Chapter Twenty: The Worst Feeling (Part Two)
Eye-Brawl could only feel fury toward Thumpback.
"You're a monster! YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!" Eye-Brawl screamed.
Thumpback stared at the flying eyeball, visibly upset. He'd looked that way when Eye-Brawl had decided to take the next watch that night. He hadn't known of the things that the giant whale behemoth was thinking, nor the guilt he was feeling, nor the actions that had caused the guilt. Eye-Brawl didn't care. Not after what he had been told.
"Get some sleep," Eye-Brawl spat next. "We'll wake you in the morning to discuss our plan."
And then Eye-Brawl flew away from Thumpback. He wanted nothing more to do with that heinous monster. No, Thumpback was worse than a monster. Thumpback was just a...a thing! An unfeeling thing with no remorse for anyone!
That had to be the reason to justify his heartless killing of Eye-Brawl's brother, right?
Eye-Brawl retreated to Headless, the Giant...that lacked a head. The headless giant was an enigma in himself. It was Eye-Brawl that had given him the moniker of Headless. (As the giant had never asked to be called by anything else.) They had hated each other in the long past, but now Eye-Brawl trusted Headless as his closest ally and friend in these dark times. He certainly had no one else in the world without Dive-Clops around.
Dive-Clops.
Oh poor Dive-Clops.
Eye-Brawl was angry to hear what happened to him. Thumpback had fired on Dive Clops several years back, shooting the cannons at him. He had to be dead. Dead as dirt. The news ripped something out of Eye-Brawl's soul, though what it was, he couldn't be sure. And after his outburst to Thumpback, he just felt...empty. He didn't feel anger. He didn't feel sorrow. He just didn't feel...anything. At this point, he found himself incapable of feeling anything.
Eye-Brawl turned back to look for the whale behemoth. Thumpback had walked off somewhere. Eye-Brawl knew he had upset him- but he was incapable of feeling guilty about it. He turned back toward Headless, who was now sitting upright with his arms crossed. The flying eyeball's outburst must've woken him. Though the others remained asleep- Bouncer laid on the ground, and Tree Rex sat against a tree. Neither of them seemed disturbed in the least.
"Headless, wake up Bouncer so he can take the watch," Eye-Brawl said.
Headless removed his arms from the fold, confused.
"I think I'm feeling...well...just sick, is all."
Eye-Brawl realized that he was speaking in a monotone voice. There was no way for him to even convey emotion. Everyone would be able to tell that something was wrong. And there was no way for Eye-Brawl to explain what was wrong.
But he didn't need to elaborate to Headless. The giant was already walking up to Bouncer. Eye-Ball settled at the trunk of a tree, folding his giant wings around himself. All he wanted now was sleep.
A fight occurred in the Underworld, and all over the Underworld. But the fight wasn't between two separate factions. Just two separate beings. One of them was a headless giant. His origins were unknown to everyone he met. (Since he never told anyone where he came from.) The other was a giant flying eyeball, who always told everyone his own opinion. (Though since he had a pessimistic outlook on the world, and his opinion always seemed to be negative, nobody ever sought him out.) The two fought, with the giant throwing his massive punches, and the eyeball shot lasers from his pupil. The fight went on for a century, and neither of them had left a scratch on one another.
You would think that a war between only two people, neither one interested in gathering armed forces, would be much safer. But that thought is wrong. The denizens of the Underworld had to deal with the repercussions of each battle. The ground filled with holes wherever the giant stomped. Houses were destroyed with every laser misfire. The dust they picked up made it hard for anyone to see clearly, and this caused health problems in a few people. The war was a terrible, terrible thing.
Eventually, enough people complained to the two, asking them to stop fighting. They agreed, admitting to have forgotten the cause of the war in the first place.
The flying eyeball, Eye-Brawl, returned home without any spoils from the conflict. He flew back to the surface, noting that the Arkeyans had gained a strong foothold on the world- that conflict mattered not to him. His mountain home was safe, and so was his family.
"Where were you?" his brother Dive-Clops asked. "You've been gone for a hundred years. Mom was starting to worry."
"Just trying to reclaim our honor," Eye-Brawl explained.
This brought about laughter in Dive-Clops. "Oh really?" he chortled. "And who exactly stole our honor?"
"A headless giant. Remember him, Dive? He was giving us the stink-eye last time we traveled to the Underworld together."
"But he didn't have eyes."
"But you know that was what he was trying to do."
The laughter continued. Eye-Brawl sighed as this went on. Dive-Clops could be so insensitive. He simply didn't understand the struggles that his older brother went through to keep their family safe. Who knew what that giant would do to them?
But everything had been fine at home. Dive-Clops didn't seem hurt. It didn't seem like he even needed Eye-Brawl. Perhaps Eye-Brawl could let up on his helicoptering. Dive-Clops was so much smaller than the rest of them, but he was capable of handling himself.
"Well while you were off 'defending our honor' I was in charge of making supper," Dive-Clops explained as his laughter stopped. "Every night. For a hundred years."
"I can make supper tonight," Eye-Brawl promised.
"No need. I've actually gotten quite good at boiling noodles."
"I think the family could eat something other than noodles after all this time."
"Alright then. But what could possibly be better than my famous noodles?"
The two of them laughed. Eye-Brawl still found himself worried about his brother's well-being. He still felt obligated to hover over his loved ones. After being gone so long, Eye-Brawl promised that he would let up slightly, while making sure his brother remained safe.
What a sham.
"Guys, he's gone," Tree Rex gasped.
Eye-Brawl stirred slightly. That empty feeling inside himself had filled up slightly after hearing Tree Rex's worried tone. Thumpback hadn't deserved that scolding from last night. He was far too stupid to know what he was doing.
"You mean Thumpback?" Bouncer asked with a yawn. (Tree Rex had taken watch after Bouncer sometime in the night- Eye-Brawl had been sound asleep by then.) "Yeah, I noticed that, too. Though I wasn't that worried. He always steps away when he's thinking about something."
"But he's gone! He should've come back by now. Thumpback is gone!"
Eye-Brawl huffed, grumbling, "Let him go. If he's not concerned about worrying us, then that's that."
Okay, maybe Thumpback deserved that scolding after all. Stupid or not, taking a life was an evil thing to do. Eye-Brawl had never been sure of what Tree Rex found interesting or useful about the whale behemoth. Thumpback was the cause of more trouble than help for them. Anger replaced the guilt that Eye-Brawl began feeling- and there was no room in his empty husk for any other emotions.
The flying eyeball's irritability did not escape Bouncer. "Okay, what's eating you?" the robot asked.
Someone else had to know, Eye-Brawl decided. "Thumpback killed my brother."
Silence wafted in the air. Nothing could be felt but shock. There was no easy way of saying, "Our friend killed a family member of mine," now was there? Both Tree Rex and Bouncer would hate Thumpback for this. Eye-Brawl just knew it. And he wanted it that way.
Tree Rex suddenly started laughing after a little while. "Not Thumpback!" he insisted. "He couldn't hurt a fly!"
Eye-Brawl got up, flying toward Headless, who sat up next to a tree. He set himself in the place where the head should be, continuing, "He told me last night. It ate him, so he told me. Thumpback thought that if he told me, I might forgive him. But he is far from that. I say we leave him!"
"We can't just leave him!" Tree Rex argued. "You said it ate him? Then he feels bad about it! He made a mistake! We need to go after him."
They all got up, following Tree Rex through the woods. Eye-Brawl was appalled- this sensation replaced his simple anger. "He killed someone! He's not one of us! We'd never do anything like that!" he yelled. "Leave him!"
"That might be true, but the Arkeyans have done much worse things than kill people," Bouncer spat. "You haven't seen those atrocities like I have. You haven't seen how they treat their slaves. How they treat their prisoners. Thumpback has united with us to put a stop to that evil, and we're united with him. Don't let your vendetta get in the way of that."
"And you're putting our factory demolition plan on hold for that?"
No comment.
Alright, then.
Eye-Brawl could only think of the moment when Dive-Clops went missing.
He had been so happy to return home. Dive-Clops had been happy as well, insisting that he'd missed his older brother. The first few weeks back were beautiful. The two of them hung out, played, acted as if Eye-Brawl had never left. He had almost feared that Dive-Clops resented him for being gone so long.
Maybe he did.
They had flown near the ocean one day. Eye-Brawl had become scared once the islands on the water had left them. It was way too easy for someone to attack them in the open like that. He'd insisted that they turn back, and they did- at least, that was what he thought. Minutes before returning to their mountain home, Eye-Brawl realized that Dive-Clops had stopped following him. His little brother had shown interest in exploring the sea, so maybe he was still out there. Eye-Brawl went back, sick with worry, hoping to find Dive-Clops out there.
But the sea did not reveal him.
And while Dive-Clops was lost, Eye-Brawl decided not to go home.
He had to find out where he was, or what happened to him.
Eye-Brawl spent months on his search. Every lead came up empty. Every trail came cold. No one had any idea where Dive-Clops would be. Eye-Brawl spent this time hating himself. Of course his brother resented him! Why wouldn't he? They hadn't been together in a hundred years! It was natural to ignore your brother's orders when you absolutely hated him, right? Eye-Brawl wasn't sure. He didn't have a single memory from his youth where he was alone without Dive-Clops.
He encountered the headless giant once more when exploring the Underworld. Eye-Brawl had been on his way out, his worst fears shot down, when the giant ran up to him. He stood on tip-toes, waving like a little kid. Somehow he recognized Eye-Brawl. Despite the war being a draw, the headless giant harbored no ill will toward him.
"Get lost," Eye-Brawl spat. "I don't need company."
But the headless giant continued following him. No matter how fast Eye-Brawl flew, or how tricky he acted, the giant managed to find him. This lasted for days, and the giant must've perceived it as some kind of twisted game. Eye-Brawl eventually gave up trying to chase him away, and the giant continued following him in boredom. They didn't travel together- there was the "ten paces" limit. Anyone after ten paces was not travelling with the leader.
The event, known as "The Great Epiphany" in the Skylanders Scrolls, happened one day on an island. This island had a waterfall island above it, which streamed down into a pool. The headless giant slept on a rock, indicated by the rise and fall of his shoulders as if he were breathing steadily. Eye-Brawl studied him intently, unsure of what to think. What was that thing? How did it eat and live? What did it want out of the world? Where was its head? It just made no sense.
An idea suddenly came to his mind- Eye-Brawl would never know why it came, but he never questioned pure genius when it stared in front of him. He flew toward the giant and sat in the spot where the head was supposed to be. Something clicked inside of him the minute they touched- this, in time, would be referred to as a 'bond'. The giant woke, running around frantically. He stomped the ground, touched a hand to the rock and the grass, leapt through the air into the pool, and ran beneath the waterfall. Eye-Brawl spluttered as the water fell on him, jarred by the whole experience. He could feel the giant's excitement flow through him. Everything was so new, yet he knew what all of this was.
"You're seeing all of this for the first time," Eye-Brawl realized. "Seeing it and hearing it."
The giant grabbed one of Eye-Brawl's wings and pulled him off. Eye-Brawl was quickly wrapped in a giddy hug, the giant hopping up and down. Eye-Brawl could feel a heartbeat in his chest. It was mesmerizing and soothing- something lived in there. For the first time in a long while, he didn't feel alone.
And he didn't have to be alone ever again.
The two of them were currently having a falling out during the search for Thumpback. Eye-Brawl sat where he normally sat as they walked around the woods. He called out Thumpback's name with a lack of passion- while he didn't want the whale behemoth to die, he certainly wanted nothing to do with him. Headless thought differently. Why, Thumpback had made a mistake, and since everyone made mistakes, he should be taken back. While connected with Headless, Eye-Brawl felt the giant's worry. While that was the only thing he felt, that was not his feeling. And while Eye-Brawl was nothing more than an emotionless husk of his former self, Headless was unable to connect with him on this level.
Since Dive-Clops was dead, why, Eye-Brawl was dead as well.
After a few days, another discussion was held. Eye-Brawl felt Headless's horror- the Skylanders were abandoning Thumpback in favor of destroying the factory. That was still technically their objective, and the reason they came to this forest, but Thumpback had to be out there. Eye-Brawl knew that the whale behemoth was gone- they'd all but turned up the ground in searching for him. There was nothing more to do.
Tree Rex kept his resolve, reasoning, "Thumpback's in the factory."
"He'd be dead," Eye-Brawl argued.
"Where else do you think he could be?"
"Still doesn't change the fact."
Eye-Brawl was filled with Headless's anger toward him- why couldn't the flying eyeball understand that he was wishing another person dead? It wasn't his own emotion, so it was mere water off his back. He didn't need Headless's anger to tell him what to do.
"You know how it goes," Eye-Brawl explained. "Once they see that Thumpback's a Skylander, they'll kill him."
"But it hasn't been that long," Tree Rex decided. "They probably don't recognize him as a Skylander yet. We still have a chance to save him."
"He won't be the same once we do," Bouncer sighed.
They all looked at him. That was an odd thing for the robot to say.
"Erm, I've said too much," Bouncer objected. "I shouldn't even be talking right now."
"What are we up against?" Tree Rex demanded.
"Yes, in the event that one of us does end up captured," Eye-Brawl agreed as Headless crossed his arms.
Bouncer let out another heavy sigh. "There are worse things than death in those strongholds," he began. "If they see you as an accomplice to the Skylanders, they will interrogate you. Nonstop questioning, day in, day out. Sometimes they refuse to feed you until you give them answers. If that doesn't work, they strap you to a wall and torture you that way. Magic, electricity, barbaric punishment- anything harsh enough to get you to talk. You could die in that period. And when you do finally break and spill the beans, they kill you anyway- to 'make an example' of what happens when you cross the Arkeyans."
Nobody moved. Nobody breathed. Nobody even swallowed their saliva down. It felt as though the air stopped moving, and the animals in the forest stopped moving. Headless's emotions ran rampant- Eye-Brawl couldn't feel this. No, he was too busy trying to sort something in his soul that flooded in. Something that had been ripped out that first night.
"First hand," Bouncer promised.
"W-We still have time, don't we?" Tree Rex stammered. "To save Thumpback?"
Shrug.
"But you were just a security guard," Eye-Brawl reminded him. "You only watched. It's not like it was you doing..."
He stopped talking. Bouncer looked at them both in fear. No guessing was needed- Bouncer had indeed participated in these torture sessions. Whether it was a big part or small part, it didn't matter. He'd done something atrocious. But...but...he was such a nice guy. He hated the Arkeyans. He wanted to help people. Why...
"They told you to do that stuff, right?" Tree Rex asked. "They controlled you. You had no choice. And you hated doing it. What you did was not your fault!"
Eye-Brawl hovered above Headless, not wanting the giant to feel the flood that rushed back. Thumpback had said that! Thumpback had feared what his captain would do if he didn't carry out those orders! It had been the captain's idea to...
"I chased Thumpback away!" Eye-Brawl admitted. "When he told me about it, I just got so furious! I practically screamed at him, told him that he was a monster. It's my fault for this."
Headless grabbed Eye-Brawl in a hug. Eye-Brawl felt wet with tears. "It's my fault for what happened to my brother," he continued. "I wasn't looking out for him. I wasn't there when he needed me. I left him. I blamed Thumpback for that incident, but it was my fault. And now he's going to die, and it's all my fault!"
"Thumpback's not going to die!" Tree Rex insisted. "I won't allow it!"
"He didn't deserve my wrath! He didn't deserve this punishment! I'm worse than he! I wished this upon him!"
Eye-Brawl fell into sobs. Tears rolled down, dampening Headless's arms and the grass below. Tree Rex and Bouncer came over, trying to comfort him. He didn't want any of them around. He was too evil to be around! He should just die with the rest of Skylands' filth!
"It's not your fault," Bouncer insisted. "You'd received terrible news. You were in hysterics- you didn't know how to convey your emotions. Losing a loved one hurts. It hurts unlike anything else in the world. You probably shouldn't let that pain control your thoughts. But your not a bad person because you feel that way. You're not evil because you want to seek an answer for your pain. You're not treacherous for falling into this weakness and believing revenge to be the answer. Everyone feels that way at one point or another. We need each other to lean on."
"Thumpback's not dying," Tree Rex insisted. "We're gonna storm in there and get him out. We'll figure out our next destination from there, and go on as if this never happened. You won't feel guilty if nothing bad happens to him."
"...You still want me around?" Eye-Brawl stammered.
"Of course. What would we do without our favorite annoying eyeball?"
The sobbing was quelled. Eye-Brawl pulled himself away from Headless's grasp. Thumpback didn't deserve this. No matter what he'd done, he didn't deserve any of this. It was time to get him back.
The plan was set. Bouncer would stand guard at the front of the factory while Eye-Brawl and Tree Rex stormed in. While that wasn't the best plan for destroying this large a factory, what else could they do? It really had to just be Tree Rex and Eye-Brawl taking them down- how heavily guarded did they have Thumpback, so that he couldn't participate? Hopefully the whale behemoth was still alive.
Everyone stood back as Tree Rex slammed his red fist onto the side of the wall. Alarms started blaring from the roof, and an army of Arkeyan Warriors started coming forth. These soldiers wore blue, unlike the red that the Skylanders normally saw them wear. There was no dwelling on this fact as Tree Rex set to work smashing them. Headless marched forth and started pounding his fists on the wall, shaking the ground as hard as he could in order to set the whole place apart.
"They're spilling out," Eye-Brawl gasped. "How many of them are there?"
"Just go in," Bouncer ordered them. "I'll take care of the stragglers."
Tree Rex and Eye-Brawl complied. They raced into the factory together, taking separate routes once they were inside. The treeman did most of the work tearing the place apart, it seemed- there was hardly any work for them to do. (They would later learn that Swarm was the one responsible for most of the damage.) Soon the whole place was falling apart, and the Giants inside were in terrible danger. Eye-Brawl traveled down a long corridor, Headless following just behind him. Oh, where could Thumpback be? Tree Rex had to be right in the whale behemoth being here. There was literally nowhere else for him to hide.
"Headless, do you see how everything is falling around us?" Eye-Brawl asked the giant. "We could potentially die in here."
Headless gave a shrug.
"I'm sorry for my attitude these past few days- surely you now understand the anguish I felt that caused this? And I want to say thanks for being by my side. I've never needed anyone's company like yours."
Headless halted for a moment as they reached an intersection in the factory. Eye-Brawl heard the commotion that the giant had picked up on- a struggle. They could faintly hear Thumpback's screams. Oh gosh, what was happening to him!? They raced down that hallway, Eye-Brawl dodging falling debris. A cell was found with broken chains dropped in front of it, and that was where they found Thumpback. The whale behemoth was in the middle of a tussle with a large Arkeyan robot- perhaps one of the wardens. An aura surrounded the two, making them both holler out in pain, and Eye-Brawl noticed an enchanted chain attached to Thumpback's foot.
"You know there's no escape for me!" Thumpback yelled to the robot. "Not while I'm attached to this wall! Not while I'm still a monster! If we both go down, then so be it!"
Eye-Brawl shot a laser at the robot, forcing him to the ground. He raced into the cell and shot a laser at the chain restricting Thumpback, breaking that and setting the whale behemoth free. Headless got to work punching a hole in the wall for them to escape through. Thumpback looked at Eye-Brawl in shock, bleeding coming from his nose. Funny- while Eye-Brawl was familiar with the kind of curses used on chains such as that, nosebleed was a symptom of a tech curse. What kind of magic did the Arkeyans have access to for two magic curses to torture a being?
Relief flooded Eye-Brawl. He was thankful that Thumpback wasn't hurt any worse than what Bouncer had described to them earlier. Nevertheless, he still yelled at him, "There you are! I am so mad at you! Let's go! We haven't a moment to lose."
The Giants fled the factory before it finally gave way and collapsed. No, it was a lab- Thumpback insisted that the factory had indeed been a laboratory. A lab disguised as a factory, why, what kind of secrets needed to be held in something like that? Thumpback had said they were trying- and failing- to test growth formulas to increase the size of organics. It was horrible. And everything else that Thumpback had described, especially the guilt he'd felt about what happened with Eye-Brawl's brother...
Eye-Brawl prayed that the whale behemoth hadn't been broken.
Several hours had passed after that whole incident. Their next objective was to find the other Giant trapped within the walls of that horrible lab- a wasp named Swarm. Eye-Brawl had actually seen him fly out while they were escaping- he'd been a simple yellow blur before, one too abstract for the flying eyeball to consider important until now. Swarm was travelling east, so the Skylanders would have to retrace their steps in the morning. Right now, everyone was trying to get some sleep for their next objective, though sleep was hard to come by as everyone was jarred from the recent experience.
Somehow Tree Rex and Bouncer managed to do this at some point in the night- Eye-Brawl envied that in them. Headless had managed it as well, bearing no ill will toward the flying eyeball for any ire he'd had these past few days. Eye-Brawl didn't deserve any of their kindness. He really had to be the worst kind of Skylander. The only other person awake at this hour was Thumpback, lying flat on his stomach like a...well...a beached whale. He stood away from the cluster circled around, as he usually did. While he was doing admittedly better than before, he was still upset.
Eye-Brawl flew toward him, sitting on the whale behemoth's right side. "If you're worried about animals hurting you in the night," he began, "you can sleep closer to the rest of us. We've always felt safer that way."
No comment.
"I remember when Tree Rex brought you to us. You seemed to be the most amazing thing in the world to him, by the stupid grin you could see on his face. He insisted that you could be an invaluable part of our team. I get it now- today you proved it. You're a true part of the team now."
"...I've never felt that way. Still don't. How did you fit in so well when you first joined?"
"You tell me. I'm so terrible, I'm surprised that I was even a viable option for the Skylanders."
"You're not terrible. From the way I see it, you care so much that you don't know how to say what you mean."
He guessed that was right, in one way or another. Eye Brawl let out a heavy sigh. "I really was thankful that we found you in that lab- I just wanted to make that out. And it was my fault for what happened to my brother- he didn't have to be in that situation if it weren't for me. You're not at fault. I don't know if that's at all comforting, or if it will heal you in the end, but I hope you can take solace in that fact."
"You're not at fault, either. It's easy to lose something in the ocean, even if it's right next to you. For example, I lost a Cloud Crab that was right next to me."
"Keeping to that idea? Then maybe neither of us are truly at fault."
"Just terrible happenstance."
Nod.
"I'm sorry you lost your brother. I don't know if that helps, but...yeah."
"Yeah."
Thumpback got up, walking toward the pile of sleeping Giants and laying there. This was new behavior for him. Had this whole, terrible experience brought something good out into the open? Making Thumpback feel better about himself? Making Eye-Brawl feel better about himself, somehow? It made no sense- Eye-Brawl decided that he didn't want it to make sense. He just wanted it there.
"We should try and get some sleep," Thumpback decided. "We've got a long day ahead of us."
Eye-Brawl returned to Headless's side, nestling at the sleeping giant's form. He folded his wings on himself, listening to the headless giant's heartbeat. Even now, that rhythm was soothing.
"Feeling better, I assume?" Eye-Brawl said, stifling a yawn.
"Much," Thumpback confirmed with a yawn of his own. "You?"
"For once, I am."
So this obviously takes place before the discovery of Dive-Clops being alive after all. Just wanted to come up with some thoughts on how the characters felt during this time.
Man, wouldn't it suck to be away from your family for ten thousand years?
