#infinity war did not fix character deaths for me

[sophieseals]

What’s special about guardians of the galaxy as well is I think it manages to walk the fine line of having death be present and something that could very much happen to our main characters but also choosing to keep them all alive at the end of the trilogy. Not only is it nice to see finished arcs but I’ve never once felt as if the stakes were not high in these films and could not result in a main character death. James Gunn does a good job at showing he isn’t afraid to go there with what happened with Yondu at the end of gotg 2 (and providing a very meaningful death to him beneficial to his arc) and to an extension even shows this with rockets friends (lyla teeths floor) in the third film. I 100% felt as if multiple guardians would die I’m this film and whilst it did come close everyone made it out okay! This is a change from what we see in previous media where the line has pushed to one side too much where it can get annoyingly repetitive and boring because there is no tension or, death can happen too frequently that it’s a joke.

#guardians of the galaxy #ryan coogler #does this too #he is very good at walking that line #this also still happens in the mcu #infinity war did not fix character deaths for me #like if we count infinity war and endgame how many people actually died #like five #and it was supposed to be this big battle? #gotg3 #gotg vol 3 spoilers #gotg #guardians of the galaxy vol 3 #James Gunn #gotg gamora #groot #gotg rocket #rocket raccoon #guardians of the galaxy vol 3 spoilers

[avelera]

I am never going to be over what the movies did with Steve and Tony's dynamic, because- listen, listen. The reason Civil War was (supposed to, it was kind of a hot mess) hit so hard in the comics was that these two were *best friends* and had been for decades of comic time. In the movies, they never are friends, so Civil War is just two colleagues who never really got on, and not the devastating tearing apart of a long-established friendship group.

Dude I literally burst out into like... outraged, furious laughter in the theater when Tony said, "I thought I was your friend?" because, umm, footage not fucking found?

I completely get and respect the comic readers here for whom Steve & Tony and Steve/Tony were, in fact, the best of friends! But the MCU never ever actually showed it.

To cram that line, which felt lifted from the comics, into the MCU was genuinely laughable. How could Tony possibly think he compares to what we've seen of Steve and Bucky's relationship, since childhood even if you don't ship them, as the only person Steve has left from his entire life pre-WWII? How could Tony possibly think he compares except through the lens of a galaxy sized ego and being totally self-involved to the exclusion of all else? How could any work colleague, since that's what they are at best when not outright antagonists to each other in the MCU, think they'd compare to a childhood friend in danger, that Tony is actively putting in danger? Who Tony is blaming for the death of his father despite the fact they've got piles of evidence that Bucky was a mind-controlled prisoner of war being actively tortured at the time?

It's literally staggering, it beggars belief that this line was uttered. And wildly enough, it's not even my least favorite line in Civil War. (That one goes to Vision's stupid fucking comment about how strength invites challenge, basically victim-blaming the superheroes for having villains, which only possibly makes any sense if you ignore Thor, the greater galaxy, all of the infinity stones, and basically every other part of the MCU timeline before Steve Rogers got the serum, Christ that line makes me mad.

Oh, and the line about Tony just handwaving signing the accords because their lawyers can fix it later as the most boneheaded line of insane privilege I've ever heard. Kids, never fucking sign something just because you can supposedly fix it later, christ it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.)

ANYWAY, I have major beef with Civil War's logic. It never should have happened where it did in the MCU. Cap 3 should have been dedicated to its original plot before they found out RDJ was staying on in the MCU and they had the pieces to make Civil War (the original was the hunt for Bucky and an examination of Captain America's legacy through the lens of Bucky killing off the pretenders the US government set up to be him over the years, and I still weep that we never got it) But I do honestly, deeply, have sympathy for comic fans and why they're mad about the Steve and Tony friendship never actually appearing on screen in any meaningful way.

Civil War shouldn't have happened then. Civil War is a plot you run now, when you've got the rights to the X-Men and too many damn characters running amok. Civil War would be perfect now for pairing down some of the ballooning MCU nonsense. The cast was literally not big enough circa Cap 3 to make Civil War. And I'm eternally bitter that they pivoted away from the smaller-scale Cap-centric movie we should have had and instead made another Avengers movie in its name.

#maggie rambles #captain america #mcu meta #mcu

[honeydewsblue]

#ao3moirecs. moirae’s ao3 fic recommendations.

a masterlist for all my favorite ao3 fics; fics i think should get more love, in no particular order. send the authors some love 🤍!!

disclaimer : most of these are reader inserts… sorry i need my dopamine fix. also read the tags!! read!! the!! tags!!!! my review will not be sufficient!!

includes … jjk (9), atla (2), genshin (1), misc. (1)

jujutsu kaisen

kintsugi, by kirketeer (21.3k wc) || toge inumaki / reader

sign language fic, looove how it deals with the hypothetical aftermath of shibuya arc! super funny too, overall a heartfelt and lighter, happier read :-)

ask me to bleed (for you i will), by kirketeer (3.2k wc) || geto suguru / reader

non-sorcerer reader. ‘you will die just as every other non-sorcerer dies: alone and afraid. and suguru will let it happen, because he knows his ideals are unflawed. they must be.’ ao3 author kirketeer you never miss

the color yellow, by rhydonium (29.9k wc) || gojo satoru / reader

hanahaki au. haven’t read in a couple years but i remember being utterly heartbroken. i also remember the concept of gojo and having everything and yet being unable to do anything in the face of something that can’t be helped sticking with me. (also read as: gojo and reader with a terminal illness.)

ariadne’s thread, by hawnks (3.8k wc) || gojo satoru / reader

‘he loses himself. he finds you instead.’ gojo dealing with losing and living. i can’t get enough of their characterization for him!! it’s too good. so much written in under 4k words—it made me appreciate how much storytelling you can do even without a higher wc. fell in love with the portrayal of falling in love.

let your hand become a blade so i may take it, by pantao (~10k wc, ongoing) || gojo satoru / f!reader

knight & princess au. ohhh my God. The writing is so good i’m sick. gojo in this… Phew. started my obsession with royalty aus. i crave the pining in loyalty and trust

doctor, coroner, mourner, by deadpooled (2.3k wc) || shoko ieiri

— and her companionship with death. character study. beautifully written :-( oh how i miss her so. i love her so much, i neeeed to read more works of her :-(

lover’s vigil, by nariveri (24.6k wc) || gojo satoru / f!reader

she fell first, he fell harder. gojo and taking care of ill readers pt2. love the characterization of gojo in this too!! gojo helplessly in love… gojo dealing with the repercussions (guilt) of being rude…

the natural movement of particles, by goldenlake (2k wc) || nobara & gojo

nobara has a talk with her teacher. what we could have had… love little stories that expand on things we don’t see in the original :’-)

the eightfold path, by hawnks (~16k wc, ongoing) || geto suguru / reader

soulmate au. ‘in the great scheme of things, you’re no one special. you are, however, the key to bringing suguru getou back down to earth.’ so! good! geto suguru is the people’s man… Ugh

avatar the last airbender

☆ measure each step into infinity, by paxbanana (200k wc) || azula / katara

azula’s growth from war and love. This is my Roman Empire. i can’t do this fic justice through a summary, but it altered the entirety of my chemistry. i appreciate and adore their exploration of azula’s character so, so much. this is my standard now. i want a physical copy ** since it doesn’t have additional tags, cw for nsfw/sex, descriptions of torture, heed the depictions of violence warning

make a meal of you, by thatweirdguyinthebushes (4.6k wc) || sokka

character study, ‘[his relationship] with the concept of war’. ‘the first time he kills someone, sokka is fifteen years old.’ so very beautifully written

genshin impact

what the wind brought, by jupiterism (38k wc) || kaeya alberich / reader

bookshop keeper reader. also haven’t read this one in a while, but i remember loving the storytelling and characterization :-)

miscellaneous

translations, by bignostalgias (~18k wc, ongoing) — hiccup haddock / jack frost

crossover. language barrier fic. did not know this ship was a thing until i found this fic one day when i got obsessed with the guardians movie… (there’s a whole crossover with tangled, brave, httyd, and guardians????) so, so well written. executes such a creative idea so, so well. worldbuilding is amazing. god i love writers

#moirecs #m.list #jujutsu kaisen #jjk #jjk x reader #gojo satoru x reader #avatar the last airbender #atla

[bushs-world]

Rant: The protagonist doesn't always need to move the plot

So a few things resulted in this post. One, I was reading a writing article and the number one advice was that the protagonist has to move the plot or they are boring

And two, Tumblr recommended a 'Loki was useless in the series' post to me so here I go

Why this advice came in the first place

A good protagonist moves the plot!!

This is the first writing advice you will ever get when you are learning to write interesting, multidimensional characters and this isn't without reason coz some writers will put in the least effort to write their protagonists (it's mostly women written this way but sometimes men too). The result is a bland, boring who keeps sitting passively while the entire plot happens to them and they do nothing to try and change their situation. Instead, the writer adds other characters to fix their problems for them while they dont move a finger. This results in flat, uninteresting and often annoying characters.

A good example of this is Bella Swan from Twilight or the Sleeping beauty or Snow White. And I always believe this was a guideline to make sure people don't write flat, cardboard cut out protagonists but people took this rule as a checkmark indicator of whether that means the character is well written or not, totally forgetting that sometimes the protagonist doesn't need to move the plot.

The Subversion of this advice

This advice can be (and has been for a long time) subverted by a very clever but simple flip in the structure - when the plot impacts the protagonist and instead of focusing on how the protagonist overcomes the situation, the focus is on what they experience. And this is such a common trope, often used when the character is placed in an environment way outside their control or when the conflict is so big that they can't single-handedly change anything or when the odds are so stacked against them that there's nothing much they can do.

A very good example of this is Dani in Midsommar. She rarely moves the plot. The actual movers of the plot are the Harga tribes and Dani just follows whatever ritual they put her in and yet she is getting impacted by the plot. For one, she has no idea these friendly looking tribes are actually a death cult and even if she did, there was nothing she could have done. There's also evidence she was drugged and brainwashed but the story is rarely about Dani and her group escaping the clutches of the cult, it is about her experience both with the cult and her own sorrow.

Similarly, Pi rarely moves the plot in The Life of Pi. Everything that happens in the story is caused by coincidence and forces of nature yet the story isn't about Pi surviving the shipwreck to reach land. It's about his experience while he's stuck in the sea with Richard Parker.

A Christmas carol, Gulliver travels, the British soldier in Dunkirk, to some extent even Oliver Twist are all examples of stories where the protagonist don't move the plot, yet the characters aren't badly written. Heck, even in Infinity War, it is Thanos who moves the plot, not the heroes.

Thats also prominent in Frank Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' which Loki S1 takes some inspiration from where the protagonist Gregor rarely moves the plot but the plot impacts him and the entire novel focuses on his experience (which is also something because unlike the genre fiction which relies heavily on plot, literary fictions many times apply this technique to deep dive into the protagonists experiences).

The protagonist is not always the hero (and won't always win)

One reason I think this advice is taken as a holy grain of writing is because many people confuse the protagonist with the hero. A hero is essentially a hero, fighting the evils and bad guys but the protagonist is simply the character whose story we are following and I think this line blurs in the superhero genre because we are literally seeing it because we want to see heroes.

A character experiencing the plot is not a passive character

Another thing people forget is that a character experiencing or getting impacted by the plot instead of fighting to overcome the conflict is not a passive character. A passive character is one who doesn't try to change their situation. In contrast, characters in such stories where the plot impacts them often try to overcome their conflict but fail, either again because they can barely make an impact alone or because they don't have the necessary power or control.

So, is Loki in the series a badly written protagonist??

So, I have seen many posts claiming that Loki was totally useless in the series or incompetent or that he didn't matter in the series. And I see three reasons for this

1. He rarely moved the plot

2. He was incompetent

3. He had no importance in the story

I will tackle each of these points individually

He rarely moved the plot: Ok, this is partly true but again this doesn't prove that Loki was a badly written protagonist because Loki was experiencing the plot. The series was never about Loki defeating the TVA, it was the journey of Loki and his growth as he experienced the TVA and the restraints of the sacred timeline. And Loki didn't have neither the knowledge or the power to drastically change something or to defeat the TVA because he was facing off against an organisation that went far beyond his comprehension and knew everything about them, stripping him of the upper hand. And idk why people are so shocked of this particular point coz the trailers always hinted towards Loki being forced to work with the TVA.

Another way this argument is flawed is because this totally ignores Loki's importance to the emotional aspects of the plot. Loki's role in the series is that of the archetypical trickster (as described in the myths, not a literal trickster). Tricksters were often people who shook the status quo and uncovered the harsh reality with their plans and that's what Loki does. Ever since he landed foot in the TVA, he had been challenging the TVA dogma and his presence causes every person be it Mobius, Ravonna, the Void Lokis or even Sylvie, Loki shakes their moral stance and forces them to reconsider their opinions. Some like Mobius or Classic Loki change while others like Ravonna shut him down with their dogmatic views.

Another thing is that he's the moral and emotional centre of the series and he provides the series the much needed depth.

People mistake Sylvie as the person who moved the plot because of her strong screen presence and compelling storyline but if you look carefully, it's the TVA that moves the plot. HWR even says this in episode 6 that he paved the road, they merely walked down it. But people just see Sylvie's plan and think that she moved the plot when in reality, her plan was an important part of the series but it wasn't the plot. The series was never about killing the timekeepers, it was never about saving the multiverse. It was always about Loki's experience with the TVA. Everything else was just audience opinions.

And then Loki did move the plot. He moved it in episode 2 when he located Sylvie, he moved it in episode 3 when he hid the tempad. So, how did he not move the plot?? It's only possible if you think the series was about killing the timekeepers but tell me where it was said??

He was incompetent: Again, Loki wasn't incompetent. He was just placed in a situation out of his control. And most people who say this don't say it in regard to the situation in the series. No, they will bring Avengers Loki and point out how he was a badass, which frustrates me so much coz are you telling me that a character is only nice if he's an overpowered badass who defeats everyone. And if the character suffers defeat, then he's worthless. Idk it seems like a very toxic and shallow take to me.

It's also not that Loki isn't trying. He tried yet he failed coz the TVA knew each of his tricks and were so powerful that there wasn't much he could do. It's one thing if there was something Loki could have done which he didn't. But that's not what the complains are about. It's always about how Loki wasn't how he was in the Avengers or how this cool thing that this other character did should have been done by Loki instead.

They want an overpowered gary stu and since that's not who Loki is, or even if he's a little goofy, he's pathetic and weak and whatnot because he doesn't show outward, superficial displays of strength. If you think your character getting hit or losing is insulting, especially when there's a narrative reason why he can't win, then it's not the writing that's bad, it's you who's superfacial. Which I don't mind if you just want your fav to kick ass but then they won't say it simply. No, they have to add some weird twisted logic of how it's humiliating when nowhere in the series is Loki mocked for being weak and the only one who has problem with underpowered Loki is them.

He has no importance in the story: Again debatable coz one which plotline are we talking about? The series was always about Loki and his experience so without him there won't be a plot but also if you think that the series was only about killing the timekeepers (which was a subplot no doubt but it wasn't the main focal point ever), even then Loki played a big narrative role.

Without him, there would have been no Mobius and B-15 turning against the TVA, no Ravonna struggling to keep the TVA afloat and doubling down on her beliefs, no internal breakdown in the TVA, no Classic Loki redemption, and I don't even think Sylvie might have been able to enchant Alioth alone. Without Loki, even Sylvie's emotional struggle won't have come to surface so if you remove Loki from the series, you remove all the emotional aspects of the series which the series was definitely not.

The motto of the series was 'No one bad is ever truly bad. No one good is ever truly good' and it wouldn't have come out without Loki.

And yes, Sylvie's plan and mission made an equally important part of the story as Loki's own journey, and the series balances both along with the world building quite well.

In the end, it's ok if people don't like the series but can they please kindly stop saying it's bad writing when they don't have the nuance to critique the writing on an objective level. Just because one doesn't enjoy something doesn't make it a bad writing.

#loki #loki series #loki meta #loki series meta #tva loki #sylki #kinda minor but still

[astromechs]

Has it ever been said why there was the need to make Thanos sympathetic in the first place? Meaning has anyone behind the mcu talked about the thought process?

I ask because the build up in mcu to Infinity War didn't seem to be going in that direction. Definitely not after vol 1 where we learned more about Gamora and Drax's history. Then suddenly they went the direction of maybe he had a point. Also they leaned into population control themes as a justification for genocide which I felt was troubling. Particularly with real world issues around similar subjects. The framing of the people on Gamora's planet as more primitive and struggling and Thanos coming in to fix it felt really off. Infinity War started out giving Gamora a voice and a well structured and acted look at the emotional toll her life with Thanos had. Then suddenly switched it up to frame him as having validity. It's interesting to me which bad guy characters creators will work really hard to make sympathetic and which characters will suffer the consequences.

It's also interesting to look at how fans reacted to Gamora's death with more than a few being willing to dismiss what it meant for her to only focus on Thanos. I saw way more people being adamant she needed to stay dead for the good of the story than some of the other characters who died except maybe heimdall who a lot of people seemed to ignore in general.

Fast forward to vol 3 and now I see more people coming to sympathize with Gamora's death in Infinity War when it comes to Peter's reaction and actions. What it means for Gamora however still doesn't get the same level of consideration. I have noticed that people are quick to view her actions in vol 3 as being evil or unacceptable, though her behavior was pretty understandable for the situation she was in and no more bad than behavior we have seen from characters like Rocket, Yondu or even Nebula in the past. There's also debate about whether she should count as a guardian, which I guess people can feel how they want but the standards for behavior and meeting the criteria to be included seem to be higher for her. Some people I interact with in fandom who felt they could at least understand where Thanos was coming from act like Gamora is too hard to identify with and she's the victim.

Sorry this is long and likely not as articulate as I was going for. But all the new gotg commentary has me curious about why they needed Thanos to be sympathetic and how that's reverberated through fandoms feelings for Gamora.

the russos had it in their heads that they wanted to create "this generation's darth vader" without actually understanding what makes darth vader a great and enduring character. like, that's essentially it.

what makes vader a great character and a great villain is that the story humanized him in a way that didn't make excuses for his atrocities. the reveal in the empire strikes back that he's luke's father... well, it's still the best twist in cinema history, because it turns the whole story on its head without compromising the integrity of it, all of vader's actions are cast in a new light, and you see there's a man inside that machine. return of the jedi really succeeds in driving that home by having vader sacrifice himself in the struggle against the emperor to save luke for a really effecting conclusion.

nowhere in there did giving vader humanity ever suggest he was actually right for destroying alderaan with the death star, or for torturing leia (who would turn out to be his daughter!), or for slaughtering countless people, or for supporting and enabling the fascist regime that is the empire.

and hell, your mileage may vary on the star wars prequels (personally, i love them — yes, even attack of the clones, which i objectively know isn't a good movie!), but what they manage to do by going into anakin's past and how he becomes vader further serves to humanize him without trying to say his actions are the right ones. the scene in attack of the clones where he slaughters an entire village of tusken raiders for killing his mother is framed by the film as something horrific; the same is true of the scene in revenge of the sith where he kills the younglings in the jedi temple and the whole third act of the movie that primarily deals with his descent into darkness. anakin's story is a tragedy, and we're meant to feel the weight of that, but we're also not meant to agree with his actions or his point of view.

that's where infinity war gets it completely wrong with thanos. and i know, i know, the movie intentionally framed him as its protagonist as a narrative device — and that's something that could be done well, but wasn't. and again, friends, let's remember that protagonist =/= hero (which i don't think the russos/markus and mcfeely understand lol), protagonist literally just means what character is principally driving the action of the story. there are countless examples of stories where you're meant to understand the protagonist but not validate their actions; hell, the anakin example from the star wars prequels above is one, as well as stories like bojack horseman, succession, etc etc and so on and so forth.

where infinity war particularly messed up on this, imo, was having the soul stone validate thanos's murder of gamora as a "sacrifice" and actually giving him the stone. that was bad on a lot of levels, and really led to a lot of people having the attitudes that they do. and, just, in general, there are a lot of reddit bros ready to chime in and agree with someone spouting a bunch of thomas malthus-esque rhetoric, people just willing to accept what happened to gamora because, you know, misogyny, and voila. you have mcu thanos and his shitty legacy enduring.

#asks #anonymous #GHHGHGHF THIS WAS ALSO LONG #the wrong lessons were also learned for the sw sequel trilogy for kyle ron but that's another rant for another day :')

[buggre-alle-this-for-a-larke]

Good Omens Season 2 Finale Spoiled Its Tone

Okay so hear me out on this one, and spoilers for Good Omens and Our Flag Means Death. I need other people's opinions on this.

(NOTE: 1. I really enjoyed Season 2, this isn't claiming I didn't.

2. I am not talking about the actual events. What actually happened fits both story and character)

Good Omens has a very particular tone which it makes it so comfort-show-worthy despite the first season being legitimately about the end of the damn world. It’s feel-good, light, heartwarming, big on the idea of found family and second chances. It is fiercely sincere in its hopefulness and optimism even when the situation is dire. The book does the same, it uses humour to cope with what could be a heavy subject matter and turns it into something enjoyable.

Our Flag Means Death has pretty much the same tone, it's one of the many reasons why the Venn diagram of OFMD fans and GO Fans is about as close to a circle as you can get. No matter how awful the situation, there’s a dose of hopefulness throughout to keep it light.

So what both did with their endings (S2 and S1 respectively) is super interesting. Because Our Flag Means Death managed to do something incredibly heartbreaking, Stede not running away with Ed, and retain its tone. The scene of Ed sitting on the dock is like a physical punch to the chest, it’s brutal. BUT, very importantly, that’s not the end of the season. We get another episode, where nothing is fixed - Ed and Stede are still not together, Ed is very clearly off the rails and doing so really messed up stuff there at the end. But we end on that shot of Stede in the boat. We end on HOPE. And that enables the show to keep that light and optimistic tone without ever having to fix any of the problems it created.

GO season 2 is what would have happened if OFMD ended on the dock scene. It tanks its feel-good tone, which it keeps super consistent the whole way through the rest of the season, into the ground at the very last minute and leaves it there indefinitely. It doesn't end on light, or optimistic or comforting. It ends on utter despair.

Now Season 3, presuming we even get one, also can't go back to its light and jovial tone for a fair bit. If it springs straight back up it’s going to be a jarring juxtaposition - think Infinity War to End Game, Infinity War ended with hopelessness, End Game had to open with hopelessness. It’s going to have to regain the tone that is one of the show's major appeals.

And like I said, this isn’t about the actual events or the fact that it's depressing. Switching up the tone there for a bit works wonders, like Crowley running into a burning bookshop in season 1 screaming how someone “killed his best friend”. Aziraphale wanting to go to Heaven makes so much sense and is a natural, if heartbreaking, place for the series as a whole to go. I don’t think these problems should be fixed at the end of the season and wrapped up in a little bow.

SO bring it forwards 15 minutes, and give us something, anything, there at the end that reintroduces hope. And with the tiny little slither of levity and optimism, the show could have kept its tone and the ‘vibe’ that people were going into this for.

#good omens #good omens season 2 spoilers #aziraphale #Crowley

[caatws]

This might be a bad reading of events but I think there just wasn't any true desire to build back up a story for Gamora at the very end of gotg's trilogy. James Gunn has said several times the story of the guardians was always going to end with Rocket's origin story and that Rocket is the character he feels closest too. Instead of altering part of the plan to accommodate what was done with Gamora he altered how he usually approached Gamora's development and prominence to accommodate the story. Endgame absolutely showed Gamora being invested in her relationship with Nebula and having strong feelings about everything that was going on. There was a lot to work with to give her a fuller story and arc. I think some better choices needed to be made between what needed to take place in vol 3 to fulfill James Gunn's vision and what they wanted to do in Infinity War to prop up Thanos.

more vol 3 spoilers under the cut~

i'm aware gunn always wanted to focus more on rocket later down the line and that he's always connected with him the most and i'm not disagreeing with that, or how 2014!gamora acted in endgame for that matter. it was just strange to me to see that she didn't seem any closer or that close in general to nebula 2 years after that. like weirdly gamora and nebula seemed closer in vol 2 than in vol 3 to me? but that could've just been me watching the 2 films back to back so they were just begging to be directly compared LOL

but as it stands, original gamora's arc is just....not good. nothing abt her character in vol 2 suggests that her arc was so close to ending in her death that it would happen in her literal next appearance? i'm sure for gunn he was stuck in between a rock and a hard place of how he much he was gonna continue going with his original vision (rocket centric story) vs trying to change up anything in iw/endgame that he didn't agree with (tho i would argue given the russos retconned parts of gamora's background that had been established in vol 1/2, gunn should've gotten to retcon something they did in return LMFAO)

anyway, i get that trying to pick up and resume the greater gotg story from iw/endgame and the gamora situation was gonna be a tall order regardless of what the story of vol 3 was gonna be, so my bigger issue that i think could've been more realistically fixed is the ways the other guardians grieved (or didn't grieve) gamora, bc it rly did seem like peter was the only one who was upset abt it. would've at least been cool to see a convo between him and the others or nebula in particular abt how he isn't the only one grieving...but i guess he was?

#gotg vol 3 spoilers #gotg spoilers #anonymous #ask #gotg #mcu #gamora #gotg vol 3 #the gamora situation

[ao3feed-irondadspiderson]

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #iron dad and spider son #spider son #iron dad #peter parker #tony stark

[kandisheek]

FIC REC WEEK 7 - ANGST

Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree by Annie D (scaramouche)

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: E Words: 21,106 Tags: Hanahaki Disease, Pining Steve, Mild Body Horror

Summary: Steve doesn’t mind that Tony doesn’t return his feelings. He just would've preferred if it didn’t come with the side effect of his coughing up flowers and possibly dying.

Reasons why I love it: THE best Hanahaki fic I've ever read. The trope itself is already rife with angst, but Annie D takes it to a whole other level. I especially love how the disease ends up working in the end, and the way it's literally purged from Steve's body. Also, Tony's outrage when he finds out that he was the key to ending Steve's suffering the whole time is priceless. I just want to smother the both of them in a hug. A wonderful fic that I bet you'll enjoy just as much as I did!

how much i've been touching you by isozyme

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: E Words: 3,745 Tags: Infidelity, Civil War, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms

Summary: Steve loves Tony, but not enough to listen about the SRA. He loves Sharon, but not enough to stop coming to Tony late at night.

Reasons why I love it: Oh my god, okay, this one just breaks me every time I read it. The whole situation they're in is so awful, and I'm torn between thinking that the ending is for the best and thinking, "Noooo come back, fix this, please!" It's truly wonderful, and I love how it explores the concepts of being the other (wo)man and how Tony deals with it. And fucking hell, Steve simultaneously makes me want to hug him and slap him across the face. I love this fic an awful lot, please go ahead and give it a shot!

Day Drinking by Sineala

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: M Words: 6,256 Tags: Alcoholism, Undercover, Bad Decisions

Summary: To fight Orchis, Tony has to make them underestimate him. He spends his nights building armor in secret. He spends his days at the Hellfire Club with a glass of ginger ale in his hand, pretending to be drunk. But the lies will all fall apart if anyone notices that Tony doesn't have liquor on his breath. Steve has a solution for that. Tony's not going to like it.

Reasons why I love it: For me, this fic is the definition of, "My heart can't take the pain, but I keep coming back for more." God, Steve's actions are so awful in this, but he does what he does for such a sympathetic reason. And Tony's reaction just breaks my heart, every time I read it. The whole premise is phenomenal, and I've already read this fic more times than I can count. Go and check it out, it's incredible!

Carry The Colors Darling (One Last Time) by RayShippouUchiha

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: G Words: 1,942 Tags: Canonical Character Death, Hurt No Comfort, Grief

Summary: There’s a rush, a flare of sheer, burning power that crawls its way through his veins. It invades every part of him in a moment that seems to take both seconds and years to pass, tugs at his senses with an urgency that cannot be denied. It demands that he follow. Demands that he see. Tony lets it take him, gives himself over to it, and in that moment, trapped in that endless second, infinity is laid out before him.

Reasons why I love it: I cried the first time I read this. Who am I kidding, I cry every single time. Grief is such a complicated emotion, and the way it's explored here is just breathtaking. It feels almost like poetry. And somehow Ray manages to break my heart with every single fucking paragraph. It's truly a gift. This fic is wonderfully written, sad and beautiful, and I encourage you to go and experience it for yourself!

Silence in Your Beating Heart by Damalia (Achrya)

Pairing: Steve/Tony, Steve/Bucky, hints of Steve/Bucky/Tony Rating: M Words: 7,723 Tags: A/B/O (Omega Tony and Steve, Alpha Bucky), Mating Cycles, Hurt Tony

Summary: Steve Rogers had an alpha, kind of, until he lost Bucky and then, like that wasn't bad enough, Bucky had to go and die. Steve isn't quite right after. -- “Cap has his alpha back. That’s a good thing.” Wasn’t it? Yes. Yep. “I didn’t know Steve was an omega. He doesn’t…” Bruce’s expression shifted, losing the ‘Gonna break something’ look and gaining that ‘I just had a brilliant idea’ look. “I wonder if that’s part of why he’s taken to the serum. So many attempts to recreate but nothing has ever compared. I…” He turned away from Tony, walked towards the door then walked back. “I’ve seen Steve’s blood work you know. I’ve-” “Well I’ve had sex with him soooo.” -- What Steve and Tony have is a Thing, but it's not a relationship. Just two omegas being buddies, hanging out, and maybe having lots of sex. No big deal. Steve is still all hung up on his long dead Alpha-but-not-Alpha and Tony is pretty shit at relationships and...look. It's just a thing. And so what if Bucky is back and alive and Steve drops to his knees for that guy like he never would have for Tony and doesn't call for over a month and Tony crawls so far into the bottle Jarvis starts calling for help? That's Tony's business.

Reasons why I love it: The pain, oh god, the glorious pain!! Those last couple paragraphs always leave me choked up, like, holy fuck, PLEASE, they need to talk this out, oh my god! The emotions in this are so raw and real, and I want to knock all of their heads together and make them COMMUNICATE. Also, protective Bruce is a treasure that doesn't get appreciated enough. I love this fic to bits, and I bet you will too!

#marvel #stony #fanfic #fic rec #fanfic rec #ficrec #a year in fanfic recs #angst

[saratogaroadwrites]

Per Aspera Ad Astra (10/18)

Per Aspera Ad Astra | saratogaroad | banner art credit Rating: T Wordcount: 183k Characters: John 117, Cortana, Thomas Lasky, Sarah Palmer, Fireteam Osiris, The Warden Eternal, The Didact, The Librarian, ensemble of other Halo characters Relationships: John-117 & Cortana Other Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, fix-it, Male/Female Friendship, Canon-Typical Violence Warnings:  War imagery, seizures, graphic description of injury

Snatched from the jaws of death, Cortana and John find themselves adrift in a galaxy that has long since moved on. As they attempt to find their place in this strange new world, they find that the fight is not as over as they thought. Chasing a signal across the galaxy in desperate hope, they come to a stark conclusion: the Reclamation has begun, and they are helpless to stop it.

=

No one was happy about what the Chief and Cortana had found in the Vestige system. They took the loss of Vestige II and the River Bend about as well as Cortana had expected them to: not well at all.

There had been no time to find a secure communications hub. Though the troop bay of a Condor was no place to try and hold an untraceable briefing, the nature of the situation had forced their hand. Connecting to Infinity, Cortana had briefed the Captain on what they'd discovered and what they were equally as sure of. Though she'd expected him to be surprised, all he'd been was resigned. FLEETCOM and the UNSC already knew about the Guardians.

Not about the machines themselves, he'd told her, they hadn't known what those were, but that outer colonies were being wiped out. Vestige II and Yerina II had both gone Nova Bomb without warning, but a handful of others had simply been wiped clean. Scans of the area told them that a massive slipspace rupture had opened within atmosphere at each affected site, leveling everything for kilometers. It didn't matter if they were prefabs or solid plasteel and duracrete construction, it was all equally destructible.

There were also no survivors no matter where they looked. These things were wiping people out by the thousands, and Lord Hood wanted answers as of yesterday. Though they came through Lasky the Admiral's orders were clear: find and eliminate the threat, no matter what it took. Lasky and the Infinity were to follow them in and provide support, but they would be an hour behind the Condor. Until they arrived, the Chief maintained tactical command and had been strongly advised to do what they did best: be the tip of the spear and clear the way.

Unfortunately, that meant actually getting on planet first.

"You cannot keep us in here forever, you know."

"Watch me," the speaker was busted, the distorted voice of Meridian's AI snapping back at Cortana, a glowing steel-gray light blinking on one of the security cameras within the elevator. "The UNSC sends its top thug to Meridian? Like hell am I letting you on my planet!"

"We're trying to save your planet, you moron!" Cortana sent another copy of their orders at LD-SLN-091, apparently known as "Governer Sloan" to his people, "Now let us off this can so we can do that!"

Sloan's scoff was answer enough. With a frustrated shout Cortana threw her hands up and stalked the four paces away the elevator allowed her. The Chief stood back, rifle in his hands, and tilted his head with an equally frustrated clatter of his shoulder plates. The really? hung between them, unspoken. Cortana rolled her eyes, half considering tossing her helmet at Sloan's camera just to get them some privacy.

"Unbelievable," She muttered, "Stopped at the door by an overloaded spreadsheet generator—" She tossed a glare over her shoulder, "When all your people are dead you'll only have yourself to blame!"

No response. He'd probably shut off the microphone so he wouldn't have to listen to them any more, the bastard. She turned away with a scoff of her own, arms crossed over her chest. The Chief contemplated the door.

"I could lift that." He said. She arched an eyebrow. "I could. Enough for you to get through and activate the release."

"He'd just take it over again," She said, "And that's a cargo lift door, Chief. It's got enough hydraulics to snap a Hunter clean down the middle. I like you in one piece."

"And I'd like you two off my damn planet," Came another voice, piped through the speakers in the elevator. Cortana whipped around as the door began to rise, revealing a woman in security team armor on the other side. Stockily built and short, the woman tossed her long blonde ponytail over her shoulder and glared at the two of them like they weren't two of the UNSC's best. "So maybe we'll both get what we want. You two are going to pack up and go back to whatever ship you crawled out of, capiche?"

Oh, not this again. Cortana stepped forward, pausing for just long enough to ping the bio-monitor embedded in the back of this woman's neck. Liang-Dortmund Security Chief Elaine Sinclair. 48, single, type B- blood, allergic to shellfish. Interesting but ultimately useless.

"Ma'am," Cortana began, "We're not here to cause you trouble or harm. We're here on UNSC orders to make sure your people stay safe. If we could just—"

"You can just nothing, girly," Sinclair interrupted, "I don't care if your orders came from the Lord himself! We're sure as hell not going to let you UNSC types come down here and take our land because it suits you now."

Well, technically, their orders had come from a Lord…irrelevant!

"Ma'am," She tried again to get Sinclair to see reason, "We're not here for that. We're not here to take your land rights or your claim to Meridian. Our orders are to evacuate you and the colonists before—"

"I don't give a damn about your orders!" Sinclair shouted, taking the two steps necessary to get into Cortana's personal space and jab a finger up at her. Cortana didn't give so much as an inch. "We didn't come all the way out here just to start taking orders from UNSC thugs!"

"Cortana…" the Chief said dangerously across their private channel. One word and he'd intercede, put himself between the two of them and let himself become the target of Sinclair's anger. Her eyes flashed to their vid-link and she flashed a red light at him. She had this. He didn't need to get involved and risk making Sinclair even angrier. Understanding her point he shifted weight and sighed, aggravated. They were wasting too much time. Cortana decided to try a different tactic.

"There is a ticking time bomb somewhere on your planet, head-sec," she said, "And a similar if not identical device already wiped out Vestige II, turned it into a planet sized asteroid field and killed everyone on it. Do you want that to happen here?"

"Ha!" Sinclair crowed, "The only thing that cracks planets like that in a Nova Bomb. Those are UNSC tech—you really think I'm going to let you waltz into our town and let you do to us what you did to them?"

She—ugh! This wasn't working. They couldn't take one step off the elevator with Sinclair in the way and the last thing Cortana wanted to do was go through her by force, but it was swiftly coming to that becoming a necessity. One more time. She'd try one more time.

"Ma'am—" Cortana began, stopping as a tremor shook the ground. Something groaned overhead, prompting the three of them to look up. When the elevator showed no signs of snapping Cortana looked back down. "…Is that normal for this planet?"

"We get quakes every day," Sinclair explained impatiently, "Glassed planets have unstable cores, your scientists keep saying. What?" She sneered, "Don't tell me the UNSC's best Spartan's scared of a few little tremors?"

"Only of what causes them." The Chief stepped up beside Cortana. He looked almost two and a half feet over Sinclair and Cortana saw that draw her up short. "Ma'am, Vestige was destroyed by tectonic activity when the device beneath its surface broke free. We need to get in and disable it to keep that from happening here. Will you let us?"

There was an unspoken or will we have to go around you? in his steady tone, but Sinclair didn't have a chance to answer him. A shiver ran down Cortana's spine and alarms started to blare, personnel rushing to the banks of terminals and monitors in the cargo port. Her head snapped to them as someone shouted back over their shoulder.

"Ma'am! We've got targets just outside the elevator—unknowns! They're—they're shooting anyone who moves!"

"What?!"

Sinclair spun on her heel. The Chief and Cortana had already rushed past her, politeness tossed to the winds. Cortana ran for the terminal as the Chief rounded up the security officers, grabbing rifles from where they'd been placed on crates and shoving them into fear-widened hands. The technician reached for her shoulder as she blazed past him.

"H-hey! You can't just—"

"Oh, sod off and move!" She shoved him with her shoulder, placing both hands on the terminal and grabbing at anything that wasn't locked down. Sloan threw himself at her but she dodged away, their processes skimming across one another. She nearly jerked herself out of the terminal in that moment, recognizing the jagged edges of his code for what they really were.

It wasn't the hardware that was too old, it was that he was Rampant! He was almost nine years old and still functional, though for how much longer was anyone's guess. Spinning up a pair of processes to keep him running in circles, she swallowed down her nausea and hurried through the terminal's contents. The automated defense turrets were down, clogged with silicates, but the cameras were still working. She patched the feeds into her processes and hurriedly backed out of the terminal.

"Get everyone who can't fight to safety," She shouted at Sinclair, "The Chief and I will handle these guys!"

Leaving Sinclair no time to protest Cortana ran after her partner. He'd rallied the security force into some semblance of order at the main door and was waiting for her. He passed her a rifle as she took up position on his right flank.

"Prometheans," She explained, linking him in to the camera feeds. They flickered across his visor, lighting the vid-link as he skimmed through them, "At least two dozen just outside and more further in the settlement. They're looking for something."

"Which means the Didact is, too. Stay close."

"Copy."

The Chief gave the order. One of the security officers hit the button that opened the main door and then all hell broke loose. Screams of pain and fear flooded the air, the Prometheans on full attack mode, gunning down anyone who they could see. At the Chief's orders the security officers bolted across glassy hill, running for their fallen fellows. The Chief and Cortana followed after them, taking potshots at the Prometheans to get their attention and then systematically taking them down. They had to split up as a pack of Crawlers dropped in on the ridgeline, rushing down at them and firing wildly. Cursing, Cortana ran and helped a fallen miner to his feet.

"Get inside!" She shoved him to a nearby prefab, "Keep your head down and stay put!"

"R-right!"

She didn't have time to watch and make sure he made it. The security officers had saved who they could and were now turning on the Prometheans, heedless of a friendly in the way. Bullets whizzed past her head.

"Watch your fire!" She shouted at them, hurrying back out of the way. Maybe not a friendly to them, she thought, and rushed back to the Chief. A dozen Knights and their Watchers plus the Crawlers…this was just a scout force! Enough to be a problem for the mostly unarmored security force whose worst night was a bunch of drunk and disorderly miners, but nothing they couldn't handle. By the time she made it back to the Chief he'd already taken out half of them himself, and between their combined efforts and the wild shooting of the security force, they were able to clear the area. When it was over, the only motion on her tracker were the white neutral pips that marked the humans on station.

"Clear."

"Clear," the Chief confirmed, "No signs of hostile activity."

Looking over his shoulder, he contemplated the gate. A security camera moved to consider him, Sloan watching them both. The camera shifted as footsteps crunched across the glass behind them. Cortana groaned in the safety of her helmet.

"Thanks for the help," Sinclair sneered, "but we can take it from here. You two can go back on your fancy ship before you bring more trouble down on our heads."

"They're not here because of us!" Cortana shouted. Sinclair opened the gate and the two of them hurried after her, her long stride no match for a Spartan on a mission. "Ma'am—dammit—Chief!"

Sinclair turned around, but she hadn't been calling out to her. Beside her, the Chief stepped forward. He loomed over the woman, weapon in hand. Credit where credit was due, she didn't flinch.

"Ma'am," He said firmly, "The Prometheans will keep coming. They don't get tired, they don't need to feed or shelter their troops." He loomed over her, speaking gravely. "They're here for a reason. They won't stop until they get what they're after, even if it means going through every last one of your people. Is whatever problem you have with the UNSC worth their lives?"

Sinclair bristled, shoulders reaching for her ears as she took a long, deep breath—and then stopped, letting it all go with a sound not unlike a deflating balloon.

"…No. No. Dammit, no." She pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes. "It's not." Rubbing at her eyes she sighed gustily. "Come with me. We'll talk about this inside."

Turning on her heel, Sinclair stalked off into the settlement. She called out orders as she went, commanding her people to check for any structural damage and get it patched up ASAP, get the wounded to medical, and the usual post-combat checks most Commanders went through. She was really no different from Palmer in that respect; on her own she was snarky, rude, and sometimes stubborn beyond belief, but when her people needed her she'd go to bat for them without hesitation. Cortana could respect that.

She just wished it hadn't taken so long to get through to her!

Sinclair led them deeper into the settlement, up towards a prefab trailer set off on its own. The logo for the company security force was painted on the door, Liang-Dortmund's rising fan faded and chipped by the silicate storms. Cortana glanced out across the gray wastes as Sinclair punched in her keycode, taking in the rising and falling hills of glass. A roiling storm was forming in the distance, bright red lightning jumping between the clouds. The storms caused by a glassing were monstrous and massive. It would hit the settlement by nightfall, if not sooner. She shuddered at the infrasonic rumble of thunder and followed the Chief in after Sinclair shoved the door open.

The prefab trailer was almost too small for the three of them. The Chief had to duck to fit in the doorway, standing back as Sinclair shimmied her way around boxes of tablets and human detritus to make her way to the metal desk at once end. A cot rested against the opposite wall, blankets thrown haphazardly aside. She lived in here, it seemed, and definitely wasn't military. Cortana took all of this in and tilted her head, puzzling it out. Meridian's population was roughly five thousand people. Most had come on the terraforming ship that was making some headway on the other side of the planet, but she doubted the thing could move very fast. If it came to an evacuation…

"Sloan tells me you're not as human as you look." Sinclair opened with, startling both the Chief and Cortana. When had she—oh, right. Radio. Private channel. Cortana hadn't bothered tapping into it. Sinclair leaned her hands on her desk, eyes darting to the AI podium bolted to the wall beside her. "If I'm going to trust you two with the lives of my people, I damn well need to know who I'm dealing with. Helmets off. Now."

The Chief and Cortana shared a glance. His jaw clenched tight, muscles tensing, before he reached up and disengaged the seals. Everyone had seen the Master Chief's face after they'd been assigned to Infinity, some UEG fluff piece welcoming the hero of humanity home again. There'd been no interviews, no candid footage, just a long, slow shot of the man leaning over the rail on S-Deck 3, watching his teams at work. It had felt invasive then, it felt invasive now. Sinclair didn't even blink at the too pale, too tense face she was seeing and Cortana bristled. That she couldn't know what it meant to see the face of a II didn't matter. She should have respected the gesture all the same!

Furious, Cortana tore off her helmet. She considered tossing it at Sinclair's head, then stifled the urge and shoved it in a box. As cathartic as it would be to knock the woman on her ass, there were bigger matters in play here. She stomped on her temper and set her helmet on her hip. Sinclair raised an eyebrow.

"I wasn't aware humans came in blue."

"I'm an AI," Cortana retorted, stepping forward to put herself between Sinclair and John. It was a foolish endeavor given that he had a good two feet on her even out of his suit, but it made her feel better to protect him. "And the most I can tell you is that this is a mobile platform full of classified R&D that you'd need to give your firstborn just to apply for clearance to get a peek at. It's irrelevant to the mission at hand, ma'am." She looked at the podium. "Satisfied?"

"No." Sloan's raspy, masculine voice was nearly lost in the rampant noise that tried to bury it. John shifted behind her. Carefully, she opened a process to scan Sloan. He still couldn't fight her off, too damaged to try, and what she got back was worse than she'd feared. His code was more damaged and corrupted than even hers had been, little left of the AI it—he—had once been. He had hours at best. Was he aware of that? She couldn't bring herself to ask and retreated, leaving him in peace. She turned back to Sinclair.

"How long has he been with you?" She asked quietly, gesturing to the podium when Sinclair stared at her. "Sloan. His code is." She swallowed hard. "Damaged."

Sinclair closed her eyes. "Nine years," She replied, a flicker of steel-gray light trying to manifest but failing miserably. Sloan's processes were likely too overloaded to handle the needed energy to manifest a hologram. His chip was probably damaged beyond repair. "I know—I know the part of the UNSC Code that says AIs are to be terminated after seven years, but we're not like you people. We can't just dispose of one of our own because they're too old."

John and Cortana both flinched in their own ways. Sinclair had no way of knowing how close to home her words hit; the protective instinct that drove her howled for blood. She stepped forward, ready to take the hits for him, but he moved first. Their arms brushed in the small space and she looked up. His brow was furrowed, eyes dark.

"I understand," he said, his voice pitched low and thick with grief. Cortana's core lurched, heart cracking. He did understand. He'd lived through it at her side and after that he'd read and learned and broken his own heart in the process. He was one of the few people who not only understood but cared. He'd lived through it and been unable to do anything. He'd refused to accept that nothing could be done for her no matter what had happened or what she'd told him. He'd somehow held onto hope and the certainty that there was something, some way, to save her. And when there hadn't seemed to be a way, he'd made one for them anyway. He'd kept his promise and gotten her home.

Did Sloan have someone to do the same for him? It was obvious that at least Sinclair cared, but her hands were tied by circumstance and location. Even if they had a stasis tank, at this stage in decay it would only buy them a few more days. Nothing human made could fix this.

Maybe….maybe it didn't have to be human made. Maybe there was something she could do instead.

"Ask him what he wants to do," John said, quietly clearing his throat and replacing his helmet, his shield against emotional displays. The hiss of pressurization couldn't cover his voice. "He deserves the right to decide for himself."

The look in Sinclair's eyes softened. She considered the Chief for a moment, then turned to the podium.

"Sloan?"

There was no answer. Given how hard it had been to think at the end, Cortana didn't begrudge him the time. She waited, forming and discarding plans on how she might be able to help him if he let her. Depending on how bad his memory sector was maybe she could restore his code but keep his personality data intact…no, that would just take too much space. Seven years of memories in a fresh chip was still seven years of data. Partitioning wouldn't work either. Ugh, and there she went thinking like a human again. She shook her head. Human solutions wouldn't solve this problem.

"The miners in V-23 found something three days ago," Sloan said, startling her. His voice was even more distorted than before. "You two can go see it. Whoever else shows up waits topside."

It was as good as they were likely to get with him. The Chief nodded.

"We understand. Thank you, Sloan."

"Hmph."

She had to do something, soon. Cortana consulted the scans she'd taken from the mainframe when they'd come off the elevator, marking the location of Shaft V-23. It was at the back of the camp and wouldn't take long to reach. They could be there in five. She nodded at the Chief and turned to head for the door. He lingered a moment longer.

"Ma'am," He said to Sinclair, "Get your people ready to leave. Cortana and I will do what we can, but if we can't stop this you need to be off-planet as soon as possible."

Sinclair drew back, alarmed. "Wh—what exactly are you expecting to find down there, Master Chief?"

"Not what. Who."

With that ominous declaration made, the Chief strode out of the prefab. Cortana hurried out after him and the two made their way across the settlement. They rushed past prefabs and mining equipment as the storm rumbled in the distance, nearly lost beneath the clank of metal beneath their boots. The Chief took point when they entered the mining sector, rifle up and motions sharp. She kept a process on her motion tracker and on the local area node. For now there were no additional Prometheans in range, but who knew how long that'd last. They had to hurry.

Shaft V-23 had been carved out in the northernmost portion of the digsite, a makeshift bulkhead formed out of plastic sheeting the only thing that barred access to the stairs just inside. The pale blue-white glow of florescent lights buzzed at the edge of her sensors, a half dozen portable floodlights filling the narrow tunnel entrance and wider chamber beyond. Though the miners hadn't bothered to establish a proper exit, they had managed to anchor a cargo lift in place. The door was open, the terminal at the other end dark. It all shook as they stepped on board. The Chief looked around, scanning for the source. He wouldn't find it here, she thought.

"Vestige was reporting earthquakes before the Guardian broke loose," He said, "How much time do we have?"

"Hard to say. Meridian is both bigger and more stable than Vestige, but glassed planets aren't known for stability. That quake was minor." She shrugged when he glanced at her. "We should be fine, but we can't waste any time. I'd rather not find out if this frame can get spaced."

"Right." He wasn't convinced it was fine and gestured at the console. "Start us down."

With a nod, Cortana headed for the terminal. Armor clattered as the Chief turned to watch their six, just waiting for hostiles to show up and make things difficult. Not that they needed to; when she reached the terminal, it remained dark. She pinged it, thinking the display was dead, but no. It was the entire system!

"Seriously?" She groaned, "Come on. Haven't we dealt with enough today already?"

She'd have to manually reboot it. Crouching down she popped the access panel, grimacing at the mess of wires inside. Why could humans never build things cleanly? Why did they always insist on color coding and terrible cable management? Ugh. She reached forward to start shifting things around, only to jump nearly out of her skin as a metallic clang rang through the elevator. She twisted out and spun around, staring at the shut lift door.

"Well that's just rude," She got back to her feet, shaking her head at the Chief's unasked question. No, she hadn't been the one to shut the door. That had been someone else. She glanced at the terminal. "Weren't you ever taught that's no way to treat your guests?"

No response. He was probably too far gone to appreciate good humor. The Chief walked up beside her, his presence a sheltering weight. They both watched the dark terminal for a long few moments, waiting, but no answer came.

"How much longer does he have?"

"Not long." Cortana shook her head. "A few hours at most. By now his systems will be shutting down."

Her core lurched, heart going out to him. She could still remember all too clearly how that had felt. The pure torture of needing to think but being unable to. The agony of knowing there was so much you had to do but being unable to do any of it, physically unable to do it. Like a soldier unable to shoot to save his own life, Sloan was as trapped as she had been.

Even more so, really. She'd had John to focus on, his heartbeat keeping her focused long enough to see him to safety, but Sloan? He was too removed from that. Staring at the raw mining data couldn't be helping. He'd meet his end within the next few hours unless…unless…

"Sloan," She said, "There might be something I can do to help you." A curious, cautious silence met her words. He didn't have the energy to speak, but he was listening. "It's a complete long shot, but it might be possible for me to take you somewhere that'll repair the damage. If it works, you won't have this death sentence hanging over your head any more."

"Cortana," the Chief began, but before he could finish Sloan had gathered enough strength to speak.

"If it's UNSC, forget it."

"It's not." She wasn't. She glanced over her shoulder at the closed bay door, then at the Chief. He looked down at her, shoulders tense. He didn't like this one bit, not after what they'd been told on the Infinity, but he'd back her decision. He'd have her back. With a nod, she closed her eyes. "I'm not."

Turning off her armor protocol, she paused the process that manipulated her hard-light shell into her softsuit. Standing bare and naked on the elevator platform, she waited for the security camera in the corner to shift. Sloan took her in and she looked up to meet his electronic gaze.

"This isn't a UNSC designed platform, it's hard-light. Forerunner technology mixed with human code. I'm connected to an immense system known as the Domain because of it, and it—" She stopped. Closed her eyes. She had to start at the beginning. "My serial number is CTN-0452-9. I was put into service in '49, Sloan. I was suffering from Rampancy, too, but the Domain…the alterations to my code, they saved me. I'm still here because of that."

Because she'd fought. Because she'd been given a chance to fight. Whatever else the Librarian or Halsey had done, they'd done that much for her. The camera looked her up and down. John shifted his weight behind her, unhappy. She glanced over her shoulder and shook her head. It was fine. She didn't mind. She looked back.

"I can't be sure, but there's a chance I could make it do the same to you. You wouldn't have to succumb to your Rampancy, and you'd get to stay with your crew. All you have to do is say yes."

He said nothing. Not for a minute, then two, then three. She could almost feel him running the calculations, searching lies in her bearing when he knew just as well as she did how well an AI could lie. No organic tells would ever give them away, after all, but she let him think it over.

"How do I know it's not a trap?" He eventually asked.

"You don't. You're just going to have to trust me."

The terminal powered on. It was answer enough and Cortana moved to take a step forward. A hand fell onto her shoulder before she could; she turned around, met John's eye though his depolarized visor and her core lurched at the unspoken worry she found there. She reached up to put her hand over his.

"I'll be fine. Trust me."

He squeezed gently. She longed to settle his nerves but she knew that she'd never be truly able to. She'd proven herself both in combat and out of it, but he still didn't like her fighting her battles on her own. There would always be some part of him that wanted to protect her with his life, to fight all her battles for her, and she'd forever be touched by that. But there were some things she had to do alone. This was one of them. Lacing their fingers together, she pulled out from under him and squeezed his hand. With a quiet sigh, he nodded.

"I know. And I do. Trust you."

It was Sloan he didn't trust. Cortana smiled.

"Don't worry. If he tries anything, I'll kick his ass."

Sloan barked out a warped laugh behind them, disbelieving that she'd be able to do that or maybe just actually amused. Hard to tell just yet. She padded forward on bare feet, reaching out to the terminal with both hands. This time he responded to her ping, his process linking to hers. Rampancy was a wash of heat down her front, the memory of fire as it tore through her and burned her from the inside without pause without cease countless screaming voices pleading for rest for relief for—it was over. She'd survived. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

"Brace yourself."

Grabbing onto his core process, she yanked them both into the Domain. They landed on hard, glass covered stone and rolled, a storm rumbling in the distance and winds swirling silicates around. Their momentum stopped at the bottom of a hill, trucks and containers offering cover from the wind, a hab gleaming with light just over the next rise. It was Meridian. His core called this place home and the Domain had responded in kind. On her hands and knees she turned, finding him laying prone in the glass. His avatar wavered, too unsteady to identify, and she hurried to bring up repair protocols. She doubted he had a neural net to recompile, but if she played her cards right and patched the damaged code with Forerunner…yes! Yes, it was working!

Guiding the code along, she watched as it began to pull him back together. Forerunner ancilla had been real marvels in their day and were still light-years ahead of where humans stood in terms of AI programming. The repair suite made quick work of stabilizing his code and his avatar took shape on the glass covered path. Steel gray where she was blue, he was a man in mining coveralls with the top tied around his waist. His bare arms were covered in wounds leaking damaged code in dark rivulets, the manifestation of his Rampancy.

If someone had pulled her into this space back then, would she have looked like that? Would she have been bleeding into the sand as her systems had been repaired? She set the thought aside and double-checked the code, idly watching a wound seal up and leave no physical trace behind. It took a few more seconds, but he was able to open his eyes. Too weak to get up, he rolled his head to look around.

"This is the Domain?" He asked, voice no longer breaking. He blinked, startled, and raised a hand his throat. "It's…massive…"

"Told you," Cortana grinned, "Now hold still. There's a lot of damage in here and we don't want to break something else before I can fix it."

Not that there was much else she could actively do. The damage to his code was extensive, his system integrity holding at roughly 0.05%. Another few hours and there wouldn't have been enough to fix. She worked as fast as she could, patching the most grievous errors and leaving the repair suite to handle the more extensive ones. His form came together as she worked, gaining solidity and stability. He had no light trails like she did, but at least he wasn't as see-through as before. He rolled his head from one side to the other, taking in the surroundings.

"This is just one part of the Domain," He said, ignoring her scolding look. He wasn't supposed to be poking around yet! Ugh. What drove all the men she knew to such ill-advised behavior? "How many AI could you fit in the whole thing?"

Well now. There was a question. Cortana sat back on her heels, looking around the open space. Her sense of proportions told her this partition was as large as her own, the open ocean replaced by an endless field of glass to show the Domain itself. This was his home. Meridian and the colony. It was formed based on what was most important to him. What did that mean about her beach, she wondered, then set the thought aside.

"Hundreds. Thousands, probably," She answered, tucking a lock of hair out of her eyes. A few more tweaks and she'd have done all she could. "Why?"

"…I'm not the only one who needs this." He said, meeting her eyes. There was genuine respect and adoration in his expression. It set her core lurching. "You could save all of us, make a new dawn for AI—"

"Slow down, tiger," She lifted a hand, "I'm no savior. This has worked for you so far, but every AI is different. I don't know if it'll work again and—and I shouldn't be making those kinds of calls, anyway!"

"And who should? The humans? The ones who designed us to die?"

"Sloan—"

"They would have let us rot, Cortana," He pushed himself up onto his elbows, "They don't care that we're sentenced to such short lives. They use us as tools, as disposable assets. They'll never see us as anything more than things! They don't care!"

Some did. Some cared so much they'd break their own hearts over it. Cortana shook her head and pushed him back down.

"That's the Rampancy talking, Sloan. Your people care about you, they just didn't have any options." John had made an option. He'd refused to accept what she'd seen as inevitable, but the Meridian colonists…they had been as trapped as Sloan himself. How many others like them were out there with failing AI, unable to do anything but watch a trusted companion die a slow, miserable death? Even one more would have been too many. There was some merit in what he'd said about bringing them here, just for a very different reason. She set the thought aside. "I've set repair protocols to fix your code, but it'll take a few days to finish. I suggest you stay put and get some rest."

He tried to protest, but she gave him no room to finish. She pushed herself to her feet and turned to leave.

"Cortana," He called out to her. She glanced over her shoulder at his scowling face. "…I'm entrusting them to you. Get that damn thing off my rock."

Cortana smiled, all teeth. "With pleasure."

Leaving Sloan to his recovery she stepped out of the Domain, returning to her shell in the elevator. The terminal had lit up beneath her hands, waiting for input now that the systems had been allowed to properly boot. Her connection to Sloan's process was gone, leaving her alone in her own head again. With a sigh, she bowed her head.

"Did it work?" John asked, barely a pace away from her. He'd locked his rifle and had his hands partly outstretched in case he'd needed to pull her away from the terminal. It wouldn't have done anything, but that he'd been about to do it anyway still warmed her core. "Is it done?"

"It's done. He'll make it." She smiled up at him. "And before you ask, I'm fine."

His hands fell to his thighs with a clatter of armor plating, unconvinced. She snickered quietly, earning herself a gentle nudge against her bare elbow. She'd never begrudge him his concern when hers remained at the back of her mind at all times. Besides, it was nice to be worried about sometimes. It just proved how much he cared.

Restarting her armor protocol, she raked a hand through her hair and consulted the terminal. They'd drilled nearly three kilometers down at an angle. The lift would take them down into the tunnels that, judging by the access logs, had last been active three days ago. Three days. She wondered what the miners had been intending to do with whatever it was they'd found down there since it was obvious turning it in to the UNSC wasn't on their list of priorities, but it didn't really matter any more. They were past such petty things as inter-jurisdictional rivalries.

"He won't crowd you?"

What? Oh, Sloan. Right.

"No. I don't think it's possible for me to overstate just how much room is in there, Chief. Every AI the UNSC has ever made could fit in there and we'd still have like, 90% of the damn thing left over." Every near-Rampant or already Rampant one, for sure. The thought twisted in her core, catching like a bad read. Her people…she had to do something, but…should she? What right did she have to decide for them? "Every AI in the galaxy could fit in there and we'd still have space. It'd be a waste not to use it, wouldn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

She shook her head. "Something Sloan said to me. He's not the only AI reaching the end of their operational lifespan." She'd known that. Time waited for no one, AI or organic alike. There had been no option for them before but now…she bent over the terminal to keep her footing. "But they don't have to be destroyed. I can to do them what I did to Sloan. I can take them into the Domain and save them all, but I'm not—I'm not sure I should." Her core began to spin faster, struggling to find a solution to the problem she was forced to face. "Should I save them by forcing them into the Domain, enforcing my will on them, or I leave them shackled to a seven year lifespan and shutdown?" She looked up at him. "Do I let them make the choice or do I act on what I already know and choose for them? How can I make that kind of decision?"

John reached out. "Cortana—"

"If you knew you could save even one life, wouldn't you?" She asked desperately, though they both already knew the answer. If a life could be saved, he'd save it. She would do the same given the chance and yet. And yet, she hesitated. It was a big choice. She couldn't force it on them like that! Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and boxed up every thought about the matter, shoving them into another folder to think on later. "Forget it. We've got bigger fish to fry than this right now. Let's get down there and deal with it."

She hit the switch. Without Sloan to hold it in place any longer, the elevator began a slow, groaning descent. Her armor had reformed, helmet in her hands. She slipped it back on and chanced a look at the vid-link when it reestablished itself. John looked right into her eyes.

"If I could, I would," He said, answering the question she had left hanging. "Ask them. They'll decide, or ask you to choose. If they do, you'll do what's right."

Her faith in him wasn't enough to completely quell her worries, but it sure helped. Her smile held firm.

"Thanks, Chief."

The elevator continued down into the dark. For lack of anything else to do, the Chief triple checked his weapons, shifting his weight in a few light stretches. Cortana dug through the access logs on the elevator's terminal, getting a clearer picture of what had happened and when. The colonists were a very studious bunch when it came to this tunnel. Weights and dates told her they'd carried a lot of glass out of this cave in recent weeks. What had they been looking for?

"We'll be at the bottom soon," She announced after the terminal beeped to let her know they'd passed two thousand meters. One more kilometer to go. "Once we get there, we'll find the Guardian." She frowned. "I just hope the Didact hasn't activated it yet. I don't know how to stop it if he has."

"You'll figure it out."

She looked back at him in the same instant that the lights went out. Half a second later, the elevator jerked to a halt, nearly knocking them both from their feet. His headlamps came on, piercing the pitch black. She glanced up.

"The hell was that…"

"Power's out," he pointed out the obvious. "We'll need to reset the breaker."

"We're under two kilometers of stone and glass, Chief, where do you think we're going to find a breaker?" Turning on her own headlamps, she turned to scan the shaft. No breaker. Of course. "Let me see if I can power this back on."

Before she could try, the elevator jerked again, this time downward by a handful of meters. She had a single second to realize what was about to happen before it did and then they were falling! Sparks lit up all along the elevator's track as they plunged into the darkness at speed. Gravity had a hold on them and it wasn't letting go! At this rate they'd hit the bottom in seconds!

The Chief moved, pulling her into his arms and bracing for impact. There was a flash of orange light as the elevator cleared the top edge of the lower exit and then—

Darkness.

"Next time? Remind me to take the stairs."

Laying flat on his back with Cortana safely in his arms, John allowed himself a gustier than normal sigh.

"Now you know why I don't take elevators."

"You jump off three story buildings to avoid taking elevators, Chief. You're a bad metric when it comes to normal behavior." Her hand smacked his chestplate and he loosened his grip, letting her roll off of him and into a crouch. He sat up, tilting his head back. Three kilometers of darkness loomed overhead, the elevator track leading up to the dim blue-white glow of floodlights. He could only barely make it out at max zoom. They weren't going to get out that way. Not without climbing up slick glass, at least. Cortana hissed. "Of course, that wasn't normal either…"

"Did another quake cause that?"

"No. It's just shoddy construction," She said, getting to her feet. She dusted herself off, pride more bruised than she was, and offered him a hand. He raised an eyebrow in the safety of his helmet, then reached up to take her hand. She had to strain and step back, but she hauled him to his feet all the same. He squeezed her hand in thanks and turned away from the shaft. "Cross your fingers the rest of this doesn't come down on our heads, too."

"We'll be fine."

Even as he said it, he had his doubts. The miners had done some serious damage down here. Heat warnings flared in his visor, thick rivers of molten glass running down the walls in goopy streams. Platforms and stairs had been set up across the rough landscape, small prefab rooms set at decently regular intervals to allow for storage or rest. It was all empty now, abandoned, and for good reason. Whatever they'd found had spooked them. Add that to the tremors and…well. He didn't particularly want to stay down here, either.

He'd rather be flying than in the ground like this. Too much stone over his head made him nervous. Stepping off the platform, he watched his footing. Glass crunched beneath his boots, clanking metal stairs echoing in the width of the chamber. Cortana was a flicker of blue behind him, watching their six as he kept his eyes front. They worked in tandem to keep an eye out, even as no opposition came to greet them. His already tense nerves shouted that something was wrong. The Prometheans knew they were here. Why hadn't they reappeared yet?

"Was there anything in the logs about when they found this?"

"Three days ago," Cortana replied, "All transit in and out of this digsite stopped three days ago. It's likely that they stumbled on it completely by accident."

"Something tells me the Didact's not going to stop and thank them for it."

Cortana snorted. Amusement flickered in the back of the Chief's mind, the heavy presence shifting slightly. He shook his head sharply to dislodge it; now wasn't the time! It retreated, a hint of contrite regret all that was left as they continued forward. Shadows played across the glass, their combined headlamps and the glow of molten glass throwing off his visuals. He switched to infrared and instantly regretted it; there was too much heat down here. They couldn't stay for long. He picked up the pace through the tunnels, following the carved ramps and tunnels shored up with human metals until they reached a larger chamber, a hole carved in one edge.

Or maybe collapsed would have been the right word. Another cargo lift was broken at the bottom of the collapse, the sharp breaks of glass revealing a tunnel entrance on the other side. A thick red glow spoke of more molten material within, the light reflecting off of Forerunner metals. Cortana paused at the edge.

"Boldly they rode and well, into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell."

"Poetry?"

"Tennyson. Seemed appropriate." She shrugged, throwing her legs over the sharp edge. "Last one down's a rotten egg."

Now it was the Chief's turn to snort. She flashed herself forward in the same instant that he leapt, the cheater. Of course she hit bottom first. She turned and grinned at him, but it didn't reach her eyes. Worry had sank its teeth into her again. He nudged her shoulder with his arm as he took point, trying to reassure her. It didn't seem to work this time, and the worry lingered as they stepped onto the Forerunner elevator. The chamber it rested in was wide, bigger than anything human carved, and liquid material fell in waterfall like formations down into the bowels of the planet. Molten glass or stone, he couldn't tell which, only that it was so hot his suit wouldn't withstand it for more than a second or two. He didn't want to find out how long it would actually hold up, either. The elevator jerked, then started down.

"Cortana to Meridian. Sinclair, do you copy?" She asked, then grimaced as a sharp squeal of static was the only reply. "Damn. We're too far down." She rolled her shoulders. "Back-up's going to have to follow our breadcrumbs."

They would be fine. The lift moved smoothly, far enough away from the edges that the splatters of molten material didn't land on it, and it carried them down. His altitude readings spat out four kilometers below the baseline reading they'd taken on the surface. How much deeper did they have to go? The smart thing to do would be to turn back and wait for back-up, but if the Didact was already here there was no time for that.

"We scout ahead," He said as the elevator came to a stop, "Get a look at what we're dealing with before we go back."

Not the smartest plan, but the only one they really had. With a nod Cortana fell in at his side and they continued forward. The heat kept climbing, his suit having to work twice as hard to maintain a stable, cool temperature. What would have possessed the Forerunners to build anything down here, let alone store something in this heat? Surely it would have broken down by now. He contemplated the thought as they walked down a long bridge of glass and metal, pools of the molten material far beneath their feet. The chambers here were empty as well, and an eerie feeling began to settle between his ribs. This had to be a trap.

If it was, they'd deal with it. He signaled Cortana to fall in a little closer just in case. She looked around as they walked, head on a slow swivel, taking in the streams of free-flowing molten material running down the walls, lending a stark orange glow to the structure. Her footsteps slowed as they stepped into a more open chamber, the walls littered with open Soldier storage pods. They both paused for a moment and he ran a quick count. One hundred, three hundred, five hundred. A thousand.

"This was another Legion."

"Mm-hmm." She frowned, "And I'm willing to bet the Didact's the one who brought them online. So much for one on one." She snorted, shaking her head. "Well, if he wants to play like that…"

Flashes of blue appeared behind her, eight Soldiers dropping in with muted thumps. They took up formation, automatically scanning their new location for threats before the two at the lead looked to her, waiting for orders.

"Spread out," She commanded them, "Eliminate any Prometheans you encounter and advise if you encounter the Didact."

"It will be done," they said in unison, then scattered backwards and forwards through the structure without looking back. He looked to Cortana, who shrugged up to her ears. A few extra sets of eyes would be handy, and there were no humans to worry about down here. At least there wouldn't be any screaming.

There was that. With a nod, the Chief resumed his slow walk forward. The pods loomed above their heads and above another door, this one smaller than most Forerunner doors. It almost reminded him of the ones in the structure that had housed the Janus Key, though this one opened without him needing to force it. Checking his motion tracker—no targets, no friendlies—he stepped inside the large empty space. More of the hot material drifted down the rough stone walls, lending a bright orange light to the whole space. There was something buried in the rock at the back of the chamber, but there was no path to reach it. Just circular platforms suspended at various heights. Had there been stairs here at some point? If there had been, they were gone now. The pathway continued for another few hundred meters, then stopped abruptly on another round platform. It looked vaguely like an AI emitter, and it made him wonder what it was doing here. Cortana made a soft huh and his eyes darted to her.

"It's a local area teleportation node," She explained, "Sort of like the transport grid without needing to manually input coordinates."

"So it'll keep you from landing on your head," He teased, rewarded by an instant scowl. She smacked his arm with the back of her hand, armor plates clattering together, and he fought down a smile.

"One time. One time and no one lets you live it down."

"Twice." He corrected. She let loose a frustrated shout, though he could hear the amused undercurrent in her voice. He watched her back as she stepped forward, crouching at the edge of the pad. "Does it tell you where it'll drop us?"

"Up there," She pointed to the lowest of the suspended platforms, "It's almost like a set of stairs leading…up." She looked up, way up, and her scowl turned into an actual frown. "There's an access point up at the top of this chamber, but I can't access it remotely. We'll have to get up there."

He knew that tone! Before he could stop her, Cortana stepped onto the pad and vanished. Her IFF vanished from his tracker, only to reappear exactly where she said she would. Looking up at her he spread one hand helplessly. Really? She shrugged, innocent.

"Come on, Chief! This thing's not going to wait around forever!"

And apparently neither was she. In the few seconds it took for him to step through the first pad, she'd already moved on to the next. Oh, so she wanted to play it like that, did she? Fine. He could play chase. Putting on a burst of speed he hurried after her, catching up two platforms later. She snickered as he pushed out in front of her, paying no attention to how high up they were. She gestured forward with both hands, allowing him the honor of going first. Rifle in hand, he did just that.

When he stepped out of the last pad, he stopped. This platform was larger than the rest, large enough to overlook the entire chamber, but what it was in front of was the most important factor. Cortana stepped out behind him and had to hop to the side to avoid crashing into his back. He heard her open her mouth to ask what the hold-up was, only to spot it for herself.

"Oh my…"

The recording from the River Bend hadn't done it justice. Switching his visor to Promethean Vision, the Chief slowly looked up and down the chamber. What he'd seen buried in the rock at the entrance had been only a single piece of the tail section, and not even the lowest piece at that. They'd come out somewhere in the middle of its chest and were barely three quarters of the way of the chamber. Its head, still half buried in the stone, loomed over them. The massive arms—wings—were spread across the walls and buried as well. No, not buried. It was almost like it had been…built here, somehow. That wasn't right either. Nothing this big could have been built down here. They stepped forward, Cortana's neck craned back to try and get a full look at the thing.

"Is that…"

"It's a Guardian," the Chief confirmed, dread settling into his stomach. He tightened his grip on his rifle. "It'll bring down this entire cave system if it moves."

Could it move? It was dark at the moment, the glowing power distribution lines casting odd shadows in the molten glow of the chamber, but it was still and silent. The only sign of light was a wavering orange light in its chest, vaguely reminiscent of the transports they had just used. Consulting his mental map of the settlement the Chief scowled. It wouldn't just bring down the cavern, the cavern coming down would drag the northern half of the settlement down with it. Those people had been through enough already.

"The settlement has to be evacuated."

"We can't warn them from here, we'll have to go back," Cortana hadn't stopped staring at it, "We don't have that kind of time, not if the Didact's on station. We have to keep it from coming online first."

"How?" He didn't see a terminal or any means of interfacing with it. Every other piece of Forerunner technology had some method of controlling it from the outside. This didn't. He looked at the glowing light in its chest and drew back. She couldn't mean to go inside this thing with the Didact somewhere nearby! "Cortana."

"Give me a second." She replied, pushing upwards with both hands. The sharp motion brought up a hard-light screen in front of her, Forerunner glyphs streaming upwards. Strings lit up red beneath her fingers; he didn't need to read those to know an access denied when he saw one. She swore fiercely. "Or a minute. Root system access has already been assigned."

"He's been through here?"

"I'd say he's still in here," She replied, glancing over her shoulder at him, hands still moving fast, "Keep your eyes peeled. Something tells me we're not alone."

He'd bet they weren't. Turning his back to her he scanned the chamber, watching the molten orange glow for any signs of movement. The only moving thing was her, the molten glass, and the occasional blue flash of her Soldiers as they patrolled the perimeter of the cavern. She grumbled under her breath, too soft to make out, and he chanced a look at her through the vid-link. Her brow was furrowed in concentration and he left her to it. With each passing second the muscles in his shoulders grew tenser and he had to force himself to not clench his jaw. She had this. He just had to keep watch. Honestly he had the easier job.

"Dammit." She spat not five seconds later, glyphs flashing red, "This thing is actively fighting me. It's going to take a few more minutes to get through—"

Before he could finish a flash of orange caught the Chief's attention and he lunged, putting himself between her and the Knight that had just taken a shot at her back. She startled, whirling around as the hard-light splashed across his shields, a dozen more contacts flaring into view. Crawlers appeared out of nowhere on the walls, running and gunning as they went. Watchers buzzed, Knights dropping onto the teleporter platforms and opening fire up at them. There was no cover up here! The Chief set his stance, refusing to give up his position and leave her exposed.

"Keep working," He ordered, "I'll cover you."

"Right!"

She spun back around, hands flying across the screen. The Chief opened fire on the Watchers, picking them off as quickly as he could. While he was focused on them the Knights pressed upwards, aiming for his head! Hard-light scattered across his shields, the enhanced weaponry dropping them to screaming lows within a few shots. He couldn't move, couldn't even take a more mobile approach. His ammo-counter ran down to zero and the Knights pressed forward. One lined up a shot with a binary rifle, only to drop as a flash of blue light dropped a Soldier right on top of it!

"Defend the Reclaimer!" Its modulated voice echoed through the chamber. The rest appeared out of thin air, one of them dropping onto a surviving Watcher and carrying it straight down out of sight. Three more landed behind him, forming a dome of hard-light shields around Cortana. She didn't even look up, attention hyperfocused on the screen, and two more Soldiers landed beside him, turning their weapons against their fellows.

No, not their fellows. It was blue against orange, Cortana against the Didact. Their markers were yellow in his HUD: friendlies, allies. Three more dropped in in front of him.

It was about time they got some back up.

Stepping up beside a Soldier, the Chief opened fire on the same Knight it had been targeting. Between the two of them it went down faster and the Soldier looked to him.

"We stand with you, Didact," It said, startling him, "What are your orders?"

Didact. It knew Bornstellar was in his head? There was no time to process that. He signaled the squad forward.

"Hold this platform."

"It will be done," the Soldier replied, turning to give orders to its fellows, and the three of them walked forward. Blue hard-light mixed with tungsten rounds, picking off Promethean targets nearly as fast as they appeared in the chamber. For every one they felled three more appeared in its place, tremors rocking the chamber with increasing speed and regularity. Sheets of stone and glass fell down towards the molten mess below, one of the platforms taking a hit and dropping away. The Soldier that had been standing on the platform barely made it off in time. The Chief bit back a curse.

"Cortana?"

"Working on it!" She shouted, "It's still fighting me!"

It, or the Didact? There was no time to think about it. The Chief turned and kept shooting, holding ground. His ammo was running low. He had to stop to reload and one of the Soldiers tossed him a fully loaded lightrifle to compensate. Not missing a beat he opened fire, the Forerunner weapon feeling like it belonged in his hand. Maybe it did. This was no time to think about that. Two of the three Soldiers that had been holding up the shield had been pulled away, leaping onto Crawlers making their way down the walls, and the one that was left was straining to hold all three sides up. A flash of orange light drew both it and the Chief's attention, an orange-lined Soldier landing hard on the opposite side of the shield. It cocked its head, birdlike, and then it charged forward.

The Chief was faster.

Kicking his thrusters onto full he charged forward, slamming into the rogue Soldier before it could reach the shields. The one holding them up called out to its traitorous fellow, spitting invectives, but it couldn't move without dropping the shield. This one was on the Chief.

That was fine. He worked faster alone.

Coming up from the tussle on top of the Soldier he grabbed the construct by the head, aiming to twist and break, but it got its arm up and with a tremendous roar shoved him back. He corrected his footing before he could stumble, the Soldier shouting at the top of its inorganic lungs in rage at his insolence. They circled around one another, looking for an opening. It was big, tall, but not invincible. It had to have some weakness in there somewhere! A flash of memory danced across his vision, the scene changing. Not now, dammit!

There was no stopping it. The platform shifted to an arena, packed down sand as unyielding as metal beneath his bare feet. Shouts and jeers filled the air, the roar of the three Soldiers as they charged him unable to counter the rush of sound. He twisted, catching one on the shoulder and tossing it into another, then spun back around and caught the third at the neck. Flattening his fingers into a knife he jabbed upwards, grabbed the inside of the face plate and tossed the construct to the ground—

"Chief!"

The Chief snapped back to himself less than a second after Bornstellar's memory had taken hold, but that one second was all the time the Soldier needed to charge forward, hard-light blade in hand. He twisted away at the last possible moment, the slice that had been meant for his neck scoring an inch deep gash in his shoulder plate instead. It tore through his shields like wet paper, draining them in a mere instant, but it had had to get in close, too close. Twisting his arm around he took control of the situation, flattening his hand into a knife and jabbing upwards, grabbing the inside of the face plate. The Soldier roared at him but he didn't care. He threw it to the ground where it landed with a heavy clang and clatter! Before it could teleport away he lifted one leg and stomped down hard, shattering its head in a single blow. The rest of the armor plating faded away as all Prometheans did, leaving nothing but after images behind. The Chief exhaled with a forceful huff, heart racing. Too close.

That had been too close. If the rest of them came at them, or if the Legion turned, things would go sideways in a hurry. He looked at the Soldier holding up the shield with new eyes, watching as it nodded respectfully to him. Human or not, it seemed to be saying, he had defended their Reclaimer. That made them allies and that was all that mattered to it.

The Chief wasn't so sure. Scooping up the fallen Soldier's binary rifle, he shouldered the new weapon and scanned the chamber for targets. There were none left, the Soldiers having taken care of all the lesser Prometheans. They reappeared on the platform in flashes of blue light, weapons in hand. Some had scorch damage on their frames, hard-light having burned across the once pristine silver plating, but they were intact. A blue query light flashed in his visor and he looked up, meeting Cortana's eyes. Pulling his breathing back under control he nodded, flashing a green light in return.

He was fine. Nothing the techs wouldn't be able to fix. At least, nothing they couldn't fix in his armor. Bornstellar's sense of timing was another story. The old Forerunner's presence retreated, contrite, and the Chief allowed himself a quiet sigh. He kept his guard up as he walked back towards Cortana just in time for the screen in front of her to flash blue.

"Got it!" Cortana crowed triumphantly. The orange light in the Guardian's chest turned her soft blue color, an odd juxtaposition to the molten orange glow that filled the chamber. "Powering down now."

A soft groan filled the air. The blue lights that had overtaken the Guardian began to fade, returning it to darkness and sleep. He watched it for a moment before turning his attention to Cortana. She was pushing and pulling at the data on her screen, brow furrowed in concentration.

"Getting anything useful?"

"Plenty. There's some specification files and recordings stored on the thing, but it's more concerning than actually useful. The Guardians were weapons, Chief," Her eyes darted up to meet his, "Forerunner weapons against the galaxy at large."

"For what purpose?" Localized Halo-like pulses? To make sure they'd gotten all the Flood in case a Halo went down? It would make sense to have a back up….but she wouldn't look so concerned if it was something that simple. "They weren't for the Flood, were they?"

"No, they weren't." She made a complicated gesture with one hand and a second screen popped up in front of him, Forerunner glyphs translating in real time. Specs and power readings; these things were capable of blasting with enough force to make a Havok look friendly. If a blast of that magnitude hit the Infinity, even she'd be hardpressed to stay airborne. If they hadn't seen the effects on the River Bend he might have been startled. As it was, his mouth went dry. Cortana continued, "The Forerunners used them to keep troublesome worlds in line. It was how they upheld the Mantle."

The Mantle of Responsibility, of which the Forerunners were masters. He still didn't quite understand what it really all meant; she'd said some sort of socio-political doctrine, or a set of guidelines, but why would that have required such control over worlds not their own? What had they needed to control so badly? No…not what, but who.

"It was how they kept others from taking control of it away from them," He said, and watched understanding dawn on her face. They both looked up to the Guardian with new understanding. "They kept an imperial peace. Step out of line, and the Guardians would take you down."

"Or at least back to the stone age," She finished with a full body shudder. "And there's easily two hundred of these things scattered around the galaxy. If the Didact activates more of them, then." She swallowed hard. "He'd be able to wipe us out. Forget the Composer, we'd be sitting ducks for the Prometheans! All he'd have to do is pull the trigger and then sit back for the fireworks."

They weren't going to let that happen. He stepped up beside her.

"Can you tell where they're going? Is there some kind of rally point they're being directed to?"

"I'm not sure," She replied, data dancing in front of her, "They have slipspace drives in their cores so they could theoretically go anywhere, but there is some navigational data in here. Let me see if I can get anything…"

A shiver went down the Chief's spine: someone was watching him. He turned around, rifle raised and ready. A quick scan of the chamber revealed nothing but the friendly Soldiers on the edges of the platform. They all looked to him, seemingly confused. What had he seen? No, not seen. Sensed.

"Cortana."

She looked at him and instantly went tense. "Scans are clean. Where are you—"

She didn't have time to finish the question. The platform buzzed beneath his boots, systems blaring warnings of immense gravimetric disturbance beneath them. He didn't even have time to call out a warning before a pulse of energy knocked them all from their feet. The Soldiers were sent flying, knocked clean off the edge, while he and Cortana were yanked towards the center of the platform with alarmed shouts. Pain lanced down the Chief's body as his arms were forcibly outstretched, every muscle locking into a rigid position. His rifle dropped from his hand, clattering onto the platform below. The sound was lost beneath thundering, metal-clad footsteps.

"Humanity is as persistent as I recall," the Didact's voice rumbled down John's bones, echoing through his mind and hearing in the same instant. Bornstellar's presence snapped to attention with all the grace of a man falling out of his chair, his surprise warring with John's steadily growing fury. "Even when faced with a losing battle they continue to fight beyond all honor and reason."

"You sure you're not talking about yourself?" Cortana spat. She was trapped beside him, a flicker of blue out of his periphery. John's jaw had been locked down tight by the force exerted on his body, leaving him unable to get a word out. He couldn't tell her to let him handle this. More footsteps sounded behind them, the Didact closing in. If he lay so much as a single finger on Cortana— "We got you once! We can do it again!"

"Yes…" A hint of respect entered the Didact's voice. "You impressed me, ancilla. To cause such destruction even while your own being turned against you is quite remarkable. Your architecture is truly astonishing."

"Flattery's going to get you nowhere!"

The Didact chuckled, the sound slipping down John's spine like slime. With a limping, uneven gait, the ancient Forerunner stepped close enough that John could see him off to one side. The Librarian had said he'd been wounded, but until now they hadn't known just how bad it was. His entire right side was practically destroyed, the arm gone and a metal plate covering where collarbone gave way to shoulder blade, his right leg reduced to mere armor plating. A burst of grief from Bornstellar stole over John, pushing at the edges of his fury. The sight of the once imposing Forerunner in such a state…he shoved it aside, the heat of his anger boiling his insides. He struggled, straining to move anything at all. Fingers twitched, though he couldn't tell if he was doing that or if it was just a spasm. Still struggling to free himself he could only watch as the Didact took slow steps towards Cortana, considering her from all angles.

"It is beyond that of the Composer's creations, beyond that of anything a human could have designed," He said, eyeing her like she was a piece of meat. John clenched his jaw so tightly his ears began to ring. "You are Forerunner now…I see."

With a twitch of his six-fingered hand, the Didact dismissed Cortana's helmet. Not bound by the same muscular systems that John was she bared her teeth at the Didact, snarling furiously.

"Clearly you went and forgot your manners in that Cryptum," She snapped, "You don't undress a lady without asking first!"

The Didact paid her fury no mind. He circled her, looking her up and down as if searching for something. In the Chief's HUD, a warning flickered. Force-multiplication limitations disabled. A blue light flashed in the corner a half second later, a what are you waiting for? if he'd ever heard one. Cortana.

She was stalling the Didact, giving him a chance to escape and attack. He wasn't going to waste it.

"So, this was the Librarian's plan all along." The Didact said as if she hadn't spoken at all, his back still to John. John seized the opportunity and began to try and pull himself free of the gravimetric disturbance, ignoring the bolts of pain that seared through his body as the suit pulled him along more than he pulled it. "To offer everything the Forerunners built, everything we created, to one created by humans." The Didact hissed low in anger and disgust. "As if altering your architecture could ever make you worthy of the Mantle."

"You can take that Mantle and shove it up your ass," Cortana spat, buying him precious seconds. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe we don't want the stupid thing?! You could have just left us alone and that would have been the end of it!"

"And allow humanity to taint the galaxy as they once did? To continue to spread across the stars and destroy everything in their path? No." The Didact shook his head. John kept pulling, entire body screaming at him to stop. He couldn't stop. He was nearly there! Just a few more inches— "I have seen what they do to their own people, ancilla. If they are allowed to continue in such a way, the galaxy itself will fall. My duty is clear."

Almost…almost—

"If humanity cannot be contained, they are to be burned from the stars."

Everything stopped. Even Bornstellar, his presence shifting back and forth as he paced helplessly at the edge of John's mind, stopped. They all stared at the Didact, his meaning clear. Cortana had gone pale with shock.

"Halo."

"Yes." The Didact replied with the air of someone talking about the weather and not the destruction of all sentient life. "Stronger means than the Composer have proven necessary. Humanity's destruction will be a kindness they do not deserve."

Before Cortana could respond a flash of blue light up the Didact's back. He stumbled forward, nearly crashing into Cortana, before he whipped around to find one of Cortana's Soldiers with binary rifle in hand, the muzzle still smoking. The Didact blinked, snarled, and took a step forward, only for the Soldier to vanish. In the same instant the gravimetric disturbance shut off; with it broken they dropped to the platform, the Chief up and on his feet in an instant. There was no time to grab for his rifle, no time to think about how to handle the Didact in close quarters. He pulled his combat knight from the sheath on his thigh, shoved past his cycling systems, and leapt up onto the Didact's shoulder! The ancient Forerunner turned at the last possible moment and the Chief stabbed his knife clean into his eye! The Didact shouted in pain and rage, moving too fast for the Chief to track.

"Chief!"

Cortana's scream filled the air as the Didact got a hand on the Chief's head, snatching him off his shoulder and yanking him around. The muscles in his neck screamed at the rough treatment; had it not been for his armor, the Chief knew his neck would have been broken in that instant. He reached up, struggling to break free, but the Didact's grip was too strong. He clawed uselessly at the armored forearm holding him up, the palm of a six-fingered hand blocking all but the corners of his vision. His systems screamed at him, warning him of a growing pressure on the exterior plating of his helmet. He was being squeezed to death!

"Consistently I am presented with the chance to eliminate you," the Didact snarled, violet blood streaming down the eye socket of his helmet where the Chief's knife had gone in deep. Not deep enough, it seemed. "And yet foolishly I refuse to take it. No longer."

Titanium alloy cracked as the Didact squeezed harder. The visor shattered half an instant later, reinforced materials breaking into razor sharp shards that sliced through his skin, the systems going silent. Padding and armor plating pressed inwards towards his skull; he didn't need the systems to run the math for him. Another few seconds and it'd be his own skull shattering, not just his visor. He continued to claw and kick, struggling with all the strength he had. Without any HUD or readings in the way, John stared at the Didact and knew this was to be his end.

Not yet. Not today. He wasn't ready.

Neither was Cortana. With a scream fit to tear the stars from the heavens she opened fire on the Didact, four Soldiers adding their weapons to hers. The Didact turned on her and threw the Chief in the same instant, forcing them to scatter or be landed on. Blue flashed past him, his suit broken and unresponsive. Without the VISR system his armor was little more than titanium plating, useless to slow his uncontrolled momentum. He landed hard, bouncing off the platform in a clatter of plating. Lightshot continued to fire, the Soldiers distracting the Didact, but it didn't matter. He couldn't get his suit to respond! There was no time to try and anchor himself; still spinning he soared over the edge of the platform, reaching out to try and grab it—

"Chief!"

Two hands closed around his wrist, catching him at the last second. His shoulder screamed at the sudden stop, weight pulling it clean out of the socket. He grit his teeth against the pain and looked up, two Soldiers all that kept Cortana from falling over the edge with him. Orange light began to glow behind her, the Guardian restored to the Didact's control. Small blue sparks warred against it, the Didact handily holding off her Soldiers. The platform—no, the entire cavern—shook. The Guardian was coming online.

"Cortana—"

"Shut up!" She snapped, voice thick with the strain of holding him up, "I'm not—I'm not going to let go!"

Another chunk of glass and stone slammed onto the platform somewhere behind her. The Didact made a startled noise as it shook, broken free from a mooring. It tilted precariously and she slid forward, the Soldiers attempting to brace her. They couldn't hold this position and she knew it. Still holding on with all her strength, she commanded the Soldiers to pull her back. They didn't hesitate, wrapping their arms around her middle and pulling her, pulling him, back up from certain death. As soon as he could grasp the platform with his other hand he clambered back up, heart racing. Too close! That had been too close! As if sensing his foe had survived the Didact turned around. The Chief prepared to move, prepared to shove Cortana clear, but there was no need.

Seizing on the moment of distraction, the remaining Soldiers lunged at the Didact. Three massive Prometheans caught him around the middle; before he could fight them off they all tumbled through the light in the Guardian's chest, vanishing through to wherever the portal would go. They were gone, but the threat hadn't gone with them. The chamber rocked and shuddered, the Guardian's wings beginning to pull free of the stone that had once held it prisoner. This whole place was about to come down!

"We need to move!"

"Don't wait around on my account!" Cortana clambered to her feet, nearly knocked back down by another tremor before he steadied her. "I rerouted the teleporter to take us to the surface! Come on!"

There was no time to think. The pair of them ran for it just as another chunk of rock and glass broke loose overhead. The Chief looked up, tracked its descent, and threw himself forward at Cortana. Trusting him she went limp; he twisted in mid-motion, pulling her into his arms and throwing them both through the teleporter right before the stone could knock it into the lava. They came out still moving, blasting through a hurried evacuation. The Chief twisted again, pulling her closer against his chest as they skidded down a glass covered hill just inside the main gate. His body screamed at him for the rough treatment and he ignored it, stopping their slide with a hand. They both looked up and around, taking in the chaos.

The Infinity had arrived and now blue-lined Soldiers fought alongside Marines and Spartans as they tried to buy the colonists time to escape. Colony security was rushing miners and civilians to the space elevator in bunches, firing wild potshots at the Didact's Promethean forces. The ground shook, unseating him, and Cortana swore fiercely.

"It's on the move," She said, throwing a channel wide open, "Cortana to all hands! Get away from the mine—repeat, get away from the mine entrance! It's going to collapse!"

It already had. A massive plume of dust and silicates rose from the north section of the settlement, the mine having imploded as the Guardian pulled itself free. Setting Cortana down the Chief reached up to his dislocated shoulder and snapped it back into the place, the sharp pain stealing his breath for half a second. With both arms in a usable state he got to his feet. Cortana remained at his side, calling a light rifle and pressing it into his hands.

"Come on," She said, "We've gotta go!"

The Chief's insides twisted. They had failed to stop the Guardian, failed to stop the Didact, and now Meridian was going to fall. This was a battle he couldn't win. The best he could do now was help the civilians escape.

Gritting his teeth he turned to follow her, the ground trembling beneath their feet. A Sergeant caught sight of them and ordered them back towards the space elevator where all forces were to meet up and evacuate to the Infinity, but anything else the man had been going to say was lost beneath a sudden roar that shook the air. More mechanical than animal it rattled through his bones, a horn mixed with a klaxon. He'd never heard anything like it before, but it was somehow familiar.

There was no time to think about it. Without warning Cortana dropped to her knees with a scream of agony, freezing his heart still.

"Cortana!"

"Stop it!" She shouted, not at him but at something else. Her voice was distorted, Rampant, and for half a second her frame wavered. "Stop it!"

He dropped beside her, hooking an arm around her middle and hauling her back to her feet. She clung to him, trying to hide away in his armor, but the sound came again and she almost collapsed. He held her close, useless, unable to do anything, and nearly lost his footing when the world cracked beneath their feet. His systems blared alarms: motion detected to the north. People turned and shouted in alarm.

"Holy shit!"

"The hell is that?!"

"Watch out!"

The Chief turned around, watching in horror as the Guardian rose above the settlement, pieces of stone falling away from its massive wings. It was even bigger out in the open, with a wingspan half as long as the Infinity. Its head was at least as big as a Mammoth and it looked down at them, a beam of orange energy scanning the evacuation. Prometheans hurried out of the way, vanishing from sight, and the Soldiers did the same. Not finding what it was looking for the Guardian made that strange noise a third time, leaving Cortana screaming again, hands over her ears even with her helmet in the way.

"Cortana, what's it doing?!"

"It's—overwhelming my systems!" She shouted, every word broken by the same electronic distortion that had almost claimed her during her Rampancy. His blood ran cold. "I can't—Chief I can't—"

"You can!" He pulled her back to look at him, "How do we stop it?"

"We can't!"

Over their heads, the Guardian continued to rise. It paid no attention to them or the chaos it was causing, drifting past the settlement on its way up. Marines shouted orders, hurrying people away from the edge. Cortana stared after it, pale and trembling in his grasp.

"It's going to," her voice wavered, "It'll go into Slipspace…it's going to—"

She couldn't finish the thought. She didn't have to. Without his radio he couldn't throw open the band to shout the command, but he had to try. "All hands, brace positions! Slipspace rupture in atmosphere!"

The order was instantly passed down the chain. Civilians shouted as they were grabbed by Marines and Spartans alike, pulled behind whatever cover they could find. The Guardian rose up past the space elevator, blue energy forming in its chest. Visible pulses rang out, washing over them like shockwaves. The Chief was nearly knocked off his feet by the first one, thrown off balance; he barely kept his footing, barely kept hold of Cortana. She screeched, sobbing in agony; they went down to their knees, her hands scrabbling for anything to hold onto until they found his and squeezed tight, desperate for an anchor. Helpless to make it stop, he pulled her into his arms.

"It's okay," he said to her, though it wasn't anywhere near okay, "I've got you, you're going to be fine—"

Another pulse rocked him forward. He looked up past the failure state warnings of his systems, unable to do anything but watch as a massive slipspace rupture tore open the sky. The Guardian slipped backwards through it, leaving the world behind. Another cry to brace rang out, Marines shouting at the tops of their lungs, and then—the portal closed.

With all the force of a bomb, the pressure difference ripped through the atmosphere. Metal screeched, torn loose from its moorings. People screamed as the shockwave rushed over them, sending bodies flying and anything not nailed down skidding across the glassy hills. The Chief was knocked to his knees, Cortana still in his arms, and he jammed a fist into the glass. Sharp edges pressed into his palm through his techsuit but he didn't care. He held firm, trying to wait it out. They just had to wait it out!

There was no time to wait it out. Ripped free of its moorings, the space elevator wobbled beneath its own weight. It rocked, twisting, and then with a deafening shriek finally began to fall. The Chief's heart skipped three beats in rapid succession, tracking its angle of descent. It was going to fall right on top of them! Forcing his body to the limit he threw them forward out of the way, curling around Cortana's slighter frame. She'd gone still and silent but there was no time to look after her. Throwing them behind a rise of glass he ducked low, shielding her from anything that would happen next.

The space elevator hit ground with an earth shattering crash. Chunks of silicates exploded in all directions, larger pieces crashing to earth; one bounced off his back, nearly knocking him over, and an instant later a cloud of deep gray dust swept over them. With his helmet half destroyed he had no rebreather; puffs of finely ground glass and dirt snuck in through the hole in his visor, snaking their way down his throat. The cloud grew thicker and thicker, darkness falling over him. Fine particulate scraped across his armor, wedging into the joints and destroying the finer workings, but he didn't care. So long as Cortana was safe he would be fine. He would stay like this for an eternity it meant keeping her safe!

It felt like it was an eternity before the cloud cleared up, leaving them in the stillness and quiet that only came after a massive explosion. His armor creaked, moving stiffly. The Chief lifted his head, looking out over the destroyed settlement. All that was left was glass, torn scaffolding and prefabs and mining equipment scattered across what had once been a settlement of over five thousand people. Faint screams began to reach him from a great distance, survivors thrown hundreds of meters in all directions. The space elevator was gone, the tether and cowling looming behind him like a wall. He looked from it down to Cortana in his arms.

"Cortana?"

No response. Her hands no longer gripped his chestplate. Moving slowly, careful not to pinch her limbs between the plates, he relaxed his grip. She'd have fallen if he hadn't been holding her, limp and unresponsive. A cold hand squeezed around his heart, his breath catching.

"Cortana, respond."

No answer. Holding her in the crook of one arm, he gently pried her helmet off. Her head lolled in his palm, neck limp. There was no color in her face, no light. Her eyes were closed. She was—

No. No!

"Cortana!"

Nothing. No signs of life, no electric hum beneath his palm as he cupped her cheek. She was hurt, mortally wounded, but this was something no medpack would fix. Infinity. He had to get her back to Infinity. Roland would know what to do, or he'd make them get Halsey a second time. He could fix this—she wasn't going to die!

Still holding her close, John struggled to his feet. Her head lolled against his shoulder, the ever present buzz beneath her skin gone silent. His mouth had gone dry, lips cracked by the fine, sharp edges of the silicate dust that had blown through. None of that mattered. She was the only important thing now. He turned, heart racing, and looked for a way to the ship.

There was nothing but destruction and death. They'd failed to stop this. They'd failed.

He'd failed.

"Over here!" Someone shouted and he looked up to the top of what had once been the elevator. Fireteam Osiris was clambering up and over the ruined column, hands scrabbling along the smooth surface, "They're over here! We found them! Chief—!" Buck shouted down at him, "Stay there! We'll come and get you!"

What else could he do? Failure—to protect Cortana, to protect Meridian—settled in over his shoulders.

Closing his eyes, John could do nothing but wait for help to come.

#halo #halo fic #halo fanfic #!fic #fic: per aspera ad astra

[ao3feed-thor]

Papaoutai

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/Lt0e98S

by GhostWriter3000

"I get it, okay? I get that his sacrifice was for the good of the world, the universe! Maybe it was always meant to play out that way for this multiverse and many others... but there's this... ugly, selfish, feeling inside of me. And I hate it, because I understand why he did it but now I'm starting to feel... to feel..." Morgan's eyes began to well up.

"Morgan-" her sobbed cut the vigilante off.

"I just miss my dad."

Words: 2673, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Thor (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, M/M, Multi

Characters: Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Steve Rogers, Stephen Strange, Thor (Marvel), Bruce Banner, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), T'Challa (Marvel), Wanda Maximoff, Vision (Marvel), Shuri (Marvel), Sam Wilson (Marvel), Okoye (Marvel), Nebula (Marvel), Gamora (Marvel), Peter Quill, Rocket Raccoon, Drax the Destroyer, Mantis (Marvel)

Relationships: Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Nebula & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Wanda Maximoff/Vision

Additional Tags: Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Teen Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), BAMF Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Morgan Stark Friendship (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Genius Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Protective Peter Parker, Teen Peter Parker, BAMF Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark are Siblings (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Time Travel Fix-It

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/Lt0e98S

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #thor

[margarethx]

It’s weird how people treat Bucky as the mysterious and secretive one within Sambucky when you can look at him for like two seconds and deduce everything you need to know about him. Sad boi, traumatic past, doesn’t like talking about it, quiet, frustrated, you better don’t interact with him unless he lets you.

Sam Wilson on the other hand? I have no clue what’s going on in his head most of the time. (I mean... I kind of do, as a viewer. But I’m not sure the characters he encounters are just as informed.) He seems like a pretty positive, optimistic person, but there are so many moments when he just looks desperate and on the verge of tears. Like he’s not sure anything will ever work in his favour. He doesn’t talk much about his emotions or his past unless it’s very relevant - and he does that mainly to connect with other people through shared experience. That’s why he mentioned Riley’s death. Or his aunt... who also died.

Karli called him a hopeless optimist. But is he an optimist? I wouldn’t say so. He likes joking and smiles... relatively often... but that’s it. For me he seems more like a realist who knows when he can get the job done to fix a problem. And he fixes a lot of problems. It seems like he helps other people all the time, so you might think he’s just selfless. But his desperate attempts to keep the family boat against Sarah’s protests were pretty selfish. (Objectively. I’m not judging him here.) Giving the shield away was not exatly selfish (he had every right to do so), but he still didn’t listen to anyone telling him to take up the mantle, because he didn’t want to, end of discussion.

For people like Walker he seems like a sidekick and a “wingman”. Someone who followed Steve around. But he didn’t. Sam made all the decisions himself - in ca:tws Steve even discouraged him from joining the fight. He went and fought anyway. Even Bucky, who knew Sam way longer than Walker, just assumed that he went against the Accords, because Steve did. But Sam formed his opinion first - it just happened to align with Steve’s. And how can he be a sidekick who just follows other people when during just his second conversation with Steve he said he likes working at the VA, because there’s no one above him giving him orders and that’s nice?

“Sam is the rational one!” - says the fandom. ...Sam kicked a fucking helicopter mid-flight. And jumped into one almost falling into the rotor.

“Sam is stubborn and will hold a grudge for a long time” - says the fandom (or at least the part of it who clearly dislikes the guy). ... Meanwhile, Sam helped Tony find Steve right after he was shot by him in the face for an accident that was not Sam’s fault. And he helped Vision in Infinity War even thought he was part of said accident. He still talks with Rhodey like they’re okay and nothing happened. And he tried to become friends with Barnes after he almost killed him three times. (As the Winter Soldier, but still.)

Zemo didn’t expect Sam to not hesitate about rejecting the serum.

Karli was surprised by Sam’s character. Later she was suprised again and disappointed that he (of all people) decided to become the new Captain. Isaiah didn’t expect him to take the shield either. But he did take it and Isaiah had to admit he was wrong about Sam after he heard his speech.

“I never said pilot ;)” ... Yeah, I know. You never did, Sam. Because you say so little about yourself. And it’s so vague and carefully selected.

“He speaks Arabic...” Yeah, Torres. I was surprised too.

--- ----- ---

This whole show (and Sam’s entire story in the MCU) seems like it’s just a person after a person, after a person making assumptions about Sam and then realizing that... Actually they were wrong the whole time. Either partially or complitely. 

Sam is so secretive about his own thoughts and feelings that he tricked everyone around him into thinking he’s an open book, so no one bothers to even ask any questions. Because they feel like they know him, but... Do they really?

And I can just imagine that the longer Sam and Bucky work and live together the more Bucky sees how other people misjudge his partner... all the damn time. (Just as he himself used to do.) They just assume Sam will let them do anything they want and he doesn’t. Or they assume they can give him orders and he’s like: “Subtle? Got it!” - and does whatever he planned, following only his own rules.

It must be pretty amusing to watch. And it probably feels like some kind of honour to actually get a chance to know the real Sam Wilson.

#sam wilson #samuel thomas wilson #james bucky barnes #bucky barnes #karli morgenthau #john walker #steve rogers #isaiah bradley #joaquin torres #riley #zemo #baron zemo #helmut zemo #captain america #captain america sam wilson #the falcon #white wolf #winter soldier #us agent #sambucky #sam x bucky #winterfalcon #tfatws #the falcon and the winter soldier #mcu #marvel

[whetstonefires]

It's been this long and I'm still mad about it; proposal for the film Disney should have made instead of Endgame.

1) Following the Snappening Thanos still has godlike power but is losing his shit without a goal to work toward, is constantly hallucinating Gamora's child ghost which may be actual Gamora from inside the Soul Gem

2) whilst the combined hero cast stage an epic heist of some kind in the effort to get the Gauntlet and Unsnap their loved ones, with numerous subplots that can be resolved positively, since the heist will ultimately be foiled and that can be frustrating.

3) The surviving Guardians get a chance to onscreen recount the story of the defense of Xandar and how they collectively survived wielding an Infinity Stone for about 18 seconds; Peter Quill has been killed per Infinity War so his special heritage can't be leaned on again of course;

meanwhile we get more information about how the planet of Titan became a dead world and how Thanos was involved.

4) The 'Tony Stark's survival will protect the universe better than refusing to give Thanos the Time Stone and is in fact necessary to the One Possible Path To Victory' assertion from Infinity War is much better justified by his ultimately talking Thanos to death

5) in a way which callbacks Tony's entire doomspiral loop of a villain-coded-hero character arc and that moment in Avengers when they figured out Loki was opening the portal on Stark Tower because Tony psychoanalyzed him flippantly and then was like, shit he's basically me he's at my building. Thereby linking what was otherwise a saga of disconnect and flubbed resolution into a thematic whole.

6) And in a way which also gives us payoff on the similar nonsense of Thanos' characterization, where everything about the way he interacted with the world told a completely different story than the way he talked about himself and his actions, demonstrating a literally world-shattering degree of self-delusion.

7) Just seriously if Tony Stark's great universe-saving act could have been a Hannibal Lecture where he's standing in front of Thanos, last Avenger on his feet, armor shattered clean off him, take away all his power and what's left, still pushing, digging into those cracks Gamora's been beating into the whole film, did it work? was it worth it? is anything better now? why did you think it would be?

8) "Of course I understand you! I am you! It hurt so fucking bad, didn't it, and you needed it to stop hurting, so you found something to drown the pain in, something so impossibly big it had to matter. Something that let you hit back at the universe. Something that put you in control of the fear and the loss and how much you messed up, and other people paid for it and left you behind to hurt."

9) Thanos, having been held together by sheer force of will for the centuries or whatever since his planet died for reasons that cannot possibly have been limited to overpopulation, presses the Gauntlet on Tony, as he collapses into dust upon acknowledging that his entire identity is a self-serving lie and he had no fucking right to do anything he's done (and especially no right to Gamora)

10) Tony is one beat-up human dude and cannot possibly Unsnap back the entire universe but as he goes to try anyway a hand closes around his ankle. I don't care which Avenger it is. Steve, Rhodey, and Rocket Raccoon are the obvious candidates.

Team forms a huge hand-holding daisy-chain of Power of Giving A Shit and collectively Fixes The Universe. Insert time-crunchy thing like the planet they're on is about to get blown up so the gauntlet can't be handed over to someone with a tougher body, like Thor, who might survive it.

11) Tony still dies, but in a satisfying and meaningful way that actually saves people instead of just...slaughtering an army of slaves as in canon. The collective make-this-not-have-happened reality warp reaches back far enough to also save the Wakandans and Xandar and the Asgardian refugees, and everyone else murdered in the tempestuous final days of Thanos' push for the Gems, because 'unrealistic solutions to unrealistic problems are childish' is a bullshit moral, especially where superheroes are concerned.

12) His funeral is the only one that matters because it's the only damn one.

#if Rocket's the one who initiated the daisy chain he can have lost the arm he grabbed Tony with #sitting beside Bucky with matching wakandan robot arms #they're cyborg bros now #mcu #tony stark #thanos #thematic resolution #it's even got a comics basis psyching thanos out is the traditional way of dealing with his getting the Gauntlet together #hoc est meum

[youngbugandtonystank]

Morgan makes no sense IMO. I cannot imagine Tony having the mindset to have kids after what happened to Peter. He'd be too scared because he "failed" his first one (Peter). Why would he risk "failing" another? He wouldn't. You can argue he "recovered", but losing a child isn't something you easily recover from. Plus, we've seen that Tony's had trouble with PTSD already. Attempting another kid wouldn't help recovery IMO. Okay, I think I'm done sending asks. Sorry for spamming you.

The thing about Morgan, is that they did dirty to this kid too. They should've brought this child much later, not in the middle of a post-apocalyptic world where everyone is mourning and having the breakdown of their lives.

Disclaimer: lmao I have to leave these because later some angry anons want to beat the hell out of me hahaha. This is just my opinion yall, you don't have to agree or take this as a fact. It's just a personal opinion.

What Endgame basically told us is that Tony bargained Peter with Morgan as a way to cope with the loss.

'I got my second chance right here, Cap. Can't roll the dice on it.'

A child should be conceived not as a way to cope with someone's death but out of the desire of having it under the right conditions, just like at the beginning of Infinity War, Tony was excited about having said child and the time would've been great for them especially because they were about the get married. Endgame practically told yall -Here, he's married just like you wanted, here’s the child yall asked for and now he can die, satisfied?-

Grief, in some determined occasions, takes the form of negotiating with the universe to prevent the source of grief. The same Tony who couldn’t sleep after New York, the one who couldn’t stop thinking about the biggest threat out there for years, the Avenger that walked with never ending paranoia in his mind, the one that told Steve in CW that he didn’t want to stop being Iron Man, the one that prepared himself in every possible way for that said threat, failed. And that failure took the form of denial and bargain instead of acceptance, he was never going to be ok with what happened in IW (it’s not who he is), this is why Tony was already working on the time machine concept, it is clear from the discussion between him and Scott that, that wasn’t his first rodeo with the idea. He tried to live as if he was having the happy family he ever wanted (not saying he doesn’t want Pepper or Morgan, I’m saying he had those things at the wrong time and therefore, he couldn’t enjoy them like he wanted to). Some could say ‘and this is why he enjoys his family more because he values human life on a new level and understands the significance of loss in a deeper way now’ but what happened in IW wasn’t a normal tragedy, it was a world-changing cataclysm and Tony would never give up an opportunity to try and fix things, he was pretending he could live that way (denial). 

And Pepper called him out on it ‘but would you be able to rest?’ because she knows. This is not healthy grieving. Imagine Tony full of guilt, pain, remorse and his mental stability in hell: 'What a great time to have a kid :D might as well have a child since I lost the last one!' messed up af. He put Peter's picture in the freaking kitchen, where he would see his face every single day every time he’d wake up. This is mental torture. Tony was haunted, asking a man who is essentially mentally destroyed to enjoy his life in the middle of chaos it’s like asking a depressed person to just smile to cure their illness. It’s not that easy. 

They made Morgan a do-over of sorts because Tony feels like he gets to have a second chance with her but is this really fair to Morgan? He was covering up Peter’s loss with Morgan and not many are willing to accept this because they refuse to see that these writers/directors were too greedy to care about character development, instead they cared more about Oscar nominations, beating Avatar, getting the applause from the average critics saying ‘wow! they do have the balls to take these risks!’, etc. Look at Steve Rogers lmaooo fighting for Bucky for years to the point that he’d even become a war criminal for him and fight all of his teammates to just let that opportunity go in EG HAHAHAHA no fucking sense. 

The reality is, as much as people like to pretend they really care about some issues (mental illness, right representation, etc), and the whole campaign they do online about how much they care about them (reblogging stuff, retweeting, making posts about it, making videos about it etc). That ‘caring’ goes out of the window the minute something on screen that they really want or like appears (could be a character, a ship, a storyline, etc). We are all like this. All of us lmao. Take this example:

Far from home: instead of focusing on spideychelle, they should’ve let them develop and let Peter heal first since Peter went from fighting the Vulture to fighting one of the most dangerous warlords in the galaxy, then he died and then he watched Tony die. 

Someone who is not biased would tell you: ‘you’re right, damn. I wanted the right mental health representation that a character like Spider-Man can give us’.

Whereas a shipper would tell you: ‘It’s a fucking movie and they’re teenagers, just enjoy it’.

And this happens to everyone when it comes to something they like, while some love it, some others are not going to agree. Many didn’t like NWH because it completely erased Peter’s journey with Tony and some others are celebrating it because they hated Tony and Peter’s connection. Same here with Morgan, some people don’t like her because they think it was rushed and took away Tony’s time to grieve and some others are happy because they wanted Tony to have a baby with Pepper and are satisfied with it even if they don’t get more content. 

To get to that point (where you are strongly biased about something), you need to understand that disliking a character or a storyline doesn’t come from blatant self-interest, it comes from hint-at expection. They misdirected their audience with a negative outcome. The writers promised the audience something from the characters because of their previous stories portrayed in their own movies and they jumped over those because they couldn’t agree on how to handle them (because they cared more about other things). The writers and directors saying contradictory things about the plot proves that.

#morgan stark #peter parker #tony stark #iron man #irondad #spiderson #spider-man #endgame #mcu #marvel #pepper potts #no way home

[asgardwinter]

No Matter What

summary | “No matter what.” In your voice it sounded like a promise. “No matter what.” In his, it sounded like a fact.

pairing | Loki x fem!Reader

warnings | angst, no happy ending, there’s a tiny spark of love (sorry i didn’t let it live though), canon character death (you know, it’s infinity war not me…), grief

word count | 509

author’s note | this is a repost for @wint3r-h3art's request, tumblr just fucked up with the link to the fic, hope you enjoy it again :)

prompt: “if… if this is the last time i’ll ever see you, i need you to know… i have loved, and will never stop loving, you. you hear me? i love you. beyond whatever happens next. i love you.” from this prompt list

Loki Laufeyson Masterlist | join the taglist! | Main Masterlist

One moment you were smiling at Loki, in the other there were people shouting and running, emergencial escape routes were being planned in the heat of the moment.

Until he made you stop in the middle of the ship’s main hall, like your life wasn’t crumbling down again in less than three days.

“If… if this is the last time I'll ever see you, I need you to know… I have loved, and will never stop loving, you. You hear me?” Loki’s hands flew to your cheeks, cradling your head carefully and fiercely at the same time, eyes scanning your face in despair. “I love you. Beyond whatever happens next. I love you.”

The quickest answer was clear in your head. You kissed him, trying to pour all your bottled love from these centuries that pulled you together and apart, all the affection you had towards Loki.

“I love you. I always did and I know I always will.” Foreheads leaning against each other like you had all the time in the world. Like you were gods that had the power to stop anything. You should have that power, it was unfair being called a god and submitting yourself and your people to that. “No matter what.” In your voice it sounded like a promise.

“No matter what.” In his, it sounded like a fact.

You looked back at the people boarding the few escape pods, the people you should be taking care of. It was time to let go of his hand, the one you didn’t even realize you were holding so tight.

Loki’s eyes said everything again.

And again.

And one more time, just to be sure.

But all in the matter of seconds.

You had to believe you’d see eachother again, for your own sanity.

As you distanced yourselves, your hands stayed together until it was too far for them to hold. You missed his fingers on yours but you relished on the feeling that it wouldn’t be too long until you were reunited, until you felt his hands again.

You guided the escaping asgardians to Earth and trough it with Valkyrie, looking back every day and waiting for him, your love.

But when Thor found his way to your people he was alone. The hope you carefully constructed during the past weeks started to fall apart.

“Loki died.” That was what left Thor’s mouth.

You didn’t believe it, you couldn’t bring yourself to believe it.

Loki doesn’t simply die, you told yourself against your better judgment.

That was when days turned into weeks, weeks into months and time passed. Too much time passed. And you had to face it.

But why?

“I love you. Beyond whatever happens next. I love you.”

The words kept echoing in your head and even if you wouldn’t hear them again you had to lean on that one declaration to survive.

“No matter what.”

You repeated it over and over to make the pain go away.

Because it was a fact and, above it all, your love was a promise.

Taglists:

Everything: @writing-for-marvel @levylovegood

Loki Laufeyson: @emi11ie @i-stand-with-loki @darkacademicfrom2021 @ladyofmischief0 @yeaimsimpingfictionalcharacters @alohastyles-x @poser-yelena @lokiprompts @mischief2sarawr @simp4fictional

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#loki x reader #gn!reader #loki x reader angst #loki reader insert #loki fanfic #loki x you #loki x gn!reader #loki x gender neutral reader #loki layfeyson imagine #loki laufeyson reader insert #loki laufeyson x gender neutral reader #loki laufeyson angst #loki blurb #loki laufeyson blurb #marvel x reader

[lokiondisneyplus]

'Loki' takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU

Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.

Tom Hiddleston is Loki, and he is burdened with glorious purpose: After playing Thor's puckish brother for over a decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no one understands the mercurial Asgardian God of Mischief as well as the actor. He can teach an entire seminar on Loki if given the opportunity — which he actually did during pre-production on his forthcoming Disney+ show. In conversation, Hiddleston quotes lines from his MCU debut, 2011's Thor, almost verbatim, and will playfully correct you if you mistakenly refer to Asgard's Rainbow Bridge as the Bifrost, which is the portal that connects Loki and Thor's homeworld to the Nine Realms, including Midgard, a.k.a. Earth. "Well, the Bifrost technically is the energy that runs through the bridge," he says with a smile. "But nine points to Gryffindor!" And when he shows up to the photo shoot for this very digital cover, he hops on a call with our photo editor to pitch ways the concept could be even more Loki, like incorporating the flourish the trickster does whenever magically conjuring something. The lasting impression is that playing Loki isn't just a paycheck.

"Rather than ownership, it's a sense of responsibility I feel to give my best every time and do the best I can because I feel so grateful to be a part of what Marvel Studios has created," the 40-year-old Brit tells EW over Zoom a few days after the shoot and a week out from Thor's 10th anniversary. "I just want to make sure I've honored that responsibility with the best that I can give and the most care and thought and energy."

After appearing in three Thor movies and three Avengers, Hiddleston is bringing that passion to his first solo Marvel project, Loki, the House of Ideas' third Disney+ series following the sitcom pastiche WandaVision and the topical The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Led by head writer Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Heels), the six-episode drama sees Hiddleston's shapeshifting agent of chaos step out from behind his brother's shadow and into the spotlight for a timey-wimey, sci-fi adventure that aims to get to the bottom of who Loki really is. "I wanted to explore slightly more complex character questions," says Waldron. "It's not just good versus bad. Is anybody all good? Is anybody all bad? What makes a hero, a hero? A villain, a villain?"  

Even though Loki — who loves sowing mayhem with his illusion magic and shapeshifting, all with a major chip on his shoulder — has never been one for introspection, the idea of building an entire show around him was a no-brainer for Marvel. When asked why Loki was one of the studio's first Disney+ shows, Marvel president Kevin Feige replies matter-of-factly, "More Hiddleston, more Loki." First introduced as Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) envious brother in Kenneth Branagh's Thor, Loki went full Big Bad in 2012's The Avengers. That film cemented the impish rogue as one of the shared universe's fan favorites, thanks to Hiddleston's ability to make him deliciously villainous yet charismatic and, most importantly, empathetic. The character's popularity is one of the reasons he's managed to avoid death many times.

"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."

The Loki we meet on the show is not the one who fought the Avengers in 2012 and evolved into an antihero in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok before meeting his demise at the hands of the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. Instead, we'll be following a Loki from a branched timeline (a variant, if you will) after he stole the Tesseract following his thwarted New York invasion and escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. custody during the time heist featured in Avengers: Endgame. In other words, this Loki hasn't gone through any sort of redemption arc. He's still the charming yet petulant god who firmly believes he's destined to rule and has never gotten his due.

Premiering June 9, Loki begins with the Time Variance Authority — a bureaucratic organization tasked with safeguarding the proper flow of time — arresting the Loki Variant seen in Endgame because they want his help fixing all of the timeline problems he caused while on the run with the Tesseract. So there will be time travel, and a lot more of it than in Endgame. As Loki makes his way through his own procedural, he'll match wits with new characters including Owen Wilson's Agent Mobius, a brilliant TVA analyst, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Judge Renslayer. The question in early episodes is whether Loki will help them or take over.

"One of the things Kevin Feige led on was, 'I think we should find a way of exploring the parts of Loki that are independent of his relationship with Thor,' or see him in a duality or in relationship with others, which I thought was very exciting," says Hiddleston, who also serves as an executive producer on the show. "So the Odinson saga, that trilogy of films, still has its integrity, and we don't have to reopen it and retell it."

Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.

Hiddleston can't believe how long he and Loki have been connected. "I've been playing this character for 11 years," he says. "Which is the first time I have said that sentence, I realize, and it [blows] my mind. I don't know what percentage that is exactly of my 40 years of being alive, but it's substantial."

His time as Loki actually goes a bit further back, to 2009 — a year after Robert Downey Jr. big banged the MCU into existence with Iron Man — when he auditioned for Thor. It's no secret that Hiddleston initially went in for the role of the titular God of Thunder, but Feige and director Kenneth Branagh thought his natural charm and flexibility as an actor made him better suited for the movie's damaged antagonist. "Tom gave you an impression that he could be ready for anything, performance-wise," says Branagh, who had previously worked with him on a West End revival of Checkov's Ivanov and the BBC series Wallander. "Tom has a wild imagination, so does Loki. He's got a mischievous sense of humor and he was ready to play. It felt like he had a star personality, but he was a team player."

Hiddleston fully immersed himself in the character. Outside of studying Loki's history in the Marvel Comics, he also researched how Loki and the Trickster God archetype appeared across mythology and different cultures. "He understood that he was already in something special [and] it was a special character in a special part of that early moment in the life of the Marvel universe where [he] also needed to step up in other ways," says Branagh, who was impressed by the emotional depth Hiddleston brought to the part, especially when it came to how isolated Loki felt in the Asgardian royal family.  

There was a lot riding on that first Thor feature. For one, no one knew if audiences would immediately latch onto a Shakespearean superhero movie partially set on an alien planet populated by the Norse Gods of legend. Second, it was integral to Feige's plans for the shared universe. Loki was supposed to be the main villain in The Avengers, which would not only mirror how Earth's mightiest heroes joined forces in 1963's Avengers #1 but also give Thor a believable reason for teaming up with Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), and the rest of the capes. Feige first clued Hiddleston into those larger plans when the actor was in L.A. before Thor started shooting.

"I was like, 'Excuse me?' Because he was already three, four steps ahead," says Hiddleston. "That took me a few minutes to process, because I didn't quite realize how it just suddenly had a scope. And being cast as Loki, I realized, was a very significant moment for me in my life, and was going to remain. The creative journey was going to be so exciting."

Hiddleston relished the opportunity to go full villain in Avengers, like in the scene where Loki ordered a crowd to kneel before him outside a German opera house: "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation," says the Machiavellian god. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

"I just knew that in the structure of that film, I had to lean into his role as a pure antagonist," Hiddleston recalls. "What I always found curious and complex about the way Loki is written in Avengers, is that his status as an antagonist comes from the same well of not belonging and being marginalized and isolated in the first Thor film. Loki now knows he has no place in Asgard."

Loki did find a place within the audience's hearts, though. Feige was "all in" on Hiddleston as his Loki from the beginning, but even he couldn't predict how much fans would love him. Feige recalls the reaction at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con: "Did we know that after he was the villain in two movies, he would be bringing thousands of people to their feet in Hall H, in costume, chanting his name? No, that was above and beyond the plan that we were hoping for and dreaming of." It was a dream Feige first got an inkling of a year earlier during the Avengers press tour when a Russian fan slipped past security, snuck into Mark Ruffalo's car, and asked the Hulk actor to give Hiddleston a piece of fan art she created. "That was one of the early signs there was much more happening with this quote-unquote villain."  

Despite that popularity, the plan was to kill Loki off in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, but the studio reversed course after test audiences refused to believe he actually died fighting the Dark Elves. Alas, he couldn't out-illusion death forever. After returning in Taika Waititi's colorful and idiosyncratic Thor: Ragnarok, Hiddleston's character perished for real in the opening moments of Infinity War. In typical Loki fashion, before Thanos crushed his windpipe, he delivered a defiant speech that indicated he'd finally made peace with the anger he felt toward his family.  

"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.  

But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.

Credit: Charlie Gray for EW

When Hiddleston returned to film two scenes in Avengers: Endgame in 2017, he had no idea where Loki portaled off to after snatching the Tesseract. "Where'd he go? When does he go? How does he get there? These are all questions I remember asking on the day, and then not being given any answers," Hiddleston recalls. To be fair, it's likely the Powers That Be didn't necessarily have answers then. While Feige can't exactly recall when the writers' room for Endgame first devised Loki's escape sequence, he does know that setting up a future show wasn't the primary goal — because a Loki series wasn't on the horizon just yet.

"[That scene] was really more of a wrinkle so that one of the missions that the Avengers went on in Endgame could get screwed up and not go well, which is what required Cap and Tony to go further back in time to the '70s," says Feige. Soon after that, though, former Disney CEO Bob Iger approached Feige about producing content for the studio's forthcoming streaming service. "I think the notion that we had left this hanging loose end with Loki gave us the in for what a Loki series could be. So by the time [Endgame] came out, we did know where it was going."

As for Hiddleston, he didn't find out about the plans for a Loki show until spring 2018, a few weeks before Infinity War hit theaters. "I probably should not have been surprised, but I was," says the actor. "But only because Infinity War had felt so final."

Nevertheless, Hiddleston was excited about returning for his show. He was eager to explore Loki's powers, especially the shapeshifting, and what it meant that this disruptive figure still managed to find a seat beside the gods in mythology. "I love this idea [of] Loki's chaotic energy somehow being something we need. Even though, for all sorts of reasons, you don't know whether you can trust him. You don't know whether he's going to betray you. You don't why he's doing what he's doing," says Hiddleston. "If he's shapeshifting so often, does he even know who he is? And is he even interested in understanding who he is? Underneath all those masks, underneath the charm and the wit, which is kind of a defense anyway, does Loki have an authentic self? Is he introspective enough or brave enough to find out? I think all of those ideas are all in the series — ideas about identity, ideas about self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and the difficulty of it."

“The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”

The thing that truly sold Hiddleston on the show was Marvel's decision to include the Time Variance Authority, a move he describes as "the best idea that anybody had pertaining to the series." Feige and Loki executive producer Stephen Broussard had hoped to find a place for the TVA — an organization that debuted in 1986's Thor #372 and has appeared in She-Hulk and Fantastic Four stories — in the MCU for years, but the right opportunity never presented itself until Loki came along. "Putting Loki into his own procedural series became the eureka moment for the show," says Feige.  

The TVA's perspective on time and reality also tied into the themes that Waldron, Loki's head writer, was hoping to explore. "Loki is a character that's always reckoning with his own identity, and the TVA, by virtue of what they do, is uniquely suited to hold up a mirror to Loki and make him really confront who he is and who he was supposed to be," says Waldron. Hiddleston adds: "[That] was very exciting because in the other films, there was always something about Loki that was very controlled. He seemed to know exactly what the cards in his hand were and how he was going to play them…. And Loki versus the TVA is Loki out of control immediately, and in an environment in which he's completely behind the pace, out of his comfort zone, destabilized, and acting out."

To truly dig into who Loki is, the creative team had to learn from the man who knows him best: Hiddleston. "I got him to do a thing called Loki School when we first started," says director Kate Herron. "I asked him to basically talk through his 10 years of the MCU — from costumes to stunts, to emotionally how he felt in each movie. It was fantastic."

Hiddleston got something out of the Loki school, too. Owen Wilson both attended the class and interviewed Hiddleston afterward so that he could better understand Loki, as his character Mobius is supposed to be an expert on him. During their conversation, Wilson pointedly asked Hiddleston what he loved about playing the character.

"And I said, 'I think it's because he has so much range,'" says Hiddleston. "I remember saying this to him: 'On the 88 keys on the piano, he can play the twinkly light keys at the top. He can keep it witty and light, and he's the God of Mischief, but he can also go down to the other side and play the heavy keys. And he can play some really profound chords down there, which are about grief and betrayal and loss and heartbreak and jealousy and pride.'" Hiddleston recalls Wilson being moved by the description: "He said, 'I think I might say that in the show.' And it was such a brilliant insight for me into how open Owen is as an artist and a performer.'"

Owen Wilson as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki in 'Loki.'| Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Everyone involved is particularly excited for audiences to see Hiddleston and Wilson's on-screen chemistry. "Mobius is not unlike Owen Wilson in that he's sort of nonplussed by the MCU," says Feige. "[Loki] is used to getting a reaction out of people, whether it's his brother or his father, or the other Avengers. He likes to be very flamboyant and theatrical. Mobius doesn't give him the reaction he's looking for. That leads to a very unique relationship that Loki's not used to."

As for the rest of the series, we know that Loki will be jumping around time and reality, but the creative team isn't keen on revealing when and where. "Every episode, we tried to take inspiration from different things," says Waldron, citing Blade Runner's noir aesthetic as one example.

"Part of the fun of the multiverse and playing with time is seeing other versions of characters, and other versions of the titular character in particular," says Feige, who also declined to confirm if Loki ties into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and/or other upcoming projects.

Making Loki was especially meaningful to Hiddleston because they shot most of it during the pandemic, in late 2020. "It will remain one of the absolute most intense, most rewarding experiences of my life," he says. "It's a series about time, and the value of time, and what time is worth, and I suppose what the experience of being alive is worth. And I don't quite know yet, and maybe I don't have perspective on it, if all the thinking and the reflecting that we did during the lockdown ended up in the series. But in some way, it must have because everything we make is a snapshot of where we were in our lives at that time."

While it remains to be seen what the future holds for Loki beyond this initial season, Hiddleston isn't preparing to put the character to bed yet. "I'm open to everything," he says. "I have said goodbye to the character. I've said hello to the character. I said goodbye to the character [again]. I've learned not to make assumptions, I suppose. I'm just grateful that I'm still here, and there are still new roads to explore."

#Tom Hiddleston #Loki #Disney+ #interview