#yeah idk i kind of made some shit up for santorelli

[words-writ-in-starlight]

Prompt 1 ("it's mine now") for Animorphs with a Serious Injury Underreaction? Or any prompt with that really (my poor kiddos reacting to injury with "oh nooo, I liked this outfit, RIP my favorite sweater," while bystanders and/or whoever stabbed them in the first place watch in horror is my Pain Jam)

This is post series and consequently includes spoilers, and is an AU of canon, specifically that Ellimist Ex Machina AU I keep talking about writing, so if characterizations are off from the end of Book 54, that’s why.

1: “No. You buried your knife in my stomach, which means it’s mine now.”

Things Sargeant Vic Santorelli agreed to when he signed up to be part of this groundbreaking military training unity:

Learning how to turn into an animal

Things he did not agree to:

Being handed a knife by a girl younger than his sister and told to stab her in the chest

“Um,” Vic says, looking at the knife she’s handed him.  His fellow students are all too well-trained to actually blurt out what they’re thinking, but he sees them stare, flick glances at General Berenson in the corner.

(”You can just call me Jake,” their teacher said the first time they met.  “The title’s ridiculous and we all know it.")

(”Yes, sir,” Berenson’s new students chorused obediently, and proceeded to never ever address him as Jake, because the title’s not ridiculous and they all know it.)

Berenson looks almost bored.  He certainly doesn’t seem concerned that his cousin might be getting stabbed herself with a Marine’s combat knife.  Berenson usually has about the emotive range that you’d expect from a hardened veteran--it’s hard to remember that he’s only eighteen, a full two months younger than the blonde staring Vic down--but he focuses like something predatory when he wants to, and apparently he doesn’t care to right now.

“I’d rather...not?” Vic finally says carefully.

Rachel scoffs, thrusts the hilt of the knife at him again.  She’s dressed in a leotard--a plain black one, not the official-issue morphing uniforms they were given at the start of this training.  “Don’t be a weenie.  Stab me with the knife.”

“Is this...part of the lesson?”

“Yes,” she says, narrowing her eyes.  “Come on, Sargeant, free shot.  Try and avoid any arteries.”

“Avoid--”

“Soldier,” Berenson says in the corner, his arms crossed, leaning back against the wall, scowling.  He looks almost like a sullen teenager, except for the tired look in his eyes.  “She’s the boss of you.  Stab her, or I’ll do it.”

Vic reluctantly takes the knife and Rachel tosses her hair, mocking.

“Oh, sure,” she drawls.  “You’ll listen to the General himself.”

“Come on, Rachel,” Berenson says.  He sounds--annoyed?  Impatient with her, maybe?  That doesn’t seem quite right to Vic, especially since Rachel’s hard, superior expression softens minutely around the eyes.

“Fine,” she sniffs, and rolls her eyes at him.  Berenson straightens up a little bit.

Vic is still holding onto the knife hesitantly when Rachel spreads her arms and beckons him forward.

“Come on,” she says.  “Take your best shot.”

Vic has to close his eyes, but he does it, and he hears a little huh as her breath is forced out, blood slicking his knuckles as he stumbles back, leaving the knife in place.

“Okay,” Rachel says on a hiss, pressing one hand around the place where the knife juts out of her ribs.  There’s blood spilling over her hand, around her fingers, and Vic thinks blankly of the fact that she’s begun to be called Bloody Rachel.  

(Vic wasn’t a Controller, but his aunt was, a survivor of the bombed-out Pool, and she had smiled grimly when he told her that he was learning from Jake Berenson, and that his cousin was helping him.)

(“Good,” his tia said.  “Bloody Rachel will teach you how to kill anyone who tries to hurt us again.”)

“So,” Rachel says while her hand turns red and glossy and she doesn’t seem to notice.  “What did you learn, Santorelli?”

“That you’re fucking terrifying, ma’am,” he blurts before he can think twice, and she grins at him.  The knife, sticking out of her side, must have punched through a lung, because she coughs before she speaks again and her teeth and lips fleck red.

“No,” she says.  “Who else learned something?”

The room is dead silent, except for the faint rattle of Rachel’s breathing.

“Tell them the answer,” Berenson says after it becomes clear that she’s not going to get one, and Rachel nods.

“What you learned is that you just buried your knife in my chest,” she says, and pulls the blade out in one swift motion as black hair begins to sprout from her hands.  “It’s mine now,” she says before her vocal cords start to warp.

Chimpanzees aren’t especially large--a little taller than waist height on Vic--but Rachel bares all her teeth at them and gives the knife an expert flip in one of the big, dexterous hands.

her voice says in their heads, she adds, using the knife point to gesture to herself. 

“Do you understand today’s lesson?” Berenson asks, and Vic isn’t sure when he stepped away from the wall, standing in front of them with his hands in his pockets, Rachel at his side.

“Yes, sir,” the other murmur.

“Good,” Berenson says while Rachel demorphs.  “Everyone go get a knife.”

#animorphs #jake berenson #rachel berenson #post war #ellimist ex machina au #starlight writes stuff #yeah idk i kind of made some shit up for santorelli #he doesn't deserve this #i am LONG SINCE over my laryngitis but my brain is not in a great place for alleirat #and thus: prompts #i'm deleting some of them because i got like...six for taz and i just don't have ideas for all of them #but yeah here's some Feelings about animorphs #obviously the difference in the EEM au is that rachel lives and everything is still terrible but differently #but among the changes is that jake and rachel kind of mutually bully each other into getting out more #like for example into agreeing to teach a bunch of tiny baby army fucks how to be animorphs #god can you imagine being a grown-ass adult in the army expected to learn from a TEENAGER #also feat. my opinions on Jake Being The Youngest Berenson #excepting Rachel's sisters obviously #but whatever #i'm done here #anyway here's wonderwall #idiot teenagers with a queue #anonymous #asked and answered