Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality.
-Jonas Salk
***Fallen Stars***
Matthew was honestly scared. Arthur wouldn't stop screaming and Alfred had been trying to wake him up for at least 10 minutes. Gilbert looked like he couldn't decide between being furious and being confused.
"Gilbert, what's going on?" Matthew finally demanded, coming out of his stupor while Yao shook his head beside him.
"That fucking idiot…both of them decided to mess with their own personalities when I decided to be on the safe side and just…" Gilbert looked about ready to pull out his hair. "Damn them!"
"What is going on?" Matthew repeated himself.
"Arthur! Please!" Alfred shouted. Arthur's eyes refused to open and his voice was beginning to crack. "Wake up!"
"They're…merging," Gilbert muttered. "At least, the best they can. It's near impossible to actually merge personalities in the first place when shit like this happens. It's basically irreversible once it's started. And they're being smart asses and trying to tempt fate by trying to combine themselves!"
"Do you think they'll be able to do it?" Matthew asked carefully.
"With his power?" Gilbert scoffed and Arthur finally stopped, leaving them in a peaceful silence in the forest around them, finally. "It's anyone's guess. Alfred! Make sure he's waking up! If he dies now, there's no telling how much that could fuck up."
"Is Arthur really that important?" Matthew asked.
"Spades has this really big connection with fate, more so than the other countries," Gilbert sighed, eyeing Arthur carefully, but he had yet to make a move, simply lying there, nearly lifeless. "The King and the Queen have this…connection. They're meant to die at the same time because, without the other, one is just useless. Without his Queen, a King will fall into despair and we can't have that right now. Without their King, a Queen simply can't focus. These two have a stronger connection than any other pair of King and Queen. They've never lived a life without the other. And this personality thing has just fucked things up. I just can't help but feel that something's…off about this whole thing. I can't put my finger on it."
"Al…fred?" Arthur muttered, his eyes blearily opening. Alfred's eyes widened and he leaned closer to get a good look at him. The smile he had on his face could rival the sun in brightness.
"Arthur," Alfred sighed with relief. "You had me so worried there. What happened?"
"Very long…story," Arthur mumbled before slowly attempting to sit upright, but Alfred forced him to stay lying down.
"No way am I letting you do anything reckless," Alfred shook his head furiously.
"Sitting upright will do nothing to our health, Alfred," Arthur scoffed, sitting upright. Matthew raised an eyebrow at the comment and Gilbert groaned before swiftly kneeling down in front of him.
"Let me make sure you didn't fuck anything up," Gilbert grumbled.
"Why should we listen to anything you have to say?" Arthur glared at him, leaning away slightly.
"Damn," Gilbert cursed. "Closest thing to a fusion I've ever seen."
"Is that a good thing?" Alfred asked.
"Never felt better," Arthur admitted with a smirk. "Were you worried about us, Joker?"
"You probably don't even notice it, a minor side-effect I guess," Gilbert sighed. "Your referring to yourself as plural, not just one person. Everything else seems to be fine, I guess, but something's still bugging me."
"Then you can figure that out on your own," Arthur sighed, standing up swiftly. "And we're not…damn, we are…"
"What the hell did you think you were doing risking something like that?!" Yao demanded, finally finding his voice again. "Do you realize the damage you could have caused with something like that?"
"We know you would miss our magic," Arthur smiled happily before turning to face Alfred, who was standing, looking over Arthur carefully. "Oh, relax, love, nothing bad's happened to us."
"Your eyes," Alfred muttered. "They're different shades…One of them is the darker color and the other is lighter…"
"More side-effects?" Arthur guessed. "Either way, we have to admit, we've never felt better in our lives."
"I'm gonna go talk to Peter," Gilbert mumbled, disappearing in front of Matthew's eyes. Matthew couldn't stop himself from frowning slightly, but he focused more on the matter at hand, in front of him.
"Are you really sure everything's fine?" Matthew asked.
"Yes, we're sure," Arthur rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about me, we think we should focus more on getting to that castle so we can actually start accomplishing something."
"So now you actually want to have something to do with all of this?" Yao asked, obviously not sounding like he believed Arthur.
"We don't see why not," Arthur shrugged. "We may not have been exactly optimistic in the past, but there's nothing wrong with a little change in perspective. Our advice would be to not look a gift horse in the mouth and continue with this mission, since we now seem so interested in it."
"Do you have an ulterior motive or something?" Alfred wondered aloud.
"Do we really need one?" Arthur asked him with a true smile, running a simple hand on the side of his face before swiftly turning around, facing the direction they were walking in originally. "If all of you are done being annoyed with us, we seem to have a job to do."
Alfred bit his bottom lip, evidently having a hard time swallowing this. Matthew wasn't sure if he could really believe what had happened. Arthur had managed to merge personalities and now wanted to help them? Sure, one personality wanted to go, but the other one definitely didn't. At the very least, if they merged personalities, Arthur would be unsure of what he wanted to do, but now he seemed more than sure that he wanted to help this world. Yao glared at the back of Arthur's head as they started to walk again. Alfred eyed him carefully, but no more after that.
Matthew just wished Gilbert could figure out what he was trying to decipher soon.
***Fallen Stars***
Matthew was exhausted. He panted as he looked around where they were. They hadn't even made it inside the huge, green statue before thieves started to pour out. Alfred seemed to think it was a good idea for them to take out the thieves' guild there before taking the castle and Matthew knew he was crazy, but he went along with him anyway. Arthur didn't seem to mind, either, though he didn't enjoy fighting as much as the darker personality usually did, which led Matthew to believe the personality merge thing a little more. They'd been fighting for a while, managing quite well with just four people against the entire thieves' guild. Alfred's sword did seem better than ever, Matthew was…sort of learning how to fight with his eyes open, Arthur's magic seemed to be at its peak once again, and Yao was very good at fighting using stealth, taking down quite a few thieves before they even knew he was there.
One thing Matthew noticed that was interesting was the fact that they really weren't killing anyone. Of course, Alfred wouldn't kill and Matthew was fairly against it himself, though he hadn't said anything. Yao was able to just give them large wounds at the most or simply knock them out. Arthur, however, was surprising them. Matthew knew from experience of watching the wizard that it was easier for him to simply use a large spell and kill whoever his target was, but now he was showing restraint, forcing himself to be slightly more creative to avoid seriously harming anyone. Matthew was honestly impressed with him, but he wasn't about to say anything and risk another bad thing happening with Arthur.
It was only a matter of time before pretty much everyone had fallen in the thieves' guild. Matthew couldn't stand on his feet for much longer and so knelt down to the ground, looking forward while Alfred "negotiated" with the leader of the guild with his sword painfully close to touching the man's neck. Matthew didn't bother listening, turning his attention to Arthur, who seemed rather exhausted as well, though he stayed standing. Yao was inside of the statue, checking to ensure that everyone was actually out.
"So you've really merged?" Matthew asked carefully and Arthur glanced at him.
"We would guess," Arthur muttered. "It is rather strange that we don't even notice referring to ourselves in the plural."
"It's not that bad of a side-effect, all considering," Matthew shrugged. "How did you do it? Gilbert seemed pretty confused that you were able to pull it off."
"We just decided to merge, that's it," Arthur shrugged with a small smile. "We can hardly recall what it was like in our head at that point, but we agreed to give it a shot. We remember that it hurt a lot and it drained a lot of our energy, but we believe it was worth it."
"So now you're back to your full potential of magic?" Matthew asked.
"And it is fantastic to be able to use all of it again," Arthur stretched happily. "We haven't been able to do this in a while, it's amazing!"
"And…what about Alfred?" Matthew chanced asking the question while Alfred was busy and wouldn't hear them. Arthur sighed for a moment before shrugging.
"We're not quite sure how to explain it," Arthur said. "The merge of personalities seems to make us like him more, though it's far tamer than what the prostitute felt. It's very…complicated. We assume you don't mind too much."
"I just want Al to be happy," Matthew sighed. "It seems like everyone else in our big group is capable of being happy except for him. He tries, but it doesn't work very well. If you could help him and actually make him happy, I won't mind at all."
"We'll take that as a challenge, then," Arthur smirked slightly and Alfred walked over to them just as Yao left the statue, dragging a few unconscious bodies with him.
"So, I think if we head over to the castle now, we'll be able to take it by the time it gets too late in the night, then we can figure out about actually getting control over this area tomorrow," Alfred proposed.
"What did that man agree to?" Matthew asked, watching as the man struggled to make it to a nearby clearing beside the forest. Matthew couldn't believe a thief was willing to go to the forest.
"I wouldn't go after him if he never made his presence known," Alfred shrugged. "These guys can stand to be confused and without a leader for a little while. If they cause any more problems, we can make sure to bring them to the dungeon or whatever."
"If we leave this as anything to show," Yao said, walking up to them, "I'm sure we'll have no problem having people respect us. At the very least, they'll fear us."
"They shouldn't fear us, though," Matthew said. "That's not what good leadership is about."
"We can't worry about that right now," Alfred sighed, looking up at the sky, which was starting to darken quickly. "We should take that castle as soon as possible. A good night's rest will do us all some good."
"Fine," Arthur shrugged. "It would be nice to rest in a bed after a battle like this. We're already rather exhausted."
"Then let's head out," Alfred shrugged and started to walk. Matthew laughed slightly while the other two stayed where they were.
"Other way, Al," Matthew called out to him and Alfred swiftly turned around, hands stuffed into his pockets.
"I knew that," Alfred muttered, walking past them and Matthew laughed again, following him. Maybe this calm atmosphere was just what they needed to unwind and actually enjoy themselves. Matthew guessed that it was only a matter of time until they gained full control and they were able to simply relax and have a good time for once.
***Fallen Stars***
"I just don't get it," Gilbert grumbled, leaning heavily against the large tree in the middle of the Heart. Peter stood beside him, eyes closed as he focused on bringing back his next star. "You feel it, too, right? Something's up with the Queen of Spades."
"The personalities merged, right?" Peter asked. "If you ask me, that's a winning situation. I'll miss both of the jerks, but they combined to make a whole new jerk."
"But it doesn't feel…right," Gilbert pressed. "Like…I don't know. You remember the other ones, right? The ones…they were different, I guess. I just don't get it."
"How about this?" Peter tried, taking deep breaths. "Fate just chose a weird way to bring him back. If you really think about it, the two original personalities weren't really able to stand alone. The original, for one, was only into Alfred's personality, and he was too afraid to use all of his magic. The second one was only interested in Alfred's looks and he was more than willing to use all of his magic, he just didn't have the power that the original had. One as too angry, while the other was a bit of a pacifist, if you really thought about it. It's like their personalities were one split in two, waiting to be merged to make one solid person."
"And if they combined, they would be Arthur Kirkland," Gilbert muttered, kneeling down to the ground. Peter shouted in pain and Gilbert guessed the start was almost done. He looked up at the sky, watching for it. If he really thought about it and remembered the past Arthur's, they were a lot like the now combined one…Why hadn't he thought about it before? Both of the personalities shared traits from the original, but he was too focused on getting one personality that he didn't notice it. He just hated the prostitute and favored the one that first owned the body they were both in.
The star twinkled into existence and Peter panted from the effort, turning to Gilbert with a proud smile on his face.
"Impressive," Gilbert nodded.
"I figured they would want the North Star again," Peter smiled happily, looking up at his hard work. "I thought you were supposed to be working on the ocean…You know, repopulating animals and fixing pollution."
"Yeah, yeah," Gilbert sighed. "I was just trying to figure this shit out. Thanks, though. Fate's a bitch."
"We've known that for a long time," Peter laughed before staring on another star. If he kept up how he was working the night before, they would be able to get another five stars in the sky and, if Gilbert worked hard, they could get sharks back by the time the sun came up.
Too bad he had no intention of working all night.
***Fallen Stars***
Matthew was having a hard time sleeping, if he was honest. He couldn't understand why, he just couldn't sleep and it was irritating him. After a while, he groaned and sat up straight, glaring at the wall of the room he was in. Luckily for them, the King was a pushover and, once they'd shown that they had taken down the thieves' guild nearby, he stepped down eagerly, wishing them the best of luck before running off. Matthew was more than ready to go to sleep, but he just felt…off.
"Hey," Matthew mumbled, drawing his knees close to his chest. "I'm alone."
"I noticed," Gilbert's voice said in the darkness around him and Matthew jumped slightly. Through the vague moonlight that made it into his room, he could clearly see Gilbert leaning against the door to his room with that smirk of his on his face.
"Then, where have you been?" Matthew asked, bringing his legs down to dangle over the side of his bed.
"Busy," Gilbert sighed. "I hate it, trust me. But I have shit to do if we want to get this world back into shape by the next time I get killed."
"Then why are you here now?" Matthew asked carefully.
"I have a promise to keep, don't I?" Gilbert smiled softly at him. Matthew carefully stood up and bit his lip. He had a few questions festering in his mind and now would be the best time to ask them, but he wasn't sure how he would go about it. After a while of thinking, he decided to just go with the straight forward approach.
"You're immortal now, right?" Matthew muttered. "Pretty much this all-powerful being by the way you explained it. So, then, I have to ask, why me? And…if not me, then why do you stick around?"
Gilbert chuckled slightly before quickly walking over to him. "See, thing is, because we've been avoiding humans for so long, my only real friend has been Peter. I didn't mind it that way. Every time we died, we appeared in the Heart and slowly gained back our strength and our memories. This time, though, I was able to get out. And get close to some humans. I've known you guys from the past, but I've never really gotten to know you, know what I mean? And then, meeting you, I fell in love as a human. As a Joker, I've never felt something like that before, but I still feel it. Jeez, I sound so fucking sappy, don't I?"
"No, i-it's sweet," Matthew smiled. But another thought that had been weighing on him came into his thoughts. "But you're immortal, whereas I'm just a human that's going to die eventually. What then?"
"It's gonna suck," Gilbert sighed heavily. "I'll probably never get over it. But you've been around for a while, being reborn, and I know you'll come back. And I'm going to find you every time and probably fall in love again. I'll never be able to get over any of your deaths, but your company will be enough to comfort me through it. I've never been close to humans before and it's kinda weird, but I definitely think I'll get used to it."
"Now you sound sappy," Matthew chuckled slightly. "What if my other…future selves are different?"
"They're all slightly different," Gilbert said. "It's your experiences that make you, but they'll all have the same base personality, which is what I've fallen in love with. I know it sounds kinda weird right now, and it's a lot to take in, but-"
Matthew cut him off by quickly pressing his lips against Gilbert's. "I'll get used to it," Matthew muttered. "You just have to keep your promise of never letting me be alone. You better keep that promise to every version of me, no matter what happens."
"I'd rather die than break that promise," Gilbert laughed slightly, smiling. "I swear I'm keeping it, to the very end. For now, though, you should really sleep. You're not going to be getting very many chances to rest in the near future. It'll be non-stop work for a very, very long time and it won't be getting any easier."
"Right," Matthew nodded, looking at Gilbert with a smile on his face. "Thank you."
"Not a problem, Birdie," Gilbert smiled. "I'm just glad you're not as mad at me as Ludwig is."
"He's not mad," Matthew chuckled, shaking his head. "He's just overwhelmed. Give him some time, he'll come through."
"Hope you're right," Gilbert sighed, carefully pushing Matthew back towards his bed. "Now, sleep, I swear I won't be going anywhere anytime soon."
Matthew smiled wordlessly and pressed another kiss to Gilbert's lips before returning to his bed. It was strange how quickly he was able to drift to sleep with Gilbert close to him.
***Fallen Stars***
Okay, now Spades has their shit figured out. Took them long enough, I know, but they did it, finally. We've also learned a little bit about Arthur with the Jokers and I hope you all enjoy the new Arthur. The two personalities are rather hard to juggle and make them the way I want them to be, but I think I've got it. In any case, as a fair warning, I see three more chapters, two of them being epilogues. With any luck, I could get them all out before the first of July and then we'll all be happy.
If that is the case, however, I'll need a lot of nice reviews to keep me fueled and going!