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finiteuniverse13 · 3 years

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home is people, not a place 2/?

Part 1

Summary: Clay gets attacked on base. DEVGRU finds an issue in that.

TW: Blood mention, physical assault, canon typical violence

Tag: @rebelwrites @chibsytelford @bravo-four-seal-team @velvetcardiganbucky @supervalcsi @abby-splace @itsonautopilot @thegirlwhoisalwayswriting @pinkrockstar19 @softi92 @mrsmarvelous1995 @jayhalsteadfan-2417

Lisa is pissed. She has every right to be. Clay had been attacked in the Bravo cages.

She’d watched the kid go from a strap who couldn’t stay in his own lane to an operator who could lead Bravo – and Tier One, for that matter – into the future. And then he’d been attacked in his team’s cages, in his own cage. Blackburn was still at the hospital – he’d found the kid in a pool of his own blood; Lisa wouldn’t blame him if it took an apocalypse to separate him from the kid – making sure that the kid got appropriate care.

She pushed open the door to Bravo’s briefing room, not that it actually had any members of Bravo in it. Alpha, Charlie and Delta were all there, waiting on her brief on the situation. Echo would have been there, if not for them being halfway through their first deployment as a team. There had been hesitation about deploying Echo – the loss of the last Echo line-up still sat heavily in the Tier’s mind.

The three team’s Master Chiefs and 2ICs had sat in Bravo’s usual chairs. Full Metal and Derek sat in Jason and Ray’s chairs, respectively. Beau and his second in command had taken Sonny and Trent’s, while TJ was sat in Brock’s. Delta Two had distinctively chosen not to sit in Clay’s seat, instead sitting in a chair usually used for either Cerberus or a support staff member, depending on the op.

(It was very funny to watch Brock and Clay push a wheely chair with Cerberus on it between the two of them, and they’d pretty much mastered the art of doing it in the last few months. Cerb had found that if he allowed it to happen, he’d get belly rubs and treats, so he was unbothered about it)

The other seats had a random assignment, seemingly first-come-first-serve. The ones unlucky enough to have not found seats stood tensely, arms crossed and grumbling under their breath to each other.

Nobody sat in Clay’s seat.

All 18 operators looked up when she walked in, attention snapping to the person with the most information. As she walked in, her gaze caught on the table space in front of Clay’s chair. Clay had left his book on the table. It’s about as thick as a brick, and Sonny would probably take a glance at it and tell Clay it was as dry as one. The embossed cover didn’t read English, and Lisa had a feeling that there would be very few, if any, people in the room able to read any part of the book.

She stood at the front and pushed her emotions down. These operators were here for information, not emotion.

“At 0145 this morning, 4 Green Team members entered Bravo’s Cage room. At 0157, they left, and returned to the Green Team barracks. 0204, Lieutenant Commander Blackburn entered the Bravo cages. He dialled 911 and was assisted by Alpha Four-”

She cuts herself off for a few seconds, as various operators slapped Jordan on the back, mumbled thanks spreading through the room as they reassured themselves that one of their own had helped their kid.

“Assisted by Alpha Four at 0207. Ambulance arrived at 0215. The Green Team members were apprehended by Alpha and Delta at 0248.”

She pauses again as a ripple of thanks goes through to room, Alpha and Delta thanking their Master Chiefs and each other and Charlie thanking both teams.

“Petty Officer Spenser was admitted to hospital at 0224, and was assessed as having a concussion, a broken nose and 5 bruised ribs.”

Alpha, Charlie and Delta’s medics all take note of this. They’re probably going to be on Clay’s ass for the next few months about this, right behind Trent.

“Bravo arrived at the Hospital at 0243. They are all with him. Hayes has asked that he is included in any appropriate punishments.”

Full Metal snorts. “Bet he didn’t word it like that”

A series of chuckles and grins echoes around the room. He did not word it like that. There was much more swearing, and much, much less formal language. He’d implied murder no less than 5 times.

Lisa allowed a smile to pass through the stony calm façade she had up.

“Command has delegated these appropriate punishments to be carried out within DEVGRU and have stressed the importance of leaving an impression on future graduates. This cannot be a recuring event.”

TJ pipes up first, almost before she’d finished talking. “I say we let Metal work his magic, make sure nobody finds them.”

This gets mixed responses, but Lisa isn’t surprised when none are wholly negative. They all had a younger brother in the form of Clay, and they had all trained for years in the art of killing their enemies as swiftly and efficiently as possible, and these candidates fell wholly and completely under the title of ‘Enemy’.

Metal gives a faux hopeful look to Lisa, and Lisa can tell that he’s not entirely dismissed the possibility, even as he does a terrible job at pretending to still consider it an option that Lisa could authorize. Lisa plays into the joke – god knows that Tier One needs some light in this disastrous day – and gives him the look mostly used for when Bravo (usually Sonny) suggests a stupid idea that shouldn’t had even crossed their minds. Blackburn jokingly referred to it as her “bad dog” look, and it worked for its purpose, making the operators put their tails between their legs. A few faces form smiles, and a few look to be wavering on the edge of smiling.

“No murder, and no death.”

This gets her grumbles, and not all of them are joking. Clay had gotten all of them out of sticky situations. Every operator in Tier One had a handful story where Clay had needed to be briefed on their op, and all of them had at least one where he’d taking calls at 2am to translate over a connection that he could barely hear English through. He’d never berated them for waking him up, and had often taken time to teach various operators key phrases, if he knew they were deploying somewhere where he knew the language.

Beau goes next, possibly the most level-headed of the Master Chiefs – both in the room and not. “Advanced SERE?”

Now this, Lisa can work with. Something about her posture must change, a twitch in her face, because the room suddenly erupts in sound. Charlie Two, Delta Five and Alpha Three all are in close enough range to clap Beau on the back, and they do so in quick succession.

“Gentlemen.” She raises her voice to be heard by the room. There’s nothing gentle about the looks on their faces.

“I’ll leave you to figure something out. Report to me with a plan of action.” And with that, she gives them a single nod and begins to leave. Her turned back does not block out the whispers of violence, but it does hide the vicious smile that’s stretched itself out along her face.

Nobody would even think about hurting their kid. Ever again.

As Clay blearily opened his eyes, he realised that he’d succumbed to pain-med-induced sleep. A few hours had probably passed since then, based on the fact that sunlight was now filling the room. Sonny was sat on his right side, gaze focused on the room’s TV screen, which was showing a play-by-play of a football game. The volume was cranked down, and even as Clay becomes more aware; he can only hear every other word.

“Son?” The word passes his lips without him meaning it to. Sonny’s head snaps over to Clay, so fast that Clay fears he may have given himself whiplash.

“Hey Bam Bam, how ya doin?” The toothpick moves hypnotically. Stop looking at the toothpick. Stop it. Stop it. Sonny’s casual expression is betrayed by the slight waver in his voice, a sliver of raw emotion that Sonny couldn’t fully supress. Clay gives him a strained smile in lieu of answering and reaches his hand out. Sonny catches the hand before it moves very far, holding it in a tight grip.

Sonny’s thumb absently runs across Clay’s unblemished because he hadn’t even been able to fight back knuckles, and his spare hand turns off the TV, leaving them in silence.

“Kid.” Clay’s eyes widen slightly, and he almost pulls his hand out of Sonny’s grip at the softly spoken word. He tries to get in the apology, the explanation, before Sonny can tell him that Jason is punishing him for being unaware.

“I should have being paying attention. I know I should have been paying attention, I was just so tired.” I’m sorry I’m so sorry don’t kick me out please

Sonny freezes. What?

“Clay. Stop. Stop-” he has to cut himself off before he says something that includes those really touchy-feely-emotions he’s feeling. Thankfully, Clay doesn’t take the pause as an opportunity to continue. “Stop trying to defend yourself. None of us blame you, Blondie. You were on base. You should have been protected. We won’t fail you again.” Sonny gives him facts, because he knows that if he tries to do anything else he’ll make it worse.

“Son?” Clay recalls a voice calling through the dark, through the black water he was floating in, a voice he’d recognised; “Did Blackburn find me? He- he had blood on his hands”

For a moment, Sonny curses Clay’s blessings as a sniper. He’d always been able to notice the little things, the things none of them would notice. “Yeah, he was checking that none of us were sleeping in the cages.”

Clay nods, and then his brows furrow. He breaks eye contact with Sonny and frowns in the genal direction of his feet. His face makes what Sonny calls his ‘Brainiac’ Face, and Sonny can only assume that he’s thinking about what happened with Blackburn, not rationalizing with himself that the beating was somehow his fault.

“Son, can I talk to him?” Sonny doesn’t want to think about whatever that conversation is going to be, so he nods and begins to gather his stuff. His cap is hanging precariously from one on the bed’s corners, his phone on the bedside table. He stands and ruffles Clay’s head, laughing despite the stink-eye he gets for it. Clay doesn’t mind it, and he has the feeling the next few weeks, if not months, are going to be filled with various forms of physical contact to reassure his teammates that he was still with them.

And now he’d asked Sonny to get Blackburn. God what do you even say to the guy who had found you beaten? ‘Hey Boss, I’m sure that what you saw was horrifying, but I’m alright now?’ God help him. Sonny hadn’t given him a weird look, so he’d probably been expecting Clay to ask at some point.

Clay’s train of thought is interrupted when a soft knock sounds on the door. There’s a second of pause before the door opens. Clay can’t think of a time when Blackburn’s looked worse. There are dark circles under his eyes, and a vaguely haunted look in his eyes. His eyes have a red tinge, and Clay can’t tell if that’s from sleep deprivation, or something else. His hands are rubbed red and raw, and Clay can tell that Blackburn had taken extra care to get every fleck of blood off his hands. He’s in a jacket that looks too big for him, and Clay suspects that Trent had a hand in that. Since the injured person – Clay – wasn’t someone he could immediately care for, Trent had gone for the next best thing, a shaken Blackburn. Under the jacket, he’s still in his fatigues, and by the time he’s finished the assessment of Blackburn’s top half, he’d moved close and sat down, hiding everything below his waist from Clay’s view.

Blackburn reaches out, putting a palm on Clay’s forearm, Clay’s hand mirrors it on Blackburn’s arm, and tension bleeds from Blackburn’s figure. His shoulders slump slightly, and he leans forward.

“How are you feeling?”

Clay considers lying, considers saying that he’s not in any pain, considers easing Blackburn’s mind. He decides against it. Blackburn had found him in a pool of blood, it’s the least he can do to tell him the truth. “My ribs hurt. But I’m, I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you were there.”

Clay is the sometimes literally bleeding heart of Bravo, levelling out Sonny’s emotional constipation, and the admission is the balm of some of the burns on Eric’s soul. Eric leaned forwards, shuffling closer to the bed, trying to hide the blood on his knees. He hadn’t been home to change, a call to his wife at 8am had told her that he wasn’t going to be home for a while. She, like the amazing wife she was, had been understanding, and then grumbled at him to let her sleep. They’d both laughed and exchanged ‘I love you’s before his wife ended the call. Clay didn’t need the stress of knowing that Eric had knelt in his blood. Nobody needs that.

“Gave me quite a scare, gave all of us quite a scare.” Eric doesn’t tell him that he’d spent the last half hour scrubbing his hands raw, that Jason had needed to strong-arm him into the waiting room, that Trent had given him one look and offered up his jacket, that he’d had his head in his hands until Sonny had come into the room and told him that Clay wanted to talk to him. Doesn’t tell him that he’d stood outside for nearly a minute before he’d knocked, that he’d needed to barrel in before he lost the nerve to speak to his operator. He usually prides himself on staying calm, on being collected, but Clay had been attacked in one of the few places on earth that he could honestly and without reservation call home. That scared Eric. If he couldn’t keep his operators safe on base, where would they be safe?

“Davis is talking to command about adding locks to the cage room doors, make sure this doesn’t happen again.” If she wasn’t already talking to command about it, she would be soon.

Clay nods. He shifts and grimaces in pain.

“Do you want me to get a nurse?” It’s a safe question, one that doesn’t involve the emotions in the room.

Clay ignores the lifeline. “I’m alright as I am. Did you get the guys?”

Eric nods. Breaking the news to Bravo had been the highlight of his morning. “Command is letting DEVGRU work out how to punish them.”

Clay grins. “I bet Metal is having fun with that.”

It’s Eric’s turn to smile, and a soft chuckle makes its way out. “Davis is under strict orders to not accept a plan that involves murder. I’m sure Alpha’s disagreeing with that.”

Alpha was most likely to deploy with Bravo, and all were in line with their Master Chief’s ‘Bury-first-questions-second’ policy when it came to Clay. Eric had a feeling it wouldn’t take much convincing to get Delta and Echo behind the plan, and that Charlie would only argue on principle.

Tier One was a brotherhood that didn’t take kindly to injury, as the world would learn.

Echo One – Zack Greer – a newly promoted Delta Two, wasn’t a very outgoing man. One and Twos were meant to both complement and contrast each other, a precarious balancing act honed over years of living out of each other’s pockets. TJ had needed a level head, so his Two was calm in the face of crisis.

Echo Two, on the other hand. A Floridian man, Elliot Howe, promoted from Charlie Three, who was under strict orders to never drink unsupervised with Sonny Quinn, lest they empty a bar and then burn said bar to the ground. He’d chaffed under Beau’s tight ship, so when the opportunity to move to form Echo had arisen, he was hard pushed to say no.

Together with Echo Three (Alpha Three), Echo Four (Delta Six) and two Green Team graduates as their Five and Six, they’d created a tight brotherhood.

Echo Five, Dan Wilder, a multilingual K9 handler, had initially been lost at DEVGRU, not quite fitting in. He’d reached out to the youngest operator – Bravo Six – in order to get some advice. What he didn’t know at the time is that their languages had overlap. Together with Clay and Ares – his K9 – he’d been able to find someone to practice with.

Echo had long since lost count of how many times Clay had come into their cage room, with a well-loved book, offering it to Dan with a brief explanation of how it would interest him. The book was never in English, and neither was the explanation. For all they knew, Clay could have spent the last few months giving Dan anything from Harry Potter to The Anarchist’s Cookbook (he’d actually only given Dan one of those, and Dan was under strict instructions not to tell them which, and Dan had been recommending others back).

Sonny, on the days when they were hanging out after work, sometimes tagged along to these exchanges. He’d joked about a book club, and Echo Two had picked up on the joke immediately, and since then the pair had resigned themselves to the nickname.

Between Clay’s frequent interactions with Dan and the fact that all of DEVGRU was deadly protective of Clay, it was no surprise that when Echo had heard the news, they hadn’t been happy. Command had fought a battle with Echo to keep them deployed, and Echo had nearly won. Dan had been on many rants, talking to empty space in Pashto – Four only caught a few words, and those were all along the lines of murder and death. Ares was giving out a low, constant growl. Both of the DEVGRU K9s were as protective as their owners, it seemed.

The door to their dorms slammed open and Zack marched in. Echo looks up in sync, and if it weren’t so serious, Zack would be amused by how much his men look like Meerkats. “Got word from Virginia.” This sets his men on edge, Howe half-steps forward, and his shoulders visibly tense up. “They found the green team rookies. We’ve been asked to approve the plan of their punishment before it gets sent to be approved by command.” Malicious smiles break out among the barracks.

They may be 7000 miles away, but they wouldn’t let anybody off the hook because of it.

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otpnessmess · 4 years

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Of Casual Encounters And Late Nights Pt.2

Here it is! I don't know if it's as long as you wanted but it's almost double the first chapter. I hope you like it!

First Next Ao3

A week went by where Jason managed to avoid meeting Ladybug again while investigating, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t heard of her. Akuma attacks were as frequent as ever and gave him an opportunity to learn more about the terrors that had been plaguing Paris for years now apparently. He sent all new info on it to his family, who couldn’t believe none of it had reached them up until that point. Bruce was feeling particularly flabbergasted among them.

“You mean to tell me there’s been a terrorist in Paris for years, one that’s been destroying the city twice a week, and we knew absolutely nothing about it?” He seemed to be going through the seven stages of grief before excusing himself to call Diana.

Meanwhile, Jason’s brothers piled up in front of the computer screen wanting to hear more about the heroes and their work. Tim was looking up information on the internet while Dick asked questions nonstop about their powers, and their suits, and if he had had the chance to talk to them yet.

“They sometimes stay back after the attacks, but their powers have some kind of time limit so those are rare occasions, or so I’ve heard. They’re all proficient fighters and each have their own set of powers and weapon. Ladybug’s powers are the most impressive by far”

The mention of her name threw him right back into the memory of the night they first met. Despite resenting not being given an opening to talk to her more then, Jason had to admit leaving had been the right choice. He wanted to stay in the shadows as long as possible, and dealing with the police on his second night in the city wouldn’t have made that easy for him. Adding to that, even though he was quite stubborn and didn’t want to accept it, he felt curious about the spotted heroine. She was sassy and clever and, if the two battles she had this week were anything to go by, her abilities to strategize rivaled Tim’s.

He came back to the present with a jolt when Dick whined about him not paying attention, eliciting a snort from both him and Damian, who also looked at the eldest with a sneer. “You’re 29 Grayson, no one that age should be making those types of noises.” Jason would rather die than saying it out loud, but sometimes he did miss the dumbasses that were his brothers.

“You know, I don’t think we would have believed this was real even if someone had told us about it. I found a... Ladyblog? It has videos of almost every attack from the last 4 years as far as I can see, and these look every bit as outlandish as I expected them to. There’s this one where apparently the whole city was flooded.” Tim pulled up the video in the peripheral monitors for the others to see and, lo and behold, there was the video from the day Ondine had drowned Paris. Faint screams could be heard in the background as the person recording managed to get to the roof of a building just in time to see the people still left on the street be swiped by the giant wave. From then on it was all silent. “This is horrible, so many people must have died during this. How did they manage to recover? I’m sure the news of Paris underwater should’ve popped up SOMEWHERE.”

“They didn’t because it didn’t last more than an afternoon.” Jason ran a hand through his hair impatiently. The whole week he had been aching to go out as Red Hood but couldn’t risk meeting Ladybug and it was making him jittery. “That’s what Ladybug’s power is. She just….reverts everything. I haven’t been able to find out how yet, but I’ve been told it must be magic or some shit.”

“Reverts everything? Just like that? Like….turning back time?” Dick looked confused trying to come up with a rational explanation

“I don’t think so. Everyone except the victims remember everything that happened. It’s more of a cure, if you will. She fixes everything, makes a new Eiffel Tower appear, brings the dead back to life, you know, no big deal.” Jason couldn’t help but chuckle at their faces. “I know, if anyone tried to tell me this before I saw it myself I wouldn’t have believed it either.”

A moment of silence on his brothers’ end was interrupted by the return of Bruce. “Diana is positively furious right now. Apparently someone received a message from these heroes years ago and thought it was a joke, so they dismissed it. Diana asked to see the message and just unleashed hell on the poor guy after watching it. It seems her mother was a former Ladybug and she grew up knowing about the magic of the ‘Miraculous’” He said the word in a way that made his sons think he was as confused as they were “The League is planning to make a trip to Paris as soon as possible to assess the situation.”

Now that brought a frown to Jason’s face. “I know I’m usually the reckless one here, but listen to me for a moment. You’re just planning on barging in here, with an angry Wonder Woman, and a probably scared shitless League, to battle a guy who makes you his minion if you show the tiniest hint of a negative emotion? Imagine if Diana got akumatized. You must really want the apocalypse to start huh?”

He scanned their faces and wasn’t surprised to see skepticism and some smirks too. This was so not typical of him. Jason was a shoot first, ask second kinda guy, and he used to enjoy killing a little too much for it to be healthy. But he remembered what Ladybug had told him about resorting to the least amount of violence possible, and he was honestly worried about what could happen if three dozen superheroes just showed up one day to a fight. “Listen, as far as I can see, Ladybug and her team have things covered here. Give me some time to gather more information and maybe I can find a way for her and Red Hood to have a meeting. I’ll ask her if she still wants our help. But until then, you should refrain from bringing anyone here. Unless you want panic to run rampant among the citizens because the whole Justice League came.”

Snickers could be heard coming from Tim and Dick. Even Damian was trying not to show his amusement at the situation. “Who would’ve thought Todd actually had a brain. We should go if only to check whether he’s been replaced by a clone or something”

“Oh fuck off Demon Spawn, I can be smart too if I want to."

Their father seemed to be mulling over his words before sighing and nodding. “Alright. I think we can go along with what you said for now, but I want you to keep us updated regularly, and to inform us if something out of the ordinary happens. If you need us there, we’ll be on alert. And I expect that meeting with Ladybug to happen sooner rather than later. Also don’t forget why you’re originally there, we have to gather more information on what the Penguin is planning."

“You got it Brucie.” He made fingers guns at the screen with a click of his tongue. “Expect it to be at least a week until I have some big news for you, but I’ll try to make it happen as quickly as possible. And worry not about my mission, I’m almost done with it. Now my dear family, if you’ll excuse me, it’s already 2am and I would like to pretend to be a tourist at least for a day tomorrow. I’ll let you know if something comes up.”

He quickly ended the call and face planted on his bed. This was going to be a long mission. One week in and he was already exhausted. He wasn’t lying when he said he was close to finishing the mission he was originally sent to Paris for, though. He had infiltrated the goons quickly and efficiently, and managed to hear about a drug shipment due to arrive in a couple weeks together with a human one. As soon as he got the information as to where he’d call his family and they could resolve the problem easily. For now though, he couldn’t help but want to keep them away a bit longer. Be it because, even though he loved his brothers (not that he’d ever tell them), he wanted some time alone, or be it because he wanted more time to try and figure out Ladybug, he still wasn’t completely sure.

If you asked him, he would deny it to his dying breath that he was interested in the heroine, but something about her made him want to get closer and know more about her. In spite of the great amount of knowledge the public had on her, she was surrounded by an aura of mystery and something else that Jason couldn’t pinpoint, which had him turning in his sleep ever since that encounter in the alley. It also didn’t help that she seemed to be around the same age as him, her suit doing her great favours in all her red and black. Alright. Maybe he thought she was a bit attractive. Very attractive?

“No. Nope. Not going there.” He got up and decided to ignore that part of his brain as of now. For no particular reason whatsoever. It was only normal to want to know more about the person protecting the city. Call it a professional interest, thank you very much.

The dark haired man decided to take advantage of having an expensive suite for once and took a long bath while doing some more research on Paris. He was indeed planning to walk around the city the next day after all. When he was done, Jason headed to the bed and fell asleep promptly. Dreams full of back alleys and superheroes.

As luck would have it, it didn’t take long for the both of them to meet yet again. Only maybe not in the way the Gotham vigilante would have hoped for. Set on at least enjoying this pseudo-vacation he was gifted, Jason left his hotel the next morning to visit the most popular places in the city. The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc of Triumph and the Champs Élysées were the places he had chosen to visit during the morning and early afternoon, but, even though his main goal was to distract himself from the tasks at hand, he couldn’t will away the questions roaming around his head.

How was he going to contact Ladybug? He wanted to do it as Red Hood, but he didn’t want the heroine of Paris to distrust him since he was pretty sure his reputation would precede him. He was known for being the most ruthless of the batfam, the only thing keeping him from killing criminals once he was done with them was Batman’s No killing under any kind of circumstances rule (which if you asked him was a special kind of bullshit, some of them did deserve to rot in hell in his opinion), and he wasn’t sure if Ladybug would be as willing to hear him out as she may one of his brothers or father. However, his only other option would be to approach her as Jason Todd, one of Bruce Wayne’s adopted sons. He didn’t even know whether Ladybug would care about his family name. This wasn’t his city. And on the off chance that she might have recognized him… He was still a mere civilian. One that had, on top of that, to explain his connection to the Gotham vigilantes without giving away any of their identities. Jason knew his hands were tied. Red Hood had to be the one to try and get the attention of the spotted hero. Knowing there was no other option didn't make him happy about it though.

Once he was done with this line of thinking his brain decided to go back to the Penguin. He was trying to instill one of the worst types of businesses in Paris and he couldn’t wait to put a stop to it. As much as he knew drug trafficking to be terrible, he was of the opinion that people who engaged in (as well as profited off of) human trafficking should have a special circle of hell destined for them. Preferably in the very depths of it.

Jason was very much aware that, for as long as he remained in this city, negative emotions had to be controlled and dissipated as quickly as possible to avoid an akumatization. Especially those of someone with the skills and knowledge he had. He had a lot of the latter in strange topics, most of which he acquired growing up during his training. And albeit he wasn’t sure whether it would actually be useful to Hawkmoth or not, he would rather not put it to the test. All of this, however, was sent to the back burner for a second as Jason's thoughts strayed towards what he would like to do to the Gotham villain when he captured him.

Being so busy imagining the 30 different methods of torture he would like to inflict upon the Penguin had made him completely disregarded his surroundings, however. Coming back to his senses, his brain pointed out they were standing at the door of what seemed like a very nice patisserie, just in time for his stomach to growl, his lunch seemingly having been digested some time ago.

‘Maybe something sweet is exactly what I need right now’

Some days had passed since Marinette met Jason, and though he was still burning in the back of her mind, she had way too many things to worry about during the day to remember him often. At night, however, the questions she had originally asked herself the first night continued to plague her, and since Tikki told her not to worry about it too much, the designer saw wise to keep her train of thought to herself. She wasn’t even sure why her brain seemed so fixed on this stranger she had only met once. Sure, he was involved in a fight, and seemed to be a foreigner, but it wasn’t that uncommon for petty altercations to break out around the city while she patrolled. Also this was Paris, for Kwamis’ sake. One of the biggest tourist capitals of the world. There was no reason why this Jason guy should’ve stuck to her mind as he did. Yet here she was. In the middle of her afternoon shift at the bakery. Still thinking about him.

A chime coming from the door brought her out of her stupor. But as she looked up, ready to greet the new customer, she suddenly froze, and her brain could only supply her with the word green.

Green eyes she had only got a quick glance into a week ago were now in front of her and the color was even more intense as they reflected the sunlight rays that entered through the bakery’s windows.

There you have it peeps and pals! I'll try to update sometime again this week in between Daminette December.

Tag list:

@18-fandoms-unite-08 @bamagirl513 @j-a-n-e--d-o-e @dawnwave16

#jasonette #jason x marinette #maribat #of casual encounters and late nights #miraculous ladybug #part 2 #liswrites #ml x dc #marinette dupain cheng #marinette dupain-cheng #jason todd

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cheryl-in-a-barrel · 4 years

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two’s company, three’s a crowd - choni one shot

AO3 Link

A/N - Just a short little one shot continuing from the end of episode 4x03 when Toni finds Cheryl with Jason's body. Explores a lot of the thoughts they would have had running through their heads in that moment and the conversation they might have had. Nothing too exciting happens, but I thought it'd be interesting to see how the rest of that scene could have possibly played out. Hope you enjoy it!

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“Toni!” Cheryl exclaims through her watery smile, looking up at her girlfriend from her place on the floor with a contrasting mix of tears streaming down her face and a bright grin pulling at her lips.

“You haven’t met Jason yet, have you?” She rhetorically asks, eyes growing impossibly wider when she does.

The last few months her biggest fear has been Toni finding her brother’s body. She would do anything and concoct any lie in order to keep Toni away from the basement chapel. Though, in this moment, she doesn’t really mind. Seeing that rat squirm amongst her brother’s skin, it snapped something inside of her.

It was a reminder. A reminder of Jason’s irreversible condition. Alive people didn’t have rats crawling through their flesh, no, that trait was specifically reserved for the dead, and that fact hit Cheryl hard as she smashed the invasive rat to death at her brother’s feet.

To protect herself, she sunk her delusions further into the depths of her mind. She could feel herself slipping away from reality a little bit more, and in actuality, she isn’t that mad about Toni finding Jason in this moment because, in this moment, she believes Jason is truly here.

It is the most she’s believed since bringing Jason home, and although it is most likely nothing more than a temporary lapse of judgment sprung on by a rude wake up call in an attempt of a defense mechanism, it’s concerning. Even Cheryl knows that, deep down in her deteriorating psyche, she knows, on some level, that this is too far.

“Cheryl,” Toni croaks out, the simple name sounding so broken as it leaves her lips. Her own tears are pooling at her eyes as she stares at the horror scene in front of her.

Toni can do nothing but stand there, frozen in place, as her mind fights off about a thousand different instincts, leaving her helpless to do anything at all.

There’s a part of her, a big part, that wants to run. Run away from what she’s seeing right now and never look back. She could run and only hope that the image of her girlfriend leaning over a corpse with so much love and care in her eyes is one that eventually drifts from her memory. A distant thought that one day is nothing more than a blurry picture she can’t totally recall.

But she isn’t the one here who is trying to kid themselves.

Toni knows that the sight before her will be burned into her brain for the rest of time.

There’s another part of her with the urge to first run forward, where Cheryl sits. She wants to take Cheryl with her and then run far away from this haunted mansion never to return. She still loves her, dammit. Even in this very moment, staring at the broken girl, she loves her more than she’s ever loved anything or anyone. There’s a part of her that thinks maybe if they left, if they did nothing else but put Riverdale behind them, than maybe they would heal all on their own. This part of her remembers so vividly that first summer after they got together, driving motorcycles across the country, laughing and dancing and stargazing and fucking for the first time. They were so happy. They were falling in love, and none of the dramatics of Riverdale mattered, they hardly even thought of their hometown whilst they were gone. That summer, the only two things that existed were themselves, and Toni imagines, only briefly, if they could recreate that feeling by simply packing their things and leaving once again.

But they would never be allowed the luxury of trying such a thing. They couldn’t leave Riverdale behind no matter how hard they tried. They had to get their diplomas, they had twin babies to look after now, the only lives they’ve ever known are right here in this town.

And besides, would it even really change anything?

Riverdale may be a cursed town that brings nothing but pain to the people who live here, but too much of that pain has already been inflicted. It lives inside of them now, and even if they left, it would follow. In this moment, Toni isn’t quite sure what the answer to healing is, but she’s smart enough to know leaving isn’t it.

So that leaves only one option left. To stay. Even though Toni’s rational mind urges her to flee, she listens to her heart, which begs her to stay.

They’ve been through hell and back, Cheryl and Toni, surely they could get through this too. Right?

“Cheryl,” Toni repeats, feeling the first tear roll down her cheek as her shaky voice continues, “What are you doing?”

Cheryl looks back up at her, her makeup beginning to smudge from how much she’s crying and how bad her lips are wobbling.

Her tears are all but plummeting down her cheeks, it appearing as if there is no end to her inner downpour, and yet, Toni doesn’t hear a single sound. No wails or whines, no choked sobs or uneven breaths, not even a sniffle. Cheryl is only smiling. If Toni had her eyes closed, she wouldn’t have the slightest clue that Cheryl was crying, or that anything was even wrong at all.

“I have to fix him,” Cheryl responds, looking at her girlfriend with an almost pleading look in her eyes. Though, Toni isn’t quite sure what she’s pleading for. Even so, she takes it as a positive sign, because perhaps Cheryl’s pleading eyes indicate that she is aware of what the sight in front of Toni must look like. She’s aware of how not normal this all is.

And Toni thinks that maybe Cheryl’s words run a little deeper than surface level. That what she truly has to fix is herself, but she has no idea where to even start.

Toni swallows slowly and takes her first step forward. She’s chosen her direction, and she’s chosen to walk toward the girl she loves as opposed to far, far away from her. They need help, both of them need more help than imaginable, but Toni decides they’ll get help together. As they’ve always meant to be.

Every step she takes is harder than the last but she doesn’t stop until she��s about a foot away from Jason’s body. She refuses to get any closer than this, already beginning to feel bile rise in her throat from being as close as she is.

Toni slowly sinks to her knees, ensuring to keep her eyes off of Jason as much as she can, and especially being careful not to look at his face. She caught one glimpse of his face as she was coming down the basement hallway, and she’s decided that glimpse was enough for one lifetime.

Cheryl is putting all her concentration into the task in front of her, being abundantly cautious and gentle as she brings a sewing needle down to her brother’s chest.

Toni reaches out with a shaky hand and lays it over top of Cheryl’s, effectively stopping the girl’s movements. She puts her eyes nowhere else but her girlfriend’s face, now giving the other girl a pleading look of her own as she silently begs Cheryl for something. An explanation, a reassurance, a confession. She doesn’t even care, she just needs something other than the silence.

Cheryl’s eyes stay fixated on their joined hands for a long time, before finally, she raises them to meet Toni’s.

“TT, I can’t fix him unless you let go,” She states, still desperately clinging to her facade of normality. Hoping, wishing, begging that Toni will simply play along. That she won’t make her choose, that she won’t make her stop. Cheryl wouldn’t be able to take it, not now. It would break her for good, Cheryl knows.

She doesn’t want to choose Jason over Toni, because she knows, deep down she knows, it isn’t actually the choice she wants to make. But it’s safer. Jason can’t leave her, not again. He can’t decide Polly Cooper makes him happier than his sister for a second time, he can’t want to escape this town and consequently Cheryl all over again, he can’t get himself killed when he’s already dead. But Toni can. Toni can do all that and then some and the thought absolutely terrifies Cheryl.

“Cheryl,” Toni begins slowly, truly not even knowing what to say. Talking to Cheryl is never difficult, all she has to do is speak her mind and the words all but flow out of her. But this time, nothing is coming to mind. It’s blank, and the last thing she wants to do is say the wrong thing, so it takes her a long time to get the words out.

“Look at what you’re doing, baby. Do you really think this is what Jason would have wanted?” She tries to get through to the girl, voice calm and eyes soft, doing everything in her power to keep her cool and prevent this conversation from turning nuclear. Toni needed to get through to Cheryl, not push her away.

Cheryl tilts her head to one side. She looks conflicted as she digests Toni’s words, eyes falling from her girlfriend and instead finding Jason’s defaced chest once again.

And the sight is all it takes for her to sink.

“Yes!” She responds desperately, “I brought JJ home so he doesn’t have to be alone anymore, everything is the way it’s supposed to be again,” Cheryl explains through her tears, and there is no mistaking the thick sincerity in her voice. She believes her words, every last one of them. Not because they are logical or reasonable but because she needs them to be true. In Cheryl’s traumatized mind, this is how she puts the pieces back together.

Toni can feel the fear building in her chest as she comes to terms with how deep Cheryl is in her own delusions. She has helped Cheryl navigate through a lot of dark times but she has no idea where the hell to even start this time. She’s not equipped for something like this.

But she has to be, Toni thinks.

Because she’s all Cheryl has, she’s the only one who can get through to her.

And the thought crosses her mind, for all of three seconds, that she could simply call Betty asking for the contact information of that facility they sent Polly to. That she could go behind Cheryl’s back, for the girl’s own good, that she could get her professional help.

But ultimately, she can’t do it. She dismisses the thought as quickly as it entered her mind.

Toni’s too loyal for her own good. Too soft. At least when it comes to Cheryl. She could never do that to her.

And fuck, after what her mother did, sending her to the sisters without any warning, simply locking her up against her will. Toni will never do that to her. Never.

And maybe it’s wrong, but she doesn’t care.

They will find another way.

Toni slowly releases Cheryl’s hand, shakily brining her own hand to rest in her lap.

With a grateful smile, Cheryl gets to work on fixing Jason.

“I knew you’d understand,” Cheryl sighs in relief, her whole body feeling lighter now that this giant secret is off her chest.

Toni winces slightly at the words.

“We still need to talk about this, babe,” Toni speaks as firmly as she can muster.

She tries to find the right words, stuttering through her sentences, “You can’t keep—we need to—there are going to be ground rules,” she finally settles on.

Cheryl looks up through her lashes, rapidly nodding her head in agreement.

“Whatever you want, TT,” She promises, “As long Jason can stay, right?” She hesitantly checks.

Toni sighs, rubbing her temples as she feels a headache start to build.

“...For now,” She agrees slowly, “But Cheryl, I need you to promise me that you will put Jason back in the ground where he belongs and soon.”

She notices the apprehension in Cheryl’s eyes immediately. The redhead isn’t very happy with that term and it shows, but she’s smart enough to know that trying to fight Toni on the matter won’t do her any good.

“Ok, TT. I promise,” Cheryl nods, her sad, pouty eyes meeting Toni’s.

“Good,” Toni breathes, naively hoping that it will really be that simple. That a few days will go by, maybe even a week, and then Cheryl will return Jason to his grave and that will be it. This horrifying and heartbreaking chapter of their lives will be over. They can get back to normal. Everything will be alright.

Toni hopes so anyway.

But hope, it’s a fickle thing. Toni would soon learn that, after witnessing “a few days” turn to weeks, and watching her girlfriend slowly deteriorate in front of her while the time passed.

#choni #cheryl blossom #toni topaz #riverdale #choni fanfiction #fanfiction #riverdale 4x03 #one shot #two's company three's a crowd

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 6 years

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Halloween 2018 review

The Halloween series has never really had a good break. In the forty years between the original’s release and the release of the newest film in the franchise, there has been a grand total of one good sequel… the third film, which has nothing to do with the rest of the series. The other sequels and reboots are a confusing latticework of alternate timelines and confusing plots that do little except turn Michael Meyers from a monstrous, eerie force into a bland, stereotypical vengeful slasher who just can’t be stopped. The only thing separating him from Jason Voorhees is that what little we understood about him was incredibly stupid and he never went to space.

And then along comes this film.

This film feels like a deconstruction of the failures of the franchise as a whole. The biggest problem with the movies – the Thorn timeline, the H20 timeline, and the Zombie reboots – is that they ultimately defanged Michael entirely by offering some sort of explanation for his motives, be it that he was Laurie’s brother, born with an evil curse that causes him to murder, or that he was just a white trash redneck hillbilly piece of shit in a Rob Zombie movie. Michael Meyers in the first film was ultimately as chilling as he was because his motives were entirely unknowable. We never find out why he killed his sister, or why he escaped and began killing Laurie’s friends; it was just something that happened, with no real rhyme or reason. That is ultimately what made Michael so terrifying, and what none of the later directors seemed to understand. They kept trying to rationalize Michael’s killing in a human narrative. Likewise, in this film, everyone save Laurie is trying to rationalize why Michael is the way he is. They offer all sorts of theories, all sorts of rationales, all sorts of attempts at humanizing Michael Meyers… but ultimately, the only person who truly understood Michael was Dr. Loomis. Loomis believed Michael Meyers to be nothing but pure, unadulterated evil. This, right there, is the truth of the matter, and why Michael Meyers is such an utterly terrifying villain: there is no reason to his actions, and if there is it is utterly alien and unknowable to us. He does what he does because he is simply a monstrous being, a truly irredeemable evil whose perpetual silence speaks volumes. The true failure, in universe and out, is that trying to rationalize Michael’s actions is a doomed endeavor, and these attempts at rationalizing him drive the plot, and ultimately drive Michael to a perfect place for him to begin a new killing spree. The failures of others at trying to comprehend him is what led him back to the utterly horrifying simplicity that drives him. It’s so brilliantly meta, moreso than every single one of the Scream films.

The plot is artful in its simplicity – 40 years to the day that Michael Meyers went on his original rampage, he is once again freed upon Haddonfield. This time though, Lauire is prepared, having spent the past four decades in paranoid doomsday-prepper mode… though this has alienated her daughter from her. Can Laurie survive the night and perhaps bury her demons once and for all, literally and figuratively? Or is Michael finally going to get the biggest treat of all this Halloween – Laurie’s head pierced with his knife?

This film’s greatest asset is, of course, Michael Meyers, finally returning to form. As mentioned above, gone is the convoluted backstories of the Thorn Trilogy and the Zombie films, and even the immediate sequel of the first film – back is the simple, terrifying idea that there are just people of pure evil in this world who do what they do for undefined reasons. Nick Castle returns to the role that made him famous, and returns with great gusto; his Michael may not be the mountain of a man the Zombie films made Michael into, but he is still a chilling force of savagery. And while the overtly supernatural elements of Michael’s character have been done away with, as in the first film there is some ambiguity, some doubt as to whether Michael is entirely human or perhaps something far more sinister… an ambiguity that is best kept when considering how the sequels ended up. Michael Meyers manages to take back the “scariest scene in which a killer walks at a brisk pace” from It Follows in an incredible oner scene in which, on Halloween, Michael goes from one house to the next and trick-or-treats in the way only he knows how.

But Michael would not be quite as effective if he wasn’t up against someone who could handle him. I don’t think I really need to tell you Jamie Lee Curtis does a fantastic job reprising the role that made her famous; here, Laurie has become the horror version of Sarah Connor, with all the emotional baggage, badassery, and familial alienation such a title implies. Somehow she manages to outdo Sidney Prescott in Scream 4 in terms of sheer badassery, and in some of the best subversions and homages in the film, Laurie manages to pull some of Michael’s classic moves against him. These two aside, the supporting cast is actually pretty enjoyable, with everyone getting just enough development you’ll care about what happens to them. Standouts include the charming little boy Julian who is babysat in the film, the badass and surprisingly useful Sherrif Hawkins, and a little boy who expresses a love for dancing and is the one who along with his father discovers the bus of escaped mental patients that signal’s Michael’s freedom.

Of course, none of that would matter if not for the score. John Carpenter did to the score what Michael does to teenage babysitters: he fucking killed it. All of the music is perfect, atmospheric, and amazing, and of course we get plenty of redone versions of the classic theme, as well the classic musical cues. I don’t think there could be a better horror film score than this, it is simply incredible.

If I can level any criticism at this movie, it’s that, despite a few twists and turns here and there, what you expect is pretty much what you get. This is a back-to-basics slasher film, one that doesn’t codify the genre the way the original film did but rather reaffirms what we love about it. For the most part at least it avoids a lot of the bad cliches of the genre, but there’s no denying that this is what you’d expect plot-wise. This is no bad thing, though, as even if it isn’t reinventing the wheel it is clearly a huge love letter to the entire franchise – there are references and homages to pretty much every entry in the series, including a reappearance by the Silver Shamrock masks of the third film. It acts as a wonderful extension of the first film, and is finally a worthy sequel to one of the greatest slasher films of all time, and a worthy outing for the grandaddy of the slasher genre as we know it. Forty years of screaming teens being slaughtered by implacable monsters were spawned in the wake of Michael Meyer’s Halloween rampage back in 1978, and finally he has returned to remind us after all these years just why he was as influential as he was.

Now let’s get a sequel to Season of the Witch.

#Review #movie review #Halloween #Halloween 2018 #Michael Meyers #Laurie Strode #Jamie Lee Curtis #Nick Castle #John Carpenter #horror #slasher #slasher film #horror film

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filmfanatic82 · 7 years

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The Long Game (Chapt 3: Fusing Pink with Green)

AO3 Link (HERE)

Chapter 3: Fusing Pink with Green

“Explain it to me again why I can’t go back to my own apartment?” Trini huffs out from the confines of the bed as she mindless flips through the endless array of channels on the tv.

“It’s not safe,” Kim replies without missing a beat. She makes her way around the suite, unceremoniously collecting her belongings and stuffing them into a beat up army duffle.

“You’re like a fuckin’ broken record, Hart.” Trini stops flipping, reaches into her jeans pocket and produces a yellow power coin. “I’ve got one of these as well. Remember? I can take care of myself.”

Kim stops at the sight of Trini’s power coin as a look of shock crosses her face. “You still have it?”

“Yeah. Tried to give it up once or twice but Jason wouldn’t let me.”

“Can you still…,” Kim trails off, not really knowing how to finish her sentence.

“No. Not in years. You?”

There’s something about Trini’s last word that snaps Kim right out of her momentarily trance and back into the reality of the situation. Truthfully, she doesn’t know how to even begin to answer that.

Straight up morphing? Like they used to do back when they were a team? No. Kim hasn’t been able to do that since that fated day eight years ago in Angel Grove.

Not like she hasn’t tried to. God, how Kim has tried. Time and time again. But that ability seemed to just disappear into thin air the moment she left everyone behind.

But there are other things… Things that Kim has discovered she can do throughout the years that simply can’t be described with mere words. Things that need to be seen to be fully understood.

“No,” Kim quietly responds as she goes back to packing. A moment passes and then--

WHACK.

Kim is blindsided by a throw pillow to the head. “Jesus. What the hell?”

“I need to go back to my place.”

“Not happening.”

“Then what the hell am I gonna wear? Huh? Doubt this is just gonna be a day trip.”

“Here.” Kim grabs a nearby gray v-neck t-shirt and tosses it back at Trini, hitting her square in the face.

Annoyed, Trini clicks off the TV and pushes herself up into a sitting position. Her hands wrap around the edges of the soft t-shirt, holding it up in front of her body and gives it a once over. It’s big. Not comically too big, but just big enough for it to be uncomfortable. “I don’t do dresses.”

“It’s not that big.”

“I need my own clothes, Hart.” Trini replies, balling the t-shirt up and tossing it back in Kim’s direction.

“Fine. I’ll get you new ones.”

“No offense, but I don’t trust you buying clothes for me.”

“Why not?”

Trini doesn’t respond. She simply gives Kim a head to toe once over with her eyes and then comes to rest with a judgemental stare. “Cause I’ve seen your wardrobe.”

Suddenly, hit with a wave of self-consciousness, Kim tugs on the ends of her generic black t-shirt, taking a moment to thoroughly it. Sure, her style has hardened over the years into something else. Something that uniquely feels right. Swapping her old high school style slowly over time for a simple uniform of leather and t-shirts accompanied by a few pieces of silver jewelry here and there. It’s nothing special and yet, it fits Kim like a glove.

“There’s nothing wrong with my wardrobe.” Kim pushes down her doubts with a hard swallow and then straightens herself up a bit in an attempt to give off the appearance of not caring.

“Sure. If you’re planning on spending the next decade on the back of a Harley Davidson.”

“It’s a Suzuki.”

“What is?”

“My bike,” Kim says with an exhale of breath as she runs her hands through her extra messy locks. “It’s a Suzuki.”

A small, uncontrollable laugh erupts from Trini’s lips. “Of course it is.”

Without another word, Trini slides off the bed, slips back on her flip flops, and then heads straight towards Kim with a sudden resolution that is more than a bit unnerving.

“What are you…,” Kim trails off trying to read Trini’s face.

“You done?” Trini motions downwards to the army green duffle in Kim’s hands.

Kim opens her mouth to respond but can’t seem to find her words. Not with Trini this close to her.

Suddenly, the distinct scent of vanilla mixed with a bit of jasmine fills Kim’s nostrils, triggering an overwhelming rush of emotions. She closes her eyes for a brief moment, in a feeble attempt to ground herself. But the scent is just too powerful.

It seeps into Kim, invading every ounce of her being, willing her to make a move. To simply reach out, wrap her hands around Trini’s waist, and pull her closer until their bodies are touching.

“Kimberly?”

The sound of Kim’s name-- her full name-- instantly brings her back to reality. Her eyes pop back open and she gives Trini a slight nod. “Yeah. I’m done.”

“Good.” Trini grabs hold of Kim’s duffle bag, hoists it over her shoulder, and then without another moment’s hesitation, starts to head towards the door. “Let’s go.”

“Where?” Kim calls out, still frozen in her spot.

“You’ll see,” Trini responds with a hint of a playful smirk.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Less than an hour later, Kim finds herself trapped in her own mini version of hell on earth… Target.

Overly bright lights. Endless sea of useless, colorful crap. Irksome people pushing and shoving their way through the aisles with their annoying loud shopping carts. Everything about these types of places make Kim’s skin crawl. The simulation is just too much. Too many unknown variables for her to predict.

“You look miserable,” Trini points out as she casually pushes her cart through intricate maze of clothing racks. She takes her time, checking out the wide array of tops, all a far cry from her high school days of flannels and oversized band t-shirts.

“I’m fine.” Kim rolls her shoulders and gives her neck a quick, but audible crack, trying to shake off her impending anxiety. She drums her fingers on a nearby shelf filling the void with a steady tinging sound as her rings hit against the cool metal.

“Right.” Trini picks up a pale yellow scoop neck top, giving it a once over, before tossing it into the cart. “Biker chick Kimberly doesn’t do shopping?”

“No. It’s not that. Just not of fan of these types of places.”

“What? Like Target? How can you not like Target? Everyone likes Target.”

“Not me,” Kim mutters under her breath as she moves towards another shelf farther away from Trini. Every fiber of her being desperately craves to just open up and explain why, but she knows better. This isn’t the time nor the place.

Especially not in a place like this.

Instead, Kim turns her attention to something else… someone else to be more precise. To Trini.

Kim silently focuses in on Trini, watching as she holds up two different tops, comparing the price tags. And as she does, the rest of the ever present distractions seem to melt away. The world around Kim goes completely and utterly quiet, as if someone has randomly hit the mute button.

After years of practice, tapping into her powers has become almost second nature to Kim. Like flipping a switch. Select a target, focus for a few moments, and then the rest always seems to take care of itself. There just isn’t a better explanation for it.

It tends to develop in Kim’s mind like a polaroid picture. Fuzzy at first, but as seconds tick by, edges sharpen and objects become more defined. Sometimes it’s just a flash. The briefest of glimpses into an image or even an idea. And other times, it’s so much more. Images so intense that they linger for days-- even months-- at a time.

“If you like it, you should get both. And that pink one you put back ten minutes ago as well.” Kim nonchalantly flips through a rack, barely paying attention to the tops as she does. It’s not about the tops. It’s about the mere act of doing something. Something that’s mundane and normal.

“How did you…” Trini trails off as a look of utter confusion sweeps across her face.

Kim knows that look. No. She more than knows it. Kim dreads it.

It’s the look that happens whenever someone gets hit with the eerie sensation that their mind has just been read.

“Just a guess,” Kim quietly replies, once again moving herself farther away from Trini.

An awkward silence falls between the two of them as Kim wanders from rack to rack without any real purpose or reason. Anything to avoid those two chocolate brown eyes that are currently boring into the back of her skull.

Kim makes her way over to a nearby display of hats and instantly spots a plain yellow beanie. She scoops it up, examines it for a moment or two, then tosses it towards Trini’s cart.

“Who’s this for?” Trini fishes the beanie out from the sea of tops and jeans and holds it up.

“You.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. I owe you one. Never got around to replacing that one of yours I lost at the quarry,” Kim responds with a light shrug of her shoulders.

A small but noticeable smile crawls across Trini’s lips as the memory washes over her like a warm, gentle wave. “Forgot about that.”

“I didn’t.” Kim catches Trini’s eyes and returns the smile.

“Toss me another one. Just in case your ass loses this one too.”

Kim bends down to grab another yellow beanie when suddenly--

WEE-HOO. WEE-HOO.

The store alarm blared over the loud speakers at an ear splitting level, practically drowning out all other ambient noises.

“Fuckin’ shoplifters,” Trini mutters under her breath as she continues to shop, completely unphased.

Kim, though, doesn’t hear her. She can’t. The screech of the alarm invades Kim’s brain, blocking all other rational and sane thoughts. The thoughts that keep the deep, darker urges at bay.

Kim hunches over, hands gripping onto her knees for dear life. Her breath quicken as beads of sweat start to form at her hairline.

“Kimberly?” Trini’s voices calls out in a faint, tinny echo as if she’s hundreds of yards away.

“Princess… Princess… Princess…,” Kim chants under her breath as she feels the tremors radiate up her arms. Her knees slightly buckle under her body weight but moving isn’t an option. Kim knows better. She has to just focus. Breath and focus.

“Kim?”

And then there’s a touch. Just the lightest of fingertips against Kim’s shoulder blade, but it’s enough.

The shred of control that Kim has been desperately clawing to hold onto instantly crumbles, slipping out of her grasp like grains of sand. She feels the undiluted anger plow through her veins at an inhuman like pace.

“Don’t touch me!” Kim growls as she rips her body away from Trini’s hand. A distinct flash of green light burst forth from her eyes, creating a minor halo effect around her face.

Trini recoils in a mixture of shock and fear, not fully knowing what to do or say.

But it doesn’t matter. Kim seizes the opportunity to push herself upright and then without another moment’s hesitation, bolts from the store.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

“Master Kimberly, you need to lay still,” Alpha 5 chirps as he repositions Kimberly’s arm back into the designated strap.

“Right. Sorry.” Kimberly lets out a nervous breath of air and swallows thickly. She tries to focus in on anything else in the world except for the fact that she’s currently being strapped down to a large metal table by a zillion year old robot. Easier said than done.

“Kimberly, before we start, there are a few things we need to--”

“No,” Kimberly cuts Zordon off with a definitive tone to her voice. “We’ve been through this already. I don’t want to know.”

“I know, but there are some critical elements that you must understand. Your essence is about to be fused with one of the most powerful evil forces in all of existence. And with it will come unforeseen powers that you nor the other rangers have yet to experience. Powers that if left unchecked will consume you.” Zordon pauses for a moment to let the weight of his words fully sink in.

“I’ll lose myself.” Kimberly closes her eyes as wave after wave of fear mixed with anxiety crashes down upon her. She swallows down the ever growing lump in her throat and blinks back a hint of tears.

“Kimberly, you don’t have to--”

“Just get it over with, okay?” And with those words, Kimberly lays her head firmly back down on the table and gives a nod of confirmation to Alpha 5.

Alpha 5 moves forward and affixes the final head strap, giving Kimberly a gentle pat on the shoulder as he does. “It’ll be over before you know it, Master Kimberly.”

“Thanks Alpha.” Kimberly forces a smile and then with a deep sobering breath, shuts her eyes once again, bracing herself for what’s to come.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Kim sits on the curb outside of Target, arms folded up against her knees, just watching the steady stream of shoppers pass by. She barely moves with the exception of the occasional blink or two, almost appearing to be in a deep, meditative state.

A moment passes and then--

“Fuck it.” Kim exhales a deep breath of air and runs her hands through her hair, tucks a stray lock or two behind her ear in the process. Her hands instinctively grope the inner breast pocket of her leather jacket, searching for something, and then, like magic, produces a beat-up pack of cigarettes and sleek silver lighter. Kim snags a single cigarette from the pack, pops it into her lips, and flings the light open with a graceful flick of her wrist. She watches the flames dance for a moment or two in front of her face. There’s something hypnotic about it. The vibrant oranges and reds against the bland concrete colored background. Almost magical.

Kim leans forward, dipping the tip of the cigarette into the flames. But before it can light up--

A hand reaches in, snatching the cigarette straight from Kim’s lips.

“Yeah, no. Not fuckin’ happening, Hart.”

Surprised, Kim glances up to find that the hand belongs to Trini. “Hey. I--”

“When the hell did you take up smoking? Do you know how insanely bad these things are for you? You’ve got a history of asthma,” Trini cuts Kim off with a harsh, almost parental, tone to her voice.

“Who’s the mom, now?” Kim responds as a small smirk crawls across her face. She flicks the lighter closed and puts it back into her inner pocket. “And I don’t. Not normally. I just have one every now and then to help take the edge off. Especially when things get intense.”

The meaning of these last words instantly softens Trini. She lets out an exasperated sigh and then takes a seat next to Kim on the curb. “You’re talkin’ about what happened back in there?”

Kim gives the slightest of nods in response. She stares out once again onto the stream of shoppers, unable to bring herself to look Trini in the eyes. She knows that if she does, there will be no holding back. No secrets left untold.

The two sit in silence for a moment or two, then--

“It’s still bad, isn’t it?”

“Depends on the day and the situation.” Kim shifts a bit, kicking a nearby rock with the toe of her black leather boot. “Most of the time it’s fine.”

“You know we could’ve helped. Me, Jase, Billy, Zack. I’m sure Zordon and Alpha could’ve figured out what caused this with one or two of those scans they used to do on us. Hell, maybe even found a cure for it,” Trini responds with an ever so slight tremble as she fights back her emotions.

And there it is. The singular lie Kim’s been holding onto for the last eight years. The root of everything that has transpired so far and the sole way they will-- or hopefully will-- survive what’s to come. Her green-tinted cross to bare.

If only Kim could reveal the truth to Trini. She’s thought about it almost every single day since leaving Angel Grove. But with the truth comes the risk of jeopardizing the plan… and then the last eight years worth of painstaking sacrifice after sacrifice would all be for nothing.

No. The lie needs to remain in place. Just a little while longer. Until Kim is 100% sure they’ll survive… Until it’s over.

“There’s no cure.” Kim sits motionless, letting the half-truth linger between the two of them. She fidgets with one of her silver rings, trying to keep herself distracted from the skin-crawling silence. Waiting for Trini to say something… anything.

But the response never comes. Trini simply gets up off of the curb, brushes off her jeans, and then extends her hand to Kim in an offer to help her up.

Kim stares at Trini’s hand for a second, not fully sure what to make of it. Is it acceptance? Understanding? Or something else? Her mind cycles through the million and one ways to interpret this simple gesture, but can’t seem to land on the reason.

“I'm not gonna bite, Hart,” Trini says while moving her hand a bit closer to Kim.

Kim reaches up, wraps her fingers around Trini’s soft hand, and takes hold, allowing the small Latina to pull her up off of the curb. She’s forgotten just how strong Trini really is, both mentally and physically.

“Good. Now c’mon, moneybags. You need to pay for my stuff.”

“Who says I’m paying?” Kim responds with a slight chuckle.

“Oh you’re paying. You’re paying for this entire freakin’ mission. So you better get used to whipping out the benjamins.” With that, Trini starts to walk back towards the store entrance, leaving Kim standing there with a small but genuine smile on her face.

It feels like a start of something…

#trimberly #trini x kimberly #kimberly hart #power ranger 2017 #trini #fanfic #power rangers #pink lemonade #power ranger movie

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aprilmillerphd-archive · 7 years

Text

This is a Bias List. Because I am Biased, and also a Follow Forever. For reasons. Mostly that April hit a milestone and that’s friggin’ amazing in my book.

So I have to start with @darcywho who has been my main and exclusive Darcy since... well actually since I took April from the private rpc into the independent rpc something like four or five years ago. I know Mariah IRL (and will soon be living within easy driving distance of her)-- and basically. Mariah is bombtastic. She’s hella smart and funny, and when I’m having a crappy day (or given how the beginning of this year went, a crappy year) -- she texts me incessantly to talk about what Darcy is doing, and what April and Darcy should be doing, and I have so much character history, and Important Events, and developmental experiences just from talking and writing with Mariah, that I honestly don’t think April would be the character she is, without having had Darcy’s mitigating influence. We’ve just done so much that we’ve reached a point in our friendship and writing relationship where I literally feel as if Mariah could write April, and do her justice and vice versa. If y’all don’t follow her already, you should get on that because seriously, she is the absolute best take on Darcy Lewis that I have ever encountered in the Marvel RPC, and I know the PC rp com is going to jump down my throat for ‘making comparisons’-- but again. THis boo is my main and exclusive Darcy Lewis, also I do whut I want. @scarsearned MANGOOOOO. Okay so funfact; this brat used to have a diff url and we chat on dis/cord and it STILL took me like three days to realize on tumblr they were the same person. I FOLLOW YOU ON FOUR BLOGS MANGO. THis is what you signed up for all those years ago. I’m sorry. SO TO THE POINT! Mango has a bevy of blogs she runs, I met her when she wrote almost exclusively on Rummers here, and what I say ‘met her’ I mean I started sending her asks talking about Brock Rumlow, reread her rules and realized she had a password, at which point we were already talking over Skype, and then I sent in her password and she teased me relentlessly for it. (I deserved it, I’m a total goob)-- Mango is right up there with Mariah in terms of IMPORTANT character development shit. Mango writes a CANON DIVERGENT Brock Rumlow, and has put so much time into developing him, I think Marvel should give her a fuckin’ job. She’s also like... insanely smart. I say this as someone who likes to play at being really intelligent. Mango talks and I feel like I’m back in grade school and I want to hide myself away in shame. So obviously it’s no wonder we ended up shipping. (Actually no, I still have literally no idea how or why THAT happened tbqh I’m a fuckin’ potato) -- but Mango and Mariah go hand in hand because I introduced them and now their Brock and Darcy are inextricably linked forevermore as siblings and it’s fuckin’ A Plus. @russkiyuragan YET ANOTHER PERSON I MET BECAUSE OF MANGO. But also hella quality child of canon OC. Like, legit we started talking because Mango dragged us into a group rp and it turned into us mutuall talking about character development and now basically Seamus is one of April’s smols. Even though he really ISN’T one of hers. She’s basically claimed him as a child who needs mothering and dammit she is going to give him all the mothering ever. Even if he doesn’t need or want it. AND BASICALLY THEY ARE A FUCKING SWEETHEART WHO NEEDS ALL THE FUCKING LOVE because they’re really insanely smart and super sweet and friendly and I heart them. @phxtxn PHIL!!! OKAY SO I MET PHIL IN A CLOSED RPC FOR-FUCKING-EVER AGO. And immediately Genis and April butted heads. (He destroyed like half her office, ruined a couple PRICELESS books and then offered to buy her lunch in apology. Suffice to say April was less than impressed) -- except over the years, they’ve gotten really close. Occasionally Phil and I delve into the divergent canon where April and Genis actually end up romantically involved but it always ends in heartache because April is bad at being happy and Genis is bad at... well.. mitigating April’s more extreme bouts of self-loathing. BUT they are exceptional friends and Phil has a fantastic knack for finding the fun and funny in every situation and driving April absolutely UP A WALL. Phil’s also another rp partner I dragged into the collective with Mariah, because I like it when my writing partners all write together because I’m a spoiled princess. Phil’s a total sweetheart though and his Genis Vell is motherfucking spot on. He’s spent a lot of time with the character and it shows, but he also understands pragmatic, human interactions from a writing sense so it’s always a joy when we write together or chat. @askprofessorx NAAAAYYAA -- Naya’s another of those rpers I sort of. Grew on. Like a fungus. I wooed her with poetry first and then introduced her Charl to April and what I consider to be one of my more beautifully painful plot ideas. It involved time travel and the overhanging possibility of April dying. And because April was from the modern era trying desperately to get back, it was that much more painful when she started developing connections. And basically Naya and I plotted everything out over IMs and asks and now we have the most ridiculous tiny person ship in the history of ridiculous ships and Naya’s Charles is like... the cornerstone of my favorite Charles’s. She’s got this beautiful grasp of our fave telepath’s charming flirtatiousness and paired with the very Serious way he views morality and the world, which combined with April’s general cynicism (and it should be noted, our mutant verse involves April being a touch-telepath who can’t actually touch people without destroying their brains because control? what is that)-- and you have an April experiencing her worst fear. Which is not being in-control of herself. It’s beautiful and Naya is beautiful bean. @iremembereveryonethatleaves AHAHAHA Lilo was the first ‘child’ April ever like. Accidentally adopted. And it happened entirely because of my age of aquarius verse, wherein instead of April seeking out Charles Xavier, she looked for Magneto instead. She found him. And his kid. And I literally have no idea WHY OR HOW April ended up becoming surrogate mom to Lilo since there’s no rational reason for Magneto getting along with April who is a cynical, borderline nihilist with Serious Rage Issues. But-- April and Lilo. Mommy and daughter and just. LITERALLY ALL MY HEART AND LOVE FOR THIS PERSON WHO MADE WRITING MUTANT APRIL FUN AND NOT PAINFUL. Until you (you asshole) made it painful. I still go through our tags to read all th angst, and I didn’t do it half so well as you and Tori did so.. @actually-i-prefer-magneto frick me so apparently I did my mutant crew in a triumvirate. The flipside of the age of aquarius verse, where April found Magneto instead and became part of his Brotherhood. Because who wouldn’t have a need for a hyperpolyglot, with genius level intelligence and touch-telepathy? Magneto knew what he was getting out of the bargain, I just don’t think he expected April Miller. TBQH. Nobody ever expects her which is great, and this basically started as an incredibly painful, probably tragic plot that I had (sort of) intended to result in April’s death and it didn’t go that route. Like. At all. probably because these two babes understand that good angst is hard to come by and with the persistent low-hanging threat of April’s head getting blown off, or even worse, her returning to her own time, it meant that every interaction was always charged with a lowkey kind of desperation and tension. Even when Erik and April got that ‘happy’ ending. It took an actual fucking lifetime to get there. And the best thing about Kristy is that she’s smart as fuck, I seem to surround myself with people who make writing look easy, and whose ability to thread together a long arching plot is so absolutely bafflingly amazing I am often struck stupid. @captain-outoftime AaBbbbYyyyYyy. So like- I met Abby through Mariah. Abby is the Steeb to Mariah’s Darcy. They’re hitched. It’s great. April helped Steve propose to Darcy even though April seems to have a PERPETUAL ISSUE with Steve Rogers that defies all explanation. IDK-- it’s probably something to do with the fact that April is a giant pain the ass and a tiny, fight-y blonde? WTF knows. Steve tolerates April. Abby tolerates me. Abby is a goddess. Beautiful, smart, funny as fuck, and like. Constantly busy. How she manages to balance RL shit with rp is beyond the scope of my ability to grasp yo but she’s the bomb-diggity. @americanasitgets MOTHERFUCKIN’ GABBY! My DC babe. Light of my liiife, fire in my loins, (not really but I was on a roll yo) -- I also met Gabby because of Mariah. And Gabby’s Clark. Gabby’s Clark is made of fucking sunshine okay, and the best part is, is that we’ve had like a sustained rp universe where April harasses Clark and doesnt know he’s superman, WHILE TASH-TRALKING SUPERMAN TO CLARK’S FACE. It’s comedy gold. Poor April. But I love Gabby, because she’s smart as shit and fuckin’ hysterical, and will literally snowball crack scenarios over IM into the wee hours of the morning. Even better, I’ve found someone whose as bad at keeping track of threads as me. (I say, as I eyeball our New Krypton thread that’s been in my drafts folder for like. Six months. Oops). @talonscourt D I KNOW THROUGH MY TIM BLOG-- but who I first met on April and then promptly FORGOT ABOUT because I’m a total dipshit. D writes Jason Todd, April surrogate son. This is a recent development. Tim loves Jason, April loves Jason. D is amazing as Jason. D is like... my platonic lover from Narnia. They’re smart as hell, and incredibly sweet even when I’m shit at keeping in contact because my real life is a hot-fuckin-mess and I’m always sick and on the verge of nuclear collapse. I would be TOTALLY LOST WITHOUT YOU. @galaeus Echo. As written by the ever talented Amy who I’ve known since April’s very first incarnation. Which... is a long ass time, Amy’s seen April through several character developments and rewrites, and has legit known April as a character since like. Legit. Post Tim. When April was a baby. Echo is April’s other southern, raised by a pageant queen biffle. They shoot the shit together, Echo is also legit the only person in existence whose allowed to give April nicknames, or turn April into a diminutive. Amy’s basically like... hands down the reason why i never gave up on writing an Indie female OC, and that’s because Amy’s a boss and she also happens to be a spectacular writer, both in the RPC and in real life. @agentharrisonofshield and last but not least, this girl. Right here. April has like... a bevy of Awesome Girl Squad frands. All of whom are infinitely more talented and bad ass than she is, like. Legit. April’s smart. but in a fight? She’s basically cannon fodder by comparison. She just isn’t built for the field. April and Viv became friends because they got locked in a closet together. I’m not sure HOW that happened, but now they get together and chat in other languages and April feeds her, and basically this s the woman April goes to when she wants someone shot. I literally love all the headcanons we’ve put together and that Agent Harrison is invariably the first ‘shield agent’ April casually mentions outside of Echo, in threads of mine. That’s how you know you’ve found an awesome rp partner and friend. When their own characters start casually infiltrating your threads in the form of namedrops.

#bias list #how the fuck did I hit a milestone y'all?#im confused #follow forever

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mrvdocks · 6 years

Text

Preacher III

A/N: Hello! Yes, I’m not dead and I do feel like complete shit for not updating but writer’s block is a bitch. I will get around to everything else.

Dani contemplates two things. The first, that she couldn't possibly trust this guy, not after what she's looked up. The second, it could all be coincidence, there's no way he's been alive for this long without having changed appearance. She doesn't believe in the supernatural, never has, never will. But there's nothing she could muster, nothing she could come up with to rationalize her behavior towards Cassidy. She got a weird feeling around him. It took her about a week to warm up to him since the incident. By now he'd been a lost puppy around her, asking for favors and things of that nature.

She tears her eyes away from the screen, exiting his file. She puts it on the back burner, and eyes behind the computer. Root’s talking someone's ear off and she decides it's the perfect moment to act. Getting up quietly and tearing down the hall until she reaches her car, she doesn't breathe until she's inside.

She has to loosen up, and for that thought, she speeds home. Once she's inside, she slips off her shoes. The tv’s on still, her beagle laying in its bed in the corner watching the cartoons. She leans down to pet him. “Have you been watching the same one all day?” She asks, running her hands up and down its body. The dog whines in return. “Good boy.” She smiles.

She runs her hands over her tired eyes. Root would've never let her out of that damn place. Even after her shift. There were plenty more people down at the station, she reasoned. Sighing, she sulked over to the fridge, scouring it until she grabbed the only thing she felt up to drink. A measly juice.

The dog growled from behind her, and she made a shushing noise. The dog disregarded it, clawing at the door. Sighing again, Dani trudged to the door, half expecting to find a shit faced Jesse. What she got was a curious Cassidy.

“Hello again.” He greeted.

Her brows furrowed in confusion. “How’d you find me?”

“Emily. She sent me here.” Of course. Dani figured Emily would get irritated by Cassidy eventually. She'd have to return the favor later.

“Uh-huh.” She replied, tongue poking at her cheek.

There was a silence between them. Cassidy stood on his toes anxiously. “Can I come in?”

She moved instinctively, closing the door behind him, she eyed him. “Who's this?” He pointed to the beagle staring back at him.

“Stanley.”

Cassidy ‘ah’d and sat down in front of her.

“Why're you here? I thought I gave you a room already.”

“I'm grateful! Really. But you wouldn't want me to die of asbestos or something now would you?”

“If it would get you to leave me alone,” she mumbled.

“What was that?”

“No, I wouldn't.” She spoke up. She crossed her arms forcefully, narrowing her gaze towards him. “What do you need. And don't say money because as you can see,” she gestured around her. “I don't have enough.”

“I was wondering if you could let a poor stranger room with you.” He pulled his puppy dog eyes. Dani was unfazed.

“Lewd and lascivious you? I don't think so. There's no room.”

“I'd take the couch.”

“No deal, I sleep on the couch.”

“Oh?”

“There's a spider in the bedroom. I haven't been in there since.”

Cassidy struggled to contain his laughter. Dani only huffed.

“I'd be no trouble, honest. You won't even know I'm ‘ere.” He raised his hand in the way kids did as a scout’s promise. She knew she'd probably regret it. But it'd be nice to have some help, and someone to take care of Stanley.

“Fine, as long as you don't burn the place down you can do whatever you want.” She says, pointing a finger at him.

He nods.

“Have you heard about that Loach girl?” Emily brought up as they were working.

“No.”

The two were packing things up, throwing old clothes into the donation boxes near them. Dani swore she deserved to get paid for how much more work she did with Jesse than on her own.

“She woke up.”

Dani stopped packing, facing Emily with a surprised look. “Woke up?”

“Well, she opened her eyes. It was after Jesse went to visit. Terri said he tore outta there like he'd seen something. She said it's a miracle.”

“Hmm,” Dani replied.

“What about you? What's going on down at the station?”

Dani briefly glanced at Emily before answering. She shrugged. “Nothing much. Root has been talking about how some government people came down here looking for something.”

“Like what?”

Dani shrugged again. “He wouldn't tell us. Top secret supposedly.”

Emily hummed and returned to packing.

“So, you sent Cassidy to me.” Dani let it slip faster than she could think.

“Oh- I'm sorry about that. He just kept going on and on about money and other things, I figured, you could deal with him.”

“I've got him bunking with me now.”

Emily grimaced but nonetheless brushed it off.

“I got him to take Ted’s body out for the burning. Won't be long till he gets back.” Emily said.

“Is it just me, or do you get some sort of vibe about him?”

“You mean the whole drug thing?”

Dani couldn't put her finger on it but it certainly wasn't that. “No, it's….never mind.”

”Is that you, Padre? I've been wonderin' where you were. I wasn't I wasn't stealing the communion wine there. I just I was only getting the keys, you know, for what's his name's coffin.” Cassidy approached with caution. When he didn't see Jesse move, he halted.

“Jess. Are you all right, mate?” He leaned down to see Jesse looking up at him. He was clearly shaken.

“I want to show you something.”

“Now there are three possible explanations here Number one, John Travolta, you know the movie where he gets his power from a brain tumor.” Cassidy rambled.

“Number two, Jason Bourne gets his power from a secret government agency.

Or, and it's the least likely, but it's my favorite scenario, you're a Jedi. Now, assumin' it's not number one how unbelievably stoked are we, huh? All right.”

Jesse groaned. He was regretting letting his secret slip.

“Not very stoked at all, it might seem. How long have you had it, do you think? Last night?”

“Maybe longer.” Jesse guessed. “I've been feeling different.”

“How different? Different how? What? Well, what does it feel like?”

“Well, it's crazy. I know all kinds of crazy, all right? Just tell me how it feels.”

“It feels like there's a big blender in my gut.

And inside that blender, there's everything. Love, hate, fire, ice, polonium, ice cream, tarantulas, everything.” He paused. “All of God's creation inside of me.”

Suddenly the door slapped shut. A familiar feminine voice rang throughout the walls. Jesse straightened up.

“I'm late! I know. I know. Donnie came to the station and gave me a hard ti- what's he doing here?” She pointed to Cassidy. If he was previously excited at the prospect of Jesse's powers before, he was more excited at the sight of the lady sheriff.

“Sheriff!” He grinned from ear to ear.

She disregarded him, more focused on the contents of the bag she'd brought. She pulled out a bottle of whiskey, Jesse's eyes seem to light up.

“I forgot some more stuff in the truck, please don't down this all in a gulp.” She said and made her way back out.

“Hello.” Cassidy drawled out as he watched her leave. He turned back to Jesse. “Ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“What's uh, what's her story?”

Jesse chuckled. “Like I said. You don't want to go down that road.”

“Come on, pretty little lass like her, anything?”

“You're not even on the same playing field. She'll eat you alive.”

Cassidy felt his cheeks flush. His mind racing with cheeky comebacks to what Jesse'd said. “Well Padre, I'd have no problem with that.”

Jesse snorted. “Just 'cause you're bunking with her doesn't mean you two are guaranteed to do anything. She'll probably kill you before I could.”

Cassidy winced. “She a relative?”

Jesse shook his head. “Close enough. Shared trauma and shit. We don't like to talk about it.”

Cassidy nodded.

“Well, for all of our sake's then.” He placed a hand over his heart and swore.

#preacher series

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percyjacksonfan3 · 7 years

Text

Finding Home (Part Nine)

Part One: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home

Part Two: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-two

Part Three: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-three

Part Four: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-four

Part Five: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-fiive

Part Six: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-six

Part Seven: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-seven

Part Eight: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-eight

Percy had really thought for a while that there was no way things could get worse.

Which was stupid; obviously when it came to him, things could always get worse.

Seriously though, he’d really thought things were gonna work out. Or at least have the semblance of working out. His plan had seemed to be going well- the giant had agreed to leave and get Percy his ‘supplies’ and hey, that was the first obstacle overcome.

Of course that was when everything fell to pieces. Seriously, Percy can’t ever remember his luck turning so quickly and so drastically.

After eating his dinner of scrambled eggs Percy had dozed. Aristaeus had muttered about ‘refueling’ and ‘having one last thing to get done’ before he went to sleep. Percy had tried to stay awake and pay attention but he’d found himself with a full stomach for the first time in hours and couldn’t help it; his eyelids drifted shut.

It was a short lived sleep. What must have been only a few hours later- though it was quite dark outside- Percy had been awoken by a loud thump outside and what sounded like wingbeats.

Like a certain golden automaton dragon’s wingbeats.

His eyes had shot open and Percy had pushed himself up on the futon, trying to see outside of the cave. He’d slowly gotten up, mindful of his still present injuries, and hobbled towards the mouth of the cave.

The sudden appearance of Aristaeus’ arm blocking his path made him stop.

“Stay very still demigod.”

The tone had been deadly quiet and deadly serious. Percy had looked over from where he was frozen to see the giant beside him and looking out of the cave intently.

“Shh,” the giant warned him, bringing the hand in front of Percy up to place a finger on his lips and complete the gesture.

Percy watched as Aristaeus moved slowly towards the mouth of the cave, taking in the giant’s expression and seeing something it took him a moment to recognize.

The giant looked worried.

Percy noted the huge battle axe strapped to the giant’s back and his mouth went dry.

“What is it?” Percy croaked, swallowing to clear his throat.

“Silence.” Aristaeus hushed him without even looking back. “If you move forward anymore, I will kill you, Perseus, believe that.”

Percy watched the giant’s back in horror as Aristaeus moved to the opening of the cave and shouted, “Hurry up! There are demigods coming after you!”

He wasn’t talking to Percy, but that didn’t matter. He couldn’t stop himself from taking a few steps, but the giant didn’t notice. Aristaeus didn’t need to stop him because the sight that met him when his eyes finally adjusted was enough to make him halt.

Leo was dragging a body towards the two of them.

“I’m coming!” Leo yelled in response over his shoulder. Percy was stuck watching wide eyed and felt dread curdle inside of him when Leo’s eyes shifted to meet his. “Hey, Percy.”

He shook his head, trying to quickly make sense of what was going on. “Leo? What are you-”

His mouth snapped shut as Percy realized what was happening. Of course. Aristaeus had shown Percy the extent of his powers multiple times and Percy had been the one to suspect Leo of being controlled back before he was kidnapped. He should have put together that it was Aristaeus controlling Leo; there was no other explanation, that was obviously what was happening right now.

Percy’s mind raced. What should he do? Keep his cover of being on the giant’s side? Go along with whatever they were doing?

His eyes caught on the mortal Leo was lying at Aristaeus’ feet. He looked up and saw the giant lick his lips, a hungry look in his eyes.

“What’s she for?” Percy asked, remembering the night with the Chimera. The other dead woman, the glowing circle, Aristaeus bathed in dark light.

Aristaeus looked at Percy as if he’d forgotten him, which was unlike the meticulous immortal Percy had come to know and, frankly, a little insulting. “Magic comes at a price, Perseus. You should know better than anybody, were you not the bearer of the Achilles Curse for a while?”

Percy’s hand shot to Riptide in his pocket before he could stop it. A fuzzy memory of Aristaeus standing in the middle of a circle of glowing lines at the forefront of his mind and Percy gasped. “You’re going to kill her for- for magic?”

Aristaeus was looking out of the cave again, unconcerned with Percy. “One of them is fighting me already.”

“One of- what are you talking about?”

“Oh, the others followed me.” Leo said unconcerned while Aristaeus looked out of the cave and muttered. “Hazel is stripping away the glamour over the cave right now and it’s taking a lot of Aristaeus’ strength to fight her.” He finally stood up from where he’d been bending over.

Percy finally looked at what his friend had been doing. Leo had been busy making a replica of the circle from before, the one Percy had seen that night he’d fought the Chimera. Inside of it was a six-pointed star. The points touched the edge of the circle and in the spaces between the star and the circle there were other symbols.

Percy looked closer, realization filling him as he slowly started the recognize the drawings. The star itself was an Ancient Greek symbol for a conjoining of the four elements, earth, water, air and fire, meaning as above, so below. In the top right space was the symbol for earth drawn once more, an upside down triangle with a triangle cutting off the bottom’s tip. Going clockwise, the next was one of immortality, followed by magick, enchantment, strength and lastly the symbol for the past.

The lines were drawn in ash. Leo had burnt the circle onto the floor, leaving soot behind.

The giant looked down to where the mortal was at his feet and lifted her with one hand to place her in the middle of the circle.

Percy couldn’t stop himself.

“No!” He threw himself forward, not sure what he was going to do and not sure what exactly it was that he was stopping. All he knew was that he couldn’t let this woman die- if she was still alive.

The giant let out a sigh as if he’d been expecting it and Percy was scooped up in one of his hands before he knew what was happening. The mortal was placed in the middle of the star, slumped over to lay on the ground.

“Leo,” Percy choked past the death-grip Aristaeus had him in. “What did you do?”

Leo looked up at him and Percy could pinpoint the exact moment he regained control of himself. Instead of a blank expression his eyes grew wide, his face paled and he stared at the mortal with horror. “Oh my gods-”

His voice was a higher pitch than usual from fear, but it was definitely Leo speaking. Fingers tightened around Percy and Aristaeus cursed.

“This is falling apart,” the giant muttered to himself and Percy blinked and looked at him. “If you had only listened and joined me-”

Percy was distracted by the sight that greeted him outside of the cave. Before when he’d looked he hadn’t seen anything. Now he saw...

Annabeth.

There she was, standing with their friends, sword in hand, looking absolutely livid. Around her were Frank, Jason and Piper. He saw Hazel sitting astride Arion standing a bit behind them.

His friends. They’d actually found him.

And Annabeth.

Gods, she was here.

“Annabeth!” Percy called before he choked, feeling the air flow to his lungs cut off suddenly.

“Shut up!” The giant roared. “She can’t hear you!”

“Percy!” Leo yelled, scrambling to come closer and glaring at Aristaeus. “You want some of this, snake eyes?”

He held up his hands and Percy squeezed his eyes shut, hoping Leo knew how to aim the fire that would come shooting from his hands, but nothing came.

“What-” Leo looked at his hands in confusion, fear creeping into his expression.

Percy cursed in his head. He opened his mouth and tried to explain that the giant was suppressing their powers but no sound came out.

Leo met his eyes and then looked at Aristaeus.

Then he did what any rational person would have.

He ran.

Aristaeus snapped the hand that wasn’t currently holding onto Percy out and grabbed Leo as well. “Not so fast, son of the fire god.”

Leo went limp so suddenly that Percy was afraid he was dead, thinking the giant had somehow crushed him. He would have yelled out if Aristaeus wasn’t controlling him and making sure his mouth didn’t move an inch.

“Pluto’s daughter is stronger than I anticipated.” Aristaeus muttered and Percy had no choice but to listen, looking at Hazel who did indeed seem like she was saying something. She was holding a hand out and muttering and for a second, just a second, Percy thought he saw the air shimmer.

She’s going to bring them down, Percy realized. The wards were really going to fall. Hazel’s stronger than him.

He looked down at the mortal and the drawn circle that would glow with the right incantation and Percy fit more of the pieces together.

The mortal was for Aristaeus to gain strength. His magic came from draining others

All of the dead mortals hadn’t been the Chimera. It had been the giant that was currently holding Percy. He used them to make his magic grow stronger and without them he grew weak. Once he’d drained their life from them he gave them to the monster to eat.

Which reminded him. Percy looked around but didn’t see the Chimera anywhere and he tried to open his mouth again, to warn his friends.

Leo had been the one Aristaeus used to bring him a mortal. But he’d been too late because now their friends were here and he didn’t have time to perform whatever ceremony he needed to.

He was weak. Percy suspected if they could fight him long enough that he would completely lose his power and grow so tired they could actually beat him.

He looked back at Leo and saw his eyes moving beneath his eyelids and relief swept through him.

“I have to let the wards down,” Aristaeus continued speaking. “And I must release this demigod from my control. But you, Perseus, you will not speak.”

Percy felt his lips clamp even tighter closed against his will and felt sweat bead at his temples from the strength it was taking him to try and speak.

Percy watched as Aristaeus set Leo down as the demigod opened his eyes. Turned towards their friends, Leo looked about to speak before he was pushed forward, and he stumbled as he passed from the mouth of the cave to eventually stand up straight outside it.

The others froze and all eyes turned to him.

Percy saw a rustle in the trees behind them all, saw a large four-legged creature with a golden-yellow mane and realization him him.

“Guys?” Leo looked at each of their friends and Percy fought harder to speak than ever before. Aristaeus stepped forward once, then again, hovering just behind the line where the cave ended and grass began. Just out of his friends sight.

“You have no god on your side,” Aristaeus muttered to Percy as his friends spoke to one another feet away from him. None of them seemed to be able to see or hear the giant and Percy tried to get their attention, but his arms were pinned to his sides and the giant’s grip was firm. “No matter what you do to me, you can’t kill me. I have a Chimera and am invincible. This is a hopeless fight. Make them surrender and leave and I will spare you all.”

Percy looked over from the Chimera’s shadow behind all of his friends to meet the giant’s eyes. For a second he was tempted to do what Aristaeus asked. They’d formed a strange relationship over the past couple of days. It wasn’t friendship, they weren’t equals, but Percy felt that he inherently understood the giant.

They’d backed him into a corner here. One the giant had forced himself into, by kidnapping Percy and wanting to end Olympus, but a corner all the same.

All Aristaeus wanted was his family back. He’d been nicer to Percy than other enemies would have been. He still hadn’t killed him, though it was the smartest thing to do. A part of Percy felt sorry for him.

Without letting him reply Aristaeus stepped forward and Percy felt layers and layers of magic falling from him. He finally heard what his friends were saying. He saw as they all noticed the giant and if his eyes hadn’t been locked on Annabeth, he would have seen them all notice Percy in Aristaeus’ grip. He heard the gasps, he heard Hazel’s stream of incantation falter and he listened as Jason cried out.

For a second Percy wondered what he must look like. He’d never gotten to use any of that toothpaste, fresh clothes or deodorant Leo had brought with him. Stupidly Percy wondered about his hair before remembering there was a bandage hiding most of it.

Then he shook himself out of it. Annabeth had seen him look worse and now was not the time for his vanity to make a reappearance.

He tried to say something. He attempts were, ‘hi,’ and, ‘what have you guys been up to the past couple of days,’ and also, ‘could you please kill this guy so I can go home now?’

Nothing escaped his lips.

But the relief he saw written plain across Annabeth’s face was mirrored on his own and he hoped that said enough. “Percy,” she breathed out, and his heart gave a painful thump.

“Demigods, we’ve been waiting for you!” Aristaeus crowed happily. You never would have known the guy was practically having a nervous breakdown a few minutes ago. “Are you all ready to die?”

oooOOOooo

That’s the moment Frank can say things really went haywire.

If he’d been watching the giant like the others he wouldn’t have caught it in time. But he and Annabeth had been watching Percy, so they’d seen his eyes widen in alarm at the sight of something behind them.

Frank had enough sense to tackle Piper and Jason to the ground as the Chimera had jumped from the trees and landed with one clawed paw exactly where Frank had been standing a few moments ago.

Someone screamed. It could have been him. Arion whinnied, so high-pitched it made Frank wince, and Festus roared, whirling around from where he’d be standing beside Hazel to face the monster and stand in front of Leo protectively.

Annabeth used the monster as a distraction and charged the giant.

Immediately it moved forwards and made to grab her, but Annabeth darted to the side and avoided his grasp.

Frank would have gone to help but he was brought back to the present by Leo yelling, “Frank, move!”

He jumped up, turning into an eagle and flapped his wings, barely avoiding the Chimera. When he looked down the scene he saw made his stomach tighten from anxiety.

Arion was running circles around the Chimera with Hazel on his back, swiping at the monster with her spatha. She couldn’t get close enough to it though, because the tail was trying to strike her.

Fear made his blood slow down in his veins when Frank saw the tail was a viper with huge, hideous fangs and that those fangs were inches away from Hazel.

Jason was trying to distract the Chimera’s lion head, yelling insults and Frank noted the thunder clouds that were gathering very quickly overhead. Piper was murmuring soothingly to it, her voice layered in charmspeak, and Frank caught one word- sleep- before he turned his focus away, lest he fall asleep in the sky and plummet to the ground.

It was Leo that was making the most headway however. He was moving towards the Chimera and the threat of fire wasn’t bothering him in the slightest. In fact, Leo was throwing huge orbs of fire towards the monster, making it yowl in frustration and pain after it had tried to bat one away with a paw.

Then there was Annabeth who had run up to the giant and stabbed it in the foot, making the huge figure scream out in pain and drop Percy.

“Annabeth!” Percy yelled, seeming to have regained his ability to speak and Frank moved forward without hesitating, changing shape in midair to become a dragon.

He grabbed Percy just as Annabeth turned to see him, face pale and yelling “Percy!”

Frank felt Percy’s breath whoosh out of him at the sudden jolt of being caught midair but he didn’t let go. The giant roared and surged forward towards him and Frank roared.

He hurriedly put Percy on the ground and Annabeth ran up to him, speaking hurriedly, hands hovering over the multiple bandages that covered him, but Frank didn’t stick around to pay attention.

He rose up in the air to face the giant and met it’s eyes.

“The shapeshifter,” the words were a growl and Frank felt fear scrape down his spine like a cold blade. “You would be useful.”

Frank dove forwards and tried to scratch the giant, but the huge axe swinging through the air stopped him, making him veer out of the way. He tried again, keeping his momentum to circle around behind the giant and managed to claw at it’s left shoulder.

He howled in protest and pain and before Frank could celebrate his victory the axe was swinging around again and piercing his shoulder.

He roared at the sensation and felt the burning rip in his shoulder as the blade was pulled away. Dimly he was aware of Hazel’s call of “Frank!” before he plummeted to the ground.

Frank’s shape changed to a human only seconds after he crashed to the ground and he found himself yelling out from the pain radiating through his body.

Shapes appeared over him and he heard Hazel yelling somewhere “Go to him!”, but he only managed to see Festus rising up in the sky, teeth whirring angrily and jaws opening to shoot fire at the giant.

Festus swiped and managed to rake a single claw across the giant’s face. The giant’s right eye would have been blinded if he hadn’t pulled away in time, but instead all Festus did was leave a scratch from above the giant’s eye to end at the the apple of his cheek.

Warmth fills Frank even as Annabeth rolled him onto his side, hurting him with the movement. Percy was feeding him ambrosia squares and Frank ate numbly, unaware of what he was doing.

He had never thought the dragon liked him that much.

Then everything went black.

oooOOOooo

“Annabeth, he’s passed out!” Percy’s hands roved over his friend, patting his cheeks, checking his heartbeat- which was still strong, but slowing down- and he saw steam coming from Frank’s skin. No more ambrosia then.

“I know!” Annabeth said back to him, teeth gritted together as she rooted through her pack. “I-I have bandages in here somewhere-”

Jason came to kneel beside Percy. “What can I do?” He asked hurriedly. “Hey,” he directed to Percy quickly. “Boy am I happy to see you.”

Percy met his eyes and nodded. “I know the feeling.”

They shared a quick tired smile before Annabeth shoved bandages into Percy’s hands. “Start wrapping,” she instructed, and Percy did, looping the gauze around Frank’s shoulder, passing it to Jason to do the back.

It took less than 5 minutes and was a shoddy job, but Annabeth whipped out safety pins and started pinning the bandages in place.

Her hands were shaking, Percy saw and he looked up to see tears in her eyes.

“Someone needs to stay with him-”

A roar from Festus made all of them look over only for the sight of Festus’ neck caught in one of Aristaeus’ hands to greet them.

The giant let his axe clatter to the ground and caught Festus’ right back leg with his other hand. Percy watched as the muscles in the giant’s arms bulged and a few seconds later Festus’ joints gave an unhealthy groan and his leg was ripped off and throw away.

Leo looked up at that second from where he’d been standing in front of the Chimera and screamed. “Festus!”

The dragon’s jaw creaked and Percy swore his glowing red eyes looked pained as Aristaeus dropped him to the ground, picked up his axe and cackled with glee. “Goodbye dragon!” The giant said and brought the axe swinging down to sever the automaton’s head from his body.

The red eyes dulled, the jaw stopped moved and Festus was no more.

Percy’s hand shot out to grip Annabeth’s automatically, feeling her squeeze his in return. Leo screamed and Hazel cried out to warn him but it was too late, the Chimera was opening it’s mouth and let loose a huge stream of fire directly where Leo was standing.

Jason yelled in anguish from beside Percy, but it was drowned out by another sound.

“NO!” Piper’s voice reverberated around the clearing. “No, stop, Leo-!”

The giant hefted his blade back up and looked around before grinning wickedly and, meeting Percy’s eyes, lifting a foot to stomp on Festus’ head.

When he stepped back the head was completely destroyed. Metal was mangled and bent and Percy looked at what remained of Festus and wondered how Leo or anybody else would ever be able to fix him.

Rage filled him and Percy felt the strength he’d been missing in the cave fill him.

“Stay with Frank!” He yelled before surging forward, taking Riptide from his pocket and uncapping the sword, rushing towards the giant.

He heard Annabeth curse behind him and say something to Jason, but he focused on the sudden presence that appeared next to him.

When he glanced over Leo's face was murderous and for a second Percy felt a flash of pity for the giant, because there was no way that Aristaeus was making it out of this encounter alive if the look on Leo’s face was any indication.

"Ready?" Leo bit out to Percy as the giant turned and grinned down at them.

Percy’s eyes met those of Aristaeus and for a second he wondered if the giant felt even the slightest bit sorry. He’d seen that this giant had emotions, much like Damasen, and Percy thinks if things had turned out different, Aristaeus might not have been their enemy. He had tried to stand up to his siblings and been punished for it. All he was trying to do now was bring his family back so that he didn’t have to be alone.

But Percy had a family too, people he had to protect. And Aristaeus threatened that.

Percy rolled his shoulders, blocking out any sympathy he felt for the giant as he did so, feeling the muscles pop as he placed the last square of ambrosia he'd been about to feed Frank on his tongue. The taste of cookies soothed his words. "Oh yeah."

Together they charged and Percy saw Aristaeus' face change from gleeful to serious.

Percy grinned and the giant zoomed in on him for a second before he shifted to look at who appeared beside him.

"Thought I'd let you two do this alone?" Annabeth asked cheekily and met Percy's look with a grin.

"Never," Percy said and he bit back a sudden laugh when Annabeth lifted her Yankee's cap to her head and disappeared, making Aristaeus howl.

"Tricks!" He called, swinging his axe in front of him in case Annabeth managed to sneak past Leo and Percy. "I have tricks too, demigods, would you like to see?"

His eyes glinted and Percy felt his limbs slow and when his eyes looked over he noticed Leo moving as if in slow motion.

"No!" Hazel yelled, and she turned her attention from the Chimera to the giant, palms out. Even Arion was slower, though slow motion for him just meant normal horse speed. The Chimera however was moving just as fast as ever and his tail whipped out to bite one of Arion's ankles.

No words were escaping Piper's mouth and her eyes were wide with fear.

Until a blast of pure, untainted magic erupted from Hazel as Arion collapsed beneath her. She jumped from the horse's back and rolled to stand up, facing the giant rage on her face. "This is for Frank." She spat, eyes glowing fiercely, and Percy felt a spark of fear towards this girl who he'd always thought of as a little sister. "And for my horse." Hazel’s eyes glowed, golden and furious, and Percy watched as Aristaeus staggered, clutching his chest and howling at an unseen wound.

Hazel’s magic touched Piper and she unfroze, moving forward quicker than anybody could have expected with her dagger in hand to leap up and stab the Chimera right in the eye.

The tail whipped forward to bite at her shoulder, but Jason was there first, using his gladius to swipe and slash the newly regenerated snake's head deeply enough to send it whipping back.

The Chimera yowled and it was then that Percy realized his limbs weren't frozen anymore and Leo was feet ahead of him already, hands glowing.

He glanced over and noted Hazel and a limping Arion moving to settle beside Frank, Hazel holding her hands over Frank's shoulder and muttering, eyes still glowing. Arion was staggering, falling to the ground, and Percy wondered how long the poison would take to kill the magic horse.

He remembered the feeling of that poison in his own veins, burning through his blood, dizzying his vision. It took seconds, minutes maybe, but not long.

Percy looked towards Aristaeus and saw him take all of this in as he slowly stood up straight again. The giant was just opening his mouth and raising his hands to do more damage before he cried out and staggered.

When Percy blinked he saw Annabeth appear behind the giant, sword in hand and blood from the cut she'd just made on the back of the giant's leg dripping from the blade. Her cap fell from her head, falling to land on the ground, and she didn’t have time to pick it up, instead dodging Aristaeus as he quickly turned around to face her.

Percy noted the cut was already healing, the ichor that escaped slowing to a trickle before stopping altogether.

“Fool,” Aristaeus cursed at Annabeth and Percy felt himself speeding up. “You could join me, girl. We could recreate the world in your image.”

Annabeth’s grip shifted on her sword and Percy saw her swallow, even if nobody else did. He knew Annabeth’s fatal flaw, and he knew, however much she might try to deny it, that a small part of her always thought she should be in charge. Compared to the gods, Percy thought she’d definitely be an upgrade.

But Percy also knew Annabeth enough not to worry about the giant’s offer. Her words backed up his faith in her.

“I’ve had that offer before.” Annabeth hefted her sword up in a ready stance and met Percy’s eyes briefly before looking back up at Aristaeus. “So, thanks, but no thanks.”

The giant opened his mouth but didn’t say anything else because Percy stabbed him once more in the back of the leg with Riptide. He clung on as the giant fell to one knee and used the movement to push himself up, one hand reaching up to the waistline of Aristaeus’ leather skirt. He pulled, heaving his weight, and swung Riptide up again to stab the giant’s back until he finally made his way up onto the giant’s shoulders.

“What- Perseus-” The warning was lost when the giant had to turn and face Leo who’d shot a fireball at him.

“Hey ugly!” Leo yelled. “This is for Festus!”

‘This’ was a fireball to the face and Percy nimbly dodged the flames, slashing at the giant’s neck and ending up cutting off a patch of braided hair before sliding down an arm and landing on the ground.

Aristaeus was screaming in pain and as Leo managed to conjure up another ball of flame, this one significantly smaller than the previous, he slashed the air with his axe wildly, looking for any target.

Percy noticed Jason call down a flash of lightning and watched as it slammed just inches away from the Chimera, only missing it because the Chimera dodged towards Jason, claws out and reaching.

“Stop!” Piper screamed and for a second everybody except her froze where they were, even the Chimera was hanging still in midair, a second longer than physics should have allowed. Piper used the moment to throw herself at Jason and slam him to the ground, making the Chimera sail over them before it hurriedly turned around, meeting their eyes again as both Jason and Piper stood up hurriedly.

Percy’s eyes shifted to Hazel and Frank and saw her still bending over him, hands moving, mouth muttering and face creased in a frown. Percy swallowed, seeing the drawn, pale look on Hazel’s face, but he saw Frank’s eyes flutter and noticed him shifting before letting out a groan of pain and some of his worry eased.

Annabeth came up beside him and Percy met her eyes, knowing she was taking everything in as well. For the moment the giant was occupied with Leo, both of them dancing around Festus’ ruined remains.

In that second all Percy wanted was to wrap Annabeth in his arms and hold her tight, to breathe in the smell of her hair and feel her heartbeat against his chest. He’d missed her so damn much and now she was here and once again they were fighting for their lives.

“Game plan?” He asked instead, seeing her grey eyes roving the clearing and taking everybody in. He could practically see the plan forming behind her eyes.

She looked back at him, pain in her eyes. “Percy, without a god-”

“I know.” He said, meeting her gaze steadily. “But right now he won’t let us leave alive.”

He saw her flinch. “There’s something you should know. Rachel gave me a prophecy and-”

“Uh, guys I know you were just reunited and everything, but a little help would be nice!” Leo yelled, narrowly jumping back from Aristaeus throwing some kind of conjured lightning at him. “Like now!”

Without another word the two of them jumped forward, Percy moving to stand beside Leo, who was trying to bring more fire to his palms but managing only flickers.

Percy saw him breathe deeply and noted the sweat on his brow. Annabeth was helping up Piper, who had been knocked down by a sudden move by the Chimera while Jason yelled and called down another blast of lightning, this one weaker, but catching the Chimera’s tail end. The monster yowled and Jason moved forward to strike, slashing the throat but having his blade glance off when it hit a collar instead of fur.

His blade clattered out of his hand and the Chimera shook itself and advanced. Piper wasn’t responding to Annabeth and Percy saw her head loll onto her shoulder as Annabeth tried to drag her over to Hazel and Frank. Frank was still unconscious, though looking like he had more blood in his features and his face wasn’t contorted in pain anymore as he lay resting. Hazel was slumped against a collapsed Arion, whose stomach was heaving. Percy saw the whites of the horse’s eyes and heard the pain (and cursing) as Arion let out a call of warning to the girls just in time for Annabeth to turn and slash the Chimera’s tail again. The blade was knocked out of her hand as she did and she had a choice between continuing to drag Piper or try and pick it up.

Leo tried summoning another ball of fire and managed it, only for the flames to sputter out seconds later. He was frantically pulling things out of his toolbelt and eventually, after throwing away a pack of breath mints and toothpicks, he pulled out his smithy hammer.

His arms were shaking as he lifted it up.

“Is this it?” Aristaeus spread his arms and taunted. The axe gleamed wickedly and Percy randomly noted that it was dawn. The sun was rising, slowly, but it was rising.

If you feel like helping anytime, Percy thought up to Apollo, now would really be appreciated.

No gods or godly symbols appeared. Instead Aristaeus called the Chimera over to stand beside him and surveyed the tired teenagers in front of him.

“This is all who come to rescue the famous Perseus Jackson?” The giant spun around to yell. “Where are the gods now, demigods? You see how much your parents love you? Show me your reinforcements from your camps! Where is their help? What happened to the rest of your friends? You’re alone, you’re injured and too tired to fight! Join me, half-bloods. I am not unfair, this I would swear to you all. Even Perseus can agree. I was never malicious and I know all of you can understand my meaning when I say that the gods do not deserve to rule as they do. Zeus does not deserve it. My family has made mistakes, grave mistakes that many would think of as unforgivable, I do not deny it. But you are gracious demigods, and you are wise. You see the value in learning from the past and you see that the gods must change. How did they thank you after you saved the world, saved their world, from defeat at the hands of my mother? Did they shower you with gifts? Offer immortality? No, they did nothing, not a word of thanks, and instead cast out one of their own, blaming Phoebus Apollo, sending him to your doorstep and starting more trouble, leading to more war and more casualties of your friends and family. How many comrades did you lose against the Triumvirate in the war? How many demigods littered the battlefield of New Rome? The satyr Grover Underwood, a friend to you all, was nearly driven insane by having to return to the Labyrinth. You, Leo Valdez, were drawn into the fight earlier than anybody else. Your relationship with Calypso was tested and almost didn’t survive, causing you to hide in the Huntress’ safe house to repair it, away from anything else that might cause it harm. How does she feel about you being here now, instead of with her?

“And you, Aphrodite’s daughter.” He turned to Piper, who was clutching her head and sitting beside Frank. When she looked up to the giant though, her eyes flashed with fury and Percy saw Aristaeus stiffen. “All you want is a life with your boyfriend and for your dad to care about you, yes? You try going to school in Los Angeles, ignoring the monster attacks that plague you both daily, trying to be normal, but how often is your dad home? He couldn’t handle the truth about you or your mother, why do you still cling to the hope that someday he might? If he knew do you think he’d be proud of you?” Piper flinched and Percy looked between her and the giant, confused at the words, knowing there was something he was missing. “You think he would look at you,” Aristaeus finished softly, “and see anything but a manipulative goddess and murderous daughter?”

Piper’s face paled and Jason, who had moved towards her as soon as the Chimera was situated beside the giant, glared up at him. “That’s enough. Why are we even-”

“Ah, the son of Jupiter.” Aristaeus’ eyes glinted. “So moral, always so good. Unwaveringly so. Does it hurt to be so angelic all the time?” The giant’s smile was wicked. “So different from your mother. But of course, you wouldn’t remember her, would you?”

Rage was building in Percy but he didn’t know what to say to combat the giant’s words. They were like finely honed knives, striking the weakest places in each of them, crippling their defenses.

“Even if she’d lived, demigod, you would have grown to hate her. Your sister only stayed because of you, and once you were gone she left too. How does that feel, having your mother give you up to the Olympian Queen without a thought? Having your sister accept your death within days, never trying to look for you or speaking of you to anybody. Never looking for a body or having a funeral. Not even her closest friends knew about you.” Aristaeus gestured to Annabeth. “It bothers you, doesn’t it? The first time you were stolen you were a toddler and nobody came looking for you. The second time, years later, was the same. What search parties came for you all those months you were at Camp Half-Blood, hmm? What did your friend Reyna do? What about your cohort? Your Roman family?”

Aristaeus sneered. “They did nothing. Because you were just another loss. It weakened them, but that was all your disappearance was. A spot to be filled, a rank to replace. A loss of leadership and power. I wonder,” Aristaeus mused, “if I had stolen you away, instead of Perseus, would your friends have come back? Would they have cared? I doubt we’d be here now, in this clearing, with these people fighting to save someone they lost. What do you think?”

Jason’s mouth was open but he made no move to speak, looking as if someone had just struck him.

“Jason-” Piper reached a trembling hand out to him, voice pleading.

“You’re a liar.” Leo’s voice cut through the clearing. “Of course we would come for Jason, you foul-mouthed, slimy, green-”

“Oh, Leo.” Aristaeus looked almost pitying as he turned to him. “Am I to believe you would come save Jason when you allowed him to think you were dead for months?”

Leo, Jason, Annabeth and Piper all flinched.

“I suppose it’s to be expected. You distanced yourself from the people who cared about you, ruining your friendships and whatever trust you might have had because you were so used to being alone. Isn’t that right, Leo? Ever since your mother left you, ever since you started a fire that killed her, you didn’t have anybody who cared. You searched so hard, and eventually you thought you found two friends.” The giant gestured to Piper and Jason. “But Jason’s memories were false,” he continued softly, “and Piper cared more about finding a boyfriend than putting up with said boyfriend’s tag along friend. When they started dating, well, you weren’t surprised when you were suddenly the third wheel, were you? Unwanted so often, never included in the whispers and jokes. So then you found Calypso and you thought here was a girl, someone who cared about you. This girl was yours and she loved you- of course, she loved Percy too. You think her love for you is so different from what she feels- so sorry, felt- for your friend here?”

Leo was glaring so hard at the giant Percy almost took a step away. Instead he looked at Annabeth, seeing the dull twist at her mouth and knowing the giant’s words had gotten to her, no matter how hard she tried to keep them away.

He would have said something, he was going to say something, but Hazel beat them to it. “Leave them alone.”

“Don’t get me started on you, daughter of Pluto. I feel you fighting me even now, but your strength is gone from all of your healing. Your Frank will still die. Poison coats my blade and he didn’t escape it’s touch. But let’s talk about you, shall we?” He ignored Hazel’s look of anguish as she bent over Frank again. The rest of the demigods were frozen as her magic turned from them to him. “Bullied and abused by your mother only to have her turn around and manipulate you into sacrificing yourself just because she was dying. How does it feel, to be used so thoroughly that you give up your life for the person who cares nothing for you and cursed your very existence?”

“Stop it.”

Aristaeus ignored her. “How does it feel to be shunned because of your parentage? To have a brother who doesn’t trust or care about you enough to share anything of himself with you? Do you cry because your long-lost Sammy has a doppelganger that stands right in front of you but doesn’t feel anything when he looks at you?”

“Don’t say another word-”

“And now you string along the son of Mars, who would lay down his life for you, because he’s convenient and cute. He had a crush on you since he arrived at your pitiful camp and you said, oh, here’s someone I can manipulate and use just as my mother used me. You saw the potential in him, you knew one day he would be powerful, and you have him wrapped around your finger. Anything you want, he would get for you and yet are you dating? Do you tell him you love him? No, you distance yourself, causing him pain and ignoring what he feels. At least you get what you want.”

Percy looked at Hazel in surprise as she cried out. “I’m only fourteen, Frank understands-”

“You break his heart everyday,” Aristaeus continued. “And you don’t even notice.”

Hazel fell silent, looking at the wounded demigod boy at her side and biting her lip.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Annabeth stood up, glaring at the giant and surprising them all as she broke through his magic. Percy’s heart swelled from pride even as he wanted to warn her, not wanting to hear whatever the giant was about to bite out to try and make her fierce expression crumple.

“Annabeth Chase.” The giant’s forced tongue flicked out as he clucked it disapprovingly. “Do I even need to say anything when it comes to you?”

“Say all you want,” Annabeth said. “We all know you’re nothing but a liar, alone and scared. Aristaeus, was it? I know tales of you, giant. The last of your kind, left to wander the earth alone, trying to escape the wrath of everybody who would kill you. What happened this time? Why is it always you your siblings leave behind to live alone?”

Pure, unrestrained rage flicked across the giant’s face and Percy saw the fist around his axe clench. He also saw him stroke the Chimera’s mane and watched as the snake head hissed, flicking up to eye Annabeth with interest.

“You’re one to talk about being left alone.” The giant said quietly. “Who played with you as a child, Annabeth? What parent defended you when you were kicked out of school every year? What kids wanted to play with the freak who couldn’t read, the smarty-pants who tried to show them up in every class? Did your step-mom let you have any of the cookies she baked for her sons? Did she ever trust you to be alone with them? Who killed the spiders for you Annabeth, and who let you scream yourself hoarse in your room, scared to death of the creepy crawlies that would come to you at night? Nobody believed you, so you ran away. Alone. You came across two demigods, but they were together long before they found you, and they cared for each other differently than they cared for you, didn’t they? Alone again. Thalia died on the hill, Luke turned his back on you, and now where are they? One dead, the other immortal and distancing herself from everyone she loves to try and make their eventual deaths easier, never taking time to come see you, never there when you need her. Who’s left from that family, Ms. Chase? You. Alone. Then you find Perseus,” the giant gestures to Percy, “but he leaves you too, doesn’t he? He might not mean to, but three times now he’s left you. Once to fall in love with a beautiful titan on her island,” Annabeth and Percy both flinch at the mention of Calypso, “another to become Hera’s pet amnesiac, and thirdly taken by me. He never mentioned you once, you know, in all the time he’s been with me. I don’t think he even cared whether you came to save him or not.”

Percy’s eyes widen and he tries to think back. How could he never have mentioned Annabeth? Didn’t he? He’d tried to protect her and stop the giant from going after his friends instead, but surely he’d said something about her-

Aristaeus’ eyes were hard as he continued. “Your friend Luke is dead. Your friend Silena is dead. Your friend Thalia cuts herself off from you. Your parents don’t care, your step-brothers don’t care, your cousin Magnus Chase has more important things to worry about than you. Your boyfriend-” Aristaeus laughs. “Well, it will be a miracle if he survives past today, not to mention a year, or two, or more. Who will you have then, hmm? Who stands by your side?”

Piper tremulously stands up, and Percy can’t believe these girls, his friends, who are strong enough to overpower the giant’s magic. He can barely twitch a finger, Leo hasn’t moved in minutes and Jason isn’t doing anything more than looking back and forth between everything going on.

Percy doesn’t know how they’re doing it, he just knows it must be taking incredible strength. He hopes they figure out a way to run up and stab Aristaeus in certain places he wouldn’t like to be stabbed and see if those wounds heal as quickly as the others have.

Piper stands to her full height, Annabeth slightly in front of her, Hazel on the ground next to Frank protectively, all of them glaring at the giant. The three of them look more formidable than a whole group of Amazon warriors (Percy knows from experience what that sight looks like) and if he was Aristaeus he’d be tucking tail and running right about now.

“She has us.” Piper’s voice cracks until she tries again and this time it’s stronger. “All of us. Always.”

But the giant is either more desperate or not as smart as Percy thought, because he doesn’t cower and beg for their mercy. He doesn’t immediately surrender.

“All of you.” The giant muses. “Such a formidable bunch, you are. What happens, I wonder, when one of you is lost forever?”

None of them understand but the giant just grins, looking from Annabeth to Percy and then back again smugly as he says softly, “Now, Precious.”

Before any one of them can move, before any of them could even predict what was about to happen, the Chimera’s tail strikes, fast as any of them can blink-

-and closes its jaws around Percy’s midsection.

He blinks.

Annabeth screams, a sound so heart-wrenching that Percy looks at her while he falls to the ground, feeling pain course through him, pain worse than anything the giant had done in the past, pain worse than anything Percy had ever felt. He would compare it to the pain of jumping in the River Styx but at least then he’d had hope that Nico wasn’t leading him to die and there’d been a possibility that he would make it out.

So this is what dying feels like.

He sees Annabeth’s terrified face as he drops Riptide, he hears her scream ring in his ears as he falls, he feels the poison from the snake’s fangs move through his veins, can actually feel it’s progress working through his body as Annabeth comes to skid into a kneeling position beside him.

Percy thinks he hears the giant’s laughter.

“No, no, no,” Annabeth’s hands are moving over him frantically, she’s whipping out what must be the last ambrosia square she has and shoving it in his mouth, moving it so that he’ll chew, telling him to swallow. Her voice is high-pitched, more scared than he’s ever heard her and he’s seen this look on her face only once before, this terror and heartbreak. He’d seen a shadow of this expression when Thalia kicked Luke off of Atlas’ cliff.

“Not you, it can’t be you, please, gods, anybody but you, Seaweed Brain...” Percy can’t concentrate on what she’s saying, can only watch her mouth form the words and he sees tears in her eyes.

He remembers when Annabeth had been stabbed by a poisoned dagger and Will Solace had been the difference between losing her and keeping her with him.

“Where’s… Will… when you need him?” He wheezes out to Annabeth and sees her freeze before she makes sense of his words.

Then her hands are pressing into him harder but there’s four different marks where the serpent’s teeth dug in and ripped through him and not even Annabeth can stop that.

“Shut up,” she says fiercely, but the way her voice cracks at the end takes any heat out of the words. “Don’t you dare talk like that. You’ll be fine.”

“Never thought… I’d go down… by a snake.” Percy coughs and thinks he tastes blood on his tongue. With the way Annabeth’s eyes widen he suspects some of it had gotten on his chin. “Thought- at least a giant- titan maybe-”

“Stop it.” Annabeth says, asks, begs, pleads. “You can’t leave me- permanent, you said, something permanent in New Rome, marriage and- and kids-”

“I really did want it. You. For as long as I could.” Percy whispers to her, feeling his eyes start to close. The pain has dulled now, all he feels is his heartbeat, which seems slower than usual. “Annabeth…”

“Don’t you dare-”

“Tell my mom I’m sorry,” Percy whispers brokenly, and, “Love you.”

Then he doesn’t feel anything anymore.

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