#rwys asks

How does Gallagher die and why do you make us suffer 😔

*SPOILERS FOR THE END OF RWYS*

Haha (I love the questions, don't worry)

I actually tried to hint at her "ending" with her handing Reaper her retirement papers-- I was hoping I'd get some people asking, "hey, why's Galla getting off so easily?" and then I'd show the few chapters before Tahoma getting rescued, have Gallagher die, and make it that much more painful.

The timeline would be as such:

Chapter where a possible holding location for Tahoma is found...

Galla + 141 go to search it out, Galla is shot on the field in front of Reaper, Reaper drags her body back to the helo and desperately tries to shove her organs back into her body, plunging painkiller after painkiller into her, and realizes she can't save her.

Gallagher, who is crying, begging Reaper not to let her die, doesn't realize how bad it is because she can't feel it with all the adrenaline and drugs, watches as Reaper pauses for a moment and calmly holds her face, smiling under the mask.

"Marisha-- Mar, do I look afraid?" Gallagher would weep and stare into Reaper's eyes beyond the mask and sputter out a bloody, "No." Reaper, desperately trying to hold back the wails she wants to release, would smile brighter, and go, "Then trust me."

Gallagher would successfully survive the landing and be carted out on a gurney into the medbay, leaving Reaper, her friend's blood covering her hands and parts of her mask, staring emptily at the woman being carted into the building, would have Ghost approach her. At this point, there was going to be tension between Reaper and Ghost, as Ghost would've gotten overprotective about her getting reckless about finding Tahoma. This tension would cause Reaper to pull away from his comforting touch and walk silently to the medbay on her own, hoping her fears would be proven wrong.

She'd sit staring at the floor for what felt like months, waiting for those surgery bay doors to open, the flood of specialists telling her Marisha was okay, and would be able to retire in peace, but it wouldn't come. Ghost and Soap would wander in, the Scot, a small attempt at a smile playing on his lips, asking if she was still in there.

The operation rooms doors would quietly push open, a meek doctor stepping through and approaching the trio. Reaper'd push herself right out of her chair and meet him in the middle, speaking for the first time in hours, "Well?"

She would be heaving, eyes scanning his face for any sign of hope, only to see defeat. "She lasted seven minutes."

Reaper would hardly hold herself up at that moment, a wave of nausea and grief washing over her as the doctor and her friends watched her stumble back once. He tried to elaborate and apologize to the sergeant, but she would've grabbed the front of his shirt in a mess of pain and fury and asked if he even knew how to save lives, if he even knew how to do his job right. That, if his only purpose as a medic was to help people, why did he fail now? Why today? Was it purposeful? Was he that fucking stupid?

Soap and Ghost would pull her back, causing her to stumble slightly and shove their hands away from her, a half-storm, half-stumble out of the room. She'd wind up locking herself in Gallagher's office, dry heaving and sobbing as she paced around the room and grasped as her shirt as if it were suffocating her.

Dried blood would crack on her gloves as she, trembling, fell to the floor and curled into a ball, sobbing and apologizing quietly over and over again. Hours would follow as she would beg for Marisha to please come back, to please, just wake her up from this nightmare.

what follows is...

Chapter where Reaper and Ghost talk, heal, and reunite over their tension. This would be a major comfort chapter for Reaper.

Chapter where Tahoma is found, rescued, brought onto the airship

*SPOILERS FOR THE END OF RWYS*

Rigo doesn't die! He retires shortly after Tahoma. I'm not gonna go into full detail because it's not your question, but Gallagher does die and it hits Rigo full force, leading to his fast retirement.

Alsooo, I assume 141 finds out about what Graves did, how do they react?? And does Reaper get any justice?

*SPOILERS FOR THE END OF RWYS*

There were actually multiple layers to Graves' crimes, from the initial reason as to why he sabotaged the 831 in the beginning to his continued sabotage of the 141. A few chapters after the most recent post, Tahoma was going to be found and rescued back with the 141 on a smaller helo, while Graves and a bunch of his men were back on base.

This is when Reaper goes into detail (that of which I can elaborate on, but I feel like I'm jumping around instead of properly answering your question, so I want to keep this post a bit more brief) about what Graves had done in front of Tahoma and the 141.

Ultimately to save their jobs in the short run, none of them react obviously in front of the commander, however, in a mission post-Tahoma-rescue, the 141 would corner the commander and fabricate a murder-suicide from one of Ghorbrani's associates.

What about Annie?

*SPOILERS FOR THE END OF RWYS*

annie finds out from reaper finally getting the strength to call her. it happens the chapter after galla dies, but she and andreas end up by themselves

*SPOILERS FOR THE END OF RWYS*

This was actually something I juggled in my head since the beginning. I myself am on the fence about kids, and wondered how it would reflect if I A) made them get married and/or B) had them have a child or two. I was sort of thinking about how that would reflect on them as individuals, with the both of them having a lot of unresolved/slowly resolved childhood and military trauma, I wasn't sure if that would be the greatest option.

I did want them to get married though. It would've been a quiet ceremony with Tahoma and Rigo there, all of the 141 and Laswell's wife, of course, something in the quiet British countryside. Simon would've gone into computer engineering, teaching online classes on the physical properties of computers and computer engineering, as well as selling pre-builts. Reaper would've gone into pediatrics after finishing her doctorate. They would've gotten Riley the GSD, as well.

*SPOILERS FOR THE END OF RWYS*

Reaper and Tahoma would've gotten an entire chapter dedicated to her, Tahoma, and Rigo after Tahoma's immediate retirement. There would've been a ceremony giving him a purple heart and a handful of unnamed awards.

Simon would kinda see the rationality in it, and at that point in their relationship would trust Reaper and Tahoma. In the scene where Reaper is explaining the fall of the 831, she would've unmasked completely, showing her face to the 141 and Tahoma to show what she's been through. Simon and Reaper have an insurmountable level of trust in each other, so there would be less jealousy and more of a mourning of what happened to her.

I just opened RWYS for the first time (intending to eat it in one sitting) but saw that it hadn’t been updated in a while so I dusted off my old ass tumblr to check if the AO3 curse got you 💀 and the fact that you updated on here YESTERDAY 🤯 brb off to read the whole work

*us looking at each other while reading the same chapter* omg girl i see you!!!

time flies by lmfao i vividly remember my rwys era and it really doesn’t feel like that long ago!! but omg that was like about 2 years ago 😭😭 hope everything is working out with your work crush!!

omg and i was wondering where rwys went! a little bit ago i went to go reread it and i couldn’t find it, you were literally the reason why i even made an ao3 acc 😭 maybe im just crazy and like didnt see it but def will try and reread soon! the storyline is just so freaking good im upset that halfway through of you making it i lost track of where i was 🥲🥲

thank you!!! as for the work crush, i just hope it ends smoothly, however it may be

and i removed RWYS from non-user view a while ago due to AI, so that may be why you're not seeing it. so long as you have an ao3 account, it should be up.