They Still Remember
Title: They Still Remember
Fandom: Starship
Pairing: TUp
Rating: PG
Word count: 2133
Summary: They say that before you die your whole life flashes before your eyes. Up and Taz still remember everything from Taz's quinceanera to the day Up (almost) dies.
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Not mine, not for profit
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Up still remembers the day his life changed forever.
It had seemed, like most truly life changing days, completely innocuous at the time. It had been a routine mission, some robots had invaded a small town, more of a village really, in Mexico and he was part of the rescue crew. Not that there was much left to save by the time they got there. Up was searching for survivors when he heard a woman screaming in rapid Spanish. But they weren’t the screams of terror Up had come to expect on these rescue mission, instead the voice was cursing out the robots like her life depended on it (not that Up spoke any Spanish but he was a solider, so he didn’t need to speak a language to know when someone was cussing the air blue). Following the sound he found the woman, more of a girl really, hanging from a tree by her ankles while six or so robots took turns beating at her with sticks, like some sort of twisted children’s game.
Working quickly, Up dispatched the robots and pulled the girl out of the tree. She steadied herself on her feet while looking at the veritable massacre that surround them. They had appeared to be having some sort of party when the robots attacked so likely the corpses that littered the ground represented most, if not all, the girl’s friends and family. She closed her eyes, took in a deep stuttering breath and Up prepared himself for the waterworks. But the tears never came. Instead she let the air out with a great whoosh and walked right up to one of the fallen party-goers, relieving him of his zapper. “Lo siento Papí, pero lo necesito.” Then she looked back at him, eyes hard and bright. “Vámonos,” and she trotted off toward the pod off in the distance.
If he had time, Up would have stood there in shock for a moment or two. But he was a Starship Ranger and he had a job to do. So he took off after her and resolved to make time for shock later.
It took three days travel before they came to a suitable refugee camp to drop her and the other three civilians, a mother and her two young children, they had rescued off at. As they were preparing to leave for headquarters, Taz had come found him. She drew herself up as tall as she could get, looked him square in the eye, and thanked him for saving her life. Then she informed him that she would be returning the favor once she became a Starship Ranger. Now normally a four-foot-nine, fifteen year old girl vowing to save Up, the toughest son of a bitch this side of the Milky Way, would be something to laugh at. But there was a glint in her eyes that had held him back, so instead he gave her a salute that was only slightly ironic, and wished her luck. She gave a sharp nod, as if she had expected no less, and then walked off. And that was the last he saw of her for over a year.
He was stationed at headquarters and was currently eating his lunch in the cafeteria they shared with the nearby academy. All of the sudden he looked up from his plate and there Taz was, sitting across from him and eating her lunch like it was the most casual thing in the world. He almost didn’t recognize her at first, but there was no mistaking or forgetting that look in her eyes. She didn’t say anything and neither did he, but somehow every day at the same time he’d make his way over to the same spot to eat his lunch, and she was always right there across from him. And maybe that’s why when she didn’t show up for lunch one day he decided to wander over to the Academy and check out the new recruits.
He found her in one of the back halls of the building cornered by a couple of guys that must have been a foot, maybe a foot and a half taller than her. Now, Up might not have any qualms about using fear to inspire his troops into action, but he did not hold with bullies. So when he saw them picking on Taz he marched up behind her and, easy as you please, picked Taz up and set her down on his shoulders. She looked a bit confused to suddenly be towering over everyone, so he smiled up at her and gave her a wink, and soon they were chasing the bullies out the building, across the quad and right into the dumpsters. And, from that moment forward they were fast friends.
They still ate lunch together, but now lunch hour was filled with conversation. She told him about life at the Academy and he told her stories about being a Starship Ranger. He helped her study for calculus, and when she passed the class she celebrated by introducing him to the Karate Kid (the good one, with Jackie Chan in it). When she graduated from the Academy he was the first one there to congratulate her and when came time to assign her to a team, she, of course, ended up join his. Up had already made certain of that a long time ago.
As perverse as it may sound those years fighting in the Robot Wars with Taz were the best of his life. She made good on her promise to save him their first mission out together, but he turned the favor back around not much later by saving her life again. After that they more or less lost track of whose turn it was to be saved and do the saving. It didn’t really matter anyway, they came to find. If one of them was in danger they could always count on the other to be there to save them.
Of course, when those Sentinels had him strung up spread-eagle in the air, Up didn’t blame Taz for not being there to save him. He could see her after all, taking out robots left and right like they were nothing, fighting her way to him. She could probably take Optimus Prime out bare-handed in the state she was in, but they both knew she wasn’t going to make it in time. He couldn’t hear anything over the sound of those damn robots, but he could see Taz screaming her head off and what look like tears running down her cheeks. It was probably sweat, Taz didnot cry after all, but in his last moment of life he was allowed to pretend she was crying for him.
And just because life is like that, it was in that moment, as the circular buzz saw came flying at him, that he realized that sometime, somehow he had fallen completely in love with Taz.
***
Taz still remembers the day she was born.
It was Tasania’s quinceañera and she had been beyond excited. She had a gorgeous dress, was finally allowed to wear make-up and high heels first time, and she looked so beautiful that Lorenzo was bound to finally notice her. Tasania, Taz would later reflect, had been completely shallow and almost disgustingly girly. That was probably why, when the robots came and systematically went about killing almost everyone she had ever known, Tasania snapped.
Next thing she knew, Tasania was hanging from a tree and robots were trying to beat her open like a piñata. She started throwing every curse she had ever heard at them, plus a few she made up herself for good measure. It didn’t really help anything, but it wasn’t hurting either. After all Tasania knew she was dead the moment the robots had burst into the party, the rest of her body just hadn’t realized it yet.
And that’s when he burst in, zappers blazing. He absolutely decimated the robots that were attacking her and it should have been terrifying, but it wasn’t. There was a grace and beauty to the way he dealt death and Tasania stared on, captivated. For a moment she thought dead God had come back to life and had descended from on high to deliver justice to the science that had killed him.
When nothing was left of the robots aside from scrap metal littering the ground he took her down from the tree and set her on the ground. Desperate to stop staring at him, Tasania cast her eyes over the surroundings. Of course that meant looking at the bodies of her friends and family. Closing her eyes, she sucked in a deep breath. Tasania knew she had a choice to make. A second passed, then she let all the air out of her lungs at once. Then she took her father’s zapper and began walking toward the pod in the distance.
Taz had chosen to move forward.
Three days later the Rangers were ready to leave her at some refugee camp. So Taz went to hunt down Lt. Up. When she found him she stood up as tall as she could and stared square in those blue eyes of his as she finally thanked him for saving her life. Then, before she knew what she was saying, she told him of her resolve to become a Starship Ranger and save his life in return. She was pretty sure he didn’t believe her, but he had the decency not to laugh in her face. Which was good, because that would have been really embarrassing for him when she became the toughest Starship Ranger in the galaxy.
She was halfway through her first year at the Starship Academy before she saw Up again. Suddenly one day he was just sitting there in the cafeteria eating his lunch. So Taz walked right up to him, and sat down. He looked up at her, but didn’t say anything, and she was half-convinced that he had forgotten all about her. But then the next day there he was again, and the next, and the next, and every day she would sit down across from him and just wait for him to say something.
It was about a week later when she was running late for lunch that those two idiotas cornered her. Normally she could take on either one of them, and maybe even both of them on, no problem, but Taz was already in enough trouble for fighting. She did her best to stand up to them, but was finding it a bit difficult without the use of her fists. And then, all of the sudden, she was perched way up in the air. She looked down to see Up smiling and winking at her, and then the two of them chased to bullies all the way to the dumpster. And Taz would never admit it afterwards, but giving those two a taste of what they deserved wasn’t the real reason she was smiling so much that day.
After that she and Up spent most of their free time together, a lot of it in the gym. But they also find time to watch a movie here and there and when her math teacher can’t be bothered to make sense, Up is more than willing to basically teach her calculus. Then, when Taz graduates top of her class at the Academy and Up is the first one there to congratulate her, she can help but think life doesn’t get much better than this.
Once she becomes a full-fledged Starship Ranger Taz finds there’s a lot less free time, and a lot more time taking down robots, which suits her just fine. She and Up still find time to watch Karate Kid (the good one, with Jackie Chan) on occasion though, and that’s more than enough. As perverse as it may seem, Taz just wishes these days of fighting robots and watching movies can go one forever.
And then that hijo de puta had to go and mess everything up. What had he been thinking, letting his guard down just to try and help her? Distantly she was aware of fighting her way through hordes of robots, but all her attention was focused on Up, on getting over there and saving him so she could throttle him for doing something so estupido. She was screaming at him, telling him he couldn’t die yet, that he wasn’t allowed to die, and was wondering when Tasania had come back, because Taz sure as hell didn’t cry.
As she watched Up get cut clear in half, Taz didn't have any grand realizations of love. She had known she was head-over-heels for Up since the day she was born.