AN: Link to the song (replace the space between 'youtube' and 'com' with a period/dot) Lyrics are in bold!
youtube com/watch?v=PAfawGaBt2E
A teenage girl with short, scruffy brown hair sat on a desk chair at her window overlooking the city, fingers drumming on the sill as she thought about her senior project. It was proving difficult; her advanced art classes were tricky, and she'd been assigned a project on color studies. So subsequently she had bits of scribbled on paper pinned all over her room, along with notes on the subject.
She'd grown up a lot over the years. The young woman scribbling on the index card with the magenta colored pencil, backlit by the golden glow of her room if one looked up at her from the outside, was still recognizable as the bouncy child that she had been before. The same short hair (she'd tried keeping it long, once, but it hadn't worked out), the same love of the color red (she was wearing a red tank top), and the same creative mind.
An obviously tired mind, though. She yawned widely, snatching up the notecard she'd just colored on, pinning it to a string she'd hung for that purpose. Sleepy, half lidded eyes vaguely took in the colors clipped there (she'd organize them in the morning). Maroon, orange, purple, yellow, cyan, bright green, magenta, red… Wait.
Something seemed familiar about those last few colors…
Oh. How could she have forgotten? Those were the colors, in order, of an old friend.
Why did her mind keep doing this? It had been more than ten years and still she got a reminder just about weekly. Some part of her wanted to believe that he was trying to communicate with her somehow. After all he had lived in a land of thought. But though she remembered all she had experienced when she was a child, she knew that their worlds were pretty separate. Aside from him appearing in her room when she was six, she'd never seen hide nor hair nor electrical appliance of any sort of monster or magical creature or thoughtform.
She wished she had, really.
Usually, when RGB crossed her mind, she pushed him right back out because those memories hurt in a dozen different ways. But this time… She didn't. What was different? She didn't know. Sleep deprivation? Needing a break from her project? She wasn't sure.
Almost like a zombie, she ducked under her bed and pulled out a small box. It wasn't decorated, but it was stuffed to the brim. The cause of that was immediately shown when she opened it. A reddish sweater was crammed into the box and she pulled it out. It was far too small for her, but she hugged it anyways. The fabric was soft and worn. Kind of like the yellow sock she pulled out next. Little black eyes had been drawn onto it because she couldn't find buttons as a kid to make a perfect replica.
"Hi Assok." She stuck her hand inside the sock puppet and made the mouth move and smile at her. She smiled back, reminded of when a similar creature would do the same thing. Tears started to gather in her eyes.
Peering into the box, she saw a rather squished boater hat, a single glowing vial, and a few scraps of paper. She placed the hat on her head, seemingly without knowing she did it, and then she pulled out the papers. They were drawings, two of them. One, a childish crayon scribbling of a little short-haired girl in that red sweater, a yellow sock on her head, and a man in a white and red outfit with a TV for a head that dripped rainbows holding a cane. And the other was the same drawing rendered carefully in colored pencil, done earlier that year actually. It had obviously taken a lot of time and love to draw.
"Why did you have to do that, you idiot," she said quietly to the drawing; more specifically, she spoke to the TV-headed man. "Getting yourself into all that trouble just because I was stupid and got lost."
She could remember it like it was yesterday.
You were the shadow to my light, did you feel us?
All that had transpired in the market, how RGB had exposed himself by yelling, how Click had wanted her to murder him. How she'd refused, because though she hadn't trusted him, she'd honestly cared a lot for him all the same. No matter if he was a monster with a darkened past.
But then he'd made a mess and gotten punished.
Another star, you fade away…
Afraid our aim is out of sight
Wanna see us… Alight…
It hadn't been fair! They'd been trying to save the world! And now that world could be dead for all she knew. Tears dripping down her face, she allowed the memories to come back to her like a lapping tide.
"While it appears the imminent danger has passed, there are still many, many concerns," the angelic being had said, bending over to look at Hero and RGB.
"Ah well, we'll leave you to sort them out," RGB had said with a tip of his hat. "Nice seeing–"
"Not so fast." The creature that looked vaguely Aztec, or maybe Egyptian pulled him back by the lapel. "You caused many to be hurt, some even destroyed. You cannot continue to do so, and a punishment is required."
"Wh-what?! I thought Hero got to decide–"
"And she decided to let you off scot free," the second said sternly. "That cannot happen."
"That's not fair!" cried Hero, crossing her arms. "I saved him fair and square and you meanies are not gonna do anything about that." She blew a raspberry, wishing Assok was there to back her up with a squeak of 'blighterpoop!' in their general direction.
"Hero." RGB had bent down to look Hero in her eyes. His screen leaked yellow mostly, and some blue. "Just… Stop, okay? Don't think I can smooth talk my way out of this one. These guardian types are pretty powerful, heh." He sounded nervous, and she had heard that tone many a time before. Especially right before the self-proclaimed coward did something either brave or stupid or (usually) both.
"Let's just see what the sentence is, eh?"
She nodded, heart picking up as she hoped that her efforts, her desire to save him, wouldn't be wasted. The Aztec guardian and the angelic guardian seemed to be in a heated debate that only they could hear, save for the hiss of their voices. A few words were caught ("what if…" "temporary guardian" "too risky") before their voices dropped even further.
She had had the feeling that they'd been discussing her, but she never found out.
The Aztec being suddenly drew himself up to his full height and glared at his counterpart. "This is final. It is my decision as senior guardian and it shall be upheld immediately."
RGB made an audible gulping sound, heard by Hero crouching behind his legs since he'd finally stood to face those who would judge him.
"Now go fetch me some |||||||||||," the senior guardian asked, and his female counterpart strode off to do so. While she was gone, his eyes glittered and he said nothing.
She had sought out RGB's hand when she'd noticed he was shaking again, though he tried quite hard to hide it. And for the second time in the last ten minutes, he didn't pull away.
By the time she came back, he was ready to collapse from nerves. She and RGB alike had to watch as the two cut a spool of ||||||||||| into a few strips.
"Hold out your wrists." The man turned and looked down at Hero, and she remembered giving his hand a squeeze. He'd just protected her twice, and she'd protected him in return. Perhaps this could be her second point in what was seemingly a big game of who can save who?
To her surprise, RGB squeezed her fingers in return, the TV test pattern on his face quirking into a rueful smile before he held out his wrists to be tied. Still, he kept his gaze on her instead.
"Huh, I always hated holding hands. Gave me static shocks, you know, and I bet you can guess how comfortable that would be, being me, no?" He was hoping to get a giggle out of her, but the best he could manage was a tiny grin. "But… Just this once, mind you… It was rather nice."
"RGB?" It was the deep voice of the Aztec creature once more. Her head and RGB's screen snapped up to face him at the exact same time. "We have your sentence."
"And?" he breathed, the borderline panicked noise echoing through the vents on either side of his head.
Their eyes were unreadable, though RGB thought he might've caught the faintest flicker of an apology in the angel creature's eyes.
"Execution, effective immediately."
To her recollection, it seemed as if things froze a little right then. Her heartbeat, the blinks of the crowd, RGB's ink dribbles… Everything.
Execution? They meant like… Killing him? They couldn't be serious, she had JUST SAVED HIM.
And, to her memories, at least, which on top of being old were rather traumatic, time started again a frozen heartbeat later.
"NO WAY!" she shrieked, just as a veritable waterfall of yellow paint dripped down RGB's face like poisoned tears. Okay, he got scared easily. But he could always at least try to fix it or get out of it! But now… Now there was just the thing itself left: dying. That was it. Game over. And out of all the things he feared… RGB feared death the most.
This admittedly was not how he thought it would happen, though.
"Yes," replied the being with a cold stare. "Finish binding him."
More threads of the white, tingly insulator were wrapped around RGB's ankles and upper arms and knees. His shaking made it a little more difficult. Once, a few of the yellow drips landed on the guardian angel's shoulder, and he apologized softly before she gave him another sympathetic look.
"It will be death or permanent entrapment by water," rattled off the head guardian, and not only did RGB's antennas flatten to his head, but his hat fell to the ground with a soft plop.
"Permanent entrapment?" he croaked out, mouth hitching in the middle like he'd swallowed mid-words.
"Yes. It's possible you will end up in a permanent cycle of death, negativity, and revival."
"Negativity?" she had asked, peering from her place behind RGB's bound legs.
"Yes," answered the lower tier guardian. "Monsters have negative forms that appear if they die for a short while. It allows them to fight off what harmed them and regenerate." She finally understood what she had seen, then, and more remorse pierced her soul.
Her schism, unknown to her, had reopened a bit.
"So… S-so what you're saying," came a quiet, shaking voice that had a dangerous edge. "That instead of just getting it over with and kicking the blasted bucket, I could be stuck in a goddamn torture cycle for all eternity?! Dying and healing and dying over and over and over again?! Who the bloody hell do you think you are to do that to someone?"
RGB could not level a single finger at the creature, not any more, but he lifted his bound wrists and did his best. "I suppose I've been wrong all these years. I'm not the very worst monster. I'll gladly cede that lovely title to you." Red and yellow were starting to collect near his lapels, reminding her absurdly of ketchup and mustard. The thought nearly made her laugh in terrified hysteria.
"Maybe so," replied the creature. "But this is the only way to contain your negative form." From inside his cloak, he pulled out a ball and chain like the one Hero had given him, except this one was metal.
It was fastened to RGB's left ankle, and then he was prodded nearer to the wall of water that made up the limits of the market. To add insult to injury, he was forced to hop, and the instrument of prodding was his own cane. At least his executioner rolled the heavy metal weight for him.
All too soon, he was facing that wall of water.
Where are you now?
It wasn't visible from the outside, but RGB had closed his eyes. He didn't know what else to do, and evidently, neither did Hero.
"WAIT!"
Where are you now?
Or maybe she did have an idea. His screen flicked back to his internal viewing mode, and he looked at her looking at the guardians. Her face was tear streaked and defeated, and as he watched she scrubbed at one eye with her sweatersleeve.
She didn't have any ideas.
Where are you now?
"Can I a-at least t-tell him… Goodbye?" she sniffled, trying not to let her voice get weird in the middle like it sometimes did when she was exceptionally scared or sad. The guardians simply nodded in eerie unison.
RGB looked at the ground instead of Hero as she approached. He once again bent down to her level, and only his strange agility kept him from toppling over. Still avoiding her gaze, he spoke. "Look, Hero, I'm so sor–!"
A paper tissue had come up to wipe at the streams of yellow running from the corner of his screen.
"I keep tissues in my pockets in case I cry," whispered Hero with a few sniffs. "You look like you're crying real bad."
"... You're right about that, kid," he replied with what came across as a very watery smile, and a little blue joined the torrent of other colors. "You humans, unusually perceptive as children, I'll never understand how you do it."
She had been too overcome to speak, so she offered him the hat she'd picked up off the ground a few minutes earlier. Once again, that little sad smile appeared and he raised his hands and pushed it back towards her.
"You keep it. After all, everyone needs a signature look and mine just so happens to be fantastic."
Slowly, she retracted the hat and held it close to her chest, right up over her heart, unconscious of how its true owner had just done the same not five minutes earlier. Or perhaps she had simply forgotten.
Was it all in my fantasy?
Where are you now?
Were you only imaginary?
Later, right after she got home, she'd taken to peeking under her bed every ten minutes or so to see if the hat was still there. It always was, no matter how much her adventures with the TV headed man felt like a big dream. And after that she'd promptly dissolve into tears again.
Her parents didn't understand.
"Be safe, Hero," he'd said next, quietly. He would have hugged her if he could've. "Maybe I couldn't take you home, but some creature here must be powerful enough. There's one last vial of nightmare in my breast pocket, perhaps you could use that as your bartering chip." With care, she found the vial he spoke of, avoiding the ink splattered around like technicolor carnage.
"I could tell you would have been it," he said, voice getting even lower though he hadn't adjusted his volume control at all. "The true hero, I mean. We could have done it, you and I."
"You really think so?" she'd asked, wet eyes big and blinking. He'd nodded.
"I know it, and what did I tell you about listening to me?"
"To not do it."
His voice hitched. "Heh, slip up around a child and they'll never let you forget it. But remember this: I believed in us the whole time."
"Your time for goodbyes is done," came the deep voice that cut their sappy moment like a knife would snap a sinew.
"Ah, well, the curtain falls," RGB choked out. He debated on singing a sad tune, but decided that might just get him shoved in without preamble and his goal was to stall. To do anything to make this not his reality.
She'd clung to his legs like she had in the darkness until the angel pulled her away, screaming and fighting with no words and only silent anger and why was this so unfair?!
"Please… She doesn't need to see this," he said quietly as he stood again, facing the wall of water that was soon to be the last thing he'd ever see or feel or experience-
"I WANT TO!" shrieked her high pitched voice. "I WANT TO BE THERE FOR HIM!"
He would have blinked if he could. She hadn't seemed particularly… Worried about that sort of thing before. She'd continually tried to wriggle away from him, and now she refused to leave.
What a turn of events.
With the back of his hand he wiped at his primarily blue and yellow screen. "O-okay then," he said simply. "You're the hero. You can make your own choices. And… Thank you."
Where are you now?
For a split second, as his head swiveled to face the water again, he debated asking someone to turn the dial at the top of his head to put him into his television mode trance, because he figured maybe it would hurt less or maybe he wouldn't feel it at all. He could always ask under the premise of not wanting Hero to hear him screaming…
But he decided, finally, that he was done with being the coward. If redemption could be earned under times of stress, then, just for himself, he could be brave. He thought. (He hoped).
"Okay."
There was a sharp snap and a lance of pain through his chest as the Aztec figure closed his hand around the cane he had somehow acquired, snapping it neatly in half. Seeing as it was of his essence, RGB felt an immediate sense of helpless loss.
"You could have snapped your fingers and escaped," the guardian said flatly, no emotion or remorse in his tone. The television man simply nodded.
"Okay," he said again. It seemed all there was left to say. He couldn't say 'I'm ready' because he never would be ready, and he had already said his goodbyes.
And then he received a push from behind and his world, paradoxically, felt like one of fire.
Atlantis
Under the sea, under the sea…
On the other side of the wall of water, Hero howled as she saw the heavy weight disappear with the one who had become her friend and protector, even if she didn't always appreciate that too much.
She still struggled against the restraining arms, eyes glued to the figure she could still see thrashing in the deep. And she could hear him, muffled screeches and cries for help and what sounded like pleading, all coupled with coughs and a struggle to draw the air he still needed, even as a monster. There were crackles and fizzes and zaps and pops and all sorts of ungodly noises as his electrical body failed.
For one second, she saw his hands spasm and a black eye sweep across his screen before a current swept across him.
And he was gone, leaving nothing but eddies of blue and gold on the surface of the water wall.
All she could do now was curl up into her little fetal ball and cry.
Where are you now?
When she came out of her trance, still clutching the picture in her hands. She smoothed it, carefully because he didn't want it to remain wrinkled. Her face was a mess of tears and snot, and she pulled a tissue out of her pocket. You never knew when you (or a friend) would need one…
Another dream
The monster's running wild inside of me
Now she couldn't get him out of her head for the first time in a long time. He seemed to run through her thoughts on his long, gangley legs, bringing back all those adventures they'd had. Her favorite was the insult war they'd had in the sick tree.
I'm faded
I'm faded
So lost…
I'm faded
Her hands curled into fists as she closed over the box, leaving the hat on her head. She went back over to the window and looked up at the grinning crescent moon.
What… What if…?
Not for the first time since it had happened, but for the first time in a long time, she let herself fantasize.
These shallow waters never met what I needed
I'm letting go, a deeper dive
The angel being had sent her back a few hours after RGB's execution, just a snap of her fingers needed. How would she get back to their world?
She admitted that the night immediately after she got back, at dawn, she'd snuck up to the roof with the hat that she fully considered to be magic, and whacked the exhaust pipe with it.
No stairs into the sky.
And then she'd had another good cry, of course.
But now… What if she did find a way back? She could take scuba gear, she was a human, she was different, and the sea would have to let her go. If RGB was stuck in a cycle of death and painful rebirth, then she could save him. She could. She would be able to hear him and seek him out and get him free and most likely bring him home with her.
And… If not…
Eternal silence of the sea
Then she could try her damndest to find whatever was left of him and give him a proper funeral. Somewhere dry with trees and pretty things. She wondered if she could seek out Assok to help her. Perhaps he would become a tree and no longer need to run away.
But… He had to still be alive.
I'm breathing… Alive…
Then she felt guilty. She should wish him dead, with that hell he was going through if he wasn't. Sometimes, death was better, and she knew that her friend would agree.
Where are you now?
Where are you now?
Really… Now she was torturing herself, too, wondering what had become of him. They'd become quite the dynamic duo at the time of his probable death, like how she knew that it was because of them that that broken tree had healed.
Under the bright but faded lights
You set my heart on fire
It had brought some light to their dim world.
She sighed and rested her arms on her sill, pressing her forehead against them right after.
Where are you now?
Where are you now?
Dwelling on this would only make life harder. She would refuse to think about pulling her friend from the depths like a true hero, bringing him back to her home and hopefully giving him time to heal, because he couldn't say in his world any longer. Couldn't fantasize about convincing her parents to not freak out and let him stay, because wherever they went they went together, now. Couldn't hope for them simply rolling with it and proceeding to pester the man as if he too was their kid, to the point of where RGB finally got annoyed because "no, I can't eat pizza!" and she would laugh and laugh until she cried, whether from mirth or relief she wouldn't know.
"ARGH!" she cried, slamming a fist down on the windowsill as she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get a grip. After a few harsh breaths, they evened out and she stood up again. Carefully, she unclipped the five colors that denoted RGB, stacked them into a little pile, and slipped them into the box.
Could she have just rearranged them? Did she now have to make new cards for those colors? Yes. But now that felt unfair, and the serendipity had to mean something… Right?
Maybe so.
But now she had to sleep. It was a Friday night, but she wanted to finish this work tomorrow. And she had five colors to redo. Replacing the items in her box, the girl flicked off the light, and, against her will, became lost in memories from long ago once again.
Where are you now?
Atlantis
Under the sea, under the sea
Where are you now?
Another dream
The monster's running wild inside of me
I'm faded
I'm faded
So lost, I'm faded
I'm faded
So lost, I'm faded
AN: Also I noticed while rereading the comic, on page 298, one of the bystanders calls for RGB to be drowned, so I suppose that makes this even more plausible perhaps?
This also was written in September of 2017, so more of the story has since come to light!