It was a strange, hollow place completely devoid of any life. Cranky thought he heard something move close to him; a subtle movement, yet in this silence, amplified to the point where it stirred him from his sleep. He opened his eyes slowly, lids resisting with fatigue, only to discover it was the movement of his fingers inches from his face. The ground was cold, hard, and artificial. He was lying on it, belly down, feeling the ground absorb the heat from his body. Chills went down his spine. He forced himself to get to his feet slowly and painfully. His entire body ached. And as he stood now, fully erect, suddenly felt faint. It was a head rush. He closed his eyes, trying to maintain his balance until the feeling subsided, and then took a good look at his surroundings.

And he saw nothing.

The darkness stretched as far as the eye could see. But somehow, he could still see his hand clearly when he held it in front of him.  

"Hello?" he called out, and nearly jumped at the volume his voice echoed back at him from unseen walls. Where the hell was he? He took a step forward on the invisible black ground, no darker or lighter than the farthest he could see. It was solid and held his weight. He stomped the ground with his heel to find it was solid as concrete.

Out of the corner of his eye, Cranky thought he saw a shape. It was dark, but not as pitch black as the rest of his surroundings. He stared closely at what he thought he saw, and it gradually became clear to him. A young man standing with his back turned to Cranky with a lean frame and thin shoulders.

"Kenny?"

"You're here too?" was the reply. Kenny turned around to face him with an elated smile. But quickly as he turned, the smile disappeared and was replaced with a frown. Kenny started shaking his head. "No, that can't be a good thing."

"What are you talking about?" Cranky demanded.

"Isn't this place great?" Kenny continued. He took a breath though his nose, taking in the dead air. "The breeze is fresh, the sky is cloudless, the fields stretch farther than the eye can see. I could spend an eternity here and not even notice a second has gone by. But you … you can't stay here. Cammy needs you."

Cranky took Kenny by the shoulders. "Are you crazy? There's nothing here! We're in the middle of nowhere! There's nothing here but you, me, and this ... this darkness!"

Kenny gave Cranky a look that made him question who the crazy person was between the two of them. He kicked at the ground and his foot rebounded off something invisible. "You can't see that?"

"No!" Cranky cried in frustration. "I can't see that! And you're sounding like a lunatic right now and in a place like this, it's starting to freak the hell outta me."

"Whoa." Kenny backed away from him slowly, as if Cranky were about to spontaneously combust.

"Come on," Cranky said, "let's get out of here."

Just as he did, Kenny turned his back to him again. "You can't see those stairs?" he asked. "Dude, they're made of … I don't even know what. They're white, and have these golden railings with statues of angels carved right into them. I wonder what's up there."

Suddenly, Cranky got the feeling that if Kenny ascended those unseen stairs, he'd never see him again. It started to make complete sense. Cranky didn't belong here. He couldn't see anything around him. He had to get back to Cammy. But what Kenny described, the way he spoke, whatever he was seeing, it had a powerful impact on him. Kenny was meant to be here, which meant something must've happened to …

Cranky lunged after Kenny and grabbed onto his shirt. "No, you're not going."

"Relax, Crank, I just wanna see what's up there," Kenny said. "I'll be right back."

"No, Kenny, you WON'T!" Cranky shouted so violently, it startled the youth. He forced himself to calm down and try to explain himself. "Look – just … just don't go up there, Kenny, please. Just listen to me for once in your life. I've got a really bad feeling about this."

Kenny stared at Cranky suspiciously but didn't ascend the invisible staircase. Cranky could definitely tell it was there as Kenny's hand was resting on something, gripping it. "A…alright, Crank, just don't flip out. I won't go."

Suddenly, Cranky felt his grip on Kenny's shirt loosen as an unseen force pushed him from his brother. Cranky landed on the cement ground on his shoulder, bruising it. The pain was so real. Standing in front of him, obscuring Kenny, was the hateful sight of Genta, smiling smugly.

"Don't interfere," Genta sneered.

"Cranky? Are you okay?" Kenny asked. He approached Cranky as if not seeing Genta standing there in all his sickening pride – and to Cranky's shock, walked right through Genta and reached out a hand to help Cranky to his feet. He accepted Kenny's hand, expecting to feel flesh but was surprised when his hand passed through Kenny's as if there was nothing there.

Kenny pulled his arm back as if he'd just been burned. "What the fuck …"

"Let him go, Cranky," Genta said. "He wants to. There are people up there waiting for him."

"There are people on Earth who are there for him." Cranky retorted. "His life isn't over!"

"Cranky what the hell you talking about!" Kenny shouted in frustration. Clearly, Genta was invisible to him. "What's going on?"

Cranky struggled to get up but was pinned down by an invisible force while Genta stood over him, watching silently.

"Crank …," Kenny said, looking skyward where the top of the stairs would be, "someone's calling me. It's a lady." He paused. "She's beautiful. I – I think … I think I know her. She's smiling at you too. She wants to see you but she knows she can't."

"Kenny NO!" Cranky screamed. He diverted his attention to Genta and hatred spewed in the form of spittle on his lips at the Shadowlaw soldier. "I will fucking murder you, do you hear me? If you let Kenny go up those stairs I swear to God …"

Kenny's form suddenly vanished back into the darkness, leaving Cranky alone with Genta. He felt the force that pinned him down suddenly lift and Cranky was able to get back onto his feet and settle into a fighting stance.

"Where is he?" Cranky hissed like he could spit poison.

"That depends," Genta replied, "if he took the next step or not.

"Kenny's dead because of you, Crankurt. He led a life void of any guidance because of YOU. Every night when he stared up at the night sky and wondered if there was anyone out there who cared about what happened to him, did you know he contemplated suicide? And if he wasn't doing that, he was crying himself to sleep."

"I didn't …" Cranky tried defending himself, but he was cut off. An apparition appeared a few feet away in the darkness of a younger Kenny kneeling at a church pew, hands clasped so tightly in prayer, his knuckles were pure white. His eyes were squeezed shut. His cheeks shone with the trails of tears that had fallen moments before.

"I wouldn't expect anything more of someone abandoned by his own parents," an ambient voice said.

"He says he gets his money from some guy named Mr. Masters. Probably some alternate identity he takes on while robbing banks, hahaha."

The apparition disappeared and was replaced by a slightly older Kenny sitting out a couch with a faceless girl sitting on him beside a couch, her hand in his.

"So Kenny, Sarah's told us a lot about you and you seem like a fascinating young man!" a woman's voice noted. "What do your parents do to raise someone so intriguing?"

"My dad's a construction site manager," Kenny replied, "and my mom is a biologist working with the RaccoonCity Aquarium."

The scene switched again.

"My father's a bank manager and my mom owns her own flower shop."

"He's a computer analyst."

"A magazine editor."

"An IT technician."

"Thanks Mrs. Robertson, I'm very fortunate to have …"

And the apparition mercifully switched again (the truth behind those lies were getting too much for Cranky to handle) to an eight year old version of Kenny sitting on a fire escape of an abandoned building, knees pulled into his chest. The stars shone overhead, numbering in the millions. It was a moonless night but yet the scene was bright as ever. It looked as if someone had taken a diamond and shattered it against the black backdrop of the sky. As serene a scene as it was, Kenny's shoulders jerked up and down as he sobbed into his own skinny arms.

"STOP!" Cranky bellowed.

The guilt was suffocating. But Genta was relentless. "And let's see what Kenny had to endure everything for."

WHAM!

It was no longer Kenny that Cranky saw before him, but a younger version of himself huddled by a stained steel garbage can. Wide, frightened green eyes of a fourteen year old hid behind tangled bangs of red hair, gazing hungrily at a fifty thousand dollar yen note, placed on the lid of the garbage can by Ryu, who was now walking away from young Cranky.

"I've tried my best to shield Kenny from all this shit," young Cranky said. "Whatever happens to him now, you're responsible."

"You surrendered Kenny happily for five-thousand measly yen," Genta scoffed. "What does that even equate to? Fifty American dollars? Give or take two or three bucks."

"Shut up!" Cranky cried, covering his ears with his hands.

"And now, because of Cammy, he's back," Genta continued. "The fact that he's alive is a miracle in and of itself. But how do you make up for abandoning him? You control him! He can't do anything without wondering if you're gonna lose your cool and flip on him.

"Nevermind he's got a lot on his plate to deal with, least of which the way Shadowlaw victimized him! You've seen the shit Juli and Cammy have gone through. There's no way you'd even think of trying to monopolize their lives when they're just trying to get themselves on their own two feet. Do you think it'd be any different for Kenny?!"

It was no longer Genta standing there, berating Cranky. It was Issei now. Caught up in his guilt, Cranky barely registered the change.

The former Shadowlaw Admiral grabbed Cranky by the hair on the back of his head and hoisted him to his feet. "Answer me, SOLDIER!!"

Cranky stood weakly and looked straight at Issei with red eyes. "I'll let him go."

Issei spat angrily at Cranky's feet. "He's earned his independence. You have NO RIGHT to intrude on it."

"I'll let him go …" Cranky said weakly. "He can do whatever he wants. But that doesn't mean I don't care."

"Ok, dude, now you're starting to creep me out."

Issei wasn't standing there anymore. It was Kenny once again.

"If you have to go up those stairs, Kenny," Cranky said, "do it. If you feel it's time to pass on …"

"Damn it, Crank, snap out of it, PLEASE!" Kenny begged. "You've been saying shit that's made no sense for the last five minutes! Who were you talking to? What's going on here? Look Cranky, I know I probably cause you a lot of stress lately and I'm sorry, ok? Really, REALLY sorry! I'm a little piece of shit, I know, but I'm not gonna do anymore stupid shit, I swear! Please just don't go crazy because of me. Not now …"

Cranky shook his head as Kenny spewed apologies in a never ending stream. "No, Kenny, they were right."

"Who was right?"

"Issei and Genta."

Kenny jumped upon hearing Genta's name. He looked around on full alert. "Where is that fucker? I'll rip his heart out through his mouth!"

"Never mind them," Cranky said. "All I'm saying is I need to get back to Cammy. I want you to come with me. But I understand if you'd rather stay here. Climb those stairs."

Kenny smirked. "I only wanted to see what was up there, Crank. I was gonna come back. What, you think I want to die?"

"You don't? I mean, the way you described her, that was your mother standing up there. I know she wanted to see you, and that you wanted to see her. I wish I could've seen her too." 

"I saw her, Cranky. I talked to her. She just told me to watch out for you while you were busy bumbling around like a lunatic on the ground. By the way, you rolled in some dog shit and it's all over your back."

Cranky reached his arm around to feel back but could only feel the fabric of his shirt.

"So … you're not moving on?" he asked Kenny.

"That wasn't my intention, no. And I don't think it was my mom's intention either. Besides, the stairs are gone now. Everything's gone; the grass, the breeze, the sky … everything. All I see is black."

"That's what I've been seeing this whole time," Cranky said.

"Weird. Damn. You missed it."

"Well, little brother," Cranky said, clapping his hand on Kenny's shoulder, "let's get back and finish off this fight with Shadowlaw once and for all. Whaddaya say?"

"Yeah," Kenny replied with a renewed fire burning in his eys. "Let's."