It's been a while since I wrote a fancition, but after seeing the ending of Mother 3, I could not help myself. This fic was partially inspired by With These Hands and Captivity, which was both amazing fanfics that I suggest you read. I thought, however, how would it turn out if the situation was reversed, and it was the Masked Man that ended up captured.

This is my first Mother 3 Fanfiction and I have know knowledge of the other Mother games. I hope that it turned out well. Thank you for clicking on this fanfiction.

Getting within ten feet of the Masked Man was considered a bad idea, but someone had to do it. Duster and Boney didn't have PSI that they could rely on. Besides, if they didn't distract the man, he'd go after their two PSI users. It was a basic rule of battle to protect the healers, in this case Lucas, and Kumatora had already taken a decent amount of damage.

Despite everything, they were doing quite well in this battle. The Franklin Badge was a real life saver. It was the only thing that kept Lucas and friends from being killed by the Masked Man when he first attacked them. It didn't really even the odds though. The boy was surprisingly fast, using both a sword and cannon. Even worse, he somehow knew PK Love. The team had never been on the receiving end of the spell before. Now it made a lot of sense why it was considered an extremely powerful PSI.

The Masked Man was slowing wearing down. He slashed and cut at the two melee fights near him, but he seemed to be the one taking more damage. Every time he cut Duster or Boney, they were healed up by Lucas or, in rare cases, Kumatora. If the Masked Man could get to them, the battle would likely end much quicker, but it was hard to get past the other two.

The boy fought with very few tell signs. It was hard to tell when he was going to attack, let alone whether he was going to use his sword or cannon. They'd eventually adjusted to his patterns. However, he did give off signs for his strongest PSI attack, PK Love. It was as strong as Lucas'. Despite having pulled more needles than Lucas, they were still at the same level. It felt like the Masked Man was holding back a bit, but nobody wanted to think of the possibility that this boy got even stronger. For all they knew this one could be PK Love Omega, and none of them could take that.

Duster decided he had to act fast. They may be winning, but one PK Love could change the flow of this battle. The tall man moved in close for a powerful kick before the Masked Man could launch his next attack. As always, the air cracked with the speed that the thief could kick at. It wasn't something the exhausted Masked Man could dodge. The kick smashed into the back of his head. He was saved only by his helmet, but there was no doubt that it must be hell on his eardrums every time that thing was hit.

The thief still had more to do. Two kicks, three kicks, he had gotten in a good five before the Masked Man raised his sword to stop Duster. The last kick ended up pulling up to avoid the blow. That's when it happened. His foot caught, though Duster hadn't noticed at first. Up went the helmet, clattering onto the ground. The Pigmasked Troops gave a shocked squeal. Nobody had seen the commander without his mask before.

He had the same face as Lucas. Everyone froze, or at least they tried to. Duster hadn't been the only one planning to attack. Boney was already in the air. Dog's eyes weren't quite as good as human's but he knew this face. The dog wanted to stop, but the momentum carried on his leap. He smashed into the boy, causing him to tumble. The Unmasked Man could take no more damage after this point.

His body sparked out of control. When he tried to stand, his robotic body went into spasms and collapsed back onto the ground. This only made the Pigmask squeal even more. Terrified of anyone that could take down the Commander, the soldiers ran back to their ships and took off. The Masked Man could fly away on his own. Or at least, he normally could.

Even though he could normally fly away, the Masked Man didn't open up his wings. Instead he kept trying to stand and get to his helmet. It was a difficult work, as his limbs kept going out of control. The orange haired boy took nearly a minute before he could get to his feet. It was enough time for the group to unfreeze.

"Claus?" Lucas asked quietly. After the Tanetane island incident, he was a lot more careful of things that looked like his brother. But why would the Masked Man of all people look like his brother? He didn't even put safe mushrooms in his omelettes anymore. This couldn't be another hallucination.

The Claus look alike didn't bother to answer. He didn't even act like that was his name. Instead, he struggled to get to his feet and slowly moved towards the discarded helmet on the ground. It was slow progress. His robotic parts were in low on energy, as he was low on PSI. The robotic boy knew he would not be able to make it to the helmet before the others chose to strike him down, but he could not be without it.

Though he was nervous that the robotic boy would attack him, Lucas pulled the boy he thought to be his brother into a tight hug. The other boy didn't seem to know how to react to this. The Masked Man didn't resist the embrace, but it didn't stop his slow shuffle towards the helmet. Lucas' feet dragged across the ground as the boy went. His brother sure had gotten strong over the years.

"Claus? Don't you remember me? Why are you fighting with the Pigmasks?" Lucas kept asking questions but the other boy gave him no answer. Within ten feet of the helmet, the red haired boy's body could no longer move. It sparked a few more time before he collapsed onto the ground.

Lucas kept his grip on his brother and held him off of the ground. He was much heavier than Lucas had remembered, but he was just happy to have his brother with him. He seemed to have forgotten about the other members of his party, but they were approaching. Boney reached them first. He sniffed the air, trying to find that familiar Claus smell. If he focussed hard enough, he could find some, but it was mostly hidden by the smell of metal and chemicals.

"Lucas?" It was Kumatora that had the courage to speak first. "You keep calling his Claus, and he face is like yours. Does that mean he's…?"

She didn't need to finish her sentence. Lucas was already nodding. He didn't care if the boy didn't remember him or had been the Masked Man up until now. His face, his smell, his everything was just like Claus'. This was the twin brother he had been missing for so long.

"This is my brother, Claus. Dad's been looking for him in the mountains all this time. He never checked the Pigmask army, though. That explains everything. That's why Dad never found him. He must have hurt his head or something. That's why he didn't come home." Lucas' tone was hopeful. The others looked less confident than the boy. They didn't believe it was all that simple.

"He's still part of the Pigmask army. Doesn't that mean he's still our enemy? The Magypsies even said that they couldn't feel any heart in him. Plus the robotic parts. He might have been your brother but he might not be himself anymo-" She was trying to be nice about it, but the moment that Kumatora had suggested that Claus was no longer himself, Lucas seemed to get rather upset

"If he's not himself anymore, I'll just remind him of who he used to be!" The boy pulled his brother even closer to himself. Boney rested his head on the stomach of the robotic boy. He let out a low whine.

"(Duster lost his memories too. We can just get Claus' back,)" the dog suggested. This would normally have earned him a petting, but not right now.

"And how are we supposed to take care of him? What about when he wakes up and tries to kill us again?" Kumatora spoke rather harshly. She felt a hand on her back and looked back to Duster, who was shaking his head. They had both known that trying to convince Lucas that his brother couldn't be saved was useless, but the pink haired princess had tried anyway

"Maybe Ionia has a way to keep him from using PSI. Then we can just hide his weapons," Lucas continued to speak hopefully. He never took his eyes off of his brother's face. He hadn't even realized that Ionia had made their way over to the group.

The pink haired Magypsie hadn't expected to see them all still out here. They would have thought the group would be about to pull the needle. The blood and burn marks all over the ground finally tipped them off to why it had taken them so long. The ancient humanoid couldn't help but sigh. They would finish digesting those pickles of theirs before the group even thought to pull the needle.

"Well now, here I was thinking you all would be ready to pull out my needle. So why is it you're all sitting around on the ground?" Ionia placed their hands on this hips as they scolded the group. It didn't take them much longer than that to notice Claus. "Oh, it's the boy from the Drago Plateau. If I remember correctly, he was the one that I taught PK Love before little Lucas-"

Ionia stopped there, a suddenly realization hitting them. Flint, the boy's father, had been looking for him and if Ionia remembered correctly it was some kind of life or death situation. It would explain why the boy never returned. Magyspies weren't evil creature, but little things like human lives meant very little to them. As such, they hadn't thought about the red haired boy their had taught PSI very often. If he died, he would be like the many people that they had taught before. A human life was just the blink of an eye to the Magypsies.

"So this was the other one pulling out the needles? Well, well, well… That explains more than I would like it to." Ionia moved closer. "What do you plan to do with him?"

"We're going to take him with us, of course!" Lucas exclaimed before anyone else could answer. "As long as he is with us the Pigmasks can't pull anymore needles! He can stay, right?"

The blond looked at the other members of the party franticly. Boney was the only other one that really wanted Claus there, but none of them could deny that keeping the boy with them was for the best. It was that or kill him. Killing the boy who looked like Claus would turn Lucas against them, so that was an impossible option. That left them only with the option to bring him with them.

"Well, first, we should get the poor dearie all healed up. I know I said to pull my needle right away, but I can't have you doing that with such a big weight on your shoulders. We can wait a few days, right?" Ionia covered their mouth and gave a low pitched giggle. "Come now, let's go back to my house. Until he gets a little better, he can use my bed."

Ionia gestured for them to follow as they headed back to their house. Lucas attempted to pick up his brother and carry him, but he was a lot heavier than he should be. Lucas was a strong boy, but was tired from the fight. The group decided it was best for Duster to carry the boy on his back. That didn't stop Lucas was walking right beside his crippled friend, making sure that his brother didn't wake up and wasn't in pain.

None of them bothered to bring his helmet along.

If you've made it to this point, thank you for reading the first chapter.