AN: ...Laaaaast chaaaaapter...What am I gonna do with my life now! Start another story, of course! I don't know exactly when, but it will be soon. I'm so happy I'm actually finishing this! I'm pretty sure I might have a good idea to finish You're Always A Slave To Something, so yeah. Reveiw that and help me out there. Enjoy, my friends. Read on. I thank you all for the ideas, encouragement, and help. Thank you so much. You helped me actually to finish a story for the first time in a long time.

Thanks,

The Management

Summer Colors:

ChApTeR sIx: Of Late, I Revel:

Darkness turned to gray, gray to light gray, and light gray to a blurry fuzz. Jhonen woke, slowly, not sure he really wanted to wake. Usual confusion upon waking. The way he felt every time.

And then a wave of memories crashed into him, like a bad hangover. Which, incidently, was how he felt, since he had a massive, pounding, headache. He adjusted his glasses, able to see better. Looking around, it was early morning, maybe 6:30 or so. His forehead was slicked in cool sweat, probably from some kind of troubled dream or something.

Looking around, he realized where he was. In his own room, in his own bed.

Where...? What happened? He silently questioned, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Something beeped. He looked to the direction of the sound.

It was his answering machine. It said there were 14 messages. Fourteen! Where the hell could he have been that he wouldn't hear the phone ring! FOURTEEN TIMES?

Where the hell...Oh. As if I really had to ask. Was it all a dream? Couldn't it have been...

He was still wearing his dark blue shirt. He struggled to sit up, and upon accomplishing the act, a burning pain shot through his body. What the hell could that be? He looked down to find a small gash in his arm. His shirt was torn, and dirty, speckles of blood everywhere. He suddenly felt dizzy, the room whirling.

It had to be a dream...

He stood, wobbily, and stumbled over to a mirror. Doing this could determine whether he was insane ot not. His head hung, in pain, and his eyes were lowered. Reluctantly, and slowly, he looked up, and into it, and feared finding proof that the night before was no dream. Oh, God...It couldn't be...That couldn't possibly have happened to him. But sure enough, there was mud encircling the rim of the glass to his glasses. His face had so many gashes, scrapes and scratches it wasn't funny. Parts of his body he didn't even know existed ached, and his head hurt quite a lot. He assumed it was the fall. Tylonel would help, maybe. His fingernails were chipped and jagged.

A flash of stone stairs moving rapidly towards the his face invaded his thoughts. He remembered reaching out to grab something, his fingers scraping the stone of the wall in the stairwell.

It was no dream. He looked like he had been mugged. He had to shower and change.

Oh, God, Kaz...

He remembered her. And everything he had figured out at Nny's. That was all way too real. The bruises proved everything. So it did all happen. Everything he had figured out about himself, the voice in his head, the girl he'd asked the time of, the one he could have grown to love, the realness of everyone Johnny had ever killed, and would ever kill. All real. In that dimension, anyway. It was ignorant to think it would otherwise be. It was only a different dimension. They were real people. Just in a different world, that consisted of its own realness.

The phone rang, and he walked over to it, wearily, and answered.

"H...Hello?"

"Jhonen?"

"Yes, who's this?"

"...Me."

Me? Who would answer with me?

"I'm sorry, I know no one named 'Me', if you'd like to state your birth name, then maybe we can work something out." he said, thoroughly annoyed. He was in no mood to talk to ANYONE.

"You need to work on your social skills, but at least you admitted that you could've loved her."

"...Who the hell is this?" he asked, suspiciously. Who could POSSIBLY know about anything of that like?

"I'm the voice of reason, here." the other line said, chuckling. It worked though, his memory had been efficiently jogged.

"...I thought...I thought you said you'd never talk to me again." Jhonen said, sounding like a little kid whose best friend was mad at them. He sat on his bed, in shock.

"I'm not supposed to, but I just had to check up on you. You understand now. It took me all that, and you FINALLY understand. You're one of the most persistent people I've ever met. You're smart, but you look too closely at things. Way more observant than anyone I've ever worked on."

"Who are you? Better yet, what are you?"

"Think of me as your guardian angel, Jhonen."

"I thought tha-"

"I know what you thought, and everything God has ever created is perfect. Everything that humanity has nothing to do with is perfect. Nature is a perfect example of this. Tides roll in, tides roll out. People die, and babies are born. The Earth rotates, the sun shines, the clouds rain. Everything people have nothing to do with is perfect. People aren't perfect. And no, God is not lazy. He can't intervene with much, though. Thats the reason there's a heaven and a hell. Hell is the total and complete seperation from God. Complete abscence of Him. You weren't too far off of what the requirements for hell are, though. God is perfect. Everyone has some imperfections, but God will never collect them all and throw them in your face. That's why he's God."

"I..."

"Again, Jhonen, you don't have to say anything to me. Later today, go to the mall. Look for the brown haired girl, with the big brown eyes in a yellow tank-top, and bluejeans. She's beautiful. You'll notice her. She sticks out. Well, she will to you, anyway. Talk to her. She's your real-life Kaz. Prove to me that you don't need me anymore." the voice said, "Take someone with you if you want, but I will be back if you don't talk to her." And then the line went dead.

He sighed, pushing the talk button and placing the phone back in its cradle.

"Guess I'm going to the mall later." he whispered to himself, and slowly walked into the bathroom to shower.

He turned on the water, and let it run, taking his glasses off, his earring out and stuggled to pull off his shirt. It kept hitting scrapes and bruises, and was proving to be quite painful, and quite a task. There were line-shaped bruises, where he'd hit the edge of the stone steps. Damn, he'd taken a fall. He undressed the rest of the way, in a fog. Not really thinking about what he was doing. His hair was tusseled, a mess. He stepped into the shower stall, and stood, letting the water run over his body, and just wash away the blood, sweat, dust, and dirt. He washed his hair, then his body, rinsed, and got out, wrapping a towel around his waist.

Getting dressed, he couldn't help but think about what that...'voice' had told him. A girl who would stick out in a crowd only to him? That was weird.

Somebody up there's trying to tell me something...

He pulled on boxers, jeans, a tight black undershirt and a black, short-sleeved, collared, button-up shirt over that. His face looked shredded. He got a cleaning kit out of his draw, and sat at his desk and cleaned his glasses.

Somewhere, someone's god is laughing at me...I just know it. I wonder what's going on here. If that all was real. It had to be real, I mean, look at my face! I look like I walked through South Central with a sign on my back that said 'SCREW YOU!' God... This might end up being hard to explain to Rob...Not only that, but I got the weirdest phone call in the world from the voice in my head, and it sounded like I flipped to the Christian Channel and forgot to turn off the TV.

Upon that thought, the phone rang. Wearily, rolling his eyes, he got up, putting his glasses on and walked over to the phone. He hadn't even listened to his messages.

Sighing, he answered, "Hello?" He made no attempt to hide the 'I-Don't-Want-To-Talk-To-You' attitude.

"Jhonen? Where the hell have you been!" Rob's voice sounded on the other line.

Speak of the devil...

"In hell. I have enough frequent flyer miles now, so I can bring a friend next time. Wanna go?"

"This isn't funny! Have you listened to your messages yet! Nickelodeon wants to do more Invader Zim episodes. I told the suit they sent over that I would check you into a mental help facility if you said yes."

"Indeed. As I've said before, I would have to shoot myself in the head many, many times to achieve the level of brain damage it would take to get me to say yes again. It was hell."

"Thought so. I've been calling you all night. Where the hell were you?" he asked, his voice shifting tones.

"Literally, in hell."

"Seriously, Jhonen."

"I don't really want to talk about it."

"Then I'm coming over." Rob said, and with that the phone went dead.

"NO! No, no, no!" Jhonen yelled, whacking the phone on the desk a few times, before he buried his face in his arm, and fell to his knees.

"What the hell is wrong with you people!" he screamed, whirling to his feet and throwing the phone against the opposite wall.

What the hell is wrong with him? It's not like him to care so much...Actually, this could turn out to be ok, I guess. I mean, now I have someone to drag alongside me into the vile establishment society calls 'the mall'. If I'm suffering, so's he.

He ran back into the bathroom to at least try to clean up his cuts, scrapes, and bruises to the best of his abilites. No way could he hide all of these. He looked into the box of band-aids. None. Great. Not even the obscenely small white mock-stitch ones!

This is getting better and better. ARE YOU TRYING TO SEND ME INTO AN INSANITY INDUCED COMA! He thought, angrily, and glared at the ceiling. His face was a scraped mess. B-E-A-utiful.

AGAIN with that infernal 'Bruce Almighty'! AAAAGH!

An incessent knocking on the door sounded. It felt as though the sound waves were playing basketball with his head. He jogged to the door, unlocked and opened it. He knew it was Rob, but if he didn't open the door, the knocking would continue...And continue...And continue...

"Come in, come in." he said. Rob entered, looking at Jhonen's face with shock.

"What the FUCK happened to you?" he exclaimed, eyes wide.

"A lot."

"I can see! Did you go walking through South Central with a sign on your back that said 'SCREW YOU' or something!"

Jhonen snickered. He knew it. "I fell down a long, long flight of stairs." he said, walking to his medicine cabinet to get Tylonel.

"Stairs? What flight of stairs could someone fall down to make them look like they got mugged!" he said, "The stairway to Heaven!"

"No, no. Nothing of that like. More like I got in a car accident on the highway to hell." he said.

"Ok...Enough play on song titles." Rob said, "What really happened?"

"I can't tell you," he said, laughing in Rob's direction, "Don't worry about it. I'm fine now."

That could be the most convincing lie I've ever told. Maybe I don't need a prosthetic head and its automated smile feature.

"...God..." Rob said, his facial expressions changing into the most serious Jhonen had ever seen them.

"What?" Jhonen raised an eyebrow in question.

"W...Were you raped or something?"

Jhonen scoffed, which turned into a snort-like thing, and then into outright laughter, his face red, and buried in his arms as he hunched over and gasped for air.

"N...No...I wasn't raped, you imbecile." he said, "I wasn't jumped, or mugged, or roughed up, or anything like that. I blacked out and fell down some stone stairs."

"Are you su-"

"Don't say that again, please. My sides hurt now." he said, "No one would ever come near me, much less rape me." he said, finishing his sentence by taking a deep breath and replenishing the lost breath.

"Alright." Rob said, abjuring, as he was not thoroughly satisfied. He knew his friend was lying about his whereabouts. But why was what he didn't know.

"You're coming with me to the mall in a few minutes, by the way." he said.

"...The mall? I thought you didn't like crowds. Or people, for that matter."

"Don't ask. I've...Got sort of an errand to run. I guess that's what it could be called." he said, looking down thoughtfully.

"O...K..." he said, "How hard did you hit your head again, Jhonen?"

"Don't worry about it." he said.

"You're just going to go out, looking like a fresh mugging?"

"Why not."

"...Ok, whatever squirts your banana juices."

"My banana juices?" Jhonen asked, his face contorting into confusion.

"And her donut hole." Rob said, laughing.

Jhonen then understood. He was mocking him and others for making stupid euphomisms for sex late one night during the Roadkill Tour and keeping Rob awake.

"You're bad," he said, "And I hate you."

"Ok. Let's go." he said.

And with that, they ventured off to the nest of rats...I mean mall.

Sure enough, there was a beautiful girl in a yellow tanktop sitting alone at a table reading a book in the food court.

"That's her." Jhonen mumbled. No one else seemed to notice her, but to him, vibes radiated off of her. He noticed her among the endless smears of color that were the faces of the machine-people in the mall.

Here goes nothing... He thought, and walked over and sat across from her.

She looked up.

"The Fly?" he asked.

"Yes, why?" she asked him, sipping her soda.

"Good book."

"I know. This is the sixth time I've read it and I still can't put it down." She smiled at him.

Jhonen smiled, "My name is Jhonen."

"I'm Alice."

"Pretty. I can't help but think of Resident Evil." he said, a comment at which she laughed faintly herself.

Rob watched from a few feet away. This was insane. First, he get's beat up, then he want's to go to the mall without any prodding, then he's HITTING on a girl! It was like he went to sleep and woke up someone completely different. Maybe for the better. She would've simply gone unnoticed on a regular day. He decided to walk over there to him.

"Who's your friend, Jhonen?" Rob asked, the concern beaming through out of his eyes and zapping hole through the other man's head.

"A girl I met. Her name is Alice Leben." he said.

"I never got your last name." said Alice.

"Vasquez." he said.

"Are you the same man who made Johnny The Homocidal Maniac?" she asked.

He didn't know quite how to answer that. He did MAKE Johnny, created a world that had given him the very wounds Rob had been so concerned about. He came to a conclusion.

"Yes. I made Johnny." he said.

"Oh, cool. I like that comic. It's interesting."

"Thank you."

"Jhonen, what's your major malfunction?" Rob said through gritted teeth.

"Of late, I revel." Jhonen replied, simply.

"Revel? Revel in what?"

"Miss Leben," Jhonen said, standing, "May I take you to a movie this beautiful afternoon?" he asked, extending his hand and abandoning Rob."

"I'd love to." she said, marking her page as she closed the book, and took his hand.

"Wait! Jhonen! Revel in what!" Rob called to his back.

"Completion," Jhonen said, over his shoulder as he and Alice talked all the way to the mini-movie-theatre on the first floor, "Completion."

AN: Well! How did I end it? I thought it looked pretty good. I don't like the thought of a one Mr. Rob being completely abandoned, but it wouldn't work if he went with them.

So...That's the end. First ending I've made to a story in a long time. I'm trying to find a way to continue You're Always A Slave To Something without sounding completely random. Anway, as always, review. Give me a topic to make a new Johnny story on. And, again, thank you for all of your support and motivation.

Thanks,

The Management