Chapter 20: Aftermath, Pt. 1: A Genie's Wish
Yo. Good to see you again. Um… I'm glad you're back. But, I know you're not here to chit-chat with little ol' me. Chances are, you've returned because you want to know if what happened in the last chapter was really true, or maybe you want to know if this really IS the end… or maybe you're just curious to know what happened after the chaotic, cataclysmic final battle between good and evil that ended with Shantae's latest victory over Risky Boots… that unfortunately came at the cost of Tayshan's life. And I'll be up-front: I don't want to keep you waiting, either. However, to cover the broadest scope we can manage here, we'll be approaching things a little differently. From this point on until further notice, we'll… sort of catch a series of quick glimpses of how everyone involved in the 'Clash of Arms' conflict coped with the circumstances following Risky Boots's defeat. So, if you're ready to roll, then let's dig in. Shall we?
LOCATION: MIMIC'S WORKSHOP, SCUTTLE TOWN, SEQUIN LAND
DATE: OCTOBER 3RD, 16 P.G.F.
TIME: 1036 HOURS
We rejoin Sequin Land's most famous band of heroes in the laboratory belonging to a certain famed retired Relic Hunter as they discussed the results of their perilous adventures. Still reeling in collective shock and devastation at their loss of their comrade in the wake of their triumph over the dastardly Pirate Queen, they resolved to try and find some form of closure that would at least make the healing process easier. Yet…
"This… this all just feels like a bad dream that I'm waiting to wake up from…" Sky somberly shared, wiping her tears dry as she sat on a stool next to Mimic's worktable. "I… I still can't believe he's gone…"
"Y-yeah…" Rottytops morosely agreed, her glassy eyes flicking between the ground, the grief-stricken bird tamer sitting across the table from her, and the utterly deflated Shantae, who'd been sitting on another stool with her head hung so low that her face was hidden behind her messy curtain of lavender hair. Finding it too painful to keep her gaze locked on the devastated half-genie, the zombie maiden averted her gaze to the perplexed scientist standing before them. "It's just… I… I can't…" she tried to make a statement. However, each time she tried, the image of the soldier dying in front of her, turning into a spirit, and then vanishing in an instant played in her mind. Yet, no matter how many times her brain forced her to remember it, some part of her refused to accept it. Nevertheless, she did her best to contribute. "…Things like that aren't supposed to happen to good people…" she murmured, her gaze slowly falling to the ground as more tears welled up in her eyes. "I can't understand why…!"
"Unfortunately, children, that's just the thing about death," Mimic replied, trying to remain as calm as he could as he also tried his best to register the fact that a young man lost his life trying to protect the country from evil. "It's… It's never easy to deal with, and no one ever expects it until it happens…"
"…but that's just it, Uncle…" Shantae spoke up, lifting her head just enough that the others could see that her face was drenched in her sorrow. Her eyes were reddened and puffy, she wore a most melancholy frown, and just the overall look of the poor girl… Lost, confused, and completely beside herself while her face also bore a black eye, in addition to a few cuts and bruises. Brushing her hair aside nevertheless, she barely found the strength to keep speaking. "He did expect it…"
"What?" Everyone else in the workshop remarked in surprise as they turned to the forlorn genie maiden.
"What do you mean by that, dear?" Mimic asked, not understanding quite what she meant.
"Right before we went in to fight Risky… Tay… H-he told me something that completely shook me to my core, even though I believed we could've avoided it…"
"What did he tell you?"
"…He told me that he… that he knew he was going to die in the battle against Risky…!" she revealed, utterly flooring everyone else as they gasped in collective astonishment. Fighting the urge to break down again, the half-genie continued. "He said he got a prediction from someone during one of our earliest adventures… This person told him that if he continued to help us fight against Risky from that point on, he'd basically be giving up his life in the process… This person told him that he was going to die if he stuck by our side… And worse yet… The same person who told him that, visited me in a dream I had after Sky, Rotty, and I got ambushed on Naga Mountain… She told me about the decision he made…"
"My word…!" Mimic remarked, exhaling in complete shock. "Are… Are you serious…? I-I mean… it's one thing to know he sacrificed himself to save you from Risky's shameless cruelty, but… for him to know that participating in the battle would cost him his life…? Goodness… Who is this person you two encountered?"
"I don't know who she was…" Shantae tried to explain. "All I know was that she was a full-fledged genie dressed in blue that wore a jackal mask to hide her face… And the first time she appeared to any of us was when Tayshan saw her in the Prickle Stitch Valley… She told him then about what would happen if he chose to keep fighting versus what would happen if he chose to stay back and let us handle things… and the last time she appeared was in my dream, where she warned me about what would happen to him because of the choice he made… Even though he knew it was going to happen, he still stuck by my side… he still fought to the bitter end… and he said he did it to protect me because he loved me… And to keep all of us alive, because that jackal lady said any one of us could've died in his place at any time if he didn't help us… And now, he's…!" she tried to continue explaining, though it proved too much. Burying her face into her hands again, Shantae began to weep. Pained by the distress her best friend was going through, Sky got up off her stool and moved to comfort the grieving half-genie by hugging her and rubbing her back. In response, Shantae wrapped her arms around Sky as both girls wept in sorrow. Of course, Rotty and Bolo could hardly even bring themselves to speak in the moment as they glanced at one another, listening to their mutual friend's confession and processing the gravity behind it.
The very utterance of his niece's statements nearly shook Mimic stiff as he processed what Shantae was saying to him. That young man kept on fighting and protecting the group, despite knowing it would result in his demise? And who was this jackal woman? And if she was a full-blooded genie, then what in the world was she doing visiting the likes of Shantae and Tayshan? Why would she be giving out predictions of how their adventures would go? And for that matter, how could she possibly know what was going to happen to the point that she was so pressed to warn these children about it? And what was the deal with this woman wearing a jackal mask to hide her identity? He couldn't wrap his mind around it in the slightest, because it all seemed so strange… even by his standards as he scratched his head.
"Ah… W-well… This mysterious genie must've had some purpose if she appeared to you both… R-right?"
"Yes…" Shantae answered, lifting her head up just enough over Sky's shoulder that she could speak clearly as she looked at Mimic. "She was trying to help me prevent Tayshan from dying… and I couldn't do it in the end… I couldn't save him…" she further shared, disheartening everyone in the workshop as they heard her sadness-riddled statement.
"…Jeez… The more we unravel this, the worse it sounds…" Bolo murmured as he rested himself up against the nearby countertop that had a plethora of papers, dishes, and test tubes littered across it. "All these extra details, and I'm still trying to make sense of the fact that Tayshan died… It's just not clicking in my head. I want it to not be true. We were all right there when he died, but I can't fathom it… It was never supposed to be like this… None of us ever thought Risky Boots would take things that far…"
"Indeed, Bolo," Mimic concurred, pensively running his fingers through his long, silver beard as he pondered the details of the fateful encounter that concluded their war against Risky Boots. "There are… many things about this terrible situation that won't make sense. I fear that we may never get all the answers we may be looking for in terms of why and how it turned out like this. Granted, I had hoped none of you would ever have to experience the pain of loss… at least, not like this… Unfortunately, one of the cruelest things about life is that death does nothing to slow or stop time. It's… what we do during these times of grief that matter more than ever."
"So, what do we do…?" Rottytops asked, returning her gaze to Mimic as she wiped her tears off her face. "How are we supposed to carry on, knowing that Tayshan, one of our closest friends, is dead…? How… How are we supposed to deal with the fact that we'll never get to see him or talk to him again…?" she continued to ask, desperately looking for some form of clarity as another wave of tears cascaded from her glassy ruby-hued eyes.
"The only thing we can do, Rotty, is find out how we can best cope with it," Mimic informed, knowing just how difficult it was to provide such an answer. Hearing him loud and clear, everyone tuned in. "It is going to be the farthest thing from easy, believe me. In my time, I have lost many close friends and family over the span of the last few decades. And every single one of them has hit me the exact same heartbreaking way. However, we must live on, cherishing the memories of those we lost while understanding that… well, that death, for as terrible as it is, is a part of life. And while some may die of old age, others… don't get to have that experience. Some die much sooner than others, and in different ways. And… in Tayshan's case, and as far as I understand, he willingly sacrificed his life, so that you… or rather, so that we could all continue to live in peace beyond this awful crisis. For him to know in advance what he was giving up by fighting for the greater good, and then giving it up when the time came anyway? That… hoo, boy… Th-that takes courage I haven't heard of or seen in a very long time…" he trailed off, turning away and gulping as a knot formed in his throat. Taking a deep breath, Mimic also took the moment to wipe the tears coming from behind his spectacles. Soon after, he cleared his throat as he regained enough of his composure to continue speaking. "…but my general point is that to cherish life, we must understand the impact death has on us all. It goes without saying that our friend was very near and dear to us, so the least we could do is honor his memory… and more importantly, honor his noble sacrifice…"
"Uncle…" Shantae murmured as she and Sky broke their mournful hug.
"Yes, cupcake?"
"Can I ask you something…?"
"Anything at all, Shantae. Whatever's on your mind, ask away."
"How… How did you cope with it when you lost a friend? How… did you manage to make it stop hurting…?"
"Ah, a good question, dearie… and to be honest, the pain never truly 'stops,' per se," he answered as candidly as possible. "It's more a matter of how to process the loss as it happened, process your feelings about the loss, process your feelings toward the deceased person in question, and… well, process how you'll heal. Everything is a process, sweetie pie… and in case I must admit it, there is no set time limit to how long any of those processes will take. In addition, everyone has their own forms of coping."
"Oh… I-I see…" she somberly acknowledged. And despite the fact that his answer did nothing to soothe her grief in the moment, she understood that he was right. "That makes sense… Thank you, Uncle…"
"Anytime, dear."
"Right. Uh… I-I have another question, though…"
"Shoot."
"Have… um… have you ever lost someone you um…"
"Lost someone I… what?"
"Well… H-have you… ever lost someone you were… i-in love with…?" she asked as she clutched a peculiar pair of I.D. Tags to her chest, though the statement very NEARLY sent Mimic tumbling to the floor. Lost someone he was IN LOVE with? Even for the somber tone of the conversation, that question came soaring in from way out of left field… or rather, it would've, had Mimic not immediately caught on as he tempered his shock. Still, the very implications of that question were anything but subtle. He got the idea right away, though he found it difficult to stomach in the moment. "…A-and if you did, then was it different in any way… f-from coping with losing a close friend or family member…?" she asked, her dejected tone making painfully evident that she was looking for guidance from him on how to begin properly grieving. But the sheer gravity of the young woman's questions… Mimic could hardly believe it was Shantae of all people asking them…
"…You… You really loved that young man, huh…?" Mimic brought it up within himself to ask after a pressured moment of silence had passed.
"Mm-hmm…" she confirmed with a weak nod, her saddened gaze locked on her legal guardian as she awaited his reply. Mimic, at something of a loss for what to say, took a moment to collect his thoughts as he sighed away some of the sudden apprehension that came with him being pressed to answer his foster daughter's loaded question.
"I see… I… had a feeling you and he had gotten close, but I didn't expect you to… huh…" the elderly scientist stammered, though he remained stunned at the half-genie's admission. Nevertheless, he did his best to give her a proper answer. "Well, Shantae… Much as I hate to say it, I… I have not experienced the pain you're feeling," he admitted. "I can only imagine what you're feeling right now, and the very thought that you had to lose someone so special to you… especially like this… it… it wounds me greatly to know you're in such pain. That said… I… um…"
"I think I can help you with that one, girl…" Sky spoke up as she rested a hand on Shantae's shoulder, seeing for herself that Mimic was placed in a tough position. "I know it isn't much to say, but… losing anyone close to you in general is a painful experience. Like your uncle said, every loss is… is painful to deal with. Friend, family member, or lover… your connection to the person in question determines what you'll miss about that person when they die… and maybe they wouldn't even have to die. They could simply have moved away somewhere and it wound up causing you to lose all contact with them. Sometimes, it doesn't even have to be another person. It could be like losing your powers, or like losing an irreplaceable, one-of-a-kind heirloom. They're all different experiences, of course… but no matter what, the pain of loss is more or less the same across the board. Still… Losing Tayshan hurts all of us in a way none of us could've ever imagined before today. He was a good—no, a wonderful man, and an excellent friend to every single one of us. Even while dealing with Risky's antics the entire time, we all connected to him in our own ways… And I know I speak for all of us when I say I wish he was still here… So, you're not alone, Shantae. And you should never have to feel like you're alone… if that answers your question at all…"
"…It does," Shantae affirmed, looking Sky directly in the eye as she processed the bird tamer's words. "Thanks, Sky… For everything you've ever done for me…" she solemnly offered her gratitude as she fought back another wave of tears. Sensing her best friend's overwhelming despair, Sky opted to wrap her arm over Shantae's shoulders as she also fought the urge to shed more tears. Leaning her head against the genie maiden's, the saddened bird tamer did her best to support her friend in her time of need.
"I don't think it could've been said any better than the way Sky put it," Bolo acknowledged with a sigh, though he found himself ruminating about his experiences throughout their recent journeys across the country. "But man, this does not feel right in the slightest… Like… What kind of world do we live in, where someone as horrible as Risky Boots get to keep carrying on to cause destruction and chaos wherever she goes, yet people like Tayshan do the right thing, saving and protecting people across the country, but then wind up… ah, I-I can't even say it…! I…" he tried to elaborate, though he found himself forced to squeeze his eyes shut as he turned his head away. Hearing him loud and clear, however, Shantae felt a pang shoot through her heart as she was reminded of the fateful decision that she and the deceased serviceman had made prior to engaging Risky Boots for the last time… The decision not to take Risky's life… It rung in her head like a gong being smacked with a golf club. Though she said nothing in the moment, she was made to wonder… Was it the right choice to let Risky go? Was there really no chance for her to eventually see the error in her ways to change for the better? Would it have been better to… to…?
"I know how you feel, Bolo…" Rottytops added, taking a deep breath to recompose herself as she remained seated on her stool. "This sucks… This really sucks…! I still can't even begin to wrap my head around the idea that Tay knew that he wouldn't make it the entire time he was with us… and still went into battle like he did, hoping he could survive… on top of giving up going back to his old world to give it a shot living here with us in case he did survive… and after he even destroyed the machine that Risky used to bring him here in the first place, just so she wouldn't be able to go back to his timeline to steal more of those guns or terrorize another planet… He didn't deserve to die because of it…! He seemed so hopeful that things would play out the way they should've… He should still be here…! It doesn't make sense how someone could work so hard for a better future in a world he didn't even know existed until he was thrown into it, and then not even get the chance to enjoy living in either of the worlds he helped save…"
"Indeed…" Mimic sadly acknowledged. "However, if his career of choice was any indication, then we all must at least acknowledge that he was aware of the costs that came with entering the battlefield with the idea to protect his allies, regardless of any psychic prediction he received… though I'm aware that such an acknowledgement does nothing to ease the ache in our hearts resulting from this unfathomable occurrence… I shudder to even imagine how terrifying it must've been for him to shoulder such a harrowing task, knowing full well what it would take from him to ensure the safety of as many of Sequin Land's people as you young heroes were able to assist… or even, to avenge those that had been lost in the battles that ensued, based on what was shared here about the innumerable catastrophes Risky Boots and her crew caused."
"Yeah, no kidding…" Bolo agreed, shaking his head in palpable dejection. "I feel like in one way or another, we all owe him one…"
"Yeah…" Shantae added with a slow nod. "Just between the four of us, he's saved us all more times than I can count… and it makes me so thankful that he did so much to keep us all safe… but it crushes me to think about what he gave up every time… and it burns me up to know what Risky put him through, just for it all to end with him having to give up his life just to save me one last time…" she added, tears profusely pouring out of her weary eyes as she made her next confession. "I was told by the jackal lady in my dream that he chose to surrender his chance at life, so we could all continue to have ours while earning our best chance possible to beat Risky again… and I was told by Tay himself that he didn't hesitate to make the choice, despite it being told to him that he had a nine-in-ten chance of dying if he kept helping us… b-but I can't… I can't bring myself to accept that, even with everything we tried to do to take Risky Boots down and avoid it happening, he still… he still…!"
"All of you, come here…" Mimic softly beckoned, seeing that their conversation had quickly been spiraling into an endless whirlpool of collective contemplative regret, sorrow, and wistfulness about the soldier's death being undone in some way, shape or form. Though each of the four heroes were rather sluggish and sullen in their movements, each of them silently obeyed the scientist's request. Within seconds, Shantae, Sky, Bolo, and Rottytops found themselves standing in front of Mimic, who had stretched his arms out toward all of them. Reading his nonverbal suggestion, all four of them stretched their arms out to one another before approaching Mimic, who'd reeled them all in for an emotional group hug. Squeezing one another firmly as Shantae continued to weep, she was soon joined by Bolo… and then by Rottytops… and then by Sky… and eventually, even by Mimic himself as they relied on one another for support.
"Listen…" he began, inhaling to quell the knot in his throat. "I'm… I'm certain we could go on all day ruminating on what we wish could've been different about this situation," he did his best to address them as he failed to fight back his own mournful tears. "And I'm certain we could all spend weeks here, wondering why Tayshan had to lose his life in the battle against Risky Boots… I'm right there with you all…" he admitted, taking a moment to clear his throat and regain some of his composure. "…but we mustn't place all our focus on what we wish we could change. A brave and selfless hero sacrificed his life for the greater good, and we'd do best by expressing our gratitude for his efforts, in addition to our appreciation for the time we were able to spend with him, however short. We… we must also be grateful that we came out of another extremely perilous pirate fiasco alive… You kids mean the world to me, and I honestly wouldn't know what I'd do if I ever lost any of you… which is why it ails me to no end to know just how close you all were to potentially being badly hurt or worse… while it utterly floors me to acknowledge that our friend from another world is counted among those whose lives were tragically cut short in this ceaseless war… As I mentioned earlier, we must do something to honor his memory. That responsibility falls solely on us…"
"But what do we do, Uncle…?" Shantae tearfully asked as the group continued to hug one another. "How do we even begin? I'm not even ready to accept that he's gone…"
"A good question dear, and believe me, I'm right with you…" Mimic replied while pondering her question, though it wouldn't take him long to come up with an idea or two. "Perhaps we could hold a candlelight vigil, or some form of ceremony where we pay our due respects to our fallen friend, in addition to all those who were harmed over the course of this crisis. That, or maybe we could all take some time to remember the good things about our friend and compile a… a sort of memoir detailing our time with him, so that he would never be forgotten…? I am… not sure how you would feel about either of those ideas, when the wounds are so fresh. I also understand that you all must be exhausted after such an arduous series of truly terrifying journeys, so we don't have to commit to it immediately. But somehow, some way, I think it's in our best interest to begin the healing process as soon as we can… no matter how long it takes from the moment we start…"
"I agree. And I like both of those ideas, to be honest," Sky spoke up, sighing and wiping her tears once more as the group hug ended. "We'd get a chance to say our final goodbyes to Tayshan, and we'd be able to put all our memories into writing, so that we'd always have a record that he was really here with us…"
"I feel the same," Bolo agreed with a nod, rubbing his eyes with his hands for a moment. "It'd only be right that he at least be granted a worthy send-off after all this."
"Yeah, I'm… I'm on-board as well…" Rotty further concurred as she wiped her face with a cloth, though she'd still been remorsefully crying her eyes out. "I… don't want to forget… about… him…" she continued, though she found it increasingly difficult as she found herself incapable of thinking about anything other than the serviceman's painful final moments as he lay, fading away on the frigid sands of an uncharted island in the middle of the night. The weary look on his face… the heavily damaged outfit he wore… the weak, raspy sound of his voice as he gripped her hand, only for his grip to get steadily weaker until he couldn't hold on anymore… and the idea that she could've saved him had she preserved her Fake Brain… the invasive thoughts proved to be far too much of a weight on the grieving zombie maiden's mind. A massive knot forming in her throat as an ocean of tears welled up in her eyes, Rottytops tried her hardest to contain her immeasurable grief. She couldn't hold it together, however. She collapsed to her knees and fell into a fit of miserable, heart-wrenching sobbing as she buried her face into her hands again. "Tayshan…! Why did you have to go…? You were my newest best friend… Yet, we didn't even get to hang out like we were supposed to…! You didn't get a fair chance…! Why…? Why…?" she uttered, barely above a tear-stricken whisper as she let out a sorrowful wail loud enough that the entire town could've heard it.
"Rotty…!" Shantae called to her, unable to fight back her own tears as she rushed toward her. Rather than attempt to pick her up, however, the mournful half-genie knelt beside her best friend and wrapped her up into the warmest hug she could muster. Rottytops returned the hug with just as much strength as the two of them remained on their knees, crying profusely. "Rotty, it'll be okay… It'll be okay… I miss him, too… But we'll find a way to get through this together… We have to…" she tried to console, though her words only exacerbated the unspeakable pain in her own broken heart as hers and Rotty's collective cries filled the atmosphere with an overwhelmingly melancholy energy.
"He shouldn't be dead…!" Rotty uttered once again through her tears that refused to stop flowing. "He was supposed to be here with us…! We were supposed to welcome him home…! He was our best friend…! How in the world is this fair that he's dead after everything we went through together…!? This… This doesn't make any sense…! He should still be here…" Though Rottytops wasn't directly aiming those questions or statements at Shantae or expecting an answer, the despair-riddled utterances still cut the half-genie like a knife. Shantae hugged Rotty harder as a sudden nauseous feeling ran through her abdomen like she couldn't believe. Shaken to the core by the unfathomable feeling in addition to the sound of her zombie friend crying, in addition to having nothing to say in the wake of her own soul-crushing remorse for the tragic loss of the extraterrestrial soldier, Shantae spiraled into another spell of woeful sobbing. She, too, found herself flashing back to her final hours with the soldier between their merciless brawl with Risky Boots, the grievous injury the heinous pirate captain inflicted on him, his final moments on the beach before his death… and especially that last glimpse of his spirit forming a heart with his hands and smiling at her before vanishing from her sight in an instant… She was absolutely wracked with sadness as she found herself wishing more than ever that he was still there.
"…It appears we'll… all need a lot more time to process this," Mimic understandingly pointed out, sighing out some of his building regret for seeing and hearing his own surrogate daughter and her friends in such inconsolable emotional agony. He glanced at Sky to see her bowing her head, tightly clasping her hand over her eyes as she took in a sharp inhale and began to weep again. Soon after, he turned to Bolo and spotted the young man pressing a hand to his forehead while his other hand rested at his side, balled up in a fist as his breaths became shaky and riddled with anguish. Doing his best to keep himself together, Mimic took another deep, labored breath as he clutched his chest. Soon after, he moved to help the half-genie and the undead maiden to their feet. No one said anything during the interaction, however. Understanding for herself that her uncle would never want to see her in such a terrible state, Shantae wordlessly ended her embrace with Rottytops and took Mimic's hand. Of course, Shantae stretched her free hand to Rotty as she was rising to her feet. Seeing the offer, Rotty took Shantae's hand and allowed her to help her back to her feet as well. Both young women breathed collective sighs, though they could hardly stop themselves from crying further. "Listen, I know there isn't much room in here, but you should all stay here or somewhere nearby for today. Possibly for the foreseeable immediate future… None of us seem to be in much of a condition to go anywhere alone. Not like this…"
"R-right…" Sky agreed, wiping her eyes again as she tried to shake off some of the endless sorrow radiating from her very core. "I have my apartment down the street, so I won't be far off. Plus, I need to check on my birds… You're all still welcome to come over if you want… I don't have that much room either, but I can still accommodate."
"Thanks, Sky… but I… I think I'll stay here with Uncle for now," Shantae answered, however reluctantly. "I… I still need to clear some things up with him, but I can… maybe pop in later, if that's okay…"
"Come whenever you want, girl. My door's always open for you," Sky acknowledged before turning her attention to Bolo and Rottytops, who each shared glances with her. "What about you two? I get it if you'd rather stay here, but I have an extra bed in case either of you needs somewhere to lie down for awhile…"
"I'll come with you," Bolo took the offer. "I'd uh… I-I'd rather not see you go home alone," he further admitted. Meanwhile, Rotty pensively scoured the woeful faces of her friends, especially focusing on the melancholy Shantae. It was no secret that Rotty would rather be with Shantae than anyone else in their time of grief, so that she could comfort the weary ponytailed maiden in the wake of her losing her boyfriend. However…
"I'll go with you, too…" Rotty also took the offer, somewhat to Sky's, and even Shantae's surprise. "I… I think it's better for me if I did," she further admitted, though she wasn't very eager to explain herself as she cast her dejected gaze downward and away. Shocked as the bird tamer and the half-genie were, neither one of them deemed it necessary to question the zombie girl's decision at that moment. She had to have her reasons.
"Alright," Sky plainly acknowledged with a small nod after a brief silence. "Well, I'm gonna head back there now," she further shared as she got herself ready to go. "Are you coming with me now, or did you want to spend some extra time here?"
"Coming now," Bolo and Rottytops simultaneously answered as they prepared themselves to follow her out.
"Okay," Sky again acknowledged as she walked over to give Shantae another hug, which the half-genie wholeheartedly returned. "I'm always here for you, Shantae…"
"I know, Sky… Thank you so much…" the ponytailed maiden offered her gratitude, squeezing the bird tamer tight before they separated. Immediately following, Rottytops also hugged Shantae once more. In turn, Shantae hugged her back.
"If you want, let's regroup as soon as we clear our heads a bit…" Rotty suggested to her as they embraced one another. "I'm sorry for not being able to keep my cool…"
"Rotty, you don't have a thing to apologize for," Shantae assured her friend as they ended their hug, though the half-genie held the zombie maiden's hands and looked her in her wavering eyes. "I'm aware that… well, that losing Tayshan hurts you as much as it does me…"
"No… I could never compare how I feel to how you do right now…" she somberly countered despite knowing Shantae was trying to comfort her. "I mean, I… I still can't believe it for myself, and it's hitting me harder than I could've ever imagined… but I'd be crazy to think I know what it's like on your end, and I acknowledge that in full. I… I appreciate you for helping me like you always have… but now, we've all got to find a way to support each other, and I'm too much of a mess at the moment to do that for anyone… myself included."
"Rotty…" Shantae called to her, stunned that her friend would say such a thing about herself.
"It's okay, Shantae…" Rotty assured her as she gently pulled her hands away from her best friend's. "Or at least, it will be. First and foremost, I think we all need to get cleaned up and get some rest… and maybe once we've had some time to chill and… a-and let it sink in, we can… um… we can… start to… figure out how to accept it, I guess… much as I don't want to…"
"…Understood, Rotty. Yeah, I see where you're coming from now… Well, I'll see you later."
"No doubt about it, snack cakes…" Rotty confirmed with a wan, sadness-laden smile as she walked toward Sky while choking back another fresh wave of tears. Holding it together this time, however, she took a deep breath, exhaling through her mouth to dispel a small portion of the grief welling up inside her.
"S-see ya later, Shantae…" Bolo sullenly bade, opting to merely wave as he followed Sky and Rotty toward the door.
"Bolo?" the half-genie called to him, stopping all three of her friends as they turned to her.
"Yeah?"
"…Do you want a hug, too…?" she found it in herself to ask, wanting to support him just as the others supported her.
"No… No, I'm alright…" he declined, though his hesitation was tangible.
"You sure, bro…? I… I want to make sure you're okay…"
"I'm good, trust me…" he again tried to assure, though his voice wavered as his hands began to tremble a bit. "Besides, I need to be strong. I… I need to keep it together…"
"Bolo, you don't have to-!" Sky tried to advise him.
"If I don't, then I won't be able to help you cope with losing Tay… a-and… I… I want to… t-to be…" he continued trying to hold it back to make sure Shantae knew he was okay. Just by listening to him choke up, tremble, and stutter, however, everyone knew Bolo was anything but okay. Within seconds of hesitating, he let out a pained exhale as he hung his head to avoid anyone seeing him shed any additional tears.
"It's alright to cry, Bolo… Trust me, it is…" Sky assured him as she reached out and pulled the grief-stricken handyman in for a hug he didn't necessarily want, but definitely needed. "You don't have to hold it in. No one's judging, I promise…" Rather than say anything back, however, the fledgling adventurer found himself breaking down in the bird tamer's arms as he hugged her back. And, as Sky advised him, he stopped holding it in as he, too, began to sob. The mere sight of it shook Shantae to the core, as she'd never seen Bolo in such a condition. She'd never even seen him shed a tear since she'd known him. And even though she'd seen him shed more than a few of them since they made it back to Scuttle Town, this was… this was completely astonishing to her as she took in the sight of him and Sky holding one another as he buried his face on her shoulder. "Come on. Let's go. We'll talk about it at my house…" the bird tamer suggested, inching toward the front door as she kept her arms wrapped around him. Rottytops moved to open the door to let them out. Once Sky walked Bolo out of the workshop, she followed suit. Before leaving, however, the zombie maiden turned toward Shantae one more time as she entered the door frame.
"S-see ya in a bit, Shantae…" Rottytops bade, her eyes filling with tears yet again. Too stunned to say anything in the moment, Shantae could only find it in herself to offer a small wave of her hand as she cast her somber gaze on her friends. Squeezing her eyes shut to try and keep from crying again, Rotty turned and walked out the door before closing it behind her. And with that, Shantae was left with her surrogate father as she took a moment to try and comprehend if this was really happening… if this was really, really happening as she almost fell into a grief-stricken daze…
"Shantae?" Mimic called, snapping her out of it as she flinched and turned to him.
"Y-yes, Uncle?"
"Are you okay?"
"…No. Not in the slightest," she admitted, shaking her head as she reached toward her chest and clasped the late soldier's I.D. Tags in her hand as she wore them around her neck. "It wasn't supposed to be like this… It was NEVER supposed to be like this… I feel lost… confused… angry… and absolutely miserable… My stomach is turning and twisting in every direction… and I-I… I honestly don't know what to do with myself right now…"
"Indeed… Losing someone close to you always feels that way…" he shared, wanting her to know he understood as he walked toward her and gently rested a hand on her shoulder.
"I get it… but… he already lost everything about his old life when Risky dragged him here," she somberly replied, still trying to sort through her scattered thoughts while fighting back her tears. "He lost everything… and we worked together this entire time to help him find a new purpose… I helped him make new friends… I protected him… I taught him everything I knew about how to adapt to life here… And we helped him get comfortable with the idea of living here in case he couldn't go back to his old timeline… I was there with him every step of the way… and in return, he was there for me when I needed him… He protected me… he taught me so much about life that I probably never would've figured out if I hadn't met him…"
"I see…"
"And even in his darkest moments, he always fought to do the right thing to the point that he gained full control of the Dark Magic Risky forced into his body and used it to help us fight her and her forces off after we got the Heart Monitor onto him…"
"What…!? He-!"
"And when it came down to it, he destroyed the machine responsible for bringing him here despite knowing it would forever strand him in Sequin Land with no hope of going back… and he was okay with that, as long as I was with him, and as long as it meant Risky couldn't go on invading other worlds like she did his," Shantae continued. "And after all we went through to stop Risky from destroying the country again, and despite the odds… we did it… yet, he doesn't get the chance to enjoy it, despite how hard he worked to help me protect Sequin Land… I wish this was a nightmare I could just wake up from… I really do, Uncle… and… I know what you said about not getting too close to someone until I was older, but… I loved Tayshan… and he loved me, too…" she kept going, tears running down her cheeks once more as she clutched the dented metal tags tighter.
"…Huh… Goodness, I… I hadn't a clue your connection to him was so strong…"
"It was stronger than anyone could've imagined… But we didn't get nearly enough time to explore it before he died… I wanted to do so much with him once we finished up with Risky Boots… I wanted to show him the world… and I still do, which makes it hurt so much more that she took him away from me like this…!" she further confessed, unable to hold back her sorrow as the tears became steadily more profuse. "I… I hate her for what she did to him…! It's not fair…"
"I get it, sweetheart… I do…" he sympathetically responded, bringing her in for another emotional hug, allowing the half-genie to weep as she hugged him back.
"The worst part about it, though… is that even though he's gone, I… my stomach is still flipping and turning nonstop like the Soul-Link is still in effect…" she further shared, thoroughly sending Mimic for a loop as he processed what she said.
"The… the what? Soul-Link?" he had to ask, prompting her to look up at him as they continued to hug.
"Y-yeah… The thing we talked about before, where I could sense when he was in danger…" Shantae explained, taking a deep, shaky breath to calm herself down enough to bring some clarity to her words. "It turned out that after we got Hypno Baron to switch our bodies back after he made us switch with each other the day we went to Genie's Hem, he accidentally created a Soul-Link between me and Tayshan. I didn't find out about it until yesterday when Sky told me, but yeah… It made it so I was able to sense when he was in danger. And it turned out he could sense when I was in danger, too… That's… That's probably how he knew to jump in and push me out of the way before Risky…" she trailed off, gradually realizing how the soldier managed to save her life at the cost of his own as she explained it to the retired Relic Hunter.
"Good golly, I had not even the slightest clue that such a thing was possible…" Mimic remarked in total astonishment. What in the world was this Soul-Link? How could anyone, much less Hypno Baron of all people, have the power to spiritually bind people to each other? He was still trying to wrap his brain around the idea that it was possible for people to magically swap bodies, and she'd let him know about THAT flabbergasting phenomenon weeks ago. The questions came flooding into his mind like a tsunami… but he knew, for the sake of his discussion with his niece, that this wasn't the most appropriate time to probe her for answers. Instead, he internalized her explanation and continued. "Intriguing… So, this Soul-Link… Each of you was able to sense when the other was in danger, no matter how far away you were from one another? Is that what I'm hearing?"
"Yeah… and according to Sky, there was no way for Hypno Baron to reverse it, because even he didn't know he could cause it to happen until after Tayshan and I beat him," Shantae explained as she and Mimic ended their hug. Almost immediately, however, Shantae pressed a hand to her abdomen as she winced in discomfort.
"Of course, that lousy Hypno Baron only ever gets half a job done, and then fails to understand the mess he made…" Mimic murmured, scratching his head for a moment. "And… was it mentioned if the demise of either of you would break this Soul-Link?"
"I don't think it was mentioned…" she answered, uncertain of it herself. "I thought that one of us dying would break it, but we never bothered to think about it. I didn't want to entertain the possibility of either of us dying…" the ponytailed maiden explained as the feeling suddenly got stronger to the point where she exhaled and rubbed her stomach in mild discomfort. "What the…?"
"You seem to be grasping at your stomach quite a bit there, dear. Are you feeling queasy?"
"No… I haven't eaten anything since last night, and I'm not hungry…" she assured him as the feeling simmered down a bit. It didn't take her long to realize the uncomfortable sensation, of course. She knew it all too well as she took in a sharp gasp. "Whew…! Hah…!"
"What's happening? Should I go and get the antacids?"
"N-no… This feeling… This feeling…!"
"What about it, lass? What's this feeling you speak of?"
"…It's the Soul-Link…!" she revealed, completely surprising Mimic as he resisted the urge to jump through the roof. Meanwhile, her sadness mostly changed to total discombobulation and astonishment as she rubbed her abdomen. "I… I can still feel him… He's gone, but I can still feel him…! I can't pinpoint a specific direction, though…"
"Are… Are you certain?"
"Yes… I've grown way too used to this feeling not to know it by now," she assured. "But… I don't have a clue why. This is weird…" she further asserted, pensively staring at her abdomen as she rubbed it with a hand.
"Then… excuse me if this sounds absurd, but… could it be possible that his restless spirit is somehow roaming freely somewhere in the world of the living? I mean, we've seen it happen before…"
"It's possible, but I saw his spirit vanish in front of me just a few hours ago. He should've crossed over into the next world, wherever that may be… Or at least, gone to the Village of Lost Souls, which I hope isn't the case. Yet, this nauseous feeling is lingering in my stomach like he's still alive…"
"Hmm… Well, if for nothing else, this may very well prove that this Soul-Link effect persists, even after one of you dies… much as I HATE to draw that horrible conclusion. Yet, you're certain you can't distinguish where this unusual sensation is pointing you?"
"No, unfortunately…" she shared with a shake of her head. As such, the feeling calmed down almost completely, though the half-genie still felt a pit in her stomach. "Well… as the feeling continues to linger, I… I'm starting to sort of get a general sense of which direction it's pointing me, but I can't get a solid read on it because I'm so exhausted and totally drained of magic…" she murmured as her stomach calmed down almost completely. "Huh… And now the sense is almost completely gone, though I can still feel it… It's faint now, but it's still there…"
"Hmm… I certainly do wonder what that's all about… However, I suppose we won't be able to fully discuss or explore it until after you've rested up and recovered your energy. Speaking of which, why don't you go ahead and freshen yourself up and lie down for a while, like Rottytops suggested? You've been through quite a lot lately, and I feel that a little rest would do your mind and body wonders."
"Yeah… Yeah, I will," she agreed, resisting the urge to yawn as she wiped her unbruised eye. "Thank you for letting me sleep here again, Uncle…"
"Nonsense, girl. You know this is a second home to you, so there's no need to thank me," Mimic dismissed as he turned toward his coffee pot and helped himself to a mug. "You still have a spare outfit or two in the closet, by the way. Go on ahead, now. I'll head out in a bit to see if I can't at least find a Potion for you to drink when you wake up, okay?"
"Okay… I still appreciate you for everything, Uncle," Shantae offered her gratitude as she approached one of a few doors at the back of the workshop and opened it. Within seconds, she obtained a black variant of her usual dancer costume that came with the key difference that the top had long sleeves attached to it. Hesitating for a moment, Shantae thought about how… oddly appropriate it was for her to find a costume of this particular color, though she'd never worn it before. Fighting back another cascade of tears, she pulled the outfit from the closet and laid it along the edge of the bed before going back and grabbing some peripheral personal hygiene items, in addition to a towel and wash cloth. With that, Shantae helped herself to the restroom to take a much-needed shower to rinse all the grime and muck off her body and especially out of her hair.
As she engaged in her showering procedures and immediately committed herself to scrubbing her long, lush blanket of lavender hair clean with her Mega Shampoo and Mega Hair Cream, Shantae silently ruminated on the catastrophic events of the day previous. Every bit of the chaotic scuffles and tireless escapades that took place over the last twenty-four hours ran through her mind on repeat. Spending almost an entire day in what was basically a coma before waking up to Tinkerbats attacking her legal guardian in his own home and destroying Scuttle Town, followed by her lending her aid to Bolo, Twitch, and Vinegar in driving them out by using one of her most powerful belly dance spells to exterminate the pirate pests… the fateful reunion between her and the then-corrupted Tayshan, followed by him granting Rottytops the chance to warp herself and Sky back to safety after Risky Boots captured all three of them a day previous… the joint construction of an epic last-second counterattack against Risky's impending invasion of the Sequin Land Palace… the series of heartfelt discussions between herself, Tayshan, and Rottytops as they searched high and low for resources and allies alike that could assist them in the final battle… the all-out war between Risky Boots and her Tinkerbat crew versus the combined might of Shantae herself, her student-turned-boyfriend, her best friends, a small portion of the Ammonian Army, and none other than Mermaid Falls' own Giga Mermaid…
She could hardly believe that such an utterly explosive and outright astonishing battle could have taken place, much less involved so many people… She had an even tougher time believing they were able to pull it off, despite how incredibly low the odds were of them succeeding in staving off Risky's latest invasion after she came so close to tearing through them aboard her ship and launching a full-scale assault on the nation's capitol. It was a battle for the ages, no doubt. What was most important to the half-genie, however, was that they succeeded where others would most definitely have failed. As her thoughts ran on while she took a moment to let the enrapturing warmth of the shower's running water rinse the suds off her hair and off her body, she found herself reluctantly flashing forward to her latest fateful confrontation with the dastardly pirate captain she harbored nothing but seething contempt and unadulterated disdain for at this point in time.
It all played back in her mind like it happened mere minutes ago. Hers and Tayshan's conversation immediately beforehand, which concluded with her transforming into a Tinkerbat to infiltrate Risky Boots's ship to swipe the copy of the Dynamo blueprints and bullet cases she stumbled upon in the Pirate Queen's main quarters, followed by her giving Tayshan the signal to utilize a machine-obliterating super cannon the likes of which Sequin Land had never known, to completely vaporize a portion of Risky's base, in addition to the Tinker-Portal… followed by the absolutely miserable, grueling, hours-long all-out slobber knocker of a brawl to end 'em all that felt like it was happening for weeks. Just the thought of what she and Tayshan had to endure and dish out just to take Risky down, only for Risky to keep getting up, keep getting stronger… and keep getting desperate for a way to win that ultimately led to…
"Tayshan…" Shantae somberly whispered, squeezing her eyes shut as she remembered it… that terrible, horrible, AWFUL moment… The moment she went to try and help Tay as he was dealing with two persistent Tinkerbats… the moment that flashbang grenade landed in front of her. The *BANG* of an explosion from it before she had time to act, followed by a flash of white… the total loss of awareness as her ears were filled with the obnoxious sound of high-pitched ringing while her eyes were filled with flashes of white and afterimages of her immediate surroundings… the sudden disappearance of the intolerable stun effect the grenade had on her as she came to, only to be filled with a mixture of dread and horror as she… she… "Tayshan…!" she called to him again as she broke down once more. She did not stop showering, however, as she took to scrubbing herself up and down with her soap-soaked wash cloth. Yet, the mere thought of the soldier dying on her behalf filled her to the brim with inconsolable regret and crushing misery.
She still couldn't understand how their efforts to save Sequin Land turned out with the results that they did. She still couldn't understand how the man she fell in love with could walk alongside her into a battle where he knew he most likely wouldn't make it out alive, just to protect her… and most of all, she still couldn't understand at all why Tayshan had to die in their efforts to protect Sequin Land from Risky's evil… Never mind that she was able to grant his wish to rid Sequin Land of all the remaining weapons from his old world; he didn't deserve to die, just so the wish could be granted… especially not in the way he did, where he spent his last moments suffering in unbearable, excruciating pain after being impaled with a scimitar…
The residual thought pained her to no end as her heart felt like it was locked in a vice whose grip strengthened with every passing second. Resisting the urge to burst into another fit of woeful sobbing, Shantae took a deep breath, though her tears still streaked her weary face. Yet, she couldn't help but continue to feel slightly nauseous as that incessant Soul-Link sense lingered like she'd eaten a mountain of bad sushi. Nevertheless, she silently finished scrubbing all the gunk off her curvaceous form and rinsing all the suds out of her hair before she turned the shower off and proceeded to dry herself off from head to toe with her towel. And as she finished up drying herself off, brushed her teeth, lathered herself up with skin cream and lotion, cleaned up after herself, and slipped into a loose-fitting, long-sleeved, frilled pink silk nightgown, she glanced at the dirt-covered red tank top and I.D. Tags lying atop the counter near the sink. Soon after, that 'glance' turned into a bout of staring at the items in question, almost as though she were in a catatonic daze. Almost… as though she still couldn't believe that the person these items belonged to… was dead. Before long, she began to think about some of the times she spent together with the man in question… especially the last time she saw him on that beach… standing in front of her on the spot where he died… with that soul-rending smile on his face as he formed a heart shape with his hands to her… before he vanished while a gust of wind appeared to carry his spirit to the great beyond… That thought especially crushed the poor girl as she squeezed her eyes shut again while more tears escaped. The knot in her throat felt big enough to rival the size of a pool ball as she took a deep, wavering breath to keep her composure as best as she could.
"…I wish you were here, Tay… I really, REALLY wish you were here… I already miss you, and I can't stand the idea that you were taken from me like this… It doesn't feel real… I feel… almost completely numb without you…" she eventually whispered as she grabbed the shirt and I.D. Tags and held them close to her chest. Exiting the bathroom, Shantae wearily trudged over to the bed adjacent to the cluttered worktable nearby. Climbing into it slowly, the sorrowful young woman laid herself down as comfortably as she could manage, slipping under the blanket as she… continued to cling tightly to the I.D. Tags and red tank top. Despite how rapidly her thoughts were racing, it didn't take long for the young lady to begin drifting off. Just before she let the comforting warmth of the blanket and the cottony softness of the bed lull her into a much-needed slumber, she brought the I.D. Tags to her lips and planted a soft, affectionate kiss onto them before clutching the tags and the tank top to her chest once more. Just as she was dozing off, however, a sudden rush of that unusual discomfort roared through her stomach like she'd hit the scariest turn on the world's most chaotic roller coaster ride. "Mmph…!" she grunted, tucking her legs up toward her chest as she continued to hold onto her keepsakes. "Hm…" she hummed again. Yet, despite this disquieting feeling persisting as it did, Shantae's eyes slowly closed as her grip on the tank top and tags loosened ever so slightly. And just like that, Shantae fell asleep…
