#clarissa has only been alive for a few hours but if anything happens to her I’ll kill everyone and then myself

[frstbiitten]

cw: violence, death, mention of gore

The truth is that little of what happened in that mansion had remained in her memory, details that were overlooked after a few hours, needed a shower to leave that odd sensation behind. Being observed was almost as repulsive as being touched improperly, this time for no carnal purpose but with an even more harmful goal. The flash in the bushes didn't leave her mind, it must have got stuck in the front of her skull like a stain of mold on the wall. The water didn't help to remove this memory, as her hands seemed to tremble more than usual, and at the same time, the urge to vomit and fall to the ground increased every time she breathed. Someone was stalking her.

And it wasn't just that Lewis... was alive, she could swear to the gods that she heard his voice on the phone, no one else speaks like him and no one else has the tone of his voice. Something wasn't adding up, because if he was alive, Clarissa had been killed by whom? I doubted that he was the perpetrator of the murder and that the person who mutilated her body had to be someone else with knowledge.  It was obvious that he wasn't working alone, he had mentioned something about some dragons, something else he was hiding. The best she could do now was to sleep and talk about this with the girls, maybe they had more information.

As the days went by it only seemed to get more and more stuck in this fog of doubts, nobody knew anything about the Dragons, they couldn't be real since those things don't exist, maybe it was a code name. Neither Jasper nor Violet or Kit knew anything about it, they knew about problems between groups and mafias, that was all if they didn't know with the years of experience of being among them, then, the path was truncated. Perhaps Lewis knew she was looking for them, although two weeks after the absolute silence and no clues, she was forgetting the real tone of that call, in her mind some things had been erased.

If she couldn't find clues, then she would have to draw the attention to herself.

Weeks have gone by without fights in which she participated, the money wasn't much in her pocket at this point, and needed some sustenance, food, anything to continue existing. Frost had already made a name for herself among the spectators and other fighters, despite her somewhat small stature, her presence was to be feared. Was fear and respect the same thing? The latter required seeing others as equals, but none of the rats watching were strong enough to be potential rivals. It was fear that put her over them, which gave her an idea.

Now she had another plan, something riskier.

This time she gave a fight a little longer than the previous ones, her rival was almost as good and fast, but her death was as swift as her previous reflexes, the ice had begun to slow her down, sooner or later she was going to succumb. Frost, for this time, decided to give her a death that wasn't painful, she broke her neck without causing any wound in the skin, rarely was she so merciful with her rivals, this time, only this time, the blood that was spilled was minimal. With defiant eyes, she observed the crowd, this time was fully aware of her surroundings, of those who were watching her, of the screams, of everything.

"I bet no one has ever done it before, but... I think I'm ready for one more round." That surprised the audience there, it was amateur's night for a reason, thought that some organizer would say something but nobody said anything against her idea. "I know that some of y'all put money in my name tonight and that several lucky people just won something to eat tonight or shit like that, still... I want to double the luck of some brave stranger in the audience, if they manage to defeat me, my earnings tonight will go to that person." No one seemed to be brave enough to raise their hand. "It seems that I am surrounded by cowards today." And that didn't sit well with the audience who started booing her, until she saw a hand raised in the crowd, someone wanting to put themselves at risk or make a fool of themselves.

"I want to. I think you have enough potential to be my rival." The voice came from a tall man with tanned skin, dark short hair, as he had nothing peculiar, except for the black cloth that looked like leather, he took it off and handed it to someone by his side. The crowd made a path for him to the hexagon, a tattoo of a dragon with its wings spread out on his back, it seemed that the others knew him, except for her. Neither his defined physique nor his marked accent had any effect on Frost, she had no intention of killing someone who seemed to have a name known to the crowd, even more so than hers. "Let's say you have the honor of facing me."

"Yeah, sure, I don't even know you."

"No, you haven't reached the Red Dragon yet, but you're brazen enough to face its leader."

Her eyebrow arched in doubt and something in her head caught on at that moment. Maybe Lewis was referring to this guy, he seemed intimidating enough and others were afraid of him. She turned to her position, hands steady and ice on her fingertips, was going to do her best to not let her anger lead her to unwanted places. Frost was the first to attack, she was good at using her fists and had become faster with her left arm, but he knew how to block her and with a kick to the stomach she ended with her back on the floor. It was a sharp punch that made the crowd react, her back and the skull only making the pain more intense with every second. This was the beginning and she couldn't give up that easily.

"How fast are you going to fall? I thought you had a little more stamina." Ah, the bastard was mocking her, Frost was trying her best to not lose her temper now. This guy might have some valuable information.

She got up quickly, breathing in air and getting into position, attacking him from the front was not the best option, maybe she was dealing with a madman or a professional. Or both. The last option seemed more appropriate, his punches were almost invisible to her inexperienced eyes, and blocking each blow was turning into a nightmare, the man's fists were directed at her chest to push more and more air out of her. She tried to hit him in the face but her arm ended up twisted and instead of giving a punch, she received one with the same hand with which he had blocked her, with a direct kick to the stomach he had knocked her out.

With her stomach against the ground, some blood in her mouth, and maybe a loose tooth, Frost seemed to have given up this time, at last, part of her was determined to keep fighting until she could win, this guy could not take the victory and the applause, this isn't his territory and yet the audience was cheering for him. Frost tried not to let her anger outweigh her patience as she attempted to stand up, one arm looking bluer than the other, knew this wasn't a good sign. That man had noticed the change in her, one of Frost's eyes had turned completely white while the other was still endeavoring to look normal. Was breathing deeply and slowly, sharp pain in her head was more torturous than receiving a punch, felt the stranger's hand on her shoulder, and then under her chin. This was humiliating, not only because of the paralysis but because a stranger was making fun of her, in a way he was taking control.

"I know what you're looking for." She felt his voice almost like a whisper amidst so much screaming, or maybe it was her imagination, her surprised face didn't go unnoticed, much less when she felt his hand go down to her neck. "Listen to me and play dead."

It was a risk to do this but her desperation seemed to be greater, she could simply leave her doubts behind, let her anger take over completely, and kill him in front of everyone, needed to experience that sense of liberation. But no, why should she care? It was for Clarissa, she was gone and they still had a plan in place that in her head was still latent, and even more so, her heart cried out to get back to her. A painful necessity. Had to think about the possibilities before she slowed down, her hands seemed to move in the direction of her neck but they fell to her sides, eyes were lost in the direction of the incandescent lights and then the darkness once she closed them, letting the blood slide down her lip like a straight line to the floor. Her legs weakened and the strength of her body was interrupted by gravity, pushing her down more, and more. Her body never touched the ground again, and the man grabbed her in his arms as if she was a lady in distress. Having to keep her eyes closed was going to be the hard part.

Heard that this guy was talking and walking, talking, and walking without stopping, she could hear him coming down the stairs of the hexagon and then walking through the crowd towards the exit without anyone stopping him. She heard a car door open suddenly and felt the leather under her body that was from a soft seat, and the smell, was more like pine, it could be pine and something else.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now, sit down, don't relax too much or you might regret it."

When she opened her eyes she noticed that this wasn't an ordinary car, this one had another pair of seats in a somewhat peculiar way, it allowed the other person to make eye contact easily. He was sitting in front of her, in this environment he seemed more threatening than before, but the privacy made her instincts calm down and her skin went back to normal. Although the headaches had not diminished much, at least she was conscious.

"All right, how do we start this: I know what happened to the Sables guy, all of us in this know about it." He began to say as he rested his back against the seat, his knees keeping some distance, seemed like the type of man who had some taste but didn't mind getting his hands dirty. "We can't talk much now, but believe me, you're in trouble."

"Oh yeah? Why can't we talk here?"

"This car isn't mine, it's rented."

That gave some good explanations to her doubts. They spent most of the trip in silence, lately, it seemed like she had to walk into the lion's den with strangers to learn about important things, just hoped this wasn't a trap or that it would end up in the worst possible way. Noticed that he was changing his shoes at some point, sports shoes for some strange boots with metallic details, they had very beautiful arabesques, but with a simple hit in a strategic point of the boots and spikes came out of them like needles from the sole, maybe it was a silent demonstration of power and intimidation. Frost didn't want to admit that he had achieved his goal. The needles returned to their respective place with another hit, it was a dismal sound to hear, also noticed that he had put on some metal bracelets under the sleeves of the long black leather jacket, both bracelets were wrapped by red strings and a kind of harpoon at the tip.

They arrived at an abandoned warehouse, which seemed to be not only immersed in hundreds of trees but also the infinite silence; it appeared that this was the right place. First, he got out of the car and then Frost, she didn't seem uncomfortable with her shorts and black shirt, her shoes were stained with blood, unfortunately. Without warning, he opened the door of the driver who was the same one he gave his belongings to before fighting with her.

"Come on... get out of the car..." His tone when giving orders was always threatening yet calm at the same time, his penetrating gaze resembled an effective physical offense, enough to convince the driver of the limousine to get out. "I need you to bring me something from the back while I talk to the girl." And the driver, without saying anything, took the keys and went to the back of the large car. "And coming back to you, I have to be honest, Snow is a lousy name for a fighter like you."

"I know, I'm trying to convince myself of another name, I like Frost but I don't know it yet." She admitted with a confident tone as if she wasn't talking to a total stranger who just beat her up not so long ago.

"Well, there are always better names out there, but since I haven't formally introduced myself, you have to know that I am Mavado, and although I'm not the one you're looking for, others are." While saying that, he hadn't noticed the strange glow that appeared just above his head, almost like lightning right on the fatal second that would strike him, Mavado took a turn to avoid the blast and without realizing it Frost had paralyzed the driver, not completely but the scare had boosted the adrenaline and the ice came off naturally, reaching the feet of the driver. "Good girl, now be good for me and don't look." Frost listened to him as she returned to normal, turned around but the reflection from the side mirror of the vehicle showed enough of how Mavado was fighting with the driver, he had the great idea of trying to kill him with some peculiar weapons that she had never seen before. Heard something fall and tear, some heavy hits that had broken some bones, and the screams were screeches of pure agony and pain. More heavy strikes against whatever he was destroying, the flesh was being crushed and the bones too, until she heard nothing else but Mavado panting and spitting. "Keep looking forward Frost, don't you dare turn around." Listened to the unmistakable sound of the blades of his shoes coming back into place, once he appeared at her side, his whole chest and face were covered with blood.

"Don't worry, I'm used to this, but come inside with me, now we can talk quietly."

Although still confused by whatever happened behind her back, Frost listened to him once again, accompanying her into the warehouse which inside didn't seem so abandoned. It was somewhat spacious but he took her to a room that didn't look like his office or anything, but rather a place more reserved for leisure.

"Red Dragon... you're part of a gang or a mafia or whatever the fuck this is all about."

"First of all, niña, have a little respect for how you use our name, and secondly: no, the Red Dragon is not a mafia like the Sables and many others in Los Angeles, it is a criminal organization, we have been working under the nose of powerful people and politicians for centuries, my father was a leader too, and my grandfather, and his father's father and so on from the very beginning". As Mavado gave a short explanation, he cleaned himself with what looked like a new rag, wiped the sweat and blood from his body and face. Frost had this gut feeling that every move from his body was nothing but used to intimidate her.

As she sat on a couch and listened to him, she came to a single conclusion. "I mean... a mafia."

And Mavado didn't take this lightly but he had no choice but to threaten her, one look was more than enough. He took another unused cloth to clean his weapons, only the gods knew what those strange things were.

"So? Are you going to be silent?" He challenged her again but to speak, this guy was kind of aggressive.

"Okay okay, but in a way, if you already know what happened to Enrico then you know that before he was shot in the head out of nowhere, he had received a call from someone I'm looking for, and in that call, he mentioned some dragons, I didn't know what it meant but I think it might have something to do with you."

"And do you know who called Enrico?"

"Yes, his name is Lewis, he's the brother of a friend of mine who was killed, her name was Clarissa."

There was a rather long silence between them, until out of nowhere Mavado began to laugh and put his weapons on the floor, sitting next to Frost without hesitation, placing his arm on the back of the sofa but keeping some distance from her.

"Ah, that asshole Lewis, I see he's doing this shit again, ese tío cabrón."

"Do you know him?" So Lewis had dangerous connections as well, and somehow, it surprised her.

"Yeah, I know him, I can tell you he talked to me and made a deal, but believe me, he's not someone worthwhile, well, it's not that I'm a man of high morals, I only do what benefits me, but Lewis is... someone who doesn't know how to plan things, he's done this before and would do it again."

"I know something similar happened with his sister until she was disqualified from because of a struggle with this girl." She remembered everything, remembering what Lewis had told her about Clarissa and the whole story of her confrontation with a minor whose age they didn't know in advance.

"I imagined that he was going to tell that story but no, her sister knows some things about martial arts, but they were the ones who initiated that girl to the fights, they had taught her well, but Lewis went a little further and used drugs with the girl, they knew her age and all that, but it was them who started it. One night everything went wrong, the girl ended severely hurt from a fight, they couldn't kill her because the other rival knew who it was but at that point, it was too late, but I am not surprised that Lewis has lied to you and found an opportunity to use you, is what he likes most. "

Part of Frost's world was unstable, he met a stranger who might well be lying to her right on her face, but Lewis surprised her even more. Who was that girl? There were little chances she could find her alive if she wanted to, but couldn't afford to go through that route. Had no choice but to believe Mavado, even though it might be another lie to protect Lewis. One of her legs wouldn't stop shaking, this need of leaving, run out of this place at any second, and get lost in the woods, didn't know the difference between reality and the lie or even which one was better and worse.

"... And you're helping him cover it up." Remembered that he had mentioned their last communication between the two of them, he could be on Lewis' side, what was he doing with a criminal leader? He had already shown her how easily he had taken her out of the game and forced her to humiliate herself in front of a crowd of strangers. Couldn't be trusted, or maybe her gut feeling is completely wrong from the start.

"Just because we talked and we were close doesn't mean that the money in his pocket is with me, he wanted to make a deal with me so that my men would protect him, from you specifically, but I denied it, I don't trust him, I choose strategically, he does it out of desperation". And now she felt trapped back in a dead-end, Mavado got up from the sofa as he heard his cell phone ringing in his jacket, it sounded like a private call. "Hsu, you're calling at a bad time, I don't care that you didn't get what you wanted... it's not my fault that the generator on your chest is still defective, you did it!" While Mavado seemed to be talking to a partner or something, Frost noticed something very particular on the wall, skulls were hanging like hunting trophies, there was one of a deer, one of an ox and one that looked human but the teeth were something comparable to a monster, they were long and sharp, she was so tempted to touch it, it didn't look real and maybe it wasn't real but at this point, what could she believe in? "I'm sorry, I had an idiot on the other end of the line, it's hard to talk on the phone when you're robbing a bunch of jerks, but anyway, what you need to know is that Lewis is not being protected by me."

"But he mentioned some dragons... Red Dragon... it has to be you."

"No, believe me, if that's the case, then he's got a deal with the Black Dragon." Black Dragon, Red Dragon, there was a blue one missing and it could be complete, but Frost didn't have time to think about nonsense, now Lewis was in her sights, an enemy to add to the board. "They will know that I killed one of theirs who was undercover, very unstrategic on their part, they will know that you have come with me because it's more than certain that more than one has been there with us, you have to be extremely careful of them, but of me too, you have to keep our meeting a secret."

She only shook her head in a gesture of affirmation, could feel herself walking deep into a lake, was in the most dangerous area among eels and piranhas. Swallowed saliva as she thought about how she would have to keep a low profile, was getting difficult to keep up with every day.

"Go back to your house, I can't take you back there, I have a limousine to get rid of and a body to burn. You, keep your mouth shut and watch your back."

"I'm tired..." she confessed with a breath and her eyes already showed signs of forming gray rings around them.

"I don't care, run away from here, and beware of strangers."

Would have a long way to walk and needed enough energy to get there. But as she returned to her place, Frost kept thinking about Lewis and Clarissa. From what Mavado had told her, Clarissa seemed to be almost as guilty as Lewis of the manipulation, but it wasn't convincing. Frost found one of her arms at the bottom of a tub full of ice. She had perished, so, as Frost walked near the road accompanied by the shadows of the trees, she reasoned: Lewis killed Clarissa and kept a large amount of money for himself, she only needs to do is find him, and Elder Gods know what might happen next.

#novel #((well there is a surprise over here)) #((at least this first act is getting closer to be finished))

[iwhumpyou]

The Price (Part 3)

Masterlist.  Wergild.

Part 2.

~#~#~#~#~#~

He didn’t think she could do it.  Clarissa couldn’t do it, had reached as far as her hands breaking and had run away in tears, cradling her injured limbs.  It had taken weeks for it to heal and the suspicion had doomed their friendship.

She had never suggested trying again and Jace had taken the hint.

He would’ve done it. If he could, he would’ve shouldered the burdens of his entire clan to give them a better life.  But, no, it had be an elementalist.

It had to be a willing elementalist.  The caveat that had doomed them all.  No one was willing to do this, not when the curse had started to build and certainly not now, after all these years.  Coercion and threats didn’t work, never worked.  The curse could only be lifted by someone who truly wanted to. 

And then Clarissa’s little sister had skipped inside and rubbed salt in his wounds, rubbed them so deep he had trouble seeing straight.  She knew perfectly well he couldn’t kill her, no matter how badly his hands itched to shove six feet of steel through her heart.  Clarissa could forgive him a lot – had, indeed, forgiven him countless attacks and assaults – but her baby sister?  No, if Jace killed the girl, he could dig himself a grave.  

He couldn’t leave his people without a leader.  Not now. Not when Mirai was gasping out the last of her life.  Not when five of the six great clans were planning to meet and ratify a peace treaty. Not now.

If he couldn’t kill her, at least he could strip the truth from her words.  Anything, she had promised, a deal she couldn’t hope to keep. Let the little girl have a taste of what real life really was and when she went running back to Clarissa, Jace could honestly say she’d asked for it. 

“Jace,” Felix sidled up to him and he held up a warning hand.  The rest of his clan looked to him, to the girl gingerly placing her hands on the boulder and back to him.  They got the message.  No interference.

He watched coolly as the stone rippled, earth wrapping around her arms, going higher than it had with Clarissa, almost to the shoulder.  He watched, a hint of amusement on his face, waiting.

The stone surged and the girl slumped.  Her breathing was ragged.  She hadn’t screamed, Jace had to give her credit for that.  He shifted forward a step – he wanted to see her face when she admitted she couldn’t do it, when her empty promise turned out to be just that.

She never turned back.

Jace watched in growing confusion as water lapped around her distorted limbs.  This was not how it was supposed to go.  The girl wasn’t willing, everyone knew that.  There was no way she wanted to accept this pain. 

The water turned to ice and red dripped down her arms.  The harsh breathing grew louder, small whimpers the girl was clearly trying to suppress.

For what felt like an eternity, the scene was frozen.  The water, the whimpers, and the active silence of more than fifty people.

Then the flames sparked.

The girl started screaming, a high-pitched keening sound clearly audible over the shouts of his people. They looked at him again, several starting for the girl as if intending to pull her away.

Felix grabbed him and turned him away from the girl on fire.  “Jace, you can’t do this!” he yelled.

Jace looked at him. The flames had reached the girl’s shoulder now.  “I can’t stop it,” he pointed out, more calm than he felt, “I told her what wergild I would accept.  This was her decision.”

“She’s being burned alive!” Felix shouted.  The girl’s screams had reached a fever pitch.

“She is willing,” Jace said quietly, “Only a willing elementalist can break the curse.”

His people were looking at him with a combination of disgust and dismay.  He didn’t care.  If she could do this, if she could break this curse – if he could take his first breath of fresh air…

“Do you think Clarissa will see it that way?” Felix asked, his voice low and cold.

“I don’t care,” Jace shrugged him off, “She killed my sister.  She’ll break the curse in repayment.”  It was a spark of hope in the crushing darkness of his despair.  

“Clarissa will kill you.”

“Then I’ll follow Mirai to the stars, knowing that my people are protected and my clan is safe,” Jace said, meeting Felix’s gaze and narrowing his eyes, “Do you understand?”

Felix stepped back and lowered his head in acquiescence.  

The fire had stopped. Good.  He couldn’t see anything happening but the girl had her forehead pressed against the stone, unmoving.  Was the curse broken?  How could he tell?

The question was answered a second later – the boulder crumbled to pieces and sent out a shockwave. Jace staggered back amidst surprised cries – it felt like something inside of him was tearing, something was ripped away and out.  He regained his balance and inhaled sharply and – 

The air tasted clean.  He didn’t even know air could smell so pure.  He took another gulp, and another, until he was nearly dizzy.  He looked around him in stupefaction – had the leaves always been so green?  Had the sunlight always felt so warm, like a blanket around him?  Had the earth always felt so solid and supportive under his feet?

He met Felix’s gaze and saw all of his questions reflected in the half-wondering, half-stunned eyes. Was this truly what the rest of the world felt like?

“Chief,” a voice startled him from his reverie – a voice that sounded richer and deeper than it had before – and Jace turned.  Most of his people were wandering around in befuddlement, dazed expressions on their face as they turned in circles, but a few had drawn closer to the boulder.

It wasn’t a boulder anymore. It was a pile of rubble, and Jace could see a trickle of water through the debris.  The spring, the one his grandfather had talked about.  It had been here all along.

Crumpled at the edge of the pile of rubble was a dark, unmoving form.  As Jace got closer, he could see the red, bubbling, mutilated mess the girl’s arms had become.  

Clarissa was definitely going to murder him for this.

“What shall we do with her?” one of them asked.

Jace bit back his instinctive response – she killed his little sister, she deserved the deepest, darkest parts of hell – and took a breath.  She had broken the curse, upheld her promise.  She had given wergild and so the debt between them was repaid.  Jace had to treat her with the courtesy of a visiting guest, his honor would demand no less.

“Take her to the infirmary, tend to her wounds,” Jace said curtly, turning away himself.  He had traded his sister’s life for his people’s future – and he owed it to Mirai to tell her that much.

The infirmary was in chaos when he arrived.  The shockwave had not stopped in the clearing and Jace had forgotten to inform the rest of the clan about what was occurring.  He sighed – Felix would see to it.  He had only one priority now.

“Chief,” Irina stepped into his path, clearly frazzled.  He glared at her in annoyance but she ignored it.  “What is going on?  Has there been an earthquake?”

He looked past her, to the pallet where Mirai lay, her wheezy breathing the only indication that she was still alive.  “No,” he said impatiently, “The curse has been broken.  The boulder is rubble and apparently the spring our elders talked about was contained within.”  He sidestepped her and because her wide eyes told that she clearly wanted more information, he huffed, “You can go outside and get the details.”

He knelt at the edge of Mirai’s pallet and took her cold, clammy hand in his.  Her skin was ashen pale and beaded with sweat.  Her breath came out in harsh, painful rattles and her lips and fingertips were beginning to turn blue.  

The poison was a slow, painful death.  There was no cure for bluebell nectar.  The fall had paralyzed her from the waist down.  All his little sister could do was lie here and wait to die.

Jace lifted her hand and pressed it to his forehead, trying to escape the burning of his eyes.  “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, his breath hitching, “I’m so sorry, little sister.” 

“Jace…”  He had never heard his sister so weak before.  Mirai was mischief and laughter and brightness wrapped up in energy and smiles.  The girl in the bed was a pale imitation of his sister and it broke Jace’s heart. “What happened?”

“I am so very sorry,” he said, closing his eyes, “So, so sorry, Mirai.”

“What did you do?” She was weak and in pain and hours from death but still quick on the uptake, “What did you do, Jace?”

He lifted his head and looked at her because his little sister deserved that much.  “The girl who stabbed you,” he said, stumbling over the words. 

“Nerali,” Mirai said faintly.

“Nerali,” Jace repeated. He supposed he would have to remember her name now.  “Nerali came here and offered her life as wergild,” he said, “For you.”  

Mirai’s next breath was harsher than the last and her fingers grasped at him as she stared, her eyes wide.  “No, Jace, tell me you didn’t.”  When she didn’t get a response, she clutched at him, “Clarissa will murder you and we will both have died for nothing.”

“I told her that her miserable little life was not worth yours,” Jace said and watched his sister relax and slump back.  “So she promised me anything that she could give me as wergild.”  Mirai watched him, curious.  “I’m sorry, Mirai.  I accepted.”

His little sister looked at him with only understanding.  He searched for anger or disgust or sadness in her gaze and found nothing but love.  “What did you ask for?”

“The curse,” Jace said softly, “The one that can only be broken by a willing elementalist.” Mirai’s eyes widened with every word. “She did it, little sister.  The curse is broken.  Our people are free.”

He forced a smile on his face so that Mirai could see it even if he never wanted to be happy again. The girl had kept her word, kept her promise and Jace had secured his people’s future at the cost of the light in his.  

“That’s wonderful, Jace,” Mirai said, “I –” But whatever she was going to say next was cut off in a flurry of movement as Irina reentered the room.  

The healers all around were in a tizzy, muttering and smiling and opening books and scrolls. Irina herself knelt at Mirai’s side and propped up her head, touching a clay pot full of a clear liquid to Mirai’s lips.  “Drink,” Irina said, her voice steadfast.

Mirai drank and gasped. “What was that?” she asked and Jace stared at her.  Her breathing was better and her skin was no longer so ashen.  “That tasted like…” she cast around for words and Jace could hear her voice grow. 

“What was that?” he asked, staring at Mirai.  A minute ago, she looked like she was moments from death.  Now, she looked like she was resting off an injury – still weak, still hurt, but with a chance of getting better.

“The spring water,” Irina said, smiling.  It was the first time he’d seen the healer smile in a while.  “The spring is back, Jace.  Its healing properties…”

“It could cure anything in one pure of heart,” Jace finished, almost numb with disbelief, “Mirai…”

“It will cure the bluebell nectar,” Irina said.  Her grin was splitting her face in two.  “Now that the curse is gone, our spells should work again.  Mirai will heal.  Completely.”

~#~ 

The thatching on the roof of the hut was wound in circles.  Nerali laid on the pallet for hours, following the lines over and over and over again.  Sometimes someone would come in and change her bandages, sometimes offer her water or a weak broth.  Jace had hovered at the door once, staring at her, before disappearing again.  

No one talked to her. She didn’t expect them to.  She had paid wergild for her crimes, but that didn’t mean they were forgotten.  It probably took all their effort not to sneer at her.  She should probably be happy that Jace hadn’t taken the opportunity to kill her anyway.

(She wished he had.)

It was awful, laying still and unmoving.  Every shift of her torso brought renewed fire lancing down her arms and they were already twin centers of agony.  The slightest breeze could inflame the pain to the point where Nerali was biting her lip and scrunching her eyes and doing all she could not to cry out.  She often couldn’t tell when she slipped into unconsciousness, because her dreams were of broken bones and ice needles and fire, fire, fire.  There was no difference in pain between sleeping and waking.

She opened her eyes to a hushed conversation and groaned when she aborted her movements too late. Pain radiated down and she stayed perfectly still and concentrated on breathing, in and out, until it became mangeable again.

“Here,” a cool, familiar voice said, pressing a clay pot to her lips and inclining her head with a careful hand.  Nerali sipped at the water, soothing and fresh, and looked up at her helper.  

“Thank you,” she said, as she always did, only to choke on the words as Mirai’s face came into view.

Nerali flailed backwards and the pain exploded.  She tried to curl away from the perceived threat but every movement just made it worsen and she finally stopped in a half-curled position, taking fast breaths and trying not to scream.  She could barely see Mirai’s face through her blurred eyes but there was no mistaking it. 

“Are you haunting me?” she asked through hitched breaths and sobs, “Or am I dead?”  If this was the afterlife, Nerali had made a gross miscalculation. She couldn’t survive this pain for eternity.

“Shh,” Mirai’s familiar voice said, though it was softer than Nerali remembered it.  There was a hand on her forehead, blissfully cool, and it stroked strands of hair away from her face and delicately wiped away every tear as it fell.  “I’m not haunting you.  Neither are you dead.”

Nerali closed her eyes tight because there was only one explanation.  She didn’t think that this was what losing your sanity felt like, but the agony of lifting the curse could’ve shattered her mind into a million pieces.  She had gone mad.

“I’m not dead,” Mirai continued.  The careful hands continued their soothing motions, tugging Nerali back into a straightened position and carefully setting her arms back into position.  Nerali hissed at every movement but they were being very gentle.  The hands didn’t stop Nerali from trying to bury her face in the pillow and merely resumed stroking her hair.

“You are,” Nerali said when she could breathe again.  Her next words were small and choked with guilt and regret, “I killed you.”

Jace would never agree to the peace treaty, even with her wergild.  She had doused his revenge but would never be able to quell his anger. Clarissa would have peace, but peace without her best friend by her side.

And it was all Nerali’s fault.

“No,” Mirai disagreed, “You saved me.”  Her voice took on a tinge of irritation, which made it sound more like Mirai, “I can’t see how helpful that was, given that you first stuck a poisoned sword in my gut and pushed me off a tree –”

“Mirai,” Jace’s voice said, exasperated.

“But no harm, no foul,” Mirai finished on a cheerier note.  Nerali opened her eyes and craned her neck to see the door – sure enough, Jace was standing there, the expression on his face torn between annoyed and fond. He was looking at Mirai, who was sitting at Nerali’s side.  

Her vision somewhat clearer, Nerali could see a few differences in Mirai.  Her skin was paler than Nerali remembered it and she sat awkwardly, like her legs were in the way.  Her clothes were as skimpy as usual, though, and Nerali stared at her toned stomach and the large, angry, half-healed gash on it.

“You’re not dead,” Nerali said, blinking at her.  A couple of objections voiced themselves in her head and Nerali frowned, “How are you not dead?”

“Careful, sweetheart, you almost sound disappointed,” Mirai grinned at her, the often-seen shark-toothed smile that always meant she was laughing at Nerali’s expense.

“You discovered the spring,” Jace said from the doorway, “A legend of my people is that our spring is protected by the spirits of our clan and the water can heal anyone pure of heart.”

“I discovered what?” Nerali asked.  She had broken the curse, she hadn’t done anything about a spring.  Had she woken up in some alternate universe where Mirai wasn’t dead and her wergild had been something else?  Or was this all a fever dream to make herself feel better?

“In the boulder you shattered,” Jace clarified.  That would explain it.  All that Nerali remembered of those last moments was pain.

“Which brings me to a problem,” Jace said.  Nerali swallowed, but he didn’t look mad.  Neither did Mirai, when she glanced at her out of the corner of her eye.  “You broke the curse as wergild for my sister’s death.  But Mirai isn’t dead.”

Nerali looked at Mirai again and all the signs that pointed to the girl not being quite well yet, no matter what they said about the spring water.  “She would’ve been,” Nerali said in a small voice, “Bluebell nectar is fatal and the fall…  She would’ve died without your spring water.” 

“But she didn’t,” Jace said, an undertone of harshness to his words, “Which means that you gravely injured my sister, but then brought me the means to save her.  Those actions would cancel each other out.  But that was not all you did – you broke the curse on my people and you allowed us to live freely for the first time in living memory.”  He walked a few steps forward and knelt fluidly at Nerali’s side, bowing his head. “What would you like in repayment?” His hands were clenched tightly in his lap.

Nerali flicked a quick glance at Mirai.  She was staring at her brother, whiter than before, her mouth a pinched line.  “If you do not feel up to making a decision now, I can of course wait,” Jace said, his body stiff with tension, “The spring water is healing you, albeit slowly.  You don’t have to give me an answer now.”

She didn’t have to, but judging by the look on Jace’s face, it was going to eat him alive until she did. She hadn’t thought about this situation – she had never dreamed that the head of a rival clan would be asking her for what she wanted.  She didn’t know what would be equal payment for what she did, she didn’t even know what she wanted.  Nerali wished Clarissa was here – surely her big sister would know what to ask. 

Clarissa.  That was it!

“The peace talks,” Nerali said hurriedly, “The conference of the clans.  Has it started yet?”

Jace looked at her, bewildered.  “It starts tomorrow,” he said, “What does that have to do with –”

“Go to the talks,” she cut him off, “Work together with the other clans.  Build peace in the land.”  Fulfill Clarissa’s dream, she just managed to stop herself from saying.

From the wide-eyed look Jace was giving her, he was shocked.  Had she asked for too much?  “What?” he asked, sounding slightly strangled.

She had probably asked for too much.  “Go to the peace talks,” she mumbled, hunching into her shoulders.  Jace was still looking at her like she was from another planet.

“That sounds like a lovely idea,” Mirai said, her voice cheerful but a bite to her words that Nerali couldn’t quite untangle, “Doesn’t it, Jace?”

“Is that all you want?” Jace asked, ignoring his sister, “What if I was already planning to go?”

Well, then she had misjudged him entirely.  “Were you?” she ventured.

“No, but –”

“Then that is what I want,” Nerali cut him off, wavering confidence in her words.

Jace looked at her, his face still blank.  “I will, of course, go to the peace talks if that is what you truly desire,” he said carefully, and Nerali looked at him.  She heard a ‘but’ coming.  “But you broke the curse on my people, Nerali.  I’m not sure if you understand what you did and how enormous an impact it has had on my clan.  I don’t think going to a conference is a sufficient wergild.”

Oh.  He didn’t think she was asking for too much.  He thought she was asking for too little.  “You have to go with the purpose of making peace,” she ventured slowly, “You have to believe in it and strive to make it come true. Work towards a future where the forest is a place of safety and happiness.”  This was probably too much, but it would give her a sense of where to meet in the middle.  Perhaps to go to the conference and avoid starting a fight?  Clarissa had always complained about Jace’s ability to annoy almost anyone, though she hadn’t yet seen that particular talent.

Jace looked at her, his gaze intense, and she waited for his answer.  “I would consider that a sufficient wergild,” he said finally and Nerali exhaled in relief.  Clarissa would be so happy.  She had finally managed to fix the monumental mistake that had started with a poisoned sword and a twenty-foot drop. 

(Perhaps Clarissa would even smile at her and ruffle her hair and say that she had made her proud.)

“Nerali,” Jace spoke again, his voice soft and careful, “Are you sure that this is what you want?”  He looked at her with a searching stare, “I don’t wish to sound rude, but you didn’t seem like you were that interested in the peace talks.”

Nerali flushed because it was true.  She hadn’t cared and that loss of caring had led her into the forest on a patrol a week before the carefully balanced peace talks even though something was obviously going to go wrong.

“Clarissa dreamed of peace,” she said.  A peace with Jace by her side, she hadn’t said, but it had been obvious enough.

“I know she’s fanatic about it,” Jace managed a small smile, “But I didn’t know you were.”

“She’s my sister,” Nerali said, looking away, her voice getting smaller, “And I almost ruined her dream beyond repair.”  She looked back to Jace, “I had to fix it.”

Jace blinked and looked to Mirai.  Nerali followed his gaze but by the time she turned her head, Mirai was looking down at her and offering her another sip of water.  She took a gulp of it and laid back down, looking back up at the circles of the thatched roof.  There was a smile tugging at her lips, and something loosened inside her chest, something that had tightened when Clarissa had looked at her with those sad, tired eyes.

It wasn’t an ideal position – her arms still hurt like hell – but she had managed to deal with all the consequences, and all by herself, too!  She could comfort herself with the surprised but delighted look that would be on her sister’s face when Nerali explained everything she’d done. Clarissa would be so proud.

“Nerali,” Jace asked quietly and she turned her head towards him, “Did Clarissa say that you had to fix your mistake?  Did she tell you that it was your fault?”

“No, of course not!” Nerali frowned.  Like she was a child that needed to be scolded.  She could take the blame for her actions by herself.

“Then why did you come here, Nerali?” Jace asked in the same tone of voice.  It sounded remarkably similar to the time Aiden coaxed an injured leopard cub out of hiding.  

“To pay wergild,” Nerali blinked at him.  Was something wrong with Jace?  Did breaking the curse have a mental effect?

“It wasn’t your responsibility,” Jace said levelly, “Wergild is usually negotiated between clans.”

“Oh,” Nerali had not known that, “But it was my fault.”  And she didn’t want to put Clarissa in the position of ordering her into a dangerous situation or accepting capitulations.  Jace cast another glance at Mirai and Nerali frowned.

“You said you were expecting to die when you came here,” Jace said haltingly, pausing before every word, “But you knew that wouldn’t happen, right?”

“I didn’t think of it before you pointed it out,” Nerali mumbled, not looking at Mirai.

“Think of what, exactly?”

“That obviously my life would not be worth hers,” Nerali said, her voice dropping even lower.  She hunched into her shoulders again.  

“Don’t be silly,” Mirai said, her voice determined, and Nerali straightened again, “Jace would never have killed you because if he did, Clarissa would’ve come after him.  In fact, it’s extremely fortuitous that this sequence of events have resolved themselves with minimal bloodshed and little lasting damage.”

“Clarissa wouldn’t have come after you,” Nerali said, incredulous, though Mirai was right, it was incredibly lucky, “It was wergild.  She would understand.”  She frowned – she hadn’t thought of what Clarissa would’ve felt if she’d heard of Nerali’s death.  Yet another person she hadn’t considered would be affected by the consequences of her actions.

Jace’s face was doing something funny, his expression twisted somewhere between disbelief, confusion, and horror.  “She would understand,” Jace repeated, his words devoid of all emotion, “She would understand that her baby sister was murdered and would do nothing about it?”

“Not murder,” Nerali said, wincing.  “Payment.” This conversation had certainly taken an odd turn.  “She loved Mirai too, you know,” she said, her words soft and reproachful.

“Nerali,” Jace said. He sounded calm, but he didn’t look it, his hands clenching into fists and a muscle jumping in his jaw.  “What did she say to you when she heard what you did? Exactly.”

The words had echoed in Nerali’s head since she first heard them and even now they felt like daggers to the heart.  She repeated them warily, not understanding the undercurrent of anger in the room, but recognizing it nonetheless, “That she loved Mirai like her own sister and she understood what you were going through.”  She paused, but Jace was looking at her, expectant.  “That your rage would burn down the world if it wasn’t put out.”

There was a long silence. Jace looked at her blankly, unmoving. Nerali turned to Mirai, but her face smoothened over the instant she saw her and Mirai mutely offered her another sip. When she turned back, Jace was getting to his feet.  

“Well, it’s clear she still understands me, though I’m not sure I still understand her.”  He nodded at Nerali, “Thank you for this great service you’ve done to my clan, Nerali.  I hope you will consider partaking of our hospitality until you recover.”  He looked to Mirai, “I need to pack quickly if I’m to reach the conference tomorrow.  I know Irina wanted to check up on you again.”

Mirai got up ungainly and Nerali could see clearly that she hadn’t fully recovered yet.  She leaned heavily on Jace’s arm as she limped out the door, flashing a quick smile at Nerali before she left.  Nerali relaxed back into the pillows, feeling so much lighter. Everything had been fixed and Jace was going to strive for peace.  With both Jace and Clarissa working together, her sister’s dream would come true.  She would probably take Jace up on his offer – she didn’t want to see Clarissa’s face when she saw Nerali’s arms, and it would probably be better to do a quick check-up on the spirit spring before she left, just to make sure that the curse had fully dissolved.

Nerali slipped back into sleep, content.

~#~

He waited until he was out of earshot of Nerali’s hut, which was honestly more self-control than he thought he had.  “She what?” he hissed, furious.  Mirai leaned against a nearby wall.  Several people in the vicinity were pretending quite hard that they weren’t eavesdropping.  “She basically told her sister that she was responsible for the breakdown of peace in the forest!”

“To be fair, she would’ve been,” Mirai pointed out.

“Nerali is her sister,” Jace hissed, unable to put the roiling pit of anger and fear inside of him into words, “Her sister.”

“Jace,” Mirai started tentatively, but Jace cut her off.

“Her baby sister, Mirai,” he said, crossing to her and gripping her shoulders tight, “Have I ever said something like that to you?  Have I ever even implied it?”

“No, Jace, of course not,” Mirai placed a soothing hand on top of his, “You would never do that, I know.”

“But Clarissa did,” Jace said, closing his eyes.  All this time, and he thought she had been the righteous one.  “She basically told her that her life was worth less than yours.”

“She didn’t say that,” Mirai said quietly, “She would never say that.”

“That’s what she implied,” Jace said, “That my anger was a bigger problem than her baby sister’s continued survival.”  He felt sick to his stomach.  He had dug his fingernails into his hands to stop from breaking something when Nerali was talking.  “It’s what Nerali heard, otherwise she wouldn’t have walked all the way over here to throw herself on a sword.”

She hadn’t even seen anything wrong in it.  She had asked for peace because it was what her sister wanted.  She had been ready to die, thinking it was what her sister wanted.

“I thought it was a joke,” he said finally, “When she arrived at the gates, talking about wergild. I thought it was cruel mockery. Offering me exactly what I wanted and knowing I couldn’t take it.  Watching me fight my revenge to save my people – forcing me to acknowledge that something took priority over you, even as you were dying.”  Mirai was silent.  “But it wasn’t a joke, was it?  She was serious.”  He swept Mirai into a hug, holding her crushingly tight until he could feel her heartbeat.  She squawked at him, but he didn’t let go. 

“Promise me you would never do that,” he said, loosening his grip slightly, “Promise me, Mirai, that you would never give your life up for anything or anyone, thinking it’s what I want. Promise me.”

“I promise,” Mirai said softly.

“It doesn’t matter if you burn this whole forest down until there’s nothing left but ashes, because I will not blame you.  I will never blame you,” he pulled back until he could meet her eyes, “And if you die thinking it’s what I want, I will slit my own throat, do you understand?”

Mirai swallowed, tears in her eyes, and nodded mutely.  Jace fought back the burning in his own eyes and hugged her again, hoping that if he held her tight enough, he could forget what Nerali had said.

He finally let her go, wiping at his eyes roughly.  The people around them had given up all pretense of pretending not to listen. Several of them looked shocked. Many looked as sick as he’d felt listening to Nerali.  The healer outside of Nerali’s hut, paused with a small cup of soup in her hands, was white-faced and sorrowful.

“Chief.”  He turned to meet Felix’s determined gaze, “Tell us she’s not going back there.”

“I strongly suggested she stay here until she’s healed,” Jace said hoarsely, “I trust you can manage to keep her here without using actual force.”  The healer nodded.  “She’s disoriented and woozy from the pain, so it shouldn’t be too hard.”  He turned back to Felix, “You should pack.  We’re leaving for the peace talks.”

Felix blinked, “We are?”

“Yes,” Jace said, “Nerali asked that as repayment for breaking the curse and I accepted.  Besides, it gives us the perfect opportunity.”  A slow smile stretched across his face as he thought of the possibilities.

“Opportunity, chief?” Felix asked.

“To show Clarissa the error of her ways.”  And he would make sure she’d learned her lesson before letting Nerali anywhere near her again.

~#~

Part 4.

#whump #whumpfic #wergild #arc: the price #consequences #not as dead as claimed #still cripplingly low self-esteem #don't worry #people are going to fix that

[catgirlthecrazy]

Muse and Knight

Warning: this fanfic contains major spoilers through Tiamat’s Wrath.

AO3

Summary: The transition from uneasy allies to family doesn’t happen in a single moment. Not even a dramatic one. It’s a slow change, like a sunset. You can’t see it happening, just see the results when it’s already happened.

Holden and Clarissa’s relationship, through the years.

The coffee machine was broken. Again. Holden pressed his forehead into the cool brushed steel surface of the machine. “I don’t ask for much. Really, I don’t. Is this so unreasonable?” The red text of the error message shown even through his closed eyelids. It seemed almost irritated at him for expecting it to perform the function that was the entire purpose of its existence.

The galley door slid open. “Oh,” a soft voice said. Clarissa hovered at the galley door. 

“Hey,” he said. “You’re up.”

Clarissa seemed to teeter on the edge of leaving. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were awake." 

Holden shrugged. "Couldn’t sleep. Figured I’d start shift early. Or, I was going to."  He gestured helplessly at the red error message. Holden’s head already ached in anticipation of caffeine withdrawal.

Clarissa frowned and crossed the galley, inspecting the error message. "It’s not working?” She power-cycled the coffee maker and hit the brew button again.

“Already tried that,” Holden said. As if agreeing, the machine buzzed angrily and spat out the same error message as before. 

“Hmm. Let me take a look.” Clarissa left, and returned with a bag of tools and parts. A minute later she had the machine on the floor, back panel removed and parts exposed to the open air. Not for the first time, Holden was struck by a sudden sense of surreality. Just a handful of years ago, this woman had tried to destroy him and everyone he loved. He could still remember the murderous rage she’d inspired in him. Now she was fixing his coffeemaker, and he was weirdly ok with that.

He’d like to say that the assault on the slow zone had been the tipping point. The moment when she’d moved in his mind from “person who’d tried to kill him” to “part of his crew.” But these sorts of things never worked like that. It was like a sunrise: you couldn’t see the sky turning from black to blue while it was ongoing. You could only notice the results after they’d already happened.

“Ha!” Clarissa pulled out something metallic and charred, with little dangling wires like tentacles. “Power leads burnt out.”

“Is that hard to fix?" 

"No, this part swaps out pretty easy.” She opened a utility organizer labeled Replacement Parts: Galley in neat handwriting that definitely wasn’t Amos’. She pulled out the pristine twin of the burnt out part and wired it into the machine. She put the machine back together, and ran diagnostics. This time the message was a happy green. She made a little animal noise of satisfaction. “There, all fixed.”

Holden clapped her on the shoulder. “You are my favorite person in the solar system.” He turned to the machine and started a new brew. “You want me to make some for you?” When she didn’t answer, he turned to look at her. 

There was an odd expression on Clarissa’s face, one his caffeine-deprived mind couldn’t quite decipher. “I… yes, I would love that,” she said.

Weeks later, Holden would learn that Clarissa actually hated coffee. That morning, though, she drank the whole cup.

***

Pátria was a big colony. To Holden, a child of cramped and crowded Earth, that still felt a little strange. Pátria only had a few settlements, and only one that could rate the label ‘city’- barely. But by the fledgling standards of extra-solar colonies, it was a metropolis. It had paved roads and a sewage system and real buildings not made from scrap and mud. And it had recreational swimmers.

The day was uncomfortably hot, the kind of hot that made his shirt damp. A few families with young children were splashing in the local lake on the outskirts of the town. A floating platform had been set up in a deeper part of the lake. One adolescent took a running leap off and cannonballed into the lake, splashing his friends and prompting screams and shouts. A few nearby waterbirds croaked their annoyance and flew off. Holden found himself grinning. 

“People do this for fun ?” Bobbie’s voice was acrid with disgust and amusement.

“What, swim? It’s not that uncommon on Earth,” he said.

“Those birds have been pooping in there. And the fish. And whatever the hell kind of microbes they’ve got.”

Holden shrugged. “That’s true on Earth too. People still swim in ponds and lakes there. Remind me to tell you about some of my family’s trips to Flathead Lake.”

She shot him a look. “Yeah, and that's also disgusting. But at least Earth lakes have our flavor of shit and microbes in it. This will have alien shit and microbes in it. Who knows what that does?”

Holden opened his mouth to answer, but Clarissa beat him to it. “They test the water regularly here. It’s not safe to drink without treatment, but you can swim in it just fine. So long as you don’t swallow too much, anyway.” She was taking off her shoes and rolling up her jumpsuit pantlegs as she talked. “I looked it up before we landed.” She set her shoes aside, socks neatly tucked in, and walked purposefully towards the water. It took Holden a second to understand why. Then he grinned and shucked off his own shoes.

Bobbie groaned. “If your feet melt into green slime, don’t come complaining to me,” she called.

They both ignored her. Clarissa was already up to her ankles by the time Holden reached the water. Her face was turned up to the sun like a flower, her expression pure bliss. 

“I don’t think I’ve been anywhere near a real lake since I was a kid,” Holden said. The water was delightfully cold. The soft wet sand slid comfortably between his toes. 

“Last time I was near a lake was when me and Amos were trying to get off Earth. Not much time for swimming then.”

“And before that?”

“Probably the same lake, the last time I summered there with my parents. We used to go there every other year. It was… nice.” She had the same distant tone she got, discussing her old life. He’d never pressed her much about it. So Holden changed the subject. 

“I forgot how good cold water feels on a hot day,” he said. He crouched down and started splashing water on his face, careful to keep his mouth closed as he did so.

Clarissa was digging out handfuls of sand out of the lake bottom and watching them flow through her fingers underwater. “I know. I almost want to just dunk myself in and float for a while." 

"But?”

“But I don’t fancy walking around in a soaking wet jumpsuit the rest of the day.”

“Those colonists got their swimsuits from somewhere. We’ve got a few hours. We could go get some. Have some shore leave on the beach.

"You think anyone else will be interested?” Her tone was amused. Holden glanced behind him. Bobbie was still shaking her head at the whole affair in amused disgust. Amos was staring at them with the blank non-comprehension of someone watching a foreign religious ritual. Alex and Naomi were back on the Roci, but he suspected their reaction would be much the same as Bobbie’s. Lake swimming wasn’t something people did outside of Earth- or it hadn’t been until now. And Baltimore didn’t have any bodies of water a sane person would want to swim in. It occurred to Holden that, though Clarissa wasn’t the only other Earther on the crew, she was probably the only one who shared any of his fondness for the place.

“Maybe not,” he said. “Do we need anyone else?”

She smiled. “I guess we don’t.”

By the time they were done at the lake, the day was nearly gone. The two of them walked back to the Roci’s landing pad, chatting animatedly, beneath a sky transitioning from blue to azure to black.

***

When you lived day in and day out with the same people on a small ship, a certain level telepathy emerged. From the tone of Naomi’s humming, or the way Bobbie took a ladder, or the rhythm of Alex’s fingers on the controls, Holden could take a barometer reading of each of his crew. So when Holden saw Clarissa sitting in the galley, gripping her mug of tea in a very particular way, he knew something was very wrong. Unfortunately, the telepathy didn’t tell him why.

To buy himself time, he started making coffee. Holden knew so much detail about his crew personal and work lives that, whatever their mood was, he usually had plenty of context to guess what the cause was. He didn’t know of anything in Clarissa’s life that could be behind her anxious mood. She hadn’t had any fights with the other crew that he knew of. There weren’t any looming mechanical problems or existential threats. He wondered how to go about asking what was bothering her.

Holden sat down at the table across from her. “What’s bothering you?”

Her eyes focused on him, like she’d only just noticed he was there. Then she laughed. “Always the direct approach.”

He grinned and shrugged. “I’m not very good at this.”

She grinned back for a moment. Then it faded. “I got a message from my sister.”

Two thoughts collided in Holden’s head: I thought your sister was dead slammed into I hope she’s doing well and jumbled together in his mind. Just barely, he stopped himself from blurting I hope she’s dead out loud. He knew Clarissa had siblings besides Julie. She never talked about her birth family except in the past tense, so it was easy to forget that most of them were still alive.

“Not good news, I take it?”

“My father is dead.”

The news was like a dropped tool in an empty cargo hold. Her father. Jules-Pierre Mao. The man who had probably held the record for bloodiest hands in the solar system until Marco Inaros came along to steal the title. It was hard for Holden to think of the arrogant man he’d encountered on Luna so many years ago as related to the tired looking mechanic in front of him. The Venn Diagram between the two had so little overlap these days that they were nearly separate circles in his mind. “Um. Wow.” He took a long pull from his coffee. He couldn’t make this about his own feelings right now. “How are you feeling right now?”

She didn’t answer for a long moment, but Holden chose to wait and sip his coffee. He didn’t have to wait long. “When I was young, he defined my life. Father was like a gravity well. So much revolved around him, and you couldn’t pass near him without accounting for how he’d alter your trajectory. Now he’s gone, and it’s hardly worth a story on the news feeds.” She smiled wryly. “He would have hated that.”

Holden frowned into his coffee. “You know, now that you mention it, that’s kind of weird. I mean, yeah, it’s been a while since he was in the news, but he was kind of a big deal back in the day. I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about this.”

“I’m not. He was held in Mossoró when the rocks fell. They were hit bad by tsunamis. They couldn’t find most of the bodies. It’s only now that the courts have made it official.” Clarissa’s voice was so flat, like she was reading off a list. 

“So you’ve known this was coming.” Holden wondered if that was the reason for her mood. He could remember one of his grandmothers, who’d been gravely ill for so long before she died that he’d felt more relief at her passing than loss. And with that relief, guilt.

“I suppose I did.” Clarissa cocked her head in bemusement. “I’m surprised you didn’t know that. You’re the one who put him in prison.” There was no hint of reproach in her voice. Almost, they could have been talking about a famous football player whose career Holden hadn’t kept up with.

Holden shrugged. “Honestly, I kind of stopped giving a fuck about him once he was in prison. So long as he couldn’t start wars, I didn’t really care.” Holden winced. “I uh, may not be the most comforting person to talk to about this.”

Clarissa just smiled at him. “I think he’d hate that even more than the lack of news coverage.”

Holden wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that. “So… You sound pretty calm about this. But I can tell something’s bugging you. Anything you want to talk about?”

Clarissa frowned into her mug. “When I got the message that he was dead, my first thought was 'good.’ I don’t like that.”

Holden took a long sip from his coffee to buy himself time. “No love lost between you two, then?”

“I don’t feel anything about him. No love, no hate. I’m just very, very glad that he’s gone forever now. And I don’t like that I feel that way. I didn’t think I was that kind of person anymore.”

“I mean, to be fair, it makes me a little happy to know he’s gone for good.” Clarissa looked up at him sharply, and he shrugged. “It probably doesn’t speak well of me as a person. But I think it’s just part of being human.”

“Maybe.” She stared at her drink. “I still feel like I’ve failed somehow.”

Holden strongly disagreed. But he knew by now that she didn’t really want him to prove her wrong. Just listen while she worked through it on her own.

And the truth was, Holden could sympathize with her sorrow, but he couldn’t entirely empathize with it. Mao was her father. He understood intellectually why parent-child relationships could fall apart so completely and irreparably that she could react this way. He could agree entirely with the reasons why. He knew that the only right you had with anyone in life was the right to walk away. But he couldn’t really feel it. He had always gotten on well with his own parents. It was hard to imagine anything different.

He took her hand. “Well, for what it’s worth, I like the person you are now,” he said.

“And who do you think that person is?”

“The person who fixes things. The person who won’t let so much as a squeaking hinge stick around for long. The person who builds things.”

She didn’t answer him. She just smiled a small smile. They sat together in companiable silence for a long time. 

***

When his interrogators told him about the body on Medina, Holden thought they were lying. Surely, it was a tactic to make him admit something. Surely, the photos and autopsy reports were fake. Surely, they couldn’t have found Clarissa Mao, shot twice amidst a half dozen dead Laconian soldiers. When Holden finally let himself believe them, he waited for them to tell him who else in his family had died. Months, then years passed, and the news never came.

He couldn’t grieve. He couldn’t afford to. If the Laconians knew just how deep a weakness it was, if they understood that she was more to him that a mere crewmate, they’d never stop hammering away at it. So he threw all his efforts into diverting them. He opened up as much as he could on the alien threat. The Tempest anomaly. The Ilus artifact. Elvi Okoye.

When he finally got free, he was too preoccupied to think much about older pain. The flight to the gate, Bobbie’s death, Amos’ strange resurrection: all of these overwhelmed his attention like a well lit room overwhelms a single candle. When the grief reminded him of its presence, it wasn’t how he expected it.

The cabin door squeaked. It was such a soft little sound, it took Holden weeks to notice it. He was so wrapped up in the joy of being back on the Roci, of not being on Laconia, that most other things were background noise. But as time went by, as they passed through the Laconia gate, through the slow zone and into the Gossner system, Holden noticed the small rattling whine of a mechanism not quite in alignment.

“It’s just a squeak.” Naomi shrugged with her hands when he mentioned it to her. “I can have Amos put it on the to-do list, but I guarantee you he’s got a couple dozen other items on it already. This might never make it to the top.”

“I know it’s pretty minor in the grand scheme of things,” Holden said. Experimentally he cycled the door a couple more times to see if the noise was consistent. “I just can’t remember the last time a squeak stuck around this long." 

He meant to sound casual. Evidently he failed, because Naomi’s expression softened. "I miss her too.”

Holden sagged a little, like a spring losing tension. “I wanted to believe it was a bad dream. Or a lie to make me admit something. The Laconians sprang it on me suddenly. I think they were trying to surprise me into letting something slip.” He could still remember the feeling like a dunk in ice. Like a confirmation of his worst nightmares. 

“Did they tell you how it happened?”

“Some. 'Likely involved in terrorist activities’ was I think how they put it.”

“She saved my life. She saved the whole underground.” And Naomi told him the story of the jailbreak, the traitor, and Clarissa’s last stand. 

Holden couldn’t speak. In broad strokes, what Naomi told him wasn’t far off from what he’d already guessed. But he hadn’t fully appreciated just how much he owed to Clarissa’s sacrifice. Naomi’s life was one item at the top of a very long list.

Naomi pulled him into a hug, and Holden broke. His body shook with the quiet sobs that he’d never allowed himself on Laconia. She murmured soothing words whose content mattered less than their tone. He could feel some of her tears wet on his forehead. He wasn’t sure how long they stood there like that. He had the raw sense of having burned a deep infection out of a wound.

“I’ve got a few spare hours,” Naomi said. “I could grab some tools. We could fix it together." 

"That,” Holden said, voice still ragged, “would be great.”

#the expanse #Jim Holden #Clarissa Mao #fanfic #spoilers #Tiamat's Wrath Spoilers #my fanfic #my post

[volturi-or-die]

Twisted: Chapter 16- Fear

Chapter Directory

Previous Chapter: Chapter 15- Curiosity

Next Chapter: Chapter 17- Incentive

Point of View: Alec

Word Count: 1797

Warnings: Strong language

In a moment I heard Mina’s heart stop beating. She stood frozen, as still as the air around her. 

“What do you mean she’s gone?” she questioned Jacob, her voice trembling. 

Jacob appeared in more pain than Mina. Guilt, fear, anger all visible in his brown eyes. He cared for Renesmee, something everyone that met her seemed to do. 

Jacob’s voice was strained as he began to explain, “I don’t know where she is. I went to the bathroom, I wasn’t gone for more than 2 minutes.  I came back out and she was gone. I kept trying to call her name, but nothing. I even called her multiple times and still nothing. I couldn’t even get a scent. I don’t know how that’s even possible.”

“Did you go-“

“I couldn’t. Too many people.” Jacob ran his hands through his hair, the frustration getting to him. How was it even possible for a vampire to go missing, without even a scent? Jacob looked up at me desperately, “Can you help?”

I was startled by his request, but I could see this was not something he took lightly. “Yes,” I answered and turned towards Mina. Before I said anything, she was off to the alleyway, knowing full well what I intended for her to do.

She was considerably faster than an average human, but suspicion was the least of her concerns and mine. I knew I could not stop her, not now. For Renesmee’s sake, she would need to be fast.

“How fast are you?” I asked looking back to Jacob.

“Don’t worry about me,” he said. He was frightened. The fear he exuded was almost palpitable.

“Very well. Where was she last?” 

“By the bookshop to the east of the tower.” I began to run towards the location he described. The sky was getting darker, the evening making the remaining residents of Volterra take shelter in their homes. 

Jacob caught up to me as I attempted to catch Renesmee’s scent. His presence however interfered, the repugnant smell of werewolf masking most scents. 

That was one aspect of the Cullen’s life that I never quite understood. I could not comprehend how they remained so close to a werewolf, particularly after all these years. Although perhaps the better question was, what did Renesmee mean to Jacob?

“Get anything?” I shook my head in response. This was not right. A human or vampire or any creature for that matter does not simply disappear. Her scent was here, but it did not travel in any direction. This was not possible. Her human blood should give off a strong scent, but there was nothing. 

The only being I had ever met without a scent was Mina, but Mina was something else. Renesmee was a hybrid. How could they both not have a scent? Perhaps it was appropriate to ask not how, but who?

“Fuck. God. Fuck,” Jacob began cursing. I could feel the rage, pain, all of it radiating from his body.

“Calm down.”

“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down. She’s gone and I don’t know where she is or what happened. How the fuck did this happen. I never should have let her out of my sight. I never should have let her come-” He stopped suddenly and looked towards me. 

In a moment his rage was redirected. “You.”

Realization struck me. “No. Jacob no. This was not our doing.” 

“How would you know? They could have kept you in the dark,” his voice getting increasingly louder. 

“No Jacob. It was not us. We do not have any interest in her nor would we do anything to jeopardize our relationship with the Cullens,” I tried to explain. My words seemed to register as Jacob began to stand down, but he remained tense. 

I could not rightfully expect him to trust me, but for the time being he appeared to believe me. Renesmee was important, but no one in the guard could do this, not without directly disobeying Aro’s instructions. Unless these were Aro’s instructions. 

This was blasphemy. Aro would not have ordered this. He would not endanger the entire coven and risk alienating the Olympic coven over a half breed, not again. But the Cullens were not here, only Emmett accompanied Mina to the castle these past few days.  

“Jacob, where is the rest of Carlisle’s coven?” I questioned. 

“Emmett’s out hunting with Esme and Carlisle but they’re on their way back. Edward went with the girls and Jasper to Milan. I already told them,” he answered me. 

“Shit.” I knew my reaction surprised Jacob. The only way to attack a coven of this size is divided and divided they were.  Jacob seemed to process the same thought as he began to connect the pieces. This was coordinated. 

Jacob’s phone rang and he quickly answered it as I listened in on their conversation.

“Emmett.”

Come back to the hotel.

“Is she there?”

No but Mina’s back. I’ll explain when you get here.

“On our way.” Jacob ended the call and gestured me to run ahead of him. 

Within minutes I was at the small hotel and made my way quickly up the walls and to the balcony. Carlisle opened the door and allowed me into the living room. 

Emmett had a hand on Esme’s shoulder trying to make some attempts at comforting her while Mina paced in front of the fireplace.

“Thank you for coming Alec,” Carlisle said as he sat down. Mina looked up at me as if only now acknowledging my presence. The fear in her eyes was easy to spot, but behind it was fierce determination. 

She stopped pacing and held out a paper that was wrapped tightly in her hands. I grabbed it and scanned through the words.

“Minalia,

Renesmee is alive. We will exchange her life for yours. 9 PM. The abandoned vineyard to the northeast. 

Come alone.”

I handed her back the paper. This was a game. She was a pawn. 

“I’m going,” Mina declared.

“No you are not,” Esme cried out fiercely. It was the cry of a mother, the kind that refused to let her child get hurt. But not every mother can save her child. 

Mina spoke again and gestured to the clock on the wall, “We don’t have time to argue this. The rest of them won’t get back in time. Esme I don’t know what will happen to her, and dammit if I can change it I will.”

“We cannot ask you to endanger your life,” Carlisle spoke up.

“Well good thing you’re not asking.” 

The ferocity in her voice was unmistakable. She was going to go regardless of anyone’s decisions. It was her own moral compass that would be her downfall. 

“What do you think, Alec?” Emmett asked me, quieter than the rest. Why he would consider my opinion puzzled me greatly. But still he continued, “You’re an objective party. What do you make of the situation?”

I glanced at Mina before I answered. Her eyes pleaded with me, a silent request to take her side. But I could not. “It’s a trap,” I answered Emmett. “Someone has planned this accordingly, but I do not know who. To go would be foolish.” 

“Would it be foolish if it was Jane?” Mina challenged me. Was it even possible for her to consider Renesmee her sister? She had only been with them for eight years, while Jane and I have been together since birth. We were each others only family, but did she really regard the Cullens as hers?

“Yes. However you are in no position to stand up to what I assume are are vampires. You will fail,” I answered her. I knew my response would not please her and as such she glared at me. 

“Alec,” Carlisle mumbled, “Would the guard be willing to help?” There was no way to know for certain but his plea was clear. 

“We can. May I borrow your phone?”

Mina protested, “NO! Stop. You are not going. The guard is not getting involved. I have to go. I have to do this myself. I refuse to let her or anyone else in your family get hurt.” 

“Dammit Mina!” Emmett yelled out now. “You are our family too!” 

Mina stayed still, her eyes wide. There was a level of pain that I saw that I wish I did not understand. She had everything she wanted right there in her grasp. She said nothing as the tears fell. Esme rushed to her side and held her close as she cried in her arms. 

Carlisle handed me the phone and joined them. I excused myself as I gave them the privacy they needed. 

The rain started again, coming down fiercer than Mina’s own tears. I dialed the number to the main desk. It rang and rang with no answer. How had no one heard the phone? I tried again with no response once more. This was wrong. 

“Alec!” Jacob’s voice called out. I pointed upstairs as I tried once again to call the desk. This was not possible. What was going on?

Thunder cracked through the sky as I rushed to the castle. I willed myself to go faster than I had before, but still, I was on the other side of the town. It would be minutes until I would reach the entrance. 

The doors burst open as I found my way to the main doors. There Clarissa sat, visibly startled by my entrance. “Alec is everything okay?” 

She was alive. The phone on her desk lit up. “Do you answer the phone?!” My tone frightened her into silence. “Answer me!” 

She spoke timidly, “Yes sir but I have not received any calls this hour.” I scanned her desk and saw it. A small cord was pulled out that connected the landline. Someone interfered, used Clarissa as a pawn. 

“Alec?” Demetri called out after me. 

“Where’s Jane?” 

“She’s in the throne room. I was just there,” he answered although puzzled by my question. 

“Is she safe?” 

“Yes, but-” I did not hear his voice as I rushed out the door. If Jane was safe then there was someone else who would not be. This was a distraction. 

The rain had soaked my hood by the time I reached the hotel. I scoured the room of the vampires and wolf. One, two, three, four. Where was the fifth? 

“If you’re looking for Mina, she’s downstairs getting a drink from the vending machine,” Jacob explained. No she was not. That was a lie.

My fear was confirmed as I made my way to the bottom floor. A note taped to the vending machine. 

“Alec. You’re the only one that understands. Thanks for listening. Maybe we could be friends if I make it out of this alive.” 

Tagged: @felixdeservedbetter @volturisecretary

#alec volturi #the volturi #twilight fanfiction #alec volturi imagine #the twilight saga #twisted series

[hellagaymccree]

Mistletoe

day three - mistletoe

takes place a year after day two

[more works by me]

-----

They arrive at Los Angeles almost at night in the 23. Gabriel could still have gone to quickly visit his family, but he gave Jesse the excuse that he was tired, but Jesse knew better. He didn’t want to leave his agent alone so quickly, in a town unknown to him. They watched movies and ordered pizza to relax before bed, though Jesse had trouble falling asleep. He kept wondering about the next day, when they will go to Gabriel’s old home and spend the 24 together. They would return on the 25 to spend more time and open presents. Gabriel had brought two bags full of them that rested on a corner.

He turns on his other side, to have a look at Gabe, and his heart flutters when he sees him asleep, facing Jesse on the bed beside his. The cowboy’s gaze traces the curve of his commander’s body, from his shoulder down to his narrowed waits and up his thigh. He focuses on his face, on the little details he can see in the low light. His eyelids look softly closed, and his mouth parted. He breathes with his commander, focuses on how soothing he looks. He can feel his brain relaxing, letting go of the anxiety and his body going numb with every breath until his eyelids feel too heavy to keep open and he drifts asleep.

Jesse regrets coming when they walk around the house, open the fence and Gabriel shouts ‘I’m home!’ Next thing he knows, a stampede of people come over to hug him. First comes an older woman with dark gray hair, wearing a colorful blouse and skirt. Then come a trio of girls, two twins and an older one, Gabriel’s sisters. Suddenly, Jesse feels small and like a burden, someone who’s only there to carry one bag of presents for all these people. He looks back, they won’t even notice if he slips out. He could afford a nice motel for the holidays—

“This must be Jesse!” The older woman says and places her hands on his shoulders. She’s smaller than him, and her eyes hold wisdom, along with a lot of joy that the years brought to her. “Gabriel has talked a lot about you. I’m Clarisa, his mother.”

“Oh, hi,” Jesse responds, a little taken back. “Yes, I’m Jesse McCree. Nice to finally meet ya. Gabriel speaks a lot about you as well.”

“He better,” Clarisa laughs as he kisses Jesse on the cheek. “Girls, this is Gabe’s friend, Jesse!” The three sisters have turned their attention to him and Jesse feels his breath escaping. They’re beautiful, same brown eyes—the oldest has them lighter—and curly dark hair. The twins are wearing long sweaters, one red wine and another aqua blue, and black leggings. The oldest has jeans and an ugly Christmas sweater.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Delilah,” the oldest says.

“Liliana,” the twin with the red sweater says.

“Mariana,” says the other. They’re younger than Gabriel and it shows on their faces. “You must see Gabe’s baby pictures!”

“Forget his baby pictures, we have his teen pictures!” Liliana adds.

“Wasn’t plannin’ on leavin’ without seeing those gems,” Jesse says and looks over at Gabriel, who’s too busy picking up a child to listen. “Is there always this many of ya?”

The girls laugh before Delilah says, “it’s only two; wait until our older cousin comes gets off work. I heard his bringing his husband and ex-wife.”

Jesse raises an eyebrow, “Isn’t that bad?”

“Nah, she’s great! And their son’s adorable! Speaking off—Jordan! Leo!” A man looks over, he’s wearing a matching ugly sweater, and a boy about fifteen years follows, also wearing an ugly sweater. “This is my husband, Jordan, and my son, Leonardo.”

Jesse tips his hat before extending his free hand, “Nice to meet ya. I’m Jesse.”

“Likewise,” the man responds and the nods while he chews on something. “I was about to grab more coquito, would you like some?”

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Jesse answers.

“Not at all, with alcohol?”

Jesse scoffs, “Is there any other way to drink coquito?”

The man sends him a light laugh before leaving, Leo follows and Delilah takes the bag of presents so she can place them under the tree inside the house. Liliana and Mariana grab each of his arms and take him away to meet people. Jesse looks over his shoulder and Gabriel laughs at him as he finger guns him. The twins introduce him to Leliana’s boyfriend and Mariana’s girlfriend, along with their parents. They introduce him to cousins, uncles, aunts and close friends, always as Gabriel’s friend. It’s only when they introduce him to their partners and close friends that they add the ‘special friend’ with a tone that stirs Jesse’s insides.

Halfway, Jordan hands him his cup of coquito and do a quick toast before he’s dragged again when the twins take him to the new people that arrive. He thought he would get to spend this time by Gabriel’s side, but so far they always seem to be at opposite sides of the big backyard, which takes him a while to actually notice every decoration. The trees and bushes are adorned with lights and a few ornaments and ribbons. There are colorful paper lanterns hanging across that will look beautiful in the night, no doubt. Music is always blasting through the speakers and someone always seems to be dancing, as well as eating. There's always food on the tables set out and drinks ready to grab. When he finally can be with Gabriel, the man looks younger, more alive than he has ever seen. He’s always smiling and his eyes twinkling. His laugh reaches Jesse’s ears as loud and clear as the songs playing, and if he could save it in a bottle and drink it later until he was delirious enough, he would ask for nothing more for the rest of his life.

At first, Jesse worries about taking too much food, until Clarisa comes after noticing his shyness and fills a plate for him, he loses the worry and feels comfortable enough to grab something every time he passes by. The twins ask him to dance and he follows gladly, not afraid to show up his moves. After that, he spots Clarisa picking up the empty plates and he hurries to help.

“You don’t have to, cariño,” she says.

“Please, I like to help.”

She smiles, “well, would you mind following me inside? There’s more to bring out.”

“More? Isn’t everyone full yet?”

She laughs and pats his shoulder, “wait until we pull out the pork. These people will look like they haven’t eaten a day in their life.”

Once in the kitchen, she asks him to clean up the plates while she grabs more food to refill them. Once that’s done, he can see more clearly what they’re having: small sandwiches, meatballs, gingerbread cookies, chicken and beef quesadillas, chicken flautas, guacamole with pita chips, chips with spinach dip, chicken wings and blue cheese, mozzarella sticks and bread rolls. Even if he didn’t want to get too full for dinner, his mouth was watering and his hands twitched to grab something.

Clarissa’s laugh brings him back, “See? Go ahead! Call first dibs!” She hands him a plate and he believes denying it will be rude, so he grabs a bit of almost everything and keeps it on a corner of the kitchen island. “Why the cowboy get-up?” She asks while refilling the guacamole bowl and handing him a bag of chips, “Put a few around, please.”

“Will do,” he answers as he pours the chips on plate around the guacamole. “My ma and I used to watch western movies late at night, when she came off work. They were always on at that hour and it stuck with me.”

“She was a doctor, right?” She looks at him and Jesse’s a little surprise. Just how much has Gabe talked about him?

“Y-yeah! One of the best. I use to go to seminars she gave, she was wonderful up on stage.”

“Did you ever wanted to follow in her footsteps?” Clarisa asks as she looks for the quesadillas she kept warm in the oven.

“At some point in my life, then…” He trails off, not really knowing how to follow. Clarisa finishes up placing the quesadillas neatly in a plate and then look at him. Her face changes to worry.

“Perdón, mijo [Sorry, boy], if I asked anything too personal.” She, and her daughters, must also know Jesse speaks Spanish. They’ve said a few lines in the language without worry Jesse might not understand, as if he was someone they talk to everyday.

“Nah, nah, it’s just that after what happened, after the doctors told me they couldn’t save her, I didn’t believe in them anymore.” Her gentle hand touches his arm, and even through the long sleeve shirt, he can feel her energy, almost as if it was his own mother’s touch.

“You let me know if ever ask about a touchy subject, besides, no sad faces today, alright?” She lifts his chin so he can look at her and he can’t help the genuine laugh that escapes him. “Also, you look handsome, never forget the hat!”

“Thanks, ma’am. Yer son helps me keep it, ya know?” He steps away from the counter and lifts one pant leg to show her the beautiful boots he only wears on special occasion so their color remains. “Got me these boots last year.”

“Oh, they’re beautiful!” She leans down to have a better look. “He has good taste in many things.” Jesse raises his leg when she’s about to touch to feel the leather and the carver design before she straightens up. “Including men.” Her smile is wicked before she turns to get the chicken flautas and Jesse’s there with a blank expression before he continues helping out.

“Already got him a slave for you, mamá?” Gabriel’s voice almost startles him, as if he had known they had been talking about him and sneaked past their senses. He approaches his mother and kisses the top of her head.

“It was about time you talked to your mamá,” she says as she rolls her eyes.

“You know how it is. I miss a year of pictures and stories, everyone wants to tell it first.” He looks over at Jesse, “you should be out there, having a good time.”

“What’d ya mean? The real party’s here,” Jesse says.

“He knows who matters in this place, who works hard to make this happen,” Clarisa says in strict voice, but it covers a lot of years of teasing.

Gabriel sighs playfully, “¿Quieres estar afuera y disfrutarte la fiesta? Yo me puedo encargar de esto. [You want to be outside and enjoy the party? I can take care of this.]”

“¡Ay, mi hijo tan bueno! Ya tú sabes como a mí me gusta acomodar todo. ¡Estaré afuera si me necesitan! [Oh, my good son! You already know how I like to prepare everything. I’ll be outside if you need me!]” She pets Jesse’s cheek before she leaves. Jesse watches her leave and laughs before Gabriel joins in and starts preparing the other dishes.

“She loves attending people, but she also deserves the time off.”

“Agree. She’s wonderful, sir.”

Gabriel elbows him, “You know you can call me Gabriel here.”

Jesse nods because he knows, and he has called Gabriel in other moments, moments he shouldn’t because he’s surrounded by other agents or Jack or Ana. Hell, even ‘Gabe’ has escaped his mouth and the older man hasn’t corrected him yet. But here, it feels too intimate, too private even to call him by those names, at least not naturally. It all feels official to something they haven’t even had yet.

“She knew about my ma,” Jesse says after a few seconds of bags, plates and soft noises. “Does she know about my pa, too?”

“Yeah, and she would send a chancla flying to his face if she ever met him,” Gabriel says, either not realizing what Jesse means by pointing it out, or brushing it off.

Jesse decides to act directly, “does she know about other agents’ parents?”

Gabriel remains quiet as he places gingerbread cookies on a plate, but didn’t even flinch when Jesse asked. Maybe he knew what Jesse was implying. ”You’ve grown so much since you joined, Jesse. In many way. You’ve become an important asset to Blackwatch, so yeah, I talk about you to her. About how good you are at taking care of your teammates, how you’ve saved my ass in the last six years even after I yell at you for it.” There’s a glint of gratitude in Gabriel’s eyes and Jesse chuckles. “How you didn’t let your past determine your future and you chose the right side—even if the other was prison—you accepted Blackwatch after you joined. And you let us accept you. You grew from that and became someone you can be proud of in the future, someone I’m happy to bring here.”

“Chucks, Gabe,” Jesse looks down, hiding his blush. “Didn’t expect that.”

“Hey,” Gabriel says and lifts Jesse’s chin, like his mother did, but this touch makes Jesse shiver, makes him follow every moment like a puppet under Gabriel’s control. “It’s time you start expecting good things, Jesse.”

Jesse smiles, and tries to control the warmth running through his body. He looks at Gabriel and thinks it’s the best thing in the world to be on the edge of his fingertips, and by his side on such special occasions that means a lot to him.

“Seems like you guys need help,” Jordan steps into the kitchen, and Gabriel’s hand falls from Jesse’s chin.

“I can take these ahead,” Gabriel says, grabbing one plate on each hand. “Can you help with the rest?”

“Sure,” the man says before Gabriel walks away. When he passes behind Jesse, he teases the cowboy’s hat and laughs before taking two plates. Jesse follows with two more and Gabriel returns until the tables are full again.

That’s when things change. When Jesse places the last plate on the table, and turns around, the twins are there, giggling. He’s about to ask what’s funny when both kiss him at the same time on his cheeks and Liliana asks him to dance again. When the song ends, Mariana’s girlfriend, Mariela, asks to take the next one, but not before also kissing him in the cheek. When they’re done, he retreats to get some water, where a little girl is trying to grab a cookie.

“Let me get that for you, lil lady,” Jesse says and grabs the treat for her. The quiet girl smiles at him before her eyes focus on his hat, which is not new to Jesse, but then she curls her little finger so he leans down. He follows and he thin lips press quickly to his cheek before she hurries off. He takes it as a thank you, before grabbing his cup and continuing mingling with the rest. He’s about to walk towards Gabe when he’s stopped by Clarisa, who wants him to meet the neighbors that just arrive. They’re daughter, who seems to be about Jesse’s age isn’t shy about giving him flirty eyes and he’s sure her lips linger too much on his cheek.

It goes on like this. Two other twins, who he can’t remember who they belong to, kiss his cheeks too. As well as a few other women and younger girls. Even Clarisa does it, one for each cheek. He doesn’t get much time to think it over since they usually dive into conversation after that, or it happens when he doesn’t expect it. If Gabe’s family was this affectionate, why hasn’t it shown through Gabriel? At least in kisses, because they have hugged and grabbed each other’s wrists, along with miscellaneous touches like the one Gabe did earlier, or when he brushed Jesse’s hair after the cowboy got hit in the head—though that happened again one time when Gabriel thought his hair was too long. Yet his hand brushed it with longing, as if he never wanted to let go.

When he sees two plates of food become empty again, he decides to go place them in the kitchen and see if there’s more food to put out. He finds Gabriel in the kitchen, who had the same idea and was filling up the flautas plate again. Though eating them was more like it.

“Don’t let yer ma catch ya,” Jesse jokes as he looks for the guacamole. “Man, yer family is great. They’re like black holes.”

“You’d fit right in,” Gabriel comments and Jesse turns to him. His sees his eyes briefly shift to his hat then back to his eyes.

“When’s dinner?”

“In about an hour, tio’s coming with the pork. We always let him cook it there since there’s less hassle.”

“Need any help?”

“I could use it. I’m usually in charge of setting up the table and getting the sides and the rest of the meal ready.” Gabriel steps closer to him, steady, as if Jesse will run.

“I’m yer guy,” Jesse comments, shifting on his feet when Gabriel steps closer. “It’ll be like last year.”

Gabriel scoffs, and he’s close enough for his breath to brush Jesse’s face. For their chest to almost touch if Jesse breathes too hard, which he’s trying not to do as he keeps his breathing steady, even if he’s lungs are gasping for air and his brain’s spiraling as it starts feeling light. Jesse steps back, knowing the kitchen counter is right there, just to feel trap, just to have an excuse as to why he didn’t stepped away. And he’s glad Gabriel steps closer, his smile growing to something wicked.

Gabriel’s hand goes to Jesse’s hat and pulls something off. When Jesse looks up, he’s holding a mistletoe with a strip of tape. “Do you remember that story I told you about last year?”

Jesse laughs, almost chokes with the knot in his throat. “There was so much happening, but I was stupid not to realize why everyone’s kissin’ me all of a sudden.”

Gabriel chuckles, “Like you need a mistletoe for people to kiss you.”

Jesse’s cocky smile drops, his heart thumps against his bones and his blood runs hot. He swallows hard, and notices clearly how Gabe’s eyes follow the motion, and go up to his lips. Jesse can’t help it, there’s still a devil in him that tells him to lick his lips, and he sees how Gabriel licks his own, before he gazes up at Jesse’s eyes. Jesse takes the dive and wraps his hands around Gabriel’s neck, pulling him to meet him in a kiss. Gabriel breathes deep before he responds and wraps his strong arms around Jesse’s middle. He still pushes Jesse closer to the counter, keeping him there for himself, to devour and drink his breath.

“Seems like you needed it,” Jesse says, almost breathless against Gabe’s mouth.

“Just waiting for the right moment,” Gabriel responds, one of his thumbs drawing circles over Jesse’ shirt. “I think this one’s pretty perfect.”

“Not. Yet,” Jesse says, in a dreamy, almost delirious voice, before he leans forward and kisses Gabriel again. This time, he pushes Gabriel, until the older man’s waits hits the other counter, pushing a plate close at the edge against bottles of species and making them knock against each other. He laughs in the kiss while Gabriel smiles and bites the cowboy’s bottom lip lightly. The action causes a soft moan from Jesse and makes him pull Gabriel towards him, as a sign to do it again, but Gabriel doesn’t, and Jesse knows he does it because he wants to hear Jesse say it, but this isn’t the place to beg.

--

When everyone’s fed and tired, when everyone but Gabe, Jesse, his mother and the twins leave, and the dishes are cleaned by Gabriel and Jesse, the five of them sit on the couch, after some delicate steps between all the presents pile and littered around the three. It isn’t big, which makes the amount of gifts underneath it look massive. Jesse bets he could build a wall and cover the whole three. The little kid in him wants to read all the names, find how many are for who. He’s sure he can expect one from Gabe since he hadn’t given anything so far. His stomach flips when he thinks about sitting by himself the next day, with one present on his lap while the others keep opening and create an ocean of wrapping paper on the floor. He looks at Gabriel, highlighted by the Christmas lights and colors, and he thinks it’ll be best to worry about that when the time comes.

Jesse was close to Gabriel’s side, hoping it would be enough for the ladies to not notice something was different. He tried to keep everything normal after the kiss, hoping no one could tell they almost made a mess in the kitchen after Gabriel got carried away and lifted him on the counter for a minute or two.

“I never saw you bring up your bags, Gabe,” Clarisa points out, while the twins look almost asleep by her side.

“They’re in a motel close by,” Gabriel responds and his mother gives him a stern look. “I wasn’t going to leave Jesse there by himself.”

“Of course not! Both of you can stay here. The bed in your old room is big enough for both of you.”

Jesse’s eyes widen and he eyes Gabriel quickly, but the man doesn’t look bothered.

“Oh, no! One bed!” Mariana says.

Liliana laughs and adds, “whatever shall they do?!”

#mcreyes #mcreaper #mcreyeswinterbreak #mcreyesevent #mcreyesevents #writingramblings

[agentmarymargaretskitz]

The Next Firestorm

Thank you @marywisdom for pulling me into this glorious rabbit hole.

Fanfiction, AO3

When it actually happened, Jax never saw it coming.

              Sure, he knew that Grey wouldn’t be with him one day. Everyone bit it sooner or later in life. There had been some discussions before on the Waverider that implied Firestorm’s older half would no longer be with them at some point. It wasn’t something that he liked to think about, so Jax usually pushed it to the back of his mind.

              The mission was looking bad enough even before the Time Bureau retreated with their tails between their legs. Only the Legends were left against Grodd and his league of supervillains. He and Stein had separated to take out the weapons systems there. One minute they were working back to back and the next Jax felt like he couldn’t breathe. He turned around in time to see Kuasa drowning Grey where he stood.

The look of shock on the physicist’s face before he died made Jax scream.

              Kuasa was ready to go after him next with the same fate when Zari showed up and took him out. She helped Jax get the body back to the Waverider and straight to the med bay. There was nothing that even Gideon could do for him though. Martin Stein was gone.

              The rest of the team soon showed up as the Waverider took off into the temporal zone. Jax knew he was crying, but he didn’t really care. As soon as she saw everything, Sara hurried over and pulled him into a hug. Amaya leaned against the wall, hand over her mouth. Ray looked like he was ready to cry. Mick bowed his head in respect as he suggested they return to their present day Central City.

“I’ll get on that,” Sara released him. “I’m sorry, Jax.”

He didn’t know how to respond.

“Just get us back to Central,” Ray spoke up. “We need to bury him as soon as we can. I’ll stay with the body until we get back.”

“Thanks, Ray,” Sara murmured before leaving the room.

Amaya draped a blanket over Grey’s body as Nate finally spoke up from the corner. “What are we going to tell his family?”

              Jax swallowed. Clarissa and Lily were going to be devastated by this. Everyone had always expected Grey to just retire. Never had the thought of breaking this kind of news to his family occurred to them before, not even after losing Snart. Now, they’d have to tell the Stein women and Team Flash about this.

“We tell them what happened,” Jax said quietly.

              Lily Stein broke down in tears when Jax and Ray went to break the news to her about her father. She didn’t want to believe it after she heard the word ‘dead’. Her father, the man she’d spent her whole life looking up to, was gone. When he’d gotten back on the Waverider, she’d been certain that he would come back home alive. The last thing she’d wanted was to be standing beside her mother with a black ribbon pinned to her chest and dropping a handful of dirt onto the pine box in the ground.

              The rest of the attendees beside her and her mother were the Legends and the members of Team Flash. They’ve given their condolences before the service. Caitlin had come up and hugged her, familiar with the grief that came with losing a father. Ray had talked with her for a while before Mick Rory nudged him to move along. When she’d started to lose a grip on her emotions during the funeral, Jax had reached over to give her hand a squeeze of comfort. It was a small gesture, but one that helped a little.

              Afterwards, Lily stood by the grave of her father as everyone filed out of the cemetery. She was still upset and grieving, but now she felt angry. Why did this have to happen to him? Yes, what he had been doing was dangerous and risky, but it didn’t feel fair. Her father was gone forever, and she’d never been able to say one last goodbye to him. It had been ‘see you later’ when he got back on the Waverider, not ‘goodbye’. If she’d known he wouldn’t have been coming back, she might have said some more things to him.

“I’m really, really sorry.”

Lily turned around to see Jax coming up to stand beside her.

“It’s my fault he’s gone,” he continued. “I should have had his back, and I didn’t that time. If I’d been paying attention to what was around me, he’d still be alive. This happened because I messed up.”

“No,” she shook her head. “Don’t blame yourself, Jax. He wouldn’t have wanted that. How could you have known that this…water witch was going to kill him?”

Jax didn’t say anything, but lowered his eyes to the ground.

“So what are you going to do now?” Lily asked softly, changing the subject.

Jax sighed slowly. “Firestorm needs two halves. I’m planning to go talk to STAR Labs later in the week, see if there’s something they can do that’ll let me still flame on. If not, then I’m gonna have to see if I’m staying on the Waverider or not.”

“You’ll find a way,” Lily nodded. “I’m sure you will.”

“We’ll see,” Jax shrugged and shuffled his feet before walking away.

Lily turned around before he got too far away. “Jax.”

When he stopped, Lily glanced back at her father’s grave before looking back to Firestorm’s last half.

“Thanks for bringing him home,” she said.

“We couldn’t leave him behind. At least this time, we remembered to give a Legend a funeral.”

              It was two days before Jax finally made it to STAR Labs. The people there were happy to see him again and asked how he was doing. He went along with it all, happy to have a distraction before taking on the more serious business. When he finally brought it up, they didn’t look remotely alarmed.

“I’m guessing you guys already have a solution?” he asked once he finished giving them the rundown.

Cisco nodded his head from side to side. “We might.”

That was enough for Jax. “Great. So how do I become Firestorm on my own?”

“We don’t know if you can,” Caitlin said hesitantly. “Right now, all we know is that you need another half to become Firestorm.”

“But Ronnie and Grey are dead,” Jax reminded them. “And there’s no way I’m going to try and do anything with Tokamak.”

“Hewitt is completely out of the question,” Barry said. “But you and him weren’t the only candidates we’d found. There was a third one who Stein refused to approach about this.”

“It’d have been too weird then,” Cisco chimed in as he leaned back in his chair.

“And he didn’t want to put her in danger,” Caitlin finished. “It was understandable why he said no.”

“She’s my last shot now if she wants in,” Jax said, crossing his arms. “Tell me who she is, then we can find her and make the pitch to her.”

Cisco frowned. “Wait, you don’t know who she is? Stein never told you?”

“Ummm,” Jax floundered.

“There’ve been more important things that he’s had to deal with in the past two years,” Caitlin butted in as she pulled up an image on the screen before them. “But this is the last potential candidate to be part of Firestorm.”

Jax’s eyes widened as he stared at the screen. “For real?”

He was going to have to talk to the team about this.

“So you’re saying that Stein’s daughter is possibly a half of Firestorm and you never knew?”

“He never told me if he remembered!” Jax snapped back a little harsher than he’d intended to. “She never came up in when the conversation turned to what I’d do after he was gone.”

Sara took a long sip from her coffee and set her mug down. “Are you going to tell her?”

“Yeah, I’m thinking I will,” Jax nodded. He’d made the decision last night after pondering it for a few hours. But he knew that he couldn’t just show up on the Waverider with her and not tell the team. Besides, he had no idea if she would even say yes or not. “I’m going over to her place after this to explain everything to her.”

“Cool,” Ray grinned happily. “It’ll be fun to have Lily on board again.”

“Aw,” Mick chuckled beside him. “Haircut has a crush.”

Ray suddenly was very interested in his coffee. Amaya raised her eyebrows, but said nothing.

“That’s all well and good,” Zari said, steering the conversation back to its original course. “But what if she says no?”

“Yeah,” Nate nodded. “Time travel got her dad killed. How eager is she going to be to come on the Waverider, especially after what happened the last time she came on? And are you certain that the two of you can become Firestorm?”

Jax had thought about that. “I don’t know if we can become Firestorm. But it’s all up to her whether she wants to try to be a part of this or not. I don’t want to force Lily to do anything she doesn’t want to do. If things don’t work out, maybe I should stay in Central City.”

“No,” Sara shook her head. “You are still a member of the team, Jax. Martin’s death doesn’t change anything. Whether you have superpowers or not, you’d still be a Legend if you wanted to be one.”

“Thanks, Sara,” he nodded. “I’m really hoping for the best here. Next time we meet up, I’ll tell you what happened.”

“Well, we’re going to stick around for two more days before going back into the temporal zone,” Sara reminded him. “I’m hoping that I can bring around a new member for the team then.”

“Me too.”

“Hold on,” Lily held up her hands. “I’m not sure I’m hearing this right. I’m potentially a half of Firestorm?”

              Jax had come knocking on her door hours after she finished cleaning her apartment up after shiva. Lily had let him inside and they’d caught up with each other. After a few minutes, he got serious with her about what he’d been doing since the funeral. Another candidate for Firestorm had been located in Central City. Said candidate was apparently herself.

“STAR Labs found you the first time they searched for someone to take Ronnie’s place,” Jax explained. “Caitlin told me that you dad didn’t want to put you in danger, so he kept you out of it. Plus, it’d have been weird for Grey to fuse with his own daughter. Now, you’re the last possible person to be a half of Firestorm.”

“Then I did hear you right,” Lily exhaled slowly and rose from the couch. “Okay. Wow.”

“Yeah,” Jax snorted a little. “I get it. It’s a lot to take in. The first time I found out, I thought the people at STAR Labs were messing around. Then I realized they weren’t.”

Lily gave a little amused huff. “So you and I could become Firestorm? Just like you and my dad were?”

“Yep,” Jax confirmed. “Firestorm 2.0. Or 3.0 now technically.”

“Huh,” Lily crossed her arms as she started to pace back and forth. “What if I say no?”

Jax deflated visibly at that, so she quickly backtracked. “I’m not saying no. I just want to know what happens if I do.”

“Based on what they said happened your dad after Ronnie died, my molecules wouldn’t have anything to fuse with to stabilize. I don’t know if that would happen to me, but it could. Maybe Cisco and Caitlin could find a way to stabilize me somehow?”

“And if they can’t?” Lily barely heard her own voice as the question slipped out.

“I’ll probably die,” Jax said. “But it’ll be months before that happens.”

Lily stopped her pacing. If she didn’t do this, it’d be her fault if Jax died.

“Look, Lily,” Jax stood up. “I’m not saying you have to do this. The nerds at STAR Labs know more now than they did when they lost Ronnie. They could find a way to stabilize me. If not, at least I have a few months left to live. But if you and I can be Firestorm, it’d be awesome. There’s so much cool stuff we can do together. You’d be able to come on the Waverider and travel through time. I know you’ve been on it before, but this time you’d be an official Legend.”

              What he was saying tempted her. Time travel sounded amazing and so did being a hero. But she was also afraid she wouldn’t be as good as her father had been as Firestorm. Staying here in Central City guaranteed she’d be safe. Doing that would ultimately result in Jax’s death though. She could never forgive herself for being responsible for that.

“Can I have some time to think about it?” she asked. “It’s a big decision.”

“Sure,” Jax nodded. “I’m going to be at STAR Labs tomorrow if you make up your mind by then.”

              He left her apartment not long after that. Once he was gone, Lily made her way over to her window to stare down at the street below. After a minute, a streak of red sped along the street. How had the Flash felt when he found out he’d had powers? Had he been as nervous as she felt right now?

With a sigh, Lily made her way back to her couch and flopped on it.

“Do you think she’ll show up?”

Jax shrugged at Wally’s question. “I’m not sure. It’s a big decision.”

“Well, do you hope she will?” Wally pressed, throwing one of Cisco’s gummy bears high into the air and catching it in his mouth.

“Yeah, it’d be great if she did,” Jax admitted. “I wouldn’t die then.”

“We don’t know if you’d die,” Caitlin said as she walked into the room. “This is only the second time this has happened, so we have no clue if the same things would happen or not.”

She did have a good point, but it didn’t ease his nerves. “I still want to be a hero though, even if she does want to stay in Central City.”

“You guys would be totally welcome to join us here,” Wally told him as he caught another gummy bear in his mouth.

“Thanks, man,” Jax nodded. “I’ll keep it in mind if she decides to show up.”

“You could not have had better timing to say that.”

              Jax whirled around to see Cisco entering the room. Trailing behind him was Lily Stein. Caitlin started to smile happily as soon as she saw her. Wally punched him lightly in the shoulder with a grin. Jax shook his head and turned to face Lily. The scientist started to smile.

“I made my decision,” she announced.

“And?”

“I’ll do it.”

He let out a sigh of relief as soon as she said those words. “Really?”

“Yes,” Lily confirmed with a nod. “I can’t walk away from this knowing you could die if I do. If there’s something I can do, then I’ll do it.”

Wally smiled triumphantly.

“Sooo,” she shrugged. “What do I have to do?”

“It’s easy, at least from the outsider’s perspective,” Cisco explained. “Jax, can you grab the splicer?”

              Jax walked into the other room to grab the splicer from the desk. After Grey had died, he’d brought it back to STAR Labs and Cisco had asked if he could check it over and give it a tweak or two. He placed it on his chest, watching it attach to himself. Lily took a place across from him in front of Barry’s suit. She glanced over at the other people in the room before looking back to him.

“Now what?”

“All you two need to do is touch,” Cisco said. “Then we have Firestorm.”

“Don’t try to resist it,” Caitlin added. “Just go with the merge.”

“Okay then,” Lily exhaled slowly. “Ready?”

Jax held out his hand. “Whenever you are?”

              She gave a nod and brought her own hand up. Their palms collided with a small clap. Flames began to lick around Lily’s frame. The familiar feeling of the merge came over Jax as he watched Lily vanish in a surge of flames.

              As soon as her hand touched Jax’s, Lily felt something stir up inside of her. A warmth filled her entire body from head to toe. She didn’t panic when she saw the flames start to come from her body. Lily could feel herself being pulled towards Jax and remembered how Caitlin had told her not to fight it. Closing her eyes, she relaxed and allowed it to happen.

              A moment later, Lily reopened her eyes. Caitlin, Wally, and Cisco were all staring at her. Lily still felt like she was in her body, but someone else was in there too. It had be Jax. She could feel her limbs, although Jax had the overwhelming control over them. She couldn’t look around like she wanted too. This was something she was going to have to get used to.

Cisco gave them a thumbs up. “Looking good.”

“Is Lily in there?” Caitlin asked, taking a step forward.

“Hey, Caitlin,” Lily said, although the words didn’t come out of her mouth. “Um, can I look around?”

Jax’s chuckle came out from their mouth. “Yeah, she’s in there. She wants to get a good look around.”

              The overwhelming control on their limbs relaxed. Lily took control hesitantly, starting with moving their head from side to side. She held up her hands (or Jax’s hands) to gaze at the fire that burned from them. Turning their body around, Lily examined their reflection in the glass for a few moments. She and Jax were incredible.

“Wow,” the scientist murmured in appreciation as she relaxed her control. “This is…”

“Astonishing?” Jax finished.

The utterance of her father’s favorite word reminded her that he was gone. Their flames flickered a little.

“Can you guys practice separating?” Caitlin inquired. “Once you two do that, we can run some more tests with you two fused together in the Speed Lab.”

“Just don’t mess up the track when you do,” Wally warned.

“Your track’s gonna be fine,” Jax told him.

“How do we separate?” Lily asked.

“Think of it as taking a step away from me. Got it?”

“Loud and clear,” she confirmed.

              Lily concentrated on distancing herself from Jax. She imagined herself taking a step back from him. Their flames rose up a little higher. Suddenly, she was no longer sharing control of her limbs, but had total control over them. She stumbled forward a little bit, now back in her own body.

Caitlin caught her before she stumbled anymore and Lily gave her a grateful smile. Straightening up, she saw Cisco with a proud look on his face. Across from her, Jax grinned widely. “Pretty good for a first time.”

Lily nodded happily. “I guess you don’t have to worry about trying to find a way to stabilize on your own now.”

“That makes me feel a whole lot better,” Cisco muttered as he noticed the empty package of gummy bears. “Wally?”

Wally made an innocent face. “What? I was hungry.”

Cisco shook his head. “Come on, you couldn’t have stolen from Barry’s stash?”

“He’d notice sooner.”

“We just need to check a few more things out with you two,” Caitlin interrupted her friends. “Then you two are ready for anything.”

“Speaking of that,” Caitlin looked over at Jax again. “Is that offer to time travel still on the table?”

              Once STAR Labs cleared them, Jax and Lily had gone to break the news to Clarissa. Understandably, she was worried for her daughter, especially after losing her husband. However, Clarissa knew this was Lily’s decision that she’d made to take her father’s place. She did make the two promise to come home safe and alive or she would come aboard the Waverider herself to bring her back. Jax wasn’t sure if she was joking or not, but he didn’t want to risk finding out.

              There were a few affairs Lily wanted to get in order quickly before leaving, so she promised to meet up with Jax at the Waverider the next day. He’d gotten to spend some nice quality time with his family then since his cousins were in town. His new psychic link with Lily was practically buzzing the whole night. She was anxious and excited for the new adventure, but there was also lingering grief. Jax didn’t fault her since he was feeling it as well. It’d be a while before the pain from Grey’s death would start to ebb away.

The next morning, he arrived before Lily at the Waverider. Most of the team arrived around the same time he did, but they went inside the ship. Lily was the last to arrive a few minutes later, a small duffel bag in hand. She gave a little wave as she approached Jax.

“Nervous?” he asked as she approached at the twenty-second century ship with a tiny smile.

“It’s not my first time on board,” she reminded him. “But things are different now. I’m not here temporarily.”

Jax raised an eyebrow. “Having second thoughts?”

“No,” Lily shook her head stubbornly. “I’m ready. “

              Jax followed after her into the cargo bay. When they entered, everyone was waiting for them. Sara stood at the front of the group with the others flanking her. They were all looking at Lily, who was looking at him. For a long time, no one said a word.

Finally, Jax broke the silence. “Guys, meet the new half of Firestorm. You all remember Lily?”

Lily lifted her hand in a small wave.

Sara was the first to step forward, holding her hand out. “Welcome to the team.”

“It’s really great that you’re back,” Ray added from behind the captain.

Mick started to smirk. Amaya rolled her eyes as she elbowed him.

“Thanks,” Lily shook Sara’s hand. “It’s good to see you guys again. Jax said you’ve been facing some kind of secret society of supervillains before my dad died?”

“Yes,” Amaya nodded, although Jax noticed that she seemed a bit nervous now. Then he remembered it had been Amaya’s granddaughter who killed Grey. “Sara was just telling us about where we’re going to next when you two arrived.”

“Great,” Jax turned to Sara. “Where to?”

“1618,” Nate supplied as they all started to walk towards the bridge. “Right around the Second Defenestration of Prague. There’s something there that isn’t supposed to be there.”

“Okay then,” Lily nodded from where she’d fallen into pace with Amaya. “Do we know what it is?”

“Nope,” Mick said shortly.

“It could be anything,” Ray added once they entered the bridge. “Sometimes it’s fun to see what the anachronism is. We had to pick up Pierre Curie from the twenty-third century last week.”

“But he had to go and die twelve hours later back in his own time,” Jax reminded him. It had been kind of sad to do that to the guy. Grey had been geeking out like crazy over him.

Jax looked over at the empty seat where Lily’s father had once sat with a sigh. Even though he knew he had to move on, he wouldn’t forget that Grey had been a part of the Legends. Meanwhile, Lily had gone to sit behind him. She lowered the harness down over her head. He could tell that everything was all hitting her more now.

“You’re not going to change your mind on me, are you?” he asked, looking around back at her.

Lily shook her head. “Nope.”

“Just a heads up for your first major jump, Lily,” Sara said from the captain’s chair as she started up the Waverider and got them airborne. “Time travel sometimes has side effects, but you get used to them the more you do it.”

“Wait what?” Lily squeaked.

“It means you’re probably gonna barf, Junior,” Mick stated bluntly.

#fanfiction #legends of tomorrow #the flash #jefferson jackson #lily stein #firestorm #wally west #caitlin snow #cisco ramon #sara lance #ray palmer #mick rory #amaya jiwe #marywisdom #the next firestorm

[peace-coast-island]

#ChoicesCreates28: Choices Crossover

Title: Eshajōri (#LoveHacks) - Part 2 Summary: Eshajōri - “people meet, always part”; the concept that expresses the idea about the impermanence of all things, that every human relationship will end someday due to the transient nature of life. Part 2 of Julie’s article where she interviews various people she met around the world. Featuring MCs from TRR and THoBM and other OCs from HSS and HWU. (Part one)

Prompt: Talk about someone who is special to you. But not just anyone, it has to be someone who isn’t really a part of your life anymore. Think about this person and why they left an impact on you.

Enid Zuberi

About her: Hi, I’m Enid and I’m from New York. Currently in Cordonia and there’s a lot of things going on so I’m just here for the ride. I don’t know what to expect but at this point I’m prepared for almost anything that comes my way.

Her story: One person who meant a lot to me, and still does, is my best friend Ollie. We’re still close but he’s busy with is life while I’m busy with mine so we don’t really hang out as much anymore. We also had another friend, Sera, who passed away a few years back. The three of us were inseparable and I couldn’t have asked for better friends than these two.

I’ve known Ollie since we were little kids. He’s kind of like my little brother and I still kind of treat him like one and although he won’t admit it I think he kinda likes it when I fuss over him. We’re from completely different backgrounds as he comes from a wealthy family while I came from a middle class family. Since his parents usually leave him with the housekeepers, he’s usually at my place or Sera’s. My parents treated him like a son and did more for him than his actual parents, no offense to them, just stating the truth. Though I’m happy to say Ollie is civil with his parents, which isn’t much but it’s better than nothing.

In college we started sort of doing our own thing as I stayed close to home, Sera went to Eagle U in Eden Villa, and Ollie went to Harvard. Doing the summer we’d go to our special place, so we’d bring out a boat, go sailing until we get there and set up a picnic. But after Sera died, it was hard for me and Ollie to go back there because of the memories. We did eventually but it’s been a few years since then.

Anyway, Ollie and I are kind of in our own world. He’s busy with his family’s law firm and I’m out here. I’ve been texting him a lot since I came to Cordonia to keep him updated on everything. He’s been really supportive and I wouldn’t know what I’d do without him. Since this trip was kind of last minute, we were bummed that we didn’t have time to say goodbye and stuff. I really miss him and once I get back home, however long that takes, I’m gonna make plans for us to hang out more.

Finn Dobrev

About him: Hey my name’s Finn and I’m kinda new here. I just became an actor thanks to my pal Lauren, you might know her, she’s um… well she’s nice once you get to know her. My home is at Bubblerum, which is like in the middle of nowhere so like no one has heard of it.

His story: So I grew up with my brother Cloud, who’s a ghost. No, he wasn’t alive before, he’s part of this species of ghosts who are just…ghosts. I don’t think I explained that well. He’s um…a standalone ghost I guess. Anyway I grew up with him and our mother, who adopted us, which is how we met. We were like two peas in a pod because we were different. His species is endangered and I’m not like completely human. Seriously, look, my limbs are cyborg parts and also I can time travel. You want proof about time travel? I can show you!

(What happened behind the scenes, aka someone had to spend a few extra hours editing this since she had to cut a lot of stuff out while trying to make sense of this mess…

Finn: You want proof about time travel? I can show you!

Julie: Um…is that safe?

Finn: Sure it is! What’s the worst that could happen?

Julie: A lot of things, actually.

Finn: Don’t worry, I won’t pull you through a time loop, this will only take you a few years back.

Julie: Wait a minute. What do you mean time loop? And this is just an interview You don’t have to - and you’re gonna do it anyway…

Time travel stuff happens. Surprisingly nothing is destroyed and everything is back to normal.

Finn: How’s that for the article?

Julie: Yeah I’m afraid i’m gonna have to cut that out.

Finn: Well the time travel is actually relevant to my story. And the time loop thing. It’s actually a very long story…

He wasn’t kidding)

So about the time loop thing. Cloud and I accidentally released this evil spirit which attacked this island where I found my bio mom and my sister, who I never knew because we were separated a long time ago, and that’s another story so I’m gonna skip that part. Anyway evil spirit destroyed the island several times. So Cloud and I decided to be heroes, well we kind of are back in Bubblerum and I should really get back to the main story.

Okay so Cloud and I locked the island in a time loop because if we didn’t the whole island would be dead and i wouldn’t be here talking to you. By doing that we went back in time several days before the attack so we could have another chance at defeating the evil spirit. And if we all get killed, the timeline resets so we can try again. Except it took like bajillion tries and for a while it seemed like no matter what we did it was hopeless and we kept dying horrible deaths. Time travel is pretty complicated, especially when you remember everything that didn’t happen.

And guess who broke the time loop and freed us from all these horrible deaths? It was Cloud, who sacrificed himself to destroy the evil spirit at the cost of his own life. By then it was like our final chance because you can only do so many do-overs so it was a lot of pressure. Cloud was a brave guy, the only one who has stuck with me for so long, so now it feels kinda weird without him. At least he died a hero, just like he always wanted. Google “Cloud the ghost fights evil spirit” if you want to know more about it, but ignore the articles by DailyTango because they never get their facts right, including our names.

Aminta Beaumont

About her: I’m Aminta, I live in Evergreen Oaks and I’m currently taking a gap year. I’m a student at Hartford majoring in finance with a minor in psychology and I hope to run my own accounting firm one day.

Her story: About a year ago I was going through a rough time in my life. And then I met Eleanor, who helped me open my eyes and face my problems. Although we only knew each other for a short time, our lives weren’t the same after that. It’s one of those little things that may not seem obvious but it ends up leaving something big.

When I first met Eleanor, I was lost and scared. I was haunted by my brother’s death and it was difficult. Eleanor was going through a rough time too as she went through a lot and goes to great lengths to take care of her siblings. The fact that we both were dragged down by our pasts brought us together.

For a while I stayed with Eleanor and became a caretaker for her siblings Clarissa, Thomas, and Simon. It took a while for them to warm up to me, can’t blame them though since I was a complete stranger who suddenly appeared, but soon it was like I was part of their family. For the first time in what seemed like forever, I didn’t feel like I was being weighed down or held back. But at the same time I knew that I was supposed to be looking for answers and for a way to put my past behind.

Confronting my demons wasn’t easy but I knew that I couldn’t keep running away. Eleanor was the type of person who was selfless, always giving and willing to protect her siblings no matter what. That’s another thing we had in common, wanting to protect our families because the truth was too painful. So we take that truth and carry it ourselves, shouldering the burden so no one else would. We had good intentions but even that can do more harm than good. Once we opened up, the burden fell away.

After that we went our separate ways. I didn’t know her for long but at the same time it felt like we spend a lifetime together. I wish we had more time together but it was time for us to start living again and our paths just don’t cross. I still think about her and the kids from time to time, wondering how they’re doing now. Maybe one day our paths will cross again but for now I hope she’s happy and at peace.

Viktor Maksimov

About him: My name’s Viktor, I’m from Moscow and staying with my aunt in Peace Coast Island. I’m an athlete, which is another reason why I’m here and I like to do gymnastics, sing, dance, and skate.

His story: My mother was my number one supporter. She encouraged me to work hard, do my best, go for the gold, all that motivating stuff. I’m a competitive athlete so I travel a lot, and no matter what, my mom was always there. We come from a family of competitive athletes, my mother and my aunt were dancers. Mom retired after getting married and later became a dance instructor. You might have heard of my aunt, Anna Nikolaev, the one who was on that show Cooking Competitor. So, yeah, we’re a pretty athletic family.

It’s been over a year since the worst day of my life, and that was Mom’s death. She went to watch my aunt perform at Nationals while the rest of us watched the competition through a livestream. On the way back to the hotel they got into a bad car accident that involved two other cars. Mom didn’t make it, Anna and her dance instructor were badly injured. It was a difficult time knowing that Mom was gone and Anna’s life was hanging by a thread.

I think it was Mom who helped me through that difficult time. Or at least her memory. It’s not easy being a competitive athlete and there were times when I wanted to quit because the pressure was too much. Mom was the one who helped me when I felt that way. She taught me how to confront my fears. That it was okay to be scared and unsure. That even when things don’t go well, in the end everything will work out. She also taught me how to deal with stress like through meditation and mindfulness. The first few months without her were tough but by remembering what she taught, I somehow managed to pull through.

So Mom, wherever you are, I hope I can make you proud. You’ve done so much for me and I want to return the favor.

Sapphire Landry

About her: Name’s Sapphire. I live in Peace Coast Island with my besties Spencer and Steven. I like to sing and dance and I have a big sweet tooth. Trilingual, blind right eye, lazy, musically inclined, fashionista, sassy, I think you get my personality.

Her story: A long time ago, okay so not that long ago, I had a partner in crime. Her name was Lizzie and she was my BFF. As you can tell from the fact that I used past tense, she is sadly no longer with us. I still find it hard to believe.

This actually happened a long time ago, four years, when our lives changed forever. By accident Lizzie and I became time travelers. No, seriously we were doing a project, accidentally knocked something over, stuff exploded, we woke up in a hospital and bam! time travel. I’d show you but my powers are kind of unstable but it’s been a while so maybe it’ll be okay. Here I go…

(Julie: That won’t be necessary, thank you. So I’m guessing time travel is relevant to the story?

Sapphire: Yeah, probably bad idea… Besides my powers are kinda inactive, not since the illness but that’s another thing but it’s also kinda relevant…)

So we become time travelers but because of how we got our powers it means that we’re unpredictable. But no worries, we went along with this time travel scientist and her son Spencer who was our classmate so we got things under control. Well most of the time. The four of us were a great team!

Then last year, things went downhill. We lost half the team so Spencer and I were left. His mother took us to a clinic, can’t remember too much about it, but there was some mystery illness causing an epidemic. No one knew how bad it was until it was too late. We were visiting Spencer’s father, who’s a huge jerk by the way, and then we all got sick. There was nothing the doctors could do and Lizzie died. I never even got to say goodbye.

Lizzie was more than a best friend, she was a sister. I practically lived with her, in fact I tried but ended up getting in trouble. We were always attached by the hip, maybe sometimes a bit too close. She was the one who kept me out of trouble even though we ended up in it anyway. She always knew what to do when things got chaotic. Hell, I even miss the things I don’t like about her like when she nags about things or go all snarky when she’s mad. She was one of a kind.

Losing her was like losing a huge part of me. We were always known as Lizzie and Sapphy. Now it’s just Sapphy. I’m still not used to it but I’m trying.

You know, maybe it’s a good thing Lizzie isn’t here right now because if she heard what I just said about her and being all mushy and stuff I bet she’ll make fun of me for it!

Owen Rahajaro

About him: I’m Owen and I’m a student at Hollywood U and a regular performer at Starlight Theater. I like to sing, act, dance, and perform stunts. Starlight has been my home for over seven years and I recommend if you have the time, stop by and watch a show.

His story: Growing up I was raised by my father, who was a traveling musician. He’d visit many places, playing his sitar. I was surrounded by music so obviously my life revolved around that. We didn’t have much except for each other, and music, of course and that was more than enough.

Dad passed away when I was nine after being ill for months. By then we settled in London where he became a teacher. His health had been slowly declining by then, which is why he decided to stop traveling. I didn’t find out about that until much later, after he died. I remember pacing around the hospital, not fully understanding what was going on expect that my father was very sick. Never in my life had I felt so scared.

It’s still painful to talk about his final weeks. Seeing my lively and outgoing father lying in a hospital bed with tubes and wires attached to him, is something that will always be hard to think about. But I didn’t want his last memories to see his son sad and scared so I did my best to make him happy. Because if he was happy, then so was I. He did a lot for me and now that he wasn’t going to be here for much longer scared him. I made a promise to him and to myself that I would be strong and I’m still keeping to my word.

One thing I remember about my dad’s final weeks was how much he talked about my mother. She died when I was a baby so all I have is pictures of her and stories dad told me about her. During long nights at the hospital, he told me about her, things that you don’t hear in stories. Like how she started the day by opening the curtains wide open to bring in the sunlight or that she was a perfectionist who would spend hours banging on piano keys writing a song and driving her neighbors crazy in the process. It was then I realized that soon he won’t be here anymore.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that he’s been gone for almost fourteen years. There are days when I can remember him clearly and days when I struggle to remember. He was a big part of my life and I miss him every day. I bet he’s happy up there with mom.

#ChoicesCreates #choicescreates28 #choices stories you play #playchoices #LoveHacks #the royal romance #the haunting of braidwood manor #headcanon ramble #so this is a continuation of my previous entry for the travel prompt #since i didn't have time to include my trr and thobm mcs #also julie put a lot of work into this article so like she interiewed what like 12 people that's a lot of work #so finn and owen from hwu and viktor and sapphire from hss #i have like this whole plot things about sapphire called friends in time you can search it on my blog #also finn has a long ass bio which is in my drafts that goes in depth about his story #julie just got the short version though she had to like edit a lot of it because the way finn explained it was confusing #like he gets sidetracked super easily #Julie Nagarkar #Enid Zuberi #Finn Dobrev #Aminta Beaumont #Viktor Maksimov #Sapphire Landry #Owen Rahajaro

[frstbiitten]

cw: death mention

The muscles collapsed one by one in her body, it became heavier with each step, like a demon frightened by the light of dawn her legs could not run faster than she wished, she needed to leave, her mind took her somewhere, anywhere, anything she could consider as 'safe'. Sweat was running down her forehead to later become cold drops of water on her pale skin, the moonlight giving the impression that she had crystals scattered across her face, soon after they emerged from her skin they hardened.

Frost lost the count although she never counted the streets or the distance, she didn't know where her body is going only that the adrenaline was taking her far away. It wasn't only the adrenaline but the fear, the dread of witnessing death outside the hexagon, thought to finally be used at the sight of blood across the white floor or exposed shattered bones, to be the carrier of death and give the last blow of grace like no other she had seen before. Frost was the predator, not the prey, although seeing Clarissa's arm made it very clear to her that even she could be next.

Finally, her body was welcomed into a deplorable neighborhood, knew it from seeing it a few times, and didn't even feel threatened, though there were details she might not remember since the last time she has been in there. Let her instinct be the one to seek for the house, her eyes had been glowing all this time, all due to fear, she knocked on the door several times until Dr. Wallace appeared in front of her, the whole world had cleared up and her eyes returned to normal. Noticed the shock on the doctor's face, he had no idea what had happened recently, the resounding change in Frost's appearance was followed by a tremor that started from the palm of her hands.

He recognized the shock instantly, forcing her to enter his humble place, closed the door once she was by his side. "Don't worry, you're safe here, do you understand me? Can you talk?" Frost seemed paler than usual, saw the frozen sweat drops on her face, this girl possessed so many surprises for him, however, he got no response in return. With one hand on her icy shoulder, he led her to a couch that was still in good condition. "You're going to be okay here, if you can hear me, I need you to take a deep breath, inhale through your nose, and exhale through your mouth." Wallace knelt in front of her so he could see her face better and be at the same level of vision as her, he had no idea what caused this reaction or if he would have an answer soon.

Frost's legs began to shake, first, the left one began to tremble and like an earthquake, the sudden movements moved to the right, the temperature dropped even more with every second and the leather of the sofa presented a thin, almost transparent layer next to her sides. She seemed to be listening to his advice, the air came in through her nose and a frozen cloud came out through her mouth after 4 seconds. Wallace attempted to take her hands to help her find the calm that she needed but removed them instantly because of the coldness of her skin, it was just like touching a block of ice. She was scared, the doctor removed the bluish locks of hair from her face to examine her eyes, couldn't remember if she has blinked in the last 5 seconds.

He heard her teeth hit into each other in an attack of tremors, which had spread throughout her body and produced more sweat. "You can't keep freezing, wait here." She wasn't going anywhere in that state, Wallace went back to his room and looked through some plastic bags for something that might help raise the temperature of her body. A big and soft blanket might do the trick. He returned with it and wrapped the immense cloth around the girl, it seemed to have generated results, not immediate but she was stopping from shaking little by little.

Icy air came out of her mouth every time she breathed, seemed to have control of her being again, she had regained her pale but vivid nature at least, felt the ice recede into the core of her bones. The young woman looked back at the doctor, her eyes still appeared tormented, the glow in them gone but easily disoriented.

"Can you tell me... What happened?" Wallace asked with a calmer tone in his voice, she seemed to hear him, she was paying attention now.

"They... they... they took them..." Frost managed to form a coherent sentence, her voice was cracking, as if she screamed for hours before she got in here, the friction of the air against her throat caused such effect. "I-I think... that... they're dead."

Now it was Wallace who seemed unfocused, he had known the siblings for some time, took care of them before, Clarissa was the one who had the most capacity to fight and defend herself. They couldn't be dead, that didn't match with his thoughts. Had to sit down next to the girl while both of his hands covered his face... It couldn't be true.

Silence formed between them, Frost came to her senses first time since she arrived at the house and realized how important they seemed to be to him, and her, Clarissa was the one who worried her the most. Heard a sob and it came from Wallace, this wasn't the first loss, perhaps it would not be the last. The young woman's hand somehow tried not to hurt the doctor by touching his shoulder, only her fingers managed to reach it, she had no idea how to comfort him.

Some hours passed where there was only silence and a few words, either of them seemed disconsolate by what had happened, they didn't know who they could throw the blame or where they could even start with this. Wallace made some coffee for both of them, still had an old machine that somehow it worked properly, came back with a little jar with sugar, and two mugs several years in them. Frost hated coffee from the very first sip, disgustingly bitter and strong although she didn't spit it out or anything alike, although the smell was the only thing she enjoyed.

"You don't know who it was, do you?" the doctor mentioned before sitting down again beside her, he pulled up a chair in front of them to put the cups on.

"No... but before I left the apartment, some people came and burned everything down, they must be from some gang or something."

"I find it hard to believe anything bad has happened to them, I've known them for years, they've always done their best to move forward since their father died."

"And how did you meet them?" It was a curious question and one that had no reason to hurt him.

"Well... that wasn't so long ago." Wallace took a sip of his coffee and left the cup on the wooden chair, fingers squeezing themselves before he remembered how it all went. "Lewis was beaten up by some thugs after a bar fight, it had nothing to do with fighting to the death, it was just a stupid senseless argument that left him with a black eye, Clarissa defended him but she didn't know where they could go, they didn't have enough money to go to a hospital, and she asked people inside of the bar where she could take him. You see, this world in which we are stranded is more complex than normal people think, there is more than one retired and underprivileged doctor but I am one of the few who works without asking for money, so much time being at the top makes you blind to what is below and knowing that there were so many young people who had lost their way forced me to become a 'clandestine doctor'. They arrived in a stolen car, not the one they had now, Lewis was so drunk but I let him stay overnight in case there was any change, his sister however, she thought it was her fault, but it wasn't. They came several more times, Clarissa gave to me some of the money she earned from the fights until she was banned."

"She was banned for almost killing a minor?" Frost then remembered what Lewis had told her before, Clarissa didn't know her opponent was a teenager and couldn't kill her, but her fate was perhaps even worse.

"Yeah, that was the real reason... then you came along with your broken arm and full of cuts, I'm surprised you're still alive." He paused to drink from his cup again, letting the heat in the pottery reach the skin on his hands.

"I'm surprised, too" Frost mentioned before giving the coffee another chance, still, repulsive. "I think I should leave now, I might be putting you in danger just by being here." Removed the blanket off her shoulders and got up from the couch, Wallace wasn't convinced of this decision.

"No, I can't let you go. It's too late for you to be out there. You have a long way to go." He didn't want her to leave yet, he could let her sleep on the couch if she wanted to.

"Wallace, listen to me: if I stay here it will be more dangerous for you, I think my head has a price and it's not fair that I'm putting you in danger, I'm sorry... but you're old and... I don't think you can defend yourself, nor do I want to cause you any trouble... please."

He shook his head, disagree with her decision completely and if it were for him, wouldn't let her go in the middle of the night, yet Wallace had no choice but to open the door for her, the neighborhood appeared more dangerous and empty in the middle of the night.

"Take care of yourself, okay? If you find anything... Call me."

"I will."

Frost simply walked out of the house without taking a last look at the doctor, he closed the door a few seconds later, it had been a hell of a night for both of them. It was excessively dark, as he had mentioned, the streets seemed to be eroded, heard the high-pitched screeches of rats rushing around inside garbage bags, recognized the sound of rats very well, more than once she had gotten some food because of them. Every step brought her closer to the apartment, didn't know if it was 'hers', it never belonged to her completely, maybe it had also been burned like Clarissa and Lewis' apartment, who were the ones who did it? Frost knew that there were invisible rules and people who dominated the streets in a ferocious way,  a world where order didn't exist, only the strongest of all were the ones who lived, she didn't know where is her place exactly in the chain.

A car was approaching, didn't see any single car pass through that street during the whole time she has been walking in the dark, the headlights illuminated her completely, it was a blinding white light that seemed to wrap her in it. It stopped on the sidewalk, right in front of her so she wouldn't go any further, what was going on here? She heard the horn twice.

"Okay, I'll go the other way!" Maybe it wasn't a place she should be right now but decided to go around the car while keeping her distance from it. Suddenly, the world went completely dark, falling asleep in the blink of an eye, dreams took her hostage without warning.

#novel #((a miracle that i made it to chapter 10 tbh)) #((even now considering that im turning this story into a comic)) #death mention tw

[agentmarymargaretskitz]

Cursed

Inspired by @taleasoldastime-andspace‘s marvelous headcanons.

AO3, Fanfiction

“So while adenine pairs with thymine in DNA, it binds with uracil in RNA,” Lillian Stein explained to her class. “However, guanine and cytosine always come together in either. Nothing changes there. They always find each other.”

The bell rang as she capped her marker. Her students started to pack their notebooks and pencils away, chattering away with each other.

“Remember your lab reports are due tomorrow,” Lillian called after them as they began to leave. “Don’t forget to include your graphs.”

There were a few groans. Lillian turned around to erase the whiteboard she’d written on for the class. She didn’t have a class next period, and the ones that followed that were not biology. There were still some physics tests she needed to finish grading. Her prep hour could be spent working on that.

After gathering up the tests, her gradebook, and a few pens, Lillian left her classroom to go to the teacher’s lounge and ran right into someone. “Oof!”

“Sorry,” Ray Palmer apologized as the tests fell to the floor. “I didn’t see you there, Miss Stein.”

“No worries, Mr. Palmer,” Lillian bent down to pick up the stapled packets.

The school’s janitor dropped down low to the ground. “Let me help you out.”

“Thanks,” she smiled, taking the tests from him as he passed them to her. “How have you been?”

“Good,” Ray nodded quickly. “Things are good. Felicity and I went on a hike last weekend.”

Lillian ignored the twinge of jealousy that hit her when Ray mentioned his wife. “That sounds nice.”

“It was,” he replied before perking up. “Oh! You know how you’ve been trying to get your hands on a Van de Graaff generator?”

“Uh huh.”

“Well, uh, I managed to build one.”

“Really?” Lillian grinned. “That’s amazing!”

He smiled at her as silence fell over them.

Lillian shifted the tests in her arms. “I should get going to grade these. I’ll see you around.”

“Cool.”

She walked away quickly, telling herself not to look back. If she had, she would have seen Ray looking back at her too.

Gideon Ryder pressed ‘Save’ on her finished article before leaning back in her chair. She stretched her arms and legs out with a groan. For the past five and a half hours, she’d been working her way through her assignments. As much as she loved working at the paper, sometimes she wished there was more that happened in the sleepy little town. She needed some juicy story to rescue her from writing about the latest mundane road construction.

The editor would be by later to pick up her articles. There was about an hour of time to kill until he’d pass by. Gideon sat back again to contemplate what to tackle next when her stomach began to growl. It reminded her that she’d yet to eat lunch yet. She could pop down quickly to the diner a few blocks down the street, have a bite to eat, and then walk back with time to spare.

Grabbing her coat, Gideon left the newspaper office and began a brisk walk down the street. A cold breeze blew down through the town, making her shudder and hug her coat tighter to her body. In the distance, she heard the sirens of the fire engine fading as it sped towards a fire. It’d probably wind up being another story she’d have to write tomorrow.

The warm air inside the diner made Gideon exhale happily as she entered. She placed her order and waited at the counter, listening to the conversations around her. There were a few pieces of gossip that she filed away for later as she ate her lunch. After she’d paid, she bundled back up and stepped outside to make her return trip.

“Gideon!”

She whirled around to see Rip Hunter, fisherman and town eccentric, running towards her. “Captain Hunter.”

“I need to ask you something,” the man said. “Will you-”

“No,” Gideon turned and began to walk away. “I refuse to participate in anything related to that insane theory of yours.”

“It’s only hypnosis therapy. It could help you remember who you are!”

“I know exactly who I am!” she huffed. “And it has never been the spirit of your ship. I am a journalist, always have been and always will be!”

“Gideon, wait!” Rip protested. “You need to believe me!”

She shook her head. “Rip, you’re rambling. I know it’s been difficult ever since you lost your family, and you’ve been working non-stop since then. Just take some time off. Please.”

With that, she walked away from him as he stared at her sadly.

As soon as he pulled up to the veterinarian’s, Mick braked hard and threw the truck into park. Gathering up the shuddering pile in the passenger seat, he carried the dog towards the office. There had been some pets in the fire his crew had just put out. The dog he held was the only survivor of the lot, but she wasn’t in good shape.

Lucky for him, he knew someone who could help.

The door slammed hard against the wall as he burst into the clinic. Mick cringed when he saw the mark that had been left in the wall.

“Mick Rory, I swear if that’s you!”

Amaya Jiwe came storming out of the back room, hair flying behind her in a ponytail. In their old lives in the Enchanted Forest, she had always been a force to be reckoned with. Here, she had been locked in the basement of the hospital with no clue who she was until Mick bargained with the Legion of Doom to give her another life years ago. Now, every day he woke up and found she was a veterinarian for the town. She managed to retain her ferocity now, but became as meek as the others in town whenever Malcolm Merlyn, Damien Darhk, or Eobard Thawne showed up.

“How many times do I need to tell you not to slam the door open like that?” she sighed as she caught sight of the mark in the wall.

He had lost count over the years, and that didn’t include the implanted memories of this cursed life. “Got a patient for you, Doc.”

She looked at the dog and stepped towards him. The poor animal whimpered a little as she took her from Mick’s arms.He heard her murmur softly to the dog as she walked towards an examination table. Mick followed after her, looking over the posters and diagrams put up on the walls.

“Found her in the fire we just put out,” he explained as Amaya started to look over the dog. “Couple other pets were there too, but she’s the only one who made it out alive. Ran her over here as soon as I could.”

“Good thing you did,” Amaya murmured. “She’s got a few burns I’m going to have to treat, along with some previous injuries. I’d like to keep her here overnight for observation in case she starts showing more signs of smoke inhalation. Do you know anything about the owners?”

“Nothing,” he shook his head. All these years he’d had, and Mick had never been able to figure out who had caused the fire or who the animals belonged to. “No one owned the house that burned. Neighbors had no clue there were even animals inside.”

“Strange,” she said. “Well, I’ll take her in for now. Hopefully, an owner can be found.”

“I’ll look into it,” Mick told her, moving towards the door. “I’ll come around tomorrow.”

“Okay. See you then.”

He’d never find the owner. Tomorrow, he would indeed be back here again. The curse made every day repeat itself over and over in the same way. One day, the Savior would come and change that though. She’d set in motion a series of events to break the curse the Legion of Doom had cast twenty eight years ago.

Then, Mick would have his power back to burn the world.

Clarissa Hofmann entered the hospital room, book in hand. The John Doe was in the same state as he always was. She had no idea how long he’d been in that coma for. However, when she’d volunteered at the hospital before, Dr. Thawne had asked her to keep an eye on him. No one had been visiting him or claimed him in any way.

“So he has no one?” she’d asked once she’d heard the story.

“Not a soul,” the doctor had replied.

In that way, she felt a kinship to John Doe. He seemed to be around her age, but the lack of visitors made her think he had no family or friends. She was alone in the world too. Mainly, Clarissa kept to herself. Yet oddly enough, the unknown comatose man made her feel a little less alone.

At least when he woke up, she wouldn’t have to do all the talking for both of them.

“Hope you don’t mind me reading to you,” Clarissa told him as she opened the book. “I’m not sure if you’re one for poetry, but I’ve always enjoyed Robert Frost.”

He didn’t say anything as she started to read Fire and Ice. For about an hour, she stayed and read to him before leaving the hospital. As she did, a young woman who she believed taught at the local school came in. She held the door for Clarissa as they passed each other. After murmuring a quiet thank you, the older woman started her journey home.

(One day soon, she’d get a book from Laurel Drake to read to the man. She would read a story of a man who could burn like the sun to the John Doe. Only then would he grab her hand and finally start to awaken.)

Mayor Leonard Snart gazed out the window of his office as he prepared to leave for the night. From here, he could see the face of the clock tower. Its hands had been frozen at 8:15 for as long as he could remember. If his reelection campaign proved successful, then he would make a town-wide effort to have it restored to working order. However, that could only really occur if he got reelected.

Damien Darhk was competing against him to take his place as mayor. Leonard knew he was well-liked by the people in the town, but Darhk posed a serious challenge. Along with Eobard Thawne and Malcolm Merlyn, Darhk was one of the most powerful men in town. Many people in the town were intimidated by them, and fear could provide a lot of pull. He had called Mick earlier to tell him about his concerns of losing his campaign, but Mick had only responded by assuring him that he would be mayor for ‘a very long time’.

Gathering up his coat, Leonard left his office and walked out of the town hall. As he did, he recollected that he was supposed to have met with Laurel Drake today. However, she had never shown up for it. He’d heard that she’d been acting strangely lately. Hopefully, nothing was seriously wrong with her.

(He ran into Laurel three days later. She was with a blonde woman named Sara who looked like the last place she wanted to be was in the town hall. When he met her, he didn’t know why he suddenly had thoughts of criminal activity crossing his mind.)

Sara Lance blew out the candle on her cupcake before dropping back into a chair. Looking out the window of her new apartment, she sighed at the view. Star City was no different than any other city she’d worked bail bonds in. Tonight’s assignment had been successful, but she’d broken a heel and lost a knife. At least she’d gotten a happy birthday from her mark before revealing that she was onto him. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had acknowledged her birthday. It wasn’t like she hung around long enough anywhere for people to do so.

Did her own parents, or at least her mother, ever think about her on her birthday?”

A knock on the door pulled Sara back from the slippery slope of wallowing in misery. Rising to her feet, Sara padded over to the door and opened it. On the other side, a brunette who looked like the lawyer type was standing there. She seemed harmless, but Sara still made sure she could grab a knife if she needed to.

“Sara Lance?” the stranger asked, her eyes widening.

“Yeah,” Sara nodded slowly. “Who are you?”

“My name’s Laurel Drake. I’m your sister.”

#legends of tomorrow #once upon a time #au #raily #timeship #foxfire #mixen #mick x amaya #vixenwave #martin x clarissa #captain canary #lance sisters #taleasoldastime andspace