Chapter 3 – Without You

A/N: Hey everyone, thanks for the positive feedback. I'm glad you guys are enjoying this fic so far. I also hope you like the new image for the fic. It was drawn by me. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Crash Bandicoot.

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Coco huffed as she paced the dark hallway, mulling over her predicament. She had no idea what to do. She had tried and tried, but nobody could see nor hear her. She eventually gave up on communicating with them when it was clear that no amount of yelling would get even a twitch out of the two.

She wasn't sure what time was it, but she knew it was pretty late, probably past midnight. Yet she didn't feel the slightest bit tired. She had tried for two hours to fall asleep. She had laid down on the floor of her room and closed her eyes, waiting for the eventual lull of sleep, but nothing came.

So now she was left alone wandering the rooms of the house with nothing to do. She couldn't touch nor interact with her surroundings. There was nothing she could do to pass time.

It didn't help that everything was still and quiet in the house. The only sound she could hear was the wind blowing outside. There were no voices or noises to distract her and fill the silence, making her loneliness even more unbearable.

"No!" Coco muttered and hit both her cheeks to snap out of those thoughts. She couldn't let this get to her. She and her brother get into weird and crazy situations like this all the time. They fight against an evil scientist and his mutant armies and foil his plans almost on a monthly basis. They went to space and even travelled back in time. This shouldn't be hard for her to figure out!

With that in mind, Coco nodded and went to sit on the couch to begin thinking only to fall right through it. She groaned, running her hands over her face in frustration.

"Forget it," she stepped away from the couch and sat down cross-legged on the floor. She then closed her eyes and tried to remember what happened at the creek. Okay, Crash and I got carried away by the flood. I got hit by something while I was in the water and then….I passed out.

Coco frowned. That can't be it. Something must have happened to cause….whatever this was, but she couldn't remember if anything else happened after that.

The girl sighed dejectedly, not knowing what to do. She just began trying to solve this and she already reached a dead-end.

As she sat there in silence, her mind began to wander. In times like these when she got so worked up over something or was down in the dumps, her brother will immediately try to cheer her up in his own way. He would always give her that big goofy grin of his and tell her that everything will be alright.

She never told him this, but even though she pretend to be bothered by his jokes when she was upset, she appreciated it a lot.

Coco felt her eyes mist over and she quickly whipped at them. No, no, keep it together! She thought furiously, pushing those memories away. They won't help in any way right now.

She stood up and made her way to the door, wanting to go outside and clear her mind. Sticking around here wasn't doing her any good. She reached for the doorknob, but her hand went right through it like everything else.

She stared at the door and then at her hand in thought for a moment before curiously holding it out and watching it go right through the wood in slight awe. She slowly pushed her way forward and found herself standing outside. "I'll never get used to this," she muttered as she stared at the door. It felt surreal, to be able to walk through solid objects like this.

She sighed again and walked away from the house.

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Crash blinked away the bright sunlight and looked around to see he was standing on the beach. Confused, he scratched his head, wondering how he got here. It was then he saw a flash of red at the corner of his eye and glanced up to see a piece of cloth being carried by the wind.

Crash's hands immediately went for his neck and realized it was his scarf!

The bandicoot began running frantically after it as the wind continued blowing it away, much to his frustration. He jumped into the air to grab it only to fall flat on his stomach. He huffed and when he glared up ahead, he gasped.

The wind was carrying it towards the sea!

"No!" Crash cried out and scrambled after the scarf, not wanting to lose the present his sister gave him. Before the scarf could reach the water, someone caught it. Crash froze in his tracks.

It was Coco, holding the scarf in her hands.

A big, relieved smile split Crash's face as he sprinted towards his sister. "Coco!" He called out while she remained gazing down with unreadable look on her face.

Crash quickly hugged her tightly, but she disappeared instantly in his arms along with the scarf.

"Huh?" He looked around for her and saw he was alone on the beach again. What happened? Where did his sister go?

"Coco?"

Suddenly, Crash heard a cackle in the sky and looked up to see dark ominous clouds approaching the islands and covering the sky, the same ones from the flood.

His ears drooped and his heart began beating faster as the wind picked up around him. He looked up ahead and his eyes widen fearfully when he saw something in the distance….a tidal wave.

Panicking, Crash turned around and scrambled away in terror, but it was no use. The wave finally hit the beach and crashed on top of him. He struggled feebly, feeling his strength leave him and his vision slowly darkening-

Crash yelped and his eyes snapped open when his face hit something hard. Blinking the sleep away, he sat up and saw he was lying on the floor of his room.

He must have fallen off his bed again. Groaning, he rubbed his head as he thought back about the weird dream he had. He was already feeling himself forgetting the details, but he could remember being on a beach and there was a storm and his sister-

Coco!

Crash's eyes widened when he remembered that terrible morning yesterday. He glanced over to the window to see sunlight streaming through it. He quickly stood up and rushed out of his room. His sister must have woken up by now. He had to go check on her!

Wasting no time, he ran through the hallway and entered her room to greet her and-

Crash's grin instantly fell at the sight of Coco still lying in the same position he left her last night.

She…she wasn't awake.

Aku-Aku, who was floating right next to her closet with his eyes closed, cracked one eye open and smiled at him. "Good morning, Crash. Say….where did you get that?" he asked when he saw the scarf around his neck.

Crash ignored his question and pointed at his sister with a confused look.

"Oh, well…" Aku-Aku bit his lip and averted his gaze from him. "I stayed here all night, but she hasn't woken up yet."

Crash's ears drooped as he stepped closer to the bed and stared at her. The sight of her lying on the bed motionless like this made his heart ache. It didn't feel right, none of this did. This shouldn't have happened. They were supposed to come back home and celebrate find the gem!

Crash's face suddenly went from sad to determined. He had to do something. There must be a way for him to wake her up. Scratching his head, he raked his brain for a moment and suddenly noticed Coco's laptop on her desk.

An idea then hit him and he grinned. Of course, he recalled his sister saying that gathers a lot of data in her laptop in case they needed it later whenever they were off to save the world. Maybe there was something that could solve their problem or at least give them an idea on what's wrong with his sister.

He made his way over and sat on the chair. Pushing away some books aside, he opened the laptop and turned it on, watching the screen light up in front of him. He raised hands over the keyboard and then froze up when he realized he didn't know how to use it.

He stared at the keys, feeling completely lost on what to do. He hesitated for a moment before pressing a button, but nothing happened on the screen or to the icons.

Working with technology wasn't one of his strongest points. That was his sister's thing. He never even bothered asking her to teach him since he saw no reason to.

Idiot! The word was hissed sharply at the back of his mind and Crash's ears fell a little. He sighed as he faced the screen again, the bright light flashing on his face almost mocking him.

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It all began last night.

Aku-Aku didn't know how to describe it or what caused it exactly, but ever since yesterday he had been getting this weird….feeling. His eyes would occasionally searching the room for the cause of it, but he never saw anything off or out of place.

It was like that feeling you get when you think someone was following you, or when you enter a place and feel as if something that should be there wasn't. While he watched over Coco last night, he turned around, thinking that Crash came back into the room again, only to see nobody.

It wasn't entirely accurate to just call it a feeling. There were fleeting glimpses, a wisp at the corner of his vision that vanished the moment he blinked or looked away.

He made sure not to mention this to Crash. The poor bandicoot was already distraught over what happened to his sister and he didn't want to add the fact that he was seeing things to Crash's list of concerns.

"Aku-Aku?"

The mask blinked and looked down at the bandicoot. "What is it?"

Crash gestured at him and then at the laptop questioningly.

"What? No, I don't even know how that thing works!" He sputtered. He remembered a time when he asked Coco that and he hadn't understood a word from what she explained to him. Not to mention that he didn't trust any of these electronic contraptions in the first place.

Crash turned the laptop off and closed it, looking down at his lap dejectedly. Aku-Aku frowned sympathetically and flew over to him. "Crash, how about you go eat something? You haven't had breakfast yet, have you?" he asked, hoping to distract him.

Crash shook his head at the question and pulled away from the desk. He glanced at his sister one more time before leaving.

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A/N: I haven't decided how many chapters will be in this story, but I'll let you guys know when I do.

Thanks for reading and please review!