what personal hopes would you have for a season 2 of Inside Job?
tldr version would be like scarlamagne from kipo type shit.
i always imagined like cognito ink was going to be shut down by the cloaks or smth and solely ran by the cloaks or some shit, but everyone is like nooooo you can’t get shut down cognito
so the cloaks being shitheads says “then prove your worth thru a series of trials” and sends the gang and rand to a shadow prison x bobby trapped maze and everyone gets lost all separately to prove they can survive on their own
reagan is determined to save cognito so she goes beast mode, dodging traps n shit, until her and rand accidentally cross paths through the maze, rand is frustrated as shit and reagan is like “fine rand lets just get this over with but don’t speak to me”
but imagine the maze doing that she-ra shit in s1e11 where maze traps them in an illusion of the past of young reagan. how she grew up, core memories, especially with her father. they see how she was constantly ignored by both her parents throughout until her 30s.
they see how lonely she is sitting on her bed at night, exhausted to the bones. then they hear the cries of a young reagan, crying alone in her room after she was forced to put down her turtles. rand is noticeably feeling bad as reality of his daughter being alone all that time, growing up too fast, watching her smile fade and undereyes grow over the years.
he tries to apologize like “sweetie… i am so sorry. i see it now. i was a horrible father and you deserved better.”
“you hurt me. a lot. you made me believe i had no friends, ignored me, ridiculed me, and well… made me into the person i am today.” reagan says w a disappointed sigh ending the sentence.
maybe there’s like a heart touching moment where he’s like “i grew up cynical and no where near paternal. but reagan, there is nothing i wouldn’t do for you. even if you’re mad with me, if you’re still breathing, then, well, i can settle with that.”
reagans eyes are cast away n filling with tears. she hates him. she loves him. he’s her dad. but she hates him. does she?
rand puts a rand on reagan’s shoulder and it startles her but she looks at him and he says warmly, “reagan, out of all my creations, you are greatest one.”
reagan hesitates and opens her mouth to say smth but it’s cut off by a couple of voices. a young reagan and rand. they look to the side and there’s a scene playing. its after school so its still sunny out and the family’s all home from school/jobs
reagan is 8 and working on a robotics mechanism but can’t quite get the calibration right and it makes her little small tiny neurodivergent brain so stressed she begins to cry out of frustration
a younger rand walks past her door and hears her crying, enters her room and he’s like “woah calm down kiddo! what’s the problem?”
and she’s sobbing and babbling like “i jjust cant g-get the ccords right nd-“
and rand kneels down and places a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. both current rand and reagan are watching the scene play out.
“relax, sweetie, daddy can help you with the cords. nothing’s broken that we geniuses can’t fix” he nudges at her and young reagan chuckles a bit between sobs. rand rubs his chin.
“you know what makes me feel better? banana split sundaes. let’s sneak out of the house before your mother notices we had dessert before dinner. then we can fix this whole thing up, lickity-schplit, ridley style.”
reagans smiles a bit and rubs away her tears and nods.
“you promise?” a little crack in young reagan’s voice. she had to rely on promises for her father to do something nice for once.
rand wraps his pinky and locks it with her’s. “i promise.” he pronounces funnily, making her smile a bit more
they go downstairs and current reagan grimaces, knowing what’s about to happen. a core memory.
when they head down the stairs, tamiko is pissed af at rand and starts a loud argument with him, y!reagan is clutching the stairwell and watching them yell at each other, getting louder and louder. she looked scared. and current reagan watches w a tears visibly going down her cheek. rand remains silent and they watch the scene play out.
young reagan tries to interject and calm them down like “mom, dad, please! stop fighting!”
and they both face her and yell harshly, “GO TO YOUR ROOM!” and it frightened lil reagan so much she scrambled up the stairs with panicky tears. it shows a glimpse of young reagan breathing heavily against her door, then sinking to her knees, crying silently into them.
he never kept that promise. as always.
reagan looks down and wipes those tears, turning away, and rand says softly, “listen, we’re in a life or death situation, and with our brains combined we’ll be walkin out scott-free. and how about, when we get out of her, we go for that long overdue sundae split and… try again.”
reagan is silent for a sec and is like, “you promise?” like she said like her younger self.
rand smiles and nods. “i promise.”
reagan hugs rand. like a real hug. he’s surprised, but hugs her back.
flash forward and they’re nearly at the end of the maze, succeeding every trial, and they’re about to arrive to the end when a weird beaming noise shrills their ears. reagan looks around, trying to find the source, and rand looks up and sees the quick-acting wall laser or some shit trained on reagan, nearly about to fire.
rand is like “REAGAN!” and jumps in her way to protect her from the impeding shot. reagan watches it happen, in confused horror. rand collapses, and large wound nearly piercing through his abdomen, a fatal shot. rand collapses to the ground in front of reagan. she gasps and immediately falls to his side, trying to observe the wound and bind it. but it’s too big and he’s losing blood, quickly.
the entire team arrive at the scene of reagan holding her father who’s bleeding out, trying to bind him. she’s freaking out a little while his eyes flutter. she grips his face.
“no, no! dad, stay awake! we’re almost through and we—we can help you!”
rand lulls to his side and knows he’s not gonna make it. it just a minute or two.
rand rasps out, “keep cognito safe. don’t—“ frabomyalga couch “—screw it up, like i did.” the gang watches from a distance, sadly not wanting to interfere.
“dad, don’t say that, get up!” she tries to lift him up but he has no energy to get up. black dots are forming in his eyes, his breath is shallow, not much time is left. reagan cries out and stops, holding her bleeding father on her lap.
“you promised.” she whispered with tears.
“sweetie—“ he choked and she clutched her hand in his, slowly shaking her head. he gripped it back lightly. “just… get pistachio and think of me with you.”
reagan freaks. “dad! no, dad, please, stay awake! get up, we’re almost there!”
rand is too heavy for her to lift so he ends up on his back, a pool of blood collecting around him. reagan puts her head on his chest and sobs. her dad is dying, for her, in front of her.
a hand lightly touches her head and she looks at him, and he grips her hand and whispers. “you are my greatest creation.”
and slowly, his eyes dose into stillness, his grip lightens and then completely goes limp, and his eyes slowly close. she’s screaming, “no, dad! dad, wake up! god dammit, open your eyes! you promised!”
the gang behind her is silent and in shock, and when he’s completely limp in her arms, she presses her ear to his chest to feel for a heartbeat. but instead, silence, stillness. reagan chokes on a sob and hugs his torso against hers, holding him tightly, sobbing softly, “you promised, please, wake up—”
its for a couple long moments reagan is crying louder louder realizing her father is dead, holding hie body, silently begging for him to just wake up
brett approaches reagan and puts a hand on her shoulder, and then so does the rest of the gang, surrounding her in comfort as she cries and holds his body, crying over the loss of her father. he sacrificed himself for her.
so like, he dies at the end of s2, but on a semi-resolved note. like a sacrifice after all of the things he’s done, even laying his life down so long as reagan is breathing. 
so, semi-redemption ish. it takes year for reagan to rebuild and recover (bretts there to give her babies dw lmao) and accept what happened, finally finding peace while running cognito inc, her way.
and every sunday, she gets a cup of pistachio ice cream and eats it, thinking of her dad. and she always did. as he promised.
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