Hol Horse... was not proving to be the person Jotaro had first assumed he would be.

The cowboy was now firmly unpredictable to him. Nothing he was doing made any sense- unless he had spun a web about this plan that they had to take part in so they could get away.

If it had all been a lie, then Jotaro would not be surprised to find out that they were only a handful of minutes away from being attacked by Dio's followers because Hol Horse had taken the chaos as his chance to escape scot-free.

But he had heard gunshots and obvious sounds of scuffling coming from the home they were escaping. And he knew that Vanilla Ice had hunted them down alone. No one else had been with him. They had been able to make a get away through the opening Hol Horse had told them to go for.

He couldn't believe it... the man that had run away from his partner only a handful of weeks ago was also the same man that was helping them escape Dio's followers.

Jotaro frowned as his mother's grip on his hand tightened. Running beside her wasn't very easy with the death-grip she kept on him. But he would be lying if he tried to say he wanted to get out. It was... soothing to have his mother grabbing him so tightly. It was grounding. It was a reminder that she was there, with him, and she hadn't died because of his greatest failure.

Kakyoin shouted out just as his mother gasped, then Jotaro was having to maneuver around her to help her keep steady. She appeared to have tripped over a rock and, due to carrying Kakyoin's weight, she almost fell over.

"Polnareff, no!"

Jotaro had been so focused on his own thoughts and then helping his mother out that he didn't even contemplate about the possibility of any of the others getting into any trouble with their escape.

Granted, the rest were children younger than him, or Avdol, so it wasn't like he was supposed to be worried about such a thing. His grandfather may have been a bit more of a wildcard, but he seemed to take Hol Horse's word as gospel and the severity of the situation had clearly been internalized by him, so it wasn't like even he had seemed willing to cause any trouble.

"Thank you, Jotaro."

He was already looking behind them by the time his mother expressed her gratitude, and his eyes widened when they finally noticed why Kira had yelled out.

"Polnareff!" Avdol was swiveling on his heels, body reaching out to try and grab onto the silver haired child that was soaring through the air. "Come back!"

Jotaro was left frozen in place- his feet didn't move- his hand didn't attempt to escape his mother's grip.

Was... was Polnareff growing?


The blood flowed from his mouth at a rather sedate pace- it was as warm as it was thick.

It was starting to get hard to breathe... really, it was kind of surprising it had taken so long for this to start- the blow that broke his ribs must have hit more than a minute ago.

Nukesaku had put up a better fight than what he had expected. The little weasel really knew how to scrap when his life was in danger; and Hol Horse had witnessed such a truth first-hand.

Bastard was still dead, though, as he deserved to be. And now he was looking Vanilla Ice right in his hollow, lifeless eyes.

Nukesaku's scrapping had left him with some cuts and bruises, but the blow that had broken some of his ribs had been delivered via Vanilla Ice's still intact hand- a blitz attack that had come only a split second after he had witnessed Nukesaku break down screaming as he fizzled into ash.

And now he found himself in a stare-off in the middle of a tussled up kitchen.

Vanilla Ice's glare would have been piercing under any other circumstances, he was sure. But all that it seemed right now was angry and desperate; not cold and calculating.

Hol Horse hadn't missed the fact that there was now a bloodied stump where his hand should have been.

That Kira kid had been a gamble- he had been aware of it. But it seemed that the gamble had paid off in a pretty good way.

And if his power packed that amount of punch, then, if Kira's heart stayed in the right place, he'd be able to protect Holly and those that would now be her charges. If everything worked out well, they'd be able to run off and get the help they needed from the Speedwagon Foundation... even if he was dead, he'd make damn well sure that Vanilla Ice would be too injured to interrupt them.

"Before I kill you," Vanilla Ice's Adam's apple bobbed as his jaw twitched for a moment. Then, with his voice straining to sound more relaxed than it should have any right to be when he was missing an important piece of his body, he continued. "I wish to know- how did a cowardly, back-water hick manage to kill off Lord Dio, the strongest being to ever exist in this world?"

A snarky, damning comment bubbled onto his bloodied lips. And for a single moment, he thought about indulging that impulse- may as well, after all. He was going to be dead before lunchtime.

But he needed to buy time for the others to escape. And if he got Vanilla Ice too riled up, the guy would probably kill him sooner. No, he needed to be a bit more calculating and consume more of the maniac's time before pissing him off enough to kill him.

"Truth be told," he grunted, feeling the not-right shift of his body as he moved himself into a more comfortable fighting stance. "I've no idea." with a shrug, he raised his fists as his right foot bumped against the bottom of a counter. "My best guess, though, is that I broke his windows when he was in the middle of gloating about finally killing the Joestar's off."

Because that was the only thing that would make sense.

He had shot off five bullets and not really thought about them. Gravity affected Emperor when he wasn't putting the effort in- and it wasn't quite that much of a stretch to assume that this is what had happened. He hadn't done anything else near Dio to explain his sudden, untimely death.

And wasn't that just hilarious?

The great, immortal, all-knowing Dio done in by an accident and a little bit of sunshine.

Hol Horse smirked, a bloodied and feral thing that bordered on the hysterics he could feel building up within him. "Your great and powerful lord was killed by a little sunshine."

Vanilla Ice's face became marred with a heavy frown. With blood dripping from his stump hand, he too moved into a prepared fighting stance.

The coldness in his face wasn't detached- it was livid.

"Impossible." the snarl that left his lips was beast-like. His face was becoming grotesque in the way it curled up with disbelief. "Lord Dio would never-"

Hol Horse saw an opportunity and took it.

The head would have been the target to kill Vanilla Ice. But with the skills this bastard possessed, the head was too small to properly hit if he moved out of the way.

So Hol Horse snapped his arm out, calling on Emperor to fire a shot into the very center of Vanilla Ice's body. He could see the very moment the bastard noticed what he was going to do- and it happened much earlier than he would have liked.

Just as his eyes began to narrow, Vanilla Ice's body began to throw itself to the side, changing the spot where the bullet would embed itself.

Hol Horse was able to do some course correction, but it wasn't enough.

The bullet lodged into Vanilla Ice's left shoulder; blood began to slowly ooze out.

Vanilla Ice's glare became murderous.

~/~

There was a ringing in his ears.

There was so much covering his eyes that he wasn't able to open them. He would attempt to wipe it off and at least attempt to fix a bit of the blindness, but he couldn't feel his left arm anymore and his right was broken beyond fixing.

He knew that his body was in a broken heap on the ground. He knew that Vanilla Ice had wasted no time in proving why he was Dio's favorite heavy hitter. And he knew that there was no way in the world that the bastard would keep him alive for anything other than torture after how much he'd managed to piss him off.

After he had blacked out; after his voice had failed him after so much screaming; after his hands had been crushed and his legs broken; he would have thought that Vanilla Ice would have gotten his sadistic kicks satisfied. There was nothing more that could feasibly done to him that would cause him more pain. He had gone into shock due to the pain- if that hadn't happened, then the blood loss definitely would have caused it.

So that begged the question... why was he coming to?

The ringing in his ears heightened and the pain in his head became sharp- yeah, there was no way his head was any form of salvageable. He was pretty sure that his head had split after it had come into contact with so many different harsh surfaces.

His head swam.

Darkness was all he knew.

And then, for some odd reason, he swore he could hear the voice of a grown man somewhere around him.

If he could have, he would have chuckled cynically.

It seemed Vanilla Ice wanted him awake to finish him.


The hospital was cold.

He had given his coat up to his mother an hour ago; he had refused to take it back when the cold had really begun to bite at him. His mother hadn't been happy about it, but he had just ignored her every time she had tried to bring the matter back up.

Hol Horse's heart monitor was beeping softly, but steadily.

"It's a miracle he survived. I have no logical reason behind him having survived for so long."

Jotaro would have appreciated if the doctor had kept such brutal honesty to himself. He would have rather believed that Hol Horse hadn't been on death's doors when they had finally managed to get him the help he desperately needed. Even though it was childish of him, he truly would have preferred to have been kept in the dark about how close they had been to losing the man that had saved them twice now.

His knuckles were white from how tightly he was griping his hands. His shoulders hurt from how tightly wound he was. And his jaw was beginning to ache from the strain of grinding his teeth together.

Hol Horse had no right to look so small. But between the bandages, medical equipment, and bed sheets that swathed him, he didn't look nearly as tall and capable as he had once looked to Jotaro. He had never seemed imposing- not even when he had been much smaller than the blonde. But he had always seemed some kind of competent; some kind of skillful.

The door into room opened up and from the corner of his eyes, he could see Kira step inside. Joseph and Avdol were following behind him. He couldn't see the teenager's face and he didn't dare move- his mother had only just managed to fall asleep and she was using his shoulder as a pillow. But there was a tension to Kira's stance that he knew wasn't indicative of having had a happy conversation.

Kakyoin didn't want to see Hol Horse in this state. Polnareff had stayed behind with him.

Jotaro didn't know just how much Hol Horse had come to matter to any of his companions. But he knew that he had grown on him. And with Kakyoin and Polnareff having been the youngest kids under his care... under his kind care... it wouldn't be a surprise to find out that they would be heavily affected by what had happened.

"He'll be kept in a medical induced comma for a while, Jotaro." his grandfather's voice was uncharacteristically quiet as he stepped away from Kira and moved closer to him and his mother. "Let's get you back home. You and Holly can bathe, change clothes- get refreshed."

He had been keeping his hat's rim low over his face. But he angled his face just slightly, raking his eyes over the barely discernible form of Hol Horse on the large hospital bed.

"We have done all we could for him. Now is the time to let the doctors do their job."

Jotaro knew that Avdol was saying what his grandfather had left unsaid, but, for some reason, it sounded so much more reasonable than what Joseph had been asking for.

Kira had not moved from the spot where he had chosen to stand.

Joseph crouched in front of him, but Jotaro moved his gaze over towards Kira. When his grandfather followed his line of sight, he sighed softly.

"He'll be coming with us."

He had so many questions about Kira and why he was with them still.

He could have run at any point in the commotion that had broken out after Polnareff had rushed away from them. When they had attempted to get him back, nobody had been paying any attention to him. And then, when they had begun to get their old bodies back, there had been enough confusion and disorder that he could have escaped.

And yet, here he was.

Still with them.

Even though Hol Horse wouldn't be out of the hospital in less than a month's time; even though he was essentially free… Kira was still with them.

"Come on." his grandfather's hand landed softly on his knee, patting it. "Holly's exhausted and you need to get some rest. These last few days have been tough on all of us."

There was a second in which Jotaro looked back at Hol Horse and silence fell over the room, letting the beeping of the heart monitor crash into them. In that moment, he wanted to put up a fight. He hadn't been able to help save Hol Horse. The least he could have done was stick by his side and make sure that he wouldn't be alone.

But that was a ridiculous thought for a plethora of reasons.

Softly, he jutted his chin in a small, half-hearted nod.

~/~

Kira was only a year younger than him. He no longer had any parents to go back to and no family members that would be able or willing to house him until he could get his feet under him.

He hadn't said it, but the reason why he hadn't run when he could have had been a simple one. Even if he had run, where would he have gone to? At this point in time, even though Hol Horse had not been nice to him, he was the only adult that had taken any interest in his well-being in the last few months.

Jotaro wanted to believe that Hol Horse had a reason to have kidnapped this kid. And he believed that there was something about their initial meeting that Kira was keeping silent about. But he knew that Kira's concern for Hol Horse wasn't faked, so he decided to leave any prodding for later.

His grandfather offered to get him some help from the Speedwagon Foundation, but Kira hadn't really seemed very positive about the idea. Luckily, his mother had stepped in and let him know that he could stay with them until they were at least sure that Hol Horse was going to get back on his own two feet- they could start figuring out any major moves after that.

She hadn't mentioned how they weren't even sure if Hol Horse would ever be able to walk again; which may have complicated what she had proposed. But no one had been willing to state such a disheartening truth. So they had collectively decided to just... not mention it.

For the longest time, it had just been him and his mom in their home. But their home was now too destroyed to move back into.

They were put up in a safehouse that was large enough to house them all at the same time as a courtesy from the Speedwagon Foundation. There was limit on how long they could be there; but Joseph was working on helping get their home reconstructed as soon as was physically possible.

Even with everything that had changed... he was man enough to admit he was just happy to be back under the same roof with his mother. Sure, there were more people living with them than he may have been really comfortable with... but he could see how his mother's smile wasn't quite as damp or forced as she asked Kira to help her come up with a meal plan for the rest of the week. He wasn't oblivious to how Kakyoin and Kira were happy to engage him in conversations. He wasn't blind to the fact that his own mental health was profiting from knowing that everyone dear to him was within the same house.

Almost everyone.

~/~

The next time he saw Hol Horse, the man was awake.

He had been sipping from a mug he held within his right hand when Jotaro had stepped into the room. His gaze had been unfocused, his body turned in the direction of the large window that gave an almost panoramic view of the forest surrounding the hospital.

It was... wrong, somehow, to see him without any hair to speak of. But the doctors had needed to shave it all off to be able to deal with the head injury that had just barely cracked his skull open.

A miracle.

Jotaro now preferred to believe that Hol Horse had just been too stubborn to die. It felt right to think that... at least better than what had previously been offered.

He stood at the doorway for a couple of seconds, just letting Hol Horse contemplate the horizon. He even began to wonder if maybe he should have left. There was no reason for him to visit Hol Horse, after all. This man may have saved them, but he had also tried to kill them. They weren't close. And they could have, feasibly, gone on to live their whole lives without seeing each other ever again.

Then Hol Horse's face turned in his direction and his eyes seemed to come into focus when he noticed him.

"Damn..." his voice was rough and quiet. He had been kept under for a while. "Forgot how big you were."

Jotaro wasn't able to pinpoint why he was happy to hear such words. But he decided that it would be for the best to just... not question it right now. He allowed a small smile to come to his lips before sitting down on one of the plastic chairs in the room.


There was a selfish voice in the back of his head that was scratching and clawing at his heart. It was yelling at him that he was being a damned fool- that he deserved so much more after everything he had given up.

He was trying his best to ignore it. He really was.

But Kakyoin was much too big to carry around anymore, Polnareff wasn't twirling around with Silver Chariot, and Joseph didn't seem to be nearly as interested in him as he had once been. Avdol was still very much serving as a calming bastion to his companions, but it just wasn't the same.

It was good to see them back in their proper ages.

It was supposed to be good.

He hadn't thought he'd be coming out of the Vanilla Ice confrontation alive- so he should have been grateful for at least this much.

But... well... he would be a damned liar if he tried to tell himself he wasn't disappointed to find his charges back to their respectful ages.

Even if they had made him want to tear his hair out... he was going to miss them.

"You don't have to leave."

His hat hadn't been salvageable after the fight. But Kakyoin had done a fine job of getting him a replacement. And at least with the stiff leather over his head, he wasn't feeling like shivering from the cold hitting his scalp.

He was going to miss that kid.

"Oh, but I do." he finished closing his boots up and just... stared down at them for a moment. The buckles hadn't been effortless to close. But there was no way he would have been able to tie a know by himself.

Jotaro had come to visit him every day after he had woken up. He didn't know why. It wasn't like they spoke much. And it wasn't like Jotaro liked him. They didn't speak. They just... shared a room until the kid left.

He could just imagine the frown on Jotaro's face right now- the kind of glare he'd probably wearing now that someone was defying him.

"I'm still a wanted man, son." the breath caught in his throat after he noticed what he had called the kid, but he quickly shook himself and attempted to move past the hiccup. "Everyone's back where they're supposed to be or in a better place than they were before. It's 'bout time I moseyd on out."

He wasn't a good man. The Joestars, though, were good people. Fundamentally, they were too different to more than enemies. Hol Horse had broken a law of nature by having helped them- but that didn't change their natures.

Sooner or later, such natures would make them butt heads. So it was for the best for Hol Horse to extricate himself from the equation before anyone got hurt.

"Your physical therapy hasn't finished."

With his hand holding on tightly to the bed frame, Hol Horse put both of his feet on the floor. Then he pushed himself up to stand, swaying ever so slightly as his legs protested and begged him to sit back down.

"I'll survive." His center of balance was off now that he had one less limb, but he wasn't about to let that be an excuse for lazing about. He took one step forward, felt his head swim, and pushed through. "Tell 'em all this is just the way it's s'possed to be."

He was dressed in an attire that was as similar as Japan could get to his regular type of attire and it felt odd to not be wearing the same set of clothes he had these last few months. But they were comfortable enough. And they were the only property he had now.

That, and the hat.

"Why?"

"Why what?" Jotaro's face was stone cold when he tried to get a read off of him. He didn't know why he had expected anything else.

"Why is this what's supposed to happen?" the teenager pressed, even though he didn't leave his spot guarding the doorway into the room. If he didn't move, Hol Horse wasn't sure how he'd get him to move. The last thing he wanted to do was have to threaten the kid. He didn't deserve that. "Why do you have to leave?"

"'Cause I'm a wante-"

"That's a lame excuse." Jotaro's jaw was set in that way that made Hol Horse think there was a lot more he wanted to say, even if he didn't just spit it out. "Why?" he challenged again.

And suddenly his body felt tired. He had been energized the whole day, ready to walk out of the hospital and get a move on with his life. But now... now all he wanted to do again was just... not.

He wanted Kakyoin to sit by his bedside and ask him about stands and the logistics of shooting while riding a horse. He wanted Polnareff to challenge him to a duel, only for Avdol to remind him that such an idea was bad. He wanted to look to the side to find Joseph staring at him with a sharp eye and Jotaro sulking in the corner of the room. He wanted to find Kira trying to glare at everyone around him, but failing because it was so obvious he was enjoying being there. He wanted some of Holly's cooking.

"Y'aint letting me leave, are you?"

Jotaro rolled his shoulders and crossed his arms over his damn chest.

With a heavy sigh, Hol Horse let himself sit back down on the bed. There was a dull ache beginning at his left shoulder that only ever started up when his pain meds began to fade and he was in need of another dose.

Jotaro didn't move away from the door.


Hol Horse didn't try to escape again.

He was eventually cleared from the hospital and moved into the safehouse with the rest of them.

By that time, he, Kakyoin, and Kira had begun the fall semester, so they weren't able to be around as often as either of them would have liked to have been. But Avdol had been kind enough to stay behind with Holly, offering his aid whenever it was needed. His grandfather, though, had gone off to make sure that Dio was, indeed, dead and all of his followers were truly dead, arrested, or missing.

Jotaro still didn't know why Hol Horse had thought that leaving was a good idea.

But as he stepped through their new home's threshold and heard an accented voice calling out for Kakyoin's help, followed by his mother's giggling voice letting them know that everything was fine, Hol Horse was just overreacting, Jotaro wanted to believe that they had managed to dash such stupidity from the cowboy's mind.

He still wasn't quite sure why he didn't want Hol Horse to leave. But he had managed to zero it down to possible Stockholm Syndrome or a genuine interest in the cowboy's health. The fact of the matter was that Hol Horse wasn't the person he had once believed he was and he deserved for someone to take care of him; at least until he was able to take care of himself.

..~..~..

And this is the official end of the story!

I might write a few more chapters that'll be self-indulgent one-shots of this new reality Hol Horse finds himself in, just to get a bit more out of this idea even though the Joebros and Joestars aren't children any longer. But I won't promise it in case that never happens!

(That being said, if there's anything in particular you'd like to see- or any explanations you'd like to read that I didn't mention throughout the story- let me know! It might inspire me to write some more!)

Thank you for joining me on this wild ride!