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jasntodds · 6 months

Text

Alive | J.T.

Pairing: Jason Todd x Fem!Reader

Request: yes, here

Summary: Red Hood shows up at your apartment only to reveal he's your not-so-dead boyfriend

Warnings: Swearing, 18+, smut, some fluff, mentions of death, mentions of canon drug use (he's not actually high in this but it's mentioned)

Words: 3,412

A/n: A huge thank you to @tenpintsof-sundrop for the idea 😭 please go check them out if you haven't already!! This kept turning into angst (why can't I just write fluff and smut ffs) which is why it took forever I'm so sorry to the anon who requested this lol but there's no angst!! If you wanna be tagged in my fics, you can click the link below, send me an ask/comment, or follow my library blog @jasntoddslibrary and turn on notifications if you prefer that!!

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Gotham’s city lights are the only thing illuminating parts of your room where your curtains don’t quite close all of the way. The sounds of distant sirens and passing cars echo into your room as you’re finally getting some much-needed sleep. Bruce called you three days ago with the news about Jason. Nothing really seems worth the energy anymore, including sleep but tonight it’s as if your body finally caved under the pressure of grief. But, you’re not asleep long before something wakes you up.

You stir awake to the sound of creaking near the window. Your eyes shoot open as you keep on your side, facing the opposite direction. Your heart starts to thunder and you swear you locked that window. It’s Crime Alley in Gotham City, you always lock your door and window. Jason even got you good locks for your window and your door. Someone can’t possibly be breaking in but that’s the only explanation.

You reach to the side of the bed, slowly, careful not to make quick and harsh movements so whoever is in your home doesn’t realize you’re awake. The metal of the baseball is cold against the palm of your hand as your fingers curl around the handle. It’s not a knife or a gun, but a metal baseball can kill and incapacitate all the same. All you need is one really good swing and you’re good to go. So, you suck on a deep breath, gripping the handle as hard as you can before you sit up quickly, turning around on your knees to face the intruder.

“Get out of my apartment!” You yell, baseball bat swung over your shoulder with your arms ready to swing the second he comes close enough.

He takes a step forward into the light coming from your window and your heart drops.

Red Hood.

Why the fuck is Red Hood, Gotham’s newest crime lord, standing in your apartment?

“Don’t freak out.” He says, the voice modulator disguising his voice.

You almost laugh at the request. He’s killing people out there and is ruthless but he doesn’t want you to freak out when he’s standing in your bedroom? That makes perfect sense. And why does it have to be your apartment? There are so many other ones he could have picked but it just had to be yours.

Jason is careful as he takes the helmet off, revealing himself to you. Your eyes grow wide as your jaw starts to fall open. Jason can see your grip on the bat start to loosen as his chest starts to swell. He always questioned your choice of a baseball bat, thinking you'd never wake up with enough time to grab it and defend yourself. He's happy he was clearly very wrong.

“You…you died…?” You question, almost certain you’re dreaming.

Bruce Wayne himself called you and told you Jason had been killed. You knew he was Robin and it was all over Gotham City News. Robin had been killed by the Joker. But, Jason Todd is currently standing in front of you, his chest moving with every breath which means he's alive.

He's desperately trying not to think about dying. That's not why he came here anyway. It wasn't to discuss the gorey details of a deranged clown with a bloody crowbar. It was just to see you and let you know he was alive. That is it. No more reminders of dying, not tonight. Not when he isn't high enough to numb the panic or pain of the thoughts. All he wants to do is see you and exist in a moment with just you and him.

“Didn’t stick.” Jason chuckles softly, holding the helmet on his hip.

There’s something Jason would describe as a chortle escapes your lips. “Didn’t stick?”

Jason shrugs his shoulder easily but there’s still some tension wrapped around his bones. “Yeah.” Jason clears his throat, looking to the floor and then back to you, thinking you probably don't believe him. Who would?

“How though?” You ask and you’re not sure how this is real.

Maybe you think you’re actually hallucinating now. Maybe grief has sucked you into insanity. But he sounds just as you remember and he looks the exact same. Jason dying and coming back as Red Hood, still fighting crime in some way, does sound like a very Jason Todd thing to do.

“Gotham.” Jason scoffs. “It’s a long story.” Jason skimps on the details, partially because he doesn’t really know how it works and also just to keep you out of it. He didn’t really like that you knew he was Robin anyway. Too dangerous.

Jason takes a step forward as you watch him closely. Maybe it’s a dream. But, it’s Gotham City and the weirdest and most unbelievable shit tends to happen here. Jason being resurrected isn’t actually the most insane thing you’ve heard of happening. It's just one of those things that's hard to believe because losing him hurt so bad you swore you'd never recover. You want to be positive it's him before you let your hopes up even if they're rising like a steady tide. Jason can see the hesitance the way your brows are still creased and the bat still hanging over your shoulder.

“Not convinced?” He asks through a shallow breath, his own hopes falling.

He didn't really think of what he'd do if you didn't believe him.

“In my defense, this is insane.” You state as your grip tightens on the bat. "I mean, resurrection or being zombified, kind of insane."

Jason lets out a sigh as he starts listing things only he would know about you and only things you would know about him. He tells you about your first date which wasn’t anything fancy but was yours. He told you about how he has his half of a photobooth picture you two took on your third date as a bookmark. And he tells you about Alred teaching him how to make chocolate chip cookies his first week at Wayne Manor because Jason couldn’t sleep. It was too quiet in the manor.

“I also told you the bat was a shitty idea because you’d never wake up in time to grab it.” Jason offers a smirk.

“Guess you were wrong.” You point out with a teasing look.

“Yeah,” Jason scoffs. “But you didn’t take a swing so…” Jason shrugs his shoulders, a grin splitting his face.

“Haha.” You scrunch your nose with the sarcastic remark. "I'm not gonna just hit someone with a bat." You shake your head dramatically.

"I broke into your apartment?" Jason lets out a chortle "I mean, don't fucking hit me now but someone breaks in, do something, babe."

"Oh, it must really be you because only Jason Todd would criticize my weapon of choice and then criticize what I do about someone breaking in my own apartment." You quip right back as you place a hand on your hip, the bat now hanging loosely over your shoulder being held with just one hand.

Jason's smirk turns softer, a gentle smile pulling at his lips as he looks to the floor and then back to you. "Yeah, it's me." His shoulders move forward as he sucks in a breath, letting it out slowly as if the very act of breathing too hard might make all of this disappear.

Your face softens and as hard as it may be to believe, it has to be him. Everything he listed is all stuff only the two of you would know and the quick quips, Jason never missed a beat. You don't know how or even why he's alive, but it's him. So, you drop the bat to the side of your bed, quickly getting up from your bed. You don't notice how cold the floor is as you run up to Jason, colliding into him with a force study enough to make him step back just so neither of you wall.

Your arms wrap around his neck as you bury your face into his shoulder. He smells different than before but somehow the same. He smells like gunmetal with a mix of the minty shampoo he always used. But, his arms come and wrap tightly around your middle and it all feels the same. His arms are still as sturdy as always and warm. He still feels like home and you do for him, too.

His chest erupts in warmth like a dormant volcano erupting for the time in decades. Every piece of him starts to be encompassed in warmth and a sense of comfort. It's been the longest three days of his life but that doesn't really matter, not right now. It just feels safe here. Between coming back, the drug, and Crane, it's been busy and hectic and heavy. But, he's standing here with you and all he wants to do is focus on this moment because it's not so heavy or loud anymore. You always let him just exist in a way no one else ever did.

Jason's the one that pulls away first but only until you look back at him. The corner of his mouth perks up before he collides his lips with yours. The kiss nearly sucks the breath out of your lungs as your eyes close and your hands tangle in his hair. Jason's grip tightens around you as if he's afraid you'll fall away from him if he lets go.

You can feel him smile against your mouth and it's something that always sent your stomach swirling. Jason Todd genuinely happy is something irreplaceable. And he is always happy to be anywhere near you.

The kiss starts to grow sloppy and desperate, teeth clacking against each other. The happiness of being reunited starts to collide into relief and desperation to never let go again.

Jason's arms loosen just enough to go to your hips, his fingertips sliding under your shirt and digging into your flesh. He's missed the feeling of your skin against his. It's been three days but dying really has made it seem like it's been years and he doesn't want to waste the time he gets anymore. All he wants to do is be with you and you slide his jacket, then hoodie off of the armor.

"Miss me?" Jason asks against your lips and you can feel the devilish smirk that's splitting his face.

"Always." You mutter before Jason tugs your shirt over your head and tosses it to the floor.

In a heartbeat, Jason has you backing up until your knees hit the edge of your bed. The two of you fall onto the soft mattress, Jason bracing the fall for the both you and his lips never leave yours. He slides his leg onto the bed, slotting his knee between your legs right until his thigh meets your wetting slit.

You almost groan at the contact and Jason feels the tremble of your lips against his. And he fucking smirks again.

"Seems like you missed something else, too, huh?" His voice is low but easy with the teasing remark.

"Shut up." You bite back.

It's something about the way he says it that you almost want to bite him and melt under his touch at the same time. Jason has never been one to just let things flow and meet in the middle, he always had to have some sort of comment about it with the corner of his mouth perking upwards. He just can't help himself and maybe you always found it a little bit endearing, even when he's annoying.

Jason pushes his thigh against your slit again and this time he's successful in getting a quiet moan from the back of your throat. The pressure is hot and thick as your underwear start to stick to your pussy. You grind yourself on his thigh and Jason knows he has you exactly where he wants you, not that you would rather be anywhere else right now.

You help Jason tug the armor off and onto the floor, leaving his chest bare and every toned muscle on display. Your mouth practically waters before you yank him back down to you.

He keeps his leg slotted between yours as you slide your hands over the muscles of his back, feeling every raised piece of skin where his back is tensed. His skin is always warm under your fingers. You can't help but glide your fingertips along the skin before digging your nails in.

Jason arches his back, a snarl leaving his throat before his eyes lock with yours. His pupils are blown, black consuming almost every trace of green. So, you do it again as a smirk tugs at your lips because you know that'll get him going. The look he gives you turns feral and hungry as if he hasn't eaten in weeks.

His thigh is pushed harder against your slit, earning him a whimper before he takes it away entirely. There's a triumphant smile on his lips as he raises his brow.

"I can still play the game better than you, babe." Jason teases before he kisses your cheek and moves down to your neck.

"Up for debate." You quip back as his teeth graze your pulse point.

Your heart jumps and you know he can feel it. A snicker falls from his lip before he nips down and starts sucking a purple mark into your skin. A reminder that you're his.

Jason slides his leg back between yours and as if connected by a magnetic force, you don't miss a beat in grinding yourself back on him. Jason scatters just a few more marks across your chest as your breathing becomes quicker, a warm and static pit growing in the pit of your stomach.

"Could just leave now." Jason huffs as he comes back to your lips, sliding a hand between your bodies.

"Don't you dare." Your threat is weak and almost pitiful.

Jason tugs the elastic of your underwear up, exposing your pussy to some of the cool air in the room. You wiggle against him, desperate to feel more than just his thigh. But, then he snaps the elastic back, making you jerk forward and let out a displeased whimper.

"Jay." You scold, a hollowed glare on your face as his face fills with amusement. "Come on." You whine, pushing yourself against his thigh as your hands trail from his back and to the zipper of his pants.

"Since you asked nicely." Jason offers you a toothy grin before he sits up.

Jason reaches for a condom from your nightstand before tugging his pants down and sliding it on. His hands come to your thighs, pulling you to the edge where he can position himself right up to your leaking slit. He nearly licks his lips as he slides a finger through your folds.

"All for me?" Jason asks with a confidence that makes you want to burn from the inside out.

You almost tease him back but you know if you do, he might just plop down next to you and get himself off.

"I missed you." You stick out your bottom lip, offering him a pout.

A rumble comes through his chest as he moves his finger to your clit. You lose all bite and snark from your words as the rest of the room melts away. It's been the longest three days of his life and he's missed you, too.

It's more than this that he misses. You always had a way of making any place feel like home. You always got him to feel comfortable in his own skin even when his own mind was running away with damaged versions of himself. And he's missed the way you go back and forth with him. A lot of people find him obnoxious and sure, you do, too sometimes but you still go back and forth. He's missed the way you always smile at him, with something like warm and kind. It's a relief being alive again, but it's also a relief getting to see you again.

"I missed, you, too." Jason finally says and he pulls his finger away.

Jason grabs his throbbing length in his fist, pumping himself a few times before he lines himself up with your pussy. He pushes forward, slow and steady as he rests a hand beside your head, holding his weight up. You turn your head, offering his forearm a kiss and the feral look in his eyes softens.

As he bottoms out, Jason places his other hand on the other side of your head, bending down to offer a soft kiss to your lips. His chest is heaving, moving rapidly but his lips are gentle against yours.

You slide your hands into his hair and instead of tugging, you wrap your fingers around the messy strands gently, as if happy to have him near you. Jason pulls out and then pushes back in, keeping up a steady rhythm as the two of you seem to savor the moment with each other.

He showed up as Red Hood. In the back of your head, you know he'll probably leave after this. He's not injured and he didn't seem upset. It's not really late which means he probably has something to do after this. Maybe that raises a lump in your throat for a split second because he's Red Hood.

It's not that Jason Todd magically came back from the dead and he's here again. It's that Jason Todd was murdered as Robin and then came back from the dead to be Red Hood, pick up being a vigilante just a more brutal and ruthless version of one. Being a vigilante is dangerous, as was proven just this week but Jaon comes back to go right back in the game. That part is scary.

Your heart skips as you kiss him back and you'll always be worried as he goes out there. Knowing it'll happen again. But, there is a part of you that admires him for it. He gets murdered and instead of quitting, he comes back to fight harder. Maybe that's completely insane but it is admirable. And you're proud of him for it. Worried, sure, but proud of him. So, you savor the way his lips are chapped against yours and the way his thrusts start to become a little quicker and desperate.

"Missed you." Jason mutters against your lips, his voice raspy and staggered.

"I missed you, too." Your voice is caught between a whimper and a whine.

Jason slides his hand between the two of you, finding your clit. His finger is gentle against the bud as your eyes roll back. He quickens his movements, matching the speed of his thrusts. A pit grows deeper in his own stomach as he nips your lip between his teeth.

He gets a low moan from you and he nearly finishes right then and there, his hips almost stalling. But, he recovers quickly, moving his finger in the way that always got you to unravel.

Your hands move to his back, nails digging in as the pressure feeling grows, echoing into your legs and down to your feet. He's pistoning out of you, the sound of skin on skin mixing with your moans and his groans fill the room. You tug him closer to you as you wrap your legs around his waist.

"Jay." You manage to get out as your throat feels like it's closing.

The room spins and Jason is relentless, knowing you're close. You can feel yourself pulsing around his length and you think your head might explode while your heart shoots out of your chest.

"Gonna cum over my cock for me, princess?" Jason drawls, his breath hot against your lips before he moves back to your neck.

"Uh-huh." You sputter out feeling the stars start in the back of your head.

His name falls from your lips loudly and sharply as everything around you explodes into static and stars. Your toes curl as everything starts to shake and convulse against Jason's length. The squeezing of his length sends him falling right off the edge with you, biting down on your neck as the orgasm rips through his body.

Jason works you both through your highs, slowly sitting up but keeping himself inside of you once your legs fall from his waist. He gives you this smile that's a contrast between cheeky and gentle. He bends down and presses a kiss to your forehead, earning a tired but loving smile from you.

"Thanks for stopping by, Jay." Your voice is hoarse but soft.

"Can make it a habit." Jason's grin turns into a smirk, but there's a softness in his eyes.

"Uh-huh, okay, Jay." You roll your eyes, kissing him back.

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Tag list: @fairyofshampoo // @jasontoddsmentaldisorders // @purplerose291 // @lovelessamai // @makaelaseresin // @lenidaslenchen // @ghostkingblake // @dgraysonss // @im-done-with-this-im-out // @velvetskies // @vivian-555 // @kebonita // @deyja-the-duck // @jasontoddslover // @captainmarvels-blog // @totallynotkaibiased // @scarlovesyou // @whydoyoucare866 // @littlemeowmeow1000 // @septixtrash // @kplatzman

#jason todd x reader #jason todd x you #red hood x reader #red hood x you #jason todd smut #red hood smut #jason todd fanfic #jason todd fanfiction #red hood fanfic #red hood fanfiction #titans fanfic #titans fanfiction #dc fanfic #dc fanfiction

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xxacademy · 1 year

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So I have this thing in my head - if maybe you can do headcannon or drabble. If you want/ ( whichever you want - your good at it all!) Where Leon's SO is at the hospital after being pretty much banged up on a mission ( with BOWS / both are working the same department) and I mean - near death experience lol. But a /between Re6 and Vendetta Leon/ and they have been dating for a long time now. I know very specific, but I have this in my noggin. If you're not into it, no matter - keep up all your work. I love it !

thank you for the kind words 🫶 i’m actually writing a full length fic for this because i LOVE this prompt. buuuuuut, for now a little drabble/hc because it’s gonna take me a lil while to finish that fic- i’ve already got like 2k words down for it though hahaha <33 consider this a companion piece for what’s to come.

hurt/comfort & fluff

leon kennedy x gender neutral reader

leon is calm under pressure, extraordinarily so. so when he gets the call that you were in the ICU, being rushed into emergency surgery he didn’t panic.

he thinks first and deals with the emotions later.

he details in his mind how to get to you- what hospital are you in, does he need to bring anything for you?

you’re out of the state- so he has to fly to you. because of his connections working for the united state’s government- he’s able to get an emergency plane ticket right away.

he has a few hours to kill, so he impatiently circles your shared home, thinking what could he bring for you.

he doesn’t allow his mind to think if your gonna make it out alive. only when you make it out.

he can only assume your clothing is tattered and bloodied, probably cut off of you.

he packs you some clothes, and some of your favorite things. like the little stuffed bear he bought you for your birthday.

on the plane he sits restlessly- checking the time over and over. you’re the only thing on his mind, he wishes he could hold your hand and tell you everything is going to be all right. he wonders if you’re scared. he hates that you’re alone.

upon landing he takes a cab to the hospital, he hands the driver a $100 bill and tells him to make it quick.

leon waits in the lobby of the emergency room, the blast of anxiety finally hitting him. the stifled cries of pain from other people waiting to be seen are overwhelming to him.

it’s when leon gets to see you that his emotions catch up to him. his sense of calm finally cracking the moment he sees you hooked up to machines in a hospital bed.

his blue eyes glassy from the tears welling up.

he kneels by your bedside- stroking your arm down to your hand. resting his head on the bed, watching you sleep.

he tucks the stuffed animal under your other arm- hoping to comfort you when you awake.

he talks to you even though you’re asleep, “i love you, you’re so strong- you got this, dear.”

please, please, please make it for me. i won’t let you leave me this way.

he attentively watches everything they do to you, every test that is ran and every medication that is administered.

leon gives you his unwavering support. wishing he can take the pain away. protect you from all harm. make life easier for you.

he knows your a fighter. hell, you wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for your determined nature. but that in no way helps his urge to protect you.

when you wake up, you smile. a smile of warmth, full of surprise.

“leon? you’re here? how?”

“shhshh take it easy honey, im here- you’re here. that’s all that matters.” ♡

…

i wrote a fic inspired by this little blurb- check it out if you enjoyed this one!! -> tender

#academy drabbles 🫧#academy headcannons ☁️#leon kennedy #resident evil #leon s kennedy #leon kennedy x reader #leon s kennedy x reader #leon x reader #leon kennedy fluff #hurt/comfort #leon kennedy headcanons #leon kennedy imagine #leon kennedy x you #leon kennedy x gn!reader

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vinciwolf · 1 year

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Loyalty Pt 2

(Recom)Na’vi!Miles Quaritch x (fem)Na’vi!Reader

Warnings: SLOW BURN, THIS IS AN EVENTUAL NSFT SERIES, ENEMIES TO LOVERS, capture, romance, reader is female

Warnings for this chapter: this is a shorter chapter but trust me these are gonna get loooong in the future, death, violence

Notes: Na’vi spoken is in italics, but inner thoughts are also in italics. Tags: @perseny @mechformers @ragingloser

As you came to, your vision slightly blurry, you stared down the barrel of a rifle. You were only out for a few second after the collision to your head, but it was enough for your hostage and Z-dog to have you cornered on the ground, your knife kicked to the side out of your reach.

You tsked and pressed your fingers to your scalp. Blood dripped from the wound.

Bitch.

Your former hostage that you would learn his name was Prager yanked you to your feet by your arm and took hold of your braid with a vice grip, giving you the same treatment you had given him. Z-dog patted you down and took your rifle, throwing it to one of her buddies near where Miles stood, before roughly clipping your hands together with orange handcuffs.

Prager shoved you forward and towards the group, knocking you to your knees in front of the Colonel.

You looked over to Lo’ak and slanted your head at him, your eyes squeezed into daggers as a way of telling him I’ll kill you.

The young Na’vi pinched his shoulders inwards timidly as his way of saying oops before deflecting his eyes to the ground.

Lyle came forward and punched you in the mouth, causing you to bend forward onto your bound hands and spit up blood. He said something about how that was ‘for Prager’ but you couldn’t tell exactly what he said because your head was ringing from that nasty punch. You wiped your mouth with your knuckles before Prager seized your braid again and held you upright.

Taking a handful of your necklaces, Lyle snickered to the others, “She really did go full native, huh?” Then ripped the jewels harshly from your neck, popping the strings.

Your heart ached as you watched the beads fall and spread into the mud, but you couldn’t let them win.

With a bloody toothed smile, you laughed, “Heh, you were always such an asshole to the ladies, Lyle.”

He grinned, fangs showing, fancying his work, “Nice to see you again too, bitch.”

Eywa please kill this fucker.

Lo’ak hissed at the men handling you, cussing all different kinds of things in Na’vi they couldn’t understand, and half of you hoped they never would.

Your vision was still a little watery but you could make out the forms standing before you, even little Tuk who you prayed had somehow gotten away. But life was cruel even to the innocent.

The wound to your brow began to crust and harden from the humidity, blood drying along your face. The sting of your lip indicated that somewhere it had split form Lyle’s punch. Poking your tongue forward, the pain doubled and you felt now big the cut was.

That’s gonna leave a mark.

Then you had to face the one man you thought you’d never see again.

Not in the flesh, you peered over to the rusty AMP. That was assured. But somehow, Miles in a Na’vi body.

“(Y/N)?” he squatted down to meet your gaze, bent index finger holding your face up as his thumb swiped your chin slowly.

“You’re dead,” you breathed, exhausted from being hit in the face twice.

“Yes,” Miles looked over his shoulder and nodded, “he’s dead. But me? I’m built with his memories and the strength of your people. A pretty potent mix.”

It was hard to look away from such a sight. His arms rippled with strength and had the same eagle tattoo sprawled across his chiseled bicep. The Colonel’s ears flattened while he inspected your Na’vi features, trying to figure out if he should like or hate your knew look. When he stood up, he was taller than you with a walk that screamed dominance and poise. And his eyes… you were completely transfixed on him.

“You’re just a cheap copy and paste of the original,” you spat.

Miles chuckled.

Hand resting on his holstered pistol, he used his other free hand to finger an upward motioned at your direction. You pinched your lips and grunted when Prager lifted you to your feet and stepped you closer to the Colonel.

Your head was almost level to his… almost. He was still intimidating but you noticed the soft swell of his lips, and the broadness to his shoulders. You felt so small near him as he stepped closer, Prager holding you head up to keep your eyes from looking away. He leaned in and you felt suffocated, engulfed by his sent, his stare, his fangs when he opened his mouth to speak.

“We regrouped in hell, given a second chance,” he said. “With my skills and knowledge of Jake Sully, I’ll find him. Oh, I’ll find him…” he bobbed his head, lips pursing briefly,” …even if I have to cut it out of each and every one of you tree huggin’ bastards.”

With that, he turned to face his men and instructed them to keep the ‘valuable hostages’ bound and close. He then cuffed his fingers around his neck and communicated with his base for evac.

You were worried about Spider. Having to meet his ‘father’ in another body, a much deadlier body, must’ve been terrifying.

“He’s not your father, Spider,” you reassured Spider.

“I know,” he pressed his lips.

Soon, eclipse fell and the night began to glow, allowing a different kind of life to take over the forest. Nocturnal creatures screeched and chirped. A drop fell atop of your head and you cussed that this couldn’t get any worse, then rain fell from the heavens and you cussed some more.

After a while, you started to tire from being away from your pills for so long. You tried to hold your head up but being punched twice and not having your daily intake of drugs fogged your brain, causing another massive headache to occur. Miles circled the group, assault rifle in hand. As you took note of his lean waste and massive arms, in your haze, you wondered what it felt like to touch those biceps.

Prager tugged your head back when you slacked forward.

Then a sound woke you up.

It was an echo. Your ears peaked from the message. There was another quick ‘whoop’ in the distance.

Mother was coming for her cubs.

Looking around you saw the same reaction from Spider and Lo’ak. Kiri started mumbling her prayers and Tuk scanned her eyes around the best she could while being retrained.

One of the soldiers told Kiri to shut up, moving him just right into position.

An arrow shot through his skull and he fell to the ground hard. Prager looked around as everyone scrambled to retaliate. Tuk bit hard into her captor’s arm, while Spider and Lo’ak pulled the pins to some smoke grenades attached to the soldiers’ vests. You bounced upwards and hit Prager’s chin hard with the back of your head causing him to lose balance, giving you a chance to topple him with a roundhouse kick before running away with the kids.

Through the forest, pumped with adrenaline, you were fast, stopping momentarily to by a sharp rock to cut your handcuffs off.

Everything seemed too good to be true. You prayed to Eywa to keep up the luck.

But Eywa could be funny sometimes.

An explosion hit you from behind, causing the trunk you were running on to shake violently, making you fall onto your stomach, hands latching onto whatever to keep you from falling. You looked down and saw that Spider fall into the undergrowth below. You scrambled to your feet and regrouped your thoughts, while looking down helplessly to find the unconscious kid.

Kiri screamed but Neytiri grabbed her by the arm and pushed her forward. She did the same for you and yanked your hand to keep moving with her, but you were a stone.

She turned and looked at you, eyes wide questioning why you weren’t coming with. Were you mad?

“(Y/N), come! Come!” she yelled at you, voice squeaking, as she tugged your hand again.

“Be well, sister. I must save Spider. Go! Run!” you pleaded, letting go of her hand, and pushing her shoulder to get her moving.

This pained the Na’vi woman deeply because this was the exact thing her father did during the assault on Hometree. He told her to run, only for her to find him later with bark sticking through his abdomen. Reluctantly, Neytiri let you go, heartbreak etching her features as she slipped way with Kiri and disappeared into the forest, bush and leaves snapping and clicking from their haste.

You surrendered to the brief moment of realization that you’d never see them again, that you were going to die saving Spider. And you were ok with that. You wanted to die. It was better than being addicted and having your brain eat you alive with this pounding blood pressure racing through your temple.

Bouncing onto the forest floor, you raced to find Spider. His small body in the thicket looked like a Na’vi babe. He was so innocent.

Shaking him violently, he began to wake up causing your shoulders to slack. The kid was alright and you were happy. He sat up, and with your help, you placed him on his feet, but there was no time.

“Get up! Come! We need to get away from—” you were interrupted by the Na’vi soldiers surrounding the both of you, guns clacking and pointed directly at you.

You stood in front of Spider and, placing a hand behind you, braced him against your backside, ears slanted far back with teeth bared. You hissed at the Colonel’s men.

From the shadows of the woods, Miles approached you and Spider.

“Come with us, and you won’t get hurt,” he bargained with arms outstretch and hands empty.

“Leave us alone!” You yelled, your tail twitching in rage.

His arms fell, one hand finding his hip, as he sighed. “I’m afraid we can’t do that.”

Your hand flew to block your eyes when a sudden, blinding white light from above pierced the night. The violent winds from the airship flattened the plants around you, muting any sound perception as you and Spider were caught in the middle of the loud whirl from the ship’s rudders.

Even the Colonel was caught off guard from the impeccable timing.

Your head was already spinning from the withdrawals and this loud noise caused even more disorientation. Legs caved and you fell onto hands and knees, holding your head. Spider leaned down and tried to help. You held you head and balanced on your legs the best you could.

Miles didn’t know what was up with you, when five minutes ago you were all teeth and snarls, so he took this opportunity to run full speed and tackle you to the ground and snatch Spider.

You saw him coming but yielded to his blow, took weak to fight back.

When he hit, the force hammered your body into the cold mud, your head striking the ground.

Your mind shut off. A full blackout.

Miles hoisted Spider over his shoulder with him kicking and screaming. He attached his harness to the airships suspension cord while peering at you momentarily.

You looked so peaceful lying in the mud, your body sprawled out unconscious.

A tinge of guilt flooded the Colonel’s gut. Did he really hit you that hard?

Miles then screamed to Lyle to pick you up.

“C’mon baby, we goin’ for a ride,” the corporal chuckled as he slung you over his shoulder.

#miles quaritch x reader #miles quaritch x you #miles quaritch x fem reader #miles quaritch x y/n #quaritch x reader #quaritch x you #na'vi x reader #recom quaritch x reader #recom miles quaritch #na'vi miles quaritch #na'vi quaritch x reader #na'vi quaritch #avatar quaritch #recom quaritch #avatar james cameron #avatar 2022 #avatar way of water #james cameron avatar

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winters-dream · 11 months

Text

tw: death

“Don’t touch me!” shouted the villain. They scrambled away from Hero to the best of their abilities with a smashed in rib cage and shattered ankle. “Don’t come anywhere near me! Don’t treat my wounds, don’t help me. Just stay away!”

They scooted away from them until their back hit the cold concrete of the basement wall. They heaved in a wheezing breath, they were ninety percent sure their ribs had punctured both their lungs and heart. And the entire right side of their body was a bruise. A deep purple, the same shade as a plum. They weren’t sure of their chances of survival, but they were definitely sure they didn’t want Hero’s help. Not after everything they did.

“Villain, if I don’t treat your wounds you will die,” said Hero. They knelt in front of Villain, medical equipment in hand but Villain used their good foot to kick it away. Hero watched as it slid against the far wall then turned back to face the villain.

“I’d rather die,” sneered Villain. “I’d rather die a thousand deaths than be indebted to you, not after what you did.”

Hero shook their head, confused. “After what I did?”

“Yes, after all of this torture, being beaten bloody and electrocuted and torn apart over and over," Villain said. They coughed, turning their head to spit blood. "You want to swoop in and patch me up just to throw me back to the wolves? Forget it."

Another shake of the head, Hero spoke. "None of that was me, Superhero did this to you."

Villain rolled their eyes with a scoff, the action causing a sharp pain to spread through their chest. They winced from the pain but still pulled away when Hero reached out a hand.

"No, all you did was hand me over on a silver platter," they said. "You walked me in here, watched the other heroes lock me up, disappeared for months while Superhero did what they wanted to me. You're the reason I'm like this."

Hero gazed down at the broken mess of the villain’s body, their eyes watering at the realization of the truth behind Villain’s words. They turned Villain in, they left them in the agency's care, they lived their life like normal. They were promised Villain would be in safe hands, they didn't know this was Superhero’s idea of 'safe'. They didn't know.

"Villain, I had no idea you were being treated like this, I thought you’d be safe—”

“Safe—” Villain shouted the word, but that seemed to be a mistake as a sharp pain pierced through their chest, knocking the air out of their lungs. They gasped for air, a hand clinging to their chest as an invisible fist seemed to close tightly around their heart. Still, they pushed Hero’s hands away, refusing any ounce of help from the person who put them here.

“I should have died my first night here,” they choked out. “I’ve been through Hell and back and again. You have a sick concept of the word ‘safety’.”

“I didn’t know,” whispered Hero. “The plan was to only have you imprisoned for a couple years and then I’d help you escape. If I had known Supervillain would do this, I—”

They broke off with a hitch of their breath. They reached out and held onto Villain’s arm, refusing to let Villain shake them off.

“You’re my best friend, I would never hurt you.” Villain made a noise at the back of their throat, but Hero continued. “It’s not too late. I can fix you up and get you out of here. I’ll keep you hidden, you’ll never have to face Superhero again. Just please, let me treat your wounds.”

Tears had begun to cascade down their face, Villain’s hate-filled eyes, usually so full of life, becoming duller by the second. They shook their head, angling it to face away from Hero.

“How dare you call me your friend?” they muttered. “You lost that title years ago when you literally stabbed me in the back. Piss off.”

They felt a few tears of their own to fall, but they refused to acknowledge them.

“So you’re going to refuse help that you desperately need just because I’m the one offering it?”

It took more energy than Villain cared to admit to shrug their shoulders, to act like their next words didn’t hurt them as much as they hurt Hero.

“It’s better to be dead than receive help from the enemy.”

That was that last thing they said before they couldn’t anymore. They tasted blood in the back of their throat, felt the thick liquid rise up, cutting off their air supply. They took one last gasp of air, the pain in their chest unbearable as they did. They lifted their gaze to Hero, their crying face the last thing they saw as death finally took them.

#my own #writing #fantasy #imagines #oneshot #writers of tumblr #female writers #hero #villain #hero x villain #villain x hero #villains and heroes #heroes and villains #whump #imprisonment #captive #corrupt superhero #corrupt hero agency #tw death

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mechformers · 1 year

Text

Ma Miles - Ch. 2

2.3k words

First chapter | Masterpost | Chapter 3

The old shack, and the woodlands surrounding it, are all but destroyed when you arrive. Bullet holes and burns pierce the plants and trees, the wood bleeding heavily from their wounds. A deep pain washes through your chest as you take in the battlefield before you. What had once started healing from the previous battle was now ripped roughly from the Great Mother’s arms. Touching the trunk of the most damaged tree, you are pleased to see that life still courses through it.

Woodland creatures had already started their repairs, the small beings flitting around, buzzing loudly as they worked to save the tree. All energy was borrowed, you tried to comfort yourself, remembering the tales of how Eywa connected all beings. Even though some went before their time, others were helped to heal, to start their life anew by the blessing of Eywa’s second chance. Smiling to yourself, you left the tree, knowing that it was in good hands. Turning back to the shack, you let our eyes fall upon the destruction that spread like a disease wherever these sky people went.

The bloodied arrows that lay on the ground are impossible to miss, and you immediately recognize the craftsmanship as Neytiri’s. Crouching by the sizable metal suit, you noticed how a part of vine was brushed away, exposing weirdly pictured scribbles, the written language of the sky people. You didn’t know what it said, but you recognized the type of drawings, the same ones as the scientists you worked with drew about their research on Pandora. In the back of your mind, you wished you had paid more attention to the drawings, maybe then you would understand what the ones in front of you meant.

Hissing with annoyance, you left the cold suit behind moving quickly to see if you could find anything to indicate where they had taken your child. In the back of your mind, however, you feared that you already knew. And sure enough, as the eclipse neared, you were no closer to finding more than a broken metal gem with drawings, the ones that the dreamwalkers carried around their necks, only smaller. Looking up at the darkening skies, you sighed tiredly as you tied the gem to your tweng, the tiny round metal beads cold against your skin. Walking back to your Ikran, you make the connection, immediately feeling how he worries for you. Resting your head on his, you watch Hawnu close his eyes, a sense of calm rushing through your connection. It gave you the reassurance you needed to do what you had to.

Spider was only a child, although born of the sky people, he was kind and gentle, curious and brave. The sky people would not understand his ways, at least not the ones who took him. You prayed to Eywa that the demon did not know of the role he played in Spider’s creation, that your son had been taken, simply because he resembles them and not the Na’vi he lived among. Sending a small thank you to Jake, you felt lighter knowing that Spider was able to communicate with the sky people in their own language. English had been a fun language to learn, one you studied diligently so that your son wouldn’t feel alone. Although you didn’t speak it fluently, you spoke it well enough that you too could hold conversations with the sky people, something that certainly helped while working with them.

Flying through the lands of Pandora, you let your eyes glide over the beauty of your home. Although the sky people brought ruin and devastation wherever they went, you were proud to see Eywa taking back what was stolen, making the healed land greener and lusher than before. As night fell over Pandora, you couldn’t help but smile at the wonders of Eywa below. Bioluminescent plants and animals moved around, fish and other amphibians swam in the waters. It never ceased to take your breath away. But something wasn’t right.

You could already see Hell’s Gate on the horizon, but where there should be death, there was only life. Panic started filling you the closer you got. Urging Hawnu to fly faster, despite how tired you both were, he flew faster and faster until the area was below you. Screaming out in frustration, Hawnu circled the area as he let you scream. Although you could feel his worry for you, you couldn’t help but let your fear and sorrow rush through you.

Where there should be sky people and death, there was only the lush green of the Great Mother’s touch. The place, long since abandoned, is now overgrown and flourishing with wildlife. Although your heart fills with joy and pride, your instincts scream at you that your son is not there, that he is still missing from your arms, that he is in danger with these sky people, that he is with the demon.

Hawnu lands on top of the tallest building, breath coming fast and heavy as he tiredly rests his warm wings. It takes your mind off of Spider for just a moment as your heart fills with shame. Gently breaking the tsaheylu, you slide off of him, running your hands along his too-warm skin before ending up at his head.

“Forgive me, Hawnu,” You whisper, tears filling your eyes as you listen to your Ikran’s heavy breathing.

But the big male just bumps his head to yours, resting his big head over your shoulder as he pulls you in. Wrapping your arms as far as they will get around him, you take comfort in each other as his heavy breathing eventually slows down to normal. With his skin once more turning cool, you break your embrace, once more running your hands up to his face, firmly stroking him. It had been such a long flight without any rest, the journey made in haste to reach this place. You were so proud of him.

Breaking contact with Hawnu, you turn around to look at the place that had once been occupied by sky people. The sun, now fully in the sky, shone brightly down at the area, shedding light on all the destruction that still lay beneath Eywa’s blessing. It didn’t bring you any comfort.

Climbing down the stone-like building, you cut yourself sharp see-through metal-like things. The wall that was once covered in it was broken, mauled open like a Viperwolf mauled open its prey. The ground was littered with them and although you tried your best to avoid stepping on them, it was impossible not to. Looking around the small rooms, you tried to find anything to indicate where their new base of operations was located. You found drawings you could understand, pictures, machines, the floating mountains, but nothing else.

By the time night cradled Pandora in its darkness once more, you were exhausted. Without pause, you had searched for Spider, searched for the ones who took him, for any sign to show you where he might be. Yet, you were no closer to finding him. Hissing furiously, you blame yourself for not paying more attention to where the sky people lived now, to where your clan’s warriors fought them. Sitting down against a wall, you looked out through the hole in the building, watching how Eywa’s children thrived once more in what was once a desecrated place. Before you knew it, your eyes closed and the Great Mother blessed you with a peaceful rest.

You awoke with a startle as the warm rays of the morning sun caressed your skin. Looking around at your surroundings you were rudely reminded of where you are, reminded that this wasn’t just a bad dream. Shouting with rage you quickly got to your feet and started your climb up the building. Calling for Hawnu you felt relieved when his mighty wings were heard from the forest as he took off toward you. Greeting him, you took the time to rest your head against his, thanking him for his kindness and the loyalty he continued to show you. Making tsaheylu, you were once again met with his calming presence. It soothed you enough for your mind to clear and remember.

The metal path.

The metal path your clan destroyed not too long ago must lead to somewhere. With the thought clear in your mind, Hawnu chirped excitedly, urging you to get on once more. Stroking his long, powerful neck, you thanked him before getting up on his back. Before you even had the chance to sit down, he was off, powerful wings pushing you up, soaring through the wind on your way back from where you came.

Finding the metal path wasn’t hard. The amount of destruction the sky people had done to make their path was possible to see from far away in the skies. Circling the ruined part where your clan’s warriors had attacked, you were faced with a whole other dilemma of which way to take. One would lead further into the forest, while the other would take you to the sea. Unable to decide, you needed time to think, needed food and water for your mind to be clear. Hawnu took you deep into the forest in the opposite direction, surprising you when he landed close to a spartan tree.

Once you got Spider back and got him to safety, you would need to show Hawnu just how much you appreciate him. Without his help, you didn’t think you would be able to get this far. Alone as you were, with no one around, you weren’t the best when it came to watching out for yourself. Now though, you went towards the spartan tree, plucking a fruit from it you hungrily bit into it, closing your eyes in delight as the meat and juices met your dry mouth. Eating the entirety of the fruit, you quickly went to pick another one, devouring that one too.

Once you were full, your mind seemed to clear. Sky people would need protection, something the forest couldn’t offer them. The Na’vi tribes had the advantage there. The sea, however, offered more protection in the way that they only needed to watch one side seeing as the water tribes lived further away from where the sky people’s metal path led. With your mind made up, you called for Hawnu once more, digging into the pouch on his back. Bringing the net with you, you went back to the spartan tree and picked some more fruits for your journey. They would provide both food and water for you during the days it would take to get to the sea. Finding the metal path again, you asked Hawnu to fly towards the sea. You had been to it a few times before as a child, but when the sky people came and the war began, you had suddenly found yourself alone.

You knew you had made the right call when far in the distance, you could see black smoke. The closer you got to the sea, the sparser life got below you, the Great Mother’s blessings taken for granted as life died and withered. Not even the crisp scent of the sea you remembered from so long ago could be smelled. When you came up upon the sky people’s new home, you quickly understood why.

Although you had never been to war yourself, you had heard the tales from the warriors, had learned how the sky people killed the ground beneath their feet, heard how it died and became gray and hard as a rock. Never had you imagined the sheer size of their destruction, but looking upon it now, you were taken aback at the monstrosity of it all. Gone were Eywa’s blessings, gone were all signs of life, of plants and trees. In its stead, colorless buildings, tall and broad, the dead ground below and the sea. You needn't even be there to see the rich color slowly dying, turning gray.

Circling the end of the forest, you looked helplessly at the belt that was destroyed long before their rock walls began, shaved away so that the Great Mother’s wonders could not reach them. Hawnu called to you, tired and worried. Stroking his powerful neck you asked him to land somewhere he deemed safe. Getting to the gates would not be easy. Getting to Spider, if he was even there would be even more difficult. You needed to get inside without getting hurt but was there even such a possibility? An idea came to mind, one so stupid you doubted even Jake Sully would have done such a thing.

Thanking Hawnu for his help, you took the last spartan fruit and ate it as you stooped at the shaved belt. It was a long way to walk without cover, their stone wall so far away from the safety of Eywa and her touch, but you had no choice. Your son had been alone with these monsters for far too long already, you needed to get to him. With your mind made up you started walking, taking long strides that shortened the closer you came to the stone wall and what you hoped was their entrance.

With only a short distance left, you could see sky people gathering with their weapons on top of the wall, could hear their excitement as they watched a lonely Na’vi walk up to their home. You didn’t stop your stride, however, determined to go through with your stupid idea. Once inside, you would figure out what to do. Coming to a stop before the stone wall, you looked up at the sky people perched behind their stone cover. Taking a deep breath, you steadied yourself as you tried to find their leader, but they all looked the same to you, nothing to indicate who was the leader of their different groups. With no one catching your eye, you ground your teeth together before quickly closing and opening your eyes. With a steel resolve, you called up to them, immediately noting how their heads turned as a murmur spread among them.

“I need Miles Quaritch…”

Chapter 1 | Masterpost | Chapter 3

#miles quaritch x reader #miles quaritch #colonel miles quaritch #na'vi miles quaritch #avatar quaritch #avatar the way of water #Mech writes #Ma Miles

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koolkat9 · 3 months

Text

Royal Red Bros Week - Day 5

@royalredbrosweek

Prompt: Badly Injured/Verge of Death || Bonding

Rating: T

Relationship: England + Canada

Word Count: 1015

Read on AO3

Author's Note: So while working on this fic I was reading All Quiet on the Western Front for school so a lot of this fic was inspired by scenes in chapter 4 with some of the descriptions in this fic being descriptions in the novel.

Your Sword and Shield

Arthur hadn’t heard the first ‘take cover.' Instead, it was Matthew hurtling towards him and knocking him into the mud, followed by the first whistling then an explosion erupting that gave it away. Clumps of dirt rained down on them, though with Matthew practically on top of him, they never hit him.

The darkened sky popped with white, red, green. Like fireworks, but far more deadly. For a moment, he wondered if Alfred managed to get to safety or at least shield himself with something.

Before him, Arthur spotted a sinkhole made by a recent explosion.

“Matthew?”

There was no reply.

“Come on lad,” Arthur shouted, figuring Matthew couldn’t hear him above the heavy fire. “We need to get into the hole. We’re going to die out here if we…”

When Arthur managed to turn around he found his son limp on top of him, crimson trickling out of his mouth.

“Matthew…MATTHEW!” Arthur shouted again, shaking Matthew’s arm. “You need to open your eyes lad before–”

He was cut off by a shell exploding right next to them, tossing the both of them across the field. At least Arthur was finally free, but now he had to get himself and his giant of a son somewhere safe. Luckily they were tossed near a hole. Dragging Matthew with him, he jumped in.

As safe as they could possibly be, Arthur began to inspect the damage to Matthew’s body. The boy had already grown pale, his breath shallow, skin growing colder. His back was bloody from the barrage of fire, his side had a nasty gash from getting too close to an explosion. Grabbing his and Matthew’s field dressings, he attempted to wrap up the wounds.

Minutes later, when the gunfire and explosions finally died away, Alfred came to find them.

“Take your brother,” Arthur commanded, trying his best to carefully lift Matthew for Alfred to reach.

“What hap–”

“You know him. My sword and now my shield.”

Alfred went to say something else but pressed his lips together again. With Matthew out, Alfred reached for Arthur. Arthur batted his hand away and climbed out himself.

“God, what did you do this time Matt?” Alfred reprimanded, picking his brother up.

Arthur was already heading back towards the truck.

“Hey slow down,” Alfred barked.

“We need to get him medical attention if he’s going to survive.”

“Arthur.”

“We need to go.”

“You’re going to get him killed,” Alfred barked. “He thinks about you before himself every time.”

“He’s an adult,” Arthur snapped back, whirling around to face his other son. “He makes his choices. And he does the same for you. For Alastair. Even for Francis, though he won’t admit it.”

“Well…You–”

“We need to move. Or else he really will die. And you and I both know the pain of regeneration.”

— — —

When Matthew began to stir, he could tell he was in the hospital before he even managed to open his eyes. The stench of death and sick mixed with that distinct hospital smell. He let out a slight groan, the pain of his back and side catching up to him.

Instinctively, he went to push himself up having been laid on his stomach only for someone to gently hold him down.

“Relax love,” A gentle voice whispered. A voice he hadn’t heard since he was a little boy.

“Dad?”

“Shhh. Just lay down. Are you in pain?”

“Mhm…”

“Okay. I’ll see if the orderly can get you anything for it.”

Matthew heard shuffling, footsteps. A pained ‘no’ ripped from his throat.

“It will only be a moment,” Arthur murmured.

“Please…stay…”

For a moment, Matthew could picture himself, no more than six standing in the hallway as Arthur was about to set off for England. So many moments like that throughout his childhood. And as much as he wanted to cry out ‘stay,’ he never did. Not that it would have probably made a difference. But now…

“I…I don’t want…” Matthew trailed off.

“Okay…Okay, I’ll stay.”

Arthur took a seat beside him once more.

They were quiet for a moment, only the hurried steps of medical staff and the occasional screaming of a patient filling the room.

“You’re okay right?” Matthew finally asked.

Arthur’s face looked unfazed, but his eyes sparked with something Matthew couldn’t quite place. It made him shutter.

“I’m not the one in the hospital bed,” Arthur answered shortly.

“True…”

Silence again. Or as silent as you could get in a field hospital.

“Am I going to make it?’ Matthew asked.

Arthur was quiet for a moment. Closed his eyes and took a breath. “I don’t know. The orderlies don’t seem to think so, but they don’t quite get how our bodies work. But either way, I’m going to get you out of here and back home as soon as possible.”

“No. No. I’ll heal. It doesn’t take too long, so I’ll be back out there–”

“You’re going home to recover. Especially if you really are going to die. I don’t want you to have to go through the reset in this place.”

“But I have to–”

“You don’t have to do anything. You’ve done more than enough. I’m standing here because of you. But I can’t have you out there in a weak state.”

“Dad I–”

“That is an order. You will be going home in a week if I can help it.”

Matthew paused for a moment, simmering in the command he was given. “Can I at least go stay with Auntie Niamh? That way I’m not making a long trek across the ocean like this.”

“I suppose… that would be best,” Arthur said slowly. He coughed awkwardly. “I’ll figure out the details. Just…rest for now.”

“Okay…B-But you’ll stay right?”

Arthur’s unreadable eyes finally softened ever so slightly. “Of course.”

As sleep crept in, Matthew felt Arthur brush his bangs out of his face. Just before he nodded off again, Arthur pressed a kiss to his forehead. And for a moment, Matthew felt no different than that six-year-old boy, but now his father would stay.

#hetalia #hws #royal red bros #royalredbrosweek #royalredbrosweek2024 #hws england #hws canada #hws america #fanfiction #hetalia fanfiction #my writing

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adrift-in-thyme · 6 months

Text

Whumptober Day 29: "What happened to me?"

Read it on Ao3

- First

- Summary: Link becomes an uwilling pawn in a dastardy plot

CW for possession, blood and injury, mentions of death, captivity, and torture

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

Everything hurts.

Link drags his eyes open, groaning as consciousness alerts him to the agony that tears him apart. The emptiness he had been drifting in had been far preferable to this.

…whatever this is.

He stands in crimson-tinged near-darkness, held up solely by the manacles around his wrists and ankles. The only light source is from the pools of lava that gurgle and bubble on either side of him. The heat that emanates from them seems to claw at him, smothering and searing. Chained as he is, he can’t escape its reach.

Link swallows, wincing as something wet trickles down his forehead and into his eye. He can’t even tell where his wounds begin and where they end.

How had he even gotten them? He wonders, trying to force his dazed, jumbled thoughts into something coherent. And how had he ended up here?

As far as he knows, he has never set foot in this place before. It positively wreaks of dark power though, almost as suffocating as the flaming heat that burns his exposed skin and laps at the tattered remains of his tunic and trousers.

He closes his eyes, attempting to ignore the pain and let the memories he knows are there come forth. But they are stubborn things. He recalls nothing save for the abyss he had floated in, buoyed upon soft, weightless waves of light.

It was painless there. Pleasant, almost. Save for those odd moments when he had sworn he was doing something…speaking, acting, feeling. But those moments had not been his own. Not truly. No, his life, his reality…

Ah.

He blinks his eyes open again, a grim smile on his lips. The flickering of flames upon the obsidian surface of the opposite wall seems to taunt him.

He had been dead. Felled by Demise’s lightning, torn asunder by his claws.

And as he had taken his final breaths, Hylia had sent his people to the sky.

“Link, hurry! Jump into the light! Please!”

He had wanted to. In truth, he would have given anything to take to the skies with them, make a new home, get a second chance at protecting his beloved people. But fate had not willed it so.

Apparently, however, he is not quite off its leash just yet. Otherwise he would not be sitting here would he? In some cruel joke to the gods.

There is no rest for the wicked, he has heard some say. There is no rest for heroes either. Not the ones who failed, at least.

He should feel bitter, he supposes. All he feels is tired. It seeps in through the bloodied cracks in his skin, oozing into his bones and muscles, encompassing his soul. He sags beneath its weight.

Forgive me, Hylia. I do not know if I have the strength to face whatever trial fate has set before me.

“So, even in this place, you dare to pray to your goddess. It will do you no good.”

The voice booms around the space, echoing off of the walls. Footsteps join in its aftermath, loud and heavy, mingling with the scrape of a door sliding open. Link raises his head.

Before him stands an all-too-familiar figure. His hair is like burning flames, his flesh the color of ash. His eyes are ablaze with the fury Link faced so long ago.

“Demise.”

He spits the title with all the animosity he can conjure. There is no shortage of it, to be certain. It boils within him, hotter than the lava that leaps toward him.

“I thought Hylia sealed you away. How are you here now?”

“One could ask you the same thing,” the demon god rumbles. “But you have no right to question me in the first place.”

He stalks toward him and Link tenses.

“You are as much of a pathetic worm as you were back then.”

A clawed hand forces his chin up, nails drawing blood, hold so tight that Link grits his teeth to keep from crying out.

“I am not so pathetic as you think,” he retorts. “I defeated you back then, did I not?”

Demise laughs, actually laughs, and the earth shakes with the sound.

“You did nothing. It was your goddess who sealed me and her sword which saved your people. Your only accomplishment was securing an untimely death for yourself.”

His expression darkens. Link meets it with an answering glare. He refused to bow before this deity back then. He refuses to now.

“However, there are ways in which you can be useful.”

He turns away. A short distance away there sits a large throne, shrouded in shadow, and adorned with carved depictions of people writhing in agony. An enormous claymore rests against it and Demise scoops it up as though holding it is no feat at all. He runs a finger across its ridged edges and Link feels his breath stutter.

“You won’t kill me again so soon,” he says, steady tone belying the terrified turmoil within.

“No, I will not do that.” Demise walks back to him. Lifting the weapon, he presses the tip of it against Link’s neck. “Only humans kill indiscriminately.”

Link swallows, feeling the chill of cold metal on his skin. It is almost unnatural amidst all this heat.

“You may say that. But you certainly killed indiscriminately during the war. What of all the people you slaughtered in your attempt at bringing about a world of darkness?”

“You misunderstand, pitiful human,” he snarls. “I take as many lives as I wish. But I take them with purpose.”

He presses the blade closer. It bites mercilessly into Link’s flesh. Blood bubbles up beneath it.

“Know this. I threaten with purpose, as well. I have use for you and you will fulfill it.”

“No. I won’t.”

The blade bites harder. Link clenches his hands into fists. The pain within him is an unending rhythm. The heat smothers him. But he won’t back down. He won’t surrender. Whatever this demon god wants, he refuses to give it to him.

“No is not an answer you give to a god, fool.”

Suddenly, his body lights up with agony. Link arches back, a strangled scream breaking free. Flames sear through his very bones, fire courses through his veins. All he can see is red.

And then, just as quickly, it’s over. He sags against his chains, gasping for breath.

“There are nine heroes. Nine men and boys like yourself.”

He blinks, dazedly trying to comprehend Demise’s words.

“N-nine?” Link raises his head, hardly registering the absence of the blade. “There should…should only be one. Me.”

Again, Demise’s laughter fills the cavernous space.

“The failure you and your goddess share has haunted many, boy. These nine possess your spirit. I wish for them to be wiped from history itself.”

He hefts the weapon in his hand, regarding it calmly. Link stares dimly at it. Thoughts tumble through his mind in a panicked race to be heard.

Nine heroes with his spirit. A failure that doomed them all. Demise standing before him now.

The seal broke. It must have. And he hadn’t been there to recreate it.

…neither had Hylia.

No.

Link’s eyes widen.

He remembers bits and pieces of his last moments. Words spoken in soft tones. Broken messages that hadn’t seemed important in the face of death.

“I…shed divinity…simple human.”

He chokes on a cry.

Hylia, what did you do?

“My servants attempted to do the deed,” Demise is saying now, as though his previous words are not fit to destroy Link completely. “But they failed. Every one of them.”

Flaming irises skewer him. He is like a fairy trapped in the bottle of an unsavory person – helpless, terrified.

“You will not.”

Link bares his teeth in a snarl. A mixture of terror and guilt and hopelessness, he has found, quickly becomes rage in the heart of a warrior. It fills him now, blinding him to the pain, to the sorrow, dragging him from the depths like a wild animal struggling against the walls of its cage.

“What…what makes you assume I will do your bidding? You may have dragged me back from the land of the dead, but I have no goodwill in my heart towards you for it.”

He cocks his head, a harsh grin splitting his lips. Every word tastes like ash and blood in his mouth, an outpouring of the fires of battle roaring in his soul.

“Or perhaps you think you can intimidate me because my goddess is gone and my people with her? I assure you, I am well accustomed to facing terrors alone. Your idle threats don’t frighten me.”

“You dare speak to a god in such a manner, insolent human?” Demise practically looms over him, all flaming power and dark magic. He steps closer and his meaty fist closes around Link’s neck. He chokes, gasping as agony streaks up his throat and a skull-crushing rush fills his ears. “You will find that my threats are anything but idle. You will do my bidding.”

He leans in, heedless of Link’s thrashing and clawing.

“You will do it because I will make you. Open your mind, little human, and let me in.”

Link’s eyes blow wide with panic. His attempts to break free grow impossibly more desperate as the reality of what Demise is about to do strikes home.

He can’t possibly resist a god’s attempts to make him an unwilling, unthinking pawn. He isn’t strong enough. Especially not now, after everything.

I could not even slay him the first time. By the gods, I failed so completely that I burdened nine with the task that was meant only for me.

How on earth can I hold him back now?

He lifts his eyes to the heavens, tears of pain and desperation burning in them.

If you hear me, Hylia, help me! Give me the strength to…

His thoughts shatter. It comes at him in a rush of roaring power, thundering into his mind like an oncoming tsunami. And at the same time his body ignites again with searing agony. His world dissolves into a hellish haze of inescapable pain.

He thinks he screams. At least, that must be the terrible sound that echoes in his ears and tears at his throat. But he can’t be sure. He can’t be sure of anything really. Suddenly, everything is upside down and sideways and a swirl of hazy, nauseating confusion.

“You are strong,” someone sneers and he hardly understands the words. “It sickens me. Fall before me, Chosen Hero of the Goddess. Become my puppet.”

Everything intensifies. Colors explode before his eyes, memories rush by at incomprehensible speeds – his own and those he has never seen before, that don’t even belong in his mind. Desires snake into his heart, his limbs grow heavy, his body unnaturally cold.

He screams again, but this time it is more pitiful, more weak – a last ditch attempt to protest what distantly, he knows is coming.

“Yes.” Demise’s face is inches from his. Abruptly, he can make it out with striking clarity. “You are mine.”

Link chokes on a sob.

I’m sorry.

He doesn’t even remember who he is apologizing to anymore. Or what he was doing here. Or why everything hurts so badly.

But he doesn’t need to. Not really. Because in the next moment, everything falls away.

Between one strangled, gasping, desperate breath and the next, he loses himself.

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honey-minded-hivemind · 8 months

Text

Hmmm... I've had an idea for this au for awhile, and I'm not sure which direction I should run with it... but I have a 🧪Drone!AU for the platonic yanderes... it isn't exactly... what would be expected... for the type of au it is. Let me explain a little...

The 🧪Drone!AU is still done with the regular platonic yandere Marvel characters I do (mainly the X-Men and their villains), same as with all my other platonic yandere aus and imagines... but when I say "drone", I don't mean mindlessness, identity-death, or something uncomfortable or heaven forbid... sexual... egh...

No... see, what I have in mind is a bit more... soft. Caring. Less about harsh suppression and domination, and more about gentle restraint and tender assimilation. I have another name for this au... the 🧪Hivemind AU...

For this au, the characters are dealing with an illegal experiment... and the reader is one of the earliest ones to go through it... the goal of the ones running it and holding them captive is to find a way to control mutants, something that can shear away their free will and their resolve, and leave them open to their commands... yet the reader ends up with another result... they can hear things... feel things... that aren't coming from themself. Even though they remain locked up and chained down, they can feel other thoughts, other minds and wills, at the back of their thoughts... their thoughts fade in and out with each experiment and each session, leaving them barely aware... but they can feel how the other minds reach out to them, flickering between worry and rage and tingling possessiveness...

Then one day... they are able to break free. The reader, left to their own thoughts and running back into the wild world, flees from that dreaded place, feeling their control and fear flood back into them. It's overwhelming, having their mind and free will back... And they plan to keep it that way. So they wander what is left of the world, trying to figure out what happened and what year it is... how long were they a prisoner? How long since their mind was truly their's, and they weren't a blank puppet? These thoughts haunt them, keeping them awake at night and exhausted in the dawn. They don't know what happened, who all fell, and who is left... But they have to keep moving. They can't stop now.

And back among the others, among the drones...

They sense one of their young is missing...

And that angers them...

One of their own, one of their dearest and most adored, is no longer among them. None of them can feel their mind, nor see them in the halls or near the ones who controlled them... Fear and panic eat at them, making the haze and emptiness of their minds fill with anger and pain...

That was their young one, their little one, one of their dronelings... And they belong with them, within the drone collective...

Thus leads to them gaining their free will and main sentience back, and a bloody battle as they all assimilate or destroy those who dared do this to them, dared to turn them into their puppets, their toys, and then lost one of their own young... For them, that is unforgivable, and they don't let those kind of things go...

They hunt down their bby... and what a sight for sore eyes they are... of course... their bby isn't happy to see them, nor pleased at the idea of being brought back into the Hive... but, it isn't a choice. Their bby is coming back, with them, one way or another...

They have plenty of medicine and drugs to keep them sedated as the reassimilation process begins... and it will make them feel so much better... completely fuzzy and soft inside, no pain or fear... just complete warmth and fluff... even though their bby may fight it, trying to resist their gentleness and adoration... it won't be long before they feel relaxed and content, secure within their hands and safely tucked away with the other young ones... all they have to do is relax and take nice, deep breaths... just keep breathing that sweetness into their body, as they absorb the medicine they gave them... it won't hurt at all... just keep trusting them, yeah? They won't let anything happen to them, just take a nice, deep breath... and sleep... don't worry about a thing... they'll take good care of their bby as they rest and readjust... trust them, okay?

#honeycomb thoughts #platonic yandere marvel #yandere platonic marvel #platonic yandere #platonic yandere xmen #yandere x-men #platonic yandere marvel x reader #platonic yandere x reader #🧪Drone AU #🧪Hivemind AU

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bxd-decisions · 1 year

Text

◈ "THE DAY WILL COME WHEN YOU WON'T BE" ⸻ RYOMEN SUKUNA

◈ SYNOPSIS︙ Sukuna, a rebel, a man who just seeks fun at the end of the world, finally atones for his sins, in every conceivable way.

◈ PAIRING︙ Ryomen Sukuna x afab!reader

◈ GENRE︙ Angst, DARK CONTENT, zombie apocalypse AU

◈ WORD COUNT︙ 3k

◈ WARNINGS︙ Dark content, angst, suicide attempt, kidnapping, blood, murder, major character death.

◈ AUTHORS NOTE︙ THANK YOU @davidahlia for the help bro!! Also I'm reposting this. This is also an entry for this collab by @medusashima!! ❤️

REBLOGS AND FEEDBACK APPRECIATED

The door of that larger car would slide open, and a tranquilizer would be shot right at Sukuna's shoulder, making the man fall unconscious.

"The threat has been shot down."

Uttered a mysterious voice. And right in front of you, a well-armed man would come out, trying to arm lock you and pull you into the car. Another man would tie you up and put a tape on your mouth, tossing you to the back of the car. A larger man with glasses was looking forward, said glasses shining through the darkness.

"You will be okay.

Suddenly, you would feel a tranquilizer in your neck.

After a few hours, you would wake up in some sort of room, your hands chained, and the same man with large glasses standing in front of the door. Near the door was a large glass window, directly leading to the sight of Sukuna: bloodied and tied up to a chair. You couldn't remember a thing. But the moment you saw Sukuna all tied up, and hurt, you began crying, and you wanted to rush to his side, only to realize — you couldn't move.

"Hello there, Y/n. Worry not, your flesh remains untouched, and the monster has been contained. You are safe now."

"Sukuna!"

You screamed for him, worry and pain was visible in your tone as you just wanted to be near him. You hated seeing him like that. "What have you done?! Let us go now! He's not a monster you asshole!"

You kept on fidgeting with the chains and trying to pull your hands out of the grip. You wanted to kill this man for hurting Sukuna. And you wanted to be with Sukuna. You were scared the man wanted to kill him.

"Your view is biased thanks to the brainwashing he has caused in you. I worry for your wellbeing, and it sickens me to my stomach to even believe what he did to you."

You looked at the man like he was completely crazy. Sukuna didn't brainwash you. He saved your life, and he was good to you. Only good to you. He didn't deserve that.

"Please stop it! He didn't... Brainwash me... He... He saved my life"

The man shook his head, putting his hands in his pockets. He looked somewhat like a maniacal priest, but he was in fact a hunter. A skilled one. A man of law, one whose only goal was to keep humanity safe from monsters.

"You may be unaware, but Sukuna is the cause of countless atrocities. Forgive me for the chains, those were orders of an underling of mines. It was my mistake to keep him unsupervised. But granting how you are acting, I suppose it's best you remain chained."

The man turned to the glass, staring at the Sukuna that was very much hurt. "I am Giffard Gabriel- A Hunter and a Judge. And Sukuna's judgment is long due."

You weren't a liar. You would even admit how pathetic you were and how he just... Kept you around, and looked after you.

"He took me away from my camp... There were horrible old men there that always wanted to... Do horrible things to me... And... He took me away from that. He's been protecting me. Let him go"

You were... Begging him at this point. You wanted to be with him at least. "At least... Let me be with him"

Gabriel's very neutral tone began shifting. His eyebrows raised, like if his eyes under the shining glasses had widened. Slowly looking down, Gabriel took a deep breath, before uttering to himself. "Could a demon ever atone for his own sins...?"

Gabriel pulled out keys from his pockets, slowly approaching you without any evil intent. He unlocked the chains on your wrists, using his arms to hold you when you fell. He then let you get up, as he backed away and turned to face the door, opening it and heading to Sukuna, in the middle of the room.

"Men. Halt. This is a direct order from your leader. You are all prohibited from laying any more injuries on this man. Anyone that breaks this rule shall be personally executed by me."

A loud gasp coming from all the soldiers that were ready to fire at sukuna- but Gabriel was their leader. And they knew very well what would happen if they ignored those rules. So they simply backed away. Gabriel then got closer to Sukuna, and drew a cross with his own blood at his forehead. "In the name of God himself, I forgive you for your sins."

Sukuna knew better than to react to this- There were countless men ready to fire, and a blood-thirsty hunter there. Any wrong move would cause him to be dead. Gabriel pulled a long weapon, cutting down the ropes that tied Sukuna to the chair, and he then backed away.

Sukuna waited for Gabriel to leave the room so he finally got up from the chair, stumbling across the large room until he got to you — Where he attempted to hug you tightly, but only fell weak in your arms. "I'm... sorry…"

You immediately hugged him back tightly, you began crying your eyes out into him. He looked horrible and you were blaming yourself for it. And he was apologizing, he didn't need to. He did nothing wrong. You carefully pulled back from the hug, cupping his cheeks very gently.

"Please don't say sorry. Look at what they did to you"

You once again hugged him, you were however making sure to be extra gentle when you did so, before you carefully led him back to the chair so he could sit down.

"Don't move too much, but I'm here now" You sniffled as you tried to calm yourself down, as best as you could. You hated to see how the person you loved most being so... Hurt.

"Hey... stop..." Sukuna used the last of his strengths to push you away as you forced him on the chair. Sukuna shook his head and cleaned the blood from his mouth, before he just coughed up more blood.

"They're right. I'm a monster. I deserve all of this — And even more, because I dragged you into this."

He got up, like nothing had happened, and in a moment of anger, he simply broke down the chair with a single kick. He clenched his fists and began walking away, stopping after a few steps.

You shook your head, you didn't want him to do this. You needed him. Even though you flinched when he kicked the chair, you immediately went up to him. You were lost without him. You needed him, and you loved him.

"Don't do this to me. Don't. I need you Sukuna. Please don't leave me"

"Why do you want to stay at my side so much? A few hours ago, you looked like you hated me. It's safer if you stay that way. You saw what happens if you side with the monster." Sukuna scoffed. He didn't want to say that, he didn't mean to say that — He just wanted you to be safe. And nothing else.

"Look. ...I love you. But... you're risking yourself by just staying at my side. So the first right thing I'll ever do in my life is leave. I wish the best for you." Sukuna began walking, very slowly. He wanted to leave, but at the same time he didn't. His brain was... conflicted.

You went tense. Tense because he said... He loved you, but was quick to catch up to him walking away, and hugging him tightly from behind. But you made sure to avoid his wounds.

"Please don't. I love you too. I don't want you to leave me. I can't be alone again... Please" For the first time ever, you were genuinely begging someone to stay by your side.

Sukuna flinched when you hugged him. And in fact, a single tear fell from his eyes. He didn't want to leave you, but he didn't want to risk your safety either. So when you broke the hug, Sukuna quickly turned to face you and grabbed you by the legs and back — Holding you bridal-style, as he leaned forward and gave you a passionate kiss — a very long one. When he broke the kiss, he looked into your eyes. "Stay with me, okay?"

Completely ignoring his own injuries at that moment. He put you on the ground once again, and offered his hand for you to hold, walking through the room until you reached a large door — which slowly slid open for them, revealing their car out there. "Let's get out and go back. I need to rest."

A faint smile came to your face when he said he wanted you to stay. You immediately followed him when he put you down, making sure to have a firm grasp on his hand, like your life depended on it. When you got to the car, you ran to the driver's seat.

"I'm driving though" You insisted as you got in the car and started the car up. Before you started to drive, you wiped your tears away properly and took a deep breath.

"Not like I could drive anyways."

He said, heading himself to the backseat and lying there, completely tired and breathing heavily.

"Did you mean it?" You looked at him as you began driving, before looking back at the road ahead

"When you said you love me. Did you... Mean it?"

When you asked something, he didn't respond at first, since he didn't understand. But when you asked again, he coughed and answered properly. "More... than I ever meant... something in my... entire life."

Sukuna said, before coughing even more blood out. His injuries were pretty bad, but he would pull through. He smiled, sitting up and adjusting himself on the seat. "I wanted someone close... i didn't know I wanted a partner. Whaddya say?"

He was suddenly cut by another cough.

"Two lovers, ridin' free on our own rhythm... I never felt this before, so I can only assume it's love. Please, be at my side."

You smiled at his last statement, but it was a sad smile. Because you couldn't stay at his side even if you wanted to. You eyes were watering and there was a visible crack in your voice when you voiced the next words. "Yeah... I'll stay by your side as long as I'm alive"

"I won't let you die."

After another few minutes you stopped by his hideout, and as soon as the car stopped moving, you burst into tears, letting your forehead fall onto the steering wheel. "I'm sorry Sukuna." You felt the need to apologize for what you were about to tell him. But you hoped he would just... End up hating you.

Sukuna leaned closer, putting his hands on your shoulders as you stopped the car. He was somewhat worried about what you had to tell, so he tilted his head and lifted one of his eyebrows.

"Sorry for...? What happened?" Sukuna was confused and worried. After all he had gone through, he wondered what would be the next bad news.

You lifted your head to look at him, your eyes showed nothing but sadness. You knew you were gonna die, and he was probably gonna be so mad at you "Please don't freak out..."

You lifted your shirt slightly to show him a visible bite mark on your lower back, you immediately lowered your shirt, drying your tears. "Thank you... For everything"

A quiet chuckle escaped his lips as he saw the mark. But his expression was... one of almost panic. "That's... how it ends?"

Sukuna slowly walked out of the car, opening the storage on the back of said car and picking up a literal molotov, lighting it up and tossing it on the hideout, which began slowly burning.

"AFTER ALL I'VE BEEN THROUGH, I FINALLY FIND SOMEONE I WANT AT MY SIDE, AND SHE'S FATED TO DIE!?" Sukuna fell on his knees, laughing maniacally as he seemed to be crying. He was done with everything. Even after being forgiven, the one he wanted at his side would be gone. And gone for good. He slowly pulled a handgun from his pockets and pointed it at his head, but he let it fall. "Why didn't you tell me sooner...? WHY DID YOU LET ME LOVE YOU!?"

You got out of the car, your skin was already pale, you already looked like a corpse, and you had a fever that came straight from hell. You let tears run down your face, standing behind Sukuna. You were selfish. "I wanted to... Be loved... Before I die... I'm sorry. I know I was selfish"

You wiped your tears away again, trying to give him somewhat of a smile, like you wanted to show him that everything would be okay, but you knew it wasn't gonna be okay.

"Please can you... Stay by me... Until I die? I don't wanna be alone... I don't wanna stay... As one of those things. You need to put me down when I wake up again. It has to be you... Please" You were begging him. You didn't want to end up another lost soul roaming around. You wanted to be... Peaceful.

"You made me suffer... You made me go through worse than I already had faced..."

Sukuna punched the ground, actually creating a crack on it. But he slowly got up, watching as his hideout burned brighter and brighter. He turned to you, his watery, red eyes locking into yours.

"But I can't get myself to hate you..." Sukuna approached you and gave you a hug, digging his face on your neck and tightening his embrace as much as he could.

"I swore to be at your side until the end. Here I am." Sukuna broke the hug, only to kiss you passionately. His last kiss, his last goodbye. When the kiss was broken, he sat down on the ground, laying you on his lap. "I'm not gonna be alive enough to miss you. I can't get myself to live another day alone... not again."

You didn't cry anymore. Instead, you smiled at him, you didn't want him to die because of you. Your only wish would be to let him live. "Sukuna you can't die. You'll be fine. You're gonna live. Please just do that for me... Okay?"

You sat up slightly, only to lean against his chest, planting a kiss on his cheek. "Just stay alive please" You whispered to him, and you took one of his hands, holding onto it and resting your head again on his chest. Smiling again, just once more at him.

"I'm... Going to sleep now... Good night..."

You whispered to him and closed your eyes. You felt comfortable, peaceful. You looked peaceful too, like you had just... Fallen asleep. Your heart finally stopped beating, and your breath came to a halt, as you fell into long and eternal sleep.

Sukuna was strong not to cry over this. He held you in his arms, looking over your deceased body with nothing but anger and sadness. He was once again, alone. No one at his side, no one to love him, no one for him to love, and half of the survivors probably still hated him. He just wanted to die, at this point.

"Come back..." He pleaded. But he knew it was useless. Tears began running down his eyes as he left your body on the ground, getting up and grabbing a handgun. There were exactly... two bullets.

"I never thought I would do this..."

He pointed it steady at your head, ready to shoot the monster version of his lover. His heart ached every second he thought about having lost you. He had nothing else to live for. His hideout was burnt by himself, his lover was dead, and he would probably die of hunger, or because of his wounds.

"Wake up... let me get this done with…"

The whole night. You hadn't moved an inch the whole night. Dawn was starting to break, the sun shining on your translucent, pale skin. You looked beautiful, even when you were a corpse. You just looked like... A doll.

But you wouldn't be in that state for very long, as your fingers started to move, and a breathless gasp came from you.

And then your eyes opened.

They were now a blue kind of color, and the moment the undead you locked your eyes onto Sukuna, you growled, snarled and your arms lifted in an attempt to get to your very first meal. You were ... A monster.

Sukuna had a long while to think about his future without his lover. He was so burdened by this loss that he couldn't even sleep. So burdened that when you woke up as a monster, Sukuna missed the first shot. But he steadied his arm, focusing his sights and finally shot you in the head, as he fell to his knees. "I used all two bullets... what will be of m-"

Bang.

A loud shot coming from a sniper rifle, piercing Sukuna's head from the side, splattering blood on the ground and almost instantly killing the man. Whoever killed sukuna, planned this all along.

"Mahito, the man is dead. Definition of a corpse." A giggle as the assassin slid down the mountain, checking on both corpses to make sure... they were both dead.

"If the stupid priest won't do it, we will. Maybe leaving the girl to die back at the camp was a nice idea to begin with."

The man began laughing maniacally and loudly, as he gave a kick to your deceased body and pulled a shotgun- shooting your head open before doing the same with Sukuna. "Now let Romeo and Juliet rest- and rot as corpses."

TAGS: @tokyometronetwork @mxhitos @yuujispinkhair

#jujutsu kaisen #jjk #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #ryomen sukuna #sukuna #sukuna x reader #jjk angst #jujutsu kaisen angst #sukuna angst #ryomen sukuna angst #jjk oneshot #jujutsu kaisen oneshot #ryomen sukuna oneshot #sukuna oneshot #ryomen sukuna x reader #tokyometronetwork

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marvelcarbonara · 5 months

Text

icy hot-one

cw: VIOLENCE!! if you are weak of stomach you may wanna click off!

lots of said violence is a projection of the writer’s own issues, so it’s very graphic and personal!!

Brainwashing!! ptsd!!! passing out!!!! perceived home invasion!!! Implied but not direct SA mentions!!! Nsfw, it’s violent n stuff

Describing the main character as “thin”, “malnourished”, ect

Blood, gore, character death

-we project on ocs w similar events but worse lives than us n have our fav characters comfort em-

-i don’t make the rules-

not proofed, remember this is the intro all the marvel-y stuff is a bit later, so sorry!

1.2 k words.

Her unexpected strike left your nose bloody and mouth agape. At least your hands were still up, but you couldn’t help as your body folded away in shock. You grunted brokenly and lunged at her, knocking the side of her head with you tight fist.

She kicked back, hitting your knee and effective tripping you up. She stood on the offensive and you took a small step to the side to collect yourself. When recoiling, red hot pain seared you face and flooded all the way to your shoes, pain that had been blocked from adrenaline earlier.

She received quicker than you, and I’m seeing such an opportunity she revealed a small dagger hidden in her bra. Or shirt, it was hard to tell in the dim lighting. Rapidly, she had one gash made in your thigh, just missing an artery but biting with pain all the same. You grappled her neck in defense, albeit with blurry vision, and disarmed her of the knife covered in your thick blood. After several hard punches and elbows to her head, you were about to show her a bit of compassion when she decided to, stupidly, attempt a pendulum teep at your sternum. She’d be out cold just from another kick and it would be near fucking easy. She was on the floor, lying back down, legs sprawled and trying to kick the air.

That kick hurt, dammit, and it got you mad. Filed by a blood rage and almost righteous fury you took both her shoulders and slammed her against the ground, still pissed that she had a knife in the first place. That was out of line, even for this situation. You lowered to her level, getting ready to slowly pinch her throat and hoping karma would do the rest.

Her neck felt smaller than you expected in your hands, almost weak. You had been that weak, fighting like she was and winning. That was no matter to spare her dignity in this cage.

Something in her eyes still stopped you, though. Maybe it was how young she was, or how her brows were raised. She still flinched at your barred teeth though she had clearly fought before; she was no Muhammad. Maybe the fear in her eyes reminded you that she was only fighting for her life, same as you.

Shit. Well, that threw a wrench in your plans, and thinking on your feet was hard when you were profusely bleeding.

“What do you want?” Was whispered to her in a form of grace. Honestly, it wasn’t fair to let her have a say. She had a knife which wasn’t allowed, so the sudden mercy from you was unexpected. She swallowed and kept quiet, unwilling to accept her defeat. You, however, wanted her to have a say in her fate, so she needed to respond quicker.

Another slam to the ground from her shoulders set her teeth to vibrate in her skull, and she barely looked up without engaging a random felling tile. Her focus was slipping.

You glanced at the crowd around you and faced back to her.

“Please tell me! They’re all watching! It’ll be so much worse if they have you after when I win this match. I-I can’t kill you without you knowing why. I can’t kill you and pretend we were fighting.”

And it was true. You had witnessed the thing they’d do to the loser firsthand. In most cases, dying while fighting was better. They wouldn’t have killed you, not quick enough to forget their hands.

Lips parted in a cruel laugh she nodded. Head bloodied she shed a silent tear, glistening in the dingy lighting. You nodded smally and stood up quickly, knowing what she meant.

You didn’t want this, but you did want to let her chose, and her will be done. Using the quickest method, you stood up and hovered over her body, like a vulture cowers over a dead raccoon; void of light, save the headlights of an oncoming car.

The crowd hushed, confused by your actions. Once you raised your foot, however, the cheers rose up. All around you, people watched you fight, only separated by a shitty metal fence that was riddled with holes and stains. They roared, the lot, they didn’t care how she lost the fight or died so long as something happened. Someone lost money on this bet, someone is a new car richer, someone lost a sister years ago.

As hard and swift as possible, you brought down your foot over her face, crushing her skull in her brain, tearing apart skin and muscles so delicately woven together. It was a miasma grace, killing her instantly.

You wanted to look away, really, but your eyes stayed fixed on her dismembered head. The face that looked made of ketchup, the thick, bubbly blood pooling around her corpse.

It was really the smell that made you sick, throwing up on the spot into the sand pit you’d been fighting on. You didn’t hear your side of the fence roar again when you had been sick. They were calling you a wuss and a weak stomach for being sick.

It was always so new, the numbers after. A physical disconnect made apparent as you tried to move away, you could feel her blood stick to the sand and by extension, your feet. You gagged and wiped your foot on a clean patch of sand, trying to get the sappy texture off your body.

Once you could no longer feel it, you ran outside of the cage and through the back door to the trailers outside.

You soon spotted the place you called home and entered solemnly. Before you entered, though, you wiped off your feet, then felt sweat drip down your face and sink into the corners of your lip.

In a hazed rush you wiped the back of your palm over your eyes and head, but to your horror your sweat had mixed with a vibrant spray of vermillion. Holy shit, it was her blood, not sweat.

You promptly threw up violently outside the trailer for the second time that day, stomach clenching around bile and bone.

The grass scraped your knees pr but you couldn’t care about the all cuts this would give you, not when you had just saved a girl by ending her life. Your knees in the grass felt like jelly and it made you feel so, so weak, sinking to the ground because of feelings. It wasn’t blood that ran down your cheeks now, but salty, thin tears. The girl had been oh so thin and desperate and gray looking. In reality, she was at most two years younger that yourself, but it still hurt your head to think about.

a/n!!

short intro, not proof read, so sorry!!

hooked yet?

I mention things like “small frame” and such and I only did such to make sense with the plot, my oc is malnourished at this point in their story and it adds to the plot ig, this was written a while ago, I am one million percent in support of the fat awareness movement, ESPECIALLY as someone who had seen the people closest to me be hurt time and time again by such outdated standards! Remember, you don’t know who is on the other side of the screen, but I understand any resentful feelings with some language in my writing. If this isn’t for you please please click off! Love yall stay safe!

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pascalmode · 2 years

Text

In The Stars (1 - The Fall)

My first az fic! Also posted on my ao3 (fortheloveofstark) I know nothing about formatting on here or on ao3, so if you have tips or tricks, please message me!

AZ + TOG OC (this is a work of fanfiction)

Age: 18+

Warnings: Cannon level violence, sad shit, mentions of torture, Cairn and Maeve, a whip.

The dagger in her chest had missed her heart.

And yet, she can feel the curve of the blade with each of her laborious inhales, the crimson of her blood dribbling down the front of her and filling her mouth with the taste of copper.

Asteria looks around in her bloody haze, her brothers collapsed in the sand around her, fighting the oath that runs deep in their blood, the very oath that had taken her two hundred years and nearly all of her magic to shatter.

The ironteeth witch is too far out of reach, near her, a weeping would-be-lady of a far away land is held in the steel-like grip of the male she once loved. The male she wished for so long to return her feelings.

Directly across from her, the heir of the land, the heir of fire, is on her knees; reflecting Asteria’s own posture, held up by two males, having just been lashed by the whip of Asteria’s own centuries-long tormentor.

As the Fae Queen glowers down at her, the same Queen the female had pledged herself to when she was too young to know better.

Asteria lets a weak growl past her lips as the raven haired terror crouches down, her hand raising to stroke down the blood soaked female’s silver hair.

Asteria had thought she could help, that she could fight and make a difference in this war. That she would be the one driving the blade into the Queen’s heart.

She’d been wrong.

“You have been so strong for such a long time, Anaira,” Maeve whispers, her nail scraping along Asteria’s jaw. It isn’t the touch, but rather the false name that makes angry goosebumps rise along every scarred part of her. The blood leaching out of her has made her weak, weak enough that she can’t salvage the energy to bat away her hand, “Your magic is like nothing else. Through the Realm, you can do anything. And I have watched you, for more than three hundred years, waste that magic. That potential.”

Asteria opens her mouth, wanting to yell, and to scream to the queen. Tell her that she’ll never win. That the lashed would-be-queen would be her downfall. But she can barely manage more than a shaky breath and droopy eyes.

Her brothers are snarling where they lay, trying to get to her. But they can’t. They’re still bound by blood.

“You are going to do one more thing for me,” Maeve sneers, “Open the door between worlds. Right behind you.”

“Maeve!” The blonde heir shouts from behind, “Leave her alone, she has no part in this!”

The Fae Queen doesn’t spare a glance towards her, muttering, “Cairn.”

The sound of the whip cracking through the air shudders through Asteria, and the shriek that follows rumbles through her bones.

“You should be grateful, all of you should be,” Maeve announces, her voice moving beyond Asteria, to the entire beach, “I’m doing you all a favor. The most powerful full-blooded female on her knees, drawing her last breathes. Soon to be cast out from her own realm and doomed to fall forever, long past her own death,” Maeve’s hand comes to grip the handle of the dagger that she had plunged into Asteria’s chest, “Open the portal.”

The injured female shakes her head, weakly managing, “I don’t serve you.”

“If you want your brothers to survive the day, you will,” Maeve sneers, twisting the blade.

With the jerking motion, Asteria screams, her magic surging out of her and into the realm beneath her. Maeve could hurt her all she wants, having done so for centuries, but Asteria will be damned if her brothers meet that same pain. That same torture. The ground quakes with the force of Asteria’s dying magic, light rising from the sand as though the stars had embedded themselves in the grains.

With a noise loud enough to shatter the sky itself, the galaxy rips open behind Asteria. The winds rise, whipping around violently, as if it could protest the very thing that is happening.

Asteria is dying, and there is nothing that the Realm can do to save her.

The door between worlds hadn’t been opened; Her desperate magic had shattered it.

Maeve’s motion is quick and ruthless, ripping the dagger from Asteria’s chest, earning a pained grunt from the green-eyed female. Maeve’s long fingers grab onto Asteria’s chin, making her look directly into her own, endlessly dark eyes, “Very good, my Anaira. Do you remember why I named you this?”

Asteria says nothing, the space between them filled with her own shaking breathes as Maeve continues, “It means despair. A constant reminder of what you are, and what you bring to others. Pain, fear, suffering. They have all been yours to wield, Anaira.”

Asteria hates that she feels helpless tears roll down her cheeks. She hates that Maeve had won.

She’d succeeded in the one thing she set out to do; she had broken Asteria beyond recognition. Turned her into a picture of despair, as she had been named two hundred years ago and thought that she’d escaped.

“Any last words, Realm Reader?” Maeve asks, releasing the female with a smirk. Taunting. Dangerous.

She looks upon those surrounding her again, the warriors who would have made up a court that she’d have honored to be a part of; to fight alongside. Gavriel. Fenrys. Elide. Lorcan. Manon. The ones still at battle in the sea beyond the sands; Rowan. Lysandra. Aedion. Countless others. And Aelin. Asteria had done it all for Aelin; because she believed in her; Believed that she could be good when no one else did.

And now she’s dying because of it.

Aelin Galathynius meets her gaze, naked chest rising and falling from the pain in her back.

“Make her pay,” Asteria says over the roaring winds, looking at no one but Aelin, her voice strained with effort and nearly muddled by the blood pooling in her mouth, “And do right by this Realm. By me. Keep your promise, Aelin, even though I can’t see it to it’s end.”

The fire-bringer’s eyes are lined with silver, and a sob rips through her, “A better world.”

“A better world,” Asteria repeats, every ounce of faith put into that idea. The one she’d believed in so deeply when she’d showed up in Adarlan, to Aelin’s warehouse apartment, before magic had been freed.

A better world. One she’ll never see.

Maeve grabs her chin again, “After all of our time together, do you have nothing to say to me?”

Asteria’s green eyes bore into Maeve’s, the female who had taken everything from her. Who had renamed her at the first sign of her centuries long defiance. Her tormenter who had called her despair and brought nothing but that.

But she is not despair. She is not Anaira. She is Asteria Relridaar, and like the Heir of Terrasen she loyally follows, she would not be afraid.

So, Asteria opens her mouth, and spits on the Fae Queen, blood staining the porcelain skin of her oppressor. One last act of defiance.

“What’s my name?” Asteria growls, a smirk growing on her crimson lips. Taunting. Dangerous.

She wants Maeve to say it. To know that just because the most powerful female of the realm will be gone, she will be remembered. She had shattered the blood oath and taken her own name back by her sheer will. Something that had never been done before.

Maeve doesn’t wipe at her face, her dark eyes flicking from Asteria to the portal that she’d ripped open. Something Maeve could never do on her own even if she tried.

The Fae Queen smiles wickedly saying, “It doesn’t matter.”

With a single push, Asteria is shoved through the door between worlds.

And she falls.

#azriel x oc #azriel #azriel shadowsinger #shadowsinger #acotar #acotar oc #tog oc #tog #azriel x reader #a court of thornes and roses #inner circle #inner circle x oc #oc #acotar fanfiction #azriel fanfic

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dumdumsun · 2 years

Text

To Nightfall

A/N: Enjoy!

Warnings: corpses, implications of suicidal thoughts, mentions of blood and death

Word Count: 4649

—————————————

Chapter 7: Kugelblitz

The revolving doors spun until Klaus entered the hotel lobby, dressed in a red raincoat. His eyes widened at the sight of the two corpses on the ground, his siblings and some old man standing before them. “Oh, man. Heavens to Betsy… What did you do? Did Viktor go full ‘Carrie’ again?”

“We didn’t do this.” Allison answered, her eyes discreetly motioning to the old man. Viktor stepped closer to him.

“Harlan?”

“Don’t!” Harlan flinched and brought his hands up to his temples. “Don’t come near me, please.”

“I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay,” Viktor’s mind raced at the sight of Harlan heavily breathing. “You can… You can talk now. It’s-”

Harlan opened his eyes and held up a hand. “I can do a lot of things now.”

Behind the two, Allison, Diego and Klaus grouped together to quietly talk and watch them. “Who the hell is creepy grandpa?” Klaus asked.

“That’s the kid Viktor saved in Dallas.” Diego answered, the two gasping in realization.

“Oh, yeah, shit.”

“Oh, shit! You’re right!”

“But didn’t he get rid of all the kid’s mojo when he did all ‘that’?” Klaus pretended to spasm, mimicking Harlan when they had last seen him. Allison crossed her arms at his question.

“Yeah, I guess that didn’t stick.”

“What’s he doing here now?”

Diego tilted his head. “Who cares? He saved us from the Sparrows.”

Klaus gaped at the corpses on the ground. “Wow, he did that?”

A little ways away from Jayme and Alphonso, Luther was trying to wake the unconscious Sloane. When she finally did, she winced in pain and sat up with his help. The first sight she set her eyes on was her dead siblings, the side of their faces brutally burnt off. She fearfully gasped and got to her feet.

“It’s alright.” Luther whispered. “Sloane, it’s alright.”

She turned to him with a look of betrayal before fleeing up the stairs. “Sloane!” He called out.

“You got a live one, Luther!” Diego shouted, running after Luther who ran after Sloane. While everyone was distracted, Harlan made his escape up the opposite staircase.

“Harlan, wait!” Viktor called out. When he noticed Allison was going to follow him, he quickly stopped her. “Um… no. Go help Luther.”

“What about you?”

“I can handle it. Go!”

“Okay, okay, okay.”

The two split, leaving Klaus to get a closer look at Jayme and Alphonso, letting out a breath through his nose and shaking his head.

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

The Commission was not in the same state either of them had left it. Entering the building, Five and Lila found themselves in an empty, broken version of what used to be a polished interior, now devoid of its loyal workers walking throughout the halls and stairs.

“Holy shit.” Lila gasped. “I was just here. How long was I bloody gone?”

“It seems the grandfather paradox is affecting everything,” Five set the briefcase on the ground and massaged his wrist. “Even places out of time.”

“Is that possible?”

“I stopped tracking what was possible a long time ago.”

Just as he picked up the case, part of the ceiling broke and fell between them. They quickly moved out of the way and let the debris break onto the ground. Five took one look at the ceiling before heading towards the staircase. “We better get moving. I’ll check the Infinite Switchboard.”

“I’ll check Herb’s office. Little cockroach would survive anything.” Lila nodded and began walking around. She quickly turned towards Five, who was making his way up the stairs. “Bye!”

“See ya.”

…..

“Miss you!”

“That’s weird.”

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

“That’s him?”

The two (Y/N)s continued to stare at the coffee shop cashier who wiped down his station with a rag. Umbrella (Y/N) noticed some differences from the Anthony she married. This one was skinnier, his face was shaven which made him look younger, and the excitement in his eyes had diminished. But he was also alive, and that was more than enough for her.

“Yup.”

Sparrow (Y/N) whistled. “Oh, (Y/N), you have got some taste.”

“You think he’s attractive?”

“Um… yes! How did I not get to him sooner?”

Umbrella (Y/N) looked up at herself and smiled softly. “I’m introducing you two,” She grabbed a hold of her wrist and walked to the door of the shop. “Right now.”

“(Y/N), (Y/N). Wait, wait, wait.” She stopped her little self and nervously looked around. “What do I say to him? I mean, you got this guy to fall in love with you, but I’m not you. I’ve never had a- a boyfriend or any kind of romance in my life. I hardly even talk to my siblings on a daily basis!”

“(Y/N), you’ll be okay,” She held her hand and opened the door, ice cream cones forgotten. “I’ll be your wingman. You’ve got this.”

The two approached the counter, Anthony smiling at them. Umbrella (Y/N)’s heart warmed at the smile. She’s missed it. “Welcome in, ladies. How can I help you?”

Umbrella (Y/N) returned the smile, fighting back the tears building up in her eyes. “Hi,” She grinned. “U-Uh… m-my name is Star and this… is my older sister, (Y/N).”

Sparrow (Y/N) waved and awkwardly leaned against the counter. “Hey.”

“O-Oh, I know (Y/N) Hargreeves. It’s an honor, really.”

She smirked at his adoration for her. “I like your, uh… nametag,” She pointed at his name laminated on his chest. “‘Anthony’. Nice name. Biblical. Means ‘worthy of praise’.”

Anthony narrowed his eyes at her. “Th- Thank you… U-Uh, so what brings you to this little coffee shop?”

“Uh…” She glanced at her “sister” before looking back at him. “Coffee?”

“O-Of course, of course!” He nervously chuckled. “I just mean that, uh… I’ve been working here for five years and I’ve never seen you in here. Or any member of the Sparrow Academy, for that matter.”

Umbrella (Y/N) frowned in confusion. “You’ve been here for five years?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Oh, but… Wait, you don’t have a business?”

“No,” He slowly shook his head. “I mean, I would’ve had one, but I dropped out of college and my dad didn’t like that. So, uh… no financial assistance.”

She blinked in shock. The Anthony she knew had met her in college, where they encouraged each other to follow their dreams. She as an author and Anthony working at his father’s side in their shared business. It was something he had wanted since he was young. He had always looked up to his father and wanted to follow in his footsteps. To know that he had given up on a life-long dream made no sense at all to her. It was nothing like him to give up.

Sparrow (Y/N) hummed. “Interesting. I stole my father’s finances.”

Anthony cleared his throat awkwardly. “O-Oh.”

“Y-You seem like the businessman type,” Umbrella (Y/N) started. “What made you change your mind?”

He puffed out some air and seemed to hesitate before answering. “Schoolwork and late nights at work kept me away from my girlfriend. She thought that dropping out would, uh… make me more available. And hey, she’s got a point. We spend so much time together now.”

The (Y/N)s stared at him, unknowing of what to say.

“You have a girlfriend?” Sparrow (Y/N) deflated.

Anthony widened his eyes. “Oh… Was this- Was this a setup? Were we being set up just now?”

“Yeah, it started off that way.” She sighed. “But you have a girlfriend, so… boo.”

Umbrella (Y/N) stared at her former husband in pity. Now she understood where the light in his eyes went. It was burned out by his girlfriend who discouraged him from everything he wanted to do. He was living a life he didn’t even want.

“Are you… happy, Anthony?”

He looked over at her and shrugged. “I mean, yeah. You know, I love her and whatever she wants, I want. It’s whatever.”

It didn’t sound like it was “whatever”.

Sparrow (Y/N) leaned forward to inspect Anthony closer. “You know, Anthony Petrov, we have a lot in common.”

“H-How did you know my-”

“You see, I can never stand up for myself when it comes to my asshole family, and you surely can’t stand up for yourself in front of your unbelievably inconsiderate girlfriend-”

“(Y/N)!” The young girl beside her hissed.

“We are both pathetic pushovers,” She hummed and clicked her tongue. “We never would’ve worked out.”

And with that, she turned and walked out of the coffee shop. Umbrella (Y/N) stared at Anthony in shock, the man blinking rapidly as he stared down at the counter. “I-I’m sorry about her. She doesn’t really have a filter.” She whispered, gently placing a hand on his. Anthony looked up at her with tired eyes. “I wish the best for you, Anthony. Really. You deserve everything the world has to offer you. I hope you take some of those offers.”

She patted his hand before joining her older self outside. Sparrow (Y/N) looked at her before continuing their walk. “(Y/N), that man was so sad. That’s who you married in your timeline?”

“He wasn’t like that in my timeline. He was actually so much happier. Anthony never gave up on anything. I hope he sorts himself out.”

“I guess he needed you to show him what he’s missing.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

She suddenly remembered another piece of her story that Sparrow (Y/N) was missing. A crucial part for the start of her life outside the Academy. Her real life that she started herself. With a small smile, she turned to her older self.

“We should go see someone else. Someone I think you’d be glad to meet.”

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

After being scared nearly to death by the man emerging from the showers, Luther was still on his quest to find Sloane, who was somewhere within the hotel. He had seen her run into the spa, but now she was nowhere to be seen.

Then he began to lift into the air, a force squeezing his body painfully. He grunted as his body was slowly turned around to be met with the very woman he was looking for, holding her side in pain with her hand stretched out to him. “Sloane… What are you doing?”

“Did you set me up?” She tearfully hissed.

“No,” He strained. “I would never do that.”

Diego suddenly came up behind her, holding her in place and pressing a knife to her throat. “I would. Drop him.”

Face twitching, Sloane swiped her arm down, Luther landing on his feet with deep breaths.

“You good?”

“I’m good,” Luther nodded. “Diego, it’s okay. You can let her go now.”

Diego frowned. “What? Are you kidding me?”

“I said let her go. She’s hurt.”

“She is the enemy.”

“If you hurt her, I will bury you.”

“You gonna bury me, too, Luther?” Allison’s voice sounded beside him. He quickly snapped his head to her, unaware that she had entered the room at all.

“Just… Just let me talk to her. Okay? Please.”

“Trust me,” Allison looked at the sobbing Sloane, no sympathy in her tone. “She’s gonna talk.”

Outside the hotel, Harlan ran through the doors, grateful to be out of that suffocating environment. Everyone was too much for him. They all remembered him, they all saw him kill those Sparrows. Even Viktor.

He groaned at the incessant ringing in his ears. It didn’t grow or fade, but the stagnant pain in his head was driving him insane. He focused all his energy on it, calming himself until the feedback stopped. From behind him, he heard footsteps until they stopped with heavy breaths.

“You haven’t aged.” He spoke, not even turning around.

“It’s… It’s only been three days for me.” Viktor answered. “How did you find me?”

Harlan turned to him. “Ever since that day at the lake. We’re connected. I can feel you, people like you…” He referred to the sixties when he had drowned in a lake as a boy, Viktor reviving him on the shore. “Like us.”

“What does it feel like?”

“Vibrations. Like a… tuning fork in my head. Louder and louder, the closer one of you gets. I can put it out if I focus, but… sometimes I slip.”

“Is that what happened downstairs?”

Harlan’s shoulders slumped before he walked over to an empty luggage cart. “There’s no hope for me.” He mumbled and sat down, sadly looking up at Viktor. “I’m… not special like you. I wasn’t made for this… power. I can’t control it.”

Viktor didn’t mean for any of this to happen. He cared for Harlan, he loved him. He had felt complete and total anguish when he died in that lake as a boy. Viktor only wanted to save him. He didn’t mean to put him through years of pain and misery. He had to fix this, it was the least he could do for Harlan.

“I’m here now, okay?” He promised. “I’m gonna make this right.”

“How?”

Within the spa, Diego and Allison sat on the edge of one of the tubs, Sloane standing against the wall across from them. She hadn’t spoken a word since Diego let her go and Allison was beginning to lose her patience, growing sick of the Sparrow Academy.

“I heard a rumor…”

“Whoa, Allison, hey.” Luther rushed from beside her.

“...you’re gonna tell me the truth.”

“Let her do her thing, man.” Diego told his brother.

Sloane’s eyes turned an empty white, indicating that she was now under Allison’s spell. “Where’s the briefcase?” Allison asked with a clenched jaw. Sloane kept her mouth shut, fighting against it. “Tell me. Where is it?”

She didn’t answer, whimpering as the truth tried to claw its way out of her mouth. Allison stood, a dangerous look in her eye.

“Where the hell… is it?”

Eventually, Sloane lost the fight. “I don’t know!”

“Allison!” Luther cried out.

“We left it in your house, and it is our only way out of this!” She inched her face closer to her. “Where… is it!!!”

Sloane quivered and shook at the hold Allison had on her mind, her nose beginning to leak with blood as she continued to fight against her power. Despite this, Allison didn’t even ease up on her until Luther physically pulled her away.

“That’s enough!”

Sloane gasped and fell to the ground as Diego shook his head and put his knife away. “You better ask yourself which side you on, bro.”

“Would you just get the hell out of here?” Luther helped up Sloane.

“Gonna tell me what to do?”

“All of you, just get out!” Allison hollered, pointing at Luther. “She doesn’t leave your sight. Do you understand? This isn’t over.”

Silently, the three left the room. Once she was alone, Allison leaned against one of the sinks, desperately trying to calm herself. “Breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe.” She sighed, her eyes moving up to the mirror.

Allison knew that she couldn’t continue on like this. She knew the person she was becoming and she was partially afraid of it. She nearly killed Sloane and ultimately got nowhere with it. If she could only eliminate this anger, this pain…

“I heard a rumor…” She groaned at the tight hold she had on her own mind. It was different, knowing that she had control over herself, but at the same time, she was losing herself. “...that you were…” She cried out in pain. “...happy.”

With a scream, she sent her fist through the mirror, the glass shattering and some pieces falling into the sink. When she looked at her reflection, she saw the same woman. The same pain and anger that was slowly starting to swallow her whole.

She grabbed hold of one of the shards of glass, a haunting thought crossing her mind, but it was gone as quick as it came. She couldn’t do that. She still had hope. She just needed to try to change. And a good way to start a change in oneself… was a haircut.

Allison stepped out of the hotel in a new outfit, her curls now at the nape of her neck rather than spilling over her shoulders. When she turned her head, she caught sight of Viktor and Harlan together by a luggage cart.

“Viktor…”

He looked over at his sister, a small smile of amazement on his face. “You cut your hair.”

“Yeah.” She reached a hand up to feel her hair.

“Uh, you okay?”

She quickly hid her injured hand in her pocket. “Yeah, never better.”

But Viktor didn’t believe that for a second. “What’s wrong?”

“The Sparrows don’t have the briefcase. They never did.”

“What?” He groaned in exasperation. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, very. What do we do now? What’s our next move?”

“I’m sorry. I can’t… I can’t deal with this right this second. We can talk later, okay?”

Allison frowned and walked up to him. “No. Not okay.”

“Later, please.”

She glanced at Harlan, who avoided her gaze, before rolling her eyes and walking away.

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

Ben burst into the mansion with Fei and Chris behind him. “You walked us into a slaughter.” She raged.

“You were both right there with me. This is as much your fault as mine.”

“How? You’re Number One, remember?”

“Yeah, but I’m a different kind of Number One.”

She hummed behind him. “The shitty kind.” Her words caused Ben to slowly turn around. “That’s why Dad demoted you. That’s why he made Marcus Number One. You couldn’t even prove yourself better than (Y/N). You don’t know how to lead. You don’t have what it takes-”

Fei’s words were cut short when Ben slapped her across the face, her shades flying off and sliding across the floor. She maniacally laughed as she turned her eyeless face back to her brother, smile slowly fading as well as her laugh. “Marcus would have never let-”

“He’s gone.” Ben growled. “You know what our real problem is? You. You’re a shit Number Two, Fei.”

Christopher garbled out something from above.

“See? Even Christopher agrees with me.”

As her brothers left the room, she picked up her shades and placed them back on, the tail of her uniform flowing behind her as she followed them into their father’s room. Reginald looked up at them in curiosity from his desk as Ben took a seat on his sofa.

“What have I missed? Sounds juicy.”

Ben rested his feet on Reginald’s coffee table. “Dad, we lost Jayme, Alphonso and Sloane.”

“Oh!” He rose from his seat. “Well, then we should be out looking for them. Fetch my jacket.”

“No, Dad.” Fei shook her head. “He means they’re dead.”

His face fell as he slowly lowered himself back into his chair. “Such a shame… What of (Y/N)?”

“We haven’t seen her since this morning.”

He snapped his head up with wide eyes. “You don’t know where she is? We should be out looking for her, then.”

Ben rolled his eyes. “I’m sure she’s out shopping.”

“She was your ward, Number Two.”

“Yeah, and as her warden, I have every idea where she is right now. She’s fine and she’s the last thing we need to worry about. Those assholes from the Umbrella Academy? You were actually right about them.”

“After Marcus disappeared, Ben led us on a mission to take them down.” Fei threw her brother under the bus.

“And it would have worked, but they had some kind of secret weapon. This old guy with powers on their side, which is totally cheating. We didn’t have a chance.”

Reginald leaned forward. “So, what do you intend to do about it?”

Ben glanced over at Fei, who motioned for him to say something, but he came up with nothing. She pursed her lips and turned to their father. “We need to be ready if they come to finish us off, and they will unless we come up with a plan,” She turned to Ben. “So, what is your next genius idea, idea guy?”

He clenched his jaw and swallowed, silently looking away. Fei scoffed and exited the room before Christopher garbled out something. “Fine,” Ben waved him off. “Go with her. See if I care.”

Once the two were gone, Reginald set his gaze on his Number Two. “There is still a way to turn this to your favor. But you need to find your sister by the end of the night.”

“I’ll handle it, Dad.”

In a place outside of time, Five walked into a dark and hollow room, a room that was usually bright with life. The numerous screens on the wall were all turned off, which wasn’t normal for the Infinite Switchboard. After messing with a few dials, one of the screens turned on, displaying a disheveled and frightened Herb.

“There’s been a rip in the space-time continuum. It’s swallowing everything. Oh, my sweet Dot, Iris, Josh from accounting, they’re all gone.”

Five tuned a dial to speed up the video.

“I’ve tried everything! I don’t know what else to do. The timeline is collapsing.”

Herb yelped as the people in the background screamed in terror. Five clenched his jaw at the sight of Herb’s hopeless face turned forward again.

“This is… the end.”

Five watched as the man let out one last scream before his body disintegrated within a second. He swallowed and looked down in thought. Usually the Commission was the organization to eliminate these kinds of problems. But if they were gone as well, then this wasn’t a world-wide issue anymore.

“I could kill for some scrambled eggs right now.” Lila voiced herself as she stepped into the room.

“This is bigger than the timeline, Lila.”

“What’s bigger than the timeline?”

He turned to face her. “The entire universe.”

“Yeah…” She sighed out.

“The missing dogs, people… it’s the opposite of the Big Bang. Instead of the universe expanding, it’s now collapsing in on itself.”

Lila nodded. “Like a prolapsing rectum.”

Five blinked. “That’s a weird analogy, but yeah.”

“Here, then,” She held up a book and placed it into his hands. “This might give us some answers.”

Five looked down at the book in his hands. “Master handbook…”

“The one and only.”

He flipped through some of the pages before stopping at one and reading its contents. “Here we are. Okay, protocol. ‘In the unlikely case of the grandfather paradox, the founder and any essential personnel should’-”

Lila walked over to him and continued the passage. “...’be immediately remanded to the operations bunker’.” She leaned up and looked off in thought. “The founder. What founder?”

“I don’t know.”

The two flinched back when the ceiling broke once again. Five sighed.

“We need to find that bunker ASAP-”

“-ASAP.” Lila spoke with him in unison. Five scoffed and began walking away with her following. “Jinx. A-B-C-1-2-3, personal padlock.”

“Can you not-”

“You can’t speak!”

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

Sloane glared at Luther and moved away when he gingerly placed an icepack on her shoulder. Seeing that she was still angry with him, he lowered his arms. “I hate your family.” She grumbled.

“That’s cool,” He nodded. “Not a super fan of yours right now.”

“Were you part of it?”

“Of what?”

“Ambushing us with Superman’s grandpa.”

“Sloane,” He sighed. “My family can’t decide whether or not to put mushrooms on a pizza. I have no idea who that old guy is. He just showed up.”

She removed the ice pack from her shoulder. “You expect me to believe that?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Hold on here. You attacked us.”

“I tried to warn you.”

“Yeah, pfft, at the last second. You almost took us out.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t,” She cried. “And your stupid family’s fine, and half of mine is dead. Were you just… using me? Getting close to gather information?”

Luther looked offended at that. “Do you really believe that…? Sloane, you need to know something about me. I don’t really have any friends. Or… romances. I just have my family, and I would do anything to protect them, except betray you… because that’s not who I wanna be. So, if you’re playing me right now, you win. But if this… if this is for real, we have to trust each other because we’re not our families.”

Sloane softly smiled and gently held his hand. “Okay.”

“Okay.” Luther sighed, gently brushing a tear away. After a few minutes, the two were on a small sofa in the room.

“I really should get home.” Sloane whispered.

“I can’t let you go.” He whispered back. She smiled and gently held the side of his face in her hand.

“I don’t wanna let you go either, but Jayme and Alphonso, they deserve a proper burial.”

“No, I mean, I can’t let you leave. You’re a hostage.”

Sloane looked away. “Oh, right. That…”

“My family already thinks I’m a traitor. So, I can’t-”

“No, I totally get it. My family is probably plotting vengeance.”

Luther nodded. “So, I guess we just… go back to fighting until everybody’s dead.”

Sloane couldn’t reciprocate the false smile Luther put on, for her mind was already coming up with a plan. “We can put an end to this and still be together.”

“How?”

A floor above them, Viktor was pouring a glass of water for Harlan, who was picking out a tape to listen to. “I need you to stay in here until I figure some things out.” He said as he handed the old man the glass. Harlan gulped the whole thing down before setting it on the floor by his feet.

“Your sister called you Viktor. Is that what I should call you?”

“I’d like that,” He took a seat beside him on the foot of the bed. “You know, your mom’s a… big part of who I am. She was the first person to truly see me.”

Harlan didn’t look up from his task. “It’s okay if you wanna ask about her.”

Viktor’s eyes began welling up with tears. “Did Sissy hate me for what I did to you?”

Slowly, Harlan peeled himself away from his suitcase and sat up straight, running his palms on his pants. “She said you saved her life.”

Viktor swallowed the growing lump in his throat. “Did she have a good life…?”

Harlan hummed. “Wasn’t easy. Not with… me there. But she was free in a way she never was on the farm. She never stopped thinking about you, and she never gave up hope that you’d come back to us one day,” His voice lowered in sadness and fear. “Why did you leave us? I… I needed you.”

He wasn’t sure if he could take this continuous heartache, not with Harlan’s broken expression. “We thought you’d be safer away from me. But I wish I had stayed. I should have stayed.”

Silently, Harlan reached a hand out, Viktor reaching back and clasping their hands together. Viktor couldn’t imagine what Harlan had gone through without him for fifty-six years. He had to lose his mother all alone. While for Viktor, it had only been three days. He didn’t have to go through the longing as much as he did.

He was going to do right by Harlan. He was going to do everything he could to keep him safe. That little boy he met in the streets of Dallas, Texas, just after his mother had hit him with her car… he didn’t deserve this. Viktor took full responsibility for Harlan, no matter his age. He was going to fix this.

The door to the room opened, Luther stepping in. “Meeting in the poolroom. Family only.”

“Stay here,” Viktor told Harlan as Luther walked out. “I’ll be right back.”

Harlan watched him leave, his heart a little lighter as he pulled his headphones on over his ears.

—————————————

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honeyglz · 1 year

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Confession

A/N - Final part lets goo !!! I really do appreciate all/any support you guys have left on these works, if you are interested in my works, I will be adding a master list of my works to my blog soon. !!This takes place in an AU where Deku never got his quirk from all might!! As always I hope you enjoy :D

Proof read- No tf Reader - Fem (no spec for anatomy), She/Her, You/Your/Yours :)

Disclaimer - I do not own any of these characters aside from my depiction of 'Y/N'/the reader

Pairing - Bakugou x reader

P1 - "Tell me a secret" P2 - Take it to the grave Category - Angst with a happy end!

Content Warning - General violence, near death, in depth fight description (kinda), heavy(ish) gore, Deku having issues (Borderline yandere), Y/N cant catch a break man, blood both mentioned and heavy detailing, body horror and dis-figuration. (You'll find out how when reading). Please let me know if I missed any <3

-♡-

-Y/N's POV- You felt so lost, your eyes fogged up in a drunk like state. The scent of your own blood staining the walls around you. It felt like forever that you'd been here. Had it been forever? The voice had told you no one was coming, you knew better to believe them but a part of you agreed. What if no one was coming? What if you died here? Day's blurred for you, you wouldn't know the day if someone asked, that in itself scared you. You didn't want to die here. A needle pierced your skin for what felt like the 100th time today. The same voice whispering praise as they sewed the wound they had injected the stuff into. You had no idea what it was but every time they used it you felt more and more pain. Less control of your body. Less sane thoughts to cling too. The small nothings in your ear continued as you felt your body flinch at the closeness. "You did so well dove, keep this up and I may just let you live by the end of this!" The voice exclaimed stroking the bloodied area with their cool leather glove. "Maybe even keep you around, how does that sound Dove? Just you and me- Forever" Their hand lifted your chin, neck raw against the rusted chains pushing into it. The voice hummed waiting for response. "I'd rather die" The voice went silent for a moment before what seemed signature laugh rang through the room. "Atta girl. Can't have you loosing your spark before we see Kacchan hm?"

The glove let go of her face, allowing the sting on her neck to subside. "Well as much as I'll miss you I have other things to attend to" they sighed placing down the syringe. "Oh, and get some rest dove, we have a big day ahead of us." Their voice held a sinister note as the sound of the metal door slamming shut, a shiver running though your spine. You had a bad feeling about this.... -Bakugou's POV- Bakugou stared down at the number. He had been trying to track it for hours. His hero gear weighed heavy against his body. Gauntlets shining in the evening sunlight. He thought back to the call. Remembering every detail. The time, the weather, the way his fucking breath sounded through the speaker. Bakugou's hands clutched as he imagined what sicko that had done to you. He wondered if you were even still breathing. Heat flared up, running from his hands to his chest, every inch of his skin felt hot, he was going to kill that bastard. His shoes hit the smooth tile of his agency's floor. People scrambling around him, some with files, others eyes concentrating on their screens as they continued to try track the call. Everyone knew that Bakugou's patience was running thin, it would only be so long before he lost his cool and took things into drastic measures. Abruptly everyone stopped, the sound Bakugou's phone began to buzz. The same number appearing on Bakugou's phone. Ring

...

Ring

...

Ring- He picked up.

"Took you long enough" The voice he knew once all to well, taunted. Midoriya took a long sigh before speaking again. "Y'know I see why you like her Kacchan, she's very- how do I put this?" Bakugou grit his teeth as he team worked around him trying to track the call. Midoriya smiled against the phone. "Oh yes that's it. Very.. Explosive." The ground shook underneath them as Bakugou steadied himself, still clutching the phone to his ear, hearing Midoriya's laugh. The building began to tilt, people rushing out quickly. One of his employees called out to him showing him the screen above, still just presenting the location. They had found them. "I'm coming to get you Deku. And when I do God wont be able to save you." He growled into his phone slamming the device down as he rushed to help people out of the now crumbling building.

-Midoriya's POV-

Midoriya sat in the dark as he lay back in the abandoned warehouse he called home. "Oh I'm counting on it. Time to end this, old friend." Midoriya's stood, looking over to his workers. "Get her ready. Its time we allow these love birds a little get together."

-Y/N POV-

You were being moved. The feeling of light touching your skin felt harsh and unusual after so long, though it faded quickly as cold began to settle in. Your body felt strange, you were chained in every possible way, you had been hurt in every way your body could handle but you were walking. A strength coursed through your veins. A foreign one. You felt your chains tug as someone placed you down. The wind blew, brushing against your face for what felt like the first time in forever. It was silent for awhile as you heard people leave the area. Suddenly the voice spoke.

"Y'know dove.. I don't think Ill be able to hang around after this is done like I promised."

You turned your head to the voice, still trying to get a good sense of where you were. None the less the voice continued. "I'm just thinking, since I wont be around there's no need to hide who I am right?" You stayed silent confused for a moment at the sudden change in them. They had never appeared so.... human to you.

You felt the fabric around your head loosen, your sight restored as you blinked at the strange sensation. Once you regained your sight your eyes drifted up to see a man, forest green locks thrown against his pale face, freckles decorating his checks as he smiled at you. He stood up from his place as he stretched feet skimming the edge of the building they sat on. "He's coming to get you. Should be here any moment." He looked back down at you, a small sad smile etching onto his face. "I really am sorry I won't be around to see you after this." He reached down grabbing your hand as he lay a gentle kiss on your knuckles. Surprisingly you were calm, you didn't flinch or move away. You just watched.

"By the way, my real name is Izuku. Izuku Midoriya."

He turned away from you and a sudden explosion made you fall back onto the roof, heart pounding as you struggled against your restraints. Instinct kicking in.

"Well, looks like its show time dove. I really will miss you" And with that. He disappeared. Leaving you alone in the cold once again. Something new coursing through your veins. A command. A whisper perhaps.

Evolve

-Bakugou's POV- Bakugou smashed through the building, scanning the area only to see an empty warehouse. Well empty-ish. There were a few rooms, one had what looked like a bed in it, the other had all sorts of devices and a chair. Along with what looked to be a burner phone. He grabbed the phone mindlessly before trailing further, determined to find you. The stench of blood filled his senses as he walked into he third room. It looked like some sort of horror house. Something out of a movie. Blood stained the walls, tools lay across a counter and in the middle of a room was a metal bench, chains and straps laid across it. He felt his breath stop as he picked up what looked to be a torn piece of your hero costume. His heart kicked up a notch as he heard footsteps. Paired with a familiar voice.

"Well well well, looks like you found me huh Kacchan?"

Bakugou's head turned to find the alleged ghost of his sins. There Midoriya stood, scars adorning his skin, eyes harsh, far from the ones he knew as a kid. In that moment everything in his life weighed nothing, his regrets, his achievements, his title as a hero. It all meant nothing if he lost now. Midoriya smiled as he walked forward, gloved hands running through his green hair. "Where is she Deku." Bakugou spat though grit teeth as he eye'd down the green haired man before him. Midoriya only scowled eye's twitching with a deranged look creeping into them. "So, you only came for her huh?" The question went unanswered as the blonde snarled at the small talk. "I'm not here for small talk, where the fuck is she" Bakugou seethed as Midoriya only sighed taking off his gloves.

"I was hoping for some sort of apology, maybe even an once of guilt. But I guess not, huh?" Midoriya dropped his gloves as light began to emit from his skin, flashes of what looked like lightning striking the space between them, his eyes glowing darkly as he stared right into the blondes scarlet eyes, electric eyes meeting blood red.

"Im going to enjoy this."

In a flash Midoriya was behind Bakugou, fingers woven in a fist as he went to strike. Dust clouded the room as Bakugou narrowly dodged, blasting behind him, ash overwhelming the air as his blast struck Midoriya into a wall. The concrete cracked under the pressure, leaving the green haired man winded. Smoke cleared revealing Midoriya with his head low, blood dripping from his lips as he smiled widely, grin psychotic as he laughed. "Better than I thought. My turn" Like clockwork, Midoriya pushed off the wall, fist slamming into the blondes torso. Bakugou wen't flying through the buildings wall, blood trickling from his head as the sicking crack of his own bones filled his head. Midoriya felt the corners of his mouth twitch up again as he watched the blonde struggle to stand for a moment. Bakugou stumbled to his feet as Midoriya charged once again only for the floor under him to crumble. He fell and Bakugou jumped down, wiping the blood from his face as he spat out the bitter red liquid. They went back and forth exchanging hit after hit until Bakugou sent a powerful blast Midoriya's way. Sending him tumbling into the ground. The blonde grabbed onto the smaller man's neck, hands heating up as the smell of burning flesh began to rise. "I told you God wouldn't be able to save you" he hissed, squeezing Midoriya's neck tighter. Bakugou lifted Midoriya's body from the rubble. Midoriya muttered something the blonde didn't quite catch. not that he cared.

Not until he was flung into the air. He dropped Midoriya, head slowly turning to reveal a creature. It didn't look like a Nomu, not a normal one at least. It had a more human look, ridged horns across its back, up its legs. It's limbs look scratched, cuts and wounds all along its body. The creature jumped above him using a broken concrete pillar to knock the hero into the floor, creating a dent in the ground. He groaned head pounding as he watched it stand to its full height, revealing a haunting pair of E/C eye's staring dully at his broken figure. -Y/N's POV- Devolve

You had blacked out after Izuku had left you alone. Where were you? Your vision came back and your body felt twisted, your entire being screaming at you for even thinking of moving. There was smoke, everywhere. You couldn't run, you couldn't move. Your eyes frantically scanned around you. You still had chains on. You looked down at your legs. Torn open and stitched back you only now saw what they had made you.

Bearly human. You forced your eyes off your mangled body as you spotted a familiar face. Izuku walked towards Bakugou, watching as the man tried to crawl away. Izuku laughed as he kicked the man in the jaw, sending him flying once again. The blonde looked over to you before Izuku grabbed onto his neck. Squeezing harshly causing your skin to crawl. You watched as the green haired man continued to hold him.

You felt panic crawl up your neck as you tried to move. The same voice you heard before blacking out speaking. Stop.

You dont. Obey.

"Fuck you" You spat as you started to regain feeling, pain drilling into your bones as you did so.

Stop trying.

Now your finger was moving. Stop now.

Again you refused. You body was crying in pain at this point as you took a step forward. Obey.

Another. Stop moving.

And another. The voice got smaller and smaller until you couldn't hear it anymore. Step after step until you were running to them. It ached. Everything ached. But you didn't stop. Your legs took you further and further, hands still clutching the concrete pillar as you ran. Your arms swung back all your remaining strength focusing on one thing.

Knocking this psycho motherfucker out of orbit.

Your arms burnt as you took the final step, hands crushing against the harsh stone as you sent every prayer to heaven that you hit him.

Midoriya didn't even have a chance to process what was happening as for the split second he turned his head to meet your gaze, icy and determined. His eyes widened in awe before everything went black.

'Of course you were the only one who broke the trance. Who else could do something as amazing as that? No one but you, Dove'

You watched as Midoriya was knocked too far for your eyes to follow. Dropping the pillar as you gave way to the crushing weight of strain that surrounded your body. Your hands, legs, everything shook as you let go of the breath you had been holding. Eyes snapping to Bakugou, who had now managed to stumble to his feet, leaning and limping you pushed yourself to rush to him as you tackled him.

You both fell back as he welcomed your embrace, face buried in your hair as he felt tears soak through his chest piece, his own tears racing down his face. He soothed you, heart breaking at your tired sobs. He held you tight, not minding the sting from his own wounds as he pressed a kiss against the top of your head. Your arms were locked around him, face pushed into his side as you sobbed, thankful that the nightmare was over.

Some time had passed and other hero's made it to the scene. You were both taken back to the hospital.

-At the hospital. 3 days later. Y/N's POV-

You awoke to the bright sunlight peaking through the dull curtains. You looked around to see your friends and family surrounding you. You smiled as tears ran down your face, thankful you weren't dreaming. You were free. You looked around, disappointed to see that Bakugou was no where to be seen. Mina noticed your smile drop as she signalled for everyone to give you abit of space. You stared at your bed realising that he had left. You let your thoughts get the better of you before a sudden grunt caught your attention. There Bakugou was, in a suit, cuts and bruises still fresh. He had bandages wrapped around his head, his messy blonde hair framing his face as sunlight hit the bouquet he held. He had a small blush on his face as he walked up to your bed handing you the flowers wordlessly. He looked nervous as he looked back to the door, their old classmates ushering him on as he spoke. "Listen I don't know if you meant what you said that day- But I fucking did... So-" He paused swallowing the last of his fears as he spoke "So, will you go out with me? I'll take you somewhere real nice promise. Hell I'll even wear whatever you want, shitty matching outfits and all-" He was cut off when your lips met his, hands around his neck tangling into his hair as you pushed your self up from the hospital bed covers. He was taken back before he leaned down ignoring the cheers from everyone outside the door. You smiled into the kiss before you pulled away, breathless as you held your flowers, enjoying the furious blush that the hero wore once you pulled away. "So was that a yes or-?" he said jokingly as you smacked his arm playfully smiling as you admired him. "Yes Katsuki, I'll go out with you." You said planting another kiss against his check, watching as everyone poured back into the room congratulating you both.

-♡-

A/N - AHH ITS DONE!! Real talk I really do like how this panned out, though I do apologise if the fight scene was abit of a let down. If you have time or wish too feel free to comment your thoughts on the lil series this became. Be sure to follow if you like my content and stay safe <3 Tag List - @somsomishy THIS IS SO LATE BUT I FORGOT TO TAG YOU SO SORRY @hsxhype

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averagewriter-inthedark · 2 years

Text

Infinity War I 🔥 | Dark Phoenix Series P.1

takes place during A:IW

Series Masterlist | Marvel Masterlist

Characters & Pairings: Dr. Evelyn Alice Stark (OC)/Host of the Phoenix Force, Wanda Maximoff/The Scarlet Witch (platonic), Steve Rogers/ Captain America (platonic) Doctor Stephen Strange (implied romance), Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier (implied romance), Tony Stark (platonic/Newphew), Howard Stark (Platonic/brother), a lot of the marvel characters will be involved in this series.

Content Warnings: profanity, near death experience, slight canon divergence, angst, violence. | Female OC (she/her) | word count: 5k roughly

Premise: Two years after the Avengers were drawn apart due to the events of the superhero Civil War, Dr. Evelyn ‘Eve’ Stark finds herself struggling with the amount of pressure the world has put on her. Though she has the help of her nephew, Tony, Eve still fears of potential future threats. And when a glowing orange ring appears in her bedroom with a strange man telling her to go with him, Eve realizes her fears are about to become reality.

Note: So the way I have these chapters set will make them very long heads up. Which is why they may take a few days—maybe even a week to come out. This chapter is basically the first half of Infinity War (Tony’s scenes) and then in part two it will be the second half. That’s where the Phoenix Force will come in for what I have planned because like in the comics, the host of the Phoenix Force absorbs it so that is what I have planned for Eve. Make sure to let me know if you wanna be tagged in the tag list for notifications on chapters. And hopefully I don’t get shadow banned anytime soon. The past three months I was and it was a pain.

———————————-

2018

“Did you know?” Three words. Three words was all it took to shatter one’s world. To snap the already thin tightrope. While the truth was already in the air, the confession was needed. Her hand was clutching the nape of his suit, fingers trembling as the numbness already began to fill her.

“I didn’t know it was him.” Her hand tightened at the lie.

“Look me in the eyes, Steve Rogers,” the crack in her tone could not be hidden. “After everything—everything I have done for you, you don’t get to bullshit me now. Did. You Know?”

Steve could no longer stray away from the truth. Staring into Evelyn Stark’s eyes, his best friend since 1942, he muttered the one word that would shred the final bit of trust she ever had in him. “Yes.”

The endless nightmare rolled on like it always did. The feeling of disbelief and betrayal, before fury as Eve hurdles her fist across Steves face while Tony preoccupies himself with Bucky. The 2v2 battle is brutal and bloody. Three super soldier—each equipped with their specialty: A vibranium shield, a steel metal arm, carbon fiber wings, and a man with a billion dollar suit.

“How could you!?” Eve’s voice carried through the facility, throwing everything she got at the man as he countered each attack. “After everything—a-after all we’ve been through—THAT I’VE DONE FOR YOU STEVE—-.”

“Eve please—.”

“I TRUSTED YOU!!!”

Emotion took over logic—no room for peace and surly no room for forgiveness.

Any excuse or explanation was out of the picture for Steve. Neither Tony nor Eve would hear it. To them, all they saw was a man who kept the truth of what happened to their family hidden for two years.

“He’s my friend.”

“So were we.”

The vision always ended the same. It flashed quickly giving no time to see what preceded or followed. First a bright light as Tony’s arc blasted Bucky’s arm off. Then Steve on top of Eve as he wrenched the wings from the pack. And finally Eve shooting a bullet into Steves side before he could bring the shield down once more on Tony.

Eve awoke with a choked gasp, moisture coating her forehead and immediately reached for the glass of water on her nightstand to quench the feeling of her dry throat. After taking a few sips, she let out a sigh while wiping away the sweat before placing the glass back on the stand.

Two years. Two years and the same nightmare took over Eve’s mind each time she slept. Then the days followed the same routine which involved barely eating while trying to keep the peace between the government and the world. Ross was like a flea, always checking in and making sure none of the remaining Avengers were stepping out of place.

Like they even would if they could. The threat of life in prison was enough for them to stay behind the line the U.N drew and not even think about crossing.

Although that didn’t stop Tony from mentoring the kid vigilante known as Spider-Man. And when Tony does something, usually Eve is there to clean up the mess if need be. But the scientist would be lying if she said she didn’t have a soft spot for the boy—despite the chaos he’s caused in New York the past year.

“Ms. Stark?” H.O.W.I.E, her A.I system’s voice rang out causing Eve to sit up straight with a ‘yes?’ “Tony is on the line asking for you. Shall I patch him through?”

Throwing the covers off, Eve picks up the earpiece on the nightstand as she makes her way to the closet. “Yeah put him through.” The moment the earpiece is inserted, Eve hears Tony’s voice through the com.

“Are you decent?” She makes a face although he can’t see her.

“I literally just woke up Tony, I’m still in my night clothes—what is it?”

“How fast can you get dressed?”

The woman scoffs, pulling down a random Henley shirt with pair of black jeans. “That depends. Are you going to tell me why the hell you need me to rush?” She could hear arguing in the background, voices she couldn’t recognize. “Who are you with?”

“Some wizards and Banner.” Her hands freeze while pulling the jeans up her legs.

“Come again? Did you just say ‘some wizards and Banner?’ Bruce Banner?”

“Yes the one and only,” Tony sighs in her ear. As Eve secures her belt before removing her nightshirt to put on her bra and Henley, she hears a voice on the other end say to Tony, ‘we don’t have any more time to wait.’ “Just one more minute—Eve I need you to double time before this wizard ends up making an unexpected visit.”

The clip of her bra snaps into place, “What the hell do you—.”

“That’s it, time’s up,” the other voice cuts in just as Eve begins to hear a strange noise coming from her bedroom. On the com she heard Tony shouting, “no-no-no, wait-wait!” Eve throws open the door, Henley in hand only to drop it as a gasp escapes when she spots a bright glowing orange ring in the middle of her bedroom. A man in a blue tunic and red cloak steps through, eyes going wide and spinning around with a ‘ah!’

“I told you she was getting dressed!” Tony yells causing Eve to spot him in the room behind the ring with his hand up to cover his eyes. That’s when she notices Bruce Banner in the flesh beside Tony, also with his hand up and blush coating his cheeks. Another man, dressed in a tunic like the cloaked man, turned around with his back toward her.

“Who the fuck are you!?” Eve screams, reaching down for the shirt and pulling it over her head in a hurry. “Ever heard of knocking?” She turns back to the closet to retrieve her leather jacket and boots, returning to the room to put them on. “You can turn around now.” All four men do so, the one in the clock visibly red with embarrassment and refusing to make eye contact with the Avenger.

“I’m sorry,” he breaths out, but Eve waves a hand with a roll of the eyes.

“Don’t worry about it, wizard,” she rises from the bed to take her wrist cuffs from the opposite nightstand, securing them on before walking up to the man. “Shall we then,” her hand gestures to the glowing ring. ‘Whatever this is must be important—otherwise you would have magically teleported her in a hurry.” The unknown man raises a hand, gesturing to Eve through the portal in an ‘after you.’

The moment the two enter, the portal closes causing her to jump back. “To think some things still surprise me,” she mutters, adjusting her jacket. When she turns back, the first person she makes eye contact with is Bruce. “Lord have mercy,” Eve breaths out, moving to the man and embracing him in a hug that he returns immediately. “Where the hell have you been?”

“It’s a long story—.”

“And one we don’t have time for,” the cloaked man interrupts, moving past the two to the middle of the room. Eve sends daggers into his back, glancing briefly at Bruce as if to say ‘we’ll continue this later,’ which he nods back in agreement. Eve then looks at Tony for answered, but he just shrugs back. That’s when she sees the giant hole in the staircase and raises a brow, “What in the hell?”

They all look to the man waiting for him to begin. “My name is Doctor Stephen Strange. This is Wong,” he motions to the other man in a tunic, who bows to them in greeting. The name sparks familiarity in Eve.

“You’re Stephen Strange?” She asks, stepping forward. “The neurosurgeon Doctor Stephen Strange?” This makes Stephen look taken aback.

“You know me?”

“Yeah,” she scoffs, nearly glaring at him. “I do. When our friend, Colonel James Rhodes, became paralyzed I hoped you would look at his case. You refused before seeing it.” Stephen clenches his jaw, glancing at the ground briefly.

“Yeah well, I’m no longer equipped for the field. And as you can see,” he gestures to the room around them, “this in the New York Sanctum Santorum of the Masters of Mystic Arts. Your friend, Dr. Banner here, happened to crash land through our roof this morning with some vital information of an impeding threat heading our way.”

“Impending threat?” Eve’s ears perk up, momentarily forgetting about the animosity she had for the former doctor.

“What do you know of the infinity stones?”

The two Starks share a look, neither finding the name familiar. “Never heard of them.”

“Oh you have,” Stephen says causing Eve to tilt her head. He continues before she could say anything, “You’re actually quite familiar with a couple of them. Wong.” All eyes go to the man standing on the opposite side. His hands were behind his back as he moved closer.

“In the dawn of the universe, there was nothing,” Wong thrusted a hand and out shined an image resembling a Big Bang, “then boom. Big Bang sent six elemental crystals hurdling across the virgin universe. These infinity stones each control an essential aspect of existence.” Eve’s breath catches in her throat when she sees the colors of the gems, realizing Stephen was right about her being familiar with some.

“Space,” Stephen calls out as the blue stone shines, followed by the red, “Reality. Power. Soul. Mind. And Time.” Bringing his hands in front of his chest, the symbol pendant opens to show a glowing green stone in its possession.

Eve and Tony share a look ridden with unease, Eve’s hand coming up to her chin as Tony says, “tell me his name again.”

“Thanos,” Bruce answers, approaching the two. “He’s a plague, Tony. He invades planets, he takes what he wants—he wipes out half of the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York—that’s him.”

“This is him,” Tony whispered to himself while Eve closed her eyes as the hand covering her mouth began to tremble. “What’s our timeline?”

“No telling. He has the power and space stones—that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six stones, Tony,—.”

Stephen finishes the sentence, “He could destroy life on a scale hither to undreamt of.”

“Did you seriously just say ‘hither to undreamt of’?”

“Are you seriously leaning on the cauldron of the cosmos?”

“Is that what it is—?” The billionaire is cut off when the cloak around Stephen smacks his shoulder causing Tony to jump back. Offense takes over his face, “I’m going to allow that. If Thanos needs all six why don’t we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?” Even Eve has to face palm at the idea.

“That’s not how it works, Tony.”

“No can do,” Stephen agrees.

“We swore an oath to protect the time stone with our lives,” Wong looks at Tony like he’s mad for suggesting such a thing.

“And I swore off dairy—,” Tony interjects, “but then Ben n Jerry’s named a flavor after me, so?”

“Stark Raving Hazelnut,” Stephen looks down with an unimpressed tone.”

“It’s not bad.”

“a bit chalky.” Eve stifles a giggle, trying to hide her smirk at Tony’s offended expression when Wong adds, “A hunka-hulka burning fudge is our favorite.”

“That’s a thing?”

“Also Eagle Eve’s toffee crunch,” Stephen points out causing Eve to lightly blush when they make eye contact.

“Whatever. Point is, things change,” Tony cuts in annoyed.

“Our oath to protect the time stone cannot change,” Stephens eyes narrows. “This stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos.”

“Yeah so conversely, may be his best chance against us.”

“So if we don’t do our jobs—.”

“What is your job exactly, besides making balloon animals?”

“Tony,” Eve snaps, but he ignores her and continues his stare of with Stephen.

“Protecting your reality, douchebag.”

“Okay guys,” by now Bruce has had enough with the two, moving forward to grab their attention. “Could-could we table this discussion right now? The fact is, is that we have this stone—we know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the mind stone and we have to find him now.”

Eve drops her shoulders with defeat as Tony looks down. Neither of them want to break it to Bruce about all that happened in the past two years he was missing, but it was inevitable. “Yeah, that’s the thing….”

“What do you mean?” Bruce looks between the two.

“Two weeks ago Vision turned off his transponder,” Eve tells him, scratching the back of her neck. “He’s offline.”

“What?!” He turns to Tony, seeing the confirmation of the billionaires face. “Tony, you lost another super bot?”

“I didn’t lose him, he’s more than that!” He defends. “He’s evolving.” Stephen steps around behind him asking, “who could find Vision then?” The question once again has the Starks glance at one another. Eve shakes her head, already refusing the idea despite knowing it was the only chance they had.

Only one man on the planet could locate Vision. And it was the last person she ever wanted to see.

“Probably Steve Rogers,” Tony finally answers and Eve turns away to avoid the inevitable discussion about to happen. The Sorcerers, knowing what took place in 2016 with Avengers, curse under their breath. “Maybe.”

Bruce, oblivious to the tension, walks up to Tony. “Call him.”

“It’s not that easy. God, we haven’t caught up in a spell have we?” Tony moves closer to the scientist, looking to see Eve has moved further away to stare at the walls of the room. “The Avengers broke up. We’re toast.”

“Broke up?” Bruce tilts his head. “Like a band? Like-like The Beatles?” If it wasn’t such a sore topic, Eve would’ve laughed at Bruce’s analogy.

“Cap and I fell out hard,” Tony looks away before adding, “Him and Eve even harder. We’re not on speaking terms.”

On any other day, Bruce would sympathize and understand the situation for the Starks. He wouldn’t expect them to drop everything and call Steve right away if they weren’t ready.

But today was not like any other day.

Time was not on their side. Thanos loomed over the horizon and was on the move. They had no way to know if he already possessed the two other stones in space or if Thor made it out alive. If they didn’t work now then the fate of the universe would be forever altered. “Tony, listen to me,” Bruce takes a step forward, voice going low to emphasize the message. “Thor’s gone. Thanos is coming it doesn’t matter who you’re talking to or not.”

“He’s right,” Eve finally says after being silent for so long. The whole time she was thinking, wondering if she could come up with a plan to track Vision instead of calling Steve. But with time at an essence and not knowing what Thanos’s next move was they needed to act quick. They all turn to her, watching her bring her arms to chest as she slowly moves back to face them. “He’s right, Tony. Believe me the last thing I want is to see Steve, but we need to act fast and if Vision is with Wanda then chances are Steve knows where they are. He can get to them faster than us.”

It goes quiet. Tony thinks for a moment before eventually sighing, stepping away to remove a small flip phone from his pocket. Flipping it open, Tony locates the only number listed on the contacts, ‘Steve Rogers,’ with the digits right below. As his thumb hovers over the call button, his attention is drawn up at a sudden sound.

Eve unfolds her arms, glancing around as it reaches her ears. It was almost like the wind, more so like a plane, but devious. It sounded a far yet drawing closer—closer with each second.

When Eve turns back to face the group of men, that’s when her attention catches Stephens. And she notices the loose strands of his hair moving side to side. “You wouldn’t happen to be moving your hair would you, Stephen?”

His hair moves faster, “not at the moment. No.”

Eve gulps, glancing up to the hole in the ceiling, “I think someone found us.” They all follow her gaze, the flicker of paper and leaves moving rapidly in the sky as the sound grows louder. Slowly, they face the door.

Silhouettes of people running on the streets skid past the stained glass. Muffled shouts of distress are heard as they approach the door, Tony leading the way and he opens it to reveal the scene before them. There’s dust in the air making it hard to see, frantic pedestrians running down the streets.

Tony heads toward the direction they are running from. As they rush past him a young lady trips, falling to the ground and he rushes to help her up. “Are you okay?” She shrieks in response, pushing him away to run. Eve feels her nerves heighten as she watches after her, gasping when a car collides with the street pole right next to her. “Help him!”

“Go, go!” Bruce waves to him as he and Wong assist the man. “We got it.” Tony quickly removes his glasses from his pocket to place them on, “F.R.I.D.A.Y, what am I looking at?” “Not sure, I’m working on it.” Tony glances back at Strange, “Hey! You might wanna put that time stone in your back pocket, doc!”

Stephen waves his hands and orange rings encase his wrists, “Might want to use it.”

Eve taps the com in her ear, “H.O.W.I.E, call for an emergency evacuation in the three mile vicinity around Bleeker Street and have emergency services en route.” “I’m on it, boss. Stand by.” Picking up the pace Eve moves beside Tony, the two walking across the street to see the source of the chaos unfolding in New York. “Is that a flying donut?”

It sure as hell looked like it. The large red spaceship was circular with a gaping hole in the middle. As it lowered down onto the city, dust gathered in the air and sent paper flying.

The five moved directly in the middle of the intersection so they were head on with the spaceship. Tony relayed the same info to F.R.I.D.A.Y that Eve said early while Strange began doing some movements with this hands. When he thrusted him forward, the dust flew back until it disparate beyond the ship, making it visibly clear to the eye.

Taken aback, Tony looked to Strange only to receive a cocky wink from the sorcerer. He rolled his eyes, missing the smirk was trying to fight, and turned back just in time to see a blue light cast down from the ship. When it touched the ground, two figures were standing in it’s wake.

“Here me,” the shorter one, Ebony Maw, called out. “And rejoice, you are about to die at the hands of the children of Thanos.” Eve felt her jaw clench, eyes narrowing as the man went on. “Be thankful that your meaningless lives are now contributing to—.”

“I’m sorry! Earth is closed today,” Tony interrupted the speech, making everyone look at him. “You better pack it up, and get out of here.”

“Stone keeper,” Maw addressed Stephen, who raised a brow in return. “Does this chattering animal speak for you?”

“Certainly not, I speak for myself” he stepped forward, clapping his hands together to form shields. “You’re trespassing in this city and on this planet.” Wong repeated the action, forming his own shields.

“That means get lost Squidward!”

“He exhausts me,” Maw sighed to his companion, Cull Obsidian, who grunted. “Bring me the stone.” Cull grips his weapon and begins moving toward the group.

Eve straightens, reading to tap her bracelets to unleash her suit when Tony says to Bruce, “Banner, you want a piece?” Sweating, Bruce fumbles with his blazer, “mmm, no. Not really. But then again when do I ever really get what I want.”

“Been awhile,” Tony cranks his neck, not seeing how Bruce was beginning to struggle transforming to Hulk. “Good to have you buddy.”

Eve glances to Bruce, wondering what was taking so long and sees the green veins poking out, but not taking full control. “Bruce you okay?” She realizes Hulk isn’t wanting to come out and becomes concerned.

“I have to concentrate one second.” Meanwhile Cull is inching closer to them, looking menacing as ever. Bruce bends his knees, trying to will Hulk out but failing all the less.

“Where’s your guy?”

“I don’t know—we’re sorta having a thing,” he sighs.

“There’s no time for a thing,” Tony pats his chest and points to Cull. “That’s the thing right there—let’s go.” Bruce leans back, green taking over his neck and groans out while leaning back. Stephen, Tony, and Eve all share a look—Stephen not looking impressed at all. “Dude you’re embarrassing us in front of the wizards.”

“I’m sorry—I can’t—or he won’t.”

Tony places his hands on Bruce’s shoulders, drawing him back a few steps beside Wong. “Okay, stand down. Keep an eye on him. Thank you.” He moves back to Eve, the two connecting eyes, “You ready?”

“When am I not?” She zips up her jacket while he tightens his just as Cull begins to run toward them. Eve taps twice on each bracelet, while Tony taps his chest, and together they unveil their new and improved suits. Golden armor runs up Eve’s arms until it’s around her whole body—wing pack and helmet to form the Iron Eagle.

It was the first time she was using the suit after completing it with Tony, so Eve prayed it did it’s job.

Tony’s Mark L fully took over just in time for Cull to bring down his hammer like weapon. Thrusting a shield out, he deflected the attack and sent Cull flying with his energy blasters. Maw then waved a hand to direct Cull into a car before he could hit him.

“Were’d that come from?” Bruce said in amazement, glancing at Eve’s golden form as well.

“It’s nanotech. You like it? A little something—,” Tony went airborne as Maw raised his hand upward, causing Eve to shout, “Tony!”Maw then three two trees at the four and Wong stepped forward while circling his hand to deflect.

“Dr. Banner, since the rest of your green friend won’t be joining us,” Stephen opened a portal beneath Bruce to the nearby park. Bruce shouted in surprise, grunting when he landed on the ground only to move quickly so he wouldn’t get crushed by the taxi that also fell through.

Together Wong and Strange used their magic to bring a car toward them, which Eve then used the blaster under hand to send it flying back towards Maw—who only lifted a finger to cut the vehicle in half. Tony landed beside Eve, letting out a frustrated huff. “You gotta get that stone out of here, now.”

“It stays with me,” Stephen says annoyed for the fifth time.

“Exactly. Bye!” Eve unleashes her wings and the two fly toward Maw, weaving through debris he sends their way. What they didn’t expect was Cull to fling his hammerhead. It trapped Tony and with Eve distracted Maw threw her into the nearby building, the glass shattering as she went through a window.

For Tony, he collides with a tree a the park, the park Bruce just so happened to be at. “Tony! You okay? How we doing—good?”

“Really-really good. Are you planning on helping out?”

“I’m trying. He won’t come out.” Cull breaks through the building across with a grunt, flinging his hammerhead again. Tony pushes Bruce out of the way and into the grass before flying back to Cull. He sends an energy beam, but Cull holds a shield causing it to hit a tree which nearly falls on Bruce.

The two circle each other, Tony blasting Cull until he’s thrown to the ground. He’s pursued by Cull, who raises his weapon to bring down on Tony only to stop midair. “Hey man,” a voice greets, clad in a red and blue suit holding back the metal from hitting Tony. “What’s up, Mr. Stark?”

“Kid, where’d you come from?” He asks Peter.

“A field trip—ahh!” Peter is cut off when Cull yanks him away. Eve shows up in the nick of time to catch the vigilante before he could smack the ground. “Oh hey, Miss. Eve!”

“Hey, kid,” She greets, setting him down. “You shouldn’t be here,” she then flies off before he could protest. Peter huffs, flinging out webs to assist the heroes, “Uh what is this guys problem, Mr. Stark?”

“Uh he’s from space. He came here to steal a necklace from a wizard.” Eve rolled her eyes beneath her mask, sending blasts to Cull while flying high to dodge his attacks. Peter goes for a shot only to get in Culls hold once more and tossed to the side. Together, the three go neck and neck with Cull. At some point Peter flutings the half taxi cab at Cull to knock him down and Eve sticks her feet out to send him flying across the grass.

A few moments later a figure skids past them. “Kid, that’s the wizard. Get on it.”

“I’m on it!“ Peter swings off with a shout. Distracted, Eve grunts when Cull wacks her full on with the hammer. The impact has her skidding several yards away and she quickly recovers to her feet.

“Uh, Mr. Stark, I’m being beamed up!” Eve curses to herself when she hears Peter’s frantic voice.

“Hang on kid,” Tony says as he fights Cull. “Eve, go!” Wings at the ready, Eve takes to the skies. Already the flying donut is airborne and moving fast towards the atmosphere.

“H.O.W.I.E, I need more power,” she says and the thrusters on her wings and feet extended before firing her up. The new suit was equipped to make her travel as fast as an F-18, faster than Sam’s wing pack and even Tony’s suit. Now Eve was reaching full speed and Tony was not too far behind her.

“unlock seventeen-A,” he said to F.R.I.D.A.Y. Knowing what it entailed, Eve looked to her right in the direction of the Avengers compound. A little trail of smoke pin pointed the object in question. “Pete, you gotta let go. I’m gonna catch you.”

“But you said save the wizard!” The boy removed his mask, “ugh I can’t breath.”

“We’re too high up, kid,” Eve tells him, the distance between her and the ship closing rapidly. “You’re running out of air. You need to let go now.”

“Oh yeah,” she heard him pant. “That makes sense.” His body fell back in time for 17-A to fly past Eve, hitting his back to allow the nanotech to unveil. Before he could collide with the ship and fall, Eve caught him in her arms. “Woah!” He shouted when she set him down. “Mr. Stark, it smells like a new car in here!”

“Happy trails, kid,” Tony came up from the side. “F.R.I.D.A.Y, send him home.” “Yep.” Before Peter could react, a parachute deployed from his back and he was off the ground, “Oh come on!” Eve shook her head, sighing as she flew up to Tony. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t relieved the boy was gone—this was far beyond Peter and she wanted him safe.

“Kid’s got heart and guts,” she held her wrist up to the wall of the ship, “I’ll give him that.” A beam hit the surface, Eve moving her wrist in a rectangular shape until it gave way and allowed an opening for the two.

Tony entered first just as F.R.I.D.A.Y said, “Boss, incoming call from Ms. Potts,” before Peppers voice filled his ears. “Tony? Oh my God, are you alright? What’s going on?” “Yeah Im fine,” he tells her, “I just think we’re going to have to push our eight-thirty res.” “Why?” “Just cause I’ll probably not make it back for awhile.”

Eve lets her helmet retract, frowning as she listens in to the conversation. “Tell me you’re not on that ship.” Tony’s helmet also retracts, his expression full of distress and regret. “Yeah.” “God—no, please tell me you’re not—.” “I’m sorry. I’m sorry—I don’t understand—.” “Come back, Tony! I swear to God.”

Pepper continues to plead to Tony, but the reception begins to give out as they draw further away from Earth. “Boss, we’re loosing her.” Eve glances to the ground, unable to see the pain in her nephews face. The call eventually cuts out, and Tony is left standing still. It’s silent between the two for a moment. “I’m sorry, Tony.”

There was nothing they could currently do. They were on a spaceship going God knows where and the only person they were aware on it were Maw and Strange. A jolt forward, nearly sending them to the ground, confirmed their suspicious they were now far away from Earth. They had to have been traveling faster than the speed of light.

“We need to find the wizard,” Tony leans against the wall when it’s finally stable again. “Then go from there.”

“Agreed,” Eve nods and the two make their way to the nearest exit. “You think he’ll break? Give up the stone?” She asks when they find a door leading to a platform.

“The wizard?” Tony scoffs, “not a chance. He wouldn’t even leave the stone some place safe. I doubt magic squidward’s gonna crack him.”

“Let’s hope not,” she sighs following behind him closely. They walk for a few minutes, climbing up platforms and railings until they finally reach an open area. It doesn’t take long for them to figure out it’s the heart of the ship. There’s a large screen-like projection taking up wall to floor and Tony leans over the edge to find Strange trapped in some needles while Maw looks on.

“Found them,” he mutters to Eve, who glances over to see the scene below. Neither notice the familiar red cloak sneak behind them until it pats Tony on the shoulder. Instantly, Tony raises his hand ready to send the threat blasting. When he realizes it’s the cloak he relaxes, “Wow, you are a seriously loyal piece of outerwear aren’t you.”

“Yeah speaking of loyalty….” Eve’s eyes nearly pop out of her head when she sees Peter hanging upside down. Tony matches her expression, “What the—.”

“I know what you’re going to say—.”

“You should not be here.” Eve cuts in angrily, before Peter begins to ramble.

“I was gonna go home—.” “I don’t want to hear it.” “—but it was such a long way down and I just thought about you two and—.” “And now I gotta hear it.” “—I got stuck to the side of the ship— and this suit…is ridiculously intuitive by the way so if anything it’s kinda your fault I’m here.”

Tony’s eyes brows go straight to his hairline, “What did you just say.” Even the cloak was shook, glancing between the two. Peter starts to stutter, his cheeks going red from his mess up, “I-I-I I take that back. And now I’m here in space.”

“Yeah,” Tony agrees, moving toward him. “Right where I didn’t want you to be. This isn’t Coney Island or some field trip—this is a one way ticket. You hear me? Don’t pretend you thought this through.”

“I did think this through,” he defends. “I did think this through! You can’t be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man if there’s no neighborhood.” Eve wanted to facepalm at Peter’s naiveness, but decided against it. The kid was there and with now way to get him home, he was stuck with them whether they liked it or not. “Okay that doesn’t really make sense, but you know what I’m trying to say.”

The stress on Tony’s face spoke a thousand words. Eventually he just gives up. “C’mon we got a situation.” Tony points over the edge to where Maw currently has Strange trapped. “See him down there? He’s in trouble, what’s your plan? Go.” Eve crosses her arms, moving to stand on Peter’s right as he crouches down to get a better look.

“Umm,” he hums, “Okay-okay umm.” Another second ticks by before he stands up. “Okay, ever see this really old movie, ‘Aliens’?”

“‘Aliens’?” Eve repeats with concern, seeing the look on Tony’s face. She wasn’t really keen on trusting the kid if his plan was based off a movie. Especially one she hasn’t seen. “Tony, you trust this?”

The man thinks for a moment shrugging, “He hasn’t failed me yet.” For a few minutes, they work together on who does what until they finally set it in motion. Tony flies directly above and behind Maw, which accordingly catches Strange’s attention and therefore causes Maw to turn around. It gives Peter, the cloak, and Eve time to get in position.

“I could end your friend’s life in an instant,” the alien threatens.

“I gotta tell you he’s not really my friend. Saving his life is more of a professional curtesy.” Eve rolls her eyes at Tony’s words but finds no surprise in them.

“You save nothing. Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine.”

“Yeah, but the kid’s seen more movies.” With that a rocket launches from the side, catching Maw off guard as it blasts a hole into the ships wall. The winds vortex pulls him in into the cold, dark world that is outer space and Strange also finds himself being pulled. The cloak catches his hand first, but the wind is too powerful and loses his grasp.

“I got him!” Eve springs into action, her wings ejecting out as she falls off the platform. Her hands wrap around Stephen tightly, colliding into him from the side so they’re not pulled into the vortex. She flies them away from the hole so Tony could seal it and sets Stephen gently down on the platform by the controls.

“Thanks,” he says to her with a huff, feeling a little dazed from what just happened. She gives him a nod, “No problem, doc. Glad to see you still have the gem causing all the trouble.” She walks away before he could answer, missing how the man watches her and focuses her attention on the large screen.

“Hey, we never officially met,” Peter drops down beside the cloak, extending a hand. The relic ignores him, moving toward Stephen and Peter drops his hand. “Cool.”

Tony lands on the platform, passing Stephen as he retracts his suit. Eve does the same by tapping her bracelets, letting the golden armor disappear. “We gotta turn this ship around,” Stephen says as Tony walks up to Eve, moving past to get a good look at what they were dealing with.

The billionaire scoffs, “Yeah. Now he wants to run. Great.”

“I want to protect the stone,” Stephen argues, but Tony isn’t having it.

“And I want you to thank me now. Go ahead I’m listening.”

“For what? Nearly blasting me into space?”

Tony spins around so fast, Eve has to step back. “Who just saved your magical ass? Me.”

“I seriously don’t know how you fit your head into that helmet.”

“Neither do I sometimes,” Eve mutters, turning away to not deal with the two going at it again.

“Admit it,” Tony continues, either not hearing his aunt or downright ignoring her. “You should’ve dubbed out when I told you to. I tried to bench you and you refused.”

“Unlike everyone else in your life, I don’t work for you,” Stephens rebuttals has Eve turning around, offense in her expression.

“Excuse me?”

Stephen raises an apologetic hand, “Okay except you—I know that.” She huffs, crossing her arms. ‘Damn right he better take that back,’ she thinks to herself.

“And due to that fact,” Tony get’s their attention once more. “We’re now on a flying donut, billions of miles from Earth with no backup.”

“I’m backup,” Peter offers, which has the Starks immediate refusal.

“No, you’re a stowaway,” Tony motions a finger between him, Strange and Eve. “The adults are talking.”

“I-I’m sorry, I’m confused as is to the relationship here. Wh-what is he? Is he your ward?” Eve couldn’t help but laugh at the assumption, “That’s a new one.”

“No,” Peter answered and goes to introduce himself. “I’m Peter, by the way.”

“Doctor Strange.”

“Oh you’re using your made up names. Um, i’m Spider-Man then.” The look on Stephen’s face nearly sent Eve into hysterics if the situation wasn’t so serious. The man looked so offended, she wondered what was going on in his head. Eventually he just walks away from the boy.

“This ship is self correcting it’s course,” Eve voices to the group. “It’s on autopilot.”

“Can we control it?” He asks. “Fly us home?”

“It’s possible…..” Eve starts and eventually trails off when she notices Tony’s expression. It’s a look she’s seen all too well. A look when he’s planning something. “What are you thinking, Tony?” The sorcerer follows her gaze at the question, noticing Tony had been quiet for awhile.

“Stark,” Stephen snaps him out of his thoughts. “Can you get us home?”

“Yeah I heard you,” his hands cross in front of him, brows furrowing as he thinks. “I think I’m not so sure we should.” Stephen’s refusal is eminent.

“Under no circumstances can we bring the time stone to Thanos. I don’t thin you quite understand what’s at stake here.”

“No—,” Tony walks up to him, clenching his fist. “It’s you, who doesn’t understand that Thanos has been inside my head for six years since he sent an army to New York and now he’s back! And I don’t know what to do. So I’m not so sure if it’s a better plan to fight him on our turf or his, but you saw what they did-what they can do. At least on his turf he’s not expecting it. So I say, we take the fight to him, doctor.”

Eve, having been silent to let Tony make his point, strokes her jaw lightly. It was a good plan. Thanos would think the ship being there was Maw with the stone as he planned, but having them there would catch the Titan off guard. “We don’t have many options here boys. At frankly I’m tired of watching you two compete on who has the biggest ego. Time isn’t on our side and I’m gonna have to agree with Tony on this one. Going to wherever this ship is heading is our best bet—and if we’re lucky, maybe we can buy time before Thanos gets more stones.”

Tony holds back a smirk, feeling triumph that his aunt agrees with him. Which is something she rarely does nowadays after the Ultron fiasco. “So, do we concur?”

“Alright, Stark,” Stephen finally says. “We go to him. But you have to understand if it comes to saving you two or the kid, or the time stone, I will not hesitate to let any of you die.” Though not surprising, it still makes the Starks clench their jaws. “I can’t because the universe depends on it.”

“Nice,” Tony pats his shoulder. “Good, moral compass. We’re straight.” He walks away, trying not to let his emotion show. Both Tony and Eve accepted this was a one-way trip, but hearing Strange say it puts it into perspective.

As he looks on after Tony, Stephen ends up connecting eyes with Eve. The super-soldier appeared stoic, doing her best to not look affected like Tony, but Stephen could pick up on her distress. Something in his chest tightens at the way her chocolate eyes stare back at him. They were piercing into his soul and part of him regretted how he spoke earlier about not hesitating to sacrifice her. She quickly looked away, pushing off the consul she was leaning against to turn her back on the sorcerer in time to see Tony approach Peter.

“Kid,” Tony says when he stands before him. The boy perks up, watching Tony’s arm go up to make the shape of an ‘A’ across the boys chest. “You’re an Avenger now.”

All Evelyn Stark could do now was hope and pray the mission goes as planned. Get to wherever it was the ship was going, have Thanos find them and defeat him before any more stones could be collected. Earth was far from their grasp, their only hope being the remaining heroes that assembled.

The fate of the universe was in their hands.

And chaos is sure to follow if the odds don’t fall in their favor.

…………………………….

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ashirisu · 1 year

Text

The Worst Part of It All

“Baz,” she whispered when she saw him. “Darling, run. Please." Baz didn’t move. He counted five Drow in the room with them, each with a long and menacing dagger at their belt and a crossbow slung across their back. He himself was at perhaps the least threatening he’d ever been in his life—barefoot, shirtless, confused, and still somewhat sleep-disoriented—and he was desperately searching for a way to turn the odds in his favor. “Baz,” his mother said again, stronger this time. “This isn’t a fight you’ll win. Run to the town, get everyone to safety. Leave me here.” genre: fantasy | word count: 2852 cw: violence, blood, death, painful magic

It was two hours past midnight, and the gentle midwinter frost that had formed across the estate grounds found itself abruptly shattered in the wake of Baz’s footsteps as he jogged through the grass. The chill air stung the cracks in his knuckles and the split on his lip, which burst anew with a coppery pain every time he worried it with his tongue.

He kept to the shadows as he approached the manor, ducking off the main road to avoid the lit windows of the main hall and slip in through the servants’ entrance. He was, of course, perfectly entitled to walk through the front doors, but he didn’t particularly fancy trying to explain his bloody, disheveled appearance to Miss Kelly at this time of night. She’d only fret more than she needed to, which would get him into more trouble than he perhaps needed to be in.

The back entrance was blessedly deserted, and he was able to follow the steep staircase all the way to the third floor without hassle. He emerged from an unobtrusive door in the hall, shutting it behind him with a soft click. None of the staff would be up at this time of night, meaning he could easily sneak into his room and enjoy a much-needed wash before bed. Nobody would ever have to be the wiser.

“Shouldn’t you be asleep?”

Baz froze mid-step. He turned sheepishly to see his mother in her study, having not even looked up from her work to chide him. She was poring over a small stack of paperwork, writing notes as a little mechanical device dutifully recorded an exact transcription next to her. The dim candlelight reflected off her spectacles and highlighted the graying strands of hair near her temples.

Baz leaned against the doorframe as casually as he could. “I could say the same to you. You’ve told me a thousand times that working in low light is bad for your eyes.”

“The difference between you and me is that I’m your parent and can do as I please,” Ignea snorted, and turned to face him. Her eyes slid down to his bruised knuckles. “Have you been in a fight?”

“Only with a sandbag,” Baz lied quickly, folding his arms to hide the wounds. “Thought I’d work out a bit of excess energy before bed.”

Ignea raised an eyebrow, having clearly taken in the state of the rest of his face. “Amazing how far magitech has come, that we’ve seemingly developed sandbags that punch back.”

Baz balked. “Well, um, you see—”

“You know I don’t approve of these matches, Baz,” Ignea said, leaning back in her chair. “It hardly matters that they’re not real fights. It’s unbecoming of a young lord to take part in underground boxing, let alone to bet on himself.”

“It’s only unbecoming if I lose,” Baz grinned, but sobered up quickly at her expression. “Understood, ma’am. Not that it particularly matters, but I really wasn’t betting this time. This was just…to stay in practice.”

Ignea sighed fondly and beckoned him over, tugging off her writing glove so she could begin healing his cuts and scrapes. “One might argue that’s why I invest in fencing lessons for you.”

“One might argue back that fencing is boring and doesn’t mimic the flow of actual battle,” Baz said peevishly, even as her magic began to stitch the skin of his knuckles back together. “Nobody stops to neatly take a stance, and they certainly don’t back off after a successful hit.”

“They do in gentleman’s duels,” Ignea countered, moving her hands to his face, “which should be the only kind of duels you’re getting into.”

Baz sighed. “I know I have responsibilities, and I promise I’m taking them seriously. I am,” he pressed, seeing the teasing skepticism in her eyes. “This is the first match I’ve been to in months. I just had to get away from Recorded Judicial Responses to Bankruptcy Claims in Kingdom Elorspire before I threw myself out a window.”

“I suppose I can’t fault you for that. Olivara knows I’ve wanted to defenestrate myself more than once over these damnable tax laws.” She got up momentarily to fetch a small hand mirror from her bedside table and handed it to him. “There. How does that feel?”

Baz inspected his face. His mother’s magic had sealed the cuts on his eyebrows, reduced the swelling in his nose, and completely faded the blossoming black eye he’d been sporting. All that remained was the cut on his lip, and he looked up at her curiously.

“That has to heal on its own,” Ignea said with gentle sternness. “Consider it the consequences of sneaking off in the middle of the night.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She kissed his hair. “Go to bed, dear. We’ll review the proportional tax system of County Sellius after breakfast tomorrow. That should get you sufficiently angry for your next fight when you inevitably do this again.”

———

Baz woke with a start some time later, with no concept of what had woken him or how long he’d been asleep. The air felt charged somehow, heavy with something he couldn’t quite name until a second explosion—he was sure it was a second one, now—shook the silence and the foundations of the house.

Bewildered and alarmed, he tugged on a pair of trousers and ran into the hall. There were no south-facing windows in this part of the manor, nothing that would give him a substantial view of the town below, and he had to rush to the second-floor landing just for a glimpse.

The darkness meant that he could hardly see beyond the estate grounds, but the fiery glow stretching out in the distance was enough to send a paralytic jolt through his spine. The stars, normally brightly visible above the barony, were blacked out with an acrid-smelling smoke that Baz immediately registered as a problem with the smeltery. His first thought was a malfunction with the machinery, but the system had been so carefully designed and maintained over the years—surely they would have seen signs of a problem before now?

A commotion of breaking glass and splintering wood sounded from downstairs, but before Baz could move to investigate it, he was interrupted by a shriek on the third floor.

His mother’s shriek. His mother’s shriek.

Baz turned on his heel, stumbling in his haste to get back up the stairs. The servants’ door he’d snuck through just a few hours ago stood ajar, broken at the edge from being kicked down from the inside. His heart leapt into his throat and he raced down the hall into his mother’s study, skidding to a stop just inside the door.

This wasn’t right—it couldn’t be. The conflict in Elorspire was still ongoing, of course, but Ignea had declared the Basalt barony neutral ground years ago. She’d been a vocal proponent of peace. This was the last place the Drow should be attacking. She was the last person they should be attacking. Yet here they were, standing in a small group around her, turning in surprise at Baz’s disruption. For a brief and unending moment, nobody moved or said anything.

Baz’s eyes darted to his mother, who was curled on the ground as though she’d been thrown down with unnecessary force. The collar on her nightdress was ripped and her hair had come partly undone from its braid, which somehow struck him as the most dooming and terrifying detail of the whole picture. He’d seen Ignea Basalt exhausted, bloodied, and covered in dirt from her frequent trips to the mines—he’d never seen her discomposed.

“Baz,” she whispered when she saw him. “Darling, run. Please.”

Baz didn’t move. He counted five Drow in the room with them, each with a long and menacing dagger at their belt and a crossbow slung across their back. He himself was at perhaps the least threatening he’d ever been in his life—barefoot, shirtless, confused, and still somewhat sleep-disoriented—and he was desperately searching for a way to turn the odds in his favor.

“Baz,” his mother said again, stronger this time. “This isn’t a fight you’ll win. Run to the town, get everyone to safety. Leave me here.”

“No,” he said, and stepped back as one of the Drow moved toward him, dagger at the ready. He looked around in vain for anything he could use as a weapon, any kind of blunt object he could defend himself with. “I won’t leave you, I’m not going to—”

The Drow closest to him lunged, and Baz’s instincts kicked in. He ducked under their arm—more deftly than they seemed to expect—avoiding their attack and bringing himself further into the room. He was closer to Ignea, but now had the disadvantage of being angled between two attackers, with three more on standby.

Not ideal. He could handle being outnumbered, but his boxing matches were usually limited to two or three unarmed opponents at a time. Not five, and certainly not ones with daggers. His charging into the room had thankfully shaken them enough that they seemed to have briefly forgotten their weapons, but it was only a matter of time before things fell even more out of hand.

Line them up, his training supplied, and he obeyed. He clinched his first attacker around the neck and used his weight advantage to spin them around and line them up with a second Drow. A third approached from the side—he kicked them before kneeing his grappled victim in the solar plexus and shoving them backward into the other Drow and knocking them both to the floor.

The third Drow had recovered and ran at him again, having finally remembered the dagger sheathed at their side. Baz turned just in time to neatly avoid a slash and counter with a jab-cross, but the victory was short-lived. A slight creak and the sound of gears releasing was his only warning before a crossbow bolt tore through the skin just below his ribs. Baz yelped in pain, stumbling slightly as he reached for the wound.

The distraction was damning. He took a heavy hit to the jaw and another to the stomach, knocking him back toward the door. He blinked through tears of pain, and noticed with a twinge of helplessness that they’d all drawn their weapons. Four of the Drow moved toward him, while the fifth stood protectively over Ignea.

This couldn’t be how she fell. It just couldn’t.

Baz screamed—in what he hoped sounded like an intimidating battle cry and not the last gasp of a dying man—and rushed forward, and then three things happened in very quick succession.

One of the Drow raised their dagger, Baz dived to the side in a move he realized a moment too late would get him killed, and Ignea’s arm shot out with a blast of concussive force that knocked the Drow aside and sent Baz rocketing backward down the hallway. He hardly had time to register that he’d even moved before he was midair and already losing momentum.

He skidded across the floor, friction searing his shoulder as he slid and somersaulted and failed to regain his balance. He was back on his feet the instant he stopped moving, tripping over himself as he started to sprint back down the hallway.

“No—no, mum, no!”

It wasn’t enough. He’d only taken a few steps toward her door when the air exploded around him, and everything went dark.

———

The details he managed to collect in the following weeks painted a clear and utterly life-destroying picture. When Miss Kelly had found him concussed and covered in the ruined debris of the third floor east wing, she’d wrapped him in a crushing hug, took him downstairs to get him fed and cleaned up, and relayed the information he’d already been dreading without quite knowing it.

The first thing he learned was that the barony had undergone a rather violent bombing by the Drow. The mine had been caved in and the smeltery destroyed, leaving the center of town decimated and in flames. They’d gotten the fire under control, but the attack itself had not gone without its share of casualties. Most of the town’s residents had survived (if considerably worse for wear), but their livelihoods hadn’t.

The second thing was that the barony was now without any source of revenue. The smeltery alone was a heavy blow, but without access to the mine itself, they couldn’t even sell raw ore for profit. They were left facing the cost of hefty repair bills, medical expenses, necessary supplies, and the usual monthly tax obligations without a sustainable way of paying for it.

The third thing was that all of this was now Baz’s responsibility to deal with. Miss Kelly’s voice had broken with quiet sobs when she told him that Ignea had died in the explosion at the manor, passing the baronial title onto him and leaving him thoroughly overwhelmed, underprepared, and alone.

It had been difficult to know the worst part of it all.

But. The barony had been in shambles and desperate need of guidance, so he’d stood up with as lordly a countenance as he could muster and asked Miss Kelly what needed his most immediate attention. He’d spent the next three weeks throwing himself into hands-on repairs, which is how he found himself repairing a stretch of retaining wall that had sprung a leak and started causing additional damage to the roads.

He’d mostly ignored the advice to avoid heavy lifting through his cracked ribs—no healers or medical magitech meant he had to do his recovering the hard way, which in turn meant he now sported a rather fantastic scab on his shoulder, a slight scar from his unhealed split lip, and a handful of other shallow but still troublesome wounds sustained during the explosion—and hauling the drainage stones into place was slow-going and painful work.

Though they had yet to hear back from County Sellius regarding their request for aid, the neighboring baronies and Viscounty DuVernay had sent what material and personnel they could. His own people now gathered in small clusters around stations of food, clean water, and basic medical supplies, taking less than what he was sure they needed in between their hours of hard work. As Baz watched them from his place at the wall, a mother called over her young son to give him a drink of water, and the child sprinted over into her arms.

Baz had not been little enough to run into his mother’s arms like that for nineteen years, but the sudden realization that it would never happen again ripped his already fragile heart and lungs directly out of his chest. He fell back against the retaining wall, eyes hot with tears that wouldn’t come, and abruptly made his fourth devastating discovery in as many weeks.

He’d hardly had time to cry since the incident, and the knot of anger and sorrow in his gut burned with a frightening and unfamiliar physicality. It was as if someone had dropped a hot stone into his stomach and left it to churn through his innards, boiling his bile and thickening his blood until he could practically feel it coursing through his veins. His brain seemed to be cooking inside his skull, and as he curled tighter into himself, he could feel a feverish heat on his skin that burned even through his clothes.

The warmth welled up suffocatingly in his throat, threatening to consume him, and when the first wracking sob escaped him, all the heat burst out of him in a wave that seemed to radiate in every direction. The physical pain relief was so much that it shocked his head out of his hands, and he peered out through blurry tears at his surroundings.

The earth around him was scorched in a good twenty feet in every direction. The grass below him was the most thoroughly blackened, though little flickering flames alighted and burned out on what little plant life had been spared. Every person on the street had turned to him, some of them still shielding their faces against the rush of heat that had escaped out of him.

The shock in their eyes was what made him realize it. Magic. What he’d just done was magic, for the first time in his life—purely accidentally and without a focus to channel it through, like every other practitioner in his family had needed. Just his own body filling up with fire as his emotions built, and exploding out of him when they finally became too much to handle.

By the Holy Four, his mother would have had a field day with this. Twenty-six years without a single apparent drop of magical blood in his veins, only to have it suddenly manifest in the most inopportune possible time in the most inopportune possible way.

A dead mother, a ruined barony, a looming debt, and now uncontrollable and violent magic.

It was difficult to know the worst part of it all.

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