Cara/Kahlan fic: Only torture if it hurts (1/3)

Warning: Darkfic Hurt/comfort. Character death (don't worry, it's Zedd). Kink. Like, on the kinkiness scale, with 1 being Cara hearing that Richard and Kahlan went to get ice cream and 10 being an Anita Blake novel, this would be a 7.

Title: Only torture if it hurts
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: R
Word Count: 3,470
Characters/Pairings: Cara/Kahlan, references to Richard/Kahlan
Author’s notes: Betaed by susurrusnight.
Next: Part 2
Summary: After six months of captivity, Richard and Cara rescue Kahlan from the Mord'Sith. But is it really Kahlan if she's been broken?

( I know I wasn't always like this. But I just… can't remember how I'm supposed to be. )

Seriousfic's guide to epic sci-fi storytelling

Any series which has an exhaustively planned out story with satisfying answers and a clearly delineated beginning, middle, and end... will be canceled after one season.

Any series which raises a bunch of insane, thought-provoking questions without a backstory planned out will run for five years, introducing even more insane, thought-provoking questions before revealing that a wizard did it.

Avengers assembled

So, yeah, nerdection. Three things.

1. Man, they really could use the Wasp in that line-up. A She-Hulk would also do. Joss Whedon finally gets to make a big-budget summer blockbuster and the only female hero is the Black Widow? Poor guy. Still, I suppose for the sequel, they could throw in whoever they get to play the leads in Edgar Wright's Ant-Man, so something to look forward to.

2. I never really saw the point in including the Hulk. He's not really a team player, you know? Once you get through the two Ultimates scenarios, having him be the big threat the team has to take on and then them using him as a fire-and-forget against the Big Bad (which they kinda already did in The Incredible Hulk), where can you go with the character? I suppose it'll end with him bugging out to have more adventures fighting the Leader and such.

Still, interested to see where Mark Ruffalo takes it. I never thought Norton really owned the role, so swapping one for the other's biggest offense is mildly upsetting continuity. It's like ordering Biggie Fries at Wendy's and being told they're out, so you're getting chicken nuggets instead. Sure, maybe you were in the mood for fries, but hey, what's wrong with nuggets? Stop being so entitled for one minute and enjoy your food.

3. I wonder if they'll go the Masters of Evil route and have a team-up of everyone's arch-enemies. Justin Hammer and the Leader are still running around the movieverse somewhere, and it's not too hard to believe Loki and some Nazis will survive the 2011 movies (I would give major points if they featured Count Zemo as Red Skull's right-hand man). Although they might want to save that for the inevitable Avengers 2, when they've had an Ant-Man movie come out and you can add fucking Ultron to the roster. It's just not the Avengers until someone's messed up Ultron, ya know?