A/N: I know I have a bunch of other stories to work on, I KNOW! But I'm so close to finishing this, so I'm gonna put my time into this story. So here we go! I give you Double Trouble!
Seeing Double
Ugh... my head... Nico moaned as his eyes fluttered open, a spike of pain blasting through his skull. He gently touched the throbbing area above his right eye, hissing in pain and pulling his hand away. At least there wasn't any blood. He slowly tried to push himself into a sitting position, but he immediately felt nauseated, so he settled with curling up on his side, waiting for the pain to go away.
After a minute, the pain was reduced to a dull throb, and his thoughts were a bit clearer.
"What happened..." he moaned to himself, slowly sitting up. He tried to remember why his head hurt, but everything seemed foggy. Nico heard what seemed to be a distant rumble of thunder. I should probably go see if Rico's okay. He hates thunderstorms...
Suddenly, Nico's eyes shot open as he remembered why his head hurt.
"Rico..." he growled, standing up. However, when he stood up, his head hit something. It didn't hurt, but it shocked him enough to make him bend back down. Looking up, Nico saw the sky and trees towering above him, but... it didn't look quite right. It looked somehow... distorted, and tinged green. Nico slowly raised his hand and touched what he had bumped into. There was a strange crackling noise as he pushed against it.
"What the..." Nico's vision finally cleared enough so that he could take in his surroundings. He was trapped inside of a green plastic bottle.
"Not again..." moaned Nico. Suddenly, he heard something behind him, coming from outside of the bottle. He whipped around to see Rico coming out of the bushes.
"Good to see I didn't kill you," said Rico, crossing his wings, a smug look on his face. In his hand was Nico's bottle cap. His own plastic bottle cap was nowhere to be seen.
"You did this, didn't you?" asked Nico, gesturing to the bottle he was stuck in. He tried to stand up again, but he still had to slouch to avoid hitting his head. "This thing is tiny... How did you even get me in here?"
"That's for us to know and you to die trying to find out," came a voice from behind Nico.
Nico's entire body stiffened. He knew that voice. It was engraved into his mind after hearing it so many times in his nightmares. Slowly, he turned around. His eyes widened and his legs turned to jelly. He slowly sank into a sitting position as he started hyperventilating. "You..."
Maurice smiled, his only eye narrowing. "I hear you've been having nightmares," he snarled. Nico just whimpered. Maurice then looked over at Rico, who was still standing on the other side of the bottle. "Good work, boy. I thought I'd have to come get him myself." Maurice looked back down at Nico. "And that would have been a lot messier..."
Nico's eyes widened and he stood up as much as he could, whipping around to face Rico. "You were planning this? He's the 'friend' you've been staying with in the city?" Rico didn't do anything to acknowledge his brother. "You traitor!" Nico exclaimed, almost to the point of shouting. "I trusted you and you stabbed me in the back! Your own brother!" Fury bubbled up inside of Nico, and he drew his fist back to slam it into the plastic.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," growled Maurice.
Nico froze, his fist centimeters away from the plastic. "Why shouldn't I?"
"Look to your right."
Slowly, Nico turned his head to the right, up towards the neck of the bottle. What he saw made his blood run cold. A large and incredibly poisonous Spindler Spider was sleeping there, curled up in the neck of the bottle. It's 8 eyes were glazed over with sleep, it's hairy legs twitching. It's long, venomous pincers were slowly moving back and forth. Nico could clearly see and count all nine of the yellow spots on its back. The spider twitched in its sleep, and Nico clamped his hands over his mouth and pressed his back against the base of the bottle, too afraid to make a single noise. He may not have been claustrophobic anymore, but he sure was still arachnophobic. If he had hit the plastic, the noise would have woken the deadly beast.
"Not so tough now, are ya?" hissed Maurice, watching as Nico backed as far away from the spider as the bottle would allow. "Took me all night to find this little beastie. Luckily Rico here told me ahead of time that you were afraid of spiders."
Nico sent a glare in Rico's direction, and if looks could kill, Rico would have burst into flames.
Maurice stood up and brushed himself off. Looking down at Nico, he said: "I'll be back in a bit. First, I have to go get one of your little friends to keep you company..." He turned to head back into the bushes, but he stopped, turning to face Rico. "You know what to do, boy." Rico nodded gravely. Maurice disappeared.
"So," said Nico, his voice quiet, "where's he going?"
"To go get his other prisoner," said Rico, not making eye contact with Nico.
"Well if you're gonna be that cryptic, then at least tell me why you trapped me in a bottle? Don't you have any imagination? You couldn't come up with anything different, like a jar or something?" Rico didn't answer. Nico just shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "Well, I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
"What are you doing?" asked Rico, his posture tense.
"Trying to figure out why you sided with him instead of me!"
Rico was silent for a minute. "I tried to warn you. He's been watching you for the past week."
"If he's been watching me for so long, then why hasn't he tried to kill me yet?"
"He has tried! Did you think it was by accident that the Branch caught fire when you were the farthest from the exit?"
Nico's eyes widened. "It was you?"
"Not me," said Rico, glancing up at the darkening sky. "Him."
"But you let him know when we would be farthest away from the entrance, didn't you?"
Rico looked down at his feet.
"You still didn't answer my first question," said Nico, pressing his hand against the side of the bottle, quietly so as not to wake the spider. "Why did you choose him over me?"
Rico made eye contact with Nico for the first time. His eyes were darker than the storm clouds above. "You were always the favorite brother."
"That's not true," said Nico. "I-"
Rico cut him off. "You got everything! All the attention, all the love... And what did I get?"
"You think you drew the short straw?" exclaimed Nico. "You have no idea-"
"That's enough..." growled Rico. "Your friends should be wondering where you are by now." With an evil smile, he put Nico's bottle cap on his own head. "Don't worry about a thing," he said in Nico's voice.
Nico's eyes widened, but before he could say anything to stop him, Rico took off into the stormy sky, back towards the Lagoon, leaving Nico trapped in a bottle for the third time in his life.
Sighing, Nico sat down. He looked up at the roof of the bottle, tracing the patterned lines with his finger. He traced it all the way down to the base of the bottle when he realized something: the lines didn't match up. Sitting up on his knees, he looked a bit closer at the base of the bottle. None of the lines matched up! The base of the bottle was on wrong. Looking closer, Nico could see where the bottle had been cut, probably to get him in. If he looked even closer, he could see the tape holding it on.
This shouldn't take that long, thought Nico, smiling to himself. He started to saw through the tape with his talons.
Pedro was in the Lagoon, helping put the stage together. He could hear the wind howling outside of the tarp. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone enter. Looking over, he saw that it was Blu.
"Yo Blu!" Pedro called, waving to Blu. The Macaw waved back and made his way over to Pedro.
"This place looks great!" exclaimed Blu.
"Thanks," said Pedro, smiling and looking around at the nearly completed Lagoon. He then turned his attention back to Blu. "So what are ya doin' here?"
"Um... well... Jewel kicked me out of the hollow. She said she wanted to spend more 'family time' with the kids..." mumbled Blu.
"That's rough, man," said Pedro, sympathetically patting Blu on the back. "Happened to Ralfy this mornin'."
As if on cue, Rafael walked up. "Hey Blu... You got kicked out too?"
"Yep."
"Did they plan that or something?" asked Pedro.
Blu just shrugged.
A second later, another bird shouted at Rafael to come help them move something. Blu went with him to help.
Pedro turned back to what he had been doing when another bird entered the club. Pedro looked over and saw Nico, standing by the entrance, looking around.
"Hey Nico! Over here!" Pedro yelled. Nico spotted him and flew over.
"The place looks great!" exclaimed Nico.
"Thanks," said Pedro. "So um... I didn't know you had a nephew..."
"I didn't tell you I had a sister?"
"No..."
"Oh... I have a sister, and she has a son."
"Good to know," said Pedro, nodding. He then picked up a large pile of rope segments that was laying on the floor. The pieces of rope were about an inch long, and they were all different colors. "Can you help me out with this?"
"Sure," said the canary, taking half of the rope. "What do ya want me to do?"
"Okay, ya see those nails?" asked Pedro, pointing to different locations around the stage. The canary nodded. "Just hang a couple strings from each nail to make it more colorful."
"Got it," said Nico.
"Thanks," said Pedro, slapping Nico's shoulder. He picked up his pile of string again and started to head to the nearest nail, but he stopped. He played the last minute over again in his head, realizing that he had just slapped Nico's bad shoulder. But... Nico didn't react...
Pedro looked over at Nico. The canary had the strings thrown over his right shoulder as he walked to the nearest nail. Pedro watched as the canary reached the nail and set down the pile of string. Then continued watching as Nico draped the strings over the nails, using his right hand.
Pedro narrowed his eyes. Either Nico's shoulder had miraculously healed and he had spontaneously become right-handed, or there was something going on here.
He watched as "Nico" finished stringing up all the string and started to make his way to the back of the stage, where Pedro was. Pedro hurriedly tossed a bunch of strings into the air; most of them landed on a nail. He picked up more and just started to fix the other strings when Nico came around the corner.
"Hey Nico, got any extra string?" asked Pedro.
"Yeah," said Nico, dropping his pile of extras next to Pedro. "Why do we need to decorate the back of the stage anyways? It's not like anyone back here is gonna really care..."
I'm sure the real Nico would care, thought Pedro. Instead of saying that, he just shrugged. "Ernie told me to do the whole stage..."
They finished the entire back of the stage a few minutes later. "How 'bout you take the side and I'll take the front," said Pedro.
"Sounds good," said the canary.
"I'll go get more string," said Pedro, heading back into the shadows of the tarp, where an insanely large pile of multicolored string was hidden. He took a large armful and glanced over his shoulder, watching as Nico went around to the side. As soon as he was out of view, Pedro dropped the pile and looked around.
Suddenly, something caught his eye. There was a small, common spider sitting on the wall. Pedro clamped his hands over his mouth, trying to contain his arachnophobia. Suddenly, and idea occurred to him. He gulped, trying to force his arachnophobia down as he reached forward and picked up the spider. He quickly put it on the pile of string. The tiny spider crawled into the pile, but Pedro could still see it. He gingerly picked up the pile as if it were explosive and quickly carried it over to Nico, placing it at his feet. "There's yours..." He then slowly walked back over to the pile of grab his own chunk of string.
As he gathered his own string in his arms, he looked over his shoulder. The canary was already hanging up the string. It wouldn't be long now...
After stalling for a few minutes, Pedro finally picked up his small pile of string and started to carry it around to the front of the stage. Just as he passed Nico, the canary picked up the string that the spider had latched itself to. Nico clearly saw the spider, but he didn't scream. He didn't even drop the string. He casually flicked the string, sending the spider flying off into the distance.
That's not Nico... But still, he had to be sure.
"Hey!" exclaimed Pedro. The canary jumped nearly a foot in the air, whipping around to see Pedro standing right behind him.
"D-dude!" exclaimed the canary, clutching his chest as if he were about to have a heart attack. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"
Pedro forced himself to laugh, as if he had been sneaking up on the canary for the soul purpose of scaring him. "Sorry bro, but you should have seen your face!" He continued laughing. The canary chuckled nervously.
After a minute of really convincing fake laughter, Pedro stood up and took a deep breath. He then looked at the canary as if he just noticed something. "What's that on your bottle cap?"
"What?" asked the canary, taking off the metal bottle cap. There was nothing on it. However, before he could say anything, he found himself pinned to the floor by none other than Pedro.
"WHERE'S THE REAL NICO!" shouted Pedro, taking the bottle cap from Rico.
A few feet away, Rafael and Blu heard Pedro shout. They rounded the corner to see what looked like Pedro pressing his knee into Nico's spine to keep him on the ground.
"Pedro, what are you doing?" exclaimed Rafael.
"This isn't Nico!" exclaimed Pedro.
Blu and Rafael really looked at the canary Pedro was pinning to the floor. He had made no effort to deny anything; he only glared at Pedro.
"H-how did you know?" asked Blu.
Pedro smiled. "He doesn't have hat hair," he said, gesturing to the feathers on Rico's head. They were standing up instead of laying flat.
Blu and Rafael gasped.
"So if that's Rico... where's Nico?" asked Blu.
Pedro glared back down at Rico. Rafael and Blu stepped up and also glared down the canary.
Rico just gulped.
Busted...
Nico had cut through half of the tape by now, creating a small semicircular opening on the bottom of the base. He would have to squirm through, but if he was lucky, he would be able to squirm out before the spider woke up and before Maurice returned.
Nico glanced back at the spider. It was facing away from him, so he couldn't tell if it was awake or not. Still, he had to take the chance and get out. If he managed to get his neck out, then he would be safe. The poison was weak, and the only way it would be fatal was if the spider bit him on the back of the neck.
Nico slid his fingers into the small gap. Hopefully, the plastic would bend, and he wouldn't get cut by the sharp edge. Closing his eyes, Nico laid down on his stomach and pushed his head through the gap. The plastic bent, and his head was free. He pulled his arms and shoulders through and immediately felt a lot safer. Even if that spider bit him now, he wouldn't die.
Gripping the ground in front of him, Nico pulled himself out a bit more so that only his legs were trapped. Now that the world wasn't so muted, he could hear the thunderous roar of Eternity Falls, closer than usual. He realized that the clearing he was in was a lot smaller than the first one he had been trapped in, and it was also a lot closer to Eternity Falls. This time he could actually see the water and feel the mist.
Nico started to pull his legs out of the bottle, but he stopped. The bottle seemed to be moving...
Nico slowly looked over his shoulder, back towards the bottle. He swore his heart stopped. The spider was wide awake, standing in the neck of the bottle, hungrily eying Nico's feet. Nico couldn't help it. He panicked. As fast as he could, he yanked his legs out of the bottle.
His right leg came out. His left foot got stuck. Screaming and trying to scramble away, Nico started kicking at the bottle with his free foot. The spider reared up and sprinted right at Nico's foot. Nico screamed and closed his eyes...
...only to have someone behind him grab his shoulders and pull him free of the bottle just as the spider rammed into the base, trapped.
Nico opened his eyes as he was helped to his feet. Turning around, he came face to face with Pedro. Ready to collapse with relief, Nico hugged Pedro for all he was worth.
"It's alright," whispered Pedro, rubbing Nico's back to try and stop his trembling. "You're safe now."
Nico nodded and stepped back, taking a deep, shuddering breath. Pedro handed Nico his bottle cap, and Nico put it back on his head. "H-how did you f-find me?" asked Nico.
Pedro gestured over his shoulder, and Nico finally took notice of Blu and Rafael standing there. Clutched in Rafael's talons was Rico.
Nico's eyes narrowed. "Rico..." he growled.
"Nice to see you're alive, brother," snarled Rico.
"Well there's something new," said Nico, standing in front of Rico. "If you lie when you're angry, you don't stutter."
A bolt of lightning illuminated the sky and the wind started to blow harder. The sudden gust of wind made Rafael start to lose his balance, and his grip loosened on Rico.
Rico took that opportunity to lunge at Nico, escaping from Rafael's grip. The two canaries tumbled to the ground, trying to pin each other down. When they fell, Nico's bottle cap fell off and landed at Pedro's feet.
"Hey! Knock it off!" exclaimed Pedro, hurriedly pulling the two canaries apart. Blu grabbed one and Rafael grabbed the other, but the damage had already been done. It was now impossible to tell which canary was Nico and which one was Rico. They were both covered in mud, struggling to get free, and they both had the same murderous expression on their faces. Even Pedro couldn't tell which was which.
"Uh oh..." muttered Blu, looking between the two canaries.
The canary in Blu's grip looked up at him. "Uh, Blu, you can let go now."
"Don't listen to him!" shouted the other canary. Even their voices sounded the same now! "He's trying to trick you!"
"I don't need to trick anyone!" exclaimed the first canary. "I'm the real Nico!"
"Stop!" exclaimed Pedro. Everyone looked at him. "There's only one way to know for sure..."
"Yeah, there is," said Rafael. "The real Nico has a scar under his left wing."
"Yeah, but you'd need to let them both go to see it," said Pedro. "There's another way..."
Pedro slowly began pacing back and forth, holding Nico's bottle cap behind his back. Suddenly, he pointed to the canary in Blu's grasp. "What's your favorite human food?"
"Spaghetti," said the canary, thrown a bit by the sudden question.
Pedro then spun around to the other canary. "What does Juan do?"
"Why are you bringing my son into this?" asked Rafael.
"He eats people's feathers," said the canary, ignoring Rafael, looking about as surprised as everyone else.
Pedro spun around again. "What was the name of the spider?"
"Spindler spider," said the canary in Blu's grasp, starting to catch on. Pedro was asking questions that only the real Nico could answer.
Pedro whipped around again. "Where is the stick?"
"At the bottom of the lake."
Once again, Pedro turned around to face the canary in Blu's grasp, starting to get dizzy from all the spinning. "What does a Lorca look like?"
The canary smiled a bit. "An onion."
Pedro's eyes widened a bit, and he hesitated for a moment before slowly turning around to face the canary in Rafael's grasp.
"Righty or lefty?"
"L-lefty..."
He knows... thought both canaries.
Pedro turned around again. "What color was the leash you borrowed from Luiz?"
"Black."
Pedro smiled. Just to make sure, he turned around to face the nervous-looking canary being held back by Rafael.
"What was the song that saved Nico's life?"
Rico opened his mouth, but no answer came out. He didn't need to answer. The real Nico started to whistle the beginning of "Fly Love," the song that Roberto had used to get Pedro's attention by the waterfall a month ago.
Blu let go of Nico, and Rafael tightened his grip on Rico.
"Good work," said Nico as Pedro handed him his bottle cap.
"Really, it was nothing," said Pedro, faking modesty.
Nico started to say something, but he stopped and turned to face Blu. "You can go home if you want," he said. "I think we can handle it from here."
"Really?" asked Blu. "A-are you guys sure?"
"Chill, Blu!" exclaimed Pedro. "It's all good."
"O-okay then... I guess I'll stop by tomorrow..." With that, Blu turned and took off.
"So..." said Pedro, looking at Rico, "what are we gonna do 'bout him?"
"I've got an idea," said Nico, "but we'll need to find some rope and the first boat back to the Canary Islands..."
"You're still keeping secrets, little brother." Rico's voice rang out loud and clear across the small clearing.
"I... I don't know w-what you're t-talking about," muttered Nico, slowly turning away so that no one could see his face.
"I know you haven't told them why you get sick so often," Rico continued. "You think it'll make you look even more weak and helpless than you already are..."
"It was an accident," growled Nico. "It wasn't my fault."
"Of course it wasn't," said Rico, his voice venomous. "After all, you couldn't help being stillborn..."
Everything went completely silent. Even the wind seemed to stop for a moment. Nico stood there, trembling with rage. He took a deep breath... and then shot himself across the clearing, right at Rico.
Rico had been expecting this. As soon as Rafael jumped back to avoid Nico, Rico took off straight up into the air, and Nico grabbed thin air. Without hesitation, Nico followed Rico, chasing him up into the storm clouds.
Down below, Pedro and Rafael started to follow them up into the clouds. Suddenly, Rafael stopped right after they passed the tree line, and Pedro ran into him.
"What!" exclaimed Pedro.
"They're going too high," said Rafael, looking up at the two canaries disappearing into the clouds. "They're gonna pass out from lack of oxygen. We should probably stay down here to catch them."
Reluctantly, Pedro nodded.
Nico easily caught up with Rico and tackled him in midair. Rico rammed him back and continued flying higher. Nico continued the chase.
Moments later, he caught up with Rico again. This time, Rico turned and fought back. They both swiped at each other with their talons, all the while getting higher and higher. The air was thin and electric, making it hard to breathe.
Nico took a swipe at Rico's face, leaving three long thin cuts across his right eye. Rico tumbled back a bit, and Nico flew straight at him. However, Rico recovered in time to see Nico coming. He shot up into the air and turned, sticking out his talons, leaving three long ragged scratches on Nico's back.
Right at that moment, Nico flashed back to the nightmare he had had a couple days ago. He knew who his phantom attacker was now.
Nico soared after Rico, who seemed to be slowing down. The air was getting thinner and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Soon, both canaries were gasping for breath. Their fighting had become lethargic and sloppy. Nico started to get tunnel vision, and moments later, he felt himself falling.
Both canaries lost consciousness at the same time, and they both started to fall back down through the clouds.
They didn't fall for long. As they reached an altitude with enough air to breathe, Nico's eyes fluttered open. He gasped for breath and spread his wings, stopping his fall. 10 feet away from him, Rico did the same. They were in the thickest part of the storm; the wind was whipping violently around them. The air was alive with electricity.
Nico hovered in place for a moment before making eye contact with Rico. Nico narrowed his eyes, remembering what had happened only minutes ago. Without another thought, both canaries charged at each other head on.
The resulting collision sent them both flying backwards, putting a good 15 foot distance between them.
Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of white light and an earsplitting crack as lightning ripped through the sky. Nico didn't even have a chance to scream before everything went black.
Pedro woke up on the ground a few minutes later. He and Rafael had been hovering near the tree line, about 50 feet apart, when a bolt of lightning had struck the ground right between them. The resulting shock had knocked him out.
Standing up, Pedro looked around. His hearing was starting to come back to him, along with his sense of direction. Looking around, he saw the bushes a few feet away from him moving. Rafael stumbled out of them.
"Pedro, are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm good," said Pedro. "Nothing's broken or burnt. You?"
"Fine..."
Suddenly, Pedro's eyes widened. "Where's Nico...?" Pedro looked up at the trees for an answer. That was when he saw that one of the trees was on fire. He quickly made his way towards that one, knowing that that had been the one struck by lightning.
After a minute, he found the clearing that they had been in earlier. What he saw made him gasp.
Nico and Rico lay in the clearing, neither of them moving. They were both severely burnt from the lightning and cut up from falling through the trees. Nico's bottle cap was lying by his side, split into two pieces, still live with electricity.
At that moment, Rafael came up behind Pedro, gasping at what he saw. Pedro started to take a step into the clearing, but a loud cracking noise from above stopped him. Looking up, Pedro and Rafael saw a large, burning tree branch snap off and fall straight down towards them. They tried to dive out of the way, but it was too late. The smaller branches on the limb dug into the ground around them, caging them in. Pedro cried out in pain as one of the smaller branches hit his left leg, twisting his ankle. Rafael started trying to lift the branch so that they could get out.
Across the clearing, Rico stirred. He slowly sat up, grabbing his aching head. After a moment, his vision cleared. That was when he saw Nico. All the color drained from his face and he quickly crawled to his unresponsive brother.
"Nico!" he gasped, grabbing his brother by the shoulders. Nico didn't respond. "C'mon Nico, wake up!" he exclaimed, shaking him slightly. Again, nothing.
Trembling, Rico carefully picked his brother up and laid his head on Nico's chest, listening for a heartbeat.
Nothing.
Nico didn't have a heartbeat. He was gone.
A/N: Well, I think I'll stop writing right there. I told you guys this chapter would be shocking. Literally! And don't bother wondering what a "Lorca" is. I'll explain it in my next story.
Happy New Year! See y'all in 2012 (WHERE THE WORLD WILL NOT END!)
What a chapter to end the year with, right?
