#anyway the only thing in the 'shattered' pod that made me a bit frustrated was that none of the guys really seemed to 'get' the scene | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pastelwitchling · 3 years

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It started with a phone call.

Michael had come to the bunker in hopes of looking through some of the Project Shepherd archives to find more information on his mom. Or, at least, that was what he’d told Alex. In truth, he’d been sitting in his own bunker beneath his airstream, hitting dead end after dead end, and staring at the constellation and planet alignments had started to eat away at his brain.

In truth? He’d been restless after countless nights of a lack of sleep, and he wanted to see Alex. He didn’t know why, but it was like Alex was the only one who could see through the mess of his thoughts to the small, coherent part that was always seeking comfort. With one look, one smile, one word, one touch, Michael felt himself at a peace around Alex he’d never known anywhere else. He could finally breathe.

And for about the first five minutes after he’d arrived, he’d dared hope that he would have Alex all to himself. He’d found Alex at the bunker, pouring over decrypted files on a computer, and felt his heart jump at the sight of him. Even with his hair tousled, with the dark circles around his eyes, with his brows pinched like his mind was always busy, he was beautiful. And Michael had been the only one around for his attention.

Until he hadn’t been. Until Forrest – goddamn Forrest – called him and his eyes lit up and he smiled in a way he didn’t really smile around Michael. Until Long suggested he and Alex visit the caves where he was sure the Air Force had camped out back in 1947, and he’d leapt up at the chance to see his ex.

Yeah. That’s right. His ex. But God, you really wouldn’t be able to tell that they’d broken up at all. Michael doubted they had, but Isobel had assured him with a knowing smirk that Alex had told her things were over.

“It was a totally mutual, healthy breakup,” apparently.

It’s just that they were still so close, they still hung out whenever either of them got the chance, they still looked at each other with such a fondness that made Michael want to punch a wall. He’d learned his lesson the first time though, after leaving the Wild Pony in the middle of Alex’s song, secretly hoping not much would come of it, and then finding out Alex and Forrest were very cutely, very frustratingly, very much in like with each other. He’d learned not to leave Alex with any other guys he knew would want to date him again, mutual breakup be damned.

So when Alex had told him where he was going, Michael insisted on coming along.

“You sure?” Alex had asked. Not with any reluctance in his voice, but genuine curiosity. “We’d have to do a bit of hiking up those caves.”

“I love hiking,” Michael had lied. “Besides, you’re gonna want me there to fend off any coyotes and giant birds.”

He’d meant it as a joke, but Alex had merely smiled at him and said, “I’d want you there anyway.”

Leaving Michael to melt into a puddle, Alex walked out ahead of him.

It made the lie a little easier to bear. See, he not only hated hiking, he hated hiking alongside Forrest Long who, like the perfect little prick he was, had been all too gracious about bringing Michael along.

“Adventure with an alien,” he’d said with that wide, perfect smile of his, and a shake of his head. “Only in Roswell.”

Michael knew, somewhere deep, deep down, that Forrest was an awesome guy. He understood why Alex had been so taken with him. But here’s the thing; Alex had been taken with him. Knowing, as they climbed the rocky terrain under the sun, today mercifully halfway obscured by clouds, that Alex and Forrest had dated, had kissed, had slept together – it did things to his mind that frightened even him. It unnaturally bothered him, and no matter how kind or friendly Forrest was, Michael couldn’t let it go.

It was made worse when he and Forrest both reached the peak of a rocky hill, Alex following behind them, and they both offered him a hand to hold for the last few steps up. Without thinking, Alex took Forrest’s hand, and laughed as Forrest tugged him up with an exaggerated show of strength.

“Thanks,” he’d panted, still smiling. At Forrest.

As Michael swallowed and put his hand down, trying not to feel dejected, he saw Alex glance his way. He saw realization dawn, saw his eyes soften at Michael, as if in silent apology for not taking him up on his offer. Michael could only look away.

Let it go, he’d told himself as Forrest surveyed the area below. Let it go.

Of course he wasn’t going to let it go.

“Why do we need him again?” he grumbled under his breath so that only Alex could hear him.

Alex didn’t seem offended or frustrated by the question. Instead, he smiled, amused. Michael loved that smile.

“He’s a history buff,” Alex said. “He’s done extensive study on the grounds here. He knows it better than anybody.”

“Yeah, study to support his conspiracies,” Michael reminded him edgily. “He’s a conspiracy theorist, Alex.”

“I found out about you through conspiracies,” Alex noted.

Michael blushed. “That’s different.”

He laughed, and Michael thought he might melt all over again.

“Babe,” Forrest said, and amended, “Sorry, Alex, come look at this.”

Michael’s eye twitched. “I’m gonna kill him.”

Alex patted his shoulder. “Shh.”

He went to Forrest’s side as he pointed at something below; a crater, just beside one of the larger caves’ mouths. “When I was going through the layout in the library, I found faint records of those kinds of craters.”

Alex moved dangerously close to the edge, his eyes narrowed. “What’s the story there?”

“Well, most of the records said about what you would expect; explosion of rocks from a volcano.”

Michael just barely resisted rolling his eyes as he tipped his hat back. “And the unofficial record?”

Forrest smirked. “Meteors hit the ground here when something broke through the earth’s atmosphere and let them in.”

Michael looked to Alex, already doubtful, but Alex looked focused, like he was thinking through the logistics.

“It makes sense,” he concluded. “It would definitely explain the Air Force encampments out here. Anything to do with the skies is their territory.”

“You mean, your territory?” Forrest smiled, and Alex scoffed.

Michael pursed his lips. The wind up here was a little colder, quickly drying the beads of sweat that had formed on his forehead and the nape of his neck.

“If you even buy the whole encampment thing in the first place.”

Forrest, infuriatingly, shrugged a shoulder. “Fair.”

Oh my God, Michael thought, clenching his jaw.

Alex seemed to be able to read his thoughts, and he shook his head, smiling. “Look, I’m not saying it’s definitely what happened, but it fits with everything else we know so far. The Air Force had troops around this area, and there’s no way your pods broke through without opening up the atmosphere to residual space matters.”

Forrest groaned. “I love it when you go all military genius on me.”

Alex winked at him, and they both burst out into laughter. Michael looked around for help from the birds, hoping they’d at least recognize with him how ridiculous and unfair all of this was. He felt left out, like there was a bubble around Alex and Forrest that he couldn’t penetrate. He knew it was childish to be upset by it, but damn it, he was upset by it.

“So what do we do now?” he said a little loudly, hoping to cut in. “Take pictures? Call Max and Isobel? Write a blog?”

Alex stood, and Michael couldn’t fail to notice him wince, as if his leg pained him. “We should get a closer look,” he said. “The abrasions might give us a better idea of what we’re dealing wi—ah!”

Alex was cut off as a bit of earth beneath him crumbled away, and, his leg too stiff after climbing to move, he slid down the steep rock.

“Alex!” Michael and Forrest leapt for him, but he was already falling towards a cluster of sharp rocks at the base of the caves.

“No!” Michael yelled, reaching out for Alex and using his powers to avert his direction at the last second, rolling him onto a patch of grass instead.

“Oh my God,” he heard Forrest say before they were both up and running back down the way they’d come.

Alex was just pushing himself up onto all fours when Michael and Forrest fell at his side.

“Hey,” Michael breathed, gently pushing Alex’s bangs back from his eyes. Blood leaked from his forehead, trailing down his cheek, and dripping off his jaw onto his shirt. “Hey, baby, you okay?”

“Uh . . .” Alex shut his eyes tight, his expression twisted in pain. “Yeah, I’m – I’m fine.” He exhaled slowly, forcing himself up into a sitting position.

Forrest put his hands on his shoulders. “Maybe we should go to the hospital,” he suggested, his brows furrowed with concern as his eyes lingered on the patch of blood on Alex’s shirt. “That was a pretty nasty fall, Alex.”

“He said he’s fine,” Michael said, and stood, pulling Alex up with him. For a second, Alex swayed, looking like he might be sick. His grip on Michael’s arms was relentless, but, too soon, he let go and roughly wiped away the rest of the blood that was now staining his cheek.

Forrest looked doubtful. “Alex –”

“It’s okay, Forrest,” he said. “I’m okay, really.”

He didn’t look happy about it, but he offered Alex his arm, nonetheless. “At least hold onto me or something.”

Alex chuckled weakly, and leaned in, kissing Forrest’s cheek. “The second I start to feel sick, I’ll lean on you, okay?”

Forrest seemed a little more reassured and nodded, and Michael, his tongue in his cheek, walked off towards the crater. “We looking into this thing or what?”

Soon, they were each surrounding the crater, which was a lot larger up close than it had looked from the top of the cave. Alex knelt at one side, eyes narrowed. He stepped into the crater and ran a finger across the surface.

“Smooth rock,” he muttered, and rubbed his eyes with his forearm. “Strong.”

“That’s not right,” Forrest frowned.

“No,” he agreed. “It’s not.”

Michael nodded. Now he understood what Alex had been looking for. “The ground here is supposed to be rough, shattered.”

“Exactly,” Alex said. “It’s too clean to be caused by anything natural.”

Forrest looked to Michael. “Are you getting any, you know, feelings around this place?”

“What, like some Star Wars Jedi tracker?”

Alex raised a brow. “Since when do you watch Star Wars?”

Michael blushed. Since you looked at Kyle like he’d committed treason for not knowing what it was, and I wanted to impress you.

Before Michael could even attempt to make up some lie though, Alex fell down to one knee again, heaving.

“Whoa, Alex!” he slid into the crater and crouched in front of him. He put a hand between his shoulder blades, and felt his breaths turn heavier and shakier.

Forrest hurried to their side and knelt beside him. “What’s going on?” he demanded. “Alex, what are you feeling?”

“D-Dizzy,” Alex managed, and Michael was shocked to see sweat dampening the tips of his hair. “I don’t . . . I c-can’t . . .”

Michael knelt down, too. “Alex,” he tried softly. “Look at me, baby, tell me what’s going on.”

“I’m g-gonna be s-s-sick,” Alex managed through short breaths.

Michael clenched his jaw, cupping Alex’s cheek. Despite the sweat, his skin was cool to the touch, his teeth were chattering and he was shivering, his eyes heavily-lidded. He was turning pale way too quickly.

Michael’s eyes widened as he realized what was happening, and he swallowed past the lump in his throat.

“Alex,” he said calmly, trying very hard not to let the horror of the situation touch his voice. “I need you to get on my back, okay?” He turned his back to Alex, and gestured at Forrest. “Long, help him.”

Forrest looked between Michael and Alex worriedly, but nodded. “Right,” he said, and gently but firmly guided Alex onto Michael’s back. “What’s happening to him?” he murmured to Michael so that Alex couldn’t hear. “His forehead stopped bleeding, why does he look like he’s going to pass out?”

Michael glanced over his shoulder at Alex who had shut his eyes tight, his fists curled in Michael’s shirt, his knuckles white with his grip. As he turned and led the longer way back to his truck, he quietly said, “I think his fall was a lot worse than it looked. He must’ve ruptured an organ or something.”

Forrest glanced at Alex, terrified. “He’d bleeding internally?”

Michael nodded. “And he’s getting too tired too quickly. We have to hurry.”

Forrest was clearly terrified, but one glance at Alex and he must’ve known that he couldn’t show that fear on his face. Instead, he nodded once and kept a hand on Alex’s back as they moved as quickly as they could.

When they finally made it to Michael’s truck, Forrest insisted on staying in the backseat with Alex.

“He might need me,” he said, not caring at all about leaving his car behind. Michael could only set his truck in drive, silently grateful to have an extra set of caring hands with Alex. And he drove like hell, breaking every speed limit and getting more than a few angry honks along the way.

“Hold on, Alex,” Forrest said to Alex who had his head on his lap, trembling and gasping. When he started raking Alex’s hair back, Michael couldn’t find it in him to be jealous, only afraid. He hoped whatever Forrest was doing was making Alex just a little more comfortable, giving him a little more time.

“You’re gonna be fine, baby,” he promised, the words heavy on his tongue. It was when they were barely ten minutes away from the hospital that Forrest gasped.

“Guerin,” he sounded panicked, “he’s out.”

“What?” Michael looked over his shoulder. Alex’s eyes were closed, his body limp.

“Oh my God,” Forrest breathed. “Oh my God –”

“Don’t freak out on me now, Long,” Michael said. There wasn’t time to curl up into a ball and cry, there wasn’t time to be afraid. He had to save Alex.

The gas pedal was on the floor of the truck, Michael was glued to his seat as the wind howled past. When they finally arrived at the hospital, Michael didn’t bother going to the parking lot. Instead, the tires skidded as he curved to a stop in front of the automatic double doors. He barely parked the car before he was out. He opened the door and Forrest helped put Alex on his back.

Michael ran through the doors with Forrest behind him, keeping Alex securely in place.

“Help!” they both screamed. “He needs help!”

“Please,” Forrest said shakily to the nurses as they rushed forward to take Alex and put him on a gurney. “You have to save him!”

“What the hell?” Kyle appeared amidst the men and woman already starting to lead Alex away. His eyes were wide as they fell on his best friend, passed out and injured. “Alex?”

“He fell,” Michael tried, but Kyle was already in full doctor-mode, pulling out a small flashlight from his pocket. “We think he might be bleeding internally.”

“Damn it, Manes,” he muttered, and pressed two fingers to Alex’s neck. “Pulse is weak,” he said as they hurried down a hall. He opened one of Alex’s eyes with his fingers, shining a light across his pupil. “Unresponsive. Start an IV drip and prepare room 69 for a blood transfusion.”

“Yes, doctor,” a nurse said. They went through the set of double doors marked ER, and another nurse held up a hand.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and she looked it, “but you have to stay out here.”

“But –” Forrest tried.

“The doctor will do all he can,” she said. “Please excuse me,” and she disappeared behind the doors as well, leaving Forrest and Michael in silence.

Forrest slid down against the wall and stared at the ceiling while Michael ran a hand across his jaw. Neither of them said anything for a long time, the muffled sounds of heart monitors and ringing telephones echoing through the walls and somehow making the hallway feel even emptier than it already was.

Finally, Forrest hoarsely said, “I’m sorry. I – I shouldn’t have freaked out like that. You were so calm, I . . . how did you do it?”

“I wasn’t calm,” Michael confessed before he could help it, and even he could hear the tremor in his voice. He took his hat off and used his other hand to run his fingers through his curls. “I’m – I’m not calm.”

It was all he said, but it seemed to be enough as Forrest’s eyes softened and he nodded in silent understanding. Once again, Michael found himself grateful not to have to say the words he was thinking.

They sat in silence for another few seconds before Michael couldn’t take it anymore. “I didn’t want him to listen to you,” he said. “You wanted him to go to the hospital, and I didn’t want him to choose you again, so I pushed.”

He sniffed angrily, his eyes burning. He looked away. “If we’re really assigning blame, then –”

“We’re not,” Forrest cut him off. He looked as miserable as Michael felt, not as though he held Michael responsible at all. He whispered, “We’re not.”

Michael’s lower lip trembled, but he quickly rubbed his face, hiding it.

“Do you know why we broke up?” Forrest said. “Me and Alex?” Michael shook his head. “We both agreed that there was one person Alex loved more than anybody else in the world. And it wasn’t me.”

He held Michael’s startled gaze, and shrugged a shoulder, a helpless smile tugging at his lips. “What I’m saying is, Guerin, you didn’t have to do much pushing. Alex would go to the ends of the earth for you. He likes me, but . . . he loves you.”

Michael could think of nothing to say to that. He sat down opposite Forrest, his arm rested on one knee. Two men Alex had been with, two men who loved him beyond words could say.

Michael finally settled on, “You’re not so bad, Long.”

Forrest chuckled weakly. “’Course not. I just gave you the best news you’ll ever get in your life.”

And despite it all, Michael huffed a weak laugh of his own. “Yeah. Yeah, you did.”

Any semblance of a smile vanished in an instant as the silence and seriousness of the situation fell like a heavy blanket on Michael’s chest, as the wait turned from minutes to an hour, and the fear of news to come loomed over their heads.

When the doors opened and Kyle stepped out, the two were on their feet in an instant.

“Well?” Michael demanded.

“How is he?” Forrest asked.

Kyle glared from Forrest to Michael. He huffed, annoyed, and Michael felt such an intense relief that he almost sobbed right there and then. “He has rock debris imbedded in his skin and a gash in his forehead! Where’d he fall off, a mountain?”

“So he’s okay?” Forrest said, his hands still shaking.

Kyle sighed. “Yeah, he’ll be fine after a few days.” He pointed a threatening finger at Michael. “You are so lucky, Guerin, you got him here just in time. If he wasn’t so used to heavy military training already –”

“I want to see him,” Michael interrupted.

Kyle hesitated, but Forrest urged, “Let him. If anyone can help heal Alex faster, it’s him, you know it is.”

He shook his head at the ceiling, as if asking for patience. “Since when are you two BFFs? You know what? I don’t care, go see him, whatever, but if his vitals jump one nanosecond, I’m kicking you out. Got it?”

“I know you’ll try,” Michael said, patting Kyle’s shoulder as he rushed past him through the double doors.

There were two nurses on either side of Alex’s bed, one adjusting the IV drip attached to Alex’s arm, and the other securing the bandage on his forehead, just above his right eye. They finished up, and nodded once to Michael as they passed him on their way out.

Michael knew they’d transfer Alex to another room soon, and they wouldn’t have the privacy that they did now, so he wasted no time in taking his hand and kissing his fingers.

“You’re okay,” he breathed against Alex’s skin, pressing his fingers to the pulse at his wrist, if only to reassure himself. “You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay.”

The heart monitor’s steady beep beep beep was the only response Michael got, but he told himself it was a reminder that Alex was alive. He could make out the faint outline of bandages just beneath Alex’s ribs under the thin white blanket, and he swallowed thickly, willing himself to look away.

He gently pushed back Alex’s bangs without disrupting the bandage, and leaned in, pressing a faint kiss to his forehead. When he pulled back, he found Alex’s eyes fluttering open. He smiled, relieved.

“Hey, beautiful,” he whispered.

Alex took a while to answer, breathing deeply and softly. “Where am I?”

“The ER,” Michael explained. “You had internal bleeding, they had to sew you back up.”

“What?” Alex frowned and tried to sit up, but he winced and his mouth fell open in pain.

“Easy, easy,” Michael said softly, wrapping his arms around him to lay him back down. “You don’t wanna open your stitching.” He sighed, keeping his arms around Alex, even as he was settled against his pillows. “I thought, you know, with the military thing, it’d be okay to tell you without beating around the bush.”

“And you?” Alex murmured, his brows pinched with pain, his hand gripping Michael’s forearm tightly. “Are you okay? You’re not hurt, right?”

“Me?” he blinked, his face turning hot embarrassingly quickly. “No, I’m fine.”

Alex breathed a sigh of relief, his hand still holding Michael’s. “Good. That’s good.”

Michael huffed a chuckle, shaking his head. “You were cut open, and you’re thinking of me?”

“I’m always thinking of you,” Alex said without missing a beat, and Michael swallowed, all humor gone.

A few seconds passed in silence, then –

“You scared me, Alex,” he confessed. “I – I thought . . .” a lump formed in his throat and he cleared it. “I thought I’d . . .”

Alex opened his eyes to meet his gaze. Michael didn’t know what he was searching for, but he must’ve found it, because the next thing he knew, Alex was trying to move to one side of his bed.

“What’re you doing?” Michael said, covering Alex’s hand on his arm with his own. “I told you, you need to –”

“Get under the covers,” Alex said, throwing one side of the blanket back. Michael made out the edge of a bandage wrapped tightly around Alex’s waist. There was no sign of bleeding, so Michael took it as good news, but he was still hesitant to climb in.

“What if I hurt you?” he said. “If Valenti sees us –”

“Kyle, huh?” he smiled. “He knew what he was getting into, letting you in. Come on, Guerin, please.”

Michael bit his lower lip, and found he wanted nothing more than to obey. He kicked off his boots, set his hat on the ground, and slid into bed beside Alex. He was slow, careful, gentle. He ended up on his side while Alex stayed on his back, his forehead pressed to Alex’s temple. When they were as comfortable as they were going to get, he pushed his face into Alex’s hair and inhaled deeply.

His eyes burned, and a sob escaped his lips on the exhale. He reached an arm around Alex’s shoulders and hugged him as tightly as he could without moving him.

Alex didn’t seem surprised, and it occurred to Michael that inviting him into bed had been more for his sake.

“Shh,” Alex said softly, reaching a hand up to place in Michael’s curls, raking his hair. He whispered, “I’m okay. Breathe, Guerin. Breathe.”

Michael tried, his breath hitching as the tears kept falling, and he held Alex tighter. He placed wet, open-mouthed kisses on his temple, his ear, his cheek.

“You’re so warm,” Alex murmured as his eyes fluttered shut, but his vitals were still normal, so Michael knew he was just falling asleep again. “Don’t leave me here, Guerin. Promise me.”

“I’ll never leave you,” Michael promised. Alex drifted, but his fingers kept combing through Michael’s hair. “Never.”

***

It’s good to be back 🥰❤

#alex manes #michael guerin #malex #malex fic #malex fanfic #malex fanfiction #roswell new mexico #roswell nm #malex angst #malex fluff #tyler blackburn #michael vlamis

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real-jaune-isms · 4 years

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RWBY Volume 7 Chapter 13 (Finale) Rundown

It’s been a month or two since the finale aired, and honestly I needed that time to organize my thoughts on it and what I think may happen next. And I was busy becoming an art major. That too. Oh, and a little thing called COVID-19.

So our season finale begins with one of the fights we had most been looking forward to, JNR and Oscar vs Neo. Jaune wants to avoid a fight and tells her to surrender since she’s outnumbered, but Neo is too confident in her capabilities and just draws her parasol blade. So Nora and Ren start shooting at her to no effect and rush in for melee combat. Also ineffective at first, she just dodges and blocks and counters. Even Ren’s new grapple line blades do next to nothing, she just does a split to dodge under his flying kick. Oscar runs in to attack with his cane, but she counters and flips him into the air with the lamp getting knocked off his belt and being in the air between them. Both thrust their sticks to try and catch it, but Oscar gets it first and sticks his landing. Neo just starts slashing at him as he backs away, and Jaune steps between them to repel her with his shield’s gravity Dust burst. One thing you notice pretty quickly about the fight is how casually Neo seems to be taking it, taunting her opponents the whole time by making faces and being theatrical with her every move. It’s maddening, but it’s the attitude we came to expect from her after Volumes 2 and 3. Teamwork seems the best move, so Nora launches Ren through the air at the ice cream demon while Oscar holds her legs so she can’t move out of the way. Too bad her Semblance is still pretty OP and Ren just shatters an apparently fake Neo. They check down the corridors for any sign of her but instead see Atlesian soldiers who chase after them on Ironwood’s orders.

Back to the battle of the seasons, Penny flies at Cinder with a high speed punch that sends her back into the hallway but she just catches it and uses her Grimm arm to toss her around a bit. Winter attacks with a flock of tiny Nevermore summons before charging in herself with a sword slash, though both do little to phase the nimble Maiden. She summons two glass swords of her own to fight back, and seems to have the advantage. She even takes the time to lecture Winter on how Atlas’s elite hoard so much power in the hopes of maintaining it forever, and how that just starves the rest of the world. It seems like she really means it once starved her, and she refuses to starve again. Some hints of what may have been her tragic backstory here, which I would be very interested to learn in greater detail even if it absolutely won’t redeem her character from the cruel and insane devil she is. I just want to see how she got to this point, where this lust for power came from. It’s certainly ironic that she’s complaining about other people hoarding power when she’s going around stealing Maiden powers all for herself when those were literally made to be divided among four people. Penny re-enters the fight with her swords on strings, but Cinder’s reflexes are apparently on the level of Ultra Instinct since she’s able to dodge and block all her spinning blades AS WELL as Winter’s attacks once she draws her second sword and joins in again. The two are at least able to avoid getting hit in return, but the whole is just going nowhere fast even if they’re blocking her way back into Fria’s room. So Cinder lashes out and flies at them with all her might, grabbing them both by the neck and rocketing through the other wall of the medical room... to reveal this secret room was not in a subbasement as we may have assumed but the top floor of a skyscraper. Now they’re all in the open air and Winter is the odd one out since... y’know, she can’t fly. She doesn’t make things better for herself by stabbing Cinder’s hand and making her drop the Specialist. With only one person to worry about now, Cinder tosses Penny away and kicks a flaming sword her way. Penny catches it, but didn’t expect it to explode and knock her back some more. The two have a floating standoff with Cinder becoming increasingly frustrated and calling Penny a toy, as if she’s Tom Hanks in 1995. But her attention is brought elsewhere as she’s hit by a blast of ice. In one of the most badass sights this Volume has offered, Winter is flying on the back of a summoned Manticore. The 2v1 fight resumes in this airborne setting, and Cinder has a harder time dodging and countering their speedy strikes while also focusing her powers on staying in flight. But when she and Winter charge at each other, her sword is unfortunately able to cut through the summon and leave Winter in a freefall. As if to add vindictive insult to injury, she also shoots a fireball at the Schnee that takes down her Aura. Satisfied with her work, Cinder flies back to the building while Penny is left with the choice of following her and dutifully protecting the Maiden powers or saving Winter. She makes the right choice, and saves her friend. Winter thinks she should have just been left to die, that she matters less than the mission. But Penny disagrees.

Back with JNRO, they’re still running from the Atlas soldiers. Whatever scuffle Oscar had with Neo before the others came along is now wearing on him and he begins to fall behind. In all the rushing through the labyrinth of hallways, he gets separated from the group. Just as he’s lost hope of rejoining the others and the guards are just around the corner, the farmboi gets pulled into an empty room and kept quiet via a hand over his mouth by... Nora? A very silent and smiling Nora... A Nora who suddenly lunges at him with a lace parasol... okay this is clearly not Nora. This is clearly Neo in a very cruel and deceptive disguise, as made clear by her eyes changing to the usual pink and brown when Oscar fortunately dodges out of the way of her attack and back into the hallway. Worse still, she swiped the Lamp from him in the heat of the moment, and the little devil makes a break for it. Jaune is looking for Oscar, but finds Neora instead, and she just dodges around him and springboards off his shield. Then... things get rough. She runs into Ren next... while looking like Nora. He still shoots at her as she barrels towards him but she just blocks with her parasol as she is want to do. When he meets her halfway and takes a jumping slash at her... she twists the knife in; changing her eyes back from her own determined mismatched pink and brown to Nora’s scared and confused turquoise. In that split second of seeing his beloved’s face staring at him with such fear, Ren hesitates and stops the attack, so she hits him in the face and trips him to the floor before running away some more. Jaune is still on her tail and runs past his dazed and shellshocked teammate. When he rounds the corner Neo had just headed down however, he only finds more Atlas soldiers firing at him. The real Nora comes running from gods know where and the three head back the way they came. Nora checks over her shoulder to see if they’re still being followed, but what’s more interesting is that Ren can be seen crying as he brings up the rear. Obviously he’s quite upset with how easily Neo could get him to hesitate just by posing as Nora and playing on his feelings for her. She probably didn’t realize just how complicated the Renora relationship is, but it worked perfectly in her favor. Ren’s tried to set aside his feelings but they’ve now dramatically affected his capacity to do his job. Like it or not, he HAS to talk about it or else everything is gonna implode. And of course, when we cut to see the armored soldiers chasing our heroes there’s also a more formally uniformed female officer in the back who goes sauntering off in the other direction. That was a very speedy costume change, you little sugar gremlin. Anyway, she got away with the Lamp. That’s no good.

What’s even less good is that we cut back to a temporarily black screen and the harsh wrenching sound of tearing metal. Turns out its the POV of Fria as she blinks back into consciousness and sees the satisfied face of Cinder as she starts a monologue about how the elder woman’s time is up. Fria admits she has been waiting for a good long while, but she can’t remember what or whom for. Cinder confidently informs her it was for this very moment. For her~ But as she goes for the Reverse Flash kill with her Grimm hand, the Winter Maiden shows off one of the reasons she’s survived this long. A good strong grip on Cinder’s wrist stopping her before she can make contact and keeping the Fall Maiden from getting any further. The hungry wolf won’t be gobbling up Granny tonight, deary. Faced with the tired but steadfast face of a woman who has likely lived and fought several times longer than Cinder has been alive, accented by the blue flame of her Maiden magic, the evil woman pulls back. But she’s persistent, and tries a glass dagger instead. That goes even worse, as a pulse of magic sends her flying backwards. With more magic on display than any Maiden we’ve seen before, Fria summons a cyclone of pure cold air and ice around herself and starts floating in the middle of it. Cinder’s Grimm fingers start to freeze (since they don’t have Aura like the rest of her body and thus get no protection from the cold, thank you for setting that concept up in episode 3 Weiss!) so she has to back away further. That becomes a full temporary retreat out of the room when the coldnado sends a pod door at her and the intensity only keeps increasing. Much like Professor Xavier in Logan, Fria is already very old and isn’t in the most stable state of mind anymore, so she loses control of the tempest and it busts a hole in the roof. Penny and Winter land a short distance away and marvel at the majestic chaos. Winter claims this is the power of a fully realized Maiden, which makes me wonder if Raven was able to do something similar or if it takes decades to unlock this kind of mastery. Winter tries to get in closer and reach Fria, but the blizzard winds are enough to destroy the material of her glove and leave her fingers red with chill. Something has to be done, but after the beating she took she’s in no shape to do it. So Penny jumps in instead, much to Winter’s dismay.

Continuing the hopscotch course of dismal vibes, we go back to JNRO as they’re hiding in the training room and Oscar is apologizing for having lost the lamp. Jaune tries to reassure him, but Ren is even more pessimistic. He doesn’t think they were ready to even become Huntsmen and Huntresses which is just so painful to hear. Nora of course disagrees, but Ren has a harsh rebuttal: if they’re ready and capable, then why don’t they have any of the relic they’re supposed to be protecting? Why haven’t they succeeded in their most important mission? Oscar seems even more hurt by this reminder, and Jaune puts on his serious leader voice to tell Ren that’s enough. I would half agree with Ren, and unfortunately its a half that blames him. It’s not that the team wasn’t ready for this, it’s that HE wasn’t EMOTIONALLY ready for this. Like I said before, Neo took advantage of his emotional state to make him hesitate and overwhelm him. Their moping is interrupted by Pietro and Maria chiming in over their Scrolls. Was there any doubt that a genius like Dr. Polendina would be able to undo Ironwood’s communication shutdown?? We see Yang and Blake for the first time this episode as they shoot at Atlas robots and head for an airship, one which Maria is getting ready to pilot as their getaway vehicle. Nora informs her of their current hiding place, but the soldiers happen to close in at that moment and the three hide behind Jaune’s hard-light extended shield... wait. Three?? OH NO WE LOST THE BABY!!!! It would seem Oscar ran off on his own to try and fix things, and he insists they leave without him.

Back to the impending ice age, Penny is slowly making her way through the blizzard. Her foot gets frozen to the ground, but she hits the boot jets and it busts out again. There in the eye of the storm she finds Fria, and the android approaches carefully before gently touching her ankle to get her attention. The fire in the old lady’s eye dies down and she notices Penny. Penny is a of course a sweet and thoughtful girl and rather than demanding Fria stop the storm she just asks if she’s okay. Fria most certainly does not seem to feel okay, again mentioning that she had a job to do. She clarifies that she was supposed to protect the power of the Winter Maiden until the time came for her to pass them on. Penny notices the machines are broken and buried in a wall of ice, so the more safe transfer method is no longer possible. Fria laments that she may have taken longer to be ready for passing the powers along than she should have, but promises she’s ready now. She knows that means dying, that’s one thing she still remembers quite well. The elderly Maiden quiets the cyclone and floats down to collapse in Penny’s arms. Not gone yet, just weary, and hoping to learn the name of the sweet young lady who’s helping her like this. Penny gives her name, and now Fria asks the million lien question: Since Penny is suddenly showing up now after Fria’s only interactions being with Winter for so long... does that mean Penny is the One? The poor little android doesn’t know what to say to that, and for damn good reason. She knows Winter is supposed to be the one to get the Maiden powers, but she also knows Winter would use those powers to obey Ironwood’s cruel plans for Atlas and Mantle. If she takes the powers, she can make sure that doesn’t happen AND that they don’t fall into Cinder’s hands. But that would also mean betraying her boss and her orders, betraying her friend Winter. So what is she gonna do, what she’s been told to do or what she feels is right? This is the culmination of the struggle she’s been wrestling with the entire volume, nay her character’s entire existence! She is a creation of Atlas, but she is also a girl with a heart and soul of her own. Such a tragic clash of motivations!

Speaking of motivations clashing, we cut down to Ironwood in the Atlas vault. He hears the hum of the elevator approaching and assumes it’s Winter coming to report Fria’s demise and her own acquisition of the Winter Maiden powers, and thus begins apologizing for making her perform such a morally dubious act. Instead he finds Oscar, posing rather seriously with Ozpin’s his cane and fixing James with his best look of fed up disapproval. With such a formal air about him, James has every reason to suspect Oz is back at the helm and asks which of the two he has the pleasure of addressing. It’s just Oscar though, but Oscar is plenty on his own. James thankfully doesn’t yet know that Oscar has lost the Lamp and thinks he just chose not to bring it down here with him, acknowledging that he isn’t very trustworthy right now. Oscar is a farmer to his very roots and wants to help the trust between our heroes and the Atlas forces regrow. He believes they can all come together again. But James is stuck in a guarded state of mind and thinks Oscar came to fight for his cause. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Oscar admits that he feels scared, and whenever he does he holds the cane and it helps calm him down, likely due to its significance to those who came before him. But he puts the cane away as a sign that he will face his fear without that aid, that he will be brave. James just thinks that’s another dig at him, that Oscar is calling him scared. Oscar reminds him that EVERYONE is scared right now, for good reason, and that fear is not something to be ashamed of, that it just gives us a chance to show the content of our character by how we handle the fear. James just snaps at him, says that it’s easy for Oscar to spout such platitudes when he doesn’t have to make life changing decisions for the sake of a Kingdom. As he starts circling around the poor farmboi and backing him towards a dead end ledge, he insists that no matter what labels they put on him he was RIGHT. He was right about what would happen if he opened his heart and trusted others, that all his worst fears came true because he went against his gut and did what the kids told him he should. Except he is absolutely NOT right. Things were going far more smoothly for him once he started trusting Robyn and told her and the council about the trouble he had to deal with, and despite the obviously concerning setback of Watts shutting down Mantle’s heat they handled that situation with very little trouble. It was only once Cinder popped in to sew doubt and paranoia back into his mind that it all spiraled out of control, and that was entirely his fault. If Cinder hadn’t stepped in, they might have found the Seer in Watts’ bag and killed it immediately instead of it interrupting a tense conversation. Robyn now knowing what the Tower is for would mean construction could resume without shipments getting stolen, and perhaps they could have negotiated a way to divide up the materials so the wall could get fixed too. Just spit balling here, what could have been. But no, it all went belly up and Jimmy is only fanning the flames. Oscar tries to remind him that his current plan of abandoning Mantle will be betraying an entire city of thousands to die alone in the cold, but James is having none of it. It’s an excellent philosophical puzzle to try and work through, but the way he sees it none of that matters compared to preventing Salem’s victory. He thinks he’s the only one who can see the big picture, who is making his moves with the intention of changing the final result no matter the cost.

But that’s what’s so dangerous about that mindset. People he writes off as small minded and soft, like Robyn, the council, and even Oscar (possibly by extension even Ozpin)... they’re the good people who think first and foremost about preventing tragedy and loss in the moment, who refuse to budge on their morals of protecting the innocent and will never trade lives. It’s the same kind of difference seen in Superman vs the Elite. Team RWBY and their friends don’t believe in necessary sacrifices for the greater good, but Ironwood has become singlemindedly focused on stopping Salem, likely out of the guilt and humiliation of being so helpless against her back in Volume 3. This is a chance to reclaim his honor, and he thinks of little else. That’s how I see it anyway. Oscar calls James out, saying this mindset makes him just as dangerous as Salem herself. But I guess that was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and he insists Oscar refer to him as General. Only his friends may call him James, and it seems our good good boy has lost that status. Not that he seems to expect Oscar will have much chance to show him that due respect any time soon, because he pulls out his pistol and SHOOTS THE INNOCENT FOURTEEN YEAR OLD BOY OFF A LEDGE TO FALL TO HIS DEATH!!!! Ironwood has officially made the transition from misguided good guy to full on villain.

As if there wasn’t enough tension and bad news, we go back to Penny who is still unsure how to answer Fria’s question. What is the right choice to make, the best choice for everyone’s sake? She has no idea. But she had better decide fast, because Cinder crashes through the ice wall and screeches that the powers belong to none but her. Unfortunately for our vicious villain, her Gum Gum stretchy arm comes with a weakness to blades and gets sliced off by a suddenly appearing Winter. Cinder reacts with the appropriate amount of bloody terror and pain that you would expect of someone conscious for an amputation. Winter surveys the room and realizes Fria isn’t long for this world so time is of the essence, but doesn’t have much longer to ponder that before Cinder enters a bloodlust rage. See, apparently whatever monster makeover Salem gave her in the wake of Volume 3 included the ability to regrow her Grimm limb, though it sounds like the process is terribly painful for her and may not have even been something she was expecting to have happen. Regardless, she wants revenge and starts lashing out by summoning blade after blade to throw at Winter. The Specialist manages to block most of them and they turn to dust on impact, but it’s a brutal onslaught that she has to face without any Aura, and one cuts her left arm enough to draw blood, though since it’s burning glass it also seems to cauterize the wound immediately. Let me take another moment to praise the talents of Jessica Nigri. This scene in particular required her to do a lot of screaming and screeching as Cinder, and that cannot be easy on the throat. So the fact that she pulls off those deep dark emotions so well is worthy of respect and sympathy in equal measure. Okay, back to the action. Fria lies on the floor and closes her eyes, passing away peacefully all things considered. Penny holds her hand in her final moments, and a blue glow passes from elder to younger woman. We go back to Oscar for a moment or two, but I’ll tackle his last couple scenes in bulk in just a minute. Winter is getting tossed around, and her hair has been pulled free of its bun to add to her disheveled look... and our overwhelming thirst for her. Battle battered or not, she’s looking like a real snack with her hair down. Cinder stalks toward her to continue the beating and possibly deal the killing blow, but is distracted by a snowflake flying past her face. Well that’s interesting... And then it becomes many snowflakes, a veritable flurry kicking up. She turns around with some legit fear and concern on her face, and her worries are confirmed. Penny’s eyes glow and flare up with a fierce green fire as she stands resolute as the new Winter Maiden. She seems ready to use her new powers to fight Cinder despite only just getting them, and clearly has some manner of control already if she was able to start generating snow already. And this does settle another matter of fan speculation, if she qualifies as a candidate for the powers. Welp, now we know. According to the guidelines set by Oz’s bestowing of the original powers and how he explains their transfer process back in Volume 3, you just have to be a young woman below a certain age (or else they probably would have given Amber’s power to Glynda) and have a soul to receive the power from the last user’s. I guess Penny’s blue fairy has come and said she is a real girl in all the ways that count. Her soul is unique and separate from her dad’s, even though he used his old man aura to create her. And she does in fact have a soul and is considered a legit person even though she’s got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts. Cinder is of course outraged that this “toy” was bestowed the powers she came all this way to steal, and gets ready to fight her, but is distracted by Weiss entering the upper observation room and yelling her sister’s name in concern and fear. Cinder probably has a confused and annoyed moment of “I thought I killed you back at Haven...” She gets ready to kill the little Schnee brat for piling on further interruptions to her plan, but that too goes out the window when she notices Ruby had accompanied her partner down to find their Atlesian allies, and likewise Ruby notices her. Ruby does not hesitate for a second and without needing any time to get into the right head-space blasts off a wave of Silver Eyed energy to essentially Solar Flare the whole room.

Now we can go back to Oscar and his dramatic descent. The shot from Ironwood took out his Aura, and he seems like he’s resigned himself to death once he hits the bottom of this pit. As he closes his eyes, they glow for a moment and he hears a voice that’s been absent the entire Volume. Ozpin. He only says Oscar’s name, or at least that’s all we hear, but the boi seems to regain his determination and tries to reach his cane again. He holds it with both hands, extends it, then holds down the lever on the side. Guess a single squeeze was all it took to pop out the cane part under normal circumstances... But now the gears inside the hilt start really turning, and glowing, and it becomes a flashlight as well as a cane. Well, that’s all that seems to happen at first. With a spin and a jab, Oscar thrusts the tip of the cane downward just as he reaches the bottom of the pit. There’s a momentary flash of green lightning around him then... fade to black.

And now we come to what seems to be the epilogue/wrap up of the episode and the Volume itself. And it begins how the show began, with a voice over narration. Not from Salem though, it’s our first motivational speech from Ozpin in a year. He talks about how fear is the only feeling in this world that is universal across every living thing, yet for how common it is we constantly underestimate how powerful it can be. We experience the fear of making close connections and growing to care for others, because that can lead to a loss which we also fear. We fear failure a great deal, I know I definitely do. And those fears only get stronger the more people depend on us to help them with the decisions we make. But Ozpin reminds us that fear itself is not something to worry about or even, dare I say it, fear. The real concern is how we act when we are afraid, who we become. Can we be proud of that version of ourselves, forgive them for what they do under duress? Will you understand why they felt the need to do the things they did? Will you even recognize them as the same person you normally strive to be, or will you look in the mirror and see the enemy you should have feared from the very start? We all find the answer to that eventually.

Now on to what actually happens in these last few scenes, the fitting content to go with Ozpin’s speech. Oscar is falling through the sky towards the ground waaaaay down in Mantle. Guess his attack with the can was strong enough to bust a hole in the bottom of Atlas... straight into the Vault chamber... hope nobody else finds that. Back in the icy former hospital room, Ruby falls to her knees from the exhaustion of using her Silver Eyes. She and Weiss notice a freshly burned hole in the ceiling, as Cinder apparently avoided getting damaged by the SEW blast and escaped. Weiss rushes to check on Winter and see how badly she’s hurt, but all her sister has for her is an accusation. She still doesn’t know what Team RWBY did to get a warrant for their arrests, but she knows it was the catalyst for all of this. Meanwhile Ruby looks to see how Penny is doing, and the ginger girl’s eyes lose their fire as she meets her friend’s gaze, only to gain regret and fear as she turns back around to kneel by Fria’s side. The Winter Maiden is dead, long live the Winter Maiden. But Penny can only mourn the loss of a good person’s life, she takes no satisfaction in being the one to carry on her legacy. Winter actually does reassure her a bit, saying that some part of Fria will always live on in Penny now. We cut down to the blood stained tundra as Atlas police arrive to arrest Qrow and Robyn, who is only now regaining consciousness. Qrow puts up no fight, and it looks like neither will Robyn. Cinder is seen flying above Atlas Academy and screams with rage and hatred, even getting a bit of a dragon vibe in it by having fire erupt from her mouth. I was glad she was the one shown when Ozpin talked about fear of failure, because she did indeed fail. We don’t know how, but JNR make it to the airship pad and onto the getaway ship where the Bees and elderly people are waiting. They take off and of course question the meeting lacking the presence of Oscar and the Lamp, and JNR can only look sad in response. From one sad ship to another, we see Qrow and Robyn aboard a prison airship in cuffs, and Qrow is holding Clover’s bloodstained lucky badge. Despite the last interaction the three shared being a fight, Robyn shows sympathy to his mourning and puts a hand on his shoulders. Can’t wait to see if the two of them try to break out of jail next Volume~ As they fly up to the city in the sky backdropped by the eastern sunrise, a large dark cloud approaches from the west accented by flashes of red lightning. Back to Oscar, he clips the cane to his back and closes his eyes for a few seconds to concentrate and steel his composure. Back to the ice room again, Winter says the girls should surrender to Ironwood. Weiss is heartbroken, you can hear it in her voice, but she has to disobey her sister’s wishes, they simply cannot comply with his cruel plans. Winter seemed to expect that answer, and instead urges them to flee, but Weiss doesn’t want to do that either because it would mean leaving Winter behind while she’s so badly injured. Her big sister insists it simply isn’t like that, this is her giving them a head start before she calls for reinforcements to hunt them down. Weiss is disheartened, but reaffirms the lesson Winter had shared with her earlier in the Volume, they booth have to make decisions for the sake of their own futures that might take them down separating paths. The getaway ship arrives and hovers just outside the first hole Cinder had made in the wall, and Yang greets the group. She’s very relieved to see everyone is okay, but soon finds a lot more happened than she expected. Ruby affirms that they need to head out while they still can, and Weiss gives her sister one more glance before departing. Ruby and Penny also share a look, and Penny decides she will be leaving too. Guess she’s decided once and for all she won’t be helping Ironwood. Winter seems concerned by this development, but realizes she has no right to object or stop her after everything the two of them had talked about since the dinner party. On the airship everyone seems very dour and grim, and Penny looks at her own hand as if asking herself if she had the right to make the choices she did when she is just an Atlas robot. But Ruby and Weiss both lean on her shoulders to reassure her and make sure she knows they are happy she came with them and they believe she did the right thing. That seems to calm her down, and Pietro looks happy to see she has such good friends. On an Atlas rooftop, Cinder is quite satisfied to see Neo deliver the Lamp to her, and takes it without a single word or gratitude. Neo doesn’t like that, I guess even Roman would praise her for a job evilly done. She’s probably starting to realize Cinder is just using her to further her own plans. Speaking of unfortunate realizations, Ironwood gets a message from Winter that simply says “It’s gone”. We’re unsure if she means the Lamp or the Winter Maiden powers. Considering what her job was meant to be, it’s likely the latter. Ironwood takes that news poorly and screams with rage. I too screamed with rage, because we next see that Arthur Watts is actually still alive and just in a jail cell, nursing a black eye and smiling ominously at the mysterious black clouds we saw rolling in.

Oscar seems to have been playing some Halo 3 recently, because he throws up a bubble shield to cushion his badass superhero landing on the ground. Not just any ground though, he seems to be within the crater where Atlas once was before Ozpin lifted it into the sky. The same crater that has apparently become the main Dust mines for the Kingdom. Perhaps next Volume will give us a closer look at just how awful these mines really are. But let’s address what Oscar has actually done here. He had no Aura after getting shot by Ironwood, so that was not his Semblance. That energy bubble he used to shield himself when busting through the bottom of the pit and cushioning his hitting the ground, that had to be Magic. He’s unlocking more of Oz’s old powers, the union of souls is progressing. But he’s still in control, Oscar is still there. He just has more of Ozpin’s memories and abilities now and used them to save himself, as if the old souls are merging into his existing one as opposed to his new soul fading away into the collective. Maybe the process will be different this time around? Regardless, Ozpin’s voice is back in his head and ready to apologize for everything he put him through. But all Oscar wants to hear right now is what their next step will be to save Atlas. As we cut back up to RWBY and friends flying away from the city, we see that it will indeed need saving very very soon. Transmissions are coming in over the radio of multiple incoming hostiles, to a degree that seems impossible to believe. Our view shifts to the dark storm itself, and a shape begins to emerge from the black and red. A GIANT. FLYING. GRIMM. WHALE! With hundreds of Nevermore, Manticores, and Sphinxes flying around it looking as big as flies by comparison. I have personally dubbed this species the Mobius, and this particular specimen has earned the nickname of Monstro. I can’t imagine there ever being more than one of this thing though, so Monstro will be the only one. He has wings, but what seems to keep him in the air is several large chunks of Gravity Dust embedded in his belly and on top of his head. We pan up over his massive glowing forehead to see the Queen herself riding into battle. Salem has come to Atlas, and she’s wearing a badass (and kind of sexy) new dress to celebrate the occasion. There are grey arm bands on the longer sleeves that look like they’re made of bones, complete with jagged spikes, and a new broach to be the centerpiece between exposed shoulders and a noticeably bigger boob window. The unique aesthetic is aided by more red lines down the curves of her figure. The words “step on me” easily come to my mind, but that may just say something about me in particular. Regardless, she smirks at the camera and it is clear she is here to fuck some shit up.

We’ll have to wait 6 months to see how our heroes deal with that though. Cannot wait. Oh, and it must be noted that the new song for the credits “Fear” is very good, and we can see that another song on the soundtrack called “Until the End” was actually written by Casey Lee Williams as opposed to her dad. Good for her!! If only I could remember which song it was...

#rwby reviews #jaune arc #nora valkyrie #lie ren #oscar pine #neopolitan #penny polendina #winter schnee #cinder fall #fria the winter maiden #general ironwood #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #Salem #monstro the grimm whale #mobius grimm

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maychorian · 6 years

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(no) fear of drowning - Chapter 4

For @platonicvldweek, seven ficlets from (not)Shiro’s POV post-S4. Day Four Prompt: Supernatural/Horror. Shiro has made a decision, and he thinks he knows what he’s doing, until something Lance says throws it all into question.

"Shiro, where are you going?"

Lance's voice, soft and plaintive. Shiro froze in the middle of packing the shuttle pod. Slowly, he backed out of the cargo compartment and turned around. Lance stood there in the middle of the hangar, hands jammed under his armpits and shoulders hunched. Even from this distance, Shiro could tell that he was starting to tear up.

Shiro swallowed. This wasn't what he wanted. He had fully intended to skip out of the castle in the middle of the night, only Keith aware of why he was going and where. He'd already been through this whole conversation, all the questions, all the justifications, the anger from Keith, the contrition from Shiro only matched by his stubbornness. He didn't want to have this conversation a second time with Lance.

Apparently the universe wasn't going to give him his way, though, because here was the Blue Paladin, shivering in the middle of the cold, empty space of the castle's hangar and trying not to cry. At least Keith hadn't shed any tears. Not where Shiro could see them, anyway.

Shiro closed his eyes for a moment, resigning himself, then carefully moved over to where Lance stood. He tried to keep a distance, though every instinct in his body screamed for him to put a hand on Lance's shoulder, brush away his tears, hug him. Just something, anything, to stop his pain. But he didn't dare. He couldn't make this any harder, not for himself and not for Lance.

Lance looked into his face, eyes moving back and forth as if reading his expression. Then he slumped, a sigh releasing from his mouth. "No, you don't have to answer me. I know why you're leaving, even if I don't know where you're going."

Shiro blinked. "You do?"

Lance nodded. He pulled one hand out from his armpit, rolled into a fist, and knuckled at his eye. "You think you can't be here anymore. You think it's too dangerous. But you can, Shiro. You can be here. You should be here. This is the best place for you, no matter what you think." He grimaced and bared his teeth, frustrated determination in every line of his body.

Shiro bit his lip. "You know about the tests."

"Yeah." Lance rubbed at his other eye, but the tears kept coming. "I'm Hunk and Pidge's rubber duck when they're having trouble figuring something out. I can't offer anything to the conversation, not really, but they can bounce ideas off me. I heard everything, even though I didn't understand ninety-five percent of it."

Shiro inched closer, inexorably drawn by that miserable undercurrent in Lance's voice. "You don't give yourself enough credit," he said softly. "You understand enough to ask good questions. You make them think more, in different directions, and it's good for them. I've seen you do it. You're not stupid, Lance."

Lance shook his head, lowered toward his chest, then raised it to look into Shiro's face again. Tears were streaming down both cheeks now. He'd stopped trying to wipe them away. "I know." Bitterness in his voice. "I figured out you would be here, didn't I?"

Shiro grimaced and took a step back. "I'm sorry."

"Don't go." Desperation, now. "Please, Shiro. Don't go. We'll figure something out."

Shiro had to hold on to his purpose. "I'm not just leaving to leave, buddy. There's something I have to do."

Lance tilted his head.

He pointed back to the cockpit. "I have all the data from Lotor. All of the labs and secret stashes Haggar's been keeping. It would be a waste of Voltron's time to track them down, not when you have so many other things to worry about. Planets to defend, people to save, a war to fight. I'm going to find out what's going on. Probably most of them will be dead ends, like the lab where we found that clone who couldn't brathe, but if I find anything, I'll call for back-up. Allura and Keith have both agreed."

Lance stared into his face. "Why didn't you discuss this with the team, then? Let us all talk about your plans, make a decision together?"

Shiro had to look away. He could hear Lance clenching his teeth.

"Because you just decided, didn't you. You decided you had to go. And then you told them."

Shiro looked back at him. He nodded.

Lance stepped closer. "Then take me with you."

Shiro's heart melted. "Oh, Lance."

Another step. "Please. Don't go alone. I can't...we can't lose you again."

"Buddy..." Shiro slumped.

"They can find another paladin. They've done it before."

Shiro shook his head, helpless. He couldn't keep his distance any longer. Before Lance reached him, he reached back, grabbed his shoulders, pulled him in. Lance shuddered in his arms.

"Lance." Shiro held him close. "You are not replaceable. I can't take you away from the team."

Lance buried his nose in his shoulder and mumbled his words there. "I know you're worried that you might be a clone."

Shiro froze. He couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't speak.

"You think that's why you dreamed about floating in pink liquid, right? Because maybe you're a clone, too." Lance's arms wrapped around his rib cage and squeezed him tight. "But you aren't. I know you aren't. You're Shiro. You've always been Shiro."

"Lance..." He could barely breathe. No, it had never crossed his mind that he could be a clone, too. Why not? It should have. Why had he never had that thought for himself? Why had it taken Lance to connect the dots for him?

"You're my hero," Lance whispered. "Since before I met you, since that day in Keith's shack, since you came back the second time. You've always been my hero. You still are. You're Shiro. I'm sure of it. You might be a little messed up in the head, a little scrambled, but you are. You're you."

"Kiddo..." Shiro held his shoulders and pushed him back, and Lance reluctantly let go, let himself be propelled until he stood separate again. He looked into Shiro's face, sniffling, seconds away from bawling. Shiro's voice went even more soft, more tender. "Thank you, Lance. I really appreciate it. I appreciate everything you've done for me. But I have to go. I have to make sure."

Resignation poured over Lance's expressive face. He nodded, then stepped back out of Shiro's grip and buried his face in his hands.

Shiro patted the top of his head. "I'll be back. For the third time. The last time. I promise."

"You'd better," Lance mumbled, but there was heat in it, too.

Shiro smiled, bittersweet and soft. Then he left.

He traveled to secret labs and worn-down warehouses, abandoned and broken and dead. He founds the remnants of experiments and research from centuries ago, millennia ago.

He found other replicas of himself, all with some sort of fatal flaw. A heart that didn't beat, that had arrythmia, limbs that had grown twisted or hadn't grown at all. Mouths that babbled like infants or were sewn shut. Eyes that didn't see or saw too much. Minds that were shattered. All floating in pink liquid, all twisted and useless and left to rot. He grew used to watching his own face dying in his arms or on the floor or in patchy, washed-out video recordings.

His heart became numb to horror, but never numb enough. This was his punishment for allowing himself to be captured and used. This was his penance for putting his team in danger, however unwitting. This was the burden he accepted so no one else would have to bear it.

He killed Galra soldiers, took down sentries, shot out laser turrets. Occasionally he joined with local rebels, sometimes even with Matt, to take down fortified targets. More often, he needed nothing more than himself and the weapon Haggar had built into his arm. He was the cancer she had created, returning to tear apart her body of work from within. He liked the metaphor. He liked it very much.

Everywhere he found data, he stripped out the more horrific elements and sent it back to Voltron. He kept in sporadic communication with Matt and Pidge, sometimes Hunk, more rarely Keith and Lance. He didn't want to taint them.

Because now that Lance had implanted the idea, he could not stop turning it over in his mind. Maybe he was a clone, too. Maybe he was a spy Haggar had sent to infiltrate Voltron, but somehow he had failed. Maybe he had been abandoned by her, too.

He could think of several instances since his second capture when he could have caused the team serious injury or even death. Always a judgment call, always something someone had argued against, but he got his way because he was the Black Paladin and everyone trusted him. Telling Keith to take a hit, telling Allura to hold back at a crucial moment. Telling them stay on the surface of Naxcella, waiting to see what would happen.

Shiro went cold when he remembered that moment. His decision could have killed them all. Would have, if not for Allura's unexpected surge of magical strength pulling them away from the doomed planet by brute force and raw power. Even then, they still might have died if Lotor had not thwarted Haggar's plan at the last moment. Lotor might have foiled Haggar's designs in more ways than he knew.

Maybe that was why Pidge and Hunk and Matt couldn't find anything wrong with Shiro's arm--because it wasn't the original. It was a copy, lesser and reduced, just like himself. Maybe that was why he hadn't been able to unlock Black's greater powers since the battle in which he'd disappeared. Maybe that was why he had been reluctant to wield the black bayard, because on some level he knew it wouldn't work for him.

Shiro didn't know if he was a clone. He was no longer certain one way or the other. And that was the most damning thing of all. He didn't know.

Maybe he would find the answer somewhere along this journey. Maybe he would know for sure eventually, one way or the other. Maybe in one of these hidden stashes, he would find the original Shiro hidden away, rescue him, bring him home. Or perhaps he would find incontrovertible proof that he was the original, and then he could breathe a sigh of relief and keep his promise to Lance.

Until that moment, he would keep searching.

#voltron legendary defender #my stuff #platonicvldweek #leader of the pride #he my babu

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magmawrites · 7 years

Text

A Hairy Situation

The next few one-shots might be about certain anxieties the different members of the space family might feel. It'll be centered around Pidge of course but everyone should remember that even defenders of the universe have insecurities. This one is about Keith and Pidge.

The Times They Remembered Pidge Was a Girl

One-Shot 5: A Hairy Situation

(FF | | AO3)

"Take cover!"

Through the chaos Pidge couldn't even pinpoint who screamed those words but she took them to heart and scrambled across tiled floors, taking shelter behind a large pillar. She crouched down low, breathing heavily as shots from the enemy continued to fire around her, creating spider web cracks across the floor to ceiling windows several yards in front of her.

Someone slammed into her and she almost sent a shock of electricity through them before she realized the armor wasn't grey and purple but red and white.

"Keith!"

"Sorry," he huffed, yanking her back behind the enormous column just as a laser splintered the floor right where her head had been. "Didn't realize you were hiding here." Keith hunkered low beside her, his armor looking damaged and frayed, blackened with soot and gunpowder, and Pidge was sure hers was looking the same.

"This isn't good," she said, wincing as the ceiling started to crumble around them, sending up clouds of smoke and pellets of rock and stone. "I don't know how much more damage this building can take."

Keith hunched over close to her, raising his arms as if he was going to embrace her in order to block small pieces of concrete from landing on her head. The other Paladins were shouting in their ears through their helmet, letting them know they made it safely outside.

"They were closer to the doors," Pidge said with a sigh. "At least they made it. If we wanted to make it out the same way we'd have to blast through an army."

"And we have no time to wait," Keith said grudgingly. The floor trembled when a large pipe fell from above. Columns were crumbling and the enemy fire continued- and it wouldn't stop. These were robots shooting at them and they were disposable to the enemy. Pidge briefly thought of Rover. She didn't think they were disposable but-

"Pidge, we have to go," Keith said, standing up.

The green Paladin glanced around the collapsing column, ducking back just as quick when a laser streaked against the edge of her helmet.

"Okay, let's go."

The building rumbled as debris continued to fall. The two Paladins ran, jumping over stone and exposed piping as the enemies continued to shoot at them. Pidge could feel heat radiating from shots that made it too close. They ran towards the glass window as it continued to crack under the stress of the falling building and the bullet holes scattered across its surface. She could see their reflections, jagged lines cutting through their bodies as bits of the window started to fracture- but most of her attention was on the large body of grey and purple closing in on them like a large wave at sea-

"Keep close, Pidge!" she heard Keith shout.

But then there was only a hot, bright light and a sharp pain in her head as she was thrown to the floor.

"Pidge!"

Her helmet flew off, cracked and broken, sizzling from the laser that made contact. Pidge groaned, her sight going fuzzy and the sounds of fighting around her muffling. Not good. She groped for her useless helmet. It did its job. Her head hurt- she hissed. Hurt badly. But she felt no wetness. She wasn't bleeding. But that didn't mean she was out of danger. Just as her fingers wrapped around the cracked metal of her helmet she felt someone yank her to her feet.

"Don't put it on," Keith said, practically dragging her to the glass. "Hold on to me."

She did what she was told almost mechanically. Trust her fellow Paladins. She couldn't think straight right now, the pain was too much-

A shatter-

Free fall-

Her hair whipped through the air briefly before Keith wrapped himself around her, pressing her against his chest, his arms securely cushioning her exposed head. He turned mid-flight and his back made contact with the ground and air rushed out of him-

"Are you okay?" she managed to say, rolling off him.

"Are you?" he asked, struggling to his knees. "Your head-"

"A bit better now," she said, coughing as dust billowed around them. The building continued to crumble. Still she felt that constant pressure- that warmth and intensity-

"Fire," Keith said, as if reading her mind. "We have to go. It'll blow-"

"Yeah," she said, head still spinning. She got up, stumbling before Keith leaned down, throwing her arm over his shoulders as he wrapped his around her waist.

"Let's go."

He took it slow for her but she could feel the urgency. There were smaller explosions behind them sending heat waves as little pieces of flaming wreckage flew past them. Pidge heard Keith talking to someone, surely the other Paladin's, but she found it hard to focus. She couldn't take another hit like that to the head- even in her condition she knew that much.

The ground rolled and the air seemed to still for a second before-

The explosion was so loud she heard nothing and they both rocketed to the floor and she felt fire-

"Shit, shit-"

She felt Keiths hands on her body- patting frantically-

"What-"

"Don't move," he said through clenched teeth. A few seconds passed and she could smell smoke and char as the ground burned beside them.

And in the distance she heard roars.

"You're riding with me," Keith said, hauling her up as the rest of the Paladin's arrived. "I don't trust you to drive your lion right now."

"Don't baby me," she managed to lace together.

She thought she saw Keith smile.

"I still smell smoke," Pidge said, coughing violently as she slumped beside the red lions console. She looked up as Keith navigated back to the castleship.

"Yeah," he started grimly. "That's probably our armor. Or your…"

Pidge narrowed her eyes. The way he trailed off-

"My what?"

Keith glanced down at her briefly, hesitating.

"My what, Keith?"

She didn't get it. Was she dying? No way. Where's her helmet anyway? Oh. In her lap. Man, her head was spinning. Coran was going to kill her for damaging the suit.

Her thoughts were a jumbled mess and she tucked her head against her legs, wrapping her arms around her knees, trying to lessen the throbbing pain.

"What a fun mission, huh?" she said sarcastically, voice muffled against her suit.

Keith was silent.

Her head hurt too much to think about it.

They walked through the castle halls silently and slowly some time after all the Paladins returned and recuperated a bit. Coran saw to her major injuries but everyone was strangely quiet. The boys- her boys were extremely apologetic and though they didn't say anything she could tell they felt guilty for leaving her and Keith inside. There was nothing they could do though, she told them that. There was no other option.

Keith was silent throughout the whole ordeal. He didn't even rise to Lance's bait when the blue Paladin started teasing the two. Keith was a constant presence around her for the next couple of hours, which was strange at first but she understood. She turned the corner and he kept pace with her, which she appreciated. There was a slight tension in his jaw, as if he were clenching his teeth and his movements were stiff. She could tell he was concerned. In his own way.

"Are you going to follow me around all day?" Pidge asked, the corner of her mouth lifting upwards.

"I'm not following you," Keith said, sounding slightly flustered. Pidge smiled some more.

"You were acting weird on the lion."

"Because your head is probably all scrambled," he retorted.

"I got shot," she defended fiercely, feeling guilty immediately afterwards because the look that wracked the red Paladin's face clearly indicated he felt guilty as well. "I'm fine," she added in a lousy attempt to placate him.

"I should take you to a healing pod," Keith said.

"I have to fix my armor." Keith sighed, stopping in his tracks. Pidge stopped a few feet ahead. "What?"

"What if you have a concussion or something?" Keith asked, a strangled look on his face.

"I'm fine," she insisted. "Coran said so."

"You could barely form a coherent sentence!" he said heatedly.

Pidge grumbled, frustrated. "Are you going to fight with me when I'm injured?" she asked slyly.

Keith groaned, irritated. "That's why I'm telling you to go heal."

"Only if you tell me what you were talking about before," she pried. Keith grabbed her roughly by the arm, pulling her through the halls. "Keith!"

He stopped her in front of a shiny door, their aggravated faces staring back at them. Her eyes narrowed to her hair…or what was left of it.

Her fingers moved deftly to caress the charred ends of her brown locks.

"I was afraid you were going to die," Keith admitted softly. "You were shot- when your helmet flew off I thought-" he stopped. They stood together in silence; his eyebrows knit together- a pained expression on his face. "And then the explosion- Pidge, you're lucky the only thing that burned was part of your hair."

She almost didn't hear him. She continued to touch the hardened ends. Then she noticed the distraught look on his face and she cleared her throat.

"You're right," she said, alittle too chipper. "It's only a little bit. Not a big deal, Keith!" She clamped his shoulder comfortingly.

"Pidge-"

"You're right," she repeated. "I'll let Coran know I might take up the healing pod offer. I'll see you around."

With that she left.

It was too blunt and abrupt even for him. He was left feeling worse than before. She tried to console him. Keith felt sick. He felt like he was trying to run miles and miles without covering any distance at all.

"Don't put it on," he had told her. Her helmet was a hazard but he told her not to put it on.

Guilt is a monster that doesn't go away.

Pidge sat on her bed later that night, eying herself in a small handheld mirror with an ever-present frown on her face as that days events flashed through her mind. When they returned to the castle everyone treated her normally- well as normally as they do after a tough battle. Before all this she had been considering trying to grow her hair out again. She hadn't made much progress but now it looked like she was back to square one. Pidge swallowed, glaring at her reflection when someone knocked on her door.

She sighed, dropping the mirror onto her pillow as she walked sluggishly to the door, counting on her fingers. "No, Coran, I don't need any more time in the healing pod. No, Hunk, I don't need help fixing my helmet. No, Lance, I have no dirt for you. Keith didn't say or do anything embarrassing. No, Shiro, you don't have to worry- I'm fine. No, Allura, I don't want any hair advice-"

"It's Keith."

Pidge stopped at the door. "Oh."

"And I have hair advice."

Pidge raised an eyebrow, allowing the door to slide open. "Oh?" she asked, arms crossed. Keith stood there, looking distinctly ruffled. "Did you run a marathon?" she asked, snickering in her hands.

"No," he said, making his way inside without waiting for the invite. "I searched the whole castleship looking for you."

"Why didn't you just come to my room?" she asked, closing the door behind her.

"Are you kidding? You sleep everywhere but your room," Keith exaggerated, taking in his surroundings. He nudged aside some device on the ground she must have been tinkering with at some point.

Pidge shrugged. "Okay, you got me there. So, what's up?" Keith turned to face her, holding up scissors. Pidge held up her hands in defiance. "I know I annoyed you today but you really came to kill me?" she asked.

Keith looked confused. "What? No, I'm here to cut your hair."

Pidge touched the burned strands carefully. "Um."

"Why would you think that?" Keith implored, slightly offended.

Pidge just laughed. "You really didn't have to come."

"You're room is a mess," he said, ignoring her statement.

"It's not a mess," she said, affronted "It's organized in a way only I know."

"You have random gears lying around-"

"Organized."

Keith rolled his eyes. "Whatever, come here," he said, taking a seat on her bed.

She sat on the floor in front of him, no questions asked, picking at some wires she had lying around. "So why are you here?" she mumbled.

"To cut your hair," he repeated, taking hold of some of her brown locks so gently she almost didn't notice.

"But why?"

Keith was silent for a while.

"Because you were upset," he stated simply. With a steady snip she watched bits of her charred hair fall around her. "You looked…very upset."

"You looked upset," she said, pouting. Keith snorted. She picked up a strand off the floor, twirling it between two fingers.

They fell into comfortable silence for a while, just the steady snip of the scissors echoing in her room.

"Sometimes I miss my long hair," she finally admitted. Keith said nothing but a slight pause in his trim told her he was listening. "I mean I cut it short for a reason. To figure out what happened to my family, you know?" she sighed. "I could grow it longer but it's just more convenient now, being a Paladin and all. But sometimes…I don't know."

Keith ran a comb through her hair and she briefly wondered when he pulled it out.

"Your hair doesn't define you," he said. "And it looks fine. It was just the ends."

"I know," she muttered. She laughed quietly. "Your hair might be longer than mine."

"Here," Keith said, leaning over her and handing her her discarded mirror.

Pidge glanced at her newly trimmed hair, letting her fingers run against the soft ends.

"Thanks, Keith," she said, angling the mirror so she could see his face. He smiled at her and she knew this was for both of them. All monsters could be slain. "Thank you."

Pidge spoke again later. "You're sweeping up the hair off my floor you know."

Authors Note:

What cuties.

I had this written up for a long, long time but never got to looking it over. I need an editor lol. Been busy getting stuff ready for med school (but also just been lazy tbh).

Anyway I had a lot of fun exploring Keith and Pidge's relationship. Big brother Keith. This is all supposed to be strictly platonic fyi lol but I mean interpret it however you want ig

Next might be either Hunk and Pidge or Shiro and Pidge.

I am at a COMPLETE loss for what to do with Lance, Coran, and Allura. What insecurities could Pidge have that I can connect to them? SOS. Help wanted! Willing to pay with praise and gratitude.

-Magma

#pidge #keith #voltron fanfic #voltron #vld #vld fanfic #magma writes #the times they remembered pidge was a girl #magma speaks #big brother keith? yessir #my writing

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