DISCLAIMER: This is a fanfction site. Do you really believe that I own this stuff?

—s—t—a—r—t—f—i—c—t—i —o—n—

Found You

I felt numb.

My father, he'd told me. He'd told me that he was who the Masked Man really was. That he was the one I had to hold back, to defeat. He had knelt on the ground, crying tears of both joy and sorrow at his discovery, his thinning head of hair hunched over in a cryptic mix of emotions that I understood all too well.

Kumatora put a hand on my shoulder, but I could hardly feel it. It took me a moment to remember, to recall what I had come here for, what I had to do.

Circumstances be damned, I had to do it.

It was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other, to walk. The resounding of our steps, soft, brash, canine and dull, throughout the cavern was eerie, and it made me feel nauseous. Every corner we turned, I jumped involuntarily, always thinking I'd see him staring back at me, with that eye I had always thought to be somehow familiar.

Boney rubbed himself lightly against my leg. He tried to convey something reassuring too, but I couldn't hear him. My mind was too muddled already. Duster stayed as silent as I did, walking on my other side and reassuring me without reassurance. That's what men did, and even though it didn't help me at all in the end, I was grateful.

Then, after the last turn, there he was. Standing in front of the last needle, bathed in light from the front and looking like nothing more than a shadow to me from behind. My eyes adjusted to the light as he turned around to face us. I couldn't see it. Even with his familiar eye, there was no way. That couldn't be him.

He raised his shining, crackling sword and shot a bolt of lightning at us suddenly, knocking everyone else out and sending them flying back into the wall or onto the ground behind me. But I had my father's Courage Badge, the Franklin Badge, and his attack reflected off me and hit him instead with a sharp electrical sound. He stumbled back and looked dumbfounded, but only for a moment, before he came at me fast, eye trained on me like it was glued into place.

I could dodge his swings, but only for so long. He hit me once, twice, three times, and an omega-level PK Love sent me spiraling into the wall akin to the way Duster just had. I managed to give him a good whack with my Mystical Stick, but it didn't faze him at all.

I hear a feminine voice now. It sounds familiar to me, like I've heard it so many times before...Mom! It's my mother. But she's yelling at me, telling me to stop hitting her poor Claus, that he doesn't know any better, really he doesn't. But what am I supposed to do, mom? Cower and let him hit me? This isn't Claus. This is a faker, a phony, a pseudo-Claus. He's hallow inside, with no real sense of anything. He's just..there. Like he's out of place.

He comes at me relentlessly, throwing punches I can just barely dodge and sending quick shots from his mechanical cannon arm I can only just jump over in time. I can't attack him back; he's keeling me busy trying to evade his own attacks.

He hits me a few more times before I give him another good smack, knocking him back just enough for me to let loose one of my own PK Love spells. This makes contact and sends him flying back for once, his helmet detaching itself from his head and rolling away. When he stands and faces me once more, a trickle of blood running down his face from a cut on his forehead, I see it. I see him.

His hair may be disheveled and matted, his face may have been pale and thin, one of his eyes may have been red, he might've had an unforgiving, cold stare, but he was still him. My brother. My Claus.

I suddenly can't find it in me to fight him anymore, and I just stand there and take it as he sprint up and throws me to the side, giving me a quick electrically-charged slash to the abdomen as I fall. It hurt, and I can feel warm liquid running down my side as a result. My mother's voice calls out to him, and I can see the look of confusion and fear in his face as he continues to attack me. I don't know how, but I can just manage to parry his lunges with my stick—and really now, how am I supposed to beat his awesome lightning sword with a mere stick—while my mother's voice penetrates him, invading his mind and causing him to flinch and shake visibly as he still tried to hit me over and over again.

His attacks became less and less severe as the encounter wore on, and my mother's explanation of who he was and who I was and who she was seemed to be sinking in as he began to look at me with recognition. I smiled a smile devoid of any happiness. Would he finally come to now?

Then, he suddenly stopped. He stopped his blows altogether. He looked at me with pure understanding, finally comprehending everything he'd been brainwashed into forgetting. We stared at each other for a long time, or what felt like it, before he got this fierce look in his eyes, a determined and almost suicidal look of resolve, like he knew what he now had to do. His one good arm still held his lightning sword, and when he raised it, my eyes widened in horror and I screamed at him to stop, stop it, please. He just smiled at me, a ghost of a grin, as he released his attack, knowing full well that it'd kill him.

He'd put everything he had into that last attack, and it hit him hard, sending what was probably millions of lethal volts coursing through his veins and tearing his thick uniform apart. His mouth opened and he let out a bloodcurdling scream that my ears couldn't bear, and I rushed toward him, tears already budding in my eyes and my arms catching him as he began to fall. I saw everyone coming to out of the corner of my eyes, but that was the last thing my brain registered while I cradled Claus' broken body and uncontrollably sobbed at him, insisting that he live, that he stay with me, we had just found him, so how could he just leave us again? I couldn't bear to lose him again, really I couldn't. My heart would collapse on itself.

He was conscious enough to pull me into a weak embrace, murmuring sweet nothings in an attempt to comfort me. How mature I'd gotten, how much he'd missed me, how brave I had been to face him and Porky like that, and that he was going to be in a better place now and that he would always love me. I couldn't answer him, with all the air left in my lungs already being used up in my pathetic whimpers and sniffles. My knees buckled and we both fell down, Claus landing below me. I brushed the hair out of his face and held him, managing to tell him that I forgave him, that I would love him always too and that dad was so happy to have finally found him. He smiled at this, too, and with his last breath, he said that's good.

When what little life left in him finally disappeared from his eyes, the waterworks really started up. I started yelling his name, shrieking like a heart-broken fool, hugging him tighter and kissing his forehead and commanding him to wake up, to open his eyes again and talk to me. I felt their stares, Kumatora, Duster and Boney, as they bore into my back, but at this point I didn't give a damn who saw. I threw my head into his chest and cried harder than I had in my entire life, knowing that I had done this to him. It made me want to scream and kick myself and vomit all at the same time, but the only thing I could do was cower pathetically on top of his body, caressing his still-warm cheek and wondering just how in the world I could live with myself any longer.

But if I'd done all this just to pull that last needle, then God damn it all, I was going to pull it.

I stood in front of it with a decidedly solemn expression on my face, dried tears still lingering on my cheeks. The rest of my party stood in front of me, watching my movements and offering their silent condolences and support because words escaped them, just like they escaped me. Resting my hands on the shining needle, I thought about everything. Claus, Porky, Tazmily, the Thunder Tower, friends, our house, Grandpa Alec, my cut short childhood, hardships, technology, Magypsies, time, all the places I had been and all the strange things I'd seen. A plethora of emotions welled up inside me, pulsating and filling me with a kind of soothing warmth. Happiness, anguish, jealousy, glee, ecstasy, fear, shock, remorse, peace, hate, love. And as I released this pent-up energy and pulled the final needle, I prayed. Please, whatever kind of deity is up there, let this be enough.

Let everything be okay just this once.

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