devoted to All Might’s incredible career (including a gift shop, all proceeds from which went to charitable organizations and efforts). There were floors of phone banks, answering calls mundane and urgent, the staff well-trained to direct the calls to the correct people or bring Hero attention to it.  There were floors of offices, handling all the paperwork that came with such a huge organization.  There were multiple floors devoted entirely to a Support Studio.  And, of course, there was a floor each for Deku and Lemillion, and subterranean levels for the Underground Heroes.  

Countless people worked there.  It was, in fact, by percentage of employees, the largest employer of the Quirkless in all of Japan.  

And it was where Isamu was going to be spending the next week for his Internship.  With Deku.  The Number One Hero.  

A hand clasped on his shoulder.  “You have to go inside, Haimawari.”

“Yah!” he let out a gasp, returning to reality.  “Sorry, Midoriya.  Drifted away there for a second.  Just feeling overwhelmed.”

“Relax, man,” Midoriya said. He was interning with Lemillion, but he didn’t seem nervous in the least.  Small wonder, when he was the son of the Number One Hero, who had grown up with other Heroes around him like an extended clan of Uncles and Aunts.  Lemillion was even his godfather, for crying out loud! He’d probably practically grown up in Might Tower.  “You earned this.”

“For what it’s worth,” Kocho said, wings trailing behind her, “I can’t believe I’m here either.” She too was interning with Deku. Or, as she’d explained on the train ride over, “doing a ride along.”  The Voice—Shinso’s dad—was also going to be working with her.

The moth-winged General Studies student had been offered a spot in the Hero Course following her Sports Festival performance.  If she could get herself up to their level, she’d be able to join them for the Summer Training Camp and then formally join their class for the second semester.  It’d be nice, Isamu reflected, having someone else in the class who didn’t come from a Hero-pedigree.  

“Well,” Midoriya said, “you earned it too.”   He looked both of them over and hesitated only a moment before he spoke again. “Really, you guys can relax. Dad’s one of the easiest going guys around.  And Uncle Hitoshi acts kind of grumpy sometimes, but he’s really a softie. You’ll do great!”

Well, one of those statements was definitely true.  Isamu had seen Deku interviewed often enough to know that he could shift easily between giving an inspiring speech to suddenly geeking out over a new Hero or one of his friends or even the interviewer’s Quirk.  He saw some of that in Midoirya, but he must have gotten a decent dose of good sense from his mom.

“C’mon,” Midoriya said, waving a hand in the direction of the doors.  “Let’s go in.”

Isamu grabbed the handle of his rolling luggage and followed suit.

***

Having left Midoriya behind several floors below, Koharu stepped off the elevator with Haimawari and onto the top floor of Might Tower.  Passing through the lobby and other floors with Midoriya had been an experience; everyone there seemed to know him.  Small surprise, really, given who he was.

She’d been here a few times on school trips and during one special civilian tour (her uncle, who worked the night shift dispatch, had managed to get tickets for the family), but coming into it as a potential Hero was another thing entirely.  Maybe she’d walk these halls as a Sidekick someday? It was way too early to think about. She wasn’t even a Hero Course student yet, not really.   She’d signed the paperwork, the offer had been extended, but she needed to prove herself first.

A bespectacled secretary told them that Deku was in his office and directed them down the hall.  

“Here,” Haimawari said, pulling open the door to the office for her.  “Ah, Mister Deku, sir?” he asked.

“They told us you were insiiii….”  Koharu trailed off, struck speechless by the sight inside.

The whole office looked like it had been the scene of a terrible battle, the walls cracked and furniture turned over and broken.  How had anyone not heard this?

“D-d-d-Deku!” Haimawari shrieked, pointing a long arm.  “He’s… he’s… dead!”

She followed his finger and saw Deku on the ground, laying on his stomach in a pool of what looked like blood.  His arms and legs were splayed and… were those his intestines?  Perhaps it was unheroic of her, but Koharu let out a scream. They had to get someone, get someone to help, how could this have happened without anyone knowing?!

Suddenly, Deku sprang to his feet, somehow looking none the worse for wear.  “I’m alive!” he said, a big grin across his face.

This time, both she and Haimawari screamed.

There was the sound of running feet in the hallway and another burst into the room, a young man, maybe in his early twenties, blond, muscular, and wearing a silver and black costume, lined with red, the majority of the chest taken up by a silver shield-shape. “What’s going on…?”  He took one look at the room, at Deku, and at Haimawari and her, then slapped a hand to his face.  “Dammit, Uncle Izuku, not again!”

No longer able to hold it, Deku let out a long laugh, nearly doubling over.  “Sorry, sorry,” he said, finally righting himself.  “But you should have seen the look on your faces…!”

Koharu exchanged a look with Haimawari.  What the hell was going on?

“Okay, okay,” Deku said, looking to a corner on the room.  “You can drop the illusion, Camie.”

There was a strange moment and then the world shifted, the destruction and blood and violence done to the office disappearing and leaving it in its normal state.   And there in the corner was blonde woman in a skintight catsuit, the zipper pulled down low to expose her cleavage, and a peaked cap.  She was leaning lazily against the wall, scrolling through her phone.

“’sup, fam,” the woman said, giving them a little wave.

“You’re… you’re the Shield!” Haimawari said, pointing at the blond man.  “And you’re Glamour!  I knew you both worked here, but I didn’t expect to see either of you on the first day!”

Koharu felt her heartrate slowly returning to normal.  Haimawari geeking out over the Heroes was relaxing, in its own way.  It was such a normal reaction.  One she’d have probably echoed if the sight of Deku, dead, wasn’t still trying to burn its way across her memory.  The Shield she recognized, one of Deku’s most well-known sidekicks. The woman seemed vaguely familiar, but didn’t strike any major memory chords.

“I’m sorry,” the Shield said.  “He does this to all the new Interns and Sidekicks.  He did it to me on my first day and I nearly jumped through the roof.”

“Hey!” Deku said. “It’s a time tested method for surprising Interns, passed down to me by Gran Torino himself!”

“You mean the guy whose idea of training was to beat the shit out of me?”

The Number One Hero smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head, pointedly ignoring his Sidekick’s question.  “Anyway, where are my manners?  Kids, this is Tamaki Togata, one of my Sidekicks, and Camie Shinso, one of the Underground Heroes who works here.   Tamaki, Camie, these are Isamu Haimawari and Koharu Kocho, my Interns for the week. Koharu here is Kaito down in dispatch’s niece.

“The First and Third Place finishers at the Sports Festival!” Deku finished excitedly.

Koharu felt a smile tug at her lips.  Deku’s enthusiasm was positively infectious and for a moment, at least, all her doubts about being here were banished.  “Your son finished Third too,” she said.

“Midoriya’s deserved it,” Haimawari agreed.  “He got all of us through the first leg with his plan.”

“He’s a good kid,” Deku agreed.  “Mirio will take good care of him, I’m sure.”

The Shield nodded.  “I saw the Sports Festival.  You did good work, both of you.  Wish my kid brother had done half as well, but he’s happy tinkering with his toys.  Nejire came in third place too, for the Third Years.  Hasn’t shut up about it.”

“Shota couldn’t stop talking about it,” Glamour agreed.  “Mad lit, kids.  And Kaito’s a total star.  Keeps the whole ship running at night.  Hubs likes him ‘cause he doesn’t get gabby.”

“Thank you,” Koharu said. Her uncle wasn’t the bragging type, but she knew his job was frequently demanding and stressful, so praise from the Heroes who relied on his support was nice to hear.

Deku grinned again. “Okay, Tamaki, you want to show the kids where they can stash their stuff, then show them to the locker rooms, and then meet me down in Training Room Alpha?  And Camie, if you’d like Hitoshi know they’re here?”

“Can do,” the Shield said, tossing off a small salute.  

“If he’s awake,” Glamour said.  “Might have to kick him a few times.”

“Careful,” Deku told her. “He just got a new sleeping bag with extra padding.”

“It’s that a little fast?” Koharu asked, a little surprised.  “I mean, I’m here to learn, I know, but I’m so far behind…”  Maybe Heroes just did things quickly.  She’d studied them plenty, but didn’t have any real idea how this was supposed to go.

There was still so much she had to catch up on.  What she’d done to teach herself had gotten her far, but she lacked the foundations and skills the Hero Course students had.  She thought she might observe or something first, but to just go for it like that?

“All the better reason to get started now!” Deku beamed.

***

“Oh, that was awesome!” Deku yelled, pumping a fist in the air.  

Isamu came to a stop, firing a small burst of power like a retro-rocket.   Next to him, Kocho touched down with a flutter of wings. Training Room Alpha turned out to be specifically reserved for Interns, Sidekicks, and Work Study participants, allowing them to hone their Quirks and skills in relatively lower stakes simulated environments, using the latest in holographic technologies.  Deku had started them off with a simple obstacle course, throwing various challenges their way (such as catching a falling civilian or avoiding simulated flames) as they made their way across a series of rooftops.  The nature of it meant he hadn’t been able to go full throttle, and Kocho had been able to keep up with him that way.

It had probably started as a competition, but it had quickly fallen into something more like cooperation. Which was probably Deku’s intention in the first place.  He hadn’t offered any instruction, just letting them go and seeing what they could do. Considering he had a notebook (Actual paper and pen!  In this day and age!) open in front of him and was still scribbling, he probably had lots of feedback pending.

He offered the purple and blue haired girl a handshake, which she took.  “Good work,” he said.  While he was wearing his costume, she wore a U.A. gym uniform, having explained that there hadn’t been time to fabricate a costume before the Internship began.

“Thanks,” she replied. “You too.”

“It was all right.”

The sudden voice snapped Haimawari’s head around, to a figure all dressed in black, a steel-grey cloth wound around his neck like a scarf.  “Mi—mi—Mister Aizawa!”

No, wait, that wasn’t right… In fact, he looked pretty much like an older version of Shota Shinso.  Right! The Voice!

He wasn’t the only one who recognized him, though.  Koharu practically lit up at the sight of him.   “You’re Shinso!” she yelled.  “You’re a legend!”

The tired looking man shrugged.  “That’s my name,” he said.  “But I’m no legend.”

“Oh, don’t be so modest, Hitoshi!” Deku said.

“But you, young lady,” Shinso continued, as though Deku hadn’t spoken, “you were very impressive.”

“He’s getting his license so he can take on Interns,” Deku volunteered.  “Which is something he’d said he’d never do.  Because then he’d have to deal with… extroverts.  I’d have asked you anyway, Kocho, but Shinso really wanted me to.”

“Just give it all away, why don’t you, Deku?”  Shinso asked, but he sounded more amused than annoyed.

“You’re, um, you’re nothing like your son, Sir,” Isamu said, then instantly slapped both hands over his mouth.  He hadn’t meant to say that out loud.  But it was true.  Shinso the younger was so talkative and energetic, and the Voice was so… not.  He was afraid he was going to fall asleep just standing there watching them.

“Heh.” The smallest possible smile he’d ever seen anyone make moved across Shinso’s lips.  “He certainly takes after his mother in that regard.”

Isamu decided not to dwell on how a guy like the Voice had managed to marry a woman like Glamour. Some things were best not thought about. Though he supposed you could say the same thing about his own parents, with his easy going, goofy dad, and high strung mother.

The purple-haired Hero’s eyes narrowed, highlighting the bags under them.  “Still… Izuku was able to remind me that I do have a lot of wisdom and experience to offer.  If somewhat unofficially.”

“Okay, so, before we move on to the next exercise,” Deku said, and Isamu could swear he saw a maniac energy in the man’s eyes, “I have so many questions about your Quirks!”

***

Shinso!  The Shiso!  The Voice! Only one of the most famous General Education students turned Hero ever!  There wasn’t a student in the General Education course who didn’t look up to him.  To think, Koharu wasn’t just following in his footsteps, but getting first-hand experience with him!

After giving her and Haimawari time to shower, Deku had taken the gawky boy off with him, leaving her and Shinso.  Technically, all they were supposed to be doing was getting breakfast in the cafeteria. But this wasn’t even reading between the lines.  The Number One Hero was certainly playing more fast and loose with the rules than she would have thought!

She’d been surprised by the number of food choices available, though, especially the liquid options!  She’d been a little worried about that and in fact had a few options packed away in her luggage.  The two of them occupied one table, while various Sidekicks and other employees occupied others and left them in peace.

Shinso, as it turned out, also enjoyed pouched food.  “So,” he said, “I don’t suppose I can interest you in being an Underground Hero?”

Koharu blinked her large eyes at that, slowly withdrawing her proboscis from the syrupy fruit pouch she was drinking.  “I think I’m a little too distinctive for that,” she said.  

His shoulder went up in the slightest of shrugs.  “Worth a shot,” he said.  “But you’re right.  The public will love you.  You’re flashy and distinctive.  Camie says you’re “trending” and “a hashtag.”  Whatever that means.”

Koharu decided educating a Pro-Hero on the intricacies of internet terminology was not something she was interested in doing.  “I’ve tried not looking too much at what the internet is saying about me,” she said. “But I haven’t been all that successful. A lot of people seem real excited about me.  The school, the public, even Deku.  Feels like a lot of people are making a big deal out of me.  Not sure if I feel like I deserve it.”

There was certainly a subset of the internet that seemed to feel the same, coming up with all kinds of preposterous claims and accusations, saying she was just taking attention away from up and coming Heroes.  And then there were the more vicious comments, from those who still held a lot of prejudice towards Mutant-Type Quirks.  The former were annoying and chiseled away at her self-confidence.  But the latter?  Those hurt.

“You don’t,” Shinso said, and Koharu felt her mouth open in shock.

“What?”

“Not because of the Sports Festival win, anyway,” Shinso amended hastily, as though sensing he’d been a bit too blunt.  “People make more out of the Sports Festival than it really is.  It’s a chance to show off, but it’s not the be-all or end-all of Hero-training.  And it’s still horrifically biased, if not quite so bad as the Entrance Exam still is. Though making a good impression is still important.”

He fixed her with an intense stare.  “The fact that you impressed Nezu and others in the faculty is what’s significant. You’re being fast-tracked.  I had to train for months to just have the chance to try out for the Hero Course and I didn’t get to join until the second year.  If they’re putting that out there, it means you have a real shot at doing something great.  Of course, I was young and stupid.  You’re young, but I don’t think you’re stupid.”

“…Thanks?” she tried.

“Besides,” he added, “you’ve got me in your corner.  I know how Aizawa thinks, and I know exactly what you’re going to need to get up to Hero Course standard.  And I’ll share it with you, on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“When you’re a famous Pro-hero, you pass the torch, same as I’m doing now.”

***

Isamu was honestly surprised by how approachable Deku was, even if he shouldn’t have been.   Between what he’d seen in interviews and how Midoriya had talked about him, it was obvious the Number One Hero was able to switch from “Hero Mode” when dealing with villains or disasters to some kind of “Civilian Mode” when doing practically anything else.  As they’d gotten their food and taken a seat in the cafeteria (And Deku was just… eating in the cafeteria.  Like he was some Sidekick or paper pusher, not the guy who literally owned the place!), it became rapidly clear that he knew the name of each and every person who worked for him, calling them by name and asking questions about their family or hobbies or other details that he wouldn’t have thought he’d have time or inclination to know.

Isamu took a bite of his breakfast sandwich (What could he say?  Convenience store style foods agreed with him.), then a long swig of coffee. Probably more sugar in it than he should have, but he wanted to make sure he was fully awake and alert for the day.

“So,” Deku said, in-between bites of his own breakfast, “can I ask you something, Haimawari?  You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

Well, that was a loaded statement if ever he heard one.  Isamu felt his heartrate kick up a notch.  What could Deku possibly want to know?  “Ah, sure?” he said, wishing he felt more sure of himself, or that it sounded less like a question.

“Maybe I’m overthinking this,” Deku said, “because that’s kind of my thing, but after the Sports Festival, I couldn’t help but think that you reminded me of something I’d read about when I was a kid and for a little while when I was in U.A., and then I went digging into some old files and newspaper archives and everything and…”

Isamu knew, instantly, what Deku was planning on asking.  He wanted to run or use his Quirk to slide away, but he felt riveted to his seat, despite Deku’s rambling, unassuming nature.

“Are you connected to the Crawler, who used to be in Naruhata?”

Yep, there it was.

“Mister Deku, sir, I…” he began, tripping over his words.

“You can just call me Deku.”

Isamu swallowed hard, looking down.  Mobility-enhancing Quirks were quite common, even Quirks which allowed mobility over various surfaces.  The specifics, like his needing three points of contact, varied, but Quirks could easily be traced through family lines.  He was an only child of an only child, not exactly hard to figure out where it might have come from if anyone did any digging.

“The Crawler?” he asked instead, hoping to buy a few precious seconds to think.

“A Vigilante who used to operate in Naruhata, starting about twenty-eight years ago.  Mostly small scale stuff, just helping people on the street, though he and a couple other Vigilantes did get involved with some pretty big stuff on occasion too. But mostly he was kind of a local figure.  A “Nice Guy” who helped watch out for people and kept the neighborhood safe. Not many people even know about him, since the press didn’t like to give a lot of attention to that kind of thing, though a few U.A. teachers worked with them and even Captain Celebrity talked about them in his autobiography…”

U.A. teachers. Right.  Like Mister Aizawa and Vice-Principal Midnight.  Both of whom had to know about his parents.  Dad had mentioned them often enough, when recounting stories of his glory days.  Which was something he’d tried very hard not to think about since the start of school.

“And who disappeared about eighteen years ago.  Just a couple years before you were born, as a matter of fact.”  Deku finished, matter of factly.  “Took a while to find the archival footage, but what little bit there is of him in action pretty much lines up exactly with you at the Sports Festival.”

He shouldn’t have been surprised, he reflected for the second time.  Deku was well known for his knowledge of Heroes and his analysis of Quirks. And you couldn’t get to being the Number One Hero without being incredibly clever and intelligent on top of that.  It’s a wonder he thought it wouldn’t come up.

“That’s, that’s my dad,” he said, quietly.  He looked up, pleadingly.  “Please don’t tell anyone.”  There wasn’t a statute of limitations on Vigilantism charges.  If he got his dad in trouble by going to U.A…!

“Relax,” Deku said, holding up both hands in a placating gesture.  “I just wanted to know if my theory was right, and I wanted you to know that I know.  No judgements.  Everything I’ve pieced together says your dad helped a lot of people.”

Isamu let out a puff of breath.  “That’s, that’s good,” he said.  “Thank you.”

“So,” Deku continued, “tell me about why you want to be a Hero.”

Now that, that was a question he was more prepared to answer.  Especially with more cards on the table.  “I want the chance to do what Dad couldn’t,” he said.  “He spent, still spends, his life helping people.  Big ways and small.   But he missed his chance to be a Hero.  And I think part of him always regretted that.  He told me helping people was the best thing a person could do, no matter if they were a Hero or not.  But I just figured that if I did become one, I could help a lot of people. In a lot of big ways.”

At that, Deku nodded. “It’s a good reason,” he said.  “I’ve certainly heard worse.”

“I, ah,” Isamu began again, “I just want to really thank you, for this opportunity.  I didn’t think somebody like you would ever notice somebody like me.”

For the briefest second, he could have sworn he saw some faraway look pass over Deku’s face.  Then he remembered that Deku was, somehow, a very late bloomer, who hadn’t manifested his Quirk until he was a teenager. Who’d gone to school with Shoto and Ingenium and Creati, scions of various Hero legacies of their own. Maybe he did understand a bit.

Deku smiled.  “Just looking for someone who looked like they could use a shot.  You and Kocho both.”

The Number One Hero’s grin got bigger.  “So… how’d you like to go on patrol?”

[medialists]

Mamma Mia

Atomic Blonde 

Filth 

Regression 

Colonia 

El círculo 

Beauty and the Beast 

Trance 

Victor Frankenstein 

Atonement 

Starter for 10 

Becoming Jane 

The Conspirator

The Last King of Scotland 

X-Men.

Glass 

The Last Station 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 

Big Fish 

La desaparición de Eleanor Rigby 

Submergence 

Thor 

The Avengers 

Intensamente 

Las ventajas de ser invisible 

IT. 

Inception 

Harry Potter.

At eternity's gate 

Catch me if you can 

Her 

Pulp Fiction 

Xavier Dolan 

Memorias de una Geisha 

Ready player one 

Battle angel 

Taxi Driver 

El doble 

Shutter island 

Cube 

My week with Marilyn 

Noé 

Ballet shoes 

El diablo viste a la moda 

Cazafantasmas 

Les miserables 

Lady Bird 

The Truman Show 

Irene, yo y mi otro yo 

Call me by your name 

The Favorite 

La la land 

La chica del tren 

Jolene 

Winter's war 

Tomb Raider 

Ex machina 

El código Da Vinci 

Ángeles y demonios 

Mean Girls 

Mulan 

Coraline 

Mujer Bonita 

E.T. 

Crimson Peak. 

Extraordinario. 

Las de Marvel que faltan 

The Room 

A quiet place 

Blade Runner 

Animales Nocturnos 

Animales Fantásticos  

La Propuesta 

A star is born 

Begin again 

Anon. 

From Russia with Love

Goldfinger

Thunderball

You Only Live Twice

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Diamonds Are Forever

The Man with the Golden Gun

For Your Eyes Only

Octopussy

Never Say Never Again

A View to a Kill

The Living Daylights

GoldenEye

Tomorrow Never Dies

The World is not Enough

Die Other Day

Casino Royale

Quantum of Solace

Dawn of the Dead

Blade II

RED

The Dark Knight Rises

Kick-Ass 2

Die Hard

Scarface

From Dusk till Dawn

Face/Off

No Escape

Impostor

Death Race 2

Jobs

Les Quatre Cents Coups

The Wolf of Wall Street

The Murder of Princess Diana

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Fight Club

My Sister's Keeper

Ida

Loreak

Sowon

Gran Torino

All About Eve

The Nun's Story

The Sunset Limited

A Clockwork Orange

Kingsman.

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Lords of Dogtown

Unbroken

Ip Man

Million Dollar Baby

Concussion

The Great Gatsby

Lilting

Birdman

The Theory of Everything

War and Peace

Collateral Beauty

The Children's Hours

Moulin Rouge!

Dolls

The Bridges of Madison County

As Good as It Gets

Me Before You

Before Sunrise

Before Midnight

Carol

The Reader

Like Crazy

New York, I Love You

Anna Karenina

Pride & Prejudice

Bridget Jones's Diary

How to Marry a Millionaire

Bus Stop

The Prince and the Showgirl

Ladies of the Chorus

Roman Holiday

Prendimi l'Anima

The Young Victoria

Sabrina

Ed Wood

My Life Without Me

A Woman of Paris

Metropolis

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Fantasia 2000

Punisher: War Zone

Robin and Marian

The Unforgiven

Green Mansions

Live and Let Die

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

To the Bone

T2 Trainspotting

La Grande Bellezza

Men, Women & Children

Lost in Translation

Ghost World

Before Sunset

Evil Dead

Army of Darkness

After Earth

Hulk

Get Smart

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The Dark Crystal

Labyrinth

300

Mononoke Hime

Edge of Tomorrow

Death Race 2050

L'Écume des Jours

Paris When It Sizzles

The Seven Year Itch

Down with Love

Monkey Business

Dead Alive

Monty Python's Life of Brian

Vertigo

They All Laughed

Love Among Thieves

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Let's Make Love

Funny Face

On the Town

The Sky's the Limit

A Damsel in Distress

Shall We Dance

There's No Business Like Show Business

It's Always Fair Weather

My Fair Lady

Don't Bother to Knock

Monte Carlo Baby

Las Dos Caras de la Verdad

Ciudad en Tinieblas

El Bebé de Rose Mary

The Chuck Net Atrapado Sin Salida

El Experimento

Holy Motors

Mindscape

Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me

Antichrist

Bottom of the Worlds

High Rise

Southland Tales

Magnolia

Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy

Inherent Vice

The Lobster

The Number 23

They Look Like People

Upstream Color

Twelve Monkeys

Minority Report

Los Cromocrímenes

Predestination

About time

Blue Velvet

Pi: Faith in Chaos

The Box

Identity

The Life of David Gale

The Gift

Lovesong

Miss Sloane

The Meyerowitz Stories

The Big Sick

Efectos Secundarios

The Notebook

The Odd Life of Timothy Green

The Little Mermaid

Manchester By the Sea

Silence

Moonlight

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Snowpiercer

Star Trek Beyond

Moonrise Kingdom

No Country for Old Men

The Exorcist

The Darjeeling Limited

House of Sand and Fog

Napoleon Dynamite

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Armores Perros

La Dictadura Perfecta

Frida

El Crimen del Padre Amado

El Estudiante

Cilantro y Perejil

Perfume de Violetas

Arráncame la Vida

Como Agua para Chocolate

Solo Con tu Pareja

El Callejón de los Milagros

Rojo Amanecer

La Ley de Herodes

Un Monstruo de Mil Cabezas

Las Horas Contigo

Maquinaria Paramericana

Ella es Ramona

El Jeremias

Sopladora de Hojas

Los Insólitos Peces Gatos

Guten Tag, Ramon

El Infierno

Mientras el Lobo No Está

Sexo, Pudor y Lágrimas

Miss Bala

Cronos

Después de Lucía

Qué Culpa Tiene el Niño

Nosotros los Nobles

La Jaula de Oro

Y tu Mamá También

Canoa

Amar te Duele

Toki Wo Kakeru Shoujo

Transformers

Harry Potter

Old Yeller

Legally Blonde

Miller's Crossing

Faustrecht der Freiheit

It's Called Murder, Baby

Heathers

The Love Witch

Southside With You

Pink Flamingos

Hr's Just Not That Into You

Windstruck

What's Your Number?

There's Something About Mary

When Harry Met Sally

Forgettin Sarah Marshall

Say Anything

Pretty Woman

Not Another Teen Movie

Kate & Leopold

Sleepless in Seattle

Pretty in Pink

Serendipity

Four Weddings And A Funeral

50 First Dates

Bridget Jones' Diary

Something's Gotta Give

Pánico Antes del Amanecer

Cumpleaños Mortal

Viernes 13

La Quema

The Slumber Party Massacre

Campamento Sangriento

Curtains

Siete Mujeres Atrapadas

The House On Sorority Row

Detrás de la Máscara

April Fool's Day

Lovecraft

Bubba Ho-Tep

Thor Ragnarok

Lo Que Hacemos en las Sombras

Zombies Party

La Noche de los Muertos Vivientes

El Regreso de los Muertos Vivientes

Army of Darkness

Pasion Infernal

Terroríficamente muertos

El Baile de los Vampiros

Braindead

Creepshow

El Jovencito Frankeinstein

Gremlins

Un Hombre Lobo Americano en Londres

The Edge Of Seventeen

Murder of Cats

The Book of Love

Atomic Falafel

Buddies

Tiempos felices

Illegal

Nise: El Corazón de la Locura

Kill Command

The Blind Side

The Fundamentals of Caring

The Danish Girl

Miss You Already

Fantastic Beasts the Crimes of Grindelwald

Side Effects

Requiem for a Dream

Constantine

The Island

The Box

The Tall Man

Oblivion

Gods of Egypt

Twilight Zone

Dusk Dawn

Jeepers Creepers

The Descent

30 Days of Night

The Midnight Meat Train

VHS

Minority Report

Terminator

Avatar

Midnight Sun

The Book of Henry

Lady Bird

Truth or Dare

Adrift

Stronger

Every Day

A Nightmire on Elm Street

REC

Monsters

American Mary

Found

The Witches

Let Me In

Let the Right One In

Oculus

Insidious 4: The Last Key

Trainspotting

Night of the Living Dead

Life of Brian

Drive

Snatch

Blade Runner

Scarface

Lord of the Rings

Ben - Hur

Cantinflas

Tin tan

Pedro Infante

Gone With the Wind

Indiana Jones

Salon Kitty

The Wild Bunch

Harold and Maude

The Warriors

The Long Goodbye

Deep End

Coonskin

The Bestia in Calore

La Cage aux Folles

Badlands

The Brood

1941

Eraserhead

Labyrinth

Legend

The Sound of Music

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Enemy Mine

Cannibal Holocaust

The Evil Dead

Lola Montes

King Kong

Rock and Roll High School

Blood In Blood Out

Easy Rider

Heavy Metal

Pink Floyd The Wall

Wicker Park

Lars and the Real Girl

The Cable Guy

Sophie's Choice

Brokeback Mountain

A Wrinkle in Time

Scream

Presagio

Señales

Titanes del pacífico

Clint Eastwood

Dirty Harry

Chappie

The Greatest Showman

Safe Heaven

Across the Universe

Thirteen

Perfect Sense

A Life Less Ordinary

Shallow Grave

No Reservations

The Holiday

Ali G in da House

The Reader

The Dressmaker

Brigsby Bear

Cast Away

Romeo + Juliet

What's Eating Gilberte Grape?

Body of Lies

Little Nemo Adventures in Slumberland

Apt Pupil

Stand by Me

Shawshank Redemption

Excalibur

Hearts Beat Loud

Velvet Buzzsaw

Nightcrawler

Chungking Express

Twin Peaks

Throne of Blood

Harakiri

2046

Tokyo Story

F for Fake

Allegrophobia

Lost in Translation

Hereditary

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

Rear Window

West Side Story

Manhattan

David Lynch Cooking Quinoa

Ikiru

Midnight Cowboy

Bonnie and Clyde

The Straight Story

Annie Hall

The Great Dictator

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

M

Y tu Mamá También

Paddington

Paddington 2

Birdman

Autumn Sonata

To Kill a Mockingbird

Barry Lyndon

It's a Wonderful Life

The Wrestler

The Florida Project

Rashomon

It's Such a Beautiful Day

Paths of Glory

Kung Fury

Boogie Nights

Gone with the Wind

The Prestige

Shaun of the Dead

The World's End

In the Mood for Love

Handmaiden

Intolerance

El Bola

Celda 211

El Olivo

Las 13 Rosas

Blue Valentine

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Like Crazy

(500) Days of Summer

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Once

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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

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Dear Zachary: a Letter to a Son about His Father

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Touch of Evil

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A Ghost Story

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El libro de piedra

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Needful Things

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El Diario de Carlota

Batman vs Superman

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Sé lo que hicieron el verano pasado

Joy Ride

Jeepers Creepers

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Viernes 13

Another Earth

A Quiet Place

Mississippi en llamas

The breakfast club

The revenant

birdman

sing street *

frida

roma

catch me if you can

dead poets society

the age of adaline

changeling

brooklyn

good will hunting

artificial intelligence

paranoia

to the bone

the danish girl

90 minutes in heaven

while you were sleeping

james and the giant peach

Crimson peak

pretty woman

summer days with coo

the breadwinner

summer wars

the gift

cargo

julie & julia

spirit

8 mile

raw

okja

schindler's list

blue valentine

the hateful eight

the untouchables

old boy

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sophie's choice

ip man 2

frances ha

the tree of life

amanda knox

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Janis: little girl blue

my beautiful broken brain

noah

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origin: spirits of the past

project almanac

the thing

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death note

death note ii

1922

death note: light up the new world

pandora

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Loco por ella

Quédate a mi lado

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A él no le gustas tanto

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Canta!

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Cuando el destino nos alcance

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Highlander

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Todo en un día

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Pulse

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Voice from the stone

Clinical

Dig two graves

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Dans la maison

Memories of a murder

Incendies

The prestige

Gone baby gone

El secreto de sus ojos

Mystic River

[iamcmims]

SUPERNATURAL: Olivia Parker: Wendigo

Words count: 11K

A/N: Sorry for posting this part on Tumblr this late! It’s been on wattpad since Sunday and I had no time to post it here! I posted the other day that I had no access to internet, so the chapter three “Dead In The Water” would be posted later, well, turns out internet is back and working! So I can get back on this new chapter and post it either Sunday or Monday! 

Feedback always appreciated! If you want to be tagged, feel free to ask! 

Warning: Blood, injuries, insults, angst, violence. 

PREVIOUS PARTS: Pilot

NEXT PARTS: Dead In The Water  — Phantom Traveler — Bloody Mary — Skin — Hook Man — The Fight — Home

Previously on Olivia Parker...

In one of the several suburban homes, Olivia Parker was sitting on her bed in the darkened bedroom, looking at her closet that opened itself, making Olivia scream.

In another home, Mary Winchester runs up the stairs into her youngest son's, Sam, nursery. John Winchester gives baby Sam to Dean, "Take your brother outside as fast as you can! Now, Dean, go!"

After Olivia's mother, Caitlyn closed the doors; it once again opened itself. A silhouette comes out of it; it looks around until it spots what it was looking for. The shape walks to the wooden desk and takes a picture of Olivia and her parents. "It has begun."

Dean runs downstairs with Sam and leaves the house. John goes back to the nursery and watches his wife, Mary burn on the ceiling. "Mary! No!" John watches the nursery burn, Mary with it.

31st October 2000.

Olivia was now older, dressed in black, looking at herself in a mirror. Her mother looks at her, "Are you ready?", "Yes. As ready as I can be on the day I bury my husband and child."

Olivia stayed until the end of the ceremony when everyone had left, she kneels down, "I'm going to find what did this to you and I'm going to kill it, no matter what it takes."

October 31st, 2005.

Sam watches his brother that was in his and Jess, his girlfriend, apartment. "Dad's on a hunting trip, and he hasn't been home in a few days." Sam put his arm off of his girlfriend, keeping his eyes on Dean, "Jess, excuse us."

In the stairwell from Sam's apartment, Sam speaks to Dean, "I swore I was done hunting. For good.", "I can't do this alone."

In Sam's bedroom, Jess speaks to Sam. "And now you're taking off in the middle of the night to spend the weekend with them?", "Hey. Everything's going to be okay. I promise."

"You think Mom would have wanted this for us?" Asks Sam.

In John's motel room, Sam looks at the photo John left of the three Winchesters.

"Dean, we were raised like warriors."

Olivia smiled and tilted her head, "Did you really think I would be this stupid? Come on, show me some respect." As she finished her sentence, Olivia swung her machete, beheading the vampire. "Eat this, bitch."

Olivia was in her Black 1965 Buick Riviera Gran Sport, blood on her face and clothes.

"I'm so sorry..."

Olivia sits on the bed in her motel room and dials the number of her mother. "Hey, mom. — Work is busy lately. I might stay for a little bit longer." She takes out a journal and a pen, 'November 1st, 2005. Still nothing. I killed another nest of vampire. If they knew something about the accident, they would have never told me. I  need to find what killed Conor and Joey.  But for that, I need to find John Winchester. "

Olivia was in front of a house that looked abandoned. The flashback of the night of the accident hit her. Her son looked outside, "Mom who is in the yard?" Olivia went outside and put herself in front of the man, "I said, get out. If I find you here again, I will kill you. You understand me?" The man left.          Olivia was sitting at a table with her husband, Conor who as sitting in front of her. "He didn't move, not until I put myself in front of him. He was fixing Joey's bedroom.", "Well, just to be safe, keep your gun next to you." Olivia looks up at her husband. "What do you think, Conor? I have it on me, loaded.", "It's not your fault, Livy.", "He was not human. Trust me."          "I gave up hunting, Conor. But my instincts are still there.", "This man, whether he's human or not, is not here because of you.", "Well, I won't wait to find out. I may not be in the life anymore, but I'm not stupid, I didn't erase every number.", "Who are you going to call?", "John Winchester. After all, he's the one who trained me."

"This is John Winchester. I can't be reached. If this is an emergency, call my son Dean 866-907-3235."

A drop of blood falls on Olivia's shoulder then other ones. She looks up and sees her husband and child on the ceiling. "No!" John arrives and sees the fire starting, "Olivia! Come on let's get out.", "No! I can't leave them there!"

"How did you know?", "One call was enough to know you were in trouble.", "What happened back there, it's the same thing that happened to you, to Mary.", "We're going to find it, I promise.", "I know. Even if it is the last thing I do."

"You have responsibilities, Sam!", "To Dad? And his crusade? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone. And she isn't coming back." Dean grabs Sam by the collar and shoves him up against the railing of the bridge. "Don't talk about her like that."

Olivia was inside the Impala with Sam, they were talking to Dean on the phone, "Dad's gone. I've got his journal. He left me a message."

Sam compares the coordinates in the journal to a map. "These coordinates he left us, it's weird, man."

Sam, Dean, and Olivia were in John's motel room that he abandoned. "Hey, Dean? What I said earlier, I'm sorry." Dean raises a hand, "no chick-flick moments."

"If I were Dad, though, I'd go ask her husband," "If he's still alive." Sam and Dean tun around and see Olivia standing at the door. "Olivia!" Sam frowns, "wait, Olivia? Parker?"

Olivia walks over to Sam, "You know, despite everything John said to you, he was damn proud of you, Sammy.", "I guess so."

"Jess?" Sam is in his apartment, lying on the bed, eyes closed. Blood drips on his forehead, and he flinches, opens his eyes, and gasps in horror. Jess was pinned to the ceiling, bleeding. "No!"

Dean watches outside Sam's apartment the firefighters handle the situation, then goes back to Sam and Olivia at the Impala. Sam finishes loading a shotgun and tosses it in the trunk.

"We've got work to do." Sam shuts the trunk.

Today — Lost Creek, Colorado.

In the forest, two tents were set up near a fire ring. Crickets were chirping. Inside one tent, two young men, Brad and Gary, were playing head-to-head handheld video games. "Dude, you're cheating." Gary smirks, "no, you  just suck." Something growls outside. In the other tent, a third young man, Tom Collins, records a video message on his cell phone. "Hey Haley, day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge." Something dark flicks behind the tent wall behind Tom, too fast to be identifiable as more than 'something dark'; but as Tom was recording himself, it also recorded the fast silhouette. "We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow." Tom stops recording and sends the message.          Brad closes his game system and tosses it aside. Gary stares at his system for a moment, then turns to look at Brad, who is getting up and unzipping the tent.  Gary looks at him, "hey, where ya goin'? My moment of victory.", "Nature calls." Brad goes outside and zips up the sent behind him. He goes to stand against the tree to relieve himself. The fire crackles. Something snaps a stick. Brad looks towards the sound and sees the trees rustling. Brad shakes his head and returns his attention downward, then looks up sharply. Something growls.          Inside Tom's tent, Tom, who is reading Joseph Campbell's 'The Hero With A Thousand Faces,' hears Brad scream.          Inside Gary's tent, Gary hears the same scream and rolls over. "Brad?"          Tom sits up. "Gary, what's goin' on?"         Gary opens the tent and sticks his head out to look around. He sees nothing. Then he hears growling again. He looks up; something pulls Gary out of the tent. He screams.          Tom turns out the lantern he had on. Shadows move very quickly around the outside of Tom's tent. Tom looks around, his eyes following the shadows and growling. Silence falls. Something slashes open Tom's tent, making him scream.

Olivia and Dean were in the Impala that was parked not so far from the cemetery where Sam was walking. Olivia was shotgun and Dean in the driver seat. Olivia looks at Sam then looks in front of her, fixing her eyes on a tree. Dean shifted his gaze from Sam to Olivia and then looked at Olivia. They didn't have the time or the chance to talk. Dean felt terrible for not giving her any news, just one text to make sure she knew he was alive wouldn't take long, he thought. But then again, did she want this text? Dean takes a deep breath and looks where Olivia's eyes are fixed. "How are you feeling?" Olivia gives a side glance at Dean then looks ahead. "Usual." Dean doesn't answer. "You know, Dean. You gotta stop beating yourself up. I know you were out searching for John." She looks at him. "I should have at least called." Olivia shrugs. "It's true. So should I." They look back at Sam that was wearing a suit and tie, carrying a bouquet of various flowers. "This thing took too much from us. We have to find it and kill it." Dean nods. "I know.", "Something happened to John. You know it like me." Olivia turns and looks at Dean once again. "Wherever he would go, he would have his gun and this journal. Something happened.", "I know. It's like he left his legacy. Like he's saying goodbye. Do you think we're going to find him?", "I hope. I think we've lost enough. We're going to kill this son of a bitch, and if we have to go in a blaze of glory, I say let's do it."          Sam sighs and stops next to Jessica's gravestone. On the tombstone was written 'Jessica Lee Moore,' 'Beloved Daughter,' 'January 24th, 1984 — November 2nd, 2005'. There is a small picture of a grinning Jess set into the stone above name, a black-and-white photograph of her leaning against the stone between a white teddy bear. And a wooden box with a crucifix leaning on the picture a small American Flag next to the box, and three candles standing on the gravestone; one is of the Virgin de Guadalupe. Sam looks between the headstone and the flowers. "I, uh…" Sam laughs. "You always said roses were — were lame, so I brought you, uh…" Sam looks at the picture set into the gravestone, then looks away, choking back tears. He steps closer to the gravestone. "Jess…oh God…" Sam kneels to set down the flowers. "I should have protected you. I should have told you the truth." Sam leans the flowers in front of the crucifix. An arm covered in dirt shoots out of the ground and grabs Sam by the wrist.          Sam jerks awake. He's in the backseat, Dean and Olivia were talking. Dean looks in the rearview mirror, "You okay?" Sam glances over and away. "Yeah, I'm fine." Dean nods and brings focus on the road. "Another nightmare?" Sam clears his throat. "You wanna drive for a while?" Sam and Olivia laugh. "Dean, your whole life, you never once asked me that.", "Just thought you might want to. Never mind.", "You're missing an occasion, Sam!" Sam smiles at Olivia and looks at his hands. Olivia and Dean glance at each other, having a silent conversation about Sam's state. Sam didn't miss it, "Look, guys, you're worried about me. I get it and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay." Olivia and Dean agree at the same time, "Mm-hm." Sam grabs the map in front of Olivia and goes back to his seat. "All right, where are we?" Olivia turns and looks at the map; she puts her finger where they are, "Just outside of Grand Junction." Then sits correctly on her seat, feet on the dashboard. Sam folds down the map, which is of Colorado and has a large red cross labeled 35-111. "You know what? Maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon." Dean sighs, "Sam, we dug around there for a week. We came up with nothing. If you want to find the thing that killed Jessica—", "—We got to find Dad first.", "Dad disappearing and this thing showing up again after twenty years, it's no coincidence. Dad will have answers for the three of us. He will know what to do." Sam frowned when Dean said for the three of them, not understanding what he meant. Dean didn't tell Olivia's story to Sam. If she wanted him to know, she would tell him. Until then he would keep the secret. "These coordinates he left us, this Blackwater Ridge." Olivia slightly moves in her seat, enough to be facing Sam. "What about it?", "Why is he sending us to the middle of nowhere." Olivia looks at Dean. Sam was making a point. All of this made no sense.          They drive past the National Forest sign that says, 'Welcome to LOST CREEK Colorado National Forest.'

The Impala is parked next to a sign that says 'Ranger Station Lost Creek Trail, Lost Creek National Forest.'          "So Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote." Sam looks at a 3D map of the national forest, paying particular attention to the ridge labeled 'BLACKWATER RIDGE.' Dean looks at the decorations. "It's cut off by these canyons here, rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place.", "Dude," Dean was smiling. "check out the size of this freaking bear." Sam and Olivia look over. Dean was looking at a framed photo of a man standing behind a much larger bear. Sam comes to stand next to Dean while Olivia stays close to the window looking outside. "And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area. It's no nature hike, that's for sure."          A forest ranger, Wilkinson, walk up behind them; when he speaks, Sam, Dean, and Olivia whip around startled. "You guys aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" The three of them shake their heads. Olivia walks in front of his desk. "No. We are environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper." Olivia smiles, Sam laughs, and Dean grins, raising a fist. "Recycle, man." The Ranger rolls his eyes, "Bull." Sam's eyes flick to Dean, who doesn't move. Olivia does not give away any sign, she was impossible to read, thought the Ranger. "You're friends with that Haley girl, right?" Dean considers. "Yes. Yes, we are, Ranger—" Dean checks the Ranger's nametag. "Wilkinson.", "Well, I will tell you exactly what we told her. Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the twenty-fourth, so it's not exactly a missing person now, is it?" Olivia sighs, Dean shakes his head, and the Ranger nods. "You tell that girl to quit worrying. I'm sure her brother's just fine.", "We will. Well, that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh?" Dean laughs a little at the end of his sentence. The Ranger nods at Dean. "That is putting it mildly." Before they leave, Oliva frowns and takes a step closer. "Ranger, you know what would help a lot? It's if we could show her a copy of that backcountry permit. You know so she could see her brother's return date." The Ranger eyes Olivia, "I can't do that.", "Well," Olivia takes out a fake FBI ID, "you can. But then again, it's up to you. We'd totally get it if you don't give us the paper."

Sam, Dean, and Olivia leave the ranger station. Dean is holding the piece of paper Olivia got them, laughing. "Got to tell you something, Olivia. That was beautiful." Sam nods. "Yeah. Well, you guys heard it. It's not a missing person case.", "I still think we should go see this girl." Says Dean while looking at the paper. "What, are you cruising for a hookup or something?", "What do you mean?", "The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge, so what are we waiting for? Let's just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?" They stop when they arrive at the Impala. "I don't know. Maybe we should know what we're walking into before we actually walk into it?" Dean and Olivia were looking at Sam. "What?" Olivia frowned and faced Sam, "Since when are you adopting John's way? Shoot first ask questions later?", "Since now." Olivia raises her eyebrows and looks at Dean. "Really?" Dean goes around the car and gets inside.          Olivia's phone rings, she takes it out of her pocket and answers. "Yes? — It's me. — Hey, Bobby. — Sure, what can I do for you? — What happened? — What do you think it is? — Yeah sounds about right. — Okay, I'm coming. — Yeah. — Don't mention it." She hung up and looks at Dean. "You will have to drop me at the motel.", "What did Bobby want?", "Werewolves nest. I'm going to help him." Dean looks at Olivia then back on the road. "You sure you should go alone?", "I won't be alone. Bobby will be here. And you seem to forget that I've been hunting alone for a moment."          Dean stopped the car at the motel room; they got out of it. Sam and Dean stood against the Impala while Olivia was taking her duffel bag off of the Impala to her Riviera passenger seat. She closes the door and walks to Sam and Dean, hands in her jacket's pocket. "Don't be a stranger, give me some news this time." Dean laughs and nods. "You got this. C'mere." Olivia puts her hands out of her pockets and hugs Dean. Dean talks low, enough for only Olivia to hear it. "You be careful out there. The thing's still out." Olivia nods and goes to Sam. "Don't do anything stupid, or anything that Dean would do." Sam laughs and nods, "Yes ma'am.", "Okay. Come here, don't make me beg for it." Sam laughs again and hugs Olivia. She lets go and get into her car, turning on the engine. Dean closes his eyes. "Ohh," he reopens them and looks at Olivia, "almost as beautiful as Baby's engine.", "Don't compare two queens, Winchester." Sam and Dean wave at Olivia while she leaves the parking lot. They get back in the Impala, driving to the girl's house.

Sam and Dean are standing at the door to a house. The door opens to reveal Haley Collins. "You must be Haley Collins. I'm Dean; this is Sam, we're, ah, we're rangers with the Park Service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. He wanted us to ask a few questions about your brother Tommy." Haley hesitates. "Let me see some ID." Dean pulls out a fake ID with the name Samuel Cole and holds it up against the screen. Haley looks at it, then at Dean, who smiles. Haley opens the door. "Come on in.", "Thanks." The door swings open; Haley catches sight of the Impala. "That yours?", "Yeah." Sam is looking back at the Impala. "Nice car." Haley turns to lead Sam and Dean into the kitchen, where Ben Collins is sitting at the table on a laptop. Dean turns his head to mouth something to Sam, who rolls his eyes.          "So," begins Sam "if Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know something's wrong?" Haley comes back into the room with a bowl she places on the table. "He checks in every day by cell. He emails, photos, stupid little videos — we haven't heard anything in over three days now.", "Well, maybe he can't get cell reception.", "He's got a satellite phone, too.", "Could it be he is just having fun and forgot to check in?", "He wouldn't do that." Dean eyes Ben, then Ben looks away. Haley puts more food on the table. "Our parents are gone. It's just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other.", "Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Haley nods at Sam, "Yeah." On a laptop, Haley pulls up pictures. "That's Tommy." Haley clicks twice, and another picture comes up, then the still frame opening the latest video. "Hey Haley, day six, we're still out near Blackwater Ridge. We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow." Sam spots the shadow flicking past. "Well," starts Dean "we will find your brother. We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing.", "Then maybe I'll see you there. Look, I can't sit around here anymore. So I hired a guy. I'm heading out in the morning. And I'm going to find Tommy myself.", "I think I know how you feel.", "Hey," cuts off Sam "do you mind forwarding these to me?", "Sure."

Olivia parks in front of a motel, she takes her phone, goes to the message Bobby sent her with the number of the room. "450." She turns off the engine, takes her duffel bag and walks to Bobby's room. She knocks three times, pause for five seconds and knocks two more times. Bobby opens the door and smiles. "Hey, Kiddo. Thanks for coming.", "Sure." She enters the room, puts the duffel bag on the ground. "So what do we got?", "So far, three bodies with hearts missing.", "Yeah, so it's definitely werewolves.", "Yeah. But wait for it, they've got a type.", "What type?" Bobby looks at Olivia and raises his left eyebrow. Olivia sighs. "I'm going to play the bait, again? Come on Bobby; it's like you really want me to die." Bobby laughs. "Not my fault if you're the supernatural kind's type!", "Yeah, what can I say. Got everything for everyone. Alright, what's your plan, Singer?", "Easy. You will go to the local bar—", "One thing, this time, I don't have to wear a skirt that could almost be mistaken as my underwear?", "Nope. Just have to sit down and order a drink and wait for it.", "Fine. I will take a shower and rub the hunter smell off of me, and dress a little bit differently." Olivia takes her duffel bag and makes her way to the bathroom. "Oh, Olivia." She turns around, "How's Sam?" Olivia sighs. "Honestly? Bad. He's acting a lot like John when Mary died. Shoot first ask questions later. We already have John missing, and a mini John on the way. He's going to get himself and probably Dean, killed." Bobby sighs loudly, worried. "Sorry to bring you bad news Bob'.", "And you?", "What me?", "How are you handling?", "Bobby, it's been years you've been asking this question. You know the answer. I won't rest until I pull a damn bullet in the thing's head. After I do this, ask the question again, and I will see which answer to give." Olivia turns around and closes the bathroom door behind her. Bobby shakes his head and opens a beer, takes a big sip of it, "Those kids will be the death of me."

Sam and Dean sit down at a table in a bar. Dean takes his phone and dials Olivia's number. It goes straight to voicemail. "Hi, it's Olivia Parker. I can't be reached for the moment, if it's important leave a message and I'll call you back." Dean takes a deep breath, "Hey, Olivia, it's Dean, been trying to join you. Uh…call back whenever you can. Bye." He hung up and puts his phone in his pocket. "She's fine, Dean. No need to stress." There is a moment of silence. Sam frowns and looks at Dean. "Dean, earlier in the car, when we were talking about Dad and everything that happened to Mom and Jess, you said "three of us," so you included Olivia, what happened?", "I ain't-a kiss and tell, Sammy. If you want to know, you will have to ask her.", "This thing took something from her, am I right?" Dean didn't answer, but it was enough for Sam. "It's bigger than what we think, bigger than what Dad maybe thought.", "We will figure it out." They fall once again into silence until Sam decides to break it once more. "So, Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic. Local campers, mostly. But, still, this is April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found." Sam opens John's journal. "Any before that?" Asks Dean. Sam pulls out a newspaper articles to show Dean. "Yeah, in 1982, eight different people all vanished in the same year. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack." Dean reads the headline in 'The Lost Creek Gazette.'          'GRIZZLY BEAR ATTACKS! UP TO EIGHT HIKERS VANISH IN LOST CREEK AREA HIKERS DISAPPEARANCE BAFFLE AUTHORITIES Families continue to search and rescue efforts in spite of disappointing (...)' Sam pulls out his laptop. "And again in 1959 and again before that in 1936." Sam opens the laptop, which already has a window open to Tom's video. "Every twenty-three years, just like clockwork. Okay, watch this. Here's a clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out." Sam pulls up the video and goes through three frames of the video one at a time. A shadow crosses the screen. "Do it again." Sam listens to Dean and repeats the frames. "That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move." Dean hits Sam, making him look up at Dean. "Told you something weird was going on.", "Yeah." Sam closes the laptop. "I got one more thing." Sam hands over another newspaper article. "In 'fifty-nine one camper survived this supposed grizzly attack. Just a kid. Barely crawled out of the woods alive." Dean looks at 'The Lost Creek Gazette.' "Is there a name?"

An old man, Mr. Shaw, talks to Sam and Dean while leading them inside his house. Mr. Shaw has a cigarette in his mouth. "Look, Ranger, I don't know why you're asking me about this. It's public record. I was a kid. My parents go mauled by a—" Sam interrupts Mr. Shaw. "Grizzly? That's what attacked them?" Mr. Shaw takes a puff of his cigarette, takes it out, and nods. "The other people that went missing that year, those bear attacks too?" Mr. Shaw doesn't answer Dean. "What about all the people that went missing this year? Same thing?" Still no answers. "We knew what we were dealing with, we might be able to stop it." Declares Dean. "I seriously doubt that. Anyways, I don't see what difference it would make." Mr. Shaw sits down. "You wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever did." Sam sits down across from Mr. Shaw. "Mr. Shaw, what did you see?" Shaw pauses. "Nothing. It moved too fast to see. It hid too well. I heard it, though. A roar. Like…no man or animal I ever heard.", "It came at night?" Shaw nods at Sam. "Got inside our tent?" Sam presses Mr. Shaw. "It got inside our cabin. I was sleeping in front of the fireplace when it came in. It didn't smash a window or break the door. It unlocked it. Do you know of a bear that could do something like that? I didn't even wake up until I heard my parents screaming.", "It killed them?", "Dragged them off into the night." Shaw shakes his head and then continues. "Why it left me alive…been asking myself that ever since." Shaw's hands go to his collar, "did leave me this, though." Shaw opens his collar to reveal three long scars. Claw marks. Sam and Dean look at them. "There's something evil in those woods. It was some sort of a demon."

Olivia and Dean were on the phone with each other, talking about their respective cases. "So," begins Olivia, "What do you think it is?" Dean sighs, "I don't know. It attacks at night and in the woods. And the way it broke into Shaw's cabin, it was neat, like a human.", "A werewolf?", "Maybe, but they usually go for the heart, not the whole body.", "Unless they cover they trace. But once again, they would have not let the Shaw guy live. It may not be a werewolf.", "Talking about werewolves. How's your case with Bobby?", "Well tonight we caught one, told us where the nest was, so tomorrow we work on the plan, train a little, and by nightfall, we will go there and gank the whole nest.", "Be careful.", "Dean." Olivia's voice was a warning. "Hey, can't stop me from worrying."          Sam enters the room and sees Dean on the phone. He frowns at Dean, silently asking who it was, Dean mouths Olivia, making Sam nod. "Tell her I say hi." He whispers. Dean nods. And listens to Olivia. "I will be back as soon as this case is over.", "I know. Just don't rush it too much, don't get yourself killed or I will bring you back to only kill you again." Olivia laughs, making Dean giggle. "Deal, Winchester. Now, I'm going to sleep. Night, Dee.", "Night, Livy." Dean hangs up and puts his phone on the table. Sam looks at Dean with a grin. "What?" Sam shakes his head, "Nothing. So what'd she say?", "Thought of a werewolf too, but as she pointed out, Shaw would be dead if it was indeed werewolves." Sam sighs. Dean stands up, "Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. If they want inside, they just go through the walls.", "So it's probably something else, something corporeal.", "Corporeal? Excuse me, professor.", "Shut up. So what do you think?", "The claws, the speed that it moves… could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog. Whatever we're talking about, we're talking about a creature, and it's corporeal. Which means we can kill it."          Dean opens the trunk of the Impala, then the weapons box, and props it open with a shotgun. He puts some guns in a duffel bag. Sam leans in. "We cannot let that Haley girl go out there.", "Oh yeaH? What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster?", "Yeah." Dean looks at Sam, dumbfounded. "Her brother is missing, Sam. She's not gonna just sit this out. Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend." Dean picks up the duffel. "Finding Dad's not enough?" Sam slams the weapons box shut, then the trunk. "Now we gotta babysit too?" Dean stares at Sam, he didn't recognize Sam, Olivia was probably right, he went back on the field too soon. "What?" Dean shakes his head, "nothing." Dean throws the duffel bag at Sam and walks off, Sam staring after him.

Olivia was training outside in the small forest not so far from the motel room. She was shooting at different targets she put in front of her, not missing one. When Olivia finished, she walked closer to the targets and looked at it. She turns the safety on of her gun and runs back to the motel room. She enters the room and sees Bobby cleaning his weapons. "How's the weather, Rocky?" Olivia laughs, puts her gun on the table and takes a bottle of water from the small fridge. "The best weather to gank a next of werewolves!" Olivia takes drinks half of the bottle and puts it down. "I'm going to take a shower then we can work on the plan." Bobby nods bringing his focus back to the weapons while Olivia goes to the bathroom.          A map was on the table, Bobby and Olivia were around it. "So," Bobby puts his finger on a point on the map, "entry A. The Alpha of the nest will probably be here, protected by at least two other werewolves." He puts his finger on another point. "Entry B, that's the 'killing room,' after killing them, we should check out this place in case if there are some survivors." Olivia nods. She looks at the map and taps another point with her finger, "entry C is where we enter." Bobby nods, "but the thing is, Bobby, we will have to park the car down the block. So we will have to walk to the entry C.", "This ain't a problem, as long as we find a way kill all of them.", "Unless we get caught, we will have to run fast. Really fast and without involving the neighborhood and have more victims on our hands." Olivia stands up straight. "Our plan is what? We park the car down one block, enter by the entry C, then what?" Bobby looks at the map, "Then," he pauses and searches the map. "There is the main room, where the rest of the nest will be, around five of them." Olivia nods. "Okay, well, I say let's go have a little ride just to see the surroundings."

A man named Roy talks to Haley and Ben while checking a shotgun. They were all carrying full backpacks. "I'll tell you again, I don't think Ben should come.", "Roy—" Haley begins, but Roy cuts her off. "Look, you're paying me good money to keep everybody safe. I think Ben's safest at home." The Impala pulls up. Roy, Haley, and Ben stare. Haley shakes her head. Sam and Dean get out of the car, Sam opens the back door of the Impala and pulls out a duffel bag. "You guys got room for two more?" Haley gives Dean a questioning look. "Wait, you want to come with us?", "Who are these guys?" Asks Roy. "Apparently this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue." Sam heads past everyone. "You're rangers?", "That's right.", "And," Haley looks at Dean's shoes, "you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?" Dean looks down at himself. "Well, sweetheart, I don't do shorts." Dean heads past Haley. "What, you think this is funny? It's dangerous backcountry out there. Her brother might be hurt." Sam turns back and looks at Roy. "Believe me, I know how dangerous it can be." Dean looks at Roy. "We just wanna help them find their brother, that's all." Dean heads past Sam.

A mine shaft lets in light, Tom and Gary are hanging by their wrists from the ceiling. There are different corpses with them. Growling. Gary spots a tall skinny shape and starts yelling. Tom does his best to turn away and closes his eyes tightly as Gary shouts.

Olivia and Bobby were in the Riviera driving past the house where the nest of werewolves was. Bobby takes several pictures as discreet as he could, while Olivia doesn't stop the car and keeps driving. They stop at a local diner called 'The Old Maple.' They take a booth and order coffees. "How much did you get with the photos?" Bobby looks at them and sighs, "Not much. We had more details on the map. It does confirm the entries, though." Olivia nods, the waitress arrives and gives them their coffees, they smile and nod at her with a quick 'thank you' and return to their conversation. "Okay. Well, nightfall is in hours away so what now? Are we sure there are only three victims?", "There are only three reported victims.", "This is what I thought. So we should look into missings, ask some people, and if people are missing, we'll include this in the plan, and after we killed the nest, we will check into it. I just only hope that there are survivors." Bobby nods. "I do too."

The group hikes through the forest, Roy in the lead, then Dean, Haley, Ben, and Sam bringing up the rear. "Roy, you said you did a little hunting.", "Yeah, more than a little." Dean nods, "Uh-huh. What kind of furry critters do you hunt?", "Mostly buck, sometimes bear." Dean passes Roy. "Tell me, uh, Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?" Roy grabs Dean. Sam looks on. "Watcha doing, Roy?" Asks Dean. Roy grabs a stick and pokes the bear trap Dean had almost stepped in. Haley looks annoyed. "You should watch where you're stepping. Ranger." Roy drops the stick and retakes the lead. Dean looks at it then up, "It's a bear trap." They hike on. Haley catches up to Dean. "You didn't pack any provisions. You guys are carrying a duffel bag. You're not rangers." Haley grabs Dean's arm. "So who the hell are you?" Ben goes past Haley and Dean. Sam looks at Dean, who silently tells him to keep going; Sam obeys. Dean watches him go for a moment. "Sam and I are brothers, and we're looking for our father. He might be here, we don't know. I just figured that you and me, we're in the same boat.", "Why didn't you just tell me that from the start?", "I'm telling you now. Besides, it's probably the most honest I've ever been with a woman except Olivia. So we okay?" Haley pauses and nods. "Yeah, okay. And who's Olivia?", "Our best friend. She's helping us find our Dad.", "Why?", "She grew up with us. My Dad took her in at a bad time in her life.", "What happened to her?", "Ah, sorry. No can do. I promised to keep this to myself, that if someone were going to tell her story, it would be her." Dean winks at Haley who smiles. "You're a good friend.", "I try to. And what do you mean I didn't pack provisions?" Dean pulls out a big bag of peanut M&Ms and sticks his hand in the bag as he hikes on. Haley waits a moment, then follows.

Olivia and Bobby were in FBI suits. Olivia was interrogating a woman and Bobby, another man. "So, Mrs. Brook. I saw that you posted on the local's website that your son went missing." The woman nods, "Did you have any news about? Some things you feel like I should know?", "I—I don't know...", "It's okay. It's alright. Take your time. Uh, did you see someone, a stranger for instance near your house, or your son? Did he tell you anything about it?", "He said he had a new friend older than him. But I thought he was from another grade. Oh my, God." The woman starts to panic, Olivia helps the woman to sit down. "It's okay. Did he tell you anything else? Where he lived, where they would see each other?" She shakes her head. Olivia sighs and sits down, next to the woman. "I'm sorry for pressing you with my questions. The more I know, the more chances I have to find your son.", "I understand. Keep going.", "Okay. Did any of his teaches talked to you about this new friend?", "They said that Dylan was distracted lately. He cut some classes.", "Okay. Did Dylan had a phone?", "Yes.", "Okay, could you give me his number and your operator?" The woman stands up, takes a paper and writes down everything Olivia needed. Olivia stands up and takes the paper. "Thank you." Olivia stops for a moment and sighs, "I know what you're going through. I'm going to do my best to find your son.", "Thank you so much." Olivia nods and leaves the house. Bobby was already in the car, the goes around the car and gets into the driver seat. "So, what did the man told you?", "His daughter went missing a week ago, but she came back yesterday, she was at a friend's place. You?", "This woman's son is missing. She said he made a new friend, someone older than him. She gave me his number and the operator so I will try to track the number and get the phone's history and see if he interacted with someone. I also think we should go to the school. She said that he cut some classes, if it was with this new friend, maybe someone saw him. If the description's close to one of the werewolves, it'll be enough. She gave me a photo of him." Olivia gives the photo to Bobby. "Olivia, you're sure you're up for this one?", "Yes, I am, Bobby.", "But this kid missing—," "Will only make me want to finish this job correctly, so the kid is safe and sound. Like any of the survivors.", "Okay. I say let's head back to the motel and get everything ready and then wait for nightfall." Olivia starts the engine and drives off to their motel.

Roy leads the way, followed by Sam, Ben, Haley, and Dean. "This is it. Blackwater Ridge." States Roy. Sam heads past him. "What coordinates are we at?" Roy pulls out a GPS, which reads N 35° 45. 383, W 111° 00.55. "Thirty-five minus one-eleven." Dean comes up to Sam. They listen. "You hear that?", "Yeah. Not even crickets.", "I'm gonna go take a look around.", "You shouldn't go off by yourself.", "That's sweet. Don't worry about me." Roy waves his gun and pushes between Sam and Dean to retake the lead. Dean turns back to the others as Ben and Haley catch up. "All right, everybody stays together. Let's go."          Sam, Dean, Ben, and Haley are looking around near a large rock. "Haley! Over here!" Haley runs towards Roy's voice, followed closely by the others. They come to a halt. "Oh my, God." The tens are torn open and bloody, and all the supplies are scattered. "Looks like a grizzly." States Roy. Dean and Haley look around. "Tommy?" Haley takes off her backpack and goes through the campsite. "Tommy!" Sam moves to catch with Haley. "Shh.", "Tommy!", "Shh-hh-hh!", "Why?", "Something might still be out there.", "Sam." Sam goes over to Dean, snapping a stick, and crouches next to him. "The bodies were dragged from the campsite. But here, the tracks just vanish. That's weird" Sam and Dean stand up. "I'll tell you what, that's no skinwalker or black dog." Dean goes back to the campsite, and Sam follows. Haley picks up Tom's cell phone; it's bloody. She cries. She turns the phone over, and the back is open. Dean crouches next to her. "Hey, he could still be alive." Haley gives Dean a skeptical look. "Help! Help!" Someone screams, Roy leads the way as everyone runs to the aid of the shouter. "Help! Somebody!" They find no one. "It seemed like it was coming from around here, didn't it?" They listen. "Everybody back to camp." Orders Sam. Back at the campsite, all the supplies are missing. "Our packs!" Exclaims Haley. "So much for my GPS and my satellite phone." Whines Roy. "What the hell is going on?" Sam looks at Haley, "it's smart. It wants to cut us off so we can't call for help." Roy looks at Sam. "You mean someone, some nutjob out there just stole all our gear." Sam goes to Dean. "I need to speak with you. In private." Sam and Dean head a little ways away from the group. "Good. Let me see Dad's journal." Dean hands it over. Sam opens it and flips through until he finds a particular page. "All right, check this out." Sam points to a First Nations—style drawing of a figure. "Oh come on, wendigos are in Minnesota woods or, or northern Michigan. I've never even heard of one this far west.", "Think about it, Dean, the claws, the way it can mimic a human voice.", "Great." Dean takes out his pistol. "Well, then this is useless." Sam gives Dean back John's journal and heads past Dean, stopping for a moment. "We gotta get these people to safety."

"Dylan was an amazing student, he didn't always have A's, but he had a great grade, he participated, and he wanted to learn." Olivia was talking to Dylan's teacher. "What happened?", "His grade started to drop about a month ago, he started to cut off.", "How much?", "Half of his grade went down. If he continues at this rate, he won't pass. He missed around twenty classes. He made up fake notes from his mother or father. He even found someone to pretend to be his father to explain his absence.", "Wait, who was pretending to be his father?", "I don't know his name. He went under the identity of Dylan's father.", "Could you describe him?", "Yes. Uhm. Tall, medium brown hair, a beard, brown eyes, he—he has a tattoo of the moon on his right arm. He's muscular. That's all I can remember.", "It's enough. Thanks.", "You're going to find him, right?", "I will do my best to bring him home."          "So turns out the friend Dylan made was the werewolf that we killed.", "So he's in their lair." Olivia nods. "We have maybe two or three hours until nightfall. I say we go over there and wait for a little, in case something new happens."

Back at the campsite, Sam addresses the group. "All right, listen up, it's time to go. Things have gotten…more complicated.", "What?" Haley looked at Sam, confused. "Kid, don't worry. Whatever's out there, I think I can handle it." Dean rolls his eyes at Roy. Sam sighs, "it's not me I'm worried about. If you shoot this thing, you're just gonna make it mad. We have to leave. Now.", "One, you're talking nonsense. Two, you're in no position to give anybody orders." Dean looks at Roy, "relax.", "We never should have let you come out here in the first place, all right? I'm trying to protect you." Roy steps right into Sam's space. "You protect me? I was hunting these woods when your mommy was still kissing you good night.", "Yeah? It's a damn near perfect hunter. It's smarter than you, and it's going to hunt you down and eat you alive unless we get your stupid, sorry ass out of here." Roy laughs. "You know you're crazy, right?", "Yeah? You ever hunt a wen—" Dean pushes Sam. Haley screams Roy's name. "Chill out." Dean tries to calm Sam. "Stop. Stop it." Everyone turns to look at Haley. "Everybody just stops. Look. Tommy might still be alive. And I'm not leaving here without him." For a moment, no one talks, until Dean breaks the silence. "It's getting late. This thing is a good hunter in the day, but an unbelievable hunter at night. We'll never beat it, not in the dark. We need to settle in and protect ourselves." Haley looks at Dean and nods, "How?"

Olivia and Bobby were taking their gun, making sure they had enough bullets. "Okay. So entry C, then the main room we kill all of them, then we go to the room A, kill the Alpha, and if everything goes as planned, we go to the room B and save as many victims as we can." Bobby nods. "And remember, we can't save everyone.", "I know. Let's go." They walk to the house when they arrive at the entry C, Olivia puts herself at the left side of the door, Bobby at the right side. They look at each other, Olivia shows three fingers and starts to silently count. When the last digit is down she takes her gun correctly in her hands, Bobby opens the door as quietly as possible. They enter the room, Olivia covering the left side once again as Bobby still covers the right side. Bobby does a movement of the hand to tell Olivia to keep walking ahead, she nods. They look around, gun aimed and loaded. As they are closer to the main room, they hear people talking. Olivia gets closer to Bobby and whispers "They're at least seven in here. We need to shoot correctly. We don't have many bullets on us.", "Okay. We go in there at the same time and start shooting right away, giving them no time to adjust and attack us." Olivia nods. They take a breath and enter the main room, they start shooting at the werewolves.

The group has built a campfire, and Dean draws something in the dirt around the campsite while Haley pokes at the fire. "One more time, that's—," "Anasazi symbols. It's for protection. The wendigo can't cross over them." Roy laughs, gun over his shoulder. "Nobody likes a skeptic, Roy." Dean heads over to sit next to Sam, who is at the edge of the campsite. "You wanna tell me what's going on in that freaky head of yours?", "Dean—," "No. You're not fine. You're like a powder keg, man, it's not like you. I'm supposed to be the belligerent one, remember?", "Dad's not here. I mean, that much we know for sure, right? He would have left us a message, a sigh, right?", "Yeah, you're probably right. Tell you the truth, I don't think Dad's ever been to Lost Creek.", "Then let's get these people back to town and let's hit the road. Go pick up Olivia, and find Dad. I mean, why are we still even here?", "This is why." Dean comes around to Sam's front and holds up John's journal. "This book. This is Dad's single most valuable possession—everything he knows about every evil thing is in here. And he's passed it on to us. I think he wants us to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business." Sam shakes his head. "That makes no sense. Why doesn't he just—call us? Why doesn't he—tell us what he wants, tell us where he is?", "I don't know. But the way I see it, Dad's giving us a job to do, and I intend to do it.", "Dean…no. I have to find Dad. I have to find Jessica's killer. It's the only thing I can think about.", "Okay, all right, Sam, we'll find them. I promise. Listen to me. You've gotta prepare yourself. I mean, this search could take a while, and all that anger, you can't keep it burning over the long haul. It's gonna kill you. You gotta have patience, man." Sam looks down, then up. "How do you do it? How does Olivia or Dad do it?" Dean looks over at Haley and Ben. "Well, for one, them." Sam looks over at Haley and Ben. "I mean, I figure our family's so screwed to hell, maybe we can help some others. Makes things a little bit more bearable." Dean looks at his little brother. "I'll tell you what else helps." Sam looks back at Dean. "Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can." Sam smiles. A twig snaps. "Help me! Please!" Dean stands and readies his gun. "Help!" Sam shines a flashlight. "He's trying to draw us out. Just stay cool, stay put." Roy rolls his eyes, "inside the magic circle?", "Help! Help me!" Growling is heard. Roy points his gun at the sound. "Okay, that's no grizzly." Haley talks to Ben, "it's okay. You'll be all right, I promise." Something rushes past. Haley shrieks. Sam looks around, "it's here." Roy shoots at the rustling, then again. "I hit it!" Roy goes to see what he hit. "Roy, no! Roy!" Dean turns to Haley and Ben, "don't move." Haley is holding a stick, burning at one end as a weapon. Sam and Dean run after Roy. "It's over here! It's in the tree!" The wendigo reaches down from the tree and snaps Roy's neck. "Roy!" Sam shines the flashlight around.

The werewolves that were protecting the Alpha came running into the main room where all of the other monsters were dead. Olivia hears the Alpha leaving the house. She looks at Bobby, "I'm going after him, you got this?", "Yes. Go." Olivia runs outside by the entry C and corners the house. She aims her gun, taking long deep breaths, calming her heart, when she calmed it she walked as slowly as possible, avoiding anything that could betray her position. Olivia knew the Alpha would still be here. At least she was hoping so. Olivia looks around as she arrives at the entry B, the killing room. She sees the door half open. She looks inside and sees the Alpha passing back and forth. She also heard whimpering. Someone was still alive. She waits for the Alpha to turn his back to the door, she slowly opens it and aims her gun, when a woman sees her she gasps, turning the Alpha's attention to Olivia. She werewolf attacks Olivia, she falls to the ground, the beast on the top of her, she struggles to get her gun back. The werewolf's teeth were dangerously close to her. She turns her head and tries to grab her gun. When she realizes she can't, she knees the werewolf in the stomach, she then headbutts him, she slightly moves to the left, enough to grab her gun. When he comes to his senses, Olivia has just enough time to shoot the Alpha in the head. The body falls to the ground. Olivia takes a deep breath and stands up. She looks around and sees Dylan and two other women. She sighs in relief.

Sam is sitting on a hollow tree stump, holding John's journal and playing with a lanyard attached to same. Dean, Haley, and Ben are among the tents. "I don't…I mean, these types of things, they aren't supposed to be real." Dean sighs at Haley's words. "I wish I could tell you different.", "How do we know it's not out there watching us?", "We don't. But we're safe for now.", "How do you know about this stuff?" There is a slight pause while Dean considers. "Kind of runs in the family." Sam comes over. "Hey." Haley stands up. "so, we've got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch.", "Well, hell, you know I'm in." States Dean.  Sam shows the wendigo page of John's journal to Haley and Ben. "'Wendigo' is a Cree Indian word. It means 'evil that devours.'", "They're hundreds of years old. Each one was once a man. Sometimes an Indian, or other times a frontiersman or a miner or a hunter.", "How's a man turn into one of those things?" Dean picks up a couple things up off the ground. "Well, it's always the same. During some harsh winter, a guy finds himself starving, cut off from supplies or help. Becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe r camp.", "Like the Donner Party." Dean looks at Ben.  Then Sam continues, "cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh gives a person certain abilities. Speed, strength, immortality.", "If you eat enough of it, over the years, you become this less than a human thing. You're always hungry.", "So if that's true, how can Tommy still be alive?" Demands Haley. "You're not going to like it." Dean glances at Sam, then back at Haley. "Tell me.", "More than anything, a wendigo knows how to last long winters without food. It hibernates for years at a time, but when it's awake, it keeps its victims alive. It, uh, it stores them, so it can feed whenever it wants. If your brother's alive, it's keeping him somewhere dark, hidden, and safe. We gotta track it back there.", "And then how do we stop it?", "Well, guns are useless, so are knives. Basically—" Dean holds up the can of lighter fluid, the beer bottle, and the white cloth he'd picked up. "We gotta torch the sucker."

After Olivia checked if the victims were okay, she put something on the man's body that didn't survive. She looks at Dylan and then at the door. She had to join Bobby. She gives one of the women a gun, "do you know how to shoot?" The woman nods. "Okay. If it's not a man in a ball cap or me, you shoot." The woman nods again. Olivia charges her gun and gets out of the killing room. She walks to the entry C and reaches the main room, she sees one werewolf walking to Bobby. She aims her gun and shoot, killing him. The body falls, Bobby looks at Olivia and sighs. "All dead. I found Dylan alive, and on the three people missing, only two women survived, the man was dead.", "Okay let's get out of here."

Dean leads the way through the woods. Molotov cocktail in hand. Haley follows, then Ben, and Sam. They pass trees with claw marks and blood.

Dylan was in the back seat of Olivia's car. Olivia parks the car in front of Dylan's house. She gets out, opens the door for Dylan to get out. She walks with him to the front door, she knocks and waits for the door to open. When Dylan's mother opens the door, she puts her hands on her mouth when she saw her son. She takes him in her arms. "Thank you so much.", "Don't mention it. Hey, Dylan." Dylan turns and faces Olivia, "next time you see a stranger, don't go near. Okay?", "I promise.", "Okay." Dylan gives Olivia a hug, taking her by surprise. "Thank you, Olivia.", "No problem kiddo. Now go." Olivia turns around and starts to walk to her car when the woman stops her, "Wait a minute." Olivia turns, "I figured out you weren't from the FBI. But I don't care, you brought my boy home. And I will forever be thankful for this. I don't know what happened to you, but I can tell you are a mother. So from mother to mother, thank you, from the bottom of my heart." Olivia hugs the woman and leaves.

Sam is now leading the group. "Dean." Dean catches up. "what is it?" Sam and Dean look around at the trees. There are bloody claw marks and broken branches everywhere. "You know, I was thinking, those claw prints, so clear and distinct. They were almost too easy to follow." Growling. Sam and Dean whip around. Trees rustle. Haley is standing under a tree. Blood drips on her shirt. She notices and looks up, then leaps out of the way; Roy's corpse lands where she stood. Dean examines Roy as Sam goes over to Haley. "You okay? You got it?", "His neck's broke." Sam helps Haley up. More growling. "Okay, run, run, run, run, go, go, go!" Everybody takes off. Ben falls, and Sam hurries back to help him up, dividing the group in half. "Come on, I gotcha, I gotcha." Dean and Haley stopped short: the wendigo is in front of them. Haley screams. Ben looks up, "Haley?" Sam stops running and picks up Dean's Molotov cocktail, the bottle is broken. "Dean!"

Back at the motel, Olivia went to take a shower then Bobby. "Well, I say it's a good day.", "It sure could have been worse, but I'm feeling bad for the man's wife. She's pregnant.", "I know. But as I said we can't save everyone. We saved three out of four, Olivia. It's a good day." Olivia nods. I'm going to sleep."

"If it keeps its victims alive, why would it kill Roy?", "Honestly? I think because Roy shot at it, pissed it off." Ben finds a trail of peanut M&Ms and picks one up. "They went this way." Sam catches up to Ben, who hands over the M&M. Sam laughs. "It's better than breadcrumbs." Sam tosses the M&M away. They follow the trail. They come to a mine entrance marked with a sign that says 'Warning! Danger! Do not enter extremely toxic material.' Sam looks at Ben, shrugs, and goes inside. Ben follows. Above the entrance is a larger sign that says 'keep out no admittance.'          Sam shines the flashlight ahead of them. Growling; Sam shuts off the light and pulls Ben against the wall. The Wendigo comes towards them. Sam covers Ben's mouth before he can scream. The wendigo takes a different tunnel at the crossing. Sam and Ben keep going. The floorboards creak, and Ben and Sam fall through the floor; they land in a pile of bones. There is another pile nearby of skulls Ben spots them and leaps backward. "Hey, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay." Sam and Ben look up; Dean and Haley are hanging by their wrists from the ceiling. Sam runs to Dean, Ben to Haley. "Dean!", "Haley, wake up!" Sam grabs Dean and shakes him. "Dean!" Dean opens his eyes. "Hey, you okay?" Dean winces. "Yeah.", "Haley, Haley, wake up, wake up!" Sam cuts Dean down, and Ben takes care of Haley. They help them over to an empty patch of floor and get them down. Dean makes pained noises. "You sure you're all right?" Dean grimaces. "Yeah. Yep. Where is he?", "He's gone for now." Haley divests herself of rope. She stands up and spots Tom still hanging and starts crying. "Tommy…" Haley touches Tom's cheek. Tom's head jerks up. Haley jumps back and shrieks. she turns to Sam. "Cut him down!" Sam cuts Tom down. "We're gonna get you home." The stolen supplies are piled in the corner. Dean picks up flare guns. "Check it out." Sam turns around. "Flare guns. Those'll work." Sam grins, Dean laughs and twirls the guns.          The head down a tunnel, Sam and Dean in the lead with flare guns and Haley and Ben supporting Tom, who is limping. Growling. "Looks like someone's home for supper.", "We'll never outrun it." Dean looks back at the others then at Sam. "You thinking what I'm thinking?", "Yeah, I think so.", "All right listen to me. Stay with Sam. He's gonna get you out of here.", "What are you gonna do?" Dean doesn't answer Haley, he winks and starts walking and yelling. "Chow time, you freaky bastardç Yeah, that's right, bring it on, baby, I taste good." Sam waits until Dean is a safe distance away. "All right, come on! Hurry!" The Collinses follow Sam down the tunnel.          "Hey, you want some white mean, bitch! I'm right here!"         Sam, Haley, Ben, and Tom hurry down a tunnel. Growling. Sam points the gun at it, then lowers the gun and turns to the Collinses. "Get him out of here.", "Sam no.", "Go! Go! Go!", "Come on, Haley!" Haley and Ben help Tom along the mine tunnel. Sam holds the flare gun ready to shoot, looking down the tunnel. "Come on, come on." Growling. Sam turns: the wendigo is right in his face. Sam shoots and misses, then runs after the Collinses. "Sam!" Sam catches up. "Come on, hurry, hurry, hurry." They run to the end of the tunnel, the wendigo right behind. "Get behind me!" Sam is large enough to hide all three Collinses. The wendigo approaches, taking its time. Dean comes up behind it. "Hey!" The wendigo turns, Dean shoots it in the stomach. The flare goes off, and the wendigo goes up in flames. "Not bad, huh?" Sam grins.

Olivia puts her duffel bag in the passenger seat. She closes the door and looks at Bobby. "Well, it was a pleasure to work with you, Bobby." Bobby laughs, making Olivia smile. "You take care of you back there, all right? And take care of the boys. Be the sane one.", "As usual, Bobby." Olivia hugs him, "bye." she gets into the car and leaves.

An ambulance loads up Tom. Two police officers interview Ben; Sam stands behind him. "And the bear came back again after you yelled at it?", "That's when it circled the campsite. I mean, this grizzly must have weighed eight hundred, nine hundred pounds." Sam nods at Ben's words. "All right, we'll go after it first thing." The officer nods and leaves. Haley talks to Dean, both of them have already been patched up. "So I don't know how to thank you," Dean smirks lasciviously. Haley smiles despite herself. "Must you cheapen the moment?", "Yeah!" A paramedic comes up to Haley, "You're riding with your brother?", "Yeah." The Paramedic heads back to the ambulance. Haley turns to Ben. "Let's go." Sam and Ben nod at each other. Haley kisses Dean on the cheek. "I hope you find your father." Haley and Ben head for the ambulance. "Thanks, Sam." They climb in the ambulance with Tom. Sam sits on the Impala's hood with Dean. "Man, I hate camping.", "Me too." Noises of the ambulance driving away, sirens on. "Sam, you know we're going to find Dad, right?", "Yeah, I know. But in the meantime? I'm driving." Dean tosses Sam the keys. Dean's phone rings, Olivia sent him a message 'Just arrived at the motel. You're okay?', 'On our way. We're good. You?', 'I'm fine. See you.' Sam looks at Dean and starts the car, "who is it?", "Olivia. She's at the motel. Let's go."

[whatdoyouthinkmyjobis]

Hunters on the Hellmouth

masterlist

first chapter

previous chapter

AN: Inspired by events in BTVS 7.15 “Get It Done.” This chapter references events that happened in GND 14, mainly, The First tricked a Potential into being his vessel and she later exploded. Here’s a cheat sheet for keeping track of the Potentials. Oh, and sex below.

Chapter 34: F Is For

Buffy had wracked her brain for hours before resigning herself to the hopelessness of her situation. Her head was still pounding when Willow handed her a large caramel latte. “I may have blanked on pretty much everything, but I’m sure I could persuade Professor Yardy that coffee is part of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need.”

Willow nodded. “I’d put it in the safety level. Could you imagine people driving without coffee?”

“This entire semester was a failure. Again. I don’t think I’m college-girl, Will.” Buffy enjoyed her classes, if not the homework and papers. But a deeper worry than grades churned inside of her. A college degree was a key to certain futures, and lately, Buffy felt her desires for her future and the reality of the Slayer crashing against each other.

“Don’t be discouraged!” Willow said. “School has ups and downs.”

“Like that time you got an A minus?”

“Dark days, but no. Take this semester off. Deal with the literal Devil incarnate, and try again next semester.”

The next semester started in nine months, an incomprehensible time frame when Buffy could barely wrap her head around the events of the week.

“Besides,” Willow added, “you spent your big study day dealing with Astrid and Jada.”

After notifying Astrid’s Watcher that she’d been killed by The First, helping Sam’s (ex-)girlfriend and her addled aunt escape to somewhere safer had been practically relaxing.

“That's the problem though. When have I ever had a semester without a Potential-killer or a Professor Frankenstein or a super vamp? A smooth semester is practically Bigfoot.”

As they walked on, Buffy put thoughts of school aside and focused on what she could handle -- grocery shopping for the packed house, the upcoming birthday she hoped to ignore, her newly human ex now crashing in her basement.

“Why so glum, chum?” Willow asked.

“I keep thinking about Principal Wood,” said Buffy. She’d tried to avoid him in the week since he beat Spike. “I can’t imagine spending my life on a Mel Gibson movie-esque vengeance quest, only to discover the bad guy is in another castle.”

Willow scrunched her face and asked, “Is Mel Gibson playing Mario in this analogy?”

“Kinda picture him more as a Luigi,” Buffy sighed. “At least Wood left Spike alive.”

Willow threw disapproving side-eye over her coffee. Spike living in the basement was awkward for everyone. The main argument against him had been his attack on her months prior, but Buffy was certain that monster had been exorcised.

Then there was the lack of space and food. As it was, bedtime changed the living room into a sea of army cots and blankets. And it was a struggle to make sure dinner was something more substantial than cereal.

“How many did Giles say he was bringing back today?” Buffy asked.

“You know how there are numbers the human mind can’t comprehend, like the age of the Earth, the number of atoms in your body, or how many people are living in our house?” Willow sounded tired.

“Xander said he could take a few. We just have to decide on who to move.”

“What about Gabi?”

“Gabi’s growing on me; she’s just...Gabi. Besides, we can’t move her or Cloé will go back to crying all the time. I’ll probably move Naomi,” Buffy added.

“Aw, but she’s sweet!”

“She’s also avoided the porch since Annabelle. She’ll be more comfortable at Xander’s.” Buffy glanced at her friend and asked, “How about Dani? Stay or go? I may be crazy busy, but I’m not blind.”

“She’s not subtle either.”

“Are you crushing, or is this a one-way street?”

Willow sat down on a bench at the edge of campus where they watched pigeons fight over a half eaten bagel.

“I know it was Lucifer, not Tara, but it was still her face. Her voice. I’ve been dreaming about her ever since. The way the sunlight would hit her eyes and make them glow, like she was some sort of sea goddess. I keep smelling her sweater, and I’m worried the scent is going to fade. And if my memories of Tara slip away --”

Holding her friend’s hand, Buffy grasped for words. “Sweetie, you’ll always have those memories. Tara was -- is -- a huge part of your life. But I don’t think she’d want to be mourned forever.”

“I don’t want to mourn forever, but how do you know when the mourning is over? It’s not like we have some calendar of crying with coordinating clothes like in ye olden times.”

Buffy’s worst breakup had been Angel, her high school sweetheart who guided her into Slayerdom. And she’d had to kill him. She still thought about the kiss before she ran a sword through him. She thought about it, but she didn’t cry. “I think mourning is over when you feel it’s over. Do you feel like moving on?”

“The idea kinda makes me woozy, and it’s not the good wooz. Even if I did feel the good wooz, I don’t know if it would be with Dani. She’s okay, and she’s here, but what I had with Tara was more intense than ‘okay’ and ‘here.’ I mean, she was my first…” Willow took a deep breath, then a smile bloomed across her lips. “The thing is, I loved Tara, but I also loved Oz. All of this death aside, I have a lot to sort through before I even know which way to move.”

“As long as all juicy details are provided, I’m there for you.”

Giles sat on the basement stairs with a well-earned mug of tea warming his hands. In the last few weeks, they’d added over a dozen more girls to the house, including the crowd of six he’d arrived with that afternoon. They were currently making themselves comfortable on the training mat while Dawn and Andrew set up their presentation.

The pair was becoming fluid in welcoming new girls and acclimating them to the house. Repetition would do that. Just as Giles was becoming comfortable with altering parents’ memories and ignoring the tears of children whose lives he’d saved by ruining them.

“Hi, I’m Dawn Summers. My sister is the Slayer. You’ll meet her later.”

“And I am Andrew Wells,” he said in an affected accent, “hero-in-training and resident chef at the Summers house.”

“You have a chef?” asked Ju, whose face was mostly obscured by thick, black bangs.

“He likes to be useful,” Dawn sighed, annoyed with already being off-track.

“Anywhoodle, we’re gonna make this quick so you can get on with your jet lag and culture shock,” said Andrew. “There are a few simple rules. One, don’t leave the house at night. The city is infested with vampires and The First will send them after you.”

Bianka, a pale Polish girl with strawberry blonde hair, raised her hand. “Are vee not safe here? Girl upstairs say you kill First.”

“You’re safe inside the house,” Andrew clarified hastily. “All those marks on the doors and windows keep out demons and vampires. As far as The First goes, we cooked some Storm Troopers, but the Dark Father is still very much alive.”

“Vot?”

Dawn jabbed her elbow in Andrew’s ribs before he could add to the confusion. “We’re working on it, which is why you’re here. Safe inside. Speaking of The First, remember that it doesn’t have a body, so it can’t physically hurt you. So that’s a good side. But in horror movie twist, it can appear in the form of any dead person. So if you see someone who you know is dead, tell someone.”

“The list of people who’ve died includes Buffy, Dean, Sam, and Spike,” Andrew added, pointing to three photographs and a stick figure drawing of a blonde in a black trench coat. The girls started to whisper. “Short story: they died and got better. None of them want to talk about it, so don’t ask for more details.”

Ginika, a girl with tiny knots of hair dotting her head asked, “These people are regular to the ‘ouse? How do we know if they’re real or not?”

“If you throw a pencil at them and it goes through them, they’re The First,” Dawn said with atonal brightness. “If they tell you bad stuff like, ‘You’re a loser’ and ‘Why don’t you give up?’, they’re The First.”

“Throw things and be positive,” Andrew repeated with a big smile and rainbow hand gesture.

“The rest of your safety stuff will be covered in training--”

“Hold up!” said a dreadlocked girl in overalls. “I came here for protection. Mr. Giles said I was in danger, and I already knew something was watching me. What the hell you talkin’ ‘bout training?”

Giles had told all of the girls about their calling as Potentials as well as the danger that awaited him, but at his current break-neck speed, he couldn’t promise they’d all comprehended his information dump.

He cleared his throat. “Rona, you are in danger because you are a Potential. You may become the next Slayer, so you need to be trained accordingly.”

“But I don’t wanna be no Slayer. I got plans, an’ they don’t involve vampires.”

“I’m not arguing that the system is fair. I’m simply saying we want you to be prepared,” Giles replied.

Shaking her head, Rona stood up and hoisted her duffle over her shoulder. “Nah, you promised me an’ Gran I’d be safe here. Now you’s sayin’ it’s too dangerous to be out after dark, but you want me to bust up that danger? With what? You want me to poke it with a damn stick? Man, I’d be better off back in Flint.”

Giles scratched his chin as he considered the frightened girl before him. “If you want to catch a bus back to Michigan, you may, but you should have all of the facts first. For example, nearly all of my fellow Watchers are dead -- blown up or cut to bits. As I’ve traveled the world picking up Potentials, I’ve been too late for over a dozen of them. A couple were still warm as they lay in pools of their own blood. The last Potential who decided to leave the safety of the house was returned by The First with her throat missing. Just yesterday, The First intercepted another Potential at the bus station. She died. Now, would you like me to get you a bus schedule?”

Rona sat down.

Dawn tried to salvage her presentation. “Um, Buffy will be back by dinner to talk training with you. She may even take a few of you out on patrol tonight.”

Andrew lit up. “Now let’s talk about my favorite thing: The Wheel of Chores. Me, Dawn, and Willow put it together, so be nice to us.”

Buffy’s afternoon walk with her best friend had relaxed her, but the knots in her muscles returned the moment she and Willow entered the backyard. Where she’d expected to see her three squad leaders -- Grace, Dani and Gabi -- drilling the girls in combat basics, she instead found three Potentials smoking and laughing with Spike. She was only half surprised. New arrivals always seemed to throw off the schedule. Plus, she’d heard the girls whispering about the mystery man downstairs; she hadn’t had the time or energy to explain him to them yet.

She certainly didn’t have the energy or patience now. Buffy marched over to Kate, a sarcastic eye-roller from Ireland, and yanked the cigarette from the girl’s mouth. “Ever heard of cancer?”

“No, but I did hear a story about how we’re all fooked, so why’s it matter?” she asked, smoke curling around her glossed lips. Kate had been high on their success after rescuing Sam from The First, but Astrid’s death had sent her back to her neutral state of doom and gloom.

“You’re not fucked,” said Spike, apologetically.

Buffy grew hot with anger. “He’s right. You’re not fucked. I am. Have you noticed how there aren’t any full-grown, know-what-they’re-doing-with-life, briefcase-carrying Potentials here? Because you phase out. I stay alive, and you get too old to qualify for the Slayer Happy Meal. And I’m a bitch to kill, aren’t I, Spike?”

“Like a cockroach,” he muttered to the ground.

“You die,” said Eva, a pixieish blonde who’d arrived from France a week before.

Tucking her green hair behind her ears, Lys asked Eva, “Étiez-vous en train de lui dire de mourir ou de demander quand elle est morte?”

“Le petit homme n'a pas dit qu'elle est morte?”

“Andrew told us you died once,” Lys explained.

“Twice.” Buffy squeezed her fist and released, regretting her anger. She didn’t need to add her tension to theirs. Calmly, she said, “I don’t want to catch you smoking again, got it? Not a great habit for people who have to run a ton. Now get your butts inside.”

Buffy watched the girls slink back to the kitchen and huffed, causing her bangs to flop into her eyes. “What are you doing out here, Spike?”

He raised his hand to his lips, then dropped it. He hadn’t been smoking with the girls. “Enjoyin’ the sun.”

“Really?”

“Inside’s a sardine can. Given the ‘eightened fear since that girl exploded at the ‘igh school, I thought I’d chat up the mini-yous out ‘ere.”

“They’re not me,” she said coldly. “And they’re also minors.”

Spike stepped back, hurt in his eyes. He peered at her, into her, in his familiar, intimate way. “Test didn't go well then?”

How did he know? How did he always know? Buffy bit the inside of her cheek, ashamed anew at the way she'd lashed out. “I'm just going to pretend F stands for footloose and fancy-free.”

“Or fighter.”

The anger rushed out of her. He was right. She had passed greater tests than Developmental Psychology or a packed camp of teenagers.

“Or flirt. As in don't. The girls don't need you distracting them.” The venom in her voice was gone. Some of the girls, who were otherwise good fighters, were hopelessly boy-crazy. Having the Winchesters as trainers had drawbacks.

“Don't worry. I think we both know Angel’s the vamp into shagging teenagers.” Spike smirked.

“You were all with the sweet a moment ago. Where did William go.”

Spike laughed, low and rich. “William is gone, love. Good riddance. My demon, too. Still sorting out who’s left.”

Spike had been met with trial after trial since getting his soul back. He had been unfortunate enough to be the first creature Lucifer encountered when he rode the angel wave to Sunnydale. He’d become a cosmic punching bag, but she knew another, grander side of Spike.

“You want to help? I need leaders, fighters, people who can train teenage girls to kill vampires. You in?”

“Damn right, I’m in.”

“Be ready at eight,” she said before heading inside.

In the kitchen, Dawn was arguing with Willow about Ella, a techno-pagan from Australia who’d arrived a week prior. Since a few of the Potentials showed magical prowess, Willow was giving them additional tutoring. Ella was gifted beyond all of them.

“I don’t care if she doesn’t want to cook. It’s her turn,” Dawn insisted.

“If she says she can’t, then give her something else to do!” Willow replied, loud enough to draw the attention of several other girls.

Buffy’s stepped in between them spoke quietly so the other girls couldn’t hear. “Infighting is not on my list of needs, like, ever.” She looked over Willow’s shoulder, where Ella stood, arms crossed. “If you don’t know how to cook, Andrew can teach you. We can get another person to help, too. It’s just really important that everyone pitch in, you know?”

The girl sighed. “I know how to cook, but I can’t help with a big meal. Can’t clean up after it. Probably can’t eat it.”

This rang a bell. Buffy had noticed her sneaking away when the other girls were eating, but had yet to ask her about it. “Why? You have to eat to stay strong.”

“I eat! I eat my own food. Your food is too dangerous. I’ve killed two vampires in training no problem, but peanuts or dairy? That’s the end of me. If that means I clean the loo twice as often, fine. ”

Dawn turned away, embarrassed.

Buffy nodded. “Thanks for the compromise, Ella. Dawn, will you rearrange Andrew’s chore chart for Ella’s allergies?”

Buffy pointed at a pale strawberry blonde. “You, newbie, help Andrew.” She left before she could get angry again. Hopefully Dawn and Willow could make up without her.

In the living room, a group of girls were teaching each other their favorite dance moves. Buffy noticed Grace sorting out a squabble between Lili (always Lili) and Verusha over whose shirt was whose. Leticia, Cloé, and Gabi, giggling so hard tears streamed from their faces, bounced on the pillows and blankets piled on the couch. In the corner, Dani whispered with a pretty new girl. The girl (woman? She looked older.) had an explosion of dark curls and a small toy in her hand.

The dining room held a stack of folded cots that reached Buffy’s shoulders. Despite the cramped conditions, three girls were squished in at the dining table attempting to do homework.

Heading upstairs to find Giles, Buffy practically tripped over Mio, Jabulela and Naomi folding laundry on the steps.

“Bathroom’s busy,” Naomi said cheerily. The bathroom was alway busy.

Buffy nodded, catching a glimpse of the two girls from Mumbai, initially chilly towards each other, doing each other’s hair in the bathroom.

Giles was on the phone, pacing in her room, the one place off-limits to the Potentials.

“Miércoles, si. Gracias, Padre.”

“Padre?” she asked when he hung up. “Have you been keeping secrets?”

“No,” he said, swapping the phone for a file, “it seems I need to fly to Spain tonight. Three girls managed to make it to an abbey outside of Barcelona. There were five of them originally…”

“Oh.” Much as Buffy hated being trapped in a house overrun with strangers, she didn’t envy Giles for his nightmare.

“Anyway, I should be back in time for your birthday on Sunday.”

“Shh!” She grabbed the file from Giles’ hand. “We’re keeping that one super secret. No way it won’t add to the weird.

“Tell me about the new girls.” She flipped through the notes. Ginika from London. Ju from Toronto. Bianka from Wroclaw -- the strawberry blonde she’d told to help with dinner. The dossier said her English wasn’t the best. Good luck, Andrew. “Training?”

“Ginika has several year’s worth. Julia, Holly and Rona were completely in the dark, while Ju and Bianka have over a year between them. Julia, at least, runs a dojo with her husband--”

“Her what?!”

Giles gave her his grave news face.

Buffy flipped open Julia’s file, and was greeted by the face of the woman who’d been whispering with Dani. The Potential was twenty-two, married and -- Buffy’s heart skipped a beat -- Julia had an infant. A little girl.

Julia had the life Buffy could never have.

Snapping the folder shut, Buffy swallowed hard. “Spike’s joining my pod tonight.”

“Do you think that’s wise?”

“What else are we going to do with him? I’ll take Bianka, Ginika, Kate, Kimberly, Shakti, Wook, and Udoka. We’ll put our Spanish-speaking girls with Sam. Except Gabi. I need her and Dani to get the latest newbies up on their weapons training.”

“Didn’t Fernanda go out the day before I left for France?” Giles asked

“And she nearly got herself killed. Gotta get back in the saddle or on the bike or whatever non-motorized travel you chose.” Buffy was suspicious that Fernanda had a little crush on Sam, but with the language barrier, he was the best suited to train her. “I know I should know this, but I’m totally fried. Who speaks French?”

“Natively: Jabulela, Lys, Eva. Violet and Shakti speak it as a second language. Ju speaks some, but I doubt you want her out so soon.”

“None of them are Molly-levels of boy crazy, are they?”

“That would be difficult,” Giles sighed. “How is she doing, by the way?”

“At least a week in the hospital. Maybe two.” Buffy hoped Molly’s Potential state would speed her recovery from her burns.

She ran through the names in her head again. “Okay, leave Ju for weapons training. Put the French-speakers with Dean; Vi can translate. Give him Shakti, too. Voila! Three functioning squads.” Functioning felt like a stretch.

Buffy tossed the files on the desk and headed for the door. “You can give the others the destiny speech again, right?”

“Buffy!” Giles called out before she left. “How was your day? Did your examination go well?”

She watched his mouth move but had to hear the words a few times before understanding she needed to respond. She’d already shut the door on school. “Uh, I guess. I have to get downstairs, meet the new girls and all.”

Buffy had only wanted one thing for her birthday, private time with Dean. Instead, they’d spent the weekend moving ten girls into the Winchesters’ apartment and another half dozen to Xander’s. At least it was easier to get time in the bathroom.

As promised, Giles had returned Sunday night with three emotionally -- if not physically -- scarred Potentials. He had forgotten it was her birthday.

Monday morning started with tears. The last time someone had cried so much in Buffy’s makeshift office, it was because their parents were divorcing. Starting a new school barely ranked by comparison, but Magda’s big tears probably had less to do with math class than survivor’s guilt.

Buffy handed her another Kleenex. She’d thought putting Magda in school this quickly would help her, give her something to think about other than the slaughter on the train. Now she wasn’t so sure. “Listen to me, you did the best you knew how to do. It’s not your fault no one from the Watcher’s Council found you. It’s not your fault you were picked for this. Most importantly, it’s not your fault that those other girls died.”

Magda, who had just arrived the night before, was untrained. The only reason she’d survived the Bringer attack was because the girls she was with, Betje and Sophia, had eight years of training between them. Betje and Sophia’s Watchers and two Potentials had died in the attack.

“The-they were def-f-fending me. I do not know f-fighting.”

“But you know surviving. That’s all you need to do today: survive. You have all the same classes as Dawn, Cloé and Sophia, so you won’t be alone, okay?”

The girl nodded and wiped a black streak of mascara under her eyes. “Sophia is nice. She share with me candy bar.”

“If you need anything, I’m here all day. Now, go wash your face, take a deep breath, and go pretend Algebra makes sense.”

Once Magda was off to class, Buffy pulled out a worn journal Giles had brought back from his travels. It was his first journal as her Watcher, and he’d been hesitant to let her see it.

“There’s very little about you I haven’t changed my mind on,” he had explained, “in some cases a few times. Please, do not think this is the entirety of my view of you, Buffy.” She’d taken the journal with a smile, vowing to cry into her pillow and hold every word against him.

She’d asked to see it because she wanted to know how spun always-together Giles had been when he’d started as her Watcher. There were obvious differences. She was already the Slayer by that time, and her first Watcher, Merrick, had been murdered. Most importantly, there had only been one of her. Even so, she felt the journal would give her a peek into Giles’ mindset and methods that memory couldn’t provide.

The first few pages were Giles’ gleeful anticipation of her arrival. He had assumed the Council had been in touch since Merrick’s death, and that she knew he had been assigned as her new Watcher. The day she started school in Sunnydale, his journal read, “I had been lead to believe the Slayer is a paragon of discipline and duty. She is at peace with her destiny and gives herself over to the cause no matter the cost. This is not the case.

“I have spent the entire day surrounded by teenage girls. The Slayer is a teenage girl, a mystifying sort of creature who varies from age to age, continent to continent, culture to culture, and apparently hour to hour. No amount of destiny and duty will change this overnight.

“Though a gifted fighter, Buffy seems wholly uninterested in training. She would much rather run off with her friends in childish pursuits of what they refer to as ‘hang time.’ This adherence to friends and the social structures of the natural world is highly unusual.”

“That’s me, Unusual Girl,” she muttered.

She was deep in the journal when a voice interrupted her. “Miss Summers, may I see you in my office for a moment?”

Buffy looked up to see Principal Wood leaning against the edge of her cubicle, jacket unbuttoned, as casual as a person who had recently beaten an ex-vampire to a pulp could be.

Journal still in hand, she followed him into his office.  

“Coffee?” He gestured to the chair across from his desk.

Having been up most of the night with Magda and company, she desperately wanted another cup. “No, thank you.” Though Wood’s story was no longer a mystery, she still found his piercing, dark stare unnerving.

“Two more new girls today,” he noted.

“Three. We have three, but one has already graduated.”

“Ah.” He leaned back in his chair and stared at her as if he was regarding a complicated piece of art. “How many started at Sunnydale last week? Six? Eight?”

“Fuzzy vagueness sounds right.”

“We certainly have the space,” he said. Several dozen families had moved out of town over winter break. “Buffy, do you know why I hired you?”

“You believe I can make a difference? I’m too tired to cliche.”

“I hired you because you’re the Slayer, and Sunnydale High’s death rate is the stuff of legend. In these few months, you’ve saved several students both from the typical evil creatures and from the everyday pressures they face. You’re good at this, at guiding kids.”

All this time, she’d been flying by the seat of her pants, doling out advice with no knowledge of its impact. “You think so?”

“You’re a good leader, which is why I’m firing you.”

“Excuse me?”

“You have a houseful of Potential slayers who need guidance. You can’t give them what they need if you’re here all day.”

“But most of them are here during the day. And you know what teenagers love? Eating. How can eating happen if work isn’t happening?”

“You’re resourceful. Besides, with the sudden downturn in legit enrollment, I can’t justify keeping you on.”

“But I need --”

“You need to be the Slayer.” He opened one of his drawers and handed her a purple sack and three small books. “Speaking of, my mother’s Watcher gave her these when she became the Slayer. I guess technically, they belong to you.”

She opened the bag and pulled out a small metal figure shaped like a man either dancing or writhing in pain. “Modern art? Great,” she muttered.

“I’ll get you a box,” he said, opening the door for her to leave.

Buffy, box at her feet, was sitting on a planter near the parking lot when Dean pulled up. He rolled down the passenger window and called out, “Hey sexy, need a lift?”

Her face flicked between amused and upset as she climbed in with her box and slumped against his shoulder.

“Is that a fired box?”

“Yep.”

“Want me to kick Wood’s ass?”

“Yes, but don’t,” she sighed. “Can I hang out with you today? I don’t want to go home.”

“Do you want a frou-frou coffee before or after you tell me what’s up?”

“Before.”

She barely looked at him as she sipped her latte, her frown sinking into her skin, her bones. He didn’t press. For once, they had hours alone, so he held her hand and waited. By the time they pulled up to his work, she’d filled him in on the details.

“Now do you want me to kick his ass?”

“No,” she said, this time with a half smile. “He’s not wrong. Slayer comes first, but it’s not like being the Slayer means I’m ready to run Buffy’s Halfway House for Protected Teenagers. The electricity and water cost money. They need food and blankets and soap. And dear God, they need deodorant! Did you know that’s not a thing in some countries? Not to mention, some of them have nothing. Last night’s arrivals? Literally the clothes on their backs. And Lili is from, like, the armpit of Estonia and keeps stealing from the other girls because everything she has fits in a backpack. Jabulela washes the same Catholic school uniform every night and wears it again in the morning.”

Dean had grown up poor, poorer than he’d understood as a child, but some of the Potentials were lucky if they had enough dirt to rub together. Not for the first time, he felt being the Slayer was less of a superhero calling and more of a crapshoot punishment.

But anger would have to wait. “Didn’t Giles say some of the Potentials’ parents offered to help?”

“Yeah, and they’ve been sending money, but it doesn’t come close to covering everything.”

“Can you ask for more?”

Buffy sighed. “‘Hey! It’s that stranger who has your daughter. I’m going to need more money for pizza rolls.’ No way that doesn’t sound like a terrible ransom note.”

Dean shrugged. “Pot pie instead of pizza rolls? It’s a comfort food.” A plan to hustle pool in LA all weekend half formed in his mind. “Anyway, I got it covered.”

“Legally?”

“Legally.”

“Safely?”

“Beggars and choosers, babe.” If Sunnydale’s citizens shifted from trickling exodus to pack-and-grab panic, looting would become too easy of an option to ignore.

He lead her upstairs to a recently vacated apartment he’d spent all morning painting. His boss believed all the people leaving town were merely a winter trend, and by spring people would be looking for places to live. Dean disagreed, but he was paid to paint.

“Maybe we could key his car?” Buffy pondered, tossing her purse and coat in the middle of the room.

“What?”

“Wood. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. I don’t need him to look out for me. If work and slaying was too much, I would have said something.”

“No you wouldn’t,” he laughed. “You’d just keep wobblin’ with that globe on your back.”

“Not like I can put it down,” she grumbled. “Besides, if he wanted to help, he could have -- crazy idea -- volunteered to help. But nope. He jumped straight to a backhanded firing.”

“Flaming bag of dog shit,” Dean said as he poured the paint.

“Is that your new nickname for Wood, or your suggestion for swift retribution?”   

“Both.”

Loading his roller, he started the second coat of paint. “Can I help?” Buffy asked.

He smirked at her khakis and black turtleneck. “Not really dressed for it, Girly.”

She cocked her head to the side -- her signature I don’t like what I’m hearing move.“Got another roller?” A moment later she was painting beside him, stripped down to only her black panties.

He managed to resist for half an hour before they collapsed into a pile of paint-flecked limbs, their sweat-slick bodies cooling in the afterglow.

Spreading her fingers over his chest, she purred, “Being unemployed isn’t so bad.”

“Told ya work was overrated.”

Before the priest stood a young brunette -- fourteen, on the cusp of womanhood -- with a crushed windpipe and a handprint-shaped bruise on her throat. A handprint that fit the priest perfectly.

Caleb picked up the leftover wine from communion and guzzled it. Some Catholics believed the wine turned into the blood of Christ. He liked the idea of the blood of a deity running down his throat.

He smiled, slick and satisfied. “She was the first little whore I killed. You got a point in showin’ me this?”

“You have a long history of doing God’s work, Caleb,” said the specter.

Caleb pinched out the candles in his sanctuary, enjoying the sizzle and hiss of his flesh. “Keepin’ the world clean of uppity women is God’s highest calling. And who are you, ghosty?”

“I’m one of God’s angels. He has a job for you. There is a houseful of uppity women who need to be put in their place.”

The killing visions had been flooding his dreams. Girls screaming. Crying. Blood soaking through their dresses. He’d wake up from them hard and aching. Surely, this was a sign. “I am a willing servant if you will but show me the way.”

I have a slight plot hole regarding The First and "Amends." I was going to fix it in this chapter with a phone call between Angel and Buffy after she's read Giles' journals, but I feel very crunched for time. Being a new mom (and being sick all the time, thanks winter), I don't have as much time to write. I'd rather get you this chapter with a minor plot hole than hold on to it for another six months.

next chapter

[illuminating-dragons]

Fading Scars (13/?): The Consequences of Eavesdropping

Time: 2007

Summary:  Sometimes little ears hear things they're not meant to, and Teddy sees a part of Bear's story he's never heard of.

           When Bear told him that he and Fairy were going to have another baby, Teddy was delighted. James was good, but there were loads more games you could play with two.

           “When is the baby coming, Bear?”

           “About six months, lad,” Bear promised.

           “Can I come when the baby’s born? I want to see.”

           Bear paused. “Well…”

           “I’ll be seven!” Teddy protested.

           “Maybe I should explain how babies are born before you make that decision,” Bear said.

           About half an hour later, Teddy was quite positive he never wanted to see a baby.

           He got over that, and spent most of his visits chatting with Fairy’s belly. The baby couldn’t talk back, of course, but Teddy wanted to make sure that the baby knew his voice. Uncle Percy gave him lots of advice about babies, and Teddy listened to it all. He’d only been little when Jamie was born, and now he was determined to be the best god-brother ever.

           The day Albus was born he had been a bit cranky, and he was worried when he and Bear and Jamie sat in the hospital, but soon everything was alright, and Fairy was beaming as she held the baby. Teddy gazed at the tiny creature, and blinked in surprise when the baby grabbed his finger. “Hi Al,” he said. “I’m your…” he hesitated. “Bear, Fairy, can I just tell I’m his brother? It’s hard to explain god-brother to a baby.”

           “Of course,” Bear whispered. “I think he’ll be happy to have two big brothers.”

           Albus was very boring the first few weeks. He just sort of…was there. But it was okay, because now Teddy could see him when he was talking, and he didn’t cry as much as Jamie used to. Jamie was crying a little bit now, trying to get Bear and Fairy’s attention, and Bear made sure that when he had Albus in a sling, he had Jamie on his lap and Teddy curled into his side. Fairy did the same. Teddy thought they were brilliant.

           A couple weeks after Albus was born, it was Victoire’s birthday, and they all went to Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur’s house. Teddy proudly gave Victoire the recorder she’d asked for. He’d bought it with his own pocket money, and Victoire clapped when he gave it to her.

           Albus was in the sling with Bear, and Teddy went over to them. “Albus, look! Victoire’s got her recorder.”

           “I think he needs to sleep now Teddy,” Bear said gently.

           Teddy covered his mouth. “Sorry.” He blew the baby a quiet kiss. “I’ll ask Victoire if she can keep her recorder quiet. Grandma helped me pick out one that could do that.”

           Bear smiled. “Wonderful, Teddy.” He started to get up.

           “Where are you going?”

           “I’m just going to get some more punch.”

           “I can get it for you!” Teddy said eagerly.

           Bear’s eyes narrowed. “Because you think I might let you have more yourself?”

           “It’s really good,” Teddy tried. “Besides, you might wake Al up.”

           Bear chuckled and ruffled Teddy’s hair. “Alright, lad. Go ahead.”

           Teddy skipped to the kitchen. He got on his tiptoes to reach the table, huffing when he still couldn’t reach.

           Uncle Ron picked him up. “Getting another glass? Didn’t Ginny say no more?”

           “Bear said I could have some when I got his.”

           Uncle Ron laughed. He poured Teddy two glasses of punch, and put him down. “There you are. That’s very helpful of you, Teddy.”  

           “I like helping Bear.”

Teddy carried the glasses to Bear, and drank his own quickly. He didn’t want to get Bear in trouble with Fairy. When his glass was finished, Teddy returned to the kitchen, and was surprised to see Uncle Ron standing there with Aunt Hermione. Aunt Hermione was having a baby soon too, which made it tricky for them to stand close together, but they were trying.

           “It’s nice that Harry’s doing so well with his children,” Aunt Hermione said. “All of them.”

           Teddy wanted to agree—Bear was great—but Uncle Ron replied before Teddy could say anything.

           “Of course he’s a good parent,” Uncle Ron said. “He’s always been kind, and besides, he’s got a foolproof plan for success, doesn’t he? Just do the opposite of the Dursleys.”

           “Ron, hush!” Aunt Hermione had spotted Teddy. “What are you doing, dear?”

           “Just putting my glass back,” Teddy said. Aunt Hermione held out her hand for the glass, and Teddy gave it to her.

           “Run along and play, sweetheart,” Aunt Hermione said.

           Teddy did return to sit next to Victoire, but he was distracted until Victoire showed him that her recorder could make sounds like a lion.

           Teddy went home later that night with Grandma, and he was nearly asleep when she put him into bed. “Goodnight, darling,” she whispered.

           “Grandma?” Teddy asked. “What’s a Dursley?”

           Grandma looked at him sharply. “Who said anything about them?”

           “I don’t remember when,” Teddy said. “I just don’t know who they are.”

           “They…they’re the people who took care of your godfather,” Grandma said. “They’re a Muggle family. The mother is your godfather’s aunt, and he lived with them when he was younger. That’s all.”

           “Okay,” Teddy said, pretending he was still sleepy. He wasn’t though, not at all, and when Grandma left the room Teddy lay wide awake and did some thinking.  

           If the Dursleys had taken care of Bear, then they must be his family. But Teddy had never met them. He knew that Bear was like him, and his parents were in Heaven since he was a baby, but Bear had never talked about the Dursleys. He’d only ever talked about Hogwarts and staying with Fairy and her family. Maybe he didn’t like them because they were Muggles? But that wasn’t right, because Aunt Hermione’s parents were Muggles, and Bear thought they were lovely. Jacob and Helena had come over for tea once, and they brought Teddy a teddy. He still had it, and he clutched it now as he thought.

           Maybe the Dursleys were in Heaven too? But no, Grandma said ‘is’, not ‘was’. You said ‘was’ about dead people. So they were alive, and if they were Bear’s family, still alive, and he didn’t mind that they were Muggles…

           But what had Uncle Ron said? “He just has to do the opposite of the Dursleys.” To be a good parent. That must mean that the Dursleys weren’t good parents. But Bear couldn’t have had a bad family! That wasn’t fair!

           But things happened that weren’t fair. It wasn’t fair that his Mummy and Daddy were in Heaven, and Teddy did miss them, but he had Grandma and Bear and Fairy and all his aunts and uncles. That was pretty fair.

           Teddy started tossing and turning. The opposite…

           He started thinking about everything Bear did for him. He took him to the park, played games with him, took him on motorbike rides (but those were a secret), helped him when he was ill, sang him songs and let him sleep with him and Fairy when Teddy had a nightmare. If Uncle Ron meant the opposite of everything, did that mean Bear didn’t get any of those things? And what about normal things, like making him food and helping him with his shoes (he still couldn’t tie his shoes properly, they always got unlaced) and…and giving him a place to sleep? To feel safe?

           Hadn’t Bear had all those things when he was Teddy’s age?

           Maybe Uncle Ron was exasperating, Teddy thought hopefully. He did that a lot, Aunt Hermione said so. But Teddy heard them arguing sometimes, and Aunt Hermione only said ‘Hush’ when Uncle Ron was right but little kids were near. She’d said that when Uncle Ron said that Mummy had always worn her hair pink.

           Teddy’s hair was a soft brown right now as he thought about all that. Had Bear been lonely? Had he felt like no one listened to him? Had he been sad all by himself? Because he made sure Teddy never was, and maybe that was opposite too…

           Teddy buried his face in his pillow and whimpered.

           He didn’t sleep much, and Grandma looked worried when he came down for breakfast.

           “Teddy, what’s the matter?”

           “I…I have a question for Bear. Can I go see him?”

           “You’re going over this afternoon, can’t it wait?” Grandma reached out for him, but Teddy couldn’t stand to wait.

           “Please, Grandma? It’s important.”

           “Alright, sweetheart. Are you sure you’re okay?”

           “I’m okay.”  He was. It was Bear who might not be.

           Grandma brought him over to the fireplace. “Here you go,” she said, handing him the tin of Floo Powder. Teddy took a careful handful and threw it in. “Number 12, Grimmauld Place, please,” he said as he stepped in. He closed his eyes as he started to spin, only opened his eyes when he saw a flash of bright pink; Jamie’s toy unicorn. He jumped out of the fire.

           Fairy was sitting by the fire, nursing Albus. “Hello Teddy,” she said, surprised. “What are you doing—”

           “Where’s Bear, Fairy?”

           “He’s upstairs,” Fairy said. She looked worried. “Are you okay?”

           “I’m fine, Fairy. I just need to see Bear. It’s important.”

           “Well, go upstairs and see him.” Fairy still look worried, but Teddy didn’t look. He started to run up the stairs. In his hurry he tripped and fell, banging his knees. He grabbed the banister to stop sliding.

           “Teddy!” Bear was at the top of the stairs, and he rushed down and knelt next to Teddy. “Are you okay, sweetheart? Let me see.”

           Teddy started to cry. Bear tried to scoop him into his arms, but that made it worse. Teddy fought him. He didn’t want a hug, he didn’t want something else that Bear had never had. His sobs grew louder.

           “Daddy?” he heard dimly. It was James, also upstairs. “Daddy, why Teddy sad?”

           “Teddy, sweetheart, what’s wrong? Everything’s okay, love, I promise.”

           “No! It’s not!”

           “Harry, take Albus and let me…”

           Bear let go of Teddy and Fairy took hold of him, bringing him into her arms. Teddy curled against her, wailing. He felt Fairy pick him up and bring him downstairs, and he gripped her shoulders. “I don’t want to go back to Gran’s!”

           “Hush,” Fairy soothed. “I’m just sitting down in our rocking chair. It’s alright, darling. I’m right here.”

           Teddy sobbed against her for ages, and Fairy just kept rocking back and forth. She was warm and soft, wearing the dress he and Bear had picked out for her for Christmas. Teddy slowly calmed down, but he stayed quiet. Fairy rubbed his back and Teddy closed his eyes.

           Fairy held out a handkerchief. “Can you blow for me, sweetheart?”

           Teddy nodded and blew his nose. Fairy cleaned the handkerchief and summoned a glass. “Auguamenti,” she whispered. When the cup was full, she handed it to Teddy. “Drink it slowly, okay?”

           Teddy obeyed. The water was nice and cold, and it felt good in his throat. When he was finished, Fairy took the glass from him and cuddled him back against her, rocking again.

           “Can you tell me what’s wrong, sweetheart?”

           Teddy buried his face in her shoulder.

           “Are you angry with Bear?”

           “No!” Teddy said quickly. “I’m not angry with him.”

           “But you are angry with someone,” Fairy guessed.

           Teddy supposed he was angry, but he wasn’t angry most. “I’m sad most,” he said.

           “You’re sad.” Fairy frowned. “Can I guess, and you tell me if I’m right or wrong?”

           Teddy nodded. That sounded okay.

           “Is it something to do with us having a new baby?”

           Teddy frowned. “No. Why would I be sad about that? I like having god-brothers.” It would be nice to have a god-sister, he reflected, but there needed to be time between babies. Uncle Percy had explained that.

           “That’s good,” Fairy said. She looked relieved. “Is it something that happened at the party yesterday?

           Teddy had forgotten that Fairy was mostly a good guesser. He nodded.

           “Did Harry do something?”

           “No.”

           “Did anyone do something?”

           “No.”

           “Okay…was it something somebody said?”

           “Yes.”

           “Was it something that Harry or I said?”

           “No.”

           “Was it Uncle Ron?”

           Teddy gaped at her. “How did you know?”

           “Because my brother’s got a history of putting his foot in his mouth,” Fairy said, her mouth twisting.

           “Uncle Ron didn’t do that,” Teddy said. He was confused. Uncle Ron couldn’t even touch his toes!

           “It’s an expression. It means that he says things sometimes that he shouldn’t say.”

           Suddenly Teddy was angry. Uncle Ron shouldn’t be getting in trouble! It wasn’t his fault. “Uncle Ron should have said it,” he said loudly. “It’s not his fault the Dursleys were bad.”

           Fairy went pale. “The Dursleys?” she asked. “Teddy, why was Uncle Ron talking about the Dursleys?”

           “Aunt Hermione said Bear was good with kids,” Teddy told her. “Which he is. Bear’s brilliant. But Uncle Ron said of course he was, because he knows that all he has to do is do the opposite of the Dursleys. And I asked Grandma, and she said that the Dursleys were the people who took care of Bear. But B-Bear takes care of me really well, and James and Baby Al, and…Fairy, were they bad to him?”

           Teddy wanted Fairy to tell him he was wrong, that Uncle Ron was exasperating, something like that, anything. Instead Fairy hugged him tight.

           “Yes, Teddy, they were.”

           And Fairy told him the story.

           “Your God-Grandmother was a witch, but her sister was a Muggle. God-Grandmother was the first witch in her family, you see. And her sister—her name is Petunia—”

           “I don’t like petunias,” Teddy said. He’d always thought they were ugly, and was relieved that Grandma didn’t grow them.

           “I don’t like them either,” Ginny said. “And Petunia…well, she was jealous that her sister got to be magic and she didn’t. And they fought a lot, and Petunia married a man named Vernon Dursley, and they have a son named Dudley who’s a little bit older than Harry.”

           “When Bear’s parents were killed, he went to live with them. He was only a baby, and they didn’t want him.”

           “Why wouldn’t they want Bear?” Teddy mumbled, playing with Fairy’s hair.

           “Because he was magic,” Fairy said. And now she was sort-of-crying. “And they weren’t very nice to him at all. But he had to stay with them because he was safe there, because they were family.”

           “They don’t sound like family. They’re not family.”

           “I think you’re right,” Fairy told him. “They didn’t treat him like family.”

           “So…” Teddy looked down. “All the things we do together, and everything he does with James and Al…that’s the opposite?”

           “Ron was exaggerating a little bit—”

           Teddy felt a surge of hope.

           “He wasn’t really talking about particulars,” Fairy continued. “But your godfather grew up in a house without much affection, without love and without anyone really looking out for him.” Fairy’s lip trembled. “We had him to stay as much as we could, but he…he had to keep going back.” She wiped her eyes.

           “I hate them,” Teddy said fiercely. “That’s not what you’re supposed to do. They were bad.”

           “It doesn’t help Bear to hate them,” Fairy told him. She started rocking again. “I know you want to, and that’s okay. I hate them too. But what’s most important is that we help Bear now, so he doesn’t keep feeling bad. Do you understand?”

           “You mean…we be a good family to him? Am I doing it right?”

           “Yes, you are,” Fairy said, kissing the top of his head. “Because you love him and you do nice things for him. But remember Teddy, you’re not his parent. He’s your Bear and he takes care of you. But you don’t have to be perfect for him to be happy. Just…just let him know you love him.”

           “I will,” Teddy promised. He snuggled against Fairy. “Are they still alive?”

           “Yes, they are. Harry’s trying to look for his cousin, but he doesn’t see his aunt and uncle.”  

           “Good. I don’t want to ever see them.”

           “I don’t think it would be a good idea if either of us saw them,” Fairy said rather grimly. Before he could ask her what she meant, she continued. “What matters is here and now, Teddy.”

           Teddy nodded. “Can I see Bear? I promise I won’t scream again.”

           Fairy smiled at him. “Of course you can. Does your knee still hurt?”

           “It’s okay.”

           “Good. I’ll come with you and take the boys so you can have a proper chat.” Fairy carried him up the stairs. Bear stood outside the nursery, his face worried. Teddy held out his arms, and Bear took him, cuddling him as close as he could.

           “Teddy, is everything okay?”

           Teddy lifted his face to Bear’s. “Everything’s going to be okay, Bear,” he promised, putting his arms around Bear’s neck. “We’re your family now, and we love you.”

           Bear’s chest heaved, and Teddy felt him kiss the top of his head. “I love you too,” he whispered. “I love you so, so much.”

           And Teddy felt sad, because Bear had never heard that when he was Teddy’s age. But he promised that no matter what, he would always tell Bear that he loved him.

           And Bear would one day become Harry and Fairy would be Ginny, except when they were alone, but that promise stayed true no matter how old Teddy got, no matter if they were cross with each other.  

           You didn’t outgrow some things.  

[bolbianddolanhouse]

BNHA self insert AU

Nani the heck is this? Read here!

Chapter 14: Sopresa Puta 

I wake up on the day of my skills display and it’s a bittersweet feeling. I won’t have my family to see me get my agent number but that won’t stop me from doing my best! I do my skin care routine with Gwen Stefani on loop and the boys see that I’m not rushing and in better sprits, which made them happy that I was back to my normal self. I make my coffee and pack my food like I do for any other friday morning but I pack some of my extra weapons and dressed in my orange track suit. I teleport out and get myself situated for my display, everyone’s is specially curated to show off quirks and fighting styles.

“Are you guys excited?!” screeched Mimi “because I’m fuckin’ PUMPED!”

“I am! I’m gonna be flexing for the big agencies in the crowd!” I yelled in response.

“Yall know I have that mf THANG on me!” Jin remarked as he pulled out his blades from his sleeves. 

After a quick warm up, all of 1st year intelligence headed out to the half stadium to suit up and do a quick run before they get announced in. In come the families to get seated and I see them with their banners and flowers, suddenly I miss my family and Mimi and Jin noticed.

“Hey, lets do our best in honor of your parents!” said Jin getting my gaze away from the others “my parents aren’t here either but if they were better people, they’d be here and care.”

“My parents are in heaven, looking at me and smiling that I made it this far” Mimi said putting her hand on my shoulder “your parents would be here if they could, lets put on a show that would make them proud!”

Jin puts his hand on my other shoulder and I smile with watery eyes “We international students gotta stick together huh?” I said choking back my tears “thats why we’re the best... LETS FUCKIN GIVE THEM A SHOW!”

We do our chant and go do our quick run through of our display. Meanwhile, in the bleachers, hero 1-A is seated and in awe of the turn up of the pros that are scouting the agents.

“Oh my! all the major pro agencies are here!” gasped Midoriya “LOOK! there’s Best Jeanist! and The Emperor’s Coup! and is that, Crimson Riot?”

“WHERE?!” Kirishima perked up pushing Midoriya aside “IT IS HIM! Gunhead is here too! And Hawks! and I don’t even recognize most of these other ones!”

“Even someone from my brother’s branch is here” added Iida as he looked behind him at the top of the bleachers “this must be a big deal if he’s here, wonder why?”

Meanwhile, Midnight was in the school, giving a quick tour to a family of 4 and their dog.

“...and that concludes our school tour! Its a real honor to be in the presence of the family of one of our most talented students!”

“Oh you talk so highly of my youngest daughter!” said a stout woman with curly hair “is she really one of the tops of her program?”

“Oh yes! you’ll soon see in her display” said Midnight escorting them to the half stadium “Itati is a tough one! I don’t know how she managed to keep herself together being away from you. She’ll be so happy to see you!”

“tuh, I can already see her stupid ugly crying face” scoffed the boy in basketball attire and curly short hair.

“psh! I just want to get this over with to go explore the city” mumbled the older girl with dark skin and wavy hair “hey Joaquin, isn’t that her?” she said elbowing the boy.

“THAT IS HER!” he said shocked “lets pester her!”

They looked at each other and dead sprinted toward unsuspecting Ita. 

“Prima! Joaquin! REGRESETE O VAS AVER!” the stout woman shouted “excuse them Miss and myself, I have to go stop them before something catches on fire!” the woman then levitates herself and dashes forward to catch up with the other two.

“Are- are they always like this?” asked Midnight to the thin, dark skinned man holding a shitzu.

“My wife means well, and my kids are all spitfires and up in arms” said the man “I don’t do all that, I’ll just walk... isn’t that right, Mr Muffins?” the small dog pants in response.

As I’m doing one of my air maneuvers, I get air struck down and I teleport myself to safety before hitting the ground. What the hell was that? Who’s attacking me at my display?! I look around and I don’t know who did it but I hear a look out and I see the fireball coming my way and I dodge it but I knew who was responsible, and I wasn’t happy to see them.

“Oh wooooow!” mocked the older girl “you’ve learned a new trick lil sis!”

“What’s up with the romper?” said the boy, landing on the ground “yall look like bootleg Men in Black.”

“You BRATS!” I yelled taking off my visor “I fake death for what?! you hijos de la gran putas to ruin my life in this country too?!”

“Oh ho ho! Careful sissy!” taunted the older girl “is that anyway to talk to your big sis and little brother?” 

Everyone in the field gasped, they were about to see a fabled fight that was just a war story I said in passing.

“I don’t want to fight you! Why can’t you just be cooperative and just sit and watch my display, just this once?” I pleaded with them.

“Nah Ita, I wanna see for myself how strong you’ve become!” Joaquin said getting in fighting position.

“That’s right! I want to see how a top of the program fights!” Prima said igniting her fire “you’re still the weak and submissive little girl that’s good for nothing but be an eyesore in the house!”

The yelling and fire caught the attention of the hero 1-A class and they all ran out in time to see me yell “BRING IT ON YOU LAZY SACKS OF SHIT!” and the fight of screaming and full force power commenced.

“Wow Palma-san is using nothing but her fists and wrestling to fight those two” said a dazed Mineta “who are those two anyways?”

“I think- I think those are her siblings!” gasped Uraraka “look they have the same hair type and they have the same quirks Palma-san had explained to us before!”

“If they’re here, then where’s her parents?” pondered Iida as he saw the older sister transform into her rampage form “this is getting out of control! Ita is going to get injured!”

As I managed to toss my sister in the air to do my flying finisher and my brother slapping me with his stretched out arms, suddenly my arms get pinned to my sides by an unseen force. My sister turns back to her normal form and my brother’s arms get snapped back into place, we all groan as my mother stomped onto our field of vision.

“Mire que asistes! You were telling me that you missed your sister on the plane and you try to fight her? IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY ON HER BIG DAY?!” she scolded as she floated us in front of her “I raised you better than that! Hola mi amor! disculpa a tus hermanos.” She said lovingly to me like she used to.

“Mom? does that mean-” I spoke as Midnight and my dad with Mr Muffins came onto the field “MUFFIN! DAD!”

My mom released me from her levitation and my dad put Mr Muffins on the ground to run toward me. He jumped into my arms and wiggled like crazy as he licked me and I was a mess trying to process everything. “I missed you so much! How and when did you guys get here?”

“The school reached out to us and brought us over” My dad said as he walked over to us “we got here yesterday afternoon.”

I gave them a quick hug and refocused on my display, everyone headed to the bleachers and everyone was looking at my family.

“She really does look like her mother” said Momo “so petite but so powerful!”

“Look its your in laws Iida-kun” elbowed Kaminari “you should go over there and introduce yourself as their future son in law.”

“I’ll go talk to them but not for that” Iida said standing up “I have to let them know that I’m one of her trusted friends.”

As he approached, everyone got nervous for him.

“Hola familia Palma” Iida said to get their attention “Yo soy Tenya Iida, un amigo de Itati.”

The family just looked confused and really didn’t know how to respond so they flashed a polite look and said “hello” and quickly turned back to the center field.

“Um sorry for being so sudden but I wanted to introduce myself because I think so highly of your daughter” Iida said as he bowed “you raised a wonderful young lady that really puts us in our place.”

“Puts in your places?” Prima turned to him and raised an eyebrow “you fought with her?” he nodded in response “you must be dumb and weak if she took you down!”

“yeah! she might be on par with us but if she defeated anybody” Joaquin glared at Iida “then I see why shes at the top, everyone around her is weak and stupid.”

“Ya! what is with you two!” scolded the mother “thank you for thinking so highly of my daughter and for being a friend to her during her times of need.” She smiled then her face turned a bit sad “I’ve missed her and worried for her if she’s ok or is surviving on her own. It’s nice to see that she didn’t have trouble making friends and gained the respect she deserves. Looks like the change of environment was what she needed.”

“EVERYBODY LOOK ALIVE! OUR INTELLIGENCE SKILLS DISPLAY IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!” announced Mic sensei. “WE HAVE UA’s TOP PROMISING AGENTS OF 1-A, THESE STUDENTS HAVE TAKEN ON HARD ASSIGNMENTS AND HAVE AMAZING TEAM WORK! LETS GIVE IT UP FOR THEM!”

All 9 of us marched in formation onto center field and struck into battle pose. We all went one by one in no particular order. I was 5th up and I got announced in,

“NEXT UP WE HAVE AMERICAN STUDENT: ITATI PALMA! SHE’S UA’s TOP INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS WITH DOUBLE QUIRKS MID-RANGE TELEKINESIS AND COPY! WHILE SHE’S SETTING UP, LETS REVISIT HER ICONIC FINISHING MOVE AT THE PRO-HERO TAKE DOWN PRACTICE TEST!” 

I finish setting up and give the signal to take position.

“THATS THE SIGNAL FOLKS! MISS PALMA, TAKE POSITION TO SHOW EVERYONE WHAT YOU’RE MADE OF!”

I levitate myself up to do my air shooting, next heavy weapon showcase, then my MMA and lucha libre mock spar, and lastly short staff and mace twirling. I finish my display with a dramatic mid air pose. The explosion of applause made me very happy, I gathered all my things and walked to the waiting wing to pack and join the others. 

“WOW STUNNING DISPLAY! DID YOU KNOW THAT MISS PALMA WANTED A CAREER IN ENTERTAINMENT?! ALTERNATIVELY SHE WANTED TO BE A RESEARCHER IN QUIRK MEDICINE...WHAT A GAL! ITATI PALMA FROM AMERICA!”

As I pack and change to go back to the stands, Mimi and Jin come in to give me the tea on who was taking intense notice on me among the scouts. I get excited that I got a lot of them interested. I sit with my class and I see the hero 1-A class waving me down and I waved back. I watch the last few displays and then the intermission started to give time to set up the ceremony part.

“Oh jeez yall I’m getting nerves!” I said jittery “I wonder what number I’ll get and who’s going to give me offers.”

“Same!” replied Jin “my blade work really got them scribbling and your lucha libre made their jaws drop.”

“Yeah, it was quite the show you put out there” Mimi said rubbing her eyes “do you think we’ll get the same offers?”

“Maybe, they keep showing clips of our practice test” I reflected on “that has to be a driving point to our chances of getting offers.”

I see my classmates and family calling me over, I teleported over to just get swarmed with compliments. I was flattered with all the praise but I wanted to hold my sweet little muffin. He jumped in my arms and I was being cuddly and baby talking.

“Who’s my sweet little boy? I love you! yes I do! I love you! kissy kissy!” I said rubbing up to him.

“Erm, Palma-san” said Tokoyami a bit envious “is this the fabled Mr Muffins?”

“Yes this is!” I said proudly “doesn’t he look just like the robot one?”

“He’s so cute! Aww hi Mr Muffin!” everyone was petting him and talking to him and he enjoyed the attention.

“I cried almost everyday when I was away from this little one” I said holding his paw “he brings me comfort and understanding that no one else can give me.” I look up and see how touched everyone was by my display of affection toward my dog. Before I could say anything, I got a ping from Diya sensei to report to the waiting wing to get on stage. “ah gotta go y’all!”

The ceremony commences and all of 1-A intel walks up to the stage in formation. They gave us our numbers one by one and myself and my squad were the last ones, it gave us nerves as it came down to us.

“Now these next 3 are very special to the program” said Diya sensei “they give off amazing chemistry on and off the field, they’re my first responders and are the bravest youngins I’ve ever met. They’ve traveled far to be here and put in the hard work to succeed, I’m proud to say that these agents are our Big 3 and for the 1st time in UA history, intel Big 3 are all international students. So without further ado, heres their agent numbers.” He walks over to Jin “Matsui, I present to you agent number 21, for your outstanding work in investigation and blades.” Then to Mimi “Oleshin, I present to you agent number 20, for your flawless work in weapons and defense” Finally to me “Palma, I present to you agent number 19, for your incredible intuition and underestimated power.” We look at each other and lock arms that our friendship was recognized and enforced by our agent numbers. 

The roar of applause took us back but it touched us as the absence of our families was drowned out by it. When it was all over, I ran over to my family and introduced them to Mimi and Jin. Aizawa sensei walked over to congratulate me and meet my mother, they bonded over the fact that they had the same quirk. I was so happy that both of my worlds were coming together but before I could think of anything else, I was approached by 2 agencies.

“Hello agent 19, I am in part of Best Jeanist agency.” said the man in Jinko jeans.

“And I’m from the major branch in Hokkaido.” softy spoke a man in a parka.

“Oh very nice to meet you” I said with a bow.

“We have a few questions for you to have the full profile on you to gage our offers for internship.” Jinko jean man asked as he flipped to a page on his note pad “When the announcer said you wanted to pursue a career in quirk medicine, what did that mean?”

I told them and both men scribbled hard on my response.

“I scouted that practice test and couldn’t believe my eyes when you and your team took down those 3rd years” gushed the parka man “my question is, are those 2 in your squadron really dependent on each other?”

“Umm, tough question but we depend on each other but in different levels at a given time and situation. We depend on each other to finish group work and when we fight as a team, but I don’t depend on them as heavily when I’m living my day to day life or when I train because of how different we are.”

They scribble some more and Jinko jean man asks his final question “Ok let’s say your quirk gets taken away or suppressed and you’re supposed to protect a high profile person, what course of action would you take?”

“Assuming that I don’t have my team and backup was already requested/denied, I would use anything and everything within my person to protect them and get them to safety. If I run out of ammo, I’ll use my fists, if they break my arms, I still have legs! If they break my body, I’ll scream to get them away from the person so they can flee. I’d would have to be dead to be stopped and I am not afraid to die protecting somebody, even if I don’t know them.”

They stopped writing when I said that last part, I sensed their concern but it was the truth and I wasn’t going to lie to them. They thanked me for my time and they walked to their colleagues. I rejoined the rest of my class and we gathered our things so we can have the rest of the day off. I spent my evening with my family and Midnight as we went to the local food places and shopping. When it was getting late, my parents let me take Mr Muffins to my dorm until they need to leave. I get so happy that I get to snuggle up like old times with my sweet little boy. When I got to my dorm, I gave Mr Muffins a tour like he was going to be dorming there too. 

“...And here’s my room! We gonna sleepy weepy in here with a special someone.” I said as I opened my door and Muffin 2.0 was sitting at the foot of the bed, wagging his tail.

“Hello Itati, is this the original Mr Muffins?”

“Right you are! Mr Muffins, this is your robot counterpart, Muffin 2.0″ I said as I put them on the floor to sniff out the robot.

“Hello Mr Muffins, rest assured that your beloved master is being loved and taken cared of while you’re separated” the robot said, Mr Muffins put his paw on the robot’s paw “thank you for trusting me, you are a very good boy.”

I cried at the display but then pulled myself together to make some makeshift bedding for my dog and search for a pet store to buy some food for the time I’m going to have him. We settled in for bed and I felt the most at ease since I got here. In the morning, I walked the dog and got in the car to buy some dog food, all before everyone got up.

“Oh my goodness! You got to keep your dog?!” cried out Kirishima

“Hahaha only for the weekend until my family has to leave” I said as I served my dog a scoop in a disposable bowl “so don’t get too attached to this little boy!”

The robot played with Mr Muffins and it was an odd sight but I was delighted to see them interact. I did some homework in the commons room and everyone saw how my dog curls up on my foot when I work on things to keep me company. When it was time for lunch, everyone came out to see me feed him.

“Muffin! do you want...yoguis? does my boy want yoguis?!” I baby talked him while shaking a small yogurt cup. He did his little dance and everyone saw how much love and care I had for him that they understood why I missed him so much. 

“You feed your dog yogurt?” questioned Iida.

“Yup, I also give him watermelon, spicy chips, cheese, ice cream, cheese crackers and cheerios” I said as I mixed the yogurt with a disposable spoon “but as a treat, I’m not crazy.” I said as I spoon fed him yogurt and everyone was confused.

“Wow he really likes that” said Sato “why do you spoon feed him?”

“He tends to eat too fast when I give him treats so I give him little pieces of the amount I want to give him so he doesn’t choke or throws up.”

“Thats...actually smart and thoughtful of you” said Iida as he kept looking at the dog eating off the spoon “may I- have a try at feeding him?”

“Sure! Here, don’t scoop up too much on the spoon and just put it in front of his face.”

“heh I’m doing it!” Iida exclaimed as the dog ate off the spoonful he served him “what a sweet creature, you trained him so well.” Suddenly the dog puts his paw on Iida’s knee and looks into his eyes, “oh what is it little one?”

“Oh my, Muffin?” I said shocked.

“What? what does this mean?” Iida asked in a slight panic.

“When he does this, that means he trusts you” I said choking back tears “Oh my sweet boy!”

Iida then put his hand over his paw “don’t worry Mr Muffin, you can trust me with her, I promise she’s in good hands.”

I wanted to let it all out but then I got a text from Mimi

[Yo, everyone is with their families and it gave me and Jin big sad]

[Oh heck! I’ll come over si quieres]

[actually...we were thinking to have a party tomorrow, with whoever is here in the patio area on our side]

[HELLA DOWN! I can pick up a few things so I make something]

[sounds good :) get some meat, Jin’s request]

[lit, I’ll go rn since I’m free and I’ll get the robo to look after the boi]

[yee yee!]

“Hey can y’all do me a favor?” I asked as I looked up and everyone was surrounding my dog “can y’all look after my robot and dog? I have to go pick up a few things for a thing my squadron is hosting, yall are invited.”

“A party?! but yea we can look after your dogs” said Kaminari “doesn’t seem like too much work.”

“Great! some ground rules: DON’T give him your food no matter how much he begs. MAKE SURE his water bowl is always filled. If he scratches the door and starts whining, that means he needs to go outside to potty TAKE HIM OUTSIDE AND NOT THE TOILET! If he starts growling at you, that just means he doesn’t like you, don’t worry too much about that.” I turn to Mr Muffins “now you be on your best behavior! I’ll be right back from the store.”

I get my bags and keys to head out, once I was out of sight everyone was looking at the dog and wondered how well trained he is.

“Well Mr Muffin” said Mina to the dog “what do you want to do?”

“Dummy he can’t tell you!” yelled Mineta “you have to uhh like uhh, wave things in front of him to see if he’s interested.” He then proceeded to wave a house slipper in front of the dog and he started to growl.

“Oh no!” Todoroki exclaimed in a low voice “he hates you, not that anybody is surprised.”

Everyone went ballistic with that roast that the dog stopped growling. Mineta never really recovered from that roast either.

The girls tried playing ball with the dog but were fooled because the dog wouldn’t give the ball back and they chased him all over the field. When they got tired of running, they headed back inside and filled his water bowl.

“I can’t believe Palma-san and her family have such a spunky little dog” panted Hagakure “I wish I had one growing up.”

“My parents didn’t let me have a dog” said Koda introducing his rabbit to Mr Muffins “having a rabbit is nice and all but I really wanted a dog like this.”

Iida walks in and immediately Mr Muffins runs to his side and follows him around. Everyone sees this and were astounded by the sight.

“Looks like he likes you Iida-kun” commented Midoriya “its like he can sense that you care for his master.”

“SEE! even her dog is telling you to tell her your feelings!” exclaimed Kirishima

“I’m working on it!” Iida responded as he sat on the couch and the dog jumped up to sit on his lap.

“AHH CUTE!” the girls and Koda squealed at the sight. They all took pictures to show me later and I came back 20 mins later.

“I’m back! Did my sweetie miss me?” I baby talked to get the dogs attention, he jumps down from Iida’s lap and dashes toward me. “Aww baby waby! Did you behave? Did you have fun?”

I put away my purchases and prepare some things for the next day. As I cooked, the robot dog hoisted Mr Muffins on the stool to watch me cook. Everyone saw that I was happier than ever before and it gave them an idea on how I was before I came over.

“Man, hearing her baby talk is kinda cute” whispered Shoji “I wonder how it is to be loved by somebody like Palma-san? It seems like you’d have nothing to worry about and have all the validity in the world.”

In the evening, when everyone was supposed to sleep, Ita was at work on her dress while the dog drifted to sleep. The next day was spent setting up the party in the intel dorm patio. Nobody from intel that spent time with their parents returned yet so it was just me, Mimi and Jin. I borrowed quirks to help with the food and drinks to save time and resources. Finally, at sundown, we brought everyone over to celebrate.

“I love all the fairy lights!” fawned Uraraka “it really brings the party feel together.”

“Thanks! would you like a beet?” offered Mimi “or would you like some beef soup?”

Everyone was confused on the food selection but then remembered that we’re from different sides of the world, of course there’s boiled beets, bibimbap and tacos right next to each other! It was a nice time and then came the speeches,

“Can I get everyone’s attention please?” I requested, everyone stopped and looked at me “I would like to thank everyone that came to celebrate our agent coronation, its heart-warming that so many people care enough to recognize our success.”

Mimi spoke up “Personal time, my parents died when I was young and I’ve been on my own since then and thought it would be the same like when I was in Russia. But that hole in my heart was filled with the companionship our team and our successes. I truly feel like these two are my family and I’m happier than I could ever imagine!”

Jin stood up “Same, my parents are wanted criminals in Korea and I was abandoned as a child to fend for myself. Nobody wanted to adopt me either because of my lack of social skills and hobbies. When I came over here and saw these two, I wouldn’t have thought that they’d accept me and willingly work with me! They’re my new family now and I’d do anything for them, this Big Three title affirms our love and support for each other.”

“Heres to chosen family and many more successes!” I said raising my glass, others joined in “may all of you strive for greatness too!”

“KANPAI!” everyone cheered, Mimi, Jin and I downed our cups of secret booze and hollered “MUFFIN 2.0 PLAY MEME MACHINE!”

“Now playing: Meme Machine by Pink Guy” and right when the first word came on we rushed to the dance area and busted down. We may or may not have pre-gamed a bit before everyone came over. Everyone looked confused on why did we just went from sentimental to booty poppin’. A bit later came my parents with Midnight and Aizawa, they joined us for a bit of fun and food until my parents and siblings had to head to the airport.

“I know its hard mija” comforted my dad “it’s hard for us too.”

I held Mr Muffins and gave a final squeeze “Bye bye little boy, take care of them” I said as I handed him over to my sister “I hope to return soon! Or everyone come back again for the next big event!” my tears fell and my family came in for a final hug. We all knew that the next time isn’t guaranteed but we couldn’t bear having that discussion again. Iida, Tokoyami and Midoriya were watching out of sight but highly curious.

“I still don’t understand” whispered Iida “Ita has had 2 opportunities to return home for a brief visit and clearly her family can afford to come and visit.”

“What are you saying Iida-kun?” asked Midoriya.

“I’m saying that why hasn’t she gone? And why is it such a surprise that her family visited?” stated Iida “it doesn’t make any sense!”

“ummm, that is a bit strange” pondered Tokoyami “maybe her family is high profile? It isn’t safe to her to go home?”

“Whatever it is” Iida said standing up “she isn’t telling us the full truth and she knows she can’t keep it away from us forever.” He walks over to the her as her family drives away. “Ita? Are you feeling ok?”

“What? Oh yea psh!” I said quickly wiping away my tears “I just had to say good bye to my family and Mr Muffins. I just got all gushy over that group hug, lets go back to the party yeah?”

“It’s ok to feel sad, I’m not-”

“no no! really! I’m cool!” I denied my true emotions as I just wanted to have a good time before I had to do serious things. I spotted Tokoyami and ran up to him “hey~ I got a big sad that needs...comforting~”

Tokoyami looks around to see if anyone else heard me and asked “my room or yours?”

“Yours, I’ll be teleporting in at 10, be ready for me~” 

Everything died down at around 9ish and I started to clean up so I can uphold my promise in time. The night went accordingly and the next day I was in good spirits as it was T-minus 6 days until the dance!

-Intel Homeroom, the next day-

“Hope everyone had a nice weekend of celebration” cheerfully announced Diya sensei “because now comes some decision making. I have your offers in these packets for you, some of you got the attention of the major branches and I’m thoroughly impressed that some of you got an offer from the branch I worked for. I’ll be passing them out and if you have any questions about something on the offer sheet, let me know so I can clarify.”

“I’m shaking yall!” said Jin “I don’t know what to expect!”

“I hope The Emperor’s Coup gave me an offer” muttered Mimi with closed eyes and crossed fingers “the scout was so hot that I almost lost my cool answering his follow up question!”

“I’ll be happy with anything!” I sighed as I was a bit groggy “I just want to see if I got comments.”

We get our packets and ours were thick with comments and offers. I flip through and I saw the offer for Best Jeanist, I think hmm, what are they noting me for to offer me anything? I read the entire sheet and see that they’re basing their decision on my desire for quirk medicine.

“Huh? That’s odd” I thought out loud

“What’s odd?” asked Mimi and Jin

“My offer for Best Jeanist” I said as I showed them the sheet “look what they’re basing it off.”

“Quirk medicine? Wasn’t that one of your factoids?” realized Jin “what would make the number 3 hero want with an agent that had a dream of being a researcher for quirk medicine?”

“That’s a bit off I’ll admit” pondered Mimi “I don’t have an offer from them.”

“neither do I” Jin added.

“Hmmm, then I have alot of thinking to do before next week” I groaned as I didn’t know who to take up on.

-Hero classroom, before I arrive-

“I got that stupid meme song stuck in my head” cried out Mina “Jiro-chan make it stop!”

“I can’t!” Jiro admitted “I like that song! its in my current favs playlist now!”

“That was some party eh Todoroki-kun?” elbowed Sato

“Yes! I didn’t know beets could be so tasty” Todoroki said bluntly “Palma-senpai and her squadron really know how to host.”

“I’m glad that dog is gone” pouted Mineta “thinks he has a good gage on people, I’M A GOOD PERSON!”

“That dog is just like Palma-san” stated Kirishima “small, cute and doesn’t tell lies...I already miss him.”

I teleport in clumsily “oof, hi yall!”

“Are you good?” asked Shoji “you look like you caught something.”

“nah! I’m good! swear!” I dismissed my hangover as I fumbled to my seat “I just didn’t put on makeup this morning hahaha!”

Class started and it was a chill day of review, but I had alot on my mind as I remember seeing an offer from Ingenium’s Tokyo branch. And I remember that its Iida’s older brother that runs that branch personally, maybe he can get me to change my mind? Class ends and I catch him before he leaves the room.

“Hey Tenya”

“Ita! Hello, are you alright?”

“Yea yea I’m good... listen, can we talk?”

He saw the seriousness in my eyes and perked up “Yes of course!”

“Privately, not even Mimi and Jin can hear about this”

“Oh my, this is serious”

“Come then” I said as I pulled at his sleeve to follow me to the intel wing. We get there and I open the unused workroom. I flip on a light and set my bag on the table to rummage for my packet.

“What’s the matter?” he asked with seriousness “are you in some kind of trouble? Is your family ok?”

I pull out my packet and flip to my marked tab for the Ingenium offer “Looky here, your big bro gave me an offer.” I said handing him the packet to read the sheet.

“That’s great! My brother has an amazing branch with 20 sidekicks and-”

“Why?” I interrupted his thought “Give me a good reason for me to take up the offer OTHER than he’s your brother. What inside information do you have that made them choose me and not my squadron.”

Iida gulped at my directness, he does know why because he texted his brother about seeing the scout that day and it’s all for power purposes.

“My brother has had an eye on you since the practice test” he started “his agency wants to sow the seeds to have you work for them in the future because they think that your double wielding power can protect their heroes that work there. This is all because my brother and 2 of his sidekicks have been injured to the point of decommission with all the villain attacks and none of the agents that work for him are competent enough to do the job.”

“So they want me as their meat shield!” I said horrified “aren’t these branches well networked? Can’t they find somebody with telekinesis that’s already in the field? Why does it have to be me?”

“Telekinesis is a rare quirk this side of the globe” he sighed as he knew the truth was going to hurt me “same with copy with the range that you have and since you’re under a private sector of work, everyone will want you for the same purpose as their bodyguard with limitless power. Whatever intellect you posses will mean nothing to them, you will be the first line of defense for the branch.”

I take a deep breath to process all that information and to make my choice “thank you for telling me, I needed it to make my decision.” I took back my packet and put it back in my binder.

“Are you upset? I didn’t mean to hurt you” he asked gently “you deserve the truth and I wasn’t going to deny you from it.”

“I’m not upset, a little hurt” I assured “but I got so many offers that said the same thing that I needed some insight. Thank you for always being honest with me” I said facing him “You’re one of the few people I can trust in this life.” Without thinking, I grabbed him for a hug. He hesitated but he hugged back, feeling her warmth and smelling her sweet fragrance made him fall deeper for her. He wished that they could stay like this forever but she broke the hug.

“hehe your hugs are really warm” he awkwardly said “I forget how petite you are and you smell really nice.” He caught sight of me blushing as I put my backpack on.

“umm hehe thanks?” I played it cool “well don’t let me hold you captive! you can go enjoy the rest of your lunch time.”

We went our separate ways and he’s high off of that hug and my words. Kirishima and the rest of the Baku-squad sees him in his daze and assumed the best.

“Iida-kun, I saw that you ran off with Palma-san” instigated Sero “could it be?”

“She said that I’m one of the few she trusts in this life” Iida sighed dreamily “and her hugs are just so...right and warm.”

“That seems a bit much of an answer for just asking her to be your date to the dance” Bakugo said taking a sip of his soda.

Iida snapped out of his dream-state “I DIDN’T ASK HER! I had the opportunity and even hugged her but asking her just slipped my mind!” he slammed his head on the table.

“Then what did you two talk about?” Mina asked “You were gone for 20 minutes!”

“She wanted to know hows my brother’s branch” he explained without giving the real reason “he gave her an offer to intern in the agent sector.”

“Oh wow she really made it huh?” Kaminari commented “did your word help make her final choice?”

“I have a feeling it did” Iida said confidently “still, I’m a fool for not asking her when I had the chance.”

“Aww cheer up buddy!” Kirishima said as he put his arm around Iida’s shoulders “you have 6 days to ask, down to the wire but we’ll help you get your girl and get you 100 percent locking lips with her during the slow dance.”

While they plot ways to ask me, I was on my personal quest to find some answers for the corruption I just found out.

-After school, in the intel hallways-

I catch sight of Diya sensei walking out of the classroom, plan is to get some insight from his perspective.

“Diya sensei!”

“Hmm? Oh Palma, hello”

“Hello, sorry to catch you after hours but I have a burning question about my offers.”

“Oh you can tell me, I don’t mind”

“Great! Ok so I’m perusing the reasons for the offer and most of them say ‘quirk’ or ‘security’...what does that mean exactly?”

Diya lets out a long, sorrowful sigh “Oh kiddo, I was hoping you’d never had to experience the sour truth while you were here. Why those reasons is because of your quirks, double wielder of rare quirks is like hitting the lottery for these scouts. Since its two powerful defense quirks, they’ll want you to play bodyguard for their own greedy reasons. Worst of all, is that they’ll keep you like that, unable to advance and won’t make use of all your non-quirk abilities. It’s a life of torment and loneliness, I don’t wish it on the worst villain out there!”

“Did that happen to you sensei?” I asked as I picked up a sense of personal grief from him “you got roped in the trap?”

“You caught me! Clever girl, I was one of those lottery agents and got flattered by all the offers. When I interned, I was conditioned to come back when I graduated and I was naive to their intentions. I went back and they treated me like a protective blanket, just throwing me about and not caring if I got injured or my mentality. It went on for years and I was seeing my family less and less, my girlfriend at the time left me because I was never there for her. The money didn’t feel worth it anymore and I wanted to escape, so I did the whole ‘faked my death’ thing and changed my name so I can work in a field I cared about more. They never found out that I was still alive and I got work in the rescue field for independent branches. When I was nearing my retirement, I went to college to start teaching agents...and now I’m here.”

“What made you a lottery agent?” I asked curiously “are you a double wielder too?”

“Yes ma’am! I have gravity influx and forcefield. Gravity does not affect me but I can change the gravity of an area with a wave of the hand, so I can walk up walls and make the enemy fall to the ground with crushing force. With the forcefield, I can make bubble forcefields as big as a 20 story building that not even a missile can penetrate! Needless to say, You’d want me on your side in a villain attack.”

“Those are useful quirks, I get it now. I should chose how I please but STICK it to them!”

“Yeah! Stick it to the man, rebellion to the corrupt! I am so proud of you for getting it and listening to my advice, my hope for you is to fight the corruption by making a name for yourself so you won’t be ignored.” He said sincerely as he put his hand on my head “Now run along to the dorms! You need to rest to tackle on tomorrow.”

“Oh right! yes, thank you for sharing that insight! Have a nice evening sensei.” I said before teleporting out. His words lingered in my head as I went along my usual routine, I hope I was making the right choice because there was only one agency that gave me an offer based off of my interests. I went to bed thinking about rebellion and dreamt about destroying capitalism. Ah what sweet thoughts to lead into my calmer week.

-End Chapter 14-

<Previous - Next>                                          

[schemingweasel]

I was tagged by my meme @sighclcne thank u for tagging me!!💞 and also showing me how to do this on mobile Bc I’m an idiot lmao

name: Car nickname: tdirt gender: meme

star sign: cap/aqu height: 5'8" sexual orientation: bi bye hogwarts house: last time I checked Gryffindor favourite colour: ??? No idea

favourite colour to paint the walls: white Bc I’m boring and don’t take risks favourite colour of lipstick: fuck if I know, peach? favourite animal: again no odea time right now: 01:09 am cat or dog person: cattt favourite fictional character: don’t make me choose between my children number of blankets i sleep with: 1 favourite singer/band: don’t really have a fave aaa I’m sure there’s a singer I like I just can’t recall atm dream trip: honestly at the la santa resort in lanzarote with a bunch of friends in our appartments and we’d go down to the beach and the pools and golf courses and eat at that restaurant that overlooks the whole place god I want this now dream job: something in science? I’d love to make movies so much but I’m really shit at it? Id love to animate to but lets be realistic here,, Tbh if I could have anything it would be alien researcher/explorer/space Explorer/deep sea Explorer basically science when was this blog created: probably 2014/5 ?? when did your blog reach its peak: this blog has and always will be a mess. Tho tbf recently my notifs have been blowing up from that one miraculous ladybug fanart I did and the yj fanart rip what made you decide to make a tumblr: a friend was moving to tumblr, rubbersoda I think but I think I just caved Bc I saw the tru source of shitposts

why did you pick your url: it’s my instagram username and I’m uncreative lmao

last movie you watched: oh gosh I don’t remember,, tho I am gonna watch Lord love a duck just because that fucking title man, and apparently the guy bulldozes a school so I’m in. last song you listened to: probably something in an electroswing playlist idr

last book you read: the secret history by Donna tartt last thing you ate: a fuck tonne of soup if you could be anywhere right now, where would you be: @ my grans house in Hungary in the suburbs with her giant ass garden several floors up and the musky staircase with harvest men fucking everywhere and her persian rugs all over the house and the sound of her radio in the morning and at lunch and where those fucking Dino nuggets are legal those were the shit OK

what time would you travel to: the future man I really wanna see how this shit turns out I ain’t gonna be alive for that long holy moly,, I’d go when I ain’t got long to live and go step by step into the future till we finally meet aliens till were boarding a ship to trappist-1 and the rest to get off our burning planet I’d travel to see the universe end and begin because I’m dead anyway. Also end it by flinging myself into a black hole Bc who doesn’t want to go out in the void. fictional character you would hang out with for a day: wally West fo sur e

No wait he’s dead OK yes dick grayson at my age 👌 let’s go fight some bad guys but also wait up for me I’m a bad runner

I’ll tag @sadcatstarry Bc ur my meme buddy and I always feel awkward tagging people who don’t spam me memes daily so don’t take it personally if ur not tagged buddy’s aaa

[zrtranscripts]

The Way of All Flesh, Episode 5

In this episode: There's been a second murder, and everyone left alive in the house is under suspicion. What was the meaning of the victim's final words, which were caught on tape? And why has one member of the group disappeared? The truth lies buried in the past; but in the zombie apocalypse, what's dead will never stay underground for long.

JODY MARSH: Should we change that message now? Like, "there have been two murders and we're still no closer to knowing who did it"?

CHRIS MCSHELL: I wouldn't say that. There have been some very interesting clues.

JODY MARSH: How are you so calm, Chris? Callum's dead. Rose is dead. Someone strangled her in the night with chandelier wire! We've all heard the recording now. When everyone was asleep, someone let themselves into Rose's room and killed her!

CHRIS MCSHELL: Yes, and she let them. We heard that on the recording. As if she knew why it was happening, as if it was some kind of justice. She knows what it's like to take the blame for something...

JODY MARSH: You think the murderer took the blame for something they didn't do?

CHRIS MCSHELL: It's interesting, isn't it?

JODY MARSH: I think Rose would feel close to someone who took the blame for someone else, after what she did.

CHRIS MCSHELL: Perceptive as usual. I notice you did broadcast that thing we said we wouldn't broadcast.

JODY MARSH: ... it was a mistake.

CHRIS MCSHELL: If only I were able to see, I might have stopped your finger from slipping. Let's find the others, see how the zombies are. You never know. Maybe they all wandered off overnight.

JODY MARSH: You're funny.

[zombies groan]

MANISHA: What a noise to wake up to.

JODY MARSH: Is everyone awake? Me, Manisha, Sheila, Chris, Keith, Geri, and... where's the Prof?

GERI: Oh, he was poking around in the basement last night. He's probably asleep.

JODY MARSH: I miss Rose. She'd say something grim like, "Ah, the sleep that mirrors death." I liked that.

GERI: Yeah. Also, the killer struck again, so we're all in danger, aren't we? Any of us could be next.

SHEILA: And there are more zombies.

JODY MARSH: Sometimes it goes like that. The horde grows and just attracts more and more and more.

CHRIS MCSHELL: We should search the house again, and record what we find. Could be some weapons or a panic room.

GERI: Or some cyanide capsules! Oh, okay. Okay, let's explore. Again.

[recorder fast forwards]

[door opens]

MANISHA: Oh good, a zombie viewing platform. [laughs] I mean, conservatory. Well, at least we're high up so they're not battering on the glass. Yet.

KEITH: That's weird... an upstairs conservatory. Now wait, what are we on top of?

MANISHA: The ground floor, obviously.

KEITH: Well, yeah, but there isn't a room under here on the ground floor, is there?

MANISHA: What?

KEITH: Well, we just came through the music room. Now, that's on top of the kitchen. And we should be on top of the cold store on the ground floor – you know, the room Callum's in. Don't look at me like that, Manisha. I have very high spatial reasoning skills.

MANISHA: You find that out on Celebrity Mensa?

KEITH: No, no, I did not. Brain Training With the Stars. Actually, I think I knew before that. I was always good at woodwork at school. [laughs] Only my mom said I should do um, retail management, but I kept getting fired. Too volatile, apparently.

MANISHA: You never talked about that.

KEITH: Well, we're going to die together. Silly to hold anything back.

MANISHA: Yes... yes, I suppose so! Keith, do you fancy a shag?

KEITH: What?

MANISHA: Like you said, we're going to die anyway, no need to keep secrets. I fancy you. Up for a shag?

KEITH: You fancy me? Really?

MANISHA: Yeah.

KEITH: Shouldn't we tell the others about the secret room? And you don't even like me!

MANISHA: Maybe I've been won over by your spatial reasoning skills.

KEITH: Yeah?

MANISHA: Yeah! [laughs] Just get over here!

KEITH: Okay! [laughs]

[recorder fast forwards]

JODY MARSH: This is the indoor bowling alley where the Prof and Keith were pulling up floorboards, Chris. You okay getting over that step?

CHRIS MCSHELL: Yes, yes, I'm fine. Bowling alley?

GERI: It's also a bouncy castle and a paddling pool for the kids.

SHEILA: Or for grownups. These technology people are like children, you know. No sense of responsibility. Playtime all the time.

JODY MARSH: I'd quite like to work somewhere with a bouncy castle. You can get good ideas when you're... bouncing.

CHRIS MCSHELL: My, uh, daughter used to love bouncy castles. [laugh] She thought if she bounced hard enough, she could jump straight to the moon! I told her she couldn't. She cried and cried.

GERI: My girlfriend Lisa had twin boys. They're eight, now. They loved the seesaw. They were so evenly matched. [laughs] I can see them now, giggling, kicking off the ground.

JODY MARSH: Do you... do you know where they are now?

GERI: They're safe. Castle in Yorkshire. I had to leave them, had things to do. No way to talk to them while I'm away. It's hard. Do you have children, Sheila?

SHEILA: Me, kids? No. No, I don't. It never happened for me.

GERI: In a way, it's one less thing to worry about. Like, none of us are ever going to have to do a tax return again.

SHEILA: I think that sometimes. What matters now? Remember that cyberterrorism thingy, Netrophil? Before the apocalypse, we were all so worried about them stealing our credit card numbers and blowing up university labs.

JODY MARSH: Yeah, I remember. I spent hours telling clients they had nothing to worry about from Netrophil. It was all lies. I had no idea whether they should worry about it. I turned out to be right, though, didn't I? It wasn't that they should have been worried about.

GERI: I heard those people weren't even terrorists, really.

JODY MARSH: We've had a look around, Chris, and we can't see anything useful.

GERI: One last look around the other basement. Nothing there but the boiler, and that hasn't had a fire in it for months.

JODY MARSH: Hook onto my elbow, Chris. We'll just walk through here.

[recorder fast forwards]

GERI: See? The Prof and I checked it. Where has the Prof got to?

SHEILA: Probably still sleeping. I would be too if my nerves weren't still on edge. This is just an empty room with a boiler, Chris.

CHRIS MCSHELL: Did you say the boiler wasn't lit when you came down last time?

GERI: Hasn't been lit for months, probably.

CHRIS MCSHELL: Honestly. It's not true that your senses become more acute when you're blind, but you do notice what they're telling you more. Can none of you smell that?

JODY MARSH: [sniffs] Smell what, Chris? Oh, wait, yeah. I smell it. Burning, just a bit.

SHEILA: It seeped into the walls, I expect, that smell.

CHRIS MCSHELL: Open the boiler, Jody.

[boiler opens]

JODY MARSH: Wow, you're right, Chris! Something has been burning here. The ashes are still warm, and there are a few bits left. [ashes rustles] I think it's the spine of a scrapbook.

[recorder fast forwards]

MANISHA: Oh, honestly, did we really record all of that?

KEITH: Oh, well [laughs] my manager was always saying I should release a sex tape.

MANISHA: I'll turn off and delete it.

KEITH: No! No, no, don't.

MANISHA: Why?

KEITH: Listen, I mean, we're going to die, right?

MANISHA: Probably. Good way to go, though. Oh, I don't suppose I mind if someone finds it. You're right. That was a good shag. Very energetic.

KEITH: I love you, Nish. I've been in love with you for months. Oh God, it feels good to have said that. Honestly, I've been holding that in since before Rotherham. 

Do you remember that night we fought off the zombies and that pack of wild dogs? I mean, you were fighting in your tank top and your pajama bottoms, your skin was glowing, there was this sheen, and you – and I thought – I mean, that is the most amazing woman in the world. I love you. I do.

MANISHA: What is this, Keith? If it's another cheap joke, I can't take it.

KEITH: It's not, though! I think, you know, I was always afraid to say it, because you and Callum were so close, and... [sighs] I thought you'd laugh at me. I mean, I know I'm just a clown to you. Sometimes I think I am to myself.

You know, it's all those reality shows, all those parts! In this one, I'm the arrogant one. In that one, I'm the funny one or the villain, or the one who talks about his dead gran. [sighs] You know, I feel like I forgot who I was. But I know this for sure: I love you. ... Do you feel anything for me?

MANISHA: I... I... um, let's go and find the others. We should tell them about that missing room downstairs.

[recorder fast forwards]

KEITH: Poor Callum. He looks so peaceful, doesn't he? Like he's sleeping.

MANISHA: He never looked that peaceful when he was actually sleeping, remember?

KEITH: Oh yeah! He used to shout stuff out in the night about his willy. Remember when he was shouting so loud that this kid zombie came along, dragging a... actually, maybe that story's better another time.

GERI: Where have you both been, anyway?

KEITH: Boarding up windows.

MANISHA: Checking the bedrooms. The point is, um, Keith's worked out that there must be another room leading off this one.

CHRIS MCSHELL: Whoever designed Gadsen Manor has a sense of humor. I think it's supposed to be a techno-pastiche of a country house. Look for anything that could open a door.

SHEILA: I don't know, love. Looks like a lot of kitchen equipment to me. Cans of beans, tomatoes, rice.

KEITH: What about this? A bottle labeled "secret sauce."

JODY MARSH: Well, they're not going to do anything that obvious, are they? [wall moves] Oh. Maybe they are.

KEITH: That's it! The whole wall is on a hinge, it's opening! I feel like James Bond! I would have been an amazing James Bond, by the way.

GERI: Wow.

CHRIS MCSHELL: What are you seeing?

JODY MARSH: It's a control room. There's TV screens with feeds from all the rooms. Any of us could have found this room and slipped in here, listened to conversations.

GERI: There are all sorts of controls. What happens if I do... this? [presses button]

JODY MARSH: Oh, don't press anything, Geri! We don't know what could happen!

[carousel music plays]

SHEILA: It's just made the chandelier in the kitchen go around, Jody, love.

GERI: What about this one? [presses button]

[doorbell rings]

JODY MARSH: The doorbell.

KEITH: Oh my God, look. Look at that camera feed.

MANISHA: What? I can't see. The stupid tree house is in the way.

KEITH: Look, it's the Prof! On the other side of the fence. Oh my God, he's escaped somehow. He's got to be the murderer. He's the murderer, and he's escaped!

JODY MARSH: I suppose it was his poison.

GERI: And he was totally cagey about his research. Had Callum ever done any stories about him, Manisha?

MANISHA: Callum? No, he hasn't done that kind of story for years. Anyway, how did the Prof get out?

KEITH: Oh my God, do you think he was looking for a way out, and that's why he pulled up the floorboards?

MANISHA: So there's a way out?

GERI: He found the way out and didn't tell any of us?

JODY MARSH: Oh, we've got bigger problems. Look at Camera Six!

MANISHA: Oh God. Oh no!

CHRIS MCSHELL: What is it?

JODY MARSH: The zombies are through into the side hall. We've all got to move.

GERI: Shouldn't we try to find the way out? We could escape like the Prof.

JODY MARSH: There isn't time! Lock the kitchen door, barricade it. Move!

[recorder fast forwards]

[zombies growl, furniture crumbles]

GERI: They've got the scent of us. Move!

KEITH: Duck, Geri!

[gunshot, glass shatters]

JODY MARSH: Help me! That zom with the dangling hands is almost through!

MANISHA: Here, cleaver!

SHEILA: That's done it. Head clean!

KEITH: But there's more coming, south and west. Oh God, there's too many!

SHEILA: Everyone back out of the room. I've got an idea. Let me at the control panel. [presses buttons, blast doors raise]

MANISHA: Wow. That's amazing. Sheila, you managed to raise some... what are they, blast doors?

SHEILA: I thought there might be some special protective doors to stop fire spreading in an old house like this. Pandora Haze never spared any expense on technology.

GERI: That was fast, Sheila. They're sealed off again for now. You've bought us some time.

KEITH: How long, though?

CHRIS MCSHELL: If one of you could work out how to power up the control panel upstairs, I suggest we make a hasty retreat, and then destroy the staircases. Axes.

MANISHA: On it. Everyone, upstairs.

[recorder fast forwards]

JODY MARSH: Okay, Chris. We're safe for now. It's just you and me here in the study. Keith's taking out the staircase. Apparently, he had to do it once before in [?].

CHRIS MCSHELL: And the control panels?

JODY MARSH: They're working. There are even remote controls. Looks like you can do loads of things with the tech in the house.

CHRIS MCSHELL: Are there any instructions about how to do those things?

JODY MARSH: All deleted. Should be instruction manuals and Pandora Haze personnel records and all sorts, but it just says "file missing."

CHRIS MCSHELL: Hmm. Do you have the remains of the scrapbook we found in the boiler?

JODY MARSH: Yeah. I've been looking at it. It's weird, Chris. The pages are burned, right, but the spine's still intact, and so I've got all the... all the stumps of pages, yeah, all charred -

CHRIS MCSHELL: There's one page missing.

JODY MARSH: How did you know that? There is one missing. One of the pages at the start of the book is gone. Torn clean out, right next to the spine.

CHRIS MCSHELL: Yeah, that's what I thought. Right at the very start.

JODY MARSH: You've got an idea, haven't you?

CHRIS MCSHELL: I have.

JODY MARSH: Will it keep us alive more than another few hours?

CHRIS MCSHELL: I can't promise that.

JODY MARSH: Then what's the point, Chris? The ground floor's full of zombies, and we're trapped up here. Worst of all, we know the Prof found a way out, but we'll never get to it now. We're going to die in here!

CHRIS MCSHELL: Did you ever hear the phrase, "the Golden Age of murder mysteries"?

JODY MARSH: Yeah. Like, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, that lot?

CHRIS MCSHELL: That lot, starting in the 1920s. While flappers were kicking up their heels and American gansters were smuggling liquor past Prohibition cops, this new genre of stories suddenly became popular. A crime, a murderer, a detective. Hours spent working out what happened and why.

JODY MARSH: I used to love Hercule Poirot on the telly.

CHRIS MCSHELL: Why do you think it happened in the 1920s? Why that kind of story then?

JODY MARSH: I don't know. People needed something to read to distract them from not being able to get pissed?

CHRIS MCSHELL: [laughs] Maybe. I've always thought about what had just happened a few years earlier.

JODY MARSH: What? Oh! The First World War?

CHRIS MCSHELL: Millions of young men in unmarked graves. A new kind of war, mechanized and devastating. Millions of unidentifiable bodies. Millions of boys marched off bravely one day, and never came home.

Um... my daughter. You know, she might be out there somewhere. Or worse, she might be a walking corpse. I'll probably never know.

JODY MARSH: Chris... you never talk about her -

CHRIS MCSHELL: No, no, it's all right. It's all right. What I'm saying is, I think those 1920s Golden Age murder mysteries were a fantasy. There'd been so many stupid, pointless deaths. The slow unpicking of the reasons for one solitary death... it was comforting. Do you see what I'm saying?

JODY MARSH: Yeah, I do. Yeah.

CHRIS MCSHELL: So let's just solve this one.

JODY MARSH: But we're all going to die!

CHRIS MCSHELL: Well, that's always been true. Jody, could you ask everyone to gather in the sitting room? I'm certain I know who our killer is now.