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#shannon you can extend your break we’ve got it from here
bookwyrminspiration · 3 years
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due to an unexpected delay (a child), the next keeper book will instead be written by the entire fandom, one person writing a chapter and then passing it the next, who will take it from there and then pass it along to another like those insidious icebreaker exercises in English classes /j
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mudhorn-djarin19 · 3 years
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Camping Trip - Chp 1 (Frankie “Catfish” Morales x f!reader)
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Summary: The boys take a couple retreat weekend and Frankie doesn’t want to be the only one going alone. So he invites you his best friend since high school to come along. Will the trip finally push you two who have had crushes on each other for years together? Warnings: mutual pining, language Rating: General. Will change in future chapters. Masterlist AO3 Link Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 Join my taglist via here! ___________________________________________________________ Frankie and the boys sat at the local bar discussing an upcoming camping trip. The Miller boys had a family cabin they inherited that the group often did weekend gatherings at. They wanted to do another weekend trip away but this time allow the significant others to join for a couple retreat. Everyone was all excited and down for it but Frankie sighed not too thrilled that he’d be going alone. He’s been single ever since the Colombia excursion and his lady left him after the events. “Hey cheer up Fish. You’ll still have fun!” Benny said. “You could bring a tinder date or a friend.” Santiago said. “I’m not getting a tinder date… I’m too old for that shit.” Frankie replied “Okay well a friend. What about that best friend of yours you’ve had since high school? Y/N?” Santiago asked. “I mean I guess I can ask. She’s already one of us so wouldn’t feel out of place.” He said. “Plus maybe a weekend away with her is just the push you need.” Benny picked, knowing Frankie’s had a crush on you since high school but never said anything in fear of ruining your friendship. Frankie rolled his eyes. “Shut up.” **** Later that evening as you sat at home watching tv you saw your phone light up with Frankie’s name. “Hey Fish! What’s up?” You asked, a smile on your face. “Hey so uh the boys and I are planning a weekend cabin trip next weekend. They’re all bringing their girls and I uhh… don’t want to be the only one not bringing someone. You already know us well and I think you’d get along with the girls. Would you want to come along if not doing anything? He asked nervously. “Fish, I’d love to come! You know anytime I can hang out with you is definitely a yes from me.” You chuckle. “Great great.” He chuckles back. “I’ll pick you up Thursday in the evening.” You confirm the arrangement and hang up the phone. You throw yourself back on the sofa and let out a big sigh. A whole weekend away with Frankie? During what is to be a couples retreat? Man this is going to be an interesting time. You’d had a crush on Frankie since high school and been with him through everything. The typical high school crap, him going off to the military, him coming home from the heist to find Maria had left with the baby who he can’t see anymore, his drug addictions and so much more. And he was there for you in return through things such as you going off to college and your rough engagement break off with Jim. You guys were like two peas in a pod and because of that you held off on saying anything to Frankie in fear of ruining and losing the thing you had going. **** The evening of the beginning of the trip, Frankie swung around after work and picked you up in his truck. You swear he’ll run that thing into the ground for he’s had it for years and seen it’s better days. “Ready to go?” He asks as you greet him at the door, him taking your bags from you. “Definitely. Thank you for inviting me. A trip away for some fun was definitely needed.” You smile. He smiles back and places your belongings into the back of the back seat of the truck before heading back to your side and opening your door for you, helping you up into the truck. Once back on his side he starts the truck and you two make your way on your journey to the cabin. The drive lasts for two hours but is a fun drive as you two chat about life, reshare memories, and jam to your favorite rock music. You guys arrive at the cabin pretty quickly and are met happily by the boys and their girls. “Hey Fish! You made it. And I see Y/N made it as well!” Santiago says bringing you both in for a hug. “Hey Pope. Good to see you again.” You smile, hugging him back. “You guys got the room upstairs to the right for the weekend.” Benny says. “Need help with bags?” “Nah I got it. Thanks.” Frankie says grabbing both your bags and heading into the cabin. You shake your head at him, taking more than he needs to and leaving you empty handed but follow him into the house to your designated room for the weekend. “Oh.” Frankie says as he drops the bags onto the floor in the corner. You wonder what had him a little shocked until you see the room only has one queen sized bed in the room. “I uh… I’ll make a cot on the floor for the weekend. You can take the bed.” He states quickly. “Fish… seriously?” You look at him, eyebrow raising a little. “You’re not sleeping on the floor in a cot.” “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable…” He says. “Oh my god. Grow up Fish… It’s fine. We’ve known each other for like half of our lives. Sharing a bed is nothing.” You chuckle, whacking him lightly on the chest. Frankie clears his throat and nods. “Y-yea…” Knowing this weekend is going to be torture for him even more so now. Once all your belongings are all settled in your room for the weekend you both head down to the kitchen to meet the rest of the gang and help them prepare for dinner. Santiago’s girl and Benny’s girl were both busy cooking while Will’s girl was setting the table. The boys were all standing around chatting and drinking. “Hey Fish, Y/N! All settled in?” Benny asked, giving Frankie a knowing wink. Frankie stared at him, glaring a bit and nodded. “Yea, I think we are.” He says grabbing a beer. You felt bad standing around and not helping the rest of the girls so went out to the dining room to help Will’s girlfriend finish setting up the table, leaving Frankie to chat with the boys. “Want some help?” You ask. “Oh! Sure thank you!” She smiles. “I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m Shannon, Will’s girl. You must be Frankie’s girlfriend yes?” She extends her hand. “Oh… um. I’m not his girlfriend. Just a close old friend. My name is Y/N.” You shake her hand, blushing at hearing her call you his girlfriend. “Oh! My apologies. I just figured you were since is a couples retreat.” She chuckled. “It’s okay. I understand. I’m his plus one for the weekend so not so out of the loop.” You chuckle and help her finish setting the table. You all had gathered at the big table, passing the platters of food the girls cooked around and chatting about plans for the weekend. “I figured we can do bonfires most nights. Those are always fun. I know on Saturday us boys plan to go up into the mountains and do some shooting. So you girls can hang out and do… whatever girls do.” Benny said. “It’s so pretty out here we should do stargazing some night!” Will’s girl says. “Oh yea!” Santiago’s girl responds. “We can do that. There’s a nice clearing not to far from here we can go to and watch them.” Will responds. You all continue your chatter about the weekend not noticing how some of the girls are giving the interaction between you and Frankie looks. Already knowing you are both into each other. He has his arm draped across the back of your chair and anytime he says something or someone makes you laugh you lean into him, placing a hand on his chest. **** Later that evening you were all huddled around the campfire Santiago had made, roasting marshmallows and chatting. It was nice to spend time with your good friends and meet some new ones. The girls were really sweet. The boys were goofing off and tossing marshmallows back and forth trying to catch them in their mouths. All failing miserably for the most part which gave you all a good chuckle. The night was growing colder and you felt it as you shivered a bit, wishing you had grabbed a jacket but not wanting to leave the fun to run inside to get one. Frankie leans down from behind you and speaks into your ear, noticing you shiver. “You cold?” “A little. Should of brought my jacket out but I’m fine.” You reply. You feel a jacket drop onto your shoulder then and turn to look up at Frankie who is now in just his long sleeve shirt, having removed his thick jean jacket to keep you warm. “Fish… “ You start to say but he waves his hand to stop you, insisting you keep it. You sigh and smile, pulling your arms into it and laughing a little at how big it is on you. Frankie wasn’t a very big man but he was big enough that his stuff was baggy on you. You look back up at him and mouth a quite thank you, getting a nod in response. When you turn your head back to the group you see Santiago giving you a knowing smirk and you look at him confused before shaking it off. Not knowing Frankie behind you was returning that knowing smirk to him. **** That night you crawled into bed, snuggling under the plush covers watching as Frankie paced around the room getting ready for bed himself. “You sure your cool with this?” He asked again as he stood on his side of the bed. “Yes. Relax Fish.” You chuckled. He shut up and nodded, crawling under the covers beside you but making sure to keep a distance between you just to not push any boundaries. You let out a little chuckle in response and leaned over to turn off you nightstand light for you both to get some well needed shut eye before the adventures of the weekend start tomorrow.
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theoriginalladya · 3 years
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i don’t care if the world knows my name, i just want you to remember me. ” for Caleb
from this list
On AO3 here
Thank you so much for this one for them!!!! As I mentioned to you at the time, you gave me one that was spot on perfect for them!
Setting: post end of the Reaper War but before they go off to Shannon, Ireland.
~~~
“Are you sure about this?”
Caleb sits in bed, arm extended, datapad making his already sore fingers ache that much more when Kaidan refuses to accept it. No, not refuse; that is too harsh. What Caleb does know is that if his partner doesn’t take it from him and soon, it will fall onto the bed or the floor, possibly break, and they will have to go through this all over again.  And as much as Kaidan might want that to happen, it will not make Caleb change his decision.
“Aye,” he replies.  When still the man won’t take the device, Caleb sighs and tosses it to the foot of the bed.  Thankfully, it doesn’t slide off.  “Mo ghrá, we’ve discussed this …”
Kaidan turns away from him, relocating in front of the fish tank where he paces back and forth, clearly agitated, but never looking back at Caleb.  
Caleb sighs.  Stubbornness does not look good on the second human Spectre.  He pats the mattress to his right, asking quietly, “Sit with me a minute?”
He isn’t surprised when it takes the man a good couple of minutes to actually walk back over and sit down.  It doesn’t even sting when he sits just out of touching range, either.  What hurts is the fact he won’t look at him.  “Talk to me, Kaidan.”  
The major stares down at the floor or possibly his boots, it is difficult to tell from this angle.  “I guess …  I guess I just thought we would be doing this together, is all.”
Caleb adjusts the pillows behind him, the motion allowing him to stretch a bit in the process.  He doesn’t miss the hint of pain in Kaidan’s voice as he speaks, and his heart twists tightly.  “It isn’t that I don’t want to.  You know that.”
“I know.”  Kaidan rubs the back of his hand across his forehead.  “And maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part – you were severely injured, after all.  But I’d hoped –.”
“Why?”
The question comes out soft, undemanding, and it finally draws Kaidan’s attention over to him.  It isn’t exactly disappointment Caleb sees in his features, but it is close.  The ache in his chest twists tighter.  Extending his bandaged right hand as he leans forward, he waits for Kaidan to take it; which he does, scooting up the bed enough that Caleb can lean back again, relaxing other muscles and bones still early in the healing process.  
“You are the first human Spectre,” Kaidan replies. “You are known throughout the galaxy for that.”  He glances over his shoulder at the abandoned datapad.  “Are you absolutely certain you want to give that up?”
Caleb lifts their joined hands.  “I am hardly in any shape to be a Spectre right now, am I?” He knows he still has a long road to recovery after that final battle in London.  Kaidan knows it too.  
“But resigning your commission?  Your Spectre status?  That’s just so … permanent!”
Caleb huffs softly and squeezes Kaidan’s hand as much as he dares which is, all things considered, a good sign, if not very forceful yet.  “A chéadsearc,** as much as I enjoy working with you, I cannot keep up any longer. It is your turn to lead the way. Your name that needs to be out there.  You are as much responsible for our victory as I am.”  He tugs Kaidan’s hand, urging him to scoot a little closer which he does. That, at least, makes it easier for Caleb to run his unbandaged fingertips along the other man’s jaw.  
“I don’t care if the world knows my name,” Kaidan argues though he doesn’t pull away, “I just want you to remember me.”
A deep, rumbling chuckle escapes Caleb’s lips and he leans over to kiss the man, gently, soothingly, yet with conviction. “Not likely I’ll ever forget you; you know that.”  A light hint of color seeps into Kaidan’s cheeks and elicits another chuckle.  
Huffing softly, Kaidan pulls back, muttering, “You are impossible.”
A wide grin spreads across Caleb’s face.  “Aye, perhaps.  Yet, that doesn’t make it any less true.”
Pushing to his feet, Kaidan wanders back over to the fish tank.  With his back to Caleb, he asks, “Is it wrong that I hoped we would go on as before?”
“Not at all.”  As quietly as possible, Caleb shifts beneath the bedding until his legs slide over the edge of the bed.  It’s a risk so soon after his latest surgery, but his physical training has been going well. His cane, though he detests it, is within easy reach and takes it in hand, leaning on it heavily as he pushes himself up.  There is a point to this attempt, one he hopes Kaidan will see and appreciate.  
A moment later, Kaidan turns back, eyes wide with worry before they even meet.  “What are you doing?”
Caleb isn’t more than a few steps from the bed at this point, though he wards Kaidan off with his left arm.  “Making a point,” he says with a heavy breath from effort. “Ní mhaireann rith maith ag an each i gcónaí”**  He tilts his head, keeping their gazes connected.  “Aye?”  
There are times he can read Kaidan easily and others where the man places a wall between them that leaves Caleb frustrated. This time it is the former. “Aye,” Kaidan agrees, reluctance in his tone.  He slides up next to Caleb and wraps his arm around his waist in support.  “I get it, Shepard.  Just … how about not injuring yourself further trying to convince a stubborn fool like me?”
As they turn back toward the bed, Caleb chuckles again and pauses to frame Kaidan’s face with his good hand.  “Níl saoi gan locht, mo ghrá.”**  The grin returns in full when Kaidan laughs.  “And I do have my faults.”
“Aye,” Kaidan agrees easily, his own grin mimicking Caleb’s, “that you do.  As do I.”
~~~
** A chéadsearc = my one and only
** Ní mhaireann rith maith ag an each i gcónaí = the steed does not keep his speed forever
** Níl saoi gan locht. = There’s not a wise man without fault (we’ve all got our weaknesses).
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thorne93 · 4 years
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Unforeseen Chasm (Part 48)
Prompt: Two sisters fall for men that are absolute enemies. The love they have could tear all of them apart, or it could bring them together.
Word Count:4613
Warnings: Language, last part that deals with Ultron movie, reader fights bff, mind control, widow protocol reactivated, song for this part: Note: This is by far the longest thing I’ve ever written (including my novels). It’s a collaboration with the amazing @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​. It started as a funny “What if…?” and it evolved and got huge. This took two years to write. We are both proud and happy and we hope you enjoy it. It follows from Thor 1 to Endgame in the MCU. Some of the timelines may be off in order to fit certain people, and some characters may show up earlier or in different ways than they have in the movie. But for the most part, it follows the MCU. It also has a bit of crossover with some other Marvel characters throughout the story.
Masterlist for Unforeseen Chasm
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Only two hours later, you got a call -- from Tony… This was either great news or really bad news.
“Hello?”
“You and Reindeer games busy?” he asked, his tone serious.
“No, why--”
“We’ve got a crack at Ultron, but we’re gonna need all hands on deck. I don’t like having to ask, but it may mean we can save Shannon. You in?”
“Of course, yeah, what do you need?”
“Be combat ready in five minutes. We’ll swing by to get you. We’re going to Sokovia, taking the fight to him.”
“Got it. We’ll be ready.”
You two hung up and you turned to Loki. “Get on your battle gear, we’re going to fight,” you informed.
He gave you a puzzled look but it quickly vanished when he followed your lead. He became clad in his old leather fighting gear, and you threw on the clothes Shannon had given you. A hooded robe, skin tight pants, and black t-shirt with boots.
The jet landed on the roof of your apartment and you two climbed in. No one gave you any warm looks, or nods of approval, except Clint. In fact, one face was new -- a dark red man, or… android? He had a stone in his head and he eyed you up and down with curiosity, and also… knowledge, as if he understood you. Suddenly, it dawned on you that he must’ve been what was in the cradle. Somehow, the Avengers gave him life, and trusted him enough to pit him against Ultron.
And clearly, the twins were now a part of this group, curiously enough. No one had taken the time to explain how or why they were here though.
Steve began his speech, and ultimately told you what your top priority was.
“Tony wants to take first stab at getting Ultron. The rest of us, our job is to evacuate the city. We find Shannon, we find what Ultron has been building, and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us. The people of Sokovia didn’t ask for this.” He took a moment to think, to pause. “Ultron thinks we’re monsters, that we’re what’s wrong with the world. This isn’t just about beating him. It’s about whether he’s right.”
And so it began. You landed just outside of the city, Wanda and Pietro got the civilians going, they began the evacuation and you tried to help, going to homes and apartments, encouraging people to leave. Letting them know the city was under attack. Clint found you and walked up to you as if he had something important.
“I’ve got the coordinates for Shannon, I figured you’d want to be the one to go get her. Take Banner with you in case it’s a trap.”
“What about the people?” you asked, frowning.
“We’ve got them. We’ll fight him. Go get her and then she can help us.”
“Thanks, Clint.”
He nodded. “Move your ass, kid.”
You smiled at him and ran off to find Shannon. She was in an abandoned church, where you dashed down the stairs, Banner right behind you.
“Shannon?” you whisper-yelled.
“I’m in here! He’s not here,” she replied making noises with some chain.
You immediately dashed over. “Oh thank God!” you said with a sigh of relief. “Hang on. Stand back,” you ordered. Shannon immediately backed up and you put your hand on the gate that divided you two. You charged the metal and blew it off the hinges. She ran out and hugged you tight.
“Hate to break this up, but we need to get back to the team,” Banner said from right behind you.
“You’re right,” you agreed, letting her go.
“Where are we headed and are people being evacuated?” She instantly got into Avenger’s mode. She started walking with you two through the way you entered. “What’s the situation right now?”
“City is being evacuated. There is some kind of core on the high ground, at the entrance of this church. We can’t tell what it’s going to do, but Ultron seems like he wants it,” you explained. “Tony’s going after him himself first.”
“Tony is doing what!? Is anyone else with him? Who told him it was okay to go on his own? He doesn’t know what Ultron is capable of.” She looked panicked and began scanning the area hoping to find the flying red suit of armor. “Give me a new mic to communicate with the team. I had mine taken by one of his bots.”
You fished one out of your suit and handed it to her.
“Thanks, Y/N. Alright, team it’s good to be back. Now give me an update. Cap, what’s going on?” Shannon flew off into the air to get a better look at things. “Tony, what is God's name are you doing trying to take on Ultron?” She turned to you and Bruce. Y/N, help the twins evacuate the civilians. Bruce, honey, I need my big guy to come out and help if you could.”
Bruce nodded and proceeded to remove his shirt and place it somewhere, turning to look at the two women, he winked at Shannon and began changing into the Hulk.
“Alright, big guy, go smash the robots,” she ordered the Hulk.
He smiled and ran off.
“I need to find out what he’s up to. Babe, what’s he hiding in the middle of town?” was all he said before it when quiet on his end.
“Damn it, Tony.” She shook her head and she flew back down to you.  “Alright, Y/N, let’s go get ourselves a slice of this fight.”
“Sounds good to me,” you said with a firm nod.
“Shannon, it’s good to have you back. We’re in the middle of town, the twins are helping evacuate the people--” he got cut off while fighting a robot.
“The twins? As in the Maximoffs, they’re helping us now?”
“Yes they seem to have taken Clint’s words into consideration and have decided to help us,” Natasha responded from some other part of the town.
“Alright we’re heading over to the center and see if I can get any of the people out of there.” She flew back up into the air. “You’re welcome to join me or any of the other’s if you want, Y/N/N” Shannon waved at you to come up with her to the sky.
“I’ll go wherever you need me,” you responded into the coms. “Do we need combat or civilian evacuation? Someone tell me where you want me to go, and I’ll go.”
“Come give me a hand getting them on the carriers. I can only do so much with my arrows,” Clint says. “I’m near the hospital. There’s too many people to get evacuated from here.”
“On it,” you said quickly before launching off, using your powers to lift you off the ground. To your knowledge, Loki was fighting off robots near the church, using his illusions and tricks. Normally, you’d be worried for him, but a fight like this was nothing compared to battles he’d faced in Asgard. Not to mention, you couldn’t be your best self if you were too worried about him. So you put your faith in your beloved and found Clint. “You get the people on the boats,” you said before lifting your hands, your power extending from your fingers. The dark purple power electrified twenty bots at once, disabling them. “While I stay here and fight.”
Clint stared at you for a second, befuddled. “Looks like you’ve got it,” he said before running off.
You laughed slightly before going into battle mode, slinging robots with your power, charging nearby items and throwing them, electrifying anything flying above you.
After five minutes of fighting, all of the Avengers and you and Loki made it back to the main part of the church, asking Stark what the drill was. To this, he informed you the core was important. If Ultron got to it, it meant you lost. This was your ultimate mission now. All of you guarded it with your life, surrounding it, readying yourself for whatever Ultron had planned.
“Is that the best you can do?” Thor yelled as the last robot got destroyed by Hulk as he entered where the drill was located.
Ultron stopped trying to get close and in an instant called all his robots to where he was.
“You had to ask,” Steve remarked toward the god.
“This is the best I can do.” Ultron began saying, spreading his arms wide to show his army. He pointed to everyone around the drill, stopping right at Shannon. “This is exactly what I wanted, All of you against all of me.”
Shannon seemed to harden her gaze and began to walk towards Ultron and turned to face everyone else, her eyes were looking directly at you. There was something unreadable in her gaze. It confused you. You’d never seen that look on her face before.
“How can you possibly hope to stop me?” Ultron smirked, watching as everyone was confused as to why Shannon was moving away from them. “When your two strongest are going to fight head to head to survive.” He flicked his wrist and Shannon charged at you, completely emerged in the dark swirls of her powers.
Everyone was fighting off the robots as fast as they could to try and contain Shannon from doing damage to anyone.
Your eyes went wide as you tried to dodge her oncoming attack.
“Shannon, stop!” you screamed. Suddenly, deja vu hit you. You’d been here before, only before, it was Shannon begging you to stop attacking her and New York. You were brainwashed so what was making her… Suddenly it hit you… The Red Room. Her training had been a mixture of Natasha’s and the Winter Soldier’s. This would be hard to crack.
“Shan,” you begged, backing up, stopping your powers from attacking her. “Listen to me. You don’t want to do this. He’s in your head. Don’t let him win,” you pleaded. But she kept stepping towards you, forcing you to back up. You didn’t want to fight her. Not again. Why was everyone always trying to pit you two against each other?
Shannon kept quiet, only the slight grunt here and there from throwing her powers at you. Seeing as this was leading nowhere, she jumped and threw herself into you at full force, knocking the wind out of you. “Why won’t you fight me? Too scared because you’ll know I'll beat you?” She smirked and threw a punch after punch at your face, which hurt like hell. “You always were a pathetic little thing needing someone to keep you safe.” She laughed not even caring that she had gotten blood to come out of your mouth.
You closed your eyes in frustration before letting your body electrify itself, blasting her off of you. You stood up wearily. “Please… don’t do this.” You held your hands up, ready to defend yourself.
“Get up, Y/N.” Shannon stood up, not getting thrown too far. “GET UP!” She laughed. “What happened to us fighting to see who really was the strongest?” She ran towards you pushing you into the wall of the side of the church.
“I don't have anything to prove, Shannon,” you grunted, staring her down. You tried to push her off but she was just too strong.
“And why not? Aren’t you tired of living in everyone's shadow?” She kept pushing, causing the brick to crack around your body. “Show me those Asgardian powers of yours or are they really just those hat tricks your little Loki can do?”
Your eyes grew dark as you glared at her. “Tired of people thinking the wrong things,” you said with a huff before finally pulling some power. You put your hand on the bricks beside you, charging all of them and blasting the wall at her, effectively getting her off of you, but that was it. It only backed her up a few steps. You spit out some of the blood pooling in your mouth. “We don’t have to do this. You’re the strongest. There, I admit it,” you tried, holding your hands up in defeat.
Your eyes flashed to the team, they were all so busy fighting Ultron and the bots, they couldn’t watch you two as well. You just needed to keep Shannon on you if you could, or hopefully wake her from this.
Shannon brushed the dust off her face and hands. “Oh, Y/N, poor little Y/N, always so quick to admit things rather prove your worth. It’s no wonder Thanos was able to manipulate you so well.” Her eyes began to change to their milky white with swirls of red. Causing the sun to disappear.
Some of Ultron’s bots had shown up and had begun to grab ahold of you but they failed to do so.
“Shannon, no!” you screamed, lunging at her to knock the sense out of her. “Don’t!” you said, not thinking, only reacting. Your hand went to her head, all of your energy electrifying her scalp. At first, a scream ripped from her throat, causing Loki and Tony to both look your way. But then her senses overcame your power.
“You think your little shocks will stop me!? It’ll have to take much more than that.” She changed shape becoming Loki. “Love, please don’t hurt me.” His voice came out of her mouth, she laughed watching your expression change.
You knew it was a trick. She transformed in front of your very eyes. You could see your real mate across the field. Tears formed in your eyes.  But Loki or Shannon, you couldn’t hurt the person standing in front of you. You took a deep breath and stood up, relaxing your shoulders.
“You’re right, Shannon. It is going to take a lot more to defeat you. And I don’t have it in me. So you’ll have to kill me. I’m not going to fight you.” You let down all of your guards, all of your defenses, going against every survival skill you’d picked up throughout your entire fucked up life. You couldn’t hurt or kill Shannon. Your power against hers, maybe you could slow her down, maybe you were a match for her -- but you didn’t want to be. Hurting her was not worth it.
“You’re no fun. Let’s kick things up a notch. If you won’t fight me like this, then let’s see if you will for the sake of his life.”  She pointed to Loki as he was lifted up into the air by multiple bots. Shannon turned to him and was charging up her hands with electricity and there was black and red swirling smoke surrounding her. “Will you save his precious life, or will you stop me for the sake of making a good impression on the team?” Her hands began to close and Loki struggled to move and breathe. She was crushing his windpipe with the smoke.
As much as you wanted to fight it, you wanted to hold her off and save him, your brainwashing was still in there. All it took was the pained look on Loki’s face to fully trigger you. You closed your eyes, taking a deep breath, and when you opened them, a white purple glowed inside them.
You ran and hurtled over Shannon’s head, standing in front of her and blasting her back with your powers nearly at full capacity - dark energy and electricity slammed into her. The shock alone could’ve made her heart burst. The blast was enough to get her to let Loki go, but the bots still had him. You spun quickly, casting your energy to them, ripping them apart piece by piece, finally forcing him to fall to the ground. You ran to him, checking on him. He was gasping for breath. You knew Shannon wouldn’t be down for long so you looked back to where she was getting up.
Shannon took that moment that you were distracted to let Ultron know she could grab her. She saw you turn over to look at her but at that moment you were met with Ultron standing in front of you. He grabbed you by the neck and pulled you up and had her facing Shannon. “Now to end this at once. Finish her,” he commanded Shannon.
“With pleasure.” She got up and pulled out a gun from her thigh holster. “If you’d just fought me like you should have, your death would have been different.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Not everyone is made to be a hero, some are just martyrs.” She aimed the gun right between your eyebrows.
Just as she was about to squeeze the trigger, Loki manifested a dagger, flinging it towards Shannon. It only nicked her arm though, because Steve charged at her and slammed her into the ground.
“Banner! I need some help over here!” he shouted.
“Let me go!” Shannon screamed shocking the captain but it did nothing. “You can’t stop me. I will kill her!” She began letting her powers take control but they were no use, the shocks did nothing to him and she couldn’t take anything from him.
You electrified Ultron before slamming a spike you manifested into his cheek. He jumped back, letting you go.
“Steve, no,” you said. “I’m not worth it. Go save the civilians. Fight Ultron. Save the world,” you insisted as he struggled with Shannon. “I can hold her off,” you assured. But you weren’t sure, at all. Shannon playing fair - yes, she was a match for you. Red Room Triggered Shannon? Not so much. That Shannon had a no holds bar attitude, and could very well kill you.
All she could think of was changing into Peggy. “Steve, you’re hurting me, you promised to keep me safe.” She had tears running down her cheek.
It was enough for him to let go in fear that he had hurt her. Shannon took his shield and powered it up with enough volts to kill a pod of whales and threw it at him. He was thrown into Thor’s way.
“Looks like he can’t stop me now. Better run, little Y/N.” Her hands had swirls of fire that kept growing higher up her arms. “Fight me once and for all! Show me everything you’ve got!”
You raised your fists, letting out a breath of air. Just as you were about to unleash fury on her, Hulk came charging up, and grabbed her in his giant hands, pinning her to the ground. You ran up near him, your hands ready. “If I put any power into her, she’ll just use it on you,” you informed, standing beside Hulk. Your eyes scanned quickly for Ultron, but he was back, preoccupied with the rest of the team. At least you had that.
She was screaming, fighting Hulk. You knew he was powerful, but even Shannon could kick things up to the point of getting him off of her. You’d never done this before but you decided to aim your powers in a different manner. The energy trickled from your fingertips calmly into her head, slowly making her vision, hearing, and smell go, disabling her.
Shannon struggled to get the giant hand to let go, he seemed to flinch at the waves of electricity but she seemed to have lost the ability to keep shocking him. Frustrated, she tried her other powers but none of them worked. She tried looking around but her vision had disappeared as had her other senses. She stopped moving for a bit and stood completely still almost as if she’d become unconscious. Seeing her limp form in his hand, Hulk stopped squeezing too tightly, fearing that if he had hurt her too much the doctor would get mad at him.
“Boss, your wife’s vitals have dropped some and she’s gone unconscious,” FRIDAY told Tony inside his suit. He stopped everything he was doing and spun in the air to check on her. “She’ll be fine, but we gotta get Ultron or she won’t be.”
“Right,” he agreed, as much as he didn’t want to leave her. Ultron had sicced all of his bots on the team now, they were scattered, but now it appeared the core was the main objective. The city was already floating, and the team was working hard to figure out how to keep it from exploding and ending the world. There were boats loading the leftover citizens. Now that Shannon had appeared unconscious, you focused your energy elsewhere, deciding to help the team.
“Are you alright?” Loki asked, a bad bruise forming on his cheek.
“As soon as this piece of shit Terminator is dead,” you grumbled before ripping apart a few bots. Your sights set on the big man himself. “Keep him distracted,” you said before slinking off to go around the back of him. “Vision, keep him talking,” you instructed into the comms. Vision did just that, he kept him busy, kept him focused. While you snuck up behind him and began electrocuting him. He reached onto his back and flung you off, slamming you into a brick column. You groaned in pain but stood up.
Vision attacked him with his mind stone, casting a beam at him, while Tony hit him with the repulsors, and Thor lit him up with his lightning. You hobbled your way over to stand beside them, letting your dark energy and electricity pour out of you like a rushing river. His body began to heat up, and you could tell he was melting from the inside as you cried out in pain of trying to keep your power going at this level.
Finally, his form exploded -- but it wasn’t over yet. The bots were still coming. Wanda was manning the core, while the rest of the Avengers got people to boats to safety. You wanted to help, but currently, you were on the ground, panting.
A bot came up, one that Wanda didn’t see, because she was distracted by Pietro getting shot in the shoulder. He wasn’t hurt fatally, but at first she couldn’t tell. You raised your arm to fight him, but you were too weak, and he got to the core.
“No! Wanda!” you weakly shouted and she spun, killing it too late. The core was activated now.
You turned your head to Hulk, immediately. “Hulk, carrier, now! Wanda, get your brother and get out!” you shouted, using all your strength to get up. Hulk nodded and wasted no time picking Shannon up and launching onto a nearby carrier. Wanda ran off to find Pietro, and from what you could see, they made it onto a boat. Loki was already on a safety boat, you could see him from where you were at. A look of terror crossed his face as he realized you were still on the flying city.
“Steve, Clint, you two on a boat?” you asked weakly into the comms, out of breath.
“Yeah, where the hell are you?” Clint asked back.
“Just make sure Tony gets away from here,” you replied. “I’m finishing this.”
You stood up and killed the bot. Ultron wasn’t dead. He still had something out there driving that thing. You narrowed your eyes, about to fly off when suddenly the ground shook beneath you and opened up, causing you to fall in. A scream escaped your throat, you couldn’t help it. You were free falling between ground, rock, roots, and now, you hit the open sky. There wasn’t enough energy for you to fly, so you closed your eyes, waiting for impact - surprised when you were suddenly in someone’s arms.
In shock, you opened your eyes to find Vision.
“Vision?” you breathed. “But what--”
“I’ll find Ultron. Mr. Stark’s instructions were clear -- keep you alive.”
All you could do was frown, but he lowered you onto a boat, next to Hulk who was slowly turning back into Banner.
You took a deep breath, looking around at the Avengers, Shannon… They were safe. The people were safe...Loki was safe… that’s all that mattered.  
The boats got onto the helicarrier, and the Avengers gathered around Shannon, who was still knocked out. At this point, you were terrified you’d done something wrong. You’d never disabled anyone like that with your powers and weren’t sure you’d done it right or safely.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, wincing at the sudden sunlight. All eyes were on her as she gasped and sat up.
“Gahh! What happened tell me? I didn't kill anyone, did I?” Shannon looked around, she was afraid that she’d hurt anyone, especially from the team. “Don’t come near me. I’m not sure I’m stable enough to be in contact with anyone.” She started scooching back and hit the back of a seat.
Tony, obviously worried about his wife, rushed to her and was looking everywhere for visible signs or injury. “Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself in any way?” He started grabbing her hands.
“No! Don’t touch me,” she shrieked, yanking her hands away. “Please don’t come near me. I don’t want to hurt you.” She hugged her knees to herself.
“Shan,” you tried, kneeling, getting on her level. “It’s alright. You won’t hurt us. You’re not activated any more. You’d never do anything to us,” you assured, giving her a warm smile, trying to scoot closer.
“I don’t know that, none of us do. I can still feel it’s inside me.” Her hands shook as she tried to move her hair from her face. “I just need to be alone. If I need anyone Stevie can help.” She looked over at Steve pleading with her eyes.
“I’ll do whatever you need, doll,” he assured with a slight shrug. “Just say the word.”
“Thank you, Stevie. For now I’ll just go rest.” Shannon got up or tried to get up but she was too weak.
“Here, I’ll give you a hand.” Bruce went to help her get up. “Let’s get you to one of the seats.” He took her to her seat.
“Thank you, Bruce, I’ll get some sleep.” She buckled in her seatbelt. “Can I have some painkillers?”
“Sure thing.”
You glanced to Tony as you stood up, worry on your face. He thrust his head over his shoulder to signal he wanted to talk away from everyone. The two of you stepped far out of hearing distance.
“I had no idea she still had that shit in her. That protocol. Those… That trigger.” Tony shook his head, no doubt blaming himself.
“I didn’t either. I thought SHIELD got that out,” you mentioned. ‘What do we do? Tony, she looks like a wounded animal,” you said, pity in your voice. “She’s terrified to even look at us.”
“I know,” he noted before chewing on his lip, watching his bride. “What do you say we take her back to the X-Men? They were making some headway before, right?” he asked.
“Yeah. Her powers are still killing her,” you reminded. “Every time she uses them, and she just let a canon loose,” you remarked. “She needs to be healed.”
He nodded. “Yeah, no, you’re right. We’ll get the rest of the team back to the tower and then I’ll take her to the mansion.”
“We both will,” you asserted softly. “You’ll need to bring Bruce too,” you said.
“Banner? Why?”
“He comforts her. He’s been her primary care doctor. If you’re going to take Shannon there, she’s going to want Bruce by her side too,” you stated matter-of-factly.
“Okay, you, me, Banner, and Shannon will go to the mansion,” he corrected, with a bit of an eye roll.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tag List: @essie1876 @magpiegirl80 @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @iamwarrenspeace @marvel-imagines-yes-please @superwholocked527 @missinstantgratification @thejemersoninferno @rda1989 @munlis @thefridgeismybestie @bubblyanarocks3 @igiveupicantthinkofausername @kaliforniacoastalteens @feelmyroarrrr @kaelingoat-blog @friendlyneighbourhoodweirdo @damalseer @heyitscam99 @yknott81 @sorryimacrapwriter @glitterquadricorn @xxqueenofisolationxx @little-dis-kaalista-pythonissama @bittersweetunicorm @alyssaj23 @sea040561 @princess76179 @thisismysecrethappyplace @sarahp879 @malfoysqueen14 @ellallheart @breezy1415 @marvelmayo @random-fluffy-pink-unicorn @cocosierra94 @hardcollectionworldtrash @capsmuscles @marvelloushamilton @paintballkid711
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UC: @lokis-high-priestess
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Unforseen Chasm (Part 48)
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Part 48 of Unforseen Chasm
Prompt: Two sisters fall for men that are absolute enemies. The love they have could tear all of them apart, or it could bring them together. Word Count: 4613 Warnings: Language, last part that deals with Ultron movie,  reader fights bff, mind control, widow protocol reactivated, song for this part: Note: This is by far the longest thing I’ve ever written (including my other fic series). first major Collab with my best friend @thorne93​​ what was first a simple “what if” moment turned into a two year writing session and I’ve never been more prouder of myself than when i started my first series. goes through most of the MCU plots there are some changes to accommodate for what we wanted and there is a bit of a crossover between the MCU and other characters. I hope you guys enjoy reading this just as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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Only two hours later, you got a call -- from Tony… This was either great news or really bad news.
“Hello?”
“You and Reindeer games busy?” he asked, his tone serious.
“No, why--”
“We’ve got a crack at Ultron, but we’re gonna need all hands on deck. I don’t like having to ask, but it may mean we can save Shannon. You in?”
“Of course, yeah, what do you need?”
“Be combat ready in five minutes. We’ll swing by to get you. We’re going to Sokovia, taking the fight to him.”
“Got it. We’ll be ready.”
You two hung up and you turned to Loki. “Get on your battle gear, we’re going to fight,” you informed.
He gave you a puzzled look but it quickly vanished when he followed your lead. He became clad in his old leather fighting gear, and you threw on the clothes Shannon had given you. A hooded robe, skin tight pants, and black t-shirt with boots.
The jet landed on the roof of your apartment and you two climbed in. No one gave you any warm looks, or nods of approval, except Clint. In fact, one face was new -- a dark red man, or… android? He had a stone in his head and he eyed you up and down with curiosity, and also… knowledge, as if he understood you. Suddenly, it dawned on you that he must’ve been what was in the cradle. Somehow, the Avengers gave him life, and trusted him enough to pit him against Ultron.
And clearly, the twins were now a part of this group, curiously enough. No one had taken the time to explain how or why they were here though.
Steve began his speech, and ultimately told you what your top priority was.
“Tony wants to take first stab at getting Ultron. The rest of us, our job is to evacuate the city. We find Shannon, we find what Ultron has been building, and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us. The people of Sokovia didn’t ask for this.” He took a moment to think, to pause. “Ultron thinks we’re monsters, that we’re what’s wrong with the world. This isn’t just about beating him. It’s about whether he’s right.”
And so it began. You landed just outside of the city, Wanda and Pietro got the civilians going, they began the evacuation and you tried to help, going to homes and apartments, encouraging people to leave. Letting them know the city was under attack. Clint found you and walked up to you as if he had something important.
“I’ve got the coordinates for Shannon, I figured you’d want to be the one to go get her. Take Banner with you in case it’s a trap.”
“What about the people?” you asked, frowning.
“We’ve got them. We’ll fight him. Go get her and then she can help us.”
“Thanks, Clint.”
He nodded. “Move your ass, kid.”
You smiled at him and ran off to find Shannon. She was in an abandoned church, where you dashed down the stairs, Banner right behind you.
“Shannon?” you whisper-yelled.
“I’m in here! He’s not here,” she replied making noises with some chain.
You immediately dashed over. “Oh thank God!” you said with a sigh of relief. “Hang on. Stand back,” you ordered. Shannon immediately backed up and you put your hand on the gate that divided you two. You charged the metal and blew it off the hinges. She ran out and hugged you tight.
“Hate to break this up, but we need to get back to the team,” Banner said from right behind you.
“You’re right,” you agreed, letting her go.
“Where are we headed and are people being evacuated?” She instantly got into Avenger’s mode. She started walking with you two through the way you entered. “What’s the situation right now?”
“City is being evacuated. There is some kind of core on the high ground, at the entrance of this church. We can’t tell what it’s going to do, but Ultron seems like he wants it,” you explained. “Tony’s going after him himself first.”
“Tony is doing what!? Is anyone else with him? Who told him it was okay to go on his own? He doesn’t know what Ultron is capable of.” She looked panicked and began scanning the area hoping to find the flying red suit of armor. “Give me a new mic to communicate with the team. I had mine taken by one of his bots.”
You fished one out of your suit and handed it to her.
“Thanks, Y/N. Alright, team it’s good to be back. Now give me an update. Cap, what’s going on?” Shannon flew off into the air to get a better look at things. “Tony, what is God's name are you doing trying to take on Ultron?” She turned to you and Bruce. Y/N, help the twins evacuate the civilians. Bruce, honey, I need my big guy to come out and help if you could.”
Bruce nodded and proceeded to remove his shirt and place it somewhere, turning to look at the two women, he winked at Shannon and began changing into the Hulk.
“Alright, big guy, go smash the robots,” she ordered the Hulk.
He smiled and ran off.
“I need to find out what he’s up to. Babe, what’s he hiding in the middle of town?” was all he said before it when quiet on his end.
“Damn it, Tony.” She shook her head and she flew back down to you.  “Alright, Y/N, let’s go get ourselves a slice of this fight.”
“Sounds good to me,” you said with a firm nod.
“Shannon, it’s good to have you back. We’re in the middle of town, the twins are helping evacuate the people--” he got cut off while fighting a robot.
“The twins? As in the Maximoffs, they’re helping us now?”
“Yes they seem to have taken Clint’s words into consideration and have decided to help us,” Natasha responded from some other part of the town.
“Alright we’re heading over to the center and see if I can get any of the people out of there.” She flew back up into the air. “You’re welcome to join me or any of the other’s if you want, Y/N/N” Shannon waved at you to come up with her to the sky.
“I’ll go wherever you need me,” you responded into the coms. “Do we need combat or civilian evacuation? Someone tell me where you want me to go, and I’ll go.”
“Come give me a hand getting them on the carriers. I can only do so much with my arrows,” Clint says. “I’m near the hospital. There’s too many people to get evacuated from here.”
“On it,” you said quickly before launching off, using your powers to lift you off the ground. To your knowledge, Loki was fighting off robots near the church, using his illusions and tricks. Normally, you’d be worried for him, but a fight like this was nothing compared to battles he’d faced in Asgard. Not to mention, you couldn’t be your best self if you were too worried about him. So you put your faith in your beloved and found Clint. “You get the people on the boats,” you said before lifting your hands, your power extending from your fingers. The dark purple power electrified twenty bots at once, disabling them. “While I stay here and fight.”
Clint stared at you for a second, befuddled. “Looks like you’ve got it,” he said before running off.
You laughed slightly before going into battle mode, slinging robots with your power, charging nearby items and throwing them, electrifying anything flying above you.
After five minutes of fighting, all of the Avengers and you and Loki made it back to the main part of the church, asking Stark what the drill was. To this, he informed you the core was important. If Ultron got to it, it meant you lost. This was your ultimate mission now. All of you guarded it with your life, surrounding it, readying yourself for whatever Ultron had planned.
“Is that the best you can do?” Thor yelled as the last robot got destroyed by Hulk as he entered where the drill was located.
Ultron stopped trying to get close and in an instant called all his robots to where he was.
“You had to ask,” Steve remarked toward the god.
“This is the best I can do.” Ultron began saying, spreading his arms wide to show his army. He pointed to everyone around the drill, stopping right at Shannon. “This is exactly what I wanted, All of you against all of me.”
Shannon seemed to harden her gaze and began to walk towards Ultron and turned to face everyone else, her eyes were looking directly at you. There was something unreadable in her gaze. It confused you. You’d never seen that look on her face before.
“How can you possibly hope to stop me?” Ultron smirked, watching as everyone was confused as to why Shannon was moving away from them. “When your two strongest are going to fight head to head to survive.” He flicked his wrist and Shannon charged at you, completely emerged in the dark swirls of her powers.
Everyone was fighting off the robots as fast as they could to try and contain Shannon from doing damage to anyone.
Your eyes went wide as you tried to dodge her oncoming attack.
“Shannon, stop!” you screamed. Suddenly, deja vu hit you. You’d been here before, only before, it was Shannon begging you to stop attacking her and New York. You were brainwashed so what was making her… Suddenly it hit you… The Red Room. Her training had been a mixture of Natasha’s and the Winter Soldier’s. This would be hard to crack.
“Shan,” you begged, backing up, stopping your powers from attacking her. “Listen to me. You don’t want to do this. He’s in your head. Don’t let him win,” you pleaded. But she kept stepping towards you, forcing you to back up. You didn’t want to fight her. Not again. Why was everyone always trying to pit you two against each other?
Shannon kept quiet, only the slight grunt here and there from throwing her powers at you. Seeing as this was leading nowhere, she jumped and threw herself into you at full force, knocking the wind out of you. “Why won’t you fight me? Too scared because you’ll know I'll beat you?” She smirked and threw a punch after punch at your face, which hurt like hell. “You always were a pathetic little thing needing someone to keep you safe.” She laughed not even caring that she had gotten blood to come out of your mouth.
You closed your eyes in frustration before letting your body electrify itself, blasting her off of you. You stood up wearily. “Please… don’t do this.” You held your hands up, ready to defend yourself.
“Get up, Y/N.” Shannon stood up, not getting thrown too far. “GET UP!” She laughed. “What happened to us fighting to see who really was the strongest?” She ran towards you pushing you into the wall of the side of the church.
“I don't have anything to prove, Shannon,” you grunted, staring her down. You tried to push her off but she was just too strong.
“And why not? Aren’t you tired of living in everyone's shadow?” She kept pushing, causing the brick to crack around your body. “Show me those Asgardian powers of yours or are they really just those hat tricks your little Loki can do?”
Your eyes grew dark as you glared at her. “Tired of people thinking the wrong things,” you said with a huff before finally pulling some power. You put your hand on the bricks beside you, charging all of them and blasting the wall at her, effectively getting her off of you, but that was it. It only backed her up a few steps. You spit out some of the blood pooling in your mouth. “We don’t have to do this. You’re the strongest. There, I admit it,” you tried, holding your hands up in defeat.
Your eyes flashed to the team, they were all so busy fighting Ultron and the bots, they couldn’t watch you two as well. You just needed to keep Shannon on you if you could, or hopefully wake her from this.
Shannon brushed the dust off her face and hands. “Oh, Y/N, poor little Y/N, always so quick to admit things rather prove your worth. It’s no wonder Thanos was able to manipulate you so well.” Her eyes began to change to their milky white with swirls of red. Causing the sun to disappear.
Some of Ultron’s bots had shown up and had begun to grab ahold of you but they failed to do so.
“Shannon, no!” you screamed, lunging at her to knock the sense out of her. “Don’t!” you said, not thinking, only reacting. Your hand went to her head, all of your energy electrifying her scalp. At first, a scream ripped from her throat, causing Loki and Tony to both look your way. But then her senses overcame your power.
“You think your little shocks will stop me!? It’ll have to take much more than that.” She changed shape becoming Loki. “Love, please don’t hurt me.” His voice came out of her mouth, she laughed watching your expression change.
You knew it was a trick. She transformed in front of your very eyes. You could see your real mate across the field. Tears formed in your eyes.  But Loki or Shannon, you couldn’t hurt the person standing in front of you. You took a deep breath and stood up, relaxing your shoulders.
“You’re right, Shannon. It is going to take a lot more to defeat you. And I don’t have it in me. So you’ll have to kill me. I’m not going to fight you.” You let down all of your guards, all of your defenses, going against every survival skill you’d picked up throughout your entire fucked up life. You couldn’t hurt or kill Shannon. Your power against hers, maybe you could slow her down, maybe you were a match for her -- but you didn’t want to be. Hurting her was not worth it.
“You’re no fun. Let’s kick things up a notch. If you won’t fight me like this, then let’s see if you will for the sake of his life.”  She pointed to Loki as he was lifted up into the air by multiple bots. Shannon turned to him and was charging up her hands with electricity and there was black and red swirling smoke surrounding her. “Will you save his precious life, or will you stop me for the sake of making a good impression on the team?” Her hands began to close and Loki struggled to move and breathe. She was crushing his windpipe with the smoke.
As much as you wanted to fight it, you wanted to hold her off and save him, your brainwashing was still in there. All it took was the pained look on Loki’s face to fully trigger you. You closed your eyes, taking a deep breath, and when you opened them, a white purple glowed inside them.
You ran and hurtled over Shannon’s head, standing in front of her and blasting her back with your powers nearly at full capacity - dark energy and electricity slammed into her. The shock alone could’ve made her heart burst. The blast was enough to get her to let Loki go, but the bots still had him. You spun quickly, casting your energy to them, ripping them apart piece by piece, finally forcing him to fall to the ground. You ran to him, checking on him. He was gasping for breath. You knew Shannon wouldn’t be down for long so you looked back to where she was getting up.
Shannon took that moment that you were distracted to let Ultron know she could grab her. She saw you turn over to look at her but at that moment you were met with Ultron standing in front of you. He grabbed you by the neck and pulled you up and had her facing Shannon. “Now to end this at once. Finish her,” he commanded Shannon.
“With pleasure.” She got up and pulled out a gun from her thigh holster. “If you’d just fought me like you should have, your death would have been different.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Not everyone is made to be a hero, some are just martyrs.” She aimed the gun right between your eyebrows.
Just as she was about to squeeze the trigger, Loki manifested a dagger, flinging it towards Shannon. It only nicked her arm though, because Steve charged at her and slammed her into the ground.
“Banner! I need some help over here!” he shouted.
“Let me go!” Shannon screamed shocking the captain but it did nothing. “You can’t stop me. I will kill her!” She began letting her powers take control but they were no use, the shocks did nothing to him and she couldn’t take anything from him.
You electrified Ultron before slamming a spike you manifested into his cheek. He jumped back, letting you go.
“Steve, no,” you said. “I’m not worth it. Go save the civilians. Fight Ultron. Save the world,” you insisted as he struggled with Shannon. “I can hold her off,” you assured. But you weren’t sure, at all. Shannon playing fair - yes, she was a match for you. Red Room Triggered Shannon? Not so much. That Shannon had a no holds bar attitude, and could very well kill you.
All she could think of was changing into Peggy. “Steve, you’re hurting me, you promised to keep me safe.” She had tears running down her cheek.
It was enough for him to let go in fear that he had hurt her. Shannon took his shield and powered it up with enough volts to kill a pod of whales and threw it at him. He was thrown into Thor’s way.
“Looks like he can’t stop me now. Better run, little Y/N.” Her hands had swirls of fire that kept growing higher up her arms. “Fight me once and for all! Show me everything you’ve got!”
You raised your fists, letting out a breath of air. Just as you were about to unleash fury on her, Hulk came charging up, and grabbed her in his giant hands, pinning her to the ground. You ran up near him, your hands ready. “If I put any power into her, she’ll just use it on you,” you informed, standing beside Hulk. Your eyes scanned quickly for Ultron, but he was back, preoccupied with the rest of the team. At least you had that.
She was screaming, fighting Hulk. You knew he was powerful, but even Shannon could kick things up to the point of getting him off of her. You’d never done this before but you decided to aim your powers in a different manner. The energy trickled from your fingertips calmly into her head, slowly making her vision, hearing, and smell go, disabling her.
Shannon struggled to get the giant hand to let go, he seemed to flinch at the waves of electricity but she seemed to have lost the ability to keep shocking him. Frustrated, she tried her other powers but none of them worked. She tried looking around but her vision had disappeared as had her other senses. She stopped moving for a bit and stood completely still almost as if she’d become unconscious. Seeing her limp form in his hand, Hulk stopped squeezing too tightly, fearing that if he had hurt her too much the doctor would get mad at him.
“Boss, your wife’s vitals have dropped some and she’s gone unconscious,” FRIDAY told Tony inside his suit. He stopped everything he was doing and spun in the air to check on her. “She’ll be fine, but we gotta get Ultron or she won’t be.”
“Right,” he agreed, as much as he didn’t want to leave her. Ultron had sicced all of his bots on the team now, they were scattered, but now it appeared the core was the main objective. The city was already floating, and the team was working hard to figure out how to keep it from exploding and ending the world. There were boats loading the leftover citizens. Now that Shannon had appeared unconscious, you focused your energy elsewhere, deciding to help the team.
“Are you alright?” Loki asked, a bad bruise forming on his cheek.
“As soon as this piece of shit Terminator is dead,” you grumbled before ripping apart a few bots. Your sights set on the big man himself. “Keep him distracted,” you said before slinking off to go around the back of him. “Vision, keep him talking,” you instructed into the comms. Vision did just that, he kept him busy, kept him focused. While you snuck up behind him and began electrocuting him. He reached onto his back and flung you off, slamming you into a brick column. You groaned in pain but stood up.
Vision attacked him with his mind stone, casting a beam at him, while Tony hit him with the repulsors, and Thor lit him up with his lightning. You hobbled your way over to stand beside them, letting your dark energy and electricity pour out of you like a rushing river. His body began to heat up, and you could tell he was melting from the inside as you cried out in pain of trying to keep your power going at this level.
Finally, his form exploded -- but it wasn’t over yet. The bots were still coming. Wanda was manning the core, while the rest of the Avengers got people to boats to safety. You wanted to help, but currently, you were on the ground, panting.
A bot came up, one that Wanda didn’t see, because she was distracted by Pietro getting shot in the shoulder. He wasn’t hurt fatally, but at first she couldn’t tell. You raised your arm to fight him, but you were too weak, and he got to the core.
“No! Wanda!” you weakly shouted and she spun, killing it too late. The core was activated now.
You turned your head to Hulk, immediately. “Hulk, carrier, now! Wanda, get your brother and get out!” you shouted, using all your strength to get up. Hulk nodded and wasted no time picking Shannon up and launching onto a nearby carrier. Wanda ran off to find Pietro, and from what you could see, they made it onto a boat. Loki was already on a safety boat, you could see him from where you were at. A look of terror crossed his face as he realized you were still on the flying city.
“Steve, Clint, you two on a boat?” you asked weakly into the comms, out of breath.
“Yeah, where the hell are you?” Clint asked back.
“Just make sure Tony gets away from here,” you replied. “I’m finishing this.”
You stood up and killed the bot. Ultron wasn’t dead. He still had something out there driving that thing. You narrowed your eyes, about to fly off when suddenly the ground shook beneath you and opened up, causing you to fall in. A scream escaped your throat, you couldn’t help it. You were free falling between ground, rock, roots, and now, you hit the open sky. There wasn’t enough energy for you to fly, so you closed your eyes, waiting for impact - surprised when you were suddenly in someone’s arms.
In shock, you opened your eyes to find Vision.
“Vision?” you breathed. “But what--”
“I’ll find Ultron. Mr. Stark’s instructions were clear -- keep you alive.”
All you could do was frown, but he lowered you onto a boat, next to Hulk who was slowly turning back into Banner.
You took a deep breath, looking around at the Avengers, Shannon… They were safe. The people were safe...Loki was safe… that’s all that mattered.  
The boats got onto the helicarrier, and the Avengers gathered around Shannon, who was still knocked out. At this point, you were terrified you’d done something wrong. You’d never disabled anyone like that with your powers and weren’t sure you’d done it right or safely.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, wincing at the sudden sunlight. All eyes were on her as she gasped and sat up.
“Gahh! What happened tell me? I didn't kill anyone, did I?” Shannon looked around, she was afraid that she’d hurt anyone, especially from the team. “Don’t come near me. I’m not sure I’m stable enough to be in contact with anyone.” She started scooching back and hit the back of a seat.
Tony, obviously worried about his wife, rushed to her and was looking everywhere for visible signs or injury. “Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself in any way?” He started grabbing her hands.
“No! Don’t touch me,” she shrieked, yanking her hands away. “Please don’t come near me. I don’t want to hurt you.” She hugged her knees to herself.
“Shan,” you tried, kneeling, getting on her level. “It’s alright. You won’t hurt us. You’re not activated any more. You’d never do anything to us,” you assured, giving her a warm smile, trying to scoot closer.
“I don’t know that, none of us do. I can still feel it’s inside me.” Her hands shook as she tried to move her hair from her face. “I just need to be alone. If I need anyone Stevie can help.” She looked over at Steve pleading with her eyes.
“I’ll do whatever you need, doll,” he assured with a slight shrug. “Just say the word.”
“Thank you, Stevie. For now I’ll just go rest.” Shannon got up or tried to get up but she was too weak.
“Here, I’ll give you a hand.” Bruce went to help her get up. “Let’s get you to one of the seats.” He took her to her seat.
“Thank you, Bruce, I’ll get some sleep.” She buckled in her seatbelt. “Can I have some painkillers?”
“Sure thing.”
You glanced to Tony as you stood up, worry on your face. He thrust his head over his shoulder to signal he wanted to talk away from everyone. The two of you stepped far out of hearing distance.
“I had no idea she still had that shit in her. That protocol. Those… That trigger.” Tony shook his head, no doubt blaming himself.
“I didn’t either. I thought SHIELD got that out,” you mentioned. ‘What do we do? Tony, she looks like a wounded animal,” you said, pity in your voice. “She’s terrified to even look at us.”
“I know,” he noted before chewing on his lip, watching his bride. “What do you say we take her back to the X-Men? They were making some headway before, right?” he asked.
“Yeah. Her powers are still killing her,” you reminded. “Every time she uses them, and she just let a canon loose,” you remarked. “She needs to be healed.”
He nodded. “Yeah, no, you’re right. We’ll get the rest of the team back to the tower and then I’ll take her to the mansion.”
“We both will,” you asserted softly. “You’ll need to bring Bruce too,” you said.
“Banner? Why?”
“He comforts her. He’s been her primary care doctor. If you’re going to take Shannon there, she’s going to want Bruce by her side too,” you stated matter-of-factly.
“Okay, you, me, Banner, and Shannon will go to the mansion,” he corrected, with a bit of an eye roll.
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theinsideoutmermaid · 5 years
Text
Chapter 1: Tony
Marvel high school AU
Words: 2337
***
“Tony. Tony. Tony. Toneeeeeeeee—”
Tony Stark laboriously lifted himself from his exquisitely nonchalant backpack-supported bus seat slouch. Sighing, he clicked off his phone.
“What is it, Parker?”
Several rows in front of him, in the uncool front half of the bus where underclassmen are obligated to sit, Peter Parker was dangling over the back of his seat. He isn’t a bad kid, really, thought Tony, he’s even pretty smart. He’s just impossibly annoying. Peter looked positively beside himself at having gotten Tony’s attention.
“You had Ross for math, right?” said Peter, just slightly over the volume required for trans-bus communication.
“No need to yell, Petey, jeez. And yes.” They’d been over this several times, actually.
“Ev’rybody siddown,” drawled the bus driver, glancing at Peter in the mirror.
“Oh! Sorry!” Peter dropped back into his seat and instead leaned around the side, into the aisle, apparently comfortable with lying full-out across his best friend Ned. “So anyway, do you remember the logs and exponentials test? Ours is in two days and I wanted to know is it hard? I mean I’ve done well on the quizzes and I think I understood the homework but y’know transformations? I feel like I haven’t really gotten the hang of those and so anyway I wanted to ask was it hard?”
Tony spared a brief glance across the aisle at his friend Bruce, who offered the appropriate amused-but-exasperated eye roll. “I took it two years ago, bud, so I don’t even remember anymore. There was probably like one transformation. You’ll be fine, Ross is an easy grader,” Tony said, and returned to his phone.
“Oh. . . Thanks!” Peter clambered back into his seat, earning a few yelps from Ned. Tony flashed a peace sign above his head in response.
Bruce swung his legs into the aisle, leaning across to talk to Tony. “You know the kid idolizes you, right?”
“Pssh,” said Tony, not looking up from his phone. In fact, he did know, and if he was honest with himself, he even felt a little flattered at times. Mostly, though, he wished his devotee would be someone a little more chill and with a slightly lower-pitched voice. If you go onto thesaurus.com, Peter Parker is listed under antonyms of chill. Tony didn’t know whether he wanted to help the kid or shut him inside a locker, so mostly he just ignored him.
Bruce seemed to be able to read some of this in his face. When Tony looked up again, Bruce was watching him with a half-smirk. Tony flipped him the bird. It turned into a full smirk, and Bruce went back to annotating Crime and Punishment.
The bus turned a sharp corner. “I think we’re here,” yelled Peter.
“Thank you for the enlightening announcement, Parker,” said a pair of Air Jordans extending from the seat behind him. This was Shuri, who, despite being a sophomore, was indisputably the most popular person in the whole school. Also probably the smartest. She exuded an effortless cool even Tony could appreciate.
“Okay, kids, make sure you have all your things and then follow me. Will someone grab the football?” asked Dr. Selvig, AP Physics teacher and coach of the Lee High School Quiz Bowl team.
“I got it, Doc,” said Ned. As the team filed out, he grabbed the black plastic briefcase which was neither a football nor a container of nuclear codes but rather held the buzzers and timers used in the game.
Inside DCHS, the LHS kids exchanged curious glances with the strange students of their rival high school. This bit, the in between bus ride and match bit, always felt odd to Tony. Other schools were like a dimension he wasn’t shaped to inhabit. He hastily broke eye contact with the DCHS girl who had just met his stare and pretended to do something on his phone. A teacher stationed in the front lobby had told them that their home base would be room L402 and then gave directions which Tony had completely ignored. He instead followed the sound of Ned and Peter excitedly discussing Peter’s new Endor Base LEGO set (“It includes a walker and the base has sliding doors!” “Noooo waaaayy!”)
“Are four levels really necessary?” complained Bruce, stomping up the final flight of stairs before they reached L402. “We do just fine with two.”
“Yeah, well, we have 1600 kids and they have, what, 4000? And the lot’s pretty small so expanding up is the only way to go, I guess,” Tony replied.
In L402, the students dumped their backpacks in a corner. Ned and Peter set to work dragging the desks into two lines of five, then Jane and Helen set up the buzzers and the lockbox. Darcy eagerly tested each buzzer, letting off beep after beep while Shuri reset the box. Doc Selvig rummaged in his bag, tossing several pads of yellow lined paper onto a nearby desk and pulling out a stack of name cards. As he read off the names, each team member retrieved their cards.
“Bruce — Darcy — Shuri — Ned — Tony — Stephen - sorry, I mean Strange — Peter — Viz — Jane — Helen,” recited Doc Selvig.
“Can you get that— thanks, Bruce,” called Helen, who was stuck behind the desks untangling some buzzer wires.
“Alrighty then, kids, it’s the first match of the season, and we want to start off strong! We were so close to state last year—” A dreamy look crept over Selvig’s eyes, as if he were reminiscing, and the team waited patiently until he began to talk again. “-- And I think we have a real shot at making it this time. We’ve got a great team, very strong. I think we can beat DCHS, but they’ve historically been a bit tough, so I need to play our strongest members to begin with. If we’ve got a comfortable lead towards the end, I’ll sub the rest of you in. Remember, I want all of you to get playing time, but we also have to think practically. For our starters today. . . Tony, you be captain. Strange, I want you on his right and Jane on the left. Shuri and Helen get the last two spots.” Tony felt a gleam of pride. Captain. Captain Stark. It had a nice ring to it. He slid into the center seat and carefully arranged his name card and buzzer towards the front.
“Some final reminders,” continued Doc Selvig, “be quick and don’t be afraid to jump in on a toss-up, but also be sure to gauge the other team’s response time. The questions are pyramidal, so they get more specific as time goes on. Do not blurt out answers to the bonuses. Tony will report for the team unless he defers. And finally. Do not break the Cardinal Rule!” At this, everyone turned to look at Ned, who shrank two inches to hide behind his precalculus textbook.
The DCHS team arrived and filled their assigned seats; their coach sat at the head desk next to Dr. Selvig. He flipped open the question packet and slid his glasses to the end of his nose, turning to look at the assembled teams.
“Since LHS are the guests here, why don’t they go first at introductions? Please ring in and say your name,” said the DCHS coach.
Introductions were a time-honored tradition of Quiz Bowl. Tony actually had a running list of interesting ways to do introductions, some of which required rehearsal on the bus beforehand. It’s an intimidation technique, he had once explained to his friend Rhodey, who was not on the team and could not grasp why Tony had whipped out his phone during lunch to make a note of “reverse alphabetical order of middle name.” The more complicated your intro, the smarter the other team thinks you are.
Tony pressed his buzzer, watching the little bulb light up green. “My name is Tony, and I am captain—”
“Co-captain,” muttered Strange next to him. Tony paused and made a face like he was trying to inhale a grapefruit through his nostril.
“-- co-captain of the LHS Quiz Bowl team.” Technically it was true; they had voted during practice a few weeks ago and he had tied with Strange. Why there was any dispute Tony couldn’t imagine, because he was cool and smart and interesting, whereas Strange was a smart but also arrogant, condescending, stuck-up little—
He wrenched his thoughts back to the present with an effort.
“My teammates will introduce themselves in order of ascending longitude,” he concluded. Because of the orientation of the school, this was really just a fancy way of saying left-to-right, but it certainly sounded smart. Tony had checked Google Maps and worked it out with the other starters before DCHS arrived.
The other team went for the overused “buzzer speed” introduction. Amateurs, thought Tony. He sized up their captain, a reedy white dude named Josh who looked uncreative enough to have resorted to buzzer speed.
“Before we start, can we get a sc— oh, you’re already there,” said Doc Selvig, noting Viz, the ever-diligent scorekeeper, stationed by the whiteboard. He had made a perfectly perpendicular t-chart with DCHS and LHS printed on either side in his font-like handwriting.
The DCHS coach settled his glasses higher on his nose and squinted at the question packet. “Welcome to the first match of this year’s varsity Quiz Bowl tournament. Good luck to you all. Okay. . . toss-up number one. You will have ten seconds to ring in after I finish the question.” Tony positioned his finger carefully over the buzzer button, seeing his teammates do the same in his peripheral vision. “Science. The Shannon index describes this quantity entropically, incorporating evenness and abundance. The alpha type of this quantity is measured at one—”
BZZZ. The coach looked up. “Um. . . Helen.”
You got this, Helen, thought Tony. Bio was her thing.
“Biodiversity,” she answered calmly.
“That is. . .” the coach said, scanning to the bottom of the question, “correct. Ten points to LHS.”
Tony breathed out a small sigh of relief, feeling a surge of pleasure as Viz scribed a tally on the LHS side of the scoreboard. He shot a wink at Helen, mouthing “nice one.” She grinned back.
“Bonus number one to LHS,” continued the coach. “Math.” Tony sat up a little straighter. “Let p be a prime number greater than three. For ten points each. . . One: because it is not divisible by two, p must have this property.”
“Oddness,” said Tony immediately, not even bothering to confer with his teammates.
“Correct. Two: what two remainders are possible when dividing p by 6?”
Tony thought for a second. “One and five.”
“Correct again. Finally, what theorem states that three to the p, divided by p, must have a remainder of three?”
“Fermat’s little theorem,” blurted Tony.
The DCHS coach gave him a grudging nod, saying, “And that’s a sweep for LHS. Toss-up number two. . .”
Strange kicked Tony’s calf under the desks. “You’re supposed to confer with us for the bonuses,” he hissed.
Tony gave him a winning smile. “Well, I didn’t need to. I knew all the answers.”
“But what if you didn’t?”
“Shhhhh. . . the question is starting,” Tony said, his smile brightening as Strange’s glower darkened.
LHS had worked up a comfortable lead by halftime, thanks to the abundance of science- and math-related questions. Jane and Helen were able to bolster them a bit on history and literature, because they actually paid attention in those classes, but everyone in the lineup was a STEM kid first and foremost.
Doc Selvig checked the questions packet, then checked the scoreboard. “A hundred twenty. . . Okay, guys, I think I can make some substitutions here. Ned, you go in for Helen, and Peter, you go in for Strange.”
Several things happened at once: Strange coughed indignantly, Peter seemed to float a few inches off the ground, and Tony spontaneously developed a throbbing headache.
“Doctor, don’t you think that as co-captain I should—” began Strange in the smarmy voice Tony hated.
“--cheer on the team and be supportive and cooperative,” finished Selvig, giving Strange a look. “I think Peter will be very useful in this half.” Peter’s grin looked like it might rip his face in half. Tony’s headache throbbed harder. He slid into his seat once again, trying to ignore the stream-of-consciousness chatter coming from the sophomore next to him.
“I can’t believe Doc put me in here, I mean I’m nowhere near as good as Strange, but maybe he thinks I am? Wow, could you imagine, I mean this is so cool I’m like your right-hand man, well I guess if you want, I mean—”
“I’ll make sure to defer to you if there’s a question about Endor Base, how ‘bout that,” said Tony, rubbing his temples.
“Really?! That’s sweet, I mean that’s sick, I’ll do my best. Co-captain’s seat. . .” Peter turned and flashed a thumbs-up to Ned, who was looking incredibly nervous.
It got close around question 17, but LHS pulled ahead in the end. It turned out that Ned actually liked to read a lot and was somehow a geek for both Star Wars and Shakespeare. Peter knew way more pop culture than Tony cared to learn, and, surprisingly, a ton of chemistry.
“What science class are you taking this year?” Tony asked Peter when the match was over. Peter hastily gulped down the mouthful of fruit snacks he had been chewing on.
“AP Chem. They let me test into it,” he replied, a hesitant sort of pride manifesting on his face.
“Really?” Tony tried to keep himself from looking impressed. After a few moments of warring impulses, he softened. “That’s pretty cool, Parker.” The kid turned the color of a tomato, stuttered a sort of thanks, and dashed off to relay the whole interaction to Ned.
Bruce drew up beside Tony, smirking again. “He’ll pop the question any day now.”
“Shut up,” Tony said, punching Bruce in the shoulder. But he smiled when he was sure no one was watching.
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likos064 · 6 years
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The Reasons Behind the Musings
The following exchange takes place in the comments, but I thought I’d repost it here because it explains a bit about my motivation to post Musings of a Newbie. I would also like to apologise for not responding to the other answers I have received. 
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. It was really kind of you.
I thought I’d explain a bit more why I chose the questions I did and respond in turn to your answers.
Every question is motivated by a specific complaint that I saw on my dashboard during season 11 of The X-Files. One continuous complaint was how many horrible things have happened to the characters, especially Scully, since the beginning of the show. The reason why I asked about the ensemble cast is because I believe that some of the abuse heaped on the characters is due to the size of the cast. When John Doggett and Monica Reyes joined in seasons 8 and 9, they were tormented quite badly as well. And every time the focus turned on Skinner he had to endure all sorts of torture. However, quite a few were upset when they found out that one episode of season 11, Kitten, would primarily focus on Skinner and his back story. And the addition of the characters Einstein and Miller was mostly met with disdain. 
Furthermore, you pointed out one downside in that the actors became exhausted with the amount of work they had to put in due to the limited cast. It also meant that they couldn’t easily pursue other projects while doing the show, and had to be nearly paranoid about possible injuries or illness. Some of it was mitigated with the use of cell-phones in season 2, as David revealed while they did press for season 10 - both didn’t always have to be available at the same time. However, some storylines were directly motivated by the actor’s availability e.g. Scully’s original abduction being due to Gillian’s pregnancy and the delivery of Piper, Mulder becoming an absentee father due to David leaving the show, and Scully staying behind with William, despite the the clear threat against the child, due to Gillian’s contract for season 9.
2nd R: A pattern that shows up continuously on my dashboard is that when the show doesn’t provide what people want - mostly lack of confirmed romance, no kissing etc., or the storyline goes in a direction that is less than desired e.g. continuous storylines centered around Scully’s fertility and reproduction, they will attribute it to the lack of female input. Therefore, I was curious as to what that would mean in practice. The current commentary is too abstract for me to understand what is meant. However, I do agree that a more diverse and inclusive writing and directing pool would lead to a more welcoming working environment, and The X-Files certainly worked as a springboard for a lot of careers e.g. Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon - Homeland, Frank Spotnitz - The Man in the High Castle, Vince Gilligan - Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul. 
3rd R: I will have to disagree with you when it comes to FOX being willing to end the show if Chris Carter wanted to. As I mentioned before, there was a plan for a movie franchise, even if it did not come to pass, after season 5. There were also attempts to end everything in season 7 e.g. closing up the storyline with Samantha, getting rid of the Cigarette Smoking Man, and season 8 e.g. forcing Mulder permanently, at the time, off the X-Files, tying his storyline and motivation to William and giving Mulder and Scully one perfect moment of happiness in Existence, which is probably the least cliffhangery season ending we’ve received. FOX ordered one more season, as the numbers went up again following David’s return, when Mulder came back from his abduction. David’s contract had already ended and he was not willing to extend it, while Gillian signed up for both season 8 and 9 at the same time to achieve parity in pay. Chris Carter was set to leave, however, he stayed for Gillian, whom FOX demanded complete her contract. At the moment FOX has still not said whether there will be one more season or not, though I suppose after their acquisition that is now up to Disney. Thereby not saying that Chris Carter doesn’t have a monetary gain in continuing, however, as far as I can tell it has never been solely up to him as to whether there will be more or not. At a Paley conference in conjunction with the second movie, I Want to Believe, he explained the difficulty in planning when you never know who will be available to you in terms of writers, directors, and actors. Furthermore, they never knew if they were going to get another season.
Last R: While I agree that there was lack of women involved in the show there are still quite a few that could have commented. True, there were only two female directors during the original run, one in season 7 and one in Season 9 Episode 7 John Doe, as you already mentioned, and at that time David wasn’t around in any official capacity. However, the reason I used Joel McHale and Robert Patrick as my examples was because they spent a comparatively short time on the show. Robert Patrick got added in Season 8 and made 40 episodes, with his last being Season 9 Episode 19-20 The Truth. Annabeth Gish as Monica Reyes appears in Season 8 Episode 14 This Is Not Happening, and appeared in 26 episodes during seasons 8 and 9. She would have had a couple of episodes with both of them together, and she was there for both Season 9 Episode 16 William and Season 9 Episode 19-20 The Truth, when David was on set as he directed the former and came up with the original story together with Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter. She was also there for season 10 and 11. Joel McHale only had two episodes in season 10 My Struggle I and My Struggle II, and one in season 11 My Struggle IV and he still commented on it. Martin Landau was only in The X-Files: Fight the Future and had only scenes with David and still compared them to Spencer Tracy and Kathrine Hepburn. 
Furthermore, there were a few recurring female characters. Sheila Larken as Margaret Scully joined in Season 1 Episode 13 Beyond the Sea and has a total of 17 episodes through seasons 1-5 and 8-10. She is also married to R.W. Goodwin who worked on the X-Files during its Vancouver years as a co-executive producer, executive producer, director and writer. Melinda McGraw as Melissa Scully joined in Season 2 Episode 8 One Breath for a total of 4 episodes, her last appearance being in Season 5 Episode 6 Christmas Carol, though David was absent as he was promoting Playing God with Angelina Jolie. One might even count Megan Leitch, the actress who portrayed Samantha Mulder as an adult. Her first appearance was in Season 2 Episode 16 Colony, and her last Season 7 Episode 2 The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fait making it four episodes in total. Admittedly she had hardly any scenes with Gillian, but she was in episodes where they both appeared. Or even Rebecca Toolan as Teena Mulder, who also first appeared in Season 2 Episode 16 Colony, and came back in episodes through seasons 2-4 and 7 with Season 7 Episode 11 Closure being her last episode, bringing her up to ten episodes. 
Laurie Holden as Marita Covarrubias was introduced in Season 4 Episode 1 Herrenvolk and became fairly recurring during season 4 and then appeared more sporadically during seasons 5-7, her final appearance was in Season 9 Episode 19-20 The Truth for a total of ten episodes. Veronica Cartwright as Cassandra Spender appeared in Season 5 Episode 13 Patient X to Season 6 Episode 12 One Son making it four episodes. Mimi Rogers as Diana Fowley joined the cast in Season 5 Episode 20 The End and came back for a few episodes during season 6-7 until her final appearance in Season 7 Episode 2 The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati totalling 7 episodes.
There were also a number of female writers. The first being Marilyn Osborn who wrote Season 1 Episode 19 Shapes, followed by Sara B. Cooper as Sara B. Charno who wrote the episodes Season 2 Episode 12 Aubrey and Season 2 Episode 21 The Calusari. Kim Newton wrote Season 3 Episode 11 Revelations and Season 3 Episode 22 Quagmire, the latter with some assistance from Darin Morgan e.g. conversation on the rock. Valerie Mayhew and Vivian Mayhew wrote Season 4 Episode 6 Sanguinarium, Jessica Scott wrote Season 5 Episode 9 Schizogeny, and Dr. Margaret Fearon who wrote the story for Season 10 Episode 6 My Struggle II together with Anne Simon, the latter who worked as the science advisor in 1998 as well as during the revival. 
Kristen Cloke wrote Season 11 Episode 7 Rm9sbG93ZXJz together with Shannon Hamblin as well as worked as an actress as  Melissa Rydell Ephesian in Season 4 Episode 5 The Field Where I Died and she is married to Glen Morgan who was a writer for season 1, 2 and 4 and came back for season 10 and 11 to both write and direct. Karen Nielsen was a script coordinator for season 10 and 11 and wrote Season 11 Episode 9 Nothing Lasts Forever, and she is the one who rather gleefully announced that the whispering between Scully and Mulder was between Gillian and David and would not be revealed.
In season 11 both Carol Banker and Holly Dale directed, episode 6 Kitten and episode 8 Familiar respectively, even if Carol Banker’s episode mostly focused on Skinner. But she was also a script supervisor from season 6 to season 9, and an actress as Carol in Season 7 Episode 17 all things, which admittedly once again had less of David.
One of the reasons that I find it so fascinating is that the shipping fandom, those compelled by David and Gillian’s chemistry to pair up Mulder and Scully is mostly comprised of women. But when it comes to the show, the men seem far more impressed. Almost enamoured, or maybe its envy. Maybe they wished that they had that kind of connection with someone. Maybe we all do.
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tobyjones · 7 years
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OK KO! Episodes 6-10
I’ve wanted to keep writing about each episode, but they have been coming out so fast! Here is some background on 6-10. 
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You’re Level 100 This one comes from a Dave Tennant pitch, suggesting we spend some time on showing how Pow Cards work in this world. As I've said, we internally consider episodes 1-6 as a mini-arc about KO's first week. Knowing that You're Level 100 would end of this arc, we tried to treat it as a culmination of everything so far. We didn't know how many episodes we'd get to do at this point, so we wanted to make sure that these six would be satisfying on their own, and You're Level 100 is their pseudo-finale. This is most clear in the third act, where we see all the characters we've met so far forming into a giant fist to help KO feel like a true hero for a moment. The image is a humorously direct metaphor for some important underlying themes of the show as a whole. Stevie and Danny did an amazing job, keeping things hilarious as KO’s ego takes over and incredibly warm and fun throughout. Also we meet DYNAMITE WATKINS!
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Sibling Rivalry The relationship between Darrell and Shannon is something the original mobile game established really well, and we decided that the first episode to air after our initial "mini-arc" should focus on them. Ian had the great idea of introducing the sporty/romantic Raymond (also first shown in the game) as a shared enemy for all the characters.
This episode has some of the funniest sequences yet, in my opinion. I love the way Haewon depicts the familial relationship between Boxman and the bots, something she did previously in a 2 minute short that will hopefully release someday soon. Dave's ending scene with the zen faces is already immortal. We obsessed over it at every stage, milking its unexplainable hilarity for all it was worth. An early favorite of mine for its wall-to-wall insane comedy.
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I Am Dendy We faced a big challenge in I Am Dendy, giving a whole episode to a character who was completely new to us at the time. We spent a crazy amount of hours discussing her character and how she could fit into the show's existing dynamics, going through three completely different story premises before finally landing on this one. As you can see, it started to work when we decided to make it as simple as possible. 
When we saw the first pitch from Geneva & Mira, we knew we had something very unique. After the high-octane first set of episodes, we get a surprisingly down to earth story about two kids spending time together. Geneva & Mira did a great job crystalizing Dendy's personality. In a lot of ways, Dendy and KO could not be more different. KO follows a strict heroic moral code, and Dendy does not. Their fascination and understanding of their differences brings them together for a friendship we will see much more throughout the series.
Special regards to Jake and Mint Potion for the jaw-dropping music in this episode! Dendy's theme is probably in my top 3 songs so far.
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Do You Have Any More in the Back? The title of Do You Have Any More in the Back? actually derives from an ancient (2013?) premise that Ian wrote in his original bible for the pilot-era version of the show. The two stories have nothing in common, but it is a fun detail. This new one came from right when full time development started in 2015, which was basically a summer of me and Ian hanging out on an empty office floor and deciding what the show was going to be. A couple times a week Dave Tennant would come by to break stories with us, and I think this and an early, scrapped version of "We've Got Pests" were the first. The network liked the story, but asked us to sit on it for a bit because it's a somewhat deeper, more deconstructive look at Rad's character.
In my opinion, this is a very successful early episode that provides a pretty complete package of action, comedy, adventure, and emotion. Ryann and Parker stuffed it with countless cute, funny and exciting moments that ended up setting some important character details (and running jokes) for the future. I was extremely impressed by how they handled the emotional subtlety of the ending, which is my favorite thing about the episode.
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My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad is another episode that has roots in Ian's original Lakewood bible, but unlike DYHAMITB?, this one is almost entirely intact from what was originally written. This is a fairly straightforward Carol/KO story that gives us a great opportunity for extended badass action sequences! Much like with Sibling Rivalry, Dave and Haewon took something simple and infused it with tons of personality. The first time we saw both versions of Chameleon Sr, the room lost it. The action scenes (with plenty of extra love from Jeremy, Max and Anna) are some of our most ambitious so far. The final scenes are sweet, heartfelt and weird in ways I absolutely love.
I have no idea if I’ll be able to keep up with these, but luckily the board artists are writing some of their own great thoughts on the other episodes! 
Geneva on I am Dendy Geneva on You Get Me Parker shares his demo animatic from You Are Rad Danny on the ending of We’ve Got Pests Ryann on We’re Captured
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lnicol1990 · 6 years
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Defining Moments - Chapter 9
This has to be one of my favourite chapters of Defining Moments.
When Alex and I were creating the backstories for each character, we split up the quests in RuneScape between the three leads: Aleks, Ayla and Thom. There was one quest line I insisted be part of Ayla’s backstory, simply because of the impact it left on me:
The Sea Slug quest series, culminating in “Salt in the Wound”.
That last quest was amazing, and the horrifying implications of it stuck with me. I felt there should have been some lasting effect from that quest, but I understand that there’s only so much that can be done in a video game, much less an MMORPG where the player character must retain some level of status quo. So, this chapter was my attempt at delving into that.
Anyway, enough of my ramblings. I hope you enjoy!
Fentuary, Year 166, Fifth Age
Ayla – aged 24
Bandaged hands wrapped the cuts of fabric in brown paper before handing the parcel to the customer, coins gently passed in payment. Eyes screamed in concern, wondering how such injuries had happened, but the mouth voiced only thanks for the materials before the person walked away. If there was a last look of worry from the retreating figure, it went unnoticed.
Ayla laid the shears down on the stand before she dropped them. Her right hand shook in pain, but she ignored it as she returned the bolts to their original places in the rack below the table top. She tried not to hiss when her knuckles were touched, the bandages not padded enough to protect them.
She pretended not to notice her father’s side glances at her, pretended not to see him worrying his lip as he contemplated sending her home. She could see that it was taking all of his patience and her mother’s urgings to keep quiet about her return, and she was determined to do everything she could do so that he didn’t ask questions.
But she couldn’t keep her nightmares quiet forever. Someone would find the broken mirror in her room. They would find out.
But, for now, they didn’t know, and that was enough. She could pretend that things were normal. She could tell them that she’d hurt her hands on an adventure and she was taking a break until they healed. She could wonder if it would be better if she took up her father’s offer and join him in the silk trade.
A flash of royal purple in the crowd caught her attention and she scanned the market to locate the person, which she did moments later. She recognised the individual in the fancy getup as a fellow adventurer, a mage if the staff was anything to go by. The hair was braided into thick ropes that almost reached their shoulders, and was kept in place with a bandana. It wasn’t until the adventurer drew closer that she recognised the face.
“Aleks?” she called, grabbing his attention from two stalls away. The stand owner gave her a death glare for stealing a potential customer, but she didn’t care as the mage looked around to find who had called him. She almost raised a hand to wave at him, but quickly decided against it at the sight of the bandages, and cocked her head when he looked in his direction.
He frowned slightly, obviously trying to place her face. She, too, had changed through the years, with her hair now out of that embarrassing short bob of stylised spikes and now into a longer, more mature layered look. She waited for him to recognise her, and chuckled when he seemed to be having trouble.
“Ayla!” he finally called out. A smile appeared on his face and he approached the stall. He looked at the stand in bemusement, clearly unsure of what to make of her acting like a trader. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m taking a break from adventuring, so I’m helping Baba at his stall,” she explained with a shrug. She could barely contain her mirth seeing her friend’s face drop at the realisation of what he’d walked into. She turned to the bear of a man beside, who had been watching the pair with quiet interest. “Baba, this is Aleks. He’s the older one of the brothers I was telling you about.”
“Uh… *ahem* Nice- Nice to meet you sir,” Aleks stuttered, offering a hand to the much larger man. He almost flinched when her father laughed loudly before shaking the offered hand.
“So, you are the kebbit my küçük kuş has her eyes on, huh?” Ali asked the boy, ignoring the indignant splutter from him and the sharp dig in his ribs from his daughter. He laughed again as he released the mage’s hand and brought Ayla into a one-armed hug. “I know what you’re thinking: how is she so small when her Baba is so big? Well, I’ll tell you. She gets it from my Anne. My Anne was a tiny, tiny thing but she had a big heart, like my girl here, huh?”
Ayla could feel her face burning in embarrassment as she realised that introducing Aleks to her father without her mother’s supervision might not have been the best thought out plan. But, she had no way of going back in time to change the event, not one that wouldn’t burn her hands to cinders, so the best she could do was salvage what little dignity she had left.
“Well, I’m sure you’ve got plenty to be doing, Aleks,” she interjected before her father could say more. She could see the same level of relief at a way out on his face, and she knew that they had to move quickly before her father took charge again. “Have you been to Ardougne before? How about I show you around? I know the best inn here if you’re staying for a few days.”
“Inn?” Ali objected. He looked at his daughter in shock at the suggestion. “Inn? Don’t be silly, my küçük kuş! We’ve got room, he can stay with us!”
Ayla closed her eyes and cursed under her breath. She had given her father a captive audience on a silver platter, and she had no one to blame but herself. She sighed as she accepted that after the trauma of enduring her father for a night, Aleks would probably run to the Feldip Hills and never speak to her again.
“Ah, but we must let your Mama know that we will be having a guest this evening,” Ali announced, the decision already made in his mind, despite the fact that Aleks was hopelessly trying to assure the man that it wasn’t necessary and that he would be fine in an inn. He then reached to the box that held the day’s earnings and tucked it under an arm. “Come my sweet, we must close up so we can go home early. Your Mama will want to talk to your friend as well, after all.”
---***---
“Sorry about this. Baba always was a bit overdramatic, though lately he seems to have gotten louder,” she explained to Aleks as they walked home a half hour later. There was a moment of quiet before she looked to her friend and noticed the strange expression on his face. “Is there something wrong?”
“Huh? Oh, uh…” Aleks stalled, clearly he hadn’t realised that he was being obvious. He cleared his throat and nodded to the man in front of them. “It’s just… ‘Baba’ is a strange name to call your father.”
“Not really,” she answered with a shrug. “It’s Kharidian.”
“Oh. So, ah-ney is Kharidian too?”
“It’s ah-nay, and yes. It mean’s mama, though Mama doesn’t like me calling her that.”
They continued walking in silence for a while. From the corner of her eye, she could see him looking at her. His eyes were lingering on her hands more often than she was comfortable with. He was going to ask, she knew he was going to ask.
“So, what brings you to Ardougne?” she asked in forced cheer, hoping to prolong the inevitable. She noticed his eyes snap back to her face, clearly hoping that she hadn’t noticed his attention. “You didn’t actually say when we were at the stall.”
“It’s… a little embarrassing to be honest,” he admitted, fidgeting slightly. She looked over to him, with an easier smile on her face. It wasn’t often that he divulged embarrassing details, and she was looking forwards to teasing him. “I… heard from Sir Tiffy that you were on extended leave. He didn’t say why, so I thought I’d come and… make sure you were alright.”
Ayla dropped the smile and turned to stare ahead of them. Her body had flushed ice cold and burning hot in quick succession; the horror that Tiffy was telling people of her personal circumstances was quickly replaced with the indignity of it. She wanted to scream, to cry, to run away from everyone who had ever known her, just so she didn’t have to worry about this surfacing again.
“I’m fine,” she said curtly. She saw Aleks jolt at her tone, and her father in front of them turned for a moment to look behind him at them. She knew she had increased their concerns, but at that moment, she didn’t care. The grip of rage loosened as the Nelwyn house came into view, and she smiled in relief. She turned to Aleks, ignoring his shocked expression. “Well, this is home.”
The next few hours went by without incident. Her mother, Shannon, greeted Aleks cordially. She had been less impressed with the invitation that Aleks hadn’t actually agreed to, but assured the mage that she had no issue with him staying over. There was much talk of how he had met Ayla, what he did as an adventurer, and how he found the lifestyle. Shannon kept her husband’s line of questioning to a minimum, aghast that he treated the boy like their daughter’s suitor instead of a friend.
Soon enough it was time for dinner, and everyone helped with the preparation. Unfamiliar with the Kharidian dish, Aleks had needed help from Ayla and they sequestered themselves to a corner of the kitchen. Ali frequently approached to pester them, but was always driven back, laughing, by Ayla brandishing a wooden spoon and yelled insults in Khardian.
When everyone sat down to eat, the mood was light and relaxed. Ali even stopped pestering Aleks about when he would ask for Ayla’s hand or where the wedding would take place, and instead took interest in the mage’s hobbies.
“It is good to know you have interests, but there should be more than just your work,” Ali mentioned as Aleks spoke of his love of archaeology and how it took him to new places. When Aleks frowned, not understanding, Ali rested his cutlery and pointed to himself. “Whenever I have time, I like to go fishing. It serves me no purpose for my trade, but I find it fun all the same. And my küçük kuş? One time when we were trading with the gnomes, she learnt how to mix drinks and cook fancy gnomes foods. I doubt it helps her when adventuring, but it always brought a smile to her–”
With the clatter of a chair, the crashing of a plate and a yelp of pain, time seemed to jump forward a few moments.
Before anyone could really see what happened, Ayla was on her feet and a yard away from the table. In her right hand was a knife, bloody, pointed at her father’s outstretched arm. Her hand was so tense it was shaking, and the bandages at her knuckles were turning red. She, herself, was trembling, her body holding a defensive pose. Her eyes were wide, tears slowly trickling down her cheeks, and there was a ripping sound in her throat as she struggled for short, rapid breaths.
Nobody moved and stared at her in shock. The only sounds in the room were Ayla’s erratic breathing and the echoes of a clock in the next room. After a few moments passed, Shannon regained her wits and took a calm breath.
“Ayla,” she called to her daughter quietly. “Ayla, chick, why don’t you put the knife down?”
Ayla looked to her mother, an expression of terror on her face. After a heartbeat, she looked to her extended hand and the knife she was barely holding as she shook. It was another moment before the knife fell from her grasp, twirling, until it clattered on the floor and spun away, out of reach. Fresh tears continued to fall as she looked back to her father, still frozen in shock and unmoving, who she had been defending herself from.
His sleeve was slashed and hung at his elbow. She could barely see it from where she stood, but she knew he had a long cut up his forearm from when she had cut him in terror and desperation to escape. His hand was curled slightly, and in the right position to gently stroke the back of her head, like he used to do before she left.
The back of her head, where she…
“I’m sorry,” she whimpered before fleeing up the stairs and to her room.
---***---
Aleks stood outside the door and breathed. He knew this was Ayla’s room; it was the only one with the door closed. He’d been standing there for the last few minutes trying to think of what he wanted to say.
He’d known something was wrong, everything she did practically screamed it at him. Her parents had known too, with her father admitting that he’d tried to be as cheerful as possible for her, while her mother had remained respectfully silent on the matter, trying to act like nothing had changed. They were letting her deal with whatever was bothering her in her own time, and were waiting for her to speak to them when she was ready. Admirable, except it had allowed her time to try and repress the issue.
No one was really sure what had set her off at dinner, though the looks her parents shared proved that they had their suspicions. And, with the cut on Ali’s arm needing tending to, they had sent Aleks up to speak to her.
“Ali was never an adventurer.” “Shannon has been retired for too long.” “You’ll be able to relate to her much better.”
He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
He took a sharp breath in, gathered his courage to its sticking place, and knocked on her door. He waited for several moments for a response, but heard nothing from the room beyond.
“Ayla? It’s Aleks. Can I come in?” he called, knocking louder.
The silent response to his calls was suddenly all the more worrying, and his imagination filled his mind with horrible scenarios, each more horrible than the last. He breathed slowly to calm himself, telling his mind that he was blowing things out of proportions, that he would open the door and she would be there waiting for him. She might even have fallen asleep, doubtful, but it was a possibility.
He taking one more breath to steel his nerves, he opened the door and walked through.
He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, maybe the room half destroyed or something to that ilk. He was expecting Ayla to be standing there, waiting for him, or maybe doing something productive with her time. He definitely wasn’t expecting to see her curled in on herself at the foot of her bed. Her arms weren’t wrapped around her knees like one normally did in that position, but instead her fingers were interlaced behind her head.
Exactly where Ali had reached for her.
Aleks quietly entered the room and slowly joined her side. He thought briefly of sitting on her bed, but decided it would be better not to tower over her, and joined her on the floor. He sat there, waiting, listening to her breathing, watching her movements, looking for the right moment to speak.
“Is Baba okay?” she asked quietly, beating him to it. She hadn’t moved her head, still resting it on her knees and staring at the ground.
“He’s fine. The cut wasn’t that deep,” he assured her. She didn’t respond, but he thought he could see her shoulders relax slightly. Her breathing hitched and then calmed. He waited patiently until he thought she would be inclined to answer. “What happened downstairs… is that why Tiffy sent you on extended leave?”
“Tiffy doesn’t know what happened,” she answered, her voice soft and muffled. “He read the report, but he doesn’t understand. None of them do.”
“You mean the Templar Knights?” he guessed. There was a small nod from her, confirming his question. His bit his lip, thinking on how to get her open up, how to get her talking. Eventually, he decided to go with the truth. “I’m not privy to any reports, but my own. I don’t know what happened on whatever mission you got sent on.”
“I’m not surprised. It’s not exactly suitable bedtime reading,” she snorted derisively. “Even the quick version in the report is nightmare inducing.”
“Then, why don’t you tell me what really happened?” Aleks offered. He saw her freeze at the suggestion, and he forced himself to stay calm or else he risked upsetting her further. “You can start at the beginning, so I can follow along. Please Ayla, you’re my friend. I want to understand, at least to the best that I can.”
“You won’t sleep for a week,” she warned.
“If telling me helps you, then I think I can manage that,” he promised. “Just tell me whatever you can. I’ll try to understand.”
Aleks couldn’t help but cringe internally at his words. They were cliché and sappy, and he was certain that Ayla would have teased him mercilessly over them were she in a better state. But as it was, she seemed to take comfort in his promises. She took a deep breath, hindered by her hunched pose, and began to talk.
Her voice was shaky as she spoke, and she halted at times to recompose herself. She spoke of Witchaven, a small fishing village to the east, and of the missions she was sent there for. She told him of mind controlling slugs and of little boys who used magic to grow up. She described underground shrines and ancient doors with terrible creatures behind them. When she began to tell him of the final encounter with the monster, this slug queen, this… Mother Mallum, she recounted the events slowly and in far greater detail than anything she had mentioned before.
It was this part, he realised, that was the source of her pain, her trauma. She described everything that happened, from how Kennith used his magic and Eva being thrown against a pillar to Ezekial’s bombs and the death of Mallum’s previous host. He then realised that she hadn’t included much of her own actions, or how she felt during this final confrontation.
She was trying not to think about it.
“And what about you?” he pushed gently once she’d finished. His question was rewarded with her lifting her head off her knees to look at him quizzically. Getting her to look at him felt the greatest victory after everything she’d told him. “You said what everyone else did, but what about you? What were you doing through all this?”
“I did nothing,” she replied, returning her head to her knees.
“I don’t believe that,” Aleks shook his head, belatedly realising that she wouldn’t see it. “I know you too well, you wouldn’t just stand back and let others do the work. And you’re not the kind of person who would freeze up in terror, either, so don’t even try to sell me that one. What did you do?”
“I did nothing!” she yelled, curling tighter in on herself. For a moment, Aleks feared he had pushed her too hard and she wouldn’t speak again, until she began to sob. “I… I couldn’t do anything! Mallum had me. I… I couldn’t do anything…”
Finally, she began to talk about her part in the confrontation. She told of how Mallum had swapped the old woman, Lucy, for her. She told him how the slug queen had used her as a voice, how she had had battled the creature’s will with her own, simply so that she could speak.
“When Mallum had control, when she was stronger than me, it was like I didn’t exist,” she explained, shivering at the memory. “It was like I had always been there and always would be. It felt as if I had never been something separate from her. And when her control slipped, I was hollow for a moment before I could remember being me at all. She erased me and everything that made me who I am.”
“Blood and shadows,” Aleks swore lightly under his breath. He stared at her in horror, unable to even imagine what that must have been like for her. Seeing her cringe, he realised that she had heard him. So close to her, of course she had heard him. He had to calm her down, get her to realise that she was okay. “You’re here, though. You made it through, yeah? That thing’s gone and she can’t hurt you. You’re never going to be erased.”
“But I still see it,” she cried. Her whole body was shaking and Aleks fought the urge to draw her into an embrace. He wanted to hold her, but knew she would struggle if he tried. “Every time I close my eyes, I can see that cave she was in. Every time I look in the mirror, I see what I would be a thousand years from now if she’d kept me: old, decrepit, and begging for death. And, I can’t stop seeing it! I can’t see who I should be anymore!”
“Then who do you want to be?” he asked as he watched her sob. She paused, her breathing heavy as she tried to cease her tears, and looked to him. It struck him, far deeper than he wanted to admit, seeing the hopeless look in her eyes. He had to change that. “Who do you want to be? Never mind who you should be, or who you were, who do you want to be?”
Her breathing clamed as she looked at him. Her eyes dashed as she thought about what he’d said, what he’d asked. Her trembling slowed before finally stopping. Her crying ended and her face dried, helped by the hands she had moved from the back of her neck to wipe her cheeks.
“I want to be me, no one else,” she finally answered him. “I want to be someone who makes the world a better place, and doesn’t hide alone in her room waiting for her nightmares to claim her.”
“Sounds like an amazing person to be,” he smiled. He looked at her hands, now that he could see them, and he pointed to her bloody knuckles. “We should probably see about changing that bandage. Did you want some help?”
“I’d appreciate that,” she murmured. She scooted towards him, her knees popping as she moved. Her arms snaked around his and she laid her head gently on his shoulder. “But, could we just… stay like this for a while? The bandages are downstairs and I don’t quite feel up to facing my parents just yet.”
He laid a hand on hers.
“Whatever you need.”
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