a/n: warnings— the following fic contains lots of angst, allusions to injuries and off-screen torture (nothing explicit, just mentioned - like what caused the injury, presence of blood), angst, introspection on the nature of war and the roles people play in it, child neglect(? idk how to say, but like the supposed adult in the room not caring for the condition of the kids), ANGST, homesickness, children being trained for war, and uh, have i mentioned angst?
so if none of that is your cup of tea, kindly turn around and exit through the left door. for those who continue, i hope you all know what you're getting into. prepare a warm drink or fluffy fics after, you might need it. other than that, enjoy!
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The say things get worse before they get better.
They're right.
.
"The visit can wait. It's too dangerous; we can't risk being tracked, and we still need you here. You know that."
"Commander, you've said that already—"
"Next time, Boboiboy. Please. We can't let you leave right now."
"...okay."
.
"Do you ever think," Boboiboy whispers, still hunched in the corner he'd tucked himself into an hour ago, "About how it's always how much we can help TAPOPS that matters, when it's their war we're fighting in and we just want to go home?"
Across from him, Fang bites his lip, shoulders bunching up in a single, helpless shrug.
"It's war," he points out, but not unkindly. "People always get dragged into it, even the innocent ones."
The laugh that gets him is far too close to a sob. Boboiboy's eyes slip shut, and with fingers still clenched on Tok Aba's last letter, he looks pretty much as bad as he feels.
"Guess you're right."
Boboiboy is fifteen, and he is a hero, a soldier, a weapon.
Boboiboy is fifteen, and he is so, so tired.
.
It's been eight months since they last went to earth.
It's been eight months, and they still can't go back.
The kids all ask whenever they can. Boboiboy the most, Ying the least. But they all do.
And they're always denied.
Again, and again, and again.
.
They still keep asking.
.
Somehow, Boboiboy gets taken.
"What are you– we can't just leave him!" Ying shouts, anger and worry overriding her filters, along with her exhaustion. "He could die!"
"They won't kill him," the Admiral states, as if he really knows that, as if he believes it. And then he says—
"He's too valuable to kill."
Ying's vision goes redredRED, and it's only Yaya and Gopal's combined effort that keeps her from attacking their superior.
"With all due respect, Sir," Yaya says, and even Gopal can her the strain in her voice as she tries to stay calm, "We'd still like to be sent on a rescue mission. Please."
"No."
"Sir–"
"I'm not saying you can't go," he cuts her off with a stern glare. "I'm saying you can't go now. All of you are injured, and the chances of you getting captured with him are a lot higher than any rescue possibly succeeding. You're going to get yourselves healed up and that needs time."
But we don't have time, Ying wants to scream, and had she been less distressed, she might have been amused by the irony of it.
But Boboiboy is gone, possibly injured and in need of their help, help that they can't give him because Ying knows by now that powerspheres are always the priority and not the people who save them.
Never the people who save them.
.
It's Kaizo who finds him.
Gopal would laugh, but all he can do is try not to cry as Fang and the Captain help Boboiboy out of their ship. He looks terrible, pale and thin with dried blood staining his clothes, but there's a look in his eyes that says he hadn't been broken and that's all that matters to them.
At least it should be.
"How bad is it?" Koko Ci asks as he intercepts them; Fang easily takes over their human-crutch duty as Kaizo considers the question.
"He didn't talk," the Captain assures, and Gopal has to fight the rising nausea in him because he may be clumsy but he isn't dumb. "He also managed to hide his powerwatch."
For a moment, Koko Ci looks taken aback. He opens his mouth to say something, and then seems to think better of it, shaking his head as he leads the way back to his office.
"You're expected to give a full debrief in half an hour. Don't be late."
As if the captain would ever be late, Gopal thinks as he watches Kaizo move to follow, but a voice calls out, surprising all of them.
"Abang."
Gopal whips his head around to gape at Fang. And with good reason, because Fang never calls Kaizo that, at least not in his presence, but.
But Fang doesn't look scared right now, or even pained. He looks—
"Thank you."
Grateful.
And Gopal watches as Kaizo - Kaizo! The scary alien Captain who'd threatened to beat them up when they first met, that Kaizo - nods, lips twitching into a small smile.
And then he's gone, leaving all of them relieved but very, very confused.
Well, most of them.
There's a quiet huff, too faint to be called laughter but Boboiboy looks delighted, if a little subdued.
The kids take that as their cue to finally move forward and rush to his aid.
.
(The thing is, Kaizo isn't a good brother.
Fang knows this, has known it since he'd met the twins and realized that somewhere along the way, Kaizo had changed, too, and with him changed his dynamic with Fang. He may have been a good brother once, may have even been great, but that is not the case now and Fang has somehow learned to accept it.
So yes, Kaizo isn't a good brother, but he still has room to be.
That's what Fang is banking on when he asked him for this mission, one that isn't sanctioned and therefore very illegal.
It's not like he wants to do this. Fang the voice of reason among his peers half the time, never the risk-taker. What he wants, though, is solid proof that his best friend is safe, but that isn't something he's going to get if he just sits and waits around and all of them know this.
Besides, Kaizo has always been a rebel through and through. If nothing else, that'll be enough to make him consider.)
.
("I can't believe it took me getting kidnapped to make Captain Kaizo - you know. Decent."
"Me neither."
"That's... kinda messed up. Would do it again if it meant this much to you, though."
"Please don't. And shut up, you're still bleeding."
" 's not as bad as it looks. Promise."
"Okay, but I still need you to shut up. You're - you're a lot more annoying when you're crippled."
"...hey. I'm gonna be fine, okay? I'm not - m'not going a-anywhere."
"I know, I know, just - keep it down s-so I can patch you up."
"Okay.")
.
For a moment, Ying is sure she's going to die.
And why wouldn't she be? She's trapped in a room with no exits, the guards closing in as she pants and clutches ReverseBot close to her chest. One of her wrists are broken, and the signal underground is bad enough that no one's been able to contact each other for the past ten minutes, which means that no one knows where she even is.
It's frustrating. Not the fact that she's going to die - though that is pretty alarming, if she lets herself dwell on it - but rather, the fact that this is going to prove how expendable they all are.
Ying had thought about it, of course she has. From the very first time she and Yaya had cornered Fang into talking to them about everything, to learning about the roots of the organization they worked for, to history after history of bloodshed all claiming to be done 'for the greater good,' she had never stopped thinking about it.
She didn't believe it for a while. Didn't want to believe it, because Koko Ci was their superior and he'd always been considerate of their situation, even when he had to give much of a leeway.
But things change, or maybe they never did, because she looks at the way their Commander defers to sterner, disinterested superiors and thinks, something is going to have to give.
She didn't expect it to be their side.
Ying backs into a wall and closes her eyes. She wants to go home. She knows she doesn't want it as much as Boboiboy does, or as much as Yaya but she still wants, because home is where she feels safe and space isn't that, not for a long while now.
If only—
The wall tingles behind her and she yelps, moving away just in time to see how it turns into a cookie, before bracing herself as an ominous crack resounds through the room. A beat, and then the wall crumbles, revealing a familiar pair decked in green and pink; the former is covered in dust and soot, and the latter slightly bruised.
Ying stares as Yaya stumbles to land in front of her, one hand outstretched as a desperate smile paints itself on her face.
"Come on, Ying," she huffs. "Let's get you out of here."
Ying laughs in relief and takes her hand.
.
"He knew this could happen–"
"He's sixteen!" Yaya snarls, and it's a testament to how terrifying she can be when neither of the twins make a move to stop her. "This shouldn't be happening at all!"
Cold eyes regard her as she stares the new officer down, lips pressed tight as she tries to control herself. And it's hard, stars, is it hard, because Gopal is in the medbay right now, fighting for his life with bullet lodged in his shoulder and stomach, all because he tried to save someone who 'wasn't his to save.'
As if that would ever stop him.
As if that would ever stop any of them.
The officer - Yaya can't remember his name, doesn't really care to at this point - sighs at her, lacing his fingers together in mock thoughtfulness and condescencion. Yaya has to fight back another growl.
"Look at it from this perspective," he drawls. "Your team - Team Alpha's objective, was to create a diversion so that Team Beta could sneak in a retrieve the powersphere. Failing that, you were tasked to retreat, a feat easily accomplished by children like you, considering that your team leader will be drawing fire.
"Now tell me," the man leans forward, tilting his head in a way that allows him to look down on her despite being below eye-level, "In which part of that were you required to rush back and save Captain Miyaki?"
"We couldn't just leave her," Yaya protests, wondering why she even has to argue this. "That's not what a team does."
"What a team does is follow instructions. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Then why bother with one when you'll just let us die?"
The man laughs once, sharp and infuriatingly amused.
"If you think death cannot touch you in this profession, then my dear, you are in the wrong one."
Yaya stares at the officer's bland smile; in the back of her mind, a gavel thuds.
"Maybe I am," she whispers.
(In this, her judgement rings final.)
Yaya turns around and walks out the door.
.
The thing about them is that where one goes, everyone follows.
Sai watches as Fang and his friends load up an escape pod. There's little to take home, most of it small tokens they've collected over the years, and it's fortunate because they can't afford to lose any more time over what they're about to do.
"You could come with us."
Gopal fiddles with his hands as he repeats the question everyone else has asked them. He catches the way Shielda looks at the girls, more than a little tempted with how close they've gotten, but even now, Sai knows his twin more than he knows himself.
(He's considered it, too.
But like him, Shielda already knows his answer.)
So he smiles, soft and genuine, and says, "You know we can't."
Gopal slumps but nods nonetheless. They've talked about it, even fought in some cases - read: Shielda and Ying - but the truth is that someone has to stay to make sure the others can leave.
The twins have known battle all their life. It's their family's legacy, one that both of them are proud to carry, but Sai has seen what life is like outside of that and it's something he would never let go of had he born into it in the first place
But this is their life, and that is his friends'.
"You have the chip?" Fang asks as he bounds over to double-check their preparations. Shielda nods from her place beside Sai, pulling the small piece of tech from her pocket.
"The shield?"
Fang mirrors her, but with a larger, more circular device, almost as big as a holo-projector.
Sai nods in approval. "Remember, any satellite will work. Just make sure it's attached, and it'll activate on it's own, and then you'll be free."
"We can't thank you enough for this," Fang murmurs sadly. Sai feels his eyes burn, blinks them furiously as he ignores the tightness in his chest because more than anything, Fang had always been like a brother to him.
Shielda surely feels the same as she swallows back a sob and tugs the younger into a hug.
They have to stay. Because they need to keep OchoBot here, and then they need to make sure he stays, along with everybody else who might want to drag Boboiboy and the others back.
"Take care," Gopal mutters, having decided he's lingered long enough. Sai lets him pat his shoulder and then returns the gesture.
"You, too."
When he turns back, Fang is already reaching out to drag him into the still-ongoing hug.
And it's easy, the way Sai lets himself fall into it, because once upon a time, this was what he thought he'd treasure most. It's changed over the years, grown to accommodate four more people, but this is what he started with and he will not allow himself to forget.
"You need to go," Shielda whispers after what feels like an eternity. It takes a while, but Fang finally pulls back, albeit reluctantly. He swipes a hand over his eyes, Sai sai huff fondly.
"We'll meet again. You know we will."
"Someday," Fang nods, still sad but determined as ever.
"Someday," Shielda echoes with a wet laugh.
They look over to where the pod is. Boboiboy is just about to board, one hand braced on the entrance as he watches the three of them. When the attention shifts to him, he waves, smiling fondly at them one last time.
"I'll miss you both," Fang mumbles, ever the last to leave.
"And we'll miss you, too." Sai plants a gentle hand on the middle of his back and shoves lightly, urging the other forward.
"Now go live your life the way you want it to."
.
Four hours after they leave, Ochobot wakes up.
.
Six hours after that, a pod enters the Earth's atmosphere.
.
"They're gone, Admiral! The kids are gone!"
"What?"
"They're - the watches were left, and even the powersphere—"
Koko Ci sits in his office, a cup of hot cocoa in his hand. OchoBot floats across from him, looking like a kicked puppy as he cradles five powerwatches, their owners nowhere to be seen.
"Commander, I'm so sorry..."
"You've said that," Koko Ci mutters, ignoring the flinch that gets him. "OchoBot, I need you to be honest with me—"
"I really don't know how they did it!" the powersphere insists with a fervor that borders on desperation. "I swear, Commander, you have to believe me."
"I already do."
"I don't– wait. What?"
The sip the Commander takes is very deliberate. "I said I believe you."
"You... do?"
Koko Ci hums, reminding himself not to smile.
"Then—"
"Captain Kaizo will be looking for potential new recruits. I trust him enough with that, so in the meantime, go manage all the other powerspheres."
"But - but what about Boboiboy? And Yaya, and Ying, and Gopal, and Fang?"
Koko Ci flicks his gaze to the far wall, where a photo of the original team hangs. It's old, a little worn around the edges, but the smiles in them still manage to light up the room.
He takes another sip of cocoa.
"They'll be fine. Maybe now, they can be happy."
He can only wish the best for them.
[ - E N D - ]
extra notes:
- timeline: this fic is only canon compliant until the end of bbb:g. after that, the kids go a year through normal missions before a mysterious organization rises up and declares war on powersphere protectors like TAPOPS. boboiboy is sixteen, gopal is almost seventeen.
- "He didn't talk." : the reason koko ci was so surprised by this answer from kaizo is because he was asking how bad boboiboy's trauma was, not the fallout that would result in the possible information leak from boboiboy. koko ci is a blessing of a commander and he genuinely cares for the kids, this is the hill i die on, thank you.
- TAPOPS superiors: tarung isnt the only authority figure - he's the highest one, yes, and he makes good plans but unlike koko ci, he sometimes still forgets that most of the kids grew up civilians. its unfortunately the case with a lot of the upper ranks like the unnamed captain yaya was talking to. TAPOPS has decent officers but some of them are more efficient than they are compassionate, and it stems from a history of having had to work with anyone who was strong enough to uphold their vision. tl;dr - TAPOPS is good but also kind of a mess.