When the ocean meets fire

~~~~~~~~~~~~Worry~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi! Just to say a HUGE thank you to every supermegafoxyawesomehot reader of When the Ocean meets Fire! It just passed over 1000 reads and I started off hoping for 500.

This is the last chapter with only one POV. In the next one I plan to go back to the old ---split--- POV.

Oh, and by the way, Weez32 has now finished Voldemort's Queen, which had an absolutely fabulous ending. Now she's writing a SEQUEL to it called Daughter of Darkness which follows Erika. She's also working on a new story called Alquimia which is also brilliant so far. It would also be fantastic if you could take the time to read A Nightingale in the Circus by Ellie393, as she is an excellent new writer.

Thank you so much for reading

ThoseSunsetEyes

Xx

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Taz felt herself almost shudder as she heard his all too familiar footsteps slowly  coming closer, almost deliberately going too slow to extend the tension. She didn’t look at him until he came round the front of the line, looking each ranger up and down like he always did on a mission. Well at least I can still respect him as a commander she thought, concentrating hard on keeping her glare with her head held up high.

“Alright boys and girls,” ¿Que? ‘Boys and girls’? Up always said ‘rangers’. Well, jou’ve been away for a long time...and jou know he’s...changed. Taz was finding it difficult to keep her glare, so she held her chin up higher. “I’m Commander Up.” Dead-god she’d missed his voice, “now I’m sure you’ve all heard... some no-good, nasty, down-right mean-spirited rumours about me floating around the ship.” Taz’s heart leapt at what he’d just said as Up poked Krayonder. Rumours? Then maybe... maybe de thing with his trainer...maybe it-it’s not true! “And I bet you’re all wondering to yourselves ‘are they true?’” Of course, Up! Just please say they’re not, dead-god, please. “Well? Go on! Ask me! Ask me right to my mug!” Taz wasn’t sure Krayonder was going to ask Up if he had a...girlfriend, or not. It seemed a strange thing to be discussing with a private. “That’s right: you’re afraid to ask me, because one look, at this,” Up touched his face with his fingertips, “and that’s all you need to know that there ‘aint a lick of truth to ‘em!” Taz just about caught herself before she breathed a very loud sigh of relief, but her joy was quickly trampled on as Up continued, “I DO NOT PEE-PEE SITTING DOWN!” HUH? In fact, that was more of a thought; Taz couldn’t help the remark of confusion at Up’s comment as her head turned sharply to look at him. “I never did it! And the one time that maybe you heard about, it was because the gravity was on too high!”He was poking Krayonder in the chest again, and this time it didn’t look as tough. “Alright so you try to pee-pee standing up when the gravity is on three times too high! Alright? I don’t pee-pee sitting down!” His voice had turned into a whining, upset child’s voice, “I pee-pee like a big boy, dead-god damn it!” This had got to be some kind of joke, and at the moment, Taz really wasn’t in the mood for some weird scenario where Up was weak. “I pee-pee like a big boy, so stop making fun of me, ‘cause it hurts my feelings.” Taz just stood there and looked at Up with an open mouth, her narrowed eyes not showing what she was thinking. She felt sick as Up began to cry and sniff like a little girl. Instead of asking him softly and worriedly what was wrong, the computer interrupted her as she began to speak, telling them that they had one minute left until drop-down, and her thoughts came out as anger again.

“Damn,” she whispered, and (bravely for her in this state) took Up’s arm and pulled him towards her, “Up, what are jou doing, man!” Her stomach dropped as Up’s eyes met hers for the first time in over a year, but his eyes were different- filled or emptied of something she couldn’t place.

“Oh, Taz- you believe me- I pee-pee like a big boy!”

“No, shut up!” Up what have they done to jou? She desperately wanted to pull him into her arms as she grabbed both of his, but then she remembered Peter’s words again, and she glared at him.

“Jou’re supposed to give them some speech to scare and inspire them!” Up’s face went blank, his eyes still filled with fresh tears. “Remember, like in the old days? Like: ‘if jou don’t go out there and die for something, then I will kill jou for nothing’. Remember? Like... tough!” She desperately flung her arms out as she talked to him. Up nodded and mumbled something like, ‘yeah, yeah...damn it’ as he put his head in his hands.

“Right.” Okay, he’d just had a bit of a ‘moment’, as the rehab doctors had described that he might have. Up walked back to the line, “Everybody? ...I goofed up.” Not really Up’s style of talking, but he’d obviously changed, so... “If you give me some of your patience, I’d like to try again. Give me one moment to regain my confidence, and I’ll give you a speech that’s scarier, than an apple... in your candy basket on Halloween!” What happened to jou Up? As he looked back at her she could hardly see a glimmer of his former self, and she threw one hand up in resignation. She couldn’t look at him, not when he was like this and Peter’s words echoed around her head like poison.

She barely registered him walking forward and pulling out a small black compact mirror from his pocket. He only really got her attention when he said the words ‘rehabilitation centre’. His next words filled her head with further worry and she felt her stomach twist at how different he was.

“You are a worthwhile person. When I look into your eyes in the mirror, I get a pleasant feeling.  You’re not a failure- overall. You can laugh at yourself.” Up started to laugh and when he turned round to look at her again all she could do was hold one hand up as she saw her memory of the man she loved crumble as he continued to speak. Suddenly Up caught sight of himself in the mirror laughing, and started to shout at his own reflection.

“What are you looking at you overall failure? Why, when I look into your eyes I get an unpleasant feeling! Ooh, take this!” He pathetically poked at the image of himself and winced away, holding his hand up and limping over to Taz.

“Taz... is it bleeding?” She was so worried about him, and she wanted to grab his shoulders and ask what the hell had happened when she was away, but the bitterness from her thoughts about him and his trainer still lingered, and she was rude to him again.

“Jou didn’t even break de glass!” She struggled to keep glaring and feared that the horror of seeing someone she respected so crushed and broken, and the worry about what had changed him when she’d left, threatening to break through to her eyes was about to show.

“Figures, couldn’t even break the glass.” Up sobbed, his voice thick with tears. Her stomach still flipped when he leant his arm on her shoulder and rested his head on it, even though he was crying like a child.

“DROP-DOWN IN FIVE SECONDS.”

Again she was interrupted and all she could choke out as the crew went to enter the drop-pod was,

“Just get it together, okay?” She shoved Up’s arm off her shoulder and took a deep breath.

How was she going to be able to concentrate on this mission when she was this worried?