#so for the guardian I speed built the first thing that popped into my head cuz I needed to sleep for work the next day

[lokiina]

A boy and his guardian

[karimac]

...in the details, Part 2

A/N: Warning for this series: 18+ audience (minors DNI), some cinematic level violence, some fluff and angst. Doubt that smut will be involved, but it may be implied. I’ll make sure that is noted clearly if it pops up.

All relationships, at this point anyway, are platonic.

Please do not repost or translate my work. Likes, comments and reblogs are greatly appreciated.

A bit about the OC Kari

Part 1

All mistakes are my own.

Word count: 2,249

Before you ventured into Westview, a flight of birds overhead reminded you of Redwing and Sam. Poor Sam. That sixth sense you had told you that fight at the compound was going to lead you all into very weird places. And the first one left you very squarely not in the room once again.

This time it was Steve and Bucky being thick as thieves, and you and Sam were…making a sandwich run? Couldn’t exactly get GrubHub to make a delivery to an attack site, could you? Bruce did not want some driver with a cellphone putting video up on Snapchat. “How would that look?” he bemoaned as he worked on the time travel platform. “We’d be getting tourists left and right. I don’t need that.” So off you and Sam went.

“You know, you could just, you know,” Sam started to say as he waved his hands like he thought a wizard would do, “and just poof up a plate of stuff. Right? With extra food for Banner, of course. He inhales tacos like nobody’s business. Just ask Tic Tac.”

“Sam, what have I told all of you before? Magic is the transfer of energy and matter. No suitable food stuff means no sandwiches. I can’t just think about the deli counter at Wegman’s and make a sandwich and a side of coleslaw appear in my hand. So, we’ll order on the app and pick it up. Just like everyone else. Before I hit the button, any changes to your order?”

“No, it’s fine. But don’t tell me you’ve never done shit like that when you’ve had your back against it,” Falcon huffed as you went to the rental car you’d gotten earlier in the day. That, thank Heaven, was easy to get at the local but extremely small airport.

“I’ve killed small rodents and eaten them, and I don’t mean just rabbits. Snakes, too. And, well, birds of prey, like falcons,” you groaned as you started to get into the car, but you stopped and headed back to the passenger side. “And I know you hate my driving, so here you go,” you said as you handed Sam the keys. “Sorry it isn’t a Ferrari. I was lucky to get this Kia. They didn’t exactly have anything race course worthy.”

As Sam climbed in, he saw bags of gear in the back seat. “You pulling a Wanda? Need some me time away from all us testosterone jockeys? Cyborg is going to be pissed.”

“Bucky has other stuff to deal with, trust me,” you said as you rolled your eyes. “He does not need to add Crazy Old Broad to his growing list of things to do and people to take care of this week. I heard him talking to Steve…”

“You? Eavesdropping? You are human!” Sam smirked, but then he saw the comment had hit a nerve. “You know I was kidding, right?”

“I know you are,” you said as you swallowed hard. In reality, you were not exactly buying that last comment. Sam was a sweetheart, but his comment sounded like things Tony and Steve had said about you in the weeks before the Time Heist. It depended on the situation, but one or the other of them seemed to question you, your motives, your powers and what they could do, and, at times, your grasp on reality. You did have a connection to a goddess they couldn’t see. Blaming them for having those questions just was not in your wheelhouse. “And yeah, maybe I just need to go figure a few things out. You guys know how to get me back here if you need me.”

“Somehow I don’t think Steve, Bucky and I would look so great standing and screaming your name in the middle of a fight,” Sam noted as he finally turned the key in the ignition.

“Now who is having issues with gender roles?” you said with a very pronounced side glance. “Sam, we are all human. We all need a save now and then. Maybe you’ll never have to utter my name again after today, unless you guys can’t find something you think I hid? Thor will be back once he’s done exploring the universe, and you can always get him here fast if you have Strange find him. And Wong is just dying for his shot as a full time Avenger. We all know that! And I can go back and do, well, goddess stuff, I guess. And raise horses. Just, please, make sure no one drops the ball on Parker. He lost his parents and his uncle. Losing Tony will hit him harder than anyone likely expects. He’s a good kid. He just needs support and guidance. Now, want to get this thing moving, or do you want me to drive?”

“And have you antagonize the local cops by going Mach 1? No thank you!”

You had to laugh at that one. You did tend to floor it. A lot.

++++++++++

A short time later, you and Sam rolled back to the site Bruce had chosen to set up the time travel platform. After you two handed out all the food, you realized it was really time for you to get going. No, you didn’t have a train, plane or bus to catch or someone to meet. You just knew it was going to get harder to make the break the longer you stayed there.

“She’s pulling a Wanda on us,” Sam said as he finished off the last of the sweet tea he had grabbed at the deli where you’d gotten food. “I think it’s too much he-man macho stuff, but she won’t fess up to that.”

“Wilson, how many brothers did I have?” you asked as you cleaned up the trash from the table Bruce had borrowed from a local park that had been wrecked during the battle. It had a huge hole in the end, but hey, it was good enough for the moment.

“Eight,” Bucky replied before Sam got the chance. “Just don’t quiz me on all their names. I remember your twin, Branan, and the one who was the vampire. Ewan? Right?”

“Yup, that’s right,” you grinned at Buck. “And no quiz. Promise,” you said as you raised your left hand and crossed your heart with your right.

“Why are you leaving?” Bruce asked as he adjusted the sling on his still injured arm, putting extra emphasis on the word “are” as he uttered it. “We need all the help we can get.”

Bruce, heaven help him, was suddenly one of the last active OG Avengers standing on Earth. Thor was off finding himself with the Guardians, and no one could really begrudge him that. He needed time to heal, and you knew all too well that was not easy nor time limited. Clint had more or less retired again after Natasha’s sacrifice on Vormir. Steve was getting ready to take the stones back, but upon his return, he’d likely join up with Sam and Bucky again to root out any remaining Hydra cells. That left Bruce in a very different place this time around.

“Bruce, you don’t really need me being a head case. Trust me. You do not need me giving any news outlets ammunition to blast headlines that make the team look less than spotless. I need to go home, at least for a little while,” you replied, knowing full well you were not telling him or the others everything. “And as I reminded Sam, you guys can just call me, and I’ll be here. Just whisper my name. Or yell it. Whatever works. Text me! If it’s an emergency, and if I’m not in the middle of some new damned war on my end, I’ll come running. But I have a feeling you guys are going to be just fine. Hell, I’ll give you a blessing before I head out.”

Yeah. A blessing. More like the final nail in the coffin. The words to start the spell to make them forget you.

“Big guy, you first,” you said as you put your hands on Bruce’s injured right arm. “And no, I am doing this, Bruce. It won’t be a full healing, but it should speed things up. You got this, big guy. Biggest brain. Biggest heart. May you realize just how much this team was built with your sweat and tears as it was anyone else’s.”

“I can’t change your mind?” Bruce asked as he pretended to wipe a tear from his eye and pout a bit. “And I am not asking because you are likely the only one of us who can cook…”

“I’m pretty sure all of you guys can cook something. Maybe not a good Colcannon or a fine Dublin coddle, but you’ll survive. As for the cupcakes, you guys may need to get a bakery on speed dial,” you added with a laugh because you knew they’d make that bakery rich. The Avengers loved their sugary snacks.

“Just don’t bug my sister, Bruce,” Sam noted as he waited for you to come over to him. “I still remember asking why the Cupcake Lady had a sword that night when those demon things attacked near the tower. I never asked. Why the cupcakes?”

“And not why the demons or the sword?” you said as you nearly choked on your words. “You realize that was before Steve saw me at Peggy’s funeral. That night was truly a fluke, Sam. No one was supposed to see that side of me then. As for the cupcakes, they were my entry to your world. Gifts from a fan girl. They’re easy to carry, a synch to personalize when needed, and everyone can have their own without fighting,” you said with a grin as Sam shook his head. “What?”

“You sound like Sarah.”

“Then I am in good company. Tell her the good stuff you’ve told me all these years. The words of wisdom. The little jokes. The pep talks. Tell her often. A single mom with two boys needs that. Be there for her, and drag these guys to see her, too. It would do the boys a world of good to have all their uncles stop by. Now, Samuel,” you said as you gave him a hug, “remember to keep these guys flying right. And if the world drops opportunity in your lap, whatever it might be, do not look at it and push it away without a lot of thought. The world needs Sam Wilson, the hero with a heart.”

And now the hardest part of this good bye had you wiping tears from your eyes. “I know. I’m a big mush. Girls from Brooklyn would laugh at me for this, right? Sorry, but girls from Naas and Athy do cry sometimes. I’m going to miss you two lugs. A lot.”

“Lugs. Last time you called us that was in ’43,” Bucky said as he looked down at his feet for a minute. “Somehow Hydra missed that memory.”

“You’ll see us again,” Steve said as he turned briefly to see where the case with the stones was on the platform. “But this time, it better not take 70 years.”

As you looked at the best friends, something about their auras seemed off. They had been planning something when you almost walked in on their chat a few days ago. You had no idea what it was, and you suddenly didn’t want to hang around to find out what the next act was going to bring.

“Just…watch your back, Steve. From what Clint said about Vormir, that one is going to be tough. And Buck, whatever comes next, I’m rooting for you. Even if you can’t see me doing it.”

“You really don’t have to leave,” Bruce kept insisting as you hefted your backpack on your shoulder.

“Dr. Banner, do you really want to fight my demons after all this? I have enemies. You just haven’t seen them yet. Frankly, the only reason that Hydra didn’t grab me before I hooked up with the Howling Commandos was because I was pulled into another dimension by one of those enemies. It was only by some weird twist of fate that Peggy found me when she did. If the veil between worlds had not been so thin near that camp, I might never have made it back, or Hydra might have found me first. It was pure dumb luck.”

{{And, Heaven help me, part of it was these two lugs over here}} you thought as you turned to head to your car. Then you stopped. This was a lot harder than it had been any time before, but it was the curse of an immortal to have to keep moving on. “I wish you luck, joy and happiness. I wish you peace. And, if you are truly lucky, memories long enough to have little space to spare for the likes of me because they are filled with so much more! See you in my dreams, for now anyway, fellas.”

++++++++++

You rolled out of there before Steve started his mission to return the stones, and you got a text from Bruce hours later telling you everything that had happened. Steve not coming back as planned. Then an older version of Steve shows up, sitting on a bench near the platform, and he gives Sam the shield. Right in front of Bucky.

It was now weeks later. No. It was months later, and here you were staring up at the sign for Westview. You’d gotten out of your rental car so you could get a feeling for the area around this little town.

“You made it back,” a voice said behind you. “How are you, after all that mess with Wanda and that Agatha woman? She was a real piece of work.”

The person speaking to you was Dr. Darcy Lewis. Friend of Thor and Dr. Jane Foster. Why was she even here?

You couldn’t fully figure out what the hell she was talking about. You didn’t remember being here before. Yet, you knew who she was, and you had never met her before. Or at least you couldn’t remember meeting her, here or anywhere else.

“Apparently not as great as I thought I was,” you muttered as you winced again. “Dr. Lewis, how long ago was the blip?”

“Give or take a week, about six months ago,” she replied as you started to pace. “Why?”

“Shit. Not this again,” you hissed as you looked up at the sign once more. “I think I’m going to need your help. How much do you know about Celtic myths and Irish history, Dr. Lewis?”

[xbladekitkat85]

Do You Remember Now?

Summary: It's Peter's birthday and everyone is planning on a surprise when he wakes up. Except there's a huge problem. Peter's gone missing.

Word count: 4k+

Warnings: Descriptions of violence, swearing, ANGST, mentions of dealing with grief.

A/N: I haven't really written angst before so I don't know how hard it's going to hit. I did tear up at one part while typing so maybe it's a bit heavy???

Peter's disappearance happened when everyone least expected it. It was the morning of his birthday, and all the heroes of the universe were going to be there. It would have been the first reunion in over 5 years where everyone was available to come, Asgardians and Guardians as well. Everyone was going to sneak into Peter's room to wake him up with a collective shout of "SURPRISE!" and pop an unnecessary amount of party poppers all over the room.

Tony peeked inside first to make sure that Peter was still asleep before beckoning everyone inside. But he felt a cold draft flowing from the crack between the door and the doorframe that shouldn't have been possible due to the picture windows.

He entered the room to find the window cut open and various items belonging to Peter scattered on the floor. There was no sign of Peter himself and the excited feeling that Tony had all morning quickly twisted into something he had felt only when Pepper had been taken years ago by Killian.

It was the feeling of debilitating fear.

Tony felt a wave of nausea hit him as various scenarios all ran through his head, each with Peter hurt, scared, or possibly even dead.

Pepper was the first to notice Tony hadn't come to get everyone. He came out of Peter's room after a few minutes more of waiting. But he wasn't acting like the excited father he was only moments before.

"Tony, what's wrong?" She asked, feeling anxiety building up with each second of silence.

Tony turned to look at everyone with a haunted look in his eyes. Pepper recognized it as the same expression he had when he had returned from space after fighting Thanos. Something was horribly wrong, and it had to do with Peter.

"Tony, talk to me. What's happening." Pepper asked gently despite the worry she felt.

"Peter's not there." He whispered hoarsely and turned to look at her. "Pep, we can't lose him again."

Morgan, Carter and Harley had heard what Tony said and they all felt a sharp stab of fear and worry. Morgan felt tears burning in her eyes, and buried her face in Carter's shoulder for a moment to compose herself. Carter held her close and stroked her hair while Harley walked into Peter's room to see it for himself.

Harley looked around the entire space. He checked the closet, the hammock near the ceiling, and the bathroom adjacent to Peter's room to no avail.

"FRIDAY, show me the tower's security activity from 11pm last night up until dad opened Peter's door." Harley requested.

But to everyone's shock, there was no familiar response of, "Sure thing boss." from the speakers throughout the tower.

FRIDAY was out of commission. That meant that somebody had been able to shut down an AI made by Tony Stark, which is no easy feat. This meant someone skilled was behind it and most likely planned the kidnapping with extreme scrutiny.

Nothing about the situation was remotely close to how everyone thought this day was going to go.

"We need to get Friday back online ASAP." Morgan shakily said. "If we are able to access the security cameras, there's a chance we might be able to find a clue."

Carter glanced at Morgan and saw the pain and worry in her eyes, and gently took her hand and squeezed it to reassure her. She squeezed it back to acknowledge his presence.

"Morgan, Harley, and Carter, come with me to my lab. Nat, you reach out to any contacts who may know something. Carol, this is a long shot, but I want you to ask off world allies if they have any clues as well." Tony ordered. "Everyone else start looking around the tower for clues of any sort. If you see anything remotely suspicious, make a note of it."

*Time skip*

Nobody had been able to find a trace of a clue regarding Peter's whereabouts.

Not any of Tony's extensive connections had an idea. Natasha's contacts hadn't heard any chatter about a kidnapping or hostage. Carol came up empty from every person she had asked but that wasn't unexpected.

Morgan had been back to school and Carter was supportive whenever she needed reassurance. But after a month of no news, or leads, she was starting to lose the little hope she had left. Peter would promise her before every mission, that he would come home safe and sound. But this time he hadn't come home. She didn't even know where he had gone.

Harley became fixated on building tracking devices, scanners, homing beacons, anything that could help find his brother. Harley had promised to always help Peter if he was in a pinch, regardless of how annoying he could be sometimes.

Tony had shut himself in his lab to fix FRIDAY and go through everything he could think of that could offer some sort of sign, a clue, a word, literally anything to bring Peter back home. He had invented time travel to bring him back so why couldn't he do something as simple as finding a clue? Peter would probably point out an error in his work that would solve his problem but now that wasn't possible.

Pepper busied herself by concentrating on running Stark Industries. Whenever she got the chance, she would drag Tony and Harley out of their labs to eat meals with her. God knows those two would forget to eat if nobody reminded them that food and water was an essential part of living. Peter would usually take care of that but since his disappearance, she took up the job.

Everyone felt a piece of their family was missing. But nobody said his name out loud, even though everyone thought about him.

It just hurt too much to hear his name knowing that by now he was likely dead. That he was never coming home.

And time would continue to pass, as the pain of losing Peter would too.

Until one day, on a mission, everything changed.

*6 months after Peter's disappearance*

HYDRA had suddenly resurfaced with no warnings whatsoever.

They had set off Tony's alert system designed to warn of threats, and a group immediately suited up. Having HYDRA stirring up trouble was never a good sign, especially since they were supposed to be gone. But as the saying goes, "Cut one head off, two more take it's place."

The team that had gone to check out the threat consisted of the original 6 Avengers as well as Harley, Bucky, Kate, and Wanda. Upon arriving at the location that had set off the alarm, they noticed that another group of people were there as well. One person among them in particular stood out to the OG Avengers. Before anyone could make a move, all the Avengers were suddenly knocked down, and tied up so they couldn't move.

"Hey, I found these guys lurking around. Who are they?" An unfamiliar voice asked.

"Yo-Yo, you can let them go. We're friends. Well, at least most of us are, those three I haven't met. It's alright."

All the OG 6 Avengers felt a cold shock run through their bodies. That voice belonged to someone they thought was dead since the Battle of New York.

"Agent Coulson?" Tony asked in shock.

"It's former Director actually and yes, I'm alive." Coulson replied, as everyone was untied by Yo-Yo.

"There's no way." Natasha said as she stood up. "Fury would have said something sooner. And when were you Director of SHIELD?"

"I'm sorry, Nat, but he meant to keep it a secret from all of you. Me being resurrected." Coulson said with regret in his voice. "Said that if you knew, it would have distracted you from your goal."

"Steve, who is this guy?" Bucky asked in confusion.

Coulson's eyes widened in a very comical way when he noticed who had just spoken.

"Sergeant Barnes. It's an honor to meet you." He said, holding out a hand to shake.

Bucky took Coulson's hand to shake and noticed that his hand was not a real hand.

"Your hand... It's mechanical isn't it?" Bucky asked curiously.

"How much has happened with you since we last saw each other?" Steve asked.

"A lot. And we'll talk about it later after we take care of this HYDRA base. I assume that's why you're all here." Coulson said, gesturing to the other group.

"Yes, well, let's introduce the new members of our teams and then make a plan." Steve said.

Coulson informed his team of the change of plans. Everyone on Coulson's team met up for introductions.

"Daisy Johnson, aka Quake. She has the ability to manipulate natural vibrations as well as generate concussive blasts of vibrating air. Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez. She is able to travel at superhuman speeds within the timeframe of a beat of her heart before she bounces back. Hence the nickname, Yo-Yo. Melinda May, expert martial artist, pilot and empath. Mack, Deke, and FitzSimmons are on the Bus right now. You'll meet them later."

Everyone on Tony's side acknowledged their names and took note of their abilities and powers.

"Ok, for the new faces on our side, we have Barnes, the Winter Soldier, who you already know, Wanda, she's got telekinesis and can read minds, Kate, she's Clint's protege, slash eventual replacement and Harley, my oldest kid, who built his own suit." Tony said, introducing the group.

Daisy leaned over to Yo-Yo.

"Tony Stark has kids?" She whispered.

"How the hell would I know?" She responded. "I'm not the former groupie member here."

Daisy glared half heartedly at her.

"I said it was one time!"

"Not my fault you got drunk and told me that story." She shot back.

"Hey, focus we're not here to argue." May interrupted. "We have a mission."

Everyone quickly formed a plan and they all entered the base.

Yo-Yo ran through the halls to assess the amount of security as well as any potentially dangerous weapons. When she was done, she gave the report to Coulson and Tony so they could split their team accordingly.

"May, Harley, Kate, Captain Rogers, Wanda, and I will be one group. Daisy, Yo-Yo, Nat, Clint, Sergeant Barnes, and Tony will be the other. " Coulson explained. "Dr. Banner will be here on comms just in case. I've synced the signal our comms travel on so we're on the same channel. We're going to be split up, so only call for help if necessary. We have about equal amounts of power on each side, so take advantage of every opportunity if need be. Let's go."

Everyone nodded and headed off with their respective groups to raid the base.

(A/N Tony's team will be written in bold and Coulson's team in regular text to avoid unnecessary writing)

Wanda lead the group through the hallways, with May taking out the first few guards easily. Coulson shot ICER bullets at the ones May couldn't focus on while Harley made sure every guard was unconscious. Cap and Kate ran ahead to scout out the next few corridors and the rest of the group quickly followed.

Daisy knocked down the first wave of guards and Yo-Yo tied all of them up while Nat, Clint, Tony and Bucky advanced deeper into the building. A group of guards wielding batons and handguns immediately appeared in their path, blocking the way. Clint shot arrows into the walls that released smoke to obscure the soldiers vision and aim. Tony took advantage of their disorientated state and used heat signature seeking taser blasts to knock them out.

Cap almost got a punch to the face while he rounded a corner but he leaned to the side, barley avoiding it. Kate quickly rushed in and used the man's momentum to flip him over her shoulder into the wall while Cap recovered and punched another soldier trying to attack Kate from behind.

"Thanks." She said, a bit out of breath.

"No problem. Incoming from both sides, get ready." He replied, standing nearly back to back with Kate.

"You got it, Cap." She said, readying her bow.

He threw his shield at the closest guard while Kate shot multiple electric arrows at the hallway in front of her, effectively creating a bolt of electricity that hit multiple targets. They quickly rotated in sync and they repeated the same attacks as before, with Cap taking out the last of the soldiers in his way and Kate knocking out hers.

Tony watched Yo-Yo as she sped forward to scout the next hallway. He couldn't help but think of Pietro Maximoff, and how similar their powers seemed to be. Of course, Yo-Yo bounced back while Pietro didn't. He just kept going forward and never looked back.

Before he could even blink she had returned to the group.

"There's about a dozen guards outside a set of reinforced double doors." She said. "They're guarding something important."

"That's why we're here though. HYDRA has some weapon or something they plan on using, right?" Daisy asked. "Why else would they have resurfaced?"

"It's never a good sign when there's that much security outside an already pretty secure door." Clint added.

"They couldn't have possibly made anything more dangerous than supersoldiers." Bucky muttered.

"I wouldn't put it past HYDRA to find a way to do it." Nat said. "We got to make a plan. We can't just charge in."

Coulson's group had reached the end of the last hallway on their side. There wasn't anything at all to take as evidence or to destroy.

"It can't just be a dead end." Coulson said in disbelief. "There's gotta be a secret door or something at least."

Harley snorted at his complaint.

"I mean that's would I would have done." Kate said thoughtfully. "There wasn't anything of importance on our side of the base. So it makes sense that there's something we're missing."

Cap walked forward and proceeded to rap his knuckles on the wall.

"Whatcha doing there Cap?" Harley joked. "Hoping the secret door will open if you politely knock?"

Cap had moved to the left wall and knocked on it as well.

"He's checking to see if any of the walls sound more hollow than the others." May interjected. "It's a smart idea. It could reveal a hidden room or passage that isn't visible to the naked eye."

Wanda turned to Harley with a raised brow.

"Hey, can't you scan through walls with your suit? That would make this go a lot faster." She asked sarcastically.

Harley froze and everyone turned to look at him.

"Yeah, that would have made this a lot easier." Coulson said wryly.

"I'll get on it." Harley said sheepishly.

He scanned all the walls around them and eventually started walking in another direction.

"This way. There's a room further this way that I can't see through with the scanner. It seems to be lined with lead, which means x-ray scanners won't do the job. Whatever we need to find must be there." He said.

Everyone quickly followed Harley's lead as he walked down the halls, eventually leading them to where the other group had gathered in front of heavy looking doors. The soldiers that had presumably been standing guard were incapacitated on the floor.

(End of bold/regular text switches)

The entire group was preparing to enter the room they stood in front of. Whatever HYDRA had been working on had to be here. Nowhere else in the building had anything significant and this was the final stop.

The door had a keypad that required a passcode as well as a biometric scan. Of course, they could try using the guards to try to pass the retinal scan but there wasn't any guarantee they had access.  Of course, they had to deal with the code as well. Maybe physical force would work.

Tony scanned the door's material and found that it was capable of taking the strongest hit from his and Harley's suit combined.

"All right, does anyone else have any brilliant ideas on how to enter this room?" He asked "I don't have enough firepower for this door."

Coulson turned to Daisy and nodded his head.

"Do your thing." He said.

She rolled her eyes and approached the keypad to the door and forced the device to open, revealing circuit boards and wires.

"What is she doing?" Harley asked in confusion. "I thought she could blast through stuff?"

Daisy took out a small tablet and hooked it to the keypad, quickly typing out code and breaking through the security.

"You're lucky I still carry a tablet, Coulson. We would have been in trouble otherwise."

Tony was impressed and slightly scared of how fast she broke through HYDRA's mainframe of security. He made a mental note to update his security system as well as FRIDAY's firewalls.

After a couple minutes of rapid typing, the door opened with a hiss of cold air.

"Remind me to change all my passwords on my social media." Harley said to his suit's AI.

"All right, lets see what HYDRA has been working on." Coulson announced. "Prepare yourselves for anything."

They walked into the room and immediately, everyone noticed the change of temperature compared to the rest of the base.

FRIDAY informed Tony that it was 10 degrees in the room and understandably, everyone was shivering.

Tony walked a bit further and then stopped suddenly. He felt his blood run colder than the room itself.

Coulson had said to be prepared for anything but he clearly didn't have this in mind of the things he needed to steel himself for.

"Oh my god." Kate whispered. "Is it?"

"Peter?" Harley asked in disbelief.

Tony's son was in the corner of the room, curled up in the fetal position, and unresponsive to the world around him.

"FRIDAY, scan for any vital signs." Tony asked desperately.

"He's got a pulse, but I believe he may be in a comatose state. He is also dehydrated and malnourished."

Coulson's team didn't know who this Peter was, but they knew based on everyone else's reaction that he was someone who had been missing for a long time.

"FitzSimmons, do you read me?" Coulson said into his earpiece.

"Yes sir, what's wrong?" Jemma's voice replied.

"We need you to set up the medbay immediately. Get an IV drip sufficient for dehydration as well as malnutrition." Coulson ordered. "We also need heat lamps, if you got any."

"Right away sir." She replied.

Steve picked Peter up and everyone followed him out of the base, back to safety.

*Time skip to returning to New York*

Morgan had been in the middle of a meeting for student council when her watch buzzed. Although it wasn't unusual for that to happen, this time it was buzzing in a pattern that meant there was an emergency that she could not ignore.

"May I be excused to go to the bathroom?" She asked the teacher, who nodded her approval.

She grabbed the hall pass and made her way to the bathroom and checked to see what the message was.

The message was from Harley and what he had sent broken down the walls of composure she had been building for 6 months.

Morgan, we found Peter. We're almost back to the tower and mom's picking you and Carter up. We'll tell you more when you get here.

She sank to the floor and started to sob.

How was this possible?

Where had he been?

How was he alive?

Was he still alive?

More and more questions ran through her head and she finally calmed down enough to exit the bathroom without looking like she had just had a breakdown. When she walked back into the classroom she was handed a summons to leave early.

She arrived at the attendance office and Carter was already there, waiting for her with Pepper by his side.

They all hugged for a good long while and they all cried a bit before Happy started to drive to the tower to meet up with everyone.

"Mom? Is he alive?" Morgan asked hoarsely.

She was silent for a bit before replying.

"He's alive but he's in a coma of sorts."

"Do we know why?" Carter asked.

"Dad said it was extensive exposure to frigid temperatures and that the spider DNA caused him to hibernate because of it." She answered.

"Do we know when he's supposed to wake up?" Carter questioned.

"I don't know honey." Pepper said honestly. "We have to hope for the best."

Morgan felt her heart sink in her chest as they pulled into the parking garage.

Everyone got out as soon as the car was parked and rushed to the elevator.

"FRIDAY, take us to the medbay where Peter is." Pepper said.

"Right away miss." She replied.

They made it to the medbay in record time and rushed to Peter's bedside, where he was still asleep.

Morgan almost didn't recognize that it was Peter in the bed.

His face was unnaturally pale and gaunt and he had lost weight, his frame looking thinner and weaker because of it. His hair was longer than she had ever seen it before and was tangled in knots. He had multiple bruises scattered around his body that should have been healed.

Tony and Harley walked into the room soon after and Morgan hugged them both extra tightly as she let out months worth of fear and anxiety in the form of tears.

"Shhhh, Maguna, it's ok, he's home." Tony whispered. "Breathe, you have to breathe."

"I thought he was dead." She sobbed into his chest.

"I know, but he's here now, everything's going to be ok." Tony reassured her gently.

Carter and Pepper joined in the hug and they all comforted each other.

Peter was finally home, where he belonged.

And he was about to wake up from his slumber.

"Hello?" a voice said, cracking in the middle of the word. "Where 'm I?"

Harley turned his head towards Peter so fast he almost gave himself whiplash.

"He's awake!" He said.

Everyone let go from the hug to gather around Peter's bed.

"Peter, are you ok? How do you feel?" Carter asked.

Peter turned to look at Carter.

"Who're you?" He asked confusedly.

Peter looked at all the people standing by his bed.

"Who are you guys?" He asked. "What am I doing here?"

Everyone's hearts collectively sank at his question.

Peter didn't remember anyone in this room. He couldn't recall his family. What had HYDRA done to him?

"Peter, we're your family." Morgan explained shakily. "I'm Morgan, your little sister. That's Harley, your brother, Carter, my boyfriend. That's mom and dad over there. Don't you remember at all?"

Morgan's voice broke as she asked him that question.

Peter looked at everyone's faces, one by one, trying his best to remember them but he couldn't. His memories were blank with a capital 'B'.

"Maybe photos or videos might help?" Carter offered weakly.

"FRIDAY pull up video footage from the folder, Family Shenanigans."

FRIDAY displayed footage from the timeframe that the Avengers were playing pool in the rec room.

Tony was on a team with Carter and Harley and Morgan were on the other. Peter and Pepper were watching them play from the side.

"Come on Harley, you can do better than that!" Tony teased as he put chalk on his cue stick. "Morgan's been carrying your team the whole game."

"No way, I've hit at least half of our balls in the pockets!" Harley protested, even though he knew he was spouting bullshit.

"I've done two behind the back shots and made them, how many have you done?" Morgan piped in, absolutely decimating Harley, the Roast King himself.

Everyone burst out laughing at her comeback and Tony immediately fell to the floor from laughter and pounded his fist on the ground.

Morgan had never seen her dad laugh so hard at something, let alone everyone else, including Natasha, who usually never let more than a chuckle out when she found something hilarious.

"WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON ANYWAY?!" Harley yelled at her over all the laughter.

"That's my sister!"  Peter said proudly, with tears of laughter in his eyes.

Friday played other videos taken during random moments, as well as displaying photos. Everyone took turns explaining what had happened that day and why it was special. Peter asked questions here and there and everyone answered patiently and with extra detail to help.

Eventually, they had gone through the entire folder and Morgan glanced at Peter to see if there was a flicker of recognition at all.

"Do you remember now?" She asked him softly.

Peter had tears in his eyes as he answered.

"I'm so sorry." He said.

Morgan wanted to scream her heart out. He still didn't remember his family. She didn't know if he ever would.

"I've been gone so long, and HYDRA erased my memories. But you guys were able to find me before they could finish the job for good." He said, finishing what he had wanted to say. "I do remember you guys. I can't believe I ever forgot how much everyone here means to me."

Pepper let out a gasp as she nearly tackled him in a hug. Everyone felt a huge weight lift from their shoulders as Peter laughed weakly at everyone's faces.

"Peter, don't you ever scare us like that again!" Harley scolded with tears running down his face.

"That was a shitty thing to do, seriously." Carter said, annoyed but mostly relieved that Peter was back.

"Peter, never forget how much we love you." Tony said, wiping a tear away from his cheek.

"I can't believe you're back." Morgan said, smiling despite the fact she was still crying a bit.

"I'm here, and I won't be leaving you guys like that again." Peter replied. "I mean, I'm bedridden at the moment anyway."

Everyone groaned at his joke before a group hug formed around Peter.

Everything was as it should always have been.

A/N: Here's a little fun fact about this chapter, the part where Morgan roasts Harley is based on something that happened within my family a couple years ago. In my family's version, I was on a team with my cousin and my dad and another cousin were on the other team. The dialogue is basically word for word what happened. I roasted my cousin, and my everyone started laughing, and my dad literally fell to the floor and was pounding his fist on the ground.

Taglist: @frostedgiant

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[mobius-prime]

125. Sonic Super Special #9 - Sonic Kids 2

Zoneward Bound

Writer: Michael Gallagher Pencils: Sam Maxwell and Harvey Mercadoocasio Colors: Joshua D. and Aimee R. Ray

That's right, we're back to Sonic Kids! As with the first Sonic Kids special, I find this one to be full of really good foreshadowing and details from the past that flesh out the world and the plot more fully. In addition, this marks another comeback for Michael, who's been kind of absent from the comic lately. Let's jump right in!

We begin one winter many years ago, sometime after Sally formed the Freedom Fighters with the others in the past issue. She and her friends are playing in the snow, flinging snowballs around and having a good time, when one rogue snowball nails Rosie in the head.

When Sally starts sniffling and claims that she's just trying to distract herself from the loss of her father by playing with her friends, Rosie takes pity and sends the group down to a frozen pond, saying she'll bring them snacks in a bit. They happily race down and begin ice-skating, but are forced to take a quick break to let the ice re-freeze after Sonic accidentally melts it with the friction from his speed. While they wait, Sonic heads to the nearby well to get a drink of water, but when he and Boomer - sorry, Rotor - go to get the bucket, something strange pops out…

Mega, mega callback time. We're going all the way back to the first issue we ever reviewed, the first issue of the comic ever to be released - issue #0 of the Sonic Miniseries. In the first story of that issue, Sonic rushes to a well to fish out a ring that lets him defeat Robotnik and save the day. This, my dear friends, is that exact same well. They really went back a long way for that one, huh?

While the kids rush back to play on the pond again, the ring begins to glow, and suddenly they all slip on the ice and find themselves falling into three colorful portals. Sally falls into the first one alone, and finds herself on a crazy rollercoaster without any safety regulations whatsoever, meaning there's no restraints and the car keeps nearly flying off the track. She panics at first, but then remembers her royal training and forces herself to keep calm. As she does, she sees a strange object ahead, which turns out to be a vision of… her father's disembodied head!

While she gets a glimpse into her own future, we jump over to Rotor, Antoine and Tails, who find themselves floating in a strange space where reflections of themselves seem to talk to them. They stick together and try to fly themselves toward an escape route, not realizing that there's three figures watching them…

Ah yes, this "Chosen One" thing again. Seems the Ancient Walkers have been obsessed with Tails ever since he was tiny. We then see where Sonic ended up, which looks like an unfinished version of Green Hill Zone - as in, it's literally "under construction" with loops half-built on top of construction skeletons. Sonic races around, eager to find out who's building this place and how they do it, when he runs into a familiar face…

And here we have Sonic and Robotnik's first true meeting! Robotnik, evil as ever of course, tries to smash Sonic with his wrecking ball, but Sonic dodges, and decides that beating Robotnik is more important than finding the builder of the zone. He messes up Robotnik's little flying vehicle and then races off, and all at once the five friends find themselves flying back out of the zones and into the real world once more. Realizing that it was the ring they pulled from the well that caused their strange adventure, Sonic tosses it back into the well, leaving it there as a nice plot device for the very first issue of the comic!

What a nice tie-in! It's been a while since we referenced any of those really early issues, but I guess it makes sense that Michael would be the one to go all the way back to one of the first issues anyway, since he's the one who wrote most of them.

My Secret Guardian

Writer: Michael Gallagher Pencils: Manny Galan and Jim Amash Colors: Joshua D. and Aimee R. Ray

So have you ever wondered about the story of how Sally and Knuckles first met? It happened before Robotnik's takeover, when Sally's father decided to take a nice vacation to the Floating Island and take Sally along with him. Sally is excited to be spending one-on-one time with her father, and he doesn't tell her that his real reason for heading to the island is to check if there's any more information on whether Queen Alicia and Elias survived the shuttle crash from before, as well as to network with the Guardian Locke. Soon, their shuttle comes within view of the island and lands, with an enraptured Sally chattering away and asking every question that comes to her little mind.

Sally, mildly grumpy, paces around as her father heads off, but soon notices a pair of eyes watching her from a nearby bush. She leaps toward it and demands whoever it is come out, and out pops Knuckles! They initially bristle at each other, but as they try to one-up each other with their own prestigious duties and destinies, they realize they have a lot in common and become friends, chatting at the edge of the island. However, they soon begin arguing again, this time over who will have it harder once they take over their full duties, and get into a small scuffle. Sally uses the "flip back kick" that she used on Knuckles way back in the Sonic and Knuckles Mecha Madness special, and the fight comes to an end when Knuckles misjudges a blow and smashes into a tree, knocking it over.

They part ways and Sally quickly takes her turn hiding in the bushes as Locke comes to lead his son away. A few minutes later, King Acorn comes back as well, mentioning that during his talk with the Guardian of the island he'd learned that he had a son about Sally's age, but he "wasn't available" to chat with. Sally just replies that she already has enough friends back home, and together they get ready to spend a few days exploring the island together for their vacation, while Knuckles secretly watches them walk away from atop a nearby cliff, saying he feels that their paths will cross again someday. Really, it's kind of nice to see a young Sally spending some quality time with her father, because so far, ever since he's come back it's been nothing but conflicts and emotional trauma with him. Sally just gets to be a little kid here, sure with duties she's expected to fulfill, but no war to trouble her, no imminent destruction on the horizon, just a cool floating island to hang out on with her father. Poor thing could use some time to have fun before Robotnik's takeover. Speaking of which…

Eve of Destruction

Writer: Michael Gallagher Pencils: Art Mawhinney and Rich Koslowski Colors: Barry Grossman

This is easily my favorite story out of both Sonic Kids issues. We begin, as before, with Sonic and his friends playing outside, though Tails - or Miles, given when this story takes place - is notably absent, and they're in Mobotropolis instead of Knothole. A window opens nearby, and a face that looks very much like Miles' only with an eyepatch emerges and asks them to please play elsewhere so his wife can have some rest. As they walk away, we find out the identity of this man and his wife…

That's right, these are Miles' parents! His pregnant mother, Rosemary, asks her husband, Amadeus, not to leave her, as the baby may come any time now, but he insists he must go off to work for the day, as he's second in command of the royal guard. He explains that today is the day King Acorn will be appointing Warlord Julian Kintobor to the position of Minister of Science, noting that Sir Charles Hedgehog vacated the position after a mishap with his latest invention and has started a restaurant business instead. Hey, sound familiar? He's referring to the incident where Chuck accidentally turned his brother, Sonic's father Jules, into a mindless automaton, making him the first true Robian created. Amadeus says goodbye to his wife, and approaches Sonic, who excitedly asks if his baby will be a boy or girl and talks about how excited he is to have a new friend once the baby is born. Amadeus asks the kids to keep an eye on Rosemary while he's gone to make sure she's taken care of, to which they happily agree.

Meanwhile, Julian and Snively (the latter of whom has a full head of orange-brown hair) are hanging out within the royal laboratory, laughing evilly and plotting their takeover, including discussing Julian's intentions to exile King Acorn to the Zone of Silence. Snively then drags a beaver "volunteer" bound in ropes into the center of the room for a "test," and at that moment Amadeus happens to arrive to help with the refit of the lab.

Now, what would you do in this situation? I know that I, for one, would immediately get the hell out of there and get the attention of the king, because if I was second in command of the royal freakin' guard, I imagine the king would pay attention to what I had to say about any accusations of treason. I would muster forces and get there without alerting Julian, surround the place, and investigate thoroughly before he had a chance to cover up his treachery. But apparently, Amadeus is a total idiot, and immediately marches in gun drawn yelling for Julian to surrender because he's under arrest for being a traitor. Julian, of course, just laughs, insisting that Amadeus refer to him as Ivo Robotnik from now on, and reveals that he hasn't only been working on the roboticizer - he's built swatbots in secret as well, which he handily demonstrates by having one grab Amadeus, causing him to scream in alarm…

At the same time, Rosemary Prower begins screaming as well, and the kids all rush in to see what's wrong. Realizing that she's in labor, Sally has the others grab her toy wagon and they load the pregnant woman into it, and Sonic rushes her to Dr. Quack. She soon gives birth to a healthy baby boy with two tails. The king himself shows up to greet the new young'un into the world, and after a little while Julian and Snively show up… with Amadeus in tow. Julian claims that Amadeus had entered a contaminated room, and thus has him all wrapped up in a coat, hat, protective glasses and face mask, effectively obscuring his entire form. Rosemary is excited to show her husband his new child, but…

Before he leaves, the king reminds Julian to come see him after tonight's ceremony for his promotion to Minister of Science, as there's "going to be several other major changes around here," to which Julian agrees with an evil smile that the king completely doesn't pick up on. Outside, Julian allows Amadeus to take off all his coverings to reveal that he's also been roboticized, which seems like a bad idea to do in the middle of a populated area if you want your plans to remain a secret, and gleefully informs Snively that they'll launch their coup tonight and begin roboticizing the populace. Later that evening, after Rosemary has cried herself to sleep from the reaction of her husband, Sonic asks to hold the baby, hugging him and promising him they're going to be best friends when he's older, leading to the end panel announcing "The end (and, unfortunately, for the citizens of Mobius, it is also the beginning!)".

What a story, huh? Tails is born, his father is roboticized, and Robotnik stages his initial takeover of the kingdom all in the same day. I feel bad for Rosemary in all this. The story doesn't address what happens to her after the takeover begins, but even just losing her husband and then the kingdom she lives in is enough to spoil anyone's day, especially after having a baby. What I do find interesting about this story, however, is the sharp departure from the games' version of how Sonic and Tails met. In the games, Tails is a lonely kid teased for his twin tails, and upon seeing Sonic, is inspired by his speed and follows him. Once Sonic notices him, they become friends, with Tails looking up to Sonic and Sonic essentially adopting him as a younger brother. But in the comics, he knew Tails from day one, and Tails grew up with a group of friends from the start. It certainly makes for an interesting difference between the two incarnations of the characters.

[violethowler]

My thoughts on Kingdom Hearts III

My initial reaction to the ending of Kingdom Hearts III was equal parts confusion, devastation, and just being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of how much time was spent on the final battle. I had a lot of conflicting opinions about how some things were handled, but unlike when that happened with the final season of Voltron, I feel a lot better about everything after a good night's sleep, because I was up late at night finishing the game. I'll get into the spoilers under the cut.

So, for starters, let me put my reactions on a scale of negative to positive:

Major disappointments that should absolutely be done better in the next saga:

After Kairi was hyped up for so long that she'd have a more important part to play in the story, her role in the final battle was a letdown. I can swallow her not being as amazing a fighter as the others because she's never been in combat before and she's been effectively thrown into the deep end on her first day, but I at least expected her to resist when Xemas grabbed her, instead of passively standing there like a helpless damsel in distress. The only in-universe explanation would be if after stress and panic of the previous fights, she froze up when Xemnas made a more for her. But after seven years of being built up as a Keyblade Wielder, and her relationship with Sora, she could have done so much more. I sincerely hope that Testuya Nomura learns from this and lets her shine in the next saga.

With trailers and interviews hyping up how big the worlds were this time around, having Twilight Town and 100 Acre wood be just one small area each was seriously disappointing. I was really looking forward to seeing more of the 100 Acre Wood. They could have fleshed out the whole "Sora disappearing from the cover mystery" for at least a little bit, maybe let us run around the other characters' houses instead of just Rabbit's. And for Twilight Town, I would have liked to have been able to see how the other districts looked.

Going straight to the endgame after San Fransokyo. I know that the creators decided to focus on quality over quantity when it came to the worlds in this game, but I was hoping for just one surprise Disney world that could give fans one last breather after rescuing Aqua and Ven. If not a Disney world, then I would have at least liked to have been able to explore more of Land of Departure or visit Radiant Garden outside of cut-scenes. I love RG's look from BBS and I would have loved to walk around and see the world restored to its former glory.

Vanitas was frustratingly underused in this game. For all the hype surrounding his return, I expected more from him. Especially because the Kingdom Hearts concerts kept including his theme music with the "heroes and heroines" meddley, tantalizing us with the possibility of him getting a redemption arc. And instead, he just dies all over again, only this time, he's calmly accepting his own demise instead of freaking out like after his final fight in BBS. As someone who loves the idea of him getting redeemed, that was a big disappointment. The only thing I'm hoping for is if he somehow comes back in the next saga, because it was kind of unclear whether he's really dead, if there's a way for him to come back, or if he's just faking it like Xigbar was.

Things I wish had been handled differently but I can ultimately live with and hope are handled better in the next saga:

The lack of focus on or explanation of the X era mysteries we've been pondering for years disappointed me on first playthrough, but now that I've had time to think about it, I realized that X/Unchained X/Back Cover/Union X/Whatever-They-Change-The-Name-To-Next isn't truly a part of the Xehanort Saga, but rather, the connective tissue that sets the stage for what comes after Xehanort. It was supposed to set just enough things up that we'd know who the Foretellers were and what Xigbar being Luxu meant. But because it was released before KH3, the fandom built up our expectations that the mysteries of what happened would ultimately be answered in III, so when they alluded to Marluxia and Larxene's past as Dandelions without following up on it, I was kind of disappointed. But now I realize that it was meant to open the door to them playing larger roles in the Lost Masters Saga.

Maleficent and Pete just lurking in the background despite trailers and previous games hyping up her interest in Luxu's box and the Book of Prophecy. This is something else that was clearly being set up for the sequel, but I wish Maleficent had at least had more to do. A boss fight with Pete followed by a conversation to establish that she's waiting for the dust to settle between the Guardians of Light and Seekers of Darkness before she makes her move would have been nice.

The sudden introduction of this mystery girl. At first, I thought when they kept mentioning this girl, they were talking about Kairi, and that we'd be starting to learn more about her past in Radiant Garden. I soon realized that the implications of Kairi's life pre-Destiny Islands were a red herring, but the more they kept bringing this girl up, the more I was expecting there to be some kind of explanation for who she was in the game itself. I can understand in retrospect why Isa and Ansem SoD would suddenly bring her back now, because both knew they were going to die (Isa at least had the promise of recompletion) and wanted closure on burning questions they hadn't thought about in years. Considering that the epilogue and secret reports imply she's amnesiac Ava, I think this is another case of planting seeds for future installments in a way that I wish had been done better.

After years of Aqua being celebrated as a badass Keyblade Master, her not really getting to do anything in this game is upsetting. Sure, things make sense from an in-universe perspective: she sent her Keyblade to Destiny Islands as a beacon for Sora, Riku, and/or Mickey to find her, which weakened her already worn down defenses when Xehanort’s heartless came for DiZ. With how much warping Terranort does, I figured he’d attacked Ven at speeds so close to superhuman that Aqua didn’t have time to react. And in Land of Departure, Nomura wanted to have Ven’s awakening be a dramatic moment where he swoops in to protect someone he cares about. But having Aqua kick Vanitas’ ass only for her to get taken down by a single Firaga spell feels like a poor way to achieve the desired result.

While having some Disney worlds follow the plots to their respective movies was expected, Sora, Donald, and Goofy's presence their felt a little insubstantial. I mean, I'm not saying they should have just copied the movie shot for shot with SDG there in the background, but it felt like they missed out on large chunks of the movies. It was forgivable in Kingdom of Corona because they were there for the important parts and Marluxia basically told them what they missed re: Rapunzel. With Arendelle it felt weird that they were really only involved with Elsa running away, the Marshmallow fight, and the ending. The rest was pretty much spent with Larxene coming up with elaborate ways to keep them away from the plot of the movie. With Pirates it was just ridiculous. They were really only there for the escape from Davy Jones locker and then just ran around with fake!Jack doing their own thing until it was time for the final fight of the movie. It's hard to not know the plots of Tangled and Frozen due to pop culture at this point, but if you're playing this game with no knowledge of the pirates of the Caribbean movies, you're going to be very confused on what's happening in the maelstrom fight.

Minor quibbles:

An explanation for what happened to Demyx would have been nice, but then, that could just be another mystery to be addressed later.

The whole "rewind time and replay everything before Sora's near-death until things change at the last moment" thing didn't really make a whole lot of sense, but it wasn't too big of a deal, and Xigbar's "we don't need you to make a second blunder" implies that he had something to do with it, which can hopefully be explained properly at a later date.

Little moments that weren’t necessarily big for the story, but I enjoyed anyway for personal reasons:

At first, I was crushed by Even’s return to the Organization because I loved the fanfic Why The Sun Sets Red where he becomes a surrogate parent figure to Xion, and wanted that relationship to be a reality in canon. Then when he saved Ansem, Hayner, Pence, and Olette from Fake Ansem, my head was saying “this is probably a trap”, but my heart screamed #ShittyScienceDadConfirmed. And I was so relieved when my heart turned out to be right. I will probably end up writing a post-III fanfic of Even bonding with his Science Daughter at some point.

I generally stay away from shipping in the KH fandom, but after years of having SoKai as my first OTP, I came to start shipping SoRiKai, and as upset as I am about Sora’s fate (I can’t really complain about that too badly since Nomura already promised that Sora would still be the main character in post-KH3 installments so having this kind of ending should have been expected, if not for 3 than for a future title), I at least take comfort in the fact that there’s enough wiggle room for SoRiKai headcanons set after Sora’s inevitable return.   

Everything else that I absolutely loved:

The visuals were absolutely freaking gorgeous. On every single world, they went out of their way to make the graphics as beautiful as possible.  The 2D fire effects on Olympus, the different shaders used each world to make Sora, Donald, and Goofy fit with the aesthetic...

The Skein of Severance. While I wish we'd gotten to explore more of the Keyblade Graveyard during the final battle, or that the maze was a little more elaborate, I loved having to fight multiple members of the new Organization simultaneously, and oh dear god the aftermath of every fight: Xion's return, Terra regaining control of his body, Saix's death.... I was sobbing after every boss fight.

Despite how complicated the lore has become, the story itself was actually pretty straightforward. It was pretty refreshing and reminded me of KH1 and BBS, where the heroes have a clear overarching goal and a reason for why they're traveling to other worlds.

As much as I wish that Unchained X had been held until after KH3, there's a stroke of genius to the epilogue: Because of Xehanort's whole "balance between dark and light" obsession and Riku's whole "dark is not necessarily evil" character arc, I've seen a consistent idea within the fandom that the main villain of the next saga after Xehanort should be one of those who fit into the "Light is not good" trope. And by implicitly setting up the "Lost Masters" for that role in the epilogue, they've both ensured a masterful conflict between the Keyblade Wielders of the past and the ones of the present, and ensured that the next saga will be as heartbreaking as possible by ensure that the fandom is already attached to these characters.

Honestly, despite the issues I've had with the game above, I absolutely enjoyed Kingdom Hearts 3. It was worth the wait in my opinion, and I can't wait to see what the future holds. My only hope, given the epilogue and secret ending, that we get an announcement of Kingdom Hearts IV within a year or so. Doesn't need to release next year, but it definitely needs to be announced for development.

[scarletraven1001]

The Final Price (Chapter 8)

Chapter Summary: Bulma is determined to find a way to bring Vegeta back, and with help from Goku and a reluctant Uranai, she journeys into the spirit world, ready to challenge the gods themselves for the right to her soulmate’s ultimate fate.

Entry for the @tpthvegebulmayhem Week 4 (Part 2 of 4).

Prompt: The Better To Grab You With

Chapter Warnings: Rated E - Profane language; Slight sexual content.

All Chapters:  1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

Also on Ao3.

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Chapter 8: Holding On

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Note: So you guuuuys! This story just won the 2018 Vegebul Mayhem and I am so, SO happy! To everyone who followed this story on the Mayhem tumblr, thank you all SO much! And to everyone currently reading this and are leaving all this wonderful feedback, thank you, as well! I am on cloud nine right now, and it's all thanks to you guys!

Now, as for this chapter, this is Part 2 of 4, for my Week 4 entry. I hope you like it!

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“We are going to Uranai, you and I,” she said. “We are going to bring Vegeta back.”

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“Bulma, are you crazy?” Goku asked, a moment before a string of static filled her line, and she looked up just in time to see the familiar form of the tall Saiyan materializing before her.

She calmly placed her phone back onto her dresser, smiling placidly at the confounded man.

“Maybe. I don’t really know anymore, to be honest,” she said, half-jokingly. “But I need to try, Goku. Vegeta… he’s not completely gone, I think.”

Goku’s brows furrowed, concern filling his dark eyes. “Hey, look. I know that you’re really broken up about Prince Vegeta’s death, but you gotta listen to yourself, Bulma-”

“No, no, no, listen to me,” Bulma interjected, excitedly waving her arms around as a very vague plan began to form in her head.

“I’m listening,” Goku said, his tone clearly stating that he thought she had gone insane.

Bulma laughed. “He’s speaking to me, Goku. From the afterlife.”

Goku’s brows shot up. “O-kaaaay,” he said. “So, you’re like, a psychic now?”

“No! Vegeta was speaking to me through my dreams!”

“A dream psychic then?”

“No!” Bulma exclaimed, stomping her foot in mounting frustration. “I dreamed of him, I saw what is happening to him, right now!”

Goku still looked unconvinced. “I… I don’t get it?”

She sighed. “Alright. Remember how I dreamt of his past, through his eyes?”

He nodded.

“Well, now I dreamed of his present. In the afterlife. Right now,” she explained. “And he is suffering so badly there, Goku. He doesn’t deserve this. We have to help him!”

“Look, I can kinda see how you would think that Prince Vegeta is talking to you, but how do you suggest we try to save him?” Goku asked, placing his fists on his hips.

“Uranai! She has a portal, right? Maybe we can use it or something!” then, Bulma paused. “Wait, didn’t you say that you found something when you went to Uranai?”

“Oh, right,” Goku said, arms dropping to his side. “Uranai told me that your soul is still linked to Vegeta’s, and that was why you can see his past. She can try to cut it, if you want-”

“No!” she cried. “Are you crazy? No! Why would I want to do that?”

“Well, Uranai said it would probably ease some of your pain, so you could move on.”

“No! Never,” she said, raising a hand to her chest, as if trying to find and protect her invisible link to Vegeta. “I need this link. This may be the one thing that can help me bring him back!”

Goku scratched his head. “You really think you can bring him back, huh?”

“I am positive. I can feel it. There has to be a way…” Bulma said. “After all, when Vegeta died, he was not in his real body, right? Because he didn’t kill me, he never got his real body back. So maybe… Maybe he is not completely dead.”

The Saiyan’s eyes widened at that. “You know… that makes a lot of sense.”

“Of course, I’m a genius, after all!” Bulma bragged. “So you have to help me, Goku. Don’t you want to have your Prince back?”

Goku’s eyes brightened, and a determined smile stretched his lips.

“If you really think there is a chance we can bring him back,” he said, “I’m comin’ with ya. What do you need me to do?”

Bulma smiled, the widest and most enthusiastic one she had ever smiled, in years.

She put her hands on Goku’s arm, then said, “First, I need you to take me to my office. There are a few items there that I need to pick up, just in case.”

He nodded, then, lifted his fingers up to his forehead in a heart wrenching, familiar way that reminded Bulma all the more of how important it was that her plan succeeds.

It was the only way to have Vegeta back.

The dizzying moment of transmission passed quickly enough, and Bulma immediately went to her desk, running to the cabinet behind it.

She popped open her secret drawer, pulling out the small blaster that she had made upon Vegeta’s suggestion.

She looked at it, hoping against hope that the small weapon could hold out if she needed it in a fight.

This would be the blaster’s first real-world test drive.

God, but she hoped that the lab tests were accurate.

After pulling out the gun and securely tucking it into a customized gun holster that she had especially made for it, she went to her desk and opened her first drawer.

Within that drawer, was a small capsule containing her most precious invention: her tiny, personalized multi-terrain hover car. It had the ability to run speeds up to a thousand miles per hour, but had highly sophisticated stabilizers built in so that the passenger remains unharmed.

She had used it only once, and she knew for a fact that the thing was advanced enough to run several thousand miles with a single full tank of gasoline.

She picked up ten gasoline capsules and a mini capsule full of energy bars as well, just to be sure, and secured those and the hover car into a pouch beside her blaster.

“Alright,” she grinned, turning back to Goku. “Now, let’s go to Uranai.”

Goku nodded, letting her hold on to his arm once again while he teleported them to Kame House.

When they arrived, Bulma looked around, noting that the entire island looked exactly the same as the last time she had been there. It was almost as if the island was trapped in time, where the lone tree shading the small house never grew but also never wilted, and the sand remained unmoved in spite of the water’s constant motions.

Bulma realized then, that the portal must have been the one responsible for keeping this lone island seemingly suspended in time.

After all, how else could she explain the fact that the guardian of the portal had been around for more than two hundred years?

She stepped into the small house, followed by Goku, who quietly shut the door behind them.

She looked around, and her eyes met the open trapdoor leading down into the basement, where she had previously seen Uranai as she worked on her Spirit Bridge.

Bulma took a deep breath.

“Uranai!” she called out. “Uranai! It’s Bulma and Goku, we need your help!”

“Grandma Uranai!” Goku called out, as well.

“Just a minute!” the old, raspy female voice called out, “I am coming! Kami, you youngsters are always in a hurry.”

They both waited impatiently as they heard the old woman begin to make her way up the creaky stairs from the basement, and as soon as the tip of her pointy black hat came into view, Goku swooped in, practically dragging the old witch up the remaining few steps.

“Aiyeeee!” Uranai screamed as Goku lifted her, placing her down before Bulma.

“Goku, you idiot, I thought I was going to fall!” Uranai scolded, giving Goku a solid whack on the head with her wooden cane.

“Ow! I’m sorry, you were taking so long and I was excited!” he said, rubbing at the sore spot.

“What in all the realms are you so excited about that you had to drag me from my portal?” she asked, dusting imaginary lint from her dress before she turned to Bulma. “Hello, Bulma.”

“Hi, Uranai,” Bulma greeted, shifting her weight between her feet as she basically jogged in place, in a strange mixture of excitement and anxiety. “We need your help.”

“So I have heard,” the crone said drily. “And how may I assist you two, today?”

“We wanna go into the Other World!” Goku burst out.

Uranai’s eyes went so large that Bulma feared that they would pop out of her skull.

“You what?!” Uranai asked, scandalized.

Bulma stood straighter, then said, with a lot more calmness than she actually felt. “Goku and I need your help to go into the Spirit realm, or afterlife.”

Uranai bristled. “No! Are you crazy?”

Bulma sighed. “This is not the first time I was asked that question today.”

“Because what you want to do is insane!” Uranai screeched, leaping up to her eye level to drive her point home. “No! Absolutely not… that is out of the question!”

“Please, Uranai!” Goku said. “Bulma has an idea and she thinks that she can maybe bring Prince Vegeta back!”

“Goku, you idiot, that is not possible,” Uranai said. “Once someone has entered the spirit world, there will be no going back! And it is not just for Prince Vegeta… why do you think I get so angry when you or anyone else tries to enter the basement? A living being going into the spirit world would immediately be sucked in and turned into a spirit.”

“Not everyone,” Bulma interjected. “The last time I went into the basement, the spirits did not sense me, did they, Uranai?”

Uranai went still. “No, they did not,” she answered solemnly. “But it could have been for any number of reasons-”

“You told Goku that Vegeta and I are still linked,” Bulma said. “It means that his dead spirit is connected to mine. I may have just enough of him in me for the spirits not to realize who I am, until I could get to Vegeta.”

“And what do you propose to do once you get there, huh?” Uranai asked. “Just pull Vegeta back with you? That could never work.”

“No, but if I was down there, I could find a way,” Bulma said, before she suddenly sobered as she thought of another, much less ideal possibility. “Or, even if I couldn’t… at least I could see him one last time.”

“Tsk,” Uranai said. “Your sentimentality will get you killed, child.”

Bulma looked straight at Uranai. “And was it not sentimentality that got Vegeta killed, as well? If he had taken my life as he was supposed to, he could have been in his full-power and could have killed Frieza, without dying, himself.”

Bulma gulped. “He risked everything, going into the fight at partial strength. That was the reason why he had to wait for the Red Moon, after all, was it not? He needed all possible advantages, because he knew that he was going in with a very distinct disadvantage.”

She couldn’t stop speaking as the full impact of what Vegeta had given up for her hit her all at once. “He had waited thirty years, thirty gods damned years, only to let it all go because he didn’t want to sacrifice me. For his sake… for his sake, I need to try everything I could to see if I could save him, as well.”

Uranai looked at her with a face full of sympathy and uncertainty, but finally, nodded.

“Alright. I will see if I can get you into the spirit realm. But Goku,” she turned to the Saiyan. “You stay here. You are very much alive, with no spirit links, and an overflowing amount of power. The spirits will devour you in less than a second.”

“Is there no way I can help?” Goku asked, turning concerned eyes to Bulma. “Bulma isn’t strong, or fast. She’s an Earthling and I don’t know how she could manage without someone there to protect her.”

“I’ll have Vegeta protecting me,” she said, smiling at her spiky-haired friend. “He’s in my soul, Goku. Don’t worry, I’ll be back.”

“Don’t say your goodbyes, just yet,” Uranai interrupted. “I still need to see if I can actually manage to push you into the spirit world. We have a lot of sound theories but we won’t know for sure until I go and try.”

“We can do it Uranai, I’m sure!” Bulma said, a wave of conviction going through her along with the relief that Uranai had agreed to help her.

Uranai turned slowly towards the stairs leading down to the basement, and Bulma followed right behind her, her heart pounding quick, rapid beats as the gravity of what she was about to do started to fall upon her shoulders.

She was going into the spirit realm. She was going in there, mixing up with various ghosts and monsters and heaven knows what else.

But she was doing it for Vegeta.

“Can’t you calm down a little? Even I can hear your heartbeats from here. The spirits will pounce on you if you keep that up,” Uranai scolded, and Bulma took a few deep breaths as she began to take the few final steps into the basement.

A thick wooden wall concealed the basement from the stairs, and as Uranai turned the corner going into the hidden area, Bulma put her hand on her chest, willing her heart to calm down.

She could do this. She wanted to do this. But it certainly didn’t mean that it wasn’t terrifying.

She took the last few steps, passing the wooden wall…

Her heart stopped beating, her breath caught in her throat.

The Spirit Bridge was a large, circular black hole that seemingly led into endless darkness, floating ominously over a wide, glassy, flat surface that resembled the mirror that she had seen Dabura holding up to Vegeta in her dream.

The portal itself was dark, a void, but small wisps of foul-smelling clouds and thin strips of weak energy wafted in and out of the portal, a horrifying glimpse of the things that likely awaited Bulma down beneath the blackness. It was large, about twice her height, and as she came closer, she heard the howling from within it growing louder, as the wispy threads of energy began to turn an angry red.

Uranai turned to her, her wrinkled face somber and worried. “Some of the spirits can sense you Bulma. If you are not extremely careful, they will find you, and will suck you in with them, forever. Are you sure you are up to this?”

Bulma took a very deep breath.

“Yes, I want to do this, Uranai,” she confirmed, looking determinedly at the portal, almost daring it to try and stop her from finding her man.

She was going to literally die trying to get him back.

“Alright, listen to me,” Uranai said. “I will open the Spirit Bridge for you, but once you get in, you have to hurry. Run as fast as you can.”

“Can I use a hover car?” Bulma asked hopefully, already feeling the weight of her capsules in her belt.

The crone blinked. “You brought one?”

“Yep!” Bulma beamed proudly, patting her pocket full of capsules.

“Well then. That is a great amount of foresight,” Uranai commented. “Now. As I was saying. Run, or drive as fast as you can. As you touch down onto the Spirit World, you will find a very long and winding path that we call the Snake Way. At the very end of the Snake Way, is the King of the Underworld, King Yemma. He is the one you need to talk to, if you wish to bring Vegeta back.”

Uranai cleared her throat. “Now, remember: along the way, make sure you interact with as little amount of beings as possible. The longer you are with them, the easier it may be for them to figure out that you are not dead, and they will try to kill you.”

Bulma gulped, then nodded.

“Would you happen to have a weapon with you?

She patted her pocket with a smug smirk.

Uranai just shook her head. “I see that it must be the arrogance that attracted the Prince to you.”

She laughed at that, flipping her blue hair off her shoulder, noting that the portal now seemed to be blowing out an increasingly strong gust of wind.

Uranai spoke again, “Make sure that you blast anyone who gets too close, especially if they try to pull you down with them. If you fall off the Snake Way, you will fall directly into Hell, and no one can help you from there as King Yemma would not have known of your presence yet.”

Bulma frowned. “Why don’t you just tell him ahead that I am coming?”

“Do you have any idea how long the waiting time is to get an appointment with King Yemma? The ongoing wait list is fifty years.”

“Oh.”

“Well then. Are you ready?” Uranai asked, lifting her hands up to the portal, and Bulma stared in awe as a little point of light appeared in the very center of the darkness.

The light grew larger, very slowly, until Bulma saw that the light was now large enough to accommodate a small child.

Uranai started shouting, “Jump in as soon as you think the hole is large enough for you to fit through. I don’t know how much longer I can hold this open! Also, I do not have the powers to bring you back here, so you need to reach King Yemma so he can push you back out into the living world.”

Bulma nodded, jogging lightly as she tried to figure out the best way to jump into the hole.

She held onto the edges of the light, ignoring the burning sensation caused by the bits of darkness licking at her fingers.

Lunging up with all the strength she could muster into her arms, she lifted herself up, pushing her head and shoulders into the hole, before she leaned down to slide the rest of her body down the bright part of the portal, barely squeezing her butt in as Uranai started losing strength.

“Go!” Uranai yelled, and Bulma pulled herself down, sliding down the tunnel, shrieking all the way.

She screamed, trying to spin around so she wouldn’t land on her face once she finally reached solid ground. She was hurtling down the tunnel of light at a fast rate, and she was quite sure that her landing was going to hurt.

She saw a slight change in hue from a few meters before her and she realized then that she must have been rapidly approaching the Snake Way.

She braced herself, not quite sure if she should go on feet first, afraid of injuring her legs.

“Dammit why didn’t I pay more attention to Physical Ed classes?” she whimpered as the surface came closer and closer…

She braced herself, wrapping her arms around her head…

Only to fall butt first onto a very soft pile of cushions, the small pillows burying her as she sank deep into the cloud-like mattress.

She opened her eyes, that she had not realized that she had shut, only to see the most amazing span of virtual nothingness that she had ever thought to see.

The mattress she had fallen on was round and airy, and she struggled a bit to get off the bed-like contraption so she can stand on her two feet on the relatively smooth ground below.

She stood on the yellowish road that looked like smooth marble, edged on all sides by tiny golden frills. Beyond the narrow road was an endless sea of the puffiest white clouds, reminding Bulma of huge rolls of cotton candy.

She looked behind her, looking for the opening to the portal, and to her utter dismay, discovered that the light tunnel was gone. The only thing behind her was more nothingness, and the airy bed that she had fallen onto.

She was at the end of the Snake Way, and was truly on her own.

She knocked the heels of her shoes on the pavement, noting the sound of her feet hitting concrete.

Bulma was baffled. What was with all the warnings to stay away from the spirits? The place was absolutely empty.

She released her capsule containing the hovercraft, then got into the car as soon as the vehicle materialized before her.

She remembered Uranai telling her to run as fast as she can, so she immediately set the craft up to its highest speed, leaning back as the craft flew through at speeds that would normally be dizzyingly deadly if she wasn’t within a stabilized car.

It did not take long for Bulma to finally understand what it was that Uranai had been warning her about, after all.

She had been travelling the single, winding road for a few hours, probably half a day, when the skies suddenly grew darker.

She had been snacking on an energy bar when she looked out the viewing walls of the craft, and only then realized that the puffy clouds outside had begun to morph into darkened shrouds of smoke, with angry red bolts of lightning screeching out of their edges, and moving ever closer to her as she went deeper through the Snake Way.

She took the wheel, moving into a manual pilot override, so she can stir the hover car should anything try to hit her or get in the way.

Bulma watched in trepidation as the smoke began to hover closer to the edges of the Snake Way, the sharp shards of electricity zipping out and trying to lick her tiny car.

She wrenched her car to the right, avoiding a particularly long bolt, quickly righting her path so that she stayed on top of the road.

She distinctly remembered Uranai telling her not to fall off the Snake Way, and she was definitely not in the mood to find out if the bad side of Hell was truly just beyond those golden edges.

The clouds were getting darker, thicker, visibly denser, and Bulma tried harder to stay away from the flits of energy that would surely fry her circuitry if she got hit.

If her car broke down, she was so dead. She was deader than dead.

The Snake Way seemed endless, and she knew that she would have no hope of reaching the end of it if she was on foot.

She kept on moving forward, slowing down a little as she had to carefully maneuver around the dark clouds that were really closing in on her, attempting to crush her with their darkness, should they successfully catch her in their grasp.

A large mass of darkness suddenly blocked her way, and Bulma screamed, sure that she would not be able to duck out of the way.

Her shock was immeasurable, when she simply passed through the cloud, emerging onto a once again, clear and cottony clouded Snake Way.

Her heart was pumping a mile a minute, and she looked around in confusion, not quite understanding the sudden shift.

“Better just be thankful, I suppose,” she muttered, engaging her auto pilot once again so she can go at faster speeds, now that the dark clouds were gone.

A few more hours later, she began to wish for the dark clouds to come back.

A horde of demons, stereotypical looking demons with dark eyes, pointed horns and arrow-tipped tails, began to emerge from the edges of the Snake Way.

Bulma pushed the hover car as fast as it would go as she swerved and dodged around the beings who seemed to know that she was a living person, as they with all their might to grab a hold of her round little vehicle to pull it down with them.

She had to disengage the auto pilot once more, as the car insisted on just pushing forward instead of dodging the demons, but the problems really started to pile up when Bulma needed to slow down the vehicle so that her reflexes can keep up with the movements.

She could not afford to simply keep dodging, she had to go on the offense.

Reaching down to her belt, she pulled her experimental blaster out of her holster, powered it up, before she lifted a tiny latch from the very center of the hover car.

The latch was specifically designed so that she can secure her specialized weapons onto the console in case she needed firepower.

At the time she had been drafting the designs, she had giggled to herself, thinking it ridiculous for her to design a vehicle that was so obviously needed for adventurous situations, when the most adventurous that she had been before was drinking one flask of wine too many.

Now, she thanked her lucky stars for whatever streak of insanity had possessed her to make her include the gun hatch in her vehicles.

She engaged the blaster, adjusting it to the medium firing strength, then, keeping her fingers crossed, pressed the trigger.

A blinding flash of pure energy exploded from the front of her vehicle, causing her to stumble back as the blaster released its load. The blast was stronger than she had anticipated, and the interior of the vehicle started to shake as Bulma began pressing the trigger more often, more quickly, effectively destroying tens of demons with a single shot.

There were hundreds of monsters, and Bulma felt the terror creep into her heart as she realized that all it would take was a single wrong move on her side, and they would overwhelm her, dragging her down into the abyss with them to suffer an eternity of flames and torture.

She would have welcomed death, if not for the thought of a life that she needed to save. The life of Vegeta was in her hands, and she could not afford to fail.

She persevered, pushing her hovercraft to its limits as she flew up and over the demons, blasting anything that got too close.

The crowd of demons grew denser, while she herself started to become braver, feeling more confident as she thought that this was actually rather fun, if she pretended that it was just a video game.

She saw a tiny spot of light ahead, a very small opening largely obscured by the horde of monsters, and she realized that this spot was her most likely escape, probably the end of a tunnel that she had to cross to get to King Yemma.

The spot was growing larger, and she became more determined, hands flying over her controls as she snaked through the enemies and blasted through the ones that would not quit.

She was sweating now, the exhaustion seeping into her bones after the several-hour long dangerous journey, but she was almost there!

She had to hold on, just a bit more. Just… a bit… more!

With a final, desperate attempt, she set her blaster on the highest setting, then, bracing herself for the recoil, fired.

The blast was nearly deafening in its power, shocking even Bulma, who had never yet used the maximum setting during the trials.

She stared, absolutely flabbergasted, as almost all of the demons blocking her melted away, and she took the chance to immediately push her vehicle to full speed, flying past the surprised monsters as she hurtled her way into the small tunnel.

She was in the tunnel for but a few seconds, before she found herself in the middle of a humongous open area, where, at the end, was a large castle-like structure with the words “Check-In Station” emblazoned on a large neon signage stuck to the highest turret.

Bulma whooped, seeing that beyond the castle, there was nothing more, and this was clearly the end of the Snake Way, where she can find King Yemma.

She dropped down onto the large center lawn, attracting the attention of several people standing around the palace garden.

She pulled her blaster out of the console before hurriedly leaping out, encapsulating the hover car as fast as she could before she ran full-throttle towards the open doors.

“Hey! That woman is alive!” One large, humanoid monster with blue skin, purple hair and a single yellow horn atop his head shouted. “Mez! It’s a living human!”

Bulma kept running as the blue man bounded after her, joined by a similarly large demon with red skin, small spectacles and black hair combed around two small yellow horns.

“Goz! Get her!” the red-skinned man shouted, and the blue demon nodded, charging at Bulma, who frantically scrambled to get away from them as the doors loomed ever closer.

She lifted her gun, turning to aim at the two demons behind her, completely forgetting that the blaster was still on the maximum setting.

She fired, but the impact from the gun sent it flying harshly from her grip and her hitting the floor hard, and she cried out as she landed painfully on her behind, a few feet away from the door.

Ignoring her protesting limbs and buttocks, she leapt up, scrambling her way to the door, knowing that if she got inside, she would be able to meet with King Yemma.

He had to be there. He just had to be!

She skidded into the castle, only to find herself in the midst of a large room full of people waiting in a straight line.

All the people looked at her curiously as she kept running, heading towards the front of the line, where she hoped to meet someone who could take her to King Yemma.

The two monsters were still behind her, and they were quickly gaining on her. She was tiring now, and she felt tears of exhaustion fill her eyes as she forced her legs to go on.

She could see  an enormous desk, at least five storeys high, just in front of her. She sprinted towards it, reaching for it, knowing that she was almost there…

A large hand suddenly clamped over her arms, forcibly hauling her up and off her feet, and she screamed, furiously kicking her legs around, hoping to get the attacker to drop her.

“Please! Let me go! I am so close! I need to speak to him, please!” she screamed, clawing at the thick hands that held her effortlessly above the ground. “Please, I beg you! I need to speak to King Yemma!”

An uncomfortable hush fell over the gathered crowd, before she heard the impossibly loud scraping of wood against stone.

It was as if an entire tree was being scraped against the side of a mountain, and Bulma realized that whoever had been behind the gigantic desk was moving, and the loud sound was that of the enormous chair as it was pushed away from the table.

“What do we have here?” a loud, thunderous voice sounded from above her, and Bulma almost screamed as she looked into the large beady eyes of a man who was at least a hundred feet tall.

He had red skin, two large white horns peaking from the side of his shaggy-haired and fully-bearded head. He was wearing a purple suit with a matching hat, with a white shirt underneath that was collared by a bright orange neck tie.

“Mez? Goz? What is the meaning of this?”

“Lord Yemma!” The red demon said, visibly shaking with terror.

Bulma stared at the humongous demon lord, renewing her efforts to break free from the demon holding her.

“Lord Yemma,” the blue demon said. “We found this living woman outside. She ran into the throne room, she was fast. We will take her now.”

“Please, no!” Bulma cried. “King Yemma, my name is Bulma. Please! I need to talk to you!”

Yemma looked at her sternly as he answered. “How did you get here, human?”

“Uranai helped me through the portal,” she said, making the demon king raise a brow in surprise. “She helped me because I need to talk to you about a man who is not supposed to be here.”

“And how did you manage to make it this far? The demons would have devoured you the moment you landed onto the Snake Way,” Yemma asked.

“Because my spirit is linked to the man I need to speak to you about, so the less powerful demons probably did not sense me. They weren’t reacting to me as I approached the Spirit Bridge.”

“Goz,” Yemma said. “Release her.”

Bulma immediately felt the hands around her let go, and she fell, nearly losing her balance as she righted herself after the rough treatment.

“Alright. Who is this man you are referring to?” Yemma asked.

Bulma took a deep breath. “Vegeta, Prince of the Saiyans.”

Goz and Mez released simultaneous gasps, and Yemma himself looked taken aback.

Mez, the red demon, spoke up. “Vegeta of the Saiyans most definitely is supposed to be here. His spirit has been partially in hell for thirty human years, girl.”

“Yes, I know. And that is the reason why I am here. His soul is tied to mine,” she began.

“Do you want the bond to be cut?” Yemma asked.

“No! Please, no. Why does everyone think I want the bond cut? I don’t want the bond to be cut,” she exclaimed. “I want Vegeta to come back with me to the living world.”

“Absolutely not!” Mez said. “Do you even know what you are asking? That man deserves Hell more than any being you have ever met on Earth!”

“He is right, girl,” Yemma agreed “Vegeta has killed so many people, beyond what you can imagine. He conquered dozens of planets, ended millions of lives.”

“But he did those under orders from Frieza! It wasn’t him who wanted to do it!” she decried.

“True, but it does not excuse the fact that those people died by his hand. We also need to remember that he borrowed a false form to return to the living world for selfish reasons; just so he can take his revenge from Frieza. Thus, his crimes cannot go unpunished. He has yet to do anything that would absolve him of his sins.”

“He died for me!” Bulma said, feeling her tears rising to the fore once again. She quickly dashed them with her hand, just in time to see the expression of profound surprise on Yemma’s face.

“Truly?”

“Yes!” she answered. “He… he let himself die, so I could live. His soul is linked to mine, and for him to survive, all he had to do was kill me. But he chose to go into his fight with Frieza weakened, because he didn’t want to harm me.”

She choked as she kept speaking. “He could have lived on, but he gave himself up, for me. I need him, King Yemma. I need him back. Please,” she begged, “please, let me have him back.”

Yemma looked at her in sympathy. “I would allow it,” he began, and Bulma was about to scream in joy when he held up his hand. “However… He is currently being watched by Dabura, and you will need to convince him, too. Dabura is the king of Hell, and was the one who gave Vegeta a way to return to the living world, following his conditions. If he agrees, you and Vegeta need to come back here to the check-in station so I could write his name off the book of souls until he dies again. Are we clear?”

Bulma nodded. “Yes! I will try to convince Dabura. Where should I go?”

Yemma grinned, before he snapped a finger, and before Bulma could even blink, she was in a dark, dreary area filled with little potholes full of flames, screams of agony echoing around her while the heat of the flames burned her skin.

She recognized the place immediately.

Hell.

She walked aimlessly, trying to avoid the flames but not knowing where to go.

“Dammit,” she muttered, ducking away from yet another tongue of flame that looked a little too much like long, thin claws trying to reach for her. “The better to grab you and kill you with,” she thought sarcastically.

She yelped as she jumped away from a hole that spewed fire up, nearly singeing her hair. “I hate this place. Vegeta, you better be thankful for this.”

“Bulma?”

She nearly lost her footing when a voice, dripping with surprise and confusion, rang loudly, clearly, in her head.

It was Vegeta’s voice!

“Vegeta?!” she asked aloud, heart pounding in her throat.

“Bulma? Is that you?”

Tears filled her eyes, falling down her cheeks before she lifted her hands to wipe them away.

“Vegeta? It’s me!” she sobbed, “I am so happy to hear your voice again.”

“What the fuck are you doing? Are you really in the Spirit World?”

“Yes! I came here to get you!” she said, hearing the infuriated concern in his voice in her head.

“Get the hell out of here, you crazy woman!” he hissed in her head. “This place is dangerous!”

“I know!” she laughed. “But I don’t care! Now, where are you?”

“In Hell, somewhere! It is not as if we have postal addresses.”

“Oh, ha-ha. Can you lead me?”

“I… I don’t know. Bulma, how did you get here? How did you survive long enough to get to Hell?”

She sobered, letting a fond smile wash over her face as she stood still in the midst of the literal fires of Hell.

“I stayed strong and thought of you, Vegeta. I wanted to see you again, so no matter how hard it was… I kept holding on.”

She could feel his happiness flow through her, reminding her of the time when he was still in the orb, and his emotions poured into her body as she held his tiny prison in her hand.

“I wish to see you too. But please, woman... you have to leave. It is not safe…”

“No, Vegeta! I’m gonna find you. You can’t stop me. Not now,” she replied, tiptoeing through another group of flaming stones.

“Fine then. Insolent wench.”

“Stubborn jerk,” she said, grinning affectionately. “Hey. Keep talking to me. I think… I think I can hear your voice getting louder. Maybe I can hear you better, the closer I get.”

“Tch. What do you want me to say?”

“I don’t know. Anything, really. Keep it up, I can hear you better now.”

“I have no idea what I should talk about! Ask me something so I can answer.”

“Alright,” she said, a small frown marring her face as she thought of what to ask. Then…

“Vegeta,” Bulma began. “Why didn’t you want to kill me? It would have been easier for you, far less risky for you and your team. So… why?”

“Are you seriously asking me this? I would have thought that it would have been clear by now.”

“No, it’s not,” she answered. “I… I have my guesses, but… I want to know what you were really thinking.”

“I was thinking that I did not want any harm to come upon you, and yet here you are, actively seeking ways to die.”

She giggled. “You care about me. Admit it.”

She was met by silence.

“ Vegeta? Hey. Vegeta? Are you still there? Veg-”

“I more than care about you, woman. Never doubt that.”

His words rang clearly through her heart, sending warmth through her soul, and as she took another step forward past a large pillar of melting metal, her eyes widened as she saw the one person who had made this journey to Hell all worth the trouble.

“Vegeta!” she cried, running carelessly through the field of fire when she saw his familiar, muscular form, chained to a tall, wide metal pole.

He looked up, and his dark eyes filled with elation as he saw her running towards him.

“Bulma!” he called, straining against his bindings, trying his best to reach her, to move as close as possible to her in spite of his bindings.

“Vegeta!” she said his name again as she ran to him, holding her hands out as she threw herself forward, reaching out to hold his face in her palms before desperately pressing her mouth to his in a kiss that she had wanted, needed, for oh, so long.

He kissed her back with equal fervor, his mouth slanting against hers as she whimpered, gasping in joy as they finally, finally touched once again after what seemed like an eternity apart.

“Bulma,” he whispered against her lips, still straining against the thick chains that bound him against the large beam.

She pulled away, looking at him through teary eyes. “I can’t believe I’m holding you again.”

“I can’t believe you actually travelled to Hell to see me again, after everything I have caused you to suffer through,” he rasped.

“Don’t say that,” she said with a light laugh, before she leaned back, hands on his chest as she assessed him. “Now, how can I set you free from this thing?”

“You can’t,” an eerily familiar voice said from behind her, and she heard Vegeta growl as she turned, and found herself staring at the form of a monster that she had seen once in her dreams.

“You’re Dabura,” she said, a note of accusation in her tone.

“Why yes. So glad to know that my reputation precedes me,” he said with a short bow. “You must be Bulma! Yemma has told me a little about you.”

She stood stiffly, placing herself between Vegeta and the demon who was looming over them.

“Now… Yemma told me that you wanted to take Vegeta with you, back to the world of the living. Is that right?” Dabura asked.

“Yes,” she answered. “He told me to talk to you.”

“And what were you planning to do if I refuse?” Dabura sneered. “After all, Vegeta and I made a deal when I agreed to equip him with a temporary body. I was promised the soul of his spiritual counterpart, and when that failed, I got his. If I just let him leave, what do I get out of this agreement, then?”

She stilled. She did not really have a plan for that.

She realized… if Dabura wanted a soul, then… “I was thinking of offering you a compromise. You can keep me here instead of Vegeta.”

“Out of the question!” Vegeta roared from behind her. “Bulma, you are going back to the living realm, now!”

“No! I’m not going anywhere without you!” she protested, looking at him over her shoulder.

Dabura smirked. “See, there is a problem here. You,” he pointed at Bulma, “are not dead. But your soul is tethered here through him,” as he pointed at Vegeta.

“So, either way,” he continued, “if you stay here in the land of the dead, Vegeta… this woman will always come knocking. And Yemma didn’t cut your bond. The only way for any of you to be in your correct worlds is if you are both either fully alive, or fully dead.”

Vegeta growled, “You are not going to touch a single hair on her head, Dabura. If you harm her, I swear that I will find a way to permanently destroy you, myself.”

“I wasn’t planning to kill her, Vegeta,” Dabura smirked. “What I am saying is… I spoke to Yemma. Since you were incomplete upon death, you apparently did not fully die. So, if I were so inclined, I could let you go back to Earth.”

Bulma’s eyes widened.

Could it be? Would Dabura let Vegeta go?

“However, as I said before,” the demon king continued, “if I just let you go, where does that leave me? I would have just made a bad business deal. I expect recompense.”

She held her breath.

“If I were to bring you back to life, Saiyan, I demand a price. Something of equivalent value,” Dabura grinned.

“Name it, Dabura,” Bulma interrupted.

She was prepared. Even if he asked for her soul in return, she would give it.

The demon smiled, letting them see his fang-like teeth, as a wicked gleam entered his eyes.

“I demand that the Prince give up his Super Saiyan powers, and his skill with ki alchemy.”

Bulma gasped, while Vegeta growled.

“You… you expect him to give up his powers?” she asked, appalled.

“Not all of it,” Dabura said. “Just the Legendary Super Saiyan, as well as the alchemy. The Super Saiyan powers will no longer be needed, after all. It is an incredible power that will be unnecessary on Earth. As for the ki alchemy, it is what landed you both here in the first place, so I am taking it to balance everything out and avoid such difficult situations in the future.”

Bulma’s eyes widened as she realized that apparently, the final price that they needed to pay for their ultimate happiness was no longer either her or Vegeta’s lives, but his powers.

The power of the Super Saiyan, she knew, was Vegeta’s pride and joy. The thing that made him one of the most revered Saiyans to have ever existed…

“Take it,” Vegeta suddenly growled beside her.

She turned to him sharply. “Vegeta?”

“Take my Super Saiyan powers, Dabura. Take the ki alchemy, as well,” he continued. “Take whatever you want from me, if it means that I can go back to the living realm with Bulma.”

Vegeta turned to her then, his eyes soft, his lips curved into a small yet beautiful smile that Bulma burned into her heart. “If I can be with Bulma, no price is too steep.”

Dabura grinned, a dark smile filled with unholy glee that made the flames of Hell look pale in comparison. “Good.”

He raised his arms, and Bulma watched as Dabura formed a set of web-like energy strands that he then sent flying towards Vegeta.

“Vegeta!” she screamed, panicked, when Vegeta began to convulse, his body glowing in a dark golden glow that slowly seeped into the webs around Dabura’s fingers.

Vegeta groaned, slumping forward, his hair turning golden, then going back to black, switching erratically until the golden color of his hair appeared to melt away from him, forming a ball that flew towards Dabura, who opened his mouth to swallow the legendary energy.

Dabura finally released Vegeta, his chains snapping free from the pole, and Bulma stepped closer to him to catch him as he fell limply into her arms.

“Now, both of you, don’t worry. I may be a demon, but I have no intentions of using the legendary powers to harm you. I only took it as a form of check and balance,” Dabura said.

Bulma held Vegeta close, and as she did, she felt his body go from his usual abnormally hot temperature, to a heat that was closer to her own.

“Now, Vegeta is back in his full, mortal body. I can no longer keep you both here, so I am sending you to Yemma,” the demon said, then with a cheeky bow, added, “It was nice doing business with you.”

A second later, both Bulma and Vegeta found themselves in King Yemma’s large office, on the very top of his desk.

Yemma was above them, squinting at them, before he suddenly smiled.

He raised a hand, snapped…

And in the next second, Bulma found herself in the center of a house in the middle of nowhere, a tiny island home that hid a secret portal into the other world.

“Bulma,” Vegeta whispered as he held her, his arms tight around her as he took a deep breath beside her neck, taking in the scent of her hair.

And Bulma, blinded once again by her tears, could only smile as she caressed his face, ran her hands up and down his back…

She did it.

Vegeta was back. And she was never, ever, going to let him go again.

8-8-8-8-8

To be continued…

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[woozletania]

What happened to the rabbit?

Three months after The Snap, three months after the Battle Of Wakanda, Thor finally has a moment free from responding to disasters to wonder: What happened to his furry little friend?  He will not be pleased with the answer, but the God Of Thunder does not readily give up on a friend.

https://halfhumanhalfworld.tumblr.com/ kindly allowed me to reference his excellent Axe handle story in this one.  http://readasaur.tumblr.com/ reminded me that there should be music involved. Huzzah!

It wasn't the first time Thor landed in New York City.  For a time it had even been home.  But since his disastrous failure to kill Thanos at Wakanda he'd been very busy. The loss of half the world's population - seemingly at random - created a host of disasters that demanded his attention.  

Over a thousand jetliners crashed in the wake of that incident. That was only the tip of the iceberg. Literally millions of vehicles were suddenly driverless on roads around the world. Millions of high speed crashes inevitably followed. The police, fire department, hospitals, were all critically understaffed with no warning. Then there were the really big problems, like power plants without sufficient workers to keep them going - including nuclear power plants - unguided container ships larger than aircraft carriers, millions of fires from now-untended cook and campfires, and more.

Thor was now, it was commonly thought, the most powerful being on the face of the planet. The Hulk hadn't been seen in months.  Even were the Green Goliath present, Thor won their last contest and his power had doubled since then.  So when a volcano erupted or a dam crumbled and someone needed to respond, he did.  His control of the weather - for he was more than the God of Thunder, the storm was his to call or dismiss - made his presence still more desirable. When natural disasters were absent, The Captain often called for his aid. Teleportation via the Bifrost meant he and his allies could be anywhere almost instantly...but there was only one Thor.

The many-headed hydra of disaster and near societal collapse kept him very busy.  Luckily, he was indeed a god.  He could go days without eating or sleeping with little impact on his health.

Three months flew by with hardly a break.  Now, finally, he and the other heroes, along with various governments and civilian organizations had pruned back enough hydra heads for him to get a day off.  Thor was left with one thought foremost on his mind.

What happened to the rabbit?

It nagged at him over the days and weeks.  What had happened to his little comrade?  The last he saw him the rabbit was shattered and grieving from the loss of his tree friend.  Later, Thor learned that this was not the only casualty among the furry little warrior's moron comrades...and the rabbit knew it.  The trackers he'd given each of his friends told him they were gone.

The little warrior was, if you didn't count the blue cyborg Thor heard about but never met, the sole survivor of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Every single person he knew and trusted was gone.  Now his one friend on Earth had time to wonder what became of him after Wakanda.

Thor landed with great care not to crush anyone with his dramatic arrival.  So softly did he land that the sidewalk barely cracked at all.  Nevertheless you couldn't miss the clap of thunder that heralded his arrival and a crowd formed.

"Thor!  Thor, it's Thor!" He smiled and nodded, pausing for a picture with an elderly couple who by great good fortune stayed together when The Snap killed half the world's population.  Then, begging off any further photos, he made his way to the side door of Avengers Tower.

"Welcome, Point Break," Friday said, and Thor smiled as the door opened.  Even in these dark days Stark was irrepressible.

A swift ride up the priority elevator - Tony warned him not to land atop the tower due to newly installed and as yet untested defense systems - and he was on the management floor.

"Mister Stark is out, sir," said the attendant.  "He is not expected back until this afternoon.  Problems at the geothermal plants in Iceland."

"That is all right," Thor said.  He leaned on the counter, which creaked alarmingly under his weight.  Asgardian flesh is denser than human flesh.  "I am mainly here about the rabbit.  I am told he came here after Wakanda."

'After Wakanda.'  Which was to say, after the death of half the sapient beings in the universe.

"What rabbit," the attendant said, and just then Pepper Potts appeared.

"Ah, Mrs. Stark," Thor said. "I heard you survived.  I'm pleased that not everyone suffered." He paused.  "I apologize.  That was poorly said."

Pepper smiled.  The stress of the last few months, running Stark-Pott Enterprises in its ever-elaborating role as the hub of global technology disbursement - in partnership with Wakanda, of course - had turned the tips of her hair gray.  She never seemed to find the time to dye it and with half the people in the world gone fringe industries like cosmetics were a lower priority for rebuilding than, say, agriculture, power production, food distribution, planetary defense....

Pepper hugged Thor.  "It's all right.  We're all just trying to get by.  But I hear you didn't just stop by to say hello?"

"Yes.  I am concerned for my rabbit friend." Thor indicated a height somewhere around his knee. "I only knew him briefly but he and his tree were valiant companions.  Now I'm the only person he knows on Earth, unless he's made new friends."

"Rabbit," Pepper said thoughtfully.  "You mean raccoon?"

"What's a raccoon?"

"Friday," Pepper said, but a screen was already popping up.  On it was a grayish-brown animal with a ringed tail.  It was busily feeling around in a stream, presumably in search of food.

"That looks like him, but that's an animal.  He is not."

"I know," Pepper said, and waved the screen away.  "He's here.  Two floors down, south hall.  See if he'll talk to you.  Please.  He won't talk to us.  Tony wanted to get with Bruce, Shuri and Rocket - his name is Rocket by the way - about possible orbital weapons platforms, but he won't come out of his room."

"Thank you, Pepper.  I'll see what I can do."

Technicians in the hall stared as he approached. A wide door stood open and a handful of men were lugging crates and cases out into the hallway, placing them on powered carts and driving away. As he rounded the corner he found a short hall behind the door with a second door at the end. Two techs were running scanners over this one.

"What goes on," Thor said, and a door tech jumped.  What must be the supervisor explained.

"Every so often the raccoon lights that indicator," he said, pointing at a light outside the outer door.  "To let us know there's stuff to pick up.  Look at this." He opened a case.  Inside were neatly racked weapons with a futuristic look.  Another case held grenades.  "The things he makes.  These are gravity pulse grenades, they create a localized singularity that sucks everything nearby in. We're still not sure how they work. Or half of this stuff," he gestured helplessly at the crates.  This tech is just...alien.  impossibly advanced." No two of the weapons were quite alike but all were sleek and deadly.

"Dark elves use grenades like that," Thor noted.

"Last time the door opened there was an antimatter bomb in here.  Mister Stark said it would take out a whole country.  Written on it was 'For Thanos'.  They stored it on the moon with the rest of the really dangerous stuff."

"What are they doing?" The two techs at the door looked up. They were still running instruments over it.

"Trying to figure out what he did to the door.  It was steel.  Now it's harder than diamond.  Even vibranium barely scratches it."

Thor ran his hand over the door.  "It feels like crystal." He shook his head.  "What does he eat?"

"We put food in every time he opens the outer door," the supervisor said.  He pointed to a stack of food containers and a flat of bottled water.  "He never touches it."

Thor took a moment to open a couple. They contained an assortment of food and smelled good.  Naturally Stark wouldn't be cheap when feeding...what?  An employee?  "Are you saying he's starving in there?  How long has it been since he came out?"

"He doesn't come out.  He won't talk to anyone. He just sends out weapons to use against Thanos and his troops."

"How long." Thor said. "Since he came out?"

The supervisor backed away as Thor loomed close.  "He went in right after he got here from Wakanda. He doesn't come out and he doesn't talk to anyone."

"He'll talk to me. Out."

"We're not done -"

"Out!" The lights overhead flickered as a spark as thick as a man's finger jumped from the Asgardian axe slung across Thor's back.  Seconds later he was alone in the hallway.  "Shut the outer door."

This time there was no argument.  As it slid shut Thor looked at the ceiling.  He didn't see any cameras or microphones but he was sure they were there.  "Rabbit...Rocket. Let me in.  We need to talk."

Nothing.  "Rocket.  I know what it's like to lose family.  You know this.  You helped me when I needed help.  Let me help you."

The silence stretched on. Stormbreaker slipped into Thor's right hand.  "This door is very strong. It will not stop me, Rocket.  I'm coming in whether you like it or not."

A moment later came a click and the door slid to the side.

It was dark inside, with pinpoint overhead light sources illuminated tangles of machinery, stacks of half complete weapons.  The built-up animal musk of a raccoon who hadn't left the room in months filled Thor's nose.  Music from unseen speakers almost drowned out the sound of machinery.  Thor knew just enough about earth music to recognize Fleetwood Mac's The Chain.

To one side a series of machines hummed as they worked.  Each was different, having a handmade look, but each continually dispensed shaped metal parts for weapons. Gangly mechanical arms collected the parts.  Thor followed the assembly line, guessing the raccoon would be at the end doing final work on each weapon.

His path took him to the brightest spot in the room.   Overhead lights cast artificial sunlight on a small table with three flower pots and a watering can.  Dead, dry twigs protruded from the pots.  Curiously Thor reached out.

"Don't touch that!" Out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadowy figure jerk upright.  A shaking hand raised a blaster.

"Rocket," Thor said, and showed his hands.  "It's me."

Slowly the blaster dropped.  With a clatter it hit the table and small noises followed as the raccoon went back to his labors. Thor could just make out the tools and parts being worked.

For a moment Thor lingered by the pots.  He recognized the wood, though dry and dead.  Stormbreaker's handle was of the same material.  When The Snap happened and the tree crumbled away, the desperate rabbit - Rocket - rushed over and demanded he bury the handle in the hopes his friend would sprout anew from this last remnant.

It did not work.  Rocket thought it was because the tree broke the handle off himself some time before The Snap and that it was dead before the main plant fell.  Thor wondered if it were due to the enchantment on the whole axe, handle and blades.  Just the same they waited together for an entire day only to have the hoped-for green shoot not materialize.

It was the last he'd seen Rocket until now.  "You're trying to grow your friend back. I'm sorry it didn't work."

"Not my friend," rasped out of the darkness.  "I don't need friends.  Just work."

"Rocket," Thor said.  He eased closer, making no sudden moves.  "I'm your friend."

"I don't have any friends," came out of the shadows.  Thor was close enough to make out the skinny figure hunched over the table, hands busily assembling something. "You're just someone I know."

Rocket was ignoring him and Thor used the opportunity to move close enough to get a good look.  Rocket looked bad.  Threadbare, grease stained clothing covered his chest and upper legs but the fur that showed lacked the healthy sheen it'd had in the pod and on Wakanda.  Thor was certain that the raccoon had lost weight, and not a healthy amount of it.  So much fur had shed from his tail that the colored rings were barely visible.  For the first time Thor noticed the bolts protruding from Rocket's collarbones.  He didn't know the raccoon's story but he knew cybernetics when he saw them. The bolts were signs of a large, maybe even body wide augmentation.

But even a cyborg needs to eat and he could see that Rocket hadn't, or at least not nearly enough.  Thor remembered the boxes in the hall.  "Rocket, when did you eat last?"

The raccoon shrugged as he worked. "Dunno.  Last time I was hungry." He waved at a device in the corner.  Thor moved over to have a look.

He'd seen things like this before in prisons.  A relief system, a self contained power cell and banks of molecular filters and assemblers.  Rocket had built a recycler that turned his waste back into food.  Initially horrifying until you remember that practically all food has been not-food before, most likely many times.  If done properly, this was a reasonable approach.

A reasonable approach in a prison...or for a hermit.  Thor hooked a food pellet out of the dispenser with a finger and crunched it between his teeth.  Bland was an understatement, but you could live on it.

"They leave you food in the hall," he said as he turned back toward Rocket.  "It's much better than this."

Rocket didn't look up.  "I have all I need here.  I don't need anything from them but materials.". He turned to a series of hovering screen set to such low intensity that even an Asgardian's keen eyes could barely make out the details. Each was covered with formulas, schematics.  Weapons.

"Gravity bomb didn't work," Rocket muttered.  "Shoulda known space stone would protect him. Nova bomb didn't work.  Power stone absorbed the blast. I'll get him. Antimatter didn't work.  Reality stone stopped it. I'll get him."

He looked up for a moment as he thought.  His eyes were sunken into their sockets. His little clawed hands, so sure on the controls when Thor last saw him, trembled. "I'll get him.  I just need to figure it out.  Monowire?  Maybe monowire."

"When did you sleep last, Rocket? Where?"

"Dunno," the raccoon muttered.  His hands began snapping together parts though his eyes were vacant, distracted.  "Somewhere."

The shed fur and dust bunnies under the workbench told the tale.  Rocket worked until he collapsed, then rose and worked again.

He was a tough little creature.  Even a cyborg has limits, though.  Eating little and working until he dropped was killing Rocket. To keep from thinking about his loss he worked and worked but something had to give, and soon.  Soon he would be able to work no more.

"Rocket," Thor said.  "Open the door.  I'm leaving."

"Good.  Don't need ya anyway." Rocket waved absently and the inner door slid open. "Go kill Thanos for me, god man."

If it were that simple, the Mad Titan would be dead already.  When the inner door was firmly shut the outer slid open and the waiting techs once again harvested the fruit of the raccoon's labors.  Thor didn't have the heart to snarl at them.

Pepper waited outside the door.  "How is he?"

"Killing himself," Thor said grimly.  "Working himself to death to get at Thanos."

"I was afraid of that.  Tony's like that sometimes.  I've talked to Nebula when Tony brought her by. She told me about Rocket.  He was an experiment, tortured into existence before he escaped.  He won't talk to us and losing the Guardians destroyed him.  They are the only friends he ever had."

"No," Thor said.  He slid a card out of his belt.  "He has one more."

"Your Avengers stipend," Pepper said when she saw the card. Avengers were allowed a thousand dollars a week for personal expenses, more if she or Tony approved it. "You hardly use it."

"Only for ale, mead, beer," Thor said.  He didn't smile.  "But I won't use it for that today."

Ten minutes later he was on the street.  The loss of half the population meant that until society adjusted - some towns would be entirely abandoned - there were shuttered stores even here next to Stark Tower. It was still New York City and he soon found a deli.

"I have a sick friend," he told the woman behind the counter.  She was wide-eyed at the sight of him but nodded professionally as he went on.  "He needs food. Good, healthy food to put some meat back on his bones."

"A care package," she said. "I know how it is.  We sell baskets to put it all in."

Thor watched as she assembled the package.  Sliced ham, potato salad, baked beans, fresh bread. Grapes, jam, cubed watermelon, packets of condiment for sandwiches.  Cooked chicken, three small cherry tarts, a thick slice of lemon cake. Dinner rolls, pretzels for snacks. More.  Enough food to satisfy a small family accumulated in the basket before he told her 'enough' and paid her twice what she asked.

"Now," he told the very attentive woman. "Where would I buy a bed for a small creature, say, yay high." He indicated a point just above his knee.

In the pet store he bought a round, padded bed big enough for Rocket.  He chose the most expensive and was still not satisfied with the quality.  It would do, for now. With a flat of bottled water under one arm, the pet bed under the other and the basket in his hand he returned to Stark Tower, ignoring the bemused glances following the thunder god gone shopping.

"Out," he told the two technicians still taking the pulse of Rocket's inner door.  He didn't need to tell them to shut the outer one this time.  They did it on their own.

"Rocket," he said to the ceiling.  "You know I can come through this door if I choose. Then you would have to fix it.  Open it."

And it opened. In the shadows of the work room he found Rocket at the bench, from all appearances not moved from his spot two hours ago.  He didn't look up.  "Is Thanos dead?"

"No."

"Then why are you here?"

The raccoon let out a startled yawp as Thor's fingers closed on his collar and lifted him from the seat.  He was noticeable lighter than the time he stood on Thor's shoulder and as his shirt went tight his ribs showed.  "Put me down!  I got work ta do!"

"You can go back to work after you eat," Thor said.  He kicked the round bed under the work bench and plopped Rocket down next to the basket.

"Can't eat now," Rocket said, and looked longingly toward his floating screens.  "Gotta work.  I got something new, I think it'll get him."

Rocket's teeth clicked together as Thor slapped the floor hard enough to make dishes jump.  The thunder god had most of the food out of the basket.  "You can work," Thor said firmly, "after you eat."

"Fine," Rocket grumbled. "But just for a sec'." His little clawed hand plucked a grape out of a bowl.

As though possessed by a separate being his hand went out for another grape even as the first popped between his fangs.  And then another grape, then a chunk of sliced ham, and Thor watched as the raccoon fell on the food like a demon, eating with no thought of manners or moderation. Rocket ate with his hands and tore at the bread like the starving man he was. He ate and ate until Thor wondered if he'd indeed brought enough food.

When Thor began to worry that Rocket might actually do himself an injury overeating the raccoon finally sat back, took a long drink of water from a bottle and burped.

"'Kay," he muttered as he licked the strawberry jam from his fur. He had eaten it right out of the jar. "I ate.  Happy now?"

"Not yet," Thor said as he reached out.  Rocket protested weakly as he was once again picked up, cradled this time in Thor's great hands and slid into the padded bed.

"No," he complained as Thor kept him from crawling back out.  "I can't sleep.  Gotta work. Gotta find a way."

But an iron will can only carry a man so far.  With a full belly and days - at least - behind on sleep, Rocket was asleep almost before the words left his lips.

The music, always present, changed. Thor noted the little black device on the workbench, manifestly Earth-made unlike virtually anything else here.  The new song was louder and Thor tapped the device.  Sure enough a display popped up. The fast, jangling melody was by something called Five Jacksons.  He found the pause button.

The result was immediate.  With the music gone Rocket twitched and whined in his sleep, his claws scrabbling at the bed.  As soon as Thor restarted the music he quieted.  So. For whatever reason music gave him comfort.  Music he would have.  Thor leaned back against the wall and waited.

Asgardians are hardy folk, able to do without sleep for days if need be.  Thor sat and watched as the raccoon lest Rocket wake and go right back to work.  He needn't have worried.  It was twelve hours before Rocket even stirred.  Thor blinked awake from a brief nap of his own to find the raccoon had left the bed, presumably used the relief station, then crawled into the picnic basket and fallen right back to sleep. It made him smile to see the brave little warrior curled up in the basket, resting on a half eaten pie. Thor let him sleep.

Twice the raccoon shuddered in his sleep, his claws scrabbling at the wicker.  Both times Thor reached into the basket and petted him until he calmed down.  He knew what was happening.  He'd had fifteen hundred years to learn to live with horror and death.  He doubted the little raccoon had a hundredth that.

When Rocket finally woke his fur had the beginnings of its normal gloss and his hands less of a tremor than before.  Apparently his augmentation allowed for fast recovery...when he ate and slept, that is.  He unapologetically used the relief station again before speaking.

"Okay," he grumbled.  "That food was good.  Now I gotta get back to work."

"Certainly," Thor said as he stood.  "I will leave you to it.  But."

"But?" Rocket cast a worried look at the pet bed, afraid he'd be shoved in again.

"I am going to instruct the men to tell me if you don't take the food they leave for you, rabbit.  If you don't, I will come back and we will do this all again."

"Okay," Rocket said with a suspicious lack of protest. Thor wasn't fooled for an instant.

"And the next time I visit - and I will visit, rabbit - if you haven't eaten that food I will know. And if that bed hasn't been used, I will know that too.  Then we will have words."

"Why are you doing this," Rocket said. He didn't know what to do with his hands, one picking stuck-on cherry pie from his fur and the other reaching for the last few grapes in the bowl.  "You're not my friend."

"Of course not," Thor replied.  "How could I be your friend?  We're hardly met.  I just value your work." He waved at the stacks of weapons, bombs, grenades, and devices less obvious in their destructive potential.

"We need you, rabbit.  We need your hands and your mind.  If you starve yourself it's one less weapon we'll have when we find Thanos."

"Oh," Rocket said as he chewed a grape his hand popped into his mouth between words.  "That makes sense."

"I have to go now, rabbit.  I'll be back in a few days."

"Sure," Rocket said as he turned back to his work bench.  "Have fun."

The inner door slid open as Thor approached. He knew what was happening.  He'd done it himself a few times over the centuries.  When you lose everything, you decide that the best way to never lose another friend is simply to have none.  To push everyone away, to lose yourself in your work.  Or you work yourself to death.

That was not going to happen.  Thor had lost people, too.  His family, most of his friends.  He wasn't going to lose this one too.  If he had to come by every night to make sure Rocket ate and slept he'd do it.  And when the raccoon finally broke down and let the grief pour out, he'd be there for him too.

It would take time to coax Rocket out of his hole. It would take time to get him to accept friendship again.  That was all right.  Thor had all the time in the world.

[tpthvegebulevents]

MAYHEM 2018 - WEEK 4 - [ANON A] “THE FINAL PRICE” (2)

Title: The Final Price

Chapter Summary: Bulma is determined to find a way to bring Vegeta back, and with help from Goku and a reluctant Uranai, she journeys into the spirit world, ready to challenge the gods themselves for the right to her soulmate’s ultimate fate.

Genre: AU / Romance / Adventure

Rating: E

Chapter Warnings: Profane language; Slight sexual content.

Prompt: The Better To Grab You With

Word Count: 7,686

Chapter 6: Holding On

(Chapters: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8)

I.i.I.i.I.i.I.i.I

“We are going to Uranai, you and I,” she said. “We are going to bring Vegeta back.”

I.i.I.i.I.i.I.i.I

“Bulma, are you crazy?” Goku asked, a moment before a string of static filled her line, and she looked up just in time to see the familiar form of the tall Saiyan materializing before her.

She calmly placed her phone back onto her dresser, smiling placidly at the confounded man.

“Maybe. I don’t really know anymore, to be honest,” she said, half-jokingly. “But I need to try, Goku. Vegeta… he’s not completely gone, I think.”

Goku’s brows furrowed, concern filling his dark eyes. “Hey, look. I know that you’re really broken up about Prince Vegeta’s death, but you gotta listen to yourself, Bulma-”

“No, no, no, listen to me,” Bulma interjected, excitedly waving her arms around as a very vague plan began to form in her head.

“I’m listening,” Goku said, his tone clearly stating that he thought she had gone insane.

Bulma laughed. “He’s speaking to me, Goku. From the afterlife.”

Goku’s brows shot up. “O-kaaaay,” he said. “So, you’re like, a psychic now?”

“No! Vegeta was speaking to me through my dreams!”

“A dream psychic then?”

“No!” Bulma exclaimed, stomping her foot in mounting frustration. “I dreamed of him, I saw what is happening to him, right now!”

Goku still looked unconvinced. “I… I don’t get it?”

She sighed. “Alright. Remember how I dreamt of his past, through his eyes?”

He nodded.

“Well, now I dreamed of his present. In the afterlife. Right now,” she explained. “And he is suffering so badly there, Goku. He doesn’t deserve this. We have to help him!”

“Look, I can kinda see how you would think that Prince Vegeta is talking to you, but how do you propose we try to save him?” Goku asked, placing his fists on his hips.

“Uranai! She has a portal, right? Maybe we can use it or something!” then, Bulma paused. “Wait, didn’t you say that you found something when you went to Uranai?”

“Oh, right,” Goku said, arms dropping to his side. “Uranai told me that your soul is still linked to Vegeta’s, and that was why you can see his past. She can try to cut it, if you want-”

“No!” she cried. “Are you crazy? No! Why would I want to do that?”

“Well, Uranai said it would probably ease some of your pain, so you could move on.”

“No! Never,” she said, raising a hand to her chest, as if trying to find and protect her invisible link to Vegeta. “I need this link. This may be the one thing that can help me bring him back!”

Goku scratched his head. “You really think you can bring him back, huh?”

“I am positive. I can feel it. There has to be a way…” Bulma said. “After all, when Vegeta died, he was not in his real body, right? Because he didn’t kill me, he never got his real body back. So maybe… Maybe he is not completely dead.”

The Saiyan’s eyes widened at that. “You know… that makes a lot of sense.”

“Of course, I’m a genius, after all!” Bulma bragged. “So you have to help me, Goku. Don’t you want to have your Prince back?”

Goku’s eyes brightened, and a determined smile stretched his lips.

“If you really think there is a chance we can bring him back,” he said, “I’m comin’ with ya. What do you need me to do?”

Bulma smiled, the widest and most enthusiastic one she had ever smiled, in years.

She put her hands on Goku’s arm, then said, “First, I need you to take me to my office. There are a few items there that I need to pick up, just in case.”

He nodded, then, lifted his fingers up to his forehead in a heart wrenching, familiar way that reminded Bulma all the more of how important it was that her plan succeeds.

It was the only way to have Vegeta back.

The dizzying moment of transmission passed quickly enough, and Bulma immediately went to her desk, running to the cabinet behind it.

She popped open her secret drawer, pulling out the small blaster that she had made upon Vegeta’s suggestion.

She looked at it, hoping against hope that the small weapon could hold out if she needed it in a fight.

This would be the blaster’s first real-world test drive.

God, but she hoped that the lab tests were accurate.

After pulling out the gun and securely tucking it into a customized gun holster that she had especially made for it, she went to her desk and opened her first drawer.

Within that drawer, was a small capsule containing her most precious invention: her tiny, personalized multi-terrain hover car. It had the ability to run speeds up to a thousand miles per hour, but had highly sophisticated stabilizers built in so that the passenger remains unharmed.

She had used it only once, and she knew for a fact that the thing was advanced enough to run several thousand miles with a single full tank of gasoline.

She picked up ten gasoline capsules as well, just to be sure, and secured those and the hover car into a pouch beside her blaster.

“Alright,” she grinned, turning back to Goku. “Now, let’s go to Uranai.”

Goku nodded, letting her hold on to his arm once again while he teleported them to Kame House.

When they arrived, Bulma looked around, noting that the entire island looked exactly the same as the last time she had been there. It was almost as if the island was trapped in time, where the lone tree shading the small house never grew but also never wilted, and the sand remained unmoved in spite of the water’s constant motions.

Bulma realized then, that the portal must have been the one responsible for keeping this lone island seemingly suspended in time.

After all, how else could she explain the fact that the guardian of the portal had been around for more than two hundred years?

She stepped into the small house, followed by Goku, who quietly shut the door behind them.

She looked around, and her eyes met the open trapdoor leading down into the basement, where she had previously seen Uranai as she worked on her Spirit Bridge.

Bulma took a deep breath.

“Uranai!” she called out. “Uranai! It’s Bulma and Goku, we need your help!”

“Grandma Uranai!” Goku called out, as well.

“Just a minute!” the old, raspy female voice called out, “I am coming! Kami, you youngsters are always in a hurry.”

They both waited impatiently as they heard the old woman begin to make her way up the creaky stairs from the basement, and as soon as the tip of her pointy black hat came into view, Goku swooped in, practically dragging the old witch up the remaining few steps.

“Aiyeeee!” Uranai screamed as Goku lifted her, placing her down before Bulma.

“Goku, you idiot, I thought I was going to fall!” Uranai scolded, giving Goku a solid whack on the head with her wooden cane.

“Ow! I’m sorry, you were taking so long and I was excited!” he said, rubbing at the sore spot.

“What in all the realms are you so excited about that you had to drag me from my portal?” she asked, dusting imaginary lint from her dress before she turned to Bulma. “Hello, Bulma.”

“Hi, Uranai,” Bulma greeted, shifting her weight between her feet as she basically jogged in place, in a strange mixture of excitement and anxiety. “We need your help.”

“So I have heard,” the crone said drily. “And how may I assist you two, today?”

“We wanna go into the Other World!” Goku burst out.

Uranai’s eyes went so large that Bulma feared that they would pop out of her skull.

“You what?!” Uranai asked, scandalized.

Bulma stood straighter, then said, with a lot more calmness than she actually felt. “Goku and I need your help to go into the Spirit realm, or afterlife.”

Uranai bristled. “No! Are you crazy?”

Bulma sighed. “This is not the first time I was asked that question today.”

“Because what you want to do is insane!” Uranai screeched, leaping up to her eye level to drive her point home. “No! Absolutely not… that is out of the question!”

“Please, Uranai!” Goku said. “Bulma has an idea and she thinks that she can maybe bring Prince Vegeta back!”

“Goku, you idiot, that is not possible,” Uranai said. “Once someone has entered the spirit world, there will be no going back! And it is not just for Prince Vegeta… why do you think I get so angry when you or anyone else tries to enter the basement? A living being going into the spirit world would immediately be sucked in and turned into a spirit.”

“Not everyone,” Bulma interjected. “The last time I went into the basement, the spirits did not sense me, did they, Uranai?”

Uranai went still. “No, they did not,” she answered solemnly. “But it could have been for any number of reasons-”

“You told Goku that Vegeta and I are still linked,” Bulma said. “It means that his dead spirit is connected to mine. I may have just enough of him in me for the spirits not to realize who I am, until I could get to Vegeta.”

“And what do you propose to do once you get there, huh?” Uranai asked. “Just pull Vegeta back with you? That could never work.”

“No, but if I was down there, I could find a way,” Bulma said, before she suddenly sobered as she thought of another, much less ideal possibility. “Or, even if I couldn’t… at least I could see him one last time.”

“Tsk,” Uranai said. “Your sentimentality will get you killed, child.”

Bulma looked straight at Uranai. “And was it not sentimentality that got Vegeta killed, as well? If he had taken my life as he was supposed to, he could have been in his full-power and could have killed Frieza, without dying, himself.”

Bulma gulped. “He risked everything, going into the fight at partial strength. That was the reason why he had to wait for the Red Moon, after all, was it not? He needed all possible advantages, because he knew that he was going in with a very distinct disadvantage.”

She couldn’t stop speaking as the full impact of what Vegeta had given up for her hit her all at once. “He had waited thirty years, thirty gods damned years, only to let it all go because he didn’t want to sacrifice me. For his sake… for his sake, I need to try everything I could to see if I could save him, as well.”

Uranai looked at her with a face full of sympathy and uncertainty, but finally, nodded.

“Alright. I will see if I can get you into the spirit realm. But Goku,” she turned to the Saiyan. “You stay here. You are very much alive, with no spirit links, and an overflowing amount of power. The spirits will devour you in less than a second.”

“Is there no way I can help?” Goku asked, turning concerned eyes to Bulma. “Bulma isn’t strong, or fast. She’s an Earthling and I don’t know how she could manage without someone there to protect her.”

“I’ll have Vegeta protecting me,” she said, smiling at her spiky-haired friend. “He’s in my soul, Goku. Don’t worry, I’ll be back.”

“Don’t say your goodbyes, just yet,” Uranai interrupted. “I still need to see if I can actually manage to push you into the spirit world. We have a lot of sound theories but we won’t know for sure until I go and try.”

“We can do it Uranai, I’m sure!” Bulma said, a wave of conviction going through her along with the relief that Uranai had agreed to help her.

Uranai turned slowly towards the stairs leading down to the basement, and Bulma followed right behind her, her heart pounding quick, rapid beats as the gravity of what she was about to do started to fall upon her shoulders.

She was going into the spirit realm. She was going in there, mixing up with various ghosts and monsters and heaven knows what else.

But she was doing it for Vegeta.

“Can’t you calm down a little? Even I can hear your heartbeats from here. The spirits will pounce on you if you keep that up,” Uranai scolded, and Bulma took a few deep breaths as she began to take the few final steps into the basement.

A thick wooden wall concealed the basement from the stairs, and as Uranai turned the corner going into the hidden area, Bulma put her hand on her chest, willing her heart to calm down.

She could do this. She wanted to do this. But it certainly didn’t mean that it wasn’t terrifying.

She took the last few steps, passing the wooden wall…

Her heart stopped beating, her breath caught in her throat.

The Spirit Bridge was a large, circular black hole that seemingly led into endless darkness, floating ominously over a wide, glassy, flat surface that resembled the mirror that she had seen Dabura holding up to Vegeta in her dream.

The portal itself was dark, a void, but small wisps of foul-smelling clouds and thin strips of weak energy wafted in and out of the portal, a horrifying glimpse of the things that likely awaited Bulma down beneath the blackness. It was large, about twice her height, and as she came closer, she heard the howling from within it growing louder, as the wispy threads of energy began to turn an angry red.

Uranai turned to her, her wrinkled face somber and worried. “Some of the spirits can sense you Bulma. If you are not extremely careful, they will find you, and will suck you in with them, forever. Are you sure you are up to this?”

Bulma took a very deep breath.

“Yes, I want to do this, Uranai,” she confirmed, looking determinedly at the portal, almost daring it to try and stop her from finding her man.

She was going to literally die trying to get him back.

“Alright, listen to me,” Uranai said. “I will open the Spirit Bridge for you, but once you get in, you have to hurry. Run as fast as you can.”

“Can I use a hover car?” Bulma asked hopefully, already feeling the weight of her capsules in her belt.

The crone blinked. “You brought one?”

“Yep!” Bulma beamed proudly, patting her pocket full of capsules.

“Well then. That is a great amount of foresight,” Uranai commented. “Now. As I was saying. Run, or drive as fast as you can. As you touch down onto the Spirit World, you will find a very long and winding path that we call the Snake Way. At the very end of the Snake Way, is the King of the Underworld, King Yemma. He is the one you need to talk to, if you wish to bring Vegeta back.”

Uranai cleared her throat. “Now, remember: along the way, make sure you interact with as little amount of beings as possible. The longer you are with them, the easier it may be for them to figure out that you are not dead, and they will try to kill you.”

Bulma gulped, then nodded.

“Would you happen to have a weapon with you?

She patted her pocket with a smug smirk.

Uranai just shook her head. “I see that it must be the arrogance that attracted the Prince to you.”

She laughed at that, flipping her blue hair off her shoulder, noting that the portal now seemed to be blowing out an increasingly strong gust of wind.

Uranai spoke again, “Make sure that you blast anyone who gets too close, especially if they try to pull you down with them. If you fall off the Snake Way, you will fall directly into Hell, and no one can help you from there as King Yemma would not have known of your presence yet.”

Bulma frowned. “Why don’t you just tell him ahead that I am coming?”

“Do you have any idea how long the waiting time is to get an appointment with King Yemma? The ongoing wait list is fifty years.”

“Oh.”

“Well then. Are you ready?” Uranai asked, lifting her hands up to the portal, and Bulma stared in awe as a little point of light appeared in the very center of the darkness.

The light grew larger, very slowly, until Bulma saw that the light was now large enough to accommodate a small child.

Uranai started shouting, “Jump in as soon as you think the hole is large enough for you to fit through. I don’t know how much longer I can hold this open! Also, I do not have the powers to bring you back here, so you need to reach King Yemma so he can push you back out into the living world.”

Bulma nodded, jogging lightly as she tried to figure out the best way to jump into the hole.

She held onto the edges of the light, ignoring the burning sensation caused by the bits of darkness licking at her fingers.

Lunging up with all the strength she could muster into her arms, she lifted herself up, pushing her head and shoulders into the hole, before she leaned down to slide the rest of her body down the bright part of the portal, barely squeezing her butt in as Uranai started losing strength.

“Go!” Uranai yelled, and Bulma pulled herself down, sliding down the tunnel, shrieking all the way.

She screamed, trying to spin around so she wouldn’t land on her face once she finally reached solid ground. She was hurtling down the tunnel of light at a fast rate, and she was quite sure that her landing was going to hurt.

She saw a slight change in hue from a few meters before her and she realized then that she must have been rapidly approaching the Snake Way.

She braced herself, not quite sure if she should go on feet first, afraid of injuring her legs.

“Dammit why didn’t I pay more attention to Physical Ed classes?” she whimpered as the surface came closer and closer…

She braced herself, wrapping her arms around her head…

Only to fall butt first onto a very soft pile of cushions, the small pillows burying her as she sank deep into the cloud-like mattress.

She opened her eyes, that she had not realized that she had shut, only to see the most amazing span of virtual nothingness that she had ever thought to see.

The mattress she had fallen on was round and airy, and she struggled a bit to get off the bed-like contraption so she can stand on her two feet on the relatively smooth ground below.

She stood on the yellowish road that looked like smooth marble, edged on all sides by tiny golden frills. Beyond the narrow road was an endless sea of the puffiest white clouds, reminding Bulma of huge rolls of cotton candy.

She looked behind her, looking for the opening to the portal, and to her utter dismay, discovered that the light tunnel was gone. The only thing behind her was more nothingness, and the airy bed that she had fallen onto.

She was at the end of the Snake Way, and was truly on her own.

She knocked the heels of her shoes on the pavement, noting the sound of her feet hitting concrete.

Bulma was baffled. What was with all the warnings to stay away from the spirits? The place was absolutely empty.

She released her capsule containing the hovercraft, then got into the car as soon as the vehicle materialized before her.

She remembered Uranai telling her to run as fast as she can, so she immediately set the craft up to its highest speed, leaning back as the craft flew through at speeds that would normally be dizzyingly deadly if she wasn’t within a stabilized car.

It did not take long for Bulma to finally understand what it was that Uranai had been warning her about, after all.

She had been travelling the single, winding road for at few hours, probably half a day, when the skies suddenly grew darker.

She looked out the viewing walls of the craft, and only then realized that the puffy clouds outside had begun to morph into darkened shrouds of smoke, with angry red bolts of lightning screeching out of their edges, and moving ever closer to her as she went deeper through the Snake Way.

She took the wheel, moving into a manual pilot override, so she can stir the hover car should anything try to hit her or get in the way.

Bulma watched in trepidation as the smoke began to hover closer to the edges of the Snake Way, the sharp shards of electricity zipping out and trying to lick her tiny car.

She wrenched her car to the right, avoiding a particularly long bolt, quickly righting her path so that she stayed on top of the road.

She distinctly remembered Uranai telling her not to fall off the Snake Way, and she was definitely not in the mood to find out if the bad side of Hell was truly just beyond those golden edges.

The clouds were getting darker, thicker, visibly denser, and Bulma tried harder to stay away from the flits of energy that would surely fry her circuitry if she got hit.

If her car broke down, she was so dead. She was deader than dead.

The Snake Way seemed endless, and she knew that she would have no hope of reaching the end of it if she was on foot.

She kept on moving forward, slowing down a little as she had to carefully maneuver around the dark clouds that were really closing in on her, attempting to crush her with their darkness, should they successfully catch her in their grasp.

A large mass of darkness suddenly blocked her way, and Bulma screamed, sure that she would not be able to duck out of the way.

Her shock was immeasurable, when she simply passed through the cloud, emerging onto a once again, clear and cottony clouded Snake Way.

Her heart was pumping a mile a minute, and she looked around in confusion, not quite understanding the sudden shift.

“Better just be thankful, I suppose,” she muttered, engaging her auto pilot once again so she can go at faster speeds, now that the dark clouds were gone.

A few more hours later, she began to wish for the dark clouds to come back.

A horde of demons, stereotypical looking demons with dark eyes, pointed horns and arrow-tipped tails, began to emerge from the edges of the Snake Way.

Bulma pushed the hover car as fast as it would go as she swerved and dodged around the beings who seemed to know that she was a living person, as they with all their might to grab a hold of her round little vehicle to pull it down with them.

She had to disengage the auto pilot once more, as the car insisted on just pushing forward instead of dodging the demons, but the problems really started to pile up when Bulma needed to slow down the vehicle so that her reflexes can keep up with the movements.

She could not afford to simply keep dodging, she had to go on the offense.

Reaching down to her belt, she pulled her experimental blaster out of her holster, powered it up, before she lifted a tiny latch from the very center of the hover car.

The latch was specifically designed so that she can secure her specialized weapons onto the console in case she needed firepower.

At the time she had been drafting the designs, she had giggled to herself, thinking it ridiculous for her to design a vehicle that was so obviously needed for adventurous situations, when the most adventurous that she had been before was drinking one flask of wine too many.

Now, she thanked her lucky stars for whatever streak of insanity had possessed her to make her include the gun hatch in her vehicles.

She engaged the blaster, adjusting it to the medium firing strength, then, keeping her fingers crossed, pressed the trigger.

A blinding flash of pure energy exploded from the front of her vehicle, causing her to stumble back as the blaster released its load. The blast was stronger than she had anticipated, and the interior of the vehicle started to shake as Bulma began pressing the trigger more often, more quickly, effectively destroying tens of demons with a single shot.

There were hundreds of monsters, and Bulma felt the terror creep into her heart as she realized that all it would take was a single wrong move on her side, and they would overwhelm her, dragging her down into the abyss with them to suffer an eternity of flames and torture.

She would have welcomed death, if not for the thought of a life that she needed to save. The life of Vegeta was in her hands, and she could not afford to fail.

She persevered, pushing her hovercraft to its limits as she flew up and over the demons, blasting anything that got too close.

The crowd of demons grew denser, while she herself started to become braver, feeling more confident as she thought that this was actually rather fun, if she pretended that it was just a video game.

She saw a tiny spot of light ahead, a very small opening largely obscured by the horde of monsters, and she realized that this spot was her most likely escape, probably the end of a tunnel that she had to cross to get to King Yemma.

The spot was growing larger, and she became more determined, hands flying over her controls as she snaked through the enemies and blasted through the ones that would not quit.

She was sweating now, the exhaustion seeping into her bones after the several-hour long dangerous journey, but she was almost there!

She had to hold on, just a bit more. Just… a bit… more!

With a final, desperate attempt, she set her blaster on the highest setting, then, bracing herself for the recoil, fired.

The blast was nearly deafening in its power, shocking even Bulma, who had never yet used the maximum setting during the trials.

She stared, absolutely flabbergasted, as almost all of the demons blocking her melted away, and she took the chance to immediately push her vehicle to full speed, flying past the surprised monsters as she hurtled her way into the small tunnel.

She was in the tunnel for but a few seconds, before she found herself in the middle of a humongous open area, where, at the end, was a large castle-like structure with the words “Check-In Station” emblazoned on a large neon signage stuck to the highest turret.

Bulma whooped, seeing that beyond the castle, there was nothing more, and this was clearly the end of the Snake Way, where she can find King Yemma.

She dropped down onto the large center lawn, attracting the attention of several people standing around the palace garden.

She pulled her blaster out of the console before hurriedly leaping out, encapsulating the hover car as fast as she could before she ran full-throttle towards the open doors.

“Hey! That woman is alive!” One large, humanoid monster with blue skin, purple hair and a single yellow horn atop his head shouted. “Mez! It’s a living human!”

Bulma kept running as the blue man bounded after her, joined by a similarly large demon with red skin, small spectacles and black hair combed around two small yellow horns.

“Goz! Get her!” the red-skinned man shouted, and the blue demon nodded, charging at Bulma, who frantically scrambled to get away from them as the doors loomed ever closer.

She lifted her gun, turning to aim at the two demons behind her, completely forgetting that the blaster was still on the maximum setting.

She fired, but the impact from the gun sent her flying, and she cried out as she landed painfully on her behind, a few feet away from the door.

Ignoring her protesting limbs and buttocks, she leapt up, scrambling her way to the door, knowing that if she got inside, she would be able to meet with King Yemma.

He had to be there. He just had to be!

She skidded into the castle, only to find herself in the midst of a large room full of people waiting in a straight line.

All the people looked at her curiously as she kept running, heading towards the front of the line, where she hoped to meet someone who could take her to King Yemma.

The two monsters were still behind her, and they were quickly gaining on her. She was tiring now, and she felt tears of exhaustion fill her eyes as she forced her legs to go on.

She could see  an enormous desk, at least five storeys high, just in front of her. She sprinted towards it, reaching for it, knowing that she was almost there…

A large hand suddenly clamped over her arms, forcibly hauling her up and off her feet, and she screamed, furiously kicking her legs around, hoping to get the attacker to drop her.

“Please! Let me go! I am so close! I need to speak to him, please!” she screamed, clawing at the thick hands that held her effortlessly above the ground. “Please, I beg you! I need to speak to King Yemma!”

An uncomfortable hush fell over the gathered crowd, before she heard the impossibly loud scraping of wood against stone.

It was as if an entire tree was being scraped against the side of a mountain, and Bulma realized that whoever had been behind the gigantic desk was moving, and the loud sound was that of his enormous chair as she pushed it away from the table.

“What do we have here?” a loud, thunderous voice sounded from above her, and Bulma almost screamed as she looked into the large beady eyes of a man who was at least a hundred feet tall.

He had red skin, two large white horns peaking from the side of his shaggy-haired and fully-bearded head. He was wearing a purple suit with a matching hat, with a white shirt underneath that was collared by a bright orange neck tie.

“Mez? Goz? What is the meaning of this?”

“Lord Yemma!” The red demon said, visibly shaking with terror.

Bulma stared at the humongous demon lord, renewing her efforts to break free from the demon holding her.

“Lord Yemma,” the blue demon said. “We found this living woman outside. She ran into the throne room, she was fast. We will take her now.”

“Please, no!” Bulma cried. “King Yemma, my name is Bulma. Please! I need to talk to you!”

Yemma looked at her sternly as he answered. “How did you get here, human?”

“Uranai helped me through the portal,” she said, making the demon king raise a brow in surprise. “She helped me because I need to talk to you about a man who is not supposed to be here.”

“And how did you manage to make it this far? The demons would have devoured you the moment you landed onto the Snake Way,” Yemma asked.

“Because my spirit is linked to the man I need to speak to you about, so the less powerful demons probably did not sense me. They weren’t reacting to me as I approached the Spirit Bridge.”

“Goz,” Yemma said. “Release her.”

Bulma immediately felt the hands around her let go, and she fell, nearly losing her balance as she righted herself after the rough treatment.

“Alright. Who is this man you are referring to?” Yemma asked.

Bulma took a deep breath. “Vegeta, Prince of the Saiyans.”

Goz and Mez released simultaneous gasps, and Yemma himself looked taken aback.

Mez, the red demon, spoke up. “Vegeta of the Saiyans most definitely is supposed to be here. His spirit has been partially in hell for thirty human years, girl.”

“Yes, I know. And that is the reason why I am here. His soul is tied to mine,” she began.

“Do you want the bond to be cut?” Yemma asked.

“No! Please, no. Why does everyone think I want the bond cut? I don’t want the bond to be cut,” she exclaimed. “I want Vegeta to come back with me to the living world.”

“Absolutely not!” Mez said. “Do you even know what you are asking? That man deserves Hell more than any being you have ever met on Earth!”

“He is right, girl,” Yemma agreed “Vegeta has killed so many people, beyond what you can imagine. He conquered dozens of planets, ended millions of lives.”

“But he did those under orders from Frieza! It wasn’t him who wanted to do it!” she decried.

“True, but it does not excuse the fact that these people died by his hand. He has already used his lease on life by killing Frieza, but his crimes cannot go unpunished. He has yet to do anything that would absolve him of his sins.”

“He died for me!” Bulma said, feeling her tears rising to the fore once again. She quickly dashed them with her hand, just in time to see the expression of profound surprise on Yemma’s face.

“Truly?”

“Yes!” she answered. “He… he let himself die, so I could live. His soul is linked to mine, and for him to survive, all he had to do was kill me. But he chose to go into his fight with Frieza weakened, because he didn’t want to harm me.”

She choked as she kept speaking. “He could have lived on, but he gave himself up, for me. I need him, King Yemma. I need him back. Please,” she begged, “please, let me have him back.”

Yemma looked at her in sympathy. “I would allow it,” he began, and Bulma was about to scream in joy when he held up his hand. “However. He is currently being watched by Dabura, and you will need to convince him, too. If he agrees, you and Vegeta need to come back here to the check-in station so I could write his name off the book until he dies again. Are we clear?”

Bulma nodded. “Yes! I will try to convince Dabura. Where should I go?”

Yemma grinned, before he snapped a finger, and before Bulma could even blink, she was in a dark, dreary area filled with little potholes full of flames, screams of agony echoing around her while the heat of the flames burned her skin.

She recognized the place immediately.

Hell.

She walked aimlessly, trying to avoid the flames but not knowing where to go.

“Dammit,” she muttered, ducking away from yet another tongue of flame that looked a little too much like long, thin claws trying to reach for her. “The better to grab you and kill you with,” she thought sarcastically.

She yelped as she jumped away from a hole that spewed fire up, nearly singeing her hair. “I hate this place. Vegeta, you better be thankful for this.”

“Bulma?”

She nearly lost her footing when a voice rang loudly, clearly, in her head.

It was Vegeta’s voice!

“Vegeta?!” she asked aloud, heart pounding in her throat.

“Bulma? Is that you?”

Tears filled her eyes, falling down her cheeks before she lifted her hands to wipe them away.

“Vegeta? It’s me!” she sobbed, “I am so happy to hear your voice again.”

“What the fuck are you doing? Are you really in the Spirit World?”

“Yes! I came here to get you!” she said, hearing the infuriated concern in his voice in her head.

“Get the hell out of here, you crazy woman!” he hissed in her head. “This place is dangerous!”

“I know!” she laughed. “But I don’t care! Now, where are you?”

“In Hell, somewhere! It is not as if we have postal addresses.”

“Oh, ha-ha. Can you lead me?”

“I… I don’t know. Bulma, how did you get here? How did you survive long enough to get to Hell?”

She sobered, letting a fond smile wash over her face as she stood still in the midst of the literal fires of Hell.

“I stayed strong and thought of you, Vegeta. I wanted to see you again, so no matter how hard it was… I kept holding on.”

She could feel his happiness flow through her, reminding her of the time when he was still in the orb, and his emotions poured into her body as she held his tiny prison in her hand.

“I wish to see you too. But please, woman... you have to leave. It is not safe…”

“No, Vegeta! I’m gonna find you. You can’t stop me. Not now,” she replied, tiptoeing through another group of flaming stones.

“Fine then. Insolent wench.”

“Stubborn jerk,” she said, grinning affectionately. “Hey. Keep talking to me. I think… I think I can hear your voice getting louder. Maybe I can hear you better, the closer I get.”

“Tch. What do you want me to say?”

“I don’t know. Anything, really. Keep it up, I can hear you better now.”

“I have no idea what I should talk about! Ask me something so I can answer.”

“Alright,” she said, a small frown marring her face as she thought of what to ask. Then…

“Vegeta,” Bulma began. “Why didn’t you want to kill me? It would have been easier for you, far less risky for you and your team. So… why?”

“Are you seriously asking me this? I would have thought that it would have been clear by now.”

“No, it’s not,” she answered. “I… I have my guesses, but… I want to know what you were really thinking.”

“I was thinking that I did not want any harm to come upon you, and yet here you are, actively seeking ways to die.”

She giggled. “You care about me. Admit it.”

She was met by silence.

“ Vegeta? Hey. Vegeta? Are you still there? Veg-”

“I more than care about you, woman. Never doubt that.”

His words rang clearly through her heart, sending warmth through her soul, and as she took another step forward past a large pillar of melting metal, her eyes widened as she saw the one person who had made this journey to Hell all worth the trouble.

“Vegeta!” she cried, running carelessly through the field of fire when she saw his familiar, muscular form, chained to a tall, wide metal pole.

He looked up, and his dark eyes filled with elation as he saw her running towards him.

“Bulma!” he called, straining against his bindings, trying his best to reach her, to move as close as possible to her in spite of his bindings.

“Vegeta!” she said his name again as she ran to him, holding her hands out as she threw herself forward, reaching out to hold his face in her palms before desperately pressing her mouth to his in a kiss that she had wanted, needed, for oh, so long.

He kissed her back with equal fervor, his mouth slanting against hers as she whimpered, gasping in joy as they finally, finally touched once again after what seemed like an eternity apart.

“Bulma,” he whispered against her lips, still straining against the thick chains that bound him against the large beam.

She pulled away, looking at him through teary eyes. “I can’t believe I’m holding you again.”

“I can’t believe you actually travelled to Hell to see me again, after everything I have caused you to suffer through,” he rasped.

“Don’t say that,” she said with a light laugh, before she leaned back, hands on his chest as she assessed him. “Now, how can I set you free from this thing?”

“You can’t,” an eerily familiar voice said from behind her, and she heard Vegeta growl as she turned, and found herself staring at the form of a monster that she had seen once in her dreams.

“You’re Dabura,” she said, a note of accusation in her tone.

“Why yes. So glad to know that my reputation precedes me,” he said with a short bow. “You must be Bulma! Yemma has told me a little about you.”

She stood stiffly, placing herself between Vegeta and the demon who was looming over them.

“Now… Yemma told me that you wanted to take Vegeta with you, back to the world of the living. Is that right?” Dabura asked.

“Yes,” she answered. “He told me to talk to you.”

“And what were you planning to do if I refuse?”

She stilled. She did not really have a plan for that.

“I was thinking of offering you a compromise. You can keep me here instead of Vegeta.”

“Out of the question!” Vegeta roared from behind her. “Bulma, you are going back to Earth, with or without me.”

“No! I’m not going anywhere without you!” she said, looking at him over her shoulder.

Dabura smirked. “See, there is a problem here. You,” he pointed at Bulma, “are not dead. But your soul is tethered here through him,” as he pointed at Vegeta.

“So, either way,” he continued, “if you stay here in the land of the dead, Vegeta… this woman will always come knocking. And Yemma didn’t cut your bond. The only way for any of you to be in your correct worlds is if you are both either fully alive, or fully dead.”

Vegeta growled, “You are not going to touch a single hair on her head, Dabura. If you harm her, I swear that I will find a way to permanently destroy you, myself.”

“I wasn’t planning to kill her, Vegeta,” Dabura smirked. “What I am saying is… I spoke to Yemma. Since you were incomplete upon death, you apparently did not fully die. So, if I were so inclined, I could let you go back to Earth.”

Bulma’s eyes widened.

Could it be? Would Dabura let Vegeta go?

“However… I expect recompense.”

She held her breath.

“If I were to bring you back to life, Saiyan, I demand a price. Something of equivalent value,” Dabura grinned.

“Name it, Dabura,” Bulma said.

She was prepared. Even if he asked for her soul in return, she would give it.

The demon smiled, letting them see his fang-like teeth, as a wicked gleam entered his eyes.

“I demand that the Prince give up his Super Saiyan powers, and his skill with ki alchemy.”

Bulma gasped, while Vegeta growled.

“You… you expect him to give up his powers?” she asked, appalled.

“Not all of it,” Dabura said. “Just the Legendary Super Saiyan, as well as the alchemy. The Super Saiyan powers will no longer be needed, after all. It is an incredible power that will be unnecessary on Earth. As for the ki alchemy, it is what landed you both here in the first place, so I am taking it to balance everything out and avoid such difficult situations in the future.”

Bulma was shocked.

The Super Saiyan, she knew, was Vegeta’s pride and joy. The thing that made him one of the most revered Saiyans to have ever existed…

“Take it,” Vegeta suddenly growled beside her.

She turned to him sharply. “Vegeta?”

“Take my Super Saiyan powers, Dabura. Take the ki alchemy, as well,” he continued. “Take whatever you want from me, if it means that I can go back and be with Bulma.”

He looked at her then, his eyes soft, his lips curved into a beautiful smile that Bulma burned into her heart. “If I can be with Bulma, no price is too steep.”

Dabura grinned, a dark smile filled with unholy glee that made the flames of Hell look pale in comparison. “Good.”

He raised his arms, and Bulma watched as Dabura formed a set of web-like energy strands that he then sent flying towards Vegeta.

“Vegeta!” she screamed, panicked, when Vegeta began to convulse, his body glowing in a dark blue glow that slowly seeped into the webs around Dabura’s fingers.

Vegeta groaned, slumping forward, his hair turning golden, then going back to black, switching erratically until the golden color of his hair appeared to melt away from him, forming a ball that flew towards Dabura, who opened his mouth to swallow the legendary energy.

Dabura finally released Vegeta, his chains snapping free from the pole, and Bulma stepped closer to him to catch him as he fell limply into her arms.

“Now, both of you, don’t worry. I may be a demon, but I have no intentions of using the legendary powers to harm you. I only took it as a form of check and balance,” Dabura said.

Bulma held Vegeta close, and as she did, she felt his body go from his usual abnormally hot temperature, to a heat that was closer to her own.

“Now, Vegeta is back in his full, mortal body. I can no longer keep you both here, so I am sending you to Yemma,” the demon said, then with a cheeky bow, added, “It was nice doing business with you.”

A second later, both Bulma and Vegeta found themselves in King Yemma’s large office, on the very top of his desk.

Yemma was above them, squinting at them, before he suddenly smiled.

He raised a hand, snapped…

And in the next second, Bulma found herself in the center of the tiny house in the middle of nowhere, a tiny island home that hid a secret portal into the other world.

“Bulma,” Vegeta whispered as he held her, his arms tight around her as he took a deep breath beside her neck, taking in the scent of her hair.

And Bulma, blinded once again by her tears, could only smile as she carressed his face, ran her hands up and down his back…

She did it.

Vegeta was back. And she was never, ever, going to let him go again.

I.i.I.i.I.i.I.i.I

...to be continued...

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[thepaperpanda]

The chronicles of the winter || Part IX

Part II  || Part III || Part IV || Part V || Part VI || Part VII || Parta VIII continuation of imagine

Summary: Steve’s mission went wrong… Very wrong.

Word Count: 2194

Warnings: Blood, injuries

Author: Beast

Since their common evening, Emily hasn’t spoken with Bucky at all.

He saw her few times. They passed each other like a ghosts at the corridors of the complex. Everytime when Bucky wanted to ask the woman, what exactly has changed between two of them that they couldn’t even talk for a while, Emily was simply passing him by, don’t even looking at him.

He easily could feel that everything has changed.

Deep inside he knew he shouldn’t have been doing that. He shouldn’t let her seduce him, it just couldn’t end well.

Bucky’s contact with Steve also has been restricted.

Their supervisors seemed to do everything to separate men from each other.

Bucky could also feel kind of a distance, which has built up between him and Steve.

Another week has passed and Bucky confirmed himself in a premonition that something was wrong.

While he was looking for Steve, he heard a conversation between two of the guards in canteen.

“… with her” one of them said simply, drinking coffee.

“I would give everything to be at his place at the moment” second man chuckled. “She’s pretty hot.” “Of course she’s” guard who was drinking the coffee stretched his back. “Rogers is a fucking lucky dude, isn’t he?”

“Don’t ya remember? He’s not Rogers anymore. They said he’s called Captain Hydra now” older guy shrugged.

Bucky frowned, listening to this little conversation. He realized that Steve has to be outside the complex. And… Was he with Emily? Have they had a mission? But Steve would tell him… Why he didn’t?

Bucky, however, felt a cold shrink in his heart.

EMILY. She also went away without farewell. Without single word. Why both of them were treating him like that?

He couldn’t find an answer.

One day, Bucky has been taken to the small room at one of the lowest levels of the complex.

There was three man awaiting at him. Two doctors and no one else but Aiden Black himself.

“Good morning, soldier” man in a suit smirked viciously.

Bucky didn’t say a word, he simply took a seat in front of the man.

“Why are you so silent, soldier?” Black pretended a concern.

“Where’s Steve?” Bucky simply asked.

Black raised his mouth corners in a haughty grin.

“He left. He has more important things to do instead sitting here with you” man said.

Bucky snapped his head to face Aiden Black again.

“Liar” Barnes gasped loudly. “Steve’s my friend. He wouldn’t…”

Black smirked again.

“Funny” Black mused with a sick smile, getting dangerously close to Bucky’s face, “wasn’t that exactly the same thing that you said the first time when Hydra found you?” he laughed harshly. “Face it, Barnes. Steve Rogers’ dead. Now he’s the Captain Hydra and he’s working for us and only for us” man in suit got up from his seat and walked slowly around the room. “Nothing can bring him back” Black finally stopped behind Bucky’s back and he put his large hands and Winter Soldier’s shoulders. Black also leaned down and whispered directly into Bucky’s ear. “And as I suppose he’s having a lot of fun with your Em.”

The last statement was like a sharp blade of a knife stabbed into Bucky’s chest.

Bucky responded with spitting in Black’s smirking face.

Of course, as always when he wasn’t behaving like they would wanted, he was greeted with violence, but that didn’t matter.

“Now, get some rest, soldier” Aiden growled slowly, wiping flecks of Bucky’ blood of off his hands. “We have work to do.”

When Black left the room, Bucky yelled aloud, hitting the table in front of him with his metal fist.

Evening had long since fallen, the chill of night picking at the edges of his meager jacket as he silently made his way through the quieting city. Captain Hydra was walking, passing closed shops and tracing streets he didn’t know.

He had a mission to do and he didn’t want to let his supervisors down. Steve had to kill a director of some organization named Robrax. It was kind of a pharmaceutical industry enterprise. Hydra was willing to do anything, just to overtake some researches results. Steve only knew they have wanted to make a new biological weapon.

He knew he should be careful, because, following the information he got, it seemed that other organization has wanted him for their own businesses.

Being in a deep thoughtfulness, he easily got at the terrain of the restricted area.

The building was oh so large. White walls and glazed doors were giving that real estate more dignity then he thought in a first moment. With a knife in his hand, he quietly slipped into a large building. He sneaked unheeded next to the guard’s place and he headed directly into the office number 10, located at the second floor.

Taking a staircase, he reached the floor and when he checked that no body’s there, he slowly stepped at the corridor. He went along it until he found a door with a gold numbers on them. Steve opened them and walked inside. Immediately he noticed the man he was looking for.

Dressed in a black suit, guy was sitting in the leather chair, making some notes. Fortunately for Steve, man was facing him with his back.

Captain Hydra walked over to his target and as quickly as he could, he put his palm at man’s mouth to cut over his throat in the next second. It didn’t take long for man to bleed out.

Steve, as soon as he made sure man’s dead, he left the room, putting his knife back into his pocket. He also easily managed to leave the building.

It was first time when he killed someone because of an order. Deep inside the last degraded ounce of his morality was trying to convince him that he was making a huge mistake. But he pushed those thoughts away.

He walked slowly along the street, heading to his apartment, which Hydra has rented for him. The barking of a dog jarred him from his thoughts, body suddenly tense and eyes, hard as steel and just as cold, scanning his surroundings for any threat as he stopped in his tracks. His knife was produced from his pocket, not as large but just as deadly in his capable hands. 

Another noise caught his attention. Footsteps, ten feet behind to the right. His mind was just methodical and calculating. Fingers tightened around the handle of the combat knife, although he showed no outward signs of realizing he was being approached; to any passersby it merely looked as if he was staring off into the jeweled skyline. The darkness would either be a great hindrance or a welcome advantage, but only time would tell..

Click. The sound of the safety switching off of a pistol was all the prompting Steve needed. Moving with a speed unexpected in his depleted state he spun around. A great blaze of light and concussive sound filled the street, the weapon discharging as Steve plunged his knife deep into the chest of his would-be assailant. In that quarter second of movement he had searched, located and struck, the metal blade deftly gliding between ribs and into a lung. The air filled with the sharp scent of copper and iron as blood poured from the wound.

Steve quickly realized it was one of the guards from Robrax.

The haphazard discharge of the weapon had blasted a round into the sidewalk, the sound of it no doubt alerting every person within a two block radius. I need to escape.

The man collapsing into a pool of his own blood, not dead but not quite alive.

If there was one there had to be more, he thought, and they had to be coming for him. He made it two steps before he heard the crack of a sniper rifle, echoing off some far-off building. The next few seconds blurred together, but he remembered being knocked off his feet, air forced from his lungs as he hit the brick wall of the building next to him, knife clamoring from his hand. Heat blossomed on his back, a burst of wet crimson that trickled down his spine as a bullet planted itself squarely into his right shoulder blade. The choking cry of surprise that escaped him startled him.

The pain hadn’t hit him yet, but his body felt like ice. His legs were sluggish underneath him as he struggled to his feet, bolting into an alleyway as he heard another bullet slam into the wall behind him. It’d been a low shot, as if for his leg. They want me alive. The thought filled him with a sick dread as he realized that they wanted to put him back on his leash, or worse, put him down so he couldn’t spill their secrets, although he had no secrets to tell. At least, not as he was now.

Shouts of men filled the street. “Down the alleyway!” and “He’s getting away!” among other things he couldn’t catch. The pain was starting to filter into his awareness, starting as an acidic heat that slowly built in on itself. His heart was pounding, lungs heaving, as he tried to lose the guard’s team in the maze of back alley streets. He needed to get to the apartment.

As he rounded a corner, two guardians spotted him, shouting loudly to others. A swear hissed under his breath, narrowly avoiding another bullet aimed for his legs. His reflexes were slowing, he could feel it, his strength draining from the wound the harder he pushed himself. A pistol was produced from his pocket, only two rounds fired with the same deadly precision he had used to change history numerous times. The first man dropped in a heap, not even getting the luxury to realize he had been hit. The other’s ribs popped wetly as the bullet tore open his side, letting out a ghastly cry as he tumbled to the ground and didn’t get back to his feet.

Without a moment’s hesitation the Steve was gone, vanishing into the darkness like the ghost he was before more of the guard’s team could arrive. Rain earlier in the day had slickened the streets, helping to hide his trail of blood as he snaked his way through the sleeping city. He had no idea how long he was running and barely had any recollection of where he was going, his body operating almost entirely on instinct by the time he reached that familiar building. His running had slowed to a staggering shamble, forcing his legs, which he lost feeling in about three minutes ago, to climb up the flight of stairs.

His breathing came with difficulty, his limbs heavy and blood like ice. The worn clothing he had been wearing was soaked through with his own blood, which still bubbled from the sniper’s bullet.

The door to the second floor apartment seemed like a nearly insurmountable obstacle. His glassed-over eyes darted from the knob to the floor, then to a small, out-of-place planter of tiny flowers. Barely a murmur of thought crossed his mind as he nudged it with his foot, exposing a key. He was too exhausted and in too much pain to question just why he believed there would have been a key there. The key was retrieved, clumsily inserted into the lock, and the door opened without protest; he could have kicked it open or picked the lock like last time, but he didn’t have the time or strength to attempt it.

With a soft clink of metal the key fell from his trembling fingers to the floor, shakily standing at the threshold taking great, heaving breaths. His vision was growing blurry and his hearing muffled, but after a moment of hesitation he stepped inside, pulling the door shut behind him, the click of the lock oddly comforting. Movement in front of him, down the narrow hall, and he knew he wasn’t alone. The pistol was still clutched in his left hand. He tried to take another step but his body had had enough; the pistol dropped to the floor, abandoned, as he tried to steady himself by pressing that palm to the wall.

Something was spoken to him but he didn’t catch it, gaze lifting to where he’d seen the movement earlier. Someone was standing a few yards away now. He didn’t need to hear to know who it was. Breath was inhaled sharply, words attempted but failed.

Emily Vandom. 

His whole body was shaking; it felt like the world was collapsing in on itself all around him. Underneath all the pain was a faint, lingering disappointment. Pain washed his thoughts away, a low whimper in his throat betraying the fact he was injured. He was going to go down, he felt it, and not a moment later did his right leg buckle, his whole body collapsing with it. He fell into something warm and yielding, not hard floor like he expected, but he had no time to ponder it as the darkness closed in on him.

[ecotone99]

[FN] "Paloma"

The Valley of Panark was a beautiful and desolate landscape, a vast desert with a scattered village where many dangers lurked that people couldn't speak of. There were no chances for warnings; sometimes the encounter alone was too late. Many people have vanished without a trace, and for the strangest reason, their families often feared their return, because whatever came back was not what left. And whatever came back, always took someone else with them. The townsfolk called them "Chaqugos," and they could never describe what they looked like, because anyone who saw them ending up becoming one. Except for me. I saw The Chaqugos, and what they did to my family explains everything, but like I said, there were no chances for warnings. I know what they look like, so I'll know if I ever see them again, which I know I eventually will. They never return to finish the job, because they had no job to finish, only the endless spread of their curse. They looked like men, without hair, eyes, ears, noses, or even bones. Their arms and legs were nothing more than the tails of earthworms, constantly squirming and coiling about almost uncontrollably. They travelled by flopping around on the ground like fishes out of water, slithering like sidewinders to prey on any living being they could catch. A single bite will transform you into one of them quickly, the mutation happening within minutes. When my family turned, they all ate each other, like a plate of living spaghetti. I only survived because of Paloma, the mysterious guardian of nature who showed up almost as if she were waiting for them. My life made absolutely no sense until I met Paloma, but as I got to know her, my life began to somehow make even less sense. I assumed Paloma was the same age as I when we met, but her near-infinite wisdom told me that she might have been the same age as time itself. She never spoke more than one sentence at a time, and she always wore a mask that covered her entire face, and put me in the mind of a clock with no numbers or hands. Her mask was round, white, and featureless with the exception of two shiny black half-moon shapes for her eyes. The mask was always attached to a loose black scarf she wrapped around her head tightly like a hood. She always wore a form-fitting black dress that fell to the ground. She also had long, feathered black wings like those of a vulture, resting on her lower back, folded around her hips like part of her skirt. She wore black gauntlets with retractable seven inch claws that sprang from her fingertips. Paloma was all I had growing up from that point, but I've never once seen her face in all the 12 years I've been in her presence. She would always have her back turned to me whenever she pulled off her scarf and mask, revealing long black hair that reminded me of a horse's mane. As children, it never really bothered me for her to hide her face, though I often imagined it to be equally as beautiful as her voice. I grew up with this masked angelic being after my family was slaughtered by creatures of an unknown origin, much like herself. I'll never forget how she protected me from the Chaqugos that attacked my family, and eventually ate himself. It was indeed a horrifying experience, dampened by Paloma's heroic display of power in her defense. She had the forces of the elements on her side, and she used alchemy and ethereal spells to conjure weapons out of nowhere. At first, I thought that i would learn the things I saw her do, but I ended up becoming her apprentice instead. She explained to me that my body had not yet been conditioned for the basics of magic. I had to return to a state of complete harmony with nature, I had to live off the land and understand the hidden laws of the universe before I could bend said laws to my will. We meditated together, and went out to hunt game in the wilderness, which I prepared and served each night. However, we never ate together. We lived in a 40 foot treehouse, with bridges and towers connected to at least two other trees as large as the oak that held the two story cabin. It was the type of large hollow space big enough for her to hide in the shadowy interiors of the short towers built into the house. It was her way of saying "good night." I looked outside one evening, and soon noticed that the dreaded hour was nigh. We were several minutes from a lunar eclipse, and I already started to hear thumps from beneath the floor. It was them. After 12 long years, the nightmares of my past had finally begun to emerge once more. With all the fishing and hunting I did, I should've been trying to learn about the Chaqugos, and how to stop them. Paloma taught me only one spell, but ordered me never to use it without reason. Sure, one could say I knew my way around a spear or a crossbow, but for what purpose other than hunting? I never practiced the spell. I never fought, or had to fight since I was under Paloma's protection. When I told Paloma how I felt, she said, "You are ready, because you can acknowledge that you are not." Before I could ask what that meant, random parts of the floor busted up, and the carnivorous invertabrates sprang through, bigger and more elongated than I remembered. Perhaps they had grown, too. I last remember them being roughly human size, now they looked big enough to swallow a horse whole. Their growls had gotten deeper, too. They sounded like the rumbles of an empty stomach. Paloma and I stood next to each other as the boneless monsters surrounded us. Paloma formed an orb of white light in her hands, and hurled it at The Chaqugos like a small comet in the room, blasting them into frozen chunks across the den. I grabbed a spear off the wall, and pierced one behind me, the blade poking through the top of the head from inside the mouth. As it died with the gurgling squeal of a drowning pig, I jumped over it on my way to kill another. With a spin and upward swipe, I split the creature's head in half vertically. Suddenly, it regenerated into having two heads as it lunged toward me. I dropped the weapon, and rolled out of the way, reaching for a sword from the nearest wall. Paloma shot another icy blast at the two-headed wormlike monster between us, but it ducked. It slapped her with all its might, and she flew back into a china cabinet, smashing it on impact. Her mask flew off along with her scarf, but her face was hidden by all that long, flowing hair. I held my blade in the fireplace long enough for it to glow with searing heat, then I swung the nearly molten blade wildly, hacking them to pieces as they dared come near my Paloma. After killing three of them, ten more showed up in their place. I grabbed a huge brass shield from over the mantle, and rushed through the horde on the way to Paloma, who was still unconscious. Although I slashed away at every snaky limb that reached for us, my burning sword alone wasn't going to be enough. I was grabbed by the two-headed abomination, who I had just realized hadn't been killed yet. To my left, I saw Paloma stand up, hunched over, hair draped over her face like curtains. "Paloma," I shouted, "Help!" When she realized that she was unmasked, she buried her face in her hands, and ran for the stairs. Before the creature could get me into either of its two mouths, I came up with the quick idea to use the one spell Paloma taught me, with no regard to what that magic would cost. I picked up a frozen chunk of dead Chaqugos flesh, and threw it into the fire as I shouted, "Eniyan Ina Zolosish!" The fire place exploded with a change of color from orange to blue, fire to lightning. The ashes quickly swirled up into a trio of glowing skeletons that ran out in all directions, incinerating the creatures by running past them like oversized fireflies in a jar. Paloma was attacked by a Chaqugos that caught her by surprise by popping up in the middle of the staircase, knocking her down the first flight. Two of the sprinting, burning skeletons grabbed me by the arms, freeing me from the clutches of the two-headed creature, and hurling me at the one on the staircase as if I were a javelin. On impact, I kicked it right back into the hole it emerged from. I almost fell in with it, until the speeding skeletons caught me and rushed us out of there, Paloma in tow. There were too many of them to continue fighting, I just looked at the burning house with giant wormtails flailing about from the windows. I looked up at the cloudy sky, and noticed that the eclipse was almost full. When I looked back down, I finally looked upon Paloma into her own eyes, realizing that she had dealt with a curse of her own all this time. She had the face of a spotted owl, darkened patterns around her large, sparkly purple eyes that resembled runny makeup, and a small, shiny black beak that almost resembled lips from certain angles. She was still beautiful in a strange way. Though I didn't mean to, I jumped back in shock at the very sight of her, with no mental preparation for her sudden reveal. "I know," Paloma sobbed as her wide eyes began to well up with tears, "I'm not pretty!" Before I could say anything, she squatted down with her wings extended, and rocketed straight upward with a powerful flap of her wings. The tremendous force of her takeoff knocked me off my feet, and when looked up, there was no hint of a winged figure seen anywhere on the blackened horizon. I stood up, and called for the Eniyans to report to me. The three skeletons engulfed in flames then surrounded me in a triangle formation in the blink of an eye, standing perfectly still and awaiting my command. They became my only source of light in the woods as the eclipse was now complete, plunging the world into utter darkness. The Eniyan Zolo in front of me stepped forward, and handed me Paloma's mask, which miraculously did not burn. The fire of the Eniyan Zolosish was harmless to the touch, and could only burn and spread by conscious choice. I looked at the mask, remembering all the memories I created with her, cut short only because i saw her face. I felt awful about my subconscious reaction; she appeared so ashamed. No wonder she hid herself from me the way she did. From that moment forward, I decided to start answering the many questions that surrounded the mysteries of Panark. I wanted to know what happened to Paloma, and what made her that way, if she didn't always look like that before. Who knows, maybe it wasn't a curse, maybe that was how she actually looked. It was easier to believe that she was never human to begin a. I held up Paloma's mask, and confidently declared that we were to go find her. They nodded silently, and and we began the search for the wise owl who got lost in the world of endless night, surrounded by thunderous rumbles and moving shadows throughout the woods...

This adventure will continue, as I am currently working on part 2. Thank you for reading.

submitted by /u/JayRocket91 [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/2FyMP44

[woozletania]

Sanctuary (RR/GOTG slice of life)

It started one day in the most innocuous way imaginable: nothing more dramatic than an E-mail. "Hey Rock," Quill said, slumped back in the pilot's chair idly scanning the screen as he helped Rocket work on a problem with the Milano. "Got a letter from your doctor friend." "Those're always good," Rocket replied, his head and body down to the armpits inside a panel working on control connections.  "Try the upper right aileron control." Star-Lord obediently pressed a control and Rocket made a happy noise from inside the console, his ringed tail twitching in not-quite-a-wag.  Peter went on. "Weird thing is the subject line is public but the body is locked, or I'd read it to you. All I can see is 'P. Foster' and 'It's happening again'." There was a dull bang from inside the console as Rocket's tail went stiff. Peter watched curiously as a hand appeared, set down a wrench.  Rocket's voice was deadly calm. "Read that again, Pete." "'It's happening again.' That's all I can read, man." "Oh.  Okay then." The hand grabbed the wrench and Rocket worked briefly, then slid back into view.  As usual he was covered with dust and smears of grease but a spot of bloody fur over one eye showed where he'd hit his head.  "That'll hold it.  I gotta hit the can." Gamora came up the stairs just as Rocket went down and the little raccoon pushed past her with even worse manners than usual. The green-skinned assassin took one look at the open panel and discarded tools the raccoon left in his wake and came to the obvious conclusion.  "In the middle of something?  Mantis has lunch ready." "I guess.". Peter fiddled with the controls, watching the indicators as he tried the various control surfaces, thrusters and engines.  "Looks like it's all working. Figure Rocket will want to work on it more though, he doesn't leave his personal tool kit just lying where everyone can get at it unless he's in the middle of something." But Rocket didn't show up at lunch and didn't answer when Mantis knocked on his door.  Weirdly enough he'd even locked Groot out and the tree, a little taller than the raccoon now and going through early teenage crankiness, spent two minutes banging on the door until Rocket finally swore and opened it. "What? I was just doin' some stuff." Groot handed him back his tools, which got a grunt of something like 'thanks' from the raccoon, who then finally emerged and locked the door behind him. Drax happened by just then and the three made their way to the common area for a belated lunch. Peter, Gamora and Mantis were all there around the table and Mantis reached out without thinking to pet Rocket, seeing from the angle of his ears that he was in a bad mood.  Rocket was a lot more likely to let someone pet him these days but this time he flinched away and sat by himself, grabbing one of the sandwiches from the platter without a word. Seeing Rocket in a bad mood was nothing new but he was usually nicer to Mantis than this and Peter spoke up.  "Was that letter bad news, Rock?" "Oh that," Rocket grunted between bites.  "Not really. He did say he met another guy who's up on my model of cybernetics and that I should have him take a quick look next time I'm in the area.  So I wanna swing by Kopleth today, since we're between money runs." "Kopleth?  Dull place, but I guess," Peter said.  There was nothing but the sound of munching and Drax loudly slurping soup after that until Rocket finished eating. The second the door to his room closed, though, the conversation started up again. "You don't believe him, do you?" Said Gamora. "Not for a second," Quill replied. "I am Groot," said the sapling. "Yes," rumbled Drax.  "He had his weapons out and a bag of bombs half packed when I saw into his room for a moment.  Whatever he's going to Kopleth for, it is not to see a doctor." Gamora's smart pad beeped, and she read the message before turning the screen so the others could see.  It was from Nebula. 'Not supposed to tell you this, but he's in your crew.  Rocket just asked me to help him kill some people.  Something going on I should know about?' Rocket should have known that on a ship this small it was impossible to keep secrets.  Perhaps he did, because when they arrived on Kopleth and he made his way down the docking ramp, bag-full-o-guns over his shoulder, it was an expression of resignation more than anything else that crossed his face when he found his friends waiting at the bottom. "Before you say anything," he said.  "This isn't anything you want to be a part of. It's personal business." Gamora held up her smart pad once more.  'If you are reading this I am dead, on the run or in jail. The bounty on me will be huge if it's the middle one, so I'll understand if you come after me. It was something I had to do. No apologies.' Rocket groaned.  "That was supposed to be time locked until tomorrow." "Not when I know to look," Gamora said.  "And I knew something was going on." "Yes," said Nebula as she stepped off her ship.  "What is going on, fox?" "It's happening again," Rocket said a little later in the Milano's common area.  "I can't let it happen again. Never again." "What's going on, buddy?" Rocket sat with his ears down and his little clawed hands between his knees. He counted the grenades on his belt, twice, before continuing.  "Doc Foster got a job offer.  They knew he worked at Halfworld and gave him a virtual tour of the new facility.  Animal Uplift.  Cybernetic implants.  Vivisection. Euthanizing the subjects when they were done.  Somehow they had data files from the Halfworld complex. There must have been a backup elsewhere and now it's all happening again." There were no tears in the raccoon's eyes. Just determination. "If I have to spend the rest of my life in a cell to stop this, I'll do it. Every one of these bastards has to die. But research like this is legal on Kopleth. I'm going, but the rest of you oughta get out of here now. 'Cept maybe the lady who already has a giant bounty on her bald head," he said, nodding to Nebula. "You're not going, buddy," Star-Lord said.  "Not without me." "There will be heavy security, yes?" Drax asked, and Rocket nodded.  "Then I will not be left out of a good fight." "And if my sister goes, I go," said Gamora.  Nebula just smiled. "You don't get it," Rocket said.  "We spent the last year building up a reputation. This could destroy it.  If it's just me you can say I was a rogue. I'm expendable." "No," Gamora said, and everyone (except maybe Nebula) said together, "You aren't." Rocket sighed.  Not surprised, just a little sad.  Peter spoke up next.  "So you got a plan, little buddy?" "'Course I got a plan," Rocket mumbled.  "Always got a plan." "One that involves all of us, not just you?" "Told you," Rocket said with the beginning of a smile.  "I always got a plan." And that's why it was that Drax, armed with a missile launcher of Rocket's own design, Gamora with her plasma rifle and Quill with his pistols stormed the front of the complex to draw attention away from the back, while Rocket, Rocket-sized Groot and Nebula, whose cybernetics made her eerily flexible, entered via the ductwork Rocket had identified from the schematics he'd studied. Some of the vents were too small for even Nebula and so they soon separated with a whispered "Kill only when necessary," for Rocket eventually allowed himself to be reminded that not everyone they encountered would be a monster. Yet the first thing he did was drop out of an air vent onto the shoulders of a Xandarian who was cutting open a black-furred creature, dig his claws into the man's throat and rip it out. "Nod if you understand," he whispered, undoing the furry thing's restraints even as the researcher toppled over. It nodded, and Rocket slapped an emergency medical patch over the hole the "doctor" had put in the long-eared creature and gestured for it to follow him. There was a thump against the wall nearby, probably Nebula shattering some fool's skull, and a black-clad security guard popped through a door only to get a chest full of Rocket's hand-made APX - Armor Piercing Explosive - rounds. The next room had nothing but a few empty cages and bloodstained operating tables, though Rocket reflexively pocketed a handful of servo components from a table. Distant shouts and gunfire meant the other Guardians were fighting their way in and this place clearly wasn't built and staffed to withstand a major assault, which was just what you got when Gamora and Drax led an attack. "I am Groot?" The black-furred test subject jumped when a three-foot-tree man man his appearance but Rocket just smiled.  "Yeah, can you get that door?". He'd been about to blast the armored portal but Groot's strength was all out of proportion to his size and his tendrils ripped the thing from its hinges. "Jackpot!" Cages, test subjects - and a couple of guards.  Rocket got one before they recovered from the sudden disappearance of the armored door and speed and small size gave him the advantage he needed to take out the other. "Get 'em out, get 'em out!" He blew away what he recognized as a cybernetics jammer mounted just outside the row of cages and Groot ripped the door off the nearest just as a white-jacketed researcher appeared.  Rocket hesitated to shoot an unarmed man and thus made a mistake that would make him wake staring at the ceiling and shaking for years afterward. The man didn't need a gun to smash his hand into a panic button and the result was clouds of green poison gas spraying from nozzles on the ceiling. "Shit!  Hurry!" The furthest cages were already out of sight in a cloud of poison, as was the researcher, and Rocket resorted to shooting the locks off the cages he could still see.  Half shaved, cybernetic implant-studded animals of several unfamiliar species  leapt out and ran for the door and Rocket cursed as he shot the lock off a cage that held a shivering yellow-furred creature curled in a ball as far away from the bars as it could get. He had already breathed more of the green gas than he liked and all he could do was grab the thing and yank it out of the cage. Mistake.  He should have known it would panic and with an animalistic shriek the long, flexible yellow creature wrapped around him like a snake and sank sharp fangs into his neck. The spray of red told him he was in real trouble but Rocket was no stranger to pain and he grabbed a gas-added creature from another cage and staggered for the door, weighed down by two of them and passing the handheld one off to Groot as he made it through the doorway and slammed it shut. Everything still alive in that room wouldn't be that way for long and he wasn't doing so good either. The whiskery muzzle was still clamped down on the side of his neck and Groot had to help him run the few dozen yards to daylight. What he saw when he burst into the light astonished him.  Not just the Guardians but hovering Nova fighters, not to mention ground troops who had rounded up a dozen white-coated researchers and were similarly trying to keep track of at least that many research animals.  His keen ears picked up the argument going on between a Nova officer - he recognized Dey - and what must be the head researcher.  "No authority here - research animals, perfectly legal," and something about "Murderous thugs." Rocket ignored the blood running down his chest, got his fingers into the scruff of the yellow thing slowly killing him with its bite and whispered, "Listen - all of you Subjects, listen, say this -" "Rocket!" Quill came running as Rocket's vision began to gray around the edges, blood loss and gas, and Gamora right behind him. No sign of Nebula of course, she'd wisely taken a powder. Just then the yellow thing's fangs came out of his neck and it said, slowly and clearly to the nearest Nova corpsman: "In accordance with the Uniform Sapience Act -" "No!" The head researcher tried to intervene, only for Drax to clothesline him to the ground. "I request sanctuary on the basis of inhumane treatment," the yellow thing said, and the other animals repeated "Sanctuary, sanctuary," and the less Uplifted  or vocal ones spitting out the syllables the way he used to, "sanct-u-ary," And then Rocket was falling over, weighed down by the yellow thing and never so happy in his life to hear one word.  It'd all been worth it.  Live or die, it was so worth it. ***** 'So, not dead,' were Rocket's first thoughts when he woke.  His neck hurt, his chest hurt, and oddly enough his leg hurt too. And the second thing that passed through his mind when he opened his eyes was how familiar the metal ceiling looked. "Why am I not in jail," he mused, and Peter jerked upright in the chair next to the bunk, dropping the Zune headphones he'd been tinkering with. A strange animal chirp came from low down, out of his range of vision, but it hurt to turn his neck so he couldn't see what made it. "Rocket!  Hey, everybody, he's awake!" In an instant the room was crowded with the crew, and even Nebula, and Rocket realized he was in Peter's quarters on board the Milano. The captain's cabin, if you could call it that, was about fifteen percent larger than the space he had before he turned it into a lifeboat and started sleeping in his round padded bed. "I have lots of questions," Rocket said, and then there was another, because a sleek yellow head sporting long, familiar whiskers popped into view as well. He'd never gotten a good look at it but this was indisputably the creature that nearly killed him.  He was too tired and sore to hold that against her.  "I guess they all fall under 'what happened'." "Peter had an idea," Gamora said, and Mantis smiled as she gently scratched Rocket's ears.  "A good one, for a change." "Thanks Gamora," Pete said sourly.  "I called Nova Corps before we went to the compound to see if I could get them to look the other way for a little while as we took off for our new outlaw lives.  When I explained what was going on to Dey he said the following," with that he pointed at Drax. "Animal research is legal in many places," the giant intoned.  "But as far as Nova is concerned, Uplift, or at least the abuse of the resulting sapients is legal nowhere." Peter grinned. "Since Kopleth has no military to speak of they couldn't do much when a Nova troop transport and escorts showed up. Even medics who patched you up, though it was a near thing. You had nerve gas in your system, a nicked artery in your neck and a splinter from a ricochet or something in your calf below the armor." "So we're not outlaws," Rocket said wonderingly.  "What about the research subjects?" "Under Nova supervision," Gamora said.  "To be granted full sapient rights and a share of the penalty fines being assessed against the company.  And we get a share of that too." "Free money!" Pete cheered.  "A reward for just doing good things!" "What about her?" Rocket looked at the whiskery creature, seeing the bolts almost concealed by her fur where the artificial collarbones lay.  He had bolts like that, too. "Her?" Pete looked puzzled.  "You mean 96L02?" "Subject Nine-Six-Lima-Zero-Two reports as ordered, sir," the creature said, and stood up as straight as its long cylindrical body allowed. Rocket winced. "Damn it Pete, you know better than that.  That's not a name and she - yeah, you bald bodies have no noses I know but she is a she - is conditioned to respond to that number.  I don't want to hear one of you say it again. Ever." He reached over to see how she would react, careful not to touch, and webbed hands/forepaws clasped his fingers.  "Rocket," she chirped.  "So so-ree I bit you." "I woulda done the same thing," Rocket said.  "Ask Pete. He got the scars to prove it.  Now we need to get you a name." She stood bolt upright. "Subject Nine-Six-Lima-" "No!" She shrank back, her little low-set ears sinking.  "That was what they called you. You don't belong to them now.  You can have any name you want." "But I don't have a name," she chirped. Do you know the names of the researchers?" "Rocket," Peter said firmly.  "You are not naming her after guys you killed to get her out." "Hey, it worked for me.  And I only killed four anyway." "I am Groot." "That guy killed himself," Rocket said, and that brought back bad memories.  "How many got out?  Test subjects that is." "Thirteen," Gamora said, "But one died from gas exposure. Before you ask, including the one in the operating room there were twenty-six in various stages of Uplift." Rocket swore, but Peter cut him off.  "Subject-" and the yellow creature stood bolt upright, "Er, Lima told us what happened.  Rocket, I was the one who told you not to shoot people who weren't a threat. It's my fault.  And if we'd all gone in the front, which was my plan, they would have gassed them all.  Your plan got some of them out and would have got them all out if you hadn't listened to me. So blame me, not yourself." "It's all right," Rocket grunted.  "I woulda hesitated anyway.  Didn't think a guy would kill himself just to get rid of some Subjects." Lima stood bolt upright at the word. "Why is she doing that, Rock?  You don't do that when people say 89P-" Rocket let out an inarticulate growl and Pete stopped. "Oh yeah, you killed all the people who called you that." "Except Doc Foster," but then Lima was gripping his clawed hand again in her webby ones. "Why are you so angry, Rocket," she chirped, and Pete smothered a laugh. "'Cause I was made to be angry. To be a weapon.  You don't have to be like me, Lima." "I'm not," she said immediately.  "I am for linguistics, and diplomacy, and companionship. I am to be cute." And with her whiskers and ink-dark eyes she certainly was. "No! You don't gotta be what they made you.  You can be whatever you want." "I don't know what I want to be," she chirped, and Rocket smiled sadly. "Welcome to the club, lady." One by one the others wished him goodnight and left for their beds, for it was very late indeed.  He'd apparently been granted Peter's cabin until he recovered, though he protested that he didn't need anywhere near that much space. "You're in no shape to curl up to sleep," Peter said.  "You need a real bed." I've got a real bed, and it's round, Rocket thought but did not say. That brought it to mind when Lima dropped down to all fours and curled up on a wadded-up blanket. "Groot," Rocket mumbled, and then spoke up despite his sore chest. "Groot!" "I am Groot?"  Naturally, the tree had been resting right outside the door.  He wasn't going anywhere until he was sure Rocket was fully recovered. "Get my bed, please." "I am Groot?" "No, it's not for me. Pete will yell at me if he has to sleep on a bunk and I don't use the bed he's lent me. And yeah, I'm too sore to curl up.  But look," Rocket said, and gestured at Lima. "I am Groot." "Thanks, pal." A moment later the tree was back with the round, padded bed, the one embroidered with "Rocket" and the Ravager symbol. Rocket knew perfectly well it was a pet bed Pete picked up on Earth but Pete never lorded that over him (which showed he had an active survival instinct) and the thing was damn comfortable. "Lima."  The yellow creature - Rocket was sure there was a species name for her, but he had no idea what it was except that she was clearly designed for an aquatic life - popped her head up out of the nest of blankets. "Use this.  It's comfy." She slithered out of the blankets on her short web-footed legs and gave it a sniff. "It smells like you, Rocket." "Yeah, I sleep in it, but you need it more than I do right now." "Are you sure?" "Yeah." Rocket smiled as she curled up in a ball in the padded bed, just as he did.  She was long and sinuous compared to his more humanoid build, but she still fit perfectly into the thing. There was a time he and Groot shared the thing every night, but Groot was too big now.  That had taken a lot of getting used to.  For years he'd slept in leafy beds Groot grew each night, then he and mini-Groot shared various beds, and then ultimately it was just Rocket, and now it was just Lima, or whatever her name would eventually be. "Good night, Lima.  Tomorrow we'll talk about your name." And that would have been the end of it, except that later, when the ship lights were turned down to a dim glow, Rocket was woken by a familiar sound.  A nervous chattering, whining, and the sound of claws on fabric. Lima was in the midst of a nightmare.  He'd heard all these sounds before from himself, and heard them described to him. She twitched in the round bed, and whined, and he had all too good an idea of what she was dreaming about. He'd always been the one to wake screaming, or shivering. Peter had the occasional nightmare, and with good reason, but he was stronger than Rocket.  Or maybe his nightmares didn't involve being strapped down and cut open.  Rocket didn't know what Pete had nightmares about.  Ego? The Ravagers?  His mother dying?  Yondu? He did know how Pete had helped him with his own night terrors, though. Rocket winced as he sat up, and using the cabin chair as a stepping stool (not something he'd normally need) finally made it to the floor.  He was tough, he healed fast, but the nerve gas had really done a number on him.  Stapled-up wounds in neck and leg didn't hurt half as much as his chest but he dropped to all fours and padded over to the round bed an its occupant. Peter, much larger than himself, had just petted him or rubbed his back to get him to relax.  Lima was as big as he was, though, and the only way he could see to make her feel safe was to crawl into the round bed and snuggle up next to her. She moved in her sleep and soon her whiskery muzzle rested on his shoulder next to his own. Bit by bit she shifted and he moved with her until they were curled up together.  If it weren't for their dramatically different fur colors and body shapes it'd be hard to tell where one ended and the other began. By the time they were snuggled up together she had relaxed, the shivering tension gone from her muscles and her breathing slow and relaxed. 'What I should do now is wriggle out of here and bed back on the bed,' Rocket thought.  But he was tired, and sore, and there was something about lying here snuggled up with another furry creature. 'Safe,' Rocket thought as he drifted off to sleep.  'I feel safe.  I hope she does too.'