Another Chance, part 5

[sylph_fics]

Title: Another Chance, part five
Co-writer: merfilly
Fandom: DCU/Pern Crossover
Characters: Slade Wilson, Dinah Lance, Roy Harper, Dick Grayson, Vic Stone, the entire cast of Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey
Word count this part: 4,464; 26,580 words total
Warning/Notes: You all know us. You know our OTPs. You might not know we have some issues with Ollie and Bruce. We do. Don't expect to see them in this. In this particular case, we wrote for us. However, we both truly do hope you enjoy it.
Note the second: Any "misspellings" or altered words are deliberate, in order to mimic language drift, and no disrespect is intended towards the canonical birth culture of our favorite redhead and brunette.

part one

part two

part three

part four


Five years after Landing

Chakano and Trouble dove from their favored perches to their persons' shoulders suddenly, hiding along the backs of their necks as Major rose up on his hindquarters, low sound almost like a hiss coming from his throat. The boys looked at Slade, both of them with hands up to gentle their friends, stroking at eye-ridges and the undersides of wings gently. Dick was the one that asked, as usual, "Slade?"

"...I don't know, but I think... Hope is in a temper..."

Roy shook his head. "Wonder who..."

He didn't get further, because Chakano cheeped in worry and fear at him, interrupting him.

Dinah strode into their quarters, door knocking into the wall behind her, her language partially Basic, partially the argot of a satellite dweller, and all very descriptively painful toward one person as Hope bristled on her shoulder, eyes whirling fast and bright.

Slade stood up, slow and easy, and moved over towards her, reaching out a hand. "Dinah..."

Chakano cheeped very quietly, eyes whirling in faint orange distress at the bright orange-red of anger in his queen's eyes, and nuzzled closer into Dick's hair. Trouble was pacing back and forth across Roy's shoulders, a low hiss/rumble escaping him.

"That idiot Tubberman!" Dinah snarled. "And he's got damn near everyone convinced! Eridani techniques on Native plants....Terran and Centauri adaptations..." She was not really willing to settle, but she did move into her partner's arms, falling back into the satellite dialect in her temper.

Slade settled his hands low on her hips, holding her lightly as she seethed in fury. He stroked lightly at her sides, letting her snarl and hiss as much as she wanted as he tried to settle her down, while Roy stiffened under Trouble's pacing, his own eyes flashing. "As much as we can use straight out of the ground, he wants to go mucking with more of it?"

"It's....it's criminal, Slade, even if they do have the 'right' to. And if I and the other native botany specialists don't hurry up, we could damn well loose the native ecosystem to aggressive, invasive species!" She looked up at him. "I've done all I can in the space they allotted me here! I've got to prove some of the native species will culture well as field crops!"

"All right, Dinah. All right, settle down. That just means we finally have to go claim a stake, love." He pressed a kiss against her forehead gently. More than two years with her, and they both easily admitted they were deep in love with each other. "There's still plenty of land between Greg and Johnny and the Paradise River mouth, if we want to stay close enough to Landing for some of the others to come over easily... if not, farther south wouldn't bother me. Out of these tropics doesn't sound like a bad idea, either."

Dinah looked up at him, then back at the boys. "What about you two? Planning to tie stakes close to us, or what? Because if you are...I'd love to hear where you want to be."

"That's just so you can plot which crops to try where," Roy said slyly.

Dick smacked the back of his head, over Trouble's wings, and shrugged a shoulder at Dinah. "Doesn't make a lot of sense for us not to tie close to you, once we decide to settle down that much, Dinah, does it?"

Slade made a soft noise, "You might wa--"

And Roy snorted at him, crossing his arms. "How long did it take for us to even move out of the house, Slade? Be reasonable."

Dinah shook her head, still sometimes amazed at the ease with which the four of them were a family. Granted, she'd never pressed for a marriage contract through Cherry Duff, but then neither she nor Slade really needed that. "A little south of the river mouth would be better for what I want to do, to get some clear land without uprooting old wood."

"All right, Dinah. Dick, can Fulmar spare one of the sleds tomorrow? Possibly for the next few days?"

"For you, Slade, after you figured out that problem with the capacitors we were having? He'd make the space in the lists. But it won't be a problem... so many people have left already that we've got more than we need, most days."

"Yeah, which just means people are more likely to borrow them for less important stuff," Roy snorted softly. He was just glad he'd been working down in the vet sheds all day, and not up with Dinah in agro, or he might have decked the idiot.

"So we scout, take a look at what was claimed, and take a good look at possibilities. We have to stay somewhat close to Landing, or those idiots..." Dinah took a deep breath. "So I can show off my results."

Slade nodded, slowly pulling her in against his body, and Hope leapt up to join Major on his shoulder.

Dinah settled down slowly, and that let Hope get over her rage. Once their queen was settled down, the boys' friends settled too, flitting over to nuzzle her gently.

~*~*~

Six years after Landing

Dick grinned ahead of him at the three bright red sets of hair and the dancing of the combined fairs of dragonets he, Sean, and Sorka had now--mostly Sean and Sorka, who couldn't seem to be near a hatching without winding up with at least one. He still only had Chakano Impressed and named, but he and Roy seemed to have an ability to get the wild ones to listen--though Dinah was better at that.

It was almost unheard of for all four of them to all have a day off at the same time and not have something go wrong, but he was happy it had. They didn't get to spend a quarter of the time together he would have preferred, especially now that Sean and Sorka were taking more and more on in the vet labs.

The dragonets were particularly happy, milling about and trilling at each other, darting through the air and playing a lively game of catch-me-if-you-can through the trees.

Wherry weren't too likely to come close to them, not with this many dragonets in such close range, but... it was always possible, and all of them were on the lookout for just that as they rode. He'd tried, once or twice, to convince Vic to come along, but his friend always protested there was still work to do--and Roy had caught on before he had that Vic wasn't really... comfortable... out in the woods. Probably came from being from one of the megaplexes, they both thought, and that Vic's prostheses were so extensive only made it worse. For all of that, he loved the world they were on as much as any of them. He just preferred its wildness to stay a little away from him. Like outside Landing's walls.

Roy turned in his saddle to look backwards and frowned, "Hey, Robbie, what's with the long face?"

"What d'you mean, Roy? I'm fine. Just thinking."

Sean looked over at Dick, then shrugged, turning his attention back to Sorka. "If we're going to hunt, we need to shoo off the lizards," he said.

"Dragonets," Sorka corrected, as always, and was ignored, as usual.

Dick couldn't help a low laugh, "Sorka, are you ever going to quit trying to win that argument? You've been at it since we landed on this planet..."

Roy laughed softly, shaking his head. "And let him win? Irish stubborn beats Rom stubborn at least half the time..."

Dick rode up beside him, leaning enough to cup a hand behind his neck, "Really?"

Sean had snorted at that, looked at the pair, shook his head, and ordered the fair away. Only Roy and Dick's pair stayed, until Roy idly sent them a visual of Dinah's fields at the stake. They cheeped and vanished too, willing to go help her for the day.

"I don't see how he can still call them lizards...they're too soft." Sorka glared at Sean, blue eyes flashing.

"I know, Sorka," Dick laughed, "You'll notice, I use your name for them..." he smiled over at her winningly, letting his hand drop away from Roy's neck by running it down his arm. Roy pressed into the touch, and let his own fingers curl around the tips of Dick's when he got there, catching his hand.

Sorka smiled back at Dick, and that made Sean grit his teeth a little, Roy noticed. //We~ll, now...//

"Coastal or forest wherries?" Sean asked them all to divert things--and himself away from annoyance.

"We've had a lot of beef from those first older cattle the last couple of weeks," Sorka pointed out, "I wouldn't mind coastal... Dick, Roy?"

"Coast sounds good," Dick nodded. "Get dinner, get them field-dressed, and go for a swim?"

"No better way to get rid of the blood, after all..." he added after a moment, smile turned towards Sean this time.

"Point." Sean nodded at the older Rom. "Might have time to smoke the cuts on the beach while we swim."

Sorka nodded. "Keep the blowflies away?"

Roy nodded at that, "Yeah... and a fire that smoky... anyone else thinking fish for dinner? If we really need to, we can take the coast all the way back to Landing from this stretch..."

"Be a night out," Sean said with a frown. "To really get it, and make it worth our while."

"So we call back, and tell Admin that our party is camping over," Sorka said easily. "Not like we haven't before."

"Point, Sean, but we're none of us new to this..." Dick laughed when Sorka practically read his mind, nodding. "Not like tunnel snakes will come around, not with all of our dragonets... and none of us ever leave without canvas in a pack, so we've got shelter enough if we even need it, warm as the nights are..."

"And it's not like we'll be slacking if we take down one apiece!" Roy whooped.

Dick leaned over and thwapped him in the shoulder, barely noticing the irritated look Sean threw his way. Sean and irritation was nothing new--at least not when it was just the four of them; but it always blew over pretty quick.

Roy tussled back at him, grinning unrepentantly, while Sorka laughed softly.

"You two are so..." She just shook her head, but her mount moved a little closer to Sean's.

"So what?" Dick looked over at her curiously, paying half-attention to his minor scuffle with Roy, legs locked down around the mare's girth.

"Married!" she said in a bubble of laughter.

Roy laughed, shaking his head as he did, "Well... guess you've got a point, Sorka... nobody else would have him, after all!" He absolutely knew he was lying as he said it; they both had had more than a few offers from the girls in their age group--and not always just for one or the other of them!

Dick mock-glared at him even as he tried not to laugh, shaking his head. "Oh, and you'd be such a hot commodity, either?"

"You're definitely a pair," Sean said, a rare commentary from the young man that tended to just ignore relationships around him.

Dick looked over at him, still grinning from teasing Roy, and shrugged a shoulder. "And you two aren't?"

He was only mostly teasing. He and Roy had known for years that Sorka was crazy about Sean, but... neither one of them was willing to mess with it, barring occasionally flirting with Sorka. Not more than they did with any of the other girls, but... just enough to prod at Sean a little.

"Point."

Sorka stared at Sean as in one word, he finally admitted to someone other than herself that they were a couple. That gave her a little more hope, though, that they'd be moving into their own quarters soon.

Roy shook his head quickly, blinking, but still shot back quicker than Dick could manage, grinning widely. "About time, man. About time. Sorka, what'd you hit him with?"

Dick gave up on smacking him and kicked a boot free to plant its toes in his calf. "Ignore him, Sorka..."

Roy yelped, behind closed teeth, and glared at his partner playfully.

"I'm not sure." She was fairly positive it was not time for a mating flight.

Dick laughed, shaking his head, and murmured very softly, "I'll kiss it later, but if you push Sean..."

Sean shrugged slightly, ignoring the pair off on the other side for the moment. "It's true," he said, and leaned to lay his hand on Sorka's knee for a long moment.

Sorka covered it with her own; she didn't mind the quiet nature of their relationship. It was a welcome change from her boisterous family, and the harshness of Sean's clan.

Dick's smile changed to something quieter as he watched the two of them, too. This was definitely a good thing, in his books. He'd seen more than enough of Sorka's flares of temper at Sean's thick-headed ignoring of what was between them for the rest of all of their lives. He waited a couple of moments, then said lightly, "The wherries aren't going to hunt themselves for us..."

"No, they won't," Sean said, and turned his attention toward the hunt. They each had a preferred weapon for this, nothing too high tech, but Roy took pride in being the one with a native-made bow. But for all of them, it really didn't get much better than this. Not when the whole world spread out in front of them.

*~*~*~

Eight years after Landing

Dinah was restless, and it didn't feel like mating restlessness, even though it seemed like it was coming from Hope... She moved from the kitchen to the porch, to look out at her fields. They'd been in the house for lunch, and it was hot enough out that she didn't want to go out again all that soon...

Slade came to join her, body tight under the clothing from sensations he couldn't quite place, and took a long look at her. "You too?"

"Yes." She looked East, eyes drawn again to the lurid red eccentric that just did not fade so quickly anymore with the sun's rising. "Chakano and Trouble? The boys could be..."

She let her voice fade off, seeing something on the horizon, up in the northeast.

After so long with their dragonet partners, it only took a moment to reach for Major--and the response he received made him recoil, half in shock, half in disbelief. "Dinah, ask Hope... I don't--"

Dinah concentrated briefly on her dragonet....and pulled away, almost frightened. They had more than their original four dragonets looking to them now, but had carefully not Impressed any of them. These wild ones tended to stay for the food, but right now they were badgering Hope mercilessly with thoughts of danger...while Chakano and Trouble relayed nothing but fear.

"That smudge on the horizon, Slade..." she whispered.

Slade tensed worse as Dinah confirmed the images he'd been catching from his little partner, and his face tightened at the idea of yet another foe with the ability to make space-based attacks. //Not again.//

The wild fair suddenly swarmed around the house, inspecting the roof, and diving at the humans to make them step back inside. Hope and Major both vanished, only to return stinking of phosphorus.

"Phosphorus? Wh--" a thought struck him, just what pure phosphorus could be used for, but that was preposterous, especially from a species that showed no ability to use tools at all... "Dinah, we'd better get inside, they've never done this before..."

She barely heard him, as that dark smudge was rolling in closer...and the foliage of the trees along the fields started to change, blight with silver and--.

He caught her arm and pulled as the blare of an emergency alert from Landing started to wail inside further the house, "Dinah!"

"Everything..." she whispered, solid shock making her as pale as a ghost under her hard-earned tan.

Hope screamed in fear, her own and her person's mingling together, her whistle climbing to pitches that made Slade flinch back, and suddenly more wild ones were there, swirling around them, trying to push them further into the house.

Major pressed danger at him harder, catching the back of his collar and pulling, trying to make him move inside in his own, more direct way.

"Hope!" Dinah whirled to her friend, pressing images of the fields, of all their hard work, because the dragonets had been invaluable to her in protecting the plants. She let Slade pull her inside, when the queen pulled herself together and into a leader, listening to the instincts of the wild ones.

Slade relaxed once they were inside with the door shut, and he hit play on the alert, listening to Ongola's voice (tight with strain) repeat a message he could barely believe, //rock, metal--yes, I know that, Ongola; water? That could be useful... Obviously it's deadly!// even as he watched out the window as every dragonet whirled and teleported in and out of this stuffs' path--but to his absolute shock, they were actually keeping whatever it was off the ground at the edge of one of the fields... just barely.

"That's the tuber crop..." Dinah whispered. Its value as a staple food was a proven one, having replaced the potato in most recipes on Pern. If they lost all of it, when her fields were feeding at least as much of the population as Landing's smaller ones... she shuddered, frightened and revolted.

He tried to pull her in against his chest, away from the window, aching for his wife's loss--and his, much as he had worked with her--but if that was as dangerous as it looked... He wouldn't, could not, risk letting her away from him.

The fair carefully protected that one field, then followed the deadly rain as it sheeted down. When it hit the house, Dinah flinched violently, all but lost in her fear.

Slade held her against his body tighter at that flinch, hand up in her hair as he looked up, thankful he'd insisted on the same slate the Galliani's had once he'd talked it over with Caesar--and he nearly went to his knees as a realization struck him, but he just held her closer yet. //Please... no.//

She felt the shock in him, turning to bury her face in his chest, and sobbed softly. "Can't have...they have to be...they had the dragonets..."

"I know, Dinah, I know. They'll be fine. They'll be fine, Dinah. They're survivors, they headed east.." he kissed her hair lightly, trying to reassure her. Yes, he was afraid for his sons, but they'd come through the Nathi war on their own strength, they had the sense and skill to get away from something they could see coming. The thought that had nearly driven him to his knees was of the newest, lightest housing material some of the tropical stakes had pushed so hard for; made out of fast-growing plant matter compacted to a higher density than plywood could manage...

Dinah, for all that her work benefited Pern as a whole, was still insular enough that her family came first and foremost in all her thoughts... where her thoughts weren't consumed by her plants. She held on to him, shaking in reaction, and as the 'thap-thap' of it striking the house faded, she calmed some. She followed it, though, pulling away from him to go see the other side of their stake be melted away.

Slade had tried to stop her, catch her back against his body, but she was a quick, strong little woman, and all he could do was follow her to the window, and watch the devastation continue on.

Dinah stood impassively, watching all their hard work be eaten away, still as stone.

His hands slid down her shoulders, gentle and slow, saying her name softly, worriedly. It looked like she was pulling deeper and deeper into her old shell... He wasn't going to lose her to that, either.

"We have to find a way," she whispered, when it moved on past.

That gave him a little hope. "We will, Dinah. The dragonets managed to protect that field, and if their flame--and who'd have believed that?--can do that much..." He let it trail off, trying to hold out that hope. //Please, boys... come home.//

She turned on her heel, going out, letting Hope and a wild queen roost on her shoulders as she went to inspect the things littering her naked fields...then veered to the shed that held their gear. "I'm not taking chances with those things!"

Slade was keeping a wary gaze on the sky as best he could, but followed her, and saw where she was headed quickly. "Good point, Dinah." He slid into the harness of one of the flamethrowers to go and char the... shell-like things.

*~*~*~

Roy and Dick were both pushing their horses hard, threading through the corpulent shells of the things that had damn near killed everything around them.

Both of them knew, far too well, that their stake was just over the next rise, and it was way deeper in the path of whatever that silver stuff was than they'd been when they'd seen it coming down and ridden for the eastern edge as hard as they could. Trouble and Chakano and half a dozen wild ones had spiraled wildly overhead, diving to spur the horses on faster with claws and wing-tips when they attempted to slow, and they'd gotten out of the path. Their horses had been badly lathered at that point, but they'd had more than enough time to wait, and watch, holding on to each other hard between the mares, and just waiting for it to stop...

"Almost there," Roy coaxed his mare, scared at what they'd find, but neither Chakano nor Trouble were reacting like Hope was injured...maybe that meant the adults were safe.

"Please," Dick whispered, hopefully too soft to hear over four sets of hooves, and they crested the hill--and his sheer shock and the way he sat back made his mare stop dead, too tired to do more than throw her head and blow in confusion... but there was just no way for there to still be green stuff right in front of them...

Roy was just as stunned, and then he saw flames rising from off to the side...and that was Slade and Dinah, in the flamethrower gear they had used to get rid of the growth they had wanted cleared.

Dick saw the same flash of flame, and the breath all went out of his lungs. He clucked to the tired mare under him and she moved at a bone-jarringly exhausted trot towards the comfortable security of the barn, while he tried to get his sheer relief under control, raising his voice to call to them, "SLADE! DINAH!"

As soon as the shouts clarified, because Roy was yelling for Dinah first, and then Slade, the two broke off flaming, and ran despite the gear to meet the boys. Dinah's hands going all through Roy's hair and over the backs of both boys was as therapeutic to her as it was for Slade to clasp each one in turn to him, a full hug of sheer relief.

Dick had slid off the mare when she was still moving and practically flung himself into Slade's hold, arms going up tight around his neck as he shuddered in reaction for a few long moments. He pressed back into Dinah's hands, and moved enough for Slade to hold Roy, too, but despite that he was twenty-four years old, watching that space-borne devastation had thrown his mind back into some of the Nathi attacks, and now that he was home, safe, all he could do was hold on.

Dinah and Roy shifted close, despite the flamers, to Slade and Dick, to just hold on and wait it out, the shudders of near loss wracking them all in different ways.

Dick pulled himself back together after a while, and looked up into Slade's dark eye. "I..." He shook his head again, forcing that away, and asked the practical question, waving a hand behind them to indicate the field, "How?"

"The fairs that we attract so frequently..." Slade said.

"I told Hope...and they chose this field to save it..." Dinah managed to say, cold shock sweat breaking through her now that she knew Roy and Dick were safe.

Roy's eyes went wide and he hugged her closer. "Wow.... who'd have thought the little flitter-brains could pull something like that off?"

"They might give us a fighting chance, if this is something cyclical," Slade said, thinking it over. "Remember those circles, Dinah? The ones your department fussed at?"

"Yes." She shuddered, but it started her brain thinking, analyzing. "Sampling at the sites marked on the original survey map indicated that the growth pattern was about 200 years old."

"That eccentric's got a little over a two-hundred-year orbit..." Roy said, his brain a little quicker to gear than Dick's at this point.

"Two hundred fifty or so." Slade said the figure aloud, and Dinah wanted to throw up as bad as her nerves shook her then. //Fifty years of...//

"We'll wait for the heads at Landing to say what it is, before we go jumping to conclusions," Slade added, his voice firm.

Dick nodded, but that thought... he really, really hoped Roy was wrong. And Slade too, for that matter. Had to be the first time in his life that he'd ever hoped for that.

"Let's see if we can get everything written down," Dinah said. "After we finish the burn." She looked out over the property. "Slade and I will do that...boys, go get a carcass out of the freezer for our saviors."

"Trouble and Chaka, too," Roy nodded. "They kept driving the horses, made them run harder to get us out of this stuff's path..." He realized about a minute too late that he probably shouldn't have said that, should have let them just think they'd been out of the way...

The pale white under Dinah's tan, the pinched look at Slade's mouth and eye told him he was right, but the tiny woman just squeezed him once before returning to her task. He reached out and caught her for a moment, then let go to head with Dick to the freezer inside, shaking his head at himself, muttering, "Idiot" repeatedly in Din'eh.

"Yep," was Dick's opinion, but they had work to do.

part 6

Comments

[greeneyelove.livejournal.com]

I do love Slade in this. And Dinah. In any verse, she has her fire.

[ilyena_sylph]

I'm pretty fond of him, too. I'm sure that surprises absolutely no-one.

And Dinah is stellar in Filly's hands, as always. *Grins*

[senmut]

Working with Dinah in this verse has been a little different, as she's coming off a devastating lifepath.

And Slade is Slade, making him a very good candidate for a frontier world.

Thank you!

[stalinglim.livejournal.com]

OMG! (hugs) is amazing! wow, this was good. I like this! a lot!

[ilyena_sylph]

*grins cheerfully*

This entire chapter covers the years between getting stable on the ground (years 1 &2), and Thread falling (year 8) that McCaffrey completely skipped over, so I'm really glad you liked it!

Just enough slices of life to show their lives changing as they get used to the new world... and then the devastation that's about to happen.

[senmut]

Thank you! I was worried how we'd introduce the threat and still keep people reading for the characters intrigued.

[loopylouise123.livejournal.com]

*shudders* It must have been awful, watching all of your hard work being destroyed while not knowing if the rest of your family is safe.

Luckily, the dragonets just show how more amazing they really are by saving a field and protecting their humans. ^^

And the way Dick and Roy react around each other is both amusing and heart warming, even if Sean thinks it's annoying... XD

Also, Dinah and Slade are so in love... :)

[ilyena_sylph]

*nodnodnod* I'm so glad you got how devastating it was, because that's one of the things we were trying to avoid just directly copying from McCaffrey... but so yes. So thank you!

*Grins* We went... a little outside of McCaffrey's canon, there, but the dragonets always respond to emotions, and Dinah's were so strong about trying to save her plants...

They are adorable. They really are. And they're both glaring at me for saying so.

Yes, yes they are. Only in McCaffrey's series(es) can you use "the dragonets/dragons/Dinis/(other-creature) made them do it"... and have it be absolutely canon-based!

[senmut]

*nods* And this is only a small part of the devastation the first attack of this stuff caused...

In the book, the dragonets protected a little boy and his mother, were shown to hover protectively over certain houses (woman giving birth), and tried to help fight it.

Dick/Roy in this 'verse are so GOOFY for each other, but they're cute and heartwarming.

And yes, Dinah/Slade are so in love even if they see it as a logical extension of life to be so.

Thank you so much!

[roguecatwoman.livejournal.com]

Gods, what a sad chapter! But I have to admit, I loved it! As everyone here has said, Roy and Dick are just so cute together! And Slade and Dinah? Their chemistry comes across in any verse!

Nicely done ladies! =D

[ilyena_sylph]

Oh, thank you hon! *smiles*

It is sad, at least at the end, but... if we want to tell a Pern story, the Thread has to fall. *closes eyes sadly*

Roy and Dick are freaking adorable.

And Slade and Dinah make us utterly happy, at least most of the time. They're very good for each other.

Thanks again!

[senmut]

Thank you so very much!

It is a sad one, but now we get to build upwards, and show them in the face of adversity.

The boys warm my heart, and using the OTPoW is fun.