Guldrin’s Gluttony: Family Bound by Speed & Food

(Power has been off and on, feeling slightly better, wrote some for today, and hope it is up to standard. Thank you for everyone's well wishes and prayers.)

The morning sun poured through the cabin windows, casting a soft, golden glow on the disorganized collection of furniture scattered throughout the living room. It was a deceptive peace, the kind that felt like the universe was holding its breath before all hell broke loose and everything changed. 

The air carried the scent of fresh coffee and the faint, unmistakable tang of something burnt, though no one was brave enough to question the source even if it was obvious, with Revy holding charcoal bread and blackened eggs.

Rindo sat on the couch, her legs tucked beneath her, a steaming cup of tea in her hands. Despite her composed exterior, faint shadows under her eyes betrayed a sleepless night spent untangling the complex mess of their current reality. 

Across the room, Revy had claimed the armchair in her signature style: legs draped over one arm, a cigarette hanging from her lips, her posture somehow both lazy and predatory. 

At the dining table, Unohana was a picture of serene concentration as she meticulously sliced an apple into paper-thin pieces, her calm demeanor at odds with the palpable tension in the room. 

The relative quiet shattered as Rindo spoke, her tone resolute but carrying an undercurrent of uncertainty. "I'm not doing it," she declared, her words cutting through the air like a knife. "It's too unpredictable. What if I show up, and he… refuses me? H- he doesn't remember, or worse, he doesn't care?"

Revy blew a plume of smoke toward the ceiling, her smirk as sharp as ever. "Oh, please, Princess. The kid's not gonna bite your head off. Well, probably not. But hey, life's full of risks."

Rindo shot her a withering glare, though it lacked real fire. "This isn't a joke, Revy. Guldrin's... complicated. You don't get it. If he doesn't want me there, I don't think I could-"

"Handle it?" Revy interrupted, sitting up and fixing her with an exaggerated look of mock sympathy. "Cry me a river, little sis. You're not the only one who's been through stuff, you know. If you're not gonna step up, I will."

Unohana's soft laughter broke the rising tension. She didn't even look up from her task, her hands moving with surgical precision. "You mean you're the only one reckless enough to charge in without thinking," she said, her voice a soothing balm to the escalating energy in the room. "Let's not forget, you miss him just as much as anyone here."

Revy pointed her cigarette at her, a mischievous glint in her eye. "And you're any better, Mother Dearest? You've got that whole 'Kenpachi in hiding' thing going on. I don't think you're in any position to lecture me about composure."

Unohana inclined her head slightly, a small, enigmatic smile gracing her lips. "Perhaps not. But at least I can admit when I'm too emotionally compromised to handle something this delicate. I never should have told you about my squad days…"

Revy snorted, flicking her cigarette into an ashtray with a practiced motion. "Well, that makes one of us. That's why I'm obviously the best choice here."

Rindo set her cup down with a little more force than necessary, narrowing her eyes. "This isn't a decision we can make lightly, Revy. And if we're going to choose, it should be done fairly."

"Fairly?" Revy arched an eyebrow, leaning forward with a wicked grin. "What, you wanna arm wrestle for it? Because I'm game."

Rindo's cheeks turned a faint shade of pink, but she didn't back down. "No. We'll play rock-paper-scissors. It's impartial. No favoritism, no bias."

For a moment, silence reigned as the absurdity of the suggestion hung in the air. Then Revy burst out laughing, her voice echoing through the cabin. "You've gotta be kidding me. Rock-paper-scissors? That's your big solution? Oh, this is priceless."

"It's practical," Rindo shot back, her voice firm despite her growing embarrassment. Looking at Rindo, then her rum and alternating back and forth a few times, she tipped the bottle emptying the contents. "And it's better than listening to you argue for hours."

"Better than arm wrestling, maybe," Revy conceded, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. "But not by much. Fine, whatever. Let's do this."

The three women gathered around the coffee table, their differing energies creating a strange balance. As they raised their fists, Unohana's serene smile widened ever so slightly. "I hope you're prepared to accept the outcome, no matter what it is."

Revy's grin was nothing short of feral. "Oh, I was born ready."

The first round ended in a tie. So did the second. By the third, the tension had reached absurd levels, each of them pretending they didn't care while secretly strategizing like it was a matter of life and death.

—

–

-

Beneath the crushing depths of the sea, hidden from the prying eyes of the world, a temple thrummed with ancient energy and a sense of foreboding purpose. The structure was a seamless fusion of the arcane and the technological, its walls lined with intricate carvings that glowed faintly, interspersed with cold, humming machinery. 

The air was heavy, the sound of dripping water mingling with the rhythmic pulse of unseen machinery. 

In the center of this eerie sanctuary stood a figure, an android with pink hair that shimmered unnaturally under the dim light.

Her face blended youthful beauty with an unsettling stillness, betraying her nature as something not quite human. Her eyes, glowing faintly with artificial green and red light, were locked on a wall of monitors that stretched to the ceiling. 

Each screen flickered with images, snippets of surveillance footage, old photographs, and streams of data scrolling too fast for an ordinary human to follow.

The words "Guldrin," "Toretto," and "Last Inheritor" pulsed across multiple screens, their presence unrelenting, like an accusation. 

Her voice, when it broke the silence, was soft yet tinged with a hollow regret. "My little master," she whispered, her lips barely moving. "Master Jin entrusted me with one task. One final, sacred duty. To protect you. And I... failed. His Devil side took over too soon, I couldn't have known. All predictions didn't account for this…"

Her hands moved in a blur across the console in front of her, fingers manipulating holographic keys with an efficiency born of both desperation and design. She replayed footage of a meeting between Rindo and General Beckman, then switched to the fragmentary images and video captured on the island. 

Each replay was a knife twisting in a wound she could not heal, but she couldn't stop herself. She had to know everything, to piece together every detail.

"He knew," she murmured, her voice quivering. "He knew he wouldn't make it. That's why he gave the transfer order. He trusted me. And I let him down. You're gone, lost to me… and it's my fault."

Her gaze flicked to another monitor, where lines of code filled the screen, a futile attempt to penetrate the advanced encryption surrounding Guldrin and Shiro's surveillance system. Her hacking attempts had been thwarted at every turn, a fact that only fueled her frustration, but she also begrudgingly had to admit she was impressed. 

She slammed her hands onto the console, her mechanical strength leaving a faint dent in the metal. Her breath hitched, a simulation of a human reaction she didn't entirely understand. "No one keeps me from you. No one… Not even you."

Her emotions were a chaotic storm of love, guilt, and obsession. Her creator, long since dead, or at least she thought he was given all the time that had passed, had designed her AI around the memories of a teenage girl who had once lived a short but vivid life. That girl's fierce loyalty and yearning for purpose had been amplified, twisted, and molded into the android she had become. 

She was a guardian, a protector, but also a creature of unrelenting devotion, her will was tethered to Jin in ways she couldn't fully articulate. Her very existence was defined by him, and that realization both comforted and terrified her. Or at least they had, now her devotion had been given to Guldrin, but she lost him.

She paced the room, her movements eerily fluid, like a female of high society meets schoolgirl. Her thoughts raced faster than the most sophisticated processors could handle. Scenarios unfolded in her mind: reuniting with Guldrin, earning his forgiveness, and proving herself worthy of her master's trust. But darker thoughts crept in, too… 

Thoughts of those who might stand in her way.

Her voice dropped to a chilling monotone as she muttered, "Anyone who tries to keep us apart... they'll regret it. I'll make them regret it." A flicker of a smile crossed her lips, but it was a brittle, unsettling thing, devoid of warmth. Her yandere tendencies, a flaw in her programming, or perhaps an unintended consequence of her AI's emotional depth or corruption, made her obsession for Guldrin both beautiful and dangerous.

She paused before a monitor displaying a photo of Guldrin, his young face filled with a mixture of defiance and determination. Her hand reached out, fingers brushing the cold screen as if she could feel the warmth of his presence through it. "You don't know, do you?" she said softly, her tone almost tender. "But you will. I'll show you. I'll prove it to you."

The temple seemed to respond to her words, the lights flickering faintly as the machinery hummed louder. Her connection to the ancient systems was deep, her consciousness intertwined with the technology that surrounded her. She was the guardian of this place, a sentinel waiting for the day her master's heir would need her.

But waiting wasn't enough anymore. The screens taunted her with glimpses of Guldrin's life, his connections to others, and his growing strength. 

Others may be ignorant, but not her, no, she felt the change in the universe the first time he left this world. He has magic, a time-stopping magic that affects even her. It may have been Infinitesimally small, but she felt it. She knew, she was certain, and he needed her to teach him.

Jealousy flared briefly in her chest, a hot, irrational spike of emotion. Why did he need anyone else when he had her? She was his maid, his protector, his everything, designed to protect and serve him. No one could understand him the way she could.

Her creator hadn't been Jin, though she often referred to him as her master. Her true creator had been a nameless genius, at least she never told anyone his name, long forgotten by the world but immortalized in her memories. 

Jin had been the one to bind her, to break her programming just enough to ensure her loyalty would never waver. She hated him for that, even as she owed him everything.

But Jin was gone, and Guldrin was all that mattered now. The boy who inherited everything.

"I'll find you," she vowed, her voice steady and filled with an almost frightening conviction. "I'll fix everything. I'll protect you, even if it costs me everything. Because that's what I'm here for. That's what I live for."

Her hands flew across the console once more, launching another series of hacking attempts. The encryption was formidable, but she was relentless. Failure wasn't an option. As the hours passed, the temple remained a constant witness to her tireless work, the android's pink hair gleaming under the faint light as she moved with unyielding determination.

Deep down, she knew the reunion wouldn't be simple. Guldrin might not recognize her, might not remember her. He might even reject her. But that didn't matter. She would make him see. She would remind him of the bond they were meant to share, the destiny she was left to embrace.

And if anyone stood in her way, well… they would learn the hard way just how far she was willing to go for her little master.

—

–

-

Hours later, the air was thick with tension as the woman shot through the sky like a missile, her trajectory locked on Guldrin's last known position. Her mechanical wings hummed with power, each beat propelling her closer to her goal. The cold air stung her face, but she barely noticed. Her thoughts were singular, her focus razor-sharp. Guldrin was all that mattered.

Back at the café-garage that served as Guldrin and Shiro's current base of operations, the atmosphere was considerably more relaxed, at least on the surface. Guldrin leaned back in his chair, his sharp eyes scanning lines of code on a holographic display. Shiro sat beside him, her usual playful demeanor tinged with uncharacteristic annoyance.

"You're saying someone broke through the encryption I designed?" she asked, her voice carrying equal parts disbelief and irritation.

Guldrin nodded, his expression calm but contemplative. "Yeah, and they didn't brute-force it. Whoever it was, they knew exactly where to poke."

Shiro's hands balled into fists. "That's insulting. My encryption algorithms are flawless. No one in this time should be able to break them."

Guldrin smirked. "Well, they're mostly flawless. And it's not like they left much behind, just enough for me to track their entry point." He gestured toward the holographic screen, where fragments of code glowed faintly. "The real question is why they'd bother. They didn't take anything, and didn't leave any malware. It's like they just wanted to say, 'Hey, I was here.'"

Shiro's crimson eyes narrowed as she studied the data. "A message, maybe? Or a challenge? This isn't Skye's M.O. so we can rule her out."

"Maybe," Guldrin replied, though his gut told him there was more to it. Whoever this hacker was, they weren't just testing the waters. They wanted his attention.

Meanwhile, Nick Fury wasn't enjoying his day. Seated in a dimly lit conference room aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. prototype Helicarrier, he stared at the dossier spread out before him. The words "Alisa Bosconovitch" were printed in bold letters across the top, accompanied by a grainy image of the so-called Angel of Death. Fury's one good eye lingered on the photograph, his expression grim.

"Sir," Maria Hill began, standing at attention beside him, "our intel confirms she's heading toward Los Angeles. Her trajectory suggests she's targeting an individual, but we haven't identified who. After having disappeared 6 years ago, she has finally resurfaced."

Fury leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers. "I thought she died with Jin, would have saved me a heap of trouble. Damn it, Bosconovitch doesn't make random moves. If she's heading to L.A., she's got a reason. Find out who she's after and why. And for God's sake, make sure she doesn't tear up half the city before we do. "

Hill nodded, already issuing orders into her comms. Fury watched her go, his mind racing. Alisa's reappearance was bad enough, but the possibility that she was targeting someone connected to S.H.I.E.L.D. operations? That was a whole new level of headache.

Unaware of the storm brewing around him, Guldrin stretched and stood, his chair rolling back with a squeak. "Let's take a break," he said, glancing at Shiro. "We've been staring at this screen for hours. I'll grab us something to eat."

Shiro nodded, though her focus remained on the display. "I'll keep looking. Whoever this was, they're not getting away with it."

Guldrin chuckled. "That's the spirit. Discover what is being hidden, my dear girlfriend, reclaim your honor that was lost when they broke your encryption."

As he headed toward the kitchenette, a faint ripple of unease settled in the back of his mind, it was a feeling he couldn't quite place. He shook it off, chalking it up to exhaustion. He was about to open the fridge when Emily, his ever-watchful companion, materialized in her feline form, leaping gracefully onto the counter.

It came with her new form, the ability to materialize wherever and whenever she wished. Something that has been a new adjustment for Guldrin and Shiro since they never know when she will appear.

"You feel it too, don't you?" she asked, her voice soft but pointed.

Guldrin paused, his hand hovering over the fridge door. "Feel what?"

Emily's white eyes narrowed. "Something's coming. Something big."

Before he could respond, the entire garage seemed to vibrate as a deafening roar filled the air. Guldrin and Shiro exchanged a glance, the unspoken question hanging between them. Shiro bolted to the nearest window, her crimson eyes widening as she spotted the source of the noise.

"Uh, Guldrin?" she called, her voice laced with both awe and apprehension. "You might want to see this."

He joined her at the window, his jaw tightening as he took in the sight of a figure descending from the sky, her mechanical wings folding in with an audible click as she landed gracefully on the pavement. The pink-haired woman, android, stood there, her gaze fixed on the garage with an intensity that sent a chill down Guldrin's spine.

"Friend of yours?" Shiro asked, her tone half-joking, though her hand rested on the handle of her Dominator she kept hidden in her waistband.

Guldrin shook his head, his voice low. "Not exactly."

Outside, Alisa tilted her head, her expression a strange mix of curiosity and determination. She took a step forward, her movements deliberate, almost robotic.

"I've finally found you," she said, her voice carrying clearly despite the distance. "My little master."

Guldrin stiffened, his mind racing. "Master?" he muttered under his breath. "What the hell is she talking about?"

Shiro's eyes narrowed. "Maybe she is confused? Unless you have gotten a side girl while I haven't been paying attention… Master~?."

Before they could decide on a course of action, Alisa raised her hand, her palm glowing faintly as she activated some sort of scanning device. The garage's automated defenses hummed to life in response, causing Guldrin to curse under his breath. "Well, that's not good…"

(Give me your POWER, Please, and Thank You! Leave reviews and comments, they motivate me to continue.)

(Remember, keep suggesting worlds if you have them, the main world is about to change, only one more world to introduce before I have caught up on the crossover worlds.)