Date Started: 8/14/11 (Chapter 1)
Date Finished: 10/15/11 (Chapter 1)
Title: Final Distance
Pairing: None
Rating: T (Dark themes not suitable for the little ones.)
Fandom: Mother 3
Genre: Family/Tragedy/Drama/Hurt/Comfort (but only two fit, so...)
Summary: A retelling of Mother 3 in a somewhat more modern alternate universe. "I thought I lived a peaceful life. I was happy with my family. Did I do something wrong? Why did everything start going downhill after that day?"
The title name is inspired by Utada's "Final Distance," a remade version of "Distance" as a dedication to a little girl who was killed and looked up to Utada.
Yoshi: I wanted to get the feeling of tragedy from the original game in this story, but from a different viewpoint; a more realistic one - one where people can relate to it more. Tragedy hits people every day, and this is dedicated to those said people.
Lucas has a story I think I can retell without changing the meaning. Tragedies in his life are brought on by technology. It makes you think. Maybe technology isn't as great as everyone makes it seem? After all, we just want to see the wonderful things in life.
By the way, no Duster, Kumatora, Salsa, or others who don't play a huge role on Lucas and his family as a whole. This is more focused on him.
This is similar to the game in a few ways, so you might want to beat the game first if you haven't. This will be a short story, so I apologize if it's too fast paced. This is really the most I've written for one chapter.
Originally, this was planned to just be a one-shot. However, suspense may build up more if I simply just separate chapters. Just saying this by the way, but this will probably be only two or three chapters in length.
Chapter 1: Near or Far
At a young age, you're at your happiest times in life, right? You're innocent, and you don't know why the neighbors across the street live the way they do, or why they're always fighting each other. You don't know why they're always in a hurry to work in the morning, or anything trivial such as that.
I always thought my life would stay that way…but…
One thing after another... Something went wrong because of something else. I thought I lived a peaceful life. I was happy with my family. Did I do something wrong? Why did everything start going downhill after that day? I ask myself things like this often.
Do you want to hear my story?
...Thank you...
To tell the truth, I don't know who else I can talk to about this. It's not easy it bring up in conversations with other people.
This is a sad story. It has happy parts too, so don't worry.
How do I start it off? Well, I guess it all started on that day when we were almost late for school...
And remember! You said you'd listen.
"Hey! Lucas! Come on or we'll be late for school!"
There's a ringing noise.
"Lucas! Are you awake?"
There's another ringing noise. Is it getting louder?
"Oh, come on Lucas! Do I have to come back up there?"
Isn't someone going to answer that? If you don't answer it, the person's going to hang up.
"You do this a lot, you know that?"
Maybe I should answer it. Everyone else is busy.
"Lucas."
I'm getting closer to the phone. Wait, when did it become a telephone booth? Oh well...
"Hey! Earth to Lucas!"
Huh? When did Claus get here? Is it him calling on the phone?
Is it? Is it?
"Huh? ...! Owww!" Before I realized it, I had fallen out of the bed onto the floor...head first. I guess I was dreaming.
"Finally! You sleep like you're in a coma!" I looked up and recognized the voice immediately. It was Claus, my older and only brother. We're twins actually, but he's still older than me.
"E-Eh? Oh, hey Claus..." I always sounded meek when I talked. I never did like that about myself. My brother could always say what was on his mind.
"Come. On! We have to go, or the bus'll leave without us!" Claus lifted up his hand and lightly bonked me on the head. It didn't hurt, but I couldn't help but flinch anyway.
"Okay..."
Claus didn't leave the room. He just stood by the door and tapped his foot over and over impatiently while constantly staring at the back of his wrist like he had a watch on. He didn't. I could tell he was indirectly telling me to hurry up.
The second I finished getting dressed, he ran behind me and pushed my shoulders as if to make me run faster out the door.
We waved off our mom and dad quickly while running out the door. This wasn't usually how our mornings went, but I did sleep in every now and again.
How could I have known it would be one of the worst things I could have done back then? Though now it sounds like I'm trying to avoid the blame.
Oh? S-Sorry... I got off-track again. Anyway...
What happened next? My memory's a bit fuzzy, but I'll try and remember everything perfectly.
Oh! The school day ended. My brother and I were at home. And then...
"Hey, Mom, what's your favorite thing to eat?" Claus loved to ask this question for some reason.
"Haha… The same thing as you, of course." Our mom always answered the same way, but it made Claus happy every time.
This was usually how dinner went. Claus would be talking our mom's ear off, and I would watch the whole thing, nodding my head every now and again. It was a peaceful life though. I was very thankful for having the family I had.
My brother, Claus, was very blunt, but he would stick up for me if something happened. Our mom, Hinawa, was always so nice to us, but she knew when not to spoil us. I can't forget about my dad, Flint, though. He doesn't talk very much, but he's just as nice as Mom is. All in all, it's the best life a person could ask for.
The tragedy never did hit us until a little later on, so don't worry right now. We should enjoy these times while they're still around. A person never can understand the deeper meanings in life. Sure, they can have their theories. It's still not quite the same as being able to understand. I wonder if this all could have been avoided had I understood more about life…
Eventually, a few days had gone by before I knew it.
"Hey, Mom?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think we could visit Grandpa again?"
"Of course."
Claus wanted to see our grandfather, Alec, on that day. I was reluctant about the whole idea. I had woken up and there was this feeling in my stomach. I felt like something good wasn't going to happen on this day. Mom wanted to go to the new shopping district to buy a gift for Grandpa though. Claus and I got ready to go.
"Hey, hey! Maybe I'll find Mr. Drago today!" For some reason, Claus had named this strange type of lizard "Mr. Drago." It was a lizard we had only seen around our grandfather's house, so he thought it deserved a "good name." I didn't have any objections to the idea.
"You'll never know unless you try..." I wanted to sort of give Claus a boost in the idea. He looked excited, so this would hopefully make his mood even better.
Claus just gave me a big grin and a thumbs up.
...It wasn't too long after when we arrived at the shopping district. Oh, I forgot to mention. Our family doesn't have any form of transportation other than walking.
It seemed too expensive at the time... Not that it isn't now.
"Oh! He'll like this, right?" Claus was staring in the toy shop, claiming our grandfather would like just about everything in there. The truth was Claus was just pointing out things he liked. Mom wasn't going to buy him anything, but Claus pestered on nonetheless. He liked getting her attention for no reason. It was actually nice to watch at times.
I stood still and watched Mom and Claus talk about what to get as a gift. I usually just stayed quiet and let other people do these kind of debates and such without me. I preferred it this way most of the time. Of course, there were times where I really did want to speak up but couldn't.
I turned around and lifted my head up to the sky. It was so peaceful. It seemed as though I would be at peace there too. I closed my eyes and took a fresh breath of air slowly, forgetting about the world around me. I was just going to float along while Claus was talking with Mom.
I opened my eyes slowly and looked over at Mom and Claus once more...huh? I blinked, frowned, and walked over to where they once stood. Where did they go?
I looked around and took in the scene before me. People were running around with terrified looks on their faces. I looked over to my left after something brushed against my arm. It was Claus. I blinked and frowned once more.
"Claus? What's g-going on?"
Claus had the same scared look on his face. He tugged at my arm and pulled me away. We started running and running. It took less than a minute for us to find Mom. She looked scared just like Claus and all those other people. I was confused.
Everyone looked scared.
"Mom?"
She looked at us with relief, then pulled us into an embrace before standing up.
"It's not safe here. We have to go back home!"
Once more my arm was grabbed, but Claus' was as well.
But... I heard a metallic-like sound just now. Despite my mother's wishes...I stopped. Despite knowing nothing good would come from this...I turned around. I was just a child. I wanted to understand more in life...and so I turned around.
There was a man standing there. The person had the stature of a man anyway. The sun was shining behind him, and I couldn't see very well.
I turned around to Mom and Claus and saw an even more terrified look on their faces. I turned back around to the man and saw something. Was that...
...a gun?
A metallic sound was heard once more.
"Lucas!"
Am I...going to die?
M...Mom?