Welcome back. so this chapter is more of a homage to The original story cause without it, well this story wouldn't have been made. this is cannon to this story but you can skip it. this is basically a filler chapter. (original written by Professor ass spiders. Rio is owned by 20th century fox/ Fox animation)
Bia opened her eyes. She saw her family surround her, all of them have injuries. All except Tiago.
"Tiago?"
Where was he? She can see her parents and older sister. They were injured, so where was he? She felt like something was missing, the nagging feeling that something went wrong.
something clearly happened to them, her father had a machine on his chest, her sister had casts everywhere and her mother had bandages on her neck. Bia had bandages around her body and a cast covered her left wing but Tiago wasn't here. So where was he?
Then everything clicked in her head.
The harpy attack. Jewel saving her, getting pinned, her body screaming as the talons scratched at her chest. The harpy trying to rip off her wing. If tiago wasn't here that meant one thing.
"no" tears were forming. Her little brother was dead. The brother, the one who pulled innocent pranks on her. The one who joked with her to cheer her up when she was feeling down.
"No" she was sobbing. The brother who she yelled at when he accidentally squirted juice at her that day.
"NO" a blood curdling scream left her throat. Tiago, her younger brother was dead, torn apart and consumed by the harpies. The one who died while everyone else survived. The one who died a slow and painful death. The one who she failed to protect.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry Tiago."
The dead brother she can't apologize to.
Tears dropped even harder as she continued to sob.
They were doing a check up on Bia. they just removed the cast from her wing, yet it didn't ease her pain, her heartbreak. The check up wouldn't stop her from thinking about Tiago's death.
Wouldn't stop her thoughts of failing him. Failing to protect him.
She had to stop by grandma Linda's cottage. So, she could visit her brother's grave.
At the college, Linda and Tulio were having an argument.
"I can't believe you went against my back" Tulio wasn't mad at Linda. He was confused as to why she didn't trust her.
"Let me just explain," Linda said. Tulio allowed her to speak, he interrupted way too many times.
"You said that you didn't want Taigo to see his family because you wanted to protect the innocence he still had. The problem is that he's like Blu in terms of personality, if i didn't let him visit his family. The guilt probably would have destroyed that innocence you were trying to protect."
"You think that I wouldn't let Tiago visit his family?" Tulio was shocked. Linda knew him for 2 years, she knows that he wasn't just some ornithologist who only cared about money. He takes care of the birds like they were his own family.
"Yes."
"Linda, you do know that I care about them. Right?
She nodded
"Then you know that I wouldn't just let a kid see his family just because I want to protect his childhood. The reason why I didn't want Tiago to see them was because… I hoped that They would've come out of their coma by the time Tiago recovered."
They would've continued to argue if Bia hadn't entered from the window Linda left open.
"Bia" both Linda and Tulio said out loud in shock. Tulio wasn't informed of Bia's recovery and Linda was just shocked.
Bia made the gesture that she wanted to write something.
Linda grabbed a pencil and paper.
Bia wrote on the paper.
Where is Tiago's grave?
"What grave?" Linda said without thinking. Linda regretted saying that.
Tears formed in Bia's eyes. His body wasn't found, he died a horrible death. Watching a predator tear him apart and eating his own flesh. Now, he couldn't be buried, couldn't have a funeral with loved ones because they couldn't find his body. His body was in the forest probably being consumed by a scavenger.
Before Linda could say anything else, Bia flew away.
Linda knew she made the situation worse, She needed to find her.
Bia always went to storage when she felt she needed to be alone. Her fathers cage was there. She opened the bolt lock and went inside. The sooner this day ends, the better.
She decided to rest despite the tears in her eyes.
She turned frantically in her sleep. Visions of Tiago being ripped apart, blood spewing as the wounds get deeper and deeper from the talons and beak of the harpies. The screams of agony Tiago made as pieces of his flesh were forced out of his body. His cries of help when the harpies were satisfied with the damage they've done to him.
Bia shot up as tears clouded her vision. It was worse knowing what happened to him. Tiago was left to bleed out, Without his Family to ease his pain. Tiago probably thinks that Bia hates him. She gets annoyed with him but she loves him. Loved him like a sibling.
Bia was about to leave the cage when she turned around and jumped back startled as the decaying body of Tiago glared at her with hatred.
Tiago was covered in clotted blood, Sickening injuries covered his body. Flesh was missing in his chest till the point she could see his ribs and lungs. His left talon was missing. A clotted stub was all that remained. Large bits of his lower mandible were gone. She can see bits of his tongue though the destroyed parts of his lower mandible. His upper mandible was mangled with only half of it still remaining. His left wing was gone, showing tendons and arteries dangling like strings on a puppet. His right wing was twisted in an upward angle, showing muscles and bone. Massive lacerations were everywhere, reaching up to his face. His left eye was damaged.
"Tiago"
"You left me" venom seeping from his voice.
"I-I" Bia tried to speak but her voice left her. Just like how she left her Brother.
"You left me to die. You left me to die horribly as I was forced to watch them eat me, to watch them tear off my flesh, to watch my wings be ripped out from my body." Tiago's voice was getting more emotional as he described how painful his death was.
Tears formed as Bia knew he was right. He died because she failed to save him.
"I cried out for you, you know, cried for Mom, for dad, for Carla. I hoped that you would save me or comfort me, but I died alone and afraid because you left me."
Bia was sobbing as everything Tiago said was right. She abandoned him. Left him to Die.
She can apologize to him. Maybe that would at least make him forgive her for one thing.
"I'm sorry for everything I've done, Tiago. I'm sorry for yelling at you, I'm sorry for all the names I called you, I take back the insults I've said to you. I'm sorry for everything." Bia was crying
"Sorry? sorry doesn't fix the damage they caused to me. sorry doesn't stop them from twisting my wing. Sorry doesn't bring me back." Tiago said as the venom in his voice became larger.
Bia sobbed even harder.
"Tiago, I'm sorry. You're the best little brother I've ever had. I'm sorry for being so horrible to you."
"Then why didn't you save me"
Tiago turned to leave.
"No, please." Bia couldn't deal with this herself.
"Please don't leave" Bia didn't want to be alone.
"DON'T LEAVE, LITTLE BROTHER!"
"I'm not your brother. Not anymore."
Bia couldn't take it anymore. She curled up into a fetal position. Bia mumbled Tiago's name and how sorry she was for not protecting him.
Linda was running around the facility trying to find Bia. She probably would've continued to run in circles if it weren't for the mournful squawks coming from the storage room.
Linda went down and Bia curled up and tears in her eyes.
Linda considered telling her where Tiago is but after seeing Bia like this. Well she decided not to risk it.
She gently picked her up and walked towards the fake jungle.
Actions speak louder than words.
Linda hopes that what Abraham said is true.
Tiago went to room 411. At least would've got to the room hadn't a doctor scooped him up and put him back to the fake jungle.
He would've tried to do it again if Fernando didn't enter the jungle and told him to wait here.
So, he waited. Maybe one of his family members woke up.
Bia was in the fake jungle, without her family. Without Tiago.
She walked around the jungle. Tiago died without anybody to comfort him or end his misery.
Bia should've died, should've sacrificed herself to protect her younger brother. He's dead because she failed to protect him. Died painfully because she failed. Couldn't be buried because she didn't protect.
She was in the center.
Bia stood there with shock in her eyes.
Tiago was there without any wounds.
"Bia?" Tiago walked towards her as well, she woke up, she's alive.
Bia with tears in her eyes hugged her. Tiago was alive. Her younger brother was alive!
"I'm sorry."
Tiago hugged her older sister back.
Brother and sister reunited. Both of them thinking the other was dead.
Maybe Dawn might break through this darkness night.
Like the original story, The ghost of Tiago was a hallucination caused by Bia's grief. the next chapter will be all fluff per say. a needed break from the dark and gloom from this story. so hopefully everyone is having a good weekend.