A/N: Sorry about not having that midweek update, but hey! We're at the climax! Hope you enjoy~
"I've seen everything twice. I know more than they know. They don't know what I know. I know he's innocent...He did nothing wrong…"
Lemmy breathed shakily, wrapping his arms around himself. Night was falling and it was rapidly getting colder.
"I can't tell them what happened. I can't tell them we went home. I can't tell them the real reason I know…"
He trod across the dead grass beneath his feet. The only sights around him were dead trees and dark clouds. He was so far from civilization now. It was just him and the dying world around him.
"I have to meet him. I have to get him back so I can prove it to them. If I bring him back, they'll believe. We can all be happy again."
He stared up into the clouds, startled to see occasional arcs of lightning spark between them, punctuated by dull, rolling thunder. A pit formed in his stomach.
"All I have to do is find it...Downpour…"
He'd been walking for hours now. He was filled with firm resolve, though. He was going to see this through. There was no way he couldn't.
He was going to bring Roy back...or die trying.
He let out a breath, gritting his teeth.
Was it really naive to believe he could fix this? Was it really foolish to think it would be this easy?
All he knew was that Ludwig was right about one thing: the end was near. Soon, all of this would be over. Lemmy would make sure of it. All of this pain and sadness would end and everything would go back to the way it was.
Ka-BOOM!
Lemmy yelped, a sudden blast of thunder interrupting his thoughts. His eyes shot upward. The clouds were getting darker. In fact, not too far ahead of him...they were completely black.
Then, he noticed something he hadn't before. They were hard to see against the darkening sky, but he could just make out a set of spiralling stairs, which started at the ground and stretched all the way up into the thick canopy of clouds. Lemmy stared at them with wide eyes. Could this be what he was looking for? Could Downpour be at the top of that staircase?
Would Roy be there waiting for him?
A newfound determination welling up inside him, Lemmy raced toward the stairs.
"BOOM!"
Lemmy shrieked as he was thrown to the ground alongside a blinding light, the deafening peal of thunder shaking the ground beneath him. He shuddered, curling up defensively. After a moment of silence, he shakily raised his head.
That was when he caught a glimpse of someone falling from the clouds...someone pink.
"Roy!"
Lemmy screamed his brother's name, racing to try to catch him. At the last moment, he dove, catching Roy in his arms and tumbling alongside him to the ground. When they finally rolled to a stop, Lemmy hugged Roy tightly. His trembling arms lay against something wet, though, which soaked through his white sleeves onto his skin.
"N... ѰЖѸЁ …"
Roy's voice-or at least what Lemmy could make out from it-was weak; barely even audible. Lemmy panicked, letting Roy go and scrambling to his feet to get a better look at him.
"Roy!"
Lemmy screamed as he saw a gaping hole in Roy's chest, which poured blood onto the ground below. Roy was miraculously still breathing, though said breathing was shallow.
"Roy! Oh gosh! Please don't die!"
" ѰЖѸЁ …" Roy muttered weakly, "Sh-she...still has ѰЖѸЁ …"
Lemmy's head whipped back to the stairs, knowing that Roy was likely referring to Junior. Lemmy immediately felt himself torn in two.
"R-Roy. I can't leave you. You're gonna-"
"She has her new salvage," Roy grunted through grit teeth, "You have to save ѰЖѸЁ . Please."
"But you-!"
"Lemmy!"
Lemmy jumped, whirling around. In the distance, he spotted his siblings and Mario racing toward him. He tensed, not sure whether to find their presence a relief or a bad omen.
Still, Roy needed help.
"Guys!" Lemmy shouted back, "Roy's hurt! It's really bad! Hurry!"
Iggy was the first to break away from the pack, sprinting ahead and approaching Lemmy at top speed. Lemmy quickly found himself nearly barreled over by his twin brother as he was pulled into a tight hug.
"No!" Lemmy shouted, "Not me! Roy! Help Roy!"
"Wh-what happened to him?!" Wendy exclaimed, the others arriving shortly after.
"Marie attacked him!" Lemmy said, explaining the situation to the best degree he could as he wrenched himself out of Iggy's grasp, "He needs help! Now!"
"Where are we gonna take him?!" Morton retorted, "We're out in the middle of nowhere! It would take hours to drag him to someone that could help him!"
"He'd be dead for sure by then," Ludwig finished.
Lemmy clenched his fists tightly, turning back to Roy. At this point, there was nothing to do but…
He had to try.
Immediately, Lemmy spun on his heel, tearing off in a mad dash for the stairs to Downpour. He heard his siblings scream after him as he ran. It took everything within him just to ignore them and keep going. He was scared; scared to death, in fact.
Finally, his foot hit the first stair. His breaths quickened, matching the rhythm of his pounding boot-steps as he ascended the spiralling staircase.
"I can't let him die. There's no way I'm letting him die. He has to live. He just has to."
He bit his lip, willing himself not to cry.
"53544F50!"
Lemmy grunted, running smack into something-or, what he quickly realized was someone-causing him to lock up in shock. There had been absolutely nothing ahead of him. Somehow, before Lemmy could even register it, someone had appeared directly in his path, like they had teleported there on purpose. Before Lemmy could even react, this person wrapped their arms around Lemmy and swept him off his feet, racing back down the staircase.
"N-no!"
Lemmy screamed, trying his hardest to squirm his way out of the stranger's grasp. His face was still buried in the stranger's shoulder though, making his cries muffled and completely obscuring his sight. All he knew was that they were descending. After a moment, Lemmy found trouble even breathing. As he stopped struggling, though, he found the stranger's grip loosen.
That was when Lemmy made his move.
Just when the stranger's grip had loosened enough, Lemmy gave one last sudden shove, finally wrenching himself free. What he didn't count on, though, was the momentum sending him tumbling backward down the staircase. His head impacted one stair before he dropped off the staircase, his outstretched arms barely missing the stair he fell from.
That was when the stranger lunged at him with incredible speed, grabbing his arm. They were having to exert a fair amount of effort just to keep holding on, but Lemmy could barely register that past the pounding of his injured head. All he knew was that he was now dangling fifty feet off the ground, his life in the hands of a complete stranger.
"48-486f6c64206f6e...506c65617365…"
Lemmy shuddered. That terrifying noise couldn't be coming from the stranger, could it?
Grunting against the pain in his skull, Lemmy looked upward, only to recoil as his eyes met the stranger's. Their gaze was chilling. Their eyes were blank white with no pupils and their face was at least partially covered by long, dark blonde hair, which still fell into their face despite most of it being pulled back into a messy ponytail. The most prominent things Lemmy noticed, though, were that their face was covered in deep cracks, almost like their face was made out of porcelain instead of skin, and that their arms were also pitch-black, littered with strings of binary code.
"48616e67206f6e…"
Lemmy's eyes went wide. It was a little different than with Roy and Junior, but it was the same kind of thing. The stranger's mouth was moving, but only indecipherable, inhuman noises came out. Even still, there was emotion in it, and Lemmy could tell that the stranger was distressed.
"Terios!"
Lemmy gasped, craning to find the source of the new voice. That was when he spotted another unfamiliar person sprinting down the staircase toward them. This person, like the one holding Lemmy, was also covered in voids of binary code. Their eyes, though, were the same binary voids, making Lemmy shudder upon catching their gaze. Lemmy couldn't get too good a look at them, though, before an unholy screech tore through the air. This voice, though, Lemmy knew full well, his gaze snapping to farther down the staircase.
"I-Iggy!"
Sure enough, Iggy was charging full-tilt up the staircase, an enraged look on his face as he fixed his gaze on the stranger holding Lemmy.
"57616974! 49276D206E6F7420676F696E6720746F20687572742068696D! 596F75206861766520746F-6768!"
Lemmy yelped as the stranger's grip started to falter, causing Lemmy to slip slightly. The stranger quickly moved to reposition, grabbing Lemmy's arm with both hands, and precariously struggling to keep himself balanced on the staircase.
"Don't you dare drop him!" Iggy screamed, planting his feet to come to a stop just feet from the stranger. In Iggy's trembling hands, he held a pair of twin knives. Lemmy felt a lump form in his throat.
"Iggy, don't!" Lemmy cried. Somehow, he could sense within the stranger a strong desire to help Lemmy.
Just then, the second stranger landed between their partner and Iggy, having jumped down from above. Lemmy gasped, this second stranger taking up a defensive stance. Iggy stumbled backward slightly, but quickly pulled himself back together, thrusting his knife in stranger 2's direction. They barely had time to react, lunging out of the way a mere second before the knife nicked their shoulder, tearing the sleeve of their short-sleeved shirt. When the binary void of their arm was cut with the knife, the resulting wound only oozed more black. Lemmy felt a chill run down his spine.
"Terios!" they then called, "Pull him up!"
The stranger holding Lemmy-Terios, Lemmy guessed-grit their teeth.
"49-492063616E2774!"
The other stranger yelped, dodging another swing from Iggy.
"Iggy, stop!" Lemmy yelled, "They're trying to help me!"
"I know who they are!" Iggy roared, "They're with Marie! They have to be! I'm not letting her hurt you again!"
"We're not with Marie!" the other stranger responded frantically, "I promise! We're trying to stop her!"
"Liar!"
Iggy swung once more, a furious determination clear on his face. That was when the other stranger tripped over Terios, causing Terios to slip. Lemmy yelped, dropping slightly as Terios toppled over onto his side. Terios had to let one of his hands go to try to keep himself from tumbling off the edge, but that left Lemmy slipping out of Terios' grasp again.
"59757961!"
Lemmy squinted his eyes shut, his heart threatening to burst out of his chest from how hard it was pounding.
"Iggy! Please!" Lemmy shouted, his voice shaky, "Please stop!"
Mario couldn't help but hold his breath as he watched the scene unfolding above him. The most he could make out was that Iggy was fighting for Lemmy's life as Lemmy dangled precariously in the hands of someone Mario didn't even know. Ludwig and Morton had already run ahead to try to help Iggy while Mario, Wendy, and Larry stayed at the bottom of the staircase, unable to do anything but watch. From this distance, though, it was hard to make out what was going on.
"What was he thinking?" Wendy muttered just loud enough for Mario to hear. Mario bit his lip.
"Who are those people?" Larry asked worriedly.
"No idea," Wendy answered, "Never seen them before."
Mario nodded as well. Part of him had hoped, though, that the others would at least know who those strangers were. The lack of knowledge was even more worrying.
Just then, Lemmy slipped out of the stranger's grasp. The three onlookers gasped, Mario's body locking up at the same time Iggy's scream tore through the air.
"Lemmy!"
Immediately, Mario vaulted forward, dashing ahead of both Wendy and Larry to get into position to try to catch Lemmy.
Suddenly, a diamond-shaped knife shot straight past him, slicing his cheek as it grazed past. Mario gasped sharply, grabbing his injury with his hands and losing his footing. He tumbled to the ground. He could still hear Wendy and Larry shouting from behind him, but his thoughts were growing fuzzy. He could barely even think.
What was happening to him?
Lemmy flailed as he tumbled through the open air. He could hear too many people screaming. It was overwhelming.
He was going to die.
His lungs felt ready to pop like balloons. His heart pounded a mile a minute. He couldn't die now. There was no way he could die now. This wasn't how he was supposed to die.
Not again.
"Umph!"
Lemmy felt the wind instantly knocked from his lungs as he slammed into the chest of whoever had just grabbed him straight out of the air. The next moment was a whirlwind as the two of them skid to a stop, his rescuer keeping their balance on their feet the whole time. Lemmy found himself wrapped in their embrace, one arm across his shoulders and the other around his waist.
Finally, his brain stopped spinning. He opened his eyes, his vision focusing on the wide-eyed stares of Wendy, Larry, and Mario. They were staring directly at him.
Something was wrong.
"Hello again."
Lemmy jumped, the sugary voice in his ear causing him to freeze where he was.
"M-Marie."
"Let him go!" Wendy shouted. Larry was already taking out his revolver as well. Mario, however, lay on the ground, clutching a bleeding wound on his cheek. There was something about his eyes, though...Something...unsettling…
"Relax yourselves," Marie declared, maintaining her grip on her captive, "I'm not going to do anything unreasonable. I promise."
"N-no," Iggy growled, staring down at Lemmy in Marie's arms.
"Marie," the void-eyed stranger muttered nervously.
"You!" Iggy roared, "This is your fault!"
"Me?!" they retorted, "We were trying to help him! He knew that!"
Iggy let out an enraged shout, starting to race back down the stairs, The two strangers followed behind him. Iggy grit his teeth.
"We won't make it like this!" the void-eyed stranger shouted.
"Quit following me!" Iggy yelled.
"492063616e2067657420757320646f776e207468657265!"
"Wait!" the void-eyed stranger cried, "Terios says he can teleport us down there!"
Iggy stopped short, nearly causing the two strangers to barrel straight into him.
"Do it!" Iggy ordered, "Now!"
"What do you want, Marie?" Lemmy asked, trying to choke back his fear. He wasn't going to let this be like the other times. He wasn't about to come this close to happiness just to let Marie tear everything out of his hands again.
"Lemmy!"
Lemmy gasped at the same time as Wendy and Larry, who whirled around just in time to see Iggy appear behind them with the two strangers from before. Ludwig and Morton had also just finished descending the staircase, looking onto the scene before them in shock.
"Looks like everyone's here," Marie crooned, "Wonderful."
"Get your hands off of him!" Iggy screeched.
"All in due time," Marie said, "Keep yourself contained."
"If you dare hurt him I swear I'll-!"
"Iggy, shut up!" Ludwig shouted, grabbing Iggy by the back of his coat and yanking him back, "You're not helping!"
"Someone here has common sense," Marie commented, tapping her fingers against Lemmy's shoulder, "That's why you were my favorite pawn, Ludwig."
Ludwig shuddered, tensing up defensively and letting out a low growl.
"Marie, please," Lemmy begged, "You have to help Roy. Don't let him die. Please."
"Begging again?" Marie asked, "Cute."
"Please," Lemmy repeated, tears slipping down his face, "I'll give you anything. You can have anything you want out of me. Just don't let him die."
Marie gave a curious hum, seeming to contemplate the offer.
"Your life."
Lemmy locked up in Marie's arms, his heart nearly stopping.
"M-my...life?"
"Lemmy! No!" Iggy screamed, "Don't do this!"
"Don't do it, Lemmy!" Wendy shouted.
"It's an offer you can't refuse," Marie cooed, "I'll heal Roy. I'll even send your siblings home."
"Wh-what?!" Lemmy exclaimed.
"I'll heal them and send all of them back where they belong," Marie continued, "They'll be safe. I'll never touch a single one of them again. You have my word. All I ask in exchange...is you."
Lemmy shuddered, the gears in his mind turning at high speed. He stared out over the crowd of his screaming family as he choked back sobs. They were screaming for him to say no. They were begging him not to take the offer.
"You can't do this!"
"Lemmy! No!"
"Don't do it!"
"Lemmy! Don't do this!"
"Lemmy!"
Lemmy's blood went cold as Ludwig stepped forward, fire in his eyes.
"Don't you dare do this!" Ludwig roared, "You're worth more than Roy! We'll find a way out of here without Marie! Don't be an idiot about this, Lemmy!"
"She...I…"
"You've wanted this for so long," Marie whispered, drawing closer, "You wanted them to be able to go home and be free from this suffering. This is your chance to fix everything; to give them a happy ending. You'll be taking Roy's death to save them...all of them..."
Sweat ran down Lemmy's brow. His whole body felt like lead and a bitter, metallic taste lingered at the back of his throat. It was wrong to even consider taking this offer. It was wrong to do this to the family that had stood by his side through everything.
It was too much to bear...and yet…
"I want to fix this…" Lemmy muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Marie prodded.
"Do it!" Lemmy shouted, finally giving up, "Take me! Just do it!"
It was Iggy that was the first to move, letting out a shrill cry as he tore himself from Ludwig's grasp and charged for Marie. Lemmy tensed, watching his other siblings start to move to help him as well.
He didn't want them to fight for him now.
Not now. Not anymor-
"Gh-!"
Lemmy threw his head back, his own blood exploding around him. His ears were overtaken with a piercing ring, all other sound disappearing into his own tinnitus. His head lolled forward then as his muscles gave out on him. As his vision rapidly blurred, he registered the enormous hole in his chest...just like Roy's…
He knew his siblings were screaming for him. He felt himself drop from Marie's arms onto the ground below.
Then...smoke…
It was nothing...but black smoke…