This (most-likely) one-shot is just a little thing I've wanted to do ever since All-Stars ended—I've just been lazy. This is not very pro-Zoke or pro-Zoey or pro-Mike, but it isn't really supposed to be anti-anything, either—except anti-reset button, of course. This takes place several weeks after the TDAS finale.
I am not listing this as complete, because it may become a two-shot.
Consider this a treat to tide you over while Total Divergence is being updated for the authors that like me and/or my other works. (By the way, the next chapter is done, I'm just not uploading it yet to keep on the deadline and work on the next chapters.)
*Sigh* Yes, this is yet another songfic. As my favorite author John Green once wrote, "Some people have lives, some people have music." (Will Grayson, Will Grayson)
Warning: Dark and angst-y, and brief strong language.
Disclaimer: I do not own series or song.
oOoOo
Zoey had known that Mike had gotten rid of his personalities during the Total Drama All-Stars finale. She thought nothing less of him, naturally—she thought that such a tough decision just made him a stronger person.
After a few weeks, though, Zoey and his family noticed Mike becoming more withdrawn and quiet. He was no longer the outgoing young man that had auditioned for Total Drama and stolen Zoey's heart, but she told herself that she loved him no matter what happened, or how bad anything became. Sadly, she found it becoming harder.
One day, however, she got a call from Mike's mother.
"Hello?"
"Zoey?" she heard Mike's mother's voice.
"Mrs. Johnson? Is something wrong?"
"I don't know. Mike hasn't moved from his spot in three days. We brought him water and food after we saw that he wouldn't get up to get it himself. He only gets up to use the bathroom now. He hasn't talked to us in so long. Do you think that if you came over… he would do something?"
"I… I don't know. It's worth a try." She said doubtfully.
"Thank you, Zoey." Mike's mother sounded close to tears. "You're a saint."
Upon hearing that, a feeling of guilt settled in the red-head's stomach. If only you knew, she thought."I'll be over soon." She managed. She got into her car and drove to his house.
Mike's parents were waiting outside when Zoey pulled into their driveway.
"Zoey, he's in the living room." Mr. Johnson said somberly.
"Thank you." Mrs. Johnson said tearfully, embracing Zoey. "You were the only one who would see him." She informed Zoey, adding to the guilt.
Zoey went inside. She had been over before, so she knew where the living room was.
She saw Mike hunched over, knees bent up, sitting in a corner, hiding his face in his arms.
"Mike?" she asked quietly when she saw him.
There was no reply. Nothing about him suggested that he heard her.
"Mike?" she asked a little louder, going over to him. Still nothing.
"Mike!" she shouted next to him. She shook his shoulders to try to get him to respond. She tilted his head to see his face, which he immediately pulled back down.
I knew he was bad, but I didn't think he was so far gone, Zoey thought.
—Mike—
He sat in the same position in his subconscious, right where the tower which contained that damn reset button was. He had never felt so alone. He always had had someone to talk to constantly, but now there was no one.
No one understood him the way they could. They were his real family—but he got rid of them in one thoughtless moment. He had gotten rid of Mal, but lost the rest of them in the process. He should never have done it.
But he did, and there was no way to reverse it. He tried everything, including attempting to create an undo button, but nothing worked. They were gone, and there was nothing he could fucking do about it.
He cursed that decision every day for the past few weeks.
If only he had thought of another way to defeat Mal.
If only he could have gone with them. I should have followed you, he thought.
If only they still existed.
If only….
He heard all of the crap from people about them always living on in him, but he knew that was a load of bullshit. If they still lived on in him, he wouldn't be alone. His subconscious wouldn't be silent apart from his heavy sobs.
"Say something, please!" he shouted into his mind. But there was no one there to hear him.
"Please…."
—Zoey—
"Mike, please come back."
"Where is the boy I fell in love with?" she thought. She felt tears well up in her eyes, and she rested her head on his shoulder. If he felt anything, he did not show it.
Her tears dripped onto his shirt as she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer. "Please, Mike, if you can hear me, say something." She pleaded. "Don't let me give up on you." She said, softer.
"You were the only one who would see him," Mrs. Johnson's words echoed in her head. "You're a saint."
Not if you knew what I was thinking, Mrs. Johnson. I can't do this, Zoey thought. She sat with him a little longer, before she tried hopelessly to get him to do something, anything, to show her that the Mike she loved was still in there.
But there were no signs that he was.
There was only silence.
Mike was gone, and Zoey knew it.
She stood up slowly and placed a kiss on his forehead and whispered "goodbye," but she may as well have been kissing a body; there was no reaction still.
She started to walk out of the room. When she got to the door, she cast a futile glance at Mike, in the hopes that he had at least moved, but he was exactly how Zoey had left him.
She wiped the tears from her eyes, whispered "I'm so sorry, Mike," looked back with a pleading glance that said "Say something," and left, as a lone tear rolled down both of their cheeks.
