Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Ah-ah-Achoo!”

Beatrix wiped her nose on her sleeve carelessly, and looked around. All she wanted to do tonight was finally get some phosphor slimes, but… what was this? Bea put down her VacPack and swiped her hand through the air. The yellow stuff that collected on her fingerless glove looked like…

“Is this pollen?” She asked aloud. A pink slime nearby squeaked in confusion, not understanding. She dusted her hand off on her pants and watched it disperse in the air once more.

“That’s… odd, I guess.” Bea shrugged and continued on, not thinking much of it. It was honestly kind of mesmerizing, watching the golden particles illuminated by moonlight, as they flowed into her Vac stream. And it was also pretty funny when the slimes sneezed themselves high into the air.

Beatrix got all her phosphor slimes she needed and headed back home. After she fed them, she was happy with her work, and went to bed.

~~~

“What the hell?” Bea mumbled. She hit the VacPack lightly a few times, trying to bring the thing back to life. Call it too early for this or whatever, but her VacPack wasn’t working this morning. It would wurr to life for a few seconds, but wouldn’t suck anything up at all.

She turned it around to look inside, and there she saw the problem. There was a bunch of yellow stuff gunked up in it. Beatrix knew just the culprit; pollen.

She sighed and walked over to the communicator. She knew a bit about VacPack repair, but nothing of this, and she didn’t want to screw it up. Beatrix walked up, and clicked the contact who she knew would be an expert.

“What’s the deal, banana peel? I was in the middle of something!” Mochi complained when she answered the call.

“Good morning to you too, Mochi,” Bea replied. She was used to this from her, “I was hoping you’d be able to help me with a problem I have with my Vac?”

“Oh,” She said softly, her shoulders loosening a little, “Sure, what’s the issue? Spill.”

“Well, it’s all gunked up with pollen. I only know the basics of Vac maintenance, but I’ve never had this happen to me. I don’t wanna mess anything up.” Beatrix explained.

“Hmm…” Mochi thought for a second, “well your VacPack is an older model. I’m more experienced with the newer ones the Miles company makes. If you would budge and just get one, they’re self cleaning-“

“Mochi, I’m looking for help, not a sales pitch.” Beatrix said sarcastically.

“I’m just saying!” Mochi defended, “Anyway, you can get Vac cleaning kits in general supply orders, they’re always good to have on hand- wait, do supply orders even go to Rainbow Island?” She asked.

“Last time I starmailed them, 7Z said they were ‘working on it’, but it’s taking forever.” Bea told here rolling her eyes.

“Ugh. Well, if you don’t have that, a small pair of tweezers to pick out the gunk, or maybe a tiny screwdriver would work in a pinch. You gotta be super careful though not to damage the vacuum mechanisms, because that’s a difficult repair.” Mochi explained to her. Beatrix nodded along, “I bet you probably have all you need in the underground science room of yours, or whatever it is.”

“Gotcha. Thanks a bunch Mochi! I owe you.” Bea said with a smile, now that she knew it wasn’t that big of a deal.

“Of course, it’s a good thing you called me! I always give the best advice you could get around here!” She said triumphantly, “Also, you’ll double owe me, cause I’m gonna see what I can do about 7Z being slow pricks.”

“Whatever you say. Thanks again, you’re the best.”

“I know! Bye Bea, later tater!” Mochi said with a wave, before hanging up on her end. Beatrix went down to the lab to get started of fixing this up.

‘New adventures, new weather.’ She thought. But it couldn’t get too much worse than this, right?

Chapter Text

Now this thunderstorm on the Ember Valley was worse than she thought. Beatrix saw the clouds in the distance when she was headed to the teleporter, but just assumed a little rain wouldn’t be an issue.

But here we are.

The ground shook again with a loud crack of thunder. A tabby slime squeaked, and hid behind Beatrix’s legs. It hopped away once more after a second, but Bea always had a soft spot for the Tabby’s. She discarded her VacPack and ran after it, grabbing the thing and sitting against a rock a few feet away.

The slime was confused for a moment, and it was so slippery from the rain Bea was afraid it would just want to slip away, but it relaxed in her arms quickly. She always forgot how similar they were to real cats, it is their namesake after all!

She stayed there for a while, petting the slime, and watching the other ones hop around in the rain and play in the geysers. It was nice.

Another thundering boom scared the tabby again, and Beatrix held them just a little closer. But as she loosened up once more, the hair around her face started to stand up. Then she heard a crackling sound, and saw little shocks of bright electricity on the deep orange grass. She didn’t know what this was, but she knew one thing he had to do; run!

In a quick motion Bea tightened her grip on the slime and lunged away from her previous spot. And not a second too late, because just then a bolt of lightning struck where she was just sitting, followed by another deafening crash.

Beatrix fell to her knees, still clutching the scared tabby slime. She was just as terrified as them, trying to slow her breathing from the hyperventilating she was doing.

She looked where the strike had just happened once she marginally calmed down, and saw there was a pice of radiant ore where the scorch mark was! A small gasp escaped her, she didn’t know that would happen!

Letting the now also calm tabby slime out of her arms, she went to grab her VacPack to suck it up when…

It was very close to the blast, and, for lack of a better term… was completely fried.

Beatrix took a deep breath, before uttering,

“Are you fucking kidding me!?”

Chapter Text

Pollen. Again. This time worse than before. It was really dense this time. Beatrix sighed as she made her way into the Rainbow Fields. She’d just have to clean her Vac again. She had a little home-made Vac cleaning kit now, with some tweezers, a tiny screwdriver, and an old toothbrush she had. It probably wasn’t as good as whatever 7Z sold, but it’s been working in a pinch for her.

Bea kept an eye out for Jellystone, what she’d originally come out for, but couldn’t help but be distracted. There were vines growing steadily right in front of her eyes, all over the rocky terrain.

No, no distractions. She came out for something and she was gonna get it! She started to walk away, but her right foot was stuck. It wouldn’t budge, and when she looked back, a vine was latched around her ankle.

She tried to turn around to use her hands to break free, but another was around her left one now. Then two vines jumped out of the ground and grabbed onto her VacPack, pulling her down with them.

She quickly unlatched her straps, letting the pack get dragged to the ground, and used her hands to rip the vines on her ankles. And she was bout to turn around and start freeing her VacPack when…

She heard the sound of glass being broken and metal being punctured. Beatrix turned and saw thorns growing on the vines entrapping her Vac. They were strong, making quick work with breaking the thing.

A VacPack cleaning kit would not fix this .

Beatrix was done. She just walked back to the Conservatory, forgetting about the jellystone all together. There’s another 6000 newbucks down the drain!

Chapter Text

The wind was the worst in Beatrix’s opinion. Her hair was always all up in her face, everything was blown every which way, and her Vac stream was never straight.

So when she got to the Starlight Strand, and a strong gust blew past her, she immediately wanted to leave.

But she really needed silky sand for her last VacPack upgrade, and she was already here…

Bea spit out the hair that was blown in her mouth, and trekked on. She was heading to the tide pools on the other side of the strand, because she tended to have more luck there. She passed the giant tree, and made her way to the blue side. Some rock slimes popped up, and she watched them as they hit the ground and got blown with the wind.

Then she saw them fly up in the air.

What?

A swirling spiral was careening its way through the bright field, picking up slimes, food, and anything else with it. Bea just stared, baffled, before it changed direction and blew toward her, picking her up before she had time to run.

“Shit shit shit shit shiiiit-!” Bea yelled, flailing her legs with no ground below her. Her VacPack slipped off her shoulders, and was dragged away by the wind. Without the extra weight, the cyclone spun her faster and faster, until she was finally flung out of its range, hitting the side of a rock hard and falling to the ground.

Bea groaned, sitting herself up slowly. Carefully checking herself over, nothing seemed broken or bloody, but she was definitely bruised. And maybe some whiplash.

Sighing, she stood up slowly, and waited for the dizziness from all the spinning to wear off. She caught sight of her VacPack, and walked over to grab it again. As she got closer, she could hear it repeatedly shooting uncontrollably. The glass casing was cracked, and when she pressed the trigger, the shooting stopped, but then it wouldn’t activate again. She picked the thing up, and started heading back to the teleporter.

Yep, it was official. She hated wind the most. 

Chapter Text

“Oh god- oh shit!” Beatrix yelled. She sprinted for the cave entrance as fast as she could. The blizzard must’ve gotten bad while she was in there, a particularly tight cave in the Powderfall Bluffs. She saw a glint of a strange diamond, and wasn’t going to pass up that chance! But the cave was longer and longer the more she went in. 

The frigid rock around her shook with what could only be an avalanche. Bea could see the bits of snow falling in front of the entrance, and growing in size by the second. She tried going faster, but…

“NO!” She screamed. She made it just a second too late, the last bit of bright light blocked out by snow. “No no no no no!!” Beatrix banged her fist against the hard snow desperately, VacPack thrown to the side. She picked it up again, to try and suck up the blockade, or shoot something at it, or to try anything! 

Bea pressed the trigger, but nothing happened. She looked down at it, confused, and saw the blue glow flickering, then dimming to nothing. She looked inside the Vac, and… frozen. Frozen solid, and no help to her now. 

“AARGH!” Beatrix screamed, throwing it behind her in anger. She punched the wall of snow, over and over, knowing it wouldn’t do anything, but also not knowing what else to do. The other end of the cave was a dead end, her VacPack was dead, and she might as well be too. 

Silent tears streamed down her face as she fell to her knees, frustrated and scared. The wetness of her face, and adrenaline wearing off finally made the cold apparent to her. Sure, she came in her best snow gear, but that could only keep out the chill for so long. She tugged her hat over her ears some more, and tried using her scarf to cover as much of her face as she could. 

A few deep breaths of cold dry air later, she tried to be as calm as she could and assess the situation. 

The cave was dim, some sunlight still able to make it through pinprick holes in the snow blockade. All that awaited deeper in the cave was pitch black darkness. Her VacPack lay almost in the darkness. Bea scooted over and dragged it toward her, and sat on it. 

“This is so stupid…” she whispered to herself. But she thought if she warmed it up enough, she could at least shoot the water lettuce and carrots she had grabbed earlier. 

With that in the works, and once more looking around the cave, Bea saw that all she could do was sit. Sit, wait, and hope. 

That’s when the panic set in. 

Wait for what? Well, right now, for her vac to warm up under her, but what about after that? No one knows she’s here! She doesn’t call everyone right before she leaves to let them know where she’s going, that’s weird! 

Maybe she should’ve, maybe if she did she’d actually have a chance to get out of here alive. She’d probably only survive a few days at best, before freezing to death. Or suffocating if the holes in the snow wall closed up somehow. Or starve to death if she managed to last any longer. 

Then the ‘what if?’s came. 

Started small, what if some kind of largo, or feral slime knocked into the snow hard enough to break it and let her out? What if her hydro turret she placed nearby went off on a Tarr, and ended up hitting the cave entrance enough that the snow melted? What if the Bluffs suddenly became warm and she was freed? 

Then the question became… hurtful. What if she had told someone? What if it’s her own fault for getting trapped? What if everyone is too busy to notice she’s been gone for days? What if her friends found out she was trapped and just left her here? 

What if her jetpack had never malfunctioned, so she never found the portal to the Bluffs? 

What if she never got on that boat in the first place? 

What if she never became a rancher? 

What if…

A buzz under her butt snapped her out of her spiral. She got up and grabbed the VacPack, shooting out all the resources as fast as she could. Right before she got to the last slot, the Vac slowed down and stopped, powering down once more. She sighed, sitting down to look at what she has to work with. 

There was the aforementioned Strange Diamond, about 14 water lettuce, and 6 carrots, a few perfect snowflake bubbles, and a slime fossil. Nothing too useful.  

Well, at least she had food now. 

Beatrix pulled her scarf down and started munching on a cold carrot. She chewed it slowly, trying to distract herself in any way she could. The bright yellow bits of light morphed into deep orange and dimmer than before. That’s when Bea remembered her Slimeipedia clipped to her belt, and she turned that on for some better light. 

Shivering now, she filled her time by reading entries she’d read tens of times before. She kept reading, and probably stayed on the gold slime entry for hours. At this point, she was doing anything to keep herself from falling asleep. 

She was terrified that if she fell asleep she wouldn’t wake up. 

Beatrix fell asleep. 

Then she woke up. 

She felt like she woke up a million times. 

She couldn’t stay awake no matter how hard she tried, how much she strained her eyes open. 

She tried her best to keep track of the time by the sunlight but it was all a blur. It’d be pitch black one second, then golden sunrise light, then black again. 

The shivering had stopped too. 

That’s what scared her. 

She was too tired to be scared. 

She let her eyes slip closed once more, and she was almost sure she wouldn’t open them again. 

And she was almost okay with that. 

~~~

She did open her eyes again. Just a little bit. And was immediately attacked by bright white light. But no matter how bright it was she refused to close her eyes again. 

Then she heard crashing sounds. The crashing and crunching of snow being bashed in. It was so loud, in contrast to the silence she’d been trapped in for the last… she had to clue. 

Yet the noise was refreshing. 

And then she heard voices. 

“We’re in! I see her!” Someone yelled. She was too tired to identify them. Footsteps over the piles of snow rushed toward her. 

“Beatrix! Mariposa, can you hear me?!” Someone said to her. She knew who called her that name… There was a gloved hand on her face, then after a second a bare hand, a warm one. 

“She’s freezing cold, her lips are blue!” They called out. She let out a small groan when they pulled away. “Shh, we’ve got you, we’ve got you now…” they comforted her, putting the hand back on her face. She leaned into the touch. 

“How’s her breathing?” A new guy asked, sounding panicked as well. The hand moved from her face to her chest. 

“Really shallow,” the person near her replied. She didn’t realize how small her breaths were, and she tried taking a deeper one, but that just caused small, painful coughs. The hand on her chest started rubbing circles to comfort her. 

“That is a definite case of hypothermia, we need to get her somewhere warm, and changed out of those wet clothes as quickly as possible.” 

“How did this even happen?!” Someone else, a girl this time, exclaimed. 

“We can worry about that later, Mochi, right now we need to focus on getting Beatrix warm, and fast.” 

“I’ll carry her! I’ll carry her and run ahead, and you guys collect her VacPack and her stuff!” 

“Yes, perfect. Do you know exactly what to do when you get her back?” 

“Yes, dry clothes, warm bed, blankets, and-” 

“Okay, stop wasting time and take her! Hurry!” The girl yelled. The hand was pulled away again, but seconds later Bea felt herself being lifted up by strong arms. Then she was softly bouncing against their soft coat as they ran. 

Oh, she remembered now… 

“T-thank you… Ogden…” it came out as barely a whisper. 

“No,” He said through rushed breaths. She was surprised he even heard her over the crunching of snow, “thank you, Mariposa, for being okay.” 

Her eyes slipped closed again, but this time, she 100% knew she’d wake up, safe. 

~~~ 

When she opened her eyes this time, she didn’t feel like she was being attacked with burning bright light. The room was quite dim, actually. 

She waited before sitting up. She wanted to relish in the warmth that was around her. The soft blankets that were piled on her, warm pajamas she was wearing now, and the slime stuffie that had been placed in her arms. She hugged it a little closer. 

Once she finally relented and slowly sat up, she was still a little dazed, trying to put all the pieces together. Her turquoise hair spilled over her face and shoulders, and she brought a hand up to brush it out of her face. 

She only marginally remembered what happened. It was all a blur by the end, a mix of blinding lights and sounds and voices. 

Voices. People came to help her. How? How’d they find her? 

She looked over at her kitchen area, and finally heard them. There at the table sat Ogden, nodding to something just said, Viktor, explaining something, and Mochi, uncharacteristically silent and biting her thumb nail anxiously. 

“Guys?” Bea said quietly. Her throat was killing her. All heads snapped in her direction, and they all got up and rushed towards her. Mochi got to her first and hugged her tightly. 

“Oh thank the stars you’re okay! If you died I would never forgive you! Never do that again please, holy shit-“ she almost yelled. Beatrix hugged her back silently. Then Mochi seemingly realized what she was doing, and pulled away after a second. “You have to be more careful Beatrix! How did that happen to you?!” 

“Por favor, Mochi, give her a moment, she just finally woke up.” Ogden said. Mochi nodded, and stepped back, “Hot chocolate, Beatrix?” He asked, turning to her. She nodded happily, that sounded great. Ogden went to pour her a mug. 

They sat in silence for a few moments. Viktor came over to her and checked her over carefully, and nodded in satisfaction. 

“It seems most, if not all of your symptoms of hypothermia are gone now. Do you feel cold at all? Or lethargic or faint?” Bea shook her head no. Viktor nodded again, with a smile this time. 

She was handed a mug, and took a long sip. It felt amazing, warming her from the inside. 

“Do you remember anything that happened?” Viktor asked. 

“Of you guys saving me?” He nodded, “I- a little bit…” she said, “You guys bashed the snow wall in, then Ogden was talking to me, and I heard yours and Mochi’s voices too. And Ogden was carrying me. Next thing I remember is waking up here.” She told them, “How’d… how’d you guys find me?” She asked.

“We used my satellites. I tried calling you because I got an update on the 7Z situation, but you didn’t answer me. I called like 10 times, and nobody in their right mind would ignore me!” Mochi said, “So I got Viktor to try, but he had no luck, and Ogden actually called us saying he couldn’t reach you either. We were all worried.” 

“Yes, you’re not one to ignore calls, ever.” Viktor cut in. 

“The satellites have heat scanners, so I sent them to scan the Rainbow Islands. We just barely found you in that cave.” She finished explaining. 

“The sensors didn’t pick you up at first, but Mochi insisted on doing a more thorough scan. We wouldn’t have found you otherwise.” Said Viktor. 

“I- wow…” was all Beatrix could muster. She had no words. 

“What happened to you? How’d you even get trapped like that?” Mochi asked, returning to anxiously biting her nails. Bea’s breath hitched. 

“I… I went into the cave because I saw a strange diamond. It was longer than I expected, and I went in farther to explore. It ended up being a dead end, but- but when I turned around to come back, th-the ground started to shake, and I could see the snow falling at the entrance,” her breath grew faster as she thought about it again,“It must’ve been an avalanche or something, and I ran as fast as I-I could, but it was too late, and-and-” she couldn’t look at her friends faces, her eyes glued to her hot chocolate. Tears fell from her face and left ripples on the surface. 

The mug was taken from her hands and Mochi hugged her again. Beatrix melted into it this time, burying her face into her shoulder. 

“I was- I was so scared! And I thought that I-i wasn’t gonna m-make it-” she said through sobs. Mochi’s hand ran through her hair in a comforting motion. 

“And- and I thought- I thought nobody would come for me…” the whole room felt like it went dead silent. Mochi’s hand froze, and she tensed a little in the hug. 

Ogden was the first to speak again, “Beatrix, mi amiga, what ever gave you that idea?” 

“I-I don’t know? I was just terrified and my- my mind was all over the place, ev-everything was so confusing and I just- I’m sorry I-” she stuttered, quickly pulling away from Mochi. She tried to wipe away her tears on her sleeves, but they kept coming, and her breaths came in short shaky gasps. 

“Bea, take a deep breath, you’re hyperventilating. Please,” Viktor said, sitting on the bed and placing his hands on her shoulders. 

“I-I can’t, I can’t-“ she said through uneven gasps, “I’m sorry I’m sorry I-I’m sorry-“ 

“It’s okay, I promise. But you need to calm down, okay?” Bea nodded, “Good, do it with me, deep breaths.” Viktor took one himself, and Bea followed. It took a few tries, but she got there. She wiped her face again, and the silent house was only filled with Bea’s quiet hiccups. Nobody knew what to say. 

“I’m sorry…” she whispered. 

“What for, Bea? You did nothing wrong.” Viktor asked, sitting next to her. 

“I don’t know, putting you guys through that, not being able to find me and all, breaking down at the smallest thing-!” she started. Mochi cut her off. 

“No no no, don’t talk like that! None of this is your fault, okay? You did nothing wrong, it’s not like you can control the weather!” Beatrix kept her eyes on her fidgeting hands, trying to stop the tears from running down her face. 

“Listen Beatrix.Your part of this weird, crazy, ranching family. You’ve helped us all so much. You’ve helped me immensely with the Wilds.” Ogden said lightheartedly. 

“And with my slimeulation.” Viktor mentioned. 

“And you’ve done so much for me in the Nimble Valley!” Mochi cut in, “So don’t you think for a second that we wouldn’t help you!” 

Beatrix couldn’t help but smile at her friends. She always got too much in her head like this, but they were always there to help her. 

“You’re right, you’re right. Thank you guys, so much.” She said to them, wiping away the last of her tears. 

They all got to talking about other stuff, but Bea’s mind kept coming back to what Ogden said. 

“...crazy, ranching family.” 

Family… 

Beatrix liked the idea of that. Family. A real one. 

And that made her feel really warm inside.