A/N: This wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I thought of writing an Island of the Lost Dakota's based fic. I'm pretty sure we all remember Cannibal Dakota. I know he was just put in there as a joke, but I couldn't help but wonder why there was a cannibal Dakota in the first place, thus, this story was born.
Vinnie Dakota had memories of going back in time to prevent his partner's death. He had done it dozens of times already (38, to be exact), and he was just starting to get used to the idea. He was just barely starting to accept that this was going to just be a regular part of his life, and he was beginning to learn how to be okay with that.
...and then he ended up becoming number 39.
This was...something completely new, and Dakota would be lying if he said that he wasn't the least bit nervous and anxious. He had just set foot on an island that was supposedly only inhabited by dozens of other Dakotas. He didn't know where to find the other versions of himself. He had no way of knowing if all of them were even still alive. And it was just beginning to sink in that even if there were a bunch of Dakotas on the island, he would probably never see another human being (besides himself, of course) for the rest of his life.
He would never see Cavendish again...but at least Cavendish was still alive. That was all that mattered. If loneliness was the price to pay to keep Cavendish alive and well, then Dakota was more than happy to make it. It would just take some getting used to. And, hopefully, when he found the other Dakota's he would feel slightly less alone...hopefully.
Dakota had no idea where to find the others, so he just started walking. He figured that the best way to find himself was by just heading in the direction that felt or looked cool. So Dakota started walking through the jungle, making his way towards the volcano, but not too close to it. He was already too tired to go climbing up a volcano, so he figured that it was a safe bet that he wouldn't find the others there.
Dakota pushed past leaves, walked through a river or two, he even went across a river made of lava, because it was something that he had seen done in action movies that he had secretly always wanted to try. After some time Dakota began to feel hungry, tired, and he just wanted to stop. He took this as a pretty good sign that he was getting close, because there was no way that so many Dakota's before him had gone on for much longer than he had (unless they had gone a different way, or they had all died, but Dakota didn't like to think about those options). So Dakota told himself that he would keep going for another half an hour or so before calling it a night.
Only a few minutes after Dakota had come to this decision he heard a sound that made him pause in his tracks. It kinda sounded like crying, and it sounded way too human for it to be from just a wild animal.
"Hello?" Dakota called out without considering the possibility that it might be somebody dangerous. "Is anybody out there?"
The already muffled crying died away in an instant, though Dakota then heard some rustling to his right. Dakota slowly approached the source of the noise and pushed aside some leaves that were blocking his path. "Hey, come on, I know you're out there. It's not like I'm gonna hurt you or anything. It's just me...or you, I guess, if you're one of the me's here. You are though, right? I mean, other than me, or, well, you...us, I guess, this is supposed to be a deserted island. That's why we came here." Dakota paused when he didn't get an answer. "Or am I just talking to myself...I mean, myself meaning just me me, not another me." Dakota quickly figured out that dealing with a bunch of hims was going to get really confusing really quickly. He wondered if he would ever actually get used to it.
Dakota climbed through a thick bush and stopped in his tracks when he found himself in a clearing with another Dakota sitting in the middle of it. This other Dakota had definitely been on the island for awhile, his clothes were stained and slightly ripped. And maybe it was just because it was clear he had been crying, but this other Dakota looked slightly...unstable. Dakota felt uneasy about the look in his other self's eyes, because before he had been partnered with Cavendish, and even a couple of times afterwards, that was the look of loneliness that Dakota had seen in his own eyes, except at least a hundred times worse. Dakota just hoped that this other self wasn't a representation of what all Dakota's on the island would eventually wind up as. Dakota didn't think he would be able to handle it.
"Hey, are you okay?" Dakota slowly approached his other self. The other Dakota looked surprised and slightly alarmed to see him. Just what kind of stuff had he been through on this island that he was scared of himself?
"What are you doing here?" The other Dakota asked slowly. "Why aren't you with the others?"
"I just got here." Dakota walked closer to his other self and sat down on the ground next to him. "What about you? Why aren't you with the others?"
"It's...complicated." The other Dakota frowned and crossed his arms over his chest in an almost defensive way. "I messed up, and now the others hate me."
"No they don't." Dakota insisted. He couldn't imagine that he could ever do something that would make him hate himself. "Look, Dakota...okay, I'm sorry, but this is really weird. Can I call you something else?"
The other Dakota thought for a second. "What about just Kota?" Dakota vaguely remembered that when he was younger his parents used to always remind him that when he had been a toddler he couldn't pronounce his last name and his closest attempt had been just 'Kota'.
"Sure, Kota." Dakota grinned and held out a hand to shake his other self's hand. "You can call me Vinnie." Even if it was his first name, Dakota didn't actually go by Vinnie very often anymore. Everybody, even Cavendish, just called him Dakota. Of course, things would get pretty confusing of every single Dakota went by the same name, so Vinnie figured they might as well use nicknames.
"Anyways, Kota, I'm sure the others don't hate you." Vinnie got back to the matter at hand. "Even if you screwed up, we all do sometimes, right?"
"Not like this." Kota said seriously.
"Uh...okay." Vinnie said slowly as he tried to figure out how to respond. He had no idea what Kota thought he had done that was so terrible. "Well, do you feel sorry for whatever you did?"
"Eh, not really." Kota shrugged. "I mean...I do, but at the same time I don't. It's just...it's complicated."
Vinnie really didn't know how much he could help out in this situation when all he knew was that it was complicated. He wondered if this was how Cavendish felt sometimes. Just that one simple thought about Cavendish was enough to remind Vinnie that he would never, ever see his partner again, and it was a depressing and frightening thought.
"Look, Kota, I don't know what's going between you and the others," Vinnie said. "But do you think I can stay with you tonight? See, it's been a weird and hard day, and it's my first night here. I'm just starting to realize that I won't see Cavendish again, and I just don't want to be alone right now."
Kota's expression clearly said that he didn't think it was a very good idea, for some reason, but he seemed to understand. "Yeah, sure. I'll even take you to where the others are in the morning."
"Thanks." Vinnie grinned, though his expression quickly diminished when he suddenly noticed a painful looking cut on Kota's arm. "Hey, what happened? Are you okay?"
"Huh?" Kota followed Vinnie's gaze and looked at his arm. "Oh, that. It's nothing. I'm okay."
"I don't think cuts are supposed to look like that." Vinnie stated. The cut was pussing slightly and looked a little infected. Vinnie reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue bandana. Some kid had dropped it earlier that day, and Vinnie had been planning on returning it later, but it wasn't like that was going to happen now, so he might as well make some use of it. "You should at least cover it to keep it from getting any worse."
"Oh, right," Kota shifted awkwardly as Vinnie poured the remaining water from his water bottle onto the bandana and then tied it around the cut. "Thanks."
"No problem." Vinnie said as he looked around. "So, where are we staying?"
"Here looks good." Kota put his hands behind his head and fell back against the ground.
"Awesome, I love camping." Vinnie smiled, even though he had never actually been camping before. It had always sounded fun though. "I'll go get some firewood." He may not have ever done this before, but Vinnie knew that it just wasn't camping unless there was a fire. And roasted marshmallows, but they didn't exactly have access to those, so they would have to make due.
Collecting wood for a fire only took a few seconds, Vinnie just grabbed some sticks and leaves that were already on the ground around the clearing. He had never understood why in the movies people had to 'go' to get firewood. They were in a freaking forest. Just bend down and pick some stuff off the ground. It wasn't that hard.
What was not easy though was starting the darn fire. Neither Vinnie nor Kota knew what to do with it. Neither of them had a lighter or matches. Rubbing sticks together just made them feel silly. Striking two stones together definitely felt like it should have been more effective, but it really wasn't. After struggling for nearly half an hour they just decided to call it quits. If it got really cold after dark, maybe they would try again. Until then though, Vinnie and Kota passed the time by telling each other ghost stories...it didn't work out very well. Neither of them were very good story tellers, and they both knew every single story that the other person knew. It was still fun though, even if they did spend half the time laughing at just how badly they were failing at this.
They both lost track of time, and they were both okay with that. The atmosphere of their fireless campout only changed after they had noticed that the sun had set and the darkness of the night was really creeping in. Vinnie had never really had a problem with the dark before, but, then again, he had never been somewhere that was quite so dark when he was already so alone.
It was as though the shadows had amplified his loneliness by a thousand, and it actually made Vinnie feel like he couldn't breath. Like the night was suffocating him.
"Uh, why don't we call it a night?" Kota asked uneasily and Vinnie felt him scoot closer.
"Good idea." Vinnie agreed immediately. He slipped off his jacket and put it on the ground as a pillow. It wasn't the most effective pillow in the world, but he had dealt with worse. Without asking, because he knew what the answer would be anyways, Kota slid closer to Vinnie and laid down right next to him. Partially because he wanted to share the jacket pillow, and partially because he was also feeling more lonely because of how dark it was, and he wanted the company.
Vinnie didn't complain. It felt nice to have somebody right there, even if that somebody was just another version of himself.
The next morning Vinnie was woken up hours earlier than he normally would have. He could sleep until noon most days, and Vinnie had assumed that because Kota was just another version of him that it would be the same. So Vinnie was really surprised when he was shaken awake by Kota before the sun had even finished rising.
"H-h-hey." Vinnie yawned as he sat up and faced his companion. "What's the deal?"
"I was starting to get hungry." Kota said, as though it explained everything, and it really didn't. "You still want me to take you to the other Dakotas?"
It seemed like an abrupt change of subject. Unless Kota was just planning on having breakfast with the rest of the Dakotas. Vinnie knew that it was a very real possibility, but he had the feeling that Kota didn't really want to rejoin the other Dakotas, not even for a meal. Maybe something really serious had gone down between them.
If he was back with Cavendish, Vinnie might push the matter a little bit to find out what was going on. He knew himself though, and he knew just how naturally he lied about how he was feeling. Vinnie could even remember multiple times when he had lied to himself, so he wouldn't be all that surprised if Kota did the same thing, except to him instead of himself, even though they were technically the same person, though also kind of not...yeah, this multiple selves thing was confusing.
"Yeah, let's go." Vinnie stood up and stretched. He still felt pretty tired, but this wouldn't be the first time that he had been woken up hours earlier than he was ready for (gosh, who knew that he would even miss that about Cavendish? Did the other Dakotas regularly wake each other up early just because Cavendish had used to do it, or was this just a one time thing with Kota? After this morning, would Vinnie never again be woken up by a companion who wanted to get him moving? Why did that stray thought scare him so much?)
Vinnie and Kota only had to walk for a few minutes before they could see about a dozen sturdy huts. Vinnie could even see the beginnings of a wall and some larger buildings. It definitely looked like a deserted island village, but Vinnie got the feeling that the other Dakotas were in the process of establishing a real civilization at this place. Or, at least, that was what Vinnie himself would start to do.
Shortly before they reached the village Vinnie and Kota were greeted by the welcoming committee. Vinnie got the feeling that that the many Dakotas would normally do something funny and playful to greet the newcomers, but they were apparently too shocked to do anything that morning.
"Hey, uh, guys," Kota raised a hand in greeting. He looked a little nervous, which Vinnie didn't understand at all. He wasn't the kind of person to get nervous around people. It was really weird for Vinnie to see himself look nervous. "I found another Dakota last night." Vinnie waved hello.
"Last night?" One of the Dakotas stepped forward. It didn't seem like he was necessarily the leader, but more like the Dakota that they had all decided would be the one to speak when they all had the same thing on their mind. "And you...brought him here?"
Kota rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Of course I did." Vinnie wondered if he always sounded accusatory when he felt really defensive. This whole thing was starting to feel really surreal. "What did you think I was gonna do, eat him?" It sounded like the typical ridiculous suggestion that Vinnie tended to do use when somebody accused him of doing something ridiculous. When he saw the others' reactions though, Vinnie got the weird feeling that Kota's suggestion wasn't as ridiculous as it sounded.
"What else do you want us to think?" The not-quite-but-kinda-leader Dakota crossed his arms. It seemed like a gesture that was half accusatory, and half defensive. None of us have seen you in a few days since you left. How are we supposed to know what you've been up to?"
"Uh, am I missing something?" Vinnie asked. He always felt incredibly weird when he found himself between two people who were talking about something that he didn't understand. It was even weirder when the two people were two different versions of himself.
Kota shook his head and scratched at the covered cut on his arm. "It's a long story."
"He should still know it." The other Dakota said. "We don't have secrets here." No secrets? Vinnie had a really hard time believing that. Lying had become just a natural part of his life. He wasn't sure if he knew how to not have secrets anymore.
Kota scowled at the other Dakota, and any of the other Dakotas who were awake at this hour. "Then tell him yourself." Kota turned around and ran back into the jungle. Vinnie wanted to go after him, but the other Dakota grabbed his arm.
"Hang on." Other Dakota said. "If he doesn't want to be around us, then maybe it's best if we just let him go."
"Best for who?" Vinnie glared at his alternate self. It certainly wasn't the best for Kota's survival, because none of them by themselves were very good at taking care of themselves, and that was when they were living in society. Vinnie didn't know how long a single Dakota could make it on his own. Especially when he was already hurt and so obviously alone.
"For all of us." The other Dakota sighed and began to lead Vinnie further into the village. "Come on, let's go get some breakfast and we can talk. There are a few things you should know about Cannibal Dakota."
...Cannibal Dakota?
Maybe something bad really had happened here.
A/N: I hadn't planned on making this a two-parter, but this just felt like the end of a chapter, and it just so happens to be about the length of my usual chapters, so I think I'll just go ahead and split this story into two chapters. I don't know when I'll have the next part up, but I'll try to make it soon. I mean, we all need some kind of Milo Murphy's Law material to hold us over until the crossover eventually comes out.