#what if our love was so powerful it destroyed entire city blocks and brought people back to life across time + space and we were both girls

[oksana-moods]

Supernova

Summary: As the seasons passes you by, it is inevitable for you to watch the fall.

A/N: This is an AU requested by the darling @multi-muse-transect and you might find it in here. This request filled me with joy and worries at the same time, because it was hard to create a visible story in my head before trying to write it down. But I really enjoyed all the research about Nova Corps, hence it took me a little more than intended.

Warnings: Language, marvel’s canon violence… if there is any other that I should mention, please, let me know.

“You take my breath away. You're a supernova and I'm a space bound rocket ship and your heart's the moon.”

#not my pic

Carol is at a window looking at the sculptures and other buildings of Hala, she’s just arrived from a mission against Kree insurgents. ‘They're like weeds’, she thinks. No matter how hard she fights or fights back, they always come back and never learn that against the Empress they will never succeed.

The lights are beautiful in Hala, but they will never compare to the lights of the Old Earth. She takes a look at the latest reports of her home planet's reconstruction on the table beside her and sighs, knowing that New Earth will soon be ready.

Years ago, Ronan attacked Earth with the intention of destroying Carol and he did, in fact, destroy her heart. Even though she could absorb and redirect energy, she failed to destroy all the missiles before they hit the ground and then it was over. And the beginning at the same time.

Completely possessed by the grief of losing her home and loved ones, Carol went hunting for the Kree and, more importantly, for the Supreme Intelligence and, one by one, Carol brought down her tormentors until she became the Empress of Kree, residing in Hala.

Her patrols to different galaxies have been reduced as she monitors the Kree group responsible for rebuilding the Earth, chases mutineers and still rules the Empire. Her Empire. There's not even time for karaoke, she thinks, as her eyes follows a shooting star across the night sky of her capital.

Her eyes narrow when said shooting star seems to take a route, rather than a random path, because it is a celestial body without navigation. This shooting star is, in fact, very different, she observes. And, almost a second late, she notices that someone is heading right for her.

Taking her by surprise, you hit the balcony glass as if it were nothing and saw Carol's body hurl against the wall with the impact of your body. Not even spending a breath, it's your turn to be hurled against the wall when Carol fights back even harder than you.

You fight, exchange punches and blows. You notice that she's slightly surprised to find a worthy opponent, something that's still unheard of. Until today. Until you.

And that intrigues her, how could someone be so powerful without her knowing?

"Did the Kree insurgents send you?" She asks after you collide on Hala’s sky, the noise and vibrations being felt even in buildings far away from the fight.

"No." You answer. “I was sent by Nova Prime to deal with you” You barely finish your sentence, and you attack Carol again, but she's confused. She had heard of Nova Prime when she was still a Kree soldier. When she fought for the wrong side.

She then looks at you once more. She takes in the clothes you're wearing and your helmet, which covers your eyes with a blueish light but leaves your chin bare. The symbol that resembles a star painted in red on your golden helmet indicated what you are. Nova Corp. You are a corpsman.

A bright, gold insignia in a form of three circles linked in your chest shines even in the dark, showing her that you’re not an ordinary corpsman, but a Centurion. You are Nova Corps’ Commander. Okay, that explain why you’re so powerful.

"What do you want with me?" She asks without the slightest pretension to continue fighting and for the first time you don't attack, you stop and look at her. Wow, the reports of her strength and agility were consistent with what you see, but there was nothing about her beauty. Shaking your head, you answer it.

"Justice." Seeing the confused expression on Carol's perfect face, you continue. "You are crushing the democracy that existed for the inhabitants of this planet, the countless reports of an empress overthrowing entire communities have crossed galaxies."

"Justice, you say." You see her eyes flash with anger and hatred. "And what justice does Nova Prime intend to give Earth?" She approaches dangerously and you have to remind yourself to not cower under her glare.

"The Kree have destroyed my home, so I won't give them one until the New Earth is rebuilt and populated." The threat in her gaze, in her posture, was tangible. "And nothing and no one in the universe will make me concede freedom to this barbaric species."

"Being a barbarian yourself?" You turn your head to the side in a questioning tone, but she takes it as irony. Maybe it was. “An eye for an eye, as earthlings are fond of saying. Or should I say, used to like?” A kind of roar was the only warning before her fist collided with your face.

"Wash your mouth before you talk about Earth, soldier." She patched up a string of blows you couldn't get out of. "Nova Empire has always fought the Kree, why they want to protect them now?"

She was strong; you've already figured that out, but like many other very powerful beings in the universe, they tend to think they're the only ones with powers. Absorbing most of the blows and directing the energy against the empress, you use your power blast and with that, once again, Carol is hurled against the wall of her palace.

As an automatic response, Carol uses the powers of her fist and you feel the force of a thousand cannons throwing you backwards into space, grunting right after with the impact of Carol's body, engaging the fight once more.

You could tell that she was angry and, according to your studies, humans tended to be guided by such frivolous feelings. And that was something you intended to use to your advantage.

Being two beings bestowed with stamina, the fight would go on for hours until someone got tired, but if she uses her powers erratically and drenched in rage, she will be drained quicklier.

“I am the Empress of the Kree Empire! Answer me!" The tone of voice in which she addresses you makes it clear that your goal of getting under her skin is working. With a smirk, you respond.

“Nova Empire takes care of the galaxy and has balance as its main goal, your highness. To overpower other species is not our intention.” Your response seems to enrage her even more and the only reaction you got from her was more blows and more blasts in your direction.

You dodge, you block, and you realize she's getting careless then letting her guard down. And that's where you come in with quick jabs almost powerless, only to enrage her more and more. Just to remind her that even an Empress has weaknesses.

You hit the ground and certainly the people throughout the city felt like it was an earthquake. Something was off and before you could react, Carol hits you with a blast right in the middle of the chest, throwing you meters and meters into a random building.

This time, you start feeling the impact on every wall you hit. You feel dizzy, your hand is shaking, and you find yourself bleeding. ‘What's going on?’ You think as you watch Carol's figure to grow in your field of vision.

The smirk on her face is ridiculously sexy, but you barely have time to make any comments before her voice reaches your ears. "Apparently, you're not that tough without your helmet on, are you?"

You look at her hand that is carrying what was once your helmet, now just broken shards and she drops it into your lap. Without your helmet you are ruined, as is your mission.

The smirk and one last punch were the last thing you remember before she knocks you down cold.

---

Your head was about to explode inside your skull, and you blink at the light entering your cell. All that brightness was not helping your headache at all.

It's been a few days since you've been taken prisoner by Empress Carol Danvers and whether Xandar knows or has noticed your disappearance is something you have no idea of. And when Nova Prime sends reinforcements after you it won't be pretty.

Before proceeding on your mission, you had already been informed that all diplomatic avenues had been tried but completely closed by the Empress. That way, Xandar wouldn't try negotiations to try to get you back. Perhaps this would trigger a new war.

A war you couldn't afford. Certainly, you didn't want the weight of being the trigger or the spark in a cold battle of inflated tempers on your shoulders. Carol had a very short fuse, as you witnessed firsthand, while Prime could be an slayer when the situation called for it.

Days passed, becoming weeks and your monotonous existence is only interrupted by the Empress's daily visits. Visits that you don't know why she still keeps, when it's pretty obvious that you have no information to provide.

You are a member of the Nova Corp and have been sent on a solo mission to "dissuade" the Empress from continuing to rule her own empire with an iron fist. There were no ulterior motives, no espionage or reinforcements waiting in the moon not far from Hala.

You were a single, last resource. There was nothing but you and your broken form. A failed soldier.

You were standing, watching the sun shining on buildings across Hala through the small window in your cell, admiring the dots circling farther down the street, almost forgetting that each dot was a person. You wonder if Carol forgets who they are.

"Um, admiring my city, I see." You spare her a brief glance before you return it to the window. She was in a red robe with local designs, and you can't shake off your head at how beautiful she is. How beautiful she looks in red. Or any other color.

You don't exactly know why Carol still comes to your cell, but you can't lie to yourself that you don't like it. You do. But you convince yourself that any company is better than the solitude of these walls, just that and nothing else.

She is an empress after all. A Sovereign, considered by many to be evil and tyrant. But each gentle gesture towards you reminds you that her hands are stained with blood. Like yours. Your conscience doesn't seem to know which side it should be on.

"Forgive me if my boredom is exacerbated, your city is the only thing I have left to admire." You answer still looking ahead, afraid to look at her and be mesmerized. The Empress was a mystery that captivated you, as her answers were never what you would expect them to be. Just like now.

“I could end your boredom. Hala’s Summer Trade is famous across the galaxy, have you ever tasted Pluot Fruit?” Your head swivel towards her so fast it feels like a whip.

"Summer?" Quickly you do the math in your head, in this solar system the days and seasons were longer than in Xandar, so... "How long have I been kept in here?"

"Too long, Nova." Nova? What kind of nickname is this? Shaking your head, you question her. "Nova? This is not my name." She giggles and moves closer to the energy field that makes up your cell door, she’s one yard away so you can smell her perfume. White jasmine.

“I know it isn't. But I decided to abbreviate the title of Nova Corps to Nova, besides, I own this place…” she opens her arms to emphasize what she's talking about. "I can call you whatever I want, prisoner."

You decide to play her game and with a smirk on your face you respond. “Prisoner? Now, seconds ago weren’t you inviting me for a walk, your highness?”

You lick your lips when you see her face contorting in a mix of anger and something else, but what, you don't know. “You abuse my benevolence too much. Your precious Xandar never tried to open a ransom deal, you are of no use to them or to me.”

Her words crash into your chest, and you feel your heart break a little more. Months have passed and there was no sign of another corpsman coming to your rescue and now she tells you that Nova Prime didn't even try to negotiate your freedom.

You close your eyes and with small, defeated steps you walk to the window. A lifetime dedicated to Nova Corp and Xandar, to be abandoned like a stray dog ​​lost from its owners. Like someone worthless.

Defeated and hopeless, you ask Empress Carol why she still keeps you alive. Standing in the hallway leading to the dungeons hall she smiles triumphantly and speaks. "For my entertainment, prisoner."

--

"What do you think of the Pluot?" Carol's voice breaks your train of thought.

"Strangely delicious." You respond by referring to the strange appearance, as if it was a dried fruit and not completely juicy right after tasting it.

As with the fruit, such was your surprise to see Carol's interaction with her subjects. Many of them kept their distance, paid their obeisance and respects to the Empress, and continued on their way with their heads low.

However, a reassuring number of people seemed to genuinely like or even admire Carol and not out of obligation. Doing a 180° turn in the opinion you once held of the Empress, she was extremely adorable when interacting with children.

Who knew the fearsome tormentor of the Kree empire would be so… human? How can someone, who keeps a prisoner just for her own pleasure, be so kind? You wonder if they were the same person at all.

She smiles in response to what you said and you smile back, completely unsure of the reasons why you do.

After the Hala market tour went without incident, that is, without any attempt to escape on your part, Carol has granted you the right to stroll through the inner gardens of her palace. As much as you want to hate the way she plays as if you were a puppet, you can't.

You try to hate her, but each day you spend in her company makes it harder for you to deny the feeling that, gradually, grows in your chest. Then, you find yourself desperate to hang this passion before it's too late.

Your morning walks allow you to see autumn slowly approaching, little by little, with each leaf touching the ground. And if you used to enjoy Carol's garden alone, over time, the Empress's company became part of your routine.

"Why are you still keeping me alive, Carol?" You rarely addressed her by the title of empress or nobility, and she never forced you to use it, she seemed not to care whether you recognized her power or not. Nor did he seem to mind when you used it ironically.

"I like your company." She answered and that made you look directly into her eyes. "It isn't every day that I find a match." Her answer made something boil in your chest and you had to force your heart to understand that she was probably referring to the fight.

"I'm not a match for you, your highness." You spoke. "Everything special about me came from an enhanced helmet." A sad smile danced on your lips, remembering how powerless you felt when you saw it broken in her hand. You remembered how broken you felt yourself.

“Everything special about you comes from your heart, Nova.” Her tone was low and as much as you wanted, there was nothing to grasp in it. She spoke this sentence as if she were speaking about the weather but for you it just set your heart on fire.

--

Between stories from a lifetime ago, when Carol was only a human being without a single clue that the universe was bigger than her world and stories from her time adapting and training in Hala, you felt yourself slowly but surely falling for her.

The change for you was visible and you prayed it would be visible only to you. If before you thought she was beautiful, now she’s extremely attractive in your eyes. Even when choosing simple robes, Carol was always dressed impeccably.

After spending so much time together, it was only a matter of time before you realized that the Empress was possessed of vast intellect and knowledge about many different things.

But what strike you most was how funny and mundane she could be, yet, she still had that special something in her eyes that never failed in make you weak. You were a prisoner, indeed. A prisoner of her eyes.

Unlike many extremely powerful beings, Carol was humble enough to listen to your stories, and even encouraged you to tell more details about yourself. She never quite understood, but something about you drew her as if you were a magnet.

The sparkle in your eyes as you spoke about your homeland, friends, or your passion and honor in serving Nova Corp thrilled her. There were many things in you that stirred emotions in her, as well as aroused feelings that she thought she was no longer capable of feeling for a long time.

And so, without realizing it and at the same time fully aware of what was going on beneath her skin, the Empress fell in love with her Prisoner.

--

Winter at Hala marked when your quarters were no longer a cell but a room in Empress's palace. Larger than your home in Xandar, the room was beautifully decorated with art, and you could discern some Xandar artwork. You wonder if it was coincidence.

Despite being as warm as a star, Carol suggested that both of you should trade your walks in the garden for spending time in the library available at the palace. And that's how you began to be the Empress's company during her meals.

It started with lunch and then evolved into dinner and now Carol finds herself waiting for your presence before even touching her plate. ‘I shouldn't allow myself such weakness’, she thought. However, she couldn't bring herself to change or to avoid the need of your company.

--

"I beg your pardon?" You speak, barely able to avoid spilling your soup. The increasingly warm but shy rays of the sun and the many animals strolling in the courtyard tell you that spring is just around the corner. And that's exactly what almost made you spill the soup, in first place.

Carol cleared her throat, promptly speaking again, as if you had not heard her from the first time. “I’d be delighted if you grant me the honor of your company for the Spring Ball due in two weeks.” She looked at you expectantly.

Your mind was swirling as to why she would want you as her company, out of all people. She was the Empress; she could have anyone she wanted by her side. Yet, here she was, asking you to be her date.

The time in Hala flew slower as it did in Xandar, but it felt like the opposite, for the Ball came faster than you thought it be possible.

And here you were, walking down the entrance stairs in a beautiful golden gown with Carol’s arm locked with yours. Her deep green dress was marvelous and when you saw her welcoming you with that pretty smile of hers you thought you could melt.

Much to your dismay, Carol could sing just as she’d told you she could, but you never believed in her. It wasn’t hard for you to realize that you were free falling in love with her even more than you already were. If it was possible, you fell in love again. You’d be her prisoner, forever.

As the night went on, you were mesmerized by the ball, the music, and the way of life in Hala. It felt like a different life, one that very much resembled prince and princess’ tales that you heard when you were a kid.

A life that didn’t quite belong to you but looking into her eyes it made it feel like everything was possible, reachable, as if her power could create a different world. Just as she did. As ruler of the Kree empire, she created a new kingdom.

Standing in the balcony, you welcomed the cold air hitting your skin that was inebriating your senses, previously flooded by the Empress. The stars illuminated the sky of Hala making the city bellow you even prettier.

A soft touch in your hand brings your gaze back to its owner and a small gasp scape your lips when you see how close she is, even more so when you wish she were closer. “I never told you how beautiful you are tonight.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“You flatter me, your highness. You’re flawless yourself.” A small smile creeped up her lips and you forced yourself to keep your eyes locked with hers, proven to be a hard task when she started to lean into your ear.

“There is something that I wanted to tell you for a while ago.” Her hands on your waist made it difficult for you to pay attention to her words, along with the feel of her cheek touching your cheeks made your knees weak.

“You’re no longer a prisoner and you can leave Hala if you want to.” Her thumb drew patterns where it touched you and you could feel your skin burning. “You’re free, but I wish you’d stay here.” She backed down and now her eyes were boring into yours.

“I wish you’d stay here with me.” She stressed.

Your heart and head were running thousand miles per hour in completely opposite directions. The rational part of you wanted to take your freedom and go back to Xandar, even though you should find it suspicious that, almost after a year, she’d let you go. Specially after you’d learned so much about Hala. About her.

However, your heart’s been slowly giving itself to this woman right in front of you, and there was nothing that you wanted more than to stay here with her. Surely, you felt left behind by Nova Prime, but it still stings in you that no one came after you. Not even a fellow corpsman.

‘Not one that you know, for that matter.’ You shook your conscience’s voice away and gave in to your heart. The rational part of you broke at the exact same time as did your helmet.

“Carol, I…” You begin but she interrupts you by placing an oh so soft lips on yours and there is no voice to hear anymore. Nor rational, nor emotional. There are only her lips pouring her heart into a kiss and you do just the same.

Right in that moment you felt as if your heart was about to melt, maybe it would, if she hadn’t broken the kiss and rested her forehead in yours.

“Tell me you’ll stay and rule by my side.” Before the true meaning of her words could sink in, the sky of Hala suddenly shone as if thousands of stars appeared right in that moment, drawing the attention of you both.

Not long until you realized that it wasn’t stars, but thousands of spaceships painting the night over your heads, and you’d recognize those ships anywhere. Xandar was here. And a voice that you’d never forget was heard above all noise.

“I am Nova Prime and Xandar declares war to Empress Carol, accused of murdering Nova Corps’ Commander.”

‘Why are they accusing her of murder?’ You thought to yourself. It does not make sense that she’s being accused of killing you when you’re alive. Unless…

“Carol, what did you do?”

#carol danvers #carol danvers x fem!reader #carol danvers x reader #carol danvers x original character #cap marvel x reader #cap marvel x fem!reader #captain marvel x female reader #captain marvel x reader #cap danvers #cap marvel #captain marvel #nova corps #supernova #empress au #request #marvel x reader #marvel imagine #marvel one shot #marvel wlw #wlw love

[hwari-ssi]

Floraison | 4

genre: fantasy/soulmate au

warnings: it kinda gets angsty, smut (in the future)

word count: 3.6k

pairings: ot7 x reader

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

A/N: omg omg aaaaa sorry for taking so long!! honestly, it wasn’t easy writing this one because of my insomnia. i just wrote whatever came to mind, so i hope you’ll understand (you can roast me) D: oh, and there’s a surprise at the end!! lol i hope y’all won’t hate it

Jeongguk really did end up sleeping beside you after all. He couldn't bear the thought of leaving you alone. He held your small frame against his lean body, your quiet breaths subtly tickling his neck like a feather.

He'd been awake for some time now, but didn't want to go outside yet. Not when you were fluffy and warm, all curled up tightly next to him. He glanced at your sleeping face, lips parted slightly and breathing softly.

It made a lot of sense why the three of them already felt so attached to you. How your senses calmed within seconds when Namjoon touched the crown of your head earlier. You were their mate. Once a soul finds their other half, it was impossible not to be away from them.

That's what he felt for the others, and now, you. He was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of the bedroom door creaking slowly, a disheveled Taehyung peering in, still very much half asleep.

"Is our princess here?" The older asked, rubbing at his eyes which were red from fatigue. Jeongguk motioned for him to join in, wanting to stay until they had to leave the room for breakfast. The former ambled over to the bed, not hesitating to reach over and wrap his arms around you. Your scent hit him like a ton of bricks. Celestial and flowery—such a pleasant aroma.

The sudden movements brought you out of sleep, and you opened your eyes to see another stranger. Shaggy brown hair, strong eyebrows, sharp jaw, and what an adorable boxy smile he has.

"Hello, darling." His husky voice made you shiver, and the action wasn't missed by the two. Your cheeks flushed with pink, reddening even more when Taehyung brought his face closer. He held eye contact, but you couldn't do it so you turned to the other side, where Jeongguk happily opened his arms for you, caging you in when you scooted forward.

"Gguk?" His heart does a little flip at the nickname you gave him and smiles at the sight of the blush adorning your cheeks, realizing albeit too late at how you were practically attached to his hip. Had anyone else been that close, you would have felt your space was being invaded, but in this case, the faint smell of his cologne and his close proximity increased your pulse rate. Your arms were still around the boy, clinging to him like a koala, and you awkwardly clear your throat.

"Hey, no fair," Taehyung pressed his face into your hair and smiled when he heard you giggling. The three of you settled into a comfortable silence, Tae's breathing was fanning over neck, while the other's fingers danced on the small of your back, massaging the skin every now and then.

Their actions combined turned you putty in their grasp. You nuzzled your face into Jeongguk's neck, almost purring while you gave him the attention he'd been wanting to get from you all morning.

The men had smiles plastered on their faces as you continued to lavish his neck with affection. You may not know exactly what you were doing, but they did, and it made their hearts soar in happiness. You were claiming them, as your soulmates, and you were unaware of that. The feeling it gave brought you peace. At that moment, you understood each other perfectly. This is what you've always longed for. Tranquility. The stirrings of revolutionary ardour. A sort of freedom, if you will.

A gentle knock from the doorway brought the three of you from your daze."Breakfast is ready," Jin smiles at you lovingly. Taehyung almost wanted to protest, but he wouldn't want to keep you from eating. and so he forced himself up, pulled you with him and laughed at Jeongguk who was trying to fix his unkempt state.

The elder came over and took your hand, leading you out the room and down the stairs, into the dining hall. Everyone was already gathered around the table that was filled with scrumptious-looking food.

That's when the others took notice of your presence. You were indeed beautiful, just like how Jeongguk described you. Your gray eyes were what stood out to them the most. A tell-tale sign that you are one of the stars from above. Deep as the ocean, deep enough to fall in and drown, the windows to your soul were. With a simple glance, she could calm a torrid sea of heart ache. Longingly they looked at her, with the warmth of a hearth during Winter's Eve, deep in the forest wherein lovers would share the fire. Perfectly wonderful and endlessly enticing them, every blink a kiss to their soul. They almost melted at the sight.

"Jimin and Hoseok went a little overboard this time," Jin says with a chuckle. He led you to an empty chair that was next to Yoongi. He sent you a smirk, picking at your messy ponytail. "Fucking cute." You smiled shyly as he laughed softly at your reaction. Jimin took the seat alongside you and started placing food on your plate. You thanked him, and he gave you a pat on the head in response.

"These taste amazing," you said, as you happily munched on your baked cinnamon donuts. The cooking duo didn't know they were holding their breaths until they heard your affirmation.  They tried not to be obvious with their staring, but both of them wanted to see how you would react to their cuisine, making a mental note to make these again for you whenever.

You took a slug of your drink, all the while glancing at the sea of new people. To your right was Yoongi, features akin to origami. Sharp edges and angles. Cute button nose, and lips carved like a doll's. For an adorable face, he has such an intimidating glare. You turned to Jimin next, whose jawline was pronounced, lips full and pillowy, and has straight eyebrows. He regarded you with warmness, like a mother would tend to their child. and Lastly, Hoseok—the boy was sunshine personified. The brightness in his eyes reminded you of home. A heart-shaped mouth with a beauty mark placed just between the cupid's bow and vermillion border. He also has dimples like Namjoon's.

"So, darling, how did you meet the youngest of our bunch?" Taehyung asks, rousing you from your reverie. You were now aware that all of them were staring at you curiously, and it made you want to bury yourself inside a hole. You tried not to let the memories resurface, but his face flashed in your mind, making you drop your utensils. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Thank you for the hospitality, it was well received, but I should go."

"Sweet one—"

"No!" Your sudden outburst surprised them. "I should leave.. I don't want to cause you any trouble.." the stare shared between everyone went unnoticed by you. Jin carefully made his way towards your chair and knelt so he was eye-level with you. Your head was pointing on the floor, eyes downcast, and he took that as a sign you were feeling dejected. He tilted your chin up, only to see tears gathering in your eyes, making Tae feel bad.

"It's okay, little one. We won't hurt you. You can be honest with us." He spoke, sincerity filling your ears. You tried to tell if he was lying, but the way he was looking at you told you otherwise. Yoongi's hand smoothed your hair down, the motion quickly lulling you into a sense of security. You gathered your courage and responded in a meek voice, "I had a previous master, and it took me so long to realize he was treating me badly.."

The word master made bile rise in each of the men's throats. They can only imagine what horrors you went through. Stars, like you, are a kind of rare breed that is gifted by the star goddess. You harness multiple powers, one of which being pyrokinesis, the ability to command and emit fire at will. However, your inability to get a handle on your newfound gifts inevitably results in tragedy. When you turned a certain age, you emitted a burst of fire so immense that it destroyed a city block, killing your entire family and everyone else in the vicinity, having no other choice but to leave your home planet, Stellaris. That's when you turned to Asteria, asking the goddess for a new life and change of scenery. She was hesitant to send you somewhere far away, so she settled for earth, where your soulmates were. Except, you ended up in the wrong hands.

A hybrid smuggler, perhaps? breeds like you cost more than an arm and a leg. Maybe the power you possessed is what drew him in. He manipulated you, used you to fight against dangerous paranormal phenomena. You knew you had to get away—you weren't even supposed to meet him. The bastard took you against your will, threatening to send you back if you didn't listen. You lost the battle because of your naivety.

"Does anyone want dessert?" Jeongguk spoke up, trying to keep everyone's mood from lowering as they learned about your life history. "We won't give you back to him, Y/N," The elder states, eyes boring into yours with determination. You wanted to speak, but the words got caught in your throat. "You needn't worry, lovely. We will do no such thing." Jimin reached for your hand and held it to his chest. Still unable to find your voice, you settled with a small nod, making the boys smile from ear to ear.

"Here," Yoongi nudges your shoulder in a gentle manner as he positioned his fork close to your mouth. It had a piece of steak and nicely cut asparagus on it. "You need protein in order to stay strong, our pretty kitten." he says, almost stuttering as the pet name escapes his tongue without realizing it, it's glossed over though. 

You blushed, eyes turning into half-moons as your lips curved upward. "Thank you, yoonie." He'd get so soft after hearing you call him with a sweet endearment. Yoongi's gummy smile was showing, and you couldn't help the butterflies flittering inside your tummy after seeing him smile adorably. The man was usually pretty good at hiding his feelings but, somehow, he was horrible at doing that right now because you were currently in his radar.

"Alright. Since we're finished with dinner, why don't we clear the table?" Jin declared, while everyone lifted themselves from their seats. Taehyung piled most of the dirty dishes, placing them in the sink. You helped collect the cups and followed suit, watching Hoseok as he turned the faucet on with a sponge in hand. "Can I help?" You tugged on his sweater, your shy demeanor made him want to coo at you.

"Of course, little one. You can dry the dishes and Jeonggukie will put them away," The younger's ears perked at the mention of his name, reaching for a towel that was hanging on one of the kitchen cabinets and handed it you, caressing your cheek with his free hand in the process. The others observed the scene, tenderness painting their expressions. It seemed more evident that you fit in perfectly with every passing moment. You belonged here, with them.

"I'll be in my office. Got some digging to do," The elder mouthed at Yoongi, almost having trouble catching the words because he was deep in thought. Chances are, that son-of-a-bastard owner must be looking for you, but there was no way in hell they were going to give you back to him. Not if you didn't want to go willingly. The idea saddened him, because seeing how the younger ones had already taken such a liking to you, it made him feel protective.

"Would you like to watch a movie with us, Y/N-ie?" Jimin came up behind you and rested his chin on your shoulder as you dried the last bowl. Jeongguk takes the plate from your hands and presses a kiss to your temple.

"A movie? I've only ever seen one film though.." Hoseok beckons you over to him and holds out his hand. You let him guide you through the hallways, leading you back up the stairs and into a bathroom. Your eyes widened as you noticed it was huge and prettily decorated, you dare say it might even be bigger than your master's headquarters. He disappears for a hot minute to get something before stepping in, holding a pair of new sleepwear for you to use. You took the soft material from him, and smiled in thanks.

You eye at his arms, one pulling a rectangular, sheer-white cloth made of linen out of a cabinet, the other, a crystal bottle. he leans over the bathtub, turning the tap on and let water fill the tub before pouring the liquid. The sweet smell invaded your senses, automatically putting you in a good mood.

"You're all set. I put the clothes on the counter. We'll be waiting—" He turned his back to you, wanting to leave you to yourself but you cut him off when a whine left your lips. Immediately, he was by your side again, asking you what he possibly did wrong.

"Can't you stay, hobi? I don't want to be left alone.." You felt safe with him. His heart swells with pride. Although the idea of being with you in the same room, having nothing to cover your body made his heart race and face flush. He mentally slapped himself for thinking such vulgar thoughts. Now is not the time, you idiot, the voice in his head kept him in check, and he was grateful.

"I can help you wash your hair," He offered, high-fiving himself for not stuttering. "I'll wait outside. Just call for me, princess. okay?" You hummed in reply. You rid yourself of your dress, letting the fabric pool around your feet and stepped into the bathtub, submerging your body in the water and letting the warmth seep through your aching muscles, releasing all the tension.

You scrubbed at every part, making sure to remove the hidden grime found on your skin. Soon enough, your entire body was clean. Your natural glow was back. You reminded yourself to thank him later for making the water all sudsy because bubbles are always fun to play with."Hobi, I'm ready!" You folded your knees up to your chest just in time as Hoseok walks inside, not forgetting to shut the door behind him.

He sat at the edge of the tub, ready to lather your hair with shampoo when he sees the lines scattered across your back. The atmosphere turned gray. He stopped on his tracks. His gaze darkened. Of course he had to mask it—he didn't want to make you feel sad again, so he takes a deep breath, and decides to inform the others about this matter later. Your well-being was his first priority at present.

Silence fills the room as he massages the product on your beautiful locks. You didn't forget to thank him, mumbling as you relaxed at his touch. He looked at your small form sorrowfully, kept himself from asking for fear of you possibly running away. He only hopes that the time you'll open up to them will come in the twinkling of an eye.

"Everything's going to be fine now, sweetheart. We won't bring you back,"  you carefully maneuvered your body to his front, the water swishing around the tub at your movement. Your collarbones were showing, complexion looking a bit smooth, reminding him of rose-tinged ivory. You're looking better now, the pink in your cheeks much more visible compared to earlier.

"I can stay?" You bit your lower lip, shoulders shrinking. You wanted to stay here forever, but there was a strong likelihood they would change their minds. Because who would want someone broken? Someone like you?

"We all want you to stay, Y/N. Even if it means forever." Hoseok promises, running his forefinger along your jawline, tilting your head up so you were gazing into his dark orbs, slowly pulling you in like a vortex. "There's seven of us, baby doll. No matter what happens, We'll keep you safe." Why were these people so willing to help? It made you want to breakdown and cry, but you willed yourself not to."Okay, hobi." He smiled, kissing your forehead sweetly.

He pulled himself from the bathtub, the smile never leaving his face as he moved out of the room. You smiled in return as he shut the door, stretching your body in the water once more and stood, reaching for the towel, wrapping it around yourself. After getting dressed in the clothes your hobi got for you, you folded the dress and bundled it up in your arms before leaving the bathroom.

"I'll put those in the wash," Jin says as he ran into you, taking the clothes and continued his walk down the hall. You watch him disappear into another room further ahead and made your way to the living room. Upon entering, you found most of them gathered on the couch or seated on the floor, blankets covering their lower bodies.

You were glued to your spot, not quite sure where to sit. A few seconds later, The elder reappears and quietly takes your hand in his, leading you to an empty space beside Jeongguk and sat on the couch, ushering you to sit on the floor right in front of him, solving your little dilemma. You leaned back against his legs and he starts running his hands through your hair, smoothing out any tangled strands. To say you were content would be an understatement; you felt so at home. so peaceful. so cared for.

"Everyone ready?" Taehyung asks, a chorus of agreements resonating throughout the room. The boys settled into comfortable positions, while Jin's hands stayed on your locks, his nails subtly scratching your scalp. An hour later, the credits were finally rolling. Jin looked over to see both you and Jeongguk peacefully snoring, head resting on his shoulder as your quiet breaths lulled him into a deep slumber.

"We should move them, Jin. They'll wake with sore necks if we leave them be," Namjoon says, rising from his seat, gesturing at the others to clean up before lifting you from the ground. He makes his way into their shared bedroom, where four of the elders in the group sleep. He situates you on Yoongi's bed, placing an extra pillow under your head so you won't be uncomfortable whilst in dreamland.

"Sleep well, princess. You are safe here, with us." He caresses your cheek affectionately. "If he does find you, we won't let him take you."

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ

"He what?" Yoongi slams his fists on the table, anger flashing over his features. He couldn't understand. He did not want to understand either. How heartless would a human have to be to actually inflict injuries upon such precious beings like you? Just across from him was where Namjoon and Jin were seated, the former tonguing at his cheek as he tried to control his raging emotions. He was fuming. On the other hand, Jin and the rest remained dead silent. The atmosphere thickens with visible tension, each of the men taken aback by the information as Hoseok relayed it.

"Shouldn't we report this to the peacemakers?" Jeongguk turns to his elders, eyes pleading for justice. But the younger knew they possibly couldn't let this matter fall into their hands. The uproar it would cause would surely put different worlds to engage in a war. Everyone knew not to mess with Asteria's children. Because to hurt them, would mean facing one's immediate death.

"We can't, young one." Jin reaches for the younger's hand, looking a little crestfallen. "Besides, I heard the bastard got beaten to a pulp by his own shields because they simply couldn't let him step over them anymore," The elder says bitterly.

"Serves that fucker right," Yoongi scoffs, smirking triumphantly. The man must be trying to escape from the consequences of his actions, he thinks to himself, leaning back against his chair, one leg crossing over the other. At least you can live a peaceful life now, without having to worry about anything or anyone else but yourself. That's what mattered to them the most.  

The soft padding of your feet down the stairs alerted the men that you have risen, your soft sobs reaching their ears as you were getting nearer. Namjoon didn't hesitate to meet you halfway, scooping you up into his arms and hugged you for the longest time. “Did you have a bad dream, sweetheart?” He wipes your tears away with his thumb, all the while placing lots of kisses on your forehead, nose, and temples.

He walks back to the dining room, refusing to place you back down on the floor, your face buried into his neck because you were too shy to face the others. Tears continue to fall from your eyes. You’re scared, the nightmares made you terrified. “Hey, it’s okay, baby girl,” Yoongi saunters over to your side and holds your face, brushing the tears on your cheeks and gives you another set of kisses on your eyelids, the rest joining in to surround you with worried looks. “It’s okay. We’re right here, princess. You’re alright. You have us. You're okay."

You cried on Namjoon's chest, sobs turning into sniffles after a period of time. You eventually fell back asleep, with them giving you all of their soft reassurances, and Namjoon's hand stroking your hair gently. You looked so vulnerable and so lovely that it made him want to shun you from the world. Oh, what a dangerous world earth was.

But the thing is, you didn’t know you were lucky to have seven, powerful gods disguised as humans, as your soulmates.

#jungkook x reader #jungkook x you #namjoon x reader #namjoon x you #yoongi x reader #yoongi x you #jimin x reader #jimin x you #taehyung x reader #taehyung x you #jin x reader #jin x you #hoseok x reader #hoseok x you #bts x reader #bts x you #bts fluff #bts angst #bts imagine #ot7 x reader #ot7 fanfic #bts fanfic #bts poly #bts god au #bts soulmate au

[jeromesxreader16]

Such a Joker (50)

Part 49 Here

~o0o~

Jim POV:

As I come out of my office I see a large number of cops watching Jeremiah sitting calming in the holding cell. "Don't you all have work you should be doing?" I yell towards them as they scatter.

"Pardon me, Jim."

I walk over to Jeremiah raising my brows. "What is it?" "I'd like to press charges against Bruce Wayne's butler. I mean, just look at my face. I can't have my wife seeing me like this."

I scoff smirking with pure anger, "I think you look great."

"And I'd like to speak to Bruce again. We couldn't really talk before what with his girlfriend bleeding out all over him."

"You tried to prove you're better than your brother. But I'm still here. I'm searching for (Y/n), and the city's still here. You're a failure, Jeremiah. Enjoy Arkham. Your brother did. I'll be the one to make sure (Y/n)'s visiting hours will be less than none."

"Bring me, Bruce Wayne... I'll let you speak with (y/n), and I'll tell you where the other bombs are." I walk closer engaging. "We have all your bombs."

Jeremiah nods with an underlying smirk, "The maze bombs, yes. I mean the other ones. Jim, as an engineer, you expect systems to fail. So, you build in redundancies. And I am a very good engineer."

"You're bluffing."

"Am I?" He smirks at me waiting for a reaction.

"You're right, you know. I did fail. I didn't yet understand the vision I was servicing, but, I do now. My eyes are open as will yours be. When you realize I'm not bluffing, bring me, Bruce Wayne. And I'd like a coffee. Black. Two sugars."

~

"How many bombs are there? Where are they?" I challenge him again. "I want to talk to Bruce Wayne."

"Tell me where they are, you son of a bitch. Who's helping you?"

"Bruce Wayne."

I grunt, shaking my head in frustration, "You are never gonna talk to Bruce Wayne. You hear me?"

Jeremiah shrugs smirking, "Then more people will die and you will never see (Y/n) or meet your grandchildren." I look up meeting his icy eyes with cold blood. "What? You're lying." Jeremiah sighs, "My wallet, right sleeve, forth slot, a sonogram photo of my two twins. I don't bluff, Jim. Why do you think I ask for your blessing? Wouldn't want your daughter unwed and knocked up, huh? But once again you resented her happiness, and she ran right into my arms. You never were good at holding on to what you care about, were you, James?"

~

Bruce finally walks in as I'm strapped to the dolly awaiting transportation to Arkham. "Hello, Bruce. It's great to see you."

"Where are the bombs, Jeremiah? Where is (Y/n) Gordon?"

"Closer, please."

As Bruce teds near I speak again. "Tell me. How is the young lady doing?" Of course no reaction. I smile switching subjects, "You know why we're destined to be best friends? Because we're very much alike. You are as I used to be. At war with your true nature. You must truly embrace it if you ever want to be free. I'm just trying to help you."

"Trying to help me? By torturing Alfred? Trying to destroy Gotham?

By shooting Selina? You think we're alike because there's a darkness inside both of us. But the difference is, I know how to control mine."

I scoff smirking, "I think you could be so strong. I see it. He sees it too." Bruce looks at me confused walking closer. "What do you mean, "he"?"

"Where are the other bombs?"

I roll my eyes looking up at the camera playing the game, "What bombs?" "Bombs you planted around the city. You blew up the Mayor."

"Ah, that bomb. Yes, that was the only one. But it did what it had to do. It got you here."

"You said, "he." Who do you mean?"

I smile gasping at Bruce. "The one who opened up my eyes. Who showed me that everything I was doing, was not to create a Gotham of my own for (y/n), and I, But yours, Bruce. The Gotham you need. Your dark island. And it will come to be, Bruce. Tonight."

"Tell me his name," Bruce demands empty-handed.

"What did the doctors say? Will the little bitch ever walk again? What vertebrae did I sever? I was hoping for the lumbar..." "TELL ME HIS NAME!" I laugh at his anger. "You already know his name. You're his heir."

Bruce gasps letting my suit wings go. "Ra's al Ghul... No, it can't..."

"Shh." The lights flicker as the room goes dark and I am freed from this hold.

~

Enter the building I see (Y/n) waiting with Ra's, overlooking the old city. "Jeremiah! Ra's was just telling me he could marry us!" I grin walking over as the men get Bruce ready for the arrival.

"Could you?" Ra's nods smirking, "Just say when my boy. I can-" "Now." I pull out two solid gold bands passing mine to (Y/n). "You're prepared." She giggles. "I've been waiting."

Ra's chuckles offering off a quick blessing to us as a couple. "Do you Jeremiah Valeska take (Y/n) Gordon as your lawfully wedded wife?" "I certainly do." I grin watching my love. "And do you, (Y/n)-" "Yes." Ra's gestures between us chuckling. "Wonderful, you may kiss your bride, Mr. Valeska."

I scoop her in my arms kissing her deeply. I pull away as the men waltz a masked Bruce into the room. "Ah, hate you missed the ceremony, friend." I walk over pulling the bag off of his head.

"How did you two..." "Find each other?" Ra's finishes, "I'd like to think it was you, Bruce. You brought us together."

Ra's turns to me and (Y/n) as we look at the city. "I trust things went smoothly?" "Like clockwork. Did your men retrieve my bombs?" "They are en route to their positions as we speak. From here, we can take in the full majesty of Gotham's destruction."

"You're both insane!"

Ra's shakes his head in disappointment, "I know it's difficult to fathom, Bruce. But Jeremiah and I are doing this for your benefit."

"How is destroying Gotham supposed to help me?"

"Because I had a vision. That out of this crucible of blood and fire will rise the Dark Knight that your city needs. That I need."

I scoff pulling away from (y/n) and joining Bruce and Ra's. "To be honest, Bruce. Prophecies, visions. Not really my cup of tea. But our friend revealed something to me. That my twin obsessions, rebuilding Gotham and rebuilding you, are one and the same. You're the brother I never had. The one Jerome never could be. We will create a legacy in this city. Gotham falls. We rise. Together."

Barbara walks in passing each of us towards Ra's. "Oh, hey, Bruce. Freak. (Y/n), looking beautiful!"

"Hello, Barbara. I'm really glad you came." She sighs shrugging. "Bad news, baby. I'm not leaving. Gotham's in my blood. And I don't think I can let you leave either. You see, you say you're leaving. But I've got a feeling you're gonna be back. And I don't like looking over my shoulder."

"Need I remind you, Barbara. You've already tried using that knife. And also, you're outnumbered."

She hums smiling "Hmm. That Demon's Head is really not working out for you, huh?" Suddenly Oswald yells striking us and the fight breaks out quickly.

Tabith tackles me to the ground as I search for (Y/n) in a blind panic. She holds her knife to my neck sneering, "So you know, this is for Selina." I flip her overtaking the blade from her and pressing it to her skin. "In that case, it must be very disappointing for you to be dying like this." She smirks and moves her arm. "I'm not talking about you." She pulls her trigger making me search where the bullet traveled.

The bombs go off destroying the city as my wife falls bleeding from the bullet that pierced her. "No!" I growl rushing over. She cries holding her chest. "Jer-" "No, no, don't speak. You're going to be fine." The city burns down as my love's life source lowers.

"You're going to be fine, love. We're all going to be safe. Tomorrow is a new day,"

~

Staying by her bedside the entire night as the doctors work to remove the bullet, and stabilize her and the babies. "She should wake soon, Sir. The children are healthy. She's lucky it wasn't any closer to her heart." I nod boring my eyes into her face.

"Thank you, Doctor."

(y/n) mumbles and opens her eyes slowly. I smile leaning over, "Rise and shine, beautiful." She looks up at me confused, then looks down at her chest gasping, "That bitch." she sneers growling and trying to sit up. "No, no, don't try that." She gasps, putting a hand on her belly. "Jer-" "They're alright, doll. You're very lucky. All four of us are."

She looks over to me putting a hand on my cheek. "What do we do now, Jeremiah?" I smile rubbing my hands on her stomach. "Now, my love, we enjoy our marriage, and wait for our children." Her cheeks glow as I speak of our children. "I love you, Jeremiah." "I love you too, Mrs. Valeska. Always."

~ Day 87~

I sit at the radio discussing yet another call on the state of Gotham to the officials over the bridge. "Your people have decided to ignore evacuation orders." "No, no, no, no. It is clear you don't understand." "What's to understand, Mr. Gordon? I'm afraid you're making your-" "For the last time... after the bridges blew and the government declared Gotham off-limits, the city was up for grabs. Given over to criminals and murderers. New territory is controlled by whoever has enough power to hold it. I mean, we have Penguins in City Hall, for God's sake. Barbara and the Sirens control an area around their club. It's the only place in Gotham not suffering for food or booze. Barabra trades mostly for information. It's women only, but men can buy windows of time. To the west Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow. Victor Freeze is further north warring with Firefly. And to date, there have been no confirmed sightings of Jeremiah Valeska, or my Daughter, (y/n). Then there is us. The GCPD controls a ten-block area around the precinct, where we feed and protect 150 civilians. That number could grow as who knows how many others are trapped around the city. These are innocent people who couldn't get out. The Government has a duty to protect them. You have a duty to help them." I finish waiting for the response.

"We've been over this time and time again. No one is allowed in or out of Gotham."

"People we are protecting are not criminals." "And anyone who stayed after the evacuation order is no longer the government's responsibility." "We're surrounded by hostile forces. We are running out of food, ammunition. There are children here. You need to evacuate them." "A committee is being formed regarding the situation in Gotham."

I huff shaking my head. "At least let us resupply ourselves."

"We understand the situation."

"You DON'T understand. If you did you would do something. Just say we're on our own." The radio waves stay silent as no response comes through. I nod gruffly and turn off the communication.

I look to the corner of the desk seeing a photo of (Y/n), along with the photo of the unborn twins. I sigh holding them to my heart. "Please be okay."

~

"I like Jeremy," Jeremiah says as we relax on the couch together. "And for a girl?" He hums thinking. "What if we stuck with the J name? I kinda like Juliet." Jeremiah looks at me smiling. "I think that's lovely."

I stroke my small belly with love. "I just want them here already." Jeremiah laughs kissing the top of my head. "They'll be perfect."

~

Months pass of us hiding, gaining followers, and then finally start to dig under the city for our escape. Fully 6 months pregnant and things are just seeming harder. "You're sad," Ecco says frowning. She scoots over massaging my shoulders. "Tell me what's wrong." I sigh stroking my stomach feeling a wash of sadness. "I miss my dad. I hate to say it, but I do. These kids won't have a Grandpa." Ecco nods sighing dramatically. "I am so sorry, (Y/n). I wish I could help." I smile leaning my head on her shoulder. "How's that bullet feeling in there?" I tease as she giggles. "It's still rolling around in here!" She shakes her head, knocking the loose pieces in her brain. "I still can't believe you did it." She shrugs giggling, "Anything to help you, (Y/n)."

"Come on, let's see how the boss is. It's been a while since I've seen the progress."

Ecco helps me down the steps into the area where they're digging the large tunnel. "Wow! Looks, good everyone!" I yell, making the workers greet me with forced smiles. "Darling." Jeremiah clams walking to me, placing hands over my stomach with a grin. "Ecco, you're not supposed to bring her down here. It's dangerous." He glares at her. "Jer, I wanted to, she was obeying me." He reluctantly nods waving her away.

I switch the radio station finding a slow song and smiling. "Dance we me, Jer." I grasp his hand swaying with him to the music. "We're close aren't we?" I nod laughing. "Just three more months, Jeremiah." He shutters with a smile. "I can't wait." 

#jerome #jerome x reader #jerome valeska #jerome valeska x reader #jerome valeska imagine #jeremiah valeska imagine #jeremiah valeska x reader #jerome valeska smut #Gotham #Gotham City #gotham cast

[megashadowdragon]

ironwoods tragic fall from grace

comments on youtube

When a hero becomes the villain, all hell breaks loose. Especially when the fallen hero is general of the Atlesian army.

The only thing that I noticed was that Ironwood has constantly grown a Beard as time passes. He's slowly decending towards from Hero to Villain as a "Fallen Hero" Catagory. James Ironwood WAS a good man, utterly dedicated to protecting his people. It was with the best of intentions that he charged down the path he’s taken... but you know what they say about good intentions.

I didn’t think his semblance was much of a factor into his decisions before Vol 7 but now as he’s become more unhinged every chapter, it’s becoming even more strikingly obvious that he’s become a slave to it. The fact that his semblance increases his resolve to go through with bargaining with Watts, willing to blow up Mantle just to save Atlas.

He's like the antithesis of Leonardo Lionheart

You know, this is a really good counter for all those people saying Ironwood is suffering character assassination. He's not. He's giving in to fear and letting his worst aspects take command.

I’m personally asking again why would the writers talk about something like Ironwood’s semblance outside the show when for the most part the majority of people only watches the show, that’s like how the Russo brothers (the writers and directors of Avengers Infinity War and Endgame) choose to answer the hows and why on Twitter when the majority of people are only watching the movies I personally love those movies but it also would’ve been nice to see those things get explained or talked about in the movies just like how it would be nice to at least mention Ironwood’s semblance in the show

Honestly, I love what they're doing with Ironwood. His slow, inexorable descent into extremism is a wonderful exploration of how an idealistic person who believes themself to be the hero can tumble into villainy without trusting others to keep them grounded. It's the very real problem of the philosophy of "The ends justify these particular means;" if you can justify one morally gray decision to achieve a good goal, it gets easier to justify the next, darker gray decision. Without someone outside to call you on your bullshit, you're eventually justifying genocide because it will be for the "greater good."

Ironwood is literally the Darth Vader of RWBY. He starts of as a respectable character, commanding his own army for the good of all. But he gives in to all of his fears, looses a limb or 2, and slowly turns misguidedly evil, willing to kill ANYONE who stands in his way.

I've said before that Team Rwby is a foil to the Headmasters. Ruby keeping secrets like Oz, Leo/Blake, the faunus who ran away when things got hard, and Ironwood's parallel is Yang.

Not just obvious stuff, like both having metal arms. But both of their semblances are double edged sword. Yang get stronger taking damage, but if she leans on it too much, an enemy that takes one hit just destroys her since she can't fight back. Volume 4 has her training with Taiyang to correct this flaw in her thinking, leading to her overcoming Adam in her rematch in V6.

Ironwood's semblance can be incredibly powerful. Just off the top of my head, he basically no sells the Apathy, which is an incredibly dangerous Grimm in a group with other, stronger Grimm. But it has downsides, and we're seeing it. The correct way to use it is after you've made a choice, to focus on the task at hand. But making large choices while under the semblance is not smart. He's too focused on one action to see others that have opened. Atlas has to be raised, because that's what he's already decided to do. The idea that they've made contact with the world and reinforcements might be coming never entered his mind. Similarly, he's so focused on forcing Penny to heel that he's not seeing he has a chance to have her come willingly by aiding in Mantle's rescue.

He's so focused on winning this one battle (Having Penny raise the city to escape Salem immediately) that's he's making choices to doom the larger war (defending the kingdom's people, defeating Salem, reuniting the world).

He clearly knows that it isn't smart to rely on it this way, since he's shown the ability to take criticism and adjust his thinking in Volume 7 (Nora would've been Slate'd if he couldn't). But the combination of Yang/Blake going behind his back to tell Robyn, Ruby/Oscar not telling him the truth, Qrow seemingly killing Clover, and, right when he thought that he'd saved everyone, the idea that every single thing he's done might've been exactly what Salem wanted has fairly understandably shaken his faith in the others around him. He can't rely on them to rein him in, he has to do that... which is exactly the problem with his semblance. If the only person who can stop you is yourself, and you're convinced you're always right, you've doomed yourself.

I'm assuming that he could probably be talked down by Glynda or potentially Oz or Qrow (fat chance of that one) if they can break his aura, but as it stands, unless someone beats him down, he's not going to be able to stop himself.

With Ironwood I am reminded of a very profound quote from CS Lewis, that I feel summarizes him very well: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals."Show less

Dude Ironwood didn't have a problem with trusting people and didn't have a mentality of not being able to trust people. He trusted to much and trusted people who both betrayed his trust (Yang/Blake) and didn't reciprocate the trust he gave them (Ruby and the rest of the main cast). Honestly, he would have been perfectly right to have immediately put the relic of knowledge into the vault at the start of v7 and then send the students on their way and have nothing more to do with them.

Ironwood saw Atlas and his fleet as a way to inspire hope. It's ironic that his plan was one of lifting them up so high that nobody would ever be able to see them anymore.

My only criticism with Ironwood is that I really really wish his semblance was brought up in the show. Are they ever going to bring it up? I absolutely LOVE how he has been written and watching his tragic descent into becoming a villain but having his semblance mentioned in show would be great. Is someone going to have to break his aura or something before he or someone else mentions it?

In a way he is. His semblance is a double edge sword, as someone in Ironwood's position is all about making calls. Ironwood was able to climb through the ranks because his semblance allowed him to follow through with his actions to save people (I also still wonder what happend to halve of his body as he already had a metal leg and arm in volume 2, we can asume the paladin project, but some confirmation would be wonderfull). Now he's following through on his words agains Salem, that Ironwood isn't going to let Salem take the relic of creation. Ironwood essentially only has this thought he is focused on and is disregarding everything else. Right now Salem is piecing herself together again and Penny is going to the vault, if Ironwood semblance of Mettle wasn't interfering he would be able to see the bigger picture of let Penny open the vault, take out the staff of cration and chuck whatever goop Salem is right now with the bit of land she is piecing herself on right now and throw that into the vault and close it for good by blocking off the entrance with concrete. Voila. Ironwood doesn't notice at this point his actions as he even thought councilman Slate, who was asking Ironwood to explain his action got put down by Ironwood himself. Same for Marrow later on, but Winter was able to step in. Ironwood needs to be saved from this mindset and I think the team up of Qrow and Robyn (also who ever was on the elevator, I think it was Winter and Marrow as Winter was taking him away to be put in jail) could save Ironwood to the point of breaking his aura that way the influence of Mettle will loosen.

Gonna be honest, I dislike the whole concept of his semblance and it being what's driving him to this is just dumb to me. I loved him as a character and this entire volume feels like every bit that made him an interesting character has been ripped away. It's likely just me, but prior to Oscar using the built-up magic to beat Salem it felt like they had painted themselves into a corner. Either Ironwood was proven right that some sacrifices had to be made for the good of the people, or Salem was going to be beaten and even if she can come back, she no longer feels like a huge threat to me. I loved Ironwood in volume seven and many of team RWBY's choices have infuriated me for how contrived and stupid they manage to be while also contradicting themselves so easily. To be frank, I feel like his semblance was just an excuse for this utterly stupid character assassination they're trying to justify.Show less

I kind of feel like the writers 'forced' Ironwood to become a villain. Some of his decisions just don't make sense.

#rwby #james ironwood #rwby ironwood #rwby volume 8 spoilers

[no-dull-days]

Bogota, Colombia

Exploring Bogota's Misunderstood History

Three weeks in to Colombia, I headed to the infamous Bogota . As dawn approached, I arrived at the North Terminal. 14 hours had passed during the night bus from Popayan. The trek to Bogota took us through the Andes mountains, hairpin curves, and peculiar weather. I was suspicious as we drove by uneasy scenery. I’d researched every other destination prior to arrival. Bogota was the exception.

History: During the 1980’s & 90’s Bogota was the most dangerous city in the world. I'll bet you think it's danger emanated from drug cartels…More people were killed in Bogota by buses and cars than by military or political problems. Children feared being hit by a car, truck, or bus. Public transportation was a mafia run business. Buses would block traffic or run people over on the sidewalk. The people of Bogota were ashamed of the city. There was a lack of infrastructure coupled by low security and high safety concerns. Residents had zero faith in the future. Leaders didn’t know where to go or what to do. Bogota had no vision, no model and no money. It was known as the worst place in Latin America.

In 1998 Enrique Peñalosa was elected mayor of Bogota. During a visit to Europe, Peñalosa said, “as a fish needs to swim, we need to walk. Not in order to survive, but in order to be happy.” In regards to Bogota, Peñalosa was convinced, crime and poverty were connected to Bogota’s design — how the city was structured.

Something had to be done, considering Bogota’s population grew from 100k to 7 million in 100 years. Peñalosa created automobile restrictions. In the following ten years, Bogota’s murder rate fell a whopping 70%! From the highest in the world to less than that of Washington DC.

Bogota’s bus system was modeled after a Brazilian city. Today, Bogota has an internationally acclaimed bus system. Public transportation has brought the community together. Take Avenida el Dorado— there’s what seems to be endless miles of road dedicated solely to pedestrians. On Sundays, over a million people show up to ride, walk and socialize. It’s the safest place in the city. By way of urban design, a city for the people was created.

It changed beyond belief. We changed the city more for people than for cars.

— Enrique Peñalosa

As a statement of priorities, Avenida el Dorado was built to go through the poorest communities. It’s the longest pedestrian walkway on the continent. Buses and parks are all connected causing entire neighborhoods to interact. When communities know one another, crime rates fall and the quality of life improves. Locals even denounced those who violated the system.

Public transportation was a multi billion dollar industry. By placing mafia members on the board of directors and giving them stock options, the system evolved. A power play considering the mob could crush the city.

Bogota’s large sidewalks show people are equally or more valuable than automobiles. These and other changes made it more difficult for people to access businesses which led to a movement to impeach Peñalosa. People soon realized public interests come before private interests. This urban design proclaims a bicyclist is just as important as a $30,000 automobile. Bogota’s mayor, Peñalosa, left office with the highest approval rating of any mayor in history.

This is one iota of Bogota’s history. The powerful drug cartels of the 80s who ruled cities such as Medellin, Bogota, and Miami were historical times no doubt. Seeing the murals, sites, and stomping grounds of these tumultuous times was spine-tingling.

I explored the Halls of Justice where Supreme Court Justices were assassinated and many others were killed or held hostage. I’ve watched dozens of documentaries on Colombia and Pablo Escobar’s reign over Bogota. Walking around the city was like being in a history book.

The history was so thick, it almost rivaled The Lost City of Petra’s history! Escobar and the drug cartels pillaged Bogota and ran the city at some points. Escobar practically owned the police. He was both loved and hated by fellow Colombians. He also made the Forbes Top 10 List. Netflix’s, ‘Narcos’, does a great job of documenting what happened during this time. Both enthralling, and terrifying.

My Experience: Upon arrival, I had no plans. My Spanish had drastically improved. I was sociable, yet cautious. Violent crime still occurs at random. After Cartagena, I discovered it was tough finding a place to stay in advance. Taxis can be dangerous and I didn’t know how far I’d be from my destination. There were times I’d arrive in a new city, by plane or bus after dark. I didn’t think it was wise to take a bus or walk through unfamiliar neighborhoods. Speaking far from perfect Spanish and carrying thousands of dollars of electronics didn’t ease the situation.

All through Colombia, ATMs dispense pesos. Many of the bills are COL$50,000 and finding change can be difficult. Exchange rates and small bills was another barrier. If you’re traveling to Colombia, I’d recommend learning how to count to 100,000 in Spanish.

I rented a room in the common style five bedroom home for COL$50,000/24 hours. This gave me time to make plans, look at a map and figure out where I wanted to stay thereafter. I had a queen bed with a private bathroom. 15 minutes later, I was walking to another bus. I paid special attention to the landmarks because addresses were beyond my understanding. Getting lost was no fun.

Perhaps my favorite thing to do in Bogota was play tejo. Tejo can be played for fun with points or in professional tournaments. The object of the game is to throw fairly heavy discs at small triangle packets filled with gunpowder. Points are acquired when there’s a ferocious bang! They sound like revolvers firing at random. It’s fun playing in lanes with 30 people. It sounds like a fire fight. Only difference is, everyone’s drinking beers and smoking various substances. Players stand about 40 feet away and the gun powder packets are about 3 inches. They sit in a clay bay at a 45 degree angle.

Aside from tejo, sampling mouthwatering exotic fruits was a meal in itself. I sampled literally dozens of fruits I never knew existed. Fruits with vibrant colors and bizarre shapes with funky names. Outrageous natural flavors. I’d return to Bogota just for the fruits!

Though Bogota’s fruits were an enlightening experience, it made me sad and angry. I thought of Monsanto — the massive evil corporation based in the US that’s burned farmers in more ways than god intended. I thought of the politicians and lobbyists that support GMOs — special seeds created from the same corporation that developed Agent Orange in Vietnam.

Between fresh fruits in Bogota, godly organic produce in the rural Nicaraguan mountains and Panamanian islands, I practically had steam coming outta my ears. I drank water from a stream near Ecuador. It was the purest, most amazing water I’ve ever had. If you know what food and water should taste like, it should make you absolutely livid that corporations and politicians are taking control of our food supply and destroying our water for bigger profits.

La Candelaria: I made a friend at the bus stop who guided me to La Candelaria in Bogota. La Candelaria is a hipster neighborhood that reminded me of Berkeley and San Francisco. Graffiti on every corner, VW’s, head shops, music stores, and reggae music all flooded by local college students.

The nightlife here was unique. Hundreds of people mingled throughout the area on bicycles and mopeds. The energy was comforting and it was refreshing to meet a wide array of travelers in this area who spoke broken English.

The daunting feelings of massive Bogota subsided when I found a great hostel in this neighborhood. I got a private room and bathroom for COL$60,000/night. I met other international travelers. I had a solid internet connection, private living quarters, a hot shower, and food from all over the world in my neighborhood.

In the following days, I explored the city on bicycle — by guided tour and on my own. Two friends and I rode around for five hours with a Bogota local. We saw cemeteries, tasted the world’s finest coffee, learned about political graffiti, human rights, Pablo Escobar, terrorism, cocaine, Buddhism, the upper class, and people who lived in sewers. We learned about the Emerald Industry and agriculture.

Attractions: The city of Bogota, home to about 10 million people, is a massive city. It resides at 8,660 ft in the Andes Mountains. The air is a little thin, but I got used to it. You’d really need many months to see everything the city has to offer. I enjoyed the hike to the top of the Monserrate.

Monserrate is a mountain that dominates the city center of Bogota, the capital city of Colombia. It rises to 10,341 ft above the sea level, where there is a church built in the 17th century. — Wikipedia

Bolivar Square is a huge plaza with government buildings, tremendous history and usually the location of concerts and festivals. It’s a great place to socialize and take in the open air. I also enjoyed the Bogota Botanical Gardens. It too was a nice place to casually walk around, mingle, and learn something new.

However, I enjoyed Parque 93 moreso. It reminded me of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco where singles, families, couples, bikers, and dog walkers all come together for lunch, reading the newspaper, and snoozing in the sunshine. The bike tour was probably my favorite though. There’s a number of companies throughout the city. If you’re looking for nightlife in Bogota, I can vouch for that too. If you’re a social butterfly, workaholic, party animal, foodie, or entrepreneur, Bogota has plenty to offer.

[bluepenguinstories]

Happiness Overload Chapter Sixty-Three

Right as rain, skipper!

I liked my eggs over easy and my people with bones intact. Actually, I think I had it the other way around. People were much better boneless, easier to get to the meat, and eggs always tasted better a little crunchy. But then again, I could have been thinking of salmon.

“So long, and thanks for all the…” Ah, a song of ancient times. I began to hum it to myself as I made my way to meet my date halfway. Such a long time spent in my cave, I began to feel a bit like an allegory for Plato. Or Prometheus if he never did that party trick with fire. But at last I could stretch my legs, and my legs could stretch as far as I allowed them to. Sometimes I thought that if I was a little more boneless, I could be less stretchy. That would have been a goal of mine at some point in time. Maybe in an alternate universe.

But now I had a different goal. One far greater.

“Frankly, my damn, I don’t give a dear,” I chuckled, hands in my pockets. That chuckle soon erupted further. Then I realized that the core of the planet, like ice cream in the middle of a store bought mochi, was what dog owners liked to call “real excitable”.

I didn’t have much time left. Nor did the planet. Neither of those variables were relevant. I’ve been holding the thing together, the same thing I helped destroy, all so I could get a bite in before the cookie crumbles.

Each step was slow and hesitant.

What did I have to fear? Such a good question, and maybe it was the Blanc in me who felt that way. When I say that, what I mean is all of me. I know, confusing. Just like how it all escalated so far, and for whatever reason, I chose to descend below the earth.

Well, if it were to end, I wanted to go out as human. Not because I disliked being part of something which had brought so much joy to my life, far from it. Rather, I wanted my last moment to be beside Euphoria, not us as one. I knew that wasn’t entirely possible, but my current state was something close to that. I felt like such a thought made me sad, but in a happy way. Unable to see the sad, we agreed to do what we could.

Besides, whoever the other living soul was who wanted me to see the end with them, they probably didn’t want to be frightened with the idea of me acting so happy go lucky in such an alien manner.

“Oh, but could you imagine?” I laughed to myself. It felt so hollow. There was genuine emotion, but there were more than just happy feelings behind it. Maybe, just maybe, the reality had dawned on me. Not so much that it was the end of the world just because the world was ending, but yeah. I felt it.

Heaviness with each step. As if my feet had turned to cement blocks. It was really here, wasn’t it?

Total darkness as I descended, stone and soil mingled together as they both crumbled above me. Little pieces fell on my head. If I was more euphoric, I would have made the debris fall everywhere but on me. But I accepted it, just like I accepted my situation. As much as I could, anyway.

Yes, I really did feel the weight of the world.

Such a large stone, hydrated and covered in land formations. In my indifferent, but infinite knowledge (if it made me happier to know something), the best I could compare the planet, my home, to was a parfait.

I gulped. In equal measure to the darkness, it was just as difficult to feel my way around. There were insects on the walls. What little life there was, and it just had to be the sort of things that freaked me out. Oh joy.

These stairs… I wondered. Were they crafted by someone, created as a path by Earth itself, or did they appear as a manifestation from my guardian angel?

Almost as if it were scripted to happen, I slipped and fell a few steps down. Each step scraped against my legs, and the pain surged. Something I had missed. Something I shouldn’t have wanted to miss.

“God damn, I’m so stupid,” I muttered. My voice trailed into an echo, as if other voices circled around me. Whole congregations chanting of my foolishness. Even more foolish, I refused to try and pick myself back up. The pain was minor, just scratches at best. But it was the culmination of both what and wasn’t around me.

It seemed to me like there really were voices. Whispers and chants. Speaking nothing, or maybe having conversations with each other. All of those people who lived on the surface, some sort of surface, and spoke of their routines. Crowded streets in cities. Towns of less than a thousand people as one neighbor greets another. That college student who talked to themselves over how much they dreaded each day and would rather stay in and play video games and forget that the world existed.

...That last one was more personal.

None of those voices existed. The only sounds were of the earth as it gave little quakes and the crumbling sounds from above. Little squeaky sounds from the creepy crawlers. There were no more people going on about their day. There wasn’t so much of a day to go on about. There were just moments. Immeasurable. Brief and endless.

I leaned forward and huddled my head into my knees. The tears came without me having to force them.

“This is why...this is why I depend on you so much…” I wept. I once likened the feeling of being one with happiness to like a drug, so it would make sense to think that I was experiencing some sort of withdrawal. But no. That wasn’t it.

It was the situation. How I came to be where I was.

That I lived on such a tiny fragment of this fucked up sphere (sorry-not-sorry flat earthers) for such a fragment of time. Less than a speck when compared to the life of this who-gives-a-shit planet. What good did it ever do me to live on it, anyway? It was always in a state of decay due to the decisions of the greedy and powerful, so maybe a quick death was better.

If I thought about how long I lived, as a copy of some other bloke with the exact name and face as me, it would only have been a little more than four years. In that time, several extraordinary things happened, and I got to experience much more than I ever thought I would have. I got to meet stoner aliens and time travel and meet all sorts of friends. None of that would have been possible if not for the circumstances that befell me.

But what I remembered of my life went beyond that. I remembered myself as someone who lived twenty years longer than I did. Someone named Blanc Slait. Even if that name could have been a further fabrication due to Etna’s memory interference, I believed I would have picked a name like that anyway.

My life consisted of confusion in the face of the world around me, a world which was much smaller than the entirety of the earth. Much of the time, my world was my bedroom. Video games and doodles. Comic books scattered around. Bags of chips and candy wrappers that I’d forget to pick up. Short and violent tempered parents who liked to see me neither in my room nor around them so long as I continued to be who I was. My brother, equal in being closed off, would try to bond with me and we would try to do things together, but it never really got much further than attempts at getting along.

I knew he struggled with his own things: we both had varying degrees of depression, and although he didn’t understand my issues with gender, we both shared similar interests. I wasn’t really sure how our parents were toward him, and thinking about it now scared me. Yet that never really mattered to me at the time and when I got the chance to bail on that house, I didn’t look back.

So maybe I eventually developed into what you might call ‘happy-go-lucky’, but what was so wrong with that? What was so wrong with being happy just to be happy? The life I remembered as the person I imitated was anything but lucky, and mine may have been much more fortunate than them. It was fine enough to think of myself as them, as the memories and the feelings behind those memories were the same. I wasn’t lying when I told Ves that her, Juniper, and Trent were like the family I never had. If Blanc had the same relationship with their brother that Juniper had with hers, maybe they would have led a different life.

But luck was what it was and some things just happened the way they did. Even though the life I had memories of wasn’t an easy one, so what? Should I have earned the right to my happiness? I hated such a thought. It made me unhappy and soon the thought vanished.

“This is why I depend on you so much,” I said once more. “I’ve always been on the verge of giving up. I’m scared. Unsure of myself. When I’ve acted in the past, it was with little rhyme or reason. Always ready to play the martyr just to have an excuse to die all while well aware that any action of mine will have little impact. I never felt like I belonged anywhere, and maybe I just felt like doing something, for some cause, would grant me the happiness I so desired. Less than from others, I wanted a smile from myself.”

“But now,” the tears crept out of me once more. “Even though I managed to be happy, and I managed to feel loved, and I got to see my friends again. Well...truth be told, I miss Conrad. There’s no getting around that. Err...I...where was I?” God damn. There was that too. Being human was so hard and having a train of thought was just impossible. “It’s just, thinking about all that’s transpired, and how now with the world ending and me along with it...what has it all amounted to?”

“HAPPY IS WHAT!” A little fairy appeared beside me. Or maybe it was one of my hands talking, and either way, they were comforting images.

I smiled.

“Yeah, you’re right, but…” But I shook my head, even if I agreed with her. Or what I agreed with was her enthusiasm. “I still feel I may as well sit here. The world’s going to end anyway. What reason is there to do anything?”

“DO ANYTHING!”

“Yes,” I changed my tune and picked myself back up. I could do anything. So what would I do? The answer was clear: meet up with whoever was so desperate to see me, then sit and allow the world to end with me in it. That seemed reasonable enough. Yeah.

At this point, one wouldn’t be at fault to suspect that I too would start doing the tried and true expression of Introspection™. Such a reliable tool, like a mallet, or a paintbrush. But there wasn’t anything of the sort, and not to mention, there wasn’t any reason to look inward. After all, I was the least complex being in the universe. I could live as a single-celled organism, except then I would get bored of being but a lonely little cell. So no, I couldn’t.

Truth be told, there wasn’t much more interesting to tell. I decided that my thoughts were done narrating. So I decided to think up an essay, instead:

In the amateur novella, ‘Happiness Overload’, the story opens up with the line ‘11:30 A.M. Fuck. Those numbers followed by those two letters would be the end of me’. That opening line is significant as the narrator (yet to be named), Blanc Slait, describes how they feel about such a time. That it would be the ‘end of them’. At first seeming random, the author chose 11:30 A.M. because of the phrase ‘at the eleventh hour’, signifying that the story already begins at the end, or, by the time it ends, the story has begun. But it hasn’t ended yet, as the end would have been noon. So with it being the eleventh and a half hour, it gives off the impression that there is still time before the end to change things. For the better? For the worse? Rather than answer those questions with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’, the narrator instead chooses to answer with a ‘fuck’.

That one word stated after that time is a little ambiguous, as it could mean ‘at the eleventh and a half hour, it is time to fuck’ or it could mean ‘fuck. It is 11:30 A.M.’ As we soon find out by the next sentence, it is the latter. There is a term for such an expression after a time of day coined by scholars, known as ‘fucktime’. Fucktime can happen at any time of the day, regardless of the amount of fucks given. But, seeing as the narrators’ ‘fuck’ happens at a quarter past the eleventh hour, it can be assumed that many fucks (or just one) were given. That the fact that things were so close to the end warranted such a ‘fuck’, because what else could one say when one sees a disaster and is standing in the middle of it, but to say ‘fuck’?

In truth, the narrator could have said, ‘aw, shucks’, or ‘this is fine’, but the narrator chose fuck. Probably because such a word resonated with the narrator to such a degree that it was the only word appropriate to such a situation.

Later on, the narrator, a wisecracking, but demotivated college student undergoes a transformation, not too unlike Franz Kafka’s ‘The Metaphor’. Such a transformation is cause for another ‘fuck’, but instead, the narrator goes off on a quest for vengeance against the ones in power who spurred such a transformation within them.

It is by that final chapter, the eight chapter (another significant number, as eight sideways is infinity, suggesting that the story could have gone on much longer than eight chapters, but because the eight is not sideways, such a continuation is denied) that the main character dies to a villain who only appeared in brief spurts, Dr. (or Professor) Etna. The fact that she (an Artificial Intelligence, which says something, as all characters within a novella would have artificial intelligence, as their intelligence is reliant upon the author) insists on professor when she is also a doctor has such a great meaning that the meaning is obscured by the fact that the main character dies.

Although there are loose ends by the end of it, such as the clone of our protagonist, Blanc Slait, still roaming around, as well as Velvet and Conrad (two unrelated characters, save for the fact that Conrad was a friend of the first Blanc’s) trying to escape from a raid on their base, it can be inferred from the villain of the story that they will soon meet their untimely end as well. Thus wrapping up a short story in which a continuation is denied.

If the story were to continue, literary critics have argued, then the clone of Blanc could have gone on many adventures, while Velvet and Conrad...I don’t know? They could have sat on a beach sipping on coconut oil, the possibilities are endless. Yes. Such endless possibilities, like a sideways eight. Just imagine all of the other characters that could have been introduced, had the story a means of continuation. But at ending there, we can finally understand the true meaning behind ‘Happiness Overload’.

But before we get into that (which being an essay, the thesis statement should be at the beginning), notice the similarities between Professor/Dr. Etna and a James Bond(age) villain: for one, there are lasers involved. Second, Etna gives long speeches to the defeated Blanc Slait, powerless in all but their words. If the story had been a James Bond(age) movie, or any other kind of spy, secret agent, or superhero movie, then one would expect that at the eleventh (and a half) hour, our Blanc Slait would figure out a way to break free, either through words or actions. However, such a thing is not granted.

It is also in the final chapter that a few more things are subtly revealed. The first of which being that ‘Happiness Overload’ is a story without characters. Case in point, think of how many characters there are in the novella: there’s Albacore (not a character, a type of tuna meat), Blanc, Conrad, Ecstasy (not a character, a drug), Etna, Euphoria (not a character, a feeling often associated with taking Ecstasy), Kelly Roger, and Velvet. If one were to think of other characters, one might come up with the clone of Blanc, as well as the second clone of Blanc, who later became a tree. But because those two characters are also Blanc, they do not count. Also, one could count the old man that Velvet both helps and smuggles food from, but that doesn’t count, because the old man doesn’t have a name, and thus, nothing to project onto.

Now, with all of those characters in mind, which is a very small cast, to a very short story, how many characters does that make? The answer is zero.

First off, let’s start with Blanc, as in the final chapter, the shocking truth comes out: Blanc Slait is a pun on ‘Blank Slate’. Now, a blank slate, or tabula rasa, is a theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content. There is more to the theory, but it is irrelevant, as Etna points out in her next shocking reveal to the protagonist: Blanc’s memories were a fabrication. Meaning that what we had seen of Blanc up to that point, did not exist. And because we had nothing to project onto Blanc before the start of the story, Blanc as a character, does not exist (there is also the fact that the entire story is fiction, despite some eerie real world parallels, like how there are buildings). Take the age-old adage: ‘if a tree falls in the forest, but no forest was ever mentioned in the story, did the tree exist?’ The answer is no.

So because the answer is no, that can only mean that Blanc’s second clone, the one that became a tree, also did not exist. But what about the first Blanc clone? Easy. A clone is just a division of one’s self. However, because Blanc does not exist, Blanc cannot be cloned, because one cannot divide by zero.

What about Conrad, then? Blanc’s conspiracy theorist best friend? Well, the answer may surprise you: Conrad is a nihilist. See, Conrad is Blanc’s best friend, but Blanc does not exist. However, this is more metaphor than simply an ‘imaginary friend’, as Conrad also does not exist. Conrad is a friend of nothing, and what else is a friend of nothing? Nothing else.

Other scholars have argued that the significance of Velvet as a character cannot be overstated. However, that is an understatement. Velvet’s name begins with a ‘v’. As Velvet is the only ‘character’ in HO to contain a ‘V’ in her name, there can be no V’s. However, if there was more than one V, it might look like this:

VS.

As in, versus.

Therein lies Velvet’s true nature: a contrast. An opposing force. Both opposing force to what? Simple: existence. Kelly Roger, the supposed other character who lives in the same bunker as Conrad and Velvet, doesn’t trust Velvet because Velvet does not exist, yet hangs around Conrad, another character that does not exist. Because of Kelly Roger’s doubt of Velvet’s existence, Kelly Roger is ejected from the story, by none other than Velvet, thus barred from existence.

As we refer back to the possibilities as to how Happiness Overload may have continued, we are left to suspect that the character who utters the title of the story, Euphoria, is the only character in the story. However, since the power that Professor/Dr. Etna holds and the peril that is implied to befall the Blanc clone, as well as Conrad and Velvet, such a continuation of the story would have had to require something akin to a ‘deus ex machina’, or ‘god is in the machine’.

Euphoria, with her angelic power, is thought of as a god-like substitute, but because Euphoria in the end, is nowhere to be found, one can argue that no, god is not in the machine. In fact, there is no god because the god (Euphoria) is absent, and since the machine itself can only be run with a god within the machine, then the machine isn’t a machine at all, but an object. And an object without a soul cannot do anything.

So there can be no conceivable continuation of Happiness Overload, and it can only end on the eighth chapter. If there were more than eight chapters, it would be reasonable to assume that the story would go on to have 86 chapters, a number which is often referred to mean ‘get rid of something’. What would be gotten rid of? The idea that the story could continue past an eighth chapter. In fact, the story could never continue past the first line, because it was already half past ‘fuck’.

In conclusion, many a scholars in academia have posited that in the pulp erotica ‘Happiness Overload’, the author intended to try to find what it means to be happy, but upon further analysis of the final chapter, as well as the title, it all becomes clear that the answer is that there is no happiness to be found, as in spite of Euphoria’s best efforts, the story carries on with its grim conclusion, and all throughout, not a bright spot could be found. If anything, the author sought to create a story in which nothing can be found. With that, the author succeeded.

Furthermore, –

– If the story were to continue, disregarding the entire essay, it may go something like this:

At last, I saw a faint glimmer of light. Maybe that was what I wanted all along. To descend to the depths of hell, but arrive to a light at the end of the tunnel. Even if such a light was an inferno.

I looked around and noticed the light shouldn’t have been there at all, and it was a mere reflection from a steel pipe. I looked up at the cavernous ceiling, which up to that point, had been nothing but dirt and rock formations. Now, however, it was a rusted steel grating. I looked down to see what else but a steel floor. I stomped my foot and sure enough, the metallic sound reverberated through the air.

“Hello?” I cupped my hands and called out. No answer. Of course. What did I expect, being so far below ground and all. “Echo…” I tried to call, but there was no echo. Couldn’t fault me for trying. I was still human, after all. Human and afraid. I had to find whatever levity I could. Even a faint glimmer of light was enough to make me happy. All I needed was a little bit of happiness to get me through the end of the world.

Gee, I wonder what kind of place this once might have been. Maybe a factor? Or an underground laboratory? Or maybe it was something simple, like someone’s last happy wish.

Before I could wonder what else such a thing was doing there, and marvel at the shape, an empty, small rectangular area with a path on the other side, I heard footsteps approach. Then a series of claps. My heart wanted nothing more than to burst out of my chest.

“Those are my hands, not my buttcheeks,” a low voice crooned. Something charming, something menacing.

I should be relaxed, but I’m ill at ease. The only living soul remaining, but I feel no soul at all.

“Who are you?” My voice, and perhaps the rest of me, shook in fear.

Soon ‘he’ came into view: a tall, shadowy mass of a figure, a pencil-thin beansprout of a mountain, must have been between six and seven feet tall, and then some. Then some...somewhat of a misrepresentation, as this humanoid shadowy figure couldn’t be contained to a size and, although clothed (in what? Jeans and a T-shirt? A nightgown?), the clothes themselves were indeterminate. In other words, for all intends and purposes, as menacing as the figure was, ‘he’ was really just average in appearance. Save for the grin on ‘his’ face, that is. That grin stretched so far it seemed to encompass ‘his’ entire face.

I felt like asking, “are you the one who wanted me to come down to Earth?” But before I could, and before I could ask my follow up, “if so, have you figured out a way to stop the world from ending?” He spoke instead.

“At last. You look like you could use some help,” he flashed his grin, which I thought couldn’t stretch any further, but it did. “Allow me to give you a hand!”

He extended his arm toward me and out from his sleeve shot forth several masses of tentacles, which I assumed were meant to grab me, or pierce right through me. But luckily for me, I moved out of the way just in time.

“What the –”

Shadowy tentacles? Who else do I know that could do that? I wondered. Wondered because perhaps he was someone I had already met.

“Ecstasy? Is that you?”

“Babe, I’ll fuck your brains out,” came his ever so rude reply.

“Hey! Nobody calls me ‘babe’! Ecstasy may have been a literal double crossing succubus, but at least she was respectful!”

“Please! I’m no one!” He retorted, and that’s when it hit me: the dark clothes. The edginess.

“Albacore?!” Thank goodness. It only took four years to get his name right.

“I’ve no use for a name!”

Then both arms spread out and from them were an even greater array of tentacles. Every little one surrounded me, and against the claustrophobic nature of their being, I proceeded further while avoiding each one until I stood right next to this nameless person.

“But,” he looked down, us standing next to each other. “If you wish to call me anything, you may call me Marco.”

He then closed his arms in on me, or rather, tried, but I ducked down and swerved around him until I managed to get just behind him.

If up to this point, it seemed like I was untouchable, then the very next moment proved otherwise: Marco shoved right into me and I fell onto the jagged ground.

“Rather than try to attack, you thought you could avoid me and go on about your way. Is that because you know that you cannot harm me?” He chuckled, as if he just thought of a really good joke, but the joke was, I didn’t even consider trying to fight him. Yes, my prosthetic arm had a blade that could pop up, as well as my palm able to fire lasers, but if I was being honest, I didn’t even need such weapons. If I wanted to fight, I would. There was no reason, no stake for me to do so. Even if he had promised that the world wouldn’t end if I could defeat him, I wouldn’t care.

I shrugged and laughed, as if to react to the joke he might not have made.

“We met before, you know. Actually, we didn’t. But I ate your arm once. It was tasty, but without the nutrients I wanted. That was because I didn’t eat your arm, but the arm of another you. That was also because you weren’t ripe yet. But now that you are, I can swallow you whole.”

Oh. So I remind him of a long-lost lover. Right. Happens all the time.

“Please, Marco, sir, flattery will get you nowhere,” I tried to do my best flirty impression, but ended up coughing up spit on the last syllable and it was rather un-sexy of me, to be quite frank.

“Then again, I doubt you know that you can’t attack me. Well, you could know. But to know that, you would have to know about me. All the same, now you know.”

His mouth then opened wide and continued to open wide as it extended and multiple tongues slithered out from his mouth. Fear rose in me and I decided at last that the best course of action would be to run.

So through more dark caverns I went, and although I couldn’t see very well, that wasn’t a problem as I no longer felt any fear in me. As it turned out, being afraid didn’t make me very happy. So I found my composure, and what’s more, there was a faint light around me which allowed me to see any obstacles ahead: pipes blocking paths which I had to duck under and cross through. Boulders blocking every which way. The path itself was linear, but the clutter seemed random at best.

All the while, I heard Marco give chase behind me as he tore through each obstacle as if it were wallpaper. I looked behind me and a tentacle had shot forth and missed my face by just a hair as I had my head turned to the other side just in time.

“Only once I devour the angel will I be satisfied!” He declared.

So that’s what it is, huh? I should have known as much. Everyone and everything else got to experience happiness in some way, but he didn’t quite see the same results. If that’s what he wants, I’d be happy to oblige, but first, I need to see how far this rabbit hole goes.

Again, his voice rang from equal measures close and far behind:

“Tell me, traveler, what is your goal in life?” His voice took the turn of some wise old man, or one I’d imagine in a high fantasy novel.

“As long as I’m happy, I don’t need anything else!” I answered.

“An unfulfilled life is an unhappy life,” he then said, and this time, he sounded mournful. Then again, it sounded like a playful mourning. Like someone in a theater production trying out melodrama.

“Can’t relate!”

“To what?” He asked.

I shrugged as I descended further down, and heat rose around me when before, it was actually rather chilly down there.

“I just can’t relate.”

But then again, if that was the way he saw things, maybe there was some truth to it, as I had two goals over the course of my journey: to be happy, and to see my friends again. And yet, even though I didn’t get to see all of my friends (RIP Conrad), I was still happy. As long as I was happy, then no other goal mattered. Because happiness itself was the ultimate of goals. Maybe he felt the same way, but as I was satisfied to be happy, he seemed like he couldn’t be happy unless he was satisfied. Then again…

I stopped.

I turned around to face him and I saw as plain as day with his hands raised, each finger turned into several worms with razor skin.

“You’re someone who loves contradictions, huh?” I proclaimed in what may have been my boldest statement yet. “You accelerated this, didn’t you? Because once the world ends, and you having devoured the same creature which overjoyed everyone else, then you would finally be ready to die? Because you’ll have fulfilled some lifelong goal, is that it?”

“Birds of a feather make for chicken strips!” He growled, or giggled, or groveled.

“Is it pretty fun for you? Getting your kicks chasing me, your ultimate goal?” I couldn’t help it. Now I was getting into the fun as well. I didn’t even want to, but I couldn’t help myself. “Then let’s keep up the chase. Come on, we’re almost there. Except it will never end.”

Where such a burst of confidence came from, I wasn’t sure. Well, I had a few hunches. Did I really know something he didn’t? No. But I knew things that he did, because I was happier to know than to stay in the dark. I understood now why Etna had given up and I understood how he would be defeated. Just as he did. The way he saw it, he’s seen such things play out several times now, and in his inconsistent mind, such an ending was an ending for him as well. But Marco was a being who craved opposites. The only thing that would satisfy would be utter disappointment.

So I ran and lost my footing. Maybe on purpose. I slid down and down for miles and kilometers on end. Darkness gave way to light, which gave way to further darkness, until at last, I arrived at the end of the cave where a faint blue glow welcomed me.

I stood up and looked around. As I felt the warm, yet cool to the touch stone wall, I nodded. Beside that wall was a rock. One which I could sit upon. So I did, and as I took my seat, Euphy, Euphoria, and all the other names that made her happy, sat beside me. Then Marco arrived and stood there. He looked me in the eyes.

“There’s nowhere else to run,” he declared. Something told me he really loved to play up the villain angle. Well, of course. Playing hero could only be fun for so long. But so could playing villain. And the back and forth must have gotten boring for him as well. All the same, I couldn’t disagree with his statement. So I smiled.

“Indeed. That’s why I’m sitting.”

All around us, the ceiling and the floor shook and crumbled, yet above and below us, we remained. Heat rose, but neither of us seemed to pay the intense temperature any mind. There really was little time, if any time left at all. He knew that he won, or believed so to such a degree, anyway. Yet in his victory, instead of open his mouth wide or chew apart my limbs and organs bit by bit, he just fell to his knees and sat.

For whatever reason, I became the one who grinned. His epiphany was about to set in, and no amount of high would stop the realization.

#happiness overload #writing #almost the end #disappointment #marco #meta #end of the wor #stories #fiction #action #essay #mind screw #dinner and a movie #happiness #angels #tentacles

[violetsystems]

#personal

I had to clear the porch of all my plants yesterday.  I was asked to move them by my landlord’s wife so that dirt didn’t get into the air conditioner below.  Yesterday the husband banged on my door and read me the riot act.  In his mind, this is not something I argue with.  And honestly over the years, it’s been cheaper not to complain.  That is until you realize you are cloistered into a literal daily soap opera with everyone’s hearts on their sleeve.  Including the police.  I honestly don’t have the capacity to worry about anything except my own private space these days.  Everybody seems to know something about me on the surface but not the whole story.  People brush by with projected questions every day.  They snoop.  They follow.  They try to get a read on what I’m thinking.  Which boggles my fucking mind because I’ve written it here weekly for over five years now.  Some people on here know me more intimately than anyone in real life.  I think that is special and a large reason why I’ve kept things very ethereal and romantic here.  I don’t force myself into anything or anyone’s life.  And yet I find myself encroached on in such a unsafe and disastrous way I don’t know where to go anymore.  I’m stuck.  The last three responses on LinkedIn were women I didn’t know.  The first from the post office I was nice to then ignored.  The second was an unsolicited request from a student at NYU.  I ignored that one.  Then an all too obvious ghost profile from Atlanta that worked as a makeup artist for Ulta.  All of them I found a light way of saying I’m on the platform for professional reasons.  All of them I feared were catfishing especially when the conversations turned to “do you wanna hang out?”  The last one was a little more human and I need connections.  Professional ones.  My last job and everything with it just ghosted me in the most heinous way possible.  I’m in a vulnerable position seemingly.  And everyone seems to think this is the final blow.  They’re closing in for the kill.  They’ve surrounded themselves around me.  I can’t escape.  The whole neighborhood has me on trial every square inch I walk.  None of it makes sense unless you count the police down the block making sure I’ve been made contact with.  It’s surreal and not so obviously unconstitutional.  It’s my life every day now.  It sounds like shit out of a spy movie.  And this is what my life has become.  And if I talk about it openly I’m the first to be shoved in the oven and gaslighted.  How did it come to this?  I don’t really care.  The lesson I have learned from all of this is that time and distance will tell.  Nobody knows how drastically my financial state has changed other than my bank.  And this entire time being tortured, followed, analyzed and picked over I’ve just been building up equity week by week.  The plants didn’t go to waste.  I rearranged them in the bathroom.  It made things less scary.  The only place where I feel safe anymore.  Inside the locked doors of my apartment.

If I were to sum it all up with one phrase.  This is the phrase.  What the literal fuck is wrong with people?  The answer is too dark to repeat.  This is just how people are.  You can be above it.  Or you can sink to the bottom with the rest of the trash that floats down there.  I tend to stay away from everyone.  People have year after year pinned the blame on me.  And yet no one can stop reaching out to me or pressuring me to be a part of something I’m not.  Welcome to society I guess.  It makes me angry.  And the one thing I’ve had the luxury of not being the last few weeks is angry.  I’m not the hulk.  I am hiding a blinding rage inside me.  But it’s not my own.  And I realize sometimes that for all the shit people try with me, it’s a sure sign none of it works.  I’m somewhere else entirely.  Wondering if I should seek out a job in China next year and prepare my language skills the rest of the year.  Wondering if I will even have to work at all after all of this.  It’s all going to cave in at some point.  Nobody can go through what I’ve gone through and just disappear.  Unless someone really feels they need to off me.  Which is a fear I live with for no real purpose.  I don’t really gain anything from being exiled and ignored.  Some great big test year after year about how one day I’ll be “discovered.”  What the fuck am I doing down here writing for anyway?  I’m 46.  I’d play Khan in a Star Trek reboot.  But really I’m trying to connect just like everyone else.  And people have consistently taken this as a vulnerability or a mental illness to manipulate and turn on me.  That’s just the evil of human nature.  Life teaches me that evil people will just tell you it’s in their dna.  They fuck into existence enough tax havens.  The panama papers made sure of bringing that to light.  But here I am an only child with no legacy other than my parents who one day will cease to be.  I’ll be out here paying my taxes until my dying breath while people use them to fund police actions so blatantly corrupt you’d better be putting the rest into a good lawyer.  Chicago is a city of lawsuits.  And I fear sometimes it’s just a con on top of a con.  They had it set up.  Destroy my life and offer me no choice but to accept their version of what I should be.  And they got caught with their pants down so much that I feel it’s not so much a cover up but an orgy of greed and corruption.  Chicago is no better than Donald Trump in that respect.  Neither are both sides of the political coin people roll down the street to you as bait.  You can make a change.  I can actually.  I received an email that my vote by mail ballot was accepted.  The email account that wasn’t locked out after twenty years of service to an art school that I gave my very soul to.  No student loans to show for it either.

I can tell you how this all ends.  It ends great for me.  And bad for anyone who is tied to holding me back.  I know this because a year ago I was far worse off.  And I have been the only person I can ultimately rely on these days.  My own good judgement.  My own legacy which people cast doubt on.  My body of work that reaches past a job that never wanted me to be me.  I learned a lot about being inclusive.  How to be an ally in my own way.  I’ve seen that respected and appreciated down here.  I’ve put it into practice in my life in my search for a new career.  I’m not looking for a job.  I don’t need to be plugged back into some matrix of human capital for the sake of maximizing the GDP.  I’m not interested in people forcing their ideas of what is best for me in a hidden, corrupt fashion.  The big brother nation state here is nothing to brag about.  We are far worse than China in that respect.  Americans are at the mercy of capital.  We are bullied by landlords, developers, politicians, police, institutions, and countless other mobs.  When we disagree, we are put on trial and hunted until we admit we are wrong.  We are watched with the human eye from the shadows like a rabid animal breathing down our necks.  No luxury of the fourth wall of CCTV.  We are conned and herded into ghettos and experimented on for marketing pogroms.  We are told we are irrational when we question a 2 trillion dollar valued company’s need for 30% of profits from independent developers.  We are sick and tired of hearing your endless excuses.  We see how full of shit you are.  And some of us revolt.  Some of us tear it down.  And some of us sit back knowing full well this is the way it has ended for some of us.  My love of this country.  My freedom that isn’t free.  The lie I live from day to day.  Sounds very depressing.  I must have brought it on myself.  And I did partially.  Trying to get close to something real.  I got very close to myself.  I ended up healing myself in ways I didn’t know I needed.  And I ended up being in a very different place while people around me stayed the same.  I feel tied down.  I feel torn apart.  But mostly I feel indifferent because you can’t hurt me any more if I don’t believe you have any power over me.  And this is the boring nature of my life now.  I sit back and plan like I always do.  Get things in order.  Know what my rights are.  Know how badly they’ve been violated.  And know the world is just a planet in the universe.  A planet we both share.  Air we both breathe.  Private and intimate thoughts that are stuck inside my head only to be pried out with forceful hands.  They’ve tried for years.  I have too many scars to show for it.  And they’ve never heard the secret out of my mouth.  Or if they did they never really listened.  It’s not about them.  It’s about us.  <3 Tim

[shytalia]

A Prince & a Pirate’s Fate - 15

— ♠ — ♠ — ♠ —

Chapter Fifteen

Start at Chapter one here:https://shytalia.tumblr.com/post/611878754309079040/a-prince-and-a-pirates-fate-usuk-fanfic

Also available on my AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shytalia

— ♠ — ♠ — ♠ —

Alfred sat stock still, silent as the rocking of the ship made his head bob every so often. He was surrounded by men loyal to the Spade’s kingdom and yet he felt like he couldn’t trust any of them. Not that he felt he was in any danger himself, in fact he was in a rather comfortable position all things considered. He was sitting in a well decorated room, on a comfy chair, with food and drink at his disposal if he so much as uttered a word.

But, Arthur was not.

Despite trying to convince the navy men that Arthur hadn’t forced him into becoming a pirate and he had gone to him on his own, they treated his captain like a kidnapper. His wrists remained bound behind him, with chains Alfred quickly found out were enchanted to keep the wearer’s magic docile.

They interrogated the Brit about the bruise forming on Alfred’s face and on his back. Which technically had been from said pirate, but Alfred wasn’t angry about them at all. Arthur had the right to be mad at that moment, so he took the pain with a patient understanding. But with the way they spoke to Arthur it was like he wasn’t their future queen at all and just another, dirty criminal for them to seize and destroy.

Worst of all, they didn’t even allow him to talk to him, even though the man was effectively tied up and thus posed no actual threat.

He had tried repeatedly, but was blocked off from the bound blonde. He had been polite at first and asked for passage, only to be told it was too dangerous for him to be near his future queen. Talking about Arthur as if he were just some sort of wild animal sent a twinge of anger through Alfred and he raised his voice and demanded they let him through. He was their prince and they would obey his orders.

Even that didn’t work.

There were, apparently, direct commandments from the King and Queen that their son was not to let near such a savage man as Arthur Kirkland. He simply could not be trusted.

So, after several hours of trying to convince the guards to let him see Arthur, he gave up and went back to his own, designated room. They were sailing back to the main capital in one of the many royal navy ships sent to ambush Arthur and his crew. He hadn’t heard much but from his own desperate pleading he convinced them not to execute the entire pirate crew right then and there. Instead, they agreed to push their punishments down the line in favor of getting him home to safety back at the castle. As such, Arthur’s ship was also trailing behind them, its crew as useful as its captain.

He had also demanded to see Peter safe and sound, to which his sea-faring subjects almost seemed sympathetic. Almost.

He could see the distrust gleaming in their eyes at just the mention of Peter’s name. Their pity may have come from him being just a boy but the truth of his identity as a Joker turned that sympathy into one of suspicion and hate. This must’ve been what Arthur had been talking about before, the prejudice Peter faced based on nothing but a mark on his skin he never asked for. Even him being only a child meant nothing and Alfred could tell from the subtle looks that these men wouldn’t care if Peter lived or died.

Still, they assured him that the boy was safe. And it was true that after Arthur had been imprisoned on the navy ship that Mathias had lowered his gun from Peter’s head and handed him off, not to the navy men, but to two of his own crew mates. Tino and Berwald were tasked to dutifully watch Peter and ensure he didn’t try anything fishy while they rode to the capital.

At the time Alfred had balked, was enraged even, that the soldiers around him would allow Peter to be given willingly to a bunch of pirates, but now? Now he could see why and he truly understood what Arthur had meant. They cared little for what they saw as a monster in a child’s body.

So here Alfred sat, guarded in a nice room fit for a prince like him. But he felt far from deserving of its comfort as the sea rolled them forward to their destination.

--- ♠ --- ♠ --- ♠ ---

The return of the beloved Prince of Spades was loud and bright. People gathered by the docks and along the city streets to catch glimpses of the carriages that would be bringing the missing royal home.

They cheered when they saw him, not one taking a moment to understand why his blue eyes suddenly looked so dark. If they did, they chalked it up to being exhausted from whatever horrible life he had been living under the iron boot of Captain Kirkland.

Decorations of Spadian Blue blinded Alfred as he rode through the streets of the city towards the castle. He was propped up on a carriage and paraded around like a god among his people and they loved it, to see their kind prince again after so long with their very own eyes. They screamed his name and waved, and Alfred did his best to smile and return the gestures of affection they gave him only for the sake of appearance. However, in the back of his mind, he was still terrified.

He knew, though he wasn’t allowed to actually see him, that Arthur rode only a few carriages behind him still bound and hidden. Thankfully the Brit wasn’t in the public’s eye like he was, which Alfred was silently grateful for because he knew the crowd’s loving cheers would be nothing short of curses and rage at the sight of the terrifying pirate.

Soon enough, he could see the familiar sight of the castle coming into view and a chill ran down his spine. Never in his life had his home felt more cold and empty than in this moment. This was not how he envisioned bringing Arthur back home, this was more akin to walking him to the gallows rather than to his wedding vows.

Alfred didn’t get much chance to argue when Arthur was dragged away after they reached the castle. The Brit was carried off, his eyes cold and his tongue sharp against the men who pulled him out of Alfred’s sight.

Tired as he was, the prince was set on figuring out just what the hell was going on. It was easy enough to find his parents, the king and queen made a grand display of greeting him in their throne room surrounded by adoring servants.

But something felt off. Alfred couldn’t quite place it, but something about the look in his parents’ eyes made his skin crawl. If he didn’t know better, they almost looked predatory as they watched him with an unwavering gaze.

It wasn’t until later that he would find out why.

“What the hell do you think you were doing?” The King’s face was red and tense with anger. The three of them, the king, queen, and young prince, were now alone in a small but lavishly decorated room out of public view. “You went to find that monster on your own?”

For what little credit there was, Alfred at least appreciated that his father seemed a little worried about him, in some strange way. His mother, however, was more on the teary side.

“We were terrified! Oh my gods, we thought we lost you. You left a note saying you were leaving but didn’t tell us where, and I just--” She covered her face with her hands, muffling a sob.

“I had to! Arthur is my queen, it’s only right I should convince him to come back with me.” Alfred argued but the reality of the situation boiled in his veins. That isn’t what happened and now Arthur was being treated no better than any other criminal, if not worse. The trust he had worked so hard to build was shattered into a million, unmendable pieces.

“He is a murderer and a coward. He runs from his own fate.” The King snarled back.

“Don’t talk about him like that.” Alfred’s hands curled into fists at his side, a protective vice gripping him and making him shake.

“You do not tell me what to do, boy.” Was the sharp response, a threat lingering on the edges of each word. “He may be your queen but he is no less a rot on this earth that I wish I could erase. The only thing saving him from hanging on a noose is the mark on his back and you would do very well to remember that.”

Alfred was seeing red, a fury he had never felt before. “Don’t you fucking dare--”

Alfred was interrupted by a heavy blow to the side of his face, forcing his head to the side in an uncomfortable angle and his feet to stumble.

"Do not talk to me like that again. I am your king and your father, my say is final." The older royal glared.

Alfred brought a hand to his face and stared with disbelief. His father was never exactly the kindest man but he had never hit him before, not like that.

"You need to rest. Kirkland has obviously gotten into your mind, made you question yourself...and me." The King's frown deepened harshly at that accusation, ignoring the betrayed look on his son’s face. "Arthur Kirkland will become the next Queen of Spades but he will not be a free man to do with this kingdom as he pleases. He would very well run everything we've worked for into the ground. You will rule and Arthur will be there, but his power is no more. I have seen to it myself."

“What do you mean?” Alfred accused, voice raising despite the slight shake of his hands.

“I mean,” the elder man started. “He will be immobilized, metaphorically speaking. We can’t quite do so physically without ruining the public image, tainted though it already is with him being a criminal...but emotionally and magically, he will be eviscerated. He will never use an ounce of magic ever again.”

“What? You can’t do that!” The horror of it struck Alfred to his core. His own parents would do that to someone? To his queen, no less? He knew how seriously Arthur took his arcane studies and the thought of the man he loved losing something so important to him made his heart ache. Arthur would absolutely be destroyed.

“I can and I will. Our mages have already begun preparing it. Kirkland’s magic will be nullified and nonexistent by the time they finish with him. Just to ensure he is no longer a threat to you or the kingdom.”

“He won’t let you do that!” Arthur would never, would he? Though he did have enchanted bonds on, he may not have a choice and it could be forced upon him. The realization made Alfred’s face pale.

“Oh, but he will. Otherwise, I’m told his younger brother is very important to him and it would be such a shame if something happened to him should Arthur act out of line.” The King stated plainly, his intent clear. He was using Peter as a pawn against Arthur and had no remorse about it once so ever.

“It will be safer this way for everyone, Alfred. Especially you.” His mother spoke now, a bit softer but her tone did little to appease her furious son. No matter how kindly she spoke, she was still on board with these monstrous claims and her sweet voice held no regret.

Suddenly, Alfred remembered what Arthur had confided in him back on The Island of Britannia.

“You tried to have Peter killed even before all this.” The prince grit his teeth together painfully.

“We did.” His father agreed, unfazed by his son’s red-hot glares. “As would any respecting monarch in any of the kingdoms who found a Joker in their midst. You may ask them yourself, when they come to visit in just a few, short weeks. They intend to meet Arthur before the wedding takes place, as is custom.”

“What?” Alfred practically hissed, the pain in his cheek a dull throb. “Arthur hates me now.”

“And? You knew he would hate you when you so foolishly chased after him on your own.” The King waved his hand and turned away, seemingly done with the conversation. He almost looked bored, which only served to piss Alfred off even more. “Nonetheless, the new queen is here. The wedding will commence as soon as possible.”

With that, the ruler dismissed himself and his faithful queen followed suit behind him.

Alfred had never noticed how much his mother resembled a leashed hound until that moment.

--- ♠ --- ♠ --- ♠ ---

Ignoring the pleas of several worried servants, Alfred climbed his way through the castle and to the room they had imprisoned Arthur in. It was actually a very large room and extravagantly decorated, as most of the castle was. It was a room fitting for a future queen, and he supposed that was the point. If there weren’t two armed guards standing outside the door it would’ve been easy to mistake Arthur as an esteemed guest.

And yet, Alfred came face to face with the two armored men who stood at attention and nodded respectfully upon his arrival.

“Let me in.” Alfred deadpanned. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides, resisting the urge to push the men aside himself and storm in.

“Sorry, your grace. However--”

“I don’t give a shit! You will let me in.” Alfred yelled back. “He’s already chained up, he can’t do anything!”

Why were they acting this way? They were obviously scared and yes, he understood Arthur was a powerful and sometimes unpredictable man with a temper to match, but he was already caught. They could treat him better than this!

“I’m sorry, your highness...”

Alfred groaned and backed off. He knew trying to fight them physically was not a good option, despite his urge to push them aside and fall to his knees in front of Arthur and beg for forgiveness. He didn’t want to do that, the men were simply following orders and Alfred knew better than to think his father wouldn’t lock him up as well if he lashed out.

No, he had to be smarter.

Turning on his heel, he stormed down the hall. He knew the castle like the back of his hand and, as the mischievous young prince he was, he knew more than his fair share of secrets. Much like he knew ways to sneak out of the castle, he knew ways to sneak around in it as well.

All he had to do was wait until nightfall.

When the sun had set, Alfred made his way to an unoccupied guest room, only one floor above the one Arthur was using. He snuck his way into the door, making sure to close it again as he entered, and ran to the window. He knew he still had to be careful, they were several stories above the ground and one wrong slip would send him tumbling to a very splattery death. But he was determined to show Arthur what he meant to him and so his own safety was disregarded in favor of getting to the grumpy captain below him.

Pushing the window open was the easy part, he tossed his legs across the window frame and carefully gripped the ledge. Slowly, he eased himself down and across the stone surface of the outside walls until he was just far enough down to drop onto the balcony below. He landed with a pained grunt, the impact hard on his knees and he flopped onto his side before he could catch himself.

“Fuck, that hurt.” He muttered to himself, attempting to push himself up onto his elbow only for it to send a searing agony through his left side. “Shit!” He hissed, rolling to his other side and using his good arm to push himself off the ground. He took only a moment to assess the damage done, unsure if his elbow was just going to be badly bruised or if he actually had broken something in it when he landed. He didn’t have the time to care, he stood up holding his throbbing arm and pushed forward.

Arthur’s room was dark and cold as he stepped inside. Thankfully the balcony door was not locked, he figured the guards knew that even Arthur couldn’t rightly escape from so high up without the use of magic to aid him. At least, not easily.

“Arthur?” Alfred whispered into the dark room, his blue eyes searching for any sign of movement. He knew there were still guards posted dutifully outside the main door and if they heard him then his struggle to get into the room would be for nothing. “Are you asleep?”

Suddenly, a pain rang out through his head as he was hit and he stumbled a ways away from the culprit.

“Leave.” Someone snarled.

Alfred jumped at the sound ghosting right into his ear, whirling around to catch a glimpse of glaring green orbs in the dark only mere inches away from his face.

“Arthur,” The prince spoke softly despite the pain, instantly stepping towards the familiar emeralds with his arms stretched out. “Artie, I didn’t mean for this to happen. I’m so sorry, I--”

“I told you to leave.” Came the cold response as the Brit stepped back and out of the other man’s reach. “I don’t care what your intentions were. I made mine perfectly clear, I didn’t want this, and you simply didn’t care.”

As much as he didn’t want to, part of him believed Alfred hadn’t planned this. Gazing into pleading, saddened blue eyes it was easy to see that the secret royal felt a guilt unlike any other. And yet, Arthur couldn’t find it in himself to give a fuck. He had made it more than crystal clear that he did not want to be queen and had told Alfred such many times, he had even told him why, which was a punch to the gut itself. Alfred knew the truth about his family and still, he lied. He used him like any royal would.

“It’s not like that,” Alfred begged softly, stepping forward again only for Arthur to mirror it and step back. “I wanted to find you on my own and to understand...understand why you didn’t want to be mine. But now I get it, and I wanted to tell you the truth but not like that, gods Arthur, never like that.” The horror stricken face when is mark was revealed was one Alfred never wanted to see on his betrothed ever again and it hurt to know that he was the reason it had appeared there in the first place.

“It doesn’t matter now, does it? You got what you wanted.” Arthur’s words were cold and made Alfred shiver.

“No!” Alfred clamped his hand over his mouth to stop himself from shouting too loud or else he would alert the guards outside the room. The last thing either of them needed was to be found out. “No, I didn’t. I want you as my queen, of course I do, but more than anything I want you to be happy with me. I can’t stand this, Arthur. I can’t stand you hating me.”

“I’m afraid you are in for a rough marriage then, dear.”

Alfred felt his fingers twitch, the harsh tone of Arthur’s voice striking a cord in him that he didn’t know he had. He was trying to apologize and make things right and Arthur was standing there mocking him! Without much thought, he reached out much faster this time and grabbed a hold of Arthur’s wrist and pulled.

“Oi!” The Brit started to protest but they were drowned out by lips crashing roughly into his own. His green eyes went wide in surprise at the sudden contact as Alfred’s arm then snaked around his waist and pulled him in tighter.

“Please, let me make things right.” The prince pulled back only enough to speak, his breath grazing along the shorter man’s lips as he whispered them. “I’ll fix this, I promise.”

“You can’t fix this, it’s already done.” Arthur muttered back.

“I will. I promised you, I would be your hero. Please, let me do that for you.” He ran a slow hand across the smaller man’s back, tracing his spine up and down with gentle fingers. “My father wants to...take your magic, says the royal mages are already planning some sort of nullification to take your powers away. He’s afraid of you.”

“He should be.”

Alfred flinched at that. It wasn’t the reaction he expected, it was as if it wasn’t a surprise at all to the Brit. He expected screaming and anger, not just an icy agreement. His stunned silence must’ve been all the question Arthur needed.

Then again, Arthur probably knew that blowing up and alerting the guards standing outside his room would end much more poorly for him than it would for Alfred.

“I know what he’s planning. The navy men who brought me here were not exactly keen on keeping secrets they thought would make me squirm.” Arthur mumbled, his lips softly moving against the side of Alfred’s jaw as he spoke. “Your father wants me to stand at your side and obey. It is exactly how I told you it would be...they want the body with the mark, but they don’t want me.”

“I want you.” Alfred corrected quickly. Despite his shock that Arthur knew his father's plans and his boiling anger that the navy personnel that brought him here were cruel enough to tease him, Alfred knew more than anything that he wanted Arthur for who he was and nothing less.

“Until you are king, what you want doesn’t matter, and by then it will be far too late.” The pirate said in return, his head tilting down and away from the warm breath. Still, he could feel Alfred’s kisses in his hair as he turned away. “If I don’t do what they ask they will kill Peter. The only reason they haven’t yet is they know what will happen if they do.”

Alfred’s grip tightened instinctively around the other man’s waist, drawing him even closer until he was squished against his chest.

“What will happen if Peter dies?” His voice was hesitant, barely audible at all. Deep down he knew he didn’t want the answer to the question he had just asked because he had a feeling he already knew.

Arthur didn’t answer immediately, he remained silent for a few, long moments and let the thick silence wash over them. “I won’t live if I lose Peter.” He finally voiced softly. “If I lose him, I’ve lost everything. I won’t allow myself to live if he dies.” He felt another arm wrap around him, though it was looser than the other he ignored that.

Alfred, as much as it hurt, used his injured arm to wrap around Arthur’s shoulders and into a hug. The implication that Arthur would kill himself should something happen to Peter wasn’t that surprising, but it was not something Alfred wanted to have to worry about. He planned on taking care of both of them.

For the first time, Alfred realized how small Arthur really looked in this moment. His eyes were cast down and his skin was ghostly. There was a sense of brokenness to him that had never been there before.

“I won’t let them hurt him.” He promised quickly. “I’ll be your hero, just like I said I would. Yours and Peter’s, I swear.”

“I won’t hold my breath.” Arthur muttered back, his arms still limp at his sides as if they didn’t work at all. They still did, of course, the blow to his head was proof enough of that, but for Arthur and his magic, they might as well be broken.

Realizing this, Alfred pulled back slightly and allowed his hands to roam from Arthur back down his arms. When they reached the pale wrists, he lifted them up and glared hard at the metal shackles encircling them. His face twisted into an angry sneer at the thought of Arthur’s magic being contained like this, of him being forced here and locked in a room like a cage.

His fingers shook as he stared down at the enchanted binds on his fiance with narrow eyes, mentally cursing his father as he did so.

“I don’t know how long we have until the mages are finished creating the nullification magic.” Alfred admitted as gently as he could, but didn’t fail to notice the way Arthur tensed up slightly.

“They can take my magic as long as Peter stays safe.” Was the quiet reply, but his voice betrayed the pain nuzzled between the words. Arthur was terrified, but he would be strong if it meant saving his brother. He would give up anything for him.

When Arthur said nothing else on the matter and only pitifully resigned to his fate, Alfred pulled him close again and buried his nose into his messy hair. He planted soft kisses throughout it, trying his best to bring some form of comfort. “You should rest, love.” He told him. “Come on, I’ll get you to bed.”

Walking to the large bed, Alfred pulled back the covered to make room for Arthur to lie down. The man did so wordlessly, normally fiery green eyes now a dull ember of what they once were.

“I’ll come back as soon as I can, I promise. We’ll figure this out together.”

And he did.

After Arthur was in bed, Alfred easily snuck out the balcony and avoided the patrolling guards with a light step. He knew their routines like the back of his hand and just how to get around them. It came with being a trouble making prince, after all.

It also helped him keep his promise, returning to Arthur night after night. During the day, he tried to reason with his unrelenting father for some sort of mercy, only to receive a scolding. It frustrated Alfred to no end that he was no closer to figuring out a way to save Arthur even as several days passed and talk of visiting monarchs began bubbling up more and more. Not that Alfred cared about them, he was too concerned with Arthur to give any potential guest a second glance.

But during the nights, when he could sneak easily through the halls and down a cobbled wall into Arthur’s private room, he felt his heart swell. Each greeting was like a breath of fresh air, sending his body into a blissful calm as he wrapped his arms tight against the man he loved so dearly. He wasted no time assuring him that they would be okay and reminding him that he truly did love him.

At first, Arthur was cruel. It was obvious his mistrust in Alfred was still weighing heavily on his mind and the prince did his best to right his wrongs.

Night after night Alfred climbed the walls to Arthur and eventually found himself falling into open arms instead of a nasty scowl. It was slow, sure, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“I brought you this,” Alfred told him one night, his voice only barely audible. “I thought you might like it. It’s from the garden.” Reaching into his coat pocket, the younger man produced a crimson rose and presented it proudly to the captain. Its petals were slightly bruised and its stem was twisted from the journey, but he didn’t mind. “I know you love roses. I want to show you the actual gardens soon...once I get you out of here, I promise I will. You’ll love them.”

The motivated sparkling in his ocean eyes was enough for Arthur to actually believe him for once.

Nearly two weeks into Arthur’s confinement and the talk of visiting royals was more than just a rumor. Apparently, representatives from each of the other kingdoms wished to come and visit the newly captured queen. Alfred wasn’t sure of their motives, he knew Arthur had a lot of enemies not only in The Spades but in each of the other realms as well. Still, to appease his father and hopefully gain some leeway with him, the prince promised to play nice.

Only a few days before the other royals were meant to arrive, Alfred landed gracefully onto the Brit’s balcony once more. He had perfected the landing by now and greeted his queen with open arms as he stepped into the room.

“I’ve missed you.” He smiled, pulling Arthur close and leaving kisses across his face. “I always miss you, babe.”

The pirate let out a small snort at that but allowed himself to be dragged into a tight embrace.

“And I you, you insufferable git.” He muttered back, running a hand over his lover’s hair.

Alfred pulled back only enough to send the shorter man a large grin before snuggling his face into his hair. “There are representatives from the other kingdoms coming to meet you soon.”

“I know.”

“I don’t know exactly who’s coming yet...but be careful. I can’t bear to think that anything else might happen to you.” Alfred spoke softly. “You or Peter. I heard him and your ship are still in the harbor outside the captial. Most of your crew is still alive, but awaiting punishment. They’re in the dungeons...but I’m trying to convince my father to release them for rehabilitation instead of execution.”

Arthur let out another chuckle, this one darker and unbelieving. “Rehabilitation for a bunch of pirates? Your father must think you’re quite mad.”

Alfred returned the smirk with one of his own. “He already does because he knows I’m dead in love with you, but what he thinks doesn’t matter to me.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Arthur’s forehead.

The Brit let out a light hum, tracing his arms around the taller man’s neck and pulling him back down for another kiss on the lips. After the connection was broken, Alfred leaned his forehead snuggly against the other’s and stared down at him seriously. He could see the faint hint of hesitation in those emerald eyes.

“I’ll be there with you, you know, when the other royals come. I’ll be by your side, I’ll make sure of it.” He tried to smile encouragingly. “Come on, you look tired. Let’s get you to bed, love.” He said, putting his hand at the small of Arthur’s back and leading him towards the decorated mattress. But as he moved to cover the Brit up with the blankets, his motion was stopped by the pirate sitting up without warning. Without a word, the shorter blonde reached out and grabbed the prince’s shirt, pulling him roughly until he came barreling down onto the bed as well.

Alfred had to physically restrain himself from letting out a shocked yell, relieved that somehow the guards hadn’t heard the groan of the bed as he landed on it with a flop. “A-Artie?” He sputtered, his eyes wide as he watched the lean man straddle on top of him and glare. Normally the image of Arthur on top of him was a welcome sight, but this wasn’t exactly a friendly face.

“Stay for a moment.” The Brit commanded, sending Alfred into an array of confusion and bliss.

“What?” He couldn’t help the amused grin that tugged on his lips. When he only received a short grunt as a response he chuckled. “You know I can’t stay, Artie. What if we get found out?”

“I said only a moment.” Arthur echoed, only more annoyed this time. To complete his request, the captain shifted until he was lying down half beside Alfred and half on top of him, effectively locking him in place. He wrapped his slender arms around the other man and rested his head on the crook of his neck, inhaling the sweet scent that lingered there.

Alfred’s grin was still plastered to his face but couldn’t stop the beating of his heart when Arthur effectively wrapped around him. He’d be lying if he said this wasn’t the greatest thing he could’ve ever asked for. He reached up and began idly running his fingers through the Brit’s hair, earning him a soft huff of contentment as his eyelids began to feel heavy. He could rest for a while, he told himself, as long as Arthur was there and willing, he would gladly stay by his side as long as he could.

--- ♠ --- ♠ --- ♠ ---

Alfred awoke to a loud gasp.

His eyes snapped open but the maid was already scrambling out of the door, making way for the guards to enter instead. The prince tightened his grip around the warm body next to him protectively, growling at the predatory way the two uniformed men glared at them.

He hadn’t meant to spend the night with Arthur. Truthfully, he had fully intended to wait until the Brit fell asleep and then would slip out undetected before morning. It seemed, however, that his body had other plans and he had fully fallen asleep.

“Your highness,” One of the guards sounded both appalled and furious. “What are you doing here? You have to leave immediately.”

Beside him, Alfred could feel Arthur stirring and in an instant venomous green eyes were matching the glares of the two guarded men before them.

“Piss off, can’t you see we were trying to sleep? Are all you capital wankers really that rude to interrupt someone's sleep?” The tired pirate swore, sending them a snarl of his own.

They were caught, there was no denying it now.

“Please, just exit the room. I’ll be out in a moment.” Alfred urged, more gently than Arthur in hopes to get them to listen. Unfortunately, neither guard faltered.

“We’re sorry, your majesty. However, we can’t leave you alone with him.”

“Your father will be more than displeased by this.”

“We can’t allow him to remain here either, we will have to remove him to a more secure location.”

“Of course. Please, your highness, so we may proceed. The sooner we do this the lesser the punishment will be for your...queen.”

Alfred grit his teeth. To hell with what his father thought! Obviously he was unharmed, so why did they still distrust Arthur so much? Why could they not see they were the ones being foolish. He gripped Arthur tighter against him, his face scrunching into an angry sneer. They looked at his queen like he was little more than a wild animal in a cage and Alfred wanted nothing more than to wipe those judgmental faces right from them.

“I said I will leave on my own.” The prince challenged, finally relenting his iron grip on the man beside him in favor of pulling himself slowly out of the bed. He realized somewhere in the back of his mind that he had never even taken off his shoes before falling asleep. Not that it really mattered now anyway. “And you will not bother him. Am I understood?” The edge in his voice was unlike his usual, childish self.

He was the beloved Prince Alfred of Spades, the golden boy, a kind man with a spirited heart. His people adored him for this. But, when faced with a possible threat to the one he cared about, his warmth turned into an uncontrollable wildfire that threatened anyone in its path.

His darkened gaze did not go unnoticed, as he saw the subtle fall of the guard’s faces as he sized them up. He could take them, he concluded. Even if they were armored and held weapons, they wouldn’t use them against him of all people. He was the prince, after all. That didn't mean the two would not get physical if they needed to. Even still, Alfred was confident he could out match them even if the numbers were not in his favor.

“Sir, we really can’t do that. Your father--”

“To hell with my father!” Alfred shouted, successfully shocking both guards, Arthur, and himself. Not that he cared in this moment, right now he was only worried about keeping his lover safe from prying hands and potential harm. “You will not touch him.” He growled, fists clenching at his sides.

“Alfred, you’re not helping things.” Arthur’s brows furrowed together in confusion and even some irritation. They were in deep shit already now that their secret meetings had been discovered, the teen didn’t need to make things worse by getting into a fight with the guards.

His argument fell on deaf ears because the second one of the guardsmen braced himself and told Arthur to “keep your filthy mouth shut”, Alfred lost it and lundged right at him. He tackled the man to the hard ground with a carnivorous sound emanating in the back of his throat, possessive of what was his and unwilling to accept any threats. He raised his fist behind his head and brought it back down on the man’s face with painful accuracy.

He heard another shriek from the hallway, no doubt the same maid from before who was peering into the room. He didn’t care, even when he felt more hands on him, pulling him off the other male and holding him down.

It all happened in a flash, the blur of his anger blinding him to the rushing of more guards and even some mages into the room in a panic. He heard Arthur yelling something, but when he turned to look, the prince felt a sharp blow the to head and his world faded into darkness.

#usuk #usuk fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #hetalia #aph #aph america #america #aph england #england #cardverse #pirate au #protective Alfred is my jam #hot damn

[anip-ocs]

A Visit

Short fic below!

TW: Parent death, mild suicide ideation

The sun hung low in the sky, streaks of pink and orange beginning to paint their way across the sky. Darkened silhouettes of large trees blocked out parts of the sky, old branches hanging, craggly with time, above rows and rows of tombstones. The field was silent, save for the quiet footsteps of a visitor. His dark cloak hung around him, dark as if made from the shadows themselves, tattered red converse scuffing against the grass. Across his back, a bow and a quiver of arrows glowed, pulsing with a gentle orange light. Had anyone else been present in the graveyard, they would have easily recognized the hero, Shadow. Though, at the moment, his hood was off, and he didn’t look all too heroic cradling a bouquet of flowers to his chest. Of course, none can be too heroic standing amongst the remnants of the dead. And though he wore his hero attire, Shane Parker wasn’t here to be a hero. He was here to be alone. But not quite alone, all the same.

As he approached his destination, he took a breath, the plastic wrap around the flowers crinkling as he shifted his arms a bit. “Hey, Mom.” he said, his voice so shaky and quiet he himself could barely hear it. He could feel he was about to cry if he stayed a moment longer, but if there was ever a place to cry this was certainly it. “I was in the area, so I thought I’d drop by.” a bit louder this time. He lifted his gaze to look at his mother’s gravestone head on, lifting an arm to wipe at his tears as he tried to smile. “I brought your favorites.” he kneeled down and set the pink and white carnations before the grave, before taking a seat next to it. He wasn’t too embarrassed to admit the grass where he sat was worn away a bit.

A moment of silence hung in the air, as he tried to get a grip on the stuttering in his chest. This was a one-sided conversation between him and the two month old corpse of his mother, and the tiniest part of him felt stupid for almost expecting her to say something, expecting her to sit up and hug him to her and promise everything would be okay. Hell, his mother hadn’t been able to sit up in almost a year now, let alone hug anyone. Now was not the time to be craving something impossible to get.

“...everything seems so weird now, with you gone.” Shane said quietly. “Before, I could… I could keep going because I thought you’d get better someday, and we could be a normal family again, y’know? I think we all were hoping for that. Or maybe I was just naive. But now… its so hard. I mean, i-its always been hard, but everything feels like its piling on.”

He sighed, glancing at the grave, at the stems of the flowers he’d brought. Pink and white.

“...Alice got kicked out of ballet, and it's all my fault. I know you really wanted her to do ballet, and she loves it so much, I just… I couldn’t afford it. Haven’t been able to pay the studio in almost a year now, and they’d let it slide, but…” but enough had been enough, he supposed. But they didn’t have to be so cruel about it, did they?

~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~

“I-I’m sorry, I can’t pay this month, but I promise--” he stammered out, quiet and weak under the glare of the receptionist.

“What, you ‘promise’ to pay next month? You’ve been singing this song and dance for a year now, and I’m having a hard time believing you!” she said, tapping her pen against the record book with a scowl.

“I know, and I’m sorry, I just--I’m working as hard as I can, but--”

“If you can’t afford dance lessons, then don’t come get dance lessons!”

“If it were just for me, then I’d do it, but it's for Alice, I have to, she--”

“Well, then.” the receptionist’s voice suddenly went cold, her glare icy through her dark-framed glasses. She stood from her desk, the pen clattering to the floor. “I’m officially terminating her lessons with Miss Anne. Starting now.”

It felt like his heart skipped a beat, and for a moment he was frozen as the receptionist came around the other end of the desk and marched for the practice rooms. Then his brain kicked back into gear as he realized what she was about to do. “W-Wait, you can’t!! She has a recital in two weeks, she’s worked so hard, please--!!”

“Oh, the big recital?! Swan Lake?! In order to participate she’d need a new tutu, new slippers, new tights, a new leotard in order to match the other dancers, and you, sir, can’t even afford for her to be here! There’s certainly no way she’s going to ruin the big recital, especially if she should’ve been out of here a year ago!”

“M-Miss Greenwich, please, you have to believe I’m trying--”

Before he could try and get another word in, the receptionist threw open the door to the practice room, three dozen little faces stopping what they were doing to turn and see what was going on one by one. Forcing her way through the sea of children, she picked out a frizzy-haired little girl and grabbed her by the arm. Alice let out a shout as her nails scratched at her arm and she was yanked out of the room.

“What’s going on here, we’re in the middle of--” the ballet instructor began, pausing the music and turning to address the receptionist.

“Alice Parker hasn’t been paying the studio fees in almost a year now, Miss Anne, so her time in this class is over. Hopefully she didn’t have too big of a part, though I can’t imagine she would.” Miss Greenwich barely even turned her head as she continued her way across the room, grabbing Shane by his sleeve and dragging them both out of the dance studio entirely, practically tossing the two onto the sidewalk.

“Miss Greenwich, please--” Shane began, only to be cut off once more.

“You’re lucky I’m not calling the authorities! Your girl’s not welcome in here ever again until you can actually afford tuition, and to repay twelve months of it too! Now get off of our property before I do call the authorities, cheapskate!” and then she slammed the door in their faces, her form walking off through the frosted glass. Shane felt like time had frozen for a moment, his brain still trying to process that that had just happened, until he heard Alice start to cry beside him. He picked her up, and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he carried her back to their beat down pickup truck, her tears beginning to wet his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Alice.” he mumbled, hugging her tight a moment as a heavy weight bore onto his shoulders.

~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~

He pulled at the sleeve of his cloak, just thinking about what happened made him feel incredibly… small. “She was heartbroken. But honestly, the only thing worse is that now she feels like she has to worry.” he let out a sigh. “She stopped using the lunch money I gave her… she stopped eating lunch for two weeks before I found out, she said she didn’t want to use up money we need for something else. It’s taken me forever to even convince her that it's okay for her to eat, I don’t know what to do anymore! I’m working as many jobs as I can, but with Disillusions I... “

He laid back in the grass, the bow and arrow fading into sparks of light. “Its… selfish of me, isn’t it. I could be working so much more, but I have to take off to fight villains and monsters and go to team meetings… one of my jobs even threatened to fire me if I took another unauthorized break. I can’t blame them, but I just… Disillusions is one of the only other places I feel like I’m doing something. I could stop, but… I guess I just don’t want to.” he sighed. “Stupid, right?”

Of course, he could get help through Disillusions. Ken was rich, loaded rich--his father owned one of the largest technological corporations on the globe, and sent him $500 allowances that the boy barely used. All he had to do was tell him just how bad the situation really was and Ken was near-guaranteed to throw enough money at the problem to make it not a problem anymore. He’d helped Maddi a ton already, paying to rebuild her entire treehouse home when it was destroyed in a storm and even buying her groceries every other week.

But… he was too afraid to ask. Maybe he was just too prideful to admit that he was struggling, especially to someone who’d been raised in opulent captivity for so long he barely understood what middle class even looked like. Yet… that wasn’t quite it. Honestly? He was just kind of scared of Ken.

It wasn’t hard to be. With his dark black eyes and icy demeanor, most people shied away upon seeing him. Seeing him dressed in a cloak, big angel wings out for all to see, grinning as he sliced the head off the thirtieth little monster that day only solidified the fear. Ken was typically so stoic, it was hard to tell how he felt about… almost anyone. Shane wasn’t even sure if Ken liked him--he didn’t want to ask for help from someone who possibly hated him.

But he did need help. And soon.

“If we could just join the city’s program, that’d make things so much easier, but we can’t. The Independence program only allows one person per home, and Alice is still too young to apply for her own little place through the program. If we want to stay together, we’d have to go to the orphanage… I don’t think I want to do that.” he sighed.

“...I think I’m cursed. Well, I know I’m cursed, but I think it's reaching farther than I thought.” he rested an arm over his eyes and let out yet another sigh. The curse. He’d been cursed with immortality, which gave him an interesting sideset of powers but came with the weight of knowing he’d outlive everyone he’d ever cared for. He’d never imagined he’d lose his mother so soon, but she’d gotten ill and never improved. Only declined. It had started about a year after he’d been cursed in the first place, almost to the day. Since then? It had all gone downhill, until now Shane was struggling to pay utilities on the apartment and everything around him was falling apart.

A fresh set of tears welled up in him, and he wiped at his eyes. “I don’t know if I can do this, Mom…” someone his age was never meant to go through all of this alone--hell, he felt like no one should have to go through all of this at all, let alone on their own. Everything was piling up, and it was a guarantee that the problems would keep piling on his chest as everyone fell around him until he was alone carrying the weight of lifetimes of issues. Part of him wanted to just lay there beside his mother’s grave for eternity, through wind and rain, heat or cold, let himself be buried alongside her until he didn’t have to worry about anything anymore. The life of the dead (or lack thereof) seemed rather peaceful, after all.

But he couldn’t. He had to keep going, if for nothing else, for Alice. He was all she had left, and she desperately needed him to keep going so she could even dare hope for a future of her own. He’d sworn to himself that, if nothing else kept him going, that he’d keep going for his little sister. Even if it meant running on fumes, on bare remnants of energy and self. As long as she stayed happy, he could be a bit happy too.

But he still missed his mother, desperately. It was a constant ache in his chest, like a hand was squeezing at his heart. It sucked the life, the joy out of… everything. The burning determination he felt to care for his sister and those he cared about was nearly swallowed up by a dark void of nothingness. Sometimes he wanted to just fall backwards into it, watch everything fade to black and--

No. He couldn’t think like that. Shane sat up, biting his lip, gripping the grass in hands tight. He had to stick around. He had to. He could grieve, yes, but he had to keep living. Not because he didn’t have much choice, but because he had his reasons to want to. He felt a fire burn in his heart, and knew he could find the strength, the means to go on. His fingertips glowed, orange and hot. If he was strong enough and capable enough to fight hordes of giant monsters, he could find a way out of this mess they were in.

He fought monsters with a team, didn’t he? Maybe what he needed here was a team too. He just had to ask for help. Even if it meant facing down Ken Shinigami himself, he’d do what it takes.

He stood up, turning to face the gravestone again. Aziza Parker, it read, 1978--2019. The doctors had sworn to him that she’d never stopped fighting her illness for even an instant. His mother was headstrong and determined, had been as long as he remembered, and he couldn’t help but feel like she’d just shared a bit of that strength with him. He managed the smallest of smiles, took a deep breath. “Thank you, Mom. I’ll make you proud.”

Then he teleported, vanishing in a flash of orange sparks, bright against the dying light of the sun as the stars began their reign over the sky.

-----------------------

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#writing sneak peeks #anipwrites disillusions #Shane Parker #anipwritesart #anipwrites art #anip writing #Disillusions #disillusions universe #one shot writing #honestly a scene like this would happen later in the series but yknow #I drew the art first and then wrote the story #i hope you like at least one of the two #*dabs wildly* #my partner said they cried when they read this and I simultaneously feel horrible and triumphant #anyways yeah #haven't written anything else in a hot minute so I figured I need to share SOMETHING soon #here y'all go have fun

[yellowcanna]

Two Sides, Same Coin

Summary: Since the beginning of Quirks, Yokohama has announced independence from Japan and closed itself from the rest of the world.

To this day and age, no one knows what lies within the city of Yokohama—or that was what the public was made to believe. In reality, Yokohama has long fallen into the control of the world’s largest criminal organization known as the Port Mafia.

Follow Class 1-A as their principal organized a field trip to Yokohama! In their short trip there, they must change their perspectives and learn exactly what it means to be justice and what it means to be villains.

Rating: T

Genre: Crossover, hint of shounen-ai (boy love)

Pairing: Contains mild Soukoku (Dazai x Chuuya) and Shin Soukoku (Akutagawa x Atsushi)

Author: Canna / Yellow Canna

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CHAPTER 3

TALES FROM 14 YEARS (PART 2)

When midnight fell over the city, a huge blond man wearing blue, yellow and red spandex could be seen walking down the quiet street.

Toshinori—no, he was All Might now. The No.1 Hero looked at the windows that were lit up around him.

He had never experienced such a quiet night in a populated place before. While this was what he has been fighting for all this time, actually experiencing was something else. Hearing some noises, All Might brought his eyes back down to see an elderly couple walking by. The old lady was using a walker while the old man was using a cane. All Might stepped aside, turning his body so that his large frame wouldn't block their path.

The two elders thanked him with warm smiles on their faces. All Might smiled back. He watched two go, feeling a bit uneasy. He felt a sense of responsibility to escort them home. After all, night time was never dangerous, especially with Villains lurking in the shadows.

All Might had to remind himself that this wasn't the outside world. Just one look and he could tell these two elder couples must come out for a nighttime stroll a lot. There wasn't a single fear or wariness on their faces.

All Might looked around the buildings that were filled with people resting in their homes.

He needed to get away from the residential area.

All Might sucked in a deep breath.

It was time.

Gathering power into his legs, he darted swiftly into a nearby alley.

He ran through the maze of the city, having memorized every single road as he headed for his destination. He made sure to keep his pace slow, just so his pursuers can catch up.

He eventually came out into a wide street filled with factories on both sides.

He ran until he found the place he was looking for.

With a huge leap, he soared into the air and landed at the center of a construction zone. The entire place had been sealed off to prevent people from coming near.  

All Might took a deep breath before he shouted, “I know you’re there!”

His voice echoed into the quiet night.

His enemies didn’t keep him waiting.

A loud buzzing sound vibrating the air as helicopters flew out from behind buildings. They covered the night sky; each helicopter was armed with a machine gun with a shooter already in position. Strong headlight shot down from the helicopters, lighting the entire construction ground as men in black suits appeared. They swiftly surrounded the premise, armed with assault rifles with the muzzles aimed at their target.

All Might watched as the men in black suits parted before him, revealing a man in his forties dressed in long black coat and brown scarf.

“Greetings.” The man greeted, walking forward with his hands behind his back. “My name is Hirotsu Ryuurou, Commander of Port Mafia’s assassination team—the Black Lizard.”

All Might didn’t move. He just continued to stare at the man, watching for any move he might make. With his lack of knowledge in Abilities, the Hero had to be extra careful to all of his surroundings.

“It is not every day we get an honorable guest like yourself visiting our humble city. My apologies for being unable to present you with better a welcoming party.”

“I think you got together a grand party already.” All Might replied.

The man raised his hand. With a snap of his fingers, two silhouettes emerged from behind him.

All Might’s smile nearly broke at the sight of two children—a girl and a boy. The red-haired girl looked to be another twelve years old while the brown-haired boy appeared older, but a child nonetheless.

“Allow me to introduce, they are Kouyou and Kajii, our Port Mafia’s latest addition. They will be your opponents for tonight.”

“YOU—!” Toshinori gritted out, eyes burning with rage but the two children had already sprung into action.

“Ability: Golden Demon!" The girl called out, drawing a katana as a crimson woman appeared behind her, wielding a similar blade.

“YAHOOO!!” The boy cheered as he threw out a bunch of lemons—no, those weren’t lemons!

Gathering power into his legs, Toshinori leaped into the sky. The Hero held back most of his strength so that he wouldn’t get too close to those helicopters circling the sky. The moment those lemons scattered over the ground where he once stood, they exploded.

Dirt was blasted all over the air as dark smoke created by the explosions covered the construction site.

All Might landed back onto his feet and looked around the smoke obscuring his vision. His clenched his fists in anger. To think the Port Mafia will go as far as using such young children against him in a fight!

He looked around cautiously. He knew these children were just a distraction. The Port Mafia had counted on the fact that he wouldn’t be able to hurt them. While these children drew his attention away, the real enemy must be hiding somewhere, waiting for the best opportunity to strike.

Sensing something coming at him from behind, All Might jumped to the side as a katana thrust by him, missing him by half a meter. The little lady clutching onto the katana didn’t falter. Instead, she flipped her blade around and instantly changed the course of her attack. When All Might dodged that as well, she jumped back and vanished into the smokescreen.

All Might frowned, unable to keep his smile just from what he saw. Had he not dodged, the girl’s blade would have pierced his heart the first time, and split open his throat the second time. Every move the girl made was to take his life. There was absolutely no hesitation in her movement.

And what’s more, the moment All Might met the girl’s gaze, he saw intense bloodlust spilling from those ruby red eyes…

As much as All Might didn’t want to think about it, this girl was used to battle. Or rather, she was used to killing. His right hand curled into a tight fist.

“Texas Smash!”

He punched the air, the power of his fist created a strong gust of wind and blasted the smoke away.

“Hya!” The red-haired girl screamed as she was blown back, but thankfully the creature she made caught her protectively within its arms.

All Might had purposely lowered his power. He didn't want to risk harming the girl, and if he used any more strength he was also wary of those helicopters over his head. He hadn’t thought they would bring out helicopters…this was bad.

The No.1 Hero wasn't worried about the guns on the helicopters. What made him worried were just them being there. From the map and what he saw on his way here, this place is filled with power plants and warehouses for dangerous chemicals. If he accidentally knocked one of these helicopters down from the sky and hit one of these warehouses, it might cause explosions. He couldn't risk that, not when he has no idea if there were any civilians around. That was the whole purpose of leading these people here, so innocent people wouldn't get involved.

“Golden Demon, eliminate him!”

All Might swiftly leaped back and dodged the creature that had appeared over his head and slashed its sword at him. He didn’t know what will happen to the girl if he destroyed this creature.

Will she suffer the same damage as her creature?

Will she receive any backlash if this creature was to disappear?

With those thoughts in mind, All Might once more has to control his strength. His first lightly collided into the creature’s gut, sending it hurling backward. Blue eyes instantly shifted to the girl who didn’t seem to feel anything as she rushed towards him with her sword.

Not connected then, that makes things easier.

On the sideline of the battle, Hiroshi observed the way the Pro Hero so carefully fought with Kouyou.

“Truly frightening…” He mumbled with a hint of awe in his voice.

Everything was going according to how the boy said it would. Right from the start, the Hero was fighting while holding back his strengths. He didn’t even realize the changes his body was already going through. Perhaps even now, he was still waiting for his real opponents to show up.

The No.1 Hero on the Hero Billboard Chart…such a pity.

Hirotsu pulled out a golden pocket watch, taking a glimpse of the time and raised a hand.

The men surrounding the perimeter raised their guns and took aim at their target.

All Might who had kept a close eye to these men naturally didn’t miss this. His eyes widened as he watched the man, Ryuurou Hirotsu, brought his hand down. Sounds of gunfire shook the ground as bullets pierced through the air, coming right at the Hero and the young girl.

All Might quickly grabbed the girl, dislodging her katana and ducked behind a stack of steel beams. It was at that moment that searing hot pain blossomed from his abdomen. He looked down to see a dagger halfway buried into his flesh. On the end of the dagger's hilt was a pair of small hands, shaking as they tried to push the blade through the hard muscles.

“Stop, you don’t have to do this.” All Might tried to calm the girl down with one hand holding the blade of the dagger, preventing the girl from pushing any deeper. He smiled, trying to show the child how he meant no harm.

However, when the girl saw his smile, she only smirked. She let go of the hilt and jumped back.

“NO!” All Might shouted. Ignoring the blade half stuck inside him, he darted forward, reaching for the girl who was falling towards the rain of bullets.

“Golden Demon!” The crimson creature appeared, materializing behind the girl as it unsheathed its sword and swung it down towards him.

All Might held up an arm over his head. He tightened his muscles as searing hot pain shot up his arm. He bit down and endured it, sacrificing his arm to block the blade so that his other arm could reach out for the girl.

But despite all that, the girl was falling further and further away from her. No matter how hard All Might tried, he couldn’t reach her.

Why?

All Might’s mind almost went blank as he stared at his quivering hand that was so far from the girl.

Something was wrong.

He should be able to move faster.

He should be able to reach her.

So why?

Why was that girl still so far away?

Why wasn’t he reaching her already?”

“AAAAH!” All Might roared, as if by doing so he'll miraculously gain the energy he needed to propel himself forward and reach the girl.

The girl looked back at him, that condescending smirk still on her face. There wasn't the slightest bit of fear on her face at the concept of death. With a flip in the air, she landed gracefully out in the opening.

The air instantly became silent.

It was as if the thundering sound of bullets a split second ago was nothing but a dream.

All Might was dumbfounded by the sudden change. He didn’t even realize when the girl’s summon creature had disappeared, leaving only a deep cut in his arm. The girl turned around, throwing him one last smirk before she darted away.

“HEY OLD MAN!!” A voice echoed from the sky as a dark shadow cast over the man.

All Might looked up in surprise. Through the bright light shining down from the helicopters, he saw a figure dropping towards him at a dangerous pace.

It was that boy!

“Which one do you believe?!” The child shouted with a gleeful look on his face. “When you die, do you see God, or does God not exist at all?!"

And then, All Might watched in horror as lemon-like grenades poured down from the helicopters.

“WHY DON’T WE FIND OUT TOGETHER?! AHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

“Bastards!” All Might cursed the Port Mafia from the bottom of his heart. He gathered strength into his legs and leaped into the air.

He had wanted to snatch the boy and fly away from this construction zone, away from these helicopters, away from Port Mafia…but reality was he didn’t. He had used all of his strength, but he only just barely reached the boy. He wrapped his arms around the boy, watching in surprise as the muscles in his arms began to thin down.

His Quirk has deactivated!

The sound of explosions pierced his eardrums as heat scorched his body. He held the boy tightly in his arms, using his body to shield him even as he hit the ground with grenades raining over him. Pain blossomed from all over his body. All Might couldn’t even think, all he knew was the scorching pain, yet despite all that he held the boy under him, desperately trying to keep him safe.

He didn’t know how long the explosions lasted for.

It could be seconds.

It could be minutes.

It could be hours.

By the time it ended, All Might was laying on the ground. His hero costume was pretty much destroyed with the blackened flesh underneath still sizzling. He coughed out a mouthful of blood, weakly opening an eye to see the boy he had protected crawling out from beneath him and tossing his battered hand away.

“Kehahahaha, just kidding~” The boy, completely unharmed even down to his cloth, laughed at the Hero’s stupidity. "My Ability, Lemon Bomb, is to not take any damages from any lemon-shaped bombs! Lemons! They are wonderful, don’t you think?! KUAHAHAHA!!”

All Might’s lips tremble, but he couldn’t speak. His vocal core must have been destroyed…or perhaps it was his lungs…he couldn’t tell anymore.

"I made those bombs myself!" The boy boasted, not caring if the charred man on the ground could hear him or not. "I even added that special gas that you Quirk users loved so much!”

Gas?

“…but to think that would lower the explosiveness…I must—…refine…da…”

All Might could no longer hear the rest of the boy’s words. The only thing he could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat steadily getting slower and slower. His visions were slowly being consumed by black spots, like insects chewing away a film. The immense heat that was burning his body away began turning into bitter coldness. Every passing second, All Might could feel his life leaking from his body and pooling beneath him.

Was this how he will end? No, he can’t.

He hasn't defeated All for One yet.

He hasn't found a successor for One for All either.

He can’t let it end like this.

Damn it.

Damn it all…

◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥◤◢◣◥

Toshinori never expected to open his eyes again. He hadn't even expected that he could still be alive with that kind of injuries. Yet here he was, alive and well, without a single scratch on his body.

The pain and suffering felt like a dream. Nothing of this feels real at all. If anything, the whole trip to Yokohama felt like a dream, if not for the fact that he currently seated on a chair in the center of a dark room. The only light source in the room was the strange cubical energy surrounding his hands and feet.

Toshinori tried to move, but he couldn’t budge an inch. His hands were tightly secured against the armrest and his feet to the floor. Whatever these yellowish lights are, Toshinori found himself powerless against it. Someone was standing behind him, but all Toshinori could see of that person were the gloved hands hovering beside him, emitting the same light as these shackles holding him down.

This must be an Ability user.

Toshinori couldn’t tell if his Quirk was still working properly, but these things binding him were strong. He has a sinking feeling that even with One for All, he still won’t be able to break through these confinements.

“Exactly eight o’clock.” A voice spoke from across the room.

Toshinori looked up to see a man sitting behind a wooden desk. He was mostly hidden within the shadows, Toshinori knew this must be the Port Mafia’s Boss. This man was giving off a dangerous aura so similar to All for One that it made his stomach lurch.

“I have been waiting for you, eighth holder of One for All.”

Toshinori’s eyes widened with a sharp intake of breath.

How…?

“Randou-kun, leave us. I would like to have a talk with him.”

“Yes, boss.” A voice spoke from behind him, confirming that the man before him was indeed the boss.

The light around his hands and feet vanished as those gloved hands disappeared out of Toshinori’s sight. Despite being freed, Toshinori sat still. He knew he couldn’t move recklessly. Not without confirming whether or not his Quirk was working properly again.

Just from the power of that Ability user holding him down, he knew he was outmatched. The Mafia Boss himself must also be an Ability user as well. He had to act carefully if he wants to leave this place in one piece.

It was only when the sound of the door closing could be heard that Toshinori gave the Mafia Don his full attention.

"I can see you have questions to ask." The man hummed, folding his white-gloved hands over his desk.

“How do you know about One for All?” Toshinori demanded while testing out his body’s function. Everything felt normal.

“You One for All successors seemed to make it your business to come into our city every generation.” The man sighed as if it was something extremely troubling for him. “If we do not allow you into our city, you will start wrecking our barrier, that’s why I decided to invite you in.”

“Invite…?” Toshinori tried to think back to how he had entered the city. It was that crack in the barrier underwater that he…

“That crack in the barrier was made by you!” It wasn’t a question, because the moment Toshinori spoke out loud, he knew he was right.

From the very beginning, it was a trap!

When looking for a way into the city, Toshinori did tons of researches. He looked through the barrier’s history, ran a marathon around the city, dive underwater and even tried digging underground nonstop for three days, just to see where the barrier would end.

In the end, he came to the same conclusion that all those that had researched the barrier came to.

The barrier protecting Yokohama is spherical. Which means—there was no opening.

With that fact confirmed, Toshinori decided to go with Plan B, which is to break the barrier down with pure force! However, he had to do it in a place where the people in the city wouldn’t be alarmed, and the best place for that would be in the water.

He bought a full set of diving gears and a year's worth of oxygen tanks. He swam around the barrier. Due to not being able to see what's on the other side, he had to be cautious. There was no telling when the enemy may spot him.

It took him a full week of living with the fishes until he found a small, barely noticeable crack in the barrier. Knowing this was the breakthrough he needed, he quickly began to work. He started pounding on the barrier carefully with his fist. He didn’t dare to do it too hard, fearing it might alarm the Port Mafia or worst—create a tsunami.

After two days of nonstop pounding, Toshinori finally made a hole big enough for his body to squeeze through.

Never did he suspect that crack would be a trap. It was too small and too unnoticeable that he brushed off the possibility. But if he thought of it from another angle, that was what made that crack the perfect bait for intruders. Usually, baits should be something more noticeable. Otherwise, how else would the enemies notice? But these people did the opposite.

They made it nearly impossible to find so that only those looking for a way in would find eventually come across it.

“The last One for All successor that came into our city was twenty-seven years ago. I believe she was the seventh. I’m sure you are familiar with her.” Even from the shadows, Toshinori could see the grin on the Mafia boss’s face.

His teacher had come to Yokohama?

Why hadn’t he ever heard of it?

“Tell me, what is it that you seek within our city?” The Port Mafia boss asked as he slowly stood up. “Did you come to stop crimes? Did you come to save innocent civilians? Or perhaps you have come to take down the Port Mafia and free Yokohama to the outside world?”

Toshinori didn’t speak. He just continued to glare at the man.

"All you Heroes are like that. You come into our home, intrude on us with your beliefs without bothering to understand the circumstances of this city. The Port Mafia is what's been maintaining order within Yokohama. What do you think will happen to this city if we are gone?"

“Maintaining order?” Toshinori narrowed his eyes. “Forcing children to fight is also a way to maintain order?”

The Boss of the Mafia chuckled as if finding his anger amusing.

“You heroes never fail to amuse me.” He hummed. “Despite all the Villain activities going on in your world, you’re still so naïve and ignorant. Your belief in your so-called justice is so strong that you only see things in black and white. As result, you became incapable of seeing colours.”

“How many people did those children killed?”

“Hm?” The Mafia boss turned to him as if he didn't hear his question properly.

“How many did you make them kill?”

“Well now…do you remember how many ants you stepped on when going outside?” The Mafia boss questioned back. It was then that Toshinori saw those dull red eyes, staring at him coldly without a fraction of emotion.

Anger rushed through his veins as the No.1 Hero flew out of his seat. His Quirk activated, his body buffed up and his fist pulled back. In an instant, he was in front of the man, about to smash his fist into the other's head when suddenly, One for All deactivated.

Toshinori halted in his track.

The deactivation of his Quirk was one reason, but the second was the feeling of a cold sharp tip resting at the center of his throat. His breath hitched. He couldn't even swallow, as the pointed object was positioned just below his Adam's apple. The American didn't know what weapon was nipping his throat, but the Mafia Boss before him was emitting a pressuring aura as he gazed at the Hero with a light smile on his face.

“Sit back down.” It wasn’t a request, but a command. “Showing violence in front of a child wouldn’t be very heroic now would it?”

Child?

Toshinori slowly backed away and lowered his fist. The Mafia boss retracted his hand, and it was then that Toshinori finally saw the weapon the man had used.

It was a surgery knife.

Never in his entire Hero career has he ever seen or heard of anyone using these as weapons. Even with his trained eyesight, he couldn’t see when the Mafia Boss had pulled out his weapon. The only thing that even alerted him of danger was that flicker of silver before the blade kissed his skin.

Toshinori stepped back, only to feel something tugging against his right leg. Cautiously, while keeping his senses on the enemy, Toshinori spared a glance and was shock by what he saw.

A small and frail little kid was gripping onto his leg with those tiny quivering hands. Toshinori couldn’t see the child’s face as from his angle he could only see that mass of messy raven locks. However, from the way the boy was trembling and how he was covered in bandages, Toshinori instantly stood in front of the child, shielding him from the eyes of the Port Mafia Boss.

He didn’t know why a boy like this was here, but he has no doubt this was another one of this man’s trick.

The Mafia boss broke into laughter at the sight.

Toshinori’s hands rolling into fists as he tried to activate his Quirk again, but still nothing. What exactly was going on?

“I am finding the fact that the outside world still hasn’t been taken over by Villain very peculiar.” The Mafia Boss chuckled.

“How many children have you Port Mafia been keeping?” Toshinori asked. He has no interest in talking in circles with this man. All he wanted to know was if there were more children like this boy and those two kids he faced in the Port Mafia.

“Oh? I would have thought you’d be more interested to know the reason of your Quirk’s deactivation.” The Port Mafia said back.

Toshinori didn’t say anything. Yes, he was concerned about that, but he doubted the Mafia boss would tell—

“You were injected with Quirk suppressants, as well as inhaling a large quantity of Quirk suppressant gas.”

“What?” Toshinori’s eyes widened in shock.

Quirk…suppressant?

“Did you think Yokohama wouldn’t develop any weapons against outsiders?”

All Might thought back to that red-haired girl. He remembered the way she smirked at him after stabbing him in the abdomen. His hand unconsciously moved to where he was stabbed.

That’s right…it was right after that his Quirk started weakening.

That was why the girl smiled like that. All along, her only job was to stab him with her blade. But Toshinori had grabbed the blade. He didn’t feel anything smeared on the metallic surface, so that could only mean…

It was inside the dagger. That was why the girl kept pushing the dagger! She wasn't trying to push it deeper into his body; she was injecting the Quirk suppressant into him!

As for the gas…

Toshinori remembered the boy with grenades in the shape of lemons. He vaguely remembered the boy saying something about putting the gas into those grenades before passing out.

So those grenades he threw right at the beginning already decided everything...

And to think that Toshinori only figured all this out now.

“Tell me, Hero.” The Port Mafia boss said as the wall behind him began to move.

Toshinori stepped back, reaching down to gently push the petite boy back as he watched pieces of wall slide up one by one.

The morning pale light flooded into the room, chasing the shadows away as Toshinori stared at the huge panels of windows behind the Mafia Boss. The sudden exposure to such strong light made Toshinori squint his eyes, but never once did he turn his attention away from the dangerous criminal before him.

With his back facing the light, the Port Mafia boss was completely covered in shadows as he regarded the Hero with those red eyes.

"Do you see children as liabilities? Do you see them as weak and fragile beings that need your protection?"

“What are you trying to say?” Toshinori gritted his teeth.

“What do you think will happen to this city once we are gone?” The Mafia Don then asked, turning to the window with his hands behind his back. He wasn’t even the slightest bit concerned whether or not the Hero would use this opening to attack him.

Toshinori blinked a couple of times to get accustomed to the light. When his eyes finally adjusted, the first thing he saw was the blue sky and the city of Yokohama. The blond took in the peaceful and undisturbed city.

There was no explosion, no smoke rising out from the distance…nothing.

“The answer is simple.” The Port Mafia glanced back at the blond, crimson eyes meeting the Hero’s ocean blue ones. It was at this very moment that Toshinori has finally gotten a clear view of the enemy.

The man was quite young, looking to be in his early thirties with chin length-black hair slicked back over his head with two bangs hanging on the side. He wore a set of black suit with a black trench coat and maroon scarf hanging around his neck.

He was looking at the Hero with a mixture of bemusement and mockery. It was the gaze of someone looking down upon another that is below them.

"When Port Mafia falls, every organization lurking in the shadows of this city will fight to obtain absolute control. Battles will occur and lives, including innocent ones, will be lost. Orders will no longer exist. The idiotic bunch may even open Yokohama's barrier, wanting to use their Abilities to conquer the world. What do you think will happen to your world if that happens?”

Toshinori wanted to say something back, but he couldn’t.

What organization was this man talking about?

What order exactly did he mean keeping Yokohama in place?

“Yes, you cannot answer, because you never thought about consequences.” The Mafia boss ridiculed. “In the outside world, defeating Villain means justice. There are never consequences for Heroes to defeat Villains, as your Villains do not play a role in your society.”

The Mafia boss looked sharply at the No.1 Hero.

"Since you cannot answer I will answer for you. The moment the barrier of Yokohama falls, your world will come to an end. If you think this barrier exists to protect us from the outside, then you are sorrowfully mistaken. This barrier exists for the protection of you outsiders.”

Toshinori shook slightly as the blood in his veins turned cold as a scary realization dawned him.

“There are countless Ability users within Yokohama that can end the outside world as simple as a snap of their fingers. The only reason they hadn’t is due to Yokohama’s barrier and the fact that all these individuals have zero interest in your world. But that is only if your world doesn’t interfere with ours.”

Toshinori felt cold.

Never did he ever felt like what he does might be considered bad.

He stared at the peaceful city displayed before his eyes. He remembered the carefree looks on people’s faces and those elderly couples taking a midnight stroll. If he brings down the Port Mafia, what would happen to those smiles?

But were these Ability users really that powerful?

He wanted to think of it as a bluff until he remembered that boy on the street. The power of his Ability was not a combat one, but that level of intelligence alone could change the balance of good and evil depending on where he stood.

Then there was also that Ability user that was holding him down just minutes ago. What exactly was that man's power?

Finally…there were his injuries. He had been blasted by explosions. He remembered the pain, remembered the way his body had looked. He wasn't even supposed to be alive, yet he was standing there with his body completely unscathed. Was this also the work of an Ability user? If so, then he has never in his life heard of such strong healing power.

No, this can't even be considered healing anymore. Even among Quirks, a power like this only exists in fantasy.

The thought of Ability users like these being exposed to the outside sent a chill down his back. It may be fine if they were to become Heroes, but if they were to join the Villains…

For the first time, Toshinori was lost. A criminal was standing right here in front of him, yet he wasn’t able to bring him down. He couldn’t. He might be able to before knowing these facts, but now…he didn’t dare to think what might happen if he does.

“This is Yokohama.” The Port Mafia boss said, once more reminding the Hero that this was not the world he lived in. “Do not presume our world is the same as yours. Naturally, that goes for those you see as children. You seem to think that the reason you lost was due to us using them as shields, but the truth is that the ones that defeated and capture you were none other than three children. Isn’t that right, Dazai-kun?”

Toshinori felt the tiny hands that had been gripping his leg disappeared. He looked down, watching with rounded eyes as the young boy walked around him and headed towards the Port Mafia boss.

He wanted to reach out and stop the boy. Despite everything the Port Mafia boss had said, Toshinori still held strong to his belief in protecting those weaker than him. He wanted to hold this child and tell him that it’s alright anymore. That he didn’t need to obey this man…that he was here.

However, when the boy looked up and their gaze met, Toshinori froze.

Dull burnt umber eyes gazed back at his without a speck of life reflected in them.

In all of his years of careers, Toshinori has seen different kinds of eyes.

Those brimming with anger, desperation, sadness, pain, terror, lost…but these eyes showed nothing of that. If Toshinori had to come up a word for it, it would be 'hollow'.

“This boy is a prodigy.” The Port Mafia boss decided to enlighten the Pro Hero. “However, because nothing can surpass his expectations, he became extremely bored with everything around him, including life. That’s why he came to Port Mafia, so that he can seek out challenges—something that can surpass his mind. When you came into Yokohama, I decided to let this boy handle your case. All I told him was to bring you here at eight o’clock sharp, and he did just that. I’ve never instructed him on how to proceed with your capture. Do you understand what that means, Hero?”

Toshinori felt himself tremble as he stared at the boy.

"Everything you did and everyone you came into contact with, including the two children that you fought—they were all planned by Dazai-kun here.”

“Everything? Then…?” Toshinori couldn’t continue as he remembered that cheerful smile the boy wore as he ate his treat.

Was he also part of Port Mafia?

Was that also a part of their setup?

He wanted to ask, but he couldn't. He was scared of finding out the truth. He was even more scared if he was wrong, because that will expose the boy.

Never would Toshinori ever expect himself to doubt the heart of a child. However, he could no longer see any of these children as mere kids. Any last shard of hope he had been gripping onto shattered the moment he looked into this boy—Dazai’s eyes.

At the very least…he can’t see this boy in front of him as a mere child.

This boy…

“Leave our city, watchdog.” The Port Mafia boss said with a cruel smile on his face. “There is nothing for you to protect here.”

He does not want to be saved.

┏━━━━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━━━━┓ 

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#bnha fanfiction #soukoku #bungou stray dogs #my hero academy fanfiction #crossover #bungou stray dogs fanfiction

[morphituu]

‘Milagro’ Sneak-peek

The first posts ‘Keep Reading’ stopped working (how surprising) so I had to re-upload. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Nick sat forward, the destroyed building starting to come into view, and both of the officers jaws hung.

“What the fuck, what the fuck,” Ward chanted below his breath, skidding to a halt beside the countless other patrol cars surrounding the ravaged building. It wasn’t just the piles of concrete and small fires that still billowed into the sky- it was the pools of gelatinous, glowing fire-like goo that swarmed small pieces of it, moving in centralized patterns like maggots.

It was everywhere, and beside it were countless MTF authorities, dressed in radicalized hazmat suits, literally shoveling it into reinforced barrels.

The men stumbled aimlessly for a bit, taking it all in. The victims screaming in ambulances, the glowing goo constricting their limbs, and others in body bags being brought from the rubble.

There were also Brezziks slipping in, their sly hands snatching fallen jewelry or goods under everyone’s radar.

Nick turned, watching two officials carry away a barrel that hummed lowly, the Geiger Counters at their hips clicking wildly.

“What the fuck-“ Nick exhaled sharply.

“Officers!”

They spotted Kandomere, and for once, there wasn’t much that was prim or proper about his appearance. His typical elegant suit was replaced with more… casual clothes, the sleeves to his button up rolled to the elbow and his hair pulled back. The dirt covering him pointed to him having gone through the rubble himself, but neither men could fathom him doing such a thing.

“What happened?” Ward questioned urgently.

“She was here, but for what reason we don’t know,” Kandomere said evenly, quickly scripting his signature across a clipboard when handed to him. “Someone else is with her, and I think they dueled here,”

“Dueled?” Nick barked.

“You see that?” The elf pointed to glowing goo, a small puddle close to them. “That’s Wand Plasma. It’s the cast off of a Battle Spell, a very powerful spell. No other charm or even enchantment gives it off. She was fighting someone else with a wand,”

“So there’s definitely more than one wand in LA,”

“Definitely. The reason as to who she’s battling, and why she is though is without answer. Both have only left clues such as this behind to indicate they’re even here. We have nothing,” Kandomere concluded, overlooking the disaster before them.

They continued to look on, the longer they observed, the more destruction they took in. Nick started noticing blood splattered here and there while Ward watched them bring out a smaller body bag, one easily held in someone’s arms.

“I’m leaving LA,” Nick stated, nodding to himself. “I’m not gonna be here for this shit again,”

“Right behind you,” Ward nodded, hand on his belt.

“Neither of you are going anywhere,”

They both turned, meeting the critical, icy blue gaze.

“Excuse me?”

“Neither of you can leave. We need to know where you both are at all times in case she tries to make contact,” Kandomere explained.

“Fuck that,” Nick spat, turning to leave.

“If you leave I’ll have your badge revoked,”

Nick spun on his heel, stomping back. Ward shouted to calm down when he shoved past his own body, barely able to keep Nick withheld as he stood chest to chest with Kandomere.

“Then fucking take it. I’m not going to sit here and let her roll up on me or my family,” he snarled viciously, but the elf was unfazed.

“Then who do you expect to help if she does?”

“If I leave she can’t! So take or do whatever the fuck you want but I’m not risking our lives or my child's just to make your job easier!” Nick hollered, barely restrained by Ward.

“I am giving you a direct order to stay in LA! If you so much as step outside of city limits I’ll make sure you’re buried in the deepest hole of solitary confinement for the rest of your life!” Kandomere was booming back now, his face twisted into a rage he’d repressed for months.

“Try and stop me! Try and fucking stop me-“

“Nick enough! Back the fuck off!” Ward was yelling over him, shoving harshly against the furious Orcs chest, but moving him was like pushing a raging bull- damn near impossible, and maybe just enough antagonization to get him to push back. “Just stop!” Ward finally silenced him, only moving his hands when Nick turned to chuff and snarl loudly to himself, his hands upon his head.

“Why can’t we leave? If she hasn’t contacted us yet then why can’t we just fucking go? It would be one less thing for you to keep an eye on,” Ward tried to reason, but Kandomere only shook his head.

“You know exactly why, Officer Ward,” he at first said calmly before stepping closer. “She’s going to try and put a wand in your hand. If she’s Inferni, she’s going to recruit you,”

“Who says I’d go?”

“Wands bring power, and with power comes corruption. Don’t underestimate that,”

Ward’s face was taut in restricted fury, choosing to look away. “So what, we wait for her to come at us? What then?”

“If she does she’ll fall right into our hands. We’ve had teams following you both for weeks,”

“Us? Just us? What about our families?” Nick stepped in, eyes wild with worry. “If her sister knows how to take people down to follow a path to who she wants, who’s saying she doesn’t know how either?”

“We don’t have that kind of disposable man-power-“

“Then find it! I have a fucking baby on the way! My girlfriend- my future wife is home alone and you’re telling me there’s no one there to keep an eye on her?! What about his wife and daughter!? How well is your plan going if she attacks them and not us?!” Nick bellowed, but Daryl didn’t push him away this time. This was another dark door opening up, revealing shady dealings behind the scenes.

“You two are main priority-”

“If you want us to cooperate then fucking work with us!” Nick finished, chuffing loudly in his face. Nick looked down on him until Kandomere took a step back, uncaring of the fellow officers watching them or the onlookers gawking.

“Because if anything happens to my girl, or my child, I will rip you into pieces. I don’t care if you don’t know what it is to have someone- stop treating us like we’re disposable. We have lives outside of this shit,” Nick ground out, his menacing form lingering a few seconds longer before turning hotly on his heel.

The cold, steely expression had returned to his tired eyes, as did the rigid manner in the way he stood. If there was ever a time Ward has seen Kandomere intimidated, it was Nick getting in his face.

“He’s right. You both are, but he’s more right. If you want us to work with you, then work with us,” Daryl reiterated, stepping back to follow Nick.

“He’s not entirely right,” Kandomere informed, fixing his rolled sleeves. “Leila killed my husband 30 years ago. Don’t tell me I don’t know what it means to have someone lost.”

Ward was left, standing amongst the burning rubble and curious eyes, and admittedly surprised; it explained the resilience, and persistence to end this. The kind of loathing he must’ve had for those sisters must’ve been unbearable, or perhaps just the opposite. That very contempt could’ve been what drove him to see an end to this, no matter how much he had to withstand to see it through.

His attention turned to the few left still watching. “Mind your own.” he snapped, waving his hand. Still a few pair of eyes following, but became an afterthought once finding Nick inside the SUV, his elbow rested against the window and biting his thumb nail nervously.

“I know what you’re thinkin’,” Ward cautioned, but Nick’s knee kept bouncing. “If you try n’ run off with Callie they’re gonna find you before you hit Anaheim,”

“It’s worth a shot,” Nick battled.

Ward sat forward, inclined enough to finally catch his partners line of sight. “Then what? You gonna leave your girl with a newborn you’ll never see? You won’t even get visitations or calls. You’ll go the rest of your life wondering what your baby’ll look like or who it’s callin’ daddy,”

Nick’s brows were knit together in a deep scowl, the shake of his head barely noticeable.

“This sucks. It fucking sucks but don’t do something that’s gonna drag on past her finally being caught. Don’t do that to your family.” Ward scolded, no room for debate in his somber tone or unmoving grimace.

Everything in Nick wanted to pack up Callie and run- to leave as far away as they could until this nightmare was over… but Ward was right. He was acting on fear without thinking of the lasting effects. He couldn’t leave Callie alone if what Kandomere had threatened him with held any truth.

Ward’s hand squeezing his shoulder offered comfort when Nick’s face fell into his palms, but agony was just below the surface.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Milagro’s debut is June 21st- only 2 weeks away!

Thank you to everyone who has stuck around this far and hello to any new readers who may be stopping in! I’ll be primarily posting on Ao3 where there’s already a slot ready for it’s uploads, but will also be posting to tumblr again (assuming I can fit in the chapters cause of that stupid text block restriction)

A special, loving thank you to @rfitzhugh74- for being my beta-reader and dealing with my needy ass in regards to writing and my paranoia. You’ve become such a special person to me 🖤

#morphituu #terato #terato writing #exophilia #monsters #nick jakoby #fanfiction #nick jakoby fanfic #nick and callie #bell peppers trilogy #writing #orc #netflix #ao3 #archive of our own #romance #adventure #angst #magic #love #pregnancy #orc x human #elf

[thedcdunce]

Mister Freeze

“We all have one of these inside our heads, a symbol of death without which we cannot live. And if we use what's inside our heads, eventually we will live to conquer death.” - Mister Freeze

Real Name: Victor Fries

Aliases:

Mister Zero

Doctor Zero

Gender: Male

Height: 6′ 0″

Weight: 190 lbs (86 kg)

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Bald

Skin: White

Powers:

Unique Physiology

Abilities:

Genius Level Intellect

Science

Mechanical Engineering

Weaknesses:

Technological Reliability

Equipment:

Cryo-Suit

Mister Freeze's Cold Gun

Universe:

Earth-One

Earth-Two

New Earth

Base of Operations: Gotham City

Citizenship: American

Parents:

Charles Fries; father

Lorraine Fries; mother

Marital Status: Separated (Nora Fries; wife)

Occupation: 

Criminal

Cryogenicist

College teacher

First Appearance: Batman #121 (February, 1959)

Powers

Unique Physiology

Abilities

Genius Level Intellect: Victor is also a polymath who has studied many areas of physics and chemistry, as well as neurobiology and medicine.

Science: He's a gifted scientist, having built his Cryo-Suit, Cold Gun, and life support machine.

Cryogenics

Medical Science

Mechanical Engineering

Weaknesses

Technological Reliability: He relies on his cryo-suit to regulate his temperature at a frozen level.

Equipment

Cryo-Suit: Wears a suit that keeps his body temperature below freezing.

Mister Freeze's Cold Gun: He freezes areas around him using special weapons and equipment.

History

Victor Fries, primarily known as Mister Freeze and before that Mister Zero, is a scientist skilled in cryonics. With his Ice Gun, he is a recurring foe of Batman and his allies in Gotham City.

Earth-One

A scientist, whose name remains unknown, adopted the identity of the criminal Mister Zero after he suffered an unfortunate accident that changed his physiology, forcing him to live in environments below zero temperature. He was experimenting with a concentrated freezing solution in order to create an ice gun and he was accidentally exposed to the solution. In order to be able to go out to the normal environment, Zero created an air conditioned costume, which helped him remain in cold temperatures, even in hot climates. Using this equipment, Zero gathered a small gang and started a crime spree in Gotham City, stealing mainly diamonds and other precious jewels. Mr. Zero was eventually confronted by the local vigilantes, Batman and Robin, who were unable to stop Zero as they couldn't stand against his cold weapons. The Dynamic Duo were eventually captured by Zero and brought to his secret cold hideout, near the mountains. Trapped in blocks of ice, Batman and Robin learned Zero's plan to steal a large collection of gems and using their cages as weapons, Batman broke a steam pipe in Zero's hideout, causing steam to fill the entire place, melting the ice away and apparently curing Zero from his ailment. After this, Batman and Robin were able to capture the whole gang and brought Zero to the authorities.

After years of inactivity, Zero returned to crime, but this time, he changed his alias to Mister Freeze. Freeze's condition had apparently returned and he was forced to remain in cold temperatures once again. In this second exploit, Freeze redesigned his Cryo-Suit and also improved his cryothermal gun. With a new gang, he started a new series of crimes and stole valuable pieces of art. Similar to his first criminal activities, Freeze was eventually stopped by Batman and Robin.

Long after this, Freeze became part of a mock criminal trial, after which he changed his Cryo-Suit for one that allowed him more mobility. Freeze eventually fell in love with a woman called Hildy. In order to slow her aging process, Freeze set out to recreate the accident that transformed him. Using wealthy people in Gotham as test subjects, Freeze experimented on them, but all the efforts resulted in failure and the victims were turned into frozen zombies, who followed Freeze's command. His new crimes alerted the police and Batman, who confronted Freeze and was only able to defeat him when Hildy showed her true intentions and betrayed Freeze, only to be encased in solid ice when her plan backfired. Freeze's next plan consisted in freezing Gotham City by removing all the heat and transporting the energy to the neighboring city of Metropolis. Freeze was unable to accomplish his goal as he was stopped by Batman and Superman. During one last attempt to freeze Gotham entirely, Mr. Freeze created a large ice cannon. After robbing a bank, Freeze was confronted by Batman and the new Robin, who managed to defeat him with help from Vicki Vale and Julia Pennyworth, who Freeze had previously captured.

Origin

As a child, Victor Fries was fascinated by freezing animals as a hobby he developed to escape the pressures of his brutal, control-freak father. His parents, horrified by his 'hobby', sent him to a strict boarding school, where he was miserable, feeling detached from humanity. That winter, when the other children went home for the holidays, Victor discovered that his parents had disowned him. He was thought of as in embarrassment, a mistake to be filed away and forgotten, and he never saw them again. In college, he felt that he may never feel a warm touch, but then came Nora, a beautiful athlete, with whom he fell deeply in love with and ultimately married. He later got a job teaching cryogenics at the local college.

Nora later fell terminally ill with a rare cancer. Fries left teaching and took on a job working for a large drug company called GothCorp, run by the ruthless Ferris Boyle, so he could find a cure. Using his great intellect and passion for cryogenics, Fries discovered a way to put Nora into cryo-stasis using company equipment, hoping to sustain her until a cure could be found. Boyle found out about the experiment and canceled the funding, but Fries continued with the project, leaving Boyle in huge debt. Boyle attempted to have Nora brought out of stasis and overruled Fries' frantic objections, during which a struggle ensued. As a result, Fries became engulfed in his own cryogenic coolants and was left for dead. Fries survived, but the chemicals had altered his body chemistry and his body temperature was lowered dramatically; he could now only survive at sub-zero temperatures. Fries escaped, unnoticed with the frozen Nora. In hiding, he invented a special refrigeration suit to stay alive, and used cryonic technology to create a powerful gun which fired a beam that froze any target within its range.

With this technology, he became a criminal called Mr. Freeze with a taste for diamonds and revenge.

Criminal Activities

His first act as a costumed criminal is to take revenge upon Ferris Boyle, a plan with which Batman interferes. Mr. Freeze fired his freeze-gun at Batman, but he dodged, causing the beam to shatter Nora's capsule. Freeze blamed Batman, and swore to destroy whatever the Dark Knight holds dear. Mr. Freeze once joined a team of Gotham's "costumed freaks" lead by Two-Face. The group attempted to destroy the remnants of Carmine Falcone's Crime Family. During the Columbus' Day Massacre, Freeze was assigned to the removal of Edie Skeevers. Mr. Freeze and the others eventually fought Batman and Robin in the Batcave, after a botched assassination attempt on Two-Face by Hangman.

Initially locked in Arkham Asylum, Freeze was eventually transferred to the Gotham State Penitentiary, from where he escaped and attempted to steal technology from S.T.A.R. Labs until he was stopped and returned to prison by Batman.

After this series of encounters with Gotham's vigilantes, Freeze decided to hibernate inside a block of ice created with his own weapons. His frozen body was eventually found in the Gotham River, where the police pulled him out and took him to the morgue, assuming there was a corpse inside the ice. When the ice thawed, Freeze crawled out to the cold room, where he was stopped by Detective Montoya and Batman. Freeze was then arrested and taken away in an ambulance with the necessary equipment to keep him alive.

City of Crime

Freeze was eventually contacted by Penguin and he agreed to work for him as a "cleaner". However, Freeze's unstable mind caused him to go overboard and started killing Penguin's people. Freeze's mind was having a regression after his treatment at Arkham and he kidnapped a pregnant girl, believing that she was her late wife, Nora. Freeze was then attacked by The Ventriloquist's henchmen and Batman had to step in to save him. Freeze returned to his hideout to recover from the damage done, but the kidnapped girl tricked Freeze into hugging her, causing him to be paralyzed due to her warm body affecting his system. Batman arrived in time to rescue the girl and left Freeze to be taken by the authorities.

Under the Hood

When Black Mask became the new crime lord in Gotham, he approached Freeze and offered him to join his gang; an offer that Freeze accepted on the condition that he was given a new Cryo-Suit. The construction of a new cryo-suit was slow as Freeze kept killing the technicians that Black Mask provided him, but eventually Freeze was given a new and improved cryo-suit, sealing the deal. Once under Black Mask's command, Freeze was told to recover anything he could from the stolen shipment at the Gotham Harbor. However, Black Mask's plans were foiled by a new criminal called Red Hood, forcing the crime lord to send Freeze to kill Red Hood and recover the Kryptonite shipment for him. Freeze found Red Hood and a fight between them started until Batman and Nightwing showed up and stopped their fight. After this, Freeze used his cold gun to escape the place.

Once, in the hopes of reviving Nora, he allied himself with the Secret Society of Super Villains, fashioning for Nyssa Head a sub-zero machine in exchange for the use of her own Lazarus Pit. He attempts to restore Nora to life without waiting for the adjusting needed in the pool chemicals, however; she returns to life as the twisted Lazara, and escapes. She blamed her husband for her plight and estranged herself from him.

Heart of Hush

Freeze was eventually approached by Hush, who asked him to create a machine that could preserve a beating heart out of the body. Freeze created such machine and asked a large amount money in exchange.

Upon returning to Earth, Freeze started attacking Intergang, to take back the control of Gotham. For this purpose, he made an alliance with Killer Croc and together they attacked the members of Intergang at the Iceberg Lounge.

Battle for the Cowl

After Batman's death, most of the Arkham inmates were freed by a new Black Mask. Freeze was among them and he started working on a project called Ice-X Protocol when the GCPD tried to capture him. He stunned them with his gun and captured Gordon, taking him to his secret lair. Gordon managed to break free and defeat Freeze by causing an explosion that weakened Freeze. After his capture, Freeze was taken to Iron Heights prison.

Black Mask attempted to control Mr. Freeze by implanting a device in his head. He escaped Black Mask and tried to perform brain surgery on himself to remove the chip, but was captured and imprisoned by the Outsiders. The chip was eventually removed by Owlman.

Convergence

He robs a diamond store and is stopped by Nightwing. He later teams up with Penguin to attack Poison Ivy. It is clear that he has lost motivation due to his separation from Nora.

Fun Facts

Mister Zero had a counterpart on Earth-Two. It is unknown whether he ever adopted the Mister Freeze alias.

Mr. Freeze does not believe in heaven or hell or any sort of afterlife, making him an atheist.

#mister freeze #victor fries #mister zero #doctor zero #injustice league #Secret Society of Super Villians #secret society of super-villians #secret society of supervillians #Wayne Enterprises #gothcorp #dc #DC comics #thedcdunce

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of November 6th, 2019

Best of this Week: Legion of Doom #35 (Justice League #35) - Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Francis Manapul, HI-FI and Tom Napolitano

Doom is Here.

The Justice League is in shambles after the explosive events of the last issue which saw Starman’s death, The Anti-Monitor being coaxed back to his mother’s side and Hawgirl’s hubris leading to Perpetua regaining her lost power. Just when victory seemed at hand, it was ripped away in an instance and everything that Lex Luthor had planned and fought for was finally coming to fruition. We’ve all been wondering why the Symbol of Doom had been appearing above the skies of the DC Universe and now we know. Doom is winning.

This issue picks back up with the League still reeling from what just happened. Superman is defiant in the face of defeat, but the Starman of the Justice Society tells him that since the connection between him and the other Starmen is gone, then Will Payton the Starman of Earth-0, must have been killed in the battle. This leads Jarro to surmise that everything in Starman’s vision is coming true, that The Last Great Disaster was still coming. Kamandi sits in utter defeat, thinking of his world, the likely result of that disaster.

This is especially distressing for him because he had so much hope going into the time travel fight. He comes from such a horrible world where anthropomorphic animals are in a constant war with each other. He thought that everything was hopeless until Wonder Woman convinced him that e timeline was worth fighting for. It’s almost because of him that all of the other Leagues were brought together and given hope, so knowing that things didn’t go exactly according to plan is probably crushing him.

The Leagues that managed to get back to Earth-0 are unaware of what happened out in Space and don’t know that the Anti-Monitor took over the body that he had begun to share with his brothers, the Monitor and the World Forger. Superman thinks that they’ll still be able to get their help as they still have the pieces of The Totality (The macguffin that would have saved the universe), but Batman rationalizes that whatever happened out there must have been absolutely dire. As they go to check on Miss Martian and the other Titans, they find that she’s had a massive psychic wave wash over her because of the Symbol of Doom. Raven feels it too as all of the universes negative emotions are dragged to the surface and amplified. It’s not only this Earth and this universe that can see it. 

It’s all of them. 

Francis Manapul does an amazing job of capturing the scale and danger of Perpetua’s victory by stretching the Symbol of Doom across six vertical panels showing the other heroes of the world looking up at the sky. Batwoman in Gotham, Black Canary and Green Arrow in Seattle, The Marvels in Philadelphia, Swamp Thing and Detective Chimp in Louisiana, CATMAN IN TANZANIA and the Rocket Red Brigade in St. Petersburg all look toward the sky and see that Doom is coming for them all. Each of these panels are colored in Manapul’s almost airbrush-y style. They’re vibrant, but still give off that feeling of bad tidings. 

All of this is absolutely terrifying because there are so many villains and criminals active in the DC Universe. We’ve been seeing the result of Lex’s different offerings over the course of the various stories and while some like Jason Todd’s supervillain team are innocuous, others like Mr. Freeze have been committing absolute terrors in Gotham. Doom is seeping its way into the hearts of the people and they absolutely love it. Heck, this book even starts with a guy holding a sign in front of the Hall of Justice saying “Luthor was Right.”

It doesn’t stop there as it can be seen from Darkseid’s Ghost Sector, Oa, Barbatos’ prison in the Dark Multiverse, the Crime Syndicate’s Earth-3 (even though all of them are supposed to be dead) and even the World Orrery in the center of the Multiverse. The power of Doom itself stretches far and wide and one world gets an unfortunate taste of it. We are then transported to Earth-19, the Gotham by Gaslight Universe, as Bruce Wayne and Inspector Gordon look up to the sky, seeing the Symbol of Doom and Perpetua herself. 

The scene is painted in a beautiful purple hue and heavy inks. Everything feels utterly dark, not only because of the setting, but also because of the panic on the people's faces. They scream that they’ve gone man, that the world is ending. Perpetua condemns the world for being so primitive because of the heavy fog of industry and their lean towards Justice. Batman himself tries to call for help, but the signal is blocked. Perpetua takes notice of him and chastises him for his choices, and uses her power to begin the destruction of the world. Batman realizes the end is near and reveals the knowledge of the Multiverse to Gordon, who responds by asking what the hell can they do against her and Batman replies they’ll do what they can, a hero to the end.

Perpetua crashes her staff into Earth-19, sending a shockwave through the planet that cracks it apart with fire and thunder. Starting out with one wide shot panel of Perpetua towering over the city and slowly pulling in to the terror of the citizens running away, we can feel the fear and terror on the people’s faces. Even as Batman tries to save a frantic child amidst the utter destruction, we know that there is truly nothing he can do as Perpetua announces that there are now only Fifty-One Earths. It’s heartbreaking as it all ends with a distorted, yellow panel of Perpetua’s evil eyes. 

Meanwhile, Hawkgirl and Shayne (the child of Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter) drift in the emptiness of space. Hawkgirl’s still suffering from her injuries at the hands of Lex Luthor, a result of her thinking that she would be able to get revenge for the death of J’onn J’onzz, but unfortunately allowing him to get the drop on her, causing the entire plan to go awry. There’s still a small bit of hope as Hawkgirl and Shayne manage to reach Batman on the Javelin’s comms. Batman warns them that they need to escape as quickly as they can as they won’t stay hidden for long. The warning rings true as Perpetua allows Luthor to hit the Javelin, stranding them in space and finally giving Luthor the reigns to attack the League head on. 

This issue was absolutely fantastic from start to finish. While I have criticized The Batman Who Laughs for being an OP character that always wins, that has always come with the caveat that he’s just another Batman and has plans on top of plans. Perpetua and Luthor are different because it is shown that there is a small chance that they can fail. The last issue planted that idea in our minds with Hawkgirl being the linchpin to their defeat, but her hubris allowed Doom to win. Perpetua took advantage and is now showing what happens to those that aren’t on her side.

I love tales on a cosmic scale and this book is building to bigger and better things, not only in one universe, but all of them. Perpetua is doing something similar to what Crisis on Infinite Earths did back in the 80s and is bringing together all of the different universes and systematically destroying them to make way for something better in her image. It’s not just the normal universes that are affected either, it’s the Dark Multiverse as well and if things are to be believed, the Tales from the Dark Multiverse books could be what makes Scott Snyder’s Justice League the center point for the next big Crisis.

Francis Manapul is pulling heavy duty with his work in this issue as everything looked amazing. The heroes looked like they were in utter defeat, designs were amazing as always and Perpetua looked absolutely threatening. She’s such an ethereal being with dark, dark shadows that have just a small splash of color in them. Her eyes are piercing and you can almost get the feeling that she can snap you out of existence at any moment. She’s a wonderful new addition to DCs cast of Cosmic characters and Manapul does an excellent job of portraying as a grand threat.

This run of Justice League and the stories that surround it, much like Dark Knights: Metal, are exactly what I’ve been looking for in comics. I love it when villains have their way and get their wins in. What makes this even better is that Perpetua and Apex Lex are absolutely compelling villains that make good, smart use of the situations that they find themselves in. Lex Luthor is finally achieving things that he tried back in the Villains United days, the Injustice Gang days and every other time he tried to achieve global domination, but failed. With the help of his new evil Cosmic mother, short of an evil alternate universe Batman, there is nothing that can stop them.

Doom is Here. Doom is Winning.

#dc comics #comics #justice league #legion of doom #perpetua #lex luthor #scott snyder #james tynion iv #francis manapul #hi-fi #year of the villain #doom

[andrewmoocow]

Gravity Soul chapter 13: Return to the Falls, Trust No One? (originally posted on August 12, 2019)

AN: As Doctor Stephen Strange once said, "We're in the endgame now." I'd like to thank everyone who has stuck by me since Thanksgiving 2017 as I laughed, cried, cheered and felt myself die inside while this saga progressed. They always say parting is such a sweet sorrow, and I have a feeling it's going to be even more sorrowful for me since this story holds a special place in my heart as a crossover between my favorite anime and one of my favorite cartoons. But enough sentimentality, let the final battle against KISHIN CIPHER begin.

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--

There was dead silence in the now red-lit forest of Gravity Falls. Kishin Cipher's fortress the Fearamid continued to hover above the Oregon town that barely had any life left inhabiting it now that the townspeople were either transformed into building blocks for his throne or hiding in the shadows.

However those shadows would finally see a beacon of light shining nothing but hope upon the desolate village in the form of the Mystery Meisters returning to the falls at last. Out of a portal came Dipper and Mabel first, their bond broken and repaired within the span of a few hours after the boy went out of his way to save his sister from the grasp of Kishin Cipher and Anti-Mabel.

Next came Stanford Pines, Maka Albarn, Black Star and Death the Kid along with their respective weapons Azusa Yumi, Spirit Albarn, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa and Liz & Patty Thompson. "This is it everyone. Beyond these woods, our final battle with Bill and Asura awaits." Ford boldly declared. "Is everyone ready?"

"I definitely am. And I'm ready to save Soul as well." Maka responded willing to risk her life for the sake of her Demon Scythe. "As am I dudes. We're coming for you Mr. Pines!" Soos added also ready to rescue his father figure and former boss Stanley Pines. "We haven't got a moment to lose, but I suggest we find shelter before he finds us." Franken Stein suggested turning his screw while Wendy, Crona, Ox, Kim, Kilik, Gideon, Pacifica, McGucket and the rest of the team followed behind. "Any ide-"

"Mystery Shack." the kids stated in unison before Stein could even finish. "Well aside from the fact that that's where we stayed at last Weirdmageddon, there's also a mystical barrier made out of unicorn hair protecting it from weirdness." Dipper explained. "Wait, unicorn hair?" Black Star wondered. "Tell me more!"

"How about later? We gotta get moving!" Mabel said racing to find the Shack. The group then followed the sweater girl but without their knowledge, an Eyebat peered at the party before flapping its wings and soaring to the Fearamid.

The eye creature entered the pyramid and faced its master Kishin Cipher as he schemed on his human throne. "Okay, gimme reports little guy!" he commanded the Eyebat with a poke of its cornea. It rumbled a bit before a holographic image of the Mystery Meisters running away from him. "Well well well, can't say I'm not surprised!" the Dream Kishin commented with a sneer. "Now we can finally start the welcoming party!"

His minions all assembled before their master and took a bow as Kishin Cipher gave orders. "Okay, I'll need all of you circling the town in search of any survivors!" he stated. "Arachne, Shaula, Mosquito, Giriko, Shifty, you follow those mortals and terminate them! Henchmaniacs, blow that cabin to bits and take out anyone inside! And Horsemen?"

"Yes Master?" the Madness of Greed formerly known as Grunkle Stan wondered planting his sword in the ground while his eight-legged horned possum Shanknir scampered to his side. "I've got a special assignment for all of you. I need the four of you to fight alongside me in the eventual big showdown. You up for it?"

"As always mighty God of Weirdness and Madness." Medusa Gorgon, the Madness of Wrath, answered loyally. "And I trust that you in particular won't try to turn on me and take my power?" K.C told the witch. "I sincerely promise you that I have no ulterior motives."

"Very good." Kishin Cipher smirked, feeling ready to destroy all in the fated clash.

--

"We should be getting close everyone, I can smell the cheap money." Dipper stated hiding in the bushes as he spotted the tourist trap from afar. "It feels like it's been so long since we've last seen that old place."

"Really? Cause it felt like we've spent an entire night searching for Pacifica and then a few days in Death City." Mabel added stacking her head on top of her brother's. "Well no matter, we're finally home." Ford continued stepping out of their hiding spot to knock on the door. "HALT! WHO GOES THERE?!" a familiar voice screamed. "Can you shut it Rumble? You'll get us caught!" another exclaimed harshly. "Besides, who knows who it could be?"

"Is that Eruka?" Dipper muttered in shock. "And that other guy sounds really familiar." Soos replied. "But let's barge in just to be safe!"

"That is rather rash and could be dangerous, but okay I believe you." Maka stated preparing to bust down the door. "Let's do this."

Battle cries were all around as the Mystery Meisters charged into the Shack with weapons raised high and a little resistance within the hovel roared as well. There were however a few familiar faces among the resistance's ranks. "Eruka, Free?" Dipper and Mabel exclaimed in unison. "Kids?" the frog and wolf responded just as stunned when the Multi-Bear stepped out of the bathroom. "Just so we're clear, we're all out of toilet paper." he announced amidst the awkwardness. "Did I miss something?"

--

"Are you making yourself at home Stanley?"

Stan sluggishly smacked his lips with a grumble and slowly opened his eyes to discover that he was now in a black and red room with a lamp as its only light source and a choppy record player nearby. Stan was bewildered as last he remembered, he & Soul sacrificed themselves to protect their loved ones and converted into minions of Kishin Cipher. He decided to get up from the chair he was sitting in to get a better look, but instead found himself chained to it. "Let me ask you again. Are you making yourself at home Stanley?"

"Hardly!" Stan exclaimed struggling to break out of his chains. "Where am I and who are you anyway?!" he asked. "Oh pardon me sir. Allow me to introduce myself." the voice's owner, a fine-dressed imp with a wide grin on his face, apologized. "I am the little demon now residing in your heart after you accepted the Black Blood within you."

"Hey, doesn't Soul have a weird little man kinda like you inside of him?" Grunkle Stan asked. "And why am I in this Sunday best getup?" He then brought attention to his current attire of a tuxedo with a red bowtie and a diamond ring on his finger. "Though I do like this ring."

"Why it's simple. As a fellow host of the Black Blood, you are one of four people forced to serve your new master. Though only one wasn't unwilling." the Ogre explained snapping his fingers to reveal the other hosts; Preston Northwest, Soul Eater Evans and Medusa Gorgon. Medusa was the only one to not be restrained to a chair, implying that she was the willing one.

"You won't get away with this you crimson cretin!" Preston shouted before the Ogre made a gag appear with another snap of his fingers. "Oh you Northwests don't know when to quit or shut up." the demon commented. "He's right you little twat, the twins will find a way to save us!" Soul added just as defiant. "Just why are we all here?"

"The master simply wants us all to be in better harmony." Medusa explained picking up a violin from a table out of two other instruments. "Make your choice." she commanded allowing the captives to get up from their chairs to choose. "I call dibs on the saxomaphone." Stan declared snatching the brass instrument. "Guess that leaves me with the clarinet." Preston added picking up his chosen woodwind. "But what about the boy?"

A spotlight shone on a grand piano behind Soul. "Of course." the scythe muttered sitting down and preparing to play. "But still, what's with all the harmony crap?" he asked the ogre. "Even though you are completely powerless to stop everything that you're perfectly aware of, there still has to be teamwork amongst Bill's slaves." the imp remarked. "NOW PLAY!"

The three unwilling Madnesses slowly warmed up under the watchful glare of Medusa who began expertly leading the way on her violin. Soul unwillingly but just as beautifully followed up with his piano while the Gravity Falls citizens just awkwardly looked at each other. "Do I see reluctance?" the Ogre snarled viciously electrocuting the two. "PLAY!"

"Okay, keep your pants on Lucy!" Stan growled playing the saxophone while Preston began his clarinet. Although their number was a nice piece, it symbolized how the three males were completely reluctant to serve Kishin Cipher.

--

"So that's the whole story?" Dipper asked Eruka while the group sat around a campfire inside the Mystery Shack that the resistance against Kishin Cipher had made their homebase. "Yeah, when we found your weirdo little house, there were already a few other people taking shelter as well." the frog witch answered. "Yeah, and a ton of strange characters too!" Free added. "Like those minotaur guys, the little dwarves, a couple of video game characters and whatever that bear is supposed to be!"

"Hey for your information Bigby, we're gnomes! The dwarves hang around in the mountains." Jeff exclaimed standing up next to Free. "But what of the strike force Death sent in?" Kid wondered twiddling his thumbs. "Most of them didn't make it." Sid stated. "Justin tried to kill that monster, but he was made a part of his creepy throne. Djinn Galland, Tsar Pushka, Feodor, Tezca Tlipoca and Mifunewould meet the same fate."

In a dark corner, Zubaidah & Enrique comforted a grieving Angela while Dengu & Alexandre leaned on the wall with Pitt colas in hand. "We're trying to do the best we can to fight back, but Kishin Cipher is pretty much all powerful." Mira explained. "The only thing that can keep us safe from him now is that unicorn hair shield keeping his powers at bay."

Suddenly rumbling footsteps sounded outside the Shack. "Uh guys, we got a situation!" the resistance's lookout, the wax head of Larry King, announced. "Those Henchmaniac guys are heading straight for us! And I am honestly surprised it only took them until now to find us."

"Everybody, battle stations!" the dating simulator character Giffany shouted taking position at a nearby window as the Henchmaniacs finally arrived with Moonlight, Kaguya, White Rabbit and the Black Clown leading the way. "Come out come out wherever you are." White Rabbit chimed in a sing-songy voice. "Your hair shield may not be penetrated by us, but we will find ways to penetrate you."

"NONE SHALL PASS!" Manly Dan screamed putting up his dukes. "You're only just making us want to tear you all to bloody shreds even more." Paci-Fire boomed telepathically. "Why the hell are we only cowering inside the Shack when we could be out there kicking their asses?" Black Star asked. "Also, what kind of monster is that ugly baby?"

"We're just not ready yet. Our forces are strong, but we still need something even stronger to stand a chance." Candy answered. "Candy's right you guys. We need to save Soul, Stan and Mr. Northwest if we want to save Gravity Falls. They're part of that big wheel Ford talked about." Maka responded. "Exactly, but how can we rescue them in their current states?" Stanford pondered. "By the way, do you think they can hear us?"

"Yes, yes we can!" Pyronica called out, causing the polydactyl author to angrily pound the wall. "Dammit!" he groaned agitatedly. "Well, time to cut things short. Kid, Kilik, Wendy & Dipper, you're all coming with us." Black Star declared. "The rest of you hit the deck!"

"Are you truly sure about this kids? These demons may look rather ridiculous, but judging by their apparent connections to Bill they must be insanely powerful." Stein observed. "We have to do this to protect the Shack while the rest of you think of a new plan." Kid replied beckoning Liz and Patty to his hands. "You're right. Stay safe out there." Maka promised the tourist trap defenders.

"Hey Henchmaniacs, we're right here for you!" Dipper announced grabbing Excalibur on his way out the door. "Well look who we have here, the master's favorite Pine Tree." Kaguya purred. "He always has talked about how much he hated you the most."

"Listen you creeps, just tell us where Soul & Mr. Pines are or you'll go from monsters to targets." Kid threatened. "We're basically saying prepare to get wrecked you rejected Pokemon!" Wendy added tossing her axe at one of the demons aiding the monsters. The creatures were silent for a moment and then, roared before charging.

"Incoming!" Kilik declared yanking Paci-Fire's binkie out of his mouth and stabbing him in the eye with it. Kid meanwhile shot right through Keyhole's namesake forehead at Lavalz. The amount of bullets put through the lava lamp creature's body were so plentiful, they put him on the brink of death. "Please boy, I beg you to have mercy!" he begged the son of Death. "I can do whatever you please! I'll be your servant, I'll turn on my fellow demons to assist you, just please don't kill me!"

"You know, come to think of it." Kid contemplated before a shadow rose from behind him. "This was all a trap and there's someone behind me, correct?" he wondered aloud shooting Amorphous Shape in the eye without even turning his back. "Now Dipper!"

Dipper cut Amorphous Shape to pieces while the creature's guard was down and he screamed loudly as he was reduced to just his soul. "Aw snap, he just killed Morphy!" Kryptos shouted. "This one'll be for him you freaks!" Pyronica shouted lighting her fists aflame. The opposing sides charged while everyone else in the Shack concocted a plan of attack.

"So I suggest we try using a human sacrifice." Stein revealed. "I like it!" Soos agreed. "No, I don't think that will be necessary." Maka rejected the idea to everyone's dismay. "We need an approach that'll involve everyone of us working together."

"OOH, OOH, OOH! I GOT ONE!" McGucket cried raising his bandaged hand. "All right, what do you got Fiddleford?" Stein asked the rich hillbilly. "Giant robit! We already did something like that last Weirdmageddon!" Fiddleford answered excitedly. "Funny story, that's almost exactly what we did when we fought Asura." Azusa stated. "Coincidence, I think not."

"But how are we going to get one? Especially in a place like this?" Crona wondered. "We can use whatever we please around town. Like we said, worked last time." Wax Larry King answered. "Is anyone else going to question why this wax head can talk?" Sid offhandedly pondered. "Whatever, let's get moving!"

As for Dipper's group, they were all backed into a corner by the surviving Henchmaniacs. Lavalz, Paci-Fire, Keyhole and Hectorgon had now joined Amorphous Shape in being destroyed, but their friends were now even more furious and taken them all down. "Well Dipper, where does this fit into our battle plan?" Kilik grunted awaiting his fate. "I'm sure something will turn up for us." Dipper replied optimistically. "Is that so?"

Standing before them, Arachne had just joined up with the former Nightmare Realm prisoners alongside Mosquito, Giriko, Shaula and the Shapeshifter. "And where were you this whole time?!" White Rabbit exclaimed hotly. "We were simply biding our time. Besides, it was fun seeing the children try oh so desperately." Arachne added. "And speaking of which..."

"Don't even think about trying anything funny with us or the Shack!" Wendy threatened. "Is that so little redheaded bitch?" Giriko snarled menacingly. "Well let's make a compromise. We'll do something funny with your little friends who are no doubt trying to escape."

And indeed Giriko was right. Maka was leading a group of the survivors out of the Mystery Shack consisting of herself, Bud Gleeful, Thompson, Ox, Sid, Mr. Poolcheck, Tyler, Free & Dengu. However the party would immediately be blocked by the Shapeshifter. "Stop, right, there. Which one of you wishes to die?"

"Hands off you glowing bastard!" Free snarled baring his claws. "Aw, poor little Free. It seems that you couldn't stand being a pariah for what you did to Maba, so you decided to betray your master for these weaklings she wants destroyed."

"For your information Xenomorph, Medusa was kind of a pretty awful boss and we just moved to a different one." the wolfman responded with a stupid grin on his face. "Can you not doom us right now?" Mr. Poolcheck and Thompson said in unison. "As you did serve Kishin Cipher, it is most unfortunate for you that I must slay you to prevent the rebels from gaining any information on him." the Shapeshifter deduced preparing to strike. "Make your last wishes."

"Stop right there!" Maka cried pointing her father's weapon form at the alien creature. "I won't let you harm anyone here today. I bet you won't even last until tomorrow to come back and kill us all!"

"Very well, then we'll strike again within two days!" the Shapeshifter replied. "How about three?!" Black Star butted in suddenly. "Four!"

"Five!"

"Six!"

"Seven!"

"MAKA CHOP!" Maka cried smacking Black Star on the head and knocking him out. "Tomorrow it is then." the Shapeshifter declared. "Okay everyone, pack it up! We can start again the next day!"

"Aw man." the rest of Kishin Cipher's present minions groaned like disappointed children. "SUPER anticlimactic." Kaguya complained. "I know right?!" Giriko replied. As the monsters began to leave, the rebels raced back inside the Shack to form a plan.

"So what were you doing out there leading those guys?" Ford asked Maka. "We were coming up with attack plans while Dipper was out fighting and someone made the suggestion of turning the Shack into some kind of robot."

"That's exactly what we did to beat Bill last summer!" Mabel exclaimed. "Exactly!" McGucket added. "Seems like we made it safe to go outside again, so let's get to work." Tsubaki stated. "But where can we find what we need?"

"Don't worry everyone," Dipper announced. "Mabel and I know where."

--

One montage of working hard on the resurrection of the automated tourist trap later, the rebels snuggled up underground in Ford's laboratory watching for signs of trouble. "Status update: K.C's forces have kept their word." Tambry announced peering through the periscope disguised as the totem pole outside the Shack. "Good work, we still got time left." Ford applauded. "Time left til we can get Stan and Soul back."

"And my father?" Pacifica asked innocently. "Sure, him too." the scientist answered. "Can't you show her a little sympathy? Her old man is currently forced to fight for an all-powerful demon thing and even showed willingness to help us before that, yet you still have that grudge against him." Liz stated. "Yes I apologize for being a bit insensitive, but the other two are still most important." Ford claimed. "Now then, have we worked any kinks from the last time?"

"Well, definitely got more unicorn hair to fully shield us." Candy stated in the midst of cutting Celestabellebethabelle's mane. "And it can fly now too!" Grenda exclaimed. "Is there anything this town can't do when they come together?" Melody said.

Meanwhile in the attic, Maka gazed out the twins' bedroom window at the blood red sky in silence. "Don't worry Soul, we'll be there for you soon."

"Did we hear you talk about Soul?" Mabel asked suddenly interrupting their older friend. "Gah, you guys!" Maka squeaked. "Aw don't be so skittish Maka, we just got a little feeling you like him." Dipper replied. "As in, like him like him." Mabel added beaming which made the scythe Meister blush like mad. "Oh quit blushing, you know too!"

"Okay, you got me!" Maka finally gave in. "I really do like him. He may be rather distant and cold, but he's just that much of a loyal friend who would do anything to protect me!" she confessed to the twins. "That's why I'll protect him in exchange, and maybe we could finally make music again."

"And you've been hiding these feelings for how long now?" Mabel asked Maka again. "I mean, I've heard that you two often argued like you were married or something."

"But let's try not to hyperfocus on that for now, cause I've also heard that if you do so, you can get distracted a bit too much and even get mad when people try to keep you away from your-" Dipper responded before Maka shushed him. "Okay okay, let's just keep up the fight against Kishin Cipher. Hopefully no one heard us."

"I did." Soos stated suddenly appearing by the door. "Don't mind me dudes, I just knew it from the moment we all first met."

--

Meanwhile at the Fearamid, Arachne was forced to give Kishin Cipher the bad news about the results of the attack.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" the Dream Kishin screamed loudly, causing enough vibrations to cause miniature earthquakes. "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT YOU LOST MOST OF MY MEN TO A BUNCH OF PUNY MORTALS HIDING IN A CABIN, AND THEY MADE YOU AGREE TO TRYING AGAIN TOMORROW?! HOW STUPID CAN YOU ALL BE?!"

"My sincerest apologies master, we just arrived too late." the Spider Witch revealed bowing to the ground with her two subordinates and youngest sister. "But still, we might as well prepare for the final battle." she assured him. "You got a good point there Rachney." Kishin Cipher agreed spawning a wineglass filled with time punch. "In that case, I propose a toast! First one goes to absent maniacs."

The army of demons began mourning for the fallen Henchmaniacs while holding their own wineglasses. "Morphy was just too young!" Kryptos bawled into Pyronica's cape, blowing his nonexistent nose on it. "Did anybody else catch the lava lamp guy's name?" Moonlight asked Xanthar, who simply replied with a shrug. "This one is for you Keyhole." 8-Ball declared drinking the glass and tossing the time punch away hard enough for it to explode.

"But I would also like to propose another one." Kishin Cipher solemnly stated when his mournful expression turned into a fierce sadistic grin. "TO OUR ONCOMING VICTORY!" he cheered tossing his glass to the ground and smashing it underfoot. "MAZEL TOV TO ALL OF YOU! MAZEL TOV!"

The otherdimensional freaks began cheering for their master as his speech continued. "I'd like to thank all of the following for helping us make it this far!" Kishin Cipher announced splitting himself into Bill Cipher and Asura for the first time in what felt like ages. "First off, I'd like to thank my number one fan here for making a deal with me to exact our revenge!" the Kishin exclaimed fistbumping the dream demon. "And I'd also like to thank that pigtailed scythe-bearing brat for giving my new partner here that stupid courage punch!" Bill responded. "Without her, we wouldn't have met and become an unstoppable team!"

The duo merged back into Kishin Cipher who picked up a microphone while a large projector screen appeared behind him. "And in addition, we are also thankful for all the idiots that led themselves to their doom!" The screen began picturing many of the Dream Kishin's enemies and all they've accomplished in accidentally guiding the monsters to victory while the minions continued cheering. "It brings a tear to all three of my eyes to see so many freaks of nature all under one roof to celebrate the coming end of the universe! Especially you creature with like eighty-eight different faces! There, are you happy now?!"

"Actually, I've grown an eighty-ninth face!" the aforementioned multi-faced trog declared revealing a very handsome face to have sprouted. "Oh my, look at that thing!" Kishin Cipher exclaimed revealing the face's turquoise humanoid form. "Isn't it just dashing?!"

The creatures began oohing and aahing at how bizarrely attractive the new face was before Kishin Cipher returned to his speech. "As I was saying ladies, germs and unspeakable horrors of all shapes and sizes, this is it!" he declared making double peace signs over a podium while the projector screen made a large portrait of himself appear. "Tomorrow is the day that sanity goes completely down the shitter and pure madness reigns supreme! How excited are you!?"

"VIOLENTLY!" his army chanted arming themselves with torches, pitchforks and all sorts of stereotypically uber-violent tools. "And how bloody will our enemies' deaths be?!" Kishin Cipher continued. "INSANELY!" the monsters screamed pumping their fists. "Yeah, that's all I wanted to hear!" the leading abomination shouted raising his arms. "Come on everybody, let's get weird!"

Elsewhere in the Fearamid, the Four Madnesses meditated while their harmony exercises continued. The horsemen sat in utter silence until the Madness of Greed opened a single eye. "Kids."

--

The next day, all was silent once more in the forest. That is until a large mechanical being ambled among the trees, casting a shadow over the flora. Metallic footsteps thundered while leaving large car-shaped footsteps behind until finally, the Shacktron 2.0 reached the clearing where the Fearamid was situated. "Are we ready everyone?" Ford asked taking the pilot's seat. The rest of the rebellion nodded in response while preparing for war. "Good. Time to make our claim."

A large megaphone placed at the deck of the Shack was turned on by Dipper before he spoke into it. "Kishin Cipher, this is the Mystery Meisters telling you to surrender now and give back our friends or prepare to fight!" the boy threatened with an amplified voice. However, there was no answer. "D-Did he just give up already?"

"I'll say." Kishin Cipher sarcastically answered while suddenly appearing in front the young Pines brother and giving him a scare. "Long time no see Dipper, been a long while since we had a one-on-one chat!" the Dream Kishin casually greeted his archenemy. "And did you lose weight or is the stupid cosplay just throwing me off?"

"It's not stupid cosplay, my sister had it specially made for me!" Dipper declared defensively clutching onto his scarf. "Oh come on brat! It's too obscure, too ugly! I don't know which is worse!" K.C continued insulting making his hand violently detach itself. "I might just split a seam now if I don't die laughing first!"

"Not if we have the last laugh! NOW!" Dipper commanded allowing the rest of the crew to start firing all sorts of weapons at the Dream Kishin. "You can't break the Shacktron this time, we got unicorn hair from head to toe now!"

"Oh my, you're actually giving me a challenge?" Kishin Cipher quizzed while his forces spawned behind him. "Well what're you waiting for mortals?! Come and get me!"

"This is it everyone, we can do this!" Maka exclaimed taking control of the Shacktron 2.0. "Keep firing at them all!"

"But Maka, we can't just blast cannons at him forever!" Tsubaki advised. "You ready Black Star?" she asked her Meister holding out her hand. "Like Hell I'm not!" the ninja responded taking up arms and leaping outside the Shack, clashing blades with the Madness of Greed. "Been waiting for a proper rematch old man, haha!"

"Bah, you are simply a child dressed in a silly outfit. In fact, you are all children in silly outfits compared to us and our master." the old man in the golden armor scoffed taking out the Shadow Weapon Meister and making him fall to the ground. "NOOOOOT SIIIIILLLLYYYY!" the teen shouted faceplanting into the dirt. "Wait, are these clothes really that stupid?"

"Is there any way we can free Stan, Soul & Mr. Northwest without K.C getting in the way?" Dipper asked Stein. "The freeing our friends part is quite simple Dipper, we call it Chain Resonance where our souls must be on an equal playing field to do great things." the scientist proclaimed. "The keeping Kishin Cipher from interrupting part is much harder."

"How about the important guys, that's you guys, take on the Madnesses while everybody else keep the big guy at bay?" Free suggested warding off the Eyebats with his ice magic. "Good idea Free, and good luck too." Dipper agreed. "Okay everybody, we're gonna tackle the Madnesses ourselves!" he announced to the Mystery Meisters currently not occupied with fighting the monsters while Black Star crawled back up to the Shack. "Any last words before we go?"

"I got one." Pacifica stated turning to her mom. "Mother, I promise we'll bring Dad home."

"I love you." Soos said to Melody. "I know."

"If I don't come out of this alive," Gideon announced to his father and Ghost-Eyes. "tell my widdle ol' story."

"No offense to any of you guys," Azusa said to Ox, Harvar, Kilik, the Pots, Kim, Jackie, the NOT class girls and Hiro. "But you didn't do that much. Like I said, no offense."

"Eh, I'm used to it." Hiro replied giving a salute to the Mystery Meisters. "Now godspeed, all of you."

"Thanks everyone." Dipper said gratefully taking Excalibur by the hand and putting him in the sheath Mabel made for him. "And don't worry Stan, we'll be here."

"Hey hate to interrupt, but do you think these outfits look kinda dumb?" Black Star asked. "We don't have time B-Star!" Mabel exclaimed hurriedly. "Mabel's right, let's get a move on!" Maka announced arming herself with her father.

--

In the distance, the Four Madnesses were now benched after Greed's brief clash with Black Star watching their master take on the Shacktron from the Fearamid. "When do you suppose we shall strike once more?" the Madness of Sloth snarled biting on the tail of the eight-legged possum Shanknir. "We'll come back once Kishin Cipher is done with the mortals." the Madness of Wrath stated. "But speaking of which, I can sense a certain few of them coming our way."

"We've got you now Medusa! Release our loved ones, and others, or else!" Ford exclaimed leading the Mystery Meisters in cornering the four Madnesses. "It's absolutely hopeless now for all of you." the Madness of Envy purred menacingly while spinning his scythe. "Soon, Kishin Cipher's madness shall flood this town and once we bypass the barrier surrounding this town, we'll move onto the rest of reality as well."

"Barrier?" Marie asked turning to Ford. "That's the law of weirdness magnetism, whatever bizarre thing comes in can't get out." the author briefly explained. "But it seems that through Kishin Cipher's unlimited power that I'm sure he keeps pulling out of his behind, he won't need a special equation I've memorized to lower the shield around town."

"Doesn't matter if he's able to do that anymore, since our lord can warp all reality to his whims." the Madness of Sloth stated. "But enough about him, let's kill you!" The Northwest-turned-beast summoned his giant bell and slammed it onto the ground, creating a small crack in the floor of the lair that began getting larger. "Just wait til this hole begins to get larger and soon you'll fall headfirst on the ground below! I hear mortal brain-matter is delicious this time of year!"

"Listen daddy, I know it's still you underneath that hideous body!" Pacifica called out. "Please, just do anything to tell you still recognize me! I'll even take you ringing that stupid bell again if it means I'm still seen as your daughter!"

The Madness of Sloth prepared to smack his bell again before the girl's words reached his ears. "Pacifica?" he grumbled mid-attack. "He's open, now!" Maka shouted slashing the monster across his face with her father. "You brat!" the slovenly monster roared. "Black Star, tie those three up and we can begin!" the Scythe meister commanded the ninja who readied his chain scythe and lassoed up Sloth, Greed & Envy. "Dipper, did you bring the journal?"

"You bet I did!" Dipper proudly declared fishing Journal 3 from his backpack. "The three of you into position and get your wavelengths rolling!"

"Okay, this is it." Kid remarked as the three formed a circle around the three captured Madnesses. They began forming a connection with their soul wavelengths that built up a forcefield surrounding them. "No, you won't get away with this!" a frantic Medusa howled trying to stop the Resonance, but the barrier had other plans that caused it to send her flying toward her master's throne.

"Everyone, together!" Ford commanded placing his hand on the combined soul. "Wait, is this even possible?" Crona asked the author. "I honestly have no idea, but let's just improvise." Stanford answered while the rest of the group placed their hands on the soul. "Dipper, if you please."

"You got it." Dipper declared opening the journal with his free hand and beginning to read. "Videntis omnium. Magister mentium. Magnesium ad hominem. Magnum opus." he began chanting and everything took on a brilliant cyan glow, from the Mystery Meisters' eyes to the soul surrounding Maka, Black Star and Kid. "Habeas corpus! Inceptus Nolanus overratus! Magister mentium! Magister mentium! MAGISTER MENTIUM!"

In a similarly-colored explosion, all were fast asleep.

--

In a pitch black ethereal realm solely inhabited by three pillars with stained glass portraits depicting the trapped trio, Dipper & Mabel landed on the one depicting their lost great-uncle. "This has to be the place, especially with all the quiet Latin chanting around us." Dipper declared adjusting his cap while Ford, Wendy, Soos, Black Star & Tsubaki landed behind the twins. "And that must be Stan over there!"

Indeed, the boy was right. However, Stan has now been regressed in age in this spiritual plane with his only companion being a silhouette of his father in front of them. "Wait, I remember this! It's like when Crona chatted with his shadow in his soul!" Mabel exclaimed trying to walk towards the shrunken Stanley, when suddenly the shadow blocked her path. It remained completely silent for what seemed like hours before pointing at the group with a earsplitting loud, unearthly shriek while the three pillars rapidly drifted apart from one another.

On the pillar inhabited by Soul, he was currently held in a straitjacket with the Little Ogre holding him on a leash when Maka, Spirit, Crona, Marie, Stein, McGucket & Gideon. "What have you done to Soul you scarlet shithead?!" Spirit screamed preparing for a fight. "What have I done you may ask?" the Ogre snickered while the Latin choir was now backed up by a choppy record player. "Why, I'm simply helping your friend follow his destiny."

"Well what kind of destiny is forcing him against his will to serve a monster?" Marie argued. "Why not just ask the boy." the imp chortled letting go of the leash he held on Soul. "Now go on my boy. Show them how much the master has improved you."

"Like hell I-" Soul began trying to resist control before Ogre pulled hard and electrocuted him. "Make it stop! Just make it stop!"

And finally on Preston's pillar, he was tied to a fancy chair with his head forcefully bowed down while faced by his daughter along with Azusa, Kid, Liz & Patty and Blair. "Dad, can you hear us?" Pacifica called for her father. "What brings you here daughter?" Preston glowered in defeat. "Don't you know that I am beyond redemption?"

"Don't be like that daddy, it's like what Grandpa Auldman said! Even the blackest of hearts have a speck of light within." Pacifica tried comforting Preston, but her hand was slapped away by the bandage tendril of Kishin Cipher. "No no no Llama, YOU shouldn't be like that!" a figment of Bill Cipher scolded the blonde. "It was thanks to me your family was able to rise to the top, but then your generation just had to screw everything up! Need I remind you?"

With a clap of his hands, Bill conjured up a giant bell to threaten Pacifica with. He began ringing it violently, forcing the girl to stand down. "Wait, you're afraid of a bell?" Kid asked her. "Pavlovian conditioning." Preston grumbled. "My wife and I basically made her our bitch with that accursed bell. Go on, shoot me now and end this. All of you know I deserve it."

"No, we haven't lost yet!" Pacifica cried trying to resist the bell and slowly marched towards her dad. "Our...family...name is broken!" she growled in her struggling. "And I'm...going...to...FIX IT!"

"How are you fighting back?! It's like he said, you're his bitch!" Bill screamed continuing to ring even louder before Kid and Azusa shot at him. "And you're all pretty much Shinigami's bitches too, having to do the dirty work while he lazes about because his stupid soul protects that even stupider city!"

"I don't think so Bill." Kid scowled. "Now Blair!" he commanded the cat, who let out a loud "Halloween Cannon!" and blasted the bell out of Bill's hand. "This isn't over you all!" the triangle screeched angrily while fading away. "I'm only a figment of his mind, preparing all of you for the real deal!"

As soon as the imaginary Bill faded, Pacifica made a beeline for her father's prison and released him. "P-Pacifica?" Preston stuttered before his daughter hugged him tight. "B-but why? Bill was right, I was a monster!"

"I know you are, but you can be something more." the blonde said softly. Suddenly, the spirits of every Northwest before them appeared lining up beside the two and facing them. With soft smiles, the ancestors vanished just as quickly as they materialized, leaving a fade to white behind.

--

"More firing, more! More!" Grenda hollered as the Shacktron soared around the now giant Kishin Cipher like a biplane, continuing to shoot at the monster while he waved his arms around trying to swat them down. "Uh gang, don't think we're gonna last any longer out here!"

"Don't lose hope everyone! The unicorn hair will protect us!" Sid exclaimed while in command of the flying hovel. "Though I'm mostly saying this because I've already died before. The rest of you might not be so lucky, not gonna lie."

"If that's the case." Wax Larry King solemnly declared turning to Hiro and Dengu. "Then gentlemen, it's been an honor." He grabbed a violin with his teeth and began playing it with the bow he bit down on, before a large crashing sound was heard. Appearing from the distance was Death City itself, now with its own set of limbs equipped with larger copies of Death's gloves.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Kishin Cipher began chortling at the walking city. "I mean, what's a literal walking town gonna do to-" Before the Dream Kishin could finish, the Death City Robot gave him a fierce jab to the eyes. "THE HELL?!" he screamed falling to the ground. "Seriously, is that you in there old man?!"

"You bet it is Cipher!" Lord Death called from the Secret Vault where he piloted the machine. "Time for us to settle the score, and this time this shall be the day your madness ends forever!" The mobile city then held out its hands and scooped up Kishin Cipher's unconscious form. "Special Attack:" Death announced. "COFFEE TABLE FLIP!"

"SO AWESOME!" the boy band clones Sev'ral Timez cheered. "Who digs giant robots?!" Hiro exclaimed. "I dig giant robots!" Nate replied. "We dig giant robots!" Chutzpar added. "Chicks dig giant robots!" everyone else answered in unison. "Nice!"

--

Back in the mindscape, Soul and Stan were the only ones remaining of the present Madnesses. The shadow form of Filbrick continued his horrible shrieking for another few seconds before abruptly stopping. "Is that your old man?" Black Star asked Ford. "Exactly Black Star. Though he was most certainly a hardass in life and not very kind towards Stan, he was a very mediocre guy very deep down." Ford answered. "Allow me to make peace with him."

The author stepped forward towards the facsimile of his long-deceased father and extended his hand out. "Hello there dad, or at the very least some spawn of Hell taking his form." he greeted Filbrick. "It's me, Stanford. I know this may seem like much, but could you please kindly let my brother go free so that he can join us in saving reality from utter destruction?"

"Not impressed." Shadow Filbrick snarled glaring at his descendants. "Not impressed with what?" the six-fingered genius asked. "With what you've become." Filbrick answered. "Look at you my son. Workaholic, haughty, unforgiving."

"That's all in the past!" Ford argued. "Okay, maybe I'm still a little too focused on my research, but still you have no right to call me out like that!"

"You tell 'em Ford!" Mabel exclaimed before Shadow Filbrick forced a barrier around the others and another over Stan. "They are insignificant, especially to you!" the shadow stated. "Your family is suffocating, correct?"

"No, stop all these lies at once!" Ford continued shouting. "You should watch your tone around your father!" Shadow Filbrick scolded. "I thought your brother was the only ignoramus between you two, but it seems you're just as foolish!"

Stanford didn't say a word after that, except for the growl he let out as he clutched his father's faker's neck tightly. "You take that back about us you faker!" he roared. "I know what you are, you're nothing but a manifestation of our negative emotions!"

Suddenly the barrier lowered around the rest of Ford's party and prepared for a fight. "Get them!" Shadow Filbrick choked commanding an army of duplicates. "Black Star, help me here!" Ford shouted to the ninja. "Yahoo, a chance to show my skills at last!"

"Finally time to put "that" to good use." Tsubaki grinned before they declared in unison, "Let's go, Soul Resonance!"

Tsubaki's weapon form changed from a chain scythe into a katana blade and then into a kunai that Black Star used to create afterimages of himself while running circles around the Filbrick shadows. "Try and catch me suckers!" the man who would surpass God cried out brashly. Sadly for him, the shadows were able to find out which was the real one and apprehend him, snatching Tsubaki away. "Don't worry, I got this!" the Shadow Weapon Meister declared preparing another move. "Ultimate Move: Black Star Big Wave!"

Black Star zoomed in for the kill, elbowing his partner's captor in the back while forcing his palm out, creating a large electrical force in the shape of a star that dissipated the shadow and freed Tsubaki. "And now, onto you!"

Jagged black lines began decorating Black Star's face as his sword finally shattered the shield around Stanley, and the de-aged grunkle looked up. "Black Star, what're you doing back here?!" Stan cried trying to protect himself from the scrambling shadows. "Just saved your life kid. Come with us if you want to live some more!" Black Star exclaimed taking the boy's hand as Stan slowly began returning to his normal age. "Yo Dipper, Ford, we got Stan!"

"Excellent work you two! Now let's finish this." Ford congratulated the pair letting go of his father's impersonator to prepare for the final blow. "Everyone, mobilize!" he commanded standing alongside his returned brother. "Good to be back in the fold poindexter." Stan said with his voice returned to its normal gruff octave. "And thanks for helping me out there kid."

"You're welcome old man!" Black Star replied beginning to charge towards Shadow Filbrick alongside the Stans & Dipper. "Now let's end this!"

"What are you doing?!" Shadow Filbrick cried out in horror before Dipper and Black Star's souls formed a connection. "Twin Blades of Legendary Justice!" the two boys announced their new attack as they stabbed their enemy in the chest while the Stan twins punched him on both sides of his head. "Y-y-y-y-y-you haven't won, YEEEETTTTTTT!"

Those were the final words of the fake Filbrick Pines before he exploded into pure light that covered the entire mindscape, along with similar blasts coming from the other two pillars.

--

"Oh geez, what happened?" Stan groaned slowly getting up off the wet ground and noticing the sky was a beautiful blue. "And where are we? Are we dead? I was betting on biting the dust like a hero."

"I don't think we're dead Grunkle Stan." Dipper stated gazing at Tsubaki standing nude, glowing and covered with black stripes in front of a large deer-like creature colored black with white markings. "Everyone, this is the will of my clan." Tsubaki introduced the creature who glared at the three Pines. "I see you have taken on a pupil of your own my camellia blossom." the will of the Nakatsukasa clan remarked gazing at Dipper. "And it seems he wields the legendary sword Excalibur."

"Yeah, good observation there." Dipper remarked. "So are you going to like, bless me or something?"

"Such a modest young man." the Will of Nakatsukasa commented. "Reminds me quite a bit of Masamune before his fall." he added turning to Tsubaki. "A little, I guess." the young woman replied stepping down to look at the boy. "Are you ready for the next phase of training?"

"Uh, uh, yeah?" Dipper stuttered while he face turned red from trying not to look at Tsubaki's spiritually bare form. "Hey guys, am I late?!" Black Star hollered rushing towards the group. "Hey, we gonna knight Dipper or something?"

"Sure, go ahead Black Star." Dipper answered proudly before the ninja summoned his sword and knighted his newfound equal with it. "Hopefully you can be just as badass as I someday."

"You got it." Dipper answered his new brother in arms with a firm handshake and the realm went white once more.

--

"Please Maka, just kill me and put an end to this! It's the only way I can be free of him!" Soul begged his Meister as the Little Ogre continued pulling on his leash. "Just do it!"

"No Soul, I can't!" Maka cried. "I won't let you die like this, not after all we've done for each other." she stated letting a few tears fall. "We may bicker a lot, but you've done so much for me. I'm your partner, best friend, closest confidant. And maybe we could be something more."

"Called it!" Marie cheered. "Oh, my baby girl!" Spirit replied feeling proud of his daughter. "Wait, when was that a thing?" Gideon wondered. "Bah, don't think the power of love can stop me!" the Ogre scoffed yanking on Soul's chain even harder, the pain forcing him to change into his Madness of Envy form. "Now my slave, finally destroy them!"

Maka armed herself with her father and got to work on trying to free Soul. However for the latter, he had a scythe of his own that is pretty much an exact double of his weapon form. "So it's come to this old friend. Scythe to scythe!"

"Meister to weapon!" Maka replied clashing blades with Soul. "Soul to soul!" Their weapons collided and ground against each other, causing sparks to literally fly. As for the rest of Maka's group, they were forced to fight more shadows similar to Shadow Filbrick.

"We need to find a way to get Soul distracted so that we can save him!" Stein exclaimed while taking command of Marie and fighting back-to-back with Crona. "Anyone have ideas?"

"Why don't we, I don't know, get 'em to kiss?" McGucket suggested. "But how can we do that?" Crona wondered. "Simple, just gotta shove 'em into each other!" Ragnarok suggested. "But we'll have to take out all these first to make more room and make things go smoothly."

"And where have you been this whole time?!" Gideon asked Ragnarok. "You've barely been useful to us for most of this journey ever since we left for Death City!"

"Hey, shut up kid!" the Black Blood sword argued just as McGucket split them up. "Alright you two, let's just get a move on."

"It's like my master said, the power of love is fruitless against me!" Soul hissed proceeding to gain the upper hand on his former partner. "What makes you believe I can be cured?!"

"Because she's got help!" Crona declared trying to push the Madness of Envy towards her. "Quick old man, start playing!" Gideon cried shoving Maka forward. "You got it!" Fiddleford exclaimed beginning to play a romantic tune on his banjo while Stein cleared out the remaining shadows. "What trickery is this?!" the Ogre yelled as Maka & Soul began slowdancing. "Don't fall for that music, just kill them all!"

"W-what are you trying to do Maka?" the final Madness asked slowly beginning to turn back into Soul. "Remember how earlier I said we can be something more?" Maka asked softly. "Well it's because, I do kinda have a crush on you. I mean, after all we've done for each other I'm surprised you haven't admitted that either."

"Yeah, gonna be honest, I do too." Soul confessed. "Even this music is something we made together, isn't it?" he asked slowly bringing his partner in for a kiss. "Yeah."

"NO! NO NO NO! I can't be foiled by the power of cliches, what will Master Cipher think?!" the suited imp panicked trying to separate the newfound lovers. "Well we think you need to go." Crona snarled shoving him off the pillar and into the inky blackness below. "I know he'll get you for all of this!"

As Maka and Soul finally kissed, the mindscape went completely white.

--

"Yeesh, couldn't wait until after we saved the world, huh?"

When the pair broke, they found themselves back in the Fearamid with the entire Mystery Meister crew, plus the recently returned Stan and Preston, surrounding them. Spirit burst into tears about his daughter finding love, Mabel & Marie highfived each other for a match made and Black Star gave his buddy a thumbs up. "My man!"

"Everyone." Soul gasped looking at them all. "And Mr. Pines too!?" he exclaimed staring at Stan. "Yep, in the flesh Sharkbait." Stan cackled and took a deep breath. "Real nice for us all to be back together."

"So where do we go now?" Preston nervously asked and Dipper, Maka, Mabel & Soul looked onward at Kishin Cipher being double-teamed by the Shacktron and the Death City robot. "Kishin Cipher." they declared in unison.

Speaking of which, Kishin Cipher found himself backed into a corner by the two mechanized homes. "So, any suggestions my surviving goons?" he asked the remains of his army. "Well, it seems you can't directly hit the Shacktron." the Summerween Trickster analyzed. "So we must hit something with it!" Wax Sherlock Holmes added. "Like the other robot!" the Flying Dutchman concluded, which gave Kishin Cipher an idea. Shrinking down to regular size, he warped above Death City and extended his arm into its underground to seize Lord Death from his current hiding spot. "Not so all-powerful and all-knowing now, aren't you father?!"

"If this is part of another scheme, that's not going to happen!" Death shouted smacking Kishin Cipher in the face with his glove while being held by the antenna on top of his head. "I'll let you run free, if you hand over my soul." K.C. offered threatening him with an energy blast on his middle finger. "Or perhaps you'd much rather prefer being murdered on the spot in front of your soon to be dead son!"

"I'd never!" the Death God refused. "Well, suit yourself." the Dream Kishin casually answered carelessly dropping Lord Death on the ground from high above before his arm next searched the Death Room, eventually finding Asura's soul buried underneath one of the crosses within.

"Come to papa!" the monster announced swallowing the soul whole and beginning to get more stronger. Tiny bat wings emerged on his head which became more angular & chiseled, his arms more comedically muscular and the bandages forming into demonic wings. "And now for the main course!" he roared excitedly grabbing Death City by the large rock formation underneath and smashing the Mystery Shack into pieces, potentially killing everyone inside. "Oh no, I murdered everyone you love! Ah, don't be a bunch of sadsacks, cause you'll be joining them pretty soon!"

The Mystery Meisters stared in shock, horror and sadness at what just happened. Soos started crying uncontrollably at the possible loss of his fiance, Preston futilely reached out for his wife, Ford dropped to his knees in defeat and everyone else was in mourning.

All except for the Mystery Twins and Maka & Soul, who were absolutely furious at Kishin Cipher. Dipper held Excalibur tightly while tears leaked from his enraged eyes, Mabel stuck to her brother's side, Maka simply glared and Soul clenched his fists in fury.

The final battle for the fate of all humanity has finally begun. And in the distance, a certain clergyman stood atop a tree watching with a wolfman.

--

Hey there boys and girls, sorry this took so long! I just got tied up with so many things that this chapter took me nearly most of the year. But hopefully this is all worth it, even with some parts feeling rushed in my eyes. Is the resistance truly dead and has Kishin Cipher finally won?! Well, I guess the final line might make it pretty obvious. Join us next time for the epic final clash where the fate of Earth and all reality shall be decided.

#gravity falls #soul eater #crossover #fanfiction #gravity soul #dipper pines #mabel pines #maka albarn #soul eater evans #stanley pines #stanford pines #black star #tsubaki nakatsukasa #soos ramirez #wendy corduroy #death the kid #liz thompson #patty thompson #crona gorgon #ragnarok soul eater #spirit albarn #franken stein #pacifica northwest #preston northwest #lil gideon #old man mcgucket #marie mjolnir #azusa yumi #excalibur soul eater #blair soul eater

[worldcakecakecake]

Feliciano and the King of Hearts

Chapter 1 I  Chapter 2 I Chapter 3 I Chapter 4 I Chapter 5 I Chapter 6I Chapter 7 I Chapter 8 IChapter 9I Chapter 10I Chapter 11I Chapter 12 I Chapter 13 I Chapter 14 I Chapter 15 I Chapter 16 I Chapter 17 I Chapter 18 I Chapter 19I Chapter 20 I Chapter 21 I Chapter 22 I Chapter 23 I Chapter 24 I Chapter 25 I Chapter 26 I Chapter 27 I Chapter 28I Chapter 29 I Chapter 30 I Chapter 31 I Chapter 32 I Chapter 33 I Chapter 34 I Chapter 35 I Chapter 36 I Chapter 37I chapter 38 I Chapter 39 I Chapter 40 I Chapter 41 I Chapter 42 I Chapter 43 I Chapter 44 I Chapter 45 I Chapter 46I Chapter 47 I Chapter 48 I Chapter 49 I Chapter 50 I Chapter 51 I Chapter 52 I Chapter 53 I Chapter 54 I Chapter 55 I Chapter 56 I Chapter 57 I Chapter 58 I Chapter 59 I Chapter 60I Chapter 61 I Chapter 62

                                                 Chapter 63

It was sometimes odd to think that there would be an alignment by the end of the year, one that would bring about a war, a monstrous Khaos that was surely capable of destroying everything they knew and loved, but things continued in quite the peace, the new royals’ beginning reign one of calm and much business and preparations. It was this constant training, strengthening and action that the new rulers committed themselves to that gave the rest of the kingdom hope and belief that no such harsh evils would befall on them as they had done in the war of the blackened decades.

 As they were told and warned, taking the full kingdom did involve a lot of work and activities that left no such time for nothing or mindless wandering. Every time they thought something was done and they could perhaps enjoy from a nice nap, something always did arise that needed their attention. It was aggravating of course, but it was always worth the great outcomes that played out in the lives of their people. To be honest, right now the only thing that was bringing exhilaration, the one thing that the three royals were honestly looking forward to every morning, were their magic training sessions.

 Kiku had to focus, had to focus on whatever inner silence and peace he could utter, to block everything, leaving him in a sort of bubble to take time to think, chant, all while a simulated storm continued around him. Decided on how he wanted his power to reach and showcase, he focused on that spell, expanding his arms, pressing his hands, until piercing slabs arose from the ground. Instantly, the wind now not as powerful, for Kiku had used its blown to make the dangerous towers that surrounded him, protecting him from his current enemies. Sadly, one of his foes today had perfected well a technique, and before he knew it, he was on the ground, Feliciano in the vicinity with a proud smirk, having easily tripped him in his distraction, using a spell on his eyes to keep good watch of Kiku throughout everything. But Kiku was not so easily calling defeat, he quickly stood up and both started a hand to hand combat, fierce and dangerous as any serious battle. Kiku seemed to have the upper hand as he was the one that kept shooting power at Feliciano’s chest, but the other did well to defend, using protection spells and doing what he could to strengthen them while he thought about his next move. He called forth red balls of fire to hang across the room, setting an aim and coming forward to reign. Kiku had to depart, jumping and swaying away from all their burns successfully.

 Ludwig was done with watching, he had assessed the situation enough, he could take place, he could take out his staff and fight. Taking energy from what was left of Feliciano’s fireball spell, he arose them into the same spheres, raging now on both his targets, both rushing off to avoid them as much as they could.

 At one point, Feliciano had tired of running, instead making a large shield that expanded throughout the entire training area, the reigns landing harshly on the glass he created, even protecting Kiku. It was not strong enough though, as it had broken and the reign continued, making Ludwig actually smile at how well he had perfected this spell.

 Feliciano was quick with an idea.

 He took those reigning fires, taking their energy and instead pulling them to his command, then aimed at Ludwig, who had to jump away and find cover elsewhere.

 Sometimes he forgot that with their marriage, the union of their power became stronger, giving more access for each to take control of their spells.

 Ludwig decided on using a speeding spell, one that had him practically flying until he was before Feliciano, staff ready to inflict. Feliciano was actually confident in a shield he created himself over his arms, using them also as a weapon to fight against the slashes and throws of Ludwig’s staff, this time the shield standing to continue in plight.

 Feliciano managed to get enough force to be able to push Ludwig to the ground, practically squishing him with the shield, gaining enough power to go high, then gather power, energy from all around reaching in an electrical hold that shone deadly to all who watched. Both Ludwig and Kiku panicked, not knowing if they could deal with something of that magnitude.

 “Stop! Stop! Stop!” Egilhard called loudly in worry.

 Feliciano stopped himself before all that spell could be freed, the light leaving off the room until it was washed in its usual earth tones. All the magic, even the one that had Feliciano so high up in the air, began to wear off and so the Queen found himself hurling forward to the ground, screaming and wailing. Lucky for him, he had a husband that was ready and had got himself placed in the right position, catching him in an elegant manner as if it was all a theatrical plan.

 “Are you all right, liebling?” Ludwig worried, caressing him dear in the reach of his hands.

 “Yes, yes, amore. Was just a little scared. Thank you!” He nuzzled close, placing a quick kiss on his lips before he could stand on the ground again.

 Egilhard and Kiku reached them with smiles. “Excellent work as always, men. You have proven yourselves enough to start a new chapter of the Enda charts.”

 Feliciano clapped, knowing that it meant more mental spells, having to reach a deeper part of their beings and to not even word out incantations as they did them.

 “How about we start in two days, if it sets well in your schedules?”

 “I don’t think we’ll have a problem,” Feliciano thought.

 “We will be here,” Kiku bowed.

 “I’m sure we’ll all be looking forward,” Ludwig appreciated.

 “Perfect then! By the way, your majesty, next time, be more controlling and careful when dealing with higher level spells. I know we’re preparing ourselves for a powerful war, but this is only our training sessions and you’re fighting against your husband and Jack. Leave all that power for our enemies, for now. Don’t be so forceful,” he advised.

 Feliciano bowed in agreement, “will do my best!”

 “Very well, gentlemen, you’re free to go!” And the three were off.

 Kiku went ahead to deal with some issues concerning the schedules of new servants in the castle, Ludwig was supposed to talk to the guards of the city concerning some recent crimes and Feliciano was supposed to deal with some archives concerning population in the kingdom. Yet both the royals found themselves taking a detour through a less populated hall, alone for them to laugh, spin about like children and just have some chats, a freedom from the recent straining. It was the line they needed to not have them on the brink of insanity because of the large workload they had recently gotten, for a moment of love, to gaze into their eyes and let whatever sweet caress thread through their skin. Sometimes it was too much, a largeness that Ludwig couldn’t take in movement, having to drag Feliciano to the wall to hold him against it, keeping himself between him just to really take it all as it should be. They would laugh, settle in a moment of gazes, and then kiss, giving themselves the chance to intensify, to grow their moment in soft lips, then tongue, perhaps a bite that would leave their lips in a beautiful shade of plump red. They moaned, hands began moving elsewhere. Feliciano kept his on Ludwig’s back, sometimes coming to the front and caressing his chest and stomach, while Ludwig let his traverse his thighs, in that moment daring a grab of his rear, pushing him forward to himself, a slight grinding that was indeed inappropriate if they were out in the castle halls. Someone could- a sudden cough, both turning to face Abasi, who had the misfortune of catching them like this. They instantly dropped and detached themselves, embarrassingly having to clean saliva of each from their mouths.

 “Ye-yes, yes, Abasi, what’s the matter?” Feliciano asked, fixing himself as if the White kingdom citizen hadn’t spotted them as they were.

 “Feliciano, my brethren want a moment to speak to you. And Ludwig, your family is waiting to have lunch with you,” Abasi brought back again the orders expected of their castle, of back to business and to the never-ending ordeals.

 “Yes.”

 “We will head immediately,” Ludwig made sure.

 “Very well then.”

 Ludwig left a last kiss on Feliciano’s lips before he made his way down the known hall to the lunch room, while Feliciano, pouting slightly at not having Ludwig or eating, followed behind Abasi.

  “…I really…do not want to use it,” Feliciano admitted to all, looking rather fearful to his new weapon, Augusta’s harp.

 “You were pretty adamant the first few days. What’s wrong now?” Kandake wondered, leaning, taking her eyes away from the book she was reading, of the many Ludwig and Feliciano had taken from Khaos.

 The harp itself seemed to join her in this questioning.

 “It’s just…too powerful…”

 “Isn’t that what we need,” Abasi added.

 “Yes, and I’m sure I will use it in the war…but now-”

 “What happened?” Kandake guessed as much.

 “I…burned myself once…and…almost shot a spell at Augustino,” Feliciano shyly admitted, embarrassed and terrified of those events, proclaiming his decision of halting its use.

 All those in the room sighed, trying to find what advice they could give him.

 “Feliciano, you have to understand that it’s necessary you master the use of the harp. These fears are simple ones that we can manage to help you with if you discuss it with us. We’ll have a healer in the room always, a trainer, and it will be in a safe spot away from any kinds of infants,” Kandake said hoping it could help.

 Feliciano still gripped his hands, trying to find anything else to say that could take him away from this.

 “I know…it’s a lot…but it’s exactly what we need if we want a prosperous future.”

 “You’ll soon accustom to it and bring forth amazing power in ease, but to do that, we must settle a strict training regime that is constant and can help you truly get acquainted with it,” another mentioned.

 “I studied well Augusta’s use of the harp through writings left behind. I think I can serve as a fitting tutor,” Abasi was proud, standing tall and prepared as if he was to start teaching that very moment.

 Feliciano was left with no exit this time, breathing out whatever worry he held, having to accept, looking to the harp and removing any fear of what could happen in his use.

 He sighed, “promise that there would be healers and that no one would be allowed into that room unless it’s for urgent business. Also…be patient and understanding…I’m still getting used to having so much power and I am sometimes intimidated. I very much will appreciate it all.”

 They all bowed, “yes, your majesty.”

 Feliciano didn’t think he would ever get used to that.

  They filled the table in frivolous chat, about drama with musicians, Gilbert trying out a new instrument, how a citizen painted a building in a green color instead of the demanded red and how Ludwig should do something about it. He pouted, focused on his food and when his family will finish this sudden reunion, part of him thinking this to be wasteful discussion.

 “-I mean, I know when to get down and ready, unlike Ludwig here, who is married and has still not consummated with his husband,” Gilbert declared in an ease to all.

 Ludwig choked, coughing and all turning to worry and help with his sudden dilemma.

 “Can we refrain speaking about these things at the table,” Ludwig tried to diverge.

 “It’s nothing to be ashamed about, Ludwig,” Monika said, not being at all alarmed.

 “Feliciano told us you’re waiting for the opportune moment,” Reinhardt added.

 “I think it’s something very sweet.”

 “But boring!” Gilbert had to ruin.

 “Gilbert…” their mother would scold still, even with her children being two grown adults, one a king even.

 “Come on, mutti, doesn’t the kingdom need that kind of energy magic from them.”

 “The kingdom is perfectly stable, something that Ludwig, Feliciano and Kiku had done well to place in their recent crowning.”

 “It’s also private and I would prefer if it’s something that stays between me and my queen.” Despite Ludwig’s seriousness, the gaze his family laid on him was as if he had said some bad joke. Gilbert offered to laugh to not make his little brother feel bad. Ludwig glared at him.

 “What?” The older was now truly lost.

 “My sex life…it’s private!” He thought it obvious, not something that he should declare as he did.

 “Well…to a certain extent, it is,” Monika began to awkwardly explain.

 “To a certain extent? What do you mean?” He was starting to get scared.

 “Don’t worry, it’s not like they write everything you do in the bedroom to a newspaper for the whole kingdom to read,” Monika wanted to assure before anything.

 “Yet I’m starting to get that something happens…what happens?” Ludwig neared to know.

 “It’s only a small thing, something quite beautiful and plentiful that florist and farmers look forward to, especially when it’s the first time a King and Queen make love.”

 “But…what happens?” Ludwig still demanded to know.

 “You’ll see when the time comes,” Reinhardt thought he could finish it as.

 “Exactly. I can tell you that basically the whole kingdom would know that you have finally consummated.”

 “This makes me feel unsettled,” Ludwig admitted, getting all to chuckle.

 “Don’t worry, it’s only natural. Just don’t feel pressured into anything. As I said, you and Felicano’s moment would come, you will see and I’m sure it would be amazing for you both,” Monika smiled.

 “Thank you, Mutti…but can we please stop talking about these kind of things at our lunch table.”

  Augustino was learning something new each day. By now he was an active crawler, picking things, laughing and being more aware of the many games Feliciano played with him. He especially loved it when his uncle would spin him about, loud laughter that buried the room in enchantment, his parents smiling in wonder at the joy their son created.

 “Tino, Tino, Augusto, Augustino,” Feliciano would always sing to him, earning the most adorable claps from the infant.

 “Will you all stop,” Lovino would still beg.

 “He loves it,” Feliciano would coo as he rubbed their noses together, the boy still loudly laughing.

 Ludwig entered the room, the stress in his expression from his recent king dealings dwindling at the site of his nephew and husband so close and loving.

 “Ciao, Ludwig,” Feliciano greeted. The baby boy mumbling some incoherency in call for him in join.

 “It’s pretty late. Shouldn’t Augustino be resting by now?” Ludwig thought, not stopping in coming forward, taking the boy in his arms to play and coo as the other had done.

 “He’s having fun right now,” Antonio saw.

 “Won’t do so until you leave him alone,” Lovino groaned, eyes heavy with countless sleepless nights of having to watch his son.

 “Then, Feliciano, we better leave them,” Ludwig suggested, receiving a pout reaction from Feliciano.

 The uncle placed one last kiss on Augustino’s head before Ludwig gave him to Lovino, who held him as gently and lovingly, a comforting hold that had Augustino yawning, eyes dimming and surely ready to fall asleep that instant. Both parents were relieved, coming close, both so tired that they might as well take sleep there with their son. Ludwig and Feliciano decided to leave silently, held hands, waiting to be a sufficient distance to speak of their day and activities, a beautiful routine that had fallen as they made their way every night to their room. As they would undress, lay on their bed, they would set a chorus of kisses and gentle touches across their bodies. Never too heated, never enough to instigate something too passionate. Sometimes, as they would gaze as deeply as they did into their eyes, seeing stars and ethereal lights, did they wonder if this would be the night they would truly give up and let themselves engulf in the furthest reaches of love. Worry, nervousness and fear would win out, not that they minded just resting well in their arms, cuddled, an occasional kiss to aid in their dreams.

 They continued to have the patience to wait.

  It was a day of training like any other, all the royals called to practice their strength, all the full necessary for the war. Ludwig, Feliciano and Kiku had come down excited, ready to try out new things that they had read about and their teacher would explain.  They were giddy, and the teacher was just as so, smiling as he explained the basics to spells without the use of word, how it had to do with mind, concentration, reaching to a depth of their being and managing well control of it. They started with simple exercises, like creating a light spell that usually needed words, in the hold of their hands, gravitating and growing at the wish Egilhard asked to watch and guide their potential. He thought them to have done wonderful, increasing, diminishing, no matter, they did well to deal with the amounts.

 He thought it safe to move on to other spells, ones of more strength like changing the color of certain objects in the room, aiming fire at targets, making shields, throwing lethal weapons at far distances and even lifting heavy objects. By the afternoon, Egilhard found them ready to do their usual combat, and so the three took their positions and readied themselves to fight.

 “Yes! I would love to see all kinds of strong releases, but remember, this is just practice, so be careful and don’t hurt your companions,” was the last warning he shouted before he signaled them to begin.

 The three nodded, Feliciano rushing off forward to start. He began by doing an earth quaking spell, directed towards Kiku, who did well to jump between cracks. No matter how Feliciano intensified it, Kiku always managed an escape. Because of the determination he was keeping, it was late when he noticed the impending approach of his husband. Ludwig was ready to inflict an unconsciousness spell, but Feliciano rolled out of target just in time, Ludwig hitting the ground instead. They began their practiced hand to hand combat, Ludwig impressed at the strength Feliciano had grown to stand his strong ones, showing no mercy and Feliciano managed to continue to hit on with ones that would surely leave Ludwig with bruises later on.

 At one point, Feliciano’s defenses had failed and in one push, Ludwig brought him to the ground. Ludwig was ready to inflict him with another powerful spell, but Feliciano had moved just in time to avoid it. Feliciano had once again tried that energy spell, picking it all in balls of light to use, now against Kiku as well as he joined Ludwig in attacks towards him.

 It had worked wonderfully for a while, Egilhard applauding from his watching position, but Kiku had found an entrance, making Feliciano trip and loose the concentration he had to keep while the rest of the orbs floated. Even as he had fallen, he managed to keep them attacking, something that neither Ludwig or Kiku were expecting, having to avoid hurriedly and with fret.

 It was small, an accident, a little cut that Ludwig usually wouldn’t have given it importance. He had received far worst. Yet that instant, in the fury of this pretend battle, it surged him with menace, with revenge, with a rare fulfill to make someone pay for this. Kiku thought this to just be a cringe, something that he could get over and continue on as they should.

 Ludwig tended to calculate his every move before acting, but here, he headed straight on, unthinking, creating a sort of shield to use against Feliciano. It was powerful, hard for Feliciano to stand against, failing each time to keep himself from falling to the ground again.

 Egilhard felt something amiss, standing from his calm sitting position, a sign for others in the area to know that something was not going as it should. Many soldiers prepared to intervene if anything.

 Feliciano for now was dealing, managing to push Ludwig back enough to run and keep a safe distance.

 “Ludwig… you’re being a bit hard, you know,” he commented out of breath, unheard to Ludwig who headed on, for a moment that Feliciano thought he could take a break, that he could lower his defenses, even came to a kneel as he regained energy.

 He did not expect the tremulous shadow, Ludwig raising his hand high, using a magic that was…dark, a spell unfamiliar, fearful, away from his caring self that didn’t let him stop, didn’t let him control his attack, and in his unwatchfulness, he landed it on his own husband.

 “Healers! Healers! Get the healers!” Ludwig could hear Egilhard shout in this sudden haze, dizzy, confused, even wondering where he stood. This sudden energy was gone, leaving him weak, tumbling, trying to find some sense of order. A sudden familiar whimpering was enough to strike sense, to place him back in a picture he could see, spotting Feliciano crouched down, holding to himself tightly as his body shook.

 “Feliciano…Feliciano…” Ludwig tried to call, coming down to reach, finally seeing the blood, the darkening of one side of his body, veins pumping in an awful white that was like porcelain being broken.

 “Feliciano…Feliciano!” The panic came, taking Feliciano in his arms, giving a closer look at what happened…at what he did, he painfully realized.

 “Mmm…Ludwig…” Felciano could mumble, in and out of consciousness.

 “I…I…I…I…” what could he say? What could he do? He caused this…He caused this! But still, what was it? What was it that he even did? Dear Aces, what could he even tell Feliciano?

 “I…I…don’t know what I did…I don’t know what this is…Feliciano, please, stay, they’ll be getting help now.”

 Feliciano could only nod, that small action enough to have him trembling the more as if he was caught by a horrible cold breeze. Ludwig tried to warm him by pulling him closer, embracing him with a large amount of fear, one that didn’t even let him see people come close, trying to take Feliciano.

 “Your majesty, he needs attention immediately,” one tried to convince.

 “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, my darling,” Ludwig continued to beg, whimpering, refusing to let go of Feliciano, as if his own touch was enough to cure everything as he wished.

 “Ludwig…Ludwig…I-I know yo-you’re sorry, I-I’m sure it’s something we-we can explain, but-but let them…he-heal me first.” It was hurting so much to speak.

 It was that assurance that had Ludwig finally moved out of the shell he tried to create for them, helping the healers in placing Feliciano on an emergency bed. It was an amount of five that carried him, Ludwig one of them, refusing to leave his side, holding his hand and continuing to word his apology. He would have gone to the healing room and stayed for the whole process, but here he had to be pulled, maddening, finding it all a disobedience to him the king. Many who were in the area winced and some were fearful to face him, having to get the must braved healer to calm Ludwig, wording to trust them in their profession and why it was necessary that Feliciano entered alone. It took Gilbert’s entrance to get him to sit down, a harsh scolding that was reminiscent to many of their childhood days. As Gilbert went on with rants on Ludwig’s behavior, Ludwig sat and already waited, his gaze settled on the doors of the nursing room, agitating for Feliciano, wanting to know he was well, wanting to know he was safe. He gripped his hands, cursing whatever magic did this, shedding to all, whimpering and letting himself the tears that fell, Gilbert stopping to hold him dear, soothing what he could…when neither understood for what yet.

#gerita #Feliciano and the King of Hearts #fatkoh #f&tkoh #gerita fanfiction #gerita fanfic #gerita fic

[fernwehbookworm]

Knight of Kandor- Chapter 22

It took three days of planning. We used the wagons we had brought up from Cadmium and took the covers off of them. Two separate teams went to nearby farms and bought as much trade goods as they could to load the wagons. Also, the teams acquired enough clothing for the DEO, John, Lex, Lena, and six of Lex's men to dress the part of traveling tradesmen just looking to sell their goods. The rest of the men Lex had brought with him stayed in camp with Donovan in command and Lady Jessica staying behind.

Both carts rumble slowly across the bridge. We huddle low with hunched shoulders of working people, Lena already secured to me by a safety line beneath our cloaks. We are stopped as expected just before the gate for the men to search our carts. The cart behind us has the rear hatch opened. That's when we move. Boxes of produce and several casks of wine spill out onto the ground, shattering and causing the deep red liquid to go everywhere. The men Lex brought begin shouting at the guards for destroying their wares. Voices are raised and catch the attention of everyone around. I open the secret hatch to let out the men going to take our places as well as a couple from the other cart quickly switching over. It isn't the exact same amount but it will help with the shock of so many people disappearing. As the scene grows more intense, I hook my climbing rope onto the cart before helping Lena slowly over the side. We dangle freely for a brief moment before a shift our weight and swing towards the cliff beneath the bridge. After a few tense moments with Lena clinging tightly to me, I manage to grasp the bars and find footing on the jagged rock face.

The nine others do the same. A brief whistle and the lines to safety are cut as we stand clinging to the bars of the spillway. It is still wide enough for Maggie to work in the middle. She had brought with her a powder that Felicity and Caitlin created that burns hot and fast. Hot enough to melt the iron. She spits on the upper part of the bars so the powder will stick and carefully spreads it around the lower part that sinks into the rocks.

"All right, get as far back as possible and close your eyes," Maggie commands.

The rest of us shuffle to either side of the entrance, feet squeezing between bars one at a time as we switch our handholds. Alex stays by Maggie, supporting her as she uses both hands for the flint and steel to send sparks flying. The commotion above has stopped, replaced by the sound of dozens of people entering and exiting the city at once. I squeeze my eyes shut as one of the sparks grows brighter and hear the sizzling of the various elements working against each other. Maggie repeats the process until each of the five bars she picked has fallen into the water far below us. then she and Alex is pulling each of us into the new opening. I pull out a torch from my pack and Alex does the same. I lead the way through the tunnels as my sister takes up the rear.

Luckily it is fairly easy to navigate and dry because the spring rains had yet to come. The main tunnel is the only one we have to stick to because it is the one that leads directly to the castle. It's faster than taking the crowded streets and passing through the gates, in a few short hours we are standing where Winn and I had determined the castle gardens would be. Not the royal ones, but the ones used for parties or enjoyed by staff and advisors. There is a ladder here for maintenance purposes, I climb up and slowly lift the cover to peer out. It is in a corner, blocked by view from high hedges. I sigh out my relief and snuff out the torch on the stone ceiling before climbing out and gesturing for the others to follow. I look at the faces crouched around me. The Deo all have the hoods of their robes pulled up, we had worn our uniforms under the cloaks and discarded them at the mouth of the tunnel. We had also gone as far as to wear light leather armor under our tunics for the fight that was inevitably coming, I just prayed we would not be alone. I nod to the determined faces and look around. The garden is empty for now, it was still too early for nobles to think about being out of bed, let alone strolling through the gardens, and too late for servants to still be attending chores here. I allow Lex to take the lead. He may not have been at court much, but every soldier new the Commander of the Royal Army. Servants naturally avoided the attention of royals and made themselves scarce. Several times soldiers half-heartedly tried to stop them before realizing who they were talking to and bowed deeply to the man who ignored them and brushed past.

Lex was headed straight to the throne room. I don't know why he thinks his mother would be there but surely word of the prince arriving in the castle moves fast. Lena is still wearing a hooded robe, covering her dark hair and bright green eyes. She strode in Lex's shadow, protected on all sides from the unknown of this mission. Lex stops outside the throne room. The guards usually posted there are gone.

"Rao, Protect us," He whispers before pulling hard on the large oaken doors.

Our meager band is met with easily a hundred palace guard, standing rank and file, and heavily armed. Silence fills the hall except for our boots striking the polished marble as Lex Leads us to the first Line of armed soldiers, who stop his path. On the other side of the small army, Queen Lillian lounges on the throne with a smirk on her face that causes my blood to boil in rage.

"Alexander, my dear boy! Welcome home!" She says with mock cheer and excitement.

"What is this mother? Is this how you greet your son? With armed men?" He asks in a calm and authoritative tone.

"I had to increase the guards around me after your sister was kidnapped."

"You mean after you sold her to Cadmium to be married off like a common girl!" Lex calls to his mother. She gasps.

"I did no such thing, dear boy. I am trying very hard to negotiate for her freedom."

"Are you now, Mother?" Lena says with ice in her voice, stepping out from behind her brother and pulling down the hood.

"You really should have made sure that Queen Rhea wouldn't tell me your entire plan. Then I wouldn't have known you were lying." The color noticeably drains out of the queens face at the sight of her scorned daughter.

"No, you can't be. Im-Imposter!" The queen shouts. Confusion ripples through the palace guard in front of us.

"Seize them!" The queen seems to be panicking.

"Stand down, soldiers. The woman on the throne has betrayed Krypton and tried to kill the rightful heir to the throne." Lex commands. The men shuffle, looking back and forth between the two Queens. Lena steps forward.

"Queen Lillian is no Luthor. She is no longer fit to sit where King Lionel sat and where his children should rule. She has clung to the power for far too long that is not rightfully hers. She attempted to be rid of me because in just a few short weeks she will be removed from the throne for me, the rightful heir, to take my fathers place. If you men had any love for my father, any love for Krypton, then you will seize that woman who had me kidnapped and taken to Cadmium to be forced to marry their future king." Power carries Lena's voice easily over the men. I watch a mixture of emotions play across Queen Lillian's face as men slowly look at each other, still unsure. Those closest to the queen must be her personal guard because they draw swords and look ready to fight any who come near her.

"Seize them!" Queen Lillian cries.

That stirs most of the men to action, turning one way or another as they pick a side. John strikes down a man close to us as he charges in alone. Chaos erupts as the men in the ranks turn against each other, though it seems most have turned away from us and a fighting the queen's personal guard. Three of those guards push the queen out the door behind the thrones and disappear.

"John, protect her. Protect our Queen." I say to him. He nods.

"Alex!" I call, she throws a knife at a man who managed to slip through in the chaos and run towards us.

She sees where I watched the queen disappears and nods. We run around the main mob of bodies, occasionally cutting down a man stupid enough to try and stop us. We sprint into the corridor, I quickly think of possible ways for the queen to escape. She couldn't stay in the castle, most the men had already sided with Lena. the stables, she would try and flee Kandor.

"Follow me," I say and take off down the corridor. Running on a flat surface was easy compared to roofs. My muscles rejoice at the movement after days of planning and sparring. Two of the guards that had escaped with the queen stand at the door leading to the courtyard. I throw a knife and it sinks into one's throat as Alex leaps on the other. I hear her hidden blade sink into flesh as my speed carries me out the door. The last man had pulled horses from a stable boy and was trying to calm them enough for the queen still running down the steps towards him. With a final leap, I knock the queen to the ground and pull back my hood. The guard cries out as Alex's own throwing knife sinks into his chest.

"Who are you?" The queen asks, dazed from hitting her head after I toppled her to the ground.

"Kara Zorel Ward. Better known as Kal to you."

"You should have died in the fighting pits."

"No, I survived. You should have killed me yourself if you wanted that."

"I wanted to rule in peace."

"You wanted power. And to kill the bastard of your husband. You are selfish and you have no right to rule."

"I was going to change the world."

"You did, by scorning Lena you made her strong enough to rule and to find the peace you tried to sell her to get. She will change the world."

"I..." Whatever the queen was about to say as I flex my wrist and the blade sinks into her throat.

"Rao binds us to those we love. He gives us strength when we have none. In the darkest place, He guides us. Rao, protect us so that we might protect others. And we shall rise, a fire in His hearth, burning and free." Kara murmurs as the queen takes one last, wet breath. She falls limp as blood pours out of the wound.

Armored men stampede towards us. I hear swords being drawn and look up into the determined eyes of James. Fire burns there because someone dared to kill his queen, to infiltrate his castle. I could see it. I could see the commitment to killing me and Alex harden in his eyes. I could see no recognition of who I was.

"Halt!" Lena cries from the top of the stairs. Conflict appears with the determination but then James seems to recognize his Queen-in-waiting.

"My Lady, they killed your mother," he says, not looking away from me, sword still poised to strike.

"Sir James, I know. Kara was acting under my command. My mother acted on treason."

"Kara..." James says slowly, realization coming to his face.

"Kara! You're alive!" he exclaims.

"Listen to me! Queen Lillian is dead. She died for several acts of Treason against me and against Krypton. Those who still support her are being arrested as we speak. Kara Danvers acted on mine and Prince Alexander's orders. Return to your posts while we deal with the betrayers." Lena commands over the growing crowd.

"Kara!" I hear Winn shout from a servant's entrance, obviously drawn in by the commotion. He runs to me before stopping before the body of the queen. Quickly he sidesteps it and embraces me.

Lena descends much more slowly and orders two guards to take the Queen's body away. Her mask is in place, much like when I first met her, but pain and conflict creep out through her eyes when she looks from her mother's form to me.

"Kara and Alex Danvers, come with me. James, you and Winn also."

Bells tolled for the death of a monarch. Lena cried in my arms as she sorted through emotions she didn't know it was possible for her to have. The woman who raised her was dead. The woman who stole her from her mother and also had her kidnapped was dead. Lex disappeared for three days. Heralds were sent out all around Krypton to announce Queen's Lillian's death and her crimes against the crown. They also announced Lena's coronation, still planned for her birthday. Today was the funeral. The queen could not be buried in the Royal Crypt due to her crimes, but her marriage meant she could not be buried anywhere else. The solution was a funeral pyre.

James had returned my armor to me yesterday. I stood dressed in it next to Lena, overlooking the burning flames that had long ago engulfed the body. We were to stand vigil until only coals remained. She wore all black and her face was ashen. Lady Jessica stood on the other side, returned to the castle after a messenger was sent to Lex's remaining army in the woods. Smoke hung heavy in the air as the clouds turned to gray. I could smell the rain. In a few hours, it would come down, snuffing out the dying embers and ending this hellish of a nightmare. Queen Lillian had ruined my life and Lena's. It was she who called for the children of hundreds of families to be killed. It was her fault I became Kal and was put in the army when the fighting was at a peak. The last of my old life burned away with the late Queen.

Lena established me as a knight once more, officially in the records. My place was next to her again. This time as who I really was, this time as a woman. Lena had already started moving for the law to allow women into the army. It would be a slow process, but the door was open now. When the rain started and the embers died in fits and spurts, we went inside and ate in the great hall. It was a somber affair. The real celebration would happen with the coronation. Lex reappeared and sat next to Lena while I stood behind with John. Lex held himself proudly, but the pain of being an orphan was evident in his shoulders. Before he left he put a hand on my shoulder.

"Thank you, for doing what I could not and for loving my sister enough to do it." Tears formed in his eyes but he left before I could respond.

Lena left soon after that. I followed her to her room and lingered by the door. She turned and gave me a curious look when she realized I had not followed her inside.

"What's wrong?"

"I know I have stayed here the past couple of nights, but shouldn't Lady Jessica return? I mean this is her room too, right?"

"No, she's been staying with Donovan. Kara, come here. We have been together almost every night since you found me. Why would that change now?"

"Because you are my queen and I am a knight again. Lena, what would the people say if they knew I warmed your bed every night? If you didn't marry because of me?" Lena comes over to me as I stubbornly stay in the doorway.

"Haven't we been over this? I don't give a shit what they think. I want you. I have already talked to Lex about his future children taking the throne. He agrees. Now come to bed, I miss you." I furrow my brow at the last statement.

"You miss me? We have hardly been apart." Lena leans up and whispers in my ear.

"Not like that love. I miss you, naked and squirming under me." I swallow hard.

"Oh." Is all I manage before nimble finger begins working the straps of my armor. Quickly I begin to help Lena, fumbling a little at not having to do this for almost a year now.

(Smut Warning, Skip to Chapter Break)

As the last piece falls away, I tug at her dress, loosening the corset and undoing the buttons. We hadn't been together since leaving Cadmium and every fiber of my being yearned to be close with her again. Lena tugs at my under tunic and unties my pants. The shirt is discarded as she slips out of the dress and climbs on the bed in her small clothes. My lips meet hers, hot and passionate, pulling her towards me as I straddle her waist. Lena leans back and settles into the bed while I trail kisses down her neck, she arches up into me. I remove her underwear while trailing from her clavicle to a breast. One hand rolls a nipple while my tongue swirls around the other one. Lena is making heavenly noises above me, noises I had missed so much.

The future queen pulls me back up to kiss her and rolls us over so she can straddle me. I look up at her beautiful naked form and suddenly I am so glad for all the events that led to this. Rao had blessed me in the end with this wonderful woman. It made it all worth it.

Lena kisses me again and wipes my mind clean of all thought. She is all I can think about. How her tongue moves against mine before leaving my mouth and taking in a nipple. I gasp at the sudden transition and grip her thighs harder. Lena pulls my hands off her legs to tangle her fingers in mine as she moves lower, placing hot, open-mouthed, kisses every couple of inches. My fingers squeeze hers when her tongue dips into my lower lips and circles around my clit. Lena was making good on her promise of having me squirm under her. She didn't even enter me and after a few minutes of careful tongue play, I was calling her name.

"Guess... we... have to build my stamina... back up." I pant out when I can manage it.

"You have the best stamina of anyone I know." Lena teases tracing patterns on my skin with a finger.

"You're right. I think I just missed you too much."

"How much?" I grin at her question.

"I'll show you."

Bells rang out across the city in a much more celebratory way as the Queen was seated on her throne. Queen Lena Luthor was where she belonged. Her brother stood next to her throne as the ceremony ended. Soon he would return to fighting an unending war, but, for now, he was proud of his sister. I could see it on his face. The council was still in serious debate over women in the army but I knew now with Lena officially queen, the opposers would loose. Winn was drafting new laws for Lena, including one where we could marry.

Cat Grant had cornered me to tell me that I better marry that woman or she would make my life hell. I believed her, not that I had any reason not to marry Lena. For now, though, we sat at the high table and danced late into the night. The DEO had left yesterday to return to Cadmium. It was tearful for Alex and me, the others too, but mostly Alex. I really did feel like she was the sister I always wanted. This wasn't the end though. The fight isn't over. It won't be over until there is peace and Cadmium has rulers who rule for the people, not over them. Kara Danvers story was just beginning. And I couldn't wait to find out the end.

                                                       The End

#Supergirl #Supercorp #kara danvers #lena luthor #medieval #knight #au #assassin #The End #KoK