Hello all! On to the next chapter!
So now we have discerned that everyone dislikes King Bowser... and before he finds me and fry me to a crisp, I just want to say a few words. I own nothing, and... yeah, I fear for my life. Thank you to all who have been patient, and I've gotta go, so do enjoy! *flees*
Bowser: GET BACK HERE! I'M GONNA KILL YA!
See what I mean?
Threshold
Chapter 10-Mental Barrier
Iggy was still silent as Bowser led the two young boys straight to the infirmary. As they walked (rather, Bowser angrily stomped along) past a few doors, someone yelled from all the way down the end of the hallway.
"DADDDDD! Wendy's hitting me again!"
Which caused the party of three to stop, Iggy finally glad he didn't have to listen to anymore of his father's stomping or complaining. He wanted to pull Morton Jr.'s hand and let him know they should just bolt for the infirmary, but he knew that wasn't a very good plan for a few reasons.
One, Bowser OWNED the place. It wasn't like the two made it less clear where they were headed. Two, if Bowser saw them running, he knew he would pry information out of them that they just didn't have. Or to be more clear, information Iggy wold rather not say at the moment. He told Morton everything he knew and a few things that bugged and scared him, but there was the difference.
Morton Jr., as talkative and loud and annoying as he could be, was FAR more understanding than their father could ever be. Even Iggy knew that. And he wasn't quite sure how much more mental instability he could handle before he completely crashed.
Three, if Lemmy was still alive, he knew there was going to be trouble. A LOT of trouble.
"Larry, what is-"
"Daddy, Larry hit me with the controller just because I wanted to be first player!" Wendy O's whining began before he could even finish. Bowser rolled his eyes; he loved his children, his daughter especially, but sometimes... man, could she be a pain in the koopa shell! 'Where on earth did you pick up this habit, you little brat...'
"What happened, Wendy?" Before she could answer, her younger brother Larry started in.
"No I didn't! She took it from me and I wanted it back! Then she hit me!" he cried, showing his father the side of his face. Sure enough, it was red and swollen where Wendy's hand slapped the daylights out of him.
"But Daddy, he wouldn't let me play first!"
"It's MY game! And you HIT ME! Make her go away, Dad!"
Bowser tried to calm the two complaining children down, and Iggy looked up in happiness. Now was their chance!
Without saying a word, Iggy tugged on Morton Jr.'s hand, pulling him off his feet as he bolted for the stairs at the end of the hallway. Morton Jr. barely had a chance to let out a yelp; that was totally unexpected...
Once they were able to duck behind the doorjam of the staircase, Iggy let Morton Jr.'s hand go, doubling over in exhaustion. Morton Jr. struggled to find his balance, but was still having some trouble.
"D-Dude... the hey..." Morton Jr panted heavily, coughing and finally standing upright. Iggy was still hunched over, his shoulders heaving. Neither brother spoke for a few seconds.
That is, until Iggy looked up. He took a shaky, deep breath, and adjusted his glasses. "Wow... Thank you Wendy..." He muttered. He looked at Morton.
"Uh, Iggs? What was this all about?" his talkative dark brother asked, tapping his shoulder.
"Honestly... I was getting tired of listening to him whining. He's worse than her."
Morton Jr. had no response to that one; he knew what Iggy meant. He laughed, clapping his loony brother on his shoulder again. "Iggs, lemme tell ya- I was surprised you even tried something like this! You do know Dad's gonna be like, SUPER furious when he sees we're not there anymore, right?"
Iggy nodded, his chest still stinging a little. "Yeah. Let's go; I want to know what's going on with Lemmy. We can worry about Dad later."
Getting serious, Morton agreed, and the two continued on their way. It didn't take them very long until they finally reached the ultimate destination.
"K-Kamek... what happened to him..."
Everyone who was already present in the room looked up. Iggy stood there, his eyes larger than the glasses half adjusted on his face. Morton Jr. looked both shocked and scared, but it was hard to tell.
"Finally! Now maybe we can get some answers 'round here!" Roy said, exasperated. He began to walk toward Iggy, but the latter shuffled back half a step. Ludwig took notice of it.
"Ignatius. Is everything alright?"
Iggy didn't respond. Roy took another three steps forward, which caused Iggy to shuffle back the same amount. He was close to hitting the wall, and his expression seemed frozen, to say the least. Ludwig, Kamek, who had glanced up in time to see the movements, and Roy all looked dumbfounded at the actions the insane inventor made.
"Yo, quit jokin' around! Iggy, do you know what happened to Lemmy?" Roy asked, a bit too loudly. He got no response. Morton Jr. watched the whole thing, unsure of what Iggy's problem was.
'Weird. Didn't Iggy just say what happened to me? Well, then again, I DID have to punch him to get him to calm down. Maybe Roy's just making him nervous. But if I tell Roy to calm down he'll blow up in MY face.' Morton thought as he watched.
'Poor Iggs. Never saw him like that ever... he's usually so... well, crazy!'
Roy stood with his burly hands on his hips, waiting for Iggy to answer him. Iggy's legs felt like jelly out of of the blue, and he wanted to go and hide in his room and wait for all this to pass. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that wasn't possible, not in this current moment. It was making him feel sick for a strange reason, and everyone soon noticed.
"Iggs?"
"Yo, Brainaic! Answer me! What's wrong with ya?!"
"Ignatius, are you alright? Say something."
"Master Ignatius? Will you answer Roy's question, please? What happened to Lemmy?"
With all the questions being fired a mile a minute, there was no time for Iggy to get his side out. Covering his ears, he shut his eyes tightly, forcing out anymore sounds, forcing out his family in general.
'S-Stop asking me that! I don't know! Please... my stomach really hurts, I wanna go to my room...'
As his brothers and Kamek began to edge closer, concerned for his well-being, Iggy wrapped his arms about his abdomen, sinking to the floor. He begun to shake, and was unaware he had tears rolling down his cheeks. Morton Jr. realized his brother was getting upset, and tried to comfort him.
"Iggs, come on. We need you to tell them what you told me." Morton Jr. said softly, not wanting Iggy to lash out the same way he did earlier. Iggy shook his head. Sighing Morton kneeled in front of him and moved his hands away from his ears.
"Why not? They need your help, bro."
Iggy continued shaking his head. "I-I can't... do it. I don't want to think about it."
"Iggy, I know you're afraid. But Lemmy is safe. They saved him. So go on and tell them."
No response. Ludwig stepped forward, a little concerned for his younger brother's state of mind. "Ignatius, what exactly do you mean? Did you have something bad earlier?"
Iggy slowly shook his head no. "Then what is the matter? Why will you not say what happened to Lemmy?"
Roy, who had tried his best to hang back and let his oldest brother do the talking, had had enough. Before anyone knew what was about to happen, Roy pushed past Ludwig and Morton and forced Iggy up by his hands. Iggy's knees knocked together as he stared petrified and in obvious pain at his sibling.
"Listen here, ya geek. Lem's THIS close to dyin' over there. And I'm THIS close to beatin' ya to a bloody pulp." he began, his voice deadly soft. Iggy blinked, almost forgetting how to breathe- and briefly forgetting his stomach pains, too.
"I don't care if ya tummy hurts, I don't care if ya sobbin' til ya drop. But someone nearly KILLED Lemmy, and we need to find out who so the bastard can pay. Understand?"
Releasing his hands, Iggy shrank back against the wall, still hyperventilating and completely frozen with fear for a reason he couldn't fathom. Knees beginning to knock together, Iggy weakly nodded in response.
"Now that ya got all that, I'll ask again. Who did this?"
Morton sighed and rolled his eyes in annoyance. Kamek and Ludwig glared angrily at him, the latter already half tempted to shoot a fireball at him; what good was scaring an unstable young child going to do?
"Really, Roy? Really? Scare him more, why don't ya."
Roy turned on him, walking up to his face. Unlike Iggy, Morton knew he could match his brother in strength and hold his own in a talking contest, so he wasn't so easily threatened.
"Well, I don't see YOU doin' anything, ya wise crack!" Morton shrugged, brushing his brother's comment aside.
"Unlike YOU, I don't need to flaunt my muscles to get everything I want! Iggy's scared enough as it is, especially considering what he saw when he found Lemmy out there-"
"Hold on."
Ludwig cut both boys off, and all turned to look at him, save for Iggy, who stared into space slumped against the wall, legs barely able to keep him upright. "What did you just say, Morton Jr.?"
Said koopaling blinked in confusion. "Uh... Iggs saw what Lem looked like- well, obviously, since he was the one who found him and all that-"
Ludwig approached the trembling green-haired koopaling, ignoring everything else Morton Jr. was saying. Even Roy forgot why he was about to punch him in the face. He was more curious about what Ludwig was about to do.
"Ignatius. Ignatius, look up at me."
He got no response. Calmly, Ludwig stood in front of him and forced his slightly head upwards so he was looking right at him. Which of course, caused Iggy to finally freak out to the maximum.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" he cried, shaking his chin free of Ludwig's grip. Everyone else just looked in shock at the mess that was going on.
"Stop asking me... I don't know. I don't KNOW!"
While the others tried to figure out what was going on with the teen, Kamek noticed that the youngest of the clan, who had been awake for some time, was quietly staring at the spectacle being laid out in front of him. He looked completely dazed and confused.
"Junior? Are you alright?" Kamek asked, walking over to check on him. Junior shook his head no, still lost in space.
"No... why's everyone yelling at each other? What's wrong with Iggy?"
Kamek sighed. "I don't-"
"KAMEK! IGGY! MORTON! Where the hell is everyone?!"
All conversation halted, and Iggy's head snapped up in complete fear. He knew that he and Morton were going to get a through chewing out once their father got here, but that didn't mean he could handle it. Not right now, anyways.
"Your Loudness, calm yourself down. Yelling will not solve anything." Kamek said once the king himself stepped foot in the room. Bowser looked at his children in turn, glaring hard at Iggy, who shrank back against the wall.
"And I don't care how loud I am, I want to know what the hell is going on! Where's Lemmy?!" he roared back. Kamek shrugged, pointing to the tiny body in the cot in front of him. Immediately Bowser fell silent, watching oxygen push air into Lemmy's tiny lungs. Everyone else shuffled back a little, extremely uncertain as to what he would do next.
After a long pause, Bowser asked in an usually quiet voice, "Kamek... what happened to him?"
"I'm afraid I don't know what happened to your son. Ignatius was the one who found him and brought him to me, and between Ludwig and myself, we just barely managed to keep him alive."
Bowser whirled around so fast, his large body nearly knocked Kamek over. Anger and a little guilt was evident in his ruby red eyes. Everyone's eyes were now on Iggy once again, and frankly, Iggy hated it.
"Start talking, or you'll be in the same boat as your brother! The hell did you see out there?!"
Iggy stared, paralyzed with fear of his father. His brother was one thing, but this was just pushing his mental barriers too far.
There was a reason Iggy enjoyed being the middle child. Things like this never happened to him. He didn't have to say anything unless he was explicitly told, and being in the spotlight never appealed to him. He preferred his inventions and gadgets and his little private room and quiet and tools and things his family couldn't quite understand.
He didn't have to find a nearly dead Lemmy and be so terrified of Roy and Bowser about to rip his head off and handle all the questions and break down in front of Morton Jr. All he had to do was come up with new weapons that could defeat the Mario Brothers, and stay in his room and be that crazy middle child.
His mind was trying to suppress the pictures of his brother's gash-covered body, the paleness from the lack of blood, the faint smile that made him want to throw up and how disgusting and light he felt. He didn't want to think about it anymore, but he found it hard to voice that to his father.
"Dammit, Iggy!" Bowser growled, losing a lot of patience. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!"
"Father, you need to settle down. No one wants to talk to someone roaring in their face."
Bowser turned to face his eldest son, who was standing near Lemmy's bedside, glaring coolly at him. Iggy let out a thankful sigh of relief, the direction on his dad's fury turned to someone else, and he slid to the ground, panting.
"What's that, Ludwig?"
Ludwig had put two and two together and realized why Iggy was locking up every time he tried to speak the entire time the two were going back and forth. Not so much as blinking, he calmly said, "Shut up. Ignatius is under stress, and you know he is extremely unpredictable when he gets that way. It is no wonder he did not want to speak to Roy, either. You two are yelling right in his face."
Bowser put his hands on his hips, amused and pissed by his son's words. "Ludwig, I don't care if the moon came out of the sky. That little boy was supposed to be in his room for another week! And now he somehow winds up 'injured' in the wing? I don't buy any of it, and I want to know what the hell just happened, and why I was not made aware of it!"
He walked up to Ludwig and poked him in the chest. "By the way, I'm the leader here. Let's get that straight right now. Don't tell me to shut up. EVER. Or you'll wind up like Lemmy over here. Understand me?"
"Father?"
"What?"
Ludwig smirked before shoving his father's massive hand from his chest. "Shut up. You cannot defeat me in battle, so do not try to act to threatening in here."
The room fell completely silent. Ludwig stood firmly in front of his father, who couldn't believe what he had just heard. His hand raised to smack him senseless, Kamek quickly intervened before another child wound up in the wing.
"Your Highness, please be careful! Bowser Jr is right behind me! And Lemmy's in no condition to be moved!" he exclaimed. Ludwig shook his head and focused on Iggy, who appeared to have passed out.
"He is not my concern right now. Lemmy and Ignatius are."
Bowser prepared to say something, but closed his mouth and huffed in anger. "Whatever. I don't care about music boy either. But Iggy needs to start talking!"
His father's sudden rise in voice caused Iggy to jump, brought back from whatever world he had been in.
'I don't want to think about it... please, just stop asking me!'
"Iggy. What happened to your brother out there?" Kamek resumed the questionnaire. Roy, Junior, Morton Jr. and Kamek all stared at him. With the attention back on him once more and far too tired to keep silent, Iggy finally gave in.
"I... I don't know."
Bowser quickly turned on his middle son with such fury it could be felt by all who occupied the room. His hand shot out and grabbed Iggy by the throat, which of course, caused even MORE panic. Morton Jr., Roy and Ludwig all tried to pry his massive father off Iggy's scrawny neck.
"The hell you mean 'you don't know'?! You found the twerp! Surely you must know how he wound up here?!" he yelled, shaking him a little with each sentence. Iggy let out a strangled yelp as he fought against his father's large claws squeezing the life out of him, trying to breathe.
"Father, release him! You will kill him!" Ludwig yelled over his roaring, pulling his arms Roy and Morton Jr kept pulling on the other one. Eventually, and luckily not a moment too soon, Bowser snapped back to his senses and dropped Iggy. Coughing and literally scared to death, Iggy clung on to Ludwig and Roy as they attended to him.
"Calm down, Iggs... calm down and breathe." Roy murmured into his ear. Iggy barely heard him, the sounds of his broken sobbing and coughing blocking out everything else. Ludwig left him with Roy and pulled out his scepter, furious. Morton Jr. quickly pulled Junior off the cot and bolted out of the room, intent on warning his other siblings not to bother their dad for a long while.
"Have you gone insane, Father?! He is already under stress! Why possessed you to almost kill your own son?!" he yelled.
"He should've answered me." Bowser answered, dismissing the question as if what he had done wasn't wrong. Ludwig growled, the sapphire gem on his scepter beginning to glow.
Iggy realized they were going to come to blows, and didn't want to see them fight. Despite his fear of his father, he coughed and finally spoke.
"W-Wait..."
All eyes were on him, but Iggy kept his head down so he didn't have to look anyone in the eye. "I don't... know what happened to him, Dad. I just found him outside when I went hunting for something. He was covered in blood so I... brought him back here." he explained weakly.
Bowser stared blankly at his son, taking in everything he said, before he pinched his snout together, letting out a annoyed breath. "So... lemme get this straight. No one seems to know how Lemmy got out of his room. No one know how Lemmy got out of the castle. You find him while hunting, and he's close to dying. And now we're all here."
Iggy nodded. "I'm sorry, Dad. I don't know who did this."
"Was there anything nearby? Anything at all that seemed strange at all?"
Iggy thought for a minute, then gasped. "Good stars, t-that... no..."
"What? Speak up, kid!"
"T-There... was a bloody rock near him... I didn't think anything of it because I thought it was an old thing I tossed sometime ago, but I... oh stars, I don't want to talk about this anymore..." Iggy visibly turned green in the face and hid in Roy's chest.
"So what does that mean?! Ugh, none of this is making sense!"
"Actually, Your Annoyedness... that does make sense." Kamek muttered, quickly regretting it when he Bowser glared at him.
"You know something, don't you." Kamek said nothing.
"Kamek! What is going on?! What are you hiding from me?!"
"Yeah, how do you know, old man?" Roy asked, fed up with all the runaround that was going on. "You weren't there, and Brainiac said he saw nuthin'!"
Kamek sighed. "Lemmy is the only one who knows what happened out there. He knows how it got to this point. It's not a surprise to me that you all don't. Especially you, Your Irritableness."
A bushy red eyebrow arched up. "What does that mean, exactly?"
"It's a LONG, complicated story. Based off what Ignatius has said, I have a very sinking feeling I may know what happened to Lemmy." Kamek looked grim, which piqued Bowser's interest- and anger- even more. Roy and Iggy were interested as well.
"Well? What's this great story of his you 'know'?" Kamek shook his head no.
"I cannot tell any of you, I'm afraid."
At that point, Bowser lost his patience for the second time that night. He grabbed Kamek, who didn't so much as flinch. He knew Bowser was trying to intimidate him, after all.
"Why the hell not?! I'm getting sick of all this freakin' bullcrap! Start talking, and I mean NOW!"
Ludwig intervened, putting away his scepter. "He cannot because only Lemmy can."
One could see the veins about to pop on Bowser's temple. Ludwig continued on, despite his father about to lose his temper for the third time. " I asked the same thing. There is more to this story than we can see, much more. However, until Lemmy fully heals and comes to, we will not know what that story is."
Bowser released Kamek, who smoothed out his cloak and adjusted his hat before heading over to his desk. Ludwig followed him. Roy looked at Iggy, who was still very much shaken up by all that happened.
"Hey, Brianiac. How ya holdin' up?" Roy asked gently, genuinely concerned for his brother's being. Iggy coughed.
"O-Okay..." Roy didn't believe him.
"Ya sure? Ya tremblin' like a baby..." he whispered, laying a meaty, warm hand on his brother's forehead. "Bastard still got ya scared shitless, huh."
'H-He almost... killed me. Would he have killed him, too? Would he... could he really... no... he's our DAD, our protector! But he almost killed me, so who's to say he didn't do this, too.'
His brother's hand felt rather comfortable and he leaned slightly into it. His stomach pains still lingered, but it was more in the background. He felt tired overall and couldn't wait to bolt out of the room first chance he got.
'I don't want to believe he'd do something so... cold. But if he could put his hands on me and not care, and after everything he said about Lemmy... could he really be this heartless?'
His thoughts paused when he felt that strange stomach pain, but worse. Curling in on himself, he let out a scream of pain, which quieted everyone down. Roy tried to pull Iggy upright so he could see what happened, but Iggy wouldn't move.
"Iggs! Dude, what's wrong with ya?!"
Everyone surrounded the two boys, worried. Iggy's pains coursed throughout his body.
"N-No... my stomach hurts..." he managed to say. His eyes clenched shut as he tried to wait for the feeling to pass. Instead, it got worse, to the point where he felt like he was going to throw up. He dry heaved several times.
'I don't know what's... going on with me. Why am I feeling like this?'
"Unh... huh..."
Iggy's head felt like a giant stone had fallen on it- it was heavy and throbbing. His throat had a nasty, bitter taste lingering on the back of it, and his stomach felt weird.
"Ignatius? How do you feel?"
Iggy groaned, and when he attempted to open his eyes, the dimmed light in the room felt like a burning torch to him. Snapping his eyes shut, he turned to his side and answered shakily, "S-Sick. W-what happened to me?"
"I placed a bucket near your side if you need to throw up again."
"Again? When did I do it the first time?"
"All over Roy's leg. Then you just blacked out. Oddly enough, Father was the one who placed you here since I had some cleaning to do." Ludwig explained with a disgusted grimace.
"... Dad... put me here?" Ludwig nodded.
"He understood what he did was wrong, so do not fear him. He went outside to speak with Kamek, and Roy left to check on Morton Jr. and Junior. I had no clue they had left earlier."
Iggy groaned, curling in the thin sheets placed over him. "I passed out, huh... why am I still here?" he mumbled loud enough for Ludwig to hear him.
"You needed rest. I am still curious as to how those stomach pains of yours occurred." "Y-Yeah... me, too."
Ludwig walked over to the bed. "Ignatius. Are you sure you do not know what happened to him?"
Again, Iggy shook his head no, sitting up. "I... I told you guys what I knew, honestly. I don't remember anything else." he said quietly, his eyes tightly closed, fingers tightly curled into the fabric. To Ludwig, it really did sound as if he wanted that memory far, far out of his mind, and he couldn't exactly blame him.
"But are you-"
"Ludwig, stop asking me! Stop it, stop it already! I DON'T FREAKING KNOW!" he screamed, glaring at him. "Why do you keep asking me, dammit... I don't know..."
Ludwig was a little confused by his reaction, but slowly, he began to put two and two together. "Ignatius... how close were you to Lemmy?"
Iggy thought about it, but it seemed to put him in more pain. "I guess we were close at one point, but... I stopped talking to him before this current punishment. I don't understand why I did, I just stayed away from him. Then that night we were talking to Dad about our last defeat, I..."
"You what?"
He hugged himself. "I felt this overwhelming hatred for him. I never felt anything so strong in all my life, and it kinda scared me. I didn't have a reason to feel that way, and I knew that, but... it wouldn't go away..."
Ludwig nodded. "Believe me, I know the exact feeling."
"With Junior?" "Yes. But do you know why Lemmy in particular? He loves you most of all."
Iggy chuckled sadly. "That's the worst feeling. I still love him, and I know he cares about me. Considering how alone I felt even among you guys... Lemmy was the only one who ever cared. And now look what I've done..."
Ludwig felt immense guilt because he understood what Iggy meant. Being the strange middle child, Iggy was often looked over and passed by as nothing more than an insane, unstable geek who liked to build things in his room and conduct who knew what kind of experiments and hide away in his lab that no one (minus Morton Jr.) knew about.
Ludwig and him did speak, but it almost always involved experiments and other scientifically related business. Everyone else... pretty much avoided him as much as possible.
"Ignatuis, tell me. Do you still feel that way?"
Iggy looked at his brother sideways. "I... guess not. But I know you all don't like me."
Hugging his brother tight, Ludwig muttered, "Do not underestimate our love for you, Ignatius. You are different from us, and a little unstable, but you are just as much a part of this family as the rest of us."
Iggy nestled in the crook between his brother's shoulder and the full head of hair, taking in the scent. It smelled musky and sweet all at once. "Do you understand?"
"Yeah..."
Pulling apart from him, Iggy wiped his eyes and fixed his glasses. "Hey Ludwig. About Junior..."
"What about him?"
"You still hate him?" Ludwig shook his head no.
"I almost made a deadly mistake that would have cost me more than just my life. Frankly, I was unsure for some time why I had such disdain for Junior, especially since he has no knowledge of what happened to our mother. Eventually, as I thought about my actions and what I really wanted, I found the answers I sought for."
For a little while, there was silence in the wing, each once again in their own world. "Luddy. Can I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"Do you think that Dad would've... you know. Actually hurt Lemmy, or any of us?"
Everyone who knew Bowser knew he had a temper larger than his current castle, and never hesitated to bring harm to those who wronged him. He was very cold toward his children except Junior, which lead to... Ludwig stopped that thought.
Yes, they disagreed, and yes, Ludwig argued with his father on many occasions, but this... this was going too far. He nearly killed Iggy for nothing!
Now that he actually thought about it, Ludwig wondered, could his father be that malicious and cold hearted that he would really hurt his own flesh and blood?
"Hmm...I actually never stopped to consider that. But why would you think Father would purposely hurt Lemmy and leave him for dead?
Iggy looked away, ashamed he ever mentioned it. He was almost 15 years old, and he never had a problem with his father before, so why would he think something like that now, after all these years?
"I... don't know..." he admitted. "I guess I'm still a little shaken up from before."
There was more to that statement, Ludwig knew. Finished with Lemmy's medical chart for now, he went over to his brother's cot and sat next to him.
"Ignatius. I understand you were probably petrified of Father, and believe me when I say I wanted to rip his head off for what he did to you." Ludwig began. "But I do not think he is capable of hurting someone- especially Lemmy- and leaving him alive. We are his children, after all."
Iggy knew all that. But that didn't put his mind at ease. "I guess so..."
"What is troubling you?"
He shook his head. "We are his children..." he said softly, "...but what does that even matter? He almost killed me. Who's to say he couldn't have done this to Lemmy, too?"
Ludwig leaned forward, worried for his brother's state of mind. "Ignatius, do you think Father would have done this?"
"I don't know, I don't know what to think, I..." Iggy pulled his legs up to his chest, sobbing softly.
"Are you alright?" "N-No... my stomach's acting up again..."
Ludwig sighed. "Does it really hurt you this much to talk about something painful, Ignatius?"
"I don't know. I've never felt this way ever... not even after Mom died... but its like, every time I think of things like this, it makes me feel sick to my stomach. I wish it would stop."
Ludwig's heart broke as he watched his brother completely shut down. "It really hurts, Ludwig. I don't want to think about this anymore."
Nodding in understanding, Ludwig stood up and stretched. "I take it you're heading to your room, too?"
"Yes. Using so much magic to heal Lemmy was quite the task. I will turn in shortly. Would you like to stay here with Lemmy or return to your room?"
"My room." Iggy answered almost too quickly. Ludwig hummed in agreement, stretching some more. Iggy made sure he didn't feel like he would topple over while he waited for his older brother to make some last minute checks on Lemmy.
"Ignatius?"
"H-Huh? Yeah?"
"Make sure you do get some rest, understand? No experiments or construction, alright?
Iggy laughed at that, even though Ludwig had been serious. "Alright."
"Good. Let us go."
After an absolute final check on Lemmy's status and making sure his bandages didn't need changing, Ludwig dimmed the light and headed for his bedroom, Iggy close behind. Once they reached the stairway, Iggy briefly nodded to his brother and headed upstairs to his room. Ludwig turned and headed for his music room down the hall. Music was the last thing on his weary mind, but he needed to be in familiar settings... and he didn't feel like comforting anymore of his siblings for the night, as mean as it sounded.
Ludwig was still worried about Junior and the remaining young siblings, and now Iggy as well. He knew Wendy O. and Larry would want to know what was having everyone acting so weird sooner or later, and Junior seemed like he had no clue what was happening. He thought about checking on him, but his brain and his body were exhausted beyond belief, so he decided to let Morton Jr. handle it.
Walking past his father's meeting hall, he overheard him and Kamek talking about something. From the way they said everything in hushed tones, it didn't sound like it was anything good. He shrugged it off and kept on toward his room.
'I will deal with everything else later.' Ludwig yawned and retired to his music room. Before he could sit himself down and compose a new piece, his head hit the desk and he was out like a rock.
And that ends this chapter! This was actually the longest I've written to date, so thumbs up for that!
Not much to say or add on here except to please review or comment!
Until next chapter!