Dec 31, 2025
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I guess I'm adding a Lizzington fic to my wip pile. Maybe tomorrow Ill add it to my make me write post. For now: here's a bit of Reddington explaining who he is (spoiler: Katarina)
~
"I couldn't explain my past to you Lizzie, because who I was, was enough of a threat to my enemies, our enemies- well no," Red pauses and mulls it over.
"You're here today because of love. Love brought you out of the shadows. Love put you on the street corner where you were caught. And not just the love of a father for his daughter, but the love of doing what you believe is right. And not necessarily for yourself, but what's right for the greater world around us. A world you love so much."
new type of guy just dropped. trans man who steals his late boyfriend's identity, goes stealth for over a decade, and uses his criminal contacts to become a supervillain
When all you have to do is look in the mirror.
the entire show in a nutshell. as always, raymond be serving us facts.
[ So, this is a fic that is weird and 100% out of my comfort zone. It’s a Liz x Dembe fix with Redarina. Need I say more? Slightly NSFW. ]
Dembe always had a soft spot for Liz, so Red supposed he really shouldn’t have been surprised at the sight he walked into. The two of them sprawled out on the hardwood floor with Dembe’s large, dark hands encircling his sweet Lizzie’s porcelain skin around her waist. Dembe’s treacherous head buried between her thighs. His dark t-shirt lay discarded somewhere, and his pants were already unzipped.
Lizzie was under Dembe, wearing very little. Just a black bra and what looked like a slip of thin material beneath Dembe’s head.
Dembe was too engrossed in the task at hand to realize that Red had walked in, gun in hand. Liz’s moans had drowned out the sounds of the rest of the world, and her own eyes snapped shut as Dembe’s tongue teased her over her panties.
“Dembe!” Red said with a harsh, animalistic growl.
The anger was steadily building inside Red. He had expected to find his oldest, most trusted friend consorting with the woman who had nearly gotten him executed. A wound so fresh that it still bled. And here was Dembe, sticking another knife into his back and twisting it. The two of them together, against him.
Dembe’s head popped up in shock and horror. He looked straight ahead to see Raymond standing there with a gun aimed towards his head and look of rage and betrayal like he’d never seen before. He barely recognized the man in front of him.
Liz wrapped her legs protectively around Dembe, pulling his body in closer towards her, partly to protect Dembe and partly to give herself a little more cover. She would be eternally grateful that Dembe liked to tease her slowly.
“Red, it-“ Lizzie said in a cautious tone.
“I’ll get back to you in a minute, Elizabeth.” Red spat at her, cutting off her words in an instant, scolding her like she was a child.
He’d never been so harsh to her. Never. Not even when she confessed to him what she had done. She could see the anger in his face then, but it was eclipsed by betrayal and sadness. Her heart hammered in her chest. A wave of fear coursed through her body. She was utterly terrified of the look on his face. He almost didn’t even look human. He looked like some kind of monster.
“Raymond, please.” Dembe said, his words desperate, pleading, and tinged with fear.
“Of all the betrayals I have endured, nothing compares to this.” Red snarled. “How could you, Dembe?”
“It’s not what you think, Raymond.”
Red’s jaw twitched.
“My oldest friend. My brother. Like a son to me. The one person I trusted with everything, and you go and do this to me behind my back? With my child, my own flesh and blood. My entire reason for existing.”
Liz’s gasp broke the silence that has filled the room and was sucking all the air out of room.
“What did you just say?” Liz practically cried out.
Her chest was heaving up and down. Her heart was beating faster than humanly possibly. Her entire body already shaking from adrenaline.
The only sound she could hear was the beating of her own heart. It was making her dizzy.
She sat up and twisted her body until she was kneeling, looking up at Reddington. Her entire body was shaking.
Dembe’s arm wrapped around Liz’s waist protectively to steady her.
Reddington was white like a ghost. All the color had drained from his face. His arms dropped to his side as the realization of what he’d said finally hit him. His gun dropped to the ground as his fingers uncurled on their own. He was in shock. His entire body had stopped working. His mouth. His muscles. All of them were frozen.
“What did you mean when you said that I was your daughter?” Liz questioned.
Red swallowed, but said nothing. He barely even moved.
“You’re not my father. You can’t be my father. He’s dead.”
Red’s jaw twitched. His brain was firing as fast as it could, desperately trying to fix the stupid thing he had just done. Wondering if maybe there was a way to just undo the damage.
Liz’s anger was rising.
“Answer me!” She yelled.
Again, Red said absolutely nothing.
And then all of sudden, Liz lurched forward towards the gun.
It all happened too fast. Before either Red or Dembe could stop it, Liz was standing in front of Red, gun aimed at his chest. A look of shear determination was splayed across her face.
“Elizabeth, you can’t do this.” Dembe said calmly as he reached for Lizzie.
She flinched away, gun still aimed at Red.
“Give me the truth, Reddington, or so help me I will shoot you!”
Dembe took a step forward. “Elizabeth, my love, look at me.”
She turned her head slightly towards Dembe, but kept Red in her sights.
“Please, just give me the gun.” He said reaching out towards her, slowly.
“I can’t, Dembe.” She said, desperation filling her voice. “I need to know the truth.”
Dembe nodded. “I know and I promise you will get it.”
His hands wrapped around hers.
“Just give him a chance to explain.”
He lowered Liz’s hand.
“If not, I will tell you everything.” He said as he finally unwrapped her fingers from the gun and took the weapon into his own hand.
Liz fell into Dembe’s arms, and he wrapped his arms around her protectively for a while as she calmed down before she pulled away and turned her attention back to Red once again.
She gripped Dembe’s hand as she looked Red over, waiting for the truth.
Red looked towards Dembe. Dembe gave him an encouraging nod.
Dembe meant what he told Elizabeth. If Raymond didn’t tell her the truth tonight, he would, regardless of the consequences. She deserved to know. This had gone on for far too long.
“I’m not your father.” Red said softly.
“You just said that I’m your flesh and blood!”
“Yes, I did, and that’s the truth.”
“So then you are my father?! I am your daughter?”
“You are my daughter, but I am not your father.”
“What does that even mean?!“
Red was silent, and looked utterly vulnerable standing there in front of her without his armor. The truth was out in the open. All she has to do was accept it.
Dembe squeezed her hand as he waited for it to hit her.
And then all of a sudden, like a tsunami crashing onto land, everything hit her all at once.
“Oh….”She breathed out. “Oh….Ooooh!” Her words got louder.
Liz whipped her head back and forth between Red and Dembe in almost disbelief.
After a minute, she turned to Dembe, her eyes pleading for something— a confirmation, a denial, a laugh that this was just some cruel joke.
“It’s true, Elizabeth.” Dembe confirmed.
She turned back to Red. Her eyes had softened, but his entire body was still rigid almost as if he was preparing to take some massive hit.
She looked at Red with a harsh concentration, and for the first time, she really saw him for what he was. She saw the sacrifices. The heartbreak. She finally understood why he did the things he did. It was for her. It was always about his love for his. His love for his daughter.
Tears streamed down her face. She let go of Dembe’s hand and took a few steps closer to Red.
“You could have told me.” She said as she placed a soft hand on his cheek. “I’m your daughter, if anybody would understand, it’s me.” Her voice was soft, almost child-like.
He let out a sigh that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding in. His entire body relaxed into her touch. His eyes fluttered closed for just a second as he absorbed the moment.
“Lizzie…” He breathed.
“I spent my entire life wondering if you cared about me or if I ever even crossed your mind. Wondered if one day you would I come looking for me, but now I know the truth. You were there all along.”
I’ve just finished binging all of The Blacklist, and honestly i can’t see Red being anyone other than Katerina.
i don’t know if it’s because i watched it all in one go, or because i had heard about the theory and was looking for it, (and picked up on a lot of evidence) but Red being Katerina makes perfect sense to me; like it is the one thing that makes sense.
(i also have a couple of ideas for fics to fix from at least mid season 7, but maybe earlier, and explore things i really want to explore, but that’s another matter)