Author Notes: The original version of this one-shot has slightly different formatting and can be found linked in my profile.
Lucas pulls the final needle... and as the world around him crumbles, darkness begins to fall over the Nowhere Islands.
Lucas doesn't understand.
The first thing he realises is how alone he is in the darkness. "Dad?" he calls out, "Boney?" His voice strains when he doesn't hear a response, and he tells himself not to panic. "Kumatora! Duster?" but his voice is swallowed up by the darkness. He suddenly feels very small. No... he thinks, This isn't supposed to be how it ends! This is supposed to be what happens when Claus- but Lucas ends that thought there before it becomes more painful than it already is.
Lucas begins to walk, not knowing what else to do. He tries to stay optimmistic, hopeful. Maybe the others are here, lost like he is. That is all that keeps him going for now. Lucas' footsteps are distinctly muted, as if the darkness is trying to defeat even the sound of his efforts to keep despair at bay. But even as he calls out again and again until his voice goes hoarse and his throat becomes scratchy, Lucas knows he is the only one here, and that thought crushes his spirit more than knowing the masked man was Claus, even more than the old realisation that mom can't tuck him in bed and give him a goodnight kiss anymore.
People had told Lucas he'd grown strong, but here, alone in the dark, Lucas knows more than ever that he is still the weak, cry-baby boy he always was. He'd held back his tears through his journey with Boney, Kumatora and Duster. He'd held them back even when he wanted nothing more than to curl up and cry. But now, with no one here to hear him, Lucas cried in the end.
He doesn't hear it at first, but as the sound of the slowest heartbeat grows louder, Lucas pauses and wipes his eyes.
Huh...? Is there something here...?
Lucas looks around and realises the darkness isn't as absolute and inpenetrable as he thought it was; he can make out the faintest shimmer of red in the distance. He wonders, Maybe...? but doesn't finish the question in fear of jinxing it, and forces his legs to move forward even though he doesn't know if he has the strength to keep going. He stumbles toward the splash of colour and before he knows it, he bumps into something solid. Lucas closes his eyes and reaches out, palm touching something smooth and cool, but strangely... he can feel warmth lurking undernearth.
The dark world begins to rumble and the thing beneath his hands moves, catching Lucas by surprise. He stumbles back, watching in awe as a great reptilian eye waxes into existence from the darkness. The eye is huge, larger than Lucas' house, and is yellower than a sunflower's petals. Light begins to break through the darkness in rays, filtering through a sky of purple and clouds of pink, bathing this empty world in colour. Lucas shields his eyes, waiting for them to adjust in this sudden light, but whatever exclamation of surprise he had dies as the awesome sight before him strikes Lucas speechless.
A dragon. A dragon whose head alone is larger than Tazmily village. A dragon whose huge, curled up body blocks out the horizon and stretches out farther than Lucas' eye can see. The dragon of Nowhere Islands has woken, and Lucas has never felt smaller before this magnificent creature.
Lucas is afraid.
don't be, the dragon and his heart tell him and the two simple words reverberate in Lucas' being.
He curls a hand to his chest, and whispers in a voice that barely leaves his lips, "Then what should I feel?" What should he feel in a place that's missing everything?
The world tells him, i exist because your mind is confused undecided unsure, and the dragon of his heart speaks, but your heart knows your answer.
Lucas doesn't understand.
The dragon breathes. The dragon's breath is a gentle breeze swirling around Lucas, brushing against him like a warm embrace, before it flows past him. Lucas feels compelled to turn around, and obliges. He sees the dragon's breath turn into colour and solidify into a woman. A mother, he instinctively knows - and Lucas can't stop the still raw pang in his heart at that thought - who smiles at him with gentle eyes. Before his eyes, the woman transforms into a ghostly queen with golden falls of hair, a pink dress and a crown on her head. i was born from a dream of a lingering feeling. When the dream faded, the feeling of love remained
As Lucas watches, the queen closes her eyes and clasps her hands together and begins to sing. Take a melody...
Even though Lucas has never heard this song before, it feels wonderfully familiar, filling him with a warmth in his chest and a lightening of his heart. This was the feeling of every day when his family was together, a feeling that is still there even though his family is now apart. Lucas curls his fingers into a fist and bites the bottom of his trembling lip. Again, the dragon breathes and forms the figures of three children - a boy dressed in similar clothes as himself, a girl in a pink dress wearing a matching hat, and a mousey looking boy with glasses - all clasping their hands and joining the queen in her - no, our - song. Raise your voices.
The dragon and his heart speak, love is what connects us all, and as more people appear with the dragon's every slow exhale - the children Lucas has seen in the Chaos Theatre at New Pork City, all seven Magypsies, people from the future, people from the past - Lucas knows, knows, knows that the dragon's words are the truth of what he feels from the bottom of his heart. With the dragon's next breath, he sees his mother, Claus beside her, both singing, and Lucas can't be sad anymore even though tears begin to roll down his cheek unbidden. This is the love in Lucas' heart, the love that touched the dragon's heart. This is the love that never dies, that lives on through times, through worlds, through life. This is the love that makes all things sing. we are different but we are the same.
With a great rumble, the dragon joins the chorus of voices and croons the tune without hesitation. As the melody draws close to its end, the great yellowness of the dragon's eyes begins to wane; the dragon has heard the call from Lucas' heart and returns to its slumber. Even as Lucas is smiling and wiping away his tears while the world fades into white and the Nowhere Islands return...
Love is the melody we all can sing...
Lucas finally understands.