Note: This story has multiple endings. If you want Sean to restore the original timeline to give Daniel his freedom, please read on. If you want Sean to sacrifice Daniel's freedom in order to stay in the current timeline, please read the previous chapter.
Sacrifice Sean Ending - Valiente
Sean stands in the front yard, facing one more Biggest Decision of His Life. Dad says he can take his time, but he doesn't need it.
His boyfriend.
His job.
Even his father.
He wants all of these things with every cell in his heart, but they all come with a bitter aftertaste. "Nothing is worth living in a world where Daniel can't have a life," Sean says.
Dad sets a hand on his shoulder. "Are you certain, mijo?"
And it hits him that this is what he gives up by going back: the best person he will ever know helping him find his way. Because in that other life, yes, there was always someone who helped, but in the end, Sean was always on his own.
"It's only fifteen years for me," Sean says, and he digs a knuckle into his eye. "I can put a life together after that. Probably. Besides, I am, like, way tougher than Daniel."
Dad laughs quietly. "I remember when your brother cried during Jurassic Park."
"Can't believe I'm sacrificing so much for such a wiener," Sean says, and his dad sets a hand on his back and leads him inside the house.
# # #
Inside, Dad cooks frozen french fries and homemade chicken tenders with a hint of Mexican seasoning. Maybe some people would want steak or lobster for their "last meal," but Dad made this for most of Sean's lunches as a little kid, and it tastes like comfort, home, and being safe—things that don't exist in the life Sean is going back to.
As he eats at the counter, Sean flips through the sketchbook with his father beside him, pointing out the parts that didn't completely suck. Like hanging out in the Mice Palace. Or meeting Finn and Cassidy. And the sunrise over the canyon in Away
And then he turns to the last page, the drawing of Daniel in the motel near Away, with the photograph of him and Daniel flexing paper-clipped to the top of it.
Which means it is time.
And, shit, he has spent days of his life imagining last words to his father—both in that other life and in this one, once he knew he had to go back. But it's like something has scrambled the hard drive of his brain, and he no tiene palabras in either language.
But he doesn't have to say anything. Dad pulls him into a hug, the kind that is nearly-too-tight-to-breathe, the kind where Sean's head is cradled against Dad's shoulder. He feels his father kiss him on top of the head, which Dad hasn't done since Sean was a little boy. "Please do not take everything on your own. Your relationship with your brother is important, but it goes two ways. Let him help you, okay? And never question if I am proud of you. Because I am. So very, very proud of you and Daniel." Dad's beard scratches Sean's cheek as a quiet, damp sob hits Sean's neck. "And please do not always be running away from something. Find something that you are running towards, okay?"
"I will, Dad," Sean says, and it is hard to push the words past the broken glass in his throat. He presses his nose to his father's chest. Breathes in the motor-oil and bad aftershave one more time. "Even though things got messed up, spending time with you was worth every shitty thing that happened. I wish I had told you I loved you more in that other life."
"You didn't have to," Dad says, somehow holding him tighter. "I always knew, even when you were 'too cool' to hug your papi."
"Te quiero mucho, papito. Siempre y siempre."
"Te quiero mucho también, mijo. Siempre y siempre y siempre."
Maybe if Sean holds on, this moment won't end, and he won't have to go back. But he has learned not to hold on to things too tightly because they hurt more when they are ripped away. So Sean breaks the hug first, and the cool air that rushes into the space between them stings.
"Try to remember what I taught you," Dad says, wiping at his cheek. He coughs, deepens his voice. "But, you know, only the good stuff."
Sean's laugh shakes a tear from his eye that falls into the face of the older boy tattooed on his forearm. "Dad, it was all good stuff."
Sean turns to the drawing of his childhood bedroom on that day in 2016, and the pages feel heavy, but he is strong enough to turn them. His teeth dig into his lip as he has one more request. "Dad, could you—could you tell me a story? Like you did when I was little?"
"Sure, my son." Sean's father's arms wrap around him like armor, and Dad's heart beats against Sean's back. Dad clears his throat then whispers into Sean's ear. "Once upon a time, in a wild, wild world, there was a wolf. But this was no ordinary wolf because . . . because this wolf was the bravest wolf in the world. And the thing that made him brave was the strength of his heart and the way he cared for others. And no matter how hard life got—no matter how unfair it was—the wolf never gave up. Not on himself. Not on his little brother. And the wolf's family—especially his brother and father—loved him, with all of their hearts, always and always and always . . . "
And as Dad's story continues, Sean focuses on the picture. And Dad's voice and heartbeat fade as Sean travels back to that day that changed everything.
# # #
Washington State Penitentiary
December 2022
The Original Timeline
Five Years After the Incidents at the Border
Fifteen-year-old Daniel Diaz sits in the visiting room of the prison, next to a woman he has just met named Max Caulfield and across from the older brother that has sacrificed everything for him, clutching a sketchbook that Sean says he can use to change the past.
Sean sounds desperate as he reaches across the table and squeezes Daniel's hand; Sean's palms are hot and damp. "I can fix all of this, enano," he says. "I can make it so that none of this happened. No walls keeping us apart."
"But what if Max is right?" Daniel asks. "It hurts me, how much you've been through. I don't want to be responsible for making things worse."
"And, Sean Diaz, you will make things worse," Max jumps in. "You cannot do this. Please, Sean. Please make the right choice here."
Sean crosses his arms and leans back in his chair. A forced calm slides into his voice. "It's not my choice to make, though. I am going back. I knew I would do this, even before I knew I could. But I can't do it without the sketchbook. And I don't have the sketchbook. Daniel does, and he doesn't have to give it to me."
The stickers on the cover—Sean's name, Nasty People Suck, Shove It—are faded and torn from their long journey and years of Daniel hugging the journal to his chest on nights when he's overcome with guilt for his brother being in prison.
"So, Daniel, it's your choice this time, hermanito," Sean says. "We thought the story of the wolf brothers was over . . . but it doesn't have to be. How does their story really end?"
Daniel squeezes the sketchbook so tightly his knuckles hurt. He never wanted to be the thing that cost Sean his future. But there's a risk here—if what Max says is true, then letting Sean change the past could make everything worse.
At least it's my choice this time, Daniel thinks. It's not just something I'm letting happen to my brother.
Sean deserves good things. Sean deserves everything.
Being able to give Sean the life he deserves, bringing Dad back—if that isn't worth taking a risk, what is?
"I think the wolf brothers' story ended at the border," Daniel says. "But everything that happened to the wolf brothers was so unfair. They never really got to have the story they deserved, did they? So . . . I say, let's try it again. From the beginning."
Max cries out in protest, but Daniel holds her in place with a wave of his hand. Sean grabs the sketchbook, and Max pleads with him to stop and the desperation in her voice—what if this is a mistake? But Sean turns to a page near the start of the journal, the image of his bedroom on the day their dad died, and stares at it.
And stares.
And nothing happens.
Max's protests quiet down, and Daniel releases her from his powers. There's a small cut on the top of Sean's head from where the electric razor that buzzes his hair nicked him. A guard starts to come over, but Daniel waves him off.
Suddenly, Sean's head shoots up, his eye wide like he has had ice water dumped on him while he was sleeping. He looks around the room. Fingers explore his face, feel under his eye patch. He pushes up his sleeve and touches the shitty wolf tattoo Cassidy gave him in California.
For some reason, Max gasps, covers her mouth with her hand.
"Sean?" Daniel says quietly. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, enano," Sean says, voice barely above a whisper. "Everything is fine."
"Is it not working? Did something go wrong?"
Sean shakes his head. "Changing the past is not a good idea. Max is right. There could be a cost."
"Five seconds ago, you were all 'I'm going back no matter what fuck everything' and now 'it's not a good idea'? What about saving dad or tearing down walls? We were going to give the wolf brothers a better ending."
"Life isn't like the stories Dad told us, enano," Sean says, closing his journal. "Life doesn't always give you the ending you want." Sean holds out the sketchbook, his arm over the floor instead of the table.
Daniel reaches to take it, but Sean lets it go too soon. The book drops to the floor with a whump.
Sean does this sometimes, not as often as he used to. Having one eye means his depth perception is kind of shit. But he stares at the sketchbook on the floor, and as Daniel picks it up, Sean's body shakes. Sean presses his face into his hands and cries.
Daniel kneels by him, but nothing he says seems to comfort his brother, who keeps saying that he's okay even though he isn't supposed to lie. Then Daniel feels a hand on his shoulder. It's Max. "Daniel, can I speak with Sean?"
"Can you not see he is upset?" Daniel snaps. "I can't bail on him right now. Read the fucking room, Max."
"It's okay, Daniel," Sean says quietly. "I would like to speak to Max. Alone."
Daniel blinks. This does not make any fucking sense. A couple of minutes ago, Sean was biting this lady's head off, and now he is kicking Daniel out of the room to talk to her one-on-one? Daniel protests, but both of them insist, and finally he gives Sean a hasty hug and stomps out of the visiting room with the sketchbook, pissed and hurt and confused.
# # #
After Daniel leaves, Sean stares at his feet. For him, less than ten minutes ago he was wearing new-but-worn-in skate shoes instead of flimsy prison slippers.
"You can take a moment," Max says gently. "I know how difficult this is, coming back to a life you left behind."
And, like, fuck—everything hurts. Sean's ribs wheeze from Chad kicking him in the desert. His back throbs from sleeping on the prison cot. And his bones ache with sadness; Sean forgot that sadness could physically hurt.
He doesn't get anxiety meds here, so his heart flutters with panic.
Half the world is black because he's missing an eye.
He is covered in scars.
But worst of all is the pain in his chest because he just watched his dad die a second time, knew he could stop it, but had to let it happen anyway.
It's like being tied to an anchor and tossed into a frozen lake filled with jagged rocks, broken glass, and used needles. The shock of it is so much, Sean almost cannot form words.
Sean counts his breath, tries to do the breathing exercises his therapist taught him in that other life. He gets himself together enough to look up at Max, whose eyes are full of pity and recognition.
She pushes a strand of blue hair behind her ear. "You want to tell me how you're doing, Sean?"
"I just left the best day of my life to relive the worst one," Sean says. "Do you want to tell me 'I told you so'?"
"If you are back here, you don't need me to rub salt in your wounds," Max says. "I'm sorry you had to face your own storm. I got so upset earlier because I didn't want what happened to me to happen to you."
"It wasn't a storm so much as it was . . . a price," Sean says. "I had a pretty good life. I got to spend time with my dad. But the price was Daniel, and that was too high." Sean drums his fingers on the table, then squeezes his hands together, almost like a prayer. "Daniel can never know about this, okay? If he knew that I sacrificed everything for him again, it would kill him."
"I promise I won't tell," Max says. And then she sets a hand on top of his. "I know how impossibly hard this is—to have lived a different life, one that had good things that you wanted, good things that you probably deserve, and to have to give them up. I wish I could tell you that the pain goes away, that it gets better. But I have lived with my pain for a while now, and it hasn't lessened."
Sean's head hurts as he tries to focus on her with only one good eye. Somehow this version of Max almost looks older than she did in the video call last month/four-years-from now. Dark circles under her eyes. A mouth with corners weak from frowning. Even the blue hair looks over-dyed, like she does it more out of routine than as a statement.
She looks tired.
"Actually, Max, you maybe are telling me that things get better."
She blinks at him, puzzled.
"I was in that other life for a while, and we met up a few times," he says. "I shouldn't spoil things for you—I don't want to piss off the universe more than I have—but, Max, you won't always be blue."
# # #
In the prison's parking lot, Daniel slams the door of his grandmother's car.
"I do not want to talk about it," he says, before she can ask what is wrong. "Sorry about slamming the door."
Grandma Claire nods, doesn't press the issue, and begins driving home.
What. The. Fuck.
Was Sean bullshitting about being able to travel through time?
What if it was a delusion?
Is Sean even more broken than Daniel thought?
Broken because of me. As they pull out of the parking lot, Daniel glances back at the prison and imagines taking it apart brick by brick until his older brother stands free atop the rubble.
Sean sounded so sure about changing the past—on the phone, when Daniel first saw him today. Something must have gone wrong.
He turns to the drawing of Sean's room in the sketchbook. Maybe the image is smudged or something is fucked up with the pages. Daniel doesn't know how Sean's "powers" are supposed to work, but everything looks fine.
He flips through the rest of the book, which he has done on countless nights when he gets to missing his brother. If he pretends, as he reads the words on the pages, he can hear Sean's voice, so it is like his brother is talking to him.
He has the whole sketchbook memorized.
So when he gets to the last page, he is startled to find a drawing that was not here before.
It's a picture of himself, sitting on a bed in a motel. And he's the age he is now, not the ten-year-old boy he was when Sean was arrested.
And paper-clipped to the top of it is a photograph. In the photo, Daniel and his brother flex in a mirror. Sean's ears are pierced, and he has that stupid haircut that Finn gave him in California. Neither Daniel nor Sean are wearing shirts. The Daniel in the photo has a tattoo of wolves drawn on his chest in sharpie, which is something Sean would do when they were kids. And Sean has the same image on his chest, only Sean's tattoo is real, a tattoo that Sean does not actually have.
Also, the tattoo on Sean's arm is different. Instead of the poorly-drawn wolf, it's a boy walking a road by himself.
There is no way this image could exist. This is a moment that never happened.
And as the car rolls past the rows of pine trees that line the state highway, realization dawns on Daniel. "Oh my god, Sean," he whispers, "what did you do?"
# # #
Getting through the conversation with Max and Daniel saps Sean's strength, and he stumbles back to his cell in a daze, where he collapses face-down onto his cot. He curls up into a ball, and the rest of the day disappears. Prison is so much worse than he remembered. He has forgotten the rules, the ebb and flow needed to survive. He almost gets the shit kicked out of him at dinner and then again in the showers.
He moves through three days, his body in shock like he has survived a car crash.
Maybe I am too broken to do this, he thinks as he lies down on the third night. His hours of sleep have only been a means to escape being awake, but on this night, he has a dream.
In the dream, he is driving a car—not just any car, but the one his dad was fixing for him for his graduation, the car he had in the other life. His father is in the passenger's seat. They head towards the US-Mexico border, but there are no guards.
No wall.
"How are you doing, Sean?" Dad asks. "How are you doing really?"
"Honestly?" Sean says. "Pretty bad."
"I wish life was more fair," Dad says. "Especially to you. You don't deserve this."
"That doesn't change that this is happening to me, Dad," Sean sighs. "I don't know if I am strong enough to do this after all."
"You are, mijo," Dad says. "Because I believe in you, you have come this far, and I am proud of you. I am sorry you have lost so much, more than someone your age should be able to lose. But, as dark as things are now, you still have good things ahead of you."
They cross the border without incident, and on the other side, it looks the way Sean always imagined Puerto Lobos would. The sun shines. There's a beach. The windows of the car are down, and the salty air is cool and fresh and smells like freedom.
And then Sean wakes up.
The dream felt so vivid, like Dad was actually here, and being back in the cold cell should be upsetting. But instead, for the first time ever in prison, Sean feels at peace. He pulls some paper and a pencil from among his meager belongings, careful not to wake his cellmate Troy.
One of the things Dad said before Sean left that other life was to not always be running away. It's never completely dark in prison, so in the dim light, Sean makes a list of things for the end of his sentence, things he can run towards.
-Check in on Toby on social media (I hope he is happy)
-Hang out with Cassidy and Finn
-Crash at Jacob's (hope he still lives on the beach)
-Get a beer with Brody (if Brody drinks maybe he doesn't?)
-Get high with Lyla—look at the lights of Seattle
-Christmas with my grandparents
-Make my Superwolf comic (and give it a happy ending)
-Frozen yogurt with Mom (and tell her about all those track meets she missed)
-Find out if I can still kickflip
-Thank Chris for being Daniel's other brother
-Get my wolf tattoo with Daniel
-Get Daniel drunk
-Go on a real camping trip with Daniel (for fun not survival)
-(Maybe tell Daniel everything?)
It hits him that the last few things on his list are about his brother. He chews on his pencil, then writes:
-Live on my own for a while. Live by myself and for myself.
He pauses again, and then he adds one more thing:
-Finally make it to Puerto Lobos. With Dad's lighter.
He rereads the list. These seem like good things, wishes he can make happen. And he deserves good things, even if he can't have them just yet.
Even if they are far away.
"I can do this," he whispers in the dark. "Because I have come this far. And I am not broken. I am brave."
Soundtrack – Outro: "The Ballad of Me and My Friends"
by Frank Turner
This has been "The Bravest Wolf in the World"
A Life is Strange 2 Fan Fiction
Episode Four: The Storm
Valiente Ending
none of this is going anywhere
pretty soon, we'll all be old
and no one left alive will really care
about our glory days when we sold our souls
but if you're all about the destination
then take a fucking flight
we're going nowhere slowly
but we're seeing all the sights
and we're definitely going to hell
but we'll have all the best stories to tell
yes, i'm definitely going to hell,
but I'll have all the best stories to tell
