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damn-stark · 2 months

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Chapter 25 Blood, dragons, curses, and black holes

Chapter 25 of Sugar

A/N- *EVIL LAUGH*

Warning- Swearing, ANGST!!, fluff, spoilers, violence, death, blood and gore, SLOW BURN, heavy pining, long chapter

Pairing- Choso x Gojo!fem-reader, Suguru Geto x Gojo!fem-reader

Takes place during- Chapter 203-208 of the manga

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

————

*2 DAYS AGO. ITALY*

It’s early in the morning and the knock on the door is persistent and echoing.

Who could it be Belinda wondered. Some early bird neighbor needing something from her mother, or a neighbor coming to inform her that the sheep escaped the pen again. Whatever it is she hopes it’s quick business, it’s too early to deal with anything.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she lets the early morning visitor know as she approaches the door.

Another loud knock proceeds to rap on the door, letting her know that whoever it is is annoying. “I said I’m going,” she hisses before she finally grabs the doorknob and throws the door open, welcoming the sight of…Suguru Geto.

Only this isn’t the Suguru Geto she knew, that man died last year. This is the man you warned her about, and the reason why she and Satori are so far from home, this is the imposter, Kenjaku.

��No,” she snaps and slams the door shut, making sure to lock it before she runs to give her time to counter with her technique. Which she knows won’t kill him, he’s a lot stronger than she is, but it will grant her time to go upstairs to take Satori and escape.

She just needs to hide. Which is annoying but she needs the element of surprise to be able to touch him and use her technique.

“Belinda,” Kenjaku calls out calmly as he easily breaks the lock and opens the door. “Let’s not make things hard. Let’s not scare the girl.”

Belinda leaves her palm open and bends her legs a bit as she hears Kenjaku approaching her hiding spot. She holds her breath as his footsteps sound closer, and nervously clenches her jaw.

However, just before she can be discovered, his footsteps begin to recede. She’s tempted to check, but she can’t be that foolish, she stays still instead.

“I don’t want to kill you, just let me take the girl,” Kenjaku interjects from the large hall at the entrance.

He’s walking away from the staircase that leads to the second floor where Satori is, so Belinda has a chance to run to the stairs.

“You have an illusion technique,” Kenjaku shares what he knows from the memories of Suguru Geto. “But you need to touch me for it to work. So come out you don’t have the element of surprise,” he speaks quietly, making sure not to be loud so as to not wake up Satori and stir up trouble.

She would prefer it the same way though, you and her haven't told Satori that some old sorcerer is using her father's body to avoid traumatizing her, but right now that doesn’t matter. Belinda needs to wake Satori up so she can find out. She'll be very confused but she’ll trust what she has to say about it and she’ll resist Kenjaku.

Thus without wasting another second she grabs the vase on the stand across from her and slams it against the mirror to make a loud enough noise that can reach the second floor and startle Satori awake.

It does alert Kenjaku of where she is, however, but it’s worth the risk.

Or she thought it was because just as Kenjaku retraces his footsteps back across the hall, he shoots out a curse ahead of him that floats through the wall behind Belinda.

Yet before the curse can catch the woman off guard, the hairs on the back of her neck rise, alerting her of something creeping up behind her; so she takes a big step forward and spins around to face the curse she just felt.

Albeit when she faces the wall the curse is gone. She can’t even feel its presence.

“Belinda?!” Satori’s voice echoes down the staircase, assuring her that her sudden plan is working.

“Satori!” Belinda calls back with panic so the girl can know to hurry. “Come down quick honey!”

There’s a moment of silence before she hears small hurried patters on the floor above. Belinda moves her leg to run to the stairs and reach Satori to warn her of the impersonator, but then, just as she was going to break into a sprint, claws dig into her ankles.

She opens her mouth to scream, but a hand then slams around her mouth and she’s yanked down into the jaw of the curse jumping out the shattered mirror, ending her life in an instant and without making a sound.

“Belinda?” Satori calls out fearfully.

“Come,” a mocking voice lures Satori out as the curse transforms into a mirrored version of Belinda.

Without an ounce of hesitation or doubt Satori approaches the hall. But before she can round the corner the Tiger Cursed spirit bonded to her appears first and instantly picks up on the curse impersonating Belinda, and begins to growl.

Kenjaku could exorcize it since he can't take it back because of the bond with the girl. But then the girl would know something’s wrong, so instead he takes a risk and takes back the curse under his command. After all, the tiger-cursed spirit can’t see into the soul, it doesn’t see that it’s not actually Suguru Geto, so it immediately drops its guard now that it’s just Kenjaku.

But now in regards to the girl, it’s a gamble without Belinda. She could see right through him like you had, or not, it's a tricky situation, but it’s a risk he’s willing to take. So when Satori rounds the corner and sees the man she was told died last year, he sticks on his best Suguru Geto smile.

“Hello, Satori,” Kenjaku greets the little girl with a feigned warm smile on his face that was too small when it came to seeing Satori, and without using any pet names that Suguru would have used after being apart from his daughter for so long.

However, the little girl proves him right, she can't tell the difference like you would have, she just sees the man she loved and missed every day. She sees her family coming together again after being broken for so long.

“Daddy?!” She exclaims shakily as her emotions get the best of her.

“I’ve been gone I know,” he says and doesn’t crouch to welcome her in his embrace, he just unfolds his arms and waits for her shock to pass.

“I hope you’re not upset,” he adds and with that, Satori breaks away from her spot and runs to him to throw her arms around him.

“I missed you so much,” she sobs.

Kenjaku is playing a part for now so he finally crouches down and returns the embrace. “I know, I’m sorry,” he coos. “I missed you too.”

“Where have you been?” She asks as she clutches onto him. “Why did mommy say you were dead?”

So many questions, but he keeps his patience and avoids the question by giving her an assuring response. “It doesn’t matter now. All that matters is you, and your mother, whom we’re going to surprise. Do you like that idea? Do you think she’ll like it?”

Satori pulls back and flashes him a grin. “Of course she will, but she’s not here,” she says without a hint of suspicion. “She’s back home.”

Kenjaku smirks and nods. “I know. We’re going to her.”

——

*NOW*

“Are you ready?” Kenjaku doesn’t ask Choso across from him, he knew you were watching and listening, so the question was directed at you.

“Somethings entering the barrier,” Tengen announces.

You would follow with a what, but your anticipation traps your question in your throat, and instead, you get the answer to your unspoken question when Suguru’s four-winged pelican cursed spirit breaks through the barrier and enters the arena, meaning what?

Why did Kenjaku make it fly in after him?

You step closer to the screen overlooking the arena and nervously watch the Pelican open its mouth.

You almost want to close your eyes because you can’t handle the anticipation of waiting to see what Kenjaku came with, but you stay strong and watch closely with your heart running wild in the most terrible way before it suddenly stops and every sound and every sight around you disappears when you see that Kenjaku snuck in your daughter with him.

Who you’re seeing is Satori…

It’s your little girl.

But why? He doesn’t need her for anything. She has a technique but it’s not a rare one, he doesn’t need her. Unless…it’s to torment you. Is he using her to get to you?

Yes, he is doing that. He wouldn’t have taken time out of his scheming for nothing. And of course, she fell for his tricks, she doesn’t know any better, you didn’t tell her that some curse user is using her father's body for his technique. She’s too young, you didn’t want to dump trauma on her if you didn’t have to. You were just trying to spare her so she could have a good childhood, you were trying to keep her safe. It’s what Suguru wanted too. But now…Kenjaku’s brought her here without her Tiger-cursed spirit assigned to protect her, or Belinda—which must mean she’s dead. She wouldn’t have let him take Satori if she was alive.

Kenjaku killed Belinda to trick Satori and bring her here. He’s using your little girl and dangling her right in front of you.

And it works, who would you be if you don’t try to step out to take her from his grasp? You can’t lose her.

“Y/N?” Yuki calls out cautiously as she watches you numbly staring at the screen.

You blink and break from your stupor to turn and stomp towards Tengen. “Let me out,” you command with authority and angry and fearful tears welling in your eyes. “Let me out right now.”

Tengen stands their ground and raises its ugly head higher. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. I can’t risk our plan just yet,” they dare to tell your fuming spirit enraging over Satori’s current position. It’s like they were intentionally taunting a protective bear guarding its children.

“What the hell do you mean?” You sneer, but not in a loud voice, it’s low and threatening. One you use against your enemies. “She’s just a little girl! She’s my little girl! So you will let me out to get to her or Kenjaku won’t be the one to find your pathetic body.”

“Y/N,” Yuki warns, earning her to get your glare pierced into her now.

Yet before she could try and calm you down, you hear Choso’s voice a bit softer than before. “Satori.”

You snap your eyes toward the screen and watch as Choso drops his previous threatening stance and softens his glare to get your daughters' trust.

“You have to come with me, okay? That is not your father.”

You feel a stinging pain at the fact that someone else has to be the one to break it to her instead of you. All because you just wanted to spare her.

“Uh,” Satori laughs nervously and does as you predicted; she grabs onto Kenjaku’s arm and shifts closer to him now that she’s actually seeing Choso in person and not behind the safety of a screen—“you’re silly,” she retorts. “This is my daddy.”

“Tengen,” you plead softer and more desperate now. “Please, I’m begging you, please let me get out there. Please. She needs me.”

“Y/N I know you’re scared, trust me I feel for you I care for that little girl too,” Yuki tries to comfort you. “But you have to trust Choso right now. We can’t risk you going out there and getting killed.”

As if she just betrayed you with those words, you snap your eyes at her and shoot her a menacing glare clouded with tears. However, you don’t get to tell her anything because the scene behind the screen continues to play.

“Let the girl go, Kenjaku,” Choso snarls, making you clasp your hands together and keep them close to your pounding heart. “Your fight is with me, not her. Let her go.”

A teasing smirk tugs on Kenjaku’s lips, enraging Choso and causing him to throw his arms out again to shoot piercing blood. Albeit, Kenjaku is quick and yanks Satori in front of him to let Choso know that Satori is expandable to him.

Choso quickly takes note of that and luckily doesn’t think the same way, even if he’s boiling over and grown more impatient now because of Kenjaku using your daughter, he drops his stance again and keeps his distance.

“Tell y/n to come out,” Kenjaku speaks loudly so you can hear clearly too. “I have a little something for her here.” He smirks.

“Tengen,” you become threatening again. “I. Said. To. Let. Me. Out.”

You take a step forward to look up at them with a scowl. “Let me out!” You exclaim and push them back. “Let me out!”

Tengen hears your desperation and the shakiness in your voice, but they don’t budge, not yet.

“Satori,” Choso calls out again and you look at the screen with more tears in your eyes. “I can take you to your mother.”

Satori faces Choso and begins to smile, but not for the reasons either of you wanted. She tugs Kenjaku’s sleeve, and to keep up his act for now, he leans down to listen to what she whispers in his ear that has her grinning and glancing at Choso.

“Ah is he now,” Kenjaku interjects in a fake soft voice as he too looks over at Choso. “Then,” he says louder and stands up to his given height. “He can bring your mother out here, considering you’re her friend.”

Choso huffs and holds Kenjaku’s playful gaze before he scoffs and takes a careful step forward to look back at Satori and continue reaching out for her. “Satori, I can take you to your mother and she will explain everything, but you have to let go of that man. He’s evil and he’s not your father.”

Sartori’s eyebrows slowly furrow as she begins to glare at Choso. “Stop,” she snaps at him. “You’re being mean.”

She steps back and grabs onto Kenjaku with both hands now. “Daddy, I want to go see my mom.”

“I know what y/n can do,” Kenjaku adds and pulls Satori back to make her harder to get to. “And I know her ultimate weakness, which is ridiculous if you ask me.” He scoffs. “But I digress. I want her here or else she can watch what remains of her family…well…” he trails off so as to not alert Satori, and you gasp in fear, while Choso’s lip curls out of anger from his father's threat, but he doesn’t snap back at him.

“Satori,” Choso continues, and your stress continues to ache your heart—“your mother would have told you if your father was alive. You know that. And he would have gone back to you a lot sooner. But he didn’t. And I know I didn’t know your father, but your mother says he loved you, he would’ve returned home a lot sooner. This is not him.”

The anger in Satori’s eyes flickers and confusion slowly begins to spread over her facial features. “Well…” she trails out and takes one glance around as if trying to find you amongst the nothingness of the arena. “Daddy was sick. He said so…right Daddy? That’s why you have that on your head.”

You grab onto your chest as you feel it get heavy, making it hard to breathe.

“That’s right, Satori,” he continues not to say the pet names Suguru would so easily say, especially when it came to comforting her.

“Please,” you mewl to Tengen even if you keep your eyes glued to the screen.

“Satori, your father is dead,” Choso reminds your daughter as she slowly edges towards believing him. “This man is a monster pretending to be him to hurt your mother. You have to come to me.”

Satori let’s one of Kenjaku’s hands go, causing him to open his other hand to slowly summon a curse out of the ground beneath his palm.

“Daddy wouldn’t hurt my mom,” Satori whispers as if trying to remind herself of the fact.

“I know you don’t know me,” Choso continues to try and win over your daughter as kindly as he could. “But I know your mother. Y/N is…my best friend. Okay?”

Your heart leaps at the mention and you unconsciously step close to the screen as if you were trying to reach them.

“Come on baby,” you whisper under your breath even though you too begin to prepare to attack Tengen so they can let you out.

“Your mother would have told you,” Choso keeps insisting and takes a step forward to Satori. “And they would have picked you up together. This is not your father, this man is a monster.”

“Don’t believe him,” Kenjaku argues. “He’s trying to trick you and wants to take you from me.”

Choso groans and Satori begins to pout while her brown eyes start to glisten with tears. “I’m scared,” her voice quivers. “I want my mommy. Daddy, I want to go to my mom.”

“She need only come out,” Kenjaku makes no effort to give Satori what she wants, or tries to take away her fear by comforting her with an explanation she’d understand at her young age.

“Y/N,” Kenjaku taunts mockingly, making Satori look at him with growing suspicion.

“It’s okay, it’ll be okay,” Choso tries to comfort Satori from where he is in a way he thinks you would. “Just come and I’ll protect you until I can take you to your mother.”

Satori stares at Choso for a long moment as her mind spins, making your heart weep at the sight of her confusion and the thought that this will probably now be a core memory and taint in the image she has of her actual father. Yet you do also feel…reassured and hopeful that Choso is choosing to risk his life to help your daughter. He could have just let things be and waited for Kenjaku to get what he wanted, but Choso is choosing to help your daughter, and…that heightens the desire you already felt for him.

And you say a bit right now because of the stress of the situation, otherwise you would have been over the moon.

“Satori,” Choso presses kindly so as to not scare her more than she already is. “You can trust me. I wouldn't hurt you because that would hurt your mother. And I would never do that. Never.”

“Satori,” Kenjaku continues to confuse her.

However, Satori knows Choso is right about the fact that hurting her would hurt you, but she still wants to believe that the man she’s holding onto is the father who loved her since she was born, that he was the one who was always so sweet and promised to love her forever. She missed him dearly and she doesn’t want to let go of him, even if he doesn’t look the same as last year or act the same way.

“I want to go to my mom now,” she asks for you again since you are her only form of reliable comfort, but she still looks to Kenjaku out of hope that Choso is wrong. Yet when she looks over she sees a curse coming out of a dark portal even though to her, there’s no need for violence. She told Kenjaku that Choso was your friend. Plus she was here to surprise you, why would her father choose to fight? He wouldn’t…

You see the trouble running behind her glistening eyes and feel the tempting urge to burn this place down just to be able to reach her. You don’t care about plans anymore, or care to be patient. You bask your fists with fire and twist your head towards Tengen with a glare that could kill.

“Daddy?” You hear Satori call for reassurance, but all she sees is an intimidating look on his face now, a scary look that Suguru never showed in front of her. So that finally makes her let go to try and go to Choso.

However, just as she slips her hand away, Kenjaku grips onto Satori harshly, making her whimper and shed the tears that had been dancing in her eyes.

“You’re hurting me!” She cries out, triggering you to enrage your flames.

Alas, Yuki lunges over and takes you by the arms to turn you away from Tengen. “Just wait,” she snaps at you.

“How the hell do you want me to wait?!” You exclaim.

“Kenjaku let her go!” Choso snarls, forcing you to pay attention back to the screen and see him curl his fists to get ready to attack now.

“I'm done waiting. And I’m done playing with you,” Kenjaku directs at Satori sharply. “Bring y/n out or—”

Before he can finish his threat a long sword made from Satori’s cursed technique pierces through his jaw, shutting him up, and making his grip loosen enough that Satori slips away and runs to Choso, the only person she can trust at the moment.

Choso notices her right away and takes no time to break into a sprint toward her to catch her before Kenjaku can counter.

All while your flames are out, and your nails are digging in Yuki’s arms as you watch what’s unfolding with your heart in your throat, and your breaths getting heavy as you start to heave as it gets harder to breathe with how utterly useless you feel just watching your daughter from afar. You want to be the one running to help her. You want to be down there comforting her, but instead, you’re here, watching her as she picks up her pace and puts her arms out to reach for a man she barely knows, but chose to trust.

You have to watch as Choso chooses to slide down on his feet as he gets closer to Satori to reach her faster. And you have to hold your breath when Choso wraps his arms around Satori, and Kenjaku throws his curse at the pair at the same time.

“Tengen!” You cry out desperately and let Yuki go.

Choso then shields the back of Satori’s head as she clings onto him, and twists around to hastily pull Satori off and put her down.

“It’s going to be okay,” he assures and puts his hands together to get ready to attack the curse getting closer. “You’re going to your mother now.”

Satori holds her hands and before she can question Choso, suddenly the floor beneath her falls piece by piece, bringing her down towards a darkness that swallows her whole in a blink of an eye, and then spits her out in a large white room where the first thing she sees is you.

“Satori,” you greet her first, making her cry out of relief before you both run to each other and meet halfway with an embrace.

“Mommy!” She cries on your shoulder and holds onto you tightly. “I was so scared.”

You finally draw in a deep and relieved breath and begin to caress the back of her head. “I know baby girl, but I’m here now. You’re safe. You’re okay.”

Satori nuzzles her face against the crook of your neck, and you hug her tighter before you look at Tengen with a soft smile. “Thank you,” you mouth.

Tengen offers you a nod and turns away to face the screen, while you let Satori keep hugging you and feel no regret for the way you acted. Any second longer and you would have pushed through Yuki and torched the place until Tengen dropped you into that arena. You don’t apologize for your anger because to you it’s justified, especially when it comes to your children. They actually should feel lucky that you trusted Choso enough to wait or else you wouldn’t have been so nice as to be patient.

“Mommy,” Satori says shakily while she refuses to let go.

“Yes?” You probe and glance at the screen as Satori takes her time to gather her thoughts, and nervously swallow thickly when you see Kenjaku throw a slab of cement at Choso.

“Why was daddy—who…” she trails off in confusion, and even though you want to keep watching the fight, for now, you give all your attention to your daughter.

“That wasn’t your dad, Satori,” you tell her without waiting for her to finish whilst you pull back to face her tear-streaked face. “Choso was right, that man was only pretending. He stole your dad's body, it’s not him. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before either.”

Satori slides her arms off your neck and begins to fiddle with her fingers as she processes once again what she’s hearing, but actually takes to heart this time since it’s coming from you.

“Your dad loved you, your dad was never mean to you, and he never ever would be, do you understand? That isn’t your dad, even if he looks like him, that man with stitches isn’t your dad.”

More tears roll off her cheeks and you’re quick to wipe them off and grab her arms to press what she needs to know for her own sake. “I know it’s hard to hear, but I need you to understand that they’re not the same person. It’s like if Daddy had an evil clone, okay? They look the same, but they’re not.”

“But can daddy come back now?” Satori asks hopefully. “Can he return if we get that evil sorcerer out of Daddy’s body?”

Your heart breaks at the sight of her hopeful little face and the fact that you have to make her even more sad. “No, baby he can’t.”

Satori’s lip trembles, but she fights so hard not to cry this time, she instead wipes the other tears off her face before she looks at the screen. When you follow her line of gaze you see Choso’s blood raining over him and his father.

“Tell me,” you catch him saying as he wipes his mouth. “What do you want from Yuji? You have something else in mind, unlike us, whom you’ve neglected for 150 years. What are you plotting?” He asks, piquing your interest to the point you begin to stand to your given height to watch the screen better as if that helped listening whatsoever.

“Actually,” Kenjaku answers, which doesn’t surprise you one bit. “He doesn’t have a specific role. You could say being a vessel is his role and that’s already in place. Yuji Itadori…” he sighs almost proudly. “Is like a fire signaling the start. As long as he and Sukuna are alive the chain of curses will never end. He’s the eye of the storm of the new age.”

Chills crawl down your spine. Chills born out of…fear of what was just said. You always knew Sukuna being reincarnated was never a good thing, it was the start of bad things, but for Kenjaku to explain Itadori this way has a way of raising the hairs on your arms.

Is this why he’s so strong, so different? Because of what he’s meant to be?

“So your friend Choso has to fight dad—this man,” Satori interjects and turns away from the screen, while you keep your eyes glued on Choso as he shoots another piercing blood at Kenjaku.

“Well,” you explain with your attention on Kenjaku as he of course dodges the blood to make it hit the tree behind him—“I do too. That’s why Yuki, Tengen, and I are here. We’re going to fight him to kill him and rid this world of his evil spirit.”

“Hm,” Satori hums in comprehension but takes time to think everything through and try to wrap her mind around, well, everything.

“As long as Yuji’s alive?” Choso retorts spitefully before he spats, “no. As long as you’re alive, Noritoshi Kamo!” He bellows with fury. “You’re the root of all happiness!! In no way is it Yuji!!”

A faint awe-struck smile tugs on your lips as you see his rage for Kenjaku and the loyalty to his brother.

“So,” Satori speaks up quietly. “You’re going to get rid of him to give Daddy’s body peace?”

You snap your eyes off the screen and miss the curses that surprise Choso from under him and wrap around his legs.

“Yes,” you praise Satori with a proud smile. “I will get rid of Kenjaku to give Daddy’s body peace.”

A faint smile tugs on your daughter's face, making your heart feel at ease that she’s understanding better than you thought she would.

You really underestimated her.

“Do you have any questions?” You ask now that you’re focused on her. “About Kenjaku, the man in your dad's body? Or about what’s going on?”

Satori takes no time to glance back at Tengen before she gets closer to you to whisper, “why does that thing look like that?”

You snicker and whisper back. “First, that's not polite, and second, that’s Tengen. You remember when Dad and I talked about Tengen?”

Satori steps back and takes a second before her face perks up and she nods. “Yes! Oh, now I get it. They’re like, super old.”

“Hm.” You hum softly, and as you watch her eyes study the plain room and bounce on the screen, your face falls as you grow serious.

“Satori listen,” you interject in a soft but serious tone she immediately understood was not to tease. “Soon Yuki and I will go out there to fight Kenjaku.” You sigh and pull out your phone to put it in her hands. “Tengen will keep you safe here, but the fight will conclude one way or another. And when it does, Tengen will release the barriers and they will leave you on school grounds. Do you understand?”

Satori grows nervous as she puts the phone away and nods hesitantly.

But you can’t reassure her, she understood what you said, and understood the seriousness of what it means to be a sorcerer. You never wanted that for her at such an early age, but you didn’t want her to be naive in this cruel world either.

“And when they do,” you continue and grab her arms so she can focus on what you’re adding. “I may or may not be with you. If I'm not then I need you to climb a tree, you’re a good climber.” You assure her of that. “You wait for me there. If you see me you can climb down unless me or Yuki find you first, but if neither of those things happens in 5 minutes, then you go inside the school. Inside uncle Satoru’s classroom or anywhere you know, and you call Uncle Larue to pick you up. Do you understand?”

Satori nods right away, so you press her just so she understands. “Repeat it.”

Satori groans but does as you say. “Climb a tree if you’re not with me when this all goes down. Wait for 5 minutes and if I don’t see you, or if you or Auntie Yuki don’t find me then—what if your friend Choso finds me? Or if I see him?”

You sigh and smile softly. “Then you can go with him. But still, call Larue.”

Satori nods in comprehension before she continues. “Anyway, if that doesn’t happen I will hide inside and call Uncle Larue to pick me up.” She finishes and raises a questioning brow. “It's right, yes?”

You squeeze her cheeks and nod. “Yes, good job.”

She groans and swats your hand away. However, you don’t move away, you stay close and crouch to be at her level. “I love you to the moon and never back.” You remind her just in case the worst happens.

She realizes what it means, she detected the sorrow, she saw the heartache in your eyes, and she knew from past experience. Only this time she doesn’t fight you to stay like she did last year, she throws her arms around you and holds onto you tightly.

“I love you too mama,” she coos.

Tears fill your eyes again, but this time it’s out of fear of leaving her alone. No matter how much you understand that death can happen and that if it came down to it you’d sacrifice yourself, it will never be easy saying goodbye or thinking of her future without you.

“But you’ll make it,” she tries to assure you. “I know you can. You’re strong.”

You can’t help but cry softly before you press a kiss on the side of her head and pull back to admire her little face that reminds you of Suguru every day.

“Satori Geto,” Tengen calls in their casual voice, but Satori doesn’t know the difference so her shoulders jump and she looks at you frightened.

“Y-yes,” she doesn’t hesitate to respond while she slowly turns to face them as she grabs onto your arm. “Master Tengen?”

Tengen reaches in their portal and pulls out the back gate needed to get Satoru out of his prison.

“You’ll be needing this,” Tengen tells Satori and gets close to her to hand her the box she looks at with curiosity.

“What is it?” She probes and shakes the box.

“It’s the back gate for Satoru’s prison,” you let her know.

Satori’s lips tug to a happy smile and she pulls the box closer to her face as if trying to look inside it. “He’s in this little thing?” She asks.

You shake your head. “No, but we need that to get him out, so,” you add seriously once again. “If your Uncle Larue ends up picking you up today, you call Shoko and tell her what you have, okay? Just her. She’ll go pick it up. Do you understand?”

Satori hugs the back gate against her and nods.

You caress the back of her head and watch her for a lingering minute before you whisper, “okay, good. Now,” you trail off and stand to your given height.

As you face the screen again you immediately go stiff and feel your nerves knotting your stomach as you see the horror of Kenjaku’s foot pressing Choso’s face down on the ground with so much force that the ground is cracking.

“What do you know about my little brothers?” Choso growls as he side-eyes his father standing so proudly above him.

“Aw,” Kenjaku mocks Choso. “Did I offend you? I had high expectations, so I’m greatly disappointed. Be happy you got me to say that much.”

Choso grinds his teeth out of rage and manages to twist over and grab Kenjaku’s ankle, catching him by surprise.

Unfortunately, it’s not enough because Kenjaku quickly counters by kicking his foot out of Choso’s grasp, and slams a long terrifying curse at him from a portal beneath his foot that Choso can’t swerve, or hit, he’s stuck, and because of that it consumes him.

You can’t see him, all there is is the long black tentacles of the curse. You try to squint your eyes as you quickly scan the area for Choso, hoping he somehow escaped, but you just end up gasping, and feeling your eyes widen as your heart pumps so hard that you can hear it pulsing in your ears because you can’t see him.

It makes you want to act now, go out there and help him, but you also knew it wasn’t time yet, even if both your mind and heart work together to start yelling at your muscles to move.

“Do you know what the rank special grade signifies?” Kenjaku exclaims nonchalantly as the curse continues moving through the air until it finally shows you Choso when it slams on the ground with no robe or vest. His hair is down, and his torso and face are scraped, and red from fresh forming bruises. He's missing a hand and bleeding from the mouth, but what’s worse, what’s more horrifying is that he isn’t moving.

“The ability to single-handedly overthrow nations,” Kenjaku continues calmly while he returns the curse back to his portal. “That’s obviously true for the Gojo siblings. Which, heh, any sorcerer parent should be proud of. Not only one, but two special grade offspring’s.” He grins maniacally. “My life would be different if you and your siblings had turned out that way, but nevertheless, Suguru Geto can also…”

His words trail off in your ears as all you can focus on now is Choso and the fact that he’s still not moving.

“Come on,” you plead shakily and can’t keep your throat and eyes from burning as you’re overwhelmed with the need to cry. “Please…”

He…he can’t be dead. Kenjaku wouldn’t be running his mouth if he was, right?

Right?

But what if he doesn’t care if he is, you wouldn't put it past him to talk to the corpse of his eldest son to get his point across. He’s psycho like that. So what if Choso is dead?

He can’t be dead though. He can’t. Anything but that….

Please, he needs to wake up. Please…

“Let me go help him,” you say shakily without thinking.

“No, not yet,” Yuki doesn’t take the time or hold back from denying you of the need to go feel his heartbeat to assure yourself that he isn’t dead, and stop yourself from feeling…that emptiness again...

A minor reason you turned Choso down was because you didn’t want to feel the cold and isolating emptiness again, but as you see him lying on the ground unmoving, that cold emptiness is crawling back to plague your heart and soul. You can feel the numbing agony contaminating you like a life-threatening illness and turning your once hopeful future, bleak, as a future without him in your life flashes in your eyes.

Which is actually a revelation of heart-rushing, and extraordinary mind-altering feelings that aren’t new. They're no stranger, you’ve felt it before, so you can immediately identify what you feel, and grow even more terrified.

“Come on,” you whisper and then hold your breath in as you wait, and try to bring him back to life mentally. Which is useless, but you can’t go over there. You can’t be there to help him, so you push from where you are.

Until suddenly blood explodes out an outstanding amount from where Choso had been.

“Younger brothers of the death painting wombs!! Fire! You hear his voice enraged and full of motivation, and you finally breathe.

You hadn’t even noticed you holding your breath in, that’s how intense your fear overwhelmed you. But he’s standing now, he’s hurt, but he’s okay and you can breathe normally and ease your body from its tense hold. Yet you still are left with that new realization that shifts something inside you.

“Yeah!” Choso bellows as he watches the sky with his lips trembling, and blood gathering over his palm. “I got this!” He exclaims and suddenly bends his feet before he claps his hands to shoot out piercing blood.

“Piercing blood’s initial velocity is its top speed,” Kenjaku interjects before he dodges the strike. “So if you dodge it once even if the trajectory is altered, it’s not so scary.”

He keeps dodging, making the ground he left behind explode as it gets hit with piercing blood instead.

Choso doesn’t get discouraged though, instead, he fills with more confidence, or so it seems, and tries something different it seems. It’s nothing you’ve seen him do before. This technique is different, graceful in a way, whereas his other techniques are rougher.

With this new technique, a blood circle forms behind him, and multiple wings form around it. When Choso strikes with blood, it grows out from the circle like ribbons and strikes Kenjaku in the shape of a giant crimson wing that he of course swerves. But Choso…he sprints at him in a magnificent form.

Or does it only seem that way because of how mouth-watering he looks at the moment with his hair down, and his torso and muscular arms exposed?

In your time spent living together he’s never been shirtless, he’s shown his arms, but he’s never been without a shirt, and now that he is. Now that you see how his toned chest and muscles glisten with sweat, you grow hot and excited.

Your fear for his life still does linger, it mixes with your pleasure, and quickens the pace of your already racing heart, especially because Kenjaku blocks his vision with a curse to rush to the tree and wait there as Choso gets attacked by long curses with blades on their heads he can’t escape from

Choso gets hit and his arm gets stabbed, causing you to nervously clench your fists and step forward.

Thankfully though, he excorizes the curses with his technique and proves to his father that he’s a lot stronger than he’s giving him credit for by using something different once again. It leaves you even more awe-struck.

“Like Eso, I must fight with grace! Like Kechizu I must fight freely!” He shouts, growing chills down your spine, especially as he rips her forearm out from his arm and uses his blood to shoot it out and finally grab Kenjaku by the collar.

“Yes!” You celebrate out loud and clap your hands together, earning the attention of Yuki, and when you peer back you see Satori look up from the movie she was watching on your phone.

You don’t apologize though, you smirk as you watch Choso yank his father toward him and then slam him on the ground.

“And like Yuji, I must fight with power!!!” Choso cries out, and you realize that perhaps you celebrated too early because after Choso connects his arms back together and swings his fist, Kenjaku blocks him using a curse.

“Are you finished?” Kenjaku retorts, seeming completely unfazed.

“What do you think?!” Choso exclaims, but Kenjaku escapes from under him and responds as he’s running back.

“As I said, it lacks the requisite speed and force.”

If that was you fighting him now and he kept averting you, you’d be beyond pissed. You can already imagine how Choso must feel.

“How disappointing,” Kenjaku spats, going unaware of the blood trail surrounding him and parts of it rising until it reaches his eye level.

“Supernova!” Choso triggers his technique, making all the blood explode around Kenjaku. Only none of the blood hits him, the blood explodes and destroys almost all the slab of cement he was on except for a small piece he’s on. That piece of cement has puncture holes, but he’s unharmed…how?

There’s no explanation to Kenjaku’s trick except for…a different cursed technique. He didn’t use curses, and there’s no technique you know that can do what he just did. So the bastard is using a different technique!

“You just used something besides cursed manipulation!” Choso realizes what you just did.

“It’s time to go y/n,” Yuki finally announces the next step of the plan.

You don’t argue, you peer over your shoulder and throw Satori a quick comment over your shoulder. “I’m going now. Tengen will keep you safe. And remember what you have to do, okay, Chipmunk?”

Satori's eyes water now but she tries to be brave and nods in comprehension. “I love you, Mommy,” she warms your heart.

“I love you too,” you leave her with that sweet reminder before you follow Yuki out into the arena.

“I may be an only child, but good work big brother!” Yuki announces her entrance. And you just shoot Kenjaku a menacing smirk.

“Tsukumo,” Choso mutters. “Y/N.”

You snap your eyes over to him and feel your face soften even if you hear him panting and see how exhausted he looks. “Good job, you put up a good fight, Choso,” you praise him and steal a glance at his exposed torso, causing yourself to swallow thickly.

“Now leave the rest to us,” Yuki adds for you and throws him a thumbs up and a wink.

Choso hums and glances at you one more time to offer you a soft nod before he can’t help but shut his eyes and lose balance. Instead of hitting the ground though, Tengen pulls him out of the arena and you watch him until the moment the ground transforms back to what it was, and every trace of the portal Choso fell through is gone.

“I like the rough type,” Yuki announces because it's some kickstart to her motivation. Or so you assume, she tends to announce that sometimes before she fights—“you on the other hand I’ll have to beat into shape!” She exclaims and clenches her fists to the point the veins on her arms pop out.

“You,” you sneer and point your chin at Kenjaku. “How dare you use my daughter. Who do you think you are?”

A smirk tugs on his lips, making you curl your lips to a scowl and narrow your gaze to a cold deadly glare. “I’ll enjoy killing you,” you growl and fist your hands, making the dragon mark on your arm glow brightly as the flames lick your flesh and veins before fire leaks out from both arms and basks them completely, adding to your intimidating anger.

“I think I’ll keep you both at a distance,” Kenjaku shares and raises his hand as a portal rips open behind him, letting out a large special-grade curse, and telling you what to attack with first.

“I bet that cursed spirit isn’t from around here,” Yuki unveils information from Kenjaku, while you slowly stalk around him to get into the perfect position.

“It’s an Asian divine curse for removing obstacles,” Yuki adds, and Kenjaku nods.

“Yes, it’s a special grade cursed spirit that uses concepts against cursed technique targets,” he of course doesn’t hesitate to share. “Let’s see what you got.”

It has four large arms and towers several feet above Kenjaku. It’s fucking huge, which only surprises you because Kenjaku really wasted no time collecting such threatening curses, and Suguru spent all his life trying to collect them.

“You know,” you interject as you come to a stop at his left side. “It’s a shame you never loved your children Kenjaku.”

Said man rolls his eyes and scoffs as if you just said something completely stupid.

“If you did, you would know how great they really are.” Your voice grows colder and more threatening as a burning fever rushes through your veins. “You would know that you can learn a thing or two from your children.”

“Please,” he tries to brush you off, but in the blink of an eye, an immense amount of cursed energy explodes out of you and basks you completely as if you were caught on fire. Which is the same way you saw Hakari do it a few times.

“Supreme Art,” you announce and slowly show off a menacing smile. “Hellspawn.”

Kenjaku’s face twists with surprise before he shifts his body right away to prepare for an attack.

Yet all that happens is the breeze turns to speeding winds that start to cut his flesh. The ground begins to tremble, making cracks form on the ground. And water begins to leak out from the cracks.

“Is that it?” Kenjaku scoffs.

His question gets answered right away with the sound of a rageful roar erupting in the sky, causing Kenjaku to stiffen and fix his glare on the clouds behind you.

Since Suguru never knew of your Supreme Art Technique, Kenjaku is caught off guard by the giant frightening dragon that descends from the clouds and quickly darkens everything around you with its shadow as it flies towards Kenjaku’s cursed spirit.

He quickly tries to counter using his curse, but without getting close, the dragon rains fire down, passing over you without fear and consuming everything in its path with flames, leaving nothing but smoke from the cursed spirit.

Unfortunately, Kenjaku was quick to use other cursed spirits to protect himself from flames that could have killed him or left him severely crippled.

Yet no curses save him from the multiple-headed sea beast that forms from water on the ground, and water born out of nothing. It doesn’t even get to finish forming before its thick slimy tail wraps around him and throws him up to blast him with heavy piercing water that shoots him up into the sky, leaving him dazed due to the water that finds its way inside his lungs and drowns him from the inside.

Much to your misfortune though, he doesn't drown to death, he quickly recovers before it all goes dark. But he’s then welcomed by the sight of the dragon flying at him with its jaw open to show off the fire filling its mouth, so Kenjaku quickly summons a flying curse that gets him out of your dragon's aim and returns him to the ground.

Albeit when his feet hit the ground he’s met by another beast. This one stands tall and growls like an aggressive dog. He tries to look back to see what is breathing down his neck, but he only gets a peek at six piercing green eyes before a large tail made from rocks and dirt slams into him and slings him across the arena right to Yuki.

“Scared to get near an unknown technique?” Yuki spats as she reels her fist back. “Then I’ll fill you in. Its mass,” she reveals and meets Kenjaku's face with a heavy hit that sends him flying back through a barrier.

“Yep!! That’s my technique!” Yuki adds proudly. “I give myself virtual mass and call it Star Rage! And my technique turned the Shikigami Garuda into a cursed tool! It’s Star Rage’s only target besides me!”

You creep towards the gap in the barrier, and the dragon and three-headed hound born from your Supreme Art technique follow close behind like guardians.

“I see!” Kenjaku’s voice echoes out before he emerges out of the dark-covered gap completely healed and with his clothes ripped thanks to you.

“Mythical Beasts born from each element is your supreme art, hmph,” he chuckles and quickly studies each of your beasts; The Hydra with beautiful glimmering deep blue scales, and nine heads with long slithering necks. The majestic dragon with a long red body and a jaw with hundreds of sharp teeth. And lastly, he looks at the only beast actually made out of its element, the three-headed hellhound. There’s only one missing though.

“One beast is missing.” He points out.

You smirk and retort, “I’m right here.” Before you throw out wind shaped in a sharp line that cuts through the ground, but only scrapes his side as he swerves your move and pisses you off.

Why can’t he fight back? He keeps dodging!

“Fucker,” you grimace and send every beast in tune with your rage to run at Kenjaku as you keep you throwing razor-sharp wind at him.

However, he doesn’t move or try to clash your beasts with his curses, he dodges your moves as he stays where he is and looks between you and your master standing nearby in silence. Which means nothing good. Nothing good at all. He's too quiet, too still.

He can’t be thinking of opening his domain, could he? It’s too soon. Way too soon...

So you have no other option, you break into a sprint and follow your beasts towards him with a howling wind gathering to your hands. You don’t get close but you get ready to shoot.

Nevertheless, when his eyes snap to you and you lock eyes, he interlaces his fingers together and proves you right.

“We find each other's cursed techniques to be tricky,” he breaks his silence. “But neither of you have opened your domain. Perhaps you lack confidence in a clash of domains.”

Shit, shit, shit!

You come to a skidding stop, and make your beasts disappear to focus on one thing. A countermeasure.

“Tengen!” Yuki bellows.

The timing is off, but you have to adapt.

“Domain expansion, womb profusion,” Kenjaku chants, and right away multiple cursed spirit heads grow out behind him like a messed up tree.

“Secret art, Falling blossom emotion!” You counter his domain and get basked by a blue hue and protected by a secret art that only the three big families are taught. You’ve barely had to use it throughout your years. Mostly you’ve kept it in the back of your head to be forgotten, but you’re glad you never actually forgot it, or else right now who knows what would be the repercussions of being hit by Kenjaku’s domain.

Yuki though, you see that she isn’t as lucky. She uses a simple domain, but that’s too weak and not as fortified as your technique. Kenjaku notices that.

“Do you think that technique can withstand my domain?” He remarks.

“Hurry the hell up Tengen!” You shout as you see how much more of Yuki's domain is eaten away.

You’ll attack him…

Albeit that will barely do a thing in his domain, and it won’t spare Yuki from getting hurt, plus you’ll risk losing your protection—But Tengen is taking too long. Damn!

You don’t have a choice, you continue to run at him and prepare your fists with fire and air, while you start breaking a piece of the ground.

“Ah, I see,” Kenjaku comments nonchalantly as his domain begins to slowly break apart. “An old maneuver from a shut-in.”

“Tengen I'm not like you. I have lived,” Kenjaku roars and starts to cackle. “A thousand years! Of conflicts! And alliances! A cursed world!”

You get closer to him so you hop off your feet to jump towards him. But it’s too late, Yuki's hit and you’re thrown back by the ground erupting because of his domain seconds before Tengen finally dispels the domain and the empty barrier.

However, thanks to your last-minute technique you’re protected. You can’t say the same for Yuki when you see her splayed on the ground with blood staining her body, and an arm twisted and crushed. She almost looks dead and that stops you from acting or moving for a second out of fear until you notice Garuda still active above her.

“But it’s too late!” Kenjaku’s voice booms, making you look over and see him heading to Yuki without batting an eye your way. Which is logical, she’s the heavy hitter, but you came out unscathed, you’re his threat while she recovers.

“A fight with your domain may have not led to such a poor conclusion,” he goes on whilst you get up on your feet and trudge towards him without him hearing. “You shouldn’t have relied on him. Tengen has hidden something from you. The culling games—“

He cuts himself off as he finally notices Garuda in all his yapping, and figures out that Yuki isn’t unconscious like he thought she was as he just casually passed her. So he turns to look at her, but instead, he finds you now behind him completely unharmed by his domain.

“I told you that you’d pay,” you grimace, and claw your hand on his face to slam him on the ground and scrape him along the cement as you manipulate the air to let you hover a few inches off the ground and fly forward at a quick speed.

He does quickly squirm, and tries to kick and hit you, but you push him further down into the ground and move faster along the ground. It’s not until he throws a curse at your face that you let go because you didn’t expect it. However, you envelop your fist with fire and punch right through it as Kenjaku is pushing himself to his feet.

Thus before he can collect himself and counter, you strip off a piece of the ground and hurl him back with it. You then proceed to catch him by surprise as you crush through the slab of the ground to grab him from the back of his head and by his face to once again run him against the ground.

He tries to distract you by pulling out a curse from a portal under his palm, but you do something you don’t really like doing because it stings, you blow fire out of your mouth and exorcize the curse instantly, leaving Kenjaku a bit surprised, but not enough to keep his mouth shut. It’s hanging off a thread because of the cement tearing at his flesh but he still attempts to talk.

“You know—”

“Shut up,” you hiss and pull the fire to your hand to burn his face and hopefully weaken him or kill him. Not for the sake of protecting Tengen, or their plan, but because Kenjaku used your daughter, he tricked her. You have a thirst for revenge because he locked your brother away in a prison realm, and because he’s using Suguru’s body. You need to kill him—no, want to kill him because he’s the reason why Mimiko and Nanako are dead. He’s the reason Nanami died.

He’s taken so much from you, he’s given you so much pain and changed your life completely. You can’t let him take more, you can’t let him live, and you won’t know true peace until he’s dead.

He needs to die. He has to die.

“Just die already!” You cry out with your voice quivering in anger and despair and stop scraping him along the ground to start punching him in the face over and over again with your fists imbued with flames.

Yet perhaps your blinding rage was a mistake. You acted out the needs of your heart instead of also listening to logic, so he finds a small opening and presses his hand on your stomach. And you’re so lost in your anger that you don’t feel his touch, you only catch his actions when you feel sharp teeth shredding at your skin.

When you let go and stumble back just like he wanted you to do, you look down and see a curse trying to eat its way through you to demolish your source of cursed energy.

“I got to say,” Kenjaku sounds muffled whilst he heals the wounds you made him. “You surprised me there.”

You wrap your hand around the curse and easily burn it to smoke before it can start tearing through your flesh.

But that was his plan, wasn’t it? Distract you to get away?

But that’s where he’s wrong, he might’ve escaped you, but he walks back right into Yuki struggling to stay on her feet.

Which is pretty stupid, she should heal herself at least a bit so he doesn’t have the chance to finish her off. But she stays as wounded as she is and greets Kenjaku with a knee to his face as her Garuda wraps around his waist and holds him in place with its strength.

You expect her to quickly follow with another hit, but she falls on one knee and pukes out blood.

“Yuki,” you mutter between pants.

“You must’ve thought you surprised me, Tsukumo,” Kenjaku interjects as he finishes healing his face and his side that you completely obliterated on the ground. “But isn’t there a better way of doing this?”

As if to answer his question, Choso finally emerges and catches Kenjaku off guard, making you and Yuki grin mischievously before she adds to Garuda’s mass and pulls Kenjaku down.

The ground beneath his feet crumbles due to the heavy mass so you manipulate the pieces and wrap them around his legs to trap him in place, while Choso lands in front of him already in position to strike.

“Are you watching, my little brothers? It’s parent-killing time!” Choso exclaims and manages to shoot his piercing blood right in the center of Kenjaku’s head.

Albeit, it’s not enough…it’s not fucking enough! His stitches just rip apart and his skull cap spins over his head.

“Damn it!” You sneer and step back as he snaps his eyes up and taunts all three of you.

“Don’t sweat it!”

You clench your jaw and he flashes a malice smile as he stitches his skullcap back on.

“Things are getting interesting, fallen warrior!” Yuki shouts before she swings her leg and slams her foot across his face, causing him to stumble back toward you, so you quickly follow by throwing him a right hook with a sharp blast of wind.

Yuki then tries to kick him again, but he blocks her attack. In doing so, letting Choso slam his elbow right on his hands. You proceed to not waste any time or let him think, you swing your leg and slash him with fire, making him groan and stumble back towards Yuki’s swing.

Albeit he blocks that, but leaves himself open to you throwing him an uppercut with a piece of cement you ripped off the ground.

“Tsukumo, heal up!” Choso suggests—no he demands her while Kenjaku is dazed due to the chain of hits you all gave him.

But—wait!

“Yuki!” You try to warn her, but you caught on too late, she heals and Kenjaku finds the right moment to escape out of Garuda’s hold while Yuki is using RCT, and backflips away from the cage the three of you made with your bodies.

“You won’t win!” You snap at him and throw your hand down to form a water whip in your hand.

Kenjaku flashes you a smirk, and you respond by smacking him across the face so hard teeth fly out of his mouth and a gash forms on his cheek. You proceed to be relentless and form another water whip on your other hand to wrap it around his throat and give yourself stability to jump and use your feet to shove a whirlwind at his torso.

“Garuda!” Yuki proclaims and follows your move by swinging Garuda's heavy body on the ground so hard it crumbles beneath the four of you, and throws Kenjaku in the air.

Choso notices and shoots another blood arrow, however, Kenjaku serves by using his gravity technique, or so you predict that’s what it is because there’s no other explanation for him suddenly landing on the ground so fast and so hard.

“Get around him!” Choso tells you.

You spare him a glance and manage to meet his eyes burning with rage, and can’t help yourself from smirking. It’s such terrible timing, but seeing him be so enraged, and seeing every perfectly carved muscle gleaming with sweat, you just can’t help yourself, your desire burns for him. Even more so now after your realization.

But you also know your place at the current moment, so all your emotions are conveyed in a smirk that he catches and returns.

“You’ve done spectacular,” he finds the need to tell you in the rush of the moment.

“You too,” you quickly redirect and let your gazes linger on each other a second longer before you rush around Kenjaku, and Choso lunges at him; while Yuki pulls Garuda back again, and swings down with all her might, and with great mass behind her swing…

Nevertheless, Kenjaku uses his gravity technique and manages to yank Garuda out of Yuki's grasp to pin it down, whilst he also slams Choso to the ground beside his feet. Leaving both indisposable.

You on the other hand, you seem to have been away from his radius, you missed being brought down, so you’re left with an opening to pull off something that will wear down your technique for quite some time, but you have to do it. You can’t let him win, he plans to spread too much evil, he’s taken too much…

Suguru’s body, Nanako and Mimiko, Nanami, and Satoru. He’s hurt you too much.

“Choso is right…” you mutter between pants as you start to manipulate the wind to spin around your legs and pick yourself off the ground little by little as the wind spins rapidly, forming a tornado. “…you are the root of all unhappiness. You’ve taken so much from me.”

Kenjaku watches you float up as the tornado gains height and width. He sees fire gleam under your skin as it pours out of your palms and fingertips and then spins around you. He watches the water from the ground slither up like a snake lost in a trance before it too begins to spin around you. Lastly, pieces of the ground shoot up and add another spinning ring around you, letting him know right away what you want to do thanks to Suguru’s memories.

“You’ll die,” he points out smugly.

“You first,” your voice booms.

Kenjaku can’t escape this wrath, so he prepares himself instead by reaching into his belt before your tornado consumes him.

“This…won’t…be my…end,” Kenjaku strains to say as the high winds of the tornado make it hard for him to breathe. “You…gah,” he grunts as sharp pieces of rock cut him. “Will…not…be…my…end!”

You smirk. “We’ll see about that,” you sneer before you furl in a deep breath and bring the spinning wind, water, fire, and earth toward your palms to blast it all out at him with a cry fueled with rage and agony.

He tries to use the simple domain technique, but all your elements quickly demolish that, making him try to protect himself with curses. He wishes he didn’t have to waste them on you, but his skin is burning even if he uses multiple curses to take the impact, his bones are breaking and crumbling, and his eyes are shredding leaving him blind.

He has a small window of time to counterattack, at least with something that will make you drop this technique.

He could also wait for the blood to run down your nose as you grow weak, but you add more pressure and your fire burns hotter so you’re not dying out anytime soon. Thus, while you’re blinded by your motivation and rage, he pulls out a higher-grade curse he didn’t want to waste just yet, but it takes the impact of your elements just enough to sneak around you and surprise you by piercing something sharp through your back.

“What,” you murmur and lose control of your elements right away, bringing forth a stillness that fills with a deafening silence before Yuki's voice rips through the arena.

“Y/N!”

With nothing holding you up, with no strength to manipulate any element to soften your blow, you hit the ground fast and hard while Kenjaku uses a curse to land softly on the ground.

“Y/N?!” You hear Choso cry out.

You can’t die yet. Not yet…

But you can’t reach back to pull out the blade pierced through your back either, so you can’t heal. No matter how hard you try you can’t feel that technique rushing through your veins.

All you do feel is warm and thick blood oozing out of your wound.

“Heartsbane,” Kenjaku reveals what was lodged through your back. “It was given to you by your father so you could kill Suguru Geto 11 years ago—“

“What did you do?!” Choso demands to know as he watches you paralyzed on the ground. “Y/N?”

“I’m getting there,” Kenjaku sasses Choso while you hear him walk toward you. “Anyway, you didn’t kill him, obviously. And then you tried to use it on me, but you failed. I took it that day when I saw what it was and now,” he chuckles. “How funny is it to see it stabbed through you? The very weapon you were supposed to kill Geto with is killing you.”

You slap your hand on the ground and crane your head up, seeing him start to heal himself from the wounds you inflicted on him.

He won’t heal completely, but it’s enough to still fight.

“It’s poetry really.”

You grimace, and he counters with a sly smirk before he stops before you.

“No! Y/N move!” Choso yells at you desperately.

But you can’t. You want to, you’re straining yourself, but you can’t.

“Noritoshi Kamo!” Choso growls.

“Pathetic, you really are human,” Kenjaku remarks to Choso nonchalantly, but he still means it as an insult.

You then muster all the strength you can and look back at Yuki to ask her for one thing using only one shaky word. “Please.”

She didn’t need elaboration, she knew you pleaded for her to protect Satori until she could get Satoru out.

“I will,” she mouths to assure you.

You let out a shaky sigh and manage to tug on a faint smile.

“Y/N?!”

You drag your head up and meet Choso’s angry but pleading eyes, and give him a warm smile before Kenjaku uses his foot to push the knife deeper into you to the point the tip punctures your heart, bringing forth darkness.

This one is a lot more different than the one that took you when Kenjaku snapped your neck in Shibuya. This one was quick and didn’t leave you lingering hope that you could live. This darkness brought forth a quick sharp pain before death was finally given what it was owed, your life.

It’s not something that Choso accepted though, he saw your chest fall when death robbed you of your life-giving breath and refused to accept the cold truth because your eyes are still open.

“Y/N?!” He calls out desperately and fails to give a crap about his father right now. He waits for you to move. “Y/N?”

He watches your fire-kissed eyes to see them flicker, but you seem to be ignoring him.

“Y/N?” He calls out again and this time he doesn’t wait where he was left, he doesn’t have a lot of strength, and his body aches, but he uses all the strength he can gather and desperately crawls over to you while Yuki and Kenjaku fight.

When he reaches you he doesn’t think before he pulls the knife out of your back to be able to flip you around ever so gently and cradle you in his arms.

“Hey, y/n, I’m here. I’m right here, you’re okay. Just heal all right?” He talks to you not wanting to accept you’re merely a corpse now. “Just heal. Please,” he pleads shakily as tears fill his eyes and his heart is hit with something he’s never felt before, something agonizingly painful; despair. He’s tormented by it.

“We have to fight,” he whispers as he wipes the dirt off your face before he cradles your cheek to look into your eyes that had given him the beautiful gift of hope when his world was dark and empty. “You have to get out, your daughter will be waiting for you. Please. There’s something I have yet to tell you. Just please,” his voice quivers.

“Y/N,” he calls out and wants to reach over and feel your heart with hopes he’ll feel it beat, but his attention is then stolen by the fight across from him.

——

“Y/N.”

It’s dark, but you don’t need to see to recognize that voice. It’s soft, soothing, and not strained.

Can it be?

You peel your eyes open and immediately gasp when you see him…

A/N- Rest in peace love, rest in peace baby cakes, it’s a real shame you never got to see Henry Cavil’s Geralt of Rivia, it’s a real shame, you would have loved him. ALSO, DO YOU REALLY THINK WE'RE DONE WITH DESPERATE, GRIEVING, CHOSO?? *tucks hair behind ear* NO *IN DEMON VOICE* you have a week to prepare yourselves, that’s a warning!

Tagged- @deniseabad1928 @secondary-character-25 @starlightanyaaa @notsaelty @d4rno @moonnime @kodzukein @yozora7154 @heijihattorisgf @elegantweirdorchest

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damn-stark · 6 months

Text

Chapter 25 Be prepared

Chapter 25 of Moonlight

A/N- Long live the king?

Warning- Swearing, angst, talks of death, suggested SA, Aegon, violence, blood and SPOILERS for future events of HOTD!!!!

Pairing- Cregan Stark x Velaryon!fem-reader, Aemond Targaryen x Velaryon!fem-reader

Episode- After 1x09, events based off of Fire and Blood

(If you want to be tagged let me know)

————

“Aegon!” You exclaim and throw the doors open to his chambers.

Guards come after you after you barged in uninvited, but it’s already too late, Aegon notices you.

“Pardon, Your Grace,” a guard says and bows before his King. “We told her to wait—”

“It’s fine,” Aegon cuts the guard off. “She’s my wife, she may come and go as she please.”

You look at the guards and shoot them a cheeky smile as they walk away in defeat.

“What is it?” Aegon asks, making you look over at him and notice his mother is with him. You haven’t seen her at all since you came back, she’s been avoiding you and making sure to exclude you from meetings you should be at. But now that you see her though, you know that it was a good thing because even if you wanted to be petty and show off that you are the Queen and not someone of her choosing, that usual rage heightens tenfold, making you want to risk your plans and end all this now.

But, you need patience. You have a plan and people’s lives are on the line if you risk it all by killing them both right now.

“I need to tell you something,” you share with feigned excitement.

Aegon passes a pressing look to his mother but you quickly interject. “No, it’s fine she will want to hear this too.” You smile and walk over to him.

Alicent stays quiet and watches you with disdain; she doesn’t hide well. And you can’t blame her after what you did to Daeron.

“I talked to my handmaiden and she confirmed what I’ve suspected for a couple of weeks,” you smile with fake joy and crouch down to be at his level and grab his hands. “I am with child.”

It’s all a ruse, all you are is tired and bloated from your monthly bleed. He put it in but he basically had to shove it in or else he couldn’t get anything to work. Even then he was limp. But his ego and pride are so big that he’ll believe it worked.

“What?” He gasps.

“What?” Alicent gasps with horrified disbelief.

You grin at Aegon and nod. “Yes, it’s true. I mean It’s too early to get very excited but it’s true.”

“The maester confirmed this?” Alicent asks and steps forward.

You look up at her and drop your smile to glare at her. “No, I don’t trust maesters. My handmaiden confirmed it, that’s all I need.”

“Then you can’t be sure,” she argues.

You stand up and face her with confidence. “It is, I know it, she knows. Perhaps you want me to show you?”

“I believe her,” Aegon says in your defense, making you begin to slowly smirk. “She wouldn’t lie about this,” he adds, making his mother look at him with disbelief and annoyance.

“Y/N,” he says and looks at you. “You will be by my side all the time. I don't want to risk the child getting hurt.”

And there it is, exactly what you needed.

“But Aegon—”

“No,” Aegon cuts his mother off bluntly. “She’s probably carrying a boy. I can't risk losing my heir. And I don’t owe you an explanation. I’m your King.”

Alicent blinks in disbelief and you look at her smugly.

“Come, y/n, I have to show you the dragon egg I want to hatch,” he says and turns his chair, making you turn and smirk with pride.

He really felt for it. Every bit of that lie. Now onto the next step.

——

*A MONTH LATER*

All your life you have tried to avoid being a part of the cage that royal life put everyone in. Sometimes you did escape it and got to fly free, most of the time you took advantage of that liberty, of the way you let your heart lead your life, so now that you stand in a golden cage without any protector to open your cage for at least a few minutes, you’ve grown restless.

You behave though, you let Aegon take you everywhere, and you let him think he’s the one protecting you—or the fake child you came up with for the sake of your plan. All of the cats that serve him hate that you now attend council meetings, that you stand near him when he’s in the throne room, but you continue to behave and don’t say a peep. You’re a good wife, a behaving Queen, and a snarky daughter-in-law secretly trying to create tension between Aegon and Alicent.

She tries to work around it, she tries to tell Aegon how to control you, but he’s been too easy to fool. He thinks that in the past month, you’ve begun to warm up to him, that you’ve forgotten what he did that day on your name day to the woman you loved.

And perhaps you would’ve fallen in order and stayed in that golden cage, you’ve suffered too much pain and grief, but Aegon doesn’t know about your sleepless nights where you cover your ears to block out the screams your mind swears your mother let out. Aegon doesn’t know that you’ve failed your mother too many times to let what she died for lead to nothing. He doesn’t know your anger, and he doesn’t know about the promise you made her so many nights ago about protecting a kingdom from a threat he has no clue about.

That’s why you’re getting out of the golden cage yourself and setting everything ablaze. With the help of your new ally of course. And if it all goes as planned then by this time tomorrow the fire will rain down and the greens will come to an end once and for all.

Albeit…you feel like a swooning young maiden over the fact that you know nothing about this Martell prince that you’re set to marry and fight alongside.

“What if he’s fat and old?” You ask Baela nervously. “I always feared marrying an old fat man. What if this is him?”

“At least his Dornish,” Baela mentions, making you snap your eyes to her and push her gently to the side.

She snickers and leans over to grab your arm while you wait for Alyn Velaryon to sneak the Prince to shore before he can begin to sneak Dornish warriors inside the castle and the city dressed like Velaryon warriors.

And since the crown and this city needed more forces to protect them against incoming enemies they’re more than welcome. Which makes for an easy cover.

“Well,” Baela says and glances at the upcoming boat. “He’s written and his words are beautiful. That has to mean something, I mean has any man you’ve known written you poems?”

You shake your head. “No, the men I’ve been with have all preferred the sword over a pen,” you mention. “But that proves nothing, he can still be a well-versed old man.”

“I suppose, but there’s nothing you can do about it now, you break this alliance and this is a war we won’t win,” she says sternly.

You sigh and meet her gaze to nod. “I know more than you know.” You look back at the approaching boat and then look up at the stars and begin to wonder about Cregan.

He’s about two months away now, it’s said he has ten thousand men marching with him, some say 8 thousand, whatever it is he’s finally marching here. He’s probably stopped the march for the night, he’s probably breaking his head over battle plans or routes to take and avoid any potential danger. Or he’s looking up at the same stars.

You hope that’s the case, and you hope he thinks of you like you’re thinking of him.

You hope he understands the choices you made. You hope he understands that you couldn't let all the deaths, your mother's efforts and death, and all this bloodshed lead to nothing. You hope he understands that you can’t fail her anymore. Maybe if he hadn’t taken so long to join the war then you wouldn’t need to take such drastic measures, you would have followed your heart instead. But she died and so did that person you were.

“He’s coming,” Baela breaks you from your stupor.

You blink and look ahead, but all you see is Alyn standing up and men in Westerosie attire. Then again, it’s not like they can wear their clothes at the moment.

So which one is he? There’s an older man inside, and honestly, he’s not bad to look at, he’s got a strong jaw, and light brown eyes. But he doesn’t look princely.

There’s another man, younger, and with a shaved head, he wears scars over the bridge of his nose and a thin mustache, but he doesn’t give off that sense of royalty.

The other men are giving their backs so you can’t see their faces, only their tall figures. So the wondering makes your heart skip a beat.

“How does my hair look?” You ask Baela quietly.

“Very Valyrian,” she teases.

You roll your eyes.

“It looks nice,” she assures you. “Smells nice too.”

You smile at her and hear splashing in the water as the boat gets close to shore so you let your eyes linger on her.

“Baela!” You hear Alyn greet the woman he’s gotten close with during the war since she said she had traveled from Driftmark to Dragonstone often.

However, Baela doesn’t greet him in return, she stays put since she knows how significant this meeting is. She simply offers him a gentle smile. You take this to your advantage to grab onto her hand under your cloak as you finally look at the men reaching the shore.

And as you do you see a tall slender man leading the other men that had been on the boat. From what you can see with the firelight, his eyes are a dark brown that almost look black thanks to the night sky casted over the earth. He takes his hood off and shows off black short hair that looks soft. He bears no facial hair, his cheekbones are high, and his face is rather slim so it makes his jaw just perfectly sharp. His lips are pink and small. He’s…kind of beautiful in a way, and he looks rather young too so that’s a relief.

Here’s hoping his personality is just as beautiful.

“Your Grace,” he greets once he reaches you, and simply bows his head.

“Prince Namor,” you greet and curtsy. When you stand up straight you meet his brown eyes and he stares at you with his lips parted and his eyes widened just a bit as if he’s in disbelief.

“It’s an honor to have Dorne here,” you say kindly. “It was about time that our houses finally united.”

Prince Namor blinks and nods. “Yes,” he simply says. “We hope that you don’t disappoint us.”

You scoff softly. “That goes for you too. Then again I’m sure my dragon won’t mind,” you deadpan.

Prince Namor watches you for a moment, letting you think he’d get upset, but he looks back at his people with his lips pulling into a smile. When he looks at you again he smiles at the ground, letting you move on with relief.

“This is my cousin, Lady Baela Targaryen,” you introduce her. “Her dragon is the one that you probably saw flying over the fleet.”

“Ah, yes,” he says with an accent. “Very beautiful dragon indeed. It is nice to meet you Lady Baela, Ser Alyn has been spoken so fondly of you since our departure.”

You smirk softly and see her smile.

“It’s an honor meeting you Prince Namor,” she redirects. “It’s been a long time coming, and I’m glad that you were so kind as to accept our aid.”

“Well,” he adds and looks back at you. “It’s not every day we get offered a proposal with a Targaryen Queen. We simply couldn’t resist. We’d be foolish to anyway.” He smiles at you and then reaches for something inside his cloak.

You watch him and see him pull out a beautiful bright-colored bouquet of flowers you’ve never seen before.

“These are for you, Your Grace,” he says and pushes the bouquet of flowers to you with a timid smile on his face. “Desert flowers that grow specifically in Dorne…The reasons for our unity might have started in the name of bloodshed, but that does not mean our relationship has to start as tragic.”

Your breath catches at his kind words and you carefully take the bouquet from his hand. “Thank you, and I’m sorry we had to meet here, and this way. It’s no greeting suited for a prince of Dorne.”

Prince Namor clasps his hands behind him and shakes his head. “I don’t mind the quiet greeting, I much prefer it if I’m honest.”

“Still,” you argue. “Your first time at Kings Landing shouldn’t be in secret and in strangers' clothes.”

“No on that much we agree, but with hope, you will bring an end to this soon and neither of us will have to hide much longer.”

You hum softly in agreement and look back at his men. He follows your line of gaze and steps back. “This is my commander, he will work with Ser Alyn and the fleets, while my general,” he points to the handsome older man. “Will work with us. And the other two are my guards.”

You bow your head. “It’s nice to meet you, and thank you. This isn’t your war to fight, but thank you for coming to fight alongside us.”

“But it is our fight,” the general interjects. “The moment we became allies this became our fight too.”

You have to give it to them, not many soldiers here would say the same thing with so much pride.

“For that, we're all grateful then,” you assure them and then look back at the prince. “Now if you will follow me, we have meetings to attend to. There’s so much to do in such little time.”

He nods, and just before you can walk back inside you take one last look at the stars overhead and let yourself think of Cregan one last time before you lead your future husband through the secret tunnels.

What would your younger self say about this entire ordeal? She’d think this was all some big jest, she’d be furious and trying to find some way out of it. She wouldn’t understand because she had everyone she loved with her, the world was still beautiful and warm, and she still had a heart and a soul. If you could go back you’d tell her to cherish every moment and maybe think wiser and not with her heart just so the pain isn’t so unbearable.

“We’re here,” you announce and slide open the secret door, catching the lords gathered around the table by surprise and making them stand and bow to greet you. As you walk inside though they all collectively grow stiff as they see the Dornish prince and his people walk in after you. Their jaws clench and they move their hands toward the handles of their weapons as if the prince is going to attack them.

“My Lords,” you address the council as you reach the head of the table. “May I present Prince Namor Martell.”

They all should bow their heads but the only ones who do are Lord Larys and your grandfather, the others just look at him nonchalantly.

“Prince Namor,” you now direct at him. “This,” you point to your right side. “Is Lord Corlys Velaryon. My grandfather.”

Prince Namor shows his manners and offers the man a greeting nod.

You continue to present the other lords to him, but rather quickly because there’s only so much time and you don’t care about the others. He presents the people he’s with and of course, the greetings are cold and short.

But no matter how they feel about this Dornish alliance Baela and you secured, they know now as the tall prince stands beside you that you are now untouchable to them, or any secret plot they can form behind your back. Because at least if you had married Lord Stark they could work discreetly to undermine you, they could have their way, but with Prince Namor Martell of Dorne, you truly are the most protected and safest ruler this kingdom has had. You truly accomplished what the conquerors couldn’t and for that, you might be the smartest player in this so-called game.

“With the help of Ser Alyn,” your grandfather interjects. “Ten thousand soldiers are being smuggled disguised as Velaryon soldiers. They will surround the army meant to protect the city from the king's enemy outside the wall, and attack once the bells ring.”

You nod in comprehension and watch a lord place new markers with the Martell house sigil; a Sun pierced with a spear.

“Ser Alyn will be accompanied by the Martell fleet who as of right now waving the Velaryon flag,” Baela adds. “But when the battle commences they will rise their own, I will accompany them from the skies with Silverwing, and then accompany the Queen in the skies to destroy any Scorpion aimed at our dragons.”

More Martell markers are placed with the Velaryon marker out on the painted water, adding tension to the lords and their small armies or no armies at all.

“I will be inside,” you share a plan you’ve discussed already but need to go over once again just to be sure. “I will kill Aegon, and Prince Namor will accompany and kill the Kingsguard with his men, except for Ser Jason…I want to kill him myself.”

The lords all drift their gaze to the prince and wait for him to protest a plan they didn’t agree with, but Prince Namor stays quiet beside you.

“Excuse my doubt but how will you get Aegon alone?” A lord asks. “Wherever he goes a parade of his people follow,” he says sarcastically, making other lords chuckle.

“Well,” you breathe out and clasp your hands in front of you. “It will be night so only his Kingsguard will follow him when I call for his presence in the throne room. He won’t deny my request, so he’ll show up. I’ll kill him there.”

“And what of the army that will rush in?” Another lord chimes in.

“A thousand men will be snuck inside and disguised as Velaryon soldiers,” Prince Namor finally breaks his silence. “They will fight any army that may want to kill the Queen. And I will also accompany her every step of the way. You may only worry about your men and your life lord.”

The lord swallows thickly and adds nothing else on the matter.

“Also,” you cut in and place your hands on the table to lean in. “Prince Jaehaera is off limits, no matter who her father is she’s still a little girl, she will be placed under my protection, so if anyone touches her just know that you won’t live to see dawn.”

“What of the dowager Queen?” Lord Strong asks.

You sigh and smirk. “Don’t touch her either, let her be, I’ll give her her punishment when I see her.” You pause and look at the lords around the table. “After I kill Aegon I will mount Astraea and we will destroy the scorpions and get rid of the enemy army below. Any questions?”

The Lords all share a look before their eyes fall on Prince Namor. “Is it to your liking Prince Namor?” They ask.

His liking?

He glances at everyone with his eyebrows knotted and then interjects. “Yes, why wouldn’t it be? These are the Queen's plans, I will follow her lead and judgment. Just know that if any of you turn your swords against her while she rides her dragon, my men and I will annihilate you.”

The lords all grow stiff, and you smile faintly with pride at his comment and the fact that he defended you.

“Questions?” Prince Namor asks. “Doubts?”

No one speaks up now leading to more discussions that end about an hour and a half later. You try to sleep after and get well rested for tomorrow's battle, but trying is pointless when the nightmares are the same, so instead you put on a gown and find yourself outside.

You look at the shining stars that litter the sky and think of your dragon. You haven’t seen her in a while and the reports have been the same; she’s north. But you need her now, she can come back home without fear of being chased by the King and his posse.

You don’t know if thinking of her or desiring her here will work, but you try. You tap into yourself and wish for her to come home. You call out for her using your heart, and then open your eyes to continue watching the stars and wish that the battle tomorrow at least ends with Aegon dead, that’s all you need. If you die too then they’ll install your brother as King, he’ll carry a heavy burden as a toddler but the Green reign would be over, that’s all you want if you meet your fate tomorrow.

And if you don’t meet your fate tomorrow then you hope the pain ends. And you also hope for some sleep…

But you don’t grow tired at that moment as you hoped so you begin to stroll through the gardens with your eyes drifting from shrub to tree, to pretty winter flowers, and Prince Namor. He’s outside too, but he doesn’t notice you since his back is turned.

You think of leaving him be and returning to your quarters to at least close your eyes again. You turn to do just that, but…if all goes well then you will marry the man. You don’t want to, but you have to, and if you have to spend your life with him then perhaps a nice relationship with him will be nice. Maybe one like your mother had with your father, they might’ve loved other people romantically, but they did love each other platonically. They cared for each other, protected each other, and guided one another. So if you can’t follow your heart then you’ll settle with something that your parents had.

So you turn and approach Prince Namor.

He hears your footsteps and peers back with slight worry, but when he sees that it’s you his shoulders drop.

“Your Grace,” he greets and stands off the bench to bow his head.

You offer him a smile but you don’t greet him with his name or his title just in case there are people around. Instead, you jump right into a conversation. “Couldn't sleep?”

Prince Namor shakes his head. “No, your city stinks, and it’s pretty loud.”

You laugh softly. “Trust me you get used to the smell. I left for Winterfell a few years back, and when I came back home I noticed how terrible it smelled for the first time, it was like my senses had been suddenly awakened,” you share without hesitation, it comes easy actually. “I had to keep my windows closed and scents running all day when I could, but after a while, I got used to it again. So trust me you will get used to it.”

Prince Namor scoffs softly and nods slowly. “Well, I hope you’re right.” He then steps back and points to the bench. “Sit with me?”

You nod and take the seat he offered while he sits next to you.

“I hope your quarters have what you need,” you tell him as you look at him. “It’s not what you’re used—”

“But it won’t be long,” he cuts you off. “Yes, I know. The quarters are fine. The servants who have helped have been nice, it’s the lords who seem to hold animosity towards me.”

You blink and glance at the fountain ahead of you. “Yes, I am sorry for that, I have no excuse for them, they’re just all assholes who didn’t want this alliance or me as Queen. We’re a threat.”

Prince Namor laughs softly. “In Dorne, women are real threats, here the men fear a woman’s brain and her tears, it’s a strange concept.”

You grin and nod. “It truly is, I can’t believe my family let themselves be controlled by these men and their weird religion. We had dragons, they could’ve changed it all, but we fell into their trap.” You sigh deeply and gently kick the gravel beneath your feet.

“And now you’ll set them free and change the way they think,” he says sweetly, making you drift your eyes to him and look at him with a pointed gaze as you study him.

Is he trying to sweet-talk you?

He seems to understand your confusion and his eyes widen. “Oh, did I offend you? Talking doesn’t come easy for me. Since I have to talk though, I’ve learned to just say it and think about it later, it’s easier that way.”

You huff as you narrow your gaze deeper. “Well, I’m just trying to figure you out actually,” you reveal. “I want to see if you are the man you say you are or you’re just pretending.”

Prince Namor's lips pull to a smile. “Well I can’t say to trust me, we’ve only just met, so I suppose you’ll know more of me throughout our life together.”

Your face softens and a frown flickers on your face, but you don’t let it show, you just look ahead and nod softly. “Well,” you mutter. “You surely talk a lot for a man who has a hard time.”

Prince Namor chuckles, making you smile to yourself. “I told you, I speak and think later. If I had it my way I would speak only to those I’m closest to, but I was meant to be the ruler of Dorne, I had to attend meetings and other formal gatherings with my father. I had to address my people, so I was forced to speak.”

You hum in comprehension and then add nonchalantly. “And now you’ll be Prince consort.”

“Yes,” he agrees. “But you will be Queen, I will quietly support you from the side, clap, smile, and nod. I will be happier because of it.”

You look at him again and show off a genuine smile. Let’s see if it’s true though, he might just take over for you. “Did you ever think you’d end up here?” You can’t help but ask. “With strangers? Marrying a stranger and becoming the most important man in all the seven kingdoms?”

Prince Namor sighs and looks at the stars overhead. “No,” he admits. “Never.”

You hum softly and admit a truth, ugly as it is. “I would’ve thought you aimed to be some bigger soldier, a famous knight, or a popular king everyone would know.”

Prince Namor's eyebrows furrow. “Why would you think that? You don’t know me.”

“No, but it’s said that Dornish are mighty warriors

who fall in love with whom they like, and don’t listen to anyone.”

Prince Namor watches you for a moment before he scoffs softly. “Well, I’m sorry to disappoint, but those are all lies,” he says without getting offended. “Perhaps some of my people are like that, some do fall in love and make love to whom they like, we don’t shame that like they do here, but I am not like that. At least I don’t think so.” He exhales deeply and smiles softly. “I actually wanted to study the stars, I wanted to pass my father's throne to my brother and just study the great abyss above us.”

You shift in your seat and watch him with curiosity. “Is that so?” You probe.

He nods and looks at you. “Yes, it is. But I’m a Prince, so I have to do my best with the hand I was dealt with so as not to lose.”

You smile with admiration and nod. “So tell me what have you discovered that you find so amazing?” You ask.

Prince Namor blinks with disbelief and slowly turns to face you. “Well, stars are led to believe to be a big bright light in the sky, but by further inspection, we’ve come to see that they’re actually made of gas.”

You grin brightly and look at him with amusement. “Really?” You probe. “Well then when we wish on a star we’re washing on gas?”

He nods. “Yes, but well there’s nothing wrong with continuing to believe and stargaze,” he assures you.

You hum and nod as you look at the stars too. “Of course, stargazing on a dragon's back is a hundred times better. You can actually feel like you can touch them. You’ll have to experience it for yourself.”

Prince Namor scoffs in a lighthearted manner. “I’m fine with two feet on the ground thank you,” he laughs.

You look at him and offer him an assuring look. “Astraea will be nice, you will have to wait until I get a new saddle though,” you tell him, and he shakes his head now, making you grin and add on. “My children love dragon rides. They laugh and smile—”

“Your infant children?” He asks in surprise.

You nod. “Yes, my children.”

Prince Namor laughs softly and shakes his head. “That’s mad.”

“Hey, you will be one step closer to your dream,” you assure him.

Prince Namor's smile softens and he averts his eyes. “I suppose you’re right…perhaps after you get a saddle, and you find some way to strap me safely onto that dragon then I could consider flying with you,” he teases.

You laugh softly and nod. “All right then, if not then we have all our lives,” you mumble now as you lose your smile.

Prince Namor's smile falls but he softly agrees to your comment. “Yes, we don’t we?”

——

*THE NEXT DAY*

Talking with Aegon on this day—well it’s really like all the rests, it’s mind-numbing. You have to pretend you’re getting to like him like you adore the guy and that you’re expecting his child. It’s so exhausting, but he doesn’t seem to catch on to anything, he’s as clueless as ever. No amount of challenges in his path has taken that away.

After today you won’t have to deal with him a moment longer.

“Perhaps we can just burn everything away,” you mumble to Baela as you approach her from behind. “We’re going to help the army, but I might as well just cleanse this damn city.”

“You’re sounding like that Shepard man,” Baela retorts and sits down on a chair.

You stop behind her and collect her hair in your hands. “Well he was mad but he was right about this damn city needing cleansing or…well at least I think he said that.” You say slowly as you part her hair with your fingers. “Anyway, I want to do it. The city is good for nothing anyway.”

Baela sighs. “Perhaps but the people living here don’t deserve it. Aegon already killed the traitors, best make our peace with that and stick with our plan.”

You add nothing to her comment because there’s nothing that will convince you otherwise. Will you actually execute your plan? Probably not, but she still won’t convince you not to burn at least part of this city away. Because the prince of Dorne said it didn't he? You need people to fear you just as much as they love you?

“You stick with yours,” you tell Baela sweetly so as to drop the other subject. “I will still be needing you after this battle is fought. There are too many men flocked around me, I need you, and Rhaena. And her dragon morning,” you mention a fact that Baela just told you.

Rhaena had managed to finally hatch a dragon egg, which is why Aegon is so eager to hatch his purple dragon egg he embraces and keeps with him at all times.

If only he would have lived that long so as to see Rhaena with her hatchling, you would’ve laughed in his face and his mother's. Oh well.

Now moreover, you’re about to begin braiding Baela’s hair, but then a memory of you braiding Aemond’s hair hits you.

It’s been…a while since you’ve thought of him and now that you do, even if you try to fight it, sorrow washes over you. No matter what, you still miss him. He was reliable in a romantic sense, sure he never knew about your affair, but if you take that away, no matter what happened he always took you back. He made mistakes at the end, but he still and will always be your best friend.

If things were different—a lot different he’d be here instead wouldn't he? He’d be by your side, or in this room with your children and you, he wouldn't mind you becoming queen, he’d support you. But things can never be different and they never could with the way he was raised. He’s gone because of it, you…miss him because of it.

How cruel is life and these damn gods? Will you live in grief forever?

“I,” you stammer as your hands begin to shake and you find it hard to braid your cousin's hair now. “My armor on my arm is loose,” you make an excuse. “Vanessa, may you come and braid Baela’s hair, please?”

Your friend nods and you quickly switch places, Baela looks at you through the mirror, but you look away and fiddle with your gleaming silver armor. Since you actually don’t need anything to fix you slide your fingers over the delicate and beautiful dragon scales design that was stamped on your armor, you admire the dragon on your chest armor, and the wing-shaped shoulder pads. Whatever happens, at least you’ll die in neat armor.

“Are you alright?” Baela makes sure to ask.

You nod and walk over to where your children are sleeping. “Quite. I should be more nervous, but battles aren’t a foreign concept anymore. I quite look forward to the rush of it.”

Baela hums. “I suppose I am too,” she adds with a hint of excitement.

You flash her back a smirk. “You are, that rush in your blood that makes your heart race is excitement. Battle might be dreadful but they are fun,” you express excitedly before you look at your son, at your twin girls, and smile softly at them.

You haven’t been a great mother lately, you can’t excuse your behavior, but you promise them here and now that you’ll do better after you live through this battle. You’ll be like how your mother was to you and your brothers, great, gentle, and empowering.

“Well, I feel that then,” Baela interjects. “A rush of excitement.”

You turn and face her. “Just be careful, okay?”

Baela nods and redirects her comment. “You too. And kill that bastard with all you got.”

“And then some,” you joke, making Baela smile and nod.

A knock proceeds to rap on the door, so you welcome them, knowing it’s only one person. Dyana, your friend and servant walks in carrying a sleeping Jaehaera in her arms and tugging your brother Aegon along with her, meaning this plan is ready to commence.

“Y/N?” He calls out as he rubs his eyes.

You smile and approach him. “I know you’ve been woken from your slumber, but it will be okay. You’re staying with Vanessa, Dyana, and Jaehaera okay? I’ll see you in the morning, hm?”

Aegon is a toddler, all he knows is that his family is gone, his mother died in front of him and that you’re all he has left, so he begins to cry.

“It’s okay,” you assure him as you wipe his tears. “You’ll be safe. I’ll be back.”

“No,” he cries.

“Aegon, I have to do this,” you speak to him softly. “But I won’t leave you. I’ll come back, okay?”

Aegon sniffles and he nods in defeat.

You wipe away more tears before you ruffle his hair and stand up, letting Dyana approach him to pick him up and take him away with her.

“All right,” you exhale and close your cloak to hide your weapons. “Let’s do this.”

Baela gets off her chair and the first person she goes to is you. She wraps you in an embrace, and you hesitate, but once you return her gesture you hug her tightly.

“I love you,” she whispers.

Your bottom lip trembles and your voice quivers. “I love you too.” You pull back and press your forehead against hers. “For our family, for fire and blood.”

“For revenge,” she finishes for you, making you pull back and shoot her a smirk before you turn and face Dyana putting Aegon down on your bed. “Did you send the guard to inform Aegon of my request?” You ask her.

Dyana nods. “Yes, your Grace.”

You offer her a soft smile. “Good job,” you assure her. “Now you’ll be safe here, all of you,” you direct at Vanessa too. “I will see you when the battle finishes and I sit on that throne with a crown on my head.”

“Live,” Vanessa says fearfully.

You assure her with a nod before you stride out of the room with disguised Dornish guards following your side. And as you head to the throne room, knowing that Prince Namor Martell is heading there through the tunnels with his men, knowing that his army and yours infiltrate this castle, you begin to quietly sing in High Valyrian.

The song is about an angry Valyrian queen, who’s lost everything and gets her revenge against her evil sister that took everything away. It’s a sad and emotional song of betrayal and anger mixed with revenge. It doesn’t really suit the situation now, but you like how intimidating and sad it sounds as your voice echoes in the lonely hall that is only occupied by you since the guards you came with hid.

When you reach the steps of the throne, you gently feel the cold metal under your fingers and sing a little louder so the song can be carried out. You then begin to smirk as you turn around and sit on the great Iron throne of your ancestors and of your mother. Now it’s yours.

The song shortly thereafter comes to an end at the same time Aegon walks in with his Kingsguard behind him.

“Y/N?” He gasps as he notices you sitting with a leg crossed over the other, and your elbow propped on the metal armrest. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“Get off the king's royal seat!” Ser Broome, his new Kingsguard, and your mother's traitor shouts.

“I’ll give you a minute head start,” you ignore his Kingsguard.

Aegon stays close to the doors and looks at you more confused than angry. “What are you talking about you crazy wench?”

You sigh deeply and swing your leg off the other one to push yourself up. Ser Broome reaches for Aegon's ancestral sword Blackfyre, causing you to snicker while you unbutton your cloak and let it fall to reveal your armor, your bow and arrows, and your sword to the men ahead of you.

“I said,” you repeat, “I’ll give you a minute head start before I chase after you.” You smirk and sit back on the throne with confidence, making sure to make eye contact with the man who had betrayed you and cost your mother her life, Ser Jason. He guards Aegon so proudly even if he says he’s protecting you by keeping up his act. He doesn’t move or react angrily like the others. Which lets you know that he is in love with you, he was this entire time.

You’re not clueless, you knew, you saw the way he looked at you. At first, you liked the attention, you liked that he saw through you. You would never love him. Like him? Sure. Give into temptation? Sure, but never loved him. He could’ve been your friend and most trusted guard, a fellow dragon rider, and maybe even family since he has Valyrian blood, but in his journey to do what was right, he did wrong and lost all your respect. Now he’ll face his fate like he sealed your mother's.

“Take her down from there and take her back to her room,” Aegon demands, snapping your attention back to him. “She's clearly delusional.”

You stay put and watch the guards take a step forward right as the bells begin to ring, meaning the start of the battle outside, and inside.

“What’s going on?” Aegon demands to know.

And right on cue Velaryon and Dornish soldiers run out of hiding, they run into the throne room and surround the king and his Kingsguard.

“Protect your King!”

“Protect the King!”

“It’s a coup!” You yell over the shouts. “You better run Aegon!”

Aegon stands up off his chair and takes Blackfyre from Ser Broome to stumble forward and point the sword at you.

You smirk and stay seated, getting him even more puzzled.

“Everyone stand down!” He orders the men that surround him.

You stay quiet as from the corner of your eyes you watch Prince Namor approach you with a cloak on.

“One time I asked Aemond if he wanted to be loved or feared,” you interject and lean forward. “He answered the latter. That’s why he lost. You lost because you can’t get your head out of your ass—”

“Hold your tongue in front of the king!” Ser Broome shouts.

You ignore him. “I will win because I’ll have both,” you continue. “Starting today.”

Aegon feigns a chuckle, but that dies the moment Prince Namor reaches your side and takes his cloak off to reveal his elegant yellow and orange robe that’s adorned with golden suns, and covered by armor brought from Dorne. Half of the men surrounding him take off the Velaryon cloaks and reveal their armor and shields adorned with the Martell house sigil. And that’s when he figures out that you’ve been lying to him the entire time, you’ve been scheming right under his nose. This is where he figures out that you’re winning.

That’s why he lowers his sword and looks at his Kingsguard panicked. Ser Jason looks back at him and then steps forward to kneel.

“My Queen I give my life for yours, like I vowed from the beginning,” he says, making you smile and sit up. “Please allow me the honor of joining your Queensguard.”

“Ser Jason?!” Ser Broome seethes.

Aegon's lip curls to a scowl as he steps back from Ser Jason.

“Come,” you command Ser Jason whilst you stand up. “Take your place in front of me.”

The soldiers make room for him to pass, and Prince Namor and you share a knowing look before you step down and face Ser Jason.

“Kneel,” you command, and he pulls his sword out and kneels before you.

You take your sword out to pretend to bless him, but you then stab your sword through his throat and catch all the other Kingsguards off guard.

“That’s for betraying my mother,” you sneer at Ser Jason as he tries to grab at his wound. “I trusted you and you betrayed me,” you continue and lift his head with your finger so he can meet you in the eye as his life slips away. “So you die first. I’ll see you in hell.” You whisper sharply before you pull your sword out to quickly swing it across his neck and cut his head clean off.

As it falls to the floor you smirk at Aegon and wipe the blood off your face. “He was an even more useless dragon rider than you,” you tease and step down. “I drew first blood, your turn. Let this battle start,” you order, and without a second to waste, the battle against the Kingsguard begins, and your men quickly overwhelm the Kingsguard and block your sight of Aegon.

“I’ll cover you,” Prince Namor assures you.

You nod and begin to move forward. You expect someone to try and stop you, but as the few Green soldiers fall in to join the chaos you’re left alone and able to realize that Aegon and Ser Broome are gone.

“Stay here,” you tell Prince Namor. “I’ll go after Aegon. He won’t get far.”

Prince Namor parts his lips to argue, but you glare at him and he sighs and nods in agreement.

“Be careful,” he throws at you.

You offer him a tiny smile and nod before you run out of the hall.

Aegon will probably try and hide, or escape thinking that’s the better option. But thanks to Lord Larys you know every hiding spot, you know every path that can lead to his escape. Which one will he take though?

So many possibilities. He won’t go to this mother, so he won’t take the path near her chambers, the city past the walls isn’t safe anymore, and the ocean is filled with your Velaryon and Dorne fleets, so the ocean isn’t a good method. Which leaves only one path where they pray to their New Gods.

Thus you storm over there and manage to find both Ser Broome and Aegon because Aegon can’t run, he can barely walk so he’s struggling. So you hide behind a wall and pull your bow out before you reach back to take an arrow.

They didn’t spot you so you have the element of surprise against the Kingsguard. Now you can engage in battle, but there’s no knowing how he fights and you can’t risk getting hurt yet. So you’ll have to be sneaky.

So you peek your head out and see that Ser Broome hasn't made it far. His body is protected by armor, but there are small slits, yet they only work to paralyze him, you need a killing shot. Hm. You squint your eyes and see the perfect target just in the back of his neck, under his helmet, and above his body armor neckline.

“Perfect,” you whisper and step out of hiding to draw your arrow and aim. He’s getting further away, so you quickly draw in a deep breath and let go.

The arrow flies away quickly and you hold your breath until the moment you see the sharp arrow rip through his flesh and come out of the other end, making him choke before he falls and alerts Aegon of your presence.

“Here I come,” you taunt him loudly so he can hear.

Aegon looks angry and horrified and wastes no time to break into a slow run towards his destination. You give him a head start, and once he turns a corner to the corridor that leads to the room he needs to get to, you break into a cocky stride.

Soon though you hear running coming from the corridors so you break into a sprint and shove the doors open to quickly enter the candle-filled hall. And of course, Aegon is hiding.

“Aegon,” you call out in a sing-song voice as you close the doors. “Where are you?”

You hear shuffling so you know he’s still around. “You were never worthy of your name,” you taunt him. “Or that sword. Daeron was the youngest and didn’t grow up here but he was a worthy warrior, he deserved more than you.”

You look under the table but there’s nothing but dust. “Aegon?” You call out.

You walk to the other table and you’re about to crouch to look, but you then hear running. When you peer back you see Aegon running at you with the sword up, so you slide to the side and swerve his shaky swing. You quickly counter by kicking him, and then hitting his spine with the end of your sword. He stumbles to his knees with that hit and you slowly turn and face him.

“Stand up,” you command and kick Blackfyre over to him. “Fight me.”

Aegon faces you and grabs the sword before he struggles to get up. “How did you learn how to fight?” He asks between heavy breaths.

You begin to circle him like a predator circles its prey, and he watches you with fear he can’t hide.

“I would watch Ser Criston train you, Aemond, and my brothers, and I taught myself to do it better,” you share smugly. “After that Cregan Stark taught me. And let me tell you something,” you whisper and lean over. “Cregan Stark and I were lovers.” You smile and he looks at you in disbelief.

“See,” he mutters. “You’re a whore.” He swings his sword and you quickly swing your sword up to block his move.

“And you’re nothing but a weak, rapist, useless usurper who can’t get his cock up. You’re nothing,” you sneer and push him back with ease. “Not even a man.”

Aegon snarls. “Well I put a bastard in you didn’t I?”

You chuckle. “No, you didn’t,” you tell him smugly. “I lied and you believed me.” You smirk and kick him against the table.

The force of impact makes him drop his sword again so you pick it up and spin it swiftly in your hand. “Any last words?” You ask and drop your other sword to hold onto Blackfyre.

“Yes,” he grimaces before he throws a candle at your face to distract you right as he lunges to try and stab your throat, but you quickly snap your head away and only manage to get your cheek cut. Right over where Aemond had cut you last time, so many years ago.

You cry out and Aegon tries to stab you through your throat, but you’re faster and your sword is longer, so you swing Blackfyre up and manage to stop him by stabbing him through the crotch.

“I’ll see you in hell Aegon Targaryen,” you seethe as you stab the sword deeper in his flesh, managing to penetrate the blade through the other side.

Aegon begins to spit out blood, and his knees begin to buckle as he begins to slip.

You pull the blade out and let him fall to the floor as he struggles to hang onto life, you expect to feel instant relief seeing your mother killer slowly die in pain, as you see his tyranny come to an end, but you don’t feel comfort in seeing him bleed out. There’s no joy, there’s building anger and flashing memories of your mother.

Those bad nightmares you expected to disappear at the moment of Aegon's death flash vividly in your head, the scene of your beloved mother's actual death mixed with the fake and creates chaos and darker grief. It heightens your rage to the point it feels like you can’t breathe. You can't see, or hear, there’s just anger and her death playing over and over again. So you look down at Aegon and immediately begin to stab him over and over again through the heart.

He had barely clung to life those moments before, but once you stab the blade through his heart once, his eyes grow dull and he finally stops breathing. The gods finally grant him the mercy of death after letting him live for too long. But you continue to stab him over and over again in a blinding rage with streams of tears rolling down your cheeks.

You let out a painful cry and stab him for your mother you loved with your whole being. You stab him for Joffrey, for Viserys, for Jacaerys, and for Lucerys whom you loved with your whole heart. You stab him for the way he hurt you, and for all your pain his family caused. You stab him until there’s a bleeding gap through his chest, and when you stop you lay on the puddle of his blood and begin to sob harder without control as you realize that no matter what you do you can never get any of them back.

They’re lost all because of Aegon and his family. You’ll live your life alone forever. You’ll never know love again, you won’t feel warmth, you’ll have nothing. The world you knew is gone.

You bask in that thought until your tears run dry and your back aches from the hard metal you’re lying on.

“There’s still so much to do,” you mumble to yourself and get up with Blackfyre in your hand.

Before you leave the hall you make sure to cut Aegon's head off his shoulders with one swift swing and carry it with you back to the throne room. When you get inside you find the bodies of the Kingsguard and other Green soldiers on the floor, most of the Dornish and Velaryon warriors are gone, but Prince Namor and his closest guard stand inside with Alicent.

She hears the doors open and turns around quickly expecting her son, but she only sees his head and you covered in his blood.

“Aegon,” she bellows and begins to walk towards you clutching her chest. “Aegon!”

You stop in your steps and raise his head. “I’m Queen now,” you snap.

Alicent stops in her tracks and looks at you with tears in her eyes and rage displayed on her face. “You,” she sneers. “You killed my boy!” She charges at you, and the guards try to protect you, but at that moment fire blasts through the right side of the wall behind the throne, and makes a giant cloud of dust as debris gets thrown out.

“Alicent Hightower, I’ve decided your fate!” You pull her attention back to you. She clenches her jaw and the tears on her face gleam while the tears in her eyes express her anger and grief for her eldest and last child. She begins to heave and reaches behind her before she charges at you.

Albeit just as she flashes a dagger, a snarl echoes out from within the dust cloud making her stop, and causing the soldiers to step back. You smirk at her and watch your dragon's eyes glow now as she gets closer.

“Please—”

“No,” you cut her off. “You don’t get to make any commands.”

Astraea approaches Alicent and flashes her teeth, making Alicent gasp and step away.

“Nor do you get to mourn your son. Or bury his body,” you let her know coldly. “You will live the rest of your life locked away without your children, knowing it was you who killed them.”

“No.”

“Yes! You helped them take my mother's throne, now you will look at your son's head rot on that throne. And for that, you should count yourself lucky,” you spat. “My mother only got to build a pyre for one son.” You huff and walk past her to stab Aegon's head on one of the swords that make the Iron Throne, one right in front of your throne so everyone can see the usurper's head and your power.

“Jaehaera,” Alicent cries.

You turn to your dragon and assure her. “She’ll be raised by me. You won’t get to see her or your grandsons again. You’ll live alone with the ghosts of the dead.”

“No, please!”

You ignore her and sheath your new sword, the sword that once belonged to Aegon the Conqueror, Blackfyre, and mount Astraea’s bareback. You then look down and catch Prince Namor’s awe-struck gaze as he admires your purple dragon, Astraea. You smirk and then look outside and see smoke rising off the walls as Baela and Silverwing blast through the Scorpions on the wall.

You have to go help her, but your anger is not gone yet. Those flashing memories are vivid and violent. They didn’t go away with Aegon's death, they’re still there and it feels like there’s only one way to make it at least drown out; cleansing that city of the traitors that gave their back to your mother. Showing fear.

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