Welcome, children. Welcome…to the KARMA CIRCLE.
I speak to you now of a tale simple in it's message, and harsh in it's delivery as I bring you beyond the stars to a floating juggernaut. A home to twin dictators who share equal parts responsibility and shame for the horrors their race inflicted upon friend and foe alike in the name of selfish conquest. Both are going to learn lessons. And perhaps both will take something away from them.
The smell of burning flesh and the cry of wounded men. Gaping wounds and rotting flesh. It screams, howls, wails and shrieks. It is war. It is terrifying and terrible. Yet it brings also the touch of a comforting hand. The firm embrace of a friend in the trenches. Of songs lifting faintly into the air along with one's spirits, showing bravery, nobility and unity even in the face of true horror.
Tallests Red and Purple of the Irken Empire, beings from beyond the stars, were in war. And they are set to return. And this time…though they will take from others again and again..the outcome will be different. This time, they will know the true pain of war…
Or perhaps, I should say "pains". The Tallest think there's nothing worse than death.
They're going to be proven wrong. In different ways.
And so our tale begins.
"I'm trying to understand what was going through your head." The tall, vaguely insecoid being inquired, his black antennae hanging low against his back as he paced back and forth by his eerily-similar-save-for-the-color-scheme friend and fellow ruler. Tallest Red glared intently at the black-eyes Irken medic before them that they'd just gotten back from Irk. He'd been there for TRAINING, but had been shipped back early due to an attack on the planet. It had come from a resistance movement…and he had been seen helping one of the enemy.
"…" Jayd, the Medic, said nothing. He kept his gauntleted hands clasped before his dark armor, the big red cross on the front of his chest shimmering in the faint light of the bridge as the ship they now stood upon, the Massive, ambled almost aimlessly through space.
"You HELPED…a VORTIAN. One of them."
"Well, it was something to do, besides, he was dying." Jayd said wryly, his spiked antanae bobbing a bit as Tallest Red's dear friend, Purple, pinched the space between his purple eyes, shaking it back and forth and cringing.
"Jayd, Jayd, JAYD! You're our best medic and you…you can't be doing this!" Purple whined out.
"I looked up your service record, my Tallest. During the occupation of Vort that led to it's conquering, an occupation that lasted 10 years, you were on the front lines. You collaborated with the Mountain Vortians and set up perimeter bases to operate from. I use the word "operate" specifically…because you two were MEDICS at the time." Jayd said, glancing directly at Purple, his dark, black eyes staring almost accusingly as Purple blinked a bit in surprise at this sudden display of outright defiance. "I would think you'd understand."
"Understand WHAT?" Red demanded to know, immediately getting in the medic's face, glaring slightly, pointing one of his long, clawed digits. Jayd calmly held up a black-gauntleted hand, the nanogenes running from his PAK to the gauntlets themselves seeming to pulsate with green light as he held his tallest's own hands, one of the claws long cut-off as part of the Tallest ritual all the rulers had to go through when they came of proper height.
"When they get in that operating room…the uniforms go off." Jayd said firmly, slowly bringing the hand down as Red turned away from him, holding his hands in the air.
"UGH! You just don't understand!" Red muttered. "They're filthy goaty-heads!"
"Well come on, we DID work with the Mountain Vortians for years until we conquered the planet and put them in charge of the prisons."
"Hmm. Wait, isn't that almost just as bad as outright throwing them in jail?" Red wondered aloud before shaking his head back and forth. "I mean, you're-"
But Jayd was gone. The bridge was gone. Nothing but blackness was around them, an infinite abyss of the dark that made Red and Purple cling to each other in fear as the darkness began to take a shape growing to immense size, staring down at them with dark clothes and darker eyes, pointing accusingly with a black-gloved claw.
"Purgatory calls…you must answer for your crimes." It whispered, eyes alit with dark fire as they found themselves falling endlessly, wheeling their arms about, screaming, yelling, falling, FALLING, FALLING-
And then they awoke in familiar, uncomfortable beds, the faint smell of dirty Vortian countryside filling their hidden nasal passages as they rose up, looking over themselves and their younger bodies, gaping in surprise.
Their medic days. They were medics all over again, stationed in Southern Vort by the Mahsad Mountain Range!
"What in the?!"
"I have been watching you."
That voice. Dark and haunting, yet eerily familiar. Purgatory. They shuddered as they heard his voice echoing in their heads, faintly feeling his invisible claws on their shoulders.
"You have much to answer for. And you will answer for it here. Do you remember this month? It was the month the mail failed to come in on your second year here. You were…lonely…"
Purple blinked, slowly turning his head to look around their shabby little tent. Everything was rather poorly-cobbled together, with flimsy metal tables and bedframes that looked more like they were children's toys than actual military equipment. But the military budget was rather low for their platoon and they had to make do. Which meant even using a gas stove for warmth…
And by the table closest to the gas stove was a small mail bag. Purple instantly pulled out a small set of letters, cheerily looking them over. All from that nice communications officer, Senior. One of their few trustworthy friends who was always a source of entertainment back in the academy. He sat down to read over the letters as Red looked over his shoulder…
Or at least, TRYING to. He turned his head, glaring over at the fat, rather tubby Irken who was…regrettably…sharing their tent until his OWN got set back up again. A Blorbublax Skinsucker had taken off with it and with a good deal of the food last week, Red remembered THAT quite well, and this meant ol' Skoodge had been forced to share their tent.
"La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!" Skoodge proclaimed, looking over his reflection in a mirror atop a table as he washed under his pits, Red pinching the space where his nose WOULD have been before deciding the singing was worse and throwing a pillow which bounced off Skoodge's head. "Hey!"
"WHY in blue blazes are you SINGING, lardball?!" Red demanded.
"Because I'm trying to bring some true culture into this tent." Skoodge said as he began humming, making Red throw ANOTHER pillow. "OW! Why must you object?"
"Because I like music." Red snapped before seeing Purple's expression was becoming more and more somber as he kept reading.
"Pur, what's wrong? I would think you'd love to read one of Senior's letters."
"It's been over two years since we saw him. He's stationed halfway across the planet, no doubt." Purple mumbled. "He's talking about how peaceful it is and…he says he found this really hot woman and she's got KIDS who instantly took to him."
"Let me guess, he goes on and on about how wonderful it is and how he wishes you were here."
"I'd forgotten how lonely I was here." Purple sighed as he put the letter away and flopped into his bed, wishing Red hadn't thrown his pillow so he could bury his face in it. "Nobody here can make me laugh the way he did. Not on PURPOSE anyhow."
"It doesn't do you any good to stew." Red said with a roll of his eyes as he lifted Purple up from the bed and shook him a bit. "C'mon! Yee-haw, up and at 'em!"
"Hey, I'm only homesick and depressed. Give me an hour and I'll only be homesick." Purple wryly remarked as Red led him out of the tent, about to leave Skoodge to continue singing "Don Cornello" as he splashed on some much-needed cologne before Skoodge snapped his fingers…or lack therof.
"Oh!"
"Oh, what?" Purple asked.
"Almost forgot. The vortian that sells those tasty candied fruits to us on the weekends? He's fallen ill. The cook wants one of you to check in on him and get him up to speed…and maybe get some candied fruits from his wife if she's got any." Skoodge added with a nod at the two as Purple raised a nonexistent eyebrow up.
"How come you…didn't tell us this?"
"I just did."
"I mean, uh, that is…" Purple stammered. "SOONER?"
"Just remembered. My cologne gives me a similarly fruity and pleasant aroma, like the candied jujambi berries you two love scarfing." Skoodge added as Red slapped his own face. Of course. They'd not gotten any mail that day, so Skoodge had probably gone to the vortian vendor himself rather than asking Purple as he lingered about in a depressive doze. Or at least, that was what WOULD have happened.
"I'll do it. Get my mind off of things." Purple decided, waving a dismissive hand in the air before he looked under his bed, pulling out his medicine bag and scrounging through it. "What's he got?"
"Chest pains, fever, coughing up blood, probably…pneumonia."
"Wait a minute, don't these idiots have sulfur tablets to take for that?" Red muttered before whacking his face. "Of course, forgot, they kept selling them to trade for other things!"
"Like the materials to candy fruits with." Purple chuckled a bit as Red headed out the door, turning around to wave at Purple, walking across the grayish grass of Southern Vort, a faint beep noise filling the air…
"Just hurry it up and don't spend any more time with them than you HAVE to, they smell funny-" Red began to say before the beeping got LOUDER.
"GET OUTTA THE WAY, YOU MORON!"
Red whipped his head about, gaping as a medicine truck went barreling towards him, and he dived out of the way, crashing into several trash barrels and letting out a groan as Skoodge walked outside, Purple already heading off as the tubby Irken cringed, Red nursing a very sore-looking foot that visibly went CRRRKK when he tried to move it.
"Oogh. Sounds like you sprained it." Skoodge sighed, looking up at the soft pink clouds passing overhead. "…and it was such a nice day. Ah well. I'll take you to post-op and get it looked over, sir."
"I'd forgotten how awful Blorch used to drive." Red muttered as Skoodge carefully lifted Red onto one foot, helping the future Tallest hop towards the enormous brown post-op tent past the other equally-dull-colored tents of their medical unit. "Ooooohhhhh. Pain. I'd almost forgotten about that too!" He sighed. "…until Zim came back into our lives."
"Zim? Haven't heard from him since he took to the research job, Red." Skoodge said cheerily. "He seems to love it! Hasn't blown anything up in three whole weeks!"
"THAT won't last long. And neither should this. I wanna be up and on my feet in an hour, Skoodge." He demanded of the short and tubby Irken, giving him a slight glare.
"I'll have it done in HALF." Skoodge promised.
…
…
…
… "I don't know how they live like this…well, I guess they techinically DON'T, do they?" Purple inwardly mused to himself as he finally brought the car he'd taken to a halt and climbed out of the medical vehicle, several young children tugging him along by his hands, his medical bag bouncing off his back as he was led past several large rows of hung-up stringy veggies and fruit. He blinked a bit as they led him to the obvious "house", which was basically a run-down shack of stone and wood, a dark-skinned female vortian with oddly lovely indigo eyes pushing the makeshift door open, allowing Vort's blue sunlight to beam down onto her face.
"Come, come! Good, good." She insisted with a firm nod of her horned head as the youngest child, a girl with spindly horns, tugged him into the shack. Rows upon rows of fruits and food were on shelves stacked on the walls and a large table with an odd chemical contraption was clearly what the vendor, Bahm Rahd, used to candy the fruits. His oldest daughter was using it to dip a round, ball-shaped melon of a fruit in a candy liquid and was set to harden it when she turned her head, her face brightening at seeing the Irken medic as he kneeled by their father, who was sleeping on a cot, coughing slightly.
"Good, you come. Please be quick." She said, Purple kneeling by the Vortian and looking the cot over, cringing a bit as he shook his head.
"This blanket is…flimsy." He muttered, holding the small brown thing up into the air and shaking his head back and forth. "And a cot? Don't you have a normal bed?"
"We have to sell it for food. With father out, the process not…going so well." The older daughter said. "We all know little bits of Basic…me and father know the most. What else can we do?" She wanted to know as Purple held up a small medical scanning device that beeped and pinged, scanning over his body and peering through the emaciated Vortian's ribcage, hearing his heartbeat coming out through a small speaker embedded in the device.
"Hmm. Does your chest hurt?"
"Y-Y-Yes…"
"Try to breathe." Purple demanded. "Breathe for me, Vortian. Breathe as normally as you ca-"
"GAAUUHK! Hahhh…hahh!" The vortian began coughing again, his daughters propping him up as best they could as Purple shook his head back and forth, cringing as he pinched the space between his eyes and sighed.
"By Tallest Grapa's pain. This is one of the worst cases of pneumonia I've ever seen." He mumbled, shaking his head back and forth, his purple eyes narrowing a bit as he knelt by the Vortian, thankful HE'd been taking his sulfur medication and thus couldn't be infected. "I need to give him a shot. Then I'll come back tomorrow, and I'll give another."
The wife nervously nodded, the daughter's eyes all intently on him, the youngest very close indeed as he smiled a bit down at her to make her cheer up. "But I need you…to give him THIS after I leave." He added, pulling out a small box of sulfur pills from his medicine bag and giving it to the youngest, who held it in her little hands like it was pure gold, letting out an "ooh" of surprise as Purple kneeled closer to the Vortian vendor. "Remember. Give him two. TWO. Every. Day. And one for all you. One for you. Okay?" He insisted. "In fact, everyone take one now."
"Papa work again soon?" The youngest asked.
"Not yet, little Vortian." Purple admonished, waving a hand in the air after he administered the shot, the Vortian husband flinching a bit. "He needs to be kept warm and DRY, okay? I could just take him back to the camp, he could get much better care-"
"NO!" The wife said, shaking her head back and forth. "No, no! Stay together!" She proclaimed. "G'val mesha hallam! Hallam mesha nagee, t'voy, lavey!"
"…uh…that, um…what did she say?" Purple asked of the oldest daughter as she rubbed the back of her neck, Purple blinking stupidly as he tried to decipher the rapid Vortian that the woman had just spoken to him.
"She said she doesn't want us separated. We've already lost one son, Jahn."
"He was killed in battle at the front lines or something?" Purple asked, a concerned expression briefly flitting across his face.
"No, still AT front lines, we…not hear from him." The eldest mumbled quietly. "Not in long time. Miss him. He…he always finds ways to make us smile."
"Could you…help?" The wife asked. "Help? Help Jahn?"
"…I…well…" Purple muttered nervously. "I don't got…I mean…alright." He sighed. "Why not? Can't hurt to try." He finally sighed, shrugging a bit as the youngest cheerily hugged him slightly before letting go, Purple blinking slowly as he glanced back at the family, then at his medicine bag…
…
…
…
… "Okay, just sign YOUR release form…and the copy of the release form…" Skoodge said as Red frowned, his foot completely wrapped in bandages as his antennae hung low behind him, the lights in the operation room slightly shining in his face as he tried to stare at ANYTHING but Skoodge's squat mug. The medicine cabinets on the walls, the bottles and pills on shelves to the side, the desk he was now sitting at…
"I'd forgotten how much I also hated PAPERWORK. When I get to be Tallest, I'm going to make a decree. ANYONE who makes me fill out paperwork will be shot." Red muttered balefully.
"Hope that won't apply retroactively." Skoodge remarked as he handed Red a couple of crutches. "You'd best walk around with these. PAK legs would take up too much space, you'd bust a hole through the walls."
"I can handle walking on these, thank you!" Red said snarkily, taking the crutches and hopping off the desk, limping towards the door.
"Are you sure you don't want me to escort you back to your tent?" Skoodge helpfully offered, raising a hand in the air as Red turned around to give him another earful…
KRA-THRUCK!
Only to slip, falling hard to the ground, hearing VERY mocking laughter ringing in his head.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha! You've broken your HAND!" Purgatory sniggered.
"Oh geez. And to think, you just signed out." Skoodge sighed as he knelt by Red, who cringed, trying to move his hand up only to let out a horridly screeching "YELP", his hand plopping back to the floor along with his still-sprained foot as he moaned, just lying flat on the steely gray floor. "Yeah, this looks bad, Red."
"Ohhhhhh. Is it really broken?"
"…well…" Skoodge mumbled before giving a slightly nervous smile.
"Well?!"
"I wouldn't try waving goodbye."
"GAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Four blankets, three pounds of salted slydoodeedoos, five pounds of healing jelly and two cases of condensed milk…all for you?" The head rationeer inquired as he looked over the list that Purple had given to him, the yellow-eyed Irken raising a nonexistent eyebrow up as Purple shook his head.
"No, it's for the family of the vortian vendor that gives those candied fruits to us."
"Oh, well in THAT case, forget about it." The rationeer said with a dark frown, tossing the list into the nearby trash can with a THRA-THUMP. "Army rations and supplies are for army members ONLY."
"These…these PEOPLE need it." Purple insisted. "You haven't seen how grungy and drab their home is. They're starving and cold."
"I have to go by the books." The rationeer said, waving a claw in the air before Purple got a dark grin across his face, realizing he REMEMBERED something about Rationeer Smally that had stayed in the man's file. Something that had popped out when Purple was choosing people to be cooks for the Massive.
"Y'know, buddy. This reminds me. Didn't you once send two hundred pounds of pure chocolate to your apartment back on Irk?" Purple asked. "…in a fake medical container?"
"That's BLACKMAIL!" Smalley gaped, mouth hanging wide, barely able to comprehend how Purple could have figured it out.
"Let's just call it the Irken way." Purple said with a smirk.
"You're DEFINITELY going to be Tallest one day." Smalley mumbled out, handing Purple his blankets, meat, jelly and milk, grumbling darkly as Purple cheerily left the building, whistling all the while back to his vehicle…
…
…
…
… "Well what's this?" Skoodge asked, looking Purple up and down as Purple headed out of the supply tent again, another cheery expression on his face as Red's moaning and groaning echoed out from one of their many medical tents where the patients rested.
"Just a little of this…little of that." Purple said with a shrug.
"AGAIN?" Skoodge inquired, looking surprised by this, an invisible eyebrow arched up. "This is the fourth time this month you've done this. Is their father getting better?"
"Oh, he'll be fine as long as he keeps taking his pills, and his body hasn't been rejecting the shots I've given him." Purple nonchalantly remarked with a wave of his hand. "Everything's super, really!"
"Okay, but…it's just…" Skoodge tried to say, nervously tapping the tips of his claws together. "Purple, I…I mean…"
"These people, these vortians, it's…INCREDIBLE, Skoodge. I never realized it before, but…they have nothing. Nothing at all! So I'm just giving them a little something to tide them over every now and again is all." Purple said with a shrug as he put the supplies back into his medical vehicle and hopped in the driver's seat, Skoodge flinching as Purple went on. "You should see the kids, Skoodge. The eldest, her name's Etha. She and her little sis, Meril…they're the most adorable things I've ever seen. They're so sweet."
"Purple, there's…a lot of sadness in their lives. You can't change it all by YOURSELF, and…well I worry you might be-"
"I'll be FINE." Purple said with a chuckle. "Listen. How have you been on tracking down that Vortian soldier who's working on the front lines with OUR men?"
"Jahn Steyn? I'm still looking." Skoodge remarked. "There's a lot of "Steyns" at the front lines."
It wasn't long before Purple was visiting them again the NEXT week, happily sewing up the large holes in the roof, humming to himself as young Meril watched from below, rolling her head back and forth and looking up at him with a slightly goofy grin.
"You work hard. Like Papa." She complimented as Purple shrugged a bit and smiled back down at her before hopping off the roof, dusting himself off.
"Well, I figure your daneem could do without the air conditioning." He reasoned, laughing at his little joke. "You won't have to worry about the rain coming in anymore." He told her, handing her back the sewing needle and thread he'd used. "Here!"
"Here." She said, handing him a small doll of HIM that she'd stitched together herself, Purple seeing his tiny little grinning face cheerily smiling back up at him as he held it in his gloved hands, slowly turning it over. "For you!"
"…I…" He murmured. "Meril, I…I can't take this from you!"
"We no have money for pay." Meril mumbled as Purple just patted her on the head, smiling warmly at her.
"You've more than paid, okay?" He insisted before he heard Meril's mother calling out in panicked Vortian from inside. He quickly ran into the shack, looking down at the coughing husband. Poor Behn Steyn was still badly off…and he looked paler than he should have. Purple scanned him over again with his device from his medical bag, frowning a bit. "Wait. Did you give him ALL the pills?"
"Been giving some, yes."
"No, no, Ms. Steyn. I said ALL. ALL. Don't SELL." He groaned, shaking his head back and forth. "He'll need a few more weeks of treatment because of this. I know you think just one or two sold here and there helps, but believe me, he needs ALL of the pills!" Purple muttered, pinching the space between his eyes as Steyn heaved and moaned in his bed, Purple patting him on the back. "I'll be back tomorrow and I'll bring more pills and another shot."
"You know where Jahn?" The mother muttered out in nearly-broken Basic, Purple cringing a bit as he shook his head back and forth.
"Not…yet, no."
"Maybe tomorrow?"
"Yes, m-maybe tomorrow." Purple nervously smiled, nodding at her as he left the shack, heading for the vehicle as the father began coughing all over again, Meril rushing out.
"You no GO now?"
"I have to, Meril." Purple insisted to her, shaking his head as he opened up the vehicle door, Meril shaking HER head back and forth as Etha headed outside. "You two should head back inside, your maneem may need you."
"Please, you not go." Meril insisted, hugging him, arms wrapped around his neck as Purple blinked in surprise, Etha nervously holding her hands together, a tight, pained expression on her face.
"Purple, please…father still sick, we're…scared of leaving him alone tonight…" She mumbled out.
"Kids, please, they need me back-" Purple began to say before Etha suddenly flung herself into his arms as Purple blinked slowly, Etha beginning to cry. "…Etha, Meril…c'mon…"
"Please, you stay, Papa Purple …" Meril whimpered as Purple seemed to seize up, mouth slightly hanging open.
"…h-hey…hey, c'mon, don't cry, I…c'mon, it'll be okay, it'll be okay, I promise, I'll stay." He murmured gently, cooing to them. "Of COURSE I will. Papa Purple will stay tonight, okay?"
"Good. Don't go…" Etha begged. "…don't go…"
…
…
…
… "Hello STRANGER, where have YOU been while I've been sipping Tuttle Soup?!" Red muttered as he looked up from his bed, glaring slightly over at Purple as he poked his head into medical tent A-1. "COLD Tuttle soup too!"
"Well, ol' Papa was having some problems and the kids were freaked out so I…just…spent the night. No big deal, really." Purple said, letting off a slight yawn, making Red gape.
"…when was the last time you NAPPED?" Red wanted to know, eyes narrowing a bit, one foot still in a cast, his arm and wrist now fully in a cast of THEIR own as well as Purple shrugged a bit.
"It was NOTHING, honest. I'll check back after I finish rounds, but first I gotta scrounge up some lumber, they've got some sunken parts of their walls and I should reinforce it." Purple nonchalantly went on as he looked over a small snazzy metal clipboard, checking over his patients for today.
"You're lucky that fat lump took over for you while you were taking care of those VORTIANS." Red muttered out, saying the word like it was painful to pronounce. "You need rest! You look completely ravaged, Pur!"
"I'll get sleep when I need it." Purple muttered, exiting the medical wing with another nonchalant shrug.
"Hello? Hello, Senior? Heyyyy! It's so good to HEAR from you!" Skoodge cheerily remarked as he looked down at the screen to the desktop communicator he had in his tent he still shared with Red and Purple. "Listen, did you find that guy?"
"Oh, you mean Mr. Jahn Steyn? You wouldn't believe how many Steyns we have down here. It's kind of hard to tell with these Mountain Vortians. They've got very thick accents…" The green-eyed communications officer sighed from the other end of the line, spiky antennae hanging low over his face. "But I've been looking. If you wanna find people, you do what I always do…and slip on the ollllll' velvet glove." Senior chuckled, speaking seductively, invisible eyebrows popping up and down in a suggestive fashion.
"That WORKS?" Skoodge asked, slightly surprised by this.
"The louder you yell, the less they here. Basic military intelligence 101, Skoodgey!" Senior insisted. "Don't worry, I'll find him-"
"AAA!"
"Oh geez. You better go. I know that high-pitched shriek anywhere. It's Purple's heterosexual life partner."
"HELP! AAAA!" Red screeched out from inside of the medical tent, everyone peeking inside to see Red flailing around on the bed, a visible stinger stuck in the middle of his open neck. "I got STUNG! I got STUNG!"
"Well, are you ALLERGIC?" One of the other Irkens asked as a few began chuckling and taking pictures. One for THEM…and one for the INTERNET!
"I dunno, I've never BEEN stung!" Red snapped. "That settles it! When I become Tallest, I will PERSONALLY order the death of EVERY single bee!" He added darkly before his lips began to puff up as if someone had stuck a pumping needle into them and inflated away, the lips bulging up like water balloons.
"Bees. My god." Red heard Purgatory chuckling inside of his head.
…
…
…
… "Can't they turn that ruckus down?!" Purple muttered from inside the surgery waiting room, rubbing his sore head, cringing a bit as he flinched again and again, the distant BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDAS of war cannons firing in the distance. Evidently the Vortians from the East were making a run at them and the Mountain Vortians that called themselves Irk's allies.
"Oh, I dunno, Pur. I like the rhythm." Skoodge remarked with a chuckle…but not even that got a smile from Purple, Skoodge blinking a few times before he carefully put a hand on the indigo-eyed future Tallest's shoulder as they sat down at the same bench. "Purple, you cannot keep doing this."
"…I…know." Purple muttered out, head hanging low.
"You can't keep hut-hopping between your twelve hour shifts." Skoodge firmly insisted. "That family's demand is far bigger than what you can supply!"
"You're…RIGHT." Purple sighed. "…words I never thought I'd say to Skoodge. They're cold, so I find them blankets. But they're still cold, because they're sleeping on the floor. So I find them a bed… but there's a hole in the roof and it rains on the bed so I fix the roof…"
"What next? A better house? Better neighborhood? A safer country? It's too much for one person." Skoodge tried to say before his communicator began to buzz and he flicked it on. "Oh! Senior?"
"SENIOR?!" Purple exclaimed, Senior's smiling face greeting him with a cheery grin.
"Who's got two thumbs and good news? THIS guy!" He proclaimed, pointing at himself with his thumb-claws. "I found Jahn Steyn!"
"You what?! REALLY?!" Purple exclaimed, Skoodge's eyes widening as Purple's lit up with sheer joy, his sunken face turning bright and colorful as he bounded to his feet, holding Skoodge's wrist up, the fat invader swinging back and forth as Purple grasped the communicator.
"I'd been looking in the wrong SECTION. He wasn't with the main soldiers. He's a medic just like you and I had him assigned to the platoon south of you! Just a matter of putting on the smooth talk." Senior said with a grin. "That old velvet glove."
"Senior, I could KISS you!" Purple proclaimed.
"I'm a happily married-to-a-vortian man."
"And I don't even CARE!" Purple laughed, turning the communicator off as he swung Skoodge around and around, holding him high in the air, face filled with cheer. "I can't wait to see the look on their faces!"
"Yes, yes, I'm very happy for you PUT ME DOWN!"
"Skoodge, don't you see? Sure I can't keep patching up their roofs and giving them blankets, but I can give them THIS!" He proclaimed. "I can't give them everything! But I can sure as hell give them THIS! He laughed, quickly barreling out of the waiting room and down to where he'd parked his medical vehicle, Skoodge taking the driver's seat as Purple hopped in the passenger's, grinning all the while.
…
…
…
… "This is it, this is it!" Purple exclaimed as Skoodge finally pulled up the long and slightly bumpy country road to the shack and tiny little farm quickly coming up on their right. "May not look like much, but…"
"Okay, okay, hold on!" Skoodge insisted as he pulled the vehicle to a halt, Purple not even waiting as he bounded out of the vehicle, racing inside the shack.
"Meril, Etha, Behn, Hemma!" He yelled out, face beaming with pride and joy as pink clouds slowly passed overhead, Skoodge glancing about the derelict little place, scratching his head as the vehicle's engine finally buzzed to a halt. "Hey…wh…where…?" He mumbled, slowly coming out of the house, glancing around, a confused expression on his face as his purple eyes slowly blinked.
"They…must have left after we heard that cannon fire. Got spooked and ran, I suppose. Didn't want to be too close to the fighting?" Skoodge suggested with an apologetic tone in his voice as he shrugged slightly. "Must have wanted to find somewhere safer."
"They're…gone." Purple mumbled out as he slowly walked across the ground, glancing around the abandoned farm. "The place is deserted, they took everything! I'll…I'll never find them."
"Well…maybe they'll be back?" Skoodge suggested hopefully, Purple letting off a sad, harsh laugh as he shook his head back and forth, wrapping his arms around his chest.
"No they won't." He told Skoodge, a pained look coming to his face as he dryly laughed. "They'll just keep moving South, away from this war!" He sighed, shaking his head back and forth as he paced slightly in a circle, finally coming to a halt, cringing as he held his head in one hand. "Ohhhh, Skoodge, they don't even know about Jahn! Don't even know their son's alive!"
Skoodge nervously reached out with a hand but Purple turned away from him, laughing slightly as he ran his hands over his head. "It isn't fair!" He laughed out, walking away from the vehicle, back turned to Skoodge, the car and the little house where the Steyns had been living in.
"…Pur…?" Skoodge murmured.
"…flirkin' war. Find something to…fill the gap being away from the people I actually CARE about and…and it takes that too!" Purple said, his body beginning to shake slightly, his voice becoming more high-pitched and terrible. "It isn't right." He mumbled out, walking back towards the shack…before finally slamming his fist against it, letting out a screaming, furious, mournful WAIL of a yell.
"DAMMIT, IT ISN'T RIGHT!"
For what seemed to be many, many hours, he just stood there, fist against the shack, shaking quietly, saying nothing…before a hand finally descended down onto his back, and Purple's head shot up…
Realizing he was back in his bedroom, a familiar black-eyed medic behind him as Purple turned slowly around, blinking even more slowly.
"Sir, Tallest Red just showed up in the medical wing. He's got a broken wrist, a sprained foot AND his face and lips are swollen up bigger than Zim's ego." Jayd inquired. "What happened?"
"…you had best go help him, Jayd. He needs it." Purple finally got out, the medic saluting and rushing out of his room, Purple sighing as he hung his head, heading for the door as well, only to faintly hear what sounded like…someone tossing something down onto the bed behind him.
He turned…seeing what was obviously a tiny little doll of himself, hand-sewn from the finest bits of cloth a young, poor mountain Vortian could find lying on his bed, and he picked it up in his two-clawed hand, slowly tilting his head to look down at it, a big, cheery smile on it's tiny face.
And Tallest Purple carefully sat down on his deep, indigo bed, head hung low as he held the doll in his hands…
And cried.