Pinky awoke to a truly terrifying sound, and fingers digging into his side and hurting. It was like someone was screaming without air. He yelped as the hands pressed harder. Squirming, he managed to pry them loose enough so he could roll over and investigate.

It was Brain. Still deep in sleep, squeezing his eyes shut as he reached out, desperately seeking something. Wanting to comfort despite their too firm grip, Pinky took one of his shaking hands in his own, squeezing and reaching out to pet his head with his free hand. The choked cries quieted into whimpers, but they were too pathetic and weak to be coming from his Brain. It filled his stomach with a bunch of really bad feelings. Brain never got this upset or frightened, never.

"Pinky-! Pinky, no," he sobbed, curling up in his arms. "Don't leave me, don't-! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Pinky-!"

"Shhh..." Pinky engulfed him in his arms, embracing him tightly to stop those sounds and shakes. "I'm here, Brain. Poit. I'm right here. Please don't cry."

The tremors slowed, and his breathing eased as the warmth and scent permeated his senses. "Pinky..." he hiccuped, curling his fingers in the fur of his chest.

"It's okay, Brain. It's just a bad dream." Pinky nuzzled affectionately, breathing a sigh of relief when the smaller mouse fell back to peaceful sleep. When he was certain he wouldn't wake up, or start crying again, Pinky pulled back just enough to brush away the tear tracks in his fur. His face was so tired, graying and weary even with most of the lines smoothed away in sleep. "Brain... What happened, Brain? Who did this to you?" He rubbed their noses together, then let his eyes fall shut. "Well, I'll take care of you. Narf. I'll make sure they never hurt you again. Promise."

-8-8-

Brain awoke in a panic. The foreign, yet familiar, warmth he'd grown accustomed to in his sleep was gone. The big bed was empty, save for him. His senses, having dulled with age, couldn't even pick up the scent of his friend. It was as if he'd never been there.

Of course, Pinky had simply woken up early as he always did and had gone off in search of breakfast and a coffee pot so he could make some tea. But with the castle being so big and his attention span so not, he quickly got lost. Every hallway looked the same, or it did to him, and he kept finding himself back in the room with the donut chandelier. It was a lovely room, of course, and his favorite because it was the first one he saw, but it didn't help him find food any faster.

With a sigh, Pinky began the search again, only to come across Paul and his two guard friends, Biff and Brian. "Poit! Oh, hello!" What luck! They'd be able to help him find the kitchen.

At first they tried to insist that someone else would take care of their morning meal and he could go wait in the dining room, but Pinky was adamant on at least making his own tea. Brain liked the way he made it, after all, so it was important that he make it just right for him. So the guards gave in and took him to the kitchen, telling the chef to just let him make the tea. They offered him the tea kettle and a mug with two thimbles and let him have at it.

The chef's name was Carl, and he made the most delicious pancake batter he'd ever tasted! They had a lovely conversation, and Pinky told him all about the time he and Brain had a gigantic pancake jamboree while he waited for the water to heat up. He wasn't used to using a kettle though, he'd adapted and used the lab's coffee pot for most of his tea needs. Luckily he had Carl to help him out, he poured the water into the mug for him and even got him the English Breakfast Tea off of the high shelf for him. Pinky was pleased to see it was the brand he'd always used at the lab, that hadn't changed at least.

While it steeped in the mug, Pinky collected the honey and the lemon. He also requested that Carl make the pancakes into Mickey Mouse shapes, clapping happily as the first one was flipped and had such a nice golden brown color to it. Carl was a pancake wizard!

Pinky had just removed the tea bag when the kitchen door burst open. Both chef and mouse looked up, startled, and the latter actually dropped the hot bag on himself and yelped. It was Biff, the younger of the three guards and he strode over to Pinky with purpose. "Emperor Brain wishes to see you."

"Oh, why would he waste one of his wishes on that? He'll see me in a little while, once I'm done with the tea!" Pinky responded. You only got three wishes after all. Oh, he hadn't known Biff was a genie. That explained the funny outfit.

The guard appeared confused. "But, Mister Pinky-"

"Please, Mister Pinky is my envelope name!" He really only put it on letters that he mailed to very important people. Like Seventeen magazine. "Call me Pinky!"

"Of course, Pinky," Biff amended, still rather uneasy. "But Emperor Brain asked for you. And I think he means immediately."

"Oh, he could mean any number of things. With all those big words, woooo, I have no idea what he's saying sometimes." Pinky waved it off. "I'll come see him when the tea's ready! And bring it to him! Poit."

"We have servers who can do that for you-"

"I want to do it!"

Biff nodded, saluting the little mouse. "Of course. I'll let him know."

Pinky saluted right back, giggling to himself once the guard left and busied himself with spooning the honey in and squeezing the lemon. He hummed as he stirred the hot drink, not aware of Carl's surprised expression over the fact that someone had actually ignored Brain's order. The door opened again, a little quieter this time, but Pinky didn't pay it any attention as he scooped the tea into the two thimbles.

"Carl? Do we have any food pellets at all? Brain likes to dip them in his tea sometimes like a crumpet." he asked, not turning around and testing the temperature with his pinky finger.

"No, Pinky. I haven't had food pellets in quite a while."

Pinky spun around, beaming at his cagemate who had somehow magically appeared on the counter next to him. In reality, Biff had brought him in upon request, and he'd been watching the taller mouse hum and go about making their tea. "Brain! Good morning! Zort! I made you tea!" He handed him one of the thimbles, tail wagging expectantly.

The megalomaniac took it carefully, his hands trembling, before setting it down to grab his cane and effectively bopped Pinky on the head with it. The taller mouse laughed, only stopping when Brain used the cane to force his head down to look him in the eyes. "Do not leave my side without permission, Pinky. Ever. Do you understand?"

Blue eyes blinked, going wide as he realized this was a serious bop, like he'd done something wrong kind of bop. "But, Brain, what's wrong? I only wanted some breakfast, and you were sleeping so I couldn't ask you. Poit. I know you don't like it when I wake you up too early."

"I don't care if you wake me up, Pinky. I need to know where you are at all times, alright?" There was a desperate, almost pleading, lilt to Brain's tone as he tried to stay stern and commanding, dropping the cane to grip Pinky's shoulders. "Alright? Promise me, Pinky."

"Right, Brain. I promise," Pinky assured him, still not quite understanding why Brain was so upset. It wasn't like he went anywhere, he was still inside the castle and even though he got lost, the nice guards had helped him. "I'm sorry."

Brain sighed, closing his eyes. He'd even forgotten his cute little spectacles. Egad, he'd really been a mess. "It's... it's quite alright for now, Pinky. Just keep it in mind for the future." When Pinky nodded again, Brain gave his cheek a pat and released him.

At first, the smaller mouse thought it had all been a dream, that the previous day had not occurred. But he needed to make sure, needed to find him if he truly was still there. He'd come across two of his guards as he hurried through the hall, their names both started with B, he knew that much, but it wasn't until they lifted him up that he took note of their name tags. It was then that he knew it hadn't been a dream. They'd escorted Pinky to the kitchen not fifteen minutes earlier. He sent Biff to retrieve him, remaining behind with Brian as he tried to catch his breath. The scare had practically stopped his heart. It would've been the cruelest torture to have him back only to lose him again just as suddenly.

Brain blinked as he felt Pinky nudge him, pushing the thimble towards him. "You don't want your tea, Brain?"

"Ah, no I do. Thank you, Pinky." He took up the thimble and sipped at it, his entire body relaxing as the soothing liquid warmed him. Oh... he hadn't had Pinky's tea in so long and nothing could compare...

Pinky beamed as the expression of pure contentment took the place of the worry-mad face he'd been making. He clasped his hands together, rubbing his cheek against them. "And Carl's making us mouse pancakes! He's very good at it!"

Brain glanced over his shoulder, the chef trying to hide his pleased smile as he continued to flip their breakfast. "Yes, well. I only hired the best. His meals are quite enjoyable." Of course, he hadn't known his name was Carl... he actually never came in the kitchen.

"Narf! I can't wait!" He clapped his hands, then picked up his own thimble to drink.

"Well, why don't we get out of... Carl's way, and wait in the dining room?" Brain suggested.

"'Kay!" Pinky nodded, waving at the chef as Biff came over to help them off the counter. "See you later, Carl!"

The pancakes had been divine. Truly a pancake wizard.

-8-8-

Brain's office was connected to Pinky's playroom, with a door just in case he needed to concentrate and Pinky's shenanigans made that impossible. Of course, today he was quite pleased to have the door open and listen to his friend's antics. He'd run on the wheel for quite a bit after breakfast, under the claim of having to work off those pancakes to keep his figure trim and slim (which Brain didn't know what he was talking about, he looked lovely already) and then he'd gone on to pretend to be Super Mouse. Brain had kept all of his old toys; even the mask and cape.

"Don't worry, townspeoples! Super Mouse will save you!" The masked mouse declared as he leapt down off the Lego tower he'd constructed. "The world will not be safe until all the chocolate milk is sealed properly and put back on the shelves of all the supermarkets! Troz!"

Brain listened, tapping his pencil against the desk, propping his cheek up as he leaned on his elbow. There were a series of economic reports to file, people were still trying to get used to the new currency he'd introduced, but for now he let his eyes slip shut and hummed softly as he enjoyed the sound of Pinky's playing.

"Egad! It's a licorice monster! Run everyone- no! No, comb! Don't be a hero! That's my job!" Pinky, or Super Mouse rather, cried out, then began his narration. "The intrepid hero hurried to reach the side of the brave, stupid comb. Hoping he wouldn't be too late! But the licorice monster was closing in on him! Suddenly, Super Mouse revealed his secret weapon!" Sliding back into character, he declared: "You shall be punished for your evil, mean, sticky, cavity creating ways, foul beast! Dental floss rope activate!" There was a harmless sounding crash and Brain smirked against his palm. "Bang! Zoom! Right in the kisser! Romy!"

That wasn't part of the game. Brain blinked his eyes open and got down off the desk. Peering around the door frame, he saw that his son had indeed joined Pinky. Romy was smiling at the masked mouse fondly, and Brain quickly saw why. The ridiculous creature was tangled up in his own dental floss rope.

"Hey, ma, having fun?" he asked, taken aback by the sharp "shush" he was on the receiving end of.

"I'm not Pinky, I'm Super Mouse!" He flipped the cape up as dramatically as he could with the dental floss constraining him. "But I will retrieve him for you! Super Mouse, away!"

He hopped over to duck behind one of his Lego structures and grunted as he tried to wiggle out of his costume. Brain rolled his eyes and strolled over to join Romy. The father and son exchanged glances, distracted by Pinky's reappearance as himself.

"Hi!" He chirped, waving happily.

"Hi, ma," Romy played along, waving back. "Just wanted to check up on you. How're you doing?"

"Oh, wonderful, Romy! We had a lovely breakfast of pancakes and fruit! And there are so many fun-fun silly-willy toys to play with! I love it!" Pinky hugged himself tightly, trying to contain all the happy feelings.

Yes, there were many toys. Roman snorted to himself. And Brain said Pinky had spoiled him rotten as a kid, well, where did he learn it from? Clearly he didn't practice what he preached. And all these toys came to be without the taller mouse even around. "Sounds... fun. I just came by to see if you wanted to spend the afternoon with me. You know, let dad have some time to actually concentrate on his work."

"I was concentrating!" Brain snapped immediately, cheeks coloring. Pinky laughed and Romy simply raised an eyebrow, not buying it for a minute. "It's very serious business ruling the world and I do not take it lightly."

"Of course you don't, dad," he agreed easily, living with Brain made one take up a very placating attitude. "But like you said, it's serious work. And Pinky is the opposite of serious." He gestured to him and, sure enough, Pinky was giggling as he wiggled his ears. "C'mon, pop, let him blow off some steam with me. I won't let him out of my sight."

Brain bristled, not liking the tone his own clone was taking with him. Yet... he had a point. He was not being productive at all with his cagemate in the next room. And there were plenty of guards to ensure their safety, as well as Roman's word to keep an eye on Pinky. He glanced at Pinky for a moment, the taller mouse very likely trying to see the top of his head again, and sighed. Reluctant. "Fine. We didn't get around to exploring the rest of the castle, and it would behoove him to familiarize himself with his surroundings."

"You don't have to come up with an excuse, dad." Romy smirked, rolling his eyes. "C'mon, ma. Let's go have an adventure."

"Hooray! An adventure!" Pinky cheered, running after his son. "Bye, Brain!"

"Yes, see you in a while, Pinky." He watched as the two mice fled the playroom, tapping his cane against the floor.

-8-8-

Pinky skipped along the sparkling blue tiled hall, slipping as it was freshly waxed. With a delighted squeal he went careening into the wall. Romy's lips twitched, wanting to smile at his antics, though at the same time preoccupied by his own thoughts. Something didn't seem right. It kept him up all night as he pondered. Why now? Why, after all this time, would Pinky return to them now, not a day older than when he'd vanished? Brain was willing to brush it off, but Romy supposed he could understand why, the years not being particularly kind to his glorious intellect. But the son would not, could not, just let it go.

If Pinky truly did transcend time itself... then he naturally didn't belong here. This entire present was false, created by manually removing Pinky from the equation. But why? And how?

The only person who could tell him was currently licking the wallpaper. Glarb.

"Oh, where are we going to go explore, Romy?" Pinky asked, sliding back over to him.

"Actually, ma, I wanted to show you something." Roman took hold of Pinky's wrist to guide him along. "It's in the library. I figured you'd want to see how pop took over the world, right?"

The ecstatic nod made him feel a little less guilty for dragging his parent into his ponderings. "Oh, yes! I'm sure it was the happiest day of Brain's life!"

Romy didn't respond to that, letting Pinky float around in his little fantasy world. Surely Brain had said all of his happy "yes"s and smiled a big happy smile! Sighing dreamily, Pinky placed his free hand to his cheek and let his lashes flutter. Oh, a happy Brain would be so wonderful. A mouse as kind and smart and clever and amazing as Brain deserved all the happiness.

The pair entered the library, Romy nodded to a few of the servants who were dusting and organizing the books. His grip on Pinky tightened as he took note of the way he was getting distracted by the ladders and shelves and all the many, many books. Towards the back of the library were all the periodicals, all the articles concerning Brain's day of world conquest and all the events that spiraled after it. He would show Pinky all of it, or as much of it as his mom could stomach. He needed to be aware of what had happened. He knew he'd have Pinky's support in figuring out what went awry two years ago if he knew how seriously Brain had suffered without him at his side.

Romy let go of Pinky's wrist and started climbing up the table that contained the folders and books of newspaper clippings they'd collected. Pinky followed him up without being asked, folding his arms behind his back as he strolled along the tabletop and looked around. The clone nudged a book down, catching Pinky's attention and flipped it to the first page.

"Is it storytime, Romy? Oh, I love storytime!" Pinky clasped his hands together and hopped from foot to foot.

Romy looked over at him placing a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah, ma, it's storytime. It's a story about dad."

Pinky gasped quietly and stared at his son with wide eyes, rapt with attention. "Those are the best stories. Well. Except for the one with the little sad blue lamb who had no friends because he was blue, except it wasn't so sad because it turns out he was accidentally painted blue by the angels who made rainbows and so was very special and saved the day and then everyone loved him!" Hugging himself with a huge smile, Pinky ignored the eye roll from his son.

"Focus, ma." He gave his shoulder a squeeze and forced Pinky's attention back away from inside his head.

"Right, Romy. Sorry. Poit."

The clone nodded and gestured down at the book. "Look here. This is the day Brain took over the world."

Blue eyes lit up and Pinky scrambled to get a good look at the compilation of articles and pictures. The light faded quickly though, replaced by confusion. Oh, it was Brain alright, taking over the world just as he'd always wanted... but his eyes... his fur... he was a mess. It looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. He looked at the picture on the page opposite it. For this one Brain had been cleaned up, his fur no longer mussed and a cape and crown adorning him as he'd always envisioned. But the look in his eyes hadn't changed. There was no happiness in them. There was nothing... except exhaustion and a feeling sadder than sad. He didn't have the word for it.

Pinky stroked the glossy, laminated face of this young, familiar Brain, the one he'd seen just yesterday. His eyes flickered up to the headline. "Mouse Man's Salvation?" is what it read, and Pinky wondered which plan thingy had worked, but the thought was fleeting because it didn't really matter when Brain looked the way he did.

Romy watched his parent's eyes fill with tears and sighed, leaving his hand on his shoulder. "Not what you'd thought it'd be?"

"Oh, Romy!" He sniffled, thumb tracing over picture-Brain's lips. "It's all wrong! Where's Brain's smile? And his fur! Why, I'd never let him leave the lab looking like that! It's too Flock of Seagulls for him!"

Glancing at the picture, Roman found he had to agree with Pinky. He really couldn't pull it off. No, wait, stay on track. "You weren't there, ma. He didn't have anyone to tell him to brush his fur."

But how did it get that messy? It had only been a day! Was that how it got all gray too? It must've been! Brain's take over the world plan thingy must've done something awful to his fur as a result. At least he'd fixed his hairdo by now. But that didn't explain the extra sad sadness.

Romy flipped the page, then another and another. Pinky's eyes grew wider with each turn. There were so many more pictures and dates and pages. How were there so many pages? And the dates... where had all these days come from? Each picture was somehow worse than the last, the exhaustion and hopelessness so very plain on his friend's visage. Each day it got worse. He actually choked when he noticed the weight loss and the thinning fur. He wasn't taking care of himself at all! And he was alone... so very alone. Even surrounded by other fancy dignitaries, The Brain was very much alone.

"Brain," he whimpered, hugging himself as the pictures didn't seem to have an end. Thinking back to the way Brain looked the day before, when he'd first seen him in this place, his heart sank as he realized they wouldn't. They didn't end. "Stop it!" He pushed Romy out of the way and shut the book. He didn't like this story.

"This is what happened after you disappeared, ma." Romy brushed himself off, focusing his gaze on the distraught mouse. "He fell apart."

"But... but where did I go? Why wasn't I there?" Pinky gripped his ears and tugged down, unable to meet Romy's gaze. "Where did I go?"

"That's what I want to figure out. Something's not right about all of this and I need your help to find out what." He gripped Pinky's shoulders, forcing his gaze upon him. "I know you're having fun here, but something tells me you don't belong here. It's not just your age either. I have this feeling... it's very... glarb. You're not meant to be here."

Pinky shook his head, tears bright in his eyes. "No! Brain needs me! I have to stay! I have to!"

"I know he needs you, believe me, I know." Romy sighed, now the one unable to face his parent. "But what if there's a way to keep this from happening? If Snowball is really behind all this, maybe we could reverse whatever he did, put you back where you belong."

"Brain's side. I belong there!" He pointed to the book, trying in vain to hold back the well of emotions. "I'm not anywhere in there and I'm supposed to be! Even if he took over the world without me..."

"For you," Romy put in. Curious blue eyes stared at him and the clone gave his arm a squeeze. "He took over the world to find you, completely threw himself into it. I thought he was obsessive before, but... but that was nothing compared to the month between you leaving and total world domination."

Sniffling, Pinky wiped at his teary eyes. "How did he do it?"

He released him and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, he'd been failing pretty hardcore at first, I mean his plans worked and he got far, but... no one took him seriously. And in his state, he wasn't all that intimidating. He'd been about to give up, but then Snowball launched an attack on all mankind, an attack that would've left the world in shambles and, well... just really not narf, man. But no one could stop him. No one except dad."

Pinky clasped his hands together, rapt with attention and waiting for his son to finish his story. "What was he going to do?"

"Enslave the human race, he had shock collars and bombs and a robot army, it was pretty dark stuff. But dad knew how Snowball worked, and when the hamster taunted him publicly, even rubbing in the fact that you left him, well, he snapped and for a while he had some of his old spunk back. He became convinced that Snowball knew where you were. And I guess he was right in a way. Anyway, dad cracked his system, managed to shut down the evil robot army and disrupt the frequency of the shock collars. He saved the world, essentially, and won everybody over. By not trying to take over the world... he had. 'In true Pinky fashion' was what he'd told me later, once the shock wore off that everyone was pledging their allegiance to him. So, he went for it. He used his influence and managed to take over the world."

"Egad..." the taller mouse breathed, flipping over to the first page of the book to gaze at his friend on the day his destiny came true. "Brain's a hero."

"I never would've pegged him as one, but yeah. He is." Romy came up beside him to take in the picture as well, though he didn't need to, he remembered seeing his dad on the news, shocked by his appearance more so than the fact he'd taken over the world. "But it didn't matter to him, being a hero or not. He didn't care what anyone thought of him except for you. And he thought you either hated him so much that you'd never go back home to him, or you were... well..." Romy drew his finger across his neck, hoping the taller mouse would understand the gesture. From the shiver that wracked him, he assumed he had.

Pinky looked down. That he was the cause of his best friend's unhappiness... it was all him. He was the meany-mean-head who'd hurt Brain so badly and made him cry out in his sleep from scary dreams. That was unacceptable.

"It's as if you're only here to cause me grief!"

"No... No, I'm supposed to make Brain happy. That's all I wanted." Pinky caressed the exhausted, lonely memory of his Brain. Well... if he'd caused this whole mess, all this sadness... then he was just going to have to fix it! Ears and tail perking so suddenly, Roman was taken aback as Pinky turned to face him with a determined look on his face, smile bright. "Romy! Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

While there was a very high chance it would be something inane, the clone had a feeling that he'd go against the odds this time and he couldn't help but smile back. "I think so, ma. Narf."

Ponderings!

Yes! Will Pinky find a way back home? Will Carl's duck pancakes be as much of a success? Will Brain ever stop being so old? And did Super Mouse get all the chocolate milk back to it's rightful place? Stay tuned! Poit!