I've gotten into a new series, which is EDDSWORLD, lo and behold. Yeah, the main characters are Matt, Edd, and Tom, but I don't ship any of them. I like shipping Edd's rival Eduardo with Tom's rival (?) Jon. Eduardo's and Jon's relationship, if you can call it that, is a bit strange to me, but also so full of potential. Jon is like an old dog, no matter how many times Eduardo KICKS him; he still sticks around, loyal to his master.

I've watched all the episodes (I think) and I have a pretty clear view of the 3 characters that are: Mark, Eduardo, and Jon.

I'm going to tell this tale from THEIR perspective and let Edd, Matt, and Tom be the side-characters. This thing will contain spoilers, it will continue from the end of the series and you should watch them all before you come back here:

(Eddisodes) youtube playlist?list=PL701BB5DC4DD878C0

Don't worry; they aren't that many, or that long. Go watch them then go back here and read my epic conclusion. ^^

Also, I may tweak a few plot points here and there, because- well, I'm a sadist. XD (Not really, but I can play one whenever I feel like it)

Eduardo, Jon, and Mark all sat in the kitchen; Wednesday, Mars the 9th. Eduardo was drinking a Diet Coke and checking his lists of contacts on his phone. Numbers of girls he had dated before but never got together with because they didn't live up to his sky-high expectations. "I don't remember any of these girls..." He nonchalantly remarked. Eduardo seriously believed that as long as he lived there could be no one else on the entire planet that was as good as him and would never be enough for him.

Good god, what a bore.

No girl he ever met had that thing he liked. Girls he met were strong and independent. While that was all in all good and what not, it was not something that Eduardo liked. He had a secret fetish for slavery sort of. Eduardo wanted his partner to be emotionally dependent on him and do everything he told her to do. Eduardo actually HAD someone in his life that kind of leaned towards what he wanted in his potential love interest and that was-... Jon-... ew... No, not by a long shot...

About his roommates; His roommates being his slaves was something he liked thinking of them as, though it was something he'd rather not say out loud. Eduardo was the Alpha in the home, Mark the Beta and Jon the-... well, it almost seemed a little too much to think of him even as an Omega, but, yeah, that's what he was: The omega, a very irritating one at that.

Jon was a little uncomfortable with Eduardo's statement for some reason so he just distracted himself by nervously sipping on the straw of the small plastic bag containing tomato juice he was holding, shrunk in on himself and munched a bit on his sandwich. Mark lifted his gaze up from the newspaper that he was reading and looked at Eduardo questioningly with a raised eyebrow. "How many have you dated? They cannot all be bad?" Eduardo snorted and shook his head. For the beta to actually question the judgment of the alpha was absurd. "I went on several dates with one girl before moving onto the next, and I swear to you, none of them were worth the money I spent on them. Ladies- HAH! More like puppies! If I want a puppy, I'll GET a REAL puppy!"

Jon took a bigger bite of his sandwich and almost choked on it. He started coughing, stopped and drank some more tomato juice to wash it all down. "Don't bite off more than you can chew, Jon. If it gets stuck in your throat, I'm not taking you to the hospital. (Or, god forbid, give you CPR)." He thought the last part, because would Jon hear it, he'd never eat again. That was, of course, something that could not happen either because he'd probably die of starvation in his room and Eduardo did not want to, by any means necessary, take care of Jon's decaying corpse.

At first, there was rumbling outside: "What are they doing now?" Mark asked but didn't bother looking out the window. Jon didn't bother looking outside either; he just finished his sandwich and put the plastic bag of tomato juice in his inner pocket of his shirt. Now there was a sound of a machine gun going off. Eduardo let go of his Diet Coke; fuming, he walked over to their front door and opening it as gently as possible. Managing to calm down a bit after taking a deep breath he looked outside to see that nothing was burning in front of him. He attempted to ask, in the calmest manner possible: "Hey, what's all the racket?" though, it came out a bit more strained than he had wanted it to. Jon and Mark followed Eduardo out and stood beside him; Jon on Eduardo's right and Mark on Eduardo's left.

Out of nowhere, a missile or a torpedo-thingy came shooting in their direction. "That's not a racket, it's a rocket!" Jon remarked and Eduardo sighed inwardly; (Goddammit, Jon! I can SEE that!) Eduardo thought before; he, Jon and Mark all jumped out of the way to escape the deadly weapon. An explosion followed as the oval formed metal shell collided with their house and blew their home into smithereens.

Eduardo looked to his left and Mark was a few feet away from where Eduardo himself had landed. Eduardo looked to his left and saw Jon running over to Edd's lawn. Why he did that was beyond Eduardo, but, he couldn't think of that right now: He had to make sure his most, most important things where intact-... which they most likely were. Well, his house keys he had in his left pocket, even though he wouldn't really need them anymore. He had his phone in his inner pocket, lovely. His wallet was also in a pocket in his pants but on the opposite side of the house keys.

Eduardo eyed the robot in the air and narrowed his eyes. If he had some juice left he would go Numero Uno and kick its metal ass. When he had finished fantasizing the robot shot another missile, this time, out of its arm. It hit Edd's house and Eduardo couldn't help but smile. If Eduardo's house wasn't also destroyed, he would grind the fact that Edd's house just got demolished in Edd's face for years to come.

That's when 2 things cleared up for Eduardo. Firstly, the smoke faded away and secondly, Eduardo realized that; Jon ran over to Edd's lawn for some stupid reason. A cold grip strangled around Eduardo's heart and he held his breath... what if Jon got hit?

Eduardo has done nothing but pushing Jon around, insulting Jon left and right, hitting Jon himself and cursing Jon's existence openly in front of Jon's face. Why would he care about Jon's safety now of all moments? Shouldn't he be celebrating the fact that Jon might be potentially deceased? (A.N.: In "THE END part 1", Eduardo says to Jon: "Wish you were dead!" or something like that, so don't come tell me he's just a tsundere. It was pretty goddamn clear to me that Eduardo HIGHLY despised Jon, but when Jon dies, he realizes he has taken his friendship with Jon for granted. Then and there, when Jon is dying in Eduardo's arms he sees that he will never be able to get the lost time back so that Eduardo can show Jon that he actually DOES appreciate Jon's existence. In that scene Eduardo nearly cries.)

Eduardo noticed that the fence separating his lawn and Edd's lawn had a hole in it. Eduardo then saw a black and blue figure lying immobile in the grass a small distance away from the fence and Eduardo's blood ran cold. In the back of his mind, he knew who it was, yet he tried to tell himself that that still figure in the grass was Tom. Eduardo stood up on unsteady legs and stiffly moved his feet in the direction of the body in the grass and he didn't even have to go very close to recognize the flat hair and the shirt. Eduardo's feet took off into a sprint toward the immobile body, stopped in front of it and crouched down; it was Jon, Eduardo was sure of it. Eduardo turned Jon over and was met with several small cuts on Jon's face as well as a blood stain on his shirt staring back at him. Panic spread throughout Eduardo's body, he simply couldn't believe it. "Jon? Jon?! Speak to me, buddy! Say something!" Eduardo shook Jon's body softly, trying to make the body he was holding open its closed eyes. "Say something, you idiot!"

Jon opened his eyes just slightly and held his right hand up with a straightened index finger, what ingenious thing was he going to say now? "S- something." Jon mumbled and giggled, but only a second later, a final sigh escapes the light brown-haired one's lips and his hand fell limp into Eduardo's lap. But the smile; even in his dying moment, Jon was smiling to Eduardo. Even though Jon must hate Eduardo for everything Eduardo has ever done to Jon. Even if Eduardo had been cruel and beaten Jon until he was limping, Jon had found some reason worthy smiling for in front of Eduardo.

Jon had died smiling.

It hurt... It hurt a lot... A short moment passed which, in all honesty, felt like a century. Eduardo embraced Jon and let his shock quiet down before he could put his reaction into words: "I'm. So. Sorry..." Eduardo had a small flashback; always demeaning Jon and sometimes beating him. Jon was like an old loyal dog, always coming back no matter how often he was kicked by his owner... Eduardo had taken their friendship for granted. Eduardo had never really actually understood how great of a friend Jon really was. Jon saw past Eduardo's flaws, never looked down upon Eduardo because of them, and always forgave Eduardo when he should have left a long time ago. Jon was Eduardo's friend.

His BEST friend.

Tom shouted something from over where he was at which caught Eduardo's attention. Was that a harpoon-gun? Tom shot a harpoon into the chest of the robot and the robot crumbled like a house made of cards, then exploded. Eduardo clenched his right fist and shook it in the air; "Yeah! Good riddance!" He said and snorted. Looking down at Jon's body again he sighed and put his right hand on Jon's crook of his neck. That's when Eduardo noticed something. He must have had his palm on a blood vessel because he could feel something pulsating beneath Jon's skin.

Wait-... so... "He's still ALIVE?!" Eduardo smelled the supposed blood on Jon's shirt: "... Tomato juice..." Eduardo felt his sorrow reforming quite rapidly to anger. "This little shit..." He hissed and let go of Jon whose body simply flopped down on the ground with a dull thud. "Fuck this." Eduardo muttered and steered his steps toward the real estate agency in town. Mark had gotten up to his feet and approached Eduardo: "Hey, where are you going? You know you left Jon-" He started but Eduardo cut him off with; "Sip it, I'm going to buy a new place for us to live, and I know I left Jon behind, that was kind of the point, genius..." Mark scratched the back of his head and shot a brief look at Jon: "U-huh... Whatever you say..." Mark said nothing more and followed Eduardo all the way over to the real estate agency. Eduardo was HATING every step he had to take to get there.

When Eduardo and Mark had arrived Eduardo took a paper from a machine with the number 338 on it. He and Mark sat down on a couch and waited patiently for their turn... which was completely unnecessary because there was nobody else there... The number shown on the small digital screen on the wall clicked over to 338 from 337 after only a minute. Eduardo threw the ticket in a garbage bin and went up to the desk with an-... employee behind it that smelled of old cheese...

A whole shitload of repeats of what Eduardo wanted they finally settled on a house just beside an apartment complex. "We'll take it!" Said and done, now they were in a truck going to their ex-house where Jon was-... Jon was actually not in the grass passed out; he was looking frantically through all the dirt for something. Eduardo and Mark stepped out and closed in on the ruins; "What are you doing?" Mark asked and Jon held a dirty pillow in his hands. "I needed to get my favorite pillow from the house, I can't live without it!" Jon said with a smile on his face. But-... there was something wrong about that smile... It was so forced... and hollow... It was very different to the normal goofy smiles he usually plastered on his childish face.

Eduardo just sighed and rolled his eyes: "Yeah... Whatever... Is there anything that ISN'T destroyed?" Jon nodded and pointed at a pile he had made in the dirt with books and magazines. "I found Mark's favorite books and your porn collection." Mark lit up when Jon mentioned his favorite books and dove straight for the pile to pick his books out. Eduardo sighed in relief to his treasure being unharmed. "Good lord in heaven, I am grateful..." He muttered and headed for the pile as well to pick his things out.

For those things to be unharmed for the most part was because they were all put away. Eduardo's porn collection was hidden in a metal box with no lock (but a flip to close it and preventing the box from opening itself) under a floorboard in his room while Mark's books were put away in a package with 5 layers of plastic bags to prevent them from being dusty and otherwise get destroyed. The plastic bags were gone but the books were fine, maybe a little bit ashy but they were otherwise in a whole piece and unharmed. "Thank you, Jon, I cherished these books the most, you have my gratitude." Mark said and smiled at Jon who simply smiled that empty and hollow smile back and nodded.

No, Eduardo wasn't going to thank Jon. He was not going to sink that low. "Eduardo has fixed a new place and we're here to pick our old stuff up. Want to come with us in the truck? Or, you know, you can walk there if you want." Mark said to Jon and Eduardo roared inwardly: (Fuck everything!) He thought, sighed and grumbled something inaudible. "Oh! I would love to go by truck, can I, Eduardo?!" Jon exclaimed happily. Eduardo groaned and face palmed. "... Fine..." Jon squealed and in a jiffy, they were all on their way towards their new house.

It took some time to get used to the new home but they all got comfortable in the new environment they now resided in, though, still, it was all so familiar. Eduardo was still cruel towards Jon and the moments Jon had asked about that day when he had passed out in Eduardo's arms, Eduardo simply denied it and said that Jon must have dreamed because he would never do anything like that towards someone he hated. Eduardo had asked what Jon did on enemy territory that day but been denied his answer as well.

One day, precisely one year later, during lunchtime, Jon had accidentally washed bright laundry with a blood red towel, tinting all the; white things to pink - all the grey things into dark pink - light blue into plum/purple - green became grey (because red and green cancel each other out) - yellow became orange and so on. Eduardo was beyond angry; he pushed Jon towards a wall and hit Jon the hardest that he could manage in the left cheek. Jon spat out blood, his knees gave away and he fell to the floor. Eduardo started kicking Jon. Jon was curled up on the floor, whining, shielding his head with his hands but it didn't do much as Eduardo was strong enough to harm Jon even if he Jon was shielding himself.

Mark entered the room; "EDUARDO, WHAT THE FUCK-!" he shouted, hooked his arms under Eduardo's armpits and held the enraged man back. "LET ME GO, DAMMIT!" Eduardo roared and Mark tightened his grip behind Eduardo: "SHUT UP AND CALM DOWN FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! DO YOU EVEN REALIZE WHAT YOU'RE DOING?!" Eduardo growled; "I'M-..." He stopped kicking the air and flailing around so much. In front of him lied a curled up form staring back at him with frightened eyes and blood on his lips. He looked like a scared animal, beaten, bloody, and white as a sheet. Eduardo's breathing calmed down and Mark let go of Eduardo carefully. Eduardo glared at Jon, snorted and went to the kitchen: "Goddammit..." He muttered and took a Diet Coke out of the fridge, popped the cap and throated the liquid in the can.

"Have you calmed down now?" Mark said behind Eduardo. Eduardo threw the empty can in the garbage bin and grabbed another Diet Coke, turned around to face Mark and there he stood; arms crossed and with a disdainful expression on his face. "What. Happened?" He asked with a freezing cold tone. "Jon colored my favorite white shirt pink, and several clothes of yours were also colored." Mark snarled at Eduardo and held his arms out to emphasize his point; "We can buy NEW ones! We're not poor! I get that you don't think that highly of Jon but this has to be the single, most ABSURD moment where you have definitively crossed the line! This is a new low, even for you!"

Eduardo hissed back at Mark, took his Diet Coke and headed out of their front door. Still angry, still wanting to deck the living shit out of Jon. Eduardo stopped in the park and sat down on a bench, sipping on the Diet Coke. He looked over to a group of kids playing catch with a dog. An old lady was reading a book while sitting on a picnic blanket under a tree. There were barely any clouds in the sky and the sun couldn't be shining brighter. The serenity was enough to empty Eduardo of the rest of the overflowing anger. He was still angry, but lesser than before.

The sun passed from the top of the sky to only a bit over the horizon and Eduardo had drained the last drops of Diet Coke a long ago. He stood up, threw the empty can in a garbage bin and started heading home. There was barely anyone outside now. Barely any cars and he was the only one on the road for walkers. Calm and quiet. He had calmed down to his usual mood finally, which was good. Maybe he could apologize to Jon for-... no... Eduardo felt good but not THAT good...

Eduardo entered the house and was immediately met up by Mark: "Oh? Jon isn't with you?" He asked, generally surprised. "No, why would he?" Simply hearing Jon's name made Eduardo lose his good mood. "He told me he was going out to find you and apologize." Mark explained with an eyebrow raised. "Then he'll be back soon probably." Eduardo said and passed Mark into the kitchen. Eduardo just looked at the refrigerator, hummed and decided not to eat dinner. He was tired and went straight to bed.

Waking up next morning Eduardo felt he had actually slept well for once. He went to the kitchen for breakfast and Mark was already up: "Where's Jon?" Eduardo asked because it was unusual to not see the parasite that invaded his life sitting there eating breakfast like he would do early in the morning. "I don't know, Eduardo, he never came home yesterday." Mark said, still with scorn in his eyes when meeting Eduardo's eyes. "Good, then maybe I can relax on a Jon free day." Mark thought nothing more of it. He sighed irritably, shook his head and continued the daily newspaper.

The rest of the day flowed past like water through a water drain. It was unbelievingly refreshing. Mark was making comments about Jon's absence but Eduardo completely ignoring them. He was free!

Rinse and repeat, for 6 more days.

"Eduardo, I'm starting to get worried." Mark said as he looked out a window in the living room. "Don't be, Diet Coke will not kill me." Eduardo said and chuckled. "Not you, imbecile. I meant Jon." Eduardo growled at Mark and their gazes met in a wild spark: "Don't call me an imbecile! Besides, you still don't have to worry; Jon probably found somewhere else to live because he doesn't like it here." Eduardo said and looked down at his Diet Coke with a smile. "He wouldn't have left his belongings if he had..." Mark mumbled, groaned and went in the direction of Jon's room.

Eduardo shut off the TV and closed his eyes. Relaxation was the best when the pest wasn't around.

The time passed from 11 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon. Everything was nice and quiet when suddenly Mark's cry cut through the air; "Eduardo! EDUARDO!" Eduardo rubbed his eyes and yawned: "Yeah, yeah, what is it?" Eduardo opened his eyes to a distressed Mark coming into the living room with eyes nailed to the pages of a thick notebook with no name on the front or the back. "You-... you should read this..." Mark said stiffly as the closed the notebook and threw it to Eduardo. The book landed in Eduardo's lap and he groaned: "Why? If it's one of Jon's goodnight stories, then I don't want t-" "No, I mean, you should REALLY read it." Mark cut Eduardo off before Eduardo was able to finish his sassy comment. "Read from the beginning to the end... There are 638 pages... start reading..." Eduardo cursed several times before he started reading the first page: "Today was a good day! Oh dear god, is this his diary?" "JUST READ IT, YOU INSUFFERABLE DICKHEAD!" Mark screamed and pointed aggressively at Eduardo. "Okay! Alright! Geez..." Mark had never spoken up that way toward Eduardo before so this was definitively a first.

The pages started out joyful, how much Jon loved living life with his friends that were Mark and Eduardo. "I love my friends" and "I really, really want to be like them" and "they are my idols"- in all honesty, it was kind of sweet how highly Jon thought of Mark and Eduardo. But-... that was about 10 years ago... The days were written in a brief summary and all of them often on the same page. The only things separating the days were the dates and year. Only 1 and a half year later-... it started taking a dark turn... this was around the time where Eduardo started beating Jon...

And that wasn't even the scariest part, even if Eduardo hit Jon until he had nasty bruises, Jon still came back because-... he adored his seniors... He still thought of them as friends... Eduardo had a flashback to when he thought Jon died from that explosion, that moment that Jon had died smiling... Even if he was in immense pain, enough to pass out, he still chose to smile... 5 years ago from the current year Jon admitted in his texts that he ignored the pain the best he could just so that he could be with his friends. Seeing the flaws in both Mark and Eduardo, and a fuckton of flaws in himself as well, but seeing past all of them... Not judging anybody... Still thinking of his abusive roommate as his best friend... Jon concealed most of the bruises with makeup to not attract the attention of the authorities in case he was to go out or their rivals. Having them reporting Eduardo, his best friend for domestic abuse was not something he wanted to risk.

Now he was on the last pages, the time had passed from 1 in the afternoon to 4 in the afternoon and Eduardo could barely read another word. Now it was evident in Jon's texts that he had given up. He had had enough of the constant beating, the humiliation, the cruelty, and now he was wording him wanting to die in very disturbing yet subtle ways. Now, for the last page, and at this point, Eduardo was an emotional WRECK:

"Date: My last day

I screwed up... again... Eduardo beat me up... again... but worse this time than any other time before this. I have big bruises forming everywhere on my body; my head - my neck - my back - my chest - my stomach - my arms and my legs, maybe a few other places that I haven't checked yet. I have been wearing long sleeved shirts and long pants every day now, even in the summer instead of t-shirt and shorts but Eduardo and Mark never ask why, but that is good, I don't want them to know I've been cutting myself for the past 6 years.

I have given up for the last time. I'm going to quit this game and delete my save... I have given up... For the last time..."

Using a gaming reference to hide something, it was clever, creative even, Eduardo had to give him that. But by quitting the game and deleting the save file... Eduardo could imagine what that meant... Just as Eduardo closed Jon's notebook- or diary, Mark came back in still looking as terrified as ever. Only now, Eduardo was the mirror image of Mark; just as terrified. "I found this together with the diary in Jon's favorite pillow..." Mark said and held up a small knife with dried blood on it. The favorite pillow... Of course... "By the way, did you-... have you finished reading..." Mark whispered and pointed at the diary in Eduardo's hands. Eduardo stood up and put the diary on the table in front of him: "We need to find him." Eduardo said and as the alpha of the home, he led the team of 2, not 3, out of the home.

Eduardo had noticed since he moved that they had conveniently moved into the house that was right next to with the apartment complex that Tom, Edd, and Mat lived in but he decided to ignore them all for the most part. Now, he needed their attention more than ever.

And he was lucky; they were all outside flying kites. What Eduardo had said here naturally would be LOSERS! but now he needed their help so he would have to put away the teasing. "Hey! Edd, Matt, and Tom! Have you seen Jon?!" The named three became visibly surprised being called after their given names by someone who always called them things other than their real names. "I thought you didn't like him?" Matt asked and looked in confusion at Edd that responded to Matt by shrugging. "Doesn't matter now, have you seen him or not?!" Mark said and gestured wildly, desperately with his hands. "Uh, yeah-" Edd began but Eduardo cut him off: "When?! WHEN AND WHERE?!" Tom pointed at the road and explained: "Here, about, a week ago, he was heading into town." Mark rolled with a hand in the air, a gesture for Tom to continue; "Did he say what he was going to do there? Did he tell you SPECIFICALLY where he was going? Did he tell you ANYTHING at all?!" Tom put his index finger on his lips and narrowed his eyes, thinking, remembering; "Well, no, when I asked he just said I'm going away. I asked where and then he just said away again. Why? Are you looking for him?"

Away...Away... Eduardo and Mark looked at each other in horror, then Eduardo broke the silence; "Holy shit... Come on Mark-!" Eduardo said and they both sprinted towards town. "What-? Where are you going?! Why are you looking for Jon?!" Edd asked and Mark stopped, turned back to their rivals and shouted: "BECAUSE HE'S GOING TO COMMIT SUICIDE, IF HE HASN'T ALREADY!" Mark then took off after Eduardo again trying to catch up to his roommate. Their rival trio was left speechless, they remained speechless for 3 full minutes and their kites fluttered to the ground as they lost air. The first to break the silence was Edd: "Well-... damn..."

Eduardo and Mark called for Jon, looked everywhere earning confused looks from strangers which they cared little for if not at all. Eduardo and Mark made a report to the police to investigate a disappearance. Mark even asked news to report on Jon's disappearance, which they did. Eduardo asked newspapers to put up the report, which they did. Sometimes, the world can be kind.

At the end of that same day, around 10 pm, they were exhausted. They had been looking all over town and not even a single glimpse of Jon. Eduardo went inside first, kicked off his shoes and leaned on the wall; he was tired, but he was not going to become any less determined to find Jon. Mark after him and closing the door after him gently. Slipping out of his shoes he was just about to lock the door when Eduardo stopped his hand from turning the switch; "Don't-... If he... I dunno..." Eduardo didn't finish his sentence and began avoiding eye contact, but Mark knew what he wanted to say. "Came back, you mean?" Mark finished and looked at Eduardo with dread in his eyes. "I doubt it... But if it makes you feel better- then by all means... I'll leave it open..." Mark said in a sorrowful tone as he headed for the bathroom to get ready to go to bed.

Mark went to bed when he was ready. Eduardo took the armchair from the living room and put it in front of the door. Sitting in it, he decided to wait until maybe Jon came back or prevent a robbery if it wasn't Jon but some stranger. But no, the whole night passed and when the morning came, Eduardo had black rings under his eyes but there had been no other activity other than Eduardo breathing by the door. Eduardo went to the refrigerator and took a Diet Coke, throated everything and threw the empty can in the garbage bin. "Stayed up all night?" Eduardo turned around to see a refreshed but still worried Mark in the kitchen doorframe wearing a bathrobe. "... Yeah..." Eduardo muttered and sighed. "We'll continue looking today, right?" Eduardo asked and choked a yawn. Mark tilted his head to the side a bit before responding; "If you think you can do that in your condition, then, yes, of course."

Another 7 days followed with the same searching for Jon and they were beginning to become really desperate. They had called Jon's number several times and hoped for him to answer, but every time it just went straight to the voicemail. Eduardo stared at the screen of his phone with Jon's smiling face as the thumbnail of the contact and a title of Jon's name below it. "Jon-... where are you?" Eduardo asked out loud no louder than a whisper. Mark did hear Eduardo whispering, but Mark decided not to respond because 1) the question was not his to answer and 2) he didn't know the answer anyway. They had gone through Jon's things in his room for the umpteenth time by now. Eduardo looked through Jon's childish sketches to maybe get kind of an idea where Jon might have gone. Eduardo had stayed up 3 nights in a row now, 1) because he hoped to meet Jon walking through the door and 2) because he was unable to sleep otherwise.

"Ed- EDUARDO! I- I THINK I KNOW WHERE HE IS!" Mark's hopeful cry of joy behind Eduardo took Eduardo by storm; "YOU DO?!" Eduardo responded and crawled over to Mark on all fours, smiling like an idiot- because they might have found out where Jon was hiding. Mark held a paper with-... a list of 3 different busses, exact times where they would arrive at the bus stop outside of the library, the amount of minutes they would take for a trip to-... wherever and how many stops each ride had to take at other bus stops. "Eduardo! Think now, help me here, what do all these busses have in common?!" Mark asked and bit his thumb. "They're all colored the same way? They all stop at that bus stop outside the library? They all go at a snail's pace?" Eduardo slurred as he counted all the things he named on his fingers. Eduardo was honest about the stupid answers though, which was probably the funniest part. But nobody could blame Eduardo for his delusion, he hadn't slept in 3 days and he had skipped eating as well.

"Yes, partially; they all stop at the bus stop in front of the library. However, they all also stop at a bus stop in the middle of the woods-..." Eduardo and Mark looked at each other in silence for a moment. Eduardo smiled and his pupils grew a bit as the realization came to him: "He could have decided to go hiking, maybe camping to get away from this for a while?" Eduardo suggested and gestured with his hand to refer to the walls around them. They both looked at the paper again and a collective sigh of relief filled the room. "Of course, he should be out there still. Quitting the game and deleting the save could have been a reference to him wanting to start over? Come on, I'll get my bus ticket. You go get dressed; we're going to get him." Mark said, smiled and laid his arm around Eduardo's shoulders. "Yeah, I'll be right back." Eduardo stood up and headed for his room. These were the best news all week concerning Jon, no doubt.

(Btw, where I live we have a card which we load with money that they beep on a bus or train, withdrawing money for a ride. I don't know how it is where these individuals live but I'm going to take the concept of the card since I don't know any other)

Eduardo had only the white shirt on him because he left the green outer layered shirt in his room. He became hot and sweaty during their search so he took it off and hadn't put it back on since 5 days ago or so. Eduardo slipped his arms into the shirt and buttoned it up. He went for their front door where Mark was already standing with his bus ticket in hand. Eduardo put on his shoes, opened the door and went outside. Eduardo being outside first and Mark second was a habit that was as hard to kill as a cockroach, but Mark never really opposed Eduardo about that matter. They both got to the bus stop and sat down on the small bench but didn't have to wait long until one of the 3 busses came that Jon supposedly took. They both got on and Mark paid for 2 rides with the bus card. They both sat down closest to the doors out with Eduardo at the window seat. Eduardo just stared apathetically out of the window and Mark was worried he might pass out as tired and as hungry as he should be. Mark sighed quietly, put his hand on Eduardo's knee to gain his friend's attention; Eduardo looked at Mark confusedly, Mark smiled narrowly and nodded: "I'm sure he's fine, you can relax." Mark said in a hushed voice. Eduardo smiled too and nodded back: "Hopefully he won't be too scared when we come to get his ass." Mark giggled and put the hand he had on Eduardo's knee on Eduardo's shoulder: "Don't say it like that."

The bus stopped at their destination and they got off the vehicle. The bus drove off leaving the 2 males staring into the forest. "Now for where we think he went off... And I mean in what direction he went into the forest, on the side right in front of us or if he went to the other side of the road behind us." Mark said and looked at the forest on the other side of the road over his shoulder while Eduardo was staring into the forest in front of them. They were out in the middle of nowhere, this was a perfect place for camping or hiking- or, clearing one's head would be more accurate. "I think we should go this way, I remember this stop from when I was a kid and there's a place here where teachers take their classes sometimes. Up ahead there should be an open area with a few tables, a fireplace and a cabin or something, I dunno. The pictures looked kinda old and I'm not sure my memory serves me correctly, but that's at least how it should look, he should be there; in the cabin or having built his own place out of sticks. Out of the 2, I think it might be the latter because the cabin should be locked up." Eduardo explained and a hopeful smile crept on his lips.

Mark nodded and crossed his arms; "Yeah, that sounds just like Jon, come on, let's go get him back." Mark said and they both walked on a small pathway to a clearing, the open area mostly built for camping and/or class expeditions.

When they came out of the woods, though, what they saw was bone chilling. The cabin was old, torn and graffiti sprayed on the walls. 2 out of the 3 picnic tables were laying in positions that they would have been in if a giant had flipped them over. One of the picnic tables was still standing and there was a cell phone on it, the screen on the table and backside up and a small rock behind it. But the most frightening thing of all, no Jon as far as the eye could see. "Mark-..." Eduardo managed to say through his clenched teeth. "... That is Jon's cell phone, isn't it?..." Eduardo finished in an unsteady voice. Mark ran up to the table while Eduardo was frozen in place. Mark studied the picnic table; the cell phone had been standing upright being supported by the boards of the table and the rock that had been placed behind it. The wind had probably knocked the phone over. The battery was dead but it hadn't been raining so the cell phone wasn't broken, it just needed some energy.

Mark looked at Eduardo who was still staring forward into the dead air. "It is his phone, I recognize this little keychain." Mark said and moved the phone in his hands so that the keychain jingled slightly. The keychain was a short thread attached to the top right corner of the device by a little patch of tape that surprisingly hadn't fallen off yet. In that thread, there was a copy of the key to their house. But although Mark had found some piece of evidence Eduardo still refused to avert his eyes from whatever was in front of him. "What is that?" Eduardo asked, pointed in front of him and Mark followed Eduardo's finger to whatever he might be referring to. There was nothing there, not on the ground, not in the sky, and not anything in the water that was beyond the cliff that separated the water from the 2 humans. Then it cleared up to Mark what Eduardo was pointing at. "... No... The cliff!" as if on cue both Mark and Eduardo ran for the cliff to look down at the unforgivingly pointy rocks where water splashed in a pulsating pace. Fear, staring right back at them.

Down there he was; Jon, in an unnatural position, drenched from the waves hitting him repeatedly. His arms and legs twisted, and his torso and neck crooked, his face bruised and the smell of death wafting up to Mark and Eduardo on top of the cliff. Mark became nauseous and Eduardo started swaying back and forth, what he saw frightened him more than falling off of the cliff himself. Eduardo's heart rate had sped up but his blood had run cold. Mark put his hand on Eduardo's shoulder to steady the male and prevent him from falling. Mark then stated: "We-... we should call 911..." Eduardo swallowed and felt a thick lump in his throat from saliva or bile or something he did not yet know. But, quite frankly, he didn't care. "Yeah... We should..." He responded and let go of a breath he didn't know that he had been holding.

Mark used his own cell phone and called 911; an ambulance and 2 officers in a police car came to the place (stopped on the bus stop outside the forest); took photos for investigation, Jon's cell phone for evidence and then they used a rope to lift Jon's body up from the rocks and back up on the cliff. Eduardo was speechless, he was in shock, denial, he was angry at himself because he couldn't blame anyone else than himself for what he was currently looking at. Mark put a hand on Eduardo's shoulder to comfort his friend: "I don't think this is your fault, don't go insane on me here." Eduardo's denial and shock rapidly changed into rage. He turned towards his comrade and grabbed Mark by his collar and shook him violently: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU THINK THIS ISN'T MY FAULT?! THIS IS MY FAULT! IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN!" Eduardo felt something inside his chest stirring, reforming. What it was, he didn't know, but it hurt. He put his right hand on his shirt where his heart was supposed to be located, if he still had one that was, and clutched his fingers around the fabric. "IT'S MY FAULT HE ISN'T HERE NOW! IT'S MY FAULT WE'RE EVEN HERE! IT'S-!... It's my fault!... God-fucking-dammit..." Eduardo fought his tears to stay back behind his eyelids, is what he would want to admit, but the truth was that he was too much in shock and anger for the tears to come out. "Eduardo-" Mark began but Eduardo cut Mark off before Mark was able to say anything else: "Shut up..." He deadpanned and sighed. "... We'll follow the officers back to the station for questioning and then we'll visit the morgue..." Eduardo added and looked at Jon's pale body through his peripheral view.

So, the body was put in the ambulance that drove off. Eduardo and Mark sat in the backseat of the police car and they were off to the police station. There they were questioned; about Jon, about his death, about how life looked like before he ran away, about the diary which Eduardo was keeping in his pants in his left pocket, and lastly; the cell phone. "The phone was supported to stand up so I think he needed to film his-... final moments with the camera. Though, the battery was dead when we found it." Mark said, in fact, he did all the talking because Eduardo chose to not speak at all. Not even respond to yes or no questions. "We have a charger for this brand and model, we should give it some energy and give whatever he might have been filming a watch." The officer said. She stood up and looked through a drawer, picked up a charger and put the small end into the phone but the other USB end to a computer. "We can watch the video on a bigger screen like this, come over both of you." Mark looked at Eduardo, he still hadn't said anything but he stood up and moved his chair over to the screen and Mark followed.

A folder opened with different colorful pictures and other brighter looking videos, but-... the last one... The sky was gray; Jon was standing close to the camera, seemingly adjusting its position, and good lord this was only the thumbnail! The still image! Mark looked at Eduardo who was silently watching the thumbnail and what little they could see of Jon on that small image. Eduardo looked like he wanted to close his eyes or look away but forced himself not to. Mark sighed and nodded: "We're ready." He said and swallowed. The officer opened the video to full screen (the computer screen was quite big, so the full screen became a REALLY BIG screen) and played the video:

Jon was adjusting the telephone to stand with the stone behind it to keep the phone upright. Bruises had already started appearing on his face, BIG ones. "I've put the timer on 3 minutes, so this video will most likely be just a 3 minutes waste of your time. Sorry in advance." He said and ran out towards the edge of the cliff. The way he worded the span of the video didn't sit well with either of the two men watching the video. "Here I am, Eduardo, I hope you're happy now that I'm finally out of your life." Eduardo could do nothing else other than shaking his head slowly. Yes, maybe he wanted less and less to do with Jon because of how annoying Eduardo found Jon to be, but this was not the solution he was imagining... Or-... maybe he had? Suddenly, Jon hit himself, punched his own face, which of course wasn't that hard since he was so very, very weak.

"You like seeing me in pain, right? See? Here, I hurt myself just for you. Does this make you happy? If me hitting myself makes you happy, then take it all in! Look at the pain I'm in!" Jon said some other things throughout the video but Mark and Eduardo were no longer listening. Watching Jon's war against himself hurt too much to see but impossible to look away from. "Oh, and the time is almost up-" Jon turns around, facing the endless amount of water: "Mark, Eduardo, I'm sorry I wasn't more. I'm sorry I was always less. I'm sorry that you had to put up with me for all these years. I'm sorry my existence bothered you so much and caused you so much trouble. Oh, and you guys-..." He turned briefly towards the camera again with what seemed to be tears in his eyes: "Don't come looking for me ok?" Jon turned his head back to the water, his shoulders rose and lowered in taking-a-deep-breath kind of motion. Then, he jumped; Eduardo stopped breathing and stiffened. There was a single second of silence in the video that was followed by thud and a snapping noise. Like someone walking on dry sticks- no... More like-... bones breaking... And then the video ended... Both Eduardo and Mark knew exactly what happened so nobody said anything and the officer was just as shocked as they were.

"I... I'm so sorry..." The officer said but didn't look at the 2 men beside her. She knew this was hard on them. "... I think we're done here... Let's go to the morgue..." Mark said, took Jon's phone and they both stood up. The officer didn't stop them as they left because she didn't feel like she could do that to them. Her boss came into the room and started shouting at her but his words just went through her. What she had seen, out of all the suicide messages-... this was the single one, most disturbing video she had ever seen. She had seen many confession videos. Confessing to someone they love about their feelings and then shooting themselves, all caught on camera. But this... The bones breaking that loudly... That sound was truly sickening...

Eduardo and Mark made their way by bus towards the hospital since Mark had his bus card on him still. Eduardo was still tired as all hell but he had to keep moving, he couldn't quit halfway. Quitting now would be the greatest of dishonors he could ever make to Jon. No amount of beating could be as disgraceful as not seeing Jon off to the afterlife.

When they had arrived at the hospital they exited the bus with their heads lowered in shame, entered the building from the back and found their way to the morgue. A room full of small, square formed doors, doors of death. A nurse approached them holding a bunch of papers: "You 2 are the ones who called us about this-" she stopped and checked through her papers she had been holding before she finished; "Jon, correct?" Eduardo said nothing so Mark decided to speak up: "Yes, we are here to-..." Just what were they doing there? "Say goodbye?..." The nurse said in a quiet downhearted voice, she had been in this exact situation many times probably but yet never had been able to really get used to or deal with the death of a loved one. Mark nodded and the nurse sighed. She looked through a few other papers before she asked: "Maybe you would want to know what happened to him?" Eduardo looked up at the nurse from the floor with wide eyes and Mark was gaping; "Want to know what happened you say?!" Mark asked, baffled as to how they would be able to know what happened to Jon as he died. Eduardo and Mark had heard it on the video taken by the cell phone-... Jon probably broke his neck though, so he must have died instantly. The nurse nodded briefly and started reading from the papers:

"The body fell on the stones, breaking 9 ribs, his right upper arm, and his left thigh." The nurse began listing up a few other things Jon broke and about internal bleeding in Jon's head and torso. Every word was like a papercut on Eduardo's heart, Mark noticed the pain Eduardo was in; Mark had to shut her up somehow! "Not important right now, what I want to know is when he was presumed deceased." Mark said and clenched his fists. The nurse' face contorted itself into-... into disgust blended with the expression one tend to have when there is something one would want to keep unsaid. "The fall did not kill him..." Like a punch to the face, the words lay heavily in the air and the atmosphere around them grew tighter around their bodies, thick and heavy as lead. "... Can we see him?..." Mark asked and looked back at Eduardo again who was white as a sheet. The nurse nodded and walked in the direction from which she had come and said; "Come, I'll bring you to him."

The nurse stopped and opened one of the doors and pulled out a body on a metal board that was covered with a blue-greenish paper-like blanket. The nurse pulled away the sheet a bit and revealed Jon's pale but bruised face with half lidded eyes and mouth just slightly open. "Ok..." Mark began. "When and how did he die?" It was a question both he and Eduardo had on their minds now. "Um, he had most probably not died because of the injuries, he most likely starved to death." Eduardo could feel his legs becoming weaker. Mark wanted to clarify the starvation part; "Doesn't humans die of starvation after 3 weeks without food? And shouldn't he have died because of the internal bleeding?" "The internal bleeding was too small of a matter to be fatal. Without water, a human dies after 3 days approximately or something like that depending on the circumstances. Without food, a human dies after approximately 3 weeks. How long has Jon been gone and has he been eating before he disappeared?" Mark bleached and Eduardo was silently staring at Jon. "He has been gone for 2 weeks, but I think I heard him throwing up in the bathroom a few times since 5 and a half weeks ago or so..." Eduardo stared with eyes filled with terror at Mark; he was about to ask why Mark didn't tell Eduardo about it earlier, but it was clear to Eduardo that at that point he would probably not have cared... So-... Had Jon close to his disappearance gotten bulimia? Awful, just, awful...

Suddenly someone came running into the morgue; it was their rival-trio. "Eduardo!" Edd called with audible concern in his voice. "We heard you found Jon and- oh..." The 3 males stopped a short distance away from Mark and Eduardo and simply stared at Jon's deceased body on the metal bed. "I'll- I'll just leave you alone with him..." The nurse said and went over to one of the pathologists and started speaking inaudibly with the other female. Eduardo put his hand on the paper-like blanket that was swept over Jon's body and pushed it aside just a bit to look at Jon's arm. As the dairy had described, the forearm had a pattern of long and thick scars and some of them were still pretty fresh (well, 2 weeks fresh). Eduardo pulled the paper blanket down to expose Jon's torso; Jon was undressed, probably for the pathologists to analyze him... Jon-... he was... He was extremely thin and his broken bones were visible through his skin- in fact, all of his bones were pretty fucking visible through his skin, even the unbroken ones. He was also colored in a bruised spotted pattern. So many bruises and some of them were probably because of Eduardo's kicking. Jon had told Mark he was going to go apologize to Eduardo when in reality he was on his way to the cliff Eduardo and Mark found him at 2 weeks later.

Eduardo put his hand on the stiff and cold body, shaking it as if attempting to wake Jon up, but Jon wasn't sleeping; he was dead. "Jon..." Eduardo finally managed out with a heavy heart, the first word he had said in a good while now. "I'm sorry..." Eduardo's legs started giving away and he slowly sank down to the ground. "I'm so sorry..." His voice cracked and tears finally started rolling down his cheeks. What was it? In a total of 9 years, Jon had been suffering. And Eduardo didn't even know. Back then, did he even care? Well, no, but he should have. "I'm so, so, so sorry... Come back, please..." Eduardo began pleading, pleading to a dead body to come back to life. Everyone that was in the morgue came to observe the heart-wrenching scene. The rival-trio was quiet, what could they say in a moment like this?

Eduardo remembered why Jon had left from the beginning; it was about the discoloring of the clothes because of the scarlet red towel that Jon washed together with the bright laundry. "It's ok, we can just buy new clothes, just-..." Bargaining was not going to help now, and Eduardo knew that, yet there he was, trying to ask a dead body nicely to come back to life. "Please come back..." Eduardo retracted his hands from Jon's body and covered his face with them instead; he couldn't stand any second he was living in. "Jon..." The tears started falling freely now, much like they would in cartoons. Eduardo curled up, sobbing, trying to form words but it all being blended in with the sobbing, becoming nearly incomprehensible; "Jon-... Please, come back... Please..." The pleading was soul crushing to witness. The pathologists and nurses simply silently watched as Eduardo cried his eyes out and sighed. They had all been in this situation and saw similar situations daily, but this, this was truly THE worst. To see a man cry like this was-... soul crushing... Mark went down on his knees as well, lifted up and hugged Eduardo sideways, not crying, but silently empathizing with his roommate.

Eduardo turned to Mark and embraced the blonde hard, cried against Mark's shoulder and Mark could do nothing else other than being emotional support for his roommate. The rival-trio was at a loss for words. In front of them were their rivals, 2 out of the 3 rivals at least... But this was not a: WE ARE STILL 3! YOU'RE ALREADY DOWN TO 2! HAHA!-moment, they could see how much emotional pain this caused Eduardo and it was a death wish to start laughing. Eduardo had been cruel to Jon for as long as they all could remember, but now that Jon was dead, Eduardo suddenly seemed like he had considered Jon a best friend whom he had been really attached to, like yin and yang or something. It was a weird turn of events, to say the least. Mark waited until Eduardo had quieted down about 11 minutes later before he stated: "We should give him a proper burial..." Eduardo pulled back from Mark and rubbed his red, swollen eyes; "Yeah-" Eduardo agreed and sniffed. "We should..."

/I realized in the middle of this bullshit that I was going to pair Eduardo and Jon because this is a fanfic with EDUARDO X JON... So... I'm going to pull some supernatural shit here and just fix this lil' problem. ^^

Mark stood up and helped Eduardo to stand as well; "No, you know what? Let's cremate him... Lady?" Eduardo looked at the nurse that had followed them in but she was frozen. Quite literally frozen in place. Not moving. Neither did any of the other pathologists and not even Edd, Matt or Tom. "What the fuck is going on?" Eduardo asked and looked at a clock on the wall. The arm which showed the seconds stood still. "I bet you're wondering why time is frozen." Eduardo and Mark whipped around only to stand face to face with-... a shadow... Not on the floor or on the wall, but standing, in front of them. "Who are you? What are you?" Mark asked and pointed at the shadow. "Does not matter. Answer me this: Do you want him back?"

Mark and Eduardo knew immediately what the shadow meant by; him and back. "Yes!" Without little to no thought at all on the consequences of what that meant Eduardo agreed to whatever was in front of them had said. "Then move aside." It said and the 2 males moved out of the shadow's way like minus poled magnets being repelled by another minus poled magnet. "I will be able to revive him to exactly who he was before he died as well as the internal bleeding and broken bones, but I will not be able to heal his mental wounds away. Do I make myself clear?" Mark and Eduardo were so out of it that they thought they were dreaming it all, but looking at each other they could tell that the other was experiencing the same thing.

Mark and Eduardo looked at the black figure again; "Yeah." Eduardo confirmed. "Crystal clear." Mark clarified. In a flash of darkness, the shadow was gone, time started ticking again and they both looked around. Their eyes moved down to Jon and hope rose in their chests as Jon had gained his beige skin color back. Jon wrinkled his nose, blinked and peered up at his roommates. First looking confused and then looking utterly broken: "... Why?..." He asked in a low, hoarse voice. "I... I jumped off a cliff with every intention of dying!" Eduardo had wanted it to have been an accident at first, that Jon fell from the cliff or got pushed, but seeing the video and Jon's reaction now it was clear that it wasn't. "WHY AM I STILL ALIVE?!" Jon was in a panic, this was probably nothing he had hoped for. (Jon... Oh, Jon...) Eduardo though. He wasn't sure if he should be sad, angry or happy. Eduardo lifted Jon's body up enough to enclose his arms around the weakened form: "Welcome back buddy..."

/While I haven't marked this one as mature, it most definitively is. Or- well, it should be. There's no real sexual content in this... yet... but I tackle a sensitive topic and describe it in the most explicit way I can imagine right now.

I was thinking this should be it, but I could go for another chapter if readers liked this one. X3 I can't promise the next one is going to be as long, though, but if you want another chapter you'll have to comment and/or review!

Comments are my cookies! I can't write a new chapter if I don't know what my audience wants! SO COMMENT FOR FUCKS SAKE! XD

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